Rain, Rain, Go Away

[Espi]

(Alice Baker Pregame Start)

Pouring rain was usually not something Alice took offense to. In Kingman, it was so hot and dry that rain was usually refreshing. Plus, Alice liked the sound of rain; it relaxed her. It was soothing, melancholy, and inspiring from an artistic standpoint. She liked rainy weekends, when she could stay inside and practice or draw.

Unfortunately, this was one of the times Alice took offense to the rain. For one, this was early January, and it was already freezing out at best. Moreover, she was faced with the fact she needed to actually expose herself to the rain, and had no umbrella. It hadn't rained this morning, so Alice only had a light hoodie on to protect herself and her bookbag full of delicate papers. Not a great situation to walk home in.

As Alice stepped into the rain-soaked parking lot, she shivered and scrunched up her face. She couldn't get a ride today; dad had one of the cars at work, and Molly was still at school, plus was unlikely to be willing to pick Alice up anyway. Alice didn't feel like dealing with her sister today. Normally Alice didn't mind walking, since she lived so close to the school, but now she was going to get soaked from it.

Glaring at the ground, Alice let out a sigh, pulled up her hood, and started shuffling down the sidewalk past the crowded parking lot. She lived a few blocks away, but it was going to be a long, wet few blocks today.

[Riki]

FIYORI SENAY: PREGAME START

Why does the winter have to be so goddamn disgusting?

Fiyori stepped over another puddle that formed in one of the sidewalk's slight depressions. She figured it would rain, which is why she brought an umbrella with her, but what use is it to be protected from the above if her own shoes were not adequate to protect her from the water on the ground?

Well, she should have known better. The boots she had were nice and all, held her feet warm and looked good, but they were too old. The sole was not properly sitting on the rest of the shoe anymore, and a tiny gap opened between sole and heel.

The squelching sound it made was strange, but kinda fun to listen to... the cold and wet feet she had were just disgusting. It was disgusting to feel how with every step her skin pressed against the wet and freezing interior of her shoe, sending a small chill up her leg again and again. Disgusting. Terrible. Shit.

Fiyori looked up. There was a small child walking in front of her, but without any real protection against the rain. They put up their hood, but who knew how long that would keep her dry. They were... maybe a feet smaller than Fiyori. Hm...

She hurried up to the small child and held her umbrella over their head.

"Yo, don't you have parents who'd drive you?"

[Espi]

Alice was quickly finding herself miserable. She had only been walking for a few moments, but she was already feeling the effects. The rain had soaked into her hoodie, her hair was getting wet, and water ran down her face like tears. She felt like a waterlogged cat already, and she hadn't even gotten out of the parking lot.

Suddenly, the drops of rain ceased, and Alice heard a quiet clattering, as if the rain was hitting something. Looking up, Alice found an umbrella held above her, and another girl beside her. Alice knew of her, having seen the other girl before, but couldn't put a name to the face. That made the situation even more unusual, though. Alice had no idea who this girl was, so why was she being approached?

Alice stopped in place, looking up at the much taller girl. "Dad's at work," she said softly. "Thanks, though." Alice offered a shy smile to the other girl. It was odd that she was helping her out, but Alice appreciated it nonetheless. She kept walking, trying to keep pace with the nice girl with the umbrella.

It seemed like an appropriate time for conversation, but Alice wasn't sure what to say. "Hey, uh..." reaching for something, Alice picked the most obvious question, "what's your name?"

[Riki]

Interesting, now that she saw the face. A student of her school. At least she figured so. Small children usually did not attend the same school as she did. Well, not that it was a problem.

The girl said that her dad was at work. Presumably her usual ferryman, Fiyori guessed. Fiyori gave a friendly nod in return to the girl's thanks before continuing to walk once again. The shoes were still disgusting. She just noticed, but standing at one place meant her body weight would press the water from her sole and it was just so cold and so wet and so terribly disgusting. Then she moved again and the skin was caressed once again by the water in the other parts of the shoe and that was again so cold and so wet and so fucking moist.

Fiyori forced herself to think of something else, and her eyes fell on the girl next to her, just then remembering that she should take some shorter or at least slower steps. She was shorter, so also had shorter legs - how hard such a life must be - which meant she would be slower. As such, Fiyori took care to slow her walk a bit.

"Fiyori," she answered the girl's question while looking down at their shoes. They walked on for a few moments more. "Figured you were an elementary child that got lost."

[Espi]

The other girl, whose name was apparently Fiyori, slowed down a bit, which Alice appreciated since she wasn't the fastest walker in the world. Sure, it probably wasn't a big deal to the other girl, but it was certainly not necessary for Fiyori to help her out, so Alice was glad she ran into her. Plenty of people probably would've just ignored her.

"Nice to meet you." Alice replied, glad her question hadn't been taken as awk-wait, what did Fiyori just say? For a moment, Alice wasn't sure what Fiyori had said, and it wasn't until Alice looked up at the other girl's blank expression that she realized no, that wasn't a joke. Alice blushed bright red. This wasn't something Alice really knew how to respond to, actually. She opened her mouth and closed it again, unsure of what to say.

"Uh..." After another awkward pause, Alice tried again. "I'm a junior, actually. I, uh..." She trailed off again, against her will. She was just...how does one respond to that? She was self-aware enough to know that Fiyori had a point. She was short, skinny and probably could pass for a little kid if she tried. Still, it was kinda paintful to acknowledge that she could be mistaken for an elementary student.

Alice looked up at the other girl again. "Sorry." she apologized, almost out of habit.

[Riki]

She chuckled. Just a bit, an earnest chuckle.

"Don't say sorry without reason, idiot."

Calling her an idiot was for not in a mean spirit. It was a jovial remark she threw in, just because she looked at the reddening girl next to her and could not but be entertained. Poor girl almost pretended as if Fiyori was about to turn into a hellish judge, intent on judging her height and judging it to be wrong and sinister.

But actually, a lot of girls and women were smaller than her. Not that she always noticed, but even if she did, she never cared. Sure, it would be an incredible hassle to have such short legs. But why be embarrassed about it? Stupid.

She stopped chuckling and then stopped moving.

"Hold this for a moment, yeah? I need to get out of these things."

[Espi]

Alice looked down at the ground, biting her tongue. She didn't want to cause an issue, since the other girl seemed to have meant it playfully, but the word hurt. She hated being called an idiot; Molly did it a lot, and it made Alice feel even smaller than usual. She turned away her blushing face and focused on the puddles on the ground.

When Fiyori stopped laughing and spoke up again, Alice was initially confused. 'These'? What were 'these'? And what was 'this'? Alice was so distracted moping that she needed a second to realize that Fiyori probably meant the umbrella.

Alice nodded slightly, taking the umbrella into her hand. She stretched her left arm up, trying to keep the umbrella balanced over Fiyori's and her own heads. The umbrella tilted slightly as Alice tried to balance the heavier top end from the very tip, but she managed to keep the majority of the rain out.

[Riki]

The girl took the umbrella of Fiyori's hands and she shot her a quick nod of thanks. Fiyori went on her knees, untied the first shoe, wasting another thought on how wet the laces were, quickly unzipped the side of her boot and crudely raised her foot from the shoe. The socks, horizontal yellow-brown stripes, were soaking wet of the rain water collecting on the ground at first and then in her shoes. Fiyori did not need long to decide and remove the sock as well. She then quickly undressed the other shoe as well, pushed the socks into the boots and held the pair with her left hands.

"Thanks," she said as she raised again and took the umbrella again. She could not help it but display a small and coy smile seeing the girl stretch the umbrella as much out as possible. Stupid, but cute.

And with that, she set into motion again.

"You have to tell me where you live, though."

[Espi]

Alice tried to conceal her sigh of relief when the other girl took back her umbrella. For how nice Fiyori had been to help her out, she sure wasn't giving Alice an easy time with it. She couldn't help but notice Fiyori removing her shoes, which seemed kind of random, but she wasn't going to point it out. Alice gave a weak smile, and continued walking.

As Alice walked, she got a little more comfortable once silence fell over the pair. The drops of rain falling into the streets was kind of nice, and the moody storm clouds overhead were very evocative. Alice momentarily got so wrapped up in how pretty it was that it took her a moment to realize she'd been asked a question.

"Just a few blocks this way." Alice said, pointing with her left hand's index finger. Looking up at Fiyori, she added, "You don't have to go with meif it's out of the way, though." It seemed the polite thing to do, even if it inconvenienced Alice.

[Riki]

"A few blocks, huh?" Fiyori repeated. It took the girl a while to answer - Fiyori looked straight ahead, but from the few glances she shot her she figured that she was enchanted by the rain or something. Deeply enthralled, properly did not even hear her. Or maybe she did.

The girl added some comment. To be polite or something. A strange tone. Kinda meek, Fiyori would say. Annoyed her a bit - of course she wouldn't have to go out of her way if she didn't want to.

"I don't mind. Not as if I had anything planned."

Yeah, she met a guy once... at a party, they got along well, went to his home. He said it was just 'a few blocks' away too, but it turned out to be three miles of walking. Pretty irritating back then. But amusing whenever she recalled the memory. Dunno, it was a strange thing to find amusing, no?

Oh - wait, she drifted off mentally. She should have been careful, or the next moment she'd have lost the girl somewhere along the way. Didn't seem to be the kinda person to complain or anything.

"Eh, sorry by the way, I forgot your name."

[Espi]

Alice nodded, not sure what to add. In a sense, it was often nice not to have anything planned. Free time was always pleasant, especially when you were like Alice and you could work on something like writing or drawing and enjoy it without stressing over homework or chores. For most people though, having nothing to do generally meant that you were bored.

Alice wondered absently what camp Fiyori fell into.

They walked for a little bit further, both apparently lost in their thoughts. Alice's mind drifted off again; she noticed a pretty tree with no leaves and curved arch branches reaching to the sky, and imagined her fingers tracing the same swooping shapes across a piece of paper. Hmm, maybe she could work on that later that night once her trig homework was done.

It was almost a surprise when she noticed her house a few yards further. Had they really walked that far already? The rain seemed to be slowing, as well. Alice looked up at Fiyori, and gave a shy smile. Then, a more friendly one.

"It's Alice. Thanks for walking with me." She slowly extended her arm to shake hands.

[Riki]

Fiyori returned the girl's - Alice's smile. She was about to accept Alice's offer of shaking hands with the right hand before noticing that she held the umbrella with that one. She pondered using the left hand, but then just shifted the umbrella to her left and stretched her right arm to shake hands with Alice. Three sloppy but forceful up-and-down movements. Then she retracted her hand once again and put the umbrella in it.

"Is your home around here?" Fiyori looked at the various houses in the street. "I'll walk you to the door."

[Espi]

The handshake was awkward, sloppy and in all honestly probably a bad idea. Still, Alice appreciated Fiyori more or less humoring her, and she figured it could've been worse. At least the other girl seemed pretty nice, idiosyncrasies aside. Alice couldn't exactly call herself perfect, so who was she to judge someone, one who helped her out no less. It was just impolite.

"It's right over there." Alice pointed to her house, a modest two-story building. She wondered briefly if her sister was home yet. Probably, since her school was only about a five-minute drive and Alice had been walking for a while. She wondered what Molly would think if she knew Alice had come home with another girl in tow.

"It's okay, I'll see you later." Alice said before hurrying away from Fiyori to the front door. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle, and Alice lowered her head to avoid the blinding droplets.

((Alice Baker continued in Hypotnuse Murder Mystery Case))

[Riki]

Fine, Fiyori thought. She watched Alice hurry below the now-light drizzle towards the building she called her home. As she entered the building, Fiyori turned back to where she came from, up the street.

The asphalt below her feet were cold, and at some points she was annoyed by the occasional stone or whatever object on the way. It was still better than it would have been to wear the boots, though. They hung from her fingers, and she could feel that the pressure of her fingers squeezed drops of water from the fake (?) fur. when she looked into the mouth, she could see a small light. The spot where the sole had a gap between itself and the heel.

The moment she came home, she thought about Alice once more.

"That'd be the good karma," Fiyori murmured to herself. "Gotta drown some puppies now to get even."

She decided not to laugh at her own joke.

[Fiyori Senay, continued in Don't Call it a Comeback]