Chapter Text
fading brown corkboards with recognizable pencil sketches hung on the pastel blue walls. everything surrounding the circus members had a no-stress, easy vibe to it. boring. jax absentmindedly tapped his finger on the desk as he noticed the pristine floor. it was too well-kept to be any kind of american public school.
yeah, this high school anime adventure was definitely gangle’s idea. god, these people and their lack of creativity.
confirming his theory, zooble reassured gangle, “there’s nothing wrong with your suggestion.”
“wh-h-how did you know this was my suggestion?!” she said sheepishly. not even bothering to make fun of gangle for acting like a hajidere (if that was the right word, he couldn’t remember) he turned to pomni. thanks to the new style they were in, she managed to look both more and less human. heck, with the defined eyelashes, somewhat chibi head and lanky limbs, she looked like…
“can you believe this, pomni?” he said instead. “first she draws anime, now she drags us all into one!” he scoffed. “she must be one of them, uh…”
ugh, not weeaboo. she’s not appropriating anything by being dull. fujoshi isn’t right either. although she probably is, it's not the word he’s looking for…
“okatus.” he finally said.
Before pomni could reply, zooble chimed in, “what’s an okatu?”
“it’s a japanese subculture, it's a name for people who are really into anime and manga.” gangle explains.
“yeah, like you, weeb.” jax replied. he threw a crumpled up piece of paper at the forehead of her ceramic mask and laughed when she stumbled back.
ragatha, who’d been listening the whole time, only snickered to herself. “what’s so funny, ragdoll?” he asked with a sneer, leaning his chair closer to her desk. “you keeping something from us?”
“how do you know what an okatu is?” she giggled out.
jax froze, his ears going perfectly stiff. after a few seconds of awkward silence, he stuttered out, “cause of, cause of her.” as he gestured to gangle’s general direction.
“wait, so you actually asked her about it?”
zooble and gangle erupted in laughter while jax was still blinking at the person in front of him. this isn’t right. ragatha isn’t this mean. she’s the cheerful one! he never even gave her the role, she picked that one out way before him!
he could feel his face grow hot and his chest tighten. why did he even care? zooble and gangle and ragatha and kinger were all stupid. this whole thing was stupid.
then he heard chuckling from right behind him.
pomni.
the one pers-character who wasn’t.
he stood up and faced her again, fury balling his hands into fists. “i didn’t ask gangle anything, okay?! stop assuming things about me when you don’t know who I am!”
he stared silently at the empty seat, breathing heavily, and realized he didn’t really know who he was yelling at.
he heard a door shut behind him. “pomni?” he guessed. he walked to the class exit without even moving, but after trying to turn the doorknob, realized it was locked.
jax sighed as he pulled the ring of keys out of his pocket and began looking through them, trying to find the one that would work. not gangle’s, not kinger’s, definitely not zooble’s. he wouldn’t bother trying ragatha’s again, waste of time. he started to think that he lost the only keys that would unlock the door when he found pomni’s.
worth a shot.