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Morning light was seeping through Stephanie's curtains and onto her sleeping face. She blinked dazedly, eyelids still heavy, and pushed herself up on her elbows. She hadn't yet gotten around to buying a new alarm clock, after she had smashed her old one almost two weeks ago, and was unsure of the exact time. She hoped she hadn't slept late, since it was her first day at her new school, now that she was staying in Lazy Town for an undetermined 'longer'. The school was in Big Town, about twenty minutes cycle away, and she was exited to join.
It was Ziggy's first day there as well, but since he was in the first grade and Stephanie was in the third, she doubted she'd see him much, if at all on the first day. Stingy, however, was in her grade and had promised to show her around and get her settled, since she was his friend. Her house was also on the way between his and the school, so they were going to be going together.
Stephanie pushed the bedcovers off of her and scrambled out of bed. A few moments later, the sheets were laid flat back on her bed and the pillow was fluffed. Stephanie was more than a bit of a neat-freak. Skipping out of the room towards the bathroom, humming the catchy tune of There Is Always A Way to herself, she caught a look at the simple clock hanging on the wall of the corridor. It read 7:06, leaving more than enough time to get ready for setting off at seven-fifty. The school here started a half-hour later than her old one, another thing to add to her list of reasons why living in Lazy Town was much, much better than living in Temper Town.
"Uncle Milford, are you nearly done in there?" she called, noticing the door was locked, "I need to brush my teeth!"
"Oh! Stephanie!" he exclaimed, slightly muffled from behind the bathroom door, "Yes, I'm nearly done! By the way, Trixie has lent you some uniform for today, I've put them on your clothes-basket in your room!" Stephanie heard a toilet flush, a tap turn on and after a few seconds back off again, and had to jump out of the way to avoid the swinging door coming right at her. She had been focusing on the sounds, and had tuned out that there was a person making them.
"Thanks, uncle!" she said with a smile, waiting for him to fully exit, and stepped through the doorway.
"Oh, it's not a problem Stephanie!" he told her, "There's no need to thank me!" But Stephanie didn't really hear him. She hummed to herself as she brushed her teeth, and as she looked up, to view her smiling, sunny reflection in the mirror, when she noticed that it really wasn't. She looked tired, although she night gotten a full night of sleep every day since the 30th, her hair seemed limp and greasy, although she had showered just yesterday, and her eyes were dull.
She splashed cold water on her face, but it made no difference. Strange, she felt well enough. Maybe she'd forgotten to wash the conditioner out of her hair when she'd showered, that would make sense. There was no, at least no obvious explanation for the tiredness, but Stephanie felt that a bit of her birthday concealer, that she'd been saving for days like these (and parties) under her eyes and no-one would notice. She spat the toothpaste into the sink and washed the brush under the tap. That was a long two minutes.
Still humming, Stephanie made her way back to her room and clicking the door shut behind her, she picked up the uniform Trixie had lent her. This was a new experience for her, as she'd never worn a school uniform before and thought it would probably be really cool for the whole school to be wearing the same thing, and that it would also probably help her fit in in this new environment. Exited, she counted what she had been given. Two white short-sleeved shirts, a navy blue jumper, a pair of black trousers and- aha! A blue, checked, button-down summer dress!
Stephanie knew what she was going to wear, definitely! She laid it out on her bed, alongside some white patterned kneesocks she already owned, and a black-and-white striped headband. She didn't usually wear headbands other than her sequin-studded, dark pink one, but she felt the pink colour might clash with the blue of the uniform.
Stephanie then made her way down the corridor, and then the stairs, to go and eat some breakfast. Her uncle was already down there, making some porridge and had already got her out a box of sugar-free fruit cereal, a container of milk and an apple. He had also laid her pink sparkly lunchbox just next to it on the counter, ready for her to pick up and put in her bag as she left. She got out a small, white bowl from a cabinet behind the counter, and her favourite flower-patterned spoon from the draw just under it, and set them too down on the counter. Slicing through the cereal box with ease using the thin back end of her spoon, she pushed it up and open, and pulled the plastic bag inside apart with her fingers. Opening a fresh new box of cereal was always so satisfying.
She tipped out some of the contents into the bowl, and gave it a stir with her spoon as she poured in the milk. It swirled around the spoon in a brightly coloured spiral, and quite quickly became almost completely white as the bright cereal pieces gained weight from the milk soaking in and dropped from floating on the surface to resting on the bottom of the bowl.
"Oh! Stephanie!" called her uncle from the other side of the counter, almost waking her up, "Why are you... staring at your cereal? Aren't you going to eat it?" he asked worriedly. He was already digging into his porridge, and it made her feel hungry, so she replied,
"Yes I'm going to eat it, Uncle! Why wouldn't I, breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" and began spooning the food into her mouth. It had gone a little soggier than she would have liked, but she didn't complain even mentally, it was her own fault that she had spaced out and let it get like that. She ate for a while, not really thinking, and as she finished and reached for the apple, she noticed the time in the clock on the oven. 7:29, it read. She decided she should save that apple for later. How had just eating taken her so long?
Up to her room in a rush, Stephanie burst through the door and began hastily raking a comb through her thick, matted hair until it shone. It didn't take as long as it usually did, which was good considering how long it took her to eat. She quickly pulled off her pajamas, and on the schooldress. It was a little looser and shorter than she would have liked, because of the size difference between her and Trixie, but overall it fit far better than she had feared.
She picked up her pajamas, folded them over her arm and neatly slotted them under her pillow. Perfect! Within moments she had pushed the headband on top of her now tamed hair, and was rolling up her second kneesock. She fumbled around in a box in her closet for the concealer stick, in the process pulling out two pens, a toothpaste tube and a lipgloss in mistake for it, but it was eventually found and she walked over to the bathroom to put it on in the mirror.
As Stephanie trotted down the corridor, again she caught sight of the clock. She had only spent four minutes getting changed! Maybe she would have time to eat that apple after all. Light on, she stepped up to the mirror and opened her concealer stick, rubbing it in a triangle shape underneath her right eye, and doing the same for her left. Since she didn't wear makeup at all often, her skill level was not the highest, and she ended up wiping a lot of it off attempting to blend it and make it look natural. But it made her feel better, and she could have sworn some of the dullness in her eyes went away for a moment.
What else could she do to add a sparkle to her appearance, and make a good first impression for her new teachers and classmates? She thought for a while, and eventually decided to swap out her boring black-and-white headband for two dark blue, rectangular, gem-studded barrettes, both identical and both very cute! She had left one of them in the bathroom after wearing it a few days ago, and the other was somewhere in her jewellery draw.
She picked up the one she could see, and snapped it onto her hair, then pulled off the headband. She danced back to her room, headband in hand, and opened the draw up. She put it back with its kind, and picked the final pretty blue barrette from the pot she kept all her barrettes in, just where she knew it would be. Clipping it into her hair, she gave a quick twirl. Cute!
Checking the time again in the hallway, she decided it was probably time to pack her bag. She obviously didn't have any textbooks, since it was a new school year, but she did have her diary, her lunchbox, a big pink notebook with crisp lined pages, and most importantly, her pencil case, packed with cute pink kitten-themed stationery and a pocket dictionary, all of which she wanted to take. She filed them in size order, and put them one by one into her rucksack. It was a pink and white sports rucksack, completely covered in keyrings, some sports-themed, like the little blue soccer ball, or animal themed, like the cartoon dog face, but most of them were positive and motivational quotes. She couldn't remember when she'd started collecting them, but was very glad she had. The sheer number of them made the bag look a little garish, but they all had sentimental value, and she at least, thought it was cute. She did up the zipper, and swung it onto her back.
Even from upstairs, she could hear Stingy's sharp and impatient knock on her front door, demanding it open. She scampered down the stairs and opened it up for him, smiling.
"Morning Stingy!" she said vivaciously.
"Yes, yes. Good morning." he responded, smiling too but somewhat haughtily. "You won't have the privilege of carrying my books today, since we don't have any yet, but I'm sure you don't mind."
"Um, okay!" chirped Stephanie slightly confusedly, "Let's go!" She turned to her uncle, who was standing just behind them near the living room door, and called, "Bye, Uncle Milford! See you later!"
"Ah, yes. Have a nice day at school!" he said with a smile. The kids left, closing the door behind them, and went to unlock Stephanie's bicycle. She'd tied it with a bike-chain to the fence in her back garden, so it was easy to find and she hopped on it as soon as she'd pulled it free. The pedals were a little stiff, but soon she was quickly moving forward down the street.
"Stingy!" Stephanie shouted to him over her shoulder, as he was still examining and getting on his foot scooter, "Hurry up, I don't know where to go past here!" Even from the distance, she could see him sigh, and just as haughtily as ever, scoot over to where she was waiting.
"Down there." he said, pointing. Stephanie followed his finger but eventually came to another crossing. She asked if it was left or straight on, to which he replied as if she was supposed to know it already,
"Left."
"Stingy, maybe you could go in front of me?" she pleaded. "Since you know the way, and I don't!" She had a feeling something was up with Stingy, he was being much more withdrawn than usual and she wondered why, but decided not to ask for now, in case she offended him.
"I don't want to scrape my scooter by going fast. It's new!" he told her, looking at her oddly. "If you want me to be ahead of you, push me!"
"But what would I do about the bike?" she asked dubiously. "I can't just leave it!"
"Let go of your handles, and hold mine!" he said like it was obvious.
"But Stingy!" Stephanie complained, "That's dangerous! You're far more likely to damage your scooter doing that!"
"But Stephanie!" he mocked, "We're going to be late for school if we don't get going! Besides, you get to hold my handlebars, you should be happy!" He was right, at least about the being late, Stephanie realised, so she got ready to grab on as he pushed his scooter to the front of her bike. She grabbed onto his handlebars with one hand, and her own with the other, squeezing her thighs tightly onto the sides of the bicycle and peddling like a bat out of hell down the long, and thankfully pedestrianless sidewalk.
"Whee!" squealed Stingy excitedly as they zipped down the long stretch, and, "That way!" pointing to a bend in the road. "You might have to slow down, there are houses coming up in a minute and the people living there don't know that I have right of way." he told her. "Because I'm a prince!" he added.
"Could you switch sides?" Stephanie asked, "My arm's getting a bit tired."
"You? Miss Stephanie 'Dancealot' Meanswell, tired?" he laughed. "His Royal Highness will allow it." She let go of the scooter and held her other hand out as he manoeuvred around the back. They went slightly slower, but still fast through the roads, and luckily didn't bump into anyone although they got a few odd looks. They continued like this for a while, until they finally arrived at Big Town Elementary.
"Where do we put our stuff?" she asked him. "Like, the bikes, I mean."
"Follow me," said Stingy, stepping off the scooter with care and wheeling it toward a crowd of kids. "You did bring your bike chain, right? I brought mine, but I'm not sharing."
"Yup." she told him, and as they reached the huddle she saw that behind the children there was a rack of bikes, scooters, and some skateboards. She went to lock hers in, on the right side, when she felt a hand jump up from behind to bonk her on the head. She whirled. Trixie!
"Heya Pinkie!" she said, "Guys, this is Stephanie, she's joining third! Say hi!" The two boys behind her waved, one grinning and the other shyly. She waved back as they walked off, probably towards their fourth-grade homeroom.
"Do we have the same homeroom, Stingy?" she asked him, as she locked her bike onto the rack.
"We might." he said, "There are only three classes in our grade, mine is 3b, you can go to reception and ask." Stephanie nodded. "It's over there," he said, pointing towards a white door a fair way down the building, "I can come with you, if you want."
"Okay! Lead the way, O Great Prince!" she grinned.
"Are you... patronising me?" he asked.
"What's patron-eyes? Anyways, let's go!" She grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards the door, and he quickly wriggled free, striding in front of her. After not very long at all they had reached the door, which Stephanie held open for her friend and they went inside. As soon as she had stepped in, she could feel stern eyes on her and when she looked towards the desk she could see it was the receptionist, staring disapprovingly at her head. She couldn't quite tell why, so ignored it, and stepped up to the desk alongside Stingy.
"Hello!" she said sheepishly, "um, I'd like to know if-" she was cut off.
"Young lady." announced the receptionist, "before you ask me whatever question you were about to; what has happened to your hair?"
"Well, um, you see, I'm new here. I wasn't even going to be starting school here until a week... ago, because... because..." she trailed off, beginning to cry as she remembered just why it was such short-notice.
"Well okay, if you're going to cry about it I guess we'll have to save it for another day. I can let your teachers know that you didn't know it was against dress-code so they can let you off for a day, what class are you in?" she asked.
"Well," said Stingy, "that's what we came here to ask. We don't know. Is she in my class? 3b?" he asked back.
"Let me see." said the receptionist, "What's your name, I can look you up in the register."
She sniffled, wiping the last few tears away from her eyes. "Stephanie Meanswell," she answered.
"Okay, I'll look in the 3b register first. Meanswell, Meanswell... aha! There you are. Your homeroom is B2, your friend here can show you there. I'll send the message to your teachers."
Stingy nodded. "I most certainly can."
They pushed the door, and stepped outside. The crowd of children chattering outside was far smaller now, as she assumed many of them had gone to their homerooms.
"She was nice!" chirped Stephanie, "Where's B2?"
"In there." Stingy pointed towards a small two story building. "That's the B block, the classroom upstairs is 2." It didn't sound too much like a block, with only two classrooms, but she didn't question it and pressed on. They got to the classroom just before the bell rang, and sat down together at an empty double-desk in the middle-left.
"I like your bag!" Stephanie commented on Stingy's trendy, brand-name yellow and white satchel he'd just put away.
"Thanks." he smiled. It wasn't too common to see Stingy smile, but she had just complimented one of his possessions, which she assumed would usually be a cause for him to smile. She felt eyes on the back of her head, likely looking at her hair, and heard chatter from the rest of the class, sounding to also be about her hair, although she wasn't really listening. The chatter stopped, and eyes fell away, however, as a tall, smiling teacher in precariously high heels strode in. Looking at the clock, it was 8:20, so time for roll call.
"Good morning, kids! I'm Ms Meloda, some of you might have had me for music lessons previously, so you'll know me, but I see a few unfamiliar faces as well." said the teacher in a sing-song voice.
"Huh, Ms Meloda," Stephanie half-whispered to Stingy, "great name for a music teacher!" she grinned. Stingy shushed her, as the teacher begun the roll call.
"Here!" chirped Stephanie as the teacher got around to her name.
"Are you new to this school, Stephanie?" Ms Meloda asked.
"Um, yes I am." she replied.
"Ah, that explains it. Please stay behind for a minute at the end of the period so I can talk to you." she said sternly.
"Okay!" Stephanie smiled, and Ms Meloda resumed the roll call. In not too long at all it was done.
"Right then, I need to give you your day planners for this year, yes they have timetables in them." She began to pass them round. "So, class." said the teacher. "Since you were all in different classes last year, you may not all know eachother, and Stephanie is new and doesn't know anyone at all-"
"She knows me!" Stingy butted in, "She's my friend!"
"Stephanie is new, and only knows Jacob-"
"My name is Stingy!" he shouted.
"That's a mean word, and you shouldn't use it as a nickname." she replied. Stingy scowled at her. "I thought we could play a game so that we could get to know eachother. All the planners are handed out, yes?" The class nodded. "Get into a circle!" So that's what they did.
Twenty kids and one teacher got into a wide ring around the edge of the classroom, managing to avoid desks so as not to make gaps in the circle. "Right then. What we're going to do, is one by one, step forward, say our names and one fact about us, then pass it to the person to our left. I'll go first!" She stepped forward. "My name is Ms Meloda, and I teach music at this school!" She passed the question to the kid to her left.
"I'm, my name is Aaron, and I like dogs!" said the scrawny boy, stepping back. "Um, next!"
"My name is Dulce!" piped the small, dark-haired girl to his left, "And my birthday is in January, on the third!"
"I'm Joe." said the stern, pale boy on her left. "I don't like talking." He stepped back, looking at Stingy on his left.
"I am Stingy." he said, stepping up, and Ms Meloda sighed. "All your feelings are mine." Stephanie gently dug him in the ribs as he moved back, telling him;
"Not the best choice of fact, Stingy!" before stepping forward herself to say, "Hi, I'm Stephanie, and I came first place in an under-10s national dance contest!" She twirled, hearing the other kids 'woah' and 'cool' at her fact, clearly finding it much more interesting than 'I like dogs'. Stingy elbowed her back as she stepped away, telling her she was a show-off, to which she rolled her eyes, laughing. The other kids went round, saying their names and facts, but she wasn't really listening, and before she knew it the bell had rung and they were headed to their next lesson.
"Next we have math, it's in the room downstairs. I'll tell the teacher you'll be late." Stingy told her, before walking off with the crowd. Stephanie walked over to the teacher, who was standing by the desk, clearly ready to leave as well, and smiled expectantly.
"My hair, right?" she asked.
"Well, yes," replied Ms Meloda, "I assumed you knew it was against dress code. But you're new, so I thought maybe you didn't."
"Yes, I was told this morning. But I'm not dying it back. It's a big part of my identity, and besides, my uncle is the mayor of Lazy Town." she said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Well, that won't mean anything unless he comes in, and I assume he's a busy man-"
"Oh, he's really not."
"So run along, we don't want to be late now, do we?"
"No!" replied Stephanie cheerily before skipping off to her lesson. She didn't think Ms Meloda and her would get along too well in future. It was a shame and all that, she did love making new friends, but she'd defend her fashion choices at all costs.
She descended the stairs, and sheepishly opened the door to B1, peering in carefully to make quite sure it was her class, and hopping into the room, making a quick apology to the teacher, who'd written his name on the board to say Mr Jennings, and sat down next to Stingy. She clearly was his only friend in the class, which was sad, but meant that she'd always get a spot next to him.
The other students had all been given blank blue exercise books, and were doing some simple questions on adding fractions displayed on the projector. Mr Jennings handed her one, and she quietly got on with the work. Math had never been her strong suit, but she didn't exactly struggle and the lesson went on without incident.
~
"Ring-a-ling-a-ling!" The bell. Today had felt like it had gone on forever, but the class was finally free and were scampering out the classroom door towards the school gates. Neither said anything until Stingy had just finished unclipping his scooter from the rack.
"You're going to the jumble sale today, right?" asked Stingy as they walked toward the exit, pushing their transport.
"Yeah, with Sportacus!" Stephanie replied. "Are you?"
"No." said Stingy flatly. "See you tomorrow." He waved, and she did too, as they split paths, him headed to the road home, and her turning and walking to Sportacus, who was waiting for her.
"Sportacus!" She ran up to him and gave him a hug, dropping her bike just behind her. "Where were you yesterday?"
"I had to go see my family, for an, err, gathering. Come, the sale isn't too far away. Do you think it would be appropriate to flip out of here, or should I wait?" He began walking to the left, and she followed, picking her bike back up.
"Oh, um yeah, I don't think you should, you'll get some odd looks." said Stephanie. "Did you have a nice time? With your family, I mean." she asked.
"Oh. Stephanie, my parents don't exactly, well, they don't like me very much. So, really, I didn't." he told her.
"What's not to like? You're super nice! But if they don't like you, why did they invite you?" she asked as they turned a corner. "You should be able to flip now, there's no-one around here."
"Ah, well, it was quite a formal meeting." Sportacus said, sounding, at least to Stephanie, like he was hiding something. He did a quick hand-spring, before continuing, "The whole family had to be there, it's a -well, a tradition I guess!" At this point Stephanie was completely sure he was hiding something about this 'gathering', but didn't press him. They walked on in silence for a while, and with nothing to distract her, and Sportacus right by her, she found her thoughts wandering back to what Robbie had told her that quiet night last week. Aah, it was far too cute! She began to giggle, furiously without really realising what she was doing.
"What's got you so giggly Stephanie?" Sportacus asked.
"I-um, I," she stuttered, trying to hold it in. She'd never been the best at keeping secrets, and what been having trouble with this one around the other kids too. "He told me not to tell you!" she squealed, unable to hold the words in any longer.
"What?" asked Sportacus, clearly confused.
"Never mind! Um, look, we're almost there!" she covered up. It was true, the small field where the jumble sale was staying for all of this week. She had asked to go on the first day, so that there would be more to browse.
"I think I see some sports equipment on the left, and I need a new hockey stick, so we could check that out first?" Sportacus asked.
Stephanie knew he wasn't as much of a fan of sales like this as she was, but she wanted someone to go along with her and Sportacus had happily obliged. They walked over to the pile of bats, balls and other miscellaneous sports things, and began to look through. Stephanie instantly laid eyes on a slightly scuffed pink soccer ball.
"I'm going to get this!" she proclaimed excitedly.
"Careful, Stephanie! You don't want to decide on what you're going to buy straight away, you should always look at everything on offer first." he told her. "It's an important part of budgeting!"
"Okay! Where to next, if we're going to check it all out?" Stephanie asked.
"Your choice." he said kindly.
"Oh, um, how about over there!" She pointed towards a table a bit to their right, with movies on it.
"Right then!" Sportacus smiled, and they walked over to the table. "If you want to buy a movie, only get one. It's important not to spend too much time watching movies, you know!" He had already told her this countless times, and she wasn't really listening, instead perusing the selection of movies on the table. She picked up a movie with a pale pink polka-dot cover, featuring a pretty blonde woman in a slightly darker pink dress.
"Sportacus, should I get this one? It's got a pretty cover!" Stephanie called to him. He jogged over, and as soon as he was close enough to clearly see the cover, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Stephanie, why would you want to get that one?" he asked with concern.
"It's got a nice cover, I said!" she repeated.
"Didn't you read the title?" he asked. She hadn't, and shook her head.
"I, um, no... It's got an 'a'!" she admitted, pointing to the 'a'. "And, um, a 'b'!" she pointed to the 'd' on the cover. She noticed the rating on the back. "Oh... I guess I can't watch it, then. That's okay! I'll find something else!"
"Well, you don't have to get a movie! How about a book?" Sportacus asked.
"I don't like reading, it's kinda tricky." she said, looking a little embarrassed by the fact.
"That's okay, not everyone can be good at everything! How about one with pictures?" he quizzed encouragingly.
"It'd have to be a lot of pictures..." she mumbled. Sportacus rifled through a pile of books on the table just next to the movies one.
"Aha! How about this, it's a comic book!" he triumphed.
"Ooh! Let me see!" piped Stephanie, even from the distance seeing a picture of some cute cartoon girls on the front cover. Sportacus handed it to her. There was some text on the front, and she could instantly make out a couple of big blue 'S's on it, but she was pretty sure it would take a while longer for her to decode the whole thing. She squinted at it, concentrating hard, and Sportacus noticed her struggling.
"Need some help with that?" he asked. Stephanie nodded and handed it back to him. "The top bit in pink is Japanese, or Chinese, or something, but the blue bottom part is in English, at least I think it is, and it says 'Senpai Senpai!'. I don't know what that means, so I hope I'm saying it right!" he said with a smile.
"Thanks!" said Stephanie, taking back the comic, "The drawing on the front is really cool too!" She lent back what she thought was slightly, but ended up leaning heavily on the movies table and pushing it over.
"Stephanie!" called Sportacus, crystal beeping, and backflipped over to the table, pushing it back up with one hand, and grabbing Stephanie's wrist with the other, pulling her upright.
"Thanks, dad!" she said, grinning. She'd taken to sometimes calling him this, despite what he'd said previously, that it was near on impossible he'd ever be her real dad, and he didn't seem to mind.
"Not a problem, Stephanie!" he said, smiling too. "It's my job! We need to put these movies back on the table now, though."
"Yeah." she said, pulling free from Sportacus and walking around to the other side of the table to pick up the movies that had fell, and stacking them back up on the table.
"I hope we don't get into trouble for that!" Sportacus laughed.
"But why? It's not even our fault!" Stephanie said, picking up some more DVDs, and; "Oh! Sportacus look! It's that comic, but a movie!" It was. The same four sailor-uniform clad girls were smiling on the front, and in the same place as it was on the comic, it read '先輩 先輩! Senpai Senpai! - Season One', although she could only make out a few letters herself. She had no idea what it meant, but it definitely was the same thing, and she lifted it up to show him. "Look, look!" she squealed as she handed it over to him, still putting the last few movies back. He studied it.
"So it is! Do you want to get it, you've looked at all the movies now so if you are going to get one now would be the time to choose!" he said to her.
"Do I have to get the book as well?" she asked.
"No, you don't have to do anything Stephanie! If you don't want to read the book, you don't have to get it! You can just get the movie, if you want!" he told her encouragingly.
"Then I will!" she decided. She looked at the price tag. "And it's only $2.99! That leaves more than enough money to get that soccer ball too!" She glanced over to the sports equipment. It was still there.
"Are you completely sure?" Sportacus checked, "You haven't looked at everything yet!"
"Oh, um yeah. The rest of the things are just toys I don't need, and adult things. Like perfume. Which I also don't need." she told him.
"Well, neither do I. I'll get this book," he held up the red book he was clutching, "and a hockey stick!" Stephanie picked her bike back up, and they walked over to the sports pile, where she picked up the pink soccer ball, and he grabbed a blue and purple hockey stick, leaving the blue and white one Stephanie thought he would go for. She paid it no mind. They handed over the money for the four things to the elderly woman at the makeshift till, and headed off home.
"Do you think you'll be able to keep up with me on my bike, or should I push it?" Stephanie asked.
"I don't mind." replied Sportacus. "Whatever you want."
"Okay, I'll push it then!" she decided. "So we can talk easier!"
"What should we talk about then, if you're wanting to talk?" he asked.
"Oh, um, maybe we could... ask some questions! About eachother?" Stephanie replied, sounding a little unsure.
"Good idea!" said Sportacus, "What would you like to know from me, then?"
"Oh, um, okay then... Do you have any clothes, other than what you're wearing right now? Because, um, you sleep in it, and I've never seen you wear anything else!" she asked.
"Yes, I actually do! I have a suit, and another, um, formal outfit, I wore it yesterday to see my family actually, but I don't wear either of them too often." he answered cheerily.
"Oh, why don't you wear them?" she added.
"The suit doesn't have a spot for my crystal, and the other outfit is only for special occasions with my um, family." he told her.
"Why didn't you get a suit with one?" Stephanie asked curiously.
"I.. don't actually know." Sportacus responded.
"Well, you should get more clothes that do! So you don't have to wear the same thing every day!" she advised.
"That's a really good idea Stephanie! I will!" he told her.
"Oh, and," added Stephanie, "If you almost only wear this, how do you have time to wash it?" she asked. "You'd need to, with all the exercise you do!"
"I have three. So I wash the one I previously wore every day!" he answered.
"Three... all the same?" she questioned, shocked, "So! What do you want to know from me?"
Sportacus thought for a moment. "I want to know just who told you not to tell me something! And what was it?" he asked. Stephanie put her face in her hands.
"Nooooooooooo," she whined, "I can't tell you!!! He'd be sooooooo mad at me! I promised!"
"Okay, okay. I'll think of something else." Sportacus thought, again, for a minute before asking, "Stephanie, since you can't read, um, very well, where did you learn to speak so eloquently, for your age? And how do you do all that writing in your diary?"
"What's eloquently?" asked Stephanie.
"It's when you talk really well, I guess." Sportacus explained.
"I talk really well? I didn't know that! That's so cool! Well, I didn't even know I did that, so I don't know how I learnt, but I can answer your question about the diary, so about three years ago my whole year at school took a test to see if any of us were dyslexic, and I was, so they sent me to a writing coach, I think it's called, and he said I should keep a diary, so I can practice writing. It's mostly all pictures but it has helped me with my handwriting, and I can spell 'Dear Diary' first time!" Stephanie stopped, realising that she'd been rambling and smiled up at Sportacus. "So yeah. That's why I started a diary. And it's great for looking through and remembering great times with friends!"
"Wow, Stephanie!" he said. "If you're just dyslexic, though, you just find it hard to read and spell, I thought, but you can't read at all! Is there anything else stopping you? I'm curious, that's all."
"Oh, well I don't think there's anything else hindering me, but since I only started learning to read recently, I wouldn't be the best, with or without dyslexia. I can read, and spell too, but it takes me a very long time. So it seems like I can't! I think. I'm not completely sure about all of this." she answered as best as she could.
"Thanks for explaining!" Sportacus acknowledged.
"Not a problem, I don't know a lot about it but I love to help. Look!" Stephanie pointed. "I see Robbie's lair, we're almost in Lazy Town!" Sportacus broke into a run as they went past the lair and closer to the main body of the town, and Stephanie hopped onto her bike to keep up, pedalling hard to get the bike's wheels over the grass.
~
It was seven-o'clock and Stephanie had just finished eating a healthy dinner. The others had gone to Pixel's house to play some video games after finishing up with playing outside, but Stephanie wasn't really in the mood. She considered going back outside and playing with her new ball, but soccer is no fun with only one person and she decided against it.
Maybe she'd watch her new movie instead? But her uncle didn't have a DVD player! She had, when she decided to get a movie, assumed she'd be able to use Pixel's player, but the others were using his screen to play games, so that couldn't happen right now. She thought for a while. Who else would have a DVD player? Out of the kids, only Pixel did, her uncle didn't, Bessie might but she was out for dinner with some friends so Stephanie couldn't got to her house, and Sportacus definitely didn't. That left... Robbie! He didn't seem like the type to have stuff like a DVD player, but she had seen his laptop and she knew that many of them had disk slots.
"Uncle Milford!" she called to the living room, getting up and walking towards it, "I'm going to see if I can watch the movie I bought today!" She opened the door, checking her uncle was in there. He was, bumbling away reading a newspaper. He looked up.
"Oh my, Stephanie! You bought a movie, that's wonderful! Of course you can go to watch it, be back before bedtime!" he said cheerily, his signature warm smile plastered across his face.
"Thanks, uncle!" she smiled, waving and running out the door, movie in hand. It was still fairly bright despite the late hour, and not a cloud in the sky. She half skipped, half ran all the way to the outskirts of town, and knocked on the hatch to Robbie's lair. A couple of seconds went by, before a periscope shot out of the ground beside her. She waved at it, and it was pulled back down. She waited, not wanting to open the hatch herself as she knew as well as anyone how strongly Robbie felt about privacy. She waited for a minute or two, before the hatch opened and Robbie stuck his head out.
"What do you want?" he asked grumpily.
"Hi Robbie!" grinned Stephanie, "I bought this," she showed him the DVD, "at a jumble sale today, but I don't have a DVD player, and Pixel's is in use. Can I play it on your laptop?" she asked sweetly.
"Oh, um, I mean, sure?" stuttered Robbie. "What's it about? Come inside, this is extremely uncomfortable for me." He started wiggling his way down the ladder, and once he was a safe distance away Stephanie began her descent after him.
"I don't actually know what it's about!" she told him, laughing, when they were both inside, "It's called Senpai Senpai!, whatever that means, and I like the drawing on the front!"
"So, you bought this movie, having no idea what it's about or even what the title means... just because you liked the cover art?" Robbie seemed perplexed.
"It was only $2.99!" Stephanie defended.
"Okay, okay. Whatever. Want me to read the back off to you, or something? So you know what to expect?" he asked her.
"Yeah!" Stephanie exclaimed, handing over the movie.
"Ahem." Robbie began. "It says: 'A yandere (Tsuji Risa), a tsundere (Yamaoka Amari), a deredere (Okimoto Yuno), and a dandere (Tsunoi Rumi),' - I have no idea what any of that means, I think the parenthetical bits are names? Silly sounding ones, though." Stephanie had no idea what 'parenthetical' meant but she didn't say anything, not wanting to interrupt Robbie's reading. "'are all girls in the same highschool second year class, crushing on the same third year boy! Love confessions to the wrong guy, accidental hand-holding, death threats, and all-around embarrassment, get ready to laugh and cringe at the antics of the girls in season one of Senpai Senpai!' This sounds stupid. Whatever, I'll let you watch it if it gets you to stop dancing for five minutes." He led her over to his laptop on a table in the corner of the room, and set the movie down next to it. "Want the chair, kid?" he asked her.
"Oh, I'd like it, but then you'd have nowhere to sit yourself! Unless..." she said, batting her eyelids in persuasive effort, "you wanted to watch it with me?"
"No! I don't have time for your girly cartoons!" Robbie halfheartedly spat.
"Oh, go on Robbie! You know you want to, and besides, it's not like you have anything else to do, since I'm using your computer!" she cooed.
"Well, I have my phone! I can just browse stuff on that instead!" Robbie struggled, just making excuses not to compromise his maturity and watch a cartoon.
"Do you?" Stephanie asked. She'd noticed the sleek purple and gold smartphone lying on the table behind the laptop, at such an angle Robbie obviously couldn't see it from where he was standing, and she let out a sly giggle.
"Yes!" Robbie replied.
"Dooo you?" Stephanie teased.
"Yes!" he said again. Stephanie lifted her eyebrows and saw a doubtful expression wash over Robbie's face. He put a hand in his pocket, and after a moment brought it back out, obviously having found nothing, and Stephanie lifted the phone so he could clearly see it.
"Get the chair," she said. "You, Mr Rotten, are watching Senpai Senpai!. With me!" She sat her hands on her hips smugly, knowing she'd won, as Robbie reluctantly pushed the fluffy chair over to the table. "Now how do I turn this thing on?" she asked.
"It's really not that difficult." said Robbie, "Look, you've just got to- oh I'll do it, give it here." He stuck his arm out and Stephanie passed it over. She watched him flick a button on the side, open up the screen and press a few buttons on the keyboard. The screen lit up and he set it back down on the table.
"Should I sit down? How even are we going to sit down, this chair is large but I don't think it would fit the both of us." she pondered.
"I'm not quite sure either, since it's my only chair, but let me say right now, that however 'friends' we are, I'm not letting you sit on my lap. Deal?" Robbie looked at her for agreement.
"Deal. How about I just sit on the arm, I don't mind!" she chirped, glad she'd solved the problem. "But we should probably put the disk in, or we can't watch at all! Where does it go?"
Robbie pressed another button on the side, and a tray came out. "In there." he directed, pointing. Stephanie took the disk out of the case and clicked it into the drive. A dialogue popped up on the screen.
"What does that say?" she asked Robbie.
"It's asking if we want to open your movie in the video player. We do." he replied, clicking one of the options. The video player quickly opened.
"Your computer's really fast, Robbie!" she told him, and watched the episode select screen come into view on the screen. She could make out the title at the top, which she knew said Senpai Senpai!, and she could see some numbers accompanied by text down the side. She moved the mouse to the top box. "This is episode one, right?" she checked.
"No, it's an introductory episode. But they must have made it for a reason, maybe it'll help you understand when you get to watching the actual stuff. Give it a click, I'd say." Robbie responded. She did so, and yet another dialogue box came up. "Before you ask, this one's asking if we want it in English or 'JP', I think that's meant to be Japanese but don't quote me on it. We want English, obviously." he informed. Stephanie clicked it, and the theme song began to play.
"I thought you said you chose English! This isn't English!" Stephanie cried, perplexed, at the Japanese-spoken lyrics.
"It's got subtitles at the bottom, they're in English, but you're not making me read them out to you." he said, squinting at the vague white text at the bottom. "It's just a silly trash song about love, you wouldn't want to hear it." he told her.
"I love love!" she giggled. "It's, like, my second or maybe third favourite thing!"
"Whatever. I'm still not reading it." he said. "Shh, it's starting now. If you actually want to watch this garbage cartoon, don't talk over it."
"Yeah, yeah." laughed Stephanie, and she began to get herself comfortable on the arm of Robbie's chair.
It was a generic introduction, luckily dubbed into English rather than subtitled like the song, and showed a skinny, purple-haired boy walking along subtly coloured streets, and a man with a gravelly voice narrating the premise of the story. This boy, who's name was Aoi Mito, had four whole girls with crushes on him, the girls from the front cover, but despite how obvious their affections were, 'Aoi-san' as he was being referred to as, didn't notice any of the poor desperate girls' feelings for him, and none of said desperate girls noticed they had competition!
It all sounded highly unrealistic to Stephanie, but she had been engrossed since the narrator mentioned crushing. She did love love!
The display shifted from Aoi-san to the first of the four girls, music picking up and becoming peppy and lively. Her name was Okimoto Yuno, or Yu-chan for short, and she was a deredere. Whatever that meant. She was rather plain looking, with straight black hair with neat bangs, in twin braids down her back, but that was made up for by her dazzling smile. It played clips of her being kind to people, and animals too, to emphasise her wonderful personality, and giving some rice food, which they called a 'bento' to Aoi-san. In another clip it showed her in a cute bedroom, contemplating her deep feelings for him.
"How does she do it?" Robbie's asked no-one in particular, but Stephanie answered anyways,
"Robbie, it's not real! Of course no real person would be this calm and nice around their crush, but she's not! It's not supposed to be realistic!" she told him, as if he hadn't realised a cartoon wasn't real.
"Shut up, I'm watching." Robbie complained.
The introduction moved on to the next girl, a yandere, whatever that meant, called Tsuji Risa, or just Tsuji, with or without the -chan. The music was ominous and low. She was pretty, with bunny shaped accessories and light pink hair, but seemed a little weird, showing clips of her watching Aoi-san, almost like stalking, giggling at random moments and twitching her eyelid as if it was a tic. It only got weirder when it showed her bedroom, which included what looked like a worship shrine to the boy, full of pictures from weird angles, as if she had tried to secretly take them. The final clip of her introduction showed her slipping a note into a student's locker, conveniently holding it up in such a way that the viewer could clearly see it.
"What does that say?" Stephanie asked Robbie.
"It's a death threat." he replied mundanely, as if it was a perfectly normal thing to say, "It says 'Don't you talk to my Aoi Mito, I know where you live.'"
"Oh." Stephanie was a little disappointed in this fake girl. "She shouldn't threaten people! That's mean!"
"Ah, well, there are mean people, kid, even in fiction. Shut up now, it's moving on." he instructed.
The music changed to a light, quiet beat, and the image shifted to a pale, dark blue-haired girl, a dandere- why so many similar words Stephanie had never heard before?- named Tsunoi Rumi. No alternative '-chan' name was given, and it was soon explained, in that she didn't have friends to refer to her with any sort of nickname. She was shy, quiet, seemingly emotionless for the first few clips, and Stephanie began to wonder if she even did have a crush on Aoi-san, since no footage was shown of them together, but she was proven wrong as, again, it cut to her pretty blue and purple bedroom. She was, like the other girls, lying on her bed, and, again like the other girls, contemplating out loud her feelings for her crush Aoi-san. Her voice had not been heard thus far, as she had been keeping completely too herself in the previous clips, but now, as she was mumbling to herself about her feelings, Stephanie could hear it and it was lovely, high, soothing and quiet.
"She's got a nice voice, hasn't she Robbie?" she asked him, smiling.
"Whatever." responded Robbie. "I'm trying to concentrate on what's happening, you butting in really, really isn't helping. Be quiet." he explained harshly.
"So you're enjoying it?" she asked excitedly.
"What? No! I mean, shut up!" he sputtered nervously.
"Okaay!" she smiled, sarcastically, and focused back on the screen.
Stephanie knew that the final girl would be the only one from the box that she hadn't seen so far, the cross-looking, small girl, with dark, reddish-brown hair in a choppy bob style, accentuated with little yellow bows. She was right. The girl's name was Yamaoka Amari, and she was a tsundere- all these 'dere's and no idea what they meant! She was friends with Aoi-san, and had been since the beginning of the academic year, and he called her Yama-chan, which Stephanie thought was very cute and fitting, although the character herself didn't like it a bit. Even though they were friends, she was really mean to him, and was very rude and defensive whenever anyone brought up Aoi-san around her, heavily reassuring them that she did, in fact, not 'like him, or anything'. Stephanie thought for a moment that this was quite hilariously exaggerated, when she realised, this behaviour really reminded her of someone. She elbowed Robbie to get his attention, smirking and biting her lip jokily.
"This remind you of anyone Robbie?" she teased.
"N-no!" he defended.
"Really?" asked Stephanie, looking hard at him. "No-one at all?"
Robbie shifted in his seat, nervously. "I mean, I guess..." he conceded.
"Yes, Robbie! You 'guess', huh?" she laughed, still teasing. "I've seen you with Sportacus! Yama-chan is just like you! Does that make you a... soon-derry?" she wondered.
"You say it 'tsundere'. And she doesn't like that nickname, she wants you to call her Yamaoka-chan!" Robbie looked a little flustered at this, and Stephanie was sceptical just how truthful he was being when he told her he didn't like it, that it was just a 'dumb cartoon'. Very sceptical. The episode stopped just then, content finished.
"That was so cool!" she squealed. "Can we watch the first epi- oh." She saw the time. "It's almost twenty-to-eight! I have to go home!"
"Twenty... to eight?" Robbie was again incredulous. "And you have to leave? I mean, don't get me wrong, peace and quiet is always a good thing, but why do you have to leave at twenty to eight? You've only been here half an hour!"
"Woah, a whole half-hour! That's a long time!" she said in childish awe.
"I assume you've had your dinner, right?" Robbie questioned. "So why? I honestly don't understand! And for me, the cleverest man in the world, to not understand something, is a big deal. Spit it out." he commanded.
"Oh, I just need to go to bed!" she said as if it was obvious.
"At twenty to eight?"
"At eight past eight, silly, I just need some time to get ready!"
"But why so early? The earliest I'd ever dream of going to bed if I'd slept the night before would be half past ten, what is wrong with you?" Robbie sounded genuinely confused and worried, Stephanie might even call it concern, but with Robbie's fluctuating empathy one could never be sure.
"It's a school night, I guess could be a valid reason, but I go to bed this early every day! For energy!" she told him cheerfully.
"And when do you wake up? Like, three, or four AM, right?"
"Between six and eight!" Stephanie was being more annoying than she needed to be, and she knew it.
"But that's... that's," he trailed off, counting on his fingers. "one, two, threefourfive, six seven, eightnine- TEN to TWELVE hours of sleep?! That isn't natural!" Robbie was lost for words.
"Well, it's natural for me!" she smiled, knowing just how infuriating she was being and almost loving it. "And, if you're the 'cleverest man in the world', why do you count on your fingers? Not that that's a bad thing, not everyone is good at counting, but you're very full of yourself, aren't you?"
"You'd be surprised how much I actually hate myself, kid." he told her nonchalantly.
"What? Robbie, don't say that!"
"I thought you didn't like me lying."
"Well, I, um, I have to go now! Goodnight Robbie!" she called over her shoulder as she rushed towards the hatch.
"Hey, aren't you going to take the movie? And don't worry, you don't have to say goodnight to me, I'm not going to be going to bed for at least another three hours or so." he said.
"I'll leave it here, if that's alright." she decided, "I'll come back after I've finished playing tomorrow, and we can watch some more maybe? Don't watch any without me!"
"I won't." Robbie told her. "Bye, Stephanie." He waved.
"Bye Robbie!" Stephanie called as she pulled herself up onto the ladder out. As she climbed, she pondered what to do. Robbie hated himself? This wasn't good. He needed help, not so badly Sportacus would be alerted right away, but bad enough for her to worry. But did she really want to be the one to send Sportacus to talk to Robbie? Maybe it'd only make things worse, and she really didn't want that. She had to make the decision right now, it was coming up fast on 8:08, and the only thing that would wake Sportacus between then and five AM was his crystal.
Stephanie considered giving herself time to decide whether the help would be good or bad for Robbie, and putting herself in deliberate danger so that Sportacus would wake up. But then he wouldn't get a full night's energy recharge, and neither would she! So that was a no. She decided that she would send an anonymous letter on her way to school tomorrow morning, alerting him to the issue. If she sent it now, he'd either have little time to act on it or miss out on sleep, so that would be bad, and if she put her name on it, Robbie would find out it was her and get mad! So an anonymous letter, tomorrow, was perfect.
She'd better get home before bedtime.