Chapter Text
"Ah."
Lisa stood in front of her open locker, in the middle of slipping one strap onto her shoulder. It was afterschool, the other students were rushing home or to their clubs. Lisa's voice vanished into the sea of locker doors being slammed shut. Yukina had just closed her locker. By chance their eyes met. She stared at the case as if trying to guess its content.
"You kept your old bass," Yukina said.
Lisa wondered if Yukina'd have talked to her without it. "Yeah, uh, couldn't get rid of the itch after I got home last night, so I dug this baby out of the storage."
"Yes, I saw you practicing," said Yukina with a slight frown. Lisa waited. Surely Yukina would ask if it was related to music. Why, or with whom — no bassists, or at least no one at Lisa's level performed alone. But all she said was, "It's good that you haven't thrown it away."
Thrown it away! Had Lisa fallen so low in Yukina's estimation, flaky and superficial, and impractical enough to throw away such an expensive possession? Pondering the question, Lisa almost didn't notice Hina until she ambushed her from behind.
"Li-sa-chi! What's that, a guitar?"
It was rhetorical. Without waiting for her answer, Hina started dragging Lisa by the arm, babbling about an audition. She paused just as abruptly, and Lisa very nearly fell on her. "I forgot, a middie midget wants to see you."
"Don't call her that. Also don't just drag people — oh hi, Ako. Looking for Yukina?" Lisa asked said middle-schooler, although the answer was obvious from the look of her. When Lisa left CiRCLE last night Ako had barely stopped apologizing. The determined bulge of her cheeks seemed to be more of the same.
"Lisa-nee, you're coming with me to CiRCLE! I'll per–persu–I'll tell Yukina-san I won't join the band if you're not in it!"
…Definitely more of the same troublesome persistence. Lisa seized Ako's shoulders. "And I appreciate the thought, Ako, but… here's the thing, don't you want to be in Yukina's band? More than anything?" Ako nodded vigorously. "So you got in. You impressed — " Unconsciously her gaze drifted to Hina, quickly going back to Ako before either noticed it, or the fumble in names that came next. " — well, Yukina. I never meant to audition, remember? My part's done but yours is just beginning. Go get it, tiger!"
Ako was fighting a losing battle; last night was practically a dream come true for her. It only took a bit more coaxing to send her off to chase Yukina. Lisa felt a bit sorry for her. Maybe Ako was just feeling a bit unnerved having to face not one but two Yukina. But she'd feel sorrier if her presence caused a rift between Yukina and her new friend.
Friend is pushing it though… and maybe a rift is what they need? Continuous full resonance can't be good for either…
Hina shook her out of her brooding, literally. "Come on, the audition's waiting for us!"
"Nuh-uh, you first. What is this audience that I don't remember signing for?" If Hina were any less haphazard — any less Hina — she'd have commented on how Lisa was still following her even through her protests. Her explanation came in drips. Lisa only had the full picture by the time they were standing in front of a talent agency office and Hina finally took out a brochure for the audition and waved it in her face.
"You want me to audition for an idol."
"Huh, really? I thought it was just a band band. But you're going to do it with me! And it's an idol band, Lisa-chi, there's a difference."
"Hina, do I look like an idol?" Idols were cute and perky and eternally young. Things that didn't apply to Lisa or the style she was going for, even if she wasn't on the extreme edge of gyaru.
Hina seemed to consider it. "Meh, you're going to be wearing make-up and flashy outfits anyway."
"Okay, fine, leaving that side, I can't play in a band." Yukina had rejected her. Lisa might not have intended to audition along with Ako, but the result was the same.
Hina said, "Sure you can. So Yukina-chan rejected you. But now you got a bass with you, and you've taken off your fake nails. Seems to me you wanna play right after school. Like a real band kid, see!"
Self-conscious, Lisa curled her trimmed nails into her palms. "I was going to give it one last spin before giving it away…? Selling it…?" Even Lisa herself wasn't convinced.
"So why not audition? Give it a ba-ba-bam send-off, and if you don't get in, welp, that's it."
Hina's eyes could be green like broken glass and twice as sharp. Last night Lisa had stared down the colder, prettier model. Sayo hadn't thought she had 'it', whatever 'it' meant. Of the four people whose sounds had come together in CiRCLE last night, only Lisa didn't have 'it'. So Lisa had unclenched her smarting hands and bent her neck. The embers Sayo had ignited still smoldered even now. Surely Lisa didn't have what it would take, it goaded, if even an idol band scared her so much.
This afternoon she stared into Hina's doe eyes and thought, surely Hina too didn't believe she had 'it', idol or bandsman — Hina hadn't seemed to care what kind of a band it was. Surely anyone would do, Lisa was just the closest gullible idiot with an instrument. But neither could Lisa leave her alone. Hina seemed to know even less about idols; who knew what she could get up to left on her own devices?
So Lisa rolled her shoulders and said, "Fine. We've come all the way here, and I've got nothing better to do today."
Hina's thousand-watt smile was infectious.