Work Text:
The English room that hosts the Skaia High Anime Appreciation Club (SHAAC) is unusually dark and calm this afternoon. The lights are dimmed, and most of the light that spreads through the room is coming from the glowing screen at the front, which is playing a miscellaneous episode of an outdated anime. The members of the club are spread out, there is too much space for too few people. The number of members of the club had slowly dwindled since it had been formed, leaving only the three founders and two people who associated with them. The grey walls are lined with English papers and posters, all made by classes that inhabited the room during school hours. There are one or two posters advertising the club stuck among these, scruffily drawn by one of the founders. Tables and chairs are arranged in orderly columns and rows. Ordinarily, the chairs would be placed on top of the tables and the room would be deserted, but it is a Tuesday after school, and the club is in session.
Out of the five members, only one of them is really paying attention to the mess on the screen. The plot is lacking, to say the least, and the character are extremely superfluous, making them difficult to relate to. John Egbert however, who is sat at the front of the room, seems to be enjoying himself. He is quite nerdy looking, his large front teeth and rectangular, blue framed glasses only accentuate the look that comes from his 'Ghost Busters' shirt and knee length khaki shorts. He has short, messy, black hair and a baby face, which makes him seem more like an innocent angel, than the prankster he really is. He had helped to form the club a few years back and had drawn all of the posters. Back when it first started, there'd been around twenty members. John was by far the most enthusiastic of them all. His child-like love for all things anime, combined with the Megido twins'... Personality, was probably the reason the club became draining for most of the members. So they left.
The younger of the Megido twins, Aradia, was seated two tables away from John, near the wall. She had picked the only desk in the classroom that doesn't have any gum stuck to the bottom. How this desk managed to be spared is a mystery to everyone, especially since Aradia is one of the kind of people who stuck their gum under the tables. She is known as her class' resident punk, despite both being best friends with one of the most cutesy, rich girls in the school and having affinity with nature and adorable wildlife. It may be the obsession with death and the supernatural that earned her the label. She was born around 2 minutes after her twin, earning her the title of 'younger sister' for as long as she lives. Right now, she is desperately trying to convince the tall ginger boy next to her to plait her long, wavy, black hair.
"It'll be fun, Kanny! Please?" Kankri Vantas shakes his head profusely, his neatly combed hair staying unnaturally in place. He assures her about his belief that, to be a faithful boyfriend, he should not play with another girls hair.
"I hope you can understand, Aradia." He explains. "I cannot be unfaithful, it is against everything I believe in. Furthermore-"
He drones on about how offensive it is that she even suggested the idea. Kankri is a good example of what would happen if you personified the word 'self-righteous'. He believes he can do no wrong, which makes him appear to be extremely overbearing and irritating. Which is true. Aradia laughs at him.
"You know, Damara is flirting with Dirk right now." She announces.
"Well if it is her belief that she should flirt with everything that moves, then it would be extremely disrespectful of me to disregard that." He grumbles. "Hand me the brush and hair tie please."
Aradia grins triumphantly and does as he says.
Sure enough, at the back of the room, the elder Megido twin is sat with Dirk Strider. Damara Megido is an exact mirror of her sister- the mole under her eye,and patches of lighter skin dotted around her body; graced to her by their shared skin condition, are copied immaculately onto her sister, as if they were dolls fresh from the factory. Despite this, Damara likes to think she is prettier than Aradia. It isn't that she doesn't like her sister- in fact they get along just fine. Its just Damara knows she's more successful with relationships, and when it comes down to it that just means she's prettier. It's actually because when Aradia turns someone down, because she knows she wants someone else, they often rebound onto her identical twin. She almost always says yes; they view her as the easier of the two- even if they think she's a little meaner. There have only been two who asked Damara first. She said yes to both, and neither ended well. Kankri is her first healthy relationship in a long time. It's likely because she asked him. None of this makes sense to Damara though. She must just be prettier, it's the only explanation.
There are very few ways to actually tell the two apart. The most noticeable is that Damara prefers to wear her hair up, whether it be in buns or a simple ponytail. Aradia however, prefers to wear it down or occasionally will have someone plait it for her- as is happening today. Damara never plaits her hair, she thinks it looks too childish. There are subtle differences too, Damara wings her eyeliner where Aradia just lines her eyelids, Aradia is more bubbly and excitable where Damara can often only be described as 'surly'.
If someone had looked five minutes earlier they would indeed have found her flirting with Dirk. However, they moved on to casual small talk while he concentrated on drawing.
Dirk Strider is drawing a beach scene. He doesn't know why, his hands started moving and that's what happened. When he draws he almost zones out, he puts all his concentration into his work; barely paying any attention to whats happening around him. Especially not one of Egbert's animes. He is paying attention to Damara though. He enjoys her company, despite her brash nature, and considers her one of his best friends.
His drawing reminds him of a time when he and Dave still lived with their older brother. They'd gone on holiday to Spain and, on the second day, Dave and Dirk had gone to a beach while their brother stayed in the hotel. Dirk hadn't had much sleep the night before, and was nodding off on his sun bed. Dave told him not to fall asleep in the sun or he'd burn.
"We can go back if you want bro. Take a nap." He'd offered.
Dirk knew that Dave didn't really want to go back yet, but when he got to their room he found he didn't feel like he could sleep anymore.
So he didn't.
That was a year before their brother passed away. They live with the Lalondes now.
"Your hair is a mess, Strider."
Damara speaks with a thick accent that makes it hard for some people to understand what she's saying. But Dirk, despite his pushy attitude, is good at listening. Thats another difference between the sisters. Aradia's accent went away with time.
"It looks like sex hair, like you fucked your boyfriend." She says, following it up with a laugh that you could easily mistake for a cackle. That's Damara for you, she's not afraid to say what she thinks. She is right in one respect, his hair is a mess.
He'd tried to spike it up that morning and failed miserably- its a wonder she'd only just mentioned it.
"Well honey, I try my best to keep up this sexy aura. It's pretty easy When I'm sat with you, I look like a fucking God in comparison." He retaliates.
She laughs again, her teeth almost look like fangs.
"You know Strider, I cannot understand you. You are really hot, but also just as cold."
"Yeah well," He smirks, his triangular shades shining, despite the lack of light. "If you keep talking like that, Kankri's going to get a little jealous."
Damara frowns.
"He does not mind the flirting much. I love him and he knows I will not cheat on him." And he does and she wont. She knows how it feels to be cheated on. Dirk frowns, thinking he might have offended her. He hasn't, but, as always, Damara is going to make this situation as dramatic as possible. She glances towards the door. Hung above it is a small blackboard, decorated with a wooden border, coloured forest green. The word: BANNED is written (and underlined) in white chalk at the top. board is blank, aside from one name; written in Kankri's neat, curly handwriting.
RUFIOH NITRAM.
Damara sighs as if she were a lovestruck prince watching his princess fall for another. She feigns wiping away a tear. Dirk glares through his shades, he knows what she's trying to do. Sure enough, at that very moment Kankri looks up from his hairdressing. His mouth twists into a frown, that makes Dirk know he means business. Talky business.
"Excuse me Aradia, but I must attend to my girlfriend. There is an injustice going on that must be solved."
Aradia rolls her eyes. How many times is he going to fall for this.
"Can't you at least finish my hair first?" She pouts like a child.
"Aradia-" he pauses and sighs. "Come and sit over here." He stomps over to Dirk noisily and pulls two chairs out. Aradia delicately sits down in the chair in front of him. Kankri gets back to styling her hair, however this time he has a new objective.
"Dirk Strider." His voice sounds like he just breathed a room full of helium in. "I cannot believe, after all these conversations you still insist on insinuating the idea that Damara would ever cheat on me. Do you have any idea how offensive that is? Especially considering the circumstances!" Dirk has his head in his hands, he cant look at the ridiculous sight that is Kankri. He is messily trying to continue to plait Aradia's hair with one hand, while waving the other around like he's trying to swat a fly, in what are supposed to be expressive hand gestures. Dirk doesn't want to earn himself another lecture by laughing.
"I have no idea what Damara did to provoke this kind of disgusting comment, but I'll have you know it was extremely uncalled for, for you to trigger memories of the 'Rufioh Incident'. Do you have any idea how much pain that caused her? Do you not remember the lengths she took to avoid anything and anyone? You're despicable Dirk Strider. I cannot believe-"
Kankri clearly doesn't notice the reflection of Damara repeated in both of Dirks shades. She is sticking her tongue out at him playfully. Dirk groans and she high fives her twin under the table.
The Rufioh incident happened over a year ago. Back then Damara and Rufioh seemed like the perfect couple. They did everything together; school projects, clothes shopping, they even went on holiday together once. Rufioh Nitram was an extremely friendly Mexican boy who loved animals and video games. Damara was a quiet and reserved, but sweet, girl who liked anime and rap music. They fit together like cheese and tomato. At least that's what everyone around them thought. As it turned out, no matter how devoted Damara was to the relationship, she was never good enough for him.
Their relationship had started off strong. They had been truly in love. It was only after their second year that they started to go sour. He wasn't paying attention to her anymore. He was ignoring her, like a child who was bored of a toy. She thought he was just ill, or tired.
She found out what was actually happening from a friend of his. She said she felt sorry for her. If she actually had she wouldn't be friends with him now.
Damara didn't believe her. She knew Rufioh loved her.
"I trust him." She was a trusting person.
"Well." His friend replied. "I warned you."
She said she trusted him. She wanted to believe she trusted him. But it was eating away at her. It was like a bird pecking at her head constantly, she had to know. So she followed him home after school. Or not home, as it turned out.
It was a boy from a school a few miles away. They were more in love than he'd ever been with her.
Damara wasn't so trusting after that.
Kankri's rant is finally cut off when John starts clapping and cheering after the anime character gets the girl. Damara ruffles her boyfriend's hair.
"I think he has learned his lesson." She smiles sweetly, an act she only performs for Kankri. For the most part, Damara's smile is like a private play where only Kankri has tickets. Today however it has an audience of four. Aradia thinks she's going to puke. Damara shouldn't be cute and sweet anymore. She's the evil twin. Rufioh killed sweet Damara.
The bell rings. Club's over. Damara slips her hand into Kankri's and they walk out together. As they reach the door she whips her head around and sticks her tongue out mischievously once again. Aradia scurries behind them. John follows shortly after.
Dirk exhales thankfully and starts packing his things away, knowing he doesn't have to hear Kankri's voice again until the next day.