Chapter Text
"Do you know what you are doing in here today?"
Marie's voice rang loud throughout the room, empty, besides the girl at the desk and the two standing in front of her. Andou and Oshida lowered their heads in shame, despite never having done anything wrong. At least, they thought they hadn't done anything. Fairly certain of it actually, but Marie rarely used her serious voice, so it never failed to make the two feel guilty when she did. Just like she was now.
"No..." The two responded in unison.
Suddenly, Andou raised her voice.
"What have you gotten us into now, you swine?"
"I've done nothing, this is YOUR fault you low-class filth!"
"Enough!" Marie didn't have the loudest of shouts, but it was enough to shut them up. "And you can cut it out with the act."
"Act?" Oshida questioned. "What 'Act'?"
"The act where you two are screaming insults at each other 24/7, that 'act'." Marie answered, after finishing her bite of whatever cake she had sitting on a plate before her.
"What are you talking about?" Andou rebutted angrily. "I'm not working with this pig!"
"Well there's been quite a bit of talk going around that says the opposite is true." she placed her fork onto her plate and raised her phone.
The two girls leaned in to get a better look at the image displayed on the device's tiny screen.
Said image was dark, clearly having been taken some time in the dead of night. After some closer inspection, the location could be identified as a building near the back of the school. Nothing special, just a bunch of classrooms. What was special, were the two figures in the image.
One, with tanned skin and dark hair, was being pinned to the wall by another with light, shoulder-length blond hair. The two girls appeared to be fervently making out with each other, with the one against the wall reaching up the skirt of the other.
Oshida and Andou were speechless, taking a good amount of seconds for them both to speak up.
"T-that's clearly been faked!" Oshida yelled
"Yeah, it's probably... edited! Yeah, it's definitely been edited or something!" Andou insisted.
"Tell that to the students." Marie said, her dessert having grown one bite smaller again.
***
The two sat alone in the room, Marie having gone to the kitchen to have another sweet treat baked for her consumption.
"What are we gonna do???" Andou groaned, throwing her hands up in defeat.
"We'll just say what we said before." Oshida said, though her voice lacked confidence. "It was edited, or it was someone else trying to impersonate us. It was very dark in the picture, they'll buy it. Probably. Maybe." She let her head fall into her hands in surrender. "They're not gonna buy it, are they?"
"Not in the slightest." Marie had re-entered the student council chamber, holding a plate carrying a heavily decorated chocolate cake, already with a large chunk of it missing, part of which was situated on the fork held in the blond girl's hand.
Andou groaned again, laying down on the couch and staring up at the ceiling.
The two vice-commanders jumped at the sound of the school bell ringing out across the entire ship, alerting the students that it was time for their day to begin.
Oshida dropped off the couch and to her knees and turned to Marie, clasping her hands together and trying to put on a pair of big, pouty puppy-dog eyes.
"Pleeeeeeeeeeease can we stay in here?" she begged. Andou soon joined her.
"Nope." Marie insisted. "You two are students, you need to go to school." she chewed for a few seconds, before swallowing, already halfway through her most recent dessert item. "Besides, what are you even going to do in here all day?"
Oshida fell onto the ground in defeat. "Why are you always right about these things..." she muttered.
***
"Okay, maybe if we're lucky, we can sneak out of here and no one'll be the wiser." Oshida said. She dashed out from the bush she was hiding behind, in an attempt to scout out the area and see if it was safe. Unfortunately, it was not.
A pair of Examination girls were in that direction, quickly distracted from their idle chatter by the girl dashing between the bushes. Upon recognizing it as none other than the leader of the Escalator students, they wasted no time in cornering her for a rudimentary interrogation.
"You're not going anywhere, pest." one of them said, leaning in closer. "You're gonna tell me why in the hell our leader would ever be seen associating with a stuck-up little rat like you."
"And I should because..?" Oshida spat.
Her response was met with a sneer and a knee to the gut from the other girl, causing her to collapse to her knees clutching her stomach.
The girl spoke again. "Shut up and answer you little-"
"Tell me why we're randomly menacing Escalator students on their way to class?"
"M-miss Andou?" The girls nearly jumped out of their skin.
"Yes, That is my name. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like an answer."
The girl who had kneed Oshida, presumably just a lackey, stammered. "W-what do you mean? She's one of THEM!" her voice went from confused to a combination of agitation and disgust. "But then you've gone and started... what, DATING her?" she asked, her voice laden with hatred and rage.
Andou paused. She had to choose her next carefully. She should deny it. Say that while she hated the Escalator students just as much as her, antagonizing them when they've done nothing was wrong. That would be the right choice. Oshida would say the same, and they would lay low for a bit, keep up the hate-each-other's-guts act and soon it would all be back to normal. Yes, that would be the right choice.
Screw the right choice.
"And?" she said coolly.
The girls were visibly taken aback. The first one started speaking again. "Everyone else is gonna hear about this you know. Hope you've got someplace to hide, because they won't like this at all, you hear me!" and with that, the two ran off, most likely to their class.
Andou extended her hand out to Oshida, helping her get back up onto her feet.
"You okay?" she asked in a worried voice.
"Yeah, I'll be fi-urggghh!" Oshida groaned and dropped down, clutching her stomach and covering the ground in a yellowish-green puddle of vomit.
"Hey!" Andou caught her before she could fall into her own stomach contents.
"Here, lemme take you to the nurse's office." Andou pulled her up and placed her arm around her shoulder so that she was leaning on her.
*Cough* "T...thanks... Andou." *Cough Cough* Oshida wheezed, coughing between her words. It felt like her entire throat was melting.
"Shh, save your energy." Andou soothed, giving her a gentle pat on the back. "It's no big deal anyways."
Oshida stayed silent and leaned her head against the dark-haired girl's shoulder.
When they arrived at the nurse's office and checked in, Oshida heaved herself onto the bed and lay down, waiting for the nurse to finish up with whatever other students she was tending to. Andou sat next to her.
'You...should go to...class..." Oshida said with deep, raspy breaths.
"We're already over halfway through first period, and it's just Science. Doubt the teacher even noticed I wasn't there." Andou chuckled.
"The nurse is going to make you leave you know."
"I'll just wander around for a bit until period two starts."
Oshida smiled. "I lo-Hurrrghhh!" Andou grabbed the bucket next to the bed and held it under her chin before she could stain the linoleum floor of the school's sickroom with the contents of her digestive system.
Wiping her mouth with a tissue, she resumed her sentence. "I...love you... Andou." She coughed.
"I love you too Oshida." She leaned in and gently planted a kiss on her forehead.