Episode 5:

I’m Better Than You! – Rival Cliché

“We should start brain storming ideas for the school play coming up,” Vain suggested to rest of the Drama Club.

“But Vain, that’s so far away,” whined one of his fan girls.

Throwing on one of his winning smiles, Vain told them, “Better to plan ahead than to put it off and not be ready for the big day, right?”

“Oh you’re so right Vain! As always!” the girls squealed.

Boque used to be one of those fan girls. Now, she just stood off to the side with a few other drama club members. Members like a lanky ‘prep’ type girl who stood beside her. Her blonde head leaned in and whispered to Boque, “You know what? I heard he’s gay.”

Boque’s head snapped up to look at her. “No, he isn’t!” She hissed. The other girl was surprised. “He just thinks he’s gay.”

The girl winced as she tried to think about that. “So then…he’s not sure?”

“Yes!” Boque told her. The other girl nodded.

“If we did a play like that, who would be the heroine? Our starlet!” asked one of the club’s male members.

“I’d vote Boque. She’s a great actress. Plus, she can sing, dance, and everyone knows who she is.” Suggested a girl.

Boque lifted her nose with a sense of smug satisfaction. “Of course I’d be the best choice to play lead.”

“No, now that wouldn’t be fair. Let’s use Mi! I mean, she can do all the same stuff, but she’s taller.”

Boque’s mouth fell open. “What the hell does height have to do with it?!”

“You’re right. Hey Mi, come over here!” called the club president.

The girl beside Boque bounced over to the one’s who called her. Boque suddenly felt as if the world around her was crumbling. ‘WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?!”

Cliché 1: Rival established.

--------------

Government class once again. The ‘Cliché Crew’, as Blue had lovingly dubbed them, were silently sitting in their corner doing the things they normally did during their lesson. Billy was gazing out the window while Takuya poked him in the back of the ear with his pencil eraser, making the boy’s anger level rise. Toya doodled comics using themselves, Boque, and Billy as characters and showed them to Takuya. Takuya, being right handed, would respond with comics of his own while he poked Billy’s ear with his left hand. And Boque, who’d usually hum songs to herself while writing lyrics to them in her notebook, was now eating her MECHANICAL pencil.

The twins noticed this from behind her. Takuya leaned diagonally towards her and asked, “Did the pencil do something to you, Boque-chan?”

Boque only grunted and continued to chomp away.

When Takuya resituated himself in his seat, Toya leaned forward and asked, “What’s the matter, Boque-chan?”

“Nothing!” She growled. “Just some TALENTLESS BLONDE HACK IS STEALING MY ROLES!” she screamed, fists clenched. She hadn’t realized it, but she was standing in the middle of class and everyone was staring at her. She glared at them. “WELL SHE IS!”

Billy covered his face and shook his head. “She is off her rocker.”

----------------

“Alright everyone, pick a slip from my hand,” instructed the Drama teacher. “Who ever has the matching colors on the end of the slip will be your partner for today’s improvisation exercise.”

The students reached forward and drew slips from their teacher’s hand.

Cliché 2: Hate from both sides.

“Blue,” Toya called his color out loud. He turned to Boque standing beside him. “What color did you get, Boque-chan?”

“Um…Sorry, Toya. I got yellow,” she apologized. The twin’s jaw fell.

“It seems we’re partners,” Vain said to Boque, who nodded.

“No fair! I wanna be Boque-chan’s partner!” Toya whined.

“You got blue too, then?” a girl approached him. The three looked up at her. Boque’s eye twitched. It was that girl, Mi, again. “I look forward to this, new boy.” Mi smiled at Toya.

Toya looked her up and down. His hand shot up in the air. “I demand a do-over!” Everyone froze.

“T-There are no do overs Toya…” The teacher told him. That set the twin into one of his tantrums.

“DO-OVER! DO-OVER!” He cried. All the girls in the class felt a sudden urge to console him. “I don’t want this man-lady! I want Boque-chan!”

Boque stifled a laugh when she looked at Mi’s face which was scrunched with anger. “Man-lady?” Mi repeated.

The teacher managed to silence the situation to the best of her ability. Boque held Toya’s hand and promised to buy him something sweet to eat for lunch that day if he promised to be quiet. He complied with a childish demeanor. The only girl in the room this act didn’t appeal to was Mi.

“Today’s exercise will be the death of a loved one,” the teacher told the class. “Your partner will play dead while you improv a dramatic reaction to their death. Toya and Mi, why don’t you two go first?”

Toya thought quickly about what he was going to say first. He decided against it and simply nodded in response. He and his partner took to the stage. Mi lay herself on the floor and proceeded to play dead. Toya slowly knelt down beside her. “Begin!” the teacher instructed. Toya let out a breath.

He glared down at Mi’s ‘sleeping’ or ‘dead’ face, whatever you want to call it. Everyone in the room was waiting for him to say something about his ‘loved one’ being dead. There was no such progress, just an awkward silence. Was he thinking of something to say?

“So…” he finally spoke in a bored tone. “Dead huh? Tough break. Nice knowing you.” He then got to his feet, prepared to walk off of the stage.

That was when Mi shot up. There was a roar of “YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD”s throughout the class. The girl ignored them. She stomped over to the boy and took him by the shoulder. “Hey! What’re you—“

“ASSAULT!” Toya cut her off. There was a group gasp from the rest of the class as they watched the younger twin grab Mi’s arm and effortlessly throw her over his shoulder into the floor. Mi felt an immense pain surge throughout her body and she struggled to keep herself in a state of consciousness. The twin blinked his brown eyes. “My bad…” Toya apologized with a total lack of sincerity. He released Mi’s arm allowing her to roll around the stage in pain.

“T-Toya!” the teacher cried having been easily heard over the utterly quiet class.

“What?” Toya shrugged. “People I don’t like can’t touch me.”

“That’s still not a good enough reason to---" she was cut off by the sound of someone bursting into hysterics. Everyone looked to its source.

Boque couldn’t contain her giggle-busters. The sight of Mi flying through the air like a sack of potatoes was simply too funny to her. “He so owned you!” Boque managed to say between laughs.

Mi’s face scrunched up in anger (and maybe some pain was in there too). Just watching the German girl laugh so hard at her misfortune was unforgivable. It made her stomach churn.

Toya, on the other hand, brightened at the sight of Boque laughing. His child mode instantly switched to on. “Yay! I made Boque-chan laugh!”

Vain sighed and shook his head in disappointment. “Miss Von Ge, it’s really not a laughing matter…” he told her. Boque heard the disapproval in his voice and went quiet almost instantly.

“Well Roe-san,” Toya's child mode was off again. His eyes fixated themselves on Vain, but there was nothing to them. “Perhaps if you had allowed me to be Boque-chan’s partner, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Having heard that, Mi suddenly felt the strength to get up. ‘All of the attention is on her again!’ Mi immediately pushed herself up from the stage floor, fighting the pain surging through her spine and coccyx. She narrowed her eyes on Toya who glanced up at her out of the right corner of his own eyes. “Listen you, we’re going to do this improvisation and we are going to do it right!” Mi threatened him. Toya made a sound as if he had laughed, but his face was still the same—he hadn’t cracked a smile. It was totally straight. Only thing that changed were his eyebrows which came together slightly.

“That’s the heart of an actress!” The teacher cried happily.

Since Mi hadn’t gotten any kind of response from Toya (aside from the above mentioned), she smirked as she loomed over him in triumph. “You don’t get it, huh?” the Yaashiin spoke suddenly. Mi didn’t know if he had spent his silence thinking of something to say or it was so he could add dramatic tension with that pause. “The problem isn’t me. It’s you.”

“Me?” Mi repeated in offense. It seemed kind of weird coming from her though (Me equals Mi. You see it now?).

“Yes you. You call yourself an actress? But you can’t even act like some I could care about. Pathetic!”

“How the heck can I do that? I’m playing dead!” Mi screamed, anger rapidly rising inside of her.

“Boque-chan! She’s screaming at me!” Toya pretended to cry as his child mode switched on again for some strange reason.

“Don’t cry to your girlfriend, you brat!”

“The man-lady will silence herself!” That comment sent Mi into a screaming fit.

Vain stared up at the stage with a complete lack of interest. “If this keeps up, we won’t get anywhere.” He said. A lot of the class agreed.

Boque was one of those people who had agreed. As she watched her friend argue with the girl she didn’t like, an idea formed in her head. “Toya!” she called to him.

Like a puppy when its master returned home, Toya instantly pulled his attention from the angry Mi, sending her into silence. His eyes were bright and he smiled eagerly (you could practically see his tail wagging if he had one). “Yes, Boque-chan?”

“Takuya! Pretend he died!” Boque suggested.

Toya let out an alarmed gasp. No one could really tell if it was out of sarcasm or if it was authentic. “Boque-chan shouldn’t speak of such evils!” Alright, so it was authentic.

“No! He’s dead!” Boque re-chose her words. She pointed at Mi. “And that’s what became of him.”

Mi didn’t know where this was going. However, she had the feeling it was going to go to a not-so-good place. She was right.

Her partner was suddenly looking up at her, eyes filled with sadness and streaming tears. She had no clue how he got into this mode so fast. He looked very pathetic and, like a lot of her female classmates, she just wanted to hug him suddenly. “T-T-T-T-T….” the boy stuttered. For some reason, he just couldn’t speak.

‘Oh! I see. He’s upset over the idea of his brother dying,’ Mi realized. ‘Should I lay down and play dead now?' She continued to wonder as Toya kept stuttering through his tears and sniffles.

“NO! Takuya don’t leave me!” He had finally managed to cry out, snapping Mi out of her thoughts. It wasn’t so much his cry that pulled her out of it as it was him throwing his arms around her and tackling her to the ground.

“Takuya! Don’t go!” He cried into her shoulder. “Don’t die and become this horrible man-lady! I need you!”

‘At least I’m on the ground now…’ Mi thought, red-faced. There were many reasons as to why she was red. Unfortunately, no one could figure out which one of those reasons it was. Rather than wondering about it, they applauded the two of them (more-so Toya who actually acted.)

“Great job, Toya!” Boque cheered.

Mi looked at the Yaashiin as he pushed himself off of her. It made her hair stand on end when she looked at him. He was glaring down at her and it was as if he had never even been crying to begin with (now that’s good acting). He stood up and faced the crowd. “Anyone got some kind of disinfectant?”

...Suddenly, Mi was pissed again.

--------------

Cliché 3: Similarities.

Andaline scoffed. “Just when I thought you couldn’t be any weirder…”

“What’s weird about it?” Boque questioned in irritation.

Andaline was walking with Boque and Toya to their forth period. Oddly enough, this had been routine for them for quite some time. The darker girl shrugged her shoulders. “What’s not weird about it? You hardly even know anything about the girl, yet you hate her guts already.”

“Hypocrite.” Boque quickly responded.

Andaline waved a finger at the other girl. “I know you pretty well. Therefore, I have plenty reason to hate you.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Boque heard Toya comment placidly on the other side of her. She ignored his comment.

“This girl though,” Boque began to delve into her reasoning. “She’s so much like me yet so different!”

“How so?”

“She’s blonde, apart of the drama club…” Boque trailed off.

“Oh yes. You two are just so similar,” Andaline’s sarcasm trounced all over Boque’s nerves.

“Don’t fret, Boque-chan!” Toya sang. “I think you’re much prettier than Oizu-san!”

Boque’s eyes grew hopeful at that. She hugged the Yaashiin as if he were some kind of stuffed animal. “Oh! Toya you are so sweet!”

“I can make your teeth hurt!” Toya agreed.

“You give me cavities!” Boque cuddled him.

“You two make me sick…” Andaline glowered.

Boque and Toya ceased their talk of sweetness in order to continue with Andaline to their next class. That is, until Boque saw her again. Mi was in a group with many other people, talking and laughing. The sight just made something within Boque lurch.

“Hm. Oizu-san certainly seems popular.” Toya commented.

Andaline scratched her cheek. “I see something else you two have in common. Popular blue-eyed blondes. Tch. You guys annoy me.”

Boque’s eyes were completely locked on the girl not too far in front of them. Those angry blue eyes narrowed.

---------------

Cliché 4: Minor differences and….

Cliché 5:…superiority when it comes to comparisons of similarities.

School had just let out for the day. Like many of her classmates, Mi headed for her locker for the last time that day. When she arrived there, she was met by an unexpected surprise. She hadn’t known that Boque Von Ge was her neighbor all of this time. She had always been jealous of the decked out beige locker beside her own that resembled a mini dressing room. It made her curse celebrities. Honestly, who needs a locker that elaborate?

Eagle-eyed, Mi watched the girl beside her go about putting her books away while lights danced about within the locker. Mi wondered how and where those things were installed. Boque closed her locker and turned to a group of others waiting for her. Mi recognized one of them as the twin from drama class and another was Vain Roe from drama club. Boque hurried over to her friends.

“She hangs out with four gorgeous guys…” Mi whimpered to herself. “While I have…”

A boy with hair bleached white bounded up to her. “Ready to go sis?”

Suddenly, Mi felt like crying. “While I have Boro!”

-----------------------

For today’s improvisation exercise,” sang the nameless drama teacher, “we’ll be focusing on the bond between siblings or lack thereof.” She scanned the class. “I think I’ll pick your partners this time.” She didn’t want another situation like yesterday.

“Miss Von Ge and Miss Oizu, why don’t you two go first?” Said girls looked to each other. One could sense the static of conflict between the two of them.

Cliché 6: Competition.

Without any words exchanged between them, the two blondes took to the stage. They faced their audience, but didn’t acknowledge each other’s existence.

“Alright ladies. Begin!”

Mi was the first to get into character. Boque secretly wondered exactly how she intended to start this off. “Dear little sister,” Boque heard her say. She also heard something in her head go SNAP. “How are you this fine day?”

‘Oh! So I’m the little sister?’ thought a newly enraged Boque. She looked up at the tall blonde beside her and smirked. ‘How appropriate…’ “Oh! I’m doing marvelously, dearest big sister,” Boque fluttered her eyes as she acted. “Just being the adorable little sister I am!”

It must have been telepathy for Mi too, heard that SNAP. “What ever do you mean by that?” Boque saw the girl’s eyebrow twitching.

“Didn’t you know? The little sister is always the prettier one,” Boque told her sweetly. “Put simply: I’m prettier than you.”

“Drop dead.”

The drama teacher clapped her hands in awe as she watched the girls’ excellent ‘acting’. “I see. Sibling rivalry. I can sense the tension in the air!” she declared. She wasn’t the only one in that case.

Cliché 7: Attacks. Both verbal and physical.

Mi couldn’t continue to play nice after that ‘pretty’ thing. To her, that was crossing her invisible line. “That may be true in some cases, little sister. But I am taller and as the taller one, I have the better body.”

“Do you now?” Boque wondered as she played cute. ‘Are you attacking my height you friggin’ giant?’ “Who cares for height when my beautiful blonde hair has bounce while yours just…sits.”

A vein pulsed on Mi’s forehead. Boque caught it and laughed on the inside. “Yeah?” she heard the girl say with a bitter undertone. “Well I have ‘bounce.’ And I’m not talking about my hair.”

Boque’s thought process froze in that instant. She looked down at her chest. ‘Oh! This is personal!’ “DIE!” Boque then lunged for the other girl and tackled her to the floor.

“Oh dear,” panicked the teacher. She hurried to the stage while the rest of the class cheered for a cat fight that was in full swing.

----------------

“It was her fault!” Boque told the others. “She didn’t have to bring up my cup-size!”

Billy shook his head in annoyance. “Such a trivial matter.” He closed his eyes and leaned against the tree they sat under for lunch. They finally made it to eating outside. Unfortunately, a few unwanted lunch mates were being clingy.

“If you ask me, you asked for it,” Andaline assessed after haring Boque’s story. “Billy thinks so too.”

“Yeah? Well who cares what Schookie thinks?” Boque pouted.

Vain rubbed his blonde head and spoke in reluctance, “Actually, Miss Von Ge, I agree with Billy and Miss Black.”

Boque gasped. For some bizarre reason, that was a complete shock to her. “Vain, why don’t you side with me?” She had to rethink that question for a minute. ‘Of course he’d agree with his boy crush, idiot!’

“It’s nothing personal, Miss Von Ge,” the pretty boy spoke. “I was there, remember? You started the confrontation to begin with. I really think you had it coming.”

Boque hated it when he made sense of things and they came out to be her own fault.

“I don’t blame you for what happened, Boque-chan,” Toya said, almost childishly.

“Oh, thank you Toya,” Boque hugged him for his cuteness. “Hey, come with me to get some apple juice.”

“Alright,” Toya agreed. By now, he and his brother didn’t mind being separated from each other for less than five minutes. Any more than that, the others learned, they'd have spasms or twitched.

Boque and Toya climbed out of the grass and separated themselves from the others, headed towards the cafeteria.

They had made it to the vending machine with out any problems. It was on their way back from said machine that they encountered the problem.

Cliché 8: Battling it out.

“Who took the last apple juice?” someone cried in distress.

Boque, feeling a bit guilty at that, quickly turned back to the vending machine. “I’m sorry!” she apologized before she stopped to think about who exactly she was apologizing to.

“YOU!” Mi hissed as she stared back at her, her brother lurking behind her. “I should’ve known.”

“That she likes apple juice?” Boro pondered.

Toya let out a light snicker. “I concur.”

Boque looked down at the plastic bottle in her hand. Her eyes went up to Mi. “First come, first served…” She mumbled. Mi continued to glare at her. “What? Do you expect me to share it?”

“That’d be nice,” Mi responded.

Boque laughed. “Get a life! Why don’t you drink some of that nasty orange juice? There’s plenty left.”

“I always drink apple juice at this time of the day,” Mi growled.

“It’s true,” spoke some random cafeteria guy. “She does.”

Toya blinked at him. “Is that a fan boy?”

“I don’t care what you always do. I’m not sharing. So nyah!” Boque stuck her tongue out at her.

Mi was losing her cool. “Why you…”

“Leave Boque alone!” called a nosey cafeteria boy. “She bought it, so it’s hers.”

“She should share with Mi!” argued some other boys around them.

“She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to!”

Somehow, this situation escalated to the point where the four of them became surrounded by boys who began arguing for the sake of either of the girls.

Toya looked around at the bickering boys surrounding them. “Fan boy battle!” He squealed.

Takuya sat up from laying in the grass and looking at the sky. He heard a commotion. People in the courtyard were clamoring to get inside. “What’s up with them?” he asked the others.

Billy glanced up and took notice to the people hurrying inside. He scoffed at the sight. “Probably a fight. Such idiocy.”

It didn’t take long for Takuya to be sent in a panic. “Toya’s in there!” he screamed, then charged across the courtyard to the cafeteria. The other three hadn’t even realized he had taken off.

“Miss Von Ge and Mr. Yaashiin have been taking a while,” Vain noted.

“Boque’s in another fight?!” Andaline jumped to conclusions. “Let’s go watch before it’s over!” She grabbed the other two boys by the arms and pulled them towards the cafeteria.

Takuya was already standing by the door when they got there. He was staring ahead at a large crowd in the middle of the large room. He couldn’t see what was going on within it, he only heard angry shouting.

“Toya!” Takuya called, surprisingly loud. “Toya!”

“Takuya!” came an excited response. Pushing through the crowd, Toya emerged. He headed towards them. “Takuya, come help Boque-chan!”

“So she is in a fight?” Andaline was much too excited. “Onward!” Despite the other two fighting against her the whole time, Andaline was still able to pull Vain and Billy into the crowd. The Yaashiins followed after.

Thanks to Andaline practically bulldozing people, the five of them were able to push their way to the front of the crowd. The first thing they saw were the two blondes, eyes locked on one another. Behind either girl were teams of fan boys, shouting things like “Mi is great!” and “Boque is great-er!” back and forth. Mi’s brother stood at the front of the crowd, simply spectating.

“What in the world are they doing?” asked Billy.

“And why aren’t fists flying?” added Andaline, irritably.

Toya stared ahead at Boque as he spoke. “Boque-chan got the last apple juice from the juice machine. Oizu-san wanted it. Next thing I know, their fan boys are arguing with each other.”

Billy’s eyes narrowed. “Apple juice?” He growled.

Vain hung his head. “This is trivial, as Billy would say.”

“Do you hear it?” Boque suddenly boasted over her fan boys’ screams. “I have more fans than you who love me unconditionally!”

“Yeah right,” Mi snuffed her. “I have just as many as you.”

“Yet neither of the guys you like,” started Billy.

“Like you back,” finished Boro.

The blondes went quiet. A feeling of despair started to loom in the air around them.

Cliché 9: Being evenly matched.

“That settles that then!” Boro sang, earning him a fierce look from his sister.

---------------------

Mi’s blue eyes bore into Boque’s. Boque’s blue eyes bore into Mi’s. It was as though they were waiting for their glares to merge together. Both girls tightened their apron strings, but they didn’t pull away from each other’s gaze. A bell went off in both of their heads even though no one else in the room heard it. They took their stations simultaneously and began to commence the baking process.

Fifth period was Home Economics and Boque happened to share the class with Mi and her brother. Today, they were baking cakes and when both girls learned that the other had chosen to bake a chocolate cake, it became a battle for best cake.

“Be careful, Boque-chan. If you get too carried away, you may add more than necessary,” Toya calmly advised while he went about his business: baking a marble cake for Takuya.

“I got it! I got it!” Boque brushed him off. She began cracking egg after egg into the batter.

Toya couldn’t help but glance back at her out of the corner of his eye. He smirked. “Considering you’re not making a huge one, you only need one egg.”

Boque froze mid-crack. The twin had just warned her about getting carried away. Unfortunately, Boque had too much of a knack for that. Frustrated, Boque tossed that final egg into the batter, shell and all. She picked up her bowl and carried it away from the station.

Mi cackled insanely from her station whilst stirring fervently at her own cake batter. “Oh ho ho! Smart move, celebrity girl. You have no sense at all!”

Boque’s face heat up as she listened to Mi. Had she gotten any more furious, she could have cooked one of those eggs on her own forehead.

Boro leaned over his sister’s shoulder and peered into her bowl as she whipped the batter. “Yo, does Jukin even like chocolate cake?”

“Everyone loves chocolate cake!” Mi proclaimed.

“I don’t.” Toya commented from his and Boque’s station.

“No one asked you, twin.” Mi told him, venomously.

Boro continued to watch his sister mix the batter. “Is it really okay to stir that fast?”

“Shut up, Boro! You don’t even know how to cook!”

Toya was pouring his batter into his pan when he heard that. “Boro? Did you know your name means ‘crap’?”

“Does it?” wondered Boro. His eyes crossed at that. “Now ain’t that somethin’!”

Toya opened the oven at their station. As he lowered the door, he said to Mi, “You know that if you stir too fast, the cake will come out hard?”

“Again, no one asked you!”

“Hey, I’m just trying to help you out, man-lady.” Toya slid in his pan before closing the oven door.

After disposing of her failed concoction and receiving a stern talking to from the Home EC teacher, Boque returned to her and Toya’s station. She prepared her supplies for another try. “Toya, would you help me this time around?” the German girl begged.

Toya’s child mode switched on. “Of course, Boque-chan! I’d be happy to!”

“Yay! Toya, you’re so wonderful!” Boque squealed. The two went into one of their cuddle fits.

“I know I’m wonderful! But Boque-chan is even more wonderful!” the twin cooed.

Mi found the cuteness those two were emitting to be rather disturbing. She had to look away. “Get over yourselves,” she muttered. Mi and Boro poured their batters into their pans and slid the pans into the oven. With the younger Yaashiins help, Boque’s cake soon followed.

Towards the end of class, the cakes were ready to be removed from the ovens. Toya’s was one of the earliest out, thus had enough time to cool so he could add the frosting to it. Boque sat quietly and watched him.

Meanwhile at Mi’s station, “Uh, sis? I think it’s stuck.”

“No duh!”

Toya, Boque, and a few nearby classmates turned to the Oizu siblings’ station. Mi was pounding her pan into the surface, the sound of metal impacting with the granite counter-top rang throughout the students’ ears. “Come out, blast you!”

“I told you…” Toya sang cutely.

Mi growled. With one final slam, her chocolate cake bounced from the pan onto the counter’s edge, then fell to the floor with a THWACK. Not a thud. A THWACK.

“Dang…” awed Boque. She knelt down to the cake. “The thing didn’t even break!”

Embarrassed and agitated, Mi quickly bent to the floor in an attempt to swipe up her brick cake. The other blonde had other things in mind though, considering she snatched up the cake before Mi could. Mi stood up straight. She watched Boque toss the hard cake interchangeably between her hands. Mi felt she was being mocked and she was obviously right. “Hand it over…” she growled.

Boque ignored her. She began to laugh instead. “Hey, hey! Look!” she demanded from the class. She grabbed the cutting board and knocked Mi’s cake against it. “Knocking on wood!” she joked. Everyone began to laugh, not so much at the joke itself, but more so at the fact that the cake was still in tact.

“Hand. It. Over!” Mi lunged for her having fully lost her sense of herself.

Startled by the sudden attack, Boque shrieked, snapped her eyes shut, and thrust the cake out in front of herself. She heard a THUMP and felt her arms recede slightly and her elbows bend. She opened her eyes to winces to stare ahead. Then, they opened completely and blinked curiously.

Boque’s impulsiveness resulted in Mi running head-on into the rock cake. She froze completely after the impact before falling forward onto the floor.

Silence…

Boque led the class in uproarious laughter. “You got knocked out by your own friggin’ cake!”

-------------

The following morning, Boque arrived at school, beaming. Her cake from yesterday, she had decided, was made especially for Vain. When she picked him up this morning on their way to school, he told her that he found in to be delicious. She was so happy to hear that from him that she simply couldn’t help but smile. She made a note to get Toya something for helping her.

“Vain, I’ll meet you in the auditorium,” Boque said to him on their way to drama club. “I’m going to the girl’s room.”

Vain nodded and lightly waved to her. “Alright, Miss Von Ge. I’ll tell the others that you’ll be a little late.”

“Thank you!” Boque sang. With that, the friends split up.

Boque hummed happily to herself as she made her way to the restroom. Her humming abruptly ceased when she stepped inside to see Mi Oizu brushing her hair whilst standing before the mirror. She caught the other’s attention.

Cliché 10: Final showdown.

“Hey brick cake,” Boque greeted smugly. “I hope that knock out cake from yesterday wasn’t meant for anyone.”

“What’s it to you?” Mi’s eyes narrowed on her. She paused mid-brush.

Boque let out a low, annoying kind of triumphant laugh. “Eh heh, heh, heh! Mine was! And he absolutely loved it.”

Mi opened her purse and shoved her brush within it. “That’s just dandy then, isn’t it?”

Boque took noticed to Mi’s purse. It was blue and maybe three times bigger than Boque’s small khaki one that was usually suspended on her hip. “Do you need to carry beautifiers with you 24/7? That’s a pretty big bag.”

Mi looked down at her purse before she clasped it shut. “What? I have a lot of stuff.”

“So do I, and I still fit it all in my tiny thing. Smaller is better.”

Mi arched a fine blonde eyebrow. “You want to bet?”

Boque felt a twitch that, if not suppressed so well, would have called for to elbow the girl in the back of the head so hard that she fell forward into the mirror and shattered it. “I’m not gonna lose to the likes of you!”

The imaginary bell in the girls’ heads sounded once more. They set their bags on the sinks, opened them, and one at a time removed their contents attempting to one up the other.

Mi threw down lip balm.

Boque threw down lip gloss with glitter.

Mi threw out perfume.

Boque threw out body mist.

Eye shadow.

Mascara.

Lip liner.

Earrings.

Concealer.

Hair ribbons.

Hair bush.

Hair…curler?!

“How the hell do you fit that in that tiny thing of yours?”

Boque laughed crazily. “What? Don’t you carry one?”

“I wouldn’t need it outside of my room!” Mi shouted.

“In that case, I win! Yeah baby, I am better than you!”

Cliché 11: Protagonist stands victorious in the end.

Mi stood bewildered and watched as Boque did her crazy victory dance about the restroom. To her, this girl made absolutely no sense, especially when it came to her reasoning. So what if you can fit a curling iron in your itty-bitty purse? Big deal. All that that proved was your hand bag defies all the laws of physics and space.

Mi had to get away from it. The air about the other girl made her feel as though she were suffocating. She clamored to gather her battle cosmetics back into her purse. “Yeah, you’re insane.” She muttered before storming out of the restroom.

Boque wasn’t satisfied by her response to a loss. “Hold it! I want to see you in tears!” she called before the door closed. Boque began to mutter obscenities to herself in German while she quickly re-shoved the things on the sink back into her tiny purse. Once everything was secure, she hurried after Mi.

Boque threw the door open and shouted, “Where do you think you’re---!” She was expecting Mi to be half-way down the hall when she shouted after her. Instead, Mi’s back was right in front of her, entirely still. “…going?”

Boque, in her state of curiosity, stood at the taller girl’s side. She looked up at her and saw that her eyes were locked on something down the hall. Boque followed her stare to a boy and a girl that she had seen hanging around Mi two days prior. The two were chatting and laughing. The raven haired boy dug into his pocket to pull out a small gift box. He handed it to the girl he was speaking to very casually. This girl was another blonde. She smiled at the boy and accepted the box.

“Are they your friends?” Boque wondered aloud. She jumped at Mi’s response which was an out-of–no where death stare. The taller girl then took off running in the opposite direction down the hall. “H-Hey!” Boque sputtered. “What’d I say?” she gave chase without receiving or thinking of an answer to that question.

Boque shouting as an effort to get the other to stop running proved to be useless. She had already chased her half-way through the school before either of them gave up. Mi stopped running once she was halfway through the corridor leading into the junior high division; a hall made entirely of glass aside from the stone floor that helped encircle Blue High’s courtyard.

Boque, having seen Mi stop running, followed her into the corridor. Though, with a thought process like Boque’s, she decided to stop herself by tackling the distraught Mi to the floor. Mi didn’t think for a second about pushing her off, surprisingly. Her mind was completely void at that moment. She simply laid on the floor. Boque pushed herself off of the girl and folded her knees under herself.

Still panting from their chase, Boque managed to catch enough of her breath to ask, “What’s wrong with you? Why’d you run away like that?”

Mi was silent and continued to lay on the floor, eyes a drift.

Boque closed her mouth. She figured there was no point in asking her again. She often read about situations like this in books and shojo manga. She decided to think back to when Mi had ran away. She figured out the problem easily; it was just so clichéd to her. “Is it because you saw the guy you like with another girl?” she guessed almost absentmindedly. Mi’s finger twitched. “He doesn’t like you back, does he?”

“No. He doesn’t.” Mi answered. She sat up and set herself on the floor with her legs stretched out in front of her. She propped her back against the glass wall.

“I saw you hanging out with those guys before. If they’re dating, shouldn’t you be a little happy for your friends regardless of your own feelings?” Boque listened as she let that replay in her head after having actually said it. It sounded a bit hypocritical to her. But only until she gave herself a few reasons as to why she wasn’t a hypocrite:

One: Boque liked Vain while Vain liked Billy, but Billy likes…no one.

Two: Billy and Vain weren’t dating anyway. So she still had a shot.

Three: She and Billy weren’t friends anyway. His happiness was of no concern of hers.

Boque Von Ge was no hypocrite.

“They aren’t dating, he just likes her but she likes someone else,” Mi told Boque. Boque let out a long “oh,” before Mi went on. “Plus, I’m not even sure if she is my friend. I don’t really like her that much.”

‘Sounds vaguely familiar…’ thought Boque.

“She’s so into herself yet everyone loves to be around her…kind of like you.” Mi compared.

Steam blew out of Boque’s ears. “I’m not into myself!”

Mi snorted. “Sure you’re not…” Boque began muttering obscenities in German again. “I guess that’s why I didn’t get along with you. I mean, you get so much attention and everyone loves you. Feh. Meanwhile, I’m loved by a selected few, the guy I like is blind of my feelings and likes some…some DITZ who obviously doesn’t share his feelings, and I hang out with my brother who belongs in remedial classes.”

Boque burst into laughter at Mi’s rant. Mi couldn’t tell if she was laughing out of her own misery or if she seriously found something funny.

“You think your social life is screwed up?! I have a love-hate relationship with a homicidal witch, the guy I like THINKS he’s gay in love with the one person I can’t stand yet I’m being forced to get along with for the sake of a game!”

Mi blinked, and then furrowed her eyebrows. “What about those twins?”

“Oh, they’re fine.”

Mi laughed at that, and it made Boque smile for some reason. “We have quite a bit in common,” Mi laughed. “Maybe you’re not as bad as I thought.”

“You neither.”

“We should hang out some time.” Mi suggested.

Boque cheered. “That’d be great!”

Cliché 12: Reconciliation.

--------------------

Cliché 13: Rivals become inseparable or best friends.

The next day….

Boque yawned as she walked by. “Hey…” she muttered as she and Toya passed Mi in the hall.

In a bored tone, Mi replied with, “Hey.” Then closed her locker and walked in the opposite direction.

Episode 6 Preview…Just to tease you…

“And we’re…NOT DATING!”

“Linda!”

“I thought neither of you liked sports.”

“YAASHIINS! DOMINATE!”

“Listen…Just because your players danced around the court tonight and obtained a victory doesn’t mean they can win every game by luck.”

“Outta my office!”

“What do you say to this?…You join the team and I won’t let everyone find out via morning broadcast about this.”

“Yaashiins…I need your help.”

“…BIG BROTHER’S GOING TO PLAY BASKETBALL?!”

“I’ll need my camera.”

Look forward to it!