School is Lame and So Are You (Patricia & Sumi)

The best part of the day had dawned upon Seven Stars Academy, undesputably the most enjoyable activity in the entire school curriculum in any given day in any given week.

Lunch time.

Patty never ate lunch but it meant she got to slack for thirty minutes at a time and that was pretty awesome, sometimes she spent it just wandering the halls and talking to people or heckling the club meetings. But today was a nice day, very sunny out but not scorching, no wind to speak of and many of the students would spend some time outside on campus for their break. For Patricia it meant that her afternoon break would start like most of them, with a cigarette and a soda. She'd gotten into the habit of it since the school year kicked off and so far she'd only been scolded once to stop so naturally she kept doing it and she was pretty much left alone after that. For one she had the system down and knew where people checked. Most of the teachers and monitors would walk around the building and by the dumpsters to check for degenerates and thugs to bring back to detention with them, but Patricia was smart and didn't frequent the obvious hiding spots. Technically she was in plain view the entire time. Just not from the school buildings.

Patty stood with her shoulders supporting her against the dogwood tree along the outer fence line, just between the two. She was clearly visible from the street just fine, everyone could see here, but anywhere toward the academic buildings was completely shielded off from annoying rulebook thumpers that didn't have anything better to do than ruin her afternoon. The smoke floated into the leaves, Patty got to enjoy her nicotine and everyone got on with their day. She took a long puff from her smoke and a sip from her cola, just taking it easy and watching cat videos on her phone and whiling the minutes away. The punky girl wouldn't even bother with turning the volume down, people rarely came out here anyway. Even if they did she usually just waved or said sup? and that was it.

While Patty took her smoke in her hidden part of the world, Sumi was also enjoying a wonderful day outside with her packed lunch, accompanied by her entourage of guys and gals that sat with her for lunch. Sumi's table was normally packed with her friends surrounding her, so the attention, whether positive or negative, always tended to gravitate around her. As Sumi tore her sandwich apart bit by bit, nomming delightfully on each piece between swigs of her fruity drink, something started tickling her nose. Something was wafting around the area. She perked up in confusion as she started recognizing the smell of smoke floating by. Curious as to what the scent was coming from, Sumi hopped onto her feet from the steps and waved her friends off for a quick search.

"Hold on a sec, guys. I gotta check something out. Catch ya at the café later!"

From whatever corner Patty was lounging behind, Sumi would emerge nose-forward, sniffing the air like a bloodhound as her search led her to the hiding smoker. Seeing Patty's face before the cigarette, Sumi would've waved with a chipper "Hey, what's up?" Realizing that she wasn't looking up at her, she'd lean up against the wall beside Patty, tapping her shoulder with a silly yet beaming grin.

A sifting haze wafted from out behind the tree as the sounds of various mewls and other tinny noises emanated from Patty's phone. She held a bemused look as she stifled chuckles, multitasking with her fingers between gripping the top of her soda can with a cigarette vice between two fingers and her phone held low in her other hand. Business as usual, move along, nothing to see here, just some degenerate hanging out away from the school like most of them did. Patricia had long forgotten to place any sort of care in keeping herself hidden from school personnel, they either didn't have a clue where she was or just didn't care and that was alright with her. Not like she was bothering anyone anyway, none of it was their business she was just chilling out for a few minutes in her free period what was the deal? It sucked to have to slink away and spend time that could be used bugging strangers off by herself like some kind of loner loser but it was honestly the only time she could step out and enjoy a smoke without getting blasted for it. They were so self righteous about it to, like get over it dude.

Engrossed in her phone she wouldn't pay any mind to someone sneaking up behind her. Patty went to take another sip of her cold drink when she felt a tap on her shoulder and her soul left her body for half a second as the flooding realization that she was about to get slammed ran her over like a freight train.


Patricia could feel the suds go up her nostrils while choking on her nostril, sputtering it out and hacking her windpipe clear.
"*UuuooOHHAck hack hack...!* ...dude you almost gave me a fucking heart attack! Ha, haha-ack!" she coughed in an attempt to laugh, wiping her mouth. Lucky none of it got on her blouse, she didn't bring another one but hey, getting sent to her dorm to change wouldn't be a tragedy if it didn't cost her any of her lunch break. She looked down at her arm with a frown, fuck now she was all sticky. Dammit.
"Hwwaaaooooh shit... I thought you were a monitor or something," she breathed out, not even addressing that she was smoking to... it was Yumi, right? Some sort of asian name, she was pretty popular, she probably wasn't gonna narc her out. Even so Patty wasn't about to confirm nor deny anything, she wouldn't even address that she was smoking. It'd just draw attention to it, better to move on. Patty held a wide grin as she saddled up shoulder to shoulder with Yumi.
"Dude check this out," she'd chuckle as she held her phone up to her to share what she'd been watching. Just a bunch of stupid cat meme videos, they were pretty damn funny though. She brought her cigarette to her lips as the video played, taking another puff and being careful to blow the smoke away from her new lunch friend.
"Just wait until you get to the death metal one it's fucking. Hilarious."

Sumi hadn't expected Patricia to nearly do a spit take at the realization that someone was beside her. In fact, Sumi had a mini heart attack at the sudden outburst of surprise, worried she was meeting someone who she shouldn't have met. While the two ladies caught their breath, Sumi stood back a bit from Patricia before retaking her place against the tree.

"Oh oh, I'm super sorry I scared you! No, I'm not a monitor. Just a student. You didn't spill any on your blouse, did you? Here, I think I got something to wipe it off... okay, nevermind, it's not there. What are you doing outside here for lunch? Don't have anyone to sit and eat lunch with? Well, I'm sure I can hang out with ya!"

Taking Patricia up on her offer to watch the video, Sumi propped one foot up against the trunk and leaned over to see the hilarity of the memeful cat videos. Throughout the video, Sumi would utter long, adorable mewls of "Awwwwww" along with loud bursts of laughter at the talking cat sections. By the end, Sumi was holding her guts in as she laughed hard enough to allow wheezes of air between her fits. Rubbing away a bit of tear streaking down her cheek, Sumi took a few deep breaths to regain her composure.

"Gahahaha! Hoo... oh man, you really know your cat videos. They're so adowable and silly, I wish I could get a cat too. But of course, I already got a little fella at home I wouldn't want the kitten to try eating. See, I really love animals. I got a little hamster at home named Tater, and he is just the most adorable bundle of joy that can flip himself out of his own hamster wheel. I should record some of his antics and show you sometime, Ms... oh right, introductions!

The name's Sumi Saito! Maybe you heard of me, maybe not. Heck, maybe you've heard of my brother before me, but that's really not that common. Can I get your name, lunch buddy?"

While more than glad that Sumi apparently (Yumi was pretty close you'd have to admit) wasn't a monitor the degenerate had to raise an eyebrow at her. Like yeah it was pretty good that she didn't have to deal with that, she knew she could get away with it, but like did she even know who she was? Patty wasn't some friendless loser that needed pity hang-outs, she had plenty of people to hang out with and even if there wasn't she'd find someone to that'd chill with her. It's just that no one she hung out with smoked or did it in broad daylight right in front of the school. It was probably better that way, a group would get caught super quick, nobody hassled her while she was alone out here.


Seriously a dumb idea to do that out in the open. Like she didn't give a fuck but she wasn't going to ask for trouble. Out here away from everyone else she could talk her way out of punishment, I just needed a cigarette, I'm away from everyone else as much as I can be, it helps me focus in class, blah blah blah. In front of everyone else? Blatant. Disrespect. Her disrespect was more subtle. They'd suspend her so fast her head would spin and she only got so many of those before they kicked her out. At least Sumi was enjoying the meme vid though kinda... a bit... more than she probably should have. Like it was amusing but Patty wasn't laughing her ass of or anything, she merely smiled along with Yumi's wheezing laughter when she knew the good parts were coming up. She was kinda pretty basic as fuck but that was cool, she was cool with her smoking so maybe she was her kind of fun. Probably not like sneak into Club Comfort and slime drinks all night on the weekend fun but y'know, probably still tight.

"Yeah cats are pretty awesome. Cool dude show me sometime," she'd state with chill friendliness. Personally Patricia couldn't care less about hamsters or whatever but she'd pretend she did so Ms. Cheery would keep being a friend and not like report her because she could. ...huh. Guess she hadn't heard of her. That was good? Or maybe it wasn't, whatever. On the one hand she probably didn't know what Patty was infamous for even if it was sorta obvious but on the other like holy shit she was running for Class Treasurer. Why the fuck did she put up posters if they didn't do anything? She'd think maybe they just sucked if those posters weren't as freakin' awesome as they were. Like, hours in Photoshop dude. ...whatevs, not like she gave a shit about what she was blamed for, better she know who she is so she can get that sweet skate Student Council spot even if she'd find out she was sort of a pothead.


She'd razz her just a little but it was just friendly teasing, she wasn't getting on her case or anything like that, Patty didn't want to piss her off. That would be like the exact opposite thing she wanted to do to one of the more popular girls with the vote coming up, it'd be social suicide.
"I know there's like more than one of you 'cause Saito isn't exactly a popular name but I dunno, is he the really quiet guy?"

Right after hearing Patricia's comment on hanging out with her at the lunch table, Sumi's smile disappeared for a second as she glared at Patricia. It was an offer to hang out and talk with Sumi because she was curious about Patty and wanted to get to know her a bit more, yet she dismissed it like Sumi was pitying her. Despite her nature to calm herself when her emotions started fluctuating, Sumi decided to let Patricia hear her side, whether she cared or not, with a pointed finger held just beneath her chin.
"Hey, there's no need to talk like THAT to me. I get it, alright? I was just offering to hang out with you during lunch because I think you're interesting."

With a quick moment to return to her cheerful self, Sumi's eyes seemed to go wide at the mention of her name. She had heard it before. She started recalling the posters she passed by in the hallway, taking up the spaces her posters would have gone. The name... Class Treasurer... that's it!
"Hmm... oh, now I remember! Yeah, I recognize the name! Sorry, I'm not so good with faces, so I hadn't realized it was you. But yeah, I saw those posters. Looked really nice, at least compared to mine. So, how's your campaign for Class Treasurer going? I'm gunning for Activities Social Chair, so I'm not gonna try getting in your way. Pleased to meet ya, then!

You mean my brother? Well, he's not that quiet. He just chooses who to share his oh-so-precious time speaking to. He runs the Fencing Club, much as it is floundering these days. His name's Lui. I don't know how many people really mention his name around, but if you see him, you'll be able to tell right away.

But enough of my bro. You wanna hang out somewhere later? I can treat ya to something at the café."

When Sumi got in her grill Patricia's wry smirk grew across her entire face, her cool eyes reflecting with the electricity of confrontation for just about a second. She was seriously ready to lay a bitch out, Patty didn't appreciate anyone stepping to her like that. Probably why she got in trouble so often, not the laying bitches out part but the making stuff worse part. But she backed off just as quick to which the twiggy girl's expression returned to her neutral dreamy smile. Like, she wasn't here to start shit but she'd finish it straight up, luckily she was more the type to egg people on into throwing the first punch or that could've gone pretty fuckin' poorly. But just like that Sumi was back to be Super Best Friend. Patty eyed her with her natural bemused expression, tilting her head just a bit to get another drag from her cigarette in. Chica was fuckin' cray cray, yo. Well like that could probably be fun, good to know she wasn't all wheat toast. Patricia would probably have to watch herself around her or she'd probably get decked outta nowhere. Not like she wouldn't've done anything to deserve it.

Patty's eyes narrowed with her smile for just a quick moment before Sumi revealed that she was totally not competition. Okay cool, looks like she didn't have to find a way to tear her down then. She couldn't give a fuck about the Activities Chair, they did a lot more stuff like design the dance for homecoming. Treasurer only counted money and bought stuff and junk, she didn't even have to try if she didn't want to and it looked super good for her reputation. Plus Student Council was like bulletproof armor for a lot of the skating she did, she'd bet most teachers would let her wandering of the halls slide without a lot of effort. That is if her freakin' posters did what they were supposed to do.

"Yeah thanks and stuff," she sighed, "It's so fuckin' shitty you don't even know. Like I put up all those damn posters and shit but nobody even knows who I am, everybody just knows each other from fuckin' middle school and shit or whoever they came with and whatever. It's fuckin' frustrating as hell." Patty would raise her soda can to her mouth to chug a few gulps of it. Getting worked up about this was too easy, like she didn't like it a bit when she actually put in an effort and it didn't get her anywhere. Anyone else would've quit by now but she really wanted that Student Council spot. Everything was gonna be so chill after that. She tilted her head back to drain the rest of her drink, leaning dramatically backward to get out the last few drops. Soda was one of her many vices but holy crap was it the most enjoyable. Except for like good weed but she had to result to triflin' shit while she was still getting drug tested.
"*phaaaaaaah!* ...yeah whatever I'm not worried. I mean it's not like the competition scares me." she'd chuckle. Most of them were goody two shoes that didn't have the connections she could make in a week of just floating around doing whatever, it seriously wasn't going to be hard as long as she focused on it and put the time in.

"Yeah cool good to meet you too," Patty echoed dismissively. Formal introductions were stupid, like why couldn't two people just start talking like they knew each other and find out later? It made everything all... structured and shit, it didn't feel real. But whatever no big. Patty tapped some ashes into her empty can as she spoke next,
"Yeah I mean like I know, he's the quiet guy? Duuuh. Yo you'd think a lot of the guys would be lining up to beat the shit out of each other and get school sponsored while they're at it, dontcha think? Seriously guys love that violent crap, I'm a little shocked." The thug remained in good humor along with Sumi, it was pretty easy to get wrapped up in the bubbliness. Patricia was down for free eats, just sucked it couldn't be today.
"Yeah sounds gucci, just not tonight I got work. Part of the stupid parole board they're making me do but like I still get paid so that's cool. Hey what're your friends doing?" The degenerate dropped her almost-finished cigarette into the can with a plink, suddenly interested in the happy chick's previous offer. Not like she wasn't before, but smoking came first because she could only do that once at school max, y'know? She'd seriously bite someone's head off if she didn't get her nicotine.

...Okay, this was getting irritating at this point. While she seemed to be in a charitable mood to continue their conversation, Sumi felt Patty was just counting the seconds until lunch was over and she could be rid of Sumi. Either way, Sumi was at least connecting with her on a certain level of understanding. Like most of her friends, all Sumi needed was a moment to connect with them so that they would stand out in her mind until the next time they could hang out. Whether Patty wanted it or not, Sumi was already making her mark in her memory. Might as well keep up spirits and end it off on a good note soon.

"Yeah, I can totally see what you mean. I didn't have that many friends in middle school up until a few years ago. Believe it or not, I was actually pretty shy as a kid and my bro was the more outgoing one. Then as time went on, I guess I just learned how to talk to people thanks to my big bro. So if you're feeling frustrated that nobody knows you, I'm the one who knows just how to get people's attention. I cooooould tell you how if you really wanted to get ahead in the polls. But yeah, lucky we aren't fighting each other for the same seat. I'm not one for a boring job like money counting, but if you're up for it, you do you."

"What, you expected a bunch of big brutes to take something like fencing up? I mean, if it's something like football, I can understand that. Fencing's a little harder to be that good in if you're the meathead type in school. Lui says that a lot of strategy applies in match. You'd need a mind as quick and sharp as the blade you hold, that's how he describes it. I mean, I've seen them in action. If they're the violent type, they really keep it under wraps.

Sumi shrugged at the mention that Patty was busy after school until she heard the word 'parole'.

"Oh, well, another time then. Though I would ask why you're reporting to parole for, I can imagine what got you in trouble. My friends are probably tossing their trash and heading in real soon, but we're heading over to the water park after school if everyone's up for it. Weather's nice enough to justify a ride down the massive water slides. Here, lemme get your number so I can fill you in on what the group's doing in case you wanna come with. That cool?"

Dude. Duuuuuuude. What was with her and thinking she didn't have any friends? She hung out with plenty of people, what the crap!? Just, like, none that were going to come out and smoke with her because they were scared of getting caught or didn't do that and that was cool but c'mon. Patty knew how to get people's attention but that just gave her some twisted ideas. Something something schoolwide prank, something that couldn't be traced back to her. Attention was attention, if she impressed people she'd be the talk of the school and on everyone's mind so screw it, go big or go home right? But that would be thoughts for later. Or until she remembered that she forgot to come up with something, one of the two. Right now the cheery girl was in front of her throwing fuckin' shade like it's cool. It wasn't. It was not cool, throwing shade was Patty's job. Her interested smile held as it always did but her occupied hand would tense and scratch at the pop top lid on the can at her side. Two could play that stupid game and Patricia fancied herself in the Hall of Freakin' Fame.

"Shyeah you're right, I wouldn't believe it if you told me," she mused in a friendly tone. Off-hand it was a remark on how friendly Sumi was and how far she'd come into that, but the more you thought about it the more apparent it was Patty was calling her a liar. One of those rare back-handed compliments that only hit you 15 minutes later. Those were fun, even more fun when you got to see the moment it hit like a brick falling off a skyscraper. But she wasn't done. That was a linguistical warm up.


So that was a start, she managed to imply that Sumi was stupid and incompetent while sounding like her bestie. Not bad, but she felt like she could've done better. Fuck it, as long as it got under her skin without dropping the nice act everything was on lock. Honestly trying to see how much shade she could throw under the radar was more enjoyable than talking about hamsters and junk. But the question came up of how far should she press her luck with Super Best Friend? It didn't really take any time at all for Patty to decide that she was willing to go down with this fucked up little ship she set sail on. Ride the wave, dude. So when she started to show a lot of respect toward fencing the short-sighted psycho really didn't see much else other than one more thing to poke a hole in.

"I dunno, I guess I always saw it as Synchronized Stabbing. Like you just stab the other guy, how hard can it be? You'd think guys would just... line up for that stuff." She gestured as she spoke, becoming a little more animated as the charade went on. It wasn't very difficult to get her to take things too far, Patty never saw too much of a good thing. Even at someone else's expense. She'd probably feel like a bitch later but never thought that far ahead. But opportunity knocked when Sumi asked her what she did. That was freakin' fantastic actually. She was popular, whatever Patty told her would quickly make its way around the school. So it had to be something cool that would get her attention without hurting her chances at Class Treasurer or making her seem like some kinda sociopath. A victimless crime that made her sound awesome... hmmm... okay so that was perfect.

"Nah I didn't do anything bad they just hit me my last time for drag racing," she lied to her face, "Like nobody got in a wreck or anything, I don't know what their fuckin' deal is I think they just wanted to make an example out of one of us." Patricia was pretty pleased with herself on that one. There was so much to back it up with, too. Nobody really knew except the teachers and even if they said the real reason everyone else would just think it tied into the other crap she did. She smoked, didn't care, had a tattoo, they'd probably think she was in a gang or something but like a cool gang. Gangs were fuckin' dumb but if it made her look like a badass she'd let them think that.
"But like I said, work? Like unless you guys are going at midnight after the park's closed I'm kinda out. Have fun for me though, 'kay? I'm gonna be stuck inside all day stacking boxes and shit while you guys are out, y'know, doing stuff." Though the prospect of making it seem like Patty was mature and had important stuff going on while Sumi was out jacking around was tempting she decided instead to turn it on its head and make things seem like she was the jerk for rubbing her plans in her face while Patty couldn't go. Which she was. Served her freakin' right. But whatever, none of it mattered, it wasn't like this was going to stop her from hanging out with Ms. Perky or anything, she was pretty entertaining. Patty just provided the rope and sat back in a foldout chair with popcorn.
"Oh yeah, totally. Hey text me back so I have yours? Like I don't wanna get weird texts from random creepers and just not pay yours any attention."

Patty's cutting yet unspoken remarks on Sumi's character worked enough to fly under her radar for the most part, but Sumi wasn't a complete fool. Sumi initially took the compliment that Patty wouldn't believe Sumi was actually the quiet girl in class at one point with a cheerful giggle and a hand rubbing the back of her head as she giggled. However, it only took a beat for Sumi's eyes to flash open just as quickly as her laugh ended, leading to her getting right up in Patty's face once more.

"Ehehe, yeah, quite the change in deme- wait a minute! Are you trying to say I'm a liar or something? Well, now I can see why you smoke outside alone for lunch. If you're going to insult me like that, you better hope your reputation's stable enough to take a few hits. Besides, it's not like I couldn't do the treasury job. Anyone could just sit down and count money, but it takes someone close to the heart of the student body to know just what they're looking for in their school activities. It will be my duty soon to make the school the best representation of our school's best, and if Class Zero lets me in, my duties are gonna spread to the whole city.

How hard can fencing be? Oooooooh boy, I can attest to how tough it is. You wanna know just how fast those guys can move, check out the club. All those slashes and dodges and whatnot... it's a blur of decisions you really need to make in a single second.

Sumi did take the lie that Patty was punished over a drag racing incident with doubt but still mostly believed what was presented to her. Until she could find proof that it was a lie, it was the truth as she knew it.

"Ooh, a drag racer? Sounds like quite the thrill. I never really did stuff like kart racing or stuff like that as a kid, so it sounds like lots of fun. But yeah, we'll be sure to plan something even cooler for the next time you can come over to hang out with us. Keep an eye out for any movies you wanna see since that's one of the easiest hangouts I can arrange in no time. Now then, lemme just put this in. Patty... McDowell... alright, you're in! I'll send ya a text in a sec. I'm gonna go check up on my pals. See ya later, Patty!"

As Sumi ran around the corner like a kid eager to play with her friends, Patty's phone would buzz with a message from Sumi reading "YO Sumi Saito here! ~(^_^)/~". Whether the two would tear each other down or actually build up to greater heights from each other, Sumi was determined to make sure that Patty learned that she was not a force to be taken lightly.

Not for one second.

Sumi [EXIT]

The delinquent's eyes gleamed just a little brighter when the perky girl became offended but mimicked her demeanor of outrage at the accusation.


That was the second best part about throwing shade, you couldn't just out and out call it shade you had to play the game otherwise you just looked like a jerk. It's not like she started it or anything, Patty was just finishing it. She'd been all friendly and shit even if she didn't really care about whatever Sumi was talking about and then she started up with that trifling bullshit, it really wasn't her fault what came next. Her emotional state was a conflicted pool of engaged because screwing with her head was somewhat fun and downright irritated at getting flagged down and harassed pretty much. But Patricia rarely ever broke the face she wanted to show everyone and rarer still completely lost her temper. Delinquents like her didn't get mad, they got even, and she was gonna spin this into a net gain if it killed her. Sumi could be as popular as she wanted and abduct as many people into her clique that she cared to, Patty was going to be a legend. Flavor of the week, it didn't matter, as long as she got what she wanted.

But her sour expression became more genuine when Ms. Popular expressed her desire to be a Cadet. Greeeeaaaat, just one more fucking person that wanted to be a demon narc. The whole Cadet Psyche Terrorist business was just the dumbest fucking shit, just a bunch of twisted motherfuckers that wanted devil powers or whatever. It didn't matter to her what side they were on, anyone with that kind of power was a loose canon ready to blow. The thug wasn't really one to bite in to propaganda but if you have to sing the praises of the government at every fuckin' turn it really couldn't be that great. Y'know, kind of like how propaganda works? In any case she wasn't about to get down on her knees and raise her hands toward the shining light of the Queen because what did that bitch have to do with her life? Anyone who went along with it was clearly freakin' brain damaged or was playing along to get superpowers.

Patricia pouted and kept her arms crossed as Sumi kept talking like she hadn't just called her out. Dude, she like, got super wet over fencing though. The thug raised an eyebrow as she went on and on about it. That could be fun to do. Nah not the fencing part the whatever messed up idea she had cooking in her brain part. But she just let her keep talking for the moment, clearly she wanted to. Patty would roll her neck and sigh, letting go her irritation at her weaksauce attempt to compare go-karting to drag racing and her neutral dreamy look returned as if she'd never been upset at all. Even if she was kinda pissed off she wasn't about to keep it on her face all day.

"Yeeeeeaaah I hate to be the one to tell you this but I really don't think it's for you. It's, like, not a hobby, 'kay?" Patty would wave away with a grimace. She didn't actually do it but she was about to act as if she did and seriously wheat toast couldn't hack it. Like, of all the things that "sounded like fun" street racing wasn't something you just casually said you did or were planning on.
"Yeah cool, yo I'm looking for someplace that does paintball, keep an eye out for me?" Now that wasn't a lie, paintball was fun as fuck dude. Movies really weren't her thing, she didn't like sitting down and just watching something for two hours, she needed something she could do.
"Sure thing, catch you 'round."

Well THAT was different. With nothing left to smoke Patty nearly decided to start another one just to get over... whatever THIS was but it'd eat into her fuck off time. She really didn't have a lot left to anyway. Her phone would buzz with Sumi's text complete with the emoji on it to which Patty would thumb back new phone who dis? just to screw with her some more. But now she had her number. Just what to do with it...?