//------------------------------// // Just a Thaw (Chapter II) // Story: Ice // by MJP //------------------------------// Like last time, words in Red are in Japanese Ember I stood outside Tempest’s office, looking out the window and anxiously waiting for her to post the team list. All the while watching her and Grubber mess around with their paperwork, talking indiscriminately about schools matters or something. Soon enough, the moment I have been waiting for arrived, with Tempest coming out of her office with the team listings and posting them on the bulletin board next to her office. Before returning to her office, she eyed me with suspicion. “Ember, have you been staring out my window all morning?” I quickly folded my arms and leaned against her window. “What? Of course not!” She raised an eyebrow. “Uh huh…” As soon as Tempest was back in her office, I took a look at the listings she had just posted. Lady Shadowbolts hockey team roster. Starters -Yona Kumari (goaltender) -Gabriella Aquillo (center) -Indiya Dashelli (right wing/captain) -Laine Durst (left wing) -Nora Trails (defensewoman) -Emi Hakike (defensewoman) “Alright! I made it in, suck it, dad.” I screamed to myself, accidentally slipping into my thick high-pitched Nippon accent, drawing the attention of a boy walking down the hall, who turned to me as if I were a talking dog or something. Upon seeing him I quickly switched back to my surly ‘American’ voice. “What are you looking at? Idiot.” Shock of all shocks, the Shadowbolt just stuck up his nose and walked off, pretending he never saw me. “You’re Emi Hakike, right?” I looked up from my pork ramen to see a girl about my age (and height), with pale silver skin, blue eyes, and short dark grey hair tied back in a stubby ponytail, styled as per Crystal Prep regulation. She was also wearing a version of the Crystal Prep uniform consisting of a suit jacket, skinny tie and long slacks. She also had a wood pin on her lapel of what looked like a trophy and blue ribbon. It looked homemade, but still very well done for her age. “Yeah,” I said nonchalantly. "Though I prefer to be called 'Ember'." “Oh good, I’m Gabby Aquillo, I’m on the hockey team with you.” she excitedly sat down with me, to which I apathetically moved over to give Gabby more room, wincing at her shrill, potentially deafening voice. “Alright, Gabby, what do you want? A good grade or money?” “Why do you assume I want either of those?” “Think about it, Gabby. You go to Crystal Prep. The only reason a Shadowbolt would be friendly to anyone is that they want something.” Gabby looked at me, shocked. “Hey! That’s a very hurtful, yet understandable, stereotype. We’re not all like that. What if I said every girl in Japan is a boy-crazed nutjob?” I looked at her angrily. “You don’t actually think that do you?” Gabby threw up her hands in defense. “Of course not! I was just proving a point.” “Good, now what DO you want, exactly.” I said, slurping more noodles “Can’t I just be your friend?” “Hate to disappoint you, Gabby, but I don’t do friends.” “Oh don’t be like that. In a place like Crystal Prep, you need all the friends you can get.” “Sure I do,” I said sarcastically, grabbing more pork and noodles with my chopsticks and shoving it in my mouth. “You sound like my brother, Gallus, except way less smug.” “Gabby?” a new, huskier voice called to us. “Over here, Yona,” Gabby said, motioning her to our table. The girl who had called for Gabby was an Arab-looking girl with brown hair, she was very large, but not exactly fat per se, but more...what’s the word?...heavy-set. She was also wearing a version of the CPA uniform, hers being a sweater-vest, bow tie, and skirt. Her hair was also tied back in CPA regulation, though her hair was braided and much longer and thicker than Gabby’s. “Oh, sweet.” she walked over to our table with the grace of the old eight-legged cross-eyed dragon mascot my old middle school over in Japan had before sitting down and slamming her lunch tray. “Hi, I’m Yona, I’m the team’s goaltender.” She shook my hand as I winced at her painfully firm grasp. “I know, I read your name when Tempest posted the list. Now can you please let go of me? I’d prefer the hand holding the stick to not be broken.” Yona looked down at my hand, before quickly letting go. “Oh, sorry.” “Like a bull in a f*cking china closet,” I muttered to myself. Gabby sipped her milk “Yeah, Yona isn’t exactly graceful or subtle...or refined, but dang it if she isn’t tough. She blocks and defends like you wouldn’t believe.” “Uh, huh,” I said, looking at my noodles, half-interested. “Yeah, the team’s looking pretty good this year, though I have my reservations about Vapor Trail, the fact that she used to be all buddy-buddy with that hack-fraud Sky Stinger is not a very good sign,” Gabby said, slightly irritated at the mention of this Skystinger guy. I, however, was confused. “Who the hell is Sky Stinger, and why do you two hate him so much?” “I’ll tell you at practice tomorrow, it was this whole thing last year,” Yona said. “Honestly, I’m surprised none of them got expelled.” Gabby just laughed. “I’m surprised they didn’t get a pat on the back and a good job sticker from Cinch. The witch will do anything for an extra point in overtime.” Yona just waved her fork at Gabby. “I highly doubt Cinch would be that slimy and dubious. Sure she’s uptight, but I doubt someone who runs such a high-end school would stoop to that kind of level. And don’t call her a witch, what if she hears you?” “She didn’t hear me the last hundred times I called her that. And I will never apologize for calling her who she is, anyone that pushes aside personal Identity ain't getting sympathy from me.” Yona rolled her eyes “You’re only saying that cause you’re an artist.” “What’s wrong with that?” Gabby protested, her voice getting even more shrill. “Nothing, I’m just sayin’,” Yona said. “I thought Gabby was a hockey player,” I said, confused and slightly annoyed. “Oh, she is,” Yona said. “She actually has a lot of skills and talents, hockey and art are just her main ones (at this moment at least). Seriously, she’s talented in so many areas it’s almost a talent in and of itself.” “Yeah,” Gabby piped in finishing off her milk “Crystal Prep is the only place where I can get any sort of real challenge or competition, and that's pretty much the entire reason I’m still here.” “So you’re one of those Mary Sue types, huh?” I said, before mumbling to myself. “This is gonna be a long season.” Rainbow Dash “You mean to tell me that you of all people aren’t the least bit concerned about the new Daring Do book turning into a white savior narrative. I’d expect you to jump at the chance to call that stuff out. Not that I’m concerned about that stuff, but…” I said, walking down the hall with my sort-of-boyfriend-don’t-tell-anyone, Quibble Pants, he was a fairly husky young man I had met at a Daring Do convention last summer, usually he has pale-green skin, bleached white hair, a black track jacket, slightly-worn black jeans, a purple shirt with a speech bubble graphic (sometimes the bubble said something funny like “my other shirt can kill you” or something.) and a purple beanie with the same speech bubble logo. (Though when I actually first met him he was dressed up as the eponymous adventurer, complete with his hair dyed grey and skin painted burnt orange, and I may have totally thought he just always looked like that.) Even though he can be kind of a smarmy asshole sometimes, usually he’s pretty reserved and respectful. Just don’t ask him about The Last Jedi. “Well, personally, I find ‘white savior narrative’ to be a hollow criticism, at best it’s a cop-out that prevents the story from being judged on its own merits, at worst it implies that one’s race automatically makes a work good or bad and that caucasian people shouldn’t be the ones saving the day.” ‘Well, you do make a good point, Quibble. But don’t you think setting it in Japan might be the least bit...problematic.” “Yes, there are concerns I have that I really don’t want to get into right now, but I think the change of setting might do the series some good, you can only go to Egypt and South America so many times before it gets stale and contrived.” I’d call him out on the fact that Daring only went to Egypt in one book, but my mind was drawn to something else, namely the hockey team list Fleetfoot had just posted. Lady Wondercolts Hockey team roster. Starters -Barbara Seede (Goaltender) -Beau Dashelli (Center/Captain) -Derpy Hoover (Defensewoman) -Lourane Bird (Defensewoman) -Sammy Drake (Left Wing) -Jordan Archer (Right wing) “Oh, are you kidding me?” I groaned. “What is it?” Quibble asked. “Fleetfoot and Spitfire filled most of the roster with rookies and underclassmen.” “And what’s wrong with that?” he asked with a hint of his usual surly arrogance. “Are you kidding? We compete against schools like Crystal Prep, we need to be at the top of our game for them, we can’t afford to have a bunch of newbies make us look bad, especially with the friendship games this spring.” “They'll make the school look bad?” Quibble said with a smirk. “Or they’ll make YOU look bad?” I raised an eyebrow at him and clenched a fist behind my back, before letting go of it and sighing, not wanting to argue about my ego with the captain of the debate team. “I...have to talk to Fleetfoot right now.” “Suit yourself.” he said before turning away and heading to Ms. Inkwell’s classroom. “Um, Fleetfoot?” “Yeth?” she asked, looking up from her paperwork at me. “I have some...concerns with who you picked for the hockey team this year.” “What kind of contherns?” “Well, three of them are freshmen.” “And?” “I wouldn’t exactly trust a bunch of freshmen to lead this team to victory, especially with the friendship games looming over us this year.” Fleetfoot laughed a little “Well, that’th why I’m the one in charge of the team and not you.” “And the other two...well, first of all, one of them is named ‘Derpy’ for crying out loud. And Babs...isn’t exactly someone I imagine when I think of ‘athlete’, I mean, what kind of hockey player works at Carol’s!” “My fiance wath a Football player and he uthed to work at Bath and Body Forever. We can have different interethts, Dash, and may I remind you also play guitar and thing...well.” I opened my mouth to protest, but only sighed. “Yeah, you’re right, Fleetfoot. But still, none of the other girls on the roster aside form me are what people think of as ‘athletes’, what about the other athletes in this school, like Cloudkicker or Windbreaker?” “Well, I think we need to give other studenths a chance on the ithe, we need new faces, and I acthually think these guys are really talented, believe it or not. And may I remind you you’re showing conthern for the girls on the team dethpite never actually theeing them on the ithe” Once again I tried to protest but I just sighed in frustration as Fleetfoot got up and headed out the door, patting my shoulder on her way out. “Thee you at practithe tomorrow, Dash.” she smiled smugly, lowering her sunglasses at me.