“Lost again, dear?”
Adagio’s eyes narrowed. She could see someone watching out of the corner of her vision. It became easier to see them when she turned around and strode right up to the watcher, the tips of their noses touching. It took her a moment to realize that other parts of them were close to touching.
“Gee, ever heard of personal space Dazzle? Good thing I’m not Queen Bitch of the School anymore, or else I’d...” Sunset took a calming breath and gently pushed Adagio away from her. “Make a rude remark about that hair of yours.”
Adagio frowned at her very threateningly. “Let’s get one thing straight Shimmerbrain. I couldn’t care less about how you turned into an all-powerful demon for all of five minutes. So next time you get it into your head to mock my hair, just remember that my assistants aren’t two pathetic schoolboys.” She tapped the heel of her spiked shoes against the pavement below for added dramatic tension, adding in an extra stare.
Sunset looked back at her with no shortage of unimpressment, pondering for a moment if that was even an actual word. As she was about to speak, a sound from above caused her to glance up. A smile formed as the sight unfolded. “Oh, I don’t think I’ll need to do any mocking. See you tomorrow Dazzle-pants.”
As Sunset walked off with no shortage of gleefulness, Adagio looked up at the sky for herself. Unlike Sunset, her face shrunk down to one of great sadness. “Oh no.”
Stormclouds.
It was already getting darker. She could go back to the school, but that would leave her trapped there indefinitely. Neither of the Dazzlings had cars, despite her extensive efforts to ensure they would pass the tests, and she didn’t dare to carry around something as petty as an umbrella.
She’d have to leg it. In spiked high heels. As far as plans went, nothing quite got as close to absolutely terrible as what she was going to attempt.
“Damn you whatever mystical beings that made me wear spiky shoes!” Adagio had both fists shaking at the sky. The resulting jiggling of her body made parts of her body bounce about, until her hair shook free of the already struggling pins.
Across the road came the very distinct sound of laughter. Sunset was leaning against a lamp post, cheerfully eating from a bucket of popcorn she had presumably bought from the stand just down the street. “Problem with your hair Dazzle?”
She growled as she shook her hair out of the way. Rather than trying to make some sort of half-witted insult about Sunset’s underwear, she bolted down the path in the direction of her self-proclaimed lair instead.
Thunder began to roll overhead. The first few tiny drops fell. Adagio felt every single one that landed on her head, each sending chills down her body. She found herself out of breath at the street corner, forehead pressing into the cold pole of the lights while she struggled to recover. Now more than ever her feet hurt.
“Come on, it’s not that far surely…” She lifted her head to look across the empty street. The path ahead was completely blocked off by construction, save for a very muddy wooden board across the gaping hole. Adagio responded in a very calm manner.
“Who just digs up half the street on a whim? How thick and brain dead do you have to be to just dig up half the street for no good reason at all?” Panting heavily, she stumbled across the road and turned to take a less direct route. That path had no shortage of trees with loose leaves. As if to deliberately taunt her, the wind began picking up.
With no shortage of frantic arm flailing, she began running through the onslaught of browning leaves. Sunset’s hysterical laughter rang in her ears, soon drowned out by wailing as leaves pitted themselves into her golden locks.
Upon rounding the corner, she found another moment to breathe. “I swear, I’m going to make her regret laughing. Somehow…” More thunder came, along with a heavier burst of rain. The tapping of water droplets on dry leaves ate away at her dwindling sanity.
There was no overhead cover on the way to the next corner. Adagio’s hand moved up to her neck, grasping the necklace. Much as she willed for the clouds to go away, the near constant sounds above continued uninterrupted.
“Screw it!” Droplets fell all around her as she ran as fast as her sore feet could handle. Leaves could be picked out, and a little water ruined hairstyling could be redone. A complete washout was unacceptable.
Turning the corner again, she crossed the street at a diagonal to save time. It wasn’t too far to the lair, and flailing her hands about seemed to deflect some of the raindrops away from herself. Even though Sunset was long behind, the memory of her constant laughter continued to haunt her.
“I can’t believe some stupid bitch is actually getting under my skin.” The last corner rushed behind her as she came to rest under a very small metal awning. There was a fair amount of water soaked into the top of her hair by that point, but she wasn’t completely drenched.
The familiar black gate that led to a dark side alley came into view as she peered down the path ahead. Safety, and a very big hair dryer were waiting behind a door at the end of that alley.
A lighter phase in the rainfall came. Despite being almost completely worn out, she made every effort to run the rest of the way to the gate. Her cold fingers fumbled with the lock, and while she wanted to get in as soon as possible, it didn’t distract her from locking it behind her. Aria and Sonata would be inside anyway.
Upon reaching the door, she finally slowed down to catch her breath properly. A quick series of knocks would summon one of the two to let her in promptly. In the moment of relief, she stepped back as she finally allowed herself to laugh softly. “I always win in the end.”
Several drops of water landed on her shoulder. For a moment, she was ready to shrug it off as more rain when a larger splash landed on her head. She looked up at last, just in time to watch as a water tank overflow released itself directly above her.
*
“Tomorrow… I swear, we’re going to do something about Sunset.” Adagio’s voice was a lot shakier than normal. Even a thick blanket wrapped around her, a warm fire going, and having both Sonata and Aria working on different parts of her hair weren’t enough to keep her from feeling cold in many ways.
Again, her hand grasped the red gem resting on her collarbones. “I really hate rain.”