The spaghetti were drenched in red as the cafeteria woman poured the tomato sauce on top of them. She handed out the plate through the counter, at the same time already taking the next empty one to fill it with noodles and sauce. Quickly Sour Sweet snatched the spaghetti from the woman’s hand and put it on her tray, next to her cup of lemonade. She moved on to the desserts, grabbing a small bowl of vanilla pudding with chocolate on top before leaving the counter and turning towards the wide hall of the cafeteria.
The place was rather crowded, as to be expected at lunch time. But the hall was so large and she was fairly early, so there were plenty of free seats and even a few empty tables left to choose from. Sour looked a little grumpy as she walked through the cafeteria, trying to decide where to sit down. Every table where she passed she could hear hushed whispers and small conversations – like the hallways the cafeteria of Crystal Prep Academy was a rather quiet place compared to other schools, with only few laughter save for some devious giggles. Moving past her fellow students Sour rolled her eyes at the little bits of conversation she caught. Tattle about someone who failed a test, boasts about grades or awards, students badmouthing each other – rather annoyed Sour’s gaze wandered through the hall, searching for something aside from the usual. Something that was more interesting than making fun of others, or shoving into everybody’s face how awesome she was. She was awesome, no doubt about it, but she didn’t want to rub it under anyone’s nose right now…
In the middle of the cafeteria Indigo Zap was making her way through the maze formed by the seats and tables. Even at high times there were always a few chairs unoccupied, as principal Cinch had installed so many every student was sure to quickly and efficiently eat their lunch before continuing to their next class. Despite the large number of free chairs however Indigo seemed to have trouble finding a place to sit down. It wasn’t like she didn’t have anyone to sit with: She could chose between spending her lunch with the rowing club, the marathon runners, the school’s soccer team or one of the various other sports clubs she was captain of. Usually she’d go into a rotation or sit down where her encouraging spirit was needed the most, for instance when a big match was up ahead and her team needed some extra motivation(regardless of if they wanted it). There were no games up ahead though, and somehow she didn’t really feel like sitting down and holding a pep speech anyway. With a rather discontent look on her face she walked through the cafeteria with her tray in her hands, not knowing where to sit down…
Through her glasses Sugarcoat watched how the other students around her were running through the cafeteria and taking seats. For some strange reason, the choice of her own seat was giving her quite some thought this day. Usually, she’d just sit down at a random table and tell everyone sitting around her how unhealthy their food was, chime into conversations when somebody said something that wasn’t absolutely correct, or just bluntly share her own opinion without being asked to. Today however, she wasn’t really in the mood to. Even as she wandered along the tables, she didn’t interrupt anyone when snatching some brief snippets of a conversation. Quite a lot were talking about the announcement from Principal Cinch earlier and all the additional work. A lot of false statements and rumours were mixed into, like Cinch having said everybody who didn’t get an B or higher in the next math test would be expelled. But Sugarcoat had no motivation to correct them, just walking by while her eyes wandered around…
When moving through the cafeteria of Crystal Prep Academy there was one student everyone took caution: At lunch Lemon Zest usually danced around to her music while carrying a full tray in her hands. More than once this had already caused accidents with uniforms getting stained in tomato sauce or drenched by lemonade. While she did wear her headphones that day as well the volume of the music was actually so low however she could hear the people around her, and – even more unusual – she did take notice of her surroundings. Normally she would just sit down at the best nearby place and begin eating while sunken in her own world, often playing the beat from her headphones on her plates. This time she seemed to be looking for a specific seat, several people hearing her music come and go as she passed by…
Tapping with her feet Sunny Flare looked around the dining hall. It wasn’t something weird, for she did often examine the student body and consider who she wanted to eat with before sitting down somewhere. A math test was coming up? Then she would hang around with the geeks and try to turn the conversation into a private tutoring lesson for her. There was an upcoming birthday of a popular girl? She’d sit down at her table, chuckling about her jokes while making compliments to increase her chance of getting an invitation. From the outside, it looked again this day as if she was evaluating the tables, trying to find out where she could get the most benefit. However, in her mind, she wasn’t really thinking about any benefits. Her eyes and eventually Sunny herself moved along the tables, intensely looking around…
After walking through the cafeteria a while Sour noticed she was starting to run in circles. With a grunt her gaze again went over the numerous students sitting or searching a place. All were wearing Crystal Prep uniforms, all were having the same stern and smug expression on their face - although after what principal Cinch had said a lot of them did look slightly concerned, even if they were trying to hide it behind their conceited attitude. Sighing Sour turned into the next corridor of tables. She didn’t even know why she minded the business as usual at Crystal Prep all of a sudden – since before a few weeks ago she had never been bothered by it, even happily participated in the rituals. It was like after the friendship games a switch inside her had been turned, and now she looking for something different, something like…
Suddenly, Sour Sweet stopped in her thoughts and tracks, as did Sugarcoat, Indigo Zap, Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare. They were all standing around the same empty table in the middle of the cafeteria.
Quietly the Shadowbolts looked at each other and the table, uncertainty flickering in their eyes. After a while Sour slowly sat down at one of the corner seats. As she put her tray down Sunny hesitantly sat down to her right, while Indigo, also a little nervous sat down on the place opposite to Sour. Lemon followed by taking seat next to Sunny, and eventually Sugarcoat took her place next to Indigo, opposite of Sunny.
Surrounded by the noises of the cafeteria the five girls silently sat there. All of them mostly stared at their trays, although no one took a bite from their spaghetti or a sip from their cups. Sour bit her lip, mustering her courage. Raising her gaze she put on a big smile, staring across the table at Indigo. “So, uh, how was your class Indigo?” she asked sweetly.
Sitting up Indigo looked rather irritated at Sour. “Um, we just had chemistry together” she replied, incredulously raising an eye-brow. “We were lab partners, remember?”
The cheeks of the yellow-skinned girl turned red. “Oh, right” she mumbled, sounding both embarrassed and a little angry as she dropped her chin onto her tray. She picked up her fork, rolling it in her spaghetti.
“It’s kind of worrying you don’t remember your last class” Sugarcoat commented, casually winding some spaghetti around her fork as she spoke. “If you have problem with your memory you should consider seeing a doctor.”
Sour frowned. “I’m not dumb or sick!” she snapped at her, angrily raising her head. She pulled her fork out of her spaghetti, noodles and sauce dripping from it back onto her plate. “And it’s not like the chemistry lesson was something to remember” she said while wrapping up the noodles still hanging down her fork around it. “The entire time the teacher was just standing at the chalkboard, babbling something about potash and some high docile ox while scribbling down formulas that looked like he was writing in some ancient language!” She pushed the noodles into her mouth, pouting.
Leaning her elbow over her chair Indigo chuckled. “That pretty much sums up every class here at Crystal Prep” she said with a smirk, before also eating some spaghetti.
“It is kind of hard to follow the lessons sometimes” Sunny agreed. Slowly and very cautious not to make a mess she rolled up a small amount of noodles with her fork and spoon. “I just got here from biology, and honestly, I have no idea if we were talking about genetics, protein stabilization or the mating dance of flamingos.”
“Yeah!” Lemon chimed in, raising her fork. With a powerful thrust she dug it deep into her spaghetti, lifting a large chunk of noodles and sauce. She made one quick turn of her fork, and then shoved all of it into her mouth at once. Sunny looked in disgust at her neighbor, watching her slurp up the noodles hanging from her lips. “A’m all in for mufic claff” the green-haired girl mumbled with her mouth full, Sunny backing slightly off from her as little droplets of sauce were flying out of her mouth with every word. “But fat old egghead even makef a guitar riff found boring ‘nd d’ll!” Swallowing down the noodles Lemon then glanced at Sunny. “You’ve got something there” Lemon remarked, pointing at a tiny tomato spot on her chin she had just spit on her. Seeing the lower half of Lemon’s face was completely covered in red sauce Sunny rolled her eyes.
After taking a sip from her still water Sugarcoat put her cup down. “School lessons are supposed to be educational and not fun” she told the others as bluntly as ever. “But it’s really fascinating how our history teacher manages to even make lessons about wars sound like he was talking about old women holding a tea pary.”
Indigo couldn’t hold back a giggle as Sugarcoat spoke. “Yeah, like you’re one to talk!” she told her seat neighbor. “I could TOTALLY see you standing in front of the class and boring everyone just as much to death.”
Everybody’s plates shook as Lemon slammed her hand against the table, laughing out loud. “DUDE, that’d be SO good!” she blurted out, pieces of noodles flying out of her mouth to Sunny’s great disgust. “Like, the teacher just leaves, and Sugarcoat picks up right away, and nobody notices the difference!”
All the girls chuckled, only Sugarcoat throwing rather discontent glances at them. “That’s very funny” she told them, her eyes focused on Indigo. “And you would just annoy your students with silly pep speeches and try to convince them into being thrilled about stuff they don’t care about.”
Indigo’s grin turned into a rather puzzled frown. “What’d be so bad about that?” she asked.
Sour put her elbows on her tray, folding her hands and placing her chin on her fingers. “Oh, I don’t know” she said with a friendly smile, looking ponderous up to the ceiling. “Maybe becaaaauuuse…” The corners of her lips sunk, and her eyes stared straight at Indigo. “…you trying to get everyone psyched up about the sentence of Pythagoras would be one of the most annoying thing in the world?”
At first Indigo seemed offended, but then she smirked. “You’d be funny as a teacher too” she said, pointing with her fork at Sour. “When giving back a test, you’d go through the seats and be all like ‘Gratulations you got an A♥! You got an F, you failure! Here an A♥! And for you an F! A♥ F! A♥ F!’” She mimicked Sour, constantly switching between a honey-sweet and very grumpy expression and voice. The others giggled, only Sour looking rather bad-tempered. But after a while she also cracked a smile.
“And you wouldn’t notice what any of your students did while wearing these in class” Sunny remarked while poking at Lemon’s headphones. “You might not even hear when the bell rang, and suddenly realise all your students have gone home already and you are the last in the classroom.”
The others chuckled. “Oh yeah?” Lemon asked, stemming her fists against her hips while grinning at Sunny. “And you would… errr… yooouuu… if you were a teacher… um…” She paused, scratching the thick jungle of her hair.
“Yes?” Sunny asked superiorly, putting up her nose slightly while folding her arms before her chest.
After pondering some more Lemon threw her hands into the air. “I give up. You’d probably make a good teacher.”
A slightly snobbish chuckle resonated from Sunny’s throat. “Thanks, dearie” she said, raising her steaming cup of tea and victoriously taking a sip from it.
“That’s actually worse than anything else we just said” Sugarcoat told her.
The cup on her lips Sunny froze, looking a little shocked. After putting her cup down however all five girls suddenly burst out into laughter. Indigo held her stomach while putting her head back, Lemon slammed her fist on the table and made the plates tremble again. Sunny and Sugarcoat were more reserved, but still chortled rather heavily for their standards. Sour, wiping a tear from her eyes casually threw a glance to the side. Her laughter then slowly died off, just as that of the other girls as they all took a look around.
The whole cafeteria had gone silent. No sound of clanking forks or spoons could be heard, while all conversations had stopped. Everybody in the hall was staring at their table, giving them puzzled, irritated, and slightly obnoxious looks.
Watched from all sides Sour began to feel rather uncomfortable, ducking herself a little under the table. “Why are they staring at us like that?” she whispered.
Sunny threw a cautious glance in all directions. “I… guess they are not used to seeing students chatting and laughing together at this school.”
The five girls all cast glances at the students staring at them, nobody saying a word. Only the beat of Lemon’s headphones slightly cut through the silence.
After a while Sugarcoat pushed up her glasses. “They’ve made it awkward.”