//------------------------------// // Partners in crime // Story: "Let's go, Shadowbolts!" // by AppleJTZ //------------------------------// The ringing of the school bell declared the end of the current lesson. Soon the various doors to the classrooms opened, flooding the corridors of Crystal Prep Academy with students. The books for her next lesson under her arm Sour Sweet walked down the clean and shining hallways, her image reflecting on nearly every surface. As she looked around, seeing the crystal pillars and decorations a slight shiver crept down her spine. It was all very pretty and beautiful, perfectly polished, and of course horrendously expensive. But at the same time the sleek ornaments, walls and floors also felt cold and sterile, even a little lifeless. The chilly atmosphere was greatly emphasized by the students’ behavior and appearance, walking around in the their uniforms with cold looks on their faces. Despite lunch having been long over some still glared at Sour when she passed by. Every raised eyebrow and skeptical glance ticked her off a little more. All she had done was have a nice conversation, and now she was treated like she had started a fight or something! Sour wondered if the others were also treated like this – aside from sharing chemistry with Indigo and being in a handful of sports clubs together they didn’t really see each other often. Strangely, that thought was upsetting Sour slightly when it crossed her mind. The other girls all had their little issues – Sugarcoat’s bluntness, Lemon Zest’s habit to get absorbed in herself, Sunny’s slightly snobbish behavior and Indigo’s annoying pep speeches – but despite all of their flaws she found they were surprisingly nice. They all appeared so different from each other, Sour thought while walking around a corner, but maybe they had more in common than it seemed – who knew, if they weren’t in such a horrible school, they might even have become… A door suddenly opened, cutting into her thoughts. Turning towards it Sour saw it belonged to one of the chemistry labs. A small girl with pink skin and purple hair dashed out of it in panic. Sour recognized her as Suri Polomare, one of the younger students at Crystal Prep. She didn’t know her personally, but she was famous for gaining an award at a competition for up-coming fashion designers – something that Principal Cinch, of course, had been very pleased with. However, there were rumors she had actually stolen the designs from a student of another school – something that Principal Cinch, of course, wasn’t very eager to investigate. The little miracle student immediately closed the door behind her and stemmed herself against it. Her face full of fright she turned towards Sour. “You, you over there!” she called out. “You gotta help me!” Sour raised an eye-brow, before smiling at the young girl. “Why, yes of course I’ll help you!” she chirped, before cynically asking: “You need help locking up your imaginary buddy?” Suri threw a dark glance at Sour. “Hey, I’m not a baby, okay?” she hissed at her. Her anger quickly turned into worry however as something suddenly seemed to lunge against the door from inside the lab. Startled Sour took a step back, watching wide-eyed as the door buckled slightly behind Suri. “What the…” Sour was about to ask what was going on when she saw white foam appearing in the window of the door. She watched in disbelief how the tower of bubbles rose ever higher, pushing with steadily more strength against the door. “I tried an experiment from a higher class” Suri explained, pushing her small body as good as she could against the door. “I thought if I could impress Principal Cinch with this she might sign me a recommendation for an elite design school. But…” Another jolt was going through the door, making it dent further. “…something went wrong. Please, you gotta help me keep the foam in the lab so none of the teachers will notice!” After digesting the shock Sour composed herself. “Aw, you poor little thing♥” she sobbed, looking pitifully at Suri. Wiping all signs of sympathy from her face she turned around. “Have fun cleaning up” she told her, waving as she continued towards her next class. “HEY, don’t leave me like that!” Suri angrily yelled after her. “Your mess, your problem” Sour simply replied. “You shouldn’t have tried shoes on too large for you.” The young girl grunted. “Well thanks for nothing!” she shouted. Her anger however quickly vanished again as she felt the weight on the other side of the door increasing by the second. She tried to press herself more forcefully against it, but bit by bit the door was pushing open. Groaning in exhaustion Suri slowly was pushed away, her back slipping down the smooth surface of the door. Sour wanted to keep on walking. She wanted to leave that little brat alone with the results of her failed experiment. Wanted to tell herself she deserved it. But instead she stopped in the middle of the corridor, and looked over her shoulder back at her. The face of the girl was full of fear, sweat rolling down her cheeks and forehead in thick drops. Looking up the door Suri watched in horror as the first bubbles squeezed through it, about to break free into the hallway. Biting her lip Sour turned away again, but hesitated. She grit her teethn clenched her fingers around her books, closed her eyes. Her whole body trembled slightly. “OH DANG IT!” it suddenly broke out of her. Dropping her books she ran to the chemistry lab and pressed her hands against the door. It budged back inwards a bit, but Sour could feel the foam pushing back with growing force. “Gosh, what did you try to mix together in there?” Sour grunted. “Some kind of chemical weapon?!” “Hey, this is an experiment from YOUR grade!” Suri yelled at her. “I just picked the one that looked the most complicated!” The two girls fought against the foam, which was probably filling out most of the chemistry lab by then. While the extra strength of Sour seemed to help for a moment the door soon began to buckle even further. “I… can’t… keep it shut… much longer!” Sour moaned. Suri threw a glance up at the older student. A devious smirk crossed her face. “Your mess – your problem.” The door was pressing with even greater strength against Sour’s hands as Suri suddenly ran away, skipping down the hallway. “HEY! COME BACK, YOU BRAT!” Sour shouted, angrily reaching a hand out to her. A jolt in the door however quickly made her put it back. More and more bubbles were squeezing out, the rift slowly enlarging as the door pressed open. Sour kept pushing, angrily grunting. “Oh, that was so kind of you♥” Sour said to herself, her sweet voice sounding more forced than usual as she stemmed her hands against the door. “You helped a poor little girl and now you will probably get kicked out of school for it. WELL DONE!” Under the door a puddle was forming, and some kind of liquid slowly seeped into the corridor. Sour’s feet began to slide backwards, and her arms were starting to feel numb. “Sour?” she suddenly heard a familiar voice. Glancing with one eye to the side she saw Indigo Zap standing in the hallway, looking rather dazed at her. “What are you doing there?” she asked, putting one hand on her hip. Without turning her head Sour quickly replied: “Long story short, there is a lot of foam in there and I get into deep trouble if it comes out!” At first Indigo just blankly stared at her. Then she grinned. “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!” she declared, raising her fist into the air. Throwing herself right next to Sour she pushed her shoulder against the door. Some of the pressure was lift, but it still kept on opening slowly. “We’re not gonna make it!” Sour cried. “Not with that attitude!” Indigo called back. Down the hallway then Sour and Indigo could hear a beat approaching. From around the corner Lemon Zest appeared, humming and bopping her head to the music from her headphones. At first she didn’t notice the two girls’ struggle, almost walking past them. Only when she randomly threw a glance to the side she saw what was going on, and stopped in her tracks. “DUDE!” she exclaimed, taking off her headphones. “What kind of party is going on here?” “The kind that will get us in a lot of trouble!” Sour replied. Lemon hesitated a moment, but then put on a confident look. “That’s always been my favorite kind of party!” she smirked, putting her headphones around her neck. Indigo and Sour made her some room as she pushed with her back against the door. It closed a little, but all three of them could feel the pressure of the foam from the other side, the entire door window only showing bubbles at this point. “What the heck’s going on?!” Lemon asked. “This stuff is tougher than the bouncers who kicked me from that disco last week!” “There was this girl who tried some experiment she didn’t understand” Sour explained with short breath. “I tried to help her…” she said sweetly “…and she left me with her mess!” she finished sourly. “I guess you are talking about Suri Polomare?” The three girls turned their heads, seeing Sugarcoat standing in the hallway alongside Sunny Flare. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, staring through her glasses with her usual, slightly unfriendly look at them. “This sounds like something an overly ambitious and ill-hearted girl like her would do, at least according to the very accurate rumors I’ve heard” she told them. “Exactly” Sunny agreed, nodding her head in approval. “Everybody knows you can’t trust that girl, no matter how cute she is and how eloquently she dresses – outside of school I mean.” “Not that most other students at this school wouldn’t have left you alone” Sugarcoat added. “So I guess it doesn’t really matter if she is a backstabber and cheater.” “Good point” Sunny admitted, putting a finger on her chin. Sour sharply glared at the two. “If you’re just standing there to sound smart, GET LOST!” Sunny and Sugarcoat looked at the three girls fighting against the foam, then at each other, before Sugarcoat let out a deep sigh. “I’m going to regret this” she stated as she walked over to them. She knelt down in front of the door, careful not to step into the puddle, and began pushing with her arms. Scratching her chin Sunny watched as the four girls pressed their bodies against the door. After observing them for a moment she quickly dashed over, taking position next to Sugarcoat. “You SO owe me for this!” she told them as she stemmed her back against the door. All five students moaned and groaned as they tried to keep the door closed. It continued to bend despite all their efforts however, even the glass window becoming slightly convex as the foam pressed against it from the other side. “This is too hardcore!” Lemon screamed, sweat rolling down her face. “I… can’t… take much more!” Sunny winced, her back aching from the pressure. “Yes you can!” Indigo shouted, trying to muster more strength into her shoulder. “The Shadowbolts… won’t surrender… to a few bubbles!” “That would be nice if it were true” Sugarcoat said, the exhaustion audible even in her voice. “But I doubt a pep speech will help us stop the mountains of foam forming behind that-“ “JUST PUSH!” Sour screamed. The girls put all their force into it. None of them noticed how the puddle kept spreading out from under the door, until the liquid was all around their feet. Then, just as the door seemed like it would give in to the girls’ attempts all five of them suddenly slipped simultaneously. They shrieked in unison as they slid off the door, unable to keep it shut any longer. The moment the pressure was lift it swung open and released the towers of foam from the chemistry lab. Like an avalanche the bubbles rolled into the corridor, right over the five girls. Burying them completely the foam kept spreading out into the hallway, filling out the entire area in front of the chemistry lab from wall to wall. For a moment silence lay over the place. After a while the girls slowly emerged from the white mountains. Sugarcoat looked rather annoyed at the bubbles covering her body, trying to wipe them off her uniform. Sunny was the most distressed, even a little disgusted. Squealing she jumped to her feet, waggling around as if she had spotted some sort of vermin. Indigo groaned slightly as she got up, a huge pile of foam on her head. A little dazzled she rubbed her head, even more when Lemon Zest appeared in front of her with a foamy Santa Claus beard covering most of her face. Lying flat on the floor Sour got up on her knees. Feeling rather groggy her eyes were staring at the ground, following the trail of foam in front of her as she slowly raised her head. At the edge of the foam, where the floor was showing the clean smooth crystal floor of the school again she saw a pair of sharp high-heels, one of them angrily stepping on the tiles. A horrible suspicion arose in Sour, one that seemed to confirm the further she looked up, spotting a familiar skirt and blazer. Her heart beat faster as she stared up right into Principal Cinch’s stern face, Dean Cadence standing behind her. While the dean seemed more shocked and worried about the students than anything, the look the principal was throwing through her glasses on the five girls seemed less concerned but rather furious, Sour watching as Cinch’s brows knitted even more than usually. The lips of Sour, Sunny, Sugarcoat, and Indigo curled up into big nervous smiles – Lemon’s too, but it wasn’t apparent behind her foam beard.