“…and then Hurricane stormed the capitol and BAM!! BANG!! BOOM!! threw out all those pudding pies and crown-sissies!” Indigo yelled, almost bursting with excitement. She made some pseudo-karate moves while jumping around on the sand. “Everyone thought the military was out cold, but suddenly they are back and kicking! In a single week they took back all the stuff they lost, and-”
“Hey Indigo, guess what?” a voice so honeyed just listening made one’s teeth ache interrupted her. From the top of the slide, her legs spread out on the shining slope Sour Sweet glared down at Indigo. “We know!”
“We’ve all been in the same history class together” Sugarcoat reminded her. The girl with the three pigtails was sitting on top of the monkey bars, letting her legs hang down.
Having taken seat in the middle of the climbing box, her lower body lost in the net of blue bars Sunny added snidely: “And unlike you we didn’t sleep through the first half of class!”
Lemon took off her earphones, placing them around her shoulders. “Um sorry, did someone say something important?” she asked, gazing at the others from upside-down as she was lying with her back on the spinning wheel.
The group of five was hanging around on the playground of Crystal Prep Academy, the probably most polished while at the same time least used playground in the entire school district. All other students seemed to either avoid or not take notice of the sandbox, no one getting closer than twenty feet. Despite being recess the atmosphere was rather quiet on the school yard, save for some mischievous giggles from time to time. Only rarely a friendly laugh could be heard, and it was always only short-lived.
Sighing in deep satisfaction Indigo let herself fall on the swing seat behind her. She placed her elbows on her knees, resting her head in her hands a she stared in childish excitement up at the sky. “Man, rebels are so cool!” she raved.
Lemon looked up – from her perspective down - at the others. “Um, did anyone get who were actually the rebels?” she asked, her hand vanishing in the green cascades of her hair falling on the sand as she scratched her head. “I mean, there were the army dudes, the crown dudes and the farmer dudes, but who were the rebel dudes?”
Sugarcoat shrugged. “As far as I got it, it was a three way war between the deserting military, the royal forces from the cities and the country population. It wasn’t really a rebellion, but because in the end the charter of our country was formed, it’s considered a revolution.”
While Sugarcoat explained this Indigo kept staring dreamily at the sky, a dumb smile plastered on her face. Her mind was full of romantic images from rebels and revolutions, of battles against suppressors and heroes fighting injustice. Suddenly the absent-minded look in her eyes became sharper. “Hey, let’s also start a revolution!” she suggested, sitting up as her stupid grin turned into one of confidence.
Sour Sweet raised an eyebrow. ”What a great idea!” she praised her, before remarking more grumpily: “That’s totally a normal thing to do as a teenager.”
Sunny also frowned at Indigo’s idea. “How do you imagine that?” she asked in a rather rude tone. “Should we all go to the town’s hall and fire a cannonball at it?”
“We don’t have a cannon” Sugarcoat remarked.
Sour glanced at her. “Right. That is totally the problem with this idea.”
Grimacing Indigo leaned back slightly, stretching her legs out to keep balance. “Hey, I didn’t say we should go on the streets and fight the army or anything!” she clarified. “But remember how Dean Cadence said we should try to make the school a friendlier place? That could also be a revolution!”
With a ponderous look on her face Sunny put a finger on her chin. “That… actually doesn’t sound so stupid” she admitted.
Pushing herself forward Sour slid down the slide, jumping off the bottom and landing with both feet on the sand. “And how should we start this friendship revolution, oh great commander?” she asked. Folding her hands she pressed them against her cheek, fluttering her eye-lashes as she spoke: “Should we place confetti canons on top of the roof and fire them over the whole school?”
Lemon showed an upside-down grin to the other girls.
“That was sarcasm, Lemon” Sugarcoat told her.
Pulling her arms around the chains Indigo slumped her back. “You guys are so boring!” she moaned. As she looked towards the school building she noticed a student was approaching them – or more precisely her, the figure with the very light green skin walking straight in Indigo’s direction. Even from faraway she was easy to recognize as a girl, due to the thick amaranth-red hair smoothly falling to her back and the skirt of her uniform. The others also became aware of her, and turned towards the girl their age. With a slightly forced smile on her lips she entered the sand box, waving a hand as a greeting.
“Hey, captain!” she said, her dark magenta eyes cast straight on Indigo. They were half-closed as if she was having trouble to keep her lids up, and some dark circles had formed around them.
One hand on her knee Indigo smirked at the girl. “What’s up Mirror?” she asked amused. “You look like a truck hit you.”
Mirror Sheen was about to respond, but a yawn forced its way out of her mouth. “Yeah, guess I’m still a little exhausted from training yesterday” she admitted with an elongated breath, holding a hand in front of her mouth while stretching out her other arm.
Indigo snickered “What? Already worked out after a few extra hours of training?” she teased her teammate. Sunny gazed with squinted eyes at the blue-haired girl who had slept through two and a half lessons, but remained quiet.
Crossing her arms Mirror frowned at her captain. “Right” she snorted. “A few extra hours. It’s not like we were up past midnight – oh no wait” she corrected herself angrily “WE WERE!!”
With a chuckle Indigo brushed off the rude remark. “Well you better rub that sleep off your eyes until tomorrow” she told her, determinately holding up her fist. “Cause we’re gonna kick the ball till the sun kicks back in!”
In an instant the anger vanished from the girl’s expression. “Actually, um, I wanted to talk to you about that” Mirror stated a lot more meekly, clearing her throat. She tried to keep a confident posture, but her foot rubbed nervously on the sand as she spoke. “Since we basically spent three training sessions yesterday and many of us have to learn for history tomorrow, the team thought that, um, perhaps…”
“You and the others want to slack off, eh?” Indigo finished the sentence for her. From her swing seat she looked up to Mirror, perkily grinning at her. “Well not on my watch! We are Crystal Prep Shadowbolts! We have to make sure we’re in a shape to beat those little lollipop-suckers all the way up to the moon and back down on earth next week – even if we have to train 24/7 for it!”
“Oh, come on!” Mirror insisted, sounding both angry and desperate. “I’ve got school until after four today, and then I have to go to athletics training, AND once I’m done have a ton of homework to do! Tomorrow is the only day when I can really learn for-”
She stopped when Indigo held out a hand to her. “Forget it” she strictly told her, the look on her face a lot more serious. “If we lose the game we’ll also lose the first place in the league. And you know what Cinch does with teams that don’t manage to keep the top spot.” She jumped up from the swing seat, stemming her hands against her hips as she looked her teammate straight in the eyes. “I’m not gonna cut the training, and I won’t let any of you off the hook before I say all of us are ready. Got it?”
Grumbling Mirror cast down her eyes, staring at the sand at her feet. “Yes, captain…”
Indigo turned her ear towards her. “Can’t hear ya…”
“Yes, captain!” Mirror exclaimed, looking back up at her.
Content, Indigo nodded. “Good” she said, letting herself fall back on the swing seat. “Oh, and tell the others anyone who skips training is gonna run laps until their shoes are smoking.”
Indigo held out her first to Mirror, a tough smirk on her lips. With her eyebrows knit the soccer player glared at her captain, before quietly turning around. Indigo looked with a lifted eyebrow after Mirror as she walked back towards the school building, each of her steps a heavy stomp. A chill suddenly crept over Indigo’s spine, as if someone was stuffing ice cubes into her collar. Looking at her friends she noticed all of them were throwing cold glances at her.
“What?” she asked.
“That was rude” Sugarcoat told her, her voice even more aggressive than usually.
“Yeah!” Lemon agreed, rolling on her belly as she scowled at the blue-haired girl. “You were totally the douche here.”
“Can’t you at least try to be a bit considerate?” Sunny asked.
The girl with the goggles gazed at each of her friends, returning their furious glances. “Hey, what should I do?” she yelled at them. “If I don’t get the team in tip-top shape until next week Cinch is gonna cut the soccer team’s budget – or worse, she’ll close it altogether! You know what mood she’s been in since the friendship games…”
Curling up her lips Sour put on the sweetest of smiles. “It was definitely a great start for your friendship revolution! Acting like the complete opposite of a friend…”
Indigo looked at the sour grimace of her friend, and grunted. “We’re teammates, not friends!” she informed her. Looking after Mirror in the distance she mumbled: “She is just a jerk…”
“We were all jerks not so long ago” Sugarcoat reminded her from the top of the monkey bars.
Sunny glanced towards the spinning wheel. “Some of us still are…”
Frowning Lemon stared back up at Sunny. “Yeah, SOME of us!”
Indigo didn’t really listen to them. Lazily swinging forth and back she had cast her eyes down, watching her feet getting dragged over the sand. “I tried to be befriend the members of my sports teams” she told the other girls, sounding somewhat bitter. “The day after we decided to become friends, I invited the soccer gals over to meet at Joe’s doughnut bar, to hang around. But they all rejected me. And when I went to the other teams, it was all the same.” Her fingers jittered as she tightly clenched the chains. “Some of them said they would come, but then didn’t show up just to laugh at me the next day in school – Mirror was one of them. They know I am the most athletic girl in school and need me to win trophies, but at the same time are jealous of my position. Most of them would sell me out the instant they see a chance to become captain themselves.” She let out a sigh, looking sadly up at the sky. A cloud was moving over the sun, casting a shadow on the playground. “I know I said to Dean Cadence we could turn this school around, but… seeing I can’t even get my own teammates to change, I’m starting to doubt it.”
Quietly the others stared at the usually peppy girl being so depressed, a look of compassion on their faces. Slowly Sour walked over to her side, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “That’s not like you, giving up so quickly” she said, genuinely smiling at Indigo.
“Yeah!” Lemon agreed, also grinning. She pulled herself up on a bar, crossing her arms and placing her head on them. “That loser talk so ain’t you!”
“You have to be more confident in yourself!” Sunny tried to cheer her up. “I’m facing the same problems with my tennis team, but we promised Dean Cadence to try and make this school friendlier!”
Adjusting her glasses Sugarcoat remarked: “You can’t expect to become friends with them as fast as we did. It’ll probably take some time.”
Sour winked at the girl in the swing seat. “Besides, wouldn’t becoming friends with your teammates make for a nice little revolution?”
Indigo didn’t turn her head to her friends. Instead she set her gaze straight ahead towards the school building, looking at the students walking over the school yard. There were a few small groups, but most of them were by themselves. From the distance they appeared like a mass of purple sticks. But even from far away she could see the same uniform look of smugness and hostility on their faces.
Suddenly her own expression lit up, the dropped corners of her mouth rising to a sly grin. “A nice little revolution?” she sneered at Sour, looking a lot more boldly. “That’s something for small fry like you. But a big shot like me has got to think bigger!”
Startled by the sudden swing of attitude Sour pulled back her hand from Indigo’s shoulder, before angrily furrowing her brows at her. “Sheesh, moody much?”
“What did you think of, Gogo?” Lemon asked, tilting her head in a mixture of curiosity and concern.
The bell rang, signalizing the end of recess. With her vigor returned Indigo jumped up on her feet, confidently turning to her friends. “You’ll see!” she hollered, beaming as she pumped her fist towards the sky. “Tomorrow I’m gonna shake all of Crystal Prep, big time! When this revolution is over, you won’t recognize the place - literally!”
A big grin on her face Indigo dashed off towards the other students streaming back into the school. Her friends stared after her, looking a little worried. Sour, Lemon and Sugarcoat then turned their eyes towards Sunny, the short-haired girl surprised by their insulting glares.
“W-why are you looking at me?” she asked, uncomfortably hiding herself in the climbing box.
“You woke her up” Sugarcoat reminded her.
Coming back out from her hideout Sunny huffed. “I thought I was waking up a dozing classmate, not a sleeping giant!”