Family Begins With You

by Jmaster49

Arc XXI Episode I: Matchmaker

Concurrently, at the same time Parabola left Aidon’s office…

Sonata had been walking by, and noticed the expression on the striped woman’s face as she left the office. “Hm?” She stepped forward, and noticed Aidon’s smitten expression right before he cleared his throat and finished his conversation on the phone.

It didn’t take long for the blue girl to put two and three together.

“Eeeee!” she squealed to herself. “Aidon’s interested in the new teacher lady! But he looks so shy about it--I bet he’ll have a hard time asking her out. Unless….ooh, Sonata, you’re a genius!”

As soon as she finished that thought, Sonata raced to her locker and opened it up to grab some art supplies. She then immediately started to scribble down on two pieces of red construction paper. “A bit of this here, a bit of yellow there…this’ll be perfect for the both of them.”

Normally, Aria or Adagio would be there to help her reconsider such an…impulsive idea. But the two wanted to allow their baby sister to have a bit more independence, so they agreed on having less classes where they would cross paths.

Naturally, this was the result. A gremlin of a siren who acted on her first instinct. While her heart was in the right place, she’d soon find out whether or not her efforts would be deemed as such.

Once Sonata had finished her creations, she reveled in her accomplishment. “Hooo-boy! Can’t wait to see the look on their faces!”

This could only end well.

Regardless, she went through with it, and delivered her creations to both the principal’s office where Aidon was, and the math room where Parabola had been working via slipping them under the door. They were small, folded invitations made of red construction paper…

Aidon was the first to notice the invitation slipped to him, and picked it up off of the floor. “Eh? What’s this?” He opened it, and it read:

“Meet me at the cafe near the city crossing at 5PM. I’d like to ask you out to the Summer Festival in person. Signed, your secret admirer.”

It was written with brilliant cursive calligraphy using a blue, sparkle-gel pen that mixed nicely with the card’s red background along with a few hearts for good measure.

Now see, Aidon was rather quick on the uptake. Something like this stood out to him as odd, however… “This could easily be a trick…however, it might not be. I’d better answer the demand in case it’s a trap. Better stay alert.”

Nothing was getting past this teacher.

---

Meanwhile…

Sonata was idly skipping down the halls towards the exit while humming a tune to herself, clearly satisfied with what she had done. “This is gonna be perfect!”

“What’s gonna be perfect?” Aria asked as she rounded a corner, and went through the front doors of the campus with her sister. “Don’t tell me you pulled some kinda prank on someone. If you did, you should’ve invited me--I would’ve made it way better.”

“Pffft! No!” Sonata laughed at the idea and replied, “I just…did a bit of divine siren justice!” She triumphantly hoisted her fist into the air for emphasis.

To which Aria put a hand up and promptly lowered Sonata’s. “Rrrrright. Just don’t get carried away, alright? You know it’s only recently since we started letting you go places by yourself.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m practically a grown woman,” Sonata asserted while placing a hand on her upper chest.

“Pff--yeah. A grown womanchild,” Aria muttered under her breath with a snicker.

“I heard that!” Sonata huffed, “Don’t you make fun of me or I’ll shock you.”

“Easy, sis. I’m just dicking with you,” Aria nudged her with her elbow, “You’re doing great. But I still worry for ya sometimes. That’s all.”

“Aw, you do care!” Sonata clasped her hands together with beady eyes.

Only for Aria to roll hers in response. “Seriously? Since when have I not? I’ve pretty much been the one who’s up and ready to kick ass for all of us…” She paused and stretched her arms upwards. “...But I’m actually looking forward to being able to unwind at this festival. We could use a break.”

“Oh yeah! That reminds me, did you invite Keiji?”

“Of course I did,” Aria kept walking with her hands in her jean pockets, “Little bro deserves to have some fun too, doesn’t he? But in case you’re wondering, Dagi is off getting herself ready by scoping out the Eastern clothes with Sunset at the mall.”

“Ooooh…” Sonata started to skip alongside her sister, “That sounds nice! Can’t wait to see what she comes up with. I’d like to see if--”

“No,” Aria cut her off with a flat tone, “There are no yukatas with taco-print patterns.”

Sonata smirked at her sister with a wide, cocksure grin, “Yet.” But then, she remembered something that stuck out in her mind. “Those invites! I need to see what happens!” Then, she made a hard left for the inner city, “I’m gonna actually start looking for myself right now, byyyyye!”

As Sonata ran off, Aria could only manage a dumbfounded glare in her direction. “...Yeah, she’s up to something. Do I have the energy to find out? Nope.”