Categories > Anime/Manga > Gravitation > Euphoria V
Notes:
“Text”= Japanese People Speaking
“/Text/”= English People Speaking
“+Text+”= American People Speaking
“#Text#”= Australian People Speaking
Their father is on another business trip. He’s been doing that quite a bit lately. Yet, is he doing it for the work or just trying to escape his wife’s depression. Darcy didn’t seem bothered by it. She had other things on her mind at the moment.
This morning, she had class again. Simon had made some progress to get himself back at long last. Yet, their mother still was in her own slump. She had started to take pills to cope. From the looks of everything, only Darcy held everyone together for the time being. No, something had to change and she had to make it do so.
Subject: Darcy
Darcy walked into her mother’s room. Katie looked up from the sofa where she lay. Her daughter knelt down beside her.
“/Morning mum,/” she whispered. Katie leapt up with a shock.
“/Simon?/” she asked. She turned and saw Darcy sitting in front of her.
“/Simon’s all better,/” she said. Katie nodded at her, tired.
“/Yeah…/” she said.
“/You… uh… going to get dressed?/” Darcy asked. Katie gave her a weak nod.
“/Oh… sure…/” she said. “/Sure, sweetie./” Darcy knows it’s a lie. She just gets up and walks to the doorway. Mother and daughter smiled before the latter went into the kitchen. Katie frowned and reached for her son’s pills to cope once again.
Moments later, Simon walked into the kitchen.
“/How long?/” he asked. Darcy stood in a chair, blow drying wet, hanging clothes. She glanced up at him.
“/Don’t rush me,/” she said.
“/I’m down to my emergency pants,/” he complained. Darcy saw her brother’s dark blue pants that “kiss” written in pink letters on the crotch.
“/The tea expired,/” Darcy said. “/I wouldn’t bother with breakfast./” She walked over to the cabinet for some food. Simon sat down at the table. He sighed and flipped open his phone.
“/Still nothing?/” Darcy asked. Simon shook his head and closed his phone.
“/Nothing,/” he said. His sister breathed out as she pulled the clothes up higher.
“/How many times have you called her?/” she asked.
“/Thirty-nine./”
“/Texts?/”
“/Hundred and forty-one./”
“/Nothing?/”
“/Nothing./”
“/Wow,/” Darcy muttered. “/Casper really hates you./”
“/Yes,/” Simon said with a nod.
“/Well you did totally f**k up her relationship,/” his sister pointed out.
“/Right,/” he mumbled.
“/You just stormed in and f**d it right up./”
“/Yes, alright!/” Her brother was getting annoyed by this point. “/I love her, okay?/”
Darcy looked over at him. “/Love?/”
“/Oh just leave it, D!/” Simon snapped. She just went back to drying the wet clothes above her head.
“/Love, love, love,/” she said. “/What is it good for? Absolutely nothing./” Simon looked down at his phone.
“/Yes,/” he said to himself.
Soon after the chores were down, Darcy headed off to school. The girl looked up at the window before walking away. She found Nadine waiting at the corner for her, smoking. The British-American gave her a small wave.
“/Yo,/” she said. Darcy waved back.
“/No change?/” Nadine asked.
“/Nope,/” her pal said.
“/Ah,/” the other girl said. They headed off together. Nadine knew when not to pry. Simon watched them from his window. Then, he walked over to his computer and booted it up. He pulled out his revision notebook and opened it up. The first page covered with photos of Casper greeted him with such warmth. The man just couldn’t help but to smile. Page after page seemed to offer him a little hope of getting it all back to good once more. Yet, would that even be possible at this rate? It just looked like a pipe dream that couldn’t go anywhere. Simon pulled out his phone and dialed her number again. He set down the phone and waited.
Casper watched her phone ring on her bed. She already knew who it was. The hippie stuffed the phone in her desk drawer and shoved it closed. Frustrated that he ex wouldn’t stop, she buried her head under her pillow.
Meanwhile, Darcy sat in her art class. “And that ladies,” the art teacher spoke up. “Is why Ono Yoko is shit.” She walked around as some of her students were painting.
“As Murakami and Shiota told me,” the teacher said. “Modern art, my ass! I was modeling in the morning stroking them to thrilling climax in the afternoon. ‘Yuko,’ Murakami said, ‘You will never be an artist, but your breasts are perfect.’”
Nadine rolled her eyes. Yet another sex/art filled story. Creepy old lady, she thought. The teacher smiled.
“And with great breasts, come great responsibility,” she said. “My job: 100% A grades through the medium of art and we need projects of the subject of emotion.” The woman turned behind her.
“Megumi-chan, where is your emotion?” she asked.
“It’s almost done, sama,” the student said. “I just need to…” Yuko-sensei frowned and walked over to the next girl.
“Keiko-chan,” she said. “Watercolor scroll, all disciples of the redeeming rush of achievement.” Yuko-sensei came around the circle.
“And Darcy-chan,” she said. “Oh yes, Darcy-chan, is there any hint of creativity flowing between you and Nadine-chan?” The other girl looked at her, silently.
“Any gushing forth of self-expression, girls?” the teacher asked.
“/No,/” Darcy admitted.
“Well, as I understand,” she said. “In return for about 13,000,00 yen of yours parents’ money, we guarantee total success. So I’d suggest you unblock that flow by Thursday. As Kurosawa told me…”
“/Excuse me,/” a small voice spoke up. “/Is this Noguchi-sensei’s modern art class?/” Everyone looked up to see girl about Darcy and Nadine’s age standing in the doorway. She looked rather plain in her navy blue uniform. Nadine sneered at her messy blonde pigtails and crooked teeth. What the hell?, she thought. The teacher looked on at her.
“No child,” she said. “This is Noguchi-sama’s studio! And who pre tell are you?”
“/Um… I’m Lilith,/” the girl answered. “/I’m new. They…/”
“Sit!” Noguchi-sama commanded. “Or strip!” The girl blinked at her.
“/What?/” she asked.
“Either sit down,” the teacher said. “Or strip so that we may feast upon your form with graphite and rubbers.” Nadine blinked at the newbie. Poor soul…, she thought. Lilith quickly took a seat as the bell rang. Everyone began to pick up their art supplied.
“The bells, ladies!” the teacher spoke up. “They speak of achievement. They speak of the ecstasy of what?”
“Self-expression!” the students replied.
“Self-expression!” Noguchi-sama repeated. “Yes! Yes! Oh yes!” All of the students filed out of the classroom. The girls began talking about their crazy teacher. Darcy and Nadine began to follow behind.
“Ladies!” Noguchi-sama called to them. The two girls paused.
“Ladies,” the teacher repeated. “A moment please.” Darcy and Nadine came back into the classroom.
“I don’t think we can leave the new girl to bloom unaided, can we?” the art teacher asked. They all turned to the new student. Noguchi-sama frowned at her a bit.
“Lilith-chan, don’t do that,” she said. Lilith looked up with having a black ink pen in her mouth. Nadine sneered at the ink around her mouth.
“/Why?/” the newbie asked. The teacher turned to Nadine and Darcy.
“You see?” she asked. Nadine frowned as Darcy stood stoic.
“An innocent,” Noguchi-sama said. “She needs a mentor, a guide, wouldn’t you say?”
“/No way!/” Nadine.
“/Uh… no,/” Darcy replied. “/I have my coursework and…/”
“No problem,” the teacher cut in. “It’s prefect. The three of you can help each other. Would you like that Lilith-chan?” The new girl looked up at her.
“/Yeah, I’d love it!/” she said. “/I’m useless, that’s why I’m here./” Nadine frowned. Are you kidding me?!?, she thought. Noguchi-sama gave her a little smile.
“How perceptive you are,” she said. Tell me about it, Nadine thought. The teacher turned to the other two girls.
“And ladies,” she said. “100% success or its farewell to Yamazaki Private School for young ladies.”
“/You mean they’ll expel us?/” Nadine asked.
“Well, yes,” Noguchi-sama told her. “Otherwise, it doesn’t work at all, does it?”
“/No,/” Darcy replied. The teacher turned back to Lilith.
“So!” she said aloud. “Off you go, ladies! Enjoy! Dampen yourselves with the thrill of art!” It was all it took for Nadine not to gag out loud as Darcy walked out of the classroom.
“/Wait!/” Lilith called as she raced after the girls on their way home. “/Darcy! Nadine, wait!/” The other two girls didn’t respond.
“/Noguchi-sama said that we should be friends!/” Lilith tried again.
“/We don’t have friends!/” Darcy said.
“/Great!/” the new girl replied. “/I don’t have any either. Isn’t that great?/” Nadine gritted her teeth. If ever she wanted to smack someone right now…
Lilith caught up to them.
“/I can do something you can’t do,/” she said. The other two girls stopped. They turned around to her.
“/There’s nothing I can’t do,/” Darcy spoke up. Nadine nodded in agreement.
“/You can’t do this!/” Lilith said. “/If it’s good enough, can we be friends?/” Sounds like a desperate plea, but yet anything to shut her up at this point. Lilith paused for a breath.
“/I got my rope and everything,/” she said. She opened her pink backpack and reached inside. Nadine blinked at her.
“/Rope?/” she asked. Darcy watched the third girl in silence. Moments later, she and Nadine watched as Lilith climbed up the highest tree she could find.
“/Not bad,/” Darcy said.
“/Mum sent me to circus school for my dizzy spells, right?/” Lilith shouted to below. “/Big finish. I take off my bra without unbuttoning anything./”
“/Okay…/” Darcy said. Nadine still frowned.
“Okay, Darcy!” a familiar voice said. She and her friend on the ground looked and saw a boy in an orange hoodie walk over to them.
“/What do you want?/” Darcy asked.
“I think you already know what I want,” he said.
“Hikaru,” Darcy said. “We’re not going to screw you.”
“Not even as friends?” he asked.
“/In your dreams,/” Nadine brushed off. She and Darcy started to walk away.
“Oh, come on!” he yelled as he followed behind. “You promised a little tumble. You promised me! Just as friends!” All the while, Lilith stood in the tree, preparing for her trick.
“/So?/” Darcy asked. “/I lied./”
“Come on!” Hikaru pleaded.
“/No,/” Nadine said.
“/I’m ready!/” Lilith called out.
“Who’s that?” the boy asked.
“/Lilith,/” Darcy answered.
“/She’s a bit funny-looking,/” he muttered.
“/So are you,/” Nadine said. The boy handed them both some joints.
“You didn’t say that last night when I gave you the neck job,” he said as Lilith looked down to make sure the conditions were right.
“/That was only because you said you would help me sell spliff tonight,/” Nadine pointed out.
“/One… two… three!/” Lilith counted off.
“Yeah, but,” Hikaru said. “I want to lay you both, baby. But just as friends, right?” He took a smoke of his cigarette. The rope reeled behind them.
“/We’ve got a friend,/” Darcy said. “/Wanker!/” The three turned to see Lilith hanging by her feet from the tree.
“/Ta-da!/” she said with her bra in her hand. Nadine and Darcy looked on surprised as she giggled.
“Impressive,” Hikaru said. Nadine only shrugged. Couldn’t hurt to have the newbie around, right?
Sid sat at the Williams’ front step. Darcy and the girls walked up to him.
“/Hello there, Sid,/” she said. The man looked up at her. Darcy, Nadine, and Lilith all looked at him.
“/I was just… uh…/” he said. He turned to the trash bin. “/Looking at your bins,/” he lied.
“/You want to see Simon?/” Darcy asked.
“/Oh! Uh…/” Sid said. “/Might as well./” He rose to his feet and went inside with them.
“/Come on,/” Darcy said. A letter addressed to Simon sat on the kitchen today. The man sat at the table, staring at it.
“/Busy day?/” his sister asked as she walked inside. He looked up at her and then turned back to the table. Nadine, Lilith, and Sid followed behind her. Lilith looked around the house for a bit. Sid walked over to him.
“/Hello, Si,/” he said. His former friend looked up at him.
“/Wondered how you were doing,/” Sid said.
“/Brilliant,/” Simon said.
“/Just been worried about you since…/” his friend said.
“/You stole my girlfriend?/” the other friend asked.
“/Well… she’s gone off me too, Si,/” Sid admitted. “/Don’t mind if I uh…/” He reached over for the milk on the table.
“/Don’t mind,/” Simon said. Sid sat down at the table with him. He took a drink of the strawberry milk. Simon watched in silence. Sid lowered the carton.
“/Tangy,/” he said. Darcy turned to him. Then, she saw the letter on the table.
“/What’s that?/” she asked.
“/Came in the post,/” her brother said. “/Casper’s handwriting./”
“/Can I open it?/” Lilith asked. “/I love parasols!/”
“/That’s Lilith,/” Darcy said.
“/Oh,/” he said. Lilith opened the letter.
“/Mum sends our Christmas presents to the poor in Africa… and Sapporo,/” she went on. “/Except for Scrabble because mum says that can’t read./” She drew out the broken watch.
“/Oh,/” she said.
“/I gave it to Casper on her birthday,/” Simon said.
“/Simon, it’s all my fault,/” Sid spoke up. “/Casper was… It was just like… I was filling a gap. I mean… not that gap! It’s just…/”
“/So who want to hear my best cock gag?/” they heard a voice ask. Everyone looked up to see Katie walking into the kitchen with a cigarette in her hand.
“/No mum,/” Darcy said.
“/Hello Katie,/” Sid said.
“/No, listen,/” the old woman said. “/Best cock gag./”
“/Mum, mum,/” Darcy said. “/You don’t have to…/” Katie did a motion of a blow job towards Sid. She began to make choking noises. Darcy put her palm to her face. Everyone looked rather uncomfortable. Katie stopped and giggled.
“/Thank you,/” she said. “/My name is Katie Williams and I shall be here all week!/” Darcy got up and took her back to her room.
“/Come on, mum,/” she said. “/You need to lie down./” Simon’s eyes turned to the rejected gift.
“/I think they liked my gag,/” Katie said as Sid looked on at his friend in pain.
“/Yeah,/” Darcy lied. “/Yeah, they loved it./” Darcy took her mother back to her room. Katie sat down on the bed. She took a smoke of her cigarette.
“/Okay, mum?/” Darcy asked.
“/Yeah,/” her mother said.
“/You just take it easy,/” the daughter said as she removed her cigarette.
“/Yes,/” Darcy said. “/You do that./”
“/Just a little nap?/” Katie asked.
“/Yeah,/” her daughter said.
“/Then everything will be… yeah,/” the mother mumbled.
“/Okay,/” Darcy finished. Katie slowly fell back onto the bed and went back to sleep. Darcy watched over her before taking Simon’s meds out of her mother’s robe pocket. She looked at the half-empty bottle before putting it in her own pocket. Lilith and Nadine walked into the room.
“/Is she mental?/” Lilith asked. Darcy looked up at her.
“/No,/” she said. “/Just… tired./” Nadine sat down next to her as the newbie walked over and picked up the family photo.
“/You’re brother’s nice,/” she said.
“/He’s not nice,/” Darcy corrected him. “/He’s amazing. He was hit by a bus, you know. Had to live everything again. How to swim, how to write his name, how to be my brother.” Lilith looked Simon’s emergency card as she spoke.
“/Look, we’re not getting on, right?/” Sid asked Simon as they sat in the living room.
“/No, Sid,/” he said. Both men sat in uncomfortable silence.
“/I was lonely,/” his friend reasoned. “/And sometimes when bad stuff happens, you just need…/”
“/A shag?/” Simon asked.
“/Yeah,/” Sid said. “/No!/”
“/She was my girlfriend!/”
“/Simon, she wasn’t your girlfriend. You didn’t want her./”
“/Well, now I do. So f**k you!/”
Sid took another drink of the strawberry milk.
“/You remember when we were little and we had a fight?/” Simon asked.
“/Like when you told Tokuda-sensei I shaved the hamster?/” Sid asked.
“/Yeah,/” his friend said. “/Like that and we wouldn’t talk to each other all day. Then, you’d turn up on pink bike with the stabilizers./”
“/It wasn’t it was pink!/”Sid protested. “/It was magenta!/”
“/You’d say sorry and we would do our special high-five thing and that was it,/” Simon finished. “/Sorted./”
“/Yeah,/” Sid said. “/Easy./” They looked at each other for a moment. The men stood to their feet, shook hands twice, one fist bump, three high-fives, hip, hip, hand shake, hand shake, spit on their hands, shake hands again, and sit down. Both men frowned.
“/That didn’t work, did it?/” Sid asked.
“/No,/” Simon said. “/It didn’t./” He got up and walked back to his room.
“/Where are you going?/” Sid asked.
“/Revision,/” the fallen leader replied.
“/But we’ve got to fix this!/” his friend said. Simon turned to him in the doorway.
“/Then get her back for me!/” he said. Then, he walked back to his room, leaving Sid alone in his distress. How did it all get out of control like this? He drank up more of the milk.
“/You’re an idiot!/” a girl’s voice told him. Sid nodded to himself.
“/You were f***g the wrong girl!/” the girl’s voice told him. Sid nodded to himself again.
“/It’s Arisu you love,/” the girl’s voice added. “/You only got mixed up with Casper because, let’s face it, men are dicks and there was no one else to screw, which is totally f***g pathetic. Isn’t it?/” Sid paused and looked around. Darcy sat next to him on the couch.
“/Has anyone ever told you, Darcy, that this whole sneaking up on people, getting inside their head is not cool, okay?/” he asked. Nadine only smiled at him from the back corner.
“/I’m right there,/” Darcy said. Sid sighed.
“/You’re always right,/” he complained. “/You are your f**g brother! You’re always f*g right! F**g right!/” The man took another drink of milk.
“/That milk’s two weeks old,/” Darcy pointed out.
“/I know,/” Sid said. “/It’s okay. I put some cocoa powder it in. It’s a bit chewy, that’s all./” Nadine shook her head to herself. Sid sighed to himself.
“/Shite!/” Sid mumbled to himself as he rose to his feet. “/Why do I always screw up?/”
“/You seem pretty good at it,/” Nadine pointed out.
“/Arisu won’t talk to me,/” Sid complained.
“/What makes you think that?/” Darcy asked.
“/Came in the post,/” he said as he handed her a photograph. Darcy looked at it first and back. “F**k off and die” was the on the back.
“/My life is a total shite pile again,/” Sid added. “/My best friend, my girlfriend, I f*d it up. My other girlfriend, I f*d it up./”
“/You’d give anything to have it all fixed?/” Darcy asked.
“/Yes!/” Sid said.
“/But you’re incapable of anything involving effort, focus, or subtlety,/” she said.
“/Yep,/” Sid said.
“/Women are a mystery to you,/” Darcy stated.
“/You got it./”
“/Any good at art?/”
“/Course not. Huh?/”
“/My art coursework. It’s on the subject of emotion and you seem… emotional. So you can do it for me./”
Sid blinked at her. “/And?/”
“/Oh, for Christ’s sake!/” Darcy spoke up. “/I’ll sort out your f***g story!/”
“/You will?/” Sid asked. Darcy rolled her eyes.
“/Just this once,/” she said.
Moments later, the three girls got dressed to go out on the night. Lilith modeled off her borrowed dark outfit in the mirror. Darcy walked over and sat down. The newbie looked up at her.
“/Oh,/” she said. “/Darcy, you have a lovely lot of clothes. Pals always share, right?/” Then, her cell phone rang. “/Oh, hang on,/” she said. The newbie reached into her shirt and pulled out her phone.
“/Hi mum!/” Lilith said as Darcy and Nadine snacked on some coffee candies in a jar. “/Guess what? I’ve got friends! No, not like the last one. No, not on the internet. No, mum! They really are girls this time!/” Lilith giggled.
“/Come on,/” Nadine said. Lilith hung up the phone.
“/So where are we going Dar, Nai?/” the newbie asked as they walked down the street.
“/Dar?/” Darcy asked.
“/Nai?/” Nadine asked.
“/Yeah, where are we going Dar?/” Lilith asked.
“/To pick up,/” Darcy said.
“/To pick up what?/” Lilith’s phone rang again. She reached down the top to answer.
“/Hi mum!/” the girl answered. “/We’re just going to pick up./” She turned to her new friends. “/She wants to know what we’re picking up./”
“/Drugs,/” Nadine said.
“/Salad!/” Lilith quickly lied on the phone.
“/Dar! Nai!/” she cried as she ran after them and hung up the phone. They came to Emma and Fujisaki’s apartment. Darcy knocked on the door. Arisu slid it open.
“Hey, Darcy,” she said. “Hey, Nadine.”
“/Hey,/” the British girls replied. Darcy turned to Lilith. The quartet walked inside.
“Who’s this?” Arisu asked, looking at Lilith.
“/Lilith,/” Darcy replied.
“/Hi,/” the newbie said.
“/She’s a virgin,/” Nadine added.
“Oh, cool,” Arisu said.
“Hey Arisu-chan,” an older woman purred as she came out of the guest bedroom. “Borrowed your panties.” Arisu giggled.
“Okay, see ya,” she said. The curvy woman walked over to her.
“That was one hell of a night,” the raven-haired beauty told her. “You know that?”
“Of course,” Arisu replied. They kissed with tongues while groping each other.. Lilith turned to the younger girls.
“/They’re man and woman kissing!/” she whispered as Darcy and Nadine took a smoke. The former looked up at the women.
“/Arisu,/” Darcy spoke up.
“Hm?” the Goth Japanese woman asked.
“/Sid says he’s very sorry,/” the English girl said. “/He loves you. He’s sorry he f**d Casper. He wants you back./” The women broke off the kiss and looked up.
“Tell him I have discovered the power of the pussy,” Arisu said.
“Oh yes,” the other woman said. The two went back to kissing. Lilith looked on in shock.
Moments later, Darcy, Nadine, Lilith, and Arisu all looked in a small tank. Two slugs sat inside, mating. Arisu grinned at them.
“That one’s called Sidney and that’s Cassa,” she said. “Isn’t Cassa just so pretty? Look at Sidney, sliming all over her. Disgusting, isn’t he?”
“/They’re doing it?/” Lilith asked.
“Yes they are doing it,” Arisu replied. “When I’m ready, I’ll pour salt on them. When I’m go and ready.” She rose to her feet and walked into her room.
“Come on,” she said before disappearing inside and reappearing with an open jewelry box in her hands. “Here you are,” she said. “Three eighths of top-quality pot.”
“/Alright if I pay you tomorrow?/” Darcy asked.
“/It’s alright,/” Lilith said as she reached into her top and pulled out a red and gold wallet. “/I can pay./” The girl paused.
“/How much is it for weeds?/” she asked.
“Oh, not much,” Arisu said as Darcy took the wallet from her. The English girl them stuffed the weed down Lilith’s top and handed the Japanese woman her wallet.
“/Grandpops died and left me his credit card,/” Lilith told them. Darcy paid for the weed. Arisu looked at her, smiling.
“Right,” she said. The girls sat down on the couch as Arisu went back into her room.
“/Are we gonna put weeds in a reefer and get honky?/” Lilith asked. Darcy and Nadine glanced at her.
“/Not yet,/” Darcy replied as there came a knock on the door.
“It’s open!” Arisu called. A young man opened the door and walked inside.
“Hi Arisu-chan,” he said.
“Hi Kaoru,” she greeted him. “Come here.” The two began kissing with the three English girls watching. The pairing walked over to Arisu’s bedroom.
“Got to get it on, you know?” she told the girls. She went back to kissing the guy.
“/So, Sid?/” Darcy reminded her.
“Hm?” the woman asked her.
“/Any other thoughts?/” Darcy asked as Arisu and Kaoru disappeared into her room.
“Tell him I’m on a one-way ticket to Dick City,” Arisu told her. “And I love it.” She pushed Kaoru down onto the bed and slammed the door. The three girls turned back from looking.
“/Blooming heck!/” Lilith gasped. “/She’s a bit of a… What do you call it? Whore!/” Darcy turned to the door and smirked to herself as the wheels turned in her head.
Simon dialed Casper’s number again. When she didn’t pick up, he tossed his phone to the wall. He looked at the ticking broken watch in his hand. Seems like a waste now. He looked over at his sleeping mother.
“/I’m sorry I ruined everything,/” he told her. “/Sorry for not looking across the road. Sorry you got depressed and… Sorry dad couldn’t handle being around at home./” He sniffled for a bit.
“/I love her, mum,/” Simon went on. “/I keep thinking… I keep thinking she’s just going to turn up at the door./” Darcy stood in the doorway, listening. He sighed to himself.
“/What’s the point?/” he complained. “/She can’t hear me./”
“/Of course, she can,/” his sister spoke. “/She’s our sleeping beauty./” Simon whipped around at the sound of her voice.
“/Jesus,/” he breathed out. Darcy walked over to him.
“/Waiting for a prince,/” she said. “/Want some spliff?/”
“/Makes me weird,.” Simon said.
“/What? Weirder than this?/” she asked.
“/F**k it,/” he said as he rose to his feet. The man walked over of the room. Darcy stood over her sleeping mother.
“/Why bother?/” she asked. Simon turned to her.
“/With what?/” he asked.
“/Caring about people,/” she replied. Her brother walked over to her and leaned in close to her face.
“/You don’t fool me, Darcy Williams,/” he whispered. He turned and walked away. The younger sister turned back to her sleeping mother.
Lilith sat on the couch, smoking a joint. She turned to Simon smiling as her cell phone rang. The girl reached over to the coffee table and picked it up.
“/Hi mum,/” she said. “/No, I’m fine! I’m super-duper fine! Yep! I’m with my friends and they are so f***g amazing! Well, I guess I’m looking at Simon’s cock./” She giggled as he covered his member through his boxers with his leg and hands.
“/Can’t tell,/” Lilith went on. “/Bye./” She hung up the phone as her mother ranted on the phone. The girl turned back to Simon, smiling. Creepied out, he bolted from the couch. Lilith looked on, still smiling. The man quickly covered his crotch with his hands. Lilith kept smiling until she collapsed over. Then, the door bell rang.
Simon opened the door to see Sid on the other side. His friend looked on at him.
“/Is Darcy in?/” he asked. Simon moved aside and let him in. He closed the door behind him. Simon turned to his former friends.
“/Upstairs,/” he said.
“/Ta,/” Sid replied. He turned to walk up the stairs.
“/You going to nail my sister?/” Simon asked. “/Is that it? First my girlfriend, then my sister./” Sid turned around to him.
“/No! I…/” he began. “/No!/” The look of disgust on his said it all.
“/Alright,/” his friend said. “/Just asking./” Sid sneered at him.
“/No,/” he said sarcastically. “/I’ll wait until she’s eighteen. She’ll be legal, yeah?/” Then, Sid rushed up the stairs. Simon walked away.
Sid presented Darcy with a black, grey, and white self-portrait of himself with the word “loser” across his chest.
“/Loser isn’t an emotion,/” Darcy pointed. Sid lowered the picture.
“/It is to me,/” he argued. “/You think it’s shite, don’t you?/” Darcy looked on at him.
“/Yes,/” she admitted without blinking.
“/I used four biros!/” he complained. “/I bought them. Four!/” The man pulled out four black pens from his jeans pocket and showed them to her.
“/You owe me forty-six yen,/” he said. Then, he shoved the pens back into his pocket. Darcy stood up and slid off her black lacy shirt. Sid turned to her in shock.
“/Whoa, whoa! Darcy!/” he called. “/W-What are you doing?/”
“/I’m going out,/” she said. “/You’ve got twenty-four hours, Sid, to produce something that doesn’t look like coursework for GCSE spaz./” She stripped off her black dress, leaving her in black bra and panties. Sid tried look anywhere except for her. Darcy walked over to her closet and pulled out her art kit from school.
“/Dip your brush in that,/” she said as she handed him the kit and the mug. “/Don’t even think of leaving this room until you’ve done it./” She walked over to her bed and sat down. Sid rose to his feet.
“/Listen,/” he began. “/I don’t think this is working out, yeah? Shall we just leave, okay? I quit./” Big mistake! Darcy began bouncing up and down on her bed and moaning.
“/Oh Sid!/” she cried. “/Oh my god! You’re so big! Yeah!/” Sid looked around, panicked.
“/Alright!/” he said quickly. “/I’m doing it!/” Darcy stopped bouncing and smirked as he sat down to get to work. Worked every time!
“/Enjoy,/” she said as she put her dress back on and headed out the door. Sig sighed aloud.
“/Somebody come get me,/” he mumbled to himself.
“/Why do I have to come to?/” Simon asked as he, his sister, and her two friends walked down to an underground club.
“/If you get more boring, we’ll have to put you down,/” Darcy told him.
“/Nice,/” her brother muttered.
“/I don’t think you’re boring, Simon,/” Lilith said.
“/What about mum?/” he asked.
“/She doesn’t like boys,/” the newbie went on. “/She’s says they just want my pants to get into./” Simon paused.
“/No, my mum,/” he said.
“/She’s fine. She’s asleep,/” Darcy reminded him. “/Stop being a prick. Alright?/” She turned to the security guard.
“/Hello Goro,/” she said. The tall, muscled guards looked at the quartet.
“Alright, sweetheart?” he asked.
“/How’s the manga going?/” she asked. Goro groaned.
“You know, Darcy-chan, I’m struggling with the romantic scenes,” he said. “My publisher is getting picky about how the female characters are designed. I…” The big guard paused and looked at Lilith. “Hang on, who’s this?”
“/This is Lilith,/” she said.
“And how are you, girl? Twelve?” Goro asked.
“/No, I’m uh…/” she spoke up. She looked over at Darcy and Nadine. Goro waited for any answer.
“/Thirty-two!/” she blurted out. The guard sighed and shook his head. He walked over and down at her.
“Are you trying to pull one over me?” he asked. “I don’t like that. You want to know what I do with little girls that try to pull one over on me? Do you?” Lilith looked at him with big, frightened eyes. Goro gave him a huge smile.
“I give them lollipops,” he said. He handed her a pink and yellow lollipop. “Go on in,” the guard said. He let the three girls inside. Simon followed behind, but Goro blocked him off.
“Oi, ID?” he asked. Simon blinked.
“/Huh?/” he asked. Goro pointed to the sign behind him.
“Strictly Over 20’s,” he said.
“/Hang on,/” Simon said. “/You let them in./”
“Who?”
“/Come on! Give me a f***g lollipop!/”
“Can’t do it.” He shoed him off and let an older couple in. Simon looked around, frustrated. Darcy, Nadine, and Lilith walked into the packed underground club. The newbie looked on in surprise with her lollipop in her mouth.
“/Blooming heck!/” she said. Darcy closed her eyes to get in the zone. Hikaru snuck up behind her and covered her eyes.
“You want to make f*k-f*k with nice sexy boy?” he asked.
“/Piss off, Hikaru!/” she said as she pushed off his hands.
“You look hot, baby!” he said. “Makes me want to take you!” She reached over and grabbed his cock with such force.
“Holy shit!” the boy yelled out.
“/Listen to me f**kpig!/” Darcy snapped. “/We’ve got spliff to sell! So send little Dicky back to Bollockistan and get on with it. Okay?/” Lilith and Nadine watched on as he nodded in pain. Darcy gave Hikaru a little smile. She let go of his balls and the boy breathed out. She held out her hand and her girls handed her the drugs.
“/You do spliff, I’ll do pills,/” Darcy told him.
“What pills?” Hikaru asked. She shook the bottle at him.
“/Make over a thousand yen,/” she told her mule. “/And I’ll make sure you get laid. Deal?/”
“Just as friends?” he asked.
“/Just as friends,/” Darcy lied. They looked at each other for a moment before looking at all of the potential customers around them. They turned to see everyone stopping and staring at Lilith as she danced like a wild mental patient on the dance floor. The pair shrugged and got to work.
Back at the Williams’ house, Sid found himself at work as well. This time, he painted a big pink heart with the word “hope” across the top of the page. Yet, now he was stuck. He tried to light up a cigarette, but his lighter didn’t work.
“/F**k!/” he cursed himself. He began looking for a light. The man came across Darcy’s bottle of Crazy Milk sake. Despite the note saying, “Don’t even time about,” he took a drink anyway. Once he downed that, Sid got right back to work.
“/This is brilliant, Dine!/” Lilith yelled in the bathroom stall. “/Best friends always go to whizzer together, don’t they? I’ve seen it in the films./” She reached in for some toilet paper, but found that her stall had none.
“/Got any loo paper, Dar?/” Lilith asked. Darcy looked up in her stall.
“/No,/” she said.
“/Dar, Dine, I want to get wonky off my face too!/” the newbie called out as the girls walked out of the restroom. “/Can I have one?/”
“/Oh for Christ sake!/” Nadine said. “/One and you puke it on your own, okay?/” Lilith didn’t listen as she put the pill in her mouth.
“/You owe use three hundred yen,/” Darcy said. Lilith shrugged and went off.
Outside, Simon read over Goro’s manga.
“What do you think?” the guard asked. Simon looked up at him.
“/Ah, yes. Excellent,/” he said. “/But…/”
“In you go girls,” Goro said to the next set of clubbers walking in. He turned to Simon once they were inside.
“But?” he asked.
“/The story arcs are stylishly appealing and the story is well-told,/” the younger man said. “/I especially like the Bunny Princess with the whip. Ties the villains to the ceiling, very nice./”
“Yeah,” Goro said.
“/But you need to move the climatic element back,/” Simon went on. “/So the orgy scene comes before the big arrest of the slave traders. See?/” He handed the guard back his novel. Goro took back the book. He read over it with a new revelation.
“That’s it!” he called. “That’s it! You solved!” He handed Simon a lollipop.
“Have a good one, man,” he said as he let the young man inside. Simon walked inside, looking around. He spotted Darcy selling off Casper’s watch to a much older boy in the corner. He looked at it and Darcy gave him the money. Pain shot through her brother’s heart. She looked up and saw him fighting towards her as the other boy walked away.
“/What the f**k are you doing?!?/” he yelled. “/You just sold Casper’s watch./”
“/Let it go, Simon!/” she replied. “/Casper did!/”
“/What?!?/” he shouted. “/What?!?/”
“/Simon!/” Lilith yelled as she raced over and hugged him. She kept trying to kiss and lick on his face.
“/Simon,/” she said. “/The music’s beautiful!/” He tried to push her off.
“/Get off!/” he said.
“/I love you!/” Lilith said.
“/Lilith, no!/” the man yelled.
“/I want to lick your bottom!/”
“/No!/”
“/I want to lick your balls…/” Then, she was out cold. Darcy and Nadine walked out of the club. Simon ended up carrying Lilith over his shoulder. Darcy looked at her brother.
“/Time to go home,/” she said. So, they began the trip that way.
“/F**n’ hate you,/” Simon muttered at her.
As everyone slept in Darcy’s room, she put her plan into full swing. Hikaru awoke to see her watching him from her bed.
“Well hello,” he said. He pulled out the money. “One thousand and thirty Japanese yen,” he bragged. “I claim my prize, American Pie.”
“/Lucky you,/” Darcy said. She got out of bed and leaned in to kiss him.
“/Just one thing,/” she said. The guy pouted.
“Again?” he asked. “I thought we were going to get jiggy!”
“/I said that you would get laid, Hikaru,/” she said. “/And you will./” He flew back disappointed.
“/Don’t worry,/” she said. “/You’re gonna love this./”
The next morning, he came at Arisu’s door. The woman gave him an odd look.
“Hi,” Hikaru said.
“Hi…” Arisu said back.
“So you don’t know, but a very good friend of mine said that you would be uh… into what I’m into,” he said.
“Oh…” she said. “And what’s that?” He looked around for a bit and smiled.
“And then she told me, that all of that time she had been screwing my friend,” Hikaru said in the apartment as the slug crawled on his hand. “I was just… I can’t believe she would do that to me, you know?” Arisu looked on, interested. The boy sighed.
“If it wasn’t for my slugs,” he said. “I don’t know what I might have…”
“Poor you,” Arisu said. “I can’t believe it. It happened to me too.” The boy looked up at her.
“Yeah?” he asked. “And, uh… what did you do about it?”
“F**k relationships,” the woman said. “I’m into mindless sex now.”
“Oh, mindless. Yeah, oh. You know, I just want to blow everything out. You know, I’d really like to blow it out now. Right here… by this window?” he offered. Arisu touched his cheek.
“How old did you say you were?” she asked.
“Oh, older than I look,” Hikaru said. “It’s the grief. It takes years off of you.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.” They began kissing as Darcy took pictures from outside.
Sid himself awoke to a nasty surprise. He found pictures of Arisu and Hikaru making out all over the room and his body. Boy did he scream. Simon sat in his room with his broken phone. He looked up to see Darcy walking into the room.
"Phone's buggered," he said as she sat down.
"Yeah?" she asked. "Can't call her, then."
"What's the use?" he asked. "Thing I don't understand is why her voice mail's off. If I could leave a message... It just rings and rings."
"You really don't understand anything, do you, Si?" Darcy asked.
"What?" he asked as he looked up at her.
"As long as it's ringing, she knows you're there," his sister told him. She got up and looked away. He looked up at her.
"Can't believe you sold Casper's watch," he said. Darcy paused and turned to him.
"Who says I sold it?" she asked. Her brother gave her a confused look.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Put your sim in that," the girl said as she handed him a blank phone."I'm going out." She gave him a little smile and walked away.
At Casper's house, the doorbell rang. "Casper!" Lynn called. "There's a man here with a parasol for you!" The woman got out of bed and walked to the front door. Moments later, she sat with the package in front of her. She grabbed it and opened it up. Inside was a purple box. The hippie opened it and pulled out the watch Simon gave her on her birthday. On the back was engraved "forever." Tears flooded her eyes.
Elsewhere, Sid ran all the way to Emma's apartment to confront Arisu. He pounded on the door.
"Arisu!" he yelled. "Arisu! Listen, open the door, Arisu!" Instead, Emma opened the door.
"#Sid,#" she said."#Mate, she doesn't want to see you.#" Sid put up his hands.
"Look, I don't f***g care, okay?" he said. "Arisu!"
"#Come on, leave it, man,#" Emma said, holding the baby by her side. "#This ain't...#"
"Listen, I don't care!" her friend replied. He pushed past her and went inside.
"What the f**k are you doing?!?" he shouted at his ex on the couch.
"#Jesus, Sid,#" the Aussie said. "#Just go man.#"
"It's alright, Emma," she said. "I'm fine."
"#Alright, watch it!#" the hostess said."#Or I'll... What do I do?#"
"Bite his head off and spit in the hole," Arisu finished.
"#Yeah,#" Emma said, nodding. "#Probably won't do that, but... yeah.#" Then, she walked away, carrying Damon with her. Now, Sid and Arisu were alone.
"What do you want, Sid?" Arisu asked.
"I want you to stop what you are doing, okay?" he asked. "You know, f**g around! F**g anything that moves! Just stop it."
"You started it."
"I don't care! I don't care! You're cruel. I hate you!"
"Hate you right back. Why don't you run over to Casper's and give her one? Oh, another one!"
"Give it a f***g rest already! You know it's you and me! You know that and you're being stupid!"
"My turn."
"You went away again! Why did you go away again?!? When I needed you and you pissed off! My dad said... Well, he said you're special, but you're not! You're just slutting around like a spoilt kid./"
"Casper, Sid! Casper!"
"I don't love Casper! I never loved Casper! I loved you, but you... you... " He sat down next to her. "Oh god... Where were you? Dad f***g died. I needed you. And Casper... We had three great days of sex and guilty sex for the rest. So what? I don't care. I didn't."
Arisu looked on as he broke down crying.
"I hate you..." he whimpered. "Fine, go f**k fifteen-year-olds. He got up to walk away. Whatever. I'm sick of saying sorry. I love you. You say sorry." Arisu's own eyes welled up.
"I didn't f**k him, Sid," she admitted. She rose to her feet. "His mother sewed his name to his pants," she said. "And well... he got a bit excited and he squashed my slug. My slug called Sidney. So, I threw him out." He turned around and kissed her. They fell back onto the couch and made out.
"#Well if he's still bothering you, Al,#" Emma came in saying. "#Then...#" She paused when she saw them kissing. A dumb smile came onto her face. "#Oh, I see. Got ya! Smokin'!#" She walked back into her room.
Simon sat in his room, waiting. He picked up his phone and dialed Casper's number again. He waited as the other line rang.
"I love you too," Casper said on the other line at last. Then, she hung up. He could be heard cheering from outside.
"Deadline is upon us," Noguchi-sama told Darcy at school. “I have projects from everyone. Very high standard. Lilith-chan’s contribution is thrillingly abstract. It reeks of emotion. The girl has great talent.” She held up the painting of the pink hearts with black paint smeared on it with the word, “Hopeless” across the front.
“Surprising,” the teacher said. “Even Yoshiko-chan has come through with a little coaching. All A’s without a doubt. Another triumph for the art department.” She turned to Darcy.
“All we need now is yours,” she said. “And we will have our 100% record for another year.”
“/It’s finished,/” Darcy said.
“Oh, splendid,” the teacher said. “And which emotion have you depicted?”
“/Anger, jealousy, bitterness, tiredness, hope, lust, love,/” she said.
“Veritable feast,” Noguchi-sama said. “So where is it?” Darcy gave her a little smile.
“/It’s everywhere,/” she said.
“My dear child, I’m not sure I understand,” Noguchi-sama said.
“/It’s conceptacle,/” Darcy replied. “/You can’t see it./”
“You’re saying you haven’t done it?” the teacher asked. Noguchi-sama frowned.
“/No,/” the student replied. “/I’m saying you can’t see it./”
“Well, I’m not quite sure that’s going to work for the Yamazaki Private School Board, now is it?” Noguchi-sama asked.
“/No,/” Darcy replied. “/They’ll just have to expel me./” She rose to her feet. “/Goodbye Noguchi-sama,/” the girl said.
“Bye Darcy-chan,” the teacher said. The girl started to walk away. Noguchi-sama rose to her feet.
“Darcy-chan,” she said. Darcy turned and looked at her teacher.
“I was going to tell you about Himura Saji,” the teacher said. “He was a very great artist and also truly remarkable at oral sex. Anyway, he gave me some advice I always remembered.”
“/What was it?/” Darcy asked.
“If they don’t like it, f**k ‘em!” Noguchi-sama said. Darcy nodded and left.
Meanwhile, Bill finally came home.
“/Hello?/” he asked. “/I’m back!/” He found his house looking clean and smelling nice. Simon came down the stairs.
“/Hi dad,/” he greeted him.
“/Hi,/” Bill replied. “/They let me come back early./”
“/That’s great./”
“/Yes, isn’t it. Where’s mum?/”
“/She’s asleep./”
“/Ah. Well, she won’t mind if I go up than. Tired, aren’t they? Flights, you./”
“/Fine./”
“/So, eh, feeling okay, son?/”
Simon nodded. “/Feeling great, dad./”
“/Good, that’s really good. What’s you been up to?/”
“/Revision./”
Then, the father went up the stairs to greet his wife.
“/It’s good to have you back, dad,/” Simon told him.
“/It’s good to be back,/” Bill replied. He walked into his bedroom and gave Katie a little kiss. His wife awoke to see him sitting over her.
“/Bill,/” she murmured.
“/Came home early,/” he said. “/Missed you./” His wife smiled.
“/I’ve been asleep,/” she said. “/Is everything alright?/”
“/Think so,/” he said. They shared another kiss. Darcy sat in her room reading and smiled to herself. All’s well that ends well.
“Text”= Japanese People Speaking
“/Text/”= English People Speaking
“+Text+”= American People Speaking
“#Text#”= Australian People Speaking
Their father is on another business trip. He’s been doing that quite a bit lately. Yet, is he doing it for the work or just trying to escape his wife’s depression. Darcy didn’t seem bothered by it. She had other things on her mind at the moment.
This morning, she had class again. Simon had made some progress to get himself back at long last. Yet, their mother still was in her own slump. She had started to take pills to cope. From the looks of everything, only Darcy held everyone together for the time being. No, something had to change and she had to make it do so.
Subject: Darcy
Darcy walked into her mother’s room. Katie looked up from the sofa where she lay. Her daughter knelt down beside her.
“/Morning mum,/” she whispered. Katie leapt up with a shock.
“/Simon?/” she asked. She turned and saw Darcy sitting in front of her.
“/Simon’s all better,/” she said. Katie nodded at her, tired.
“/Yeah…/” she said.
“/You… uh… going to get dressed?/” Darcy asked. Katie gave her a weak nod.
“/Oh… sure…/” she said. “/Sure, sweetie./” Darcy knows it’s a lie. She just gets up and walks to the doorway. Mother and daughter smiled before the latter went into the kitchen. Katie frowned and reached for her son’s pills to cope once again.
Moments later, Simon walked into the kitchen.
“/How long?/” he asked. Darcy stood in a chair, blow drying wet, hanging clothes. She glanced up at him.
“/Don’t rush me,/” she said.
“/I’m down to my emergency pants,/” he complained. Darcy saw her brother’s dark blue pants that “kiss” written in pink letters on the crotch.
“/The tea expired,/” Darcy said. “/I wouldn’t bother with breakfast./” She walked over to the cabinet for some food. Simon sat down at the table. He sighed and flipped open his phone.
“/Still nothing?/” Darcy asked. Simon shook his head and closed his phone.
“/Nothing,/” he said. His sister breathed out as she pulled the clothes up higher.
“/How many times have you called her?/” she asked.
“/Thirty-nine./”
“/Texts?/”
“/Hundred and forty-one./”
“/Nothing?/”
“/Nothing./”
“/Wow,/” Darcy muttered. “/Casper really hates you./”
“/Yes,/” Simon said with a nod.
“/Well you did totally f**k up her relationship,/” his sister pointed out.
“/Right,/” he mumbled.
“/You just stormed in and f**d it right up./”
“/Yes, alright!/” Her brother was getting annoyed by this point. “/I love her, okay?/”
Darcy looked over at him. “/Love?/”
“/Oh just leave it, D!/” Simon snapped. She just went back to drying the wet clothes above her head.
“/Love, love, love,/” she said. “/What is it good for? Absolutely nothing./” Simon looked down at his phone.
“/Yes,/” he said to himself.
Soon after the chores were down, Darcy headed off to school. The girl looked up at the window before walking away. She found Nadine waiting at the corner for her, smoking. The British-American gave her a small wave.
“/Yo,/” she said. Darcy waved back.
“/No change?/” Nadine asked.
“/Nope,/” her pal said.
“/Ah,/” the other girl said. They headed off together. Nadine knew when not to pry. Simon watched them from his window. Then, he walked over to his computer and booted it up. He pulled out his revision notebook and opened it up. The first page covered with photos of Casper greeted him with such warmth. The man just couldn’t help but to smile. Page after page seemed to offer him a little hope of getting it all back to good once more. Yet, would that even be possible at this rate? It just looked like a pipe dream that couldn’t go anywhere. Simon pulled out his phone and dialed her number again. He set down the phone and waited.
Casper watched her phone ring on her bed. She already knew who it was. The hippie stuffed the phone in her desk drawer and shoved it closed. Frustrated that he ex wouldn’t stop, she buried her head under her pillow.
Meanwhile, Darcy sat in her art class. “And that ladies,” the art teacher spoke up. “Is why Ono Yoko is shit.” She walked around as some of her students were painting.
“As Murakami and Shiota told me,” the teacher said. “Modern art, my ass! I was modeling in the morning stroking them to thrilling climax in the afternoon. ‘Yuko,’ Murakami said, ‘You will never be an artist, but your breasts are perfect.’”
Nadine rolled her eyes. Yet another sex/art filled story. Creepy old lady, she thought. The teacher smiled.
“And with great breasts, come great responsibility,” she said. “My job: 100% A grades through the medium of art and we need projects of the subject of emotion.” The woman turned behind her.
“Megumi-chan, where is your emotion?” she asked.
“It’s almost done, sama,” the student said. “I just need to…” Yuko-sensei frowned and walked over to the next girl.
“Keiko-chan,” she said. “Watercolor scroll, all disciples of the redeeming rush of achievement.” Yuko-sensei came around the circle.
“And Darcy-chan,” she said. “Oh yes, Darcy-chan, is there any hint of creativity flowing between you and Nadine-chan?” The other girl looked at her, silently.
“Any gushing forth of self-expression, girls?” the teacher asked.
“/No,/” Darcy admitted.
“Well, as I understand,” she said. “In return for about 13,000,00 yen of yours parents’ money, we guarantee total success. So I’d suggest you unblock that flow by Thursday. As Kurosawa told me…”
“/Excuse me,/” a small voice spoke up. “/Is this Noguchi-sensei’s modern art class?/” Everyone looked up to see girl about Darcy and Nadine’s age standing in the doorway. She looked rather plain in her navy blue uniform. Nadine sneered at her messy blonde pigtails and crooked teeth. What the hell?, she thought. The teacher looked on at her.
“No child,” she said. “This is Noguchi-sama’s studio! And who pre tell are you?”
“/Um… I’m Lilith,/” the girl answered. “/I’m new. They…/”
“Sit!” Noguchi-sama commanded. “Or strip!” The girl blinked at her.
“/What?/” she asked.
“Either sit down,” the teacher said. “Or strip so that we may feast upon your form with graphite and rubbers.” Nadine blinked at the newbie. Poor soul…, she thought. Lilith quickly took a seat as the bell rang. Everyone began to pick up their art supplied.
“The bells, ladies!” the teacher spoke up. “They speak of achievement. They speak of the ecstasy of what?”
“Self-expression!” the students replied.
“Self-expression!” Noguchi-sama repeated. “Yes! Yes! Oh yes!” All of the students filed out of the classroom. The girls began talking about their crazy teacher. Darcy and Nadine began to follow behind.
“Ladies!” Noguchi-sama called to them. The two girls paused.
“Ladies,” the teacher repeated. “A moment please.” Darcy and Nadine came back into the classroom.
“I don’t think we can leave the new girl to bloom unaided, can we?” the art teacher asked. They all turned to the new student. Noguchi-sama frowned at her a bit.
“Lilith-chan, don’t do that,” she said. Lilith looked up with having a black ink pen in her mouth. Nadine sneered at the ink around her mouth.
“/Why?/” the newbie asked. The teacher turned to Nadine and Darcy.
“You see?” she asked. Nadine frowned as Darcy stood stoic.
“An innocent,” Noguchi-sama said. “She needs a mentor, a guide, wouldn’t you say?”
“/No way!/” Nadine.
“/Uh… no,/” Darcy replied. “/I have my coursework and…/”
“No problem,” the teacher cut in. “It’s prefect. The three of you can help each other. Would you like that Lilith-chan?” The new girl looked up at her.
“/Yeah, I’d love it!/” she said. “/I’m useless, that’s why I’m here./” Nadine frowned. Are you kidding me?!?, she thought. Noguchi-sama gave her a little smile.
“How perceptive you are,” she said. Tell me about it, Nadine thought. The teacher turned to the other two girls.
“And ladies,” she said. “100% success or its farewell to Yamazaki Private School for young ladies.”
“/You mean they’ll expel us?/” Nadine asked.
“Well, yes,” Noguchi-sama told her. “Otherwise, it doesn’t work at all, does it?”
“/No,/” Darcy replied. The teacher turned back to Lilith.
“So!” she said aloud. “Off you go, ladies! Enjoy! Dampen yourselves with the thrill of art!” It was all it took for Nadine not to gag out loud as Darcy walked out of the classroom.
“/Wait!/” Lilith called as she raced after the girls on their way home. “/Darcy! Nadine, wait!/” The other two girls didn’t respond.
“/Noguchi-sama said that we should be friends!/” Lilith tried again.
“/We don’t have friends!/” Darcy said.
“/Great!/” the new girl replied. “/I don’t have any either. Isn’t that great?/” Nadine gritted her teeth. If ever she wanted to smack someone right now…
Lilith caught up to them.
“/I can do something you can’t do,/” she said. The other two girls stopped. They turned around to her.
“/There’s nothing I can’t do,/” Darcy spoke up. Nadine nodded in agreement.
“/You can’t do this!/” Lilith said. “/If it’s good enough, can we be friends?/” Sounds like a desperate plea, but yet anything to shut her up at this point. Lilith paused for a breath.
“/I got my rope and everything,/” she said. She opened her pink backpack and reached inside. Nadine blinked at her.
“/Rope?/” she asked. Darcy watched the third girl in silence. Moments later, she and Nadine watched as Lilith climbed up the highest tree she could find.
“/Not bad,/” Darcy said.
“/Mum sent me to circus school for my dizzy spells, right?/” Lilith shouted to below. “/Big finish. I take off my bra without unbuttoning anything./”
“/Okay…/” Darcy said. Nadine still frowned.
“Okay, Darcy!” a familiar voice said. She and her friend on the ground looked and saw a boy in an orange hoodie walk over to them.
“/What do you want?/” Darcy asked.
“I think you already know what I want,” he said.
“Hikaru,” Darcy said. “We’re not going to screw you.”
“Not even as friends?” he asked.
“/In your dreams,/” Nadine brushed off. She and Darcy started to walk away.
“Oh, come on!” he yelled as he followed behind. “You promised a little tumble. You promised me! Just as friends!” All the while, Lilith stood in the tree, preparing for her trick.
“/So?/” Darcy asked. “/I lied./”
“Come on!” Hikaru pleaded.
“/No,/” Nadine said.
“/I’m ready!/” Lilith called out.
“Who’s that?” the boy asked.
“/Lilith,/” Darcy answered.
“/She’s a bit funny-looking,/” he muttered.
“/So are you,/” Nadine said. The boy handed them both some joints.
“You didn’t say that last night when I gave you the neck job,” he said as Lilith looked down to make sure the conditions were right.
“/That was only because you said you would help me sell spliff tonight,/” Nadine pointed out.
“/One… two… three!/” Lilith counted off.
“Yeah, but,” Hikaru said. “I want to lay you both, baby. But just as friends, right?” He took a smoke of his cigarette. The rope reeled behind them.
“/We’ve got a friend,/” Darcy said. “/Wanker!/” The three turned to see Lilith hanging by her feet from the tree.
“/Ta-da!/” she said with her bra in her hand. Nadine and Darcy looked on surprised as she giggled.
“Impressive,” Hikaru said. Nadine only shrugged. Couldn’t hurt to have the newbie around, right?
Sid sat at the Williams’ front step. Darcy and the girls walked up to him.
“/Hello there, Sid,/” she said. The man looked up at her. Darcy, Nadine, and Lilith all looked at him.
“/I was just… uh…/” he said. He turned to the trash bin. “/Looking at your bins,/” he lied.
“/You want to see Simon?/” Darcy asked.
“/Oh! Uh…/” Sid said. “/Might as well./” He rose to his feet and went inside with them.
“/Come on,/” Darcy said. A letter addressed to Simon sat on the kitchen today. The man sat at the table, staring at it.
“/Busy day?/” his sister asked as she walked inside. He looked up at her and then turned back to the table. Nadine, Lilith, and Sid followed behind her. Lilith looked around the house for a bit. Sid walked over to him.
“/Hello, Si,/” he said. His former friend looked up at him.
“/Wondered how you were doing,/” Sid said.
“/Brilliant,/” Simon said.
“/Just been worried about you since…/” his friend said.
“/You stole my girlfriend?/” the other friend asked.
“/Well… she’s gone off me too, Si,/” Sid admitted. “/Don’t mind if I uh…/” He reached over for the milk on the table.
“/Don’t mind,/” Simon said. Sid sat down at the table with him. He took a drink of the strawberry milk. Simon watched in silence. Sid lowered the carton.
“/Tangy,/” he said. Darcy turned to him. Then, she saw the letter on the table.
“/What’s that?/” she asked.
“/Came in the post,/” her brother said. “/Casper’s handwriting./”
“/Can I open it?/” Lilith asked. “/I love parasols!/”
“/That’s Lilith,/” Darcy said.
“/Oh,/” he said. Lilith opened the letter.
“/Mum sends our Christmas presents to the poor in Africa… and Sapporo,/” she went on. “/Except for Scrabble because mum says that can’t read./” She drew out the broken watch.
“/Oh,/” she said.
“/I gave it to Casper on her birthday,/” Simon said.
“/Simon, it’s all my fault,/” Sid spoke up. “/Casper was… It was just like… I was filling a gap. I mean… not that gap! It’s just…/”
“/So who want to hear my best cock gag?/” they heard a voice ask. Everyone looked up to see Katie walking into the kitchen with a cigarette in her hand.
“/No mum,/” Darcy said.
“/Hello Katie,/” Sid said.
“/No, listen,/” the old woman said. “/Best cock gag./”
“/Mum, mum,/” Darcy said. “/You don’t have to…/” Katie did a motion of a blow job towards Sid. She began to make choking noises. Darcy put her palm to her face. Everyone looked rather uncomfortable. Katie stopped and giggled.
“/Thank you,/” she said. “/My name is Katie Williams and I shall be here all week!/” Darcy got up and took her back to her room.
“/Come on, mum,/” she said. “/You need to lie down./” Simon’s eyes turned to the rejected gift.
“/I think they liked my gag,/” Katie said as Sid looked on at his friend in pain.
“/Yeah,/” Darcy lied. “/Yeah, they loved it./” Darcy took her mother back to her room. Katie sat down on the bed. She took a smoke of her cigarette.
“/Okay, mum?/” Darcy asked.
“/Yeah,/” her mother said.
“/You just take it easy,/” the daughter said as she removed her cigarette.
“/Yes,/” Darcy said. “/You do that./”
“/Just a little nap?/” Katie asked.
“/Yeah,/” her daughter said.
“/Then everything will be… yeah,/” the mother mumbled.
“/Okay,/” Darcy finished. Katie slowly fell back onto the bed and went back to sleep. Darcy watched over her before taking Simon’s meds out of her mother’s robe pocket. She looked at the half-empty bottle before putting it in her own pocket. Lilith and Nadine walked into the room.
“/Is she mental?/” Lilith asked. Darcy looked up at her.
“/No,/” she said. “/Just… tired./” Nadine sat down next to her as the newbie walked over and picked up the family photo.
“/You’re brother’s nice,/” she said.
“/He’s not nice,/” Darcy corrected him. “/He’s amazing. He was hit by a bus, you know. Had to live everything again. How to swim, how to write his name, how to be my brother.” Lilith looked Simon’s emergency card as she spoke.
“/Look, we’re not getting on, right?/” Sid asked Simon as they sat in the living room.
“/No, Sid,/” he said. Both men sat in uncomfortable silence.
“/I was lonely,/” his friend reasoned. “/And sometimes when bad stuff happens, you just need…/”
“/A shag?/” Simon asked.
“/Yeah,/” Sid said. “/No!/”
“/She was my girlfriend!/”
“/Simon, she wasn’t your girlfriend. You didn’t want her./”
“/Well, now I do. So f**k you!/”
Sid took another drink of the strawberry milk.
“/You remember when we were little and we had a fight?/” Simon asked.
“/Like when you told Tokuda-sensei I shaved the hamster?/” Sid asked.
“/Yeah,/” his friend said. “/Like that and we wouldn’t talk to each other all day. Then, you’d turn up on pink bike with the stabilizers./”
“/It wasn’t it was pink!/”Sid protested. “/It was magenta!/”
“/You’d say sorry and we would do our special high-five thing and that was it,/” Simon finished. “/Sorted./”
“/Yeah,/” Sid said. “/Easy./” They looked at each other for a moment. The men stood to their feet, shook hands twice, one fist bump, three high-fives, hip, hip, hand shake, hand shake, spit on their hands, shake hands again, and sit down. Both men frowned.
“/That didn’t work, did it?/” Sid asked.
“/No,/” Simon said. “/It didn’t./” He got up and walked back to his room.
“/Where are you going?/” Sid asked.
“/Revision,/” the fallen leader replied.
“/But we’ve got to fix this!/” his friend said. Simon turned to him in the doorway.
“/Then get her back for me!/” he said. Then, he walked back to his room, leaving Sid alone in his distress. How did it all get out of control like this? He drank up more of the milk.
“/You’re an idiot!/” a girl’s voice told him. Sid nodded to himself.
“/You were f***g the wrong girl!/” the girl’s voice told him. Sid nodded to himself again.
“/It’s Arisu you love,/” the girl’s voice added. “/You only got mixed up with Casper because, let’s face it, men are dicks and there was no one else to screw, which is totally f***g pathetic. Isn’t it?/” Sid paused and looked around. Darcy sat next to him on the couch.
“/Has anyone ever told you, Darcy, that this whole sneaking up on people, getting inside their head is not cool, okay?/” he asked. Nadine only smiled at him from the back corner.
“/I’m right there,/” Darcy said. Sid sighed.
“/You’re always right,/” he complained. “/You are your f**g brother! You’re always f*g right! F**g right!/” The man took another drink of milk.
“/That milk’s two weeks old,/” Darcy pointed out.
“/I know,/” Sid said. “/It’s okay. I put some cocoa powder it in. It’s a bit chewy, that’s all./” Nadine shook her head to herself. Sid sighed to himself.
“/Shite!/” Sid mumbled to himself as he rose to his feet. “/Why do I always screw up?/”
“/You seem pretty good at it,/” Nadine pointed out.
“/Arisu won’t talk to me,/” Sid complained.
“/What makes you think that?/” Darcy asked.
“/Came in the post,/” he said as he handed her a photograph. Darcy looked at it first and back. “F**k off and die” was the on the back.
“/My life is a total shite pile again,/” Sid added. “/My best friend, my girlfriend, I f*d it up. My other girlfriend, I f*d it up./”
“/You’d give anything to have it all fixed?/” Darcy asked.
“/Yes!/” Sid said.
“/But you’re incapable of anything involving effort, focus, or subtlety,/” she said.
“/Yep,/” Sid said.
“/Women are a mystery to you,/” Darcy stated.
“/You got it./”
“/Any good at art?/”
“/Course not. Huh?/”
“/My art coursework. It’s on the subject of emotion and you seem… emotional. So you can do it for me./”
Sid blinked at her. “/And?/”
“/Oh, for Christ’s sake!/” Darcy spoke up. “/I’ll sort out your f***g story!/”
“/You will?/” Sid asked. Darcy rolled her eyes.
“/Just this once,/” she said.
Moments later, the three girls got dressed to go out on the night. Lilith modeled off her borrowed dark outfit in the mirror. Darcy walked over and sat down. The newbie looked up at her.
“/Oh,/” she said. “/Darcy, you have a lovely lot of clothes. Pals always share, right?/” Then, her cell phone rang. “/Oh, hang on,/” she said. The newbie reached into her shirt and pulled out her phone.
“/Hi mum!/” Lilith said as Darcy and Nadine snacked on some coffee candies in a jar. “/Guess what? I’ve got friends! No, not like the last one. No, not on the internet. No, mum! They really are girls this time!/” Lilith giggled.
“/Come on,/” Nadine said. Lilith hung up the phone.
“/So where are we going Dar, Nai?/” the newbie asked as they walked down the street.
“/Dar?/” Darcy asked.
“/Nai?/” Nadine asked.
“/Yeah, where are we going Dar?/” Lilith asked.
“/To pick up,/” Darcy said.
“/To pick up what?/” Lilith’s phone rang again. She reached down the top to answer.
“/Hi mum!/” the girl answered. “/We’re just going to pick up./” She turned to her new friends. “/She wants to know what we’re picking up./”
“/Drugs,/” Nadine said.
“/Salad!/” Lilith quickly lied on the phone.
“/Dar! Nai!/” she cried as she ran after them and hung up the phone. They came to Emma and Fujisaki’s apartment. Darcy knocked on the door. Arisu slid it open.
“Hey, Darcy,” she said. “Hey, Nadine.”
“/Hey,/” the British girls replied. Darcy turned to Lilith. The quartet walked inside.
“Who’s this?” Arisu asked, looking at Lilith.
“/Lilith,/” Darcy replied.
“/Hi,/” the newbie said.
“/She’s a virgin,/” Nadine added.
“Oh, cool,” Arisu said.
“Hey Arisu-chan,” an older woman purred as she came out of the guest bedroom. “Borrowed your panties.” Arisu giggled.
“Okay, see ya,” she said. The curvy woman walked over to her.
“That was one hell of a night,” the raven-haired beauty told her. “You know that?”
“Of course,” Arisu replied. They kissed with tongues while groping each other.. Lilith turned to the younger girls.
“/They’re man and woman kissing!/” she whispered as Darcy and Nadine took a smoke. The former looked up at the women.
“/Arisu,/” Darcy spoke up.
“Hm?” the Goth Japanese woman asked.
“/Sid says he’s very sorry,/” the English girl said. “/He loves you. He’s sorry he f**d Casper. He wants you back./” The women broke off the kiss and looked up.
“Tell him I have discovered the power of the pussy,” Arisu said.
“Oh yes,” the other woman said. The two went back to kissing. Lilith looked on in shock.
Moments later, Darcy, Nadine, Lilith, and Arisu all looked in a small tank. Two slugs sat inside, mating. Arisu grinned at them.
“That one’s called Sidney and that’s Cassa,” she said. “Isn’t Cassa just so pretty? Look at Sidney, sliming all over her. Disgusting, isn’t he?”
“/They’re doing it?/” Lilith asked.
“Yes they are doing it,” Arisu replied. “When I’m ready, I’ll pour salt on them. When I’m go and ready.” She rose to her feet and walked into her room.
“Come on,” she said before disappearing inside and reappearing with an open jewelry box in her hands. “Here you are,” she said. “Three eighths of top-quality pot.”
“/Alright if I pay you tomorrow?/” Darcy asked.
“/It’s alright,/” Lilith said as she reached into her top and pulled out a red and gold wallet. “/I can pay./” The girl paused.
“/How much is it for weeds?/” she asked.
“Oh, not much,” Arisu said as Darcy took the wallet from her. The English girl them stuffed the weed down Lilith’s top and handed the Japanese woman her wallet.
“/Grandpops died and left me his credit card,/” Lilith told them. Darcy paid for the weed. Arisu looked at her, smiling.
“Right,” she said. The girls sat down on the couch as Arisu went back into her room.
“/Are we gonna put weeds in a reefer and get honky?/” Lilith asked. Darcy and Nadine glanced at her.
“/Not yet,/” Darcy replied as there came a knock on the door.
“It’s open!” Arisu called. A young man opened the door and walked inside.
“Hi Arisu-chan,” he said.
“Hi Kaoru,” she greeted him. “Come here.” The two began kissing with the three English girls watching. The pairing walked over to Arisu’s bedroom.
“Got to get it on, you know?” she told the girls. She went back to kissing the guy.
“/So, Sid?/” Darcy reminded her.
“Hm?” the woman asked her.
“/Any other thoughts?/” Darcy asked as Arisu and Kaoru disappeared into her room.
“Tell him I’m on a one-way ticket to Dick City,” Arisu told her. “And I love it.” She pushed Kaoru down onto the bed and slammed the door. The three girls turned back from looking.
“/Blooming heck!/” Lilith gasped. “/She’s a bit of a… What do you call it? Whore!/” Darcy turned to the door and smirked to herself as the wheels turned in her head.
Simon dialed Casper’s number again. When she didn’t pick up, he tossed his phone to the wall. He looked at the ticking broken watch in his hand. Seems like a waste now. He looked over at his sleeping mother.
“/I’m sorry I ruined everything,/” he told her. “/Sorry for not looking across the road. Sorry you got depressed and… Sorry dad couldn’t handle being around at home./” He sniffled for a bit.
“/I love her, mum,/” Simon went on. “/I keep thinking… I keep thinking she’s just going to turn up at the door./” Darcy stood in the doorway, listening. He sighed to himself.
“/What’s the point?/” he complained. “/She can’t hear me./”
“/Of course, she can,/” his sister spoke. “/She’s our sleeping beauty./” Simon whipped around at the sound of her voice.
“/Jesus,/” he breathed out. Darcy walked over to him.
“/Waiting for a prince,/” she said. “/Want some spliff?/”
“/Makes me weird,.” Simon said.
“/What? Weirder than this?/” she asked.
“/F**k it,/” he said as he rose to his feet. The man walked over of the room. Darcy stood over her sleeping mother.
“/Why bother?/” she asked. Simon turned to her.
“/With what?/” he asked.
“/Caring about people,/” she replied. Her brother walked over to her and leaned in close to her face.
“/You don’t fool me, Darcy Williams,/” he whispered. He turned and walked away. The younger sister turned back to her sleeping mother.
Lilith sat on the couch, smoking a joint. She turned to Simon smiling as her cell phone rang. The girl reached over to the coffee table and picked it up.
“/Hi mum,/” she said. “/No, I’m fine! I’m super-duper fine! Yep! I’m with my friends and they are so f***g amazing! Well, I guess I’m looking at Simon’s cock./” She giggled as he covered his member through his boxers with his leg and hands.
“/Can’t tell,/” Lilith went on. “/Bye./” She hung up the phone as her mother ranted on the phone. The girl turned back to Simon, smiling. Creepied out, he bolted from the couch. Lilith looked on, still smiling. The man quickly covered his crotch with his hands. Lilith kept smiling until she collapsed over. Then, the door bell rang.
Simon opened the door to see Sid on the other side. His friend looked on at him.
“/Is Darcy in?/” he asked. Simon moved aside and let him in. He closed the door behind him. Simon turned to his former friends.
“/Upstairs,/” he said.
“/Ta,/” Sid replied. He turned to walk up the stairs.
“/You going to nail my sister?/” Simon asked. “/Is that it? First my girlfriend, then my sister./” Sid turned around to him.
“/No! I…/” he began. “/No!/” The look of disgust on his said it all.
“/Alright,/” his friend said. “/Just asking./” Sid sneered at him.
“/No,/” he said sarcastically. “/I’ll wait until she’s eighteen. She’ll be legal, yeah?/” Then, Sid rushed up the stairs. Simon walked away.
Sid presented Darcy with a black, grey, and white self-portrait of himself with the word “loser” across his chest.
“/Loser isn’t an emotion,/” Darcy pointed. Sid lowered the picture.
“/It is to me,/” he argued. “/You think it’s shite, don’t you?/” Darcy looked on at him.
“/Yes,/” she admitted without blinking.
“/I used four biros!/” he complained. “/I bought them. Four!/” The man pulled out four black pens from his jeans pocket and showed them to her.
“/You owe me forty-six yen,/” he said. Then, he shoved the pens back into his pocket. Darcy stood up and slid off her black lacy shirt. Sid turned to her in shock.
“/Whoa, whoa! Darcy!/” he called. “/W-What are you doing?/”
“/I’m going out,/” she said. “/You’ve got twenty-four hours, Sid, to produce something that doesn’t look like coursework for GCSE spaz./” She stripped off her black dress, leaving her in black bra and panties. Sid tried look anywhere except for her. Darcy walked over to her closet and pulled out her art kit from school.
“/Dip your brush in that,/” she said as she handed him the kit and the mug. “/Don’t even think of leaving this room until you’ve done it./” She walked over to her bed and sat down. Sid rose to his feet.
“/Listen,/” he began. “/I don’t think this is working out, yeah? Shall we just leave, okay? I quit./” Big mistake! Darcy began bouncing up and down on her bed and moaning.
“/Oh Sid!/” she cried. “/Oh my god! You’re so big! Yeah!/” Sid looked around, panicked.
“/Alright!/” he said quickly. “/I’m doing it!/” Darcy stopped bouncing and smirked as he sat down to get to work. Worked every time!
“/Enjoy,/” she said as she put her dress back on and headed out the door. Sig sighed aloud.
“/Somebody come get me,/” he mumbled to himself.
“/Why do I have to come to?/” Simon asked as he, his sister, and her two friends walked down to an underground club.
“/If you get more boring, we’ll have to put you down,/” Darcy told him.
“/Nice,/” her brother muttered.
“/I don’t think you’re boring, Simon,/” Lilith said.
“/What about mum?/” he asked.
“/She doesn’t like boys,/” the newbie went on. “/She’s says they just want my pants to get into./” Simon paused.
“/No, my mum,/” he said.
“/She’s fine. She’s asleep,/” Darcy reminded him. “/Stop being a prick. Alright?/” She turned to the security guard.
“/Hello Goro,/” she said. The tall, muscled guards looked at the quartet.
“Alright, sweetheart?” he asked.
“/How’s the manga going?/” she asked. Goro groaned.
“You know, Darcy-chan, I’m struggling with the romantic scenes,” he said. “My publisher is getting picky about how the female characters are designed. I…” The big guard paused and looked at Lilith. “Hang on, who’s this?”
“/This is Lilith,/” she said.
“And how are you, girl? Twelve?” Goro asked.
“/No, I’m uh…/” she spoke up. She looked over at Darcy and Nadine. Goro waited for any answer.
“/Thirty-two!/” she blurted out. The guard sighed and shook his head. He walked over and down at her.
“Are you trying to pull one over me?” he asked. “I don’t like that. You want to know what I do with little girls that try to pull one over on me? Do you?” Lilith looked at him with big, frightened eyes. Goro gave him a huge smile.
“I give them lollipops,” he said. He handed her a pink and yellow lollipop. “Go on in,” the guard said. He let the three girls inside. Simon followed behind, but Goro blocked him off.
“Oi, ID?” he asked. Simon blinked.
“/Huh?/” he asked. Goro pointed to the sign behind him.
“Strictly Over 20’s,” he said.
“/Hang on,/” Simon said. “/You let them in./”
“Who?”
“/Come on! Give me a f***g lollipop!/”
“Can’t do it.” He shoed him off and let an older couple in. Simon looked around, frustrated. Darcy, Nadine, and Lilith walked into the packed underground club. The newbie looked on in surprise with her lollipop in her mouth.
“/Blooming heck!/” she said. Darcy closed her eyes to get in the zone. Hikaru snuck up behind her and covered her eyes.
“You want to make f*k-f*k with nice sexy boy?” he asked.
“/Piss off, Hikaru!/” she said as she pushed off his hands.
“You look hot, baby!” he said. “Makes me want to take you!” She reached over and grabbed his cock with such force.
“Holy shit!” the boy yelled out.
“/Listen to me f**kpig!/” Darcy snapped. “/We’ve got spliff to sell! So send little Dicky back to Bollockistan and get on with it. Okay?/” Lilith and Nadine watched on as he nodded in pain. Darcy gave Hikaru a little smile. She let go of his balls and the boy breathed out. She held out her hand and her girls handed her the drugs.
“/You do spliff, I’ll do pills,/” Darcy told him.
“What pills?” Hikaru asked. She shook the bottle at him.
“/Make over a thousand yen,/” she told her mule. “/And I’ll make sure you get laid. Deal?/”
“Just as friends?” he asked.
“/Just as friends,/” Darcy lied. They looked at each other for a moment before looking at all of the potential customers around them. They turned to see everyone stopping and staring at Lilith as she danced like a wild mental patient on the dance floor. The pair shrugged and got to work.
Back at the Williams’ house, Sid found himself at work as well. This time, he painted a big pink heart with the word “hope” across the top of the page. Yet, now he was stuck. He tried to light up a cigarette, but his lighter didn’t work.
“/F**k!/” he cursed himself. He began looking for a light. The man came across Darcy’s bottle of Crazy Milk sake. Despite the note saying, “Don’t even time about,” he took a drink anyway. Once he downed that, Sid got right back to work.
“/This is brilliant, Dine!/” Lilith yelled in the bathroom stall. “/Best friends always go to whizzer together, don’t they? I’ve seen it in the films./” She reached in for some toilet paper, but found that her stall had none.
“/Got any loo paper, Dar?/” Lilith asked. Darcy looked up in her stall.
“/No,/” she said.
“/Dar, Dine, I want to get wonky off my face too!/” the newbie called out as the girls walked out of the restroom. “/Can I have one?/”
“/Oh for Christ sake!/” Nadine said. “/One and you puke it on your own, okay?/” Lilith didn’t listen as she put the pill in her mouth.
“/You owe use three hundred yen,/” Darcy said. Lilith shrugged and went off.
Outside, Simon read over Goro’s manga.
“What do you think?” the guard asked. Simon looked up at him.
“/Ah, yes. Excellent,/” he said. “/But…/”
“In you go girls,” Goro said to the next set of clubbers walking in. He turned to Simon once they were inside.
“But?” he asked.
“/The story arcs are stylishly appealing and the story is well-told,/” the younger man said. “/I especially like the Bunny Princess with the whip. Ties the villains to the ceiling, very nice./”
“Yeah,” Goro said.
“/But you need to move the climatic element back,/” Simon went on. “/So the orgy scene comes before the big arrest of the slave traders. See?/” He handed the guard back his novel. Goro took back the book. He read over it with a new revelation.
“That’s it!” he called. “That’s it! You solved!” He handed Simon a lollipop.
“Have a good one, man,” he said as he let the young man inside. Simon walked inside, looking around. He spotted Darcy selling off Casper’s watch to a much older boy in the corner. He looked at it and Darcy gave him the money. Pain shot through her brother’s heart. She looked up and saw him fighting towards her as the other boy walked away.
“/What the f**k are you doing?!?/” he yelled. “/You just sold Casper’s watch./”
“/Let it go, Simon!/” she replied. “/Casper did!/”
“/What?!?/” he shouted. “/What?!?/”
“/Simon!/” Lilith yelled as she raced over and hugged him. She kept trying to kiss and lick on his face.
“/Simon,/” she said. “/The music’s beautiful!/” He tried to push her off.
“/Get off!/” he said.
“/I love you!/” Lilith said.
“/Lilith, no!/” the man yelled.
“/I want to lick your bottom!/”
“/No!/”
“/I want to lick your balls…/” Then, she was out cold. Darcy and Nadine walked out of the club. Simon ended up carrying Lilith over his shoulder. Darcy looked at her brother.
“/Time to go home,/” she said. So, they began the trip that way.
“/F**n’ hate you,/” Simon muttered at her.
As everyone slept in Darcy’s room, she put her plan into full swing. Hikaru awoke to see her watching him from her bed.
“Well hello,” he said. He pulled out the money. “One thousand and thirty Japanese yen,” he bragged. “I claim my prize, American Pie.”
“/Lucky you,/” Darcy said. She got out of bed and leaned in to kiss him.
“/Just one thing,/” she said. The guy pouted.
“Again?” he asked. “I thought we were going to get jiggy!”
“/I said that you would get laid, Hikaru,/” she said. “/And you will./” He flew back disappointed.
“/Don’t worry,/” she said. “/You’re gonna love this./”
The next morning, he came at Arisu’s door. The woman gave him an odd look.
“Hi,” Hikaru said.
“Hi…” Arisu said back.
“So you don’t know, but a very good friend of mine said that you would be uh… into what I’m into,” he said.
“Oh…” she said. “And what’s that?” He looked around for a bit and smiled.
“And then she told me, that all of that time she had been screwing my friend,” Hikaru said in the apartment as the slug crawled on his hand. “I was just… I can’t believe she would do that to me, you know?” Arisu looked on, interested. The boy sighed.
“If it wasn’t for my slugs,” he said. “I don’t know what I might have…”
“Poor you,” Arisu said. “I can’t believe it. It happened to me too.” The boy looked up at her.
“Yeah?” he asked. “And, uh… what did you do about it?”
“F**k relationships,” the woman said. “I’m into mindless sex now.”
“Oh, mindless. Yeah, oh. You know, I just want to blow everything out. You know, I’d really like to blow it out now. Right here… by this window?” he offered. Arisu touched his cheek.
“How old did you say you were?” she asked.
“Oh, older than I look,” Hikaru said. “It’s the grief. It takes years off of you.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.” They began kissing as Darcy took pictures from outside.
Sid himself awoke to a nasty surprise. He found pictures of Arisu and Hikaru making out all over the room and his body. Boy did he scream. Simon sat in his room with his broken phone. He looked up to see Darcy walking into the room.
"Phone's buggered," he said as she sat down.
"Yeah?" she asked. "Can't call her, then."
"What's the use?" he asked. "Thing I don't understand is why her voice mail's off. If I could leave a message... It just rings and rings."
"You really don't understand anything, do you, Si?" Darcy asked.
"What?" he asked as he looked up at her.
"As long as it's ringing, she knows you're there," his sister told him. She got up and looked away. He looked up at her.
"Can't believe you sold Casper's watch," he said. Darcy paused and turned to him.
"Who says I sold it?" she asked. Her brother gave her a confused look.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Put your sim in that," the girl said as she handed him a blank phone."I'm going out." She gave him a little smile and walked away.
At Casper's house, the doorbell rang. "Casper!" Lynn called. "There's a man here with a parasol for you!" The woman got out of bed and walked to the front door. Moments later, she sat with the package in front of her. She grabbed it and opened it up. Inside was a purple box. The hippie opened it and pulled out the watch Simon gave her on her birthday. On the back was engraved "forever." Tears flooded her eyes.
Elsewhere, Sid ran all the way to Emma's apartment to confront Arisu. He pounded on the door.
"Arisu!" he yelled. "Arisu! Listen, open the door, Arisu!" Instead, Emma opened the door.
"#Sid,#" she said."#Mate, she doesn't want to see you.#" Sid put up his hands.
"Look, I don't f***g care, okay?" he said. "Arisu!"
"#Come on, leave it, man,#" Emma said, holding the baby by her side. "#This ain't...#"
"Listen, I don't care!" her friend replied. He pushed past her and went inside.
"What the f**k are you doing?!?" he shouted at his ex on the couch.
"#Jesus, Sid,#" the Aussie said. "#Just go man.#"
"It's alright, Emma," she said. "I'm fine."
"#Alright, watch it!#" the hostess said."#Or I'll... What do I do?#"
"Bite his head off and spit in the hole," Arisu finished.
"#Yeah,#" Emma said, nodding. "#Probably won't do that, but... yeah.#" Then, she walked away, carrying Damon with her. Now, Sid and Arisu were alone.
"What do you want, Sid?" Arisu asked.
"I want you to stop what you are doing, okay?" he asked. "You know, f**g around! F**g anything that moves! Just stop it."
"You started it."
"I don't care! I don't care! You're cruel. I hate you!"
"Hate you right back. Why don't you run over to Casper's and give her one? Oh, another one!"
"Give it a f***g rest already! You know it's you and me! You know that and you're being stupid!"
"My turn."
"You went away again! Why did you go away again?!? When I needed you and you pissed off! My dad said... Well, he said you're special, but you're not! You're just slutting around like a spoilt kid./"
"Casper, Sid! Casper!"
"I don't love Casper! I never loved Casper! I loved you, but you... you... " He sat down next to her. "Oh god... Where were you? Dad f***g died. I needed you. And Casper... We had three great days of sex and guilty sex for the rest. So what? I don't care. I didn't."
Arisu looked on as he broke down crying.
"I hate you..." he whimpered. "Fine, go f**k fifteen-year-olds. He got up to walk away. Whatever. I'm sick of saying sorry. I love you. You say sorry." Arisu's own eyes welled up.
"I didn't f**k him, Sid," she admitted. She rose to her feet. "His mother sewed his name to his pants," she said. "And well... he got a bit excited and he squashed my slug. My slug called Sidney. So, I threw him out." He turned around and kissed her. They fell back onto the couch and made out.
"#Well if he's still bothering you, Al,#" Emma came in saying. "#Then...#" She paused when she saw them kissing. A dumb smile came onto her face. "#Oh, I see. Got ya! Smokin'!#" She walked back into her room.
Simon sat in his room, waiting. He picked up his phone and dialed Casper's number again. He waited as the other line rang.
"I love you too," Casper said on the other line at last. Then, she hung up. He could be heard cheering from outside.
"Deadline is upon us," Noguchi-sama told Darcy at school. “I have projects from everyone. Very high standard. Lilith-chan’s contribution is thrillingly abstract. It reeks of emotion. The girl has great talent.” She held up the painting of the pink hearts with black paint smeared on it with the word, “Hopeless” across the front.
“Surprising,” the teacher said. “Even Yoshiko-chan has come through with a little coaching. All A’s without a doubt. Another triumph for the art department.” She turned to Darcy.
“All we need now is yours,” she said. “And we will have our 100% record for another year.”
“/It’s finished,/” Darcy said.
“Oh, splendid,” the teacher said. “And which emotion have you depicted?”
“/Anger, jealousy, bitterness, tiredness, hope, lust, love,/” she said.
“Veritable feast,” Noguchi-sama said. “So where is it?” Darcy gave her a little smile.
“/It’s everywhere,/” she said.
“My dear child, I’m not sure I understand,” Noguchi-sama said.
“/It’s conceptacle,/” Darcy replied. “/You can’t see it./”
“You’re saying you haven’t done it?” the teacher asked. Noguchi-sama frowned.
“/No,/” the student replied. “/I’m saying you can’t see it./”
“Well, I’m not quite sure that’s going to work for the Yamazaki Private School Board, now is it?” Noguchi-sama asked.
“/No,/” Darcy replied. “/They’ll just have to expel me./” She rose to her feet. “/Goodbye Noguchi-sama,/” the girl said.
“Bye Darcy-chan,” the teacher said. The girl started to walk away. Noguchi-sama rose to her feet.
“Darcy-chan,” she said. Darcy turned and looked at her teacher.
“I was going to tell you about Himura Saji,” the teacher said. “He was a very great artist and also truly remarkable at oral sex. Anyway, he gave me some advice I always remembered.”
“/What was it?/” Darcy asked.
“If they don’t like it, f**k ‘em!” Noguchi-sama said. Darcy nodded and left.
Meanwhile, Bill finally came home.
“/Hello?/” he asked. “/I’m back!/” He found his house looking clean and smelling nice. Simon came down the stairs.
“/Hi dad,/” he greeted him.
“/Hi,/” Bill replied. “/They let me come back early./”
“/That’s great./”
“/Yes, isn’t it. Where’s mum?/”
“/She’s asleep./”
“/Ah. Well, she won’t mind if I go up than. Tired, aren’t they? Flights, you./”
“/Fine./”
“/So, eh, feeling okay, son?/”
Simon nodded. “/Feeling great, dad./”
“/Good, that’s really good. What’s you been up to?/”
“/Revision./”
Then, the father went up the stairs to greet his wife.
“/It’s good to have you back, dad,/” Simon told him.
“/It’s good to be back,/” Bill replied. He walked into his bedroom and gave Katie a little kiss. His wife awoke to see him sitting over her.
“/Bill,/” she murmured.
“/Came home early,/” he said. “/Missed you./” His wife smiled.
“/I’ve been asleep,/” she said. “/Is everything alright?/”
“/Think so,/” he said. They shared another kiss. Darcy sat in her room reading and smiled to herself. All’s well that ends well.
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