[Wingardia] No. 921

[Misao]

Rachel laughed at this, finding the flapping mouth hand puppet gesture especially hilarious. "Well, at least I don't have to worry about that..." she said, smiling a little to herself as she pictured her family in her mind. "My parents are two of the most lenient people in the world."

She shook her head, though, at Seiya's apparent misconception as to where her powers came from. "Actually, my powers come mostly from my mother's side. At least the appearance changing stuff does, anyway. The other power is kind of a hybrid between both my parents' original powers. Mom can make plants grow, and dad's a shapeshifter," she explained. "So I guess that's how I ended up with the whole 'I can make new limbs sprout out of places' thing. Joey can regenerate, and his other power is to transform his entire body into hard wood - like really tough tree bark. It increases his strength and gives him a sort of natural armor."

She paused for a moment following this statement, grinning a little. "And yes, he does get that joke quite a bit."  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"Once again I must say I envy you, I was always in trouble. I once had to stand with a four books on my head and both of my arms out with dictionaries on them for four hours and then another two the next day, I'm not sure what I did..." She paused, "I think I jumped from the second floor railing onto the chandelier just to see if I could swing to the other side." She cringed, "I had to have stitches for that one. Needless to say a glass and crystal chandelier cannot hold a adolescent child."

"Your brother sounds intresting, doesn't he come to visit you? Or is he going to be your date for the Sakura picnic?" She asked tilting her head to the side, a rare gesture of interest.

"I wish I could shapeshift completely, I could take off whenever I wanted."  

[Misao]

"Wow, that sounds rough..." Rachel said. "I guess I really did have it pretty easy, for all my complaining." She shrugged a little at this. It wasn't like she didn't have problems of her own at home, but bitching about them now would just make her seem petty, so she decided to keep it to herself for the time being.

"And my brother, interesting?" Rachel asked, completely incredulous at this remark. "I suppose if by 'interesting' you mean 'completely and totally shallow,'" she said, frowning. "He totally abuses his charisma powers to just go out and get any girl he wants. It usually takes about three days before he gets bored and moves on to the next one."

Rachel gave a laugh that was a strange sort of mixture between bitterness, terror, and amusement at the question of whether or not her brother was going to take her to the sakura picnic. "Oh god... no thank you," she said quickly, gesturing with her hands as if she were pushing someone away. "Joey drives me insane. Him visiting would put a serious cramp in the lifestyle I'm trying to cultivate here..." Thinking for a moment, she shook her head again and continued. "And him escorting me to the picnic would be like some sort of horrible, twisted nightmare."

((But not nearly as bad as what I've actually got planned with Joey. Ho ho ho. Poor Rachel has no idea what she's in for.))  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"Sounds like all he needs is to meet a girl who's a match for him. Woe be that day, but I'm sure you'd be happy. It'd get him out of your hair at least. I don't have any brothers and my father passed away when I was ten so I haven't had too much interaction with men, but for all I'm told they're rather unintellgent. I haven't met a single boy who I can hold a conversation with." Seiya yawned, "Your brother can't possibly be worse than Chiron, God, I'd kill myself before I went anywhere with him."

She shuddered, "I mean he's...I don't know how to describe him. But I bet if both you brother and he were put together the room would explode from their combined ego. Likewise, he thinks he's God's gift to women." She chuckled, "I've known him since he was six, his braces and bottlenose glasses stage was not at all attractive."  

[Misao]

"Heh... unintelligent..." Rachel mused, thinking of her brother. "I wish that was true about him - at least I'd have something to throw back at him. Unfortunately, Joey's smarter than I am. I mean, I usually bring back better grades because I actually study and work at my classes, but it would take him a lot less effort to produce the same result." She sighed a little at this - just another thing that always got her father's attention.

"From the sounds of things, your ex and my brother would get along rather well," Rachel said, rolling her eyes and leaning back in her chair. "Either that, or they'd have the most epic duel of male egos in the history of chauvinism." She grinned a little at this. "That'd be quite a sight to see, actually."  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"I bet." Seiya said snickering, "I'm not eactly how smart Chiron is though, to be honest I never really liked him at all. Our parents seemed to want us paired off and it was convienient in getting his groupies at least a few yards away. It' snot like I actually kissed him or ever really held his hand. It was a big joke." She yawned, "I'd want front row tickets for something like that, we'd make a killing selling Primo Seats in the school arena during their posturing.

"My grades are okay, but my youngest sister is way smarter. I envy her. I mean I just don't care enough to bring home straight A's. I get it I just don't...get it." She shrugged, "Different strokes I guess." She paused thoughtfully. "Wait-" She pulled out a flyer, "I was giving these out earlier." It was a ad for the school's cheerleading team.  

[Misao]

"Geez, arranged partners too? It just gets worse and worse," Rachel said, frowning at this as she leaned back in her desk chair. "I can't even imagine who my parents would have paired me up with. I didn't like any of the boys around where we were growing up..." She grinned at the idea of selling tickets to the grand battle of egotism. "Heh, yeah. I bet the whole school would flock to come see something like that - this campus is full of drama whores already, so I'm sure they'd just eat it right up."

Blinking at the piece of paper Seiya handed her, Rachel looked it over. "Cheerleading team...?" Smiling a little, she waved her hand. "Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. No offense, but I've never been able to get myself that excited over anything, let alone school spirit," she said somewhat jokingly. "Plus, with these stupid mega-appearance powers of mine, wearing a short pleated skirt in front of the male population of the school is just begging for trouble." She shuddered a little at the thought of that.  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

Seiya leered at her menacingly, "It wasn't an offer." She grinned, "You're being drafted." She pulled out a notepad, "So, what size are you?" she said ignoring Rachael's protests. "You don't have to be excited, really it's just to keep in shape and win some trophies." Seiya said in a sing-song voice, "You like to win things, right?"

"Besides, you'll get exposure, you'll meet a few other girls and we get to travel if the school thinks we're good enough to go to regionals. Come on! I'm desperate, If I can't get more girls into this the athletic department won't give us full funding." She whined. "And look how cute the uniform is!"

Seiya pulled out a photo of the pink, white, and blue uniform.  

[Misao]

Rachel gaped in horror at Seiya, glancing from the picture to her and back again several times before she was able to gather herself together enough to actually say something. In the meantime, she simply waved her arms around, shaking her head in vehement denial.

"W-what!" she said, sounding as surprised as she looked. "No! I can't do something like that...! I hate the cheerleader type! I'd die of embarrassment!" Glancing at the picture again just briefly, she grimaced, looking away again sharply. "...What makes you think I'd even be any good at it...?"  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"You're flexible. Besides, I'm sure that you can take all the physical abuse I'm going to dish out." Seiya snickered, "What 'Cheerleader Type'? Are you stereotyping, they'll be no pill-popping here. No binging, purging, or bitching. With all that said, "I just think you'd make a good addition. Oh, and prizes." She said, her eyes sparkling.

"I can tell you want to do it~" She said in her sing-song tone, "You just need to get some cofidence, I mean. What's the worst that could happen? We might even get a fan club or something." Seiya continued, "Think of the intellectual aspect of it, we'd have to sit down and think about how best to stir up a crowd, how to raise money for the school, how to set an example for younger students." A bit overboard but all true.  

[Misao]

"Ugh..." Rachel groaned. This whole situation seemed depressingly familiar. Seiya was acting exactly the same way as Nobara did before the star test. Rachel caved in back then, and it looked like the same thing was probably going to happen again. Somewhere deep inside, she knew that Seiya probably wasn't going to leave her alone until she agreed to this madness.

"Well, cheerleaders do have a certain stigma attached to them," Rachel said. "You have to at least admit that much." She quietly considered what Seiya was saying about the planning end of things for a few moments, folding her arms and closing her eyes. "Can't I just be club treasurer or something? Do I really have to wear... that?" she asked, pointing at the picture again with a somewhat disgusted look on her face.

"This is going to completely destroy the image of an intellectual but stylish b***h I've been trying to cultivate since I enrolled here, you know," she added, still looking rather hesitant about the whole thing. "A fan club is the last thing I need or want. Believe me, if I wanted one, I'd have it by now."  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

Seiya looked delighted, "You can be treasurer, meaning you don't have to wear it during practice but you'll have to when we perform." She grinned evily, "It's either that or the mascot suit."

She pulled out another picture of what appeared to be a Giant Raichisu Suit.

"I agree, it's much easier to get away with things when you don't have a crowd following you." Seiya knew she was winning, "Besides, you'll have a blast." She said a slight grin on her face.

'Check and Mate.'  

[Misao]

Rachel looked at the picture of the rachisu mascot suit. Her heart sank. For a moment, it seemed like she might have almost been considering how bad it would really be to have to wear that instead of the actual costume. Images of little kids running up to hug her and climb all over her while she was inside the costume came flooding through her mind, bumped up against images of flocks of guys behaving in much the same fashion in reaction to her wearing the uniform.

Damn it, she thought, forgetting that Seiya could hear her. There's no difference at all.

Gritting her teeth, she tossed both pictures back onto the bed in front of her, folding her arms and furrowing her brow. "You know, I can really see why you and Nobara are friends, Seiya," she said after a few moments. "This is exactly how she roped me into the star test." Looking back at Seiya with an incredibly unamused expression on her face, she finally gave the shrug of defeat. "Promise me I can stand in the back."  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"You got it." Seiya said grinning, "Our first meeting is next Tuesday, the time is on the flyer. Oh, and I'll need to know what size you wear."

"Really? I have to remember to get some tips from her...I didn't participate in the star test, my youngest sister did though." She frowned, "From what she told me it was quite dangerous." She inspected her fingertips, "I might have broken a nail. Or arm..." She said musing over her sister's story about the poor, abused, Grand Flaky...

"I actually felt a bit bad for whoever was stuck as her partner."

Finally noticing Rachael's almost-dead looking face, "Come on! Look happy! You get to cheer, cheer, CHEER!" She was having a blast ensuring Rachael's erm-'DOOM'...  

[Misao]

"Tuesday. Right," Rachel said, her voice completely flat and utterly unamused at the prospect of having to join this club. But what Seiya wants, Seiya gets, apparently - it seemed to be an unfortunate pattern with the sorts of friends she seemed to be attracting since coming to Ria High.

"Don't worry about the size..." she said, waving a hand. "Just eyeball it, I can just attune to the uniform and have it change sizes with me. It'll be easier to do my own alterations." Sighing, she looked back at Seiya, shaking her head. "I can't believe I actually let you force me into this."

Totally ignoring Seiya's remark about needing to look happier, Rachel closed her eyes, seemingly concentrating on something for a few moments. As she opened her eyes again, it became apparent that her bust size had increased somewhat. Pointing at her own chest and staring impassively back at Seiya again, she asked: "So, I suppose you have something like this in mind for while I'm cheering, right? Do I even need to ask?"