"Ooh, like my mama!" Puroko thought of her elegant mother with pride, enchanted that her new friend was something like her.
"We should play a duet sometime. Promise me you'll come over to my house someday?"
"'Kay!" Puroko beamed at her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Puroko walked through the halls towards her punishment alone, deep in thought about the circumstances surrounding her detention. She had called her house and got her papa, who said that she would come and pick up Puroko an hour later and take her directly to her private lessons.
"All right, Aiji-chan. See you then."
She hadn't seemed too mad - and Puroko would certainly know if Haruka was mad - but she did seem a little surprised and disappointed. Puroko fought back tears at the idea that Haruka might not see her as her "aiji" anymore.
She wondered if Haruka would tell Michiru or Tenshi. Puroko quickly glanced around to make sure Tenshi wasn't around. If Tenshi saw her still at school, she'd want to know why she was there, and Puroko didn't want to have to tell her. She stole into the classroom, hoping the teacher wouldn't be too hard on her.
Infinity had professional janitors, so for the most part, students didn't have to clean up after school like they did in other Japanese schools, but for the rare occasions when a student got detention, they were expected to do the clean up for the classroom where they had received the detention. She and Kono were supposed to clean the boards and erasers, straighten the desks, and pick up anything students had left out during the day, be it personal items or trash.
She sighed as she entered the classroom and found Kono already cleaning the front chalkboard. "Puroko-chan!" he exclaimed, straightening up as if it was a surprise that she was there�, as if it wasn't his fault.
"I'm just here to clean. Don't expect me to talk to you!" she said harshly, starting to straighten the desks on the opposite side of the classroom from him.
"I take it back! I mean it, just forget what I said back there! I'm sorry!" he cried desperately.
She glared at him. "You think this is about what you asked?! You don't get it, do you? I don't care if you think I like girls or not, baka! But you got me in trouble, and there's no excuse for that!"
"Puroko-chan�," he started to apologize again, but she turned her back on him and continued working, resolved not to hear what he said.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Amber whistled as she walked towards her room in the Eclipse mansion.
"So where's the little youngling?" asked Carnelian, leaning against the wall, waiting for her outside her bedroom door. Amber observed her impatient expression and crossed arms and decided that she wasn't going to like what was about to happen.
"Puroko's busy today. I'll see if she'll come over tomorrow," Amber answered, trying to dodge Carnelian and slip into her room.
"She's nine years old. How hard can it be to convince her to come over and play?!"
"Your new boyfriend hasn't come over, why should I have to bring my new friend right away?" Amber goaded her.
"She is not your friend! She is an assignment! You bring her here and use her to get her sister either on our side or dead. If you continue thinking of her as a friend, you won't get your job done."
"I can make friends with her if I want!" Amber screamed at Carnelian.
"Look, you spoiled brat!" Carnelian grabbed Amber's arm, making sure that she couldn't get away. "You might have your brother fooled, and maybe even Ame, but I'm not fooled for a second! You are not a kid, so don't even try your little kid act! Bring Night Angel's sister here. That is all we have asked you to do - bring a little girl with no powers who should be relatively easily influenced. Got it?"
"I think I could handle it better than you could!"
"Why you�!" Carnelian raised her hand to slap the smaller girl.
"What's going on?" Amethyst rounded the corner and looked back and forth between the two.
"Nothing." Carnelian released Amber, who instantly ran off. "We were talking about her job."
"Carni, be nicer to her," Amethyst said firmly.
"Oh, please! She's not a child, already!"
Amethyst raised her eyebrows at her twin. "Who said she was? It's just a good idea if you're trying to get what you want from her."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Amber scurried through the yard and into the greenhouse. Seeing Jasper, she threw herself at him, sobbing loudly.
"Amber, what happened?!" He knelt down to give her a hug, worried about her obvious distress. What could have upset her so much?
"Carnelian yelled at me! She hates me! I'll never be accepted by her and Crystal! They'll never like me!" she bawled, allowing him to hold her just as he always had since she was really little.
"Shh, it's okay. They don't hate you," he promised her.
"Yes, they do," she sniffed.
He lifted her chin up so that she was looking at him and smiled reassuringly at her. "They're just looking out for you. They want you to do your best, that's all."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded. "Come, look at this," he said, pulling her to the section of the greenhouse he'd been working in, hoping he could distract her from her angst. "See this pretty flower?" She nodded, her eyes brightening a little at the sight of the gorgeous red blossom. "It's actually a seed from home, and this is the first planet I've ever been able to have one grow to full bloom." Using the knife he usually carried at his side, he cut the stem a few inches
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