The Phoenix Saga

"Let's go, girls! Move it!"

Whimpering at the directive yelled from the grass below, Ranko dragged her leg upward onto the next step. It moved like her sneakers and her gray sweatpants were full of lead. 

"I can't. I'm done." 

Ranko turned to Shizuka, grabbing the doubled-over girl's shoulder with her left hand. "No you're not. C'mon, we almost got this!" She glanced up the remaining third of the rugby stadium's bleacher steps, swallowing her own dread at the thought of climbing them again. "Let's go, Araya! Move your ass!"

The brunette shook her head as she looked pleadingly up at her squadmate, the sweaty tips of her auburn bob sticking to her nose. "No. I don't got any more. She's gonna kill us!"

Not if we kill her first, Ranko thought, shaking the smirk from her face. "C'mon. If you quit now, she's gonna make both of us run more! One more. Let's go!" Ranko gestured urgently with her hands toward the top of the stadium. 

Shizuka sighed, rising from her hunched-over position and turning toward the summit of the staircase. "I hate you, Tendo." 

"Whatever! Just keep your legs moving while you do," Ranko called, giving her partner a push in the small of her back and resuming running up the stairs. 

"Let's go! Faster!" Julie Akers cupped her hands around her mouth, yelling up at the last two girls on the bleachers. She blew loudly into the silver whistle that hung from a nylon cord around the neck of her white polo shirt. "We're cheerleaders! We don't GET tired! Energy! I wanna see ENERGY!"

You're about to see me energetically break my foot off on your ass, lady, Ranko thought as she reached the top of the bleachers, waiting for Shizuka to catch up before turning to her right and running past the purple-painted press box and across the length of the east bank of seating. It's not even my fuckin' fault I was late. As she ran, she shielded her eyes from the setting sun with her hand, wishing she'd remembered to bring her sunglasses to the afternoon cheer practice.

"Any day now, Tendo!" 

"Okay, listen," Ranko called back to her friend as they began descending the stairs. "I know you're tired, but when we get down there, I'm gonna need you to help me hide her body, okay?"

Next to Julie, a lithe senior with long, sun-bleached brown hair whooped loudly for the two straggling girls. "Come on, Ranko! You got this! Let's go, Shizuka! Whoooo!" She clapped her hands loudly, bouncing on her heels with so much energy that the transparent plastic frames of her glasses nearly dislodged from her ears.

At least the coach's daughter is more encouraging, Ranko thought as she ran down the stairs. As hard as she is on us, man, her mom must ride her ass something fierce, but Sarah's still cool. She's always had my back, even when her mom's being a total hardass.

* * *

The quaint little shop was having a busy day, with only a few of the booths unoccupied. The walls were covered in white ceramic tiles that reminded Ranko of the bathrooms back at Yusue High, with larger black-and-white checkerboard linoleum tiling the floor. The tabletops and the counter running the length of the shop were white, too, less the glass windows looking down into the freezers displaying the twenty or so ice cream flavors on offer. The benches of the booths and the seats of the metal stools ringing the counter were covered in recently-reupholstered vinyl in almost the identical bright red as the braid dangling over Ranko's right shoulder. 

"Somebody kill me please," Ranko whined, slumping onto a padded bench next to Sarah. Why can't we ever hang at the Phoenix? I can make milkshakes there just as easy. We've got a blender. She shivered forcefully as her body adjusted to the temperature; the little ice cream shop was always kept frigid inside, and the Cat's Tongue made it difficult for her to bear even in a hoodie and sweatpants. "A fuckin' hundred stadiums, and I still gotta go dance at work in a couple hours?! Fuuuuuuuck my life." 

Kotone shrugged, turning her head to her left and smirking at her friend as Shizuka took the seat next to her. She fidgeted with her brown ponytail as she laughed. "Next time, show up to practice on time. Julie doesn't fuck around with that kind of stuff." 

Ranko grumbled, pulling the hood of her gray sweatshirt more fully over her head. "It wasn't even my friggin' fault! Fuckin' dummy Yumeko said my name out loud in the cafeteria on campus, and next thing you know, I had a line fifty people deep of people asking for fucking autographs!"

"You're allowed to tell 'em no, you know," Sarah offered with a little tsk from her tongue. "They don't own you. Sure, you're a star, but you're allowed to have a life, too."

The redhead blushed, pulling the drawstrings of her hood to further obscure her blushing face. If only. "I don't like to do that if I can help it. Like, it means the world to me that they want anything to do with me, so, I don't wanna push back on that sort of thing unless I really have to. It's just inconvenient as hell sometimes."

"Hi!" A perky blonde with a beehive updo sidled up to the booth, eyeing the six tittering regulars packed around the rectangular table. She wore black slacks, a white long-sleeved shirt and a red bow tie. "Welcome back to Ishiro's. What can I get for you girls?"

Kotone raised her hand excitedly. "Mint chocolate chip shake for me!" 

"Me too," called Shiori from the back corner opposite Ranko. "I'm down to get chip-faced with ya!"

Minori smiled up at the server as she finished re-adjusting the green headband restraining her orange coif. "Hey, Miho! Can I go for a strawberry banana, please?"

"Double chocolate, please," Ranko said, folding the laminated menu and handing it back to the server. "And a cheeseburger?"

"Do you have a chocolate chip?" Sarah asked hopefully, looking up at the server with pleading eyes.

"Make that two, if ya got 'em!" Shizuka added.

The blonde waitress nodded. "You bet we do, honey." She jotted the order down on her pad, darting off to prepare the girls' order.

Ranko sighed, lowering her head to the table. "Shit, my legs are killing me."

Shiori giggled quietly, leaning back in her seat. She wore a low-cut lavender peplum top and a pair of skinny black jeans. "You should just have Ak… Aki rub them out for you later." The brunette cringed at her near slip. I gotta remember, last term's squad knew about Akane, but she doesn't want anybody talking about her now. Man, that must be miserable for her.

"Maybe," Ranko groaned. "But he has work tonight, and so do I, so three in the morning is the earliest I can hope for."

With a grin, Kotone waved her hand, sipping at her ice water. "Well, I'm going over to Hiro's place as soon as we're done here, so… don't be surprised if I'm not dancing so great tomorrow." Shiori and Minori joined her in her tittering.

"Must be nice," Sarah said, grumbling quietly. "At least you girls got somebody to hold besides a phone. Vanessa's gonna try to come out for a visit over Christmas, but she's still back in the States until then."

At least you get to say she about the person you're dating, Sarah. Your friends can know her fucking name. Talk about 'must be nice'. Ranko glowered quietly, wishing her burger would arrive so she could commit violence on something with her teeth.

Minori reached out, giving Sarah a side hug. "You got any plans when V gets out here?"

Sarah shrugged nonchalantly. "Who knows. Maybe I'll bring her to one of Ranko's shows."

Shaking her head as she slurped her milkshake through a thick straw, Shiori waved the brunette off. "You won't be able to. Ran-chan's gonna be in China all December, right up 'til Christmas. Maybe you could score some tickets off a scalper for the Tokyo Dome show, but it's been sold out for months."

Ranko nodded, growling under her breath. Yep. Won't even be here to get ready for Christmas with my family, or shop for Akane, or nothin'.

"I still have no idea what I'm getting her for Christmas," Sarah said, rolling her eyes. "She's hard to shop for sometimes. I keep thinking about trying to find something you can, like, only get in Japan, but I can't decide what."

"Oooh! You could get her a fuku, and she could be Sailor V, like that new manga!"

"Not sure that's her speed, Shizuka, but it could be cute," Sarah said with a soft blush, hiding her face with her hand. "It'd probably be me that ended up wearin' it for her, though."

Shiori grinned, balling up her empty paper straw wrapper and flicking it playfully at Sarah as an upbeat pop song ended on the jukebox's randomized free play mode. "Sounds like V gets the perfect present after all. And, I mean, there are worse problems than bein' cute for the right girl."

For example, not being able to do that, Ranko thought as she grumbled, taking her milkshake from the server's tray without waiting for it to be handed to her. 

"There's a long white dress hangin' over there. My sister's coming in five hours so she can help me do my hair…"

Sighing to herself, Ranko stood, carrying her milkshake with her to the jukebox in the corner and dropping in a coin. Anything but There Are No Words right now, please. She selected Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul, waiting for it to start playing before returning to her seat. She was careful to keep her hood drawn tight around her cheeks to hide her face and especially her hair in the crowded milkshake shop.

"Ya know, Ran-chan, if you're so worried about people recognizing you, you could dye your hair until it's time to go back on tour," Sarah suggested quietly, despite her obvious attempt to change the subject from her relationship.

Shiori nodded emphatically. "Yeah! You could do it in pink, like Zoe's from the band!"

The young redhead shook her head. "You can't be serious. I would look absolutely fucking ridiculous with pink hair. Red hair is, like, my thing. Next, you're gonna tell me I should have brown eyes or something."

"I mean, you are pretty full of shit," Shiori said, trying to offer a reassuring smile to her glum fellow Pixie.

"What about a wig? Something you could take off easy?" Kotone grinned. "I bet it would be super fun, to like, put on a disguise and wander through the crowd at one of your shows, just to see how excited people are, hear the stuff they say about you, things like that. Like what old-timey kings and stuff used to do? You could get, like, a big coat or something to put over your outfit, so you can do it after you're all ready to go on stage."

Shiori giggled around her straw. "Oh man, that would be great! And then if you felt like it, you could just like, throw off your wig and your coat and be like, surprise, bitches! You'd be like a superhero! It sure would freak everybody out. People would never forget it if you did that!"

Ranko smirked, swallowing the french fry she was chewing. "Could be neat, but it'd be hard to pull off. It takes a long time to get ready for the show with all the makeup and everything. So, about the best I could do would be to catch the people who get to the venue super early."

"Yeah, but those are the most die-hard fans, so they'd be the most fun to hang with anyway," Minori said. "It'd be like what you do at the Phoenix, but, like, on a much bigger scale. Do it once or twice, and people will show up early to your shows forever just hoping it happens again. It'd be fucking legendary!"

Ranko nodded, popping another fry in her mouth and continuing to speak with her mouth full. "Yeah, I guess. The problem is, at my shows, I kinda want to be recognized. It's mostly when I'm trying to do, like, life stuff, that sometimes I need to go incognito."

Pushing her empty milkshake glass away with a satisfied ahh, Shiori gave her friend a reassuring smile. "I got you, girl. There's a really good wig shop in Shibuya I go to sometimes, when I need something for a Halloween costume or whatnot. I'll take you, and we'll get you set up so good, your mother won't recognize you."

It's not that I don't want to be recognized, Ranko despaired, stuffing her cheeseburger back into her mouth. She only had a few minutes before she needed to start walking if she wanted to get to work on time, and she expected to be slowed down by her sore legs. It's just that I want to really be seen.