“Teacup!”

“...”

“Teacup!”

“Mrgbllmgblrmwhat?”

“TEACUP!”

Lyra jumped out of the bed, ears in alert after hearing that scream of rage. She did not know where she was, what time it was, and who the hell was screaming “teacup” in the next room. Her temples her burning, and her eyes couldn’t see anything past the brightness of the sun beaming through the large window of the wall facing her. She looked for her phone in her pockets, only to realize she was wearing her shirt, along with knee-long night pants that weren’t hers.

“Oh boy.”

She finally grabbed her cellphone from the jeans lying near the bed, moaning in displeasure as the white light attacked the integrity of her pupils. 11am. Alright.

“Okay, now, where the fuck am I?”

She looked around the room, noticing the school books, clothes and movie posters: this was definitely belonging to a girl of her age. Maybe the one who was screaming on top of her lungs behind the door?

“Wait a second…”

She slowly but surely turned around to face the other side of the bed. Something, or someone, was under the blanket, not making a single sound that would have revealed its presence. With a quick move of the hand, Lyra uncovered the mysterious entity, only to see a girl with dark blue-purple hair and light yellow skin sleeping next to her.

“Oh… Oh.”

}--oO0Oo--{

Bon-Bon opened her eyes, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on her shoulders. She didn’t use alarm clocks. Never had to. The light and fresh air of the morning always were, in her opinion, the best ways to wake up. And it was working: not once had she been late to class. Well, not because of when she woke up at least. But who needed loud irritating noises when you could just have a calm morning?

“TEACUUUUUUUP!”

Oh, that’s right. Not everything was quiet around here. She slowly opened her eyes, sitting on the bed, stretching her arms. She then slowly turned around to look out the window, only to find herself one inch away from Lyra’s face.

“AAAAHHHH!”

“Wow! Don’t scare me like that!”

“Wha… Wh… Oh, Lyra, it’s you! I’m sorry I scared you.”

“Bon-Bon! Heeeyyyyy, how are you girl?!” The lyrist responded, with the most awkward smile one could ever perform.

“Good! Great, actually! How was your sleep? I hope you didn’t wake up too…”

“TEACUP!”

“...brutally.”

“Nonono it’s cool! I slept like a baby…”

“Perfect!”

“Yeah…”

“...”

“Say, did we….? Last night….?”

“Did we… what?” The girl asked with the brightest smile.

“You know…”

“What? Oh no, Lyra, come on!” Bon-Bon laughed, patting Lyra on the shoulder, “I wouldn’t do that to Vinyl! Also, you were waayyyy too drunk!”

“Ugh… Was I?”

“Well apparently you don’t remember the end of the night.”

“Clever.”

“Well, to be honest, we drank a bit too much during Vinyl’s absence. I tried to maintain a certain level of soberness, because I get depressed when I’m too drunk, but I don’t think you had this problem.”

“Yeah, I’ve been told I’m more of an obnoxious drunk.”

“Well in any case, once Vinyl came back, she made us pack our stuff and leave, because we weren’t supposed to drink alcohol at this party.”

“That doesn’t sound like Vinyl at all.”

“I know, that’s what you were screaming, amongst other things, in the car, before we realized she had driven to that abandoned firehouse near the river, where she took out four or five bottles she had brought along, apparently.”

“Nice! That definitely is more like her!”

“So we basically drank and listened to music for a couple of hours. By the way, the law forces me to tell you I have a video recording of you trying to play the lyre with probably more alcohol than blood in your veins.”

“Bon-Bon?”

“Yeah?”

“Delete this or I will delete you.”

“Never. I’ll keep it at least until your birthday.”

“Do you really attach that little importance to your well-being?”

“Yep. Anyways, we got super drunk, I remember you showing me the video of Vinyl crashing that limo into a pile of freaking metal beams -you are both crazy by the way- and then we talked about our lives, families, and-”

“TEACUP GODDAMMIT!”

“...Roommates.”

“Oh.”

“Then Vinyl drove us very very slowly to her place which thank God was two streets away, and called us a cab from there. I hope she managed to climb her stairs…”

“Wow, what a night! I like how this year is looking!

“I know right! Me too!”

“Too bad we didn’t fuck.”

“...”

“I’m kidding.”

“You sure you’re sober?”

“Giving the headache, yeah. So, are you going to tell me what kind of endangered specie is currently dying in the other room?”

“Haha yeah, it’s my roommate, Trixie. Trixie Lulamoon. She’s in your class I think.”

“I’m very bad with names. Who are you again?”

“Very funny. Come, we’ll get something for breakfast.”

Bon-Bon got up, putting on some fluffy slippers and stretching her arms and back, making every joint in her upper body crack. Lyra decided to stay in the night pants her friend gave her, and looked out the window. The light was beaming over the rooftops of the buildings, and the wind was blowing through the thin curtains of the pianist’s room. They were on the sixth floor or so, and the view Lyra had on the city was more than appreciable.

“Did we really climb six floors yesterday?”

“Nah, I just carried you to the elevator where you proceeded to enter zombie mode.”

“So, wait, did you put these on me?” She asked, pointing at her blue cotton pants.

“Noooooooo…”

“Uh uh.”

“...Hey! Let’s go eat something, shall we?!”

“Sure, I’m certain you want to escape my question. I mean starvation.”

Bon-Bon opened the door and entered a small hallway, connecting apparently all the rooms in the apartment: bathroom, toilets, kitchen, and of course, the other bedroom.

“Trixie!”

“Mmmmh?”

“I have no idea if you’re making some tea or just screaming your deepest fantasies to whomever wants to hear, but can you avoid attacking my ears at eleven on a Sunday?!”

“What are you talking about? I’m practicing my latest grand amazing trick!”

The girl in the other room was taking a lot of space. Not physically, she was pretty slim, tall, with long crystal hair arranged on one side of the head, with a star-shaped brooch on the other side. Her cyan skin matched with her purple mysterious eyes, fully concentrated on a small shiny spoon placed on a table in front of her. She was wearing a simple hoodie with track pants, but had already makeup on. But perhaps the most noticeable thing about her was the state of her room: ‘messy’ was certainly a common and useful word of the English vocabulary, but it couldn’t quite catch the essence of what was going on in there. Not a single item was at its place, not a square inch of floor was breathing. Dozens of boxes, of all colors and of all sizes, were piled up and filled with costumes, props and stage decorations. It looked very much like the backstage of a circus, except it had to be reduced to a hundred square feet. And turned upside down. And burned. And turned upside down again. And reorganized by a monkey smoking crack.

“...You know this isn’t a teacup, right?”

“Of course I know that! But thanks to her mighty powers, the great and powerful Trrrrrixie will turn this miserable spoon into a magnificent porcelain teacup!”

“Ooookay, sounds good. If at one point you learn how to turn them into rent money, you tell me. You’re still two weeks late!”

“Artists don’t need frivolous things such as money!”

“Sure. By the way, this is-”

“I’m Lyra! Hey girl, nice room you got here, kinda reassures me on the state of mine. So you’re a magician? That’s dope.”

“Uhm… yes, hello! You have the honor to talk with the soon-to-be best illusionist of the country, what am I saying, the world!”

“Wow. That’s neat. Say, you have a trick you could show me right now?”

“Oh! Already a fan! I like you! Alright, I am going to read your mind! Are you ready to be amazed?!”

“Ready like a teddy.”

“Okay!” She answered, placing her hand a few inches away from Lyra’s forehead, closing her eyes, and whispering something only she could understand, “Spirits, grant me the power of passing through all the doors of the mind! Open the gates of wisdom and knowledge!”

Bon-Bon was looking at the whole scene from the doorway, eyebrows risen, a glass of milk in her hand. She probably had seen this spectacle more than once. Her roommate finally put her hands back on her hip, opened her eyes, declaring with a smile:

“You are going through a difficult period of your life, and were thinking about how your family might play a part in your well-being!”

“Hmmm… Close.” Lyra answered with a smirk, “I was actually thinking about your roommate’s amazing ass. Nice try though. Oh by the way, you left your newspaper opened at the astrology page.”

“I… You… Wha-”

“C’mon Bon-Bon, breakfast time! I’m fucking starving!” The lyrist said in a yawn, leaving the magician in a state of confusion while her friend laughed in the small hallway.

“...”

“Loud. She’s loud.”

“...”

“Nah, I don’t know how Bon-Bon manages to live with her either.”

“Ms. Heartstrings! Ms. Scratch! Despite the natural talent one of you possesses, I should let you know the entire class, me included, can hear you conversing in the back! Calm down or I’ll be forced to take measures!”

“Ugh… Yes, sorry Ms. Harshwhinny.”

The two girls exchanged a smile, taking quick looks at their teacher writing lines of grammar on the board, while still using their hands to communicate under the table. Sunday had passed quickly, all of them had basically been resting, eating pasta boxes for some and grilled lamb with a side of mushrooms for another, playing cello for some and handheld games for others. Now here they were, back on the chair of the classroom, for Monday morning’s English class. Nothing like conjugation and grammar to set the mood.

“...”

Vinyl looked closely at her partner’s hands. No, she did not know what to do with that Sunset Shimmer, nor did she know when that bitch was going to contact her. Should they just wait and see? Or talk to the principals and risk getting into trouble because of that godforsaken video? She gave Lyra a dark look that cataloged all the different ways to say ‘I fucking told you so’.

“Hey, this isn’t my fault!” Lyra whispered violently. “Okay, maybe just a bit, but this piece of fuck wasn’t even supposed to look into my phone in the first place! We’re lucky she didn’t find anything worse…”

“That’s it! Ms. Scratch and Ms. Heartstrings, please get out of my class! SInce this is only the second time we see each others, I will be merciful and not notify the principals, but I better see two model citizens on Thursday!”

“Pfff, whatever…” Lyra sighed as Vinyl smiled at her, probably very happy to skip a few moments of class, ‘There’s only ten minutes left anyways.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Nothing!”

The two girls walked down the steps towards the door, passing by an Octavia so shocked and scared she looked like she was having a heart attack. Vinyl held the door opened for Lyra, who stepped out of the room, followed by Vinyl, who closed the large door leaf behind them.

“Boy.”

“...”

The two girls suddenly burst into laughter, with Lyra trying her best not to be heard through the wall, holding Vinyl by the shoulder and letting her bag fall on the ground.

“Easiest ten minutes of my life dude!”

“...”

Come here.

With a smirk and an intrigued yet malicious look, Lyra got closer to the DJ, watching two ivory arms get behind her neck and equally white lips touching hers. The two girls kept kissing a good thirty seconds, before breaking contact and smiling back at each others.

“Haha, man that was a good kiss.”

“...”

“What?”

“...”

“What?!”

Vinyl kept the silence, looking at Lyra with the biggest smirk she could possibly make. She still didn’t know if she should be at her, but almost two days had passed now, it was way above her anger standards. She just smiled at the lyrist, bumping her fist against her shoulder, and signing with her other hand.

“Yeah, totally, Bon-Bon’s place is dope! Oh! Also I couldn’t tell you that in front of everyone, but I woke up with clothes that weren’t mine!”

“...”

“Of course they were hers! You think she’d have given me Trixie’s?!”

Although the prospect of Lyra waking up with a rabbit between her thighs was tempting, Vinyl had to go for the logical answer. Craving for some juicy details, she kept moving her hands faster and faster, asking questions only the two of them could understand.

“Whoooaaaaa, settle down kid! One at a time! Yeah, I woke up wearing some stylish -and comfy, may I add- short night pants, which were obviously too baggy for me because unlike Bon-Bon, I have no ass whatsoever. So like, you know I was way too drunk last night right?”

“I may have noticed a slight abuse of alcohol, yes.”

“So I was like: ‘I could never have put these on myself, so who the fuck did?’. Then I asked her if it was her, and she was all blushing and being like ‘nooooo not at all why would you think that?’!”

The idea of Bon-Bon being embarrassed like this in front of Lyra made Vinyl smile. It wasn’t as cute as Octavia, of course, but it took more to embarrass the pianist, so either Lyra had been really going for it, or Bon-Bon was hiding something.

“Then you know what she told me? ‘I would never do that to you’! I mean, to Vinyl. Which is you. She said to you, but not as in ‘you’. As in Vinyl. That’s you.”

“Hm.”

“Yeah, ‘I would never do that to Vinyl’, that’s what she said. I kinda feel bad for her… Whaddya think?”

Vinyl put her hand under her chin, squinting in concentration, passing the other hand through the mess that constituted her hair. She looked at her friend for a brief second: Lyra seemed legitimately concerned, that was rare enough to be emphasized.

“...”

“Yeah dude, I know we’re together, and so does she, but you know… What if she likes me? Like, actually likes me? I’ve never been in a serious relationship before, shit!”

Vinyl calmed the mint-haired girl down, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a smile. She took out her phone to write a message. Sometimes, she liked to switch between phone and hands, depending on the situation. Now her wrists her just tired.

Don’t overthink it, you’ve known her for a week, we’ll talk about it later alright? ♫♫

“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right. I guess we’ll see how things turn out! Alright, shouldn’t classes be over by n-”

She was suddenly interrupted by the school bell, announcing the end of morning classes and the beginning of the lunch break, a moment greatly awaited by many students.

“Yes! Lunch time! I’m so fffffuckin’ hungry I could eat an… a… a table… Ok I might not know where I’m going with this comparison.”

Vinyl shook her head, smiling, as she looked at the classroom doors opening, and all her fellow students get out one by one, high-fiving several of them and receiving a surprise hug by Pinkie Pie. After a few minutes, she finally saw the cellist, carrying her heavy bag with difficulties. As soon as she crossed the doorway, Vinyl grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her out of the way of the other teenagers and making her drop a slight scream of surprise.

“Hey Octavia! How’re you?!”

“Lyra, hello!” She said, gasping and turning back to face Vinyl, “Vinyl! You scared me to death! You are so inconsiderate!”, hitting the DJ on the chest with little conviction, much to the amusement of her two friends.

“That’s because we enjoy watching you suffer babe!” Lyra added, an evil grin painted on her face.

“What…?”

“I’m kidding of course! Why so serious?!”

“Oh, I’m sorry… That was very humorous, Lyra.”

“You don’t have to force yourself either, or else you’ll explode at one point. Either way, lunch time! I hope you’re hungry!”

“Actually I had a decent breakfast and-”

“Perfect! Let’s get this show on the road! Everyone to the cafeteria!” Lyra yelled, leading the way with a determinate walk, followed by Vinyl who had grabbed Lyra’s bag and put it on her back.

“Oh no, Vinyl, please, let me hold that, you are going to break your back!”

The other girl smiled, writing a few words on her phone before sending them to Octavia, who grabbed the piece of plastic from inside her coat:

Don’t worry about me! I wouldn’t want you to get hurt, porcelain is tough to fix once it’s broken ;)

“Oh uhm… Oh my…” Octavia blushed, seemingly losing the ability to talk. “I… Thank you, Vinyl…”

Vinyl couldn’t help but to be totally absorbed by Octavia’s adorableness at this very moment. She was obviously not used to receiving compliments like this, but the fact Vinyl was the one giving them was probably all the more confusing.

“Also, Vinyl, I wanted to tell you… Thank you for what you did on Saturday.”

“...”

“No, I don’t necessarily mean bringing me back home, I mean, of course it was wonderful from you, but I meant for everything you, Lyra and Bon-Bon did. I… don’t think I quite realized what happened yet, and it will most likely take me a bit of time but… thank you.”

The DJ gave her friend a comforting look, walking by Octavia’s side as Lyra continued yelling her love for everything on the planet that’s edible.

“Now, shall we go?” The cellist added cheerfully, “Lyra may have managed to make me hungry!”

“...Lyra, what is this?”

“This, babe, is a box! Is your mind blown yet?!”

“Uhm… I’ll have to back Octavia on this one, Lyra. I have no clue what that is…”

“Patience, you too! Vinyl and I will explain everything! I mean, I will, because this one is still eating because she is FUCKING SLOW!”

As Lyra ignored the raised finger facing her, she placed on the cafeteria table a small black box covered in white motifs and letters. They had eaten pretty quickly, and had now thirty minutes until the beginning of the next class.

“This, ladies and gentlemen -or mostly ladies, don’t assume genders- is a game called ‘Cards against humanity’.”

“Oh lord, that’s a frightening title.”

“Ooohhh, I think I’ve heard of this!”

“Most likely, you want me to explain the rules?”

“With pleasure.”

“Sure.”

“No.”

“Alright, everyone agrees! Okay, it’s pretty simple: we each have seven white cards, and must keep seven of them at every moment, which means that as soon as you use a white card, you draw another from this pile. Each turn, one of us will draw a black card from this pile here, and read it out loud. There will be one to three blank spaces in the sentence, that we all need to fill using our white cards. At the end of the turn, everyone reads the ‘complete’ sentence, and we vote which one is the best one! Deal?”

“Alright!” Bon-Bon said “Prepare to be destroyed!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about dude, I’m gonna crucify you!”

“I think I understood everything.” Octavia added. “Tell me, what kind of words do we get to complete the sentences?”

“Oh, you know, totally normal words, very common stuff, you’ll see…” Lyra said, trying to contain her laughter.

“Really? I feel like you’re being sarcastic here, Lyra.”

“Nooooo!”

“Why would she?” Bon-Bon asked, smiling widely as well.

Don’t be ridiculous. Vinyl wrote.

“Alright, I’m ready then.” Octavia smiled innocently.

“Perfect!”

Lyra started distributing the white cards, one by one, among the four of them, with incredibly swift movements, as if she had done this her whole life. Once that was done, she placed the remaining white cards in the box, as well as the much smaller pile of black cards in the middle.

“Alright, the rule, and I quote, states that the player with the worst grades in English has to start!”

The next seconds were completely silent. Well, as silent as a high school cafeteria on a lunch break could be, which is approximately a airplane-colliding-with-a-shipment-of-moo-boxes level of silence. Everyone stayed completely still, until all the eyes gazed towards a same target, as if they were communicating.

“Okay! I get it, I’ll start!” Lyra threw, annoyed by the painful yet comprehensible lack of faith her friends had.

She reluctantly picked up a black card from the pile, reading out loud:

“When I was a kid, all the others wanted to become firemen or princesses, but my dream was… blank.”

“Ooooh that’s a good one!” Bon-Bon smiled. Given Vinyl’s face, she was most likely thinking the same.

“Alright, so that I’m sure I understand, Lyra: I have to choose one of my cards to fill your blank?”

“Say that again, but out loud.”

“I… What?”

“Haha, just kidding, yes, that’s exactly what you need to do.”

“Alright, that sounds simple enough! Let’s see.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Lyra?”

“Yup?”

“I don’t understand any of my cards.”

As Octavia was saying those words, Vinyl and Bon-Bon both put their hands on their mouths, trying really hard not to explode into laughter.

“Oh, yeah, I kinda knew that was coming.” Lyra answered, chuckling as well at the idea of what the next question was going to be. “C’mon, gimme an example of a card you don’t understand!”

“Alright, uhm… Let’s see… What’s a bukkake?”

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone!

News of the week:
-Heeyyyy, look at that! I'm almost not late! Jeez, science really make some progress these days.
-I've had a... busy week, to say the least: I helped a friend move aaaallllll his furniture to his new appartment... on the 6th floor... without an elevator... but with a bed-couch to move there... GOD IS DEAD ; I had some construction done in my kitchen ; I had to renew my school year, along with other boring stuff ; and I've been working on some nice costume projects, because that's what I do! Bottom line, I'm tired.
-I'm trying to give more character to Bon-Bon, what do you guys think?
-Little promotion for my sister who's currently writing an Avengers fanfic on Fanfiction.net, so fans of the saga, go give it a try!
-I am so hyped for Life Is Strange 2, it's unbelievable.

See you boiz in the next chapter! The Sombra affair is about to get real!

Bisous,

Saga.