Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoy this one, and have a great day everybody!

Friday afternoon. The day almost every student at CHS craved during the school week. Why? Two days that they could sleep in and do what they desired! Well, until the cold reality of the homework that'd be due the next day set in.

Adagio Dazzle didn't have much planned for the rest of the day, mostly she just wanted to calm down for the rest of the afternoon and spend it with friends. Well, in this case, one particular friend. Adagio wanted to hang out with Lyra Heartstrings for the rest of the afternoon since everyone else was either busy, had work to do, or was hanging out with other people. And since Lyra had nothing else going on this afternoon, it meant her time slot opened up for some hanging out time!

It took a bit of time, but she eventually found Lyra's residence. Surprising to her, she didn't live in an apartment or a house. Her residence was down in the city area, which took a bit of driving. Not that she minded. And the place she found was a Japanese influenced shop. The front of the store had a Japanese text on the top, reading 日本ワンダー.

Opening the door, she heard a small jingle above. A little bell just above the door. And as she walked inside, she was entranced. Outside it just looked like any regular store with some Japanese text on the outside, but one foot in and it was like she entered another part of the world.

The inside was decorated like the inside of a building in Japan, what with the paneling in the floor, the walls, and even some of the paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Colorful, would be the word Adagio could describe.

Her eyes ogled some of the few knick-knacks and pieces of art and pottery as she walked. On walls, there were beautiful tapestries that hung, there were collections of Japanese books of many different genres, and even things like refrigerated food, shelves to hold music, the store had everything!

"Konichiwa."

Adagio turned her head. Standing at the front desk was an woman in her mid-thirties, wearing a Japanese work attire. Her hair hung over her shoulders and behind her back. Her skin was of a teal color, very much like Lyra's only of a darker shade, and her eyes were baby blue.

For a moment, the woman gave a small bow to Adagio, greeting her. In return, Adagio performed a similar bow, cleared her throat, and spoke. "Konichiwa, ma'am. I was told to come here by a friend of mine. Do you by any channce know someone named Lyra Heartstrings?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, I do. She is my daughter."

Adagio blinked. "Oh, wait! You're her mother?"

She giggled. "Yes, I am. My name is Saku, but you can call me Mrs. Bloom if you prefer to call me by my English name."

"No, its alright Mrs. Saku," Adagio replied, "My name is Adagio. Adagio Dazzle."

Adagio opened up her hand to shake, to which the woman replied kindly with.

"You're the friend my daughter must have been talking about. She said there was you and two others that always traveled with you. They're your sisters if I'm correct."

Adagio smiled and nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"And if I remember, she told me you were a Sairen."

Adagio's heart sank. "Um, no I'm not."

Mrs. Saku giggled. "I know you are, silly. Lyra went on and on about you last week. She said a lot of great things about you."

Adagio's voice cracked and a nervous chuckle escaped. "Really? You don't say..."

"Adagio!"

Off to the side, she watched as Lyra Heartstrings emerged from a corner. She was still wearing the same tank top and shorts she wore to school, and still had that same silly and positive smile on her face.

"Lyra. So good to see you."

"Hey, its no problem! I'm glad you could make it, didn't know if anyone else wanted to hang around and unfortunately Bonnie has class tonight."

"So I heard." Adagio nodded.

"You can go ahead and follow her upstairs. Just do be careful, the house is a bit of a maze."

Lyra led Adagio to a door, leading up to a set of stairs. Following her close behind, Adagio kept her eyes forward, praying she wasn't going to trip or get herself hurt. Once Lyra opened the door leading to the floor above the shop, she stepped out of the way allowing Adagio in first.

Upon entering Adagio was stunned yet again. The interior of the living room they walked into was just as lovely as the shop. Beautiful furniture that was clean and neat, family pictures along the walls, some fish swimming around in another fish tank, and there was a cat curled up in its little fuzzy bed.

"I must say, Lyra, this place is absolutely gorgeous. Your family really knows how to decorate."

"You can thank my dad for that." Lyra said.

Lyra sat down over at a little area that was essentially the dinner table. She sat down on the cushion, and patted the other one with her foot, encouraging Adagio to come over. Adagio giggled and she sat on the other seat cushion across from Lyra.

"I must say, I never sat at a table like this."

"We always sit at these kind of tables back in Japan. Usually where we sit whenever we're about to have any food really. Oh, geez, where are my manners, how silly of me." Lyra giggled. "Would you care for anything to drink? We've got soda, OJ, purple stuff..."

"Do you by any chance have tea?"

"Oh of course!" Lyra zipped away faster than Adagio could speak, and then coming back in only a micro-second. In hands were a teapot and little cup. "Herbal, right?"

"You read my mind like an open book," Adagio smirked.

Lyra giggled. "I thought I did."

Lyra set the cup down on a small plate, carefully pouring some of it into the little cup.

"So, Lyra, if I'm allowed to ask, are you by any chance... Japanese?"

Lyra put the teapot down, carefully handing the cup over to Adagio.

"What makes you ask that?"

"Well as of recently, the last few days of the Battle of the Bands; you showing up in a kimono, speaking Japanese, acting with some Japanese customs... Oh and the entire store I stepped into including meeting your mother."

"I thought that'd be dead giveaways," Lyra chuckled. "But actually, I'm only half Japanese, and half American. My Japanese heritage comes from my mother's side, and you can probably guess my American heritage is from my dad."

"No, no, I kind of assumed that." Adagio nodded. "But I just have to ask, why was it only at the end of the Battle that you decided to come out with all of this? I mean it felt a little, how do you say... it came out of left field, to be honest. I'm not trying to insult you or anything, but I'm a bit curious as to why you only decided to show this sudden Japanese influence."

Lyra sunk down in her seat.

"Oh... right. I guess that probably needs some explaining huh?"

Adagio nodded.

"Well... I don't know if I should say..."

"Lyra, its okay. If you don't want to share, its alright--"

"Its Sunset's fault, she's the one!"

"--And that's what I thought," Adagio deadpanned. "What did she end up doing to you?"

"Well if I'm being honest... I wasn't really liked back when I was a little girl. All the kids in kindergarten and through a few grade schools found me weird just for my heritage. Bonnie was the only one who had any interest in my background, and she was the first friend I made. Plus she kinda liked me for my silliness," Lyra added.

Adagio giggled. "We all do, Lyra. But please, continue."

Adagio took a sip of her tea, allowing Lyra to keep speaking.

"But anyways, so when I hung out with Bonnie I felt a bit more comfortable being where I originally came from. And once I hit high school, everyone there was a lot more open and more accepting of my background so I thought I could be a bit more open. But then... Sunset Shimmer came along."

Adagio felt herself cringing. "I'm almost too afraid to ask..."

"She and her friends didn't do any physical damage to me but... they did hurt me emotionally. Every time they found me they'd always call me names or call me weird and stupid just because I was from somewhere else. I tried so hard to fight them off but they never let off. Eventually after a while I just decided to just throw away what made me me and... I just kept mostly to my American side when I came back to school. They left me alone ever since."

Adagio felt a small snap in her heart, listening to Lyra's words.

"Lyra, if I may--"

"Wait! I know what you're going to say. But if I can be honest... I'm not scared anymore. Those Rainbooms are at their low point, and because of you and all of us, they're going to have to think twice about making fun of me. I'm more open than ever!" Lyra cheered.

Adagio's frown turned to a grin. "Well, I'm glad to see you're still back in your good old self. Japanese and American."

Lyra giggled. "Yeah."

Lyra felt a small buzzing in her pocket.

"Oh, excuse me for a moment..."

Lyra dug into her pocket, and pulled out her cellphone. On the screen was just a single piece of text from Bon Bon, but it was enough to make Lyra's face turn into a crazy smile.

"Oh my goodness!"

Adagio was so surprised she ended up choking on her hot tea, coughing heavily and hacking up a storm. She pounded her chest a few times, trying to clear her air valves.

"W-What?" Adagio coughed.

"The Friendship Games are coming! WHOO!!!"