Trapped in the basement of the school, I pulled up one of the remaining chairs and sat down in the darkness. There was no helping it but to wait and eventually be found. With the music as loud as it was, there was no chance we’d be heard. That didn’t seem to stop Rosita though.

“Hey! Hey! We’re trapped down here! Someone help! Hey!” She banged on the door until I started to get a headache.

“They won’t hear you.” I finally spoke up after she showed no signs of stopping.”

“Not that you’re being any help!” I heard her voice echo down the stairway, but she did stop banging.

There were a few moments of quiet, then a growl of exasperation and a thump before she started walking down the stairway. She was limping slightly as she came down the stairway.

“The door is made of metal. Kicking it is just foolish.”

“Shut up!” She growled. “I didn’t see you helping at all. You’re a boy! You could have tried forcing it open.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like a guy who could force a door open?”

She looked at me for a moment and then muttered to herself, limping over to the chairs and grabbing another one for herself. She limped a distance away from me before settling down.

“Unbelievable.” She hissed. “Now, there are going to be rumors all year.”

Although she wasn’t looking in my direction, she was speaking loudly enough that she wanted me to hear what she was saying.

“Rumors?” I decided to humor her for the moment since I had nothing better to do.

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” She shot me an angry look. “A girl and a boy locked in the basement alone together. They’ll be saying things like we were… you know?”

I cocked my head. “I don’t.”

Her face turned red. “Th-things boys… do to girls… in the… in the dark. You know, you’re a boy!”

“You have a weird opinion about boys.” I sighed, starting to lose interest in this childish conversation.

“It’s a true opinion!” She shot back.

I didn’t care to argue with her, but before we could hear anything else, there was a banging sound of a door opening. Rosita jumped out of her chair and ran to the stairway, but I could already tell by the sound that it wasn’t the basement chair.

“Holy shit, did you see her dress?” The voice of a boy sounded out in the basement.

“Hah… I’m more interested in seeing her out of her dress.”

I stood up and followed the sound, only to come to one of the walls. I looked up to see a vent. The sound was coming from a vent that appeared to lead to somewhere else in the school. Rosita had followed me and seemed to come to the same conclusion. Excitement filled her eyes and she put her hands to her mouth.

“He-Hmmmm!” I grabbed her and covered her mouth just as she was about to shout out. “Mmm!”

“Did you hear something?” One of the voice’s asked.

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

A moment later, we could hear the distinct sound of water splashing on porcelain. Rosita’s face turned red as she realized that the location the vent seemed to be listening in on was the boy’s bathroom.

“You know, Miss Alma was looking pretty good. I want to hit that.” One of the boys said as he finished up, followed by a zipping noise.

“Dude, that’s our vice-principal.”

“So? She’s hot. A guy can dream.”

“You have your head in the clouds, you’re never going to get laid.”

“What? Like you? Dating ugly girls because they put out easily? What’s that girl’s name again? Kiki?”

“It’s Kio.” I tensed slightly as I heard a familiar name.

Was this the so-called boyfriend that Kio was on a date with? It seemed like the typical male talk I’d come to expect from the boys of this school.

“She’s better looking than most of the girls you’ve nailed.” He said as the sound of a sink running could be heard.

“That’s the thing. When I asked her out, I swear she was uglier. She cleaned up way nicer than I thought she would, but she still totally had that low self-confidence. So easy! I can’t wait until I sink my face into that chest tonight.”

“She’s not the only one. Did you hear about that other girl…” The rest of their conversation was lost as the door opened and closed again with a screeching thud.

I heard mumbling against my hand, and I only let Rosita go at that moment. She pulled away from me like she had been burnt, straitening out her clothing and glaring at me.

“Why did you stop me from shouting?” She demanded.

“Did you want to be rescued by those guys?” I asked.

Her face turned red, and she looked away. “Those boys… Kio is your sister, isn’t she?”

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I nodded. “She is.”

“That guy… are you going to try to stop him?”

“I’m down here…”

“I mean when we get out. Shouldn’t you protect your sister?”

“She’s responsible for her own choices.” I shrugged.

“He’s going to take advantage of her! You can protect her.” She seemed to become more animated the longer we spoke, her voice rising a bit.

“I don’t see a reason. Pain is a part of life. It might hurt her to be betrayed, but it will help her learn from her mistakes the quickest.”

“Learn from her mistakes?” She yelled, a look of disbelief painted across her face. “She’s your sister! You’re supposed to protect her. This could ruin her reputation! Even if you don’t care about your sister being hurt, what about the rumors? People will think all kinds of nasty things about her. Don’t you care what people think?”

When she finished, she was breathing hard, her face flush with anger.

“What people think doesn’t matter.” I sat back down in my chair, my back to Rosita.

Kio was barely my sister in the first place. She was Aiko’s sister. We might technically be family in the loosest sense, and for that, I decided I’d help her if she needed my help. However, that was one thing and this was another. Kio was her own person. She had spoken about this date and she had seemed to reciprocate a desire to go farther with him. That was her mistake to make.

If someone wasn’t allowed to make mistakes, then they’d never grow as a person. This would be a hard lesson for Kio, but she needed to learn it.

“Shut… up…” Rosita said quietly.

“Hmm?” I hadn’t even been talking.

“I said shut up!” She stormed in front of me and shouted; I was surprised to see she had tears in her eyes. “You don’t know anything! What people say about you matters. Rumors can destroy you! I-it took me years to… to fix my image… and now because of a couple of jealous bastards, my reputation at this school is going to go down the toilet too! Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter!”

My eyes narrowed, and I felt a flash of my dark history.

“No, it matters. I get it.” I responded darkly.

“You do- what?” She blinked as she realized I agreed with her.

“It’s what’s on the inside that counts? Be true to yourself? People will love you for who you are? Blah!” I made a disgusted face. “These are just the words of people who have never been on the wrong side of a crowd. They think they can talk about empowerment when they’ve never felt powerless.”

She opened her mouth and then hesitated. “You’ve felt powerless?”

“I know what it’s like to be hated by everyone, even though you’re just trying to do what was right,” I spoke quietly, thinking back to my long and hateful past. “You are what society thinks you are. That’s not just for the present, but all of history. Evil men have gone down in recorded history as saints because their public image was good. Meanwhile, great men, the men who achieved something, were painted as evil or cowardly. You can be the worst kind of villain, but if your optics are good enough, then the people will love you, and history will write your story as a great man. Meanwhile, if they find you lacking in some way…”

“Then, you will become society’s trash,” Rosita responded bitterly, slumping into her chair.

I was a bit surprised to hear such words come from a young girl from this world, but it sounded like she knew from experience. Our eyes met for a moment, and she looked away, her cheeks a bit pink. It wasn’t an expression of anger or irritation anymore.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I spoke thoughtlessly. There is a difference between not caring what people think, and not being affected by what people think.”

“I transferred to this school two years ago. When I was a Freshman at my old school, there was this Senior that I liked. People were calling me one of the prettiest girls in school, and when my senior crush asked me out, I was so happy. We dated for a while, but every time we went out, he always wanted that…” Her lips twisted. “I refused him, of course, but he kept pushing for it. I felt guilty that I wasn’t ready, so I… sent him a picture.”

“He showed it to his friends?” I asked.

“He showed it to the entire school!” Her face darkened. “When I dumped him, he told everyone I was an easy and a slut. Guys kept sexually harassing me and trying to get me to go out with them. The girls refused to be my friends. Even my best friend left me. She ended up dating him a week later and put out on their first date. Yet, she became popular and took my place.”

“Humans are trash.” I sighed.

One didn’t need to understand human nature as deeply as I did to know what they were capable of. Boys or girls, they would all just backstab you if given the chance for themselves. I noticed that Rosita was staring at me in the low lighting of the basement.

“I had to leave the school because of it. I transferred to this one. I built my bitch persona so that no one would ever hurt me again. I became the student president so I reamined on top. It’s important to me that people see me as strong and untouchable,” she said. “Even if it means I won’t ever have a friend.”

“Then why are you telling me all of this?” I asked.

Her eyes widened, and there was a moment of surprise on her face, but then the familiar angry expression returned and she crossed her arms under her chest with a huff.

“I told you because I told you! Okay?” She snapped, but after a few moments of silence, she gave a side glance. “What are you going to do about your sister?”

It was clear to me that she had shared that story because she saw Kio falling down the same path as she did. However, their situations were slightly different. Kio wasn’t a popular girl, and she was a more willing participant in it. If I got involved, she would likely never forgive me. She’d probably blame me, and I could risk destroying her image and my own. I especially didn’t want to gain some weird reputation like becoming a siscon.

My hand tapped the side of my chair for a moment, and then I let out a sigh. That was always my problem. I was someone who cared too much. With an annoyed expression, I stood up and walked in front of Rosita. She was startled by my sudden appearance. I stared down at her appraisingly.

“Yes, your breasts should be of sufficient size.”

“Wh-what?” Her eyes widened, and then she covered her chest, rage painting her face.

“I need your bra.”

“No!” She cried out incredulously. “P-Pervert!”

“You want to get out of here, right?” I asked in annoyance. “Your bra has an underwire? If you give it to me, I can pick the lock.”

“A-an underwire…” She let out a breath, looking down at her chest before blushing. “I-it might have that.”

“Well, if you want out of here, I need it.” I declared.

She thought about it for a few moments and then stood up stiffly. “F-fine… but you need to turn around. And no looking.”

I put my back to her. “Fine.”

There was silence behind me for a few moments, but then I started to hear the rustling of her dress.

“Y-you better not look.” She spoke nervously.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

There was a minute of rustling, and then I felt a poke on my shoulder. I reached out and grabbed the fine piece of metal. She had ripped it out of her bra. When I turned back to her, her dress didn’t look any different, but her breasts were a bit droopier, showing off more cleavage. If anything, it looked more erotic, but I didn’t give it a second look. Rosita seemed to have a disappointed look on her face, while her cheeks continued to glow with a red hue.

As I started walking up the stairway, I heard Rosita’s voice from behind. “You could have picked the lock and let us out at any time.”

“Would you have given me your underwire had I asked before?” I asked.

There was silence behind me, so I played with the wire a bit and then pushed it into the lock while she stood behind me nervously. It only took a minute before there was an obvious click. When the door opened, Rosita let out a laugh, slapping me on the back.

“Y-you did it!”

“Here…” I went to hand the underwire back.

“Ah… you keep it.” When I raised an eyebrow and her face glowed red. “I-in case you have more locks to pick.”

Her reasoning was silly. If I planned on picking locks regularly, I’d just buy a lockpick. I still shrugged and put it away in my pocket.

“Suit yourself.”

We were standing in the dark hallway, and the vivid noises of the dance could be heard clearly.

“Wh-what are you planning to do next?” She asked nervously.

“Next…” My eyes narrowed. “I’m going to help sell tickets.”