Cherri here.

So, this morning, I woke up with fire in my veins. The alarm clock rang today and I managed to get out of bed right away to shut it off. Right out of the coziness of my blanket, up and at 'em and out of my bed. No hint of sleepy, no hint of tired, none of that- just fully 100% awake this morning.

That's how ready I am for today.

Just in case you're not, in fact, the same Mr. California and you're totally new to what's going on... well, my sister, Gumi, got her phone taken yesterday. Kept it a secret from me, and- well, I found out in the middle of the night after calling it and some random girl picked up.

After that- bit of a late-night think session and I came to a life-changing revelation that I don't really care about my school life anymore. High school sucks and I came up with the biggest, pettiest plan to basically tell every single one of them to screw off in a way that doesn't get me suspended or expelled.

By the end of the day, I'm getting Gumi's phone back, and I'm making sure SHE gets to have the fun high school life from this point on.

And it all started with me waking Gumi up first. Now that I'm wide awake, I get to be the one to wake her up this time rather than wake me up.

"... y... you're up early..." Gumi mumbled to me faintly.

"Yeah... I have a lot to look forward to today."

"Oh... sounds good..."

Blah blah blah, we brushed our teeth and got dressed- okay. Onto breakfast. Today's breakfast was bacon and eggs. Crispy bacon with fried eggs, with orange juice. Judging from this, work was going pretty alright for Hippo Dad. Had a brief conversation about how I was feeling about coming back to school, and I told him I was really excited and all.

I ultimately decided not to tell Hippo Dad about Gumi's phone being stolen, by the way. I don't want to worry Hippo Dad or have him reach out to the school. He has a ton on his plate, literally and figuratively- even though bacon means he's doing alright at work, it also means he needs to destress for some big work thing by frying and sizzling something, see.

No, no, this is... this is just something between me, Cherri Kusuri, and the possible dog that took the phone.

And my plan's a bit more... uhm... active.

For all this stuff in my head to work, I had to distance myself from Gumi. Make sure that, whatever happens, Gumi isn't caught on the crossfire. It's a matter of just- distracting her for the entire day and distancing myself far, far away from her.

So, once we were on the bus, Gumi walked in and sat with the lizard nerd. Had them sitting together to make sure Gumi has a friend on the bus.

Gumi and the Lizard Nerd did ask if I wanted to join them, but I kinda told them something like: "nah, not enough room, I'll find a different seat."

So I began walking to the back of the bus, just to do a Cherri Kusuri: Ace Detective bit. Whoever it was that might- MIGHT have it, or know who has it... needs to react with a little bit more than whatever the general opinion of me is. A bit more than "I don't want you here" or "I don't care that you're here", more: "I want you to stay the hell away from me" or "I'm not scared of what you'll do".

Why? Because I flat out texted Gumi's phone a threat, a threat to whoever took it, and they KNOW I'm looking for them...

Of course, it also doubles as a bit of an "okay, I'm here, dorks, hate me all you want" as I walk down the bus aisle. I'm confident enough to say that nobody on this bus (besides Gumi, and- maaaaybe Lizard Nerd?) likes me. I felt that ever ominous series of glares as I wander about. No signs of the animalistic creature that could have taken Gumi's phone- every sign of a ton of animals that gave in to the Makeup Weasel stuff.

I could tell from first glance that they were either saving their seats for somebody else, or- did NOT want me sitting with them, and that's pretty standard. Something I've already accepted, something I'm just rolling with, something I just- well, y'know, I just don't care about it. Yeah.

In fact, okay, I decided to check for sure. To check for real if I'm right, and I am. I checked as I saw some empty seats, took a brief sit down, and - as I figuratively saw a mile away, a few feet right next to me - some girl on the other side got angry at me immediately. Spoke up by telling me, "Hey- seat's taken," in the most passive aggressive way possible.

She was a large, gray wolf dressed in some white and black shirt and a... well, honestly, a sick chili pepper red jacket. Seemed pretty cool, probably would have gotten along with her if I still cared about making friends and all.

So, I more or less just... answered like I didn't care.

"Huh? Is it?" I asked, tilting my head. "Well, doesn't seem taken to me yet." I just kicked back in the seat, let out a faaaaaint yawn and got cozy. None of her friends to take the seat yet, I can sit here all I want while the bus starts moving.

And she did not take that well. The wolf girl immediately got up from her seat while glaring directly at me, looking down at me with her towering self. She said some stuff about how her friends sit in these seats, and that I needed to get the hell out of her friends' seats and all.

I shrugged at her. Her friends don't seem to be on the bus yet, so I should be all clear to just sit here until they get on.

... and she did not take that well either.

The wolf girl grabbed me by the shoulder, and pulled me out of the seat. Forced me out into the bus aisle, threw me against the floor and junk. Loudly growled and pretty much howled at me in pure anger, deciding to lash out at me in pure anger.

And I have a content little smile on my face as I proceed to get up...

... and walk to the front of the bus.

I wasn't really that bothered by her doing it. In fact, I kind of wanted someone to do that, so that I could feed into any suspicious rumors about me. "Oh, Cherri Kusuri got suspended for burning off the skin or whatever through some weird funky way" or whatever it is they'd be saying... if people believed that touching me in any way, shape or form will possibly hurt her, kind of like what people believe happened with Makeup Weasel- then I'd leave a strong, strong impression.

Sooooo... when the wolf girl grabbed my shoulder, I just made a special effort to focus and make sure her hand felt tingly afterwards. Some bit of, oh, I dunno, special blood mumbo jumbo that's now coursing through her hand. I didn't bother to look back at how she would react to whatever happened, but this did lead to a lot later down the line.

Though, I'll get to that eventually.

For now- I also didn't bother checking any further back in the bus. Wolf Girl made it pretty clear that no seats are available for me, none for me to sit in- except for the VERY back of the bus, reserved affectionately for some... well, I don't know how to put this, but- I had to stare at some gross fly people and beetle people, sitting back here with some slobber and bile dripping from their faces.

So, rather than waste my time sitting down and going through all that again... I station myself riiiiiight at the front of the bus. Standing in the middle of the aisle for the entirety of the trip. Arms crossed as I stare forward through the bus windshield, the bus continuing to drive along as I stood the whole way.

This- was less about the detective thing, more of a... more of a statement. I stood the ENTIRE time as we headed to school. Taking some distances to lean out of the way as other animal students squeeze past me to head to their seats. I was proudly smiling, and- well, being a complete and utter nuisance.

I am READY for this to be part of my routine every single day, to get on the bus with Gumi, try to find a seat, and then walk to the front and make it so much harder for people to get on the bus as they have to squeeze past me and all.

On top of this, I also made sure I was the very last one on the bus. The same way they had to squeeze past me to get onto the bus, now they had to squeeze past me to get off of it. Every single person had to walk past and around me as I just kinda hung around, scrolling through social media on my phone and more or less just ignoring them as they go around me.

... though, I couldn't ignore everyone. I immediately acknowledged Gumi on her way out, asking me: "... Cherri- w-what are you doing?"

"Letting everyone else off first," I told her bluntly, waving her off and keeping her... in the dark about everything I'm doing. "I'll join you in a bit, okay?"

"O... Okay..."

And I especially watched as the wolf girl had to walk past me, disgusted and enraged at me... holding her hand in mild discomfort. Kind of scratching the palm of it, even, as if I had just given her fleas and all.

I did see some of her friends, as she said, while doing my "stand on the bus the whole time" act... heh.

After a very, very long process of everyone just getting off of the bus, I strutted off of the bus and went to class with Gumi and Lizard Nerd. The two chatted about a ton of nerd stuff, stuff I just kinda spaced out on and am too lazy to tell you about...

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

... and I prepare myself for my next plan of spite.

See, Makeup Weasel's still- pretty much recovering, so she hasn't shown up in class. No signs of her yet, whatsoever, and- well, getting to class, her seat's empty. Everyone more or less sat down where they sat on the first day.

Gumi and Lizard Nerd go on to sit in their seats, with enough space for me to sit in between. Though, I did briefly tell them that they should sit next to each other, and- they did. I hung out with them for a bit while waiting for Math to start, with the Math Teacher Robot already at his desk just doing things on his computer...

... and then, right before the first period bell rings, I get up from my seat, taking my stuff as I walk myself over to her seat, and sit down in Makeup Weasel's empty chair.

Honestly? Her seat was a nice change of pace, gave me a good view of the front of the room. I could see the board and everything, saw whatever the teacher was going to write. I get why Makeup Weasel chose this seat now.

The bell rings. The teacher proceeds to teach his Math and all.

And I could also see how pissed people were as they couldn't do anything about me.

Specifically, Makeup Weasel's friends, the ones sitting closest to my new seat. They all had very, very annoyed looks on their faces, being forced to be anywhere close to me. The biggest salt in the wound of it all, watching me take the most PETTY and innocent action I could... all of their aggressive animal eyes glancing at me ever so often throughout the class, as not a soul dared to tell me off in the presence of the teacher.

Why? Eh, I dunno, probably something the teacher did to intimidate students into listening to him. Happens.

So I more or less just sat in that seat and spent this merry class just... basking and thriving off of this. No benefits to getting Gumi's phone back, sure, but like... still, I was having a great time. This is a very, very great step in my plan.

So, bunch of math stuff later, the bell rang, and I got up from my seat.

Shortly after, I was stopped and surrounded by Makeup Weasel's friends. Saw all of their ever so unique clothes, watched as they looked down on me and had so- sooooo many words for me.

But I just kinda slipped past them and walked to reunite with Gumi.

It just took me walking straight towards a couple of Makeup Weasel's friends for them to suddenly- step out of the way, too afraid of me. Makeup Weasel's friends are probably the ones most affected by the rumors, having to hear about what I apparently did to her hand and all, so they definitely do not want to come into contact with me whatsoever.

I ignored a lot of the crap they spewed out, and uhm... yeah. Joined Gumi as we walked to Biology, kept an eye out for anyone that might approach us about, oh, I dunno, phone or rumor related things.

Gumi's been quiet during the whole... thing, and I didn't notice if she was trying to get my attention discreetly- but she whispered to me at some point while we were walking down the halls. "C... Cherri, uhm-"

"Hm? What's up?" I asked her with no whisper voice, probably still grinning like a madman after that little stunt I did. maybe. "If you're gonna ask if I took notes, uhm, I probably didn't, but-"

"No, no, it's... what... what exactly w-was that? W-Why did you sit with, uhm... uh... y'know, her friends...?" Gumi asked me, refraining from referring to Makeup Weasel as Makeup Weasel.

My answer was... pretty vague, on purpose. "Mmmm... just doing my part."

"Y... Your part?"

"Yeah. Don't mind me, I'll tell you all about it once I'm finished." A gentle pat pat on Gumi's shoulder. One of those "it's gonna be alright" moves to reassure her and stuff.

Now, with a combination of whatever happened on the bus with Wolf Girl and all, and the audacity of me to sit in Makeup Weasel's seat in Math Class... I saw my efforts pay off and watched Makeup Weasel's social circle act in response. All of them decided to crowd around and take Makeup Weasel's seat and table, making sure I didn't take her seat this time.

I could take the time to describe all of them, give you a real- real big description of what they all are, bring attention to the specific looks of their animal faces and all- but I can just say they're all Makeup Weasel's friends and you could remember all of them from there. Shared love of makeup and bright fashion, completely uninteresting otherwise.

Oh, and shared hatred of me, by the way. They've been doing it since the first day, sure, but today I overheard- like, overheard overheard them whispering the same old crap about how I was a dumb lesbian loser that had some audacity to sit in Makeup Weasel's seat or something. Said some stuff about how horrible it must have been to be anywhere near me, to avoid getting anywhere close to me at all costs.

... so I took a stool.

And I carried it over to sit with them.

Planting this stool RIGHT at the side of the table, finding a convenient spot to just sit with them against their will. A delighted smile while leaving my backpack with Gumi for safety, just carrying the stool.

"... what- what in the-" noised the first of Makeup Weasel's friends, seeing me approach with her large and bulgy owl eyes. "The hell are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just getting a good view for the class, don't mind me," I answered.

"Well- we DO mind..."

"Do you? Oh. Okay," I told them as I just rested my arm on the table and kept sitting there.

"... that means, get the hell away from us!" exclaimed another one, at the top of her screeching loud hyena voice as he growls aggressively at me. Her angry fury shared by the others at this table, also getting some attention from the people around me.

You know the deal by now. Felt devastated by them on the first day- but now, I just shrugged them off uncaringly and told them: "Nah. If you're gonna talk about me, best say it to my face rather than behind my back."

Ah, and that set them off. Got under their skin and all. One of them decided to kick my stool out from under me, a sort of- sardine. A fish girl that was the closest, able to kick the stool and make me fall out of it as it tilts over and I fall!

... so as I fell, I took the opportunity to aggressively slap her straight across the face. Right- across- the face. Honestly, I kinda forgot if it was a palm slap or a back hand- either way, I inflicted violence on complete, total "accident". Eye for an eye, some cool guy on TV said once.

And I thrived off of that eye, as what followed me falling could only be summarized as "LOOK AT ME!" at the top of the fish girl's gills, as she started whining like a baby. Making a whole big scene of the slap after she directly kicked my stool out from right under me, acting like she didn't bring that on herself.

The more she whined, the more people just- saw me on the floor, collapsed. Everyone in this room is a witness to this scene. Full blown witnesses all around. Didn't expect any sympathy, sure, but... no matter what they thought, whether I deserved it or not, they saw the scene! Saw me fall over. So if I'm to get in trouble for the slap, they'll have to acknowledge what happened before it. No way is a teacher or, possibly, the lunchroom police officer going to ignore this.

Hehe, and I'm- just lying against the floor, feigning a bit of groaning after falling against it... having more reason to, actually, because the hyena even took a moment to walk right up to me and begin kicking me while I'm down! She was in a sort of blind rage. "Sticking up for her friend" and all, sure, but still kicking the crap out of me.

I don't mind a bit of violence, and I just took all of it, enduring it for the whole time. Makes it oh, so, much, easier to play the victim even further as I'm being kicked all over. Even had the biology teacher come in to see it while Makeup Weasel's friends were telling him to stop.

They pretty much were just trying to explain to the teacher what happened in a way that made them seem good, saying that I slapped the girl... and I more or less kept quiet the whole time, watching as they ganged up on that story.

Why was I quiet instead of defending myself?

Oh, because I didn't bother to speak. The teacher could straight up see the bruises on me, bruises from being kicked aggressively. Their story didn't line up with the fact there was a girl on the classroom floor just groaning in pain, with her stool fallen over and all.

If I got in trouble for just holding a hand... there's a bit more trouble for the hyena who was seen literally kicking a girl. Sort of- physical violence, pretty much.

In that moment, Gumi came over to help me up, and she and the teacher were saying stuff about taking me to the hospital before class starts... completely disregarding Makeup Weasel's friends and all, and leading to later disciplinary action.

... but I decided to skip the middle man and get up on my own, walking over to where Gumi's table was. Getting up on my own and taking a seat, shaking my head and just- ready to learn Biology and stuff while I felt like absolute crap.

Mostly just a power move, but also just because my own healing blood - blood magic, by the way - can fix me up anyway. Not as fast as I can Gumi or anyone else, though, but- eventually. Faster than whatever a nurse can do, at least.

So, that was my entire plan for today. The common thread between all of these events, these three events I'm telling you... my plan was just to sit in places where I don't belong and annoy the hell out of the people around me, people who don't want to be anywhere near me. Make myself appear to be an absolute menace of a person, while still following school rules (relatively).

What do you think? Am I killing it? Am I doing awesome at getting back on my feet? I'm pretty awesome, aren't I?

Well, in my opinion, this is the greatest, greatest plan I've ever come up with, really! It's so petty, so tough, all of that! Makes me all giddy, thinking about how genius I am right now...

See, the more I prove myself to be an utter nuisance and piss off every single person around me, ruining their day just by being around them... the more "influence" I have. The worse I can make people's days, the more likely they'll see me as a resilient pest that will never stop- no matter how hard they may kick me or push me or grab me. I'll always come to class, I'll always take what they can do to me... and I'll always get right back up after.

Now... if I keep this up, no one's going to mess with Gumi anymore, because they'll now have to get through me. The bad girl. The girl who gets thrown out of seats and stands on moving buses. The girl who sits wherever the hell she wants. The girl who will not hesitate to get people in trouble whenever she wants.

Above all that... the girl who got suspended for ONE day after burning some girl's hand off, apparently, and came back to class after!

I'm resilient, I'm tough, and I'm pretty much a massive, annoying pest! One that annoys everyone around her, a bug that can't be dealt with so easy. I've infested this school on my third day, and I'm going to make it worse.

And thus, my tough girl self makes my "get Gumi's phone back" plan oh so much easier.

See, when I get to the point where I can annoy everybody in this entire school, I annoy and piss off the person who has Gumi's phone. Infuriating them beyond all belief, making this person regret ever taking the phone in the first place. Making sure they, out of fear, know full well that the only thing that will ever get me to stop is the return of Gumi's phone, and that if they ever mess with me again... I'll ruin whatever high school life they have.

I have my routine set for the next four years of my life. I know full well what I'm going to be doing every single day for the entirety of high school. I'm ready to draw this struggle out for as long as I have to, over and over and over again, until Gumi's phone is back in my hand and I can give it back to her.

And it's already started on day one of my new conviction. Rumors have spread enough to the point where no one bothered to mess with me and Gumi in French. We're halfway through the class, I'm still dealing with bruises, and - in terms of repeating rumors and saying crap about me and Gumi - I've managed to shut the entire class up.

Hehe... it's completely, completely foolproof-

"Cherri Kusuri, please report to the Principal's Office."

"Repeat, Cherri Kusuri, please report to the Principal's Office."

...

Huh.

That intercom message sure came out of nowhere. Interesting how they call me just as I praise myself for my brilliant mind, as if I'm in trouble for my overconfidence or whatever. Then again, it's probably just some unimportant nonsense I have to sit through again. Another suspension? Maybe an expulsion?

Oh well, it's not like I didn't expect any of this. I'm gonna go see what this announcement's all about, now.

"Well, then! À bientôt, mes amis~!" I loudly exclaim to everybody, waving energetically to everyone in the room as I get up and leave French with a proud smile. Slinging the backpack over my shoulder and just strutting out gleefully. I will definitely be seeing them soon and all.

Until then.

...

Oh!

À bientôt to you too, Mr. California! Almost forgot, should probably tell you that too...

I'm actually kinda liking French, it's pretty cool.

Anyway, buhbye, ciao!