Minako yawned as she felt the light touch touch her face and heard the birds chirping outside her window. She stifled another as her cat meowed and lashed his claws against her face, instead replacing it with a tell-tale shout of, "Artemis!" She shot a frustrated glare at him as she continued complaining. "Christ Alive, Artemis! Now you've gone and done it again... Now I need to clean off some blood before I leave. There you go, adding something incredibly unnecessary to my routine."
Raising up the blonde's clock, the white cat reminded her of the time. "Mina!" He hissed. "It's past eight already!"
"You've got to be kidding! And my resolution this year was that I wouldn't be late anymore! Guess that played out for me perfectly!" She exclaimed. She then smacked her cat on the head with one of her books as she placed it in her satchel. "Artemis! You could've woken me sooner."
In a flash of red and yellow, the girl hurriedly placed her uniform, socks and shoes. She grabbed a hairbrush from her desk and used it to furiously scrape through her roughened blonde hair. She took extra care when putting her bow on and then made a dash out of the house without warning, slipping down the front step along the way. She rubbed on the back of her skirt and leapt up, essentially readying herself for the day ahead.
Minako ran with her full energy when she was going down the street. If she slipped and fell, she would just get up again. If anyone tried to stop her this time, she would just ignore them, as that would probably be easiest, and also prevent her from being even later to school than she already was. Dust from the footpath flying from her flats, she quickly made her way through the Shiba Koen area. She flew past Game Center Crown, where her leg hit someone else's.
"Ouch!" She shrieked, looking down to see if she'd knocked someone to the ground. "Are you okay?"
"Mina-P!" Usagi articulated happily, glad to see her friend. "Guess we aren't too different after all!" Minako helped her up and both continued running towards Juban High.
"We're practically the same person! Excuse the scratch marks along my nose, that was Art's way of waking me this morning..." she muttered in response, stifling a yawn.
"That's okay, I was about to say the same thing about Luna's scratches along my cheek," Usagi murmured forgivingly through pants, trying to match her friend's pace.
Minako smiled reassuringly, understanding her friend completely. "Did you manage to get yourself some breakfast?"
A grumble from Usagi's stomach answered her question. "How about you?" Usagi queried, tilting her head to the side.
"I-I packed an extra juice box in my satchel," she admitted, ashamed.
"Oh! That reminds me, I packed an extra muffin in my satchel!" Usagi remembered suddenly, acting as if she had just had an epiphany. "You know, we could both eat on our way in the gates."
"That way we don't get in trouble!" Minako finished her friend's sentence. "That's a great idea, Usagi! We should have thought of that sooner!"
"Yeah, we could've done that yesterday, too!" Usagi agreed with a smile.
Both girls gave one another a high-five.
"Right, let's book it!" Minako told her.
Usagi nodded. "Stole that right from my mouth!"
Both girls ran towards the school, talking, laughing and panting the entire way. The two were a legendary pair, similar in many ways. Their appearance, their mothers, their fathers, their inability to get good grades, the fact they both had cats that hailed from the planet Mau, and that they both had a destined lover. It was only fate that two girls so similar would be princess doppelgängers of one another. It seemed fitting.
They both threw open the school's iron gates and quickly whipped some breakfast out of their satchels. Minako quickly chugged down a juice box whilst Usagi wolfed down a muffin. They made their way to the classroom as quickly as possible, eventually falling over out of pure exhaustion. Minako glanced hopefully at her princess, her expression softening from the fixed one she had been holding for the whole run to school. Usagi gave her friend a sheepish smile as they skulked into class. They slipped into the seats they had next to one another.
Minako glanced down at her satchel and grabbed out a book. It was covered in stickers, fake dollar-store pearls and lots of glitter. With her best marker, she had excitedly scrawled on it "Secret Three-Lights Memo Book!" She glanced down at the book and flipped through it, copying down some information that she had gotten whilst searching through her backlog of sources the night before. She had told her mother she was studying when she had compiled this research, so all she was doing was copying the last of it into her memo book. It had everything in it, including information that she maybe shouldn't have access to. But, as she liked to pride herself on being a fan of any idol group making their debut, of course she had every smidgen of information she could find.
So, of course she knew about the very famous pop group making their return and of course she knew about them holding a "comeback" concert in two days time. She licked her lips excitedly. Ah, all of the Three Lights had to be the cutest people in the universe. Her argument with Rei began to play back through her mind. Why were they really returning? She was beginning to think that maybe Rei was right. A forlorn sigh exited her lips.
She grabbed a piece of paper from one of her notebooks and wrote a note to Usagi: "Usagi, did you hear! The Three Lights are holding a super-special concert in TWO Days!" She drew a heart and signed it off with her name.
She then had a return note from Usagi: "Whoa, really! So COOL! -Usagi."
She smiled and wrote back, "I know! I know! I'm so excited!"
She handed the note to Usagi and watched her write a response: "We'll tell everyone at recess. Mako-chan will be extra excited!"
Minako smiled to herself as the bell rang for recess. Running for the patch of grass where the group usually sat, she shouted out, "Guys, guys! Big news! The Three Lights are holding a comeback concert!"
She looked at everyone. Haruka looked so angry that flames could be coming from her shoulders. Michiru was giggling. Ami had a bead of sweat rushing down her face and barely looked up from her book, and, just as Usagi had predicted, Makoto had the biggest smile on her face.
"We need to talk," a voice said, grabbing her arm.
YOU ARE READING
Venus' Flame
FanfictionMinako's mind has been running wild with weird dreams and premonitions, and she doesn't know quite how to deal with it. The only thing she thinks of doing is phoning a friend. Rei finds it hard to admit at first, but she wants to be closer to Minako...
