Roll to Me

Chapter 3

Moriko had thought she was improving her situation by keeping the Honey Bee Cabin extremely clean and relatively spotless. Roaches, ants, and mice would be much less likely to assume it was a safe haven if there wasn't anything to attract them to the cabin.

However, she hadn't known about the Ultra Clean Award. Or what the actual award was.

The gold spray-painted plunger sat on the edge of the cabin's short porch, displayed for everyone in the girls' side of camp to see. No. There was no way she could let a plunger define her cabin. Not only was it garish, but it was a toilet plunger.

Gingerly picking it up by the end of the handle, she held it as far out from her body and marched through the scattered cabins. She had seen the look on Camellia Cabin's unofficial leader's face when the Honey Bees had won the award. Surely she would accept it as an offering.

It was Quiet Time. Everyone was supposed to be resting in their cabins, reading or napping or otherwise occupying themselves. Soft music was playing in Camellia Cabin. Maybe they didn't understand the meaning of quiet.

Moriko used her free hand to knock on the door. She waited, expecting a certain girl with non-regulation streaks of color in her hair to answer.

She was proven correct.

"Hey!" Akemi Tomioka looked startled and then grinned at her with that face that people said looked just like her own. Moriko definitely didn't see it. They didn't share the same sharp chin or delicately pointed small nose or blue eyes at all. These features were common. They were simply similar in appearance. A twist of genetic fate. "What's up?"

"Hello," Moriko said. She held out the plunger. "I believe you wanted this."

Tomioka's eyebrows raised. She laughed. "Well, yeah, but we have to win it. Thanks, though!"

"No, you don't. It's a silly contest. We shouldn't have to be pitted against each other in order to feel the need to clean our cabins." Moriko leaned forward, offering the plunger again. "I'm giving it to you."

Tomioka's smile became strained, and Moriko, for a split second, was reminded of the smile her mother sometimes plastered onto her face. "That's not how that works. You're Moriko Kochou, right?"

"Right," Moriko said, "You can refer to me as Kochou. And I'll call you Tomioka."

"Akemi's fine," Tomioka said. Moriko was not calling her that. Tomioka rested her hip against the doorway and crossed her arms over her chest. "Look, Kochou, Camellia Cabin doesn't take pity awards, we win things fair and square."

"Oh, this isn't out of pity," Moriko said. She set the plunger down on the edge of the porch in the same place it had been on the porch at Honey Bee Cabin. "I don't want it. It's outlandish."

"That's sort of the point." Tomioka tugged on one of her rule-breaking bright locks of hair. "I think it's a fun contest."

"I feel otherwise."

"No kidding," Tomioka said. She pushed away from the cabin, glancing at the plunger with obvious distaste. "I guess the other girls in your cabin put you up to this? To stir the pot?"

"No," Moriko said, surprised, "Of course not." In fact, they might've been a little upset but really, it was a plunger. So unsanitary. She backed down the steps of the porch, thinking the matter was over.

Tomioka frowned, a little crease forming between her eyes. "You can't leave this here." She picked up the plunger and held it out to Moriko, bell first, the thick rubber almost touching her arm.