WataMote fanfiction: SOLO

My Neighbor Tomoko

"Fray-hay!" Satsuke called her little sister. "There you are! Be sure father eats his lunch, today. He's been awful forgetful since mom went to the big hospital in the sky."

"OK, sis!" Fray said. Since mother was now 'under observation' at a special clinic for 'kicking buckets', their father spent most of his days poring over a great number of scientific journals, which was odd since he was a semi-illiterate truck driver.

But then, their new neighborhood seemed to have had an odd effect on all of them, ever since they moved in that fall.

"You're off to school! I'm so jealous." Fray waved to her older sister.

"Bye, Fray! Be sure to watch out for the dirty sprites!"

Fray groaned a little. Since moving into their new neighborhood, her big sister seemed convinced that they were surrounded by 'dirty sprites'. These 'dirty sprites' stayed up all night, when you weren't looking, and were always doing dirty things. If you looked too hard at what they were doing, you'd become dirty, too. "I'm a little kid," she had told her sister, "but I'm not an idiot."

She didn't believe her big sister at first, but from the very beginning she found that her room upstairs was bathed in an eerie glow every night. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks.

In fact, her nerves were fairly well shot, for a little girl, and when her father told her that it was trash day, and to go rake the yard because it was full of leaves, she almost lost it.

"Rake the yard, rake the yard! What am I, the bleeping leaf lady?"

She gasped. Did I really just say – that word, out loud?

Maybe it was true. The dirty sprites were already infecting her mind.

Next door, Tomoko Kuroki was dragging herself out the front door, late for school. Goddammit, stayed up too late with that game, again. And now I gotta take out the trash, too?

All she had to do was carry the bag out to the curb on her way out, but it still struck Tomoko as a tremendous imposition on her, considering she had to go to high school, as well. But as long as she was at it, she also tossed out her bag of trash, from her room. Didn't want anybody going through that shit.

But she hadn't tied it very well, and after dumping it on the ground, it fell over and fell open. Then a big gust of wind caught it, and blew it into the yard next door.

"What the bleep?" Fray cried. "Oh, bleep, I said it again!"

That girl just threw her trash into our yard!

There were tissues everywhere. Used tissues.

"I'm going to be sick."

By lunchtime, Fray had raked it all up, and tissues and leaves and all, and left the trash bags by the street.

"I'm going to give that bleep a piece of my mind," she resolved. "Wait, where am I picking up all of these colorful words? Nobody I know talks like this."

Perhaps it was a sort of magic, as it was Tomoko Kuroki's bedroom window that was keeping Fray up every night. Holy shit, Tomoko said to herself, stripped down to nothing but her tanktop and shorts. I've never played such an intense game, before. The technology has really come a long way! Woohoo!

She chortled, a dollop of saliva drooped out of her mouth, and she reached for a fresh box of tissues.

"What's with that eerie glow every night?" Fray wondered. "Could it be – the dirty sprites?" She pulled the sheets over her head, and tried to stay quiet, so they couldn't find her.