Operation: Scare Nozomi

Presents.

"Okay okay look, Honoka has thought of a good prank to fool Nozomi-chan!" Honoka exclaimed cheerfully to her fellow 7 club mates. Nozomi was conveniently late in coming to school.

At this, Nico leaned closer, and Eli stood to leave.

"Ehh, Eli-chan please hear me out first! We need you!"

Umi supported her. "That's right Eli-chan. Please don't be a spoilsport."

All 7 members sweatdropped. All the memories of times where Umi had told them to not play around or do something fun immediately surfaced in their minds.

Yet this seemed effective enough and the icy queen relented. Eli sighed and returned to her seat. Hanayo patted her on the back, mouthing 'there, there'. Rin gave her a thumbs up as reassurance, along with her brightest cat smile.

Honoka posed dramatically, with Kotori and Umi proudly flanking her either side. "Let's do a more pleasant prank! Christmas is coming, the season of giving!" Flowers practically appeared, floating about Honoka's head. Wait, were Kotori and Umi throwing those flowers?!

Maki groaned uncharacteristically. These fools are probably going to ruin Christmas for me with their pointless shenanigans! Santa will think I'm naughty for playing tricks and won't give me any presents...

This doesn't seem like a particularly mean trick, right? With much reluctance, Eli decided to let this one slide.

"Yay! First things first. Eli-chan, what is Nozomi-chan's locker combination?" Sweat beaded on Eli's head as 6 pairs of expectant eyes turned towards her, plus 1 disinterested pair.

When there was a loud annoyed howl coming from the locker hallway the next day, all the members of Muse were sure as heck that it belonged to Nozomi.

Said girl had opened her locker to find nicely wrapped Christmas-present-looking bundles. Which brought a bright smile on her face. She reached to open the smallest one, and her smile was promptly replaced with a dangerous, unreadable face. Her own stationary was in the bundle.

Rows of A4 book sized parcels were lined neatly in the back of locker. My books?! She spent the whole morning before classes opening each of the bundles just to get her stuff for school. And she. Had wasted. The time. She planned. To flirt. With Eli.

I did not come to school early to deal with this shit, Nozomi fumed in her head.

Needless to say, the aura she emitted during the short trip from the lockers to the clubroom was absolutely terrifying. Fellow schoolgirls' dived left and right to get out of the way of their stomping upperclassman. Student council members cowered in fear and hid once they saw the looming dark cloud atop her head.

The Muse clubroom door flew open, its hinges protesting.

All of Muses watched, shell-shocked as brooding, fuming Nozomi shuffled in and sat at her seat. Nobody bothered to close the door.

Silence ensued.

Honoka was the first to speak. "Ehh Nozomi-chan what are you doing here? It's almost time for classes. We were just about to leave."

The darkened pools of emerald offered no answer. The blonde motioned for everyone to get out, sending a pointed look at Nico. The latter held up both arms and mouthed 'what?'.

Oh right, this one wasn't her idea. Who could tell?

"Well then we will head off first." Kotori offered, topaz eyes shining kindly. All the other girls sped out of the room in record time.

Eli pulled another chair up to the purplenette, and sat down while pulling her gently into a hug. It was almost as if she was handling an injured animal.

"What's wrong?" Yeah actually I already know what's wrong but I'm trying to help.

"Something happened to the stuff in my locker. That's why I couldn't spend the morning with you." Nozomi pouted, puffing out her cheeks. She seemed to realise how childish this sounded, and blushed deeply.

"Something happened to the stuff in your locker? I know you aren't the neatest person on the block but— "

"Stop teasing me!" Nozomi tried to appear angry, but her face cracked a smile, betraying her.

Eli had to pause to pinch said girl's cheeks, "That's rich, coming from you! But you wanted to spend time with me?" Cerulean eyes shone with genuine curiosity and feeling.

Nozomi flinched and buried her head in Eli's shoulder, nodding her head. Eli laughed at her sudden change of personality.

The two sat in comfortable—albeit completely platonic—embrace, and Nozomi was already starting to forget her earlier frustration. (They almost forgot to go to class afterword.)

Eli wonders why this particular trick got to Nozomi so bad. And bless Honoka for coming up with such a trick at like 6:30 am in the morning, that let her get closer to her best friend.