Vampire Fetish (Yumikuri)

4. Snow

Ymir wasn't at school the next day. Her siblings were; they sat at their table in their own little world, barely acknowledging the rest of the rest of the cafeteria.

Historia didn't want to think that Ymir trying to change out of Biology yesterday and her absence today were connected. That made her sound paranoid. Ymir wasn't skipping school because of her, she was skipping school for some other reason. Or she was sick.

Yeah. She was sick.

"Historia. Historia?"

She turned back to the conversation at the table. "Sorry?"

"We were talking about going down to the beach next week," Marco said. "Are you coming?"

"Um - maybe. I don't know, we might be busy."

"You should totally come," Sasha said, her mouth full of food. "There's gonna be a bonfire."

"Well, I'm not coming," Jean said. "Have fun freezing your asses off. I'll be at home, where it isn't raining."

"Who shat in your cereal?" Connie asked. "Anyway, even if the beach is shitty it's the only one we have, so we make do."

"I'll ask my uncle if I can come," Historia said. She'd never been to a beach on a rainy day before, and she wanted to spend time with her new friends. "It sounds fun."

Ymir didn't come to school for the rest of the week. Historia nearly asked her siblings the reason, but couldn't work up the courage to. They didn't give off a welcoming vibe.

The weekend soon came around, and Historia seemed to have been integrated into her new friend group. She'd been accepted into two groupchats (one with Jean and one without), had secured a full-time place at the table, and was currently being involved in the plan to go down to the beach. It was nice. She'd never been a part of a friend group before.

Uri didn't end up going to the Ackermans' house on Saturday. Mikasa had come down with a debilitating mystery illness, and in the off chance that it was contagious they weren't allowing any visitors to come around. Not wanting to cancel their game of cards, Kenny had come around with a six-pack of beers.

"She's been outta commission since Thursday," Kenny said. "Sick as a dog." He let out a laugh.

"Is she going to be okay?" Historia asked. She'd sat at the table with them, working on her homework.

"Ah, she'll be alright in a couple days. She's a strong kid. She used to be able to carry six chairs at once."

""Used to"? What happened?"

"She can carry ten now. Give a couple of months and she'll probably be able to carry double that."

Historia had seen Mikasa's muscles the day she'd dropped off the car, and could fully believe that she could lift that many chairs.

By Sunday, she'd finished the book she'd brought with her, and decided to take a trip down to the Paradis library. She was mildly disappointed at the meager stocking, however. She wasn't much interested in fishing or gardening. She figured she'd have to find a bookstore the next time she went into town, or check to see what the school library held.

On Monday, Ymir was back. Historia did her best to ignore her, trying to focus instead on her new friends and the snow that was coming down. She'd never seen snow before.

"It's wetter than I thought it would be," she told Sasha. "Like rain."

Sasha laughed. "Yeah, but you can't do this with rain."

And she picked up a handful of snow, rolled it into a ball, and threw it at the back of Jean's head. The iced coffee he'd been holding fell to the ground, the lid snapping off and causing it to spill all over the place.