Chapter I
25 Years Later…
“Do you do this on purpose or something?!” Akari snarls with her back to Kaimei. Surrounded by dishes - a large dirty pile to her left, and a measly pile of clean dishes to her right - she wheels around to face Kaimei, who is busy dusting in the adjacent living room.
“What?” Kaimei yells, yanking her iPod buds out of her ears. She rarely gets the chance to have peace and quiet with Akari always irritating her with chores. She sighs to herself as she realizes she could’ve just ignored Akari’s yell from the kitchen. Why didn’t it occur to her sooner?
“Every time it’s my turn to do dishes, I end up scrubbing for an HOUR! YOU always seem to be done in 20 minutes!” Akari fumes, holding up a crusty plate from the previous evening, pointing at it with her scrub brush “You let your plates soak when it’s your turn, don’t you?!”
“Erm… well, do you have to be so… DUSTY?! Every time it’s my turn to dust, it’s all….dusty!” She blushes discreetly and puts her buds back in and starts dusting, pretending not to notice the look on Akari-chans’ face. Akari takes to scrubbing the seemingly endless stack of plates, mumbling darkly to herself. Akari glances out the window in front of her and notices a rather large spider web in the frame. She mentally logs it away, and decides to leave it there the next time she dusts, since Kaimei has a fear of spiders. She smirks to herself and continues scrubbing away at the crusty dishes, suddenly feeling much better.
Half an hour later, every plate, cup, and piece of silverware is sitting in the drainer, waiting to be dried, and the damp dusting rag is sitting on top of a small basket of dirty laundry. Akari and Kaimei are both out in the garage, searching boxes for things to put in their annual yard sale. Several boxes labeled “Kaimei’s stuff” are stacked haphazardly into one corner, and only two boxes labeled “Akari’s junk” are stacked ever so neatly in another. Akari pulls out her bottom box, already having searched quickly through the one on top. She yanks the tape off and pulls the flaps open, eager to see what can make her some money this year, when she sees something unusual.
“Oh my gosh, look at what I found!” she exclaimes, still searching in the box. Kaimei has a befuddled look on her face, wondering why Akari is making her get rid of all her old Nancy Drew books that she hasn’t read since she was 12. She looks up at Akari’s yell, curious. In Akari’s hand is a very old, and very battered VHS tape, from when they were in high school together. “I can’t believe I still have my Sailor Moon tapes!” Akari holds it over her head as she digs through the box for more treasures. “HOLY CRAP! I FOUND THE ENTIRE STARS SEASON!”
“Holy crap!” Kaimei exclaimes, ”We haven’t watched this in years! I’ve missed the cheesy-awesomeness of it all. We should take a break and go watch it!” she pauses as Akari continues to search through the box, ignoring Kaimei’s request. “You know,” Kaimei starts, as she walks over and snatches the first tape from Akari’s hand, “ you don’t have to get rid of it just because you haven’t watched it in so long. I know you have that rule ‘If you don’t use it in 6 months then blah blah blah, but we’re talking about three years of our lives! And you want to get rid of it! You should be ashamed of yourself, selling your memories away.” Akari comes up from the box, covered in dust and staring intently at Kaimei. She proceeds to snatch the tape from Kaimei, who is mumbling something about communists, holds the tape over her head, closes her eyes and says,
“VENUS STAR POWER!! MAKE-UP!” and runs inside giggling. Kaimei stands in awe at the event that just took place in her garage, and then yells, ” MERCURY STAR POWER! MAKE-UP!” and runs after Akari.
“You know,” Akari says, as she puts the tape in the VCR and plops down on the couch, opening a can of cherry cola, “I thought that I sold these at least two other times, but somehow they keep ending up back here.” She giggles. “Oh well, they’re still an awesome watch.” She and Kaimei begin to watch the tape, and Kaimei quietly thanks the VHS/Sailor Moon gods for placing the tapes in the box so she didn’t have to clean anymore today. Cleaning is for obsessive compulsive people, and that is clearly not her. She would rather sit and watch a marathon of Sailor Moon tapes than have to wash one more stupid dish, or dust one more stupid Buddha.
Akari gets up to get another soda between episodes, when the phone rings as she passes it, causing her to jump unexpectedly. “You okay?” Kaimei questions her, the screen reflected in her eyes as she fast forwards through the end credits..
“Yeah, just startled me a bit. Who would be calling at this hour? Its nearly 10.” The phone rings again “Oh, Kaimei, is it that guy calling for you again?! Didn’t I tell you he was bad news?” She shakes her fist at Kaimei, picking up the phone simutaniously. “Larry’s Pool Hall, eight ball speaking.” She says with a snicker.
Kaimei can’t understand why she answeres the phone with random false business names, but Akari insists it keeps the telemarketers at bay.
Kaimei rolls her eyes and starts to watch the opening sequence, turning up the volume a bit. Akari whacks her on the head with a pillow she snatched from the floor and mouths a very mean “will you turn that down!” at Kaimei, who rolls her eyes again and pauses the movie, getting up to grab some food. Akari giggles as she looks at Kaimei and mouths “it’s Dexter!!” and jumps up and down. Kaimei mocks her by jumping up and down like a badly coordinated child, then ducks out of the room as Akari chucks a different pillow in her direction. She hears Akari talking on the phone, choosing not to pay attention as she rummages in the fridge for something to munch on while they finish watching Sailor Moon, providing Akari doesn’t remain on the phone for the next thirty seven years with the guy who lives next door.
Finding a particularly tasty looking leftover section of lasagna, Kaimei cuts herself a rather large portion, leaving only a small bit in the casserole dish so she doesn’t have to put it the sink to soak. Smiling at her deviousness, she carefully wraps the foil back over the dish, and tucks it away deep in the pit of the fridge. She takes the few steps to the microwave, only after grabbing the splatter shield that was just recently washed, when she hears Akari hang up and come bolting into the kitchen. “Ohmygod Kaimei, he is so incredibly hot!” she squeals as she reaches into the fridge for a soda, and the nearly empty lasagna dish goes unnoticed. “He wants to go out this Saturday! You have to help me pick out something to wear!”
Kaimei rolls her eyes and rests her chin on the counter, staring into the microwave. “Do I really have to?” she peers over at Akari, who raises her eyebrows, wondering if she offended Kaimei or not.
“I……..I’m sorry, I didn’t think about it, I mean,” she sips meekly at her soda “you know, its just, I thought you would want to help me…” her voice trails off.
“Its cool,” Kaimei giggles as Akari gives her the evil eye. “I was just messing with you, of course I’ll help” Akari’s eyes light up, and she gives Kaimei a big hug.
“Thanks! I was beginning to worry! You know how fashion retarded I am. Aaaaannnd,” she teases, “ I have good news for you!”
“Oh?” Kaimei questions suspiciously, pulling her now piping hot lasagna out of the microwave, careful to place the splatter shield into the sink.
“Yes! Dexter has a man-friend. Who is single. And I’m assuming who is as hot, if not hotter, than him, because you know hot people only have more hot people as friends.”
“Oh…” Kaimei looks at Akari. “Sweet.” is all she could muster, using a bite of food to hide her total lack of enthusiasm. Kaimei would now have to remember what a date was like. Had it really been that long? She contemplated breaking a bone to get out of the date, but was quickly interrupted.
“Don’t even think about bailing out on me. It’s been far too long since you and Richard broke up for you to have those sad eyes.” She points her empty cola can at Kaimei, who is doing the “MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE” dance. “You. Are. Going. Out. Plain and simple.” She finishes emphatically.
Kaimei happily eats her lasagna, grateful for such a pushy friend, nodding frequently and pretending to pay attention while Akari goes on about how awesome Saturday night will be.
