Taikyoku

by Farla

Chapter 2

seriously guys suggest names please!

 

"...bright future and we all want you to be on top of your game like you were last year Snowman."

Snowman tapped the tips of her fingers on the desk, the unhurried clicking of carapace on polished hardwood underscoring her response. "And you think I'm not this year?" she asked.

"Of course I don't mean anything like that," he said immediately. "I just want to say we're all hoping for you to continue your winning streak and we're here for you if you need anything-"

"You have nothing to worry about there," she interrupted. "If that's all, I have to get going, the meeting's going to start shortly and I'd hate for them to think I wouldn't be there today." She smiled slightly as he went pale. "Especially with her out too."

"Right, yes, don't let me keep you."

A bigger Dersite was waiting for her at the door. "What was that about?" he asked as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh, nothing important," she said, waving a hand. "Let's go by the board. There should be time."

"We'll be late."

"I know," she said, amused. "It's always so much fun when he gets his hopes up."

 

Slick stared at the school clock on the wall with something more than his general hate. "Droog, let me see your watch."

"No."

"What?" Slick spun to glare at the taller Dersite. "Fuck you, let me see it."

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...not happening."

"Are you still mad about that? If it was any good it wouldn't have broken so easily now would it?" He was met with a cold stare. Fuck it, "Deuce, lemme see your watch!"

The short Dersite ran over obediently. Slick looked at it, comparing it with the one on the wall. It was the same. Still, Deuce was better at making clocks than keeping them on the right time. "Droog, is-"

Droog was already looking at his wrist. "Yeah, it's 4:13," he said. "Same as it says up there on the school clock." He saw Slick's expression and covered his face with one hand. "Don't. Don't say it."

"But she's -"

"She's probably just stopped off at the board."

Slick grimaced at the mention, then said, "No, she does that all the time and she's not this late over it. I think-"

"But you're not here to think," Snowman interrupted, stepping through the door. "You're here to take notes about what other, smarter people think." She smiled, mouthful of white fangs glittering in the light and headed to the table. She sat, crossing her legs, and regarded the rest of them. "No need to wait, the vice-president's out again."

"If she's out then someone else is the acting vice-president," said Slick. "Me."

"That's what you said last time. And what did I say last time?"

"You said look it up," Slick spat. In the massive book on school rules and regulations lurking in one corner like a squat, dusty frog, the one with the endless thin pages with every inch filled with dense bureaucratic text in tiny font Slick would rather stab himself in the eye than read. "So I did."

She raised an eyebrow.

Okay, it hadn't been him exactly, it was that young idiot of a freshman he'd grabbed, who actually liked reading through that sort of shit, but that wasn't the point. The point was - "If someone's out they get a replacement."

"Really," she said slowly. "How interesting."

"Yeah it's fascinating," Slick said flatly. "Rules. I could read about them all day. You never know what fun fact you'll learn next. Like this fact about that if the vice-president is out they get a temporary replacement."

She was smiling again, white eyes narrow. "Why don't you show me where it says that?"

Fuck. "What do you mean?"

"Well I need to see what it says, don't I?"

"You already fucking know what it says!" Slick seethed, his fists clenching into tight balls.

"Why, Slick, I'm not the one who looked it up, you are. What's the problem, surely you remember where you found it? When you looked it up?"

He was grinding his teeth so hard he imagined he could hear them cracking under the strain. He could just back down for now, find the stupid kid later and get him to show where the page was for next time. But she was sitting there so fucking confident, kicking one foot idly the way she did and smirking like she knew just what he was going to do. "Fine," he snapped, slamming his chair back so hard he almost went toppling onto the floor.

She didn't even have the decency to look shocked or even disappointed at his response. She kept smirking instead and he turned and stalked over to the book, trying to remember how the pages had looked with it open to the right entry. It had been more than halfway through, he was sure of that, but he couldn't risk overshooting his guess. He opened the book to the middle, glowering at the pages.

"I'm sure it won't take too long," Snowman said, pronouncing each word clearly enough that she might have been standing right by his ear, "but while Slick is occupied we'll need someone to fill in taking minutes. How about you, Deuce?"

"Sure!" the tiny Dersite chirped, pulling out one of the digital watches he carried and setting it on the table.

Slick ground his teeth harder and flipped to the next page.

"Yes, but there's a difference between offering some buses to people who sign up and transporting the whole school," Snowman said.

 

"Not if you tell them to. Send 'em all, we're going to win," Boxcars said. He nudged Droog. "Tell her."

"Probably," Droog agreed. "Though we still -"

"Ha!" Slick shouted. "There, there it is!" He looked up to glare at Snowman, who glanced back at Droog, shrugged, hopped off the table and walked toward him in her usual confident, self-important stride, moving across the floor like she owned the fucking place, probably figured he'd made a mistake but there it was in black and - well, gray, the book was so old the pages has discolored. Not for the first time, he thought they should really get a replacement, and one with a table of contents, and as before, promptly forgot again as she arrived to stand next to him. "Right here," he said triumphantly, stabbing at the bottom of the page with his finger hard enough to crumple it. "'If a member of the student council is unable to fulfill their duties during a meeting or in any other situation where they are required, by absence or for any other reason, a replacement must be appointed'."

She pushed his hand out of the way and flipped the page for him.

"Fuck."

"Dear," she called.

"Yes?"

"I'm appointing you Vice President. Slick, go find the forms and then fill them out."

"Fuck."