Again and Again

She looked over her friend’s shoulder pessimistically, knowing exactly what she’d be seeing on that radioactively white screen.1

“You’re on the fanfiction sites again, aren’t you?” Everlyse asked glumly.2

She received no distinguishable answer. It could have been a nod; it could have been a shrug.3

This was what they were like. Every recess. Every lunch. Every day. There was no foreseeable end to the madness.4

Everlyse missed the friends she'd had before Rose had introduced them to fanfiction. Now it was all they cared about. They lived and breathed the stuff; soon enough their grades would show it, too.5

“What are you reading this time?”6

Another shrug-nod. But this time words accompanied the movement.7

“I’m writing this time.”8

“Oh?” Everlyse was mildly curious. “What kind?”9

“Sweeny Todd meets Phantom of the Opera.”10

Everlyse sighed mentally. Most if not all of her friends loved those kinds of elaborate performance movies. Not musicals, per se; but the whole dark and brooding types. Coincidentally, dark and brooding musicals seemed to send them crazy.
Everlyse herself had, in fact, seen both of the films mentioned by her friend. For her, once was enough. She wasn’t determined to hate either of them; despite the way they made stalking seem romantic – a certain other movie (based on a book) she held a certain distaste for was Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ – and show the world as a vast “black abyss” of depressing and uncaring people. [But with the way her friends went on about them constantly, she was sorely tempted sometimes.]11

The pessemistic view may be somewhat more truthful, but Everlyse preferred an optimistic outlook. After all, seeing everything in a depressing light 24/7 couldn’t be all too healthy.12

Everlyse knew there wouldn’t be much point asking further questions of her friends while they were glued to the internet – it would only result in more indefinite responses – once they were on the fanfiction, nothing could tear them away. But she tried anyway.13

She shifted her attention to the girl sitting just to the right of the first, hoping pointlessly that she would be doing something else. Even after she saw the fanfic site’s homepage she asked the question.14

“What about you, Anna? What are you doing?”15

“Reading.”16

The reply was robotic. And with only one program open, it didn’t take a genius to work out exactly what.17

Everlyse noticed the last girl on the line of computers had a document open, on which she was typing with much enthusiasm. Curious, she approached her, resting her hands on the back of her chair and attempting to read her work.18

The screen went black as Rose pressed the monitor's power button.19

“Hunh?” Everlyse blinked in surprise. “Rose, what were you typing?”20

With a cheeky grin on her face, her friend replied casually, “Nothing,” telling Everlyse that it was quite the opposite.21

“Right…” Everlyse stood up and backed away from the computers, giving Rose an odd look. She had that feeling you get when everyone is in on a joke that you’ve never heard about – everyone except you – Everlyse also had the feeling that this was a joke at her expense. “…I’m guessing it’s not that history assignment we were set.”22

She hoped this would provoke some sort of distraction from the trivial sites they spent their time on. Nothing as of yet. Maybe they needed a more palpable reminder.23

“You know. That 3,000 word assignment. The one we were given a week ago.”24

Silence…25

She gripped the sides of the desk with frustration.26

“The one due TOMORROW!!!”27

It was a lie, she knew; but it was a damned scary one. Yet none of them even seemed to blink.28

This time, Everlyse’s sigh was overt, loud and exasperated. It was rare for her to lose her temper; and rarer still for her to lash out for it.29

“Don’t you guys ever get sick of this? We get enough homework to do on these brain-nullifying machines as it is! And what are you guys doing? Spending all your free time on them for even longer! Why aren’t you outside LIVING?”30

Everlyse paused, worried that her brief rant had been overheard by the other students in the study block trying to do some real work – or even worse, the teachers dotted about – she was already on bad terms with them for pointing out the flaws in their “logics” midway through their teachings.31

It seemed her rant had gone unheard: by both those unfortunate enough to be around to witness it and those whose ears it was meant for. It passed over them as carelessly as a wave on the beachfront.32

“Am I the only one here with a working brain today? Hello?!”33

Everlyse was now severely agitated. She saw Rose’s screen was back on and working and caught a few sentences of her typing.34

“What?” She cried out, aghast.
She was making fun of Sailor Moon, again. That was another thing that had come with this new love of theirs. The classic shows they used to watch as kids together had been replaced by the typical teenage love affair with death, pain and all other subcategories of doom… and strangely enough, they had taken a sudden amusement to making fun of the old somewhat more upbeat shows – especially a dear favourite of Everlyse’s; ‘Sailor Moon’, the old anime about a youthful and fractionally babyish heroine, Serena – and it wasn’t even witty or comical humour. Sometimes it was just plain mean.35

This time, the teasing came in the form of a list of “How to Make Sailor Moon Kill Herself”, among which the suggestions were “Tell her you’re pregnant with Darien’s child” and “Set fire to Luna”.36

Rose saw Everlyse had seen the list and laughed – whether it was at her own “humour” or Everlyse’s reaction, no-one could be sure – either way, Everlyse was still a little hurt.37

“Rose, that’s horrible!” Everlyse protested.38

“Hey, it’s only a bit of fun!” Rose insisted, still laughing. “Besides, it’s not all my ideas! Mandy contributed as well.”39

“What? I so did not!” Mandy had never been a good liar.40

It didn’t make Everlyse feel any better.41

“You guys suck,” she mumbled, disheartened.42

“Don't be such a grumpy bitc…”43

Everlyse was halfway out the door before Rose could finish her sentence.44

“Ditching us, are you?” Anna called after her.45

“Where are you even going?” Rose added her bit.46

“I don’t know!” Everlyse bit back, trying not to feel guilty about the harshness of the reply. “Outside! Maybe you lot should try it sometime!!!”47

She marched off out of their earshot, telling herself it wasn’t rude of her to walk out on them. True, she didn’t want to hear their catcalls any longer, but at the same time she felt like she was being unkind to them. She frowned at the ground as she strode away, wishing she was more tolerant of people. Behind her, still in the study area, three faces turned, zombie-like, back to their computer screens…