Intermission: Ruminations with the B-Team

Intermission: Ruminations with the B-Team

Intermission:

Ruminations with the B-Team

T HE CLUB ROOM WAS QUIET. YANAMI AND KOMARI minded their own business, neither motivated enough to strike up a conversation.

Yanami lazily perused a magazine, using her arm as a pillow, until a page caught her attention. “Hey, Komari, doesn’t this look yummy? Chocolate mochi.”

“Wha…? Ch-chocolate mochi ?” Komari nestled a bookmark in her book. The thought made her grimace.

“Yeah. Like mochi, except chocolate flavored.”

“Th-that’s neat I guess.” Uninformative, though, she noted.

“I’m thinkin’ Valentine’s here. It’s coming up, you know. You remember talking about trading chocolate between us girls, don’t you?”

“N-not really.”

Yanami got halfway onto her high horse before doubting herself. “Wait, you’re right. That was in my head.”

“O-okay.” Komari opened her book again.

Yanami lost interest in her magazine and flipped it shut. “The open house is this weekend, yeah? We have anything planned for that?”

“O-our new president’s sort of MIA.”

“That he is. Nukumizu-kun’s the worst kind of helicopter brother, I swear.”

Now was about the time when they should’ve been prioritizing putting something together for prospective members. Past turnout records proved that the lit club could garner itself a healthy amount of attention.

“What a total jerk, right? Leaving us all alone to do all the work for him.” Yanami whipped out her phone. “Not cool, Nukumizu-kun.”

Komari blinked at her. “H-he’s with Yakishio. Didn’t you kn-know?”

“No.” Yanami grimly dragged her head off the table. “I did not.”

“Th-they said they were g-going to Momozono,” Komari whimpered.

“The junior high? Lemon-chan flunk so hard she had to go back?”

Komari thought to herself that maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. “N-no, they went to st-stalk his sister.”

“Oh, right. They were classmates.” Yanami shrugged. “That boy and his sister. Well, if you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.” She pulled out a packaged Choco Cake, a sort of chocolate wafer snack. “I’ve been super addicted to these lately. My favorite part is that there’s two per pack.” She tore it open and pulled out both wafers. “You want some?”

“M-maybe one.”

She reached out just as Yanami stacked the Choco Cakes on top of each other and bit into both at once. Komari froze in place.

Yanami dropped a whole new pack into her outstretched hand. “They’re super good two at a time. You should try it.”

“I-I’m good.”

After her third pack, and Komari’s first wafer, Yanami got up to get some tea. “Guess we’ll just have to pick up the slack while Nukumizu-kun’s busy being a deadbeat. He mentioned printing another club journal, but no one’s submitted anything yet.”

“I-I wrote something,” Komari commented between nibbles of her second Choco Cake.

Yanami paused for a moment. “But what kid in junior high comes to open house and gets excited over a periodical ?”

“I-I think some do,” Komari feebly protested.

Yanami thunked her tea cup down. “We’re high schoolers , Komari-chan. It’s time we act like it and show these kids what they’re missing.”

“Wh-what are they missing?”

With a graceful swish of the hair and a cross of the leg, Yanami sat. “Women.”