Hail to the King

[King]

Formally a decrepit and unused portion of the St. Mary's school grounds. The fourth floor held many abandoned classrooms that were shadowed by the more up to date facilities next door. On this floor, at the very end of the hall was a single room. While the sign above it read `D-14 - Art Class`, the graffiti tagged three-point crown under it spoke of its true use. The Royalty. That's what had once been housed here. Clarice Queen founded the club years ago under the guise of an after school art club. The truth behind it was more sinister, at least to those who found themselves on the wrong side of the Queen's justice.

Terry stood within the room. Her green eyes focusing on the framed student picture of the recently deceased Clarice Queen. The picture sat upon a rather comfortable looking chair. Red leather and slick in design by the way it looked. Fit for a queen, it seemed; but that is exactly who it had been for. Terry crouched then. Her hands reaching to sweep back her skirt so that fabric would tuck against bent knees. The tanned girl now eye-level with the photo. Only a few weeks had passed and it still felt like a dream; as if none of this were real.

She swallowed back some gathered saliva and cleared her throat while tilting her head to the side. "You left me with a mess." she said with a sigh.

Terry wasn't alone. Not any longer. She heard the door open from behind and the sounds of footsteps soon after. Two distinct strides. One more serious, while the other aloof in its choice of where to step; as if the owner had no real interest in a destination. It was an easy guess for Terry as she stood up and looked to the two of them.

Kiyomi, leader of the Asian Culture Club, as she called it. A girl with a rather crazy reputation; one Terry knew first hand about. Kiyomi dressed for intimidation. This seen by her choice of using the long winter skirt all year around, the same with that long sleeved blouse. The Kendo Club jacket adorning her form also showed the base of operations for her little slice of St. Mary's pie.

The other girl. Jia. Lieutenant of Kiyomi and also her target of infatuation. While Jia seemed to harbor feelings for Kiyomi, it was always fleeting and seemed to change as time went on. A cute boy passed by the school gates? Jia was the type to fall in love at first sight. It was obvious she saw her relationship with the other girl as nothing more than a way to pass the time, but Kiyomi's bullheadedness would prevail either way. She wore the same Kendo Club jacket as Kiyomi's, though hers had been pink.

"How's the nose." Terry said while pointing at her own.

The question brought attention to the bandage that clung across the bridge of Kiyomi's nose. That, and the obvious swelling and bruising that is on display. Jia took a closer look at the injury when Terry asked her question. "It's pretty puffy." she said, which prompted Kiyomi to push her away in a sign of annoyance. While Jia was left to regain her balance ( though she did almost fall over a chair ), Kiyomi shook her head before speaking up.

"It's fine," she said. Kiyomi's voice sounding terribly odd due to the nose injury. It took everything Terry had to muster to keep herself from grinning at the sound of it. Why? Because she knew where it came from. It was her own fist that crossed the girls features to inflict that painful damage. St. Mary's politics and water buried under the bridge. The pecking order had been established and their little squabble done away with.

"You found Riley?" Terry said. Kiyomi had never been one for small talk so Terry found no reason to delay the inevitable. She circled about the small desk that stood between them and set herself in front of it. A lean pressed the small of her back to the rather heavy wooden piece of furniture. This conversation felt far too serious. Terry wasn't used to being the one starting these, she hardly even participated in them when it came to being involved with the club. But she couldn't run from these things, at least not right now.

Jia would be the first to speak. "Of course we found her! You act like she was hard to find." she said with glee. Her smug attitude cut the tension out of the room. Terry was thankful for that, though the ego in the girls voice had caused her to deadpan in a way. This only fed into Jia as she smirked. "I beat her up good.. then Kiki joined in, isn't that right?" Jia said as he reached to flick at Kiyomi's hair.

"She won't be calling herself Neo Queen anymore," Kiyomi paused to swat at Jia's hand. An aggrivated look cast in the girls direction, one Jia read as a reason to retreat back some steps. Kiyomi ignored as Jia rose both of her hands while muttering a few `sorry's` under her breath. Instead she looked back to Terry and grinned. Kiyomi grinning meant either two things, you were about to get the crap beat out of you... or she was really happy about something.

"You think this is going to work? Will goody-goody Ashton really join because of this?" Kiyomi's words only caused Terry to sigh out.

The half and half tilted her head back and looked up the ceiling. She pinched at the bridge of her nose, trying to alleviate the pain of the headache she felt creeping up on her. "Ahhhh," she began in a rather unsure sort of way. That hand pressed back to the edge of the desk and she leaned her form forward. Terry shook her head left to right then shrugged. "Who knows.. You told Riley not to f*ck with Siri again, righ'?" she said while looking up to Kiyomi.

"She told her." Kiyomi gave a side nod in Jia's direction. The gesture had been enough to cause the pink jacket wearing girl to smile. Terry exhaled through her lips in a way to cause her bangs to flutter while she watched Jia begin to shadow box during her victory prance about her corner of the room.

"Then that's all we can do righ' now." Terry brushed back strands of dark brown hair; though they fell back to place, making the gesture useless. "The balls in her court, you know? I ain't one hundred percent or nothin', but she should know this is the best choice of things." The room fell silent between the two of them. Jia had been off in her own little world of victory right now so Terry didn't quite count her in the conversation. Kiyomi would be the first to speak up as she shoved hands inside her club jacket.

"Jamie?" she said. This question had Terry perking up and laughing out in response. "She jumped on it the second I asked, ain't no trouble there. B*tch owes me anyway, you know how much booze I ran for her? I got shot at for that sh*t, real talk." This had her grinning as she recalled the memories. It's funny how a near death experience could be so hilarious now. Kiyomi seemed to share in this sentiment and laughed as well.

"Then you're the Queen now, huh?" Kiyomi's grinning expression faltered when she saw Terry's look of sorrow. "Terry, I..." she began while taking a step forward, though stopping when Terry rose a palm to her. "I'm fine.. But, I ain't the Queen. Clarice is still the leader this crew.. even if she's gone," Terry glanced to the framed photo of the woman sitting upon that red leather chair. She would then look back to Kiyomi and said, "I'm jus' the co-leader, keepin' the seat warm until we find someone good enough to keep on with the legacy." Terry leaned back then. Her eyes looked to the many glow-in-the-dark stars that lined the ceiling of the spacious room.

"What would you have called yourself?" Terry said then. This question caught Kiyomi off guard, but with a look of contemplation she'd respond. "Jia thought the Boss sounded good." This statement caught Jia's attention. "You are the boss though, Kiki.", which prompted the response of "Shut it." by Kiyomi.

"Good thing I busted your nose then, 'cus that kinda' sounds lame.." Terry teased with a grin. Kiyomi returned with one of her own, "And King sounds any better? Or are you going back to Prince Charming."

Terry set palms against the edge of the desk once more. A quick push of them had her launching away from the wooden furniture and helping her forward into an easy stride toward the door. She reached out and pressed a hand against Kiyomi's shoulder in passing. "It's the King to you, girl.. I have to set some standards." she said while patting. "Jia.. Stay on the floor, an' text me when Ashton shows up." Terry felt awkward ordering the girl around, but it came with the position.

"When?" Kiyomi said with a perk of a brow. "It ain't no if. Ashton's too polite to jus' send a text sayin' no. She'll show up an' do that face to face if that's her answer." Terry responded while repeating again to Jia, this time with a point of a finger. "Stay on this floor.", she said. Jia offered a half-hearted salute before collapsing against a chair covered in a rather fluffy pink blanket. "Right-o! Hail to the King!" she said and began fishing out nail polish from her bag.

"Don't say that." Terry groaned out and closed the door behind her.

[Izumi Takamine]

ten minutes before the meeting

Like a creeping rodent, Izumi turned from the top riser of the stairs onto the hard flooring of the upper hallway. Moving with exaggerated and dramatic gestures; the girl placed one foot before the other - arms outstretched at her sides as if her feet were on an imaginary balance beam. For all this fooling around, however; she made no more sound than the mouse she so well impersonated past the doorways of derelict rooms. The only thing that seemed to be disturbed by her progress was the mournful dust in the disused hallway, which mobilized and followed in her wake before settling again.

At the threshold of the art room her feet halted, remaining planted just outside the boundary of the doorway while her upper body leaned perilously inside to peek at the confines. Making no sound, Izumi peered after Terry, blank impassive features forming a pensive stalker smile as she believed herself unseen. Upon hearing words spoken, she withdrew and stood beside the door unobtrusive, giving privacy as seemed appropriate.

The delinquent swept a fingertip along the wall beside the portal before leaning her back against it to wait, having no wish to foul up the painfully new and fresh looking summer weight uniform she'd donned for the first time - the same hand absently trailing to the pocket in the black skirt and coming back with a piece of bright pink gum to toss into her mouth. So she stood, chewing methodically with eyes fixed on the opposite wall until Jia and Kiyomi arrived. As they drew near to her post by the door, she laconically blew a huge bubble, only raising both hands in greeting once it popped.

"Yo" Izumi directed their way, near-black eyes following their movement past her. Those eyes met the raise of brow that Kiyomi sent her way, meeting the girl's gaze without any hint of timidness.

"New toy, huh?" came Jia's reply to Izumi's greeting, delivered with a little wiggle of fingers as she strolled past with a wicked sway in her step. Though Jia hadn't paused to wait for any rebuttal from Izumi, the delinquent smiled and turned her gaze back on the far wall.

"All that" she agreed in an almost inaudible murmer. "and a great deal more" As the meeting began she remained at the doorway, still save for the cow-like chewing of gum, waiting for the King's departure to follow like a shadow once more.

[Ashton Kimbre]

It was a week later that Terry and Ashton would meet. Despite Ashton's strong desire for blood for blood in the case of Siri's beating, it would have been a dangerous pursuit to not wait for the meeting with the other leaders.

Every decision and action was being carefully observed from the shadows and then filtered and further diluted through the rumor mills. Gossip was deadlier than ever as St. Mary's entered its own Cold War, and the days drew out painfully while the many gangs and factions waited to see who would pull the trigger first.

The old art club room was Ashton and Diana's destination today, and the hall to it was ghastly and unfamiliar in its abandonment. “D-14 – Art Class” it read, and even the sisters probably knew it hadn't been used for that purpose for a very long time. But as long as they weren't shooting up in there they had no reason to investigate. There were far more violent avenues of the campus deserving of that kind of attention.

“You know what they want to talk about,” Diana whispered, though not so afraid for her voice to be heard.

“It's less about talking about it, Dee, and more about showing our faces,” Ashton said. It was no showing of disrespect or distrust that Ashton came with Diana. If you were important enough at St. Mary's, your lieutenant went with you. No one thought twice about it. It was just what you did.

“And what do you think that says?”

“What needs to be said.”

They entered the room to the art class together and both passed a look around. The atmosphere was tense with a burdening gravity exuding from the persons collected: King, Kiyomi, and Ashton. Attention was on them for the moment, and the mood of the room was about to be determined between St. Mary's biggest generals.

“Who's the new girl?” Ashton asked firstly, the topics of their meeting taking an immediate backseat to the concerns surrounding an unknown face. Izumi was the girl in question.

“I know!” Jia exclaimed from her chair with the fuzzy pink blanket. “That's just what I was saying.”

Terry looked between the two of them from the desk and heaved a disgruntled breath. Keeping order in the court was going to be miles harder than she initially imagined—and noticeably so as the coming weeks approached—but if Jia's less than professional conduct was as bad as it could get so far, then they weren't off to too bad a start.

“Her name's Izumi, she's workin' under me,” Terry told them both, and anyone else who might have questioned who she was. “She's new, so treat her right.” She leaned her cheek against her fist.

“Yeah, she's working UNDER her.” The grin on Jia's face was wiped off the moment Kiyomi's fist collided with her arm. A sour face took its place and no amount of rubbing her shoulder seemed to diffuse the pain there, but her silence had been bought.

Terry wished things didn't have to be so professional. It would have made all the machine parts move a lot easier. But it was out of respect for the chair she sat in, and the desk she was behind, that she continued conducting herself how a head of a council might.

“Here's the deal, Ashton. With Clarice gone things have changed. Sure, we didn't have peace when she was in control, but things ain’t never been this bad. Siri, you know... she didn't deserve none of that, an' it happened just because Riley wanted to flex a lil'. There's gotta' be some control.

“Look at us, we're all in the same room. Jus' last year Kiyomi was mean muggin' you from across the fountain. Now? Look at us. What I'm askin' for is an alliance, somethin' to set a standard. We're gonna graduate soon, an' what legacy are we gonna leave behind? I don't want it to be a mess, an' I got a feeling that neither do you.

“We bring some sorta' balance to the student body. We set a standard, and it's our job to set an example – somethin' for the younger girls to look up to. It ain't gonna be perfect, but we can make it work if we work together. An' whoever is there to pick up the reins after we get our diplomas and leave this place behind will carry on with the work we start today.”

It was a good speech, and it had really taken Ashton aback. She didn't know Terry had it in her for a rallying-the-troops deliverance, and it was keeping her rather stupefied. Diana on the other hand was much more critical. It sounded like a speech that needed giving rather than a genuine one, and she was as skeptical over it as she was the alliance that she had been a skeptic on since long before this meeting. But that was Diana's job with Ashton: she crunched numbers and brought a realist opinion to matters where Ashton might otherwise let her emotions get in the way. She wouldn't speak up to Terry, however. She didn't speak for the Fitness Academy that represented such a large population of St. Mary's girls from the sports side of things. Ashton did.

A smile was her first response to King.

“I think you knew my answer before I walked in, but since we’re being so formal with things I’ll give you my longer answer. You already said it. Siri's proof enough that we need to get some control back. If bringing the clubs together is the answer to that, then of course I'm on-board. I think I can put up with Kiyomi the rest of the year.” Ashton smirked the way of the Kendo Club President.

“Your endurance is good, Ashton. It’s not that good,” Kiyomi said, returning and completing the mutual joke between them. They were cool now, and this check always had to be carried out whenever one came into contact with one another.

“I heard what you and Jia did for my girl, by the way. It's been a hard week having to sit on my hands while Riley was out there waiting for me to make a move, and Siri deserved justice after what she did to her, so thank you.” Ashton dipped her chin to Kiyomi, and her quick nod would be all the acknowledgment the other girl needed to make. Kiyomi spoke much more freely on the subject between Terry and Jia. She knew them, and it wasn't necessarily that she didn't trust Ashton or Diana, but the less she admitted to, the less she could be proven guilty for.

Terry nodded. “A'ight, it's time to add some contacts then. We're all sittin' at the same table now. From now on, if there's an issue, we're resolvin' it together... that way there ain't no confusion and retribution in the halls over fake info. We don't need another Emily Barker fiasco like when that Brianna kid allegedly said she smelled like fish.”

“Christ,” Diana murmured, rolling her eyes upward and drawing the crucifix by habit with her fingers over her chest as she recalled the incident.

Easily and daresay proficiently the girls recited and appropriately inputted each others' numbers into their cells with a few of them even taking mandatory tongue-out contact photos to go along with their listed profiles. They looked unfazed to have their pictures taken in this way, and it wasn't nearly as much of a chore as their bored faces had made the whole process look.

“Anybody got any questions?” Terry asked, and Jia raised her hand.

“Are there going to be snack trays here next time?”

Looks were all given to Jia at that with Kiyomi's being the most critical of her.

The meeting didn't go on much longer after that. Most of the girls in that room were doers, not talkers, and after Terry left with Izumi to visit the roof—most likely to think—Ashton and Diana chose to make their departure, and with Diana returning to her skeptical soapbox on the way out.

“If this works I will be very, very impressed.”

“It's just for the rest of the year, Diana.”

“You're telling me you're not worried at all... What if Terry gets sidetracked? What if Kiyomi blows up? Jamie will be out of juvie soon – what do you think she's going to have to say on all this when she gets back?”

Ashton pouted out her freshly glossed lips after pushing the cap back down on her lip balm container. “If Kiyomi was okay with all this, then I'm not worried about Jamie. It's going to work, Diana. Have faith. Remember what school we go to.” She patted her on the shoulder.

“That’s what I’m afraid of. And nothing about Terry's whole “speech” sounded funny to you?”

“Actually...” Ashton began, “that's what I haven't been able to stop thinking about this whole time. We'll be graduating this year Diana.” She looked at her rather seriously then. “What if we could really find a successor?”