Looking over the attendance sheet, Professor Stein started role call for his class. “Arkezzio? Joanne Arkezzio?”
“Here!”
“Ashton? Martin Ashton?”
“Here, Teach!”
“Bohemian? Rap Bohemian?”
“YO!”
“Bueller? Francis Bueller?” No answer. “Bueller?”
“Excuse me,” Ranko called out as she raised her hand. “I think he’s absent, sir.”
Professor Stein nodded his head. “Again with Mr. Bueller absent...” shaking his head, he continued role call.
Sitting next to Ranko, another girl whispered over to the redhead. “I bet you he’s faking sick again.”
“What else is new?” Ranko mused.
The girl nodded her head. “He’s always skipping...” she smirked a little and suddenly changed the subject, “So did you see last night’s episode of ‘Saotome, Tokyo Samurai’? Seeing him roundhouse kick three ninjas at once was awesome.”
Ranko snorted. “Eh... not every show the old man makes gathers my interest...” while not as bitter as Ranma about their father, Ranko did share the resentment of Genma’s absence.
The girl blinked her eyes. “You mean you’re related to Genma Saotome!?” Oh dear God! She’d been in school with this girl for three years, and she'd never been told that!
“...I’m his daughter,” Ranko grumbled. She REALLY didn’t mean to let that slip but she knew denying it now wouldn’t stop the girl from finding out. It always got brought up with people when someone called her full name.
“Saotome? Ranko Saotome?”
“Tokyo Samurai!” A male in the back of the class called out, making other students in the room giggle and snicker.
Ranko resisted the urge to turn around and flip him the bird. “Here!” She raised a hand and then lowered it.
The girl blinked her eyes as she saw how annoyed Ranko seemed to get. “You all right, Ranko?”
“Eh... I’m not big on the celebrity thing...” the redheaded Asian admitted. “Plus... the old man’s never home enough to really make a difference.” She sighed as she thought about how she grew up without her father for the most part. “I don’t understand how Mom just puts up with it, but if it weren’t for our neighbors and friends... I doubt my brother and I would’ve come up right in the head.” Yeah Ranko owed a good bit of the stability in her life to the Diggers and, (much to Gina’s chagrin) the Pinscer family after she befriended Monique Pinscer, Penny Pinscer’s younger cousin in kindergarten.
“Not home?” The girl blinked her eyes a few times. “I never thought of it like that...”
“Well... its something you don’t get to read about... Mom's good at keeping the tabloid reporters from getting into our home life,” Ranko explained to the blonde girl. “My Dad’s not a bad man but.... Well, he's just not been there often for my bro and I... and my brother really hates him for being gone a lot.”
“Your brother...” the girl considered that and her eyes widened. “Is he Ranma Saotome?”
Now Ranko finally smiled. “Yep. He’s my big bro.”
“Oh, how is he?” The girl asked. “I was reading up in Entertainment Weekly about what happened to him last month. Too bad he had that awful accident and decided to retire from film...”
“He didn’t retire ‘cause he wanted too. That was Pops being an overprotective dick and used his influence to keep Ranma outta movies!” Ranko snapped at the other girl, but still kept her voice low enough as to not get the teache’'s attention.
The girl blinked her eyes once, twice... “What?” She couldn’t believe it. The Tokyo Samurai was keeping his own son out of movies?
“I can understand his reasons...but what dad did was overkill.” Ranko sighed sadly. “Dad thinks he’s protecting Ranma from having another accident or a worse one by doing this, but all he did was just cement Ranma’s hatred for him... and it just puts poor Mom at a loss over the whole thing.”
The blue eyed blonde girl frowned. “That’s awful...” she never knew that the Saotome family was so shaken up. From all she read, and heard about them, it seemed like they were one big happy family.
“Just don't go spreadin’ it around,” Ranko told the other girl. “Lest the stupid tabloids get wind of it.”
The girl nodded her head. “I won’t. I’m just sorry you’re having trouble with all of this. By the why, I’m-”
“SPEARS!” Prof. Stein called out for the twentieth time. “BRITNEY SPEARS!”
“Oops,” the blonde girl winced. “I did it again...” coughing into her hand, the girl then called out, “Here!”
Ranko snickered.
(------)
Ranma sighed in relief as he lowered himself into the hot water of the bathtub across from his fiancée. “Oh yeah... that’s the stuff...” A massage jet was positioned to hit his right side, and he was feeling it.
Now in human form, (so she wouldn't have to deal with wet fur) Britanny settles into the tub as well. “Mmm... yeah, that hits the spot.”
Relaxing a bit, Ranma let off another sigh of relief. “I gotta thank you again for talking me into having the bathroom done over.” He remembered at the time he thought it would be an annoyance at not having a bathroom for a couple of days and to have to spend more money when he currently didn’t have an inflow of cash at the moment. But the extra couple thousand for totally redoing the bathroom had been worth it, especially with how it really helped his injury.
“You’re welcome, Muffin. See? It helps to listen to me when it comes to creature comforts,” she grinned back at him as she lay back in the warm water. It felt so good on her body.
Nodding his head, Ranma responded, “You aren’t kidding... my pampered housecat.” He gave her a mischievous grin to let her know he was only busting her chops.
“Guilty as charged, Muffin,” she returned with a wink.
Ranma rolled his eyes. “I do not look forward to seeing the bills for the credit cards next month...” still, he wouldn’t trade Britanny for anything. Perhaps he should look into adventuring on Jade like his old man, and ‘Pops’ used to. Even finding a little gold on Jade, when brought to this world, meant very decent money.
Nodding her head, the spotted blonde woman told her fiancé, “I’ll try not to go totally crazy.” Try being the keyword.
Ranma nodded. “Even if it’s a failure... we can still travel together on Jade...” Yep, it seemed as soon as he was healed up, he was going to need to do some adventuring FAST, and another set of hands wouldn’t hurt.
“That and Gina has a whole bunch of expeditions planned out,” Britanny was quick to bring up. “And some are proving to be very juicy in terms of booty.”
Ranma smirked. “Yours is the only juicy booty I’ll need though.” Yeah, he loved teasing his wife to be, but they understood each other, and he was trying to be semi-romantic with that comment as well.
Britanny rolled her eyes but enjoyed the comment. “Uh huh... well I think we’re cleaned up. Let’s get dried off and head out!” She was looking forward to going on another shopping trip so soon!
Ranma lowered his head in defeat.
(------)
“Well that was a too-freaking-easy exam...” Ranko mused as she sat down at a table in the library. She stretched her arms high before she popped her neck. Her second period class was using the library to gather data for their next literary project, but she was already well equipped for it and was treating it as a study hall.
“Hey, Ranko!” Came a rather recognizable voice of a certain female friend of hers.
“Hey Monique,” she greeted with a smile as her friend joined her at her table. “So how’d your first period go?”
“It went well enough,” Monique said. “But I can’t stand having Algebra II first thing. The last thing I want to do at the start of my day is go over mathematics..." She was a simple girl and was nowhere near the genius level of her cousin Penny.
“I hear ya,” Ranko said with a smile. While she was good at school, it didn’t mean she loved it. “So after school, what do ya wanna do?”
“Anywhere is good as long as it gets me out of my cousin’s house for some time,” Monique told her friend. “We've been staying over at cousin Penny’s since we’re having our place bombed for insect infestation... silverfish... and she’s been doing creepy things with her computer. I walked in one time while she had her computer on and I saw that her Yahoo e-mail is full of stuff from this O’Pat guy.”
“Sounds Irish... but why do I remember that name?” Ranko mumbled as she rubbed her chin in thought.
Monique shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. But they’ve been doing a lot of business, I guess...” the African girl smirked. “Heh. Penny’s had to bust out a lotta cash. She’s been sending some of her stuff out via UPS International and she’s getting charged up the wazoo for weight issues.”
“Must be something big,” Ranko mused. She blinked her eyes as a thought came to her. “Hey, I heard a new club opened up... I could probably get us some ID’s to go there,” she grinned evilly.
Monique raised an eyebrow. “Eighteen and over or twenty-one and over?” Her mother and cousin warned her about the twenty-one and over stuff.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” The redheaded girl pleaded with her best ‘puppy-eyes’ tactic.
Monique however, wasn’t stupid. “You still didn't answer the question...”
Ranko winced. “Yes...” she admitted with a nervous chuckle.
“Yes, as in eighteen and over, or twenty-one and over?” Monique asked again, although she was getting a feeling it was the latter by how much Ranko was evading the question.
The pigtailed redhead’s shoulders drooped. “Twenty-one and over.”
Always the voice of reason for the duo, Monique let off a sigh. “Ranko,” she said slowly. “I can understand the whole passive-aggressive stance at getting back at your idiot father, but you really shouldn’t do stuff that could put you in danger.”
“Hey, this is an upscale joint, plus I can handle myself...” Ranko said adamantly. “And Penny taught you how to use firearms right?” The redhead quickly brought up. At seeing Monique’s nod, she continued before the Nubian girl could voice her opinions. “Plus I’m not that petty. This is purely for fun, not some parental get-back scheme. What good would acting out do? It wouldn’t bring the old idiot back home for keeps.”
Monique sighed. Her friend could be so adamant about things like this, and it would be easier to go along with it. She didn’t want Ranko going alone and getting into worse trouble. “So what kind of club is it?”
“Just a dance club and bar,” Ranko explained.
Considering it for a moment, Monique nodded her head slowly. “All right, I’m in... this Saturday, you said?”
“Yep!” Ranko answered enthusiastically. “I promise if things get out of hand, we’ll leave pronto.”
“All right...” Monique said. “You driving? I only have my learner’s permit still...” And lord knows Ranko’s dad had gotten her one hell of an expensive sports car for her sweet sixteen, a bright red V6 Dodge Avenger.
“Sure thing.” Rank winked at her friend, happy to have won this argument. “...So tell me…” she started to ask with a lecherous grin. “What’cha gonna wear?”
Monique considered that. “I’ll need to look through what I have... but if worse comes to worse, I can wear some of Penny’s older stuff. She had a greater collection of ‘risqué’ outfits than I do.”
Ranko smirked. She’d seen some of those when she asked Penny awhile back if she could borrow an outfit, (Britanny’s didn’t fit, Gina’s were too plain, and her Mother’s too traditional) for a party last year.
Monique nodded her head. “Penny may get a little too focused into that little rivalry she has going with Gina, but she otherwise is pretty normal... and a damn good fashion sense.”
“That she does... although I’m surprised she never had a steady date until Ace...” Ranko mused curiously.
It was then that Monique smirked. “Don't tell her I told you this, but Penny scared off a lot of guys with how she seemed to focus on marriage from the start... with Ace, she’s realized she needs to slowly build them up to the idea before she starts hammering it into his head that she wants a husband, family, the whole nine yards...”
“Heh heh... yeah... I found it hilarious that was she a virgin until Ace. Man, Gina would not stop hounding her about that,” Ranko chuckled at the memories of the Gold Digger making the Penny Pincher’s life a living hell with that nugget of truth.
Monique smirked. “She scared off a lot of guys before they even got to first base.”
“So I’ve heard,” the redhead snickered. “But...” she managed to blush slightly. “I guess we can’t talk much, since we’re still virgins ourselves.”
“We’re also sixteen. Penny didn't get any until she was twenty-two.” Yeah, Monique was being harsh, but she felt she had a right to be. Penny could be a little self-centered at times.
“True,” Ranko mused as she sat back in the wooden chair. “So, just out of curiosity... any guys you see note-worthy this semester?”
Shaking her head, Monique answered, “Not really. A lot of them are still pretty immature, and not even all that good looking...” she let off a small sigh. “The only good choices are the Seniors, and they wouldn’t look twice at us Sophomores.”
“Too bad,” Ranko said. “Cause you got the brains, the personality... and the ass.” Ranko’s hand reaches over to goose said ass with a wicked smirk.
“Ack! R-Ranko!” Monique shouted as she stood up from the seat, rubbing her ass...
“Ranko!”
“Ranko!”
“Ranko...”
Monique blinked her eyes, and lowered her head in defeat as the echo caught the attention of everyone in the library. With all eyes on her, Monique slowly turned to the redhead.
“I’m going to get you for this...”
Ranko was whistling innocently. “Hey you liked it admit it,” She added slyly when she was sure the attention was off of them.
Monique blushed and slowly sat back down in the seat. “You are such a trouble-maker.”
“Why do you think your cousin, Gina, Brit, and my big bro all call me that?” She chuckled deviously.
Monique rolled her eyes. “You are trouble, all right...”
Ranko slide closer. “You know ya love me.” She then looked around quickly to make sure no one was watching. Feeling the coast was clear, she then licked Monique’s cheek before scooting out of swatting distance.
Blushing lightly, Monique leveled a small glare at her friend. “Trouble.”
“Yes... yes I am.” Ranko agreed whole-heartedly.
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(Posted Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:25)
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