Chapter Text

Maya laid in her bed in the early hours of the evening, trying her hardest to fall asleep to avoid having to deal with the troubles of her life. She hated it, she hated it all. She was just forced to eat dinner with her family, but none of them bothered trying to talk to her. Her mother asked her a little bit about her day to be polite, but she knew it meant nothing. They only pretended to care about her. They couldn’t give any less of a shit about her.

That wasn’t even the worst of it, either. Her headphones weren’t working for a reason that she couldn’t figure out, her phone was dead and she broke her charger when she woke up this morning, and her computer was being a piece of shit that kept on crashing whenever she tried to run anything other than google, so there was nothing she could do to procrastinate on the homework she didn’t know how to do.

She groaned, pulling herself up to a seated position on her bed. She looked over to the right, where her blobfish toy sat, and gave it a gentle pat on the head. Since she couldn’t sleep yet, and because she was bored out of her mind, she decided she’d try sneaking downstairs to find something to snack on. She scooted sideways just a bit to get closer to the side of her bed and, on her way off, caught her leg on her throw blanket and tumbled face first to the floor.

“TYFUS!”

She exclaimed, holding her nose since she hadn’t managed to protect her face in time to prevent the pain of slamming herself face first into the ground. Luckily, her floor was carpet, so it wasn’t that bad, but she was already having a bad day. With the strength she had left, she untangled her foot from the blanket so that she could lay flat on the floor of her bedroom.

There, she laid for a long while. She was in too shit a mood to get up, so all she did was just lay on the ground. The floor stunk. It smelled like shit. It reeked of ginger, dust, and some other smell she couldn’t quite place. She could even feel crumbs on her cheek that were tangled into the fibers of the carpet. Normally, the stockings that covered her feet spared her from having to feel the texture of the floor, but now that her cheek was digging into the ground there wasn’t much she could do to circumvent it.

Maya spun around onto her back, looking up into the ceiling of her room. The only source of light was the light of the moon coming in through her blinded window, so she couldn’t see much of anything, but it was better than having to feel the floor directly against her face.

“God, you’re so filthy...”

The words came out in a low mumble, she hadn’t even meant to say anything. The words came out on their own, but she knew they weren’t wrong. She hadn’t showered in well over a week, and here she was rolling around on the floor like a pig in a puddle of mud and its own shit. Her nose hurt like hell, too, from having just fallen into it. The inside of her nose was beginning to feel a bit runny, too.

“...What- Kut...”

She groaned, rapidly pulling herself up to her feet. She recognized that feeling, having what felt like a runny nose after getting hit in the face. Her nose was bleeding, and she wasn’t going to bleed all over her floor. With her hands extended outwards, she hurriedly walked towards the door and felt around for the knob. Once it was finally open, she charged outside and nearly ran into Coco, who was about to knock.

“Oh, Hoi, Maya- Oh no! Maya, what happened to your nose?”

Coco’s voice was like nails against a chalkboard, at least, to Maya it was. She was not in the mood to deal with this, but she didn’t really know what to do, so she froze up.

“U-Uhm... right, my nose, haha... Uhm...”

The words stumbled out of her mouth with little order, and she was completely perplexed. She didn’t want to say she fell out of bed like an idiot, but she didn’t know what else could possibly happen to make her nose start bleeding out of nowhere. Before she even got a chance to make up an excuse, Coco grabbed her hand and started leading Maya to the lavatory.

“H-Huh?”

Maya said in a confused tone, not sure where they were going. Coco opened the door and bent over by the toilet paper roll, getting two sheets before returning to her sister.

“Maya, put these in your nose to stop the bleeding.”

Coco said in a maternal, condescending tone. But, it seemed that she actually was trying to help instead of being a two-faced jerk like she usually was. Maya nodded slowly, accepting the toilet paper.

“Oh... Okay.”

She mumbled in a stupid tone, but she tried her best not to linger on it for too long. If she started beating herself up for her social shortcomings too, she’d be up all-night just bullying herself over things that didn’t matter. She stuffed the papers into her nose, and then nodded to her sister with an awkward expression that was stuck between a frown and a smile. Before Coco could rope her into a conversation, she darted off to head back to her room and shut the door behind her.

“...Oh, right, the snack.”

Maya groaned out, her voice somehow even more tired than before. She turned around, opening the door again just to be met with Coco’s face.

“...What?”

She asked, any mask of a good mood completely gone, now. Maya looked terrible, she knew she did, and the heavy frown on her face could’ve made that obvious to some even as autistic as Pippi.

“Well, Maya, Zoey and I were going to a musi-”

“No.”

Coco’s words were abruptly cut off by Maya’s refusal before she even had the chance to finish.

“But-”

Maya pushed past her sister, her expression now even worse than before. She almost looked angry, and tears were starting to well in her eyes. Maya was pissed. Now, to top off her shitty day, Coco was starting on her bullshit about getting her to hang out with all of Coco’s perfect little friends. All she wanted right now was a bag of pepernoten so she could go back to her room and cry.

Even as Maya went down the stairs, she could hear the noises of Coco following behind her. She didn’t know precisely whether or not Coco was specifically trying to follow her or just going downstairs, but she didn’t want to risk the former. She sped up in her pace down the stairs and was practically jogging into the kitchen.

She quickly scanned the entire kitchen, rummaging through the cabinet that held the snacks just to find that there was nothing left. They had corn chips, a bag of stroopwafels with Mymy’s name on it, and a bag of biltong that she assumed was Coco’s. So, it seemed, just to piss her off even more on this already shitty day, she was out of snacks.

Maya stood in the kitchen for a few seconds, not sure what to do. She didn’t want to stay in the kitchen anymore, but she didn’t want to go back to her room empty handed either. She wasn’t thirsty, so she didn’t want any water, and she didn’t care for any of the snacks that were in their snacks cabinet. The pace of her breath started to quicken, and her face contorted until, yet again, she heard a demon’s voice whispering in her ear.

“Maya, are you alright?”

Coco asked, her hand now resting on Maya’s shoulder. That was the last straw, though the camel’s back had been broken for quite a while now. She pulled away from Coco’s touch, glaring back at her with tears already streaming back at her. For a moment, she was going to yell at her, but she couldn’t even do that right. Her throat was too choked up with her sobbing to speak, so she did what she was best at. She ran away from her problems.

She didn’t get far, though. Only one of two steps on her way back upstairs, she had to dodge the island counter in the middle of the kitchen, and during that little shuffle, she stepped on the foot of her stocking. It must have been dragged down a bit when she’d fallen out of bed, but that was the least of her concerns considering she was currently falling to the kitchen floor. Maya slammed into the ground at a concerning speed, hitting the side of her chest and head against the wooden floor.

“Maya!”

Coco exclaimed, running after her sister. It seemed that that was more than enough motivation to get Maya up and running even despite the massive pain ringing across her entire body. Coco gave up the chase once she saw Maya was trying to escape, and once Maya was finally in her room, she felt safe.

Maya stood there, tears streaming slowly down her face with a dull expression. She was such a fucking asshole. Coco was just concerned for her- no. Coco was just going to make fun of her once she made sure Maya was okay. Maya cursed, and then started to sob. She fell backwards against her door, her hands coming up to her cheeks to wipe falling teardrops.

Why was she such an incompetent asshole? She was so rude to everyone, and that was probably why everyone was so mean to her. She was an abrasive prick who could only make shit worse. That was why her nose hurt, that was why her charger was broken- hell, that was probably what broke her headphones too. She was such a piece of shit that even the universe itself stepped in to try and ruin her life as punishment.

She turned and, with little thought behind it, punched her door at full force and yelped in pain as she rolled her wrist against the solid wooden surface. She fell back onto her ass, holding her hand that was now burning with the searing pain. It didn’t feel like it was broken, but it hurt so much she didn’t care. By now, she was wailing on the floor, mumbling curses about herself between her unintelligible sobs.

By now, she didn’t even have enough energy to get up off the floor. She just fell to her side, the side she didn’t fall on earlier, and curled up into a ball. She was all alone in the darkness of her room without even her blobfish to comfort her. She was such a pain to be around that even inanimate objects were starting to abandon her. The thought would’ve almost been funny had she not been so deep in her own shit.

Slowly, the door to her room opened, and this time, instead of Coco coming in to torment her, it was Mymy. She looked back at her sister, eyes red with tears, in a position so pathetic she’d have killed herself if anyone but Pippi had seen her. Mymy didn’t look as annoying as she usually did, though.

“...Did something happen, May-”

Maya glared at Mymy, and her sister seemed to stop talking suddenly. Then, Maya’s eyes softened. She hadn’t expected Mymy to be in here to check up on her, and she definitely didn’t expect her to end up being nice.

“...W-What do you wAnt, Mymy.”

Maya asked the young girl, her voice cracking midway through the question, though her sharp breathing made the way she spoke so inconsistent that a voice crack was difficult to pinpoint. Maya noticed anyway, and she was sure Mymy did too.

“Uhm... I- I heard a bang, and as your glo- uh- I wanted to check if you were okay.”

From what Maya could tell, Mymy was about to go on a tirade about how glorious she was, but actually ended up cutting herself off midway through. She sighed, looking at the spot on the door where she punched and then suddenly gasped. There was a small dent in the wood where she struck it. It was small and not something major, but if anyone did find out, she was certain she’d end up getting in trouble.

“N-No, nothing is wrong. I am- I’m fine. I... uh... I dropped...”

She looked around for anything heavy on the floor nearby, but couldn’t spot anything. The tears started to well back up.

“I-... I- I-... I...”

As she kept trying to find an excuse, nothing came out. The waterfall of endless droplets started again, and she started sobbing again. Mymy looked back, out of the room, and then back into the room at Maya with a concerned expression. Coco peered inside, the sight of her sister in such a state causing her to make a shocked expression, but to Maya it looked more like a cringe.

She paused for a moment, staring at Coco’s eyes, but even though she wanted to get angry, she no longer had the energy for it. She didn’t have the energy for any of this. Her sobbing slowly stopped, and her depressing state had been reduced to a dull numbness.

“Go a...”

She mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, raising her hand to haphazardly point at Mymy.

“What?”

Mymy asked with a raised brow.

“Go away.”

Maya repeated, louder this time. She looked back at Coco, and Coco shook her head. Mymy sighed, waving to Maya.

“Goodnight, Maya.”

Maya thought for a moment about whether to respond. No, she thought. It wasn’t worth the effort. She moved her hand back and forth in what was supposed to be a wave, but she just ended up sort of rubbing the bottom of her hand against the floor. Mymy must have gotten the message, though, since she closed the door and went on her way.

Finally, Maya was alone. This time, it wasn’t a bad thing to her. She hated spending time with other people. She wasn’t made for it, like Coco or Mymy. She was best off like this, alone, where she couldn’t hurt anyone. Since she was stuck on the floor, she couldn’t help herself, and since she didn’t have anything with her, she couldn’t break something either.

She turned, flopping herself onto her stomach, crossing her arms underneath her head as a pillow. She was too tired to think, now. It was time to sleep, and that she did. Alone, on the dirty floor of her bedroom, where not even her dreams could reach her.

Chapter Text

Maya had the misfortune of waking up the next morning. She wished she’d have died of internal bleeding from her injuries the day prior, because now she could feel them all burning through her core at full force. Her nose was clogged and burning like fire, and her ribs felt like they’d been struck by a hammer. She languidly pulled her hand over to her chest, gripping at her aching side like it’d solve her problems.

To make matters somehow even worse, today was a school day, which meant she couldn’t even lounge around the way she wanted. She’d already faked being sick to get out of school not too long ago, so she doubted her parents would let her stay home again. She groaned loudly, pressing her palm against her filthy carpet to stand, but the instant she exerted any effort, the ringing pain in her head shot back into her like she’d just let a car run her over.

She fell back to the ground, supporting her body's weight on her elbow while her other hand shot up to cradle her head. It was the worst headache she’d had in months, and it just so happened to show up right when every other part of her body already felt like broken glass.

“God... damn it.”

Her speech started off with a bit of energy, but what little enthusiasm she had left to curse was gone by the time the first word escaped her throat. The rest of her sentence was about as pathetic as she was, and the low volume of the exclamation reflected that. Slowly, Maya finally brought herself up to her feet.

Even though she was only standing, it felt like she’d finished an entire marathon. She must have slept for too long, because her entire body felt airy and dry, and she could feel the dry blood from yesterday’s nosebleed blocking her from breathing... That, or it was the paper she’d forgotten to take out. Regardless, she needed to wash her face, so that she headed off to do.

Maya headed off to the washroom from her room, and, oddly enough, the house was quiet. Normally, when she got up, she’d have heard Coco or Mymy getting ready, but the house really was just completely silent... aside from Maya’s zombie-like groaning, of course. Still, though, it felt nice to be able to walk around her own home without being pestered by her sisters.

Once she finally reached the washroom, she turned on the light to see the damage caused by her lack of self-care and was met with a face that not even a mother could love. Her nose was stuffed with a filthy brown bandage and blood had dripped past it and dried all over her face. Her eyes were dry and covered in crust from sleeping while she cried, and she could see dried saliva sticking to her face.

She was hideous, completely so, but that didn’t mean a thing. She knew she was ugly, she always was, so she needed to clean herself up before someone saw her and knew she could be even uglier. She pulled out the sticky bloody mess in her nose and tossed it into the bin, but started coughing because the mix of dried blood and snot had stuck to the inside of her nose and pulled out some hair with it. She would’ve fallen to the ground if she hadn’t caught herself on the sink.

Once she’d pulled out the two pieces of toilet paper, all that was really left was to wash her face off. She turned on the sink and started scrubbing her face with the running water. Her eyes were closed so she couldn’t see the water in the sink, but judging from the smell of copper in the air, the water was most definitely red with her own blood. That was a morbid thing to think about, but she tried her best to ignore it so she could just get it over with.

Now that she had finally finished washing her face–and the inside of her nose–Maya looked up to view herself in the mirror to make sure she looked presentable. Her eyes were baggy, her skin was rough, and she still had that stupid, idiotic look on her face. Safe to say, she looked like Maya, and as much as she hated it, that was the best she was going to get. She grabbed a hair tie from a pack on the counter and tied her hair into a bun. All that was left was to get changed into something that wasn’t her pajamas.

Maya turned to the door and opened it, looking out into the dark hallway with a dull expression. It was a vague mix between a frown and the usual boredom she always wore. She walked out into the hall and looked around, but didn’t see anyone. She’d have figured Mymy or Coco would’ve been awake by now, and if she was really awake that early in the morning, she would’ve expected to hear her father preparing himself to leave for work downstairs. Instead, she was met with nothing. Just the silence of the early morning. She didn’t even hear any birds chirping outside.

Since the blue of the early morning hadn’t shown up anywhere, she was certain she must have woken up at a time so early it might as well have still been night. She hastily speedwalked back towards her room and shut the door behind her, booting up her PC so that she could check the time, since her phone was still dead.

The fan of her computer whirring to life felt incredibly loud considering how quiet the house was at the hour, but she didn’t care. She’d usually have left the thing on all-night playing the sims, and since she was just booting it up once, she doubted anything would come of it. As the screen finally lit up, her eyes widened as she saw the hour. It was 04:21, far earlier than anyone in her family ever bothered to wake up.

A gentle smile came up on Maya’s face. She’d woken up early, for once, and she slept early too. She hadn’t processed it yet because she felt like shit, but she was completely rested for the day, even if the entire left side of her body was covered in the fading pains of general injury. They didn’t even really hurt that much anymore, but it was still enough to be inconvenient. A soft chuckle escaped her lips, and then it slowly evolved into a full on laugh that she had to cover her mouth to stifle. She had really woken up early! Maybe she should do something productive with her time.

Somehow, a burst of motivation had managed to drip its way into Maya’s hollow heart. She hadn’t cooked in ages, maybe once or twice when she was younger to bond with her mother, but here she was, looking up a recipe for pannekoek. She’d never done it before, but thinking before she acted wasn’t one of Maya’s strengths, so she might as well have just dived right into it.

After not too long, and after writing down a recipe onto paper, she was finally downstairs and ready to cook. She had every ingredient laid out onto a counter, her pan for the pancake, and, most importantly, some cheese. Originally, she planned to see if it’d be possible to put some pepernoten in her pancakes, but then she remembered there weren’t any in the house, so she settled for cheese.

Slowly, and carefully, she started mixing all of the ingredients in a bowl. She would’ve used an electric mixer if she was doing this later in the day, but since it was so early in the morning, she just used a whisk to avoid waking up the whole house. It was fun, though, playing around with mix and milk in a bowl. She might end up doing this again if she could keep Coco off of her back while she did so.

“...Maya?”

A deep, bassy voice echoed into the room from behind her. Maya jumped, turning around to be met with her father’s visage standing in the hall wearing a white robe. He’d just left her parents bedroom, and she didn’t really know what to do. Something else that felt weird was hearing her father say her name. She couldn’t even remember the last time her father acknowledged her presence. Usually, it was just her mother, Soei, calling out to her to ask about her day.

“H-Hallo, pa...”

Ravi had a neutral, hard to read expression on his face. Slowly, he made his way into the kitchen to look at what Maya was doing.

“Are you making waffles?”

He asked, lingering just behind her while she awkwardly mixed the batter in her bowl.

“Y-Yeah, I... I- Wait- no, these are... Pannekoek...”

Maya stumbled over her words, not prepared for any real social interaction, especially not with her father. The way she said pancake made her father chuckle, though.

“I haven’t heard someone say Pannekoek in years. If they’re ready before I head off, can I try one?”

Hearing those words come out of her father’s mouth felt... odd. Not because he said them in any particular way, she just wasn’t used to hearing anyone want something from her besides Coco or her mother. But... this kind of expectation wasn’t bad. She was almost happy to have her father wanting something from her. She nodded her head, yes. Ravi threw up a thumbs up, and then made his way off to the washroom to get ready for work.

From there, things went... entirely smoothly. The first pancake was an ugly little thing, but the rest of them came out surprisingly well. They looked pretty tasty, too, especially when she rolled them up. Since they turned out so well, she also decided to start cooking up a proper breakfast meal. Her dad wasn’t out of the shower yet, so she figured he might appreciate a healthy meal before work.

Maya made her way to the fridge and grabbed around 5 eggs. 1 egg for each person in the house, though she didn’t plan to eat any herself, so there might be enough left for her father to eat a healthy portion for a man his size. She mixed the eggs into a bowl and tossed in some salt and pepper, enough to make it palatable. From there, all she did was scramble and fry them in a pan in avocado oil she found. She would’ve made bacon, but she didn’t really know how to do that right and she didn’t want to guess and risk ruining it, so she was satisfied with her eggs and pancakes.

She could barely believe her eyes when she saw the full bounty of her efforts. A big platter of scrambled eggs and about six pancakes, and they all looked delicious! ...Except for the first one she made. She figured she’d eat the first ugly one to save face, and she put it on her own plate.

“Something smells go- Maya?”

Maya jumped again, hearing her name called out from behind her. She turned around, spotting her mother about to head upstairs to wake up Coco, herself, and Mymy.

“Wow, Maya, I didn’t know you could cook. It smells wonderful!”

Soei walked over to her, and Maya didn’t really know what to do. What she did know was that being praised- no, being noticed by her mother was a wonderful feeling. She couldn’t remember the last time her mom directed a real compliment at her.

“T-Thanks, Mama, I-”

Maya paused, freaking out internally over her use of a word as childish as mama. From what she could tell, Soei didn’t mind too much, but she didn’t want to get caught saying that by Pippi Long-Clod.

“I- I woke up early today, so I decided to do something- Pa asked for a panneko- pannenkoek, so i decided to make some for everybody-”

Maya was soon interrupted by her father’s bassy voice calling out from behind her mother.

“Are they ready, Maya?”

Ravi’s voice cut her off, she guessed unintentionally because of how quietly she was mumbling her speech. He peeked around from behind Soei, eyeing the tasty treats she made. Maya nodded, a bit overwhelmed by all of the attention her parents were giving her. Ravi walked around Soei and pat Maya’s head, which only threw her into even more of a loop, on his way to grab a plate to eat.

“They smell good, Maya. Good job.”

Despite the blunt, monotone way that her father spoke, Maya... didn’t really care that much. He was saying such nice things to her, about her! And it was something she actually worked for, too, not something set up by Coco to piss her off. Maya giggled to herself with a smile, which caused Soei to smile too.

Maya now felt genuinely elated. It’d been years since either of her parents were last proud of her, and here she was, being adored by both of them at once! She couldn’t stop giggling, even as she sat down to eat her pancakes. Soei and Ravi joined her at the table too, and though they didn’t speak to her, she was happy to be able to eat breakfast with her parents again.

Pretty soon, though, Ravi had to head off to work. He ate a single pancake and a whole lot of eggs, and he kept complimenting their flavor, so she was sure they were tasty. Soei ate less on account of being a smaller woman, but even she gave her compliments to the chef. The peace and quiet of their little gathering was ruined when her mother suddenly remembered she still had to wake up her siblings.

Maya sighed, watching her mother get up to leave. Even when her sisters were asleep, they managed to ruin her very sparse time with her mother. She was glad to have had it at all, though. She finished up eating her breakfast and walked into the kitchen to wash her plate.

Soon, both Coco and Mymy were downstairs, and the quiet she enjoyed was thoroughly ruined by their incessant yapping. She sat down in the living room, skimming the titles of books that might look at all interesting to read to entertain her since her phone was dead. Her ears picked up on something she didn’t expect to hear at all, though.

“Hey, mom, did you make pancakes? They smell tasty.”

Those words instantly caught Maya’s attention, and she looked back to the source. It was Pippi Long-Clod herself! Pippi, that annoying ginger whelp, had complimented Maya’s cooking without even noticing! She laughed evilly to herself while Soei moved to correct her.

“No, Mymy. Maya made breakfast today.

Soei said in her usual voice, which garnered shocked reactions from both Coco and Mymy.

“The Belgian cooked? Wait- the Belgian’s awake?!”

Mymy quickly scanned the room, and she made eye contact with Maya. Maya wasn’t expecting her to look around so suddenly, so she just froze up.

“...Hmph. I didn’t think she was capable of productivity.”

Mymy finished off, heading off to the kitchen to get a plate to eat. Coco was gazing over to Maya, though, for some reason. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t even have a smile on her face. She almost looked concerned. Maya didn’t like the way she was looking at her.

“...You made breakfast, Maya?”

Coco asked on her way into the living room, a smile now beginning to form across her face.

“...Y-Yes, I did!”

Maya blurted the phrase out like it was supposed to be some kind of triumphant rebellion. All she did was cook breakfast. She wasn’t sure why she was being so dramatic about it, not that she’d have time to think.

“It smells really good, Maya! I can’t wait to try some.”

Coco said before turning away to head into the kitchen. Maya was a bit surprised to see her leaving so early without trying to lead her on with some weird prank.

“Smells good, huh...?”

She mumbled to herself silently, flopping back onto the couch. Was she really THAT good at cooking? So far, she’d only heard positive things about it, even from Long-Clod. When she tried the pancake itself, it didn’t taste like anything special. Maybe it was the eggs, then? She didn’t try the eggs, so it might’ve been that. She was properly confused, now, but she was glad that she managed to do something productive.

“I think I might try cooking a bit more often, then.”

Maya suddenly shot up from the couch and ran upstairs to her bedroom. She noticed from the side of her eyes that Coco was eyeing her as she ran, but she decided to ignore it since Coco was always breathing down her back. Once she’d finally made it to her room, she grabbed her backpack from her closet and took it downstairs. With a giddy smile, she ran to the kitchen and stopped by the island counter that the platter of pancakes was on. She reached into her backpack, and with a triumphant expression, pulled out her... lunchbox!

She hadn’t used the thing since the first week of school. She never really ate lunch, and even when she did, it was usually just a bag of pepernoten to snack on. Still, though, since she made the food herself, it felt wrong to not eat it herself. She popped it open and giggled, tossing in the last pancake she made into the only compartment big enough to fit it. She considered grabbing some eggs too, but decided against it, figuring it’d end up soggy by lunch.

Maya circled around the kitchen, looking around for any other snacks she could toss in. She considered lettuce, but figured a salad made of just leaves wouldn’t be any good, so she decided against it, for now. She also considered Pippi’s stroopwafels, but she knew Pippi would never give her one of her snacks. What did stand out to her was Coco’s biltong. She’d never had it before, and it just looked like weird beef jerky to her, but she was in an experimental mood today.

“...U-Uhm...”

She slowly turned around, raising her hand like an idiot. She quickly realized this wasn’t school, and just called out to her sister.

“Coco! Can... Can I have some of your... um... beeltongue?”

Maya asked, slowly pronouncing each word like if she said something wrong she was going to explode. Coco giggled at the way she said biltong, which made Maya frown.

“Yes, Maya. You may have some biltong.”

Oh, Maya thought. That’s how it’s pronounced. She figured the word would be African, and thus pronounced differently, but it was just how it was pronounced in Dutch. She nodded slowly, about to turn, before remembering she was supposed to be grateful for the gift.

“T-Thank you.”

She nodded politely, and then grabbed the bag of biltong from the cabinet. She took out a couple pieces of the peculiar jerky and tossed them haphazardly into the box before returning the bag to the cabinet.

“Maya!”

Mymy’s voice cut through the air, and Maya quickly turned, not sure what she’d done wrong.

“You may have a single stroopwafel. Consider it thanks for your efforts in rations, soldier.”

Maya’s jaw dropped. Pippi- no, Mymy had just gifted her a stroopwafel? For free?! This had to be some kind of peculiar dream or nightmare.

“U-Uhm...”

She looked over at Coco, and Coco held up two thumbs up. Maya was completely in disbelief now.

“T-Thank you, M-My...my.”

Mymy nodded, puffing out her chest arrogantly. Maya turned slowly, grabbing a single stroopwafel from Mymy’s pack and split it into halves so it would fit in her lunchbox. She closed the pack and returned it to her bag, now completely unsure if the day was real. At the very least, even if this was a dream, it was a very nice dream to have. She wasn’t sure if she’d even want to wake up, if it was.

Chapter Text

Maya had a weird feeling as Coco, Mymy, and herself left the house to get ready to bike to school. Today had started off well, incredibly so. She wasn’t used to it, so much so that she almost didn’t trust it. She was happy, though, to be given a break from the usual troubles of her life.

As Maya made it to her bike, she noticed that one of the wheels on her bike was flat. She looked around for a pump, and Coco seemed to notice the break from the way she usually acted in the mornings.

“What’s wrong, Maya?”

She asked, abandoning her own bike to come check on Maya’s.

“My tire is flat.”

Maya responded bluntly. It was an easy question to answer, and she’d already formulated the issue, so she didn’t have any issues telling Coco what the issue was. Coco nodded, squatting down in front of the bike and poking the front tire. Her eyes instantly widened, and Maya raised her brow in response.

“What?”

Maya asked, and Coco looked up at her with complete stupefication.

“Your tire is completely flat! I don’t think there’s any air in here at all!”

Coco responded, poking the tire again. There was very little resistance to the poke beyond the natural resistance of the material the tire was poking.

“R-Really? That explains why it’s been so tiring to bike to school for the past few days, haha...”

Maya let out an awkward laugh and scratched her chin. Mymy came over, confused about the commotion. She didn’t even have to touch the wheel to see how flat it was, considering the entire bottom was smushed against the floor.

“Is there a hole in your tire or something? What’s up?”

She asked, arms crossed. Maya looked back at her and shrugged dismissively.

“W-Well, I think I just forgot to refill it with air, haha... Usually I’m so tired I don’t pay attention to stuff.”

Both of her sisters just sorta looked at her in disbelief. The silence was broken by Mymy marching off to go fetch an airpump. Coco stood up with a smile.

“I’m surprised the rim is still intact... The fact you haven’t noticed is crazy to me.”

Coco sighed, standing up. Maya didn’t like the fact that this was something that was apparently so easy to notice, but that line of thought was broken by Mymy already returning holding an airpump. She expected that to take much more time, but when she saw the airpump decorated with the colors of the Dutch flag, she just figured Mymy had a secret stash of bike maintenance stuff she kept hidden from everyone else.

“Okay, Belgian. Stand aside, it’s time for the true power of Nederlander blood to prove its superiority.”

Every single word in that sentence made it make less and less sense, but she didn’t really care about Mymy’s usual spiel about being a part of the master Dutch race or whatever. She cared more about specific details, like the fact that...

“I’m not Belgian, I’m from Brabant!”

Maya grumbled, crossing her arms. Mymy just nodded, clearly not listening, while she got the wheel ready for a pumping. Once the wire was connected, she got up and started violenting launching the pump up and down like she was piloting an old-timey lever train. Thanks to Mymy’s violent pumping, though, it didn’t take long for the wheel to be back to standard health.

“There you go, little Belgian from Brabant-”

Mymy held up her finger, but was quickly cut off by Mymy.

“I’m Dutch, fa-!”

Maya was beginning to get pissed off, a fact that was reflected in her vocabulary, though her fighting words were unfortunately cut off again by Mymy.

“AHEM! There you go. It is done. Now get back to work before I keelhaul you!”

Mymy turned and marched off to return her pump to whatever hole she got it from. Maya had a heavy frown, and her brow was furrowed sharply. Coco made her way back to her bike and got on.

“Should we leave her, Maya?”

Maya turned back to look at Coco, a bit shocked that she’d suggest leaving her. Maya wasn’t going to complain, though. Any chance to evade Pippi Long-Clod was a chance she was going to take. Maya quickly hopped onto her bike, and Coco got the message, even without Maya verbally agreeing to the proposal.

Together, Coco and Maya made their way to the school, both silent. Usually, Maya would be subjected to listening to Mymy and Coco talk about their friends or some stupid extracurricular activity she didn’t care about, but since it was just her and Coco today, both of them were quiet. That was, of course, until Coco inevitably spoke.

“...So, Maya... About yesterday.”

Hearing the word ‘yesterday’ made Maya cringe, both internally and externally. She’d completely forgotten the pathetic state she was in the night prior, bleeding from both nostrils, crying like a baby, and asleep on the floor. It was certainly something she didn’t want to think about, but Coco wasn’t good at keeping things she didn’t want to think about out of her head.

“I’m sorry.”

Maya’s eyes widened. This was an apology? She didn’t understand it. Yeah, Coco had pissed her off a bit with the music festival proposal, and she fell the second time indirectly because of Coco, but that didn’t seem like something to apologize for.

“...Why?”

Maya asked, turning to Coco. Coco had a peculiar expression on her face, different from the frown she wore whenever she tried to appear as empathetic.

“...I... don’t think I’ve been a very good sister.”

She said, which garnered a chuckle from Maya.

“You don’t say–”

Maya covered her mouth quickly, not having meant to say that out loud. Coco looked at Maya with a bit of a shocked expression, but she must have understood that Maya didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“...But yes, no, I haven’t been a very good sister. You don’t like it when I try to include you, right?”

Maya paused for a moment, slowly turning to look directly at Coco. She was right, completely so, but the way she worded it made Maya seem like a huge jerk. To be fair, Maya was an asshole, but she didn’t want to be made aware of the fact that other people thought so too.

“S-Something like that, I guess...”

She mumbled, returning her attention to the road in front of her. Coco nodded.

“I’ve been... very caught up with trying to make you feel included. But you... you’re occupied with yourself, right? You don’t want to play games with us, or... talk to us much.”

Hearing those words out of Coco’s mouth made Maya feel even worse than she already did about it. She really didn’t like being confronted with her issues, but she couldn’t even argue against it.

“...I guess, yeah.”

Coco made a weird movement when Maya agreed, almost like she winced. Coco shut her eyes for a moment, and then sighed.

“Do you hate me, Maya?”

Those words coming from her sister’s mouth made Maya feel absolutely terrible. The way Coco had always stuck around her, trying to torment her by making her watch her spend so much time with all of her friends flashed back into her mind in an instant. What if, this entire time, Coco really was just trying to spend time with her? That wasn’t something she liked to think about. It was terrifying.

What if, just really, what if Maya was wrong. Wrong about more than something about herself, no, what if she was wrong about whether or not everyone else hated her. What if the eyes that she’d always viewed as so hateful, as so terrifying to meet, didn’t really want to hurt her. Her hands clenched around the handlebars on her bike, and she accidentally squeezed the brakes, causing her to slow down. When Maya slowed to a halt, Coco swiftly followed suit.

“...I... I don’t know?”

Maya finally responded, not able to look up to meet Coco’s eyes.

“O-Oh...”

Coco’s voice sounded a bit shaky, like she was crying. Maya couldn’t even remember the last time she heard Coco crying. It must have been when she broke her arm all those years ago. Maya looked up at her sister, and there she saw tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

“N-No, wait- I- I don’t- I... I don’t HATE you, y’know- It’s... It’s uhm...”

Maya waved her hands around, trying to remedy the situation. Coco shook her head.

“Maya, it’s okay. I understand.”

Coco’s words were soft, incredibly so. She spoke with so much emotion, so much more emotion than that off-putting enthusiasm that was usually inflected in her voice.

“Would you rather I stopped trying, Maya?”

Maya paused, staring at her sister. Had Maya really managed to be so mean that she had gotten Coco to give up on her? In retrospect, she didn’t even really think Coco was that bad compared to Mymy. Most of the reasons she hated Coco were just because Maya was inadequate. It was just envy, it wasn’t hate.

“...”

Maya tried to say something, but she didn’t really know what. She wanted to tell her sister no, but for some reason, it was difficult to say. Even as her lips quivered, ready to say anything, not a single word came out.

“There you are!”

Mymy’s voice hit both sisters like a truck. Maya looked back sharply, and Coco followed, though her movements weren’t quite as swift.

“Hoi, Mymy!”

Coco put on a smile and the tone of voice she used was suddenly back to normal. Maya looked back at her sister, wide eyed. She hadn’t expected her to be able to do that so suddenly. Mymy slowed to a stop with the two of them.

“What’re you two doing? School won’t come to you.”

Mymy asked, tilting her head to the side. Maya was about to think up some random excuse, but Coco interrupted her.

“We were admiring the landscape. The trees in this part of the neighborhood come together quite nicely, don’t you think?”

Coco rose her brow, gesturing off to the wooded area not far off to their side. Mymy nodded, scratching her chin.

“Yes, indeed, though I think all trees in the Netherlands are perfect. Come along! There is no use in dilly dallying.”

Mymy took off at a medium pace, and Coco was swift to follow. Maya watched as the two of them left her behind, her thoughts weighing so heavily that it delayed her ability to act. She languidly took off after the two of them, making sure not to fall too far behind. She couldn’t let Coco leave her behind. Now that she’d taken a moment to think about it, she didn’t want her to leave. She didn’t want to be left alone. She wanted to have a friend. She wanted to have a sister, even if that meant that sister would be Coco.

Chapter Text

The events of the early morning left a sour taste in Maya’s mouth. She sat alone on the roof of the school, knees to her chest as she was lost in thought. It was a spot she hadn’t visited in a long, long while. She frequented it earlier in the school year with one of the only friend’s she made, though she’d abandoned her several months ago.

The memories shot back to her in an instant. The memories of that peculiar Japanese girl, basically the only person who’d ever openly given a shit about her, were incredibly fuzzy now. It hadn’t even been that long ago, and those memories were incredibly important to her, but they already began to slip from her mind. She could hardly even remember her name.

What she could remember, though, was that pretty red flower she wore in her hair. She didn’t remember what kind of flower it was, or where in her hair it was worn, but she remembered it existed, and that was better than what she remembered about most of the people in her class.

A cold gust of wind sent a chill down her spine, and the sudden cold that embraced her body in a cruel hug swiftly turned into a chokehold that forced the memory of Coco’s giving up on her straight back into her mind. She tightly grabbed her knees, eyes shaking, as she looked forward at the horizon ahead of her.

“...Do you hate me, Maya...?”

She mimed out to herself, trying her best to mimic Coco. Like she could somehow play this for a joke to make things right. Her eyes began to water, the mimicry only making her feel worse.

“...Do you hate me, Maya...”

She repeated again, this time in her own voice. Tears streamed slowly down her cheeks as she rolled her hips forward to sit on her knees.

“...I think I do hate me, Maya.”

The words escaped her lips slowly, and then she groaned loudly. She slammed her fist into the gravel that made up the roof’s ground, and then quickly fell to her side as she cradled her aching fist.

“God damn it! I need to stop punching shit...”

Finally, Maya settled down and laid down flat on the floor so she could gaze easily into the sky above. The sky was almost completely clear. There was only a single cloud, and it just so happened to be blocking the sun. There wasn’t much else in the sky to distract her, though.

Slowly, Maya’s view of the world shifted. The sharp gravel that dug into her back slowly settled into soft, delicate sands. The edges of the roof faded away into the rise and fall of an ocean’s shore, and that big cloud that covered the sun had turned into a great, tall palm-tree that covered the whole sky.

This time, though, there was no princess Coco nagging her about where she sat at lunch. There was no Pippi Long-Clod firing cannons at the lonely island. It was just her, Maya, lying in the sand. This was what she wanted, right? To be left alone entirely. To be nothing at all, an afterthought on an island so deep in the Indian ocean that any hope of finding her would be reduced to zero.

She smiled, rolling her feet back and forth. It wasn’t so bad, really. For the rest of her life, she could stay on her little island, free of Coco’s nagging and Mymy’s everything, and it would be this way for-

BEEEEEEEEP

Maya covered her ears as the ear-shattering morning bell rang. Classes were soon to start, and if she didn’t hall ass, she’d end up late to class....

Did it really matter, though? It was a thought that had tickled her brain for a long while, but it was especially strong now. There was no way she was going to live long enough to reach college, so how well she did in high school was meaningless. She was forever going to be a worthless piece of trash caught on an island that no one cares about.

The thought about her not living long enough to reach college boomeranged back into the front of her mind. She hadn’t really thought about it much, but she didn’t know why she never expected herself to live past college. Maybe she was going to starve? Or get hit by a truck?

Slowly, Maya’s peaceful numbness faded into dread. Her eyes opened slowly, and she sat up, gazing longingly at the edge of the roof. For a moment, she tried to deny the obvious idea in her head, but no amount of delusion could keep the dam from bursting.

“...Death by suicide... that’s morbid, haha...”

She laughed at herself, wincing at the second bell that marked her late to class, not that she planned on showing up anyway. Maya suddenly stood, walking on over to the edge of the building. She didn’t intend to jump or anything, she was just taking a looksie at the drop to see if a coward like Maya could even commit to that. Maya dropped to her knees, crawling the rest of the way there.

Maya’s head peeped over the concrete ledge and peered straight down. It was a much farther drop than she remembered, though, the last time she was looking straight down a ledge was when Coco held her out of a window, and she didn’t exactly get a good look then, either.

Still, though, it wasn’t that scary of a sight to her. At least, not now. Normally, just looking down the stairs would give her goosebumps, and yet here she was, staring down a three story drop like it was something as minor as getting out of bed. She slowly brought herself up to her feet and looked down. Since before, she was laying down on her stomach, she figured that might’ve had something to do with the lack of any feeling, but no. Even now, all she felt was a peculiar elation. Maybe she’d gotten high off of Coco’s friend’s second-hand smoke on the way up to the roof.

“Y’know, Maya, you’re awfully irresponsible.”

Epke’s voice called out to Maya from her right side, and she turned slowly to face him. She simply nodded, not in any mood to argue.

“You’re not any better, doofus. You’re hanging out with me, too.”

Maya crossed her arms, shifting her weight to her left leg as she threw on a sassy expression. Or, at least, the sassiest one she could make with the hideous welt she called a face. Epke laughed, and then took a sip from a can of some blueberry drink she couldn’t make out the name of.

“Better hanging than falling, right?”

Maya jumped a bit, turning sharply. She’d forgotten about Anke, and then nodded. Maya crouched down, wrapping her arms around her knees to create a frame to look at the ground with.

“Heh, if you do this, it’s kinda like you’re looking through a polaroid.”

Both Epke and Anke raised their brows, but neither got up to try it. After a few seconds of holding that position, Maya just went back to standing up.

“Y’know, I’m glad I met you guys.”

Epke looked up at her with a soft smile. Anke just looked a bit more confused than anything.

“What’s gotten into you so suddenly, Maya?”

Anke asked, crossing her legs over one another.

“If I hadn’t met either of you, I very well think I’d have...”

As Maya was mid sentence, a sharp gust of wind blew her forward, off of her balance. It was cold, incredibly so, and even as Maya stumbled to regain her balance, it was all she could really think about. Maya’s foot slipped forwards, off the ledge, and she tumbled backwards into the air.

As she fell through the air, her eyes widened in shock. Was that really it? Was she really going-

“Oof!”

Her back slammed into the gravel floor, nearly knocking the wind out of her. Both of her legs were hanging off of the ledge and her hips were only centimeters from being off the ledge with them. She pulled herself off the roof in panicked hurriedness, trying her best to get back to safety.

Maya quickly shot up to a seated position, her heart pounding through her chest. She pushed herself away from the edge of the roof as quickly as possible. Her hand shot up to grip her chest, eyes wide at the spot where she’d nearly just gotten herself killed.

Her breath was unsteady and high-paced. If she’d been just one step closer to the edge of the roof, she’d have most certainly just died. She crossed her legs, trying to gather herself, watching the patch of dust that very narrowly would’ve been the last thing she’d seen before her skull cracked against the pavement.

Something else she noticed was that even her own brain didn’t really try to help her out. Her imaginary friends, Epke and Anke, had both vanished. Even they abandoned her in her time of need. She couldn’t even use them as a crutch to complain to, though, talking to figments of her imagination probably wasn’t the best use of her time.

She attempted to stand so that she could walk back to the door that led downstairs, but her legs were much too shaky to be used for movement. The instant she placed any weight on her leg, it felt like the bone inside of it had been instantaneously reduced to jelly muck. For now, though, she settled on just crawling back inside.

Chapter Text

It had been around 40 minutes since Maya's slip and fall earlier in the morning, and she’d been cowering in the stairwell since. She was a bit shaken up, but after having some time to herself, her mind had been given time to recover. Over the course of those long minutes, she had decided that she would confront Coco herself. As much as the thought tormented her, she couldn’t bring herself to stay idle.

Her entire life, she’d simply let go of things without fighting back. Her pet cat, herself, the things she liked... everything, she just let it go because she was too scared or too weak to fight for it. But, for once, she was faced with something she couldn’t just let go. As much as she hated to admit it, Coco was her sister. Maya didn’t know what her life would be like without her, but there was good in the bad.

...She actually hadn’t thought about her pet cat in a while. She remembered being incredibly resentful about the loss of her cat, Noga. She particularly remembered how casually her parents spoke about putting the family pet ‘to sleep.’ In retrospect, though... Noga was already an old cat. He was fat, too, so she doubted he was in particularly good health. Still... she wished she could’ve fought harder to keep Noga just a bit longer.

Off in the distance, Maya heard the bell ring, marking the end of the class period. She stood up swiftly, looking down the stairwell. Her next class was Ms. Persijn’s, which meant she would have a chance to speak to Coco. Trying to muster up as much resolve as she could, Maya’s fists clenched together sharply, and she marched her way downstairs....

As Maya walked into the room, it seemed to become... quieter, for some reason. At first, it was hard to notice, just Ms. Persijn and Coco. Then it was Mymy and Roos, and then, it seemed the entire class was staring at her. Any confidence she had to speak to Coco was instantly wiped out of her brain and tossed out to join the conversations everyone was having.

Maya looked down, clutching her backpack timidly, trying to speedwalk to her seat when Coco put her hand out to stop her.

“...Uhm, Maya...”

Maya stopped, sweating gallons. Her eyes slowly shifted to meet Coco’s, terrified, expecting to be yelled at.

“...What happened to you?”

Coco tilted her head to the side, and Maya just kind of froze up, confused.

“W... W-What?”

Coco pointed down at Maya’s legs, which were covered in dust. Her hoodie, too, had an uncomfortable amount of dirt on it, too. There was even a small rip in her leggings that she hadn’t spotted.

“Did you get attacked by someone?”

Maya looked back at her sister with a confused expression, but then realized just how fucked she was. She couldn’t just say she fell on the roof, because students weren’t even allowed up there! And then she’d have to explain why she was on the roof, so that was out of the question. She couldn’t say she left the school property either, since students weren’t allowed out or back in if they left without a note.

“U-Uhm... I...”

Maya looked away dismissively, scratching her chin. She was completely stumped for an excuse.

“...I don’t know...?”

She spoke in a high pitched voice, a weird, excessive smile plastered on her already flustered face. Mymy leaned over the table to get a better look at Maya.

“You look like you were playing Brazilian volleyball...”

Maya held her hands out defensively.

“W-Well, hey, I think the dirt is pretty, y’know...? It’s... a... new fashion... trend.”

Maya’s awkward smile slowly faded away and turned into a stupid, dull frown. She quickly walked past both of her sisters and sat down, putting her backpack down and slamming her face into her arms so she could mope without anyone seeing what she looked like.

How stupid was she? She’d forgotten the entire reason she stopped going up there in the first place! The damned dust! You couldn’t sit anywhere on the roof because you’d get all dirty, and then trying to pat yourself off was a pain in the ass. She looked up, her face clearly sour, though it turned into a stark frown when she saw Coco staring back at her.

“...Hoi, Maya.”

Maya stared back at her, feeling the blood already rushing back to her cheeks. She nodded slowly, and then raised her hand up to wave.

“Hallo, C-Coco.”

The two sisters stared at each other. Coco smiled when Maya said hello, though. She wasn’t sure why, but she assumed it was just Coco being Coco.

“...U-Uhm... Coco!”

Coco’s eyes widened a bit when Maya continued speaking. It was clear on Maya’s face that she was regretting her decision, but Maya wasn’t going to back out now.

“H-How is, that- the- are you–uh– making any new songs in your band?”

Maya said with an uneasy smile, and Coco just seemed to be completely astonished. Her smile faded away, and her face resumed a more neutral expression.

“Y-Yes! We are, Maya.”

Coco nodded, her tone that of a person who’d just seen a pig fly for the first time. She raised her finger, and then returned to her usual chipper poise.

“We are working on a parody of Welterusten Mijnheer De President by Boudewijn de Groot!”

Coco spoke with clear excitement and passion, though the tone she used sounded more educational than anything.

“W-Wow... Boudewijn de Groot? I know- I think- I think I know that name, yeah.”

Maya mumbled randomly, eyes scanning the room to avoid maintaining eye contact with Coco. Coco didn’t seem to mind, spinning around her chair to more easily speak to Maya. Mymy looked onwards passively, eavesdropping on the conversation.

“Really? I didn’t expect you to know his name! What kind of music do you listen to, Maya?”

Coco asked, leaning forward... or backward in her chair? Technically, in relation to the seat, she was going backwards, but Coco was physically- wait, that doesn’t matter! What kind of music DOES Maya listen to? She didn’t know? Her playlist was a hot pile of random shit she found on the internet! How was she supposed to turn that into an answer?!

“U-Uhm... There’s this one... Polish song?”

‘POLAND?!’ Maya’s brain screamed at her vocal cords, clearly unhappy with their idiot choice of music. She was stuck in this rabbit hole. She had to admit that one of her favorite songs was...

“Wii Mohim Ogrodeku, I think that’s how you say it...”

Coco’s eyes lit up instantly, and a wide, toothy grin went across her face.

“W moim ogródecku! I know it well! Zoey wrote a cover of it not too long ago, and I quite liked hearing it on her bass! Maybe I could ask her for a recording to give you?”

Maya, to say the least, was not expecting such a positive reaction. Since Coco only ever spoke about how much she loved Running In The 60s and their weird obsession with Dutch folk metal, she didn’t think she’d care for Polish folk music, but it worked. Maya turned to look back at Zoey, who was already looking at her since she’d just heard her name used in conversation. Maya quickly turned back to Coco.

“T-That’d be great, if it's not an issue, haha...”

Suddenly, before Coco had a chance to respond, the bell rang, marking the start of class. Ms. Persijn stood up and walked to the door to close it, and Coco sighed.

“I’d love to talk more about this during lunch, Maya. Maybe you could sit with us today?”

Maya had completely forgotten about the lunch period, but that could be a proper opportunity to do... whatever she wanted. She’d forgotten what she was so stressed out over before, but she knew it involved speaking to Coco, so it seemed like a good enough idea to stick with Coco for lunch today.

“...Yes. Okay.”

That was that, it seemed. Coco turned back to look at Vera, and the room returned to the way it was before... Maya's legs were still covered in dust. She’d have to clean it off later. For now, though, she was more occupied with whatever was going on in class, and how she could procrastinate against doing it.

Chapter Text

After nearly an hour of class time, Maya was relieved to hear the lunch bell ringing. She grabbed her bag, flipped up her hoodie, and was about to dart out of the door when she suddenly stopped. Maya turned to look at her sister, Coco, who was still getting ready to head to the courtyard to eat her lunch. The two of them were supposed to eat together today.

“...”

Maya opened her mouth to speak, but it didn’t take much for her to realize she didn’t have anything to say. She’d already forgotten what she was going to say–that, or she didn’t have anything to say at all and she was just being an idiot. As Coco turned, about to get up, she jumped a bit when she saw Maya standing next to her.

“O-Oh, hoi, Maya. I forgot we were eating together!”

Coco spoke, voice a bit shaky from the sudden spook. Coco stood up, holding her bag on one shoulder. Maya nodded to her, smiling awkwardly.

“I almost forgot, too...”

Maya mumbled, though the volume of her speech made it difficult to understand. Coco pushed her chair in, and Maya stepped back to let her through.

“Hey, Coco! Hey, Maya! What’s up?”

Both girls looked back at the goth woman, though Maya was especially shocked to be called out in specifics. She hadn’t expected the girl to remember her name, or to even acknowledge her at all. She was accompanied by Coco’s usual friend group. The high one stood absent-mindedly behind her, and Zoey... She actually didn’t know where Zoey was. Zoey was the only one who she could remember by name, mostly because of the bathroom incident from a while back. Maya would’ve thought Zoey wanted to stick by Cleo, but Maya must have lost sight of her on the way there.

“Maya is going to be joining us for lunch today, Cleo!”

Coco said with a smile, to which Maya nodded timidly. Cleo–which she supposed was the goth girl’s name–held up a thumbs up.

“Oh, cool. Let’s get going then, yeah?”

Cleo said, to which Coco agreed in her usual chipper tone. The two set off, though when Maya turned to follow them, she accidentally bumped into someone, who was standing behind her.

“O-Oh-”

She stumbled over her words, about to apologize until she saw that it was Zoey she bumped into. Memories of what had happened the last time the two of them met rushed through Maya’s head, and an overwhelming feeling of dread overcame her.

“...S-Sorry.”

She mumbled awkwardly, and Zoey looked up at Maya with her usual, monotone glare.

“You’re fine. That was on me.”

Maya was caught off guard by how lightly Zoey took it. She was half expecting to be spat on, but she wasn’t going to complain about a slap on the wrist... actually, it wasn’t even a slap on the wrist. It was just a normal reaction to the situation.

Together, both introverts walked behind Coco and the rest of Coco’s friends. Maya wasn’t planning to walk with Zoey the whole way, but it just ended up happening since neither of them wanted to stay ahead with the group.

“...Your name is Maya, right?”

Zoey ended up breaking the silence between them, which caught her off guard. She didn’t expect a conversation between them–at least, not one mediated by Coco. Maya nodded.

“...Yes. A-And you’re Zoey?

The young girl nodded, and then looked over to Maya. The sudden eye contact was incredibly intimidating, so Maya looked forward to the floor.

“You were talking to Coco about me, right? What about me was so interesting?”

Zoey asked, brow raised. Maya’s face turned a bit pink. Even though Maya knew that she wasn’t talking about anything weird or disrespectful, being called out on something like this wasn’t anything she was used to.

“O-Oh... Uhm... C-Coco said you played the bass guitar, and she said you... uh... covered- you made a cover of W Moim–”

“The Polish song?”

Maya’s jumbled speech was suddenly interrupted by Zoey’s question, though she didn’t mind, since she still didn’t really remember how to pronounce the last word anyway.

“Y-Yeah, the Polish song.”

Zoey nodded slowly in response to that. She scratched her chin, and then looked slowly at Maya with a face that was difficult to describe. She’d have put it as being somewhere between inquisitive and suspicious, but considering how little Zoey emoted, that was as good a guess as any.

“Yeah, I remember that. You want me to play it for you?”

Zoey crossed her arms. Maya twiddled with her fingers nervously.

“Coco said she was going to ask you for a recording of it. B-But, if you want to play it for me, t-that’s fine.”

Maya held up her hands defensively, like what she said was going to start a fight. Zoey simply nodded.

“That’s fine with me. Coco knows where I live.”

Coco, Cleo, and Yfke all headed outside towards the courtyard. Zoey stopped in front of the door, and Maya stopped with her since they were speaking.

“Come to my house tomorrow. I need to practice playing for an audience.”

With that, Zoey marched outside, leaving Maya standing there with a perplexed expression. Somehow, she’d managed to get herself finessed into... a playdate? Or an improvised concert? She wasn’t quite sure, actually, but she needed to prioritize meeting her obligation to Coco. She turned, pushing open the closing door and making her way over to Coco and the rest of her gang.

Coco and co., or Running In The 60’s, all sat in the grass outside. Yfke, Cleo, and Zoey all sat together in a half circle, and Coco was alone on one side for some reason. When Maya saw them all sitting around on the floor, she mostly just thought it was weird to want to sit on the dirty ground, but then she remembered that she usually spent her entire lunch in a stall where people piss and shit, so she figured it must not be that bad afterall. Maya sat down next to Coco. She didn’t know the other members of the band that well, and she doubted that Zoey cared about her enough to warrant them sitting together.

For the first few minutes of lunch, things went just about the way she expected. No one really talked to her, and she just sat there, zoning out. It wasn’t like she could contribute much to the conversation anyway. ‘I’m just Maya, I don’t do anything other than jerk off and eat snacks all day. Aren’t I so interesting?’ Like anyone would want to hear her talk about something stupid like that.

“...Oh!”

Maya peeped up excitedly, remembering that she actually had packed a lunch for once. She quickly rummaged through her bag out of nowhere, warranting looks from the rest of the group. Finally, she pulled out a small lunch box, one she’d basically never used until now.

“Oh, I forgot! You made pannekoek this morning, right, Maya?”

Coco inquiring about whatever Maya was doing usually would’ve made her freeze up, but for once, she was actually excited to talk. She nodded her head with enthusiasm.

“Yeah! This was the last one, hehe...”

Maya giggled to herself, opening the lunch box to reveal her cheese pancake and the stroopwafel’s Mymy had gifted her. Her wide smile dropped to a vaguely confused expression, and then to a gentle smile.

“Maya, you really are good at cooking, you know. You should...”

Coco went on a tirade about how good of a cook Maya was, mostly hyping her up in front of her friends. Maya, though, chose not to pay attention in favor of trying to think back on the last time she’d eaten a stroopwafel. Many, many years ago, before her siblings had been her siblings, she remembered she helped her mother make the same stroopwafel she’d ever eaten.

“...Was that it?”

She mumbled mindlessly into the air, looking up blankly. In retrospect, that was probably why she was even at all capable of making those pancakes, or cooking at all. She used to mix the batter for the waffles, or just make normal waffles. At some point, she wanted to be a professional chef, though she knew now that a job that stressful would make her curl up and die.

“What?”

Coco asked, tilting her head to the side. Maya had completely forgotten about the fact she was hanging out with Coco and her friends.

“O-Oh, I was thinking about the last time I ate a stroopwafel. I think it was... n-nine...? Nine years ago, yeah.”
The entire group’s eyes seemed to widen–except for Zoey–at the drop of such information. Yfke, too, seemed too high to actually pay attention to the conversation. It was just Cleo and Coco that showed any semblance of surprise, but they were basically the entire friend group anyway when it came to actually saying anything.

“Nine years?! But Mymy eats stroopwafels everyday!”

Coco held her hand up to her mouth. Cleo put her hand on the grass in front of her, leaning forward to get a closer look at Maya.

“Yeah! Even Coco eats stroopwafels on occasion, and she’s always so obsessed with avoiding sugary foods!”

Maya’s cheeks flushed red, not sure how to react to the sudden attention. Particularly, it felt weird being acknowledged so clearly by Cleo, who she’d only ever heard speaking through the walls of her bedroom.

“I-Is it really t-that we...ird.”

Maya’s shoulders drooped, and the corners of her lips followed the motion to form a frown.

“No, not at all! You deserve that stroopwafel. Eat it, girl!”

Cleo’s eccentric speech really threw Maya off. It definitely felt weird, now that she was properly processing the fact that she was talking to someone other than Coco or Mymy. She really wasn’t used to it.

“Heh... After I eat the pannekoek, methinks.”

Maya giggled, and she heard a giggle escape from Zoey’s lips alongside her. She looked over curiously, not sure why she was laughing, and then she made eye contact with the girl. Was Zoey laughing at her? That wasn’t something she wanted to think about, especially not before she ate.

“Are you fifty? Pannekoek I’ve heard a couple times, but I’ve only ever read methinks.”

Both Maya and Coco tilted their heads in unison, confused about what Coco was talking about.

“Methinks, I can understand, but what’s wrong with Pannekoek?”

Zoey held up her finger, a smile on her face.

“Most people use pannenkoek instead of pannekoek. I just thought it was funny to hear it used with ‘Methinks.’”

Maya’s eyes widened when Zoey elaborated, and that helped her realise why her father laughed at her this morning. She shut her eyes and sighed, though she was still in a good mood. She brought the pancake up to her lips and bit it, and then her eyes instantly went wide. With a sour expression on her face, she chewed the bite of pancake into mush and swallowed.

“Wow, that is greasy...”

She grumbled, now sure how on earth that happened. She only used a lot of butter, and... and cheese, and she left it in a box all day. She didn’t pat it off either, so in retrospect, it made sense. It didn’t taste all too bad, though. It was just a bit greasy.

“Is it? It didn’t feel that greasy this morning.”

Coco brought her finger to her mouth when she spoke, brow raised inquisitively. Cleo quickly shot forward, resting her hand on Coco’s shoulder for support.

“If you won’t eat it, I’ll take it!”

Maya jumped back a bit, shocked by how quickly Cleo had closed the distance between them.

“W-Wha- really? ...Why?”

Cleo sighed, holding her stomach.

“I left my lunch box at home today... I said that earlier, I thought.”

Maya sighed, but thought about it for a moment. She wasn’t that hungry anyway, and all this grease was probably gonna fuck up her skin. Maya pushed her hand out, offering the pancake to her.

“If you’d like, go ahead.”

Cleo’s eyes seemed to shine with stars as she graciously took the offered pancake and started with a big, hearty bite.

“Shanks–wai... thith ithn’t–”

Cleo swallowed the bite of pancake she took.

“This isn’t that greasy. I guess it’s a bit oily?”

Cleo analyzed the pancake suspiciously, and then shrugged. She took another bite.

“It’s really good, though. You could start a pancake restaurant!”

Cleo used the pancake as a pointer, gesturing vaguely at Maya. Maya blushed, holding her cheeks.

“You really think so, huh? Maybe that’d be nice.”

Maya giggled, trying to think of herself actually running a pancake restaurant. Coco must have had the same thought, since she started giggling too. When Cleo started giggling, she was certain that she didn’t get what was so funny, but was laughing because everyone else was. Maya wasn’t going to complain, though. If this was what having friends was like, it really must not have been so bad, after all....