Consequences

We followed Ms. Trine and met up with Ms. Tick in front of the FBY office. Anna opened the door and let all of us in. We let our guests take a seat in the salon.

I made some coffee while Anna released Pussyni. I saw Anna making note of the cat supplies we would need in the FBY office, I guess they would also be paid with government funds.

Ms. Tick and Ms. Trine said nothing in the meantime. There was some serious tension in the air. I thought we would be on friendlier terms than that.

When Anna finally sat next to us, Ms. Tick started to talk.

“I was happy to help you yesterday, but my experience taught me to check if you stabbed me in the back after that, Claire.”

I was flabbergasted. “What do you mean? Why would I do that?”

“I want to know all the terms at which you sold my pet project to the Lysts. God knows what Kath Lyst is planning, now that she became the CEO of the Lyst group. I am here to get some assurance that my interests remain secured.”

I fell a bit out of the air. Ms. Lourdes had discussed the contract, and I had no idea what was said yesterday after we left.

“I am sorry but I have no idea what was discussed. Ms. Lourdes was in charge of those negotiations. I will check if she left me something to fall back on.”

I quickly looked through my mail on my phone and found a pdf file with the contract. There were a lot of side notes from Ms. Lourdes to explain why some of the articles were worded like that.

It was all in judicial jargon so I decided to just forward Ms. Lourdes’ mail to Ms. Trine. They could probably make more of it than I could.

Ms. Trine started to overlook the contract in detail, mumbling something to Ms. Tick now and then. After a while, she spoke up to us “I see. She did her best. Bernadette Lourdes is a force to be reckoned with. I am glad she is on our side. The only uncertain factor is what they will do with the apprenticeships.” She then outlined everything to Ms. Tick who was really surprised at the terms and conditions. In an instant, Ms. Tick changed the atmosphere in the room back into a cozy mood like she never ever would think of accusing me of backstabbing her. She proved once again she was a politician to the bone.

“Claire, as far as we are concerned we are happy with the contract. I thought it was a political attack on me, but it seems I was wrong. You must have left an enormous impression on Kath Lyst. She basically bought shared rights on all yuridium research for which the four owners of the patent will be handsomely rewarded. The weird part is that she also became the sponsor and provider of your education, and that of any apprentice within the CYA or FBY. She is basically in control of your further education. The Lysts are also sponsoring the entire yuriology department for at least the amount any other sponsor is giving, and they are contractually bound to help the CYA reach its goals of yurification. It seems you got a contract with a lot more benefits to your side. You scouted a powerful ally to the cause. I think you might be very good at politics one day if you can even sway someone like Kath Lyst.”

I did not really care about politics though. All I wanted to do later was own and run my own haute cuisine restaurant, but troublesome stuff kept on popping up bringing me further and further away from that dream.

“Mom did what?” Anna started reading through the contract with big eyes and then she sighed. “She is still interfering. Won't this ever stop?”

I wanted to avoid a situation like yesterday evening at all costs and did my best to put a positive spin on it. “Well it is only one day of class a week, and she promised things would be different from now on.”

Anna listened to me and then she answered “I don't know. We'd better be prepared. You never know what she is planning. She always plays games, and she always plays hardball.”

Look who's talking... I was tired of seeing Anna so weak and defeatist. This was not like her. So I said, “Then we just have to beat her at her own game don't we?”

Ms. Tick who had been listening in started laughing and said “That is the spirit, Claire. I never thought I would see the day where I saw someone say that they were going to beat the Lysts at their own game and that I would believe that they could actually pull it off. Keep on surprising me girl.”

The both of them started to get ready to leave. “We learned a lot to take into consideration. Unfortunately, Polly has another appointment, but you will hear from us soon.” Ms. Trine said.

Ms. Tick then made a point that we were all on friendly enough terms to call each other by our first names. We left on such a friendly note you could hardly believe the pressing atmosphere of when they had first arrived.

“If it is for the sake of yuri, I can take it all! Yuri shall never be defeated!” Anna said full of zeal. I could feel a new Anna had awoken.

It was ten o'clock and the other FBY girls started coming in. Elsa, Therese, and Eve wanted to know about what happened yesterday. So we sat down and started telling them everything that happened.

Fien had noticed Pussyni but before she could charge the cat, Anna took charge and let her help feed Pussyni so they could start bonding. It felt always endearing to see Anna guide children, it reminded me of when she was reading stories to Emma. I knew I should not say anything about it out loud though. Unless I wanted to see a pouting Fien. I had already learned she didn’t like being treated as a child.

Gazette and Elodie were missing. Most likely, they were spending the break next door in the communications department.

While I was telling the real story about what happened yesterday yet once again, Mia and Valerie entered the room in a flaming row. The both of them were completely out of their princely and ladylike characters. Magda from Valerie's fan club had been flirting openly with Mia, and Valerie had become jealous. In response, she had started flirting with Maria in which she had been a little too successful, according to Mia, even when acting like a lady.

Suddenly they turned to me and asked me which one of them was right.

I sighed. Why did it always have to be me? I mean, Anna is a counselor, shouldn't she be handling the troublesome emotional problems?

In my eyes they were both wrong, but how to communicate that diplomatically? I really did not feel like another episode of Mia taking it out on me. Maybe distracting them would work.

I skipped their question and started thanking, and complimenting them for this morning. They were clearly flattered but I had no luck with my strategy. They turned the conversation back to their dispute.

Then the penny dropped. I knew this situation from a yuri novel. What they needed was a common enemy to put their disputes aside. So I decided to just bite the bullet and be the bad guy.

“You are both wrong. But in my eyes, Valerie was worse. Mia was wrong for flirting with Magda, knowing that Valerie is putting all this effort in to become the perfect princess for her. Valerie was wrong for flirting with Maria. Mia did not consider Valerie's feelings, but Valerie might be worse because she did consider Mia's feelings, and flirted anyway to get back at her.”

Both of them were perplexed by my answer, and then Mia became angry at me. Her valiant prince act forced her to help the lady in distress. She was defending Valerie and told me “You have no right to judge her like that!” It was working. Mia was already no longer angry at Valerie, she was now angry at me.

“You just literally asked me to do just that...”

Now it was Valerie that turned against me. “Stop picking on Mia, she did nothing wrong to you!”

Operation lightning rod was a success. So I said “At least I got the two of you to stop fighting. You were defending each other so vigorously.”

The both of them then realized what had just happened, turned red at the same time and hmphd, and looked away from each other. But I knew that it was just a tsundere act. They had just both realized again that they liked each other, but would of course not admit it.

I could feel that the pair of them were going to be troublesome until the case was solved. I hoped our plan with the play would be a success because I don't know if I could take more than another week of this circus. Even though we were getting closer, that Y-file was far from being solved.

I calmed myself down with the prospect that I would be cooking haute cuisine for Narcy Stick and her date tonight when in the background I heard another troublesome conversation, that would keep me away from my kitchen, between Anna and Eve.

“Hey Anna, if Elsa and Tina accept our apology on Sunday, does that mean we start rehearsals for the idol group on Monday, when Tina is back? It would be nice if we could give our first performance at the school festival.”

Anna's eyes turned into flickering stars like those of a girl in a shoujo manga and she got all excited and answered “Brilliant plan, I'll ask Thea to pass by for the outfits.”

I had felt it from the start and here it was: I was not getting out of performing on the stage at that damn school festival...