Interlude Adopting a second one

Mia's POV.

Ever since we adopted our cute mascot, Valerie and I had been getting along just fine. It was as if taking care of someone together, gave us purpose, and we had not gotten into fights ever since. When we talked BL we often ended up getting into a hefty discussion on who the seme or uke was. Valerie seemed to believe that riba was the way to go most of the time. Preposterous! I can spot a seme or a uke from 20 miles distance and there is no way they will switch it around for fun.

So when rehearsal started I was a bit nervous when I noticed Fien was not around. Apparently she and Maura, the new girl had been called into the office by Anna and Claire.

I noticed Valerie was talking to her fan club. I felt a surge of jealousy coming up, but I decided to let it be for a moment. She should be able to have friends outside of me, so I should give them a short while. I did not feel like hanging between girls that were constantly trying to flirt with Valerie and switched ships the second I started my own prince act.

Even though Valerie was faithfully acting like a certified ojou-sama these days, sometimes her old Casanova habits still shone through, and when they did, I could not help but feel furious. Sometimes I had the impression that her princess act was even more popular than her prince act among those girls.

So I decided it might be better to avoid this confrontation for a few minutes until I calmed down. Because I was sure that if I would approach Valerie now, it would just result in a kamikaze.

I decided to approach Elodie instead. She was hanging out with Gazette as per usual, maybe she knew what was up with Fien. They were family after all and Fiend was living at her house at the moment.

“Hey, Elodie what's up!”

I noticed Gazette and Elodie go on alert immediately when they realized I approached them. My bully reputation was catching up with me. I felt a bit bad because of that, but I realized there was not much I could do about it now. The only thing I could do was show that I had changed.

“Mia, what can I do for you?”

Elodie still did her best to be friendly toward me. Better than all those girls that just ran when they saw me approach. I used to be proud of that, but ever since I started making up with Valerie, and tried to change my ways, my past had been coming back to bite me. Up to the point where I interrupted a bully, and the victim ran to get a teacher to help her bully.

“I was worried about Fien, and wondered if you knew what was going on?”

Elodie looked at me pensively. She was clearly thinking about what to tell me. “Well, you are part of the bureau, so that means Claire decided to trust you, so I guess I can tell you. But this is confidential, and I will never trust you again if anything of this gets out to anyone outside of the FBY and ruins things for Fien.

Wow, apparently Fien was in some serious trouble. I wonder who would dare to target our mascot. The girl doing that was going to be in a world of hurt.

The story I got to hear was a bit larger than I expected. Fien was being headhunted because Claire made a mistake by asking something from Anna's mom. She might be pushed in doing something she does not want to do, by her parents, because their job is on the line... Who would put that kind of pressure on their kid? The one pushing me to blackmail my own kid would not live to see the day. I would never put the responsibility on my twelve-year-old. Even I was not that cruel when I was a bully.

And then there were doubts about Maura, the new girl. Anna and Claire were trying to solve that right now, and Ms. Lourdes was working on the bigger problem with Kath Lyst, the head of the Lyst Group. I always thought this FBY thing was a rather childish girl club but boy, was I mistaken. They were dealing with big corporations and politicians on a daily basis. I had to make sure to treat this club a lot more seriously.

But that Maura girl, better not be in on it. I'd be sure to let her regret it if she was. She seemed nice, so it would be a shame to have to do it. But I should allow nobody to bully someone under my protection.

I had heard enough and went over to Valerie. “Valerie, we need to talk now!” The girls around her scurried away, Valerie rolled her eyes, probably thinking I had another jealousy fit. I hated it when she did that. Could she not at least give me the benefit of the doubt?

But that did not matter right now. It was not for my sake after all, but for our dear mascot's. I started to explain to her what I had just learned from Elodie. Her eyes grew serious and I realized we both had a common goal. I loved it when she got this serious. I sighed. I was hopeless wasn't I? Angry one moment, fawning the next... It was impossible to stay mad at Valerie.

Rehearsal started, and Ms. Stick was leading everything a lot more seriously than before we went to BOZAR. It seemed something had awoken in her after meeting with Cas. Valerie and I were instructed much more closely. I was working hard to get things right, and I realized I would have to practice a lot at home to bring this play to what was expected of me. Maybe I should suggest to Valerie to meet up for practice after school too?

I noticed that Ms. Stick also changed how she acted toward me. She used to treat me as a delinquent, but after she noticed I was working hard for the play, she started to become more and more friendly, and at one point she said “Doesn't this feel better, than to be at war with the world?”

I felt a bit shocked when she said something like that, and it hit right home. I would never have expected someone like her to say something observant like that, so it caught me by surprise, and I just nodded. I felt a bit ashamed of it all.

“Well, do your best here, and I promise you good things will come from it.” and then she gave me a pat on my head. I felt so stupefied, that I let her do it. Normally I would rather die than let someone touch me. But if I am honest, it did not feel too bad to get a pat from the director.

After a short while, I noticed Fien and Maura entering the room laughing together, followed by Claire and Anna. Claire signaled a thumbs-up to Elodie, and I noticed the relief on Elodie's face.

Fien ran toward Elodie and Gazette, together with Maura. The four of them were joking around together.

I felt a pang of jealousy, that Fien did not come to me and Valerie, but I did my best to repress those irrational thoughts. Of course, she would go to her cousin before she came to me and Valerie, that only just became friends with her yesterday. I decided I wanted to be a better friend to her. She would be my first real friend since I decided to stop bullying. I wanted to get closer to her so that I could help her.

I noticed that Valerie was looking at me, looking at Fien with an endearing look. If we would be a real couple, Fien would be a bit like our adoptive kid, wouldn't she?

The rehearsal continued. I had trouble getting into my prince charming role, for the new scenes with Elodie. I knew it was just a play, but hitting so directly on someone with a girlfriend felt just so wrong. I know I would not like it, if someone did that with Valerie, even if it was just acting. I was happy I had not yet really witnessed the new scenes she had with Maria.

Luckily after that, we did the scene where I got to kill Fien. I was really having a lot of fun. Fien died remarkably well. She had the perfect level of overacting, that was needed for a death scene on stage. I was happy that Ms. Stick let me kill her several times. I really felt elevated after that.

After the rehearsal, I wanted to ask Fien a lot of questions, but she ran off to Maura. I felt a bit left behind. Is that how parents feel when their kids hit puberty? I walked over to Valerie for a bit of support, and she gave me an understanding hug. To my surprise, a few seconds later, Fien ran over to us together with Maura. Fien presented Maura as her best friend. I guess Claire and Anna worked their magic and settled their differences in a better way than I would have done. That Claire sure was something special. Elizabeth used to brag about her cute sister-in-law a lot, but she truly was something else. I could understand why they made her the director. I looked Valerie in the eye, and she nodded. I was glad that she knew exactly what I meant.

“Then you can be our mascot too!” I said to the new girl.

Fien immediately hugged me, and then hugged Valerie.

I then patted Maura on her head. She looked up at me with a smile that made me take a step back. A cute young girl with such a smile... That should be illegal. Then she hugged me too.

Valerie took my hand and gave it a little squeeze. It seemed like our family became a little bigger.

“Are you mascots coming to the amusement park on Sunday too? Then we can hang out together!”

Maura did not seem to know about the planned trip but was quickly on board when she heard what it was about. I was glad I managed to add something to look forward to, to that outing, because I really did not look forward to confronting Tina again.

I hoped Tina and Elsa would accept my apology. I don't think a simple sorry would be enough for me, so I hoped they were better people than me.

Maybe I should go to the city center, and look for a little apology gift tomorrow with Valerie?