A colorful uniform

“Everyone pay attention. Students, it’s time for your next challenge. Today will be the last lesson on washing, I will teach you how to wash different types of fabrics. Make sure to write it all down since there will be a test on this subject Wednesday.”

“A test? What a delight” mumbled Mona. “Did any of you make any notes?” she asked her friends.

 “Ehhh… Mona, please take some responsibility.” Ti reacted a bit annoyed.

“Mona!” screamed the teacher as he continued with the explanation.

For the last part of the class, the group moved over to the school's laundromat to get some practical experience.

“Okay, I hope you all brought your laundry as I asked you to yesterday. You’ll be able to use all the machines here and show your ability to do a successful wash. Don’t be afraid to ask me for help, I don’t want you to mess up your precious uniforms.”

Laundromat

“All right, all done” said Ti-chan after she was done putting her laundry in the washing machine.

“Ehh Ti-chan, am I doing this right?” Mona asked Ti for a final checkup.

“Mona, you know you shouldn’t wash your uniform at 90 degrees centigrade! The teacher clearly said that today.”

 “Ahaha, I guess I should pay better attention,” Mona responded with a grim. 

The girls left the laundromat to do practice a bit for their test while their laundry was being washed.

Panic

“Alright let’s head back” said Ti and the girls walked back to pick up their clothes. As the girls approached the laundromat, they heard a lot of commotion coming from the facility. Some girls were screaming and crying. The group hurried, and when they entered the room they saw some girls showing their freshly washed uniforms to each other. To the girl's big shock, their usually white blouses and aprons are now rainbow-colored. Our group rushed to their laundry machines, hoping their uniforms were spared this terrible fate. As Ti and Serena unveiled their now ruined clothes in shock, Mona suddenly looked really guilty.

“Eh.. It seems like I forgot to put on the washing machine.” “You’re so hopeless Mona” Ti responded.

“Don’t panic girls! Everything is gonna be alright!” yelled the teacher as he entered the room trying to calm down all the commotion

“This is not your fault, there must have been some kind of mixup” As the teacher took a closer look at the laundry detergent, he realized it looked strange, like some kind of powder got in there that didn’t belong. He concluded it must have been some kind of accident. After comforting the girls, he contacted the school board to explain to them what happened and managed to convince them to pay for replacement uniforms for the girls in his class.

The next morning

“The circus is that way” joked Nia pointing at Ti and Serena’s colorful uniforms the next day.

“No comments please” Ti responded embarrassed.

“I…I was just joking” Nia reacted.

“The whole school is talking about what happened at the laundromat. Or at least all the popular people are, right Rose?”

“Whatever” said Rose while lifting her shoulders.

“I think our laundry was sabotaged!” said Mona with an enthusiastic voice.

“There may be an imposter among us!” 

Mona, you’ve played that one game way too much, it probably was just a prank from one of the popular girls”

 “Why.. why are you all looking at me?” Mia said thinking the girls were trying to frame her.

“I heard it was just an accident,” Rose said with a cool voice, trying to calm down the other girls. “No reason for drama”.

But then just about as the girls were to enter the school's main building, their path was blocked by a group of people pointing up to the school's entrance. As our group looked, they saw the entrance had been covered in graffiti. But weirdly, no single letter was written. Instead of that, there were some weird incomprehensible symbols all written over.

“This must be the work of brain-eating aliens” is the conclusion Mona jumped on immediately.

“I’ve read a manga about this, we all put our bags over our heads to prevent this from happening. We have to stick together to survive!” Ti and Serena who were still in shock from yesterday’s incident followed suit. 

 “Haha, I got you!” yelled Mona to her friends as she took her bag from her head.

“Not funny Mona!” said Ti.

Suddenly the headmaster appeared and calmed down the mood. “Everyone please go to your classes”.

 “Anyway, see you later dorks!” Nia said to the rest of the group as she went off in her own direction. The rest of the girls all walked to the classroom together.

The dorms

“Knock… knock” someone was knocking on the dorm room door. Serena went over to the door and opened it. As usual, Ti came to their dorm so they could walk together to their classroom.

“Mona, don’t tell me you are still in bed! Hurry, we are going to be late”

 “Cough! feel a bit sick Ti, I think I’ll stay in bed to rest today” said Mona while couching.

“Oh noh Mona, that’s terrible, let me take care of you”

“Eh Ti, doesn’t your class start in 10 minutes?” Ti totally forgot.

 “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine”

“Send me a text message if you need anything, I will make sure you get it. Have nice rest. See you later Mona!” and Ti suddenly stormed off.

After Ti and Serena had left the room, Mona immediately jumped out of bed to boot up her GameSphere. It was the day Dragon Fighters IX had been released, and she wasn’t gonna waste a minute of playtime. By tomorrow, she was sure videos about the game would be all over the internet, and she as a real Dragon Fighters fan who played all the parts to 100% completion, wasn’t going to get spoiled.

The next couple of hours passed in a blink as Mona suddenly heard some familiar voices in the hallway. She immediately turned off the TV and jumped back into bed. Ti stormed into the room that exact second holding a lunch she bought in the school canteen.

“Here Mona, look what I brought you.”

On the plate were some freshly baked buns, some sliced fruits, tea with honey, and Mona’s favorite candy bar.

“Thank you a lot Ti, you didn’t have to do this” said Mona, feeling really guilty that her friend put in all this effort to get her lunch when she was faking being ill.

 “Do you feel better already Mona?”

“Mehh just a bit, I’ll probably have a stomach ache though if I eat all of this at once”

“Yeah, maybe you could”

After taking a quick look at the clock realized the Ti is going to be late for class.

“I’m lucky to have you as a friend Ti, bringing me food during lunch, but I think you have to hurry back to class.” she as while pointing at the clock.

“Oh noh!” said Ti and she started running back to the school building. Even though feeling a bit guilty, Mona decided to turn on her GameSphere again and continued playing her game.

“Mona what are you doing? You should be in bed!”

Mona looked up from her TV with a dazed expression on her face. She was so involved in the game that she hadn’t noticed Ti and Serena entering the room.

“I am sorry, you know how boring being sick is” Mona tried to justify it to her friend.

“So what game are you playing Mona?”

“Ah, just some Dragon Fighters”

“Ah wait, didn’t I see something about a new game like that being released today.”

Ti hadn’t even finished speaking that last sentence when she suddenly made the connection. Mona suddenly looked really embarrassed since she knew Ti was onto her. 

“Looks like you caught on to me” Ti sighed and responded, “Typically Mona…”