Episode 4: There's Something About Mari

It was Sunday, May 3rd. The weather was beautiful, the sun was dazzling, it was almost eleven o’clock in the morning and Mari had just woken up.

“Ehhh…?” Mari opened her eyes, and she was immediately greeted with sunlight assaulting her senses.

“AHHH!” she suddenly screamed like a metal singer. “TODAY’S THE SLEEPOVER!! OOH-WAH-AH-AH-AH!”

Today was the day her friends were coming over to hang out, and even better was that her parents were going out on a date and leaving the girls alone at home. To top that off, it was Golden Week at the same time and the girls haven’t seen each other for a while besides talking via Facebook Messenger, so they’d have plenty to talk about in person.

“What to do, what to do…” Mari thought aloud. “Ah! To hell with it, I’ll just take a shower and eat first!”

Jumping up from her bed, Mari grabbed a bra, underwear, socks, and jeans from her dresser, a concert T-shirt from her closet, and then got into the shower. In under fifteen minutes, she managed to clean herself off, dry her hair, and then grab something to eat—Pop-Tarts and some grape juice.

The auburn-haired girl now sat at her dining room table.

“ … Now what?” she muttered. She completely forgot what time her friends were supposed to arrive.

That’s when Mari decided to text her best friend Naoko—her newest friend besides Mimori, Kasumi, and Tomo that wasn’t in sixth grade. To elaborate: Mari didn’t have many kids that were her age on the street, but there were quite a few sixth graders, so she liked to play video games with them once in a while. The kids, however, didn’t share a close enough bond that she and Naoko (and maybe even the other girls) did, even though they had only been friends for almost a month now.

“Hello?” Naoko answered the phone tentatively.

“Hey Naoko-chan!” said Mari, becoming super loud out of nowhere.

Needless to say, Naoko was not startled.

“What? I’m just finishing packing for our sleepover.”

“Uh…” Mari could feel sweat dripping down her face. “Remind me again. What time are you guys supposed to come over?”

“You said for us to arrive at two o’clock. It’s 11:30 right now.”

Mari’s eyes widened. “What? How could I have woken up so late? Wait, is almost twelve that late? Man, I knew I shouldn’t have stayed up until two last night! Thanks so much, I’ll start getting my room ready right now.

With a hasty goodbye, Mari hung up the phone and sighed heavily.

★

Trying to make up for lost time, Mari spent the whole afternoon dusting off every inch of the house and making sure her bedroom looked as neat as possible. It wasn’t that hard of a job, considering the shelves of her room and such had only about an inch of dust on it, but she wanted everything to look presentable—something very rare for her to worry about, oddly enough.

Then, she heard someone knocking at the door.

Aughhh, who is it? Do I really have to turn off Tool in the middle of an epic bass solo?!?

Yes, she did.

Mari went to the door and found out that the first person to arrive was Mimori, duffle bag in hand.

“Uh, hi Mimori,” Mari greeted awkwardly. She noticed that her friend was acting really nervous too, so she was glad that the feeling was mutual. “Why so early? I’m not even ready yet!” She gave a playful smirk.

“Oh. My mom wanted me to be early for once... we’re always late to everything, it’s almost like a curse.” She giggled a bit.

“Um, I hope you do—”

“Why are you worrying, Mari? That’s very uncharacteristic of you. Also, I don’t care what your house looks like, as long as it looks decent!”

“But my parents are still here, and they’re supposed to leave at five-thirty. And I woke up late! I stayed up until two in the morning reading some long-ass psychology article… I’m so thoughtless, like that Korn song!”

Mimori gave her a weird look. “I don’t know what’s weirder,” she said. “You being sad, or you reading a long psychology article.”

“Hey! It’s interesting stuff!”

Suddenly, someone knocked at the door.

“Who’s here now?” shouted a voice that wasn’t Mari’s or Mimori’s.

It was Mari’s mom who was coming down the stairs in a flurry. She was already dressed casually and was putting an earring on at the same time.

Mari craned her neck to look at her. “Ah! Hi mom.”

The woman opened the front door to find out she was then face-to-face with Naoko. (Well, almost. Naoko’s pretty small.)

“I’m the one who knocks,” she said in her usual deadpan voice.

“Uh… hello there, Nakano-san.” Mari’s mom was a bit stunned at that proclamation. She clearly didn’t get the reference.

“Mari dear, I’m going out to get you girls some pizza, and then your father and I are heading out early, okay?” She kissed Mari on top of her head, embarrassing her in front of her two friends. “We decided to see a movie before picking up our friends and heading to the restaurant early. You know how busy it gets, Seijiburashu.”

“Uh, okay. Sounds fine. My pals and I will just chill here and talk some while we wait for Kasumi and Tomo to arrive.”

★

Once Mari’s parents left for the night (or afternoon, whatever), the real fun began.

After Kasumi and Tomo showed up, the girls began setting up their sleeping bags in Mari’s living room while they talked about what was going on in their lives while they weren’t in school—which turned out to obviously be not much, but it didn’t matter.

“So… what exactly are we doing tonight?” Kasumi wondered.

“Everything,” Mari replied casually. “After we eat, of course!”

“Isn’t it too early?” questioned Tomo. “It’s only 4:15.”

“You’re right. It is. Let’s watch a movie instead!”

“W-which one?” Mimori asked anxiously for some reason, starting to move toward the kitchen.

“Gosh, guys! What’s with all the questions?” Mari shouted, waving her hands in the air spastically, imitating a whiny mom. “I dunno, is everyone okay with a superhero movie?”

“Like Batman Returns?” Tomo looked really excited.

“Eh.” Kasumi shrugged. “Whatever. They’re alright.”

Once a general consensus was made, the girls seated themselves either on the couches or on their sleeping bags while Mari popped in the Blu-ray disc to the first Avengers movie. Outside, the sky turned dark and rain could be heard hitting the top of the room. Once she got through all the trailers to get to the menu and start the movie, she got up from her position and moved to the kitchen.

“I’m getting the popcorn!” She announced as she opened the cupboard. After all, she'd seen the movie about a trillion times before, so she knew she wasn’t missing anything.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning caught her eyes which made her look out the window to see what was going on.

The rain was pouring down even harder, to the point where it sounded like a ton of marbles hitting the ground.

“Woah…” she said in awe. Never in Mari’s life had she been so amazed by Mother Nature before.

As she put the popcorn in the microwave and hit the timer, Mari stood by the window and started to daydream about being outside.

She was dancing in the rain, still in her regular clothes. Her shirt was sticking to her chest, the shoes she got recently got drenched in the puddles…

Beep! Beep!

Too bad the beeping of the microwave interrupted her deep yet totally mundane thoughts.

“Oh, yeah! The popcorn, right!” She reached into the microwave to get the popcorn, and just as she did…

The power went out.

All the girls (except Naoko) screamed in either terror or excitement.

“Oh my God, the power went out!” Mimori shrieked helplessly.

“Insert witty remark here,” Kasumi replied automatically.

Finally, Mari walked over as carefully as she could with the bowl of popcorn and unfortunately not a flashlight.

“So, now what are we gonna do, guys?” She couldn’t help but wonder, trying to take a peek at the blu-ray player which she hoped and prayed didn’t get messed up during the blackout.

“If I have to go back in time to charge my iPod I will…” Mimori whimpered, shifting in her seat on the couch.

A slightly awkward silence followed.

“Besides that,” Kasumi stated. “Also, no one’s stopping you.”

Naoko, even though she was in the dark, still raised her hand. “We should probably get flashlights,” she said flatly. Then she wandered off, using her phone as a temporary flashlight.

“Aaaalrighty then,” Mimori said under her breath while munching on the hot popcorn.

“I’m surprised that no one has mentioned calling Mari’s parents yet!” Tomo lamented. “Oh, wait. No wifi connection. Shoot!”

“Well, that’s not how it works, but we catch your drift,” Kasumi said, chortling behind her fist.

Suddenly, the girls saw bright lights and shielded their eyes.

“Naoko, you’re back!” Mimori squealed, clapping her hands. “Thank you so much, I’m terrified of the dark!”

“Well, not anymore,” she responded stoically. “Now let’s all buckle down and do some sleepover activities.”

“Sounds good, let’s get started I guess!” Mari cackled as she handed everyone a flashlight. “So, what’s on the table for us?!”

“Hmmm…” Tomo thought for a moment. “Well, if we’re talking about sleepovers, that would be telling ghost stories and painting our nails?”

Kasumi raised her eyebrows. “Wow. Your ideas of sleepovers are pretty outdated.” She paused. “Wait, nevermind. This is you we’re talking about here.”

There was a loud rumbling noise. No, it wasn’t thunder. It was Mimori’s stomach, which was just as loud.

“Want some more popcorn?” Mari offered.

Mimori surveyed the bowl and turned her gaze back at Mari.

“Fine,” she said. “Although there’s not much left.”

As Mimori was munching on the snack, the remaining four girls were wondering what to do without electricity.

“How about traveling to a different city?” Tomo proposed.

“Yes, yes please!” Mimori shouted while her mouth was full of food. “I don’t want cold pizza later!”

Kasumi sighed greatly. “Yeah, sure. It’s fine with me, I guess.”

“But where to?” Mari had a feeling she knew but she asked anyway.

“But never mind traveling to a different city! We should—” Mimori exploded with words in obvious excitement.

Tomo made a thoughtful face, her lips pursed. “I don’t see a problem with it, as long as we’re careful.”

“—while going back in time!”

Mari creased her eyebrows and craned her neck foreword in confusion. “Okay, what is it you wanted to do, Mimori? I’m not getting the full picture, we keep interrupting us.”

“I wanna go back in time to when Hank was fifteen so we can play some card games with him! Or any game with him, for that matter!”

“Oh. Now that’s an idea.” Mari paused her speaking, then bit her lip in contemplation. “Umm… sure, why not? Like Tomo said, as long as we’re careful and tell him what the heck we’re doing first.”

“Uh-oh.” Kasumi’s face faltered. “We better be careful with a young Hank. What if he remembers us in the future?”

Tomo clicked her tongue. “Now that is a thought. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t remember it.”

The girls nodded in agreement, and that was when Mari snapped her fingers.

“Alright, girls! You know what this means! It’s Time Travel Time!”

★

The scene was set: It was now dark outside. Candles were burning around the house. Tomo managed to teleport to Mimori’s house, which was on a different block and still had power, to heat up the pizza that she quickly grabbed from the now thawing fridge.

And most importantly, the girls and a 15-year-old Hank were sitting on the carpet in the living room, ready to play Cards Against Humanity Junior, which was lovingly grabbed from Mari’s room.

Also, to clear things up: Mari applied her power on Hank, so he was now able to talk in Japanese and understand as well. She thought doing the opposite thing would be an interesting twist.

“Who should go first to be the Card Czar?” asked Mimori, winking at Hank who was sitting next to her. Everyone was already handed their ten white cards.

“Well, probably not Naoko since she’s stuffing her face with pizza,” Tomo giggled, looking over at her friend.

“I’ll grab the first prompt!” Mari shouted while swiping a black card from the deck.

Naoko grumbled as she madly chewed, eyeing Mari with a disappointed look on her face.

“First prompt, guys! Listen up!” she announced in a game show host’s voice. “‘I never leave the house without my blank.’ Again, ‘I never leave the house without my blank.”

The girls and boy looked at their cards carefully.

“I still can’t believe I’m speaking in Japanese,” Hank mumbled as he set down a card in a newly formed pile.

“I still can’t believe how cute you look at this age!” Mimori said, squealing once again, making a lovey-dovey anime girl face.

“‘Pass ‘em up, up, up!’” Mari sang. She then cleared her throat and returned to her game show host persona. “‘I never leave home without my’… ‘chew toy.’ What are you, a dog?” she laughed. “‘I never leave home without my fascination for trees’… now that’s just strange. ‘I never leave home without my super-galactic spaceship.’ Hey, that one’s cool! ‘I never leave home without my brother’s cavities?’ Now that’s just messed up! Lastly… ‘I never leave home without ranch sauce.’ Ranch sauce. Really.”

Everyone laughed at the stupid answers but was very nervous to see who was going to get chosen.

“... Who had ‘My stepbrother’s cavities?’”

“Me! Me!” Mimori shouted, bouncing up and down in her seat.

Mari gave the black card to her friend and set the white card back down in the pile with the rest. “Well then, Mimori! You get one Awesome Point.”

“Yaaay, I never win anything!”

Still using her announcer’s voice, Mari declared the next person to be the Card Czar. “Hank! You’re up!”

“Why me,” he grumbled. “Fine, fine. Okay, here it is: ‘Coming soon to theaters… blank: the movie.’ Now that’ll be interesting.”

Mimori blushed as she flipped through her cards, clearly thinking about her crush. As Mari was flipping through hers, she felt a sudden rush of anticipation. Kasumi, Tomo, and Naoko just looked surprisingly calm.

When Hank gestured for the girls to hand their cards over, Mimori was giggling greatly.

Sighing, Hank read them out loud, one by one.. “‘Coming soon to theaters… A golden toilet: the movie.’ ‘Coming soon to theaters: Rainbows: the movie.’ ‘Coming soon to theaters: My annoying cousin: the movie.’ ‘Coming soon to theaters: Justin Bieber’s hair: the movie.’ And lastly, we have… ‘Coming soon to theaters: Ackbar: the movie.’” After Young Hank finished reading them out loud, he thought for a moment.

“Please pick mine, please pick mine,” Mimori begged under her breath.

“I think the golden toilet one wins. I would actually watch that one.”

“YES!” Kasumi shouted, jumping up from her seat. “MY STUPID ONE WINS!”

“They’re all stupid, that’s the point,” Naoko had to interject. “Ding.”

“Shall I go next,” Tomo volunteered, desperately trying to avoid an argument from breaking out.

★

After the two games of Cards Against Humanity Junior, Mimori sent Hank back to the past—and like the time when they first hung out with him as college-age students, he wanted to hang out with them again sometime, albeit not in a guilty way but in a genuine way (in Mari’s eyes).

What was disappointing yet expected, however, was that power was still out after two hours and the Can Do Anything Club was once again bored.

“I don’t know what else to do now…” murmured Mimori, still in a daze of hanging out with a younger version of her crush.

Naoko yawned. “I vouch for going to bed early.”

“How about no?” Kasumi joked, glancing at the clock on her phone. “It’s, like, 8:25 right now.”

That was when Mimori stood up on her knees and clapped her hands together in a familiar rhythm. “I’ve got an idea! Top ten worst classmates starting right… now!”

The four girls looked at her strangely but decided to comply anyway.

“Uh… um… Niko!” Kasumi spat out.

“Why?” Mari chuckled at her friend’s sudden passion.

“Ummm! He’s, uh… dumb, his cologne stinks and he has long hair and I don’t like men with long hair!”

“And his laugh is annoying,” added Mari, who was now in the kitchen getting snacks and bottles of water from the cupboard.

“You’re one to talk,” Naoko murmured, a slight smirk forming on her face.

“So if you hate guys with long hair, then that means—” Mimori whined, shaking her fist in the air like an old man.

“No! I don’t mind Hank.”

Mimori then laid out on the ground and started shaking her limbs like she was having a seizure.

“I hope you meant that you just like him,” said Tomo in a careful tone.

“I do, I do!” Kasumi argued. Right when she said that, Mimori stopped shaking, done with her little act.

“Hey, guys. You know what’s the best thing ever?” asked Tomo, quickly derailing the subject.

“Worst person number nine?” Mari asked curiously.

“Nope! Just traveling on your own with no parents,” finished Tomo. “It’s the best feeling ever. I love my powers.”

“... Okay then. I concur. Anyway, person number nine! Caesar Orzell!” Mimori announced dramatically.

“I’m getting bored already,” Kasumi groaned. “I have a better idea of something to do. Why don’t we just talk about how awesome our powers are like Tomo just did?”

The girls stayed silent for a moment, considering Kasumi’s idea.

Suddenly, they all started talking at once.

“Oh my God, yes! YES! Please!” Mimori howled. “I HAVE MANY GOOD STORIES ALREADY!!”

“Oh, yay!” Tomo blushed with happiness. “So do I!”

Naoko shrugged, still looking tired. “I don’t mind.”

“Sounds good to me!” Mari said in a carefree tone, although she didn’t have any stories that were interesting enough to write home about.

Kasumi chuckled, almost evilly. “Well, everyone! Let’s get started!” She raised her hands in the air and did jazz hands.

Mimori raised an eyebrow. “Well, that sure was something,” she noted. “Are you becoming me now?”

“N-no! Anyway, who’s going to tell their stories first?”

Mari raised her hand. “I guess I will? Just warning you though, my stories aren’t the greatest. In fact, they’re rather boring.” She imitated a snobby rich guy.

“I don’t mind,” Tomo said.

“Alright.” Mari took a deep breath. “Well, I recently called into a radio station sounding like a guy in his forties and requested the station to play ‘B.Y.O.B’ by System of a Down, and the guy actually did it! After, about a gazillion commercial breaks. But hey, it was something!”
Tomo clapped her hands together. “That sounds wonderful! But wait. Who is this ‘System of a Down’ you speak of? You mention them quite frequently.”

“They’re a nu-metal band but not really,” she explained. “It’s hard to explain.”

“OH! Nu-metal! Like Limp Bizkit! I like those guys!”

“Um, uh-huh. Yup. Those guys…”

“Can I go now?!” Mimori said impatiently.

“Sure. Fire away.” Mari was positioning herself to sit criss-cross-applesauce on her sleeping bag.

“ALRIGHT, so there was this time last week when I really wanted to go back in time and catch an episode of Being Erica on TV so I went back in time to 2009 and caught it on TV, Japanese subtitles and all! I was in this random woman’s house though, but besides that, it was pretty epic!”

“Oh gentle Jesus,” Kasumi said under her breath, facepalming. “Yup, I remember that incident. You couldn’t stop talking to me about it for, like, a day.”

“Hey, how is that an incident?! It was awesome! And it was my favorite episode, too!”

Kasumi drew in a breath as she returned to her back-against-the-couch pose. “Anywho, I have a short story to tell. So the other day I was up in my room when I decided to fiddle around with my powers some more and sure enough, no matter how big I make my breasts, for whatever awesome reason both the bra and shirt I wear at the time stretch with it. It doesn’t even rip! I think that’s a frickin’ blessing.”

Naoko’s face blushed again as Kasumi told her story.

“Th-that sounds pretty awesome…” She said this as she touched her own chest, which was just a meager A-cup.

“As for me,” Tomo continued the round of superpower stories. “I’ve been traveling around the world as of late! It’s been a lot of fun! This week I teleported to England and walked across Abbey Road. It was so magical…” A dreamy smile inched across her face.

“Well. I guess it’s my turn now.” Naoko returned to her usual stoic self. “I, um… used my powers, I guess? It’s made my life much easier. Yesterday I used my powers to magic a bag of potato chips up to my room when my parents weren’t looking. That’s as interesting as my stories get.”

“Hm.” Mimori was disappointed by the lack of excitement coming from Naoko, but it should’ve been expected. “Does anyone else have any stories, or can I start talking about this really cool ABC show I started watching recently?”

Mari sighed. “Nope, I think that’s all I can think of. Hope you guys don’t mind but I’m gonna chill out on my sleeping bag for a while.”

Kasumi shrugged. “I don’t care. Do whatever you want.” Luckily, the other girls agreed with her.

While Mimori started talking about her foreign shows in a thrilled tone, Mari was laying down on her sleeping bag, evaluating herself.

Mari Suzuki.

Age: Fourteen.

Birthday: June 20th.

The tallest in all my classes—this is just a guess though.

Favorite color: Green by far, even though it’s considered the least creative color out of the bunch.

Reason for living: To analyze, study and learn more about these creatures called humans. (She thought this in an alien’s voice.)

Favorite music: Alternative metal… specifically System of a Down and Korn.

“Sigh.”

Mari glanced over at her friends, looking at how happy they were at the moment. She began to feel envious! Usually, she was the talkative one. She and Mimori would always talk about all of those strange articles on Cracked, particularly the ones with the guy making those gross old meals and actually eating them.

Oh yeah! Mimori. Other than talking to her about the Internet, Mari never really communicated with her otherwise. She’d always thought of her as a socially awkward girl who never really talked to anyone about anything that wasn’t anime, ponies, or music. But yet again, that’s how people often viewed her as.

Oh yeah, herself.

Mari, the daydreamer, and chatterbox. Mari, the one who got choked by some bully on the bus for talking too much back in elementary school. Mari, the one who…

… was glad she had friends who were her own age and that she could relate to besides just the basic things like likes and dislikes…

Mari’s thoughts melted away as she drifted off to sleep on top of her sleeping bag.

★

“Hey, Mari.”

“Mari!”

“The power is back on.”

“HYUH!?” Mari shot up from her bed like a rocket. Now that she was curious about.

Mari’s eyes opened up like a flashlight being turned on.

Gathered right in front of her were her friends—all dressed in their day clothes like it was already morning. Or maybe even past that.

“Yeah, it just came back on about an hour ago. At that time your parents let us take quick showers and get something to eat,” Tomo explained.

Naoko nodded along. “We hope you don’t mind.”

Mari didn’t mind. In fact, she was rather proud of her friends for taking showers that quick and not angering her parents in the meantime.

“I don’t mind,” she said, a big grin forming on her face. She then stood up and stretched. “I guess I better do those things too!”

Out of nowhere, a rumbling noise could be heard. A noise coming from her own belly that is.

“But I think I better eat first,” she declared. “My empty stomach is killing me right now!”

And with that, Mari started her day off with a bowl of cereal and a nice chat with her friends.

From the other end of the table, Naoko nodded along to the conversation, barely speaking a word, playing around on her phone…