Episode 11: The Ghost is Near

It was the tail end of February, and that meant that final exams were looming around the corner, and that also meant the last day of school was near… Well, the last day of being at the middle school, and that saddened the girls.

Yes. They were all sad that they would no longer be in middle school. Crazy, right? Usually that’s not the case.

Luckily, their middle school was special in that they didn’t have to choose what high school to go to next because there was only one high school in the area. Exactly, this is the kind of story where there’s no actual threats to their lives or anything that they have to overcome. It’s a slice of life, after all.

The only sad thing was that the kouhais were going to be left behind. (They too had final exams, so they weren’t exempt for the absolute romp that was studying.)

With all of this going on, Mimori decided that they had to do something to escape the stress of looking at words and numbers for hours on end.

Yes.

A beach episode was imminent.

★

Monday, as always.

“So, guys! I have an okay-ish idea!”

“We’re listening,” Tomo said, smiling sweetly as always.

Mimori cleared her throat like she was about to present a Powerpoint. “‘I know you’re tired of studying, of studying for tests! Of studying of—uh huh, honey!’”

“I’m so glad she cut herself off,” remarked Kasumi, stifling a giggle.

“ANYWAY!” Mimori briefly looked at her friend, mildly peeved. “I was thinking we could go on yet another vacation! Take a break from studying, you know?”

“Not a bad idea…” Asuka murmured, flipping through one of her notebooks.

Mari grinned, obviously hyped. “I like and approve of this idea!” She said this in an infomercial guy’s voice.

So as quickly as it was brought up, it was decided. Even though it was the afternoon and the final bell was to ring in twenty minutes, Tomo teleported her friends home one by one to pack for the trip (including but not limited to: A change of clothes, a pair of pajamas, beach stuff, and bathroom stuff. Oh, and chargers for their stupid electronics because this is the 21st century).

After about ten minutes or so of waiting for everyone to get their stuff (which, in reality, wasn’t actually a whole lot), it was time to teleport away.

But to where?

“A random island,” Behami suggested, shrugging. “Like, with no one on it.”

Tomo raised her eyebrows. “Um, I’ll try! It’s kind of hard to just picture an island, though. I don’t know if I’m capable of doing that yet.”

And so the Can Do Anything Club all put their bags on their shoulders and held hands, with Tomo closing her eyes as tightly as possible, likely thinking of a deserted island with everything they needed on it.

In a split second, they all disappeared.

★

The next thing the girls knew, they were on an island. Yay, it worked!

It was a very generic-looking island, what with the white sand, big ocean and decent-sized beach house, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Tomo did her best, after all.

“The beach! The beach!” Jopi cheered, jumping up and down like every cute anime girl should. “You did great, Tomo-chan!”

“It’s just us here, right?” Kasumi asked, playing with one of her twintails.

Tomo put her hand to her cheek and giggled. “Yup, sure thing!”

The girls were all excited to go into the beachouse and unload their stuff, so they filed in and did so.

The house was a bit deceiving, the girls had to admit. Indoors there was a huge living room, dining room/kitchen, not to mention five bedrooms (two girls in each room, how perfect!), and two bathrooms. Plenty of space to go around.

The living room was the most impressive part, however. There was a big sleek, gray sofa, two reclining leather chairs, and four bean bag chairs (in blue, yellow, red, and green respectively), two on either side of the room. In the middle of the space was a curved flat screen TV.

“How did you even do this?” Mari said, mouth agape “This is so awesome! I didn’t think you even knew that curved TVs existed!”

“Eh heh, I’m not sure!” Tomo replied, looking similarly in awe. “Like I said before, I was told to teleport to a random island and I guess I just made it on my own. I don’t believe it’s based on anything.”

Mimori gasped cartoonishly. “Dude! And I thought my superpower was OP!”

Kasumi looked at Mimori with narrowed eyes. “It is, ‘dude!’”

“But no, seriously,” Mimori said, becoming serious for once. “The fact that Tomo can now teleport to different realities and levels of existence—isn’t that a sign of something? Like, our powers are evolving more and more?”

Unfortunately, what she said was drowned out by Erica’s yelling, which wasn’t even a second after she finished her sentence.

“HEY, EVERYONE! WHO’S GONNA GET WHAT ROOM!?”

Mimori pouted.

“Choose whichever one you want, I don’t care,” offered Tomo.

“Oooh! Oooh! I want the one with the most views by the palm trees!” squealed Behami, already on the move upstairs. Suika dashed up there as well, following her lead.

The other girls looked at each other as if they were reading each other’s facial expressions (and Erica may or may not have been reading the girls’ minds, too).

And with that little bit of waiting until Behami and Suika reached the top floor, the other girls followed suit.

The rooms were pretty average. A bunk bed on one side with a dresser on the other, along with a chair to the right of the dresser. Plenty of space to put their stuff but small enough to feel cozy too. The colors of the rooms were all pleasant pastel shades of pink, blue, yellow, purple, and green. It was the perfect refreshing feel for a beach house.

After the girls chose all of their rooms and unpacked, Kasumi (who was sharing a room with Mimori, but at the time was putting away her stuff while listening to music on her phone) found Mimori on the bottom bunk of the bed, totally conked out.

…

“Mimori? Mimori-chan?”

Nothing.

Kasumi went up to her and poked her cheek playfully.

“Uwah… I love you, Drew-chan…”

Kasumi gritted her teeth and decided to raise her voice.“MIMORI-CHAN!?”

“AH!”

In a flash, Mimori sat up on the cushiony, banging her head on the top bunk in the process.

“Uguu…”

“Mimori-chan, the heck? How did you fall asleep so quickly? We were gonna swim after this, remember? Get your ass ready!”

“Uuu…” Mimori groaned, rubbing the place on her head where a big bruise was likely to develop. “Sorry… I just kinda got tired after the teleporting thing… It sucked a lot of life out of me.”

Kasumi snorted. “Says the girl who time travels all the time, even to decades ago.” (And by “decades” she meant at least the early 90s.)

Right as she said that, Mimori hobbled out of the bed, minding the wood this time and started to dig through one of the drawers for her bathing suit, towel, goggles, and thing of sunscreen.

As she was changing into her bathing suit, Kasumi sat in the one chair and browsed mindlessly through her friend’s Snapchats.

“Uguuu, now I feel bad for falling asleep. I’m so sorry for doing that, Kasumi-chaaan.”

“Ah. Now you apologize for being lazy.”

“Alright. I’m ready now.” Mimori looked at her friend and noticed that she was actually already in her swimsuit, breasts inflated to a good size and all (ahaha they weren’t beach balls lmao).

Thump, thump, thump.

Mimori and Kasumi thudded down the stairs at a masterful speed, where their friends were luckily waiting for them outside, not having even gone in the ocean yet. (What brave souls).

“Mimori Kasumi, there you are!” Mari called out, waving her hands back and forth. “We’ve been waiting for you out here! You guys took, like, ages!”

Asuka notably gave Mimori the stink eye to which the latter girl felt mildly threatened.

The beach was already mentioned, but now there were umbrellas, beach towels, a cooler, and a watermelon smashing kit (including watermelon) now decorating the area. Mimori noticed the watermelon and a blindfold placed next to it.

Behami cleared her throat and went over to the fruit. “Anyone wanna try smashing it?” she said, an evil grin on her face.

Mimori was the first one to respond. “T-thanks, but no thanks! I kinda wanna go to the ocean instead!” She put her goggles on, adjusting the suction cups to her eyes. “It’s calling my name!”

As her friend sprinted over to the ocean, Kasumi shouted something at her friend that got her attention.

“Mimori! If Drew was the lifeguard, would you drown?!”

Splash!

“EEEEEHHH??!?!”

“WOULD YOU?!” Mari added in an announcer’s voice.

Mimori inhaled deeply and when she exhaled, a banshee sound came out. “YAAAAAASSSS!”

“Ugh. Please, don’t ever say that ever again. Ding!” That was Naoko, who was already beginning to build a sandcastle in the sun (and probably dying to sing “Fun Fun Fun”).

It was too bad for her. Mimori was under the water by then, pretending to be a mermaid.

After a little bit of silence (except for the casual swinging of a bat by Jopi), Suika spoke up out of nowhere (but it should have been expected, honestly).

“I would drown.”

“Woot woooot!”

That was Jopi, who finally broke the watermelon after many, many failed attempts.

“Who wants a Suika?” Behami shouted, too smug about the horrible play on words/pun.

Suika blinked. “Ah, did someone say my name?” She then looked up at her friend. “Oh. Nevermind.”

“Yes or no? Does Suika want a Suika?”

She sighed looking a bit dejected. “Yeah, I guess so.”

And thus, the girls (minus Mimori, who ate some watermelon at a later time) gorged on the jealous, juicy watermelon under the beautiful, tropical sun.

Well, okay. All was well until Naoko opened her mouth.

“I don’t get what’s so tasteful about it, honestly.”

“About what?” Tomo replied innocently.

“Watermelon. I mean, it just tastes like water. Same with celery and lettuce. They taste so boring… Ding!”

An awkward silence was created.

“Damn, talk about a hot take,” mused Mari, mussing up Naoko’s hair.

The girl chortled. “Yup, I’m full of those.”

★

After a relaxing time at the beach, the Can Do Anything Club decided to regroup in the house.

“So it looks like you girls all enjoy this house,” surveyed Tomo, grinning from ear-to-ear. “That makes me super happy!”

Mimori grinned back. “It’s pretty dece! Pretty dece in dece!” She then went on her iPod Touch to check Equestria Daily and Facebook (not at the same time though.)

“I like it,” added Jopi. “The water’s just right. Not too hot and not too cold!”

“True that!” agreed Mari. “If I was a mermaid I would 100% live in that water.”

Mimori could be heard from her seat shrieking about how that was totally an H2O reference, guys. Kasumi groaned accordingly.

After that, the girls were all hungry, so it was decided that they should have lunch—well, somehow.

“What should we eat?” Erica asked, whispering to her friend.

“Whatever’s in the fridge. We’re on a private island, after all.”

“Oh, right. Duh.”

Once they were done with that little exchange, Erica said the question out loud for real.

“Who’s hungry?!”

Naoko raised her hand immediately following Erica’s poised question. “I am. That watermelon didn’t fill me up.”

Asuka shook her head and laughed sardonically.

The CDAC girls then made their way into the kitchen, ready to see what food was in store for them.

“Ooh, yum-yummy!” Behami said as she opened the fridge, surveying the drinks inside. “We’ve got soda, OJ, purple stuff—huh? And some Sunny Delight!”

“My favorite,” Tomo said in a dreamy tone. “Could you please get me out the bottle?”

Erica cackled. “You know you’re a 90s kid when…!” She was obviously enjoying how the scene was playing out. “Now what was Behami meaning when she said ‘purple stuff?’”

“It’s grape juice, sorry about that. I was just perusing through at lightning speed!” She made a “geh-heh” pose after saying that.

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. You are a speedrunner, after all.”

The girls grabbed stuff out of the fridge and freezer and once it was all on the table (the frozen stuffed cooked, of course), they began to chow down.

Mimori was impressed by how much Mari and Behami got to eat.

“Damn, you guys got feasts over there!”

“Well, we’re hungry girls!” teased Mari, food still in her mouth (grilled cheese, to be exact).

Behami gulped down the rest of her Root Beer and bumped. “Yup! How are you not used to it by now?”

Mimori pouted. “Dangit, I guess I’m not. ‘See, I’ve already eaten too much… and all my hope is gone…’”

Kasumi elbowed her best friend, who was right next to her (as always). “Hey, could you please cut it out with the singing? I swear to God, you’re like the human incarnation of a musical—just somehow more annoying.”

“Well, you’re the human incarnation of Instagram—vain and annoying to navigate!”

“Ooh, roast-ed!” Mari remarked between chewing on a couple fries.

Both Mimori and Kasumi groaned at her cringey remark.

“ … So, what should we do after this?” Asuka asked.

Tomo asked. “I was thinking of—”

“—We should do a test of courage!” Mari interrupted, licking the rest of the ketchup off her paper plate with her tongue.

Tomo cocked her head up, as if something had been flung at her. “After we relax for a bit, okay?” She lowered her head back down, as if she’d finished her statement, which she hadn’t. “Otherwise, that sounds like a great idea!”

Kasumi nodded. “Yeah, I need it. Especially after studying my head off.” She slammed the now empty plastic cup on the table and walked into the living room. Mimori groaned at her laziness (which is definitely the pot calling the kettle black).

“Now what’s on TV? … And when I mean TV I mean Netflix, because that’s the only thing I ever use on the TV anymore. God, I hope Tomo got Netflix on this…”’

“Could she get any whiter?” Asuka muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

The sound of the TV starting up could be heard, and then Kasumi squealing.

“OMG, you do have Netflix! C’mon, Mimo-chan! Let’s watch some My Little Pony together!”

Mimori screamed with excitement as she bolted from the dining room table to the couch that her friend was sitting on.

★

After the club girls hunkered down to watch two episodes of My Little Pony (specifically ones from season 4, since that’s what they had at the time), they were finally ready for the test of courage.

The sky was the perfect shade of navy blue blue, and the stars in the sky glittered as brightly as a night light. It was absolutely gorgeous.

The girls were outside on the front porch of the beach house, where Tomo was standing in front of them.

“Okay, so here’s how we’re gonna do this!” Tomo instructed, clapping her hands together. “We’re gonna each team up in groups of two, so five teams each, just like our bedrooms. Then, we’re going to explore the outdoors, with only our eyes and nature’s light to guide us!”

“Spoopy,” noted Mimori. Kasumi chortled next to her.

“Now, go pair up!” Tomo said with a cadence unlike the host of a Nickelodeon game show.

The girls then gathered into pairs. Unsurprisingly, Mimori and Kasumi were together, as were Mari and Naoko. Jopi paired up with Erica, and Tomo with Asuka. Suika only wanted to be partners with Behami so she could turn into Chris and console her when she got scared and thank God the shapeshifter's going into high school soon.

So, in conclusion, everyone was ready to go into the forest, pair by pair every two minutes (two minutes because a lot of the girls were patient).

★

Mimori and Kasumi were trudging through the woods, each grateful that they had each other’s company for once.

“This is 3spooky5me,” Mimori said as she pursed her lips (possibly because she was nervous?).

“I know, right?” Kasumi replied in a light tone, actually trying to be the funny one for once. “But did you know that Love Finds You in Charm?”

Mimori stopped walking, knowing where her friend got that from. “That doesn’t make any sense!” she hollered. “And why a lizard?!”

On the other side of the woods, Mari and Naoko (and virtually everyone else) could hear the Drew Fuller Fangirl.

“What the heck are they talking about?” asked Mari, who was being unusually quiet up until then.

“Their inside jokes,” Naoko was on the nose, as always. “Specifically, a joke about that Drew guy. Ding!”

“Oh yeah,” Mari said, scratching her cheek. “I should pay more attention to the references they make in the clubroom. Oh yeah, is Charmed any good?”

“Yes and no,” Naoko,suddenly looking passionately (well, at least in the eyes). “The first three seasons were very good, at least in my eyes. The other five seasons were a downhill scale of bad.”

Speaking of eyes, Mari suddenly had the feeling she was being watched. Naoko saw her hands begin to tremble.

“Naoko-chan?” she whispered, in case some creepy person or thing heard her. “Is it possible that there’s a ghost in the woods or nah?”

Naoko nodded firmly. “Have a feeling there is, because I heard something.”

They weren’t the only ones that heard and felt a ghostly presence…

“Did you hear something?” Suika said softly, bolting right behind Behami (who was now Beha-Chris).

“No—” Beha-Chris then got cut off by the sound of rustling bushes. Spooky!

“See,” Suika said pointedly. “The rustling of branches obviously means that a ghost is near.”

Beha-Chris facepalmed. “‘Obviously,’” she said, poorly imitating her friend.

Meanwhile, Erica and Jopi were walking around, not too far away from the previous couple.

“Why do I think that Tomo put some ghosts on this island?” Erica pondered as she waded through the weeds and vines in the forest.

“Knowing Tomo, I bet she did.” Jopi smirked, shaking her head. “She likes to spice things up.”

As expected—as soon as the girls mentioned and acknowledged that something paranormal was there, they heard a creepy wail coming from somewhere on the island.

“What did I say?” Erica said, grinning while rolling her eyes.

Meanwhile, Tomo and Asuka were near the center of the forest…

“I can’t wait for the ghosts to show up!” Tomo squealed, jumping up and down.

Asuka smirked snidely. “You and your little surprises,” she commented.

Tomo stopped jumping up and down and started doing a silly little dance. “Whatever, Ms. Vice President!” she said rather childishly.

Asuka rolled her eyes. You see, despite the two looking very similar and being in the same grade, the two are actually quite different. Asuka is definitely something of a defrosting ice queen while Tomo is all goody two-shoes. The student council vice president could definitely kick your butt any time of the day while Tomo would be more at home watching that sort of thing (she does love a good action movie once in a while).

Anyway, Tomo was skipping along the never-ending forest while Asuka was thinking about what to study when they got back to the clubroom. (Luckily, she at least packed some history flashcards.)

“When are we gonna leave here?” Asuka groaned, already getting sick of seeing a bunch of palm trees and darkness.

Tomo stopped in front of her, arms crossed over her chest like she was the leader of some kind of crazy military.

“Soon, I believe. Any path in this forest leads to an exit. It will likely just take a while!”

Asuka sighed heavily. “Soon? And I know you just made this island at the drop of a hat, but why aren’t you more sure of it … And I don’t mean to pull a Mimori here, but ‘how soon is now?’”

Tomo gasped. “Oh hey, I got that reference!” She humu-humu-ed. “And just believe in yourself, Asuka-chan! We’re bound to get there soon!”

★

Three miraculous minutes later, the girls all regrouped at the exit.

“Was it scary?” asked Tomo, face far too happy for a game that was supposed to be scary or unsettling.

“Kind of,” Mari replied, making the “so-so” sign with her hand. “Naoki and I heard some weird noises, but that was about it!” She shrugged, and Naoko did the same. The wobbling knees that the girl currently had said the contrary.

Tomo pouted, hands balled into fists. “That was the point! I teleported to a place I created that had spooky ghosts! You know, to liven things up a bit!”

Mimori was going to argue back about how the ghosts were more like “creepy wails that would happen once in a while like on a Halloween Sounds CD” but she didn’t want to crush her best friend’s dreams.

So, she replied with something a bit nicer. “I thought it was fun! At least a skeleton didn’t pop out or anything.”

“I totally agree!” added Erica after reading Mimori’s mind so they could be on the same wavelength. “This was a fun way to get out of not studying for exams for a night!”

At the mention of that word, everyone groaned.

“Oh, and guys,” Erica said, becoming serious for a second. “I think we should finally talk about what we’re gonna do, you know… when us senpai graduate.”

“We really should,” Naoko agreed, also looking solemn. “Let’s do it.”

★

Once the girls got back to the beach house, they all huddled down in the living room to discuss that rather important subject of “Bye guys we’re graduating high school.”

Mimori already knew what the answer was going to be though, so she decided to say it to her friends, finally.

“Guys can I get this out of the way first?” she began, just to get it over with. “Remember when I went to the future?”

Kasumi snickered. “Yup, you told me everything that happened… Not.”

“Well, my husband—yes, I have a husband in the future—said that when we graduate, Naoko, Suika, and Jopi will continue the Can Do Anything Club and that we’ll end up making another one in high school.”

“That’s amazing!” Tomo said, clapping her hands together. “That sounds like a brilliant idea! How have I not thought of it before?”

Asuka chuckled. “Because she hadn’t thought of it yet!”

“Well, that’s an idea that makes the most sense, so let’s go with it! Personally, I think that Naoko should be the new president of the club because she was one of the original members, and Jopi could be the vice president!”

Suika’s stoic face somehow looked crestfallen. “Why can’t I be vice president?”

“Awww, okay. I’ll give up the temporarily-imaginary spot for you,” Jopi offered, patting her on the head. “You’re older than me, after all.” Her face then turned dark as she looked at her friends. “Lord help us all.”

Tomo clapped her hands once more, signaling the end of the very short and almost pointless meeting. “Alright! It’s all settled then, yay!”

And so with that, it was time for bed. It was kind of stupid, though, to sleep, considering when the girls teleported home it’d be a few hours away from bed anyway—but the girls were reasonably pooped.

Oyasumi. Suyaaaa~

★

At around eight in the morning, Tomo woke everyone up by yelling at the top of her lungs.

“MORNING EVERYBODY!” She was surprisingly good at raising her voice to the maximum shrillness.

That sure made everybody wake up with a jolt and roll out of bed.

After having a hearty breakfast, the girls packed up their stuff and teleported off the island, which was probably the saddest thing to ever happen that week beside it being winter in their world.

Oh, and it also being the end of their wonderful, magical ninth grade year.

… But for the kouhai, this was just the beginning.