HANAKO DISLIKES WORKING IN THE CONVENIENCE STORE. She's always forced to wait in the counter, smile at impolite people, call even the sleaziest ones maam or sir. But she has to persist. Money makes the world go round afterall and if you do not have cash in your pockets, you're as good as dead. That is why Hanako works hard, works day and night to pay for her rent and her whims.

"Hanako!" It's Momoka who has Mei by the shoulders, grinning from ear to ear. The girl does not need to put on fake smiles for customers in convenience stores unlike Hanako, but she likes smiling anyway. Momoka is pretty, but she is prettier with a smile. Some tell Hanako that too along with only if your skin were a little whiter. She tells them to mind their own business.

"Busy night?" Momoka asks, trudging through the convenience store in her expensive flats, picking up packs of salted almonds and pistachios and tossing them straight into the bright yellow basket Mei is carrying.

Hanako shakes her head, reverting to the placid expression she always wore. She admits that these girls were annoying and if not for her ploy, she'd make tansies bloom in their flesh, but they understood her than most people.

"Lucky you," Momoka says as she begins selecting tubs of ice cream. "You have something to do. Mei and I are bored."

"You're finished with the homework in Math?" Hanako asks.

Mei nods at her. The buxom girl is situated in the aisle for softdrinks, her fingers trailing on the surface of Mountain Dew and jumping back to Pepsi. "You haven't started?" she asks Hanako.

Hanako nods in response. She almost forgot there was an assignment. Mei always made her copy so there was no rush. Mei had pretty, easy to understand homeworks. If the assignment was printed, Mei would always whip up a copy for her. She was the blessing in Hanako's academic life.

"I'll send you a picture of mine," Mei says as she places a bottle of Mountain Dew unto their grocery basket. Momoka returns with a tub of red velvet ice cream. Her nails are painted blue today, Hanako notices as they put the items into the cashier.

She scans them all with proficiency having been working in the convenience store for five years now. "You're awesome, Hanako," Momoka chimes as she takes a lollipop from their freshly purchased convenience store items. She unwraps it easily and props it inside her mouth. "I can never see myself working in the future. We're like, high schoolers, you know."

"I agree," Mei says, ever the yes man to Momoka.

"What time does your shift end?" Momoka asks, making a soft plop sound as she removes the lollipop from her mouth and tossing it into the trash. Hanako ignores it. Momoka is that discard if you don't like it anymore person, throwing things she no longer like straight to the trash the moment she loses interest in them without a second thought. If they were ever in a 90's chick flick movie, she'd be that blonde queen bee who everyone is eager to please. The Regina George, with less of the scheming.

"In thirty minutes give or take," Hanako answers. She's a dull girl when it comes to U.A. so she never really understood why Momoka hasn't thrown her over the bus yet. Maybe it's because she's a contradiction to all of her other friends who kiss her ass all the time. Hanako doesn't care. She doesn't care about the social hierarchy coursing through the veins of these vain girls. She needs a clique to blend in, and these plastic girls with their trashy personalities were just that.

"Great," Momoka says as she finishes looking at her branded wristwatch. "We'll wait for you. Let's head to the crappy Noodle House two blocks away from here after."

Mei must have seen the bewildered look on Hanako's face (stupid girl, guard your emotions, you're a failure if you cannot) because she drapes her arm over Hanako's figure and whispers. "Todoroki Shouto is a patron there and Momoka wants to see him."

Hanako doesn't say anything. She really doesn't care.

° ° °
m a r i g o l d ;
grief