A loud creak accompanied the opening of the hatch in the floor, as a room that had not seen light in years was now bathed in the rays from the lower floors. From that hatch emerged the heads of two young girls, Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet, and it was clear from the looks on their faces that neither of them were all that impressed with what they were seeing. Dust and cobwebs were everywhere in this place, and the smell was musty, as one would expect from somewhere that hadn't seen any real people for so long. As the two girls cautiously made their way into that room in earnest, Sour could not hide her distasteful look as she glanced around.
"Sheesh! How long has this place been like this?"
Sunny shrugged her shoulders.
"Years, I think. Between my school work and Mother's focus on her job, there hasn't really been much time to clear out attics and stuff."
Sighing, Sour placed her hands upon her hips.
"Well, guess it was only a matter of time before old Cinch got her act together to sort it out. But..."
A look of anger flashed across her face.
"...why did you have to rope me into this?"
Turning to her friend, Sunny bore a sly smile.
"Because you had nothing better to do today."
Sour opened her mouth, ready to protest, only to find, to her annoyance, that her comrade was absolutely right. While Sunny enjoyed this moment of triumph, Sour looked away, letting out a grunt of irritation.
"Ugh! Let's just get this over with!"
Nodding with agreement, Sunny got to work first, kneeling down next to one of the many old and unused boxes that littered the attic. After blowing off some of the dust that covered its top, she peered at some old and faded writing that had no doubt been put there years ago.
"Hmmm...books?"
Getting to work on her own box, Sour let out a dry laugh.
"Yep, figures your Mom would have plenty of those about."
Casting her a scowl, Sunny then got back to her box, opening it up and finding that there were indeed many books within. Most were referential, the kind of thing you'd expect a Headmistress of a school to have in her possession. However, as Sour removed book after book from the box, something caught her eye. It was, naturally, another book, but this one was unmarked and unlabelled. It bore a simple black leather cover, and was far smaller than the rest. Naturally, curiosity took the girl, and she reached for it. After holding it close and examining it for a few moments, she opened it up. She flipped through a few pages before finally settling on one particular passage, which she then elected to read aloud.
"I found myself rather surprised that it had come to this. We had been close for a long time, but...to get to this? I hadn't even thought about it."
Sour, who was still close by, looked over to her friend, her face bearing clear curiosity. She moved over carefully, noticing the book at long last, before then taking a seat on one of the other unopened boxes. Realising she had an audience, Sunny cleared her throat a little before continuing.
"The way he smiled at me, it was...like nothing I'd ever felt. I knew, in that moment, that what we were about to do was right."
Sour raised an eyebrow.
"What is that?"
Sunny shook her head.
"I don't know. I think...yes...it's definitely my Mother's handwriting. I mean, it's old, but it's still hers. But...I've never seen her write anything like this before."
Thinking on that, Sour appeared deep in thought over the matter, before, after a few moments, cracking into a mischievous-looking smile.
"Wait...no! I think your Mom was writing a romance novel!"
Sunny's head snapped in her direction, and she shook it a great deal.
"What?! No! Not my Mother! That's just...not like her!"
Chuckling, Sour shrugged her shoulders.
"Hey, I call em like I see em. I mean, sure, it's basically glorified fanfiction for adults, but hey, where else are we gonna get a chance to see something like this from Cinch?"
Though still taken aback by her friend's suggestion, Sunny found that, rather expectedly, she could not escape the curiosity that had gripped her since first reading those pages. So, after just a brief moment of hesitancy, she looked back to the book, once more speaking aloud the words within.
"As I lay upon my bed, looking into his eyes as he laid beside me...I felt a flutter in my heart. And when his hand took mine...I felt a heat rising through me like I'd never known."
Sour smirked further.
"Oooh! Now it's getting good!"
Though she tried to resist it herself, Sunny found her own cheeks blushing as she read onwards.
"My body yearned for his touch, and mere moments later...it got its wish."
Both girls huddled together now, their eyes focused entirely on the words of the book. They were enraptured, reading together even as Sunny continued to speak when she saw.
"As we approached what I knew would be the inevitable outcome, by breathing grew heavier, and my hold upon his hand tightened. Through our kisses, I felt his body upon mine, and then, at long last, we..."
"Sunny?"
The new voice caused both girls to bolt upright, a look of shock upon their faces. And as they scrambled about, Sunny just managed to throw the book to one side in time to see her Mother's head poking up through the hatch in the floor. As Principal Cinch hoisted herself into the attic proper, she bore a look that was just as dismayed with the state of the place as the girls' had been not so long ago. But, at the very least, when the older woman spoke, it was not with the same harsh tone with which she had once done so not that many months ago.
"My word! It truly is in dire straits up here, isn't it?"
The two girls, keeping their hands behind their backs, nodded obediently, never saying a word. As Sunny's Mother looked around the attic a few moments more, her eyes drifted down to her daughter. For a second, her expression softened.
"I truly am sorry to have to ask you and Miss Sweet to do this today, but..."
Smiling, Sunny nodded.
"I know. It needed to be done."
Nodding back, Cinch then turned her attention to the other girl.
"And you, Miss Sweet. Thank you for assisting my daughter with this."
Clearing her throat a little, Sour gave a brief bow of her head.
"Oh! It's nothing, Principal Cinch."
After the older woman glanced around a bit, she gave both girls a nod before, at first, starting to move off. But, just before she did so in earnest, she stopped, looking to something behind where the two girls were.
"Is that...what I think it is?"
Curious, both girls turned to see what she was looking at, and when they did, their eyes widened with horror. It was the same book they had thrown to the side, which, sadly, had not really been concealed all that well. They looked to one another, fearing what might happen next. But, to their relief, what happened next was that Cinch simply walked past them, heading for the book and picking it up. After she turned it over in her hands a few times, she cracked a small smile, chuckling slightly.
"I haven't seen this thing in years. I swear, I've been looking everywhere for this little diary of mine."
The moment she'd spoken those words, Sunny and Sour gained looks of shock, with the former only barely managing to get a coherent sentence out.
"Your...your d...I mean...your diary?!"
Still smiling, Cinch gave a nod.
"Oh yes, indeed. When I was your age, I used to write about my day all the time in this thing. I realise that, for your generation, that kind of thing is rather unpopular, but to me...it was nice."
After speaking that, the older woman, glanced over to her daughter, not noticing the still-shocked look upon her face, before then looking back to the book. After clearing her throat a little, she stuffed it into one of the pockets in her jacket, before starting to walk once more to the hatch.
"Probably best if you don't read it, however. Because oh..."
Before heading down, Cinch looked to the two girls, a sly smile of her own now creeping upon her face.
"...the things this little book could tell you about your Father and I."
And with that, she went back downstairs in earnest, with the two girls simply staring at her, dumbfounded. They waited for second after second, hearing the sounds of footsteps as Sunny's Mother continued to walk away from them. Then, in the end, they heard the silence that let them know that she was out of earshot at last. And in this silence, their shocked expressions became faces of understanding, then realisation, before, finally, settling on pure horror. Stepping backwards, Sunny fell back slightly, sitting down on the very box she'd found that diary in. And as she sat there, with Sour still frozen in place nearby, she began to mutter the same words, over and over again.
"I'm...I'm not clean! I will never! be clean!"
