Aria slammed her locker closed. The act was so cathartic that she unlocked it just so she could slam it shut again.

Now if only she could do that about fifty more times.

Stupid worthless history bullsh—

“Hey Ari~” Sonata invaded Aria’s thought without hesitation. And her personal space. “Watcha slammin’ for?”

Aria bit back the urge to scream. So much so that her jaw locked up. She’d still not forgiven Sonata for that stunt last night. As if she’d actually forgotten about that spare key. Sonata may be stupid but… well, she was pretty stupid.

But Aria was pretty angry.

“Buzz off,” she grumbled, breezing past her fellow Siren. Today, she definitely wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. Or anyone else for that matter.

“Uh-oh,” Sonata pulled up next to her. “Sounds like someone’s still being a Grumpy-Pants.”

“Shut it.” Aria hissed through her teeth. There were kids all around them in the halls. Kids who did not need to be learning about Sonata’s infantile nicknames for her.

“Or is it a Grumpy-Pamps instead,” Sonata wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

A blush ignited Aria’s cheeks, before surprise morphed into rage. “I said—” Aria shoved Sonata against a row of lockers, pinning her. Not playfully. “Shut it!”

Some eyes stopped to stare, but none lingered.

Sonata shook, giddy smile dropping. “I— I’m sorry.”

Aria sighed, releasing her hold on the moron. She wasn’t going to take her anger out on Sonata. At least not in public. She had other problems to worry about.

“You’re usually only this mad when…” she gasped. Leaning in, she whispered. “Do you need a changie?”

Aria’s face burned. The fact that Sonata was attributing her temper tantrum—No, just temper—to an accident in her diapers made her feel so… infantile. It did wonders for her anger as well.

“No I—“ But Sonata’s hand was already pushing against Aria’s skirt, exploring her diaper’s crotch for wetness. “Eep!”

crinkle

Both noises felt so loud that she was certain the whole hallway had heard. She managed to slap Sonata’s hand away before eyes returned to them, at least.

“You idiot!” Aria hissed. “We’re in public!”

It was bad enough that Sonata had started doling out impromptu diaper checks at home. But here? Now? She was denser than Aria thought.

“Oopsie,” Sonata gasped. The sincerity in her voice only served to frustrate. At least if she’d been trying to embarass Aria then her anger would feel justified. “My bad.”

“My dia— my thing is clean.” Aria insisted. And it was the truth. It was a miracle that she’d made it through second period unscathed. But she had another disaster to contend with. One far worse than wetting herself.

“Aww, good for you” Sonata beamed. Was that… pride? Sonata gave her a pat on the head. If it was pride, it could stand to be a little less condescending. “But feel free to tell me if that changes. Just because you don’t have those plastic pants anymore doesn’t mean you don’t need my help from time to time.”

“Don’t remind me,” Aria growled. Needing to rely on Sonata of all people made her feel all the worse. But there wasn’t any other options. No way Adagio was ever going to change her. Even with the camaraderie they’d somewhat formed last night, it was about as likely as swimming on land.

To make matters worse, the shoe never seemed to be on the other foot, either. Sonata had accidents, sure, but she never needed her fellow Siren’s help to get changed. She could do it all by herself, practiced fingers making solo changes a breeze.

And it was only compounded by the fact that Sonata never seemed to have accidents in public. She had no doubt that moron would love the opportunity to poop herself in class, but it seemed like Sonata somehow only had her accidents at home. The most annoying part was that it seemed to frustrate the moron more than anyone else.

“So what’s got you so mad? Besides all the usual stuff, I mean,” Sonata chirped.

“Erg…” Aria chewed the inside of her cheek. Maybe it would help to have someone to commiserate with. “ they’re making us do this stupid projects in history class. And for some sea-forsaken reason, I was partnered with Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh.” Sonata blinked. “Ohh…” It seemed even her thick skull could comprehend why hanging out with a Rainboom was bad.

“Yeah, ‘oh’.” Aria rolled her eyes. “No idea what Mr. Sombra was thinking. Now I have two blue idiots to deal with.”

Another blink, followed up with an innocent head tilt. “Who’s the first?”

“Ugh.” Aria rolled her eyes. And like that, she’d exhausted Sonata’s use as a misery sponge. The bell signaled it was time for them to move on anyway.

Happy to leave Sonata, and their conversation, behind, Aria made her way to her next class. Only she was dragged back into it with one final question.

“Hey, who did Adagio get paired with then?” Sonata called out. “You guys do have that class together, right?”

Aria paused, almost unwilling to give an answer to that. If for nothing else then the fact that she hated Adagio’s misery upstaging her own. But she did eventually turn around, the pull of the gossip too great to ignore.

“Well…”

Sunset was forcing a smile. Tugging her books to her chest, she made awkward eye contact.

Adagio packed her backpack, avoiding awkward eye contact. The old “if you ignore it then it’ll go away strategy.” A classic. So classic that Adagio was fairly certain she was its inventor in this world.

“Well… I guess we should plan a time to work on this thing together,” Sunset managed.

Adagio hoisted her bag over one shoulder. She brushed right by Sunset as if she wasn’t even there.

“Uh…” Sunset tried to call out. Adagio didn’t even slow down, leaving the other girl’s outstretched hand hanging.

The bell rang, but neither could hear it over their internal screaming.

Author's Note

I know it's short after such a long wait. Needed to get this plot point established, but it wasn't flowing well into the next bit, so I pinched it off here.