The First Rule of Sword Club

***

"Mary!"

Mary looked up from the book she was reading. Her blue eyes looked through the thin lenses of her silver framed glasses, themselves obscured by wisps of long braided blond hair.

"Oh, hey Sarah," she said shyly to the red-headed girl now hovering over her. They were in the lobby, Mary sitting on a bench, and Sarah standing over her.

"Whatcha reading?" asked Sarah.

"Just the new book in the Fall of Magic series. It's the last book, but actually the first book, because the author wrote the last one first."

"Huh," said Sarah, who was clearly already losing interest.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with that either," said Mary.

"Well, I just got outta sword club, but it seems like apparently they need me at another shift at the cafe," said Sarah with a sigh. "You don't have to wait for me, 'cause this'll go pretty late."

"'kay," said Mary as she closed the book and followed Sarah out into the evening. The sky was a strange magenta, and the grey buildings were as grey as ever.

"Was Josh at Sword Club?" asked Mary as nonchalantly as she could muster.

"Hmm? Oh nope! He hasn't been around for ages... why do you ask?" replied Sarah with a hint of teasing.

"Nn--no reason! Just curious is all!" said Mary as Sarah smiled mischieviously at her. Mary hoped she wasn't blushing, and tried to change the subject. "What did you learn this time in sword club?"

"Oh, just the usual routine stuff..." answered Sarah as she made the motions of an overhead swing with an imaginary sword.

Mary imagined Sarah in her maid cafe uniform swinging around a wooden sword and burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?!"

"N--nothing."

They parted ways as Sarah turned in the direction of the cafe, streetlamps flickering lazily to life as the last light from the dying sun faded into night. Mary meanwhile, waited for the traffic light to change so she could cross the street.

***