“Finally, I’m finished,” she says with a quiet sigh, “but then, this could always be better I suppose…” She looks out her bedroom window and her eyes reflect the light of the moon. Her voice fills with a strong certainty. “Yes, I can see exactly what will happen. Everyone will come to class tomorrow naturally expecting me to turn in my usual, brilliant, paper. One that will make the teacher speechless.” She rolls up her long white sleeves and begins tapping away at the computer once more. “That is exactly what I must do.”

Almost two hours later…

She finally finds the strength to tear her vision away from the bright, humming, computer screen for a split second. She gazes quickly down at her bedside clock and her eyes widen in horror. “Kami, it’s after ten o’ clock! I’ll be late for school tomorrow if I don’t get to bed soon!” She brushes her fingers across the keyboard as fast as they will go, determined to reach utter perfection within the next hour.

Suddenly there is a knock at the door, followed by a loud crash and an even louder apology. There is a short, muffled, conversation before the sound of footsteps can be heard on the stairs.

“Oh mother…why on earth did you let her in at this hour?” she thinks to herself. She places her hand over her forehead and sighs, “Now I’ll NEVER be able to get anything done.”

Her bedroom door creaks open as her mother and Usagi appear.

“A few of Usagi’s relatives dropped by unexpectedly and her mother asked if it would be okay for her to stay here with us tonight.” her mother quickly informs her. “I told her it was no problem at all since you and Usagi-chan are such good friends, and since you started that paper of yours two weeks ago.” She smiles, places Usagi’s things on the floor next to the computer, then leaves. “Good night girls. Be sure to get to bed soon, you have school tomorrow.”

Usagi smiles. “So, what are you up to?”

“Usagi, why on earth did you come here? I told you I had this important paper due tomorrow.” She says in an annoyed tone.

“Yes, you did.” Usagi smiles. “I remembered, that’s why I went to Mamo-chan first…but he wasn’t home. Then I tried going to Rei, Makoto, Minako, and Setsuna, but they weren’t too happy about me dropping by so late because they were already asleep. They were really grumpy…”

“It’s almost eleven o’ clock, who wouldn’t be grumpy at this hour?” she replies in a tired tone. “You know, I still have to finish typing up the rest of this report…so why don’t you go ahead to bed?”

“You mean you’re not done yet?” Usagi replies in a shocked tone. “Want me to help?!”

Before she has a change to answer, Usagi lunges forward and begins tapping violently at the keys. “Wow, I’m not too good with computers and all, but I’d be more than happy to lend a hand!”

“No! Don’t!” she shouts, but it is too late. Usagi taps a few more buttons, the screen goes black, and the computer slowly flickers off.

She turns her gaze away from Usagi and closes her eyes. She sits in the complete silence of the now pitch black room.

“Oops, what’d I do?” Usagi blinks innocently.

“What’d you do?” she repeats angrily to her friend. “YOU just deleted an entire twenty page report that I started on a month ago.”

“A month?” she asks in puzzled tone, “I thought your mom said you started it only two weeks ago.”

“Everyone else started then, but I needed more time so that everyone would get the brilliance that they expected of me.” she says, gazing down at the floor.

“I’m sorry.” Usagi says on the verge of tears. “I really didn’t mean to, don’t be mad at me.”

“You never ‘mean’ to do anything…that’s half the problem.” she whispers to herself. She looks over in time to see Usagi pouting, and sighs. “You’re almost seventeen now, you shouldn’t cry so much. Besides, it’s okay…I’m just annoyed, not mad.”

“Why’s that? Won’t you get an F because of what I’ve done?” Usagi pouts, as she observes her pulling something small out of her desk. “What is that?”

“This is the back-up copy I saved from my original draft over two hours ago. I was searching for perfection when you arrived, but now it’s too late for that.”

“What grade do you think this old draft will get you?” Usagi asks, observing the small orange disk.

“Only a lowsy A-” she sighs.

Usagi collapses to the ground in disbelief. “Ami-chan, you’re something else...”

You’re probably wondering by now “Why the heck do all of her short stories always have something to do with computers?” Well, I did most of my fan-fic writing in a computer class at school so the teacher always wanted me to try to use computers in the plots somehow. (*groans*) As you can see, it’s rather hard to come up with an interesting story that way. Don’t worry, I always write serial fan-fic chapters at home so it will remain non-computer oriented the whole time. ^_~ (*relieved sigh*) Well, ja ne! -- Buruma