girl got game

how to catch a runningback: escape

Girls were scary.

Sena didn't have the best grades in the world, and her strength left something to be desired, and she really wasn't that pretty either. Shopping and makeup and fashion and boys were all subjects completely outside her realm of understanding. To top it all off, she was shy, quiet, and a pushover, which made her an easy target.

Sena sometimes wished she'd been born a boy.

As a child, she was often teased by boys for being clumsy and bad at sports. Later, the teasing grew more lenient and little Sena began to have hope that she would make friends.

That was before she walked into class one day and saw the Japanese kanji for die scrawled on her desk.

A group of girls in the back of the room looked oddly smug that day, and it didn't take a genius to figure out who did it. Mamori-nee-san wanted to report it to the teacher immediately, but Sena begged her not to say anything, thinking that if she just ignored it, it would go away.

It got worse.

Tacks in her shoes, throwing away her pencil case, ripping pages out of her textbook, stealing her homework—the problem got bigger and bigger until Sena finally stopped telling Mamori-nee-san what was going on. The older girl was still suspicious, but because Sena wasn't saying anything and she was in a different class, she couldn't do anything about it.

Riku had helped. He had protected her and taught her everything he knew, and her being with him provided a brief, sweet respite. But then he had left.

That was when the attacks became confrontational.

"Listen up, stupid Sena," they said with sickly sweet voices, "if you listen to what we tell you, and you do what we tell you to, then maybe we'll leave you alone. Yeah? Do you get it, stupid Sena?"

She got it.

Buying them food (often with her own money), making excuses for them to the teacher when they skipped class, carrying their bags—they were much nicer to her when she did what she was told. But it was a sickly sweet nice, like poisoned honey, and she knew it wouldn't last.

Her mother was worried; she knew something was wrong but couldn't pinpoint it. Sena came home with a bruised cheek one night and told her she had fallen on the stairs. It was such an obvious lie that Sena looked guilty for telling such a lie, but her mother let it go, thinking that Sena would tell her in her own time.

Her father was busy with work. He made it a point to spend time with his daughter, but noticed only that she was a little introverted, and tried to get her to open up a little.

The teachers noticed nothing.

Girls were scary, Sena decided as a child. No, not scary, they were terrifying.

When boys fought, they knew not to hit below the belt. When girls fought, they tore hair and scratched and bit through the skin. When a boy didn't like another boy, he went straight out with "I don't like you" and that was the end of it. Girls, on the other hand, would go to any means necessary to make your life a living hell.

The only girl Sena had never been afraid of was Mamori-nee-chan, because Mamori-nee-chan was really, really nice. But she knew that even Mamori-nee-chan could go crazy when she was mad.

The day before middle school graduation, a few of the girls who had been Sena's tormentors cornered her in an empty classroom.

"So we're graduating now, huh?"

"Isn't that sad? Say it's sad, stupid Sena."

"…it's sad…"

"What was that?" Slap. "Speak up stupid Sena, I can't hear you."

"I-it's sad."

"Right, isn't it? So because it's so sad, we've decided to give you a present, stupid Sena."

"Yeah, a really good present."

"We don't want you to go off to high school and just forget about us, right?"

"We've been together so long, that would just be mean, right Sena?"

"Really mean."

"So, we'll give you a present! You'll definitely like it a lot. Guess what these are, stupid Sena?"

"U-Um, scissors?"

"That's right, stupid Sena." Snip. A cry of surprise. A push. "Shut up, Sena, it's really rude when I'm trying to give you a present. Stay still. I don't want to cut you by accident."

"W-Wha—" Snip. Snip. Snip.

"There. Doesn't that look better, stupid Sena? I think you look so much better."

"Yeah, that stupid hair of yours has been bugging me forever."

"It looks so much better now. Here's a mirror, see?"

A pause.

"Well, we're done here, Sena."

Slap. "Say thank you to us."

"Th-Thank you…."

"You're so welcome, Sena."

"Well, we're going now. We have some shopping to do, don't we, girls?"

"Right. Bye-bye Sena! Maybe we'll see each other around sometime!"

Sena stood motionlessly as the three girls bounced out of the classroom, giggling. After they left, she slowly reached up and fingered the choppy ends of her hair.

Mamori-nee-chan liked my hair, she thought. She'll be so disappointed…

Sena sank down on her knees.

"What's your number, Sena?"

"Ah, um, twenty-one."

"Twenty-one, twenty-one, twenty-one…ah! It's on the list! You made it, Sena, you made it!"

"I…I did?" Sena felt disbelief growing inside her, like beautiful blinding sunshine. "I made it…I made it! I made it!"

Sena felt lighter than she had ever been, as the weight of ten years of torture fell off of her shoulders. It was over. It was all over. She knew for sure that her tormenters were going to a different school, because they had been bragging about it in class, and now she would be free, free.

"Sena, you're crying."

"Eh?" Sena reached up and felt moisture on her cheek. "Ah, you're right—Mamori-nee-chan, you're crying too."

"Eh?" Mamori made an identical gesture. "Huh, you're right."

They stared at each other.

Then they started laughing and crying and jumping up and down all at once, while the students and parents around them slowly backed away, completely bewildered.

"What about that guy, Hiruma?"

"Are you fucking blind, fatty? That's a girl, she's wearing a fucking skirt. And hell no, that annoying woman from the disciplinary committee is right next to her." The skinny boy kicked the big one in the shin. "What're you waiting for? Look for the next target, fucking fatty!"

"O-Okay, okay!"

As the big one frantically scanned the crowd, he failed to see his companion give the girl with the choppy brown hair a second glance.

A/N: This has actually been sitting around in my files for a while...it's a lot longer than this but I decided to break it up and make it a drabble series instead of a long multi-chapter fic, just to try out a new style.

I realize that there are lots of fem!Sena fics out there, but I really wanted to give this a shot-from the perspective of "what would female bullying be like" instead of "REVERSE HAREM YEAAAHH."

The answer is...things would be a lot worse. Probably. From what I've seen, female bullies tend to be a lot more cruel. So this, among other things, will definitely play into the rest of the plot.

Will update depending on reader response. ...or not...