148 Chapter one, 2016, the value of friends: 9 (1/2)

Noriko ran to her brother and demanded all extra hands he had available. Outside the back entrance a truck stood waiting.

'A truckload of clothes, literally. You gotta be kidding me!'

She didn't really have time to explain anything, because the truck blocked most of the street.

More than a few faces turned their way when she ran together with her crew past the gym, across the pool area and to the service gate which no one had found a teacher with a key to.

It was late enough in September for the last remnants of summer to have vanished, and the end of the festival would see them change into their winter uniforms. Right now she was happy they still wore their summer ones as the rush to the truck was sweatier than she had expected.

Of those most concerned with the load none were present. Kuri and Nao-sempai were busy preparing for the show. Apparently walking the catwalk entailed more than just naturally looking good.

Noriko didn't know. She'd been part of Urufu's fire brigade from the start, and things like the sudden appearance of the truck was exactly what she handled. In all fairness Ryu should have been part of it as well, but as the festival loomed closer the more occupied he became with the fashion show. It was a given that he would participate, but Kuri said you could create a fashion model 101 course based on everything he misunderstood.

Just as she saw the truck her phone signalled an incoming message. Nao-sempai, 'or maybe just Nao now,' she thought. They were dating after all. That thought had her fingering her ear where a dazzling piece of gold and ruby adorned it. The pain from piercing it was all but gone, as were the memories of the verbal bashing she received when she first arrived home with her earrings.

She led half her crew around the gates thinking of the tall junior. Nao, her Nao. It was a cosy feeling. Not the burning longing she once felt for Urufu but rather a sense of safety.

”One bundle at a time,” she shouted. ”Over the gates, stack them over there and you four start lugging it to the gym hall!”

It took them a quarter of an hour to offload the truck, and when they were finished a short line of cars with irritated drivers stood waiting for the large vehicle to get moving.

After that they carried the boxes to the gym hall, a little like a caravan of ants with their load. Another half an hour gone when they had so little time left, or so she thought when they arrived with the second set of boxes.

'An increment must comply with a definition of done', Urufu said, 'and a definition of done should always result in something practically useful', but Noriko never understood what he meant by that until now.

Inside the gymnasium Kuri already had her models clad in whatever clothes were in the first set of boxes, and Noriko heard her instruct them how to wear those clothes and how to walk.