(Here’s another one! Yay! We’re getting into the angsty part of this short story, so be prepared. PLEASE READ THE ‘AN’ AT THE END, THANK YOU)

Lance’s POV

I took a deep breath before heading up the stairs to the third years hallway. Allura didn’t met up with me today so we could walk together, but she’s probably already there. Sure enough, when I walked into the club room, Allura was sitting in a desk staring at the ground. I walked over to her to say hi, but Nyma stopped me.

“Hey, Lance! I was wondering if you wanted to read together today? We didn’t get to yesterday because of Pidge, but today can just us again.”

“I would, but-,” I was going to explain to her that Allura didn’t seem well, but Pidge ran over.

“Like hell you two are reading together! Lance is reading with me so we can finish the series together!”

I opened my mouth but closed it as Nyma began to talk, “Like Lance would really want to spend his time reading a children's book.”

Alright, that crossed the line, “Nyma, manga isn’t just for children. Half of the stuff is for adults anyways! And I never said that I was hanging out with either of you today. Allura seems to be kind of out of it, so I’m hanging out with her today.”

Before the girls could complain I walked away and sat down next to Allura. She seemed really lost in space, so much that she didn’t see me there. I tapped on her desk and she shot her head up. Her eyes didn’t have that sparkle that they normally did, what’s wrong?

“H-Hey, Lance! What are you doing over here?”

Alright, something is definitely wrong with her. She’s normally really happy to see me, so why does she look like that? I tilted my head and opened my mouth but the door swung open and knocked on the wall, causing a loud bang.

“Shit!” I heard Keith yell.

Keith appeared in the doorway and was looking behind the door. Pidge was laughing hysterically in the back of the room, even Nyma was silently giggling in her seat. Keith’s face was bright red as he sent the girls a glare.

“My apologies that I’m late again guys, didn’t hear the bell again.”

Pidge cleared her throat, “Boyfriend.”

I rolled my eyes while Keith yelled at them and turned back to Allura. Her eyes were down again and she was lost in space. I tapped her desk again, this time she didn’t look at me when she spoke. “You know that you don’t have to be around me. Go have fun with everyone else.”

“What? Why would I do that when I know that you’re upset?”

“Huh?” Allura looked up at me with concern and shook her head, “I’m fine, Lance, trust me. I’m still the Allura that you know and love.” As if to prove her point, she gave me her smile. It looked so real, but I’m still not sure.

“Please, Lance, just go have fun with everyone else.”

I sighed and stood up, “I’ll do what you want, but know that I’m right here if you need me. I’ll be back in a bit to read your poem, OK?” I only got a small nod in understanding.

With another sigh I walked over to where Keith was. He was sitting in the teachers chair, looking at a few papers. I stood next to the desk and Keith looked up smiling at me. At least someone knows I’m here.

“Hey, Lance. Whatcha need?”

Always a good president, “Have you noticed anything with Allura? She’s seems really down.”

Keith looked behind me at Allura and frowned, “Sorry, I haven’t seen her like this before. Maybe I should talk to her.”

“I already tried talking to her and she shoved me off. I’m her best friend and she doesn’t even want to talk to me.” A feeling in my gut grew more. Why won’t she talk to me?

“Maybe it’s about you, that’s why she doesn’t want to talk about it to you.”

That hurt, but maybe Keith was right. Allura tells me everything, EVERYTHING. Today she might need some girl talk. But why is Keith talking to her?

“Well, if it’s about me, then shouldn’t one of the girls talk to her?”

Keith laughed, “If they did, they would make it about them.”

With that, Keith walked towards Allura. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around. Nyma smiled at me and gently grabbed my arm. She pulled me over to her desk and sat down. I sat down next to her and looked over to Allura and Keith. Allura was nodding her head and Keith had his hand on her shoulder. Allura glanced passed Keith and looked at me. I smiled at her and waved. In return, I got a head snap away.

“Lance?”

I turned back to Nyma who had the book between us again. I smiled a little and grabbed my side of the book. We began reading again like last time, and the book was still good, even though I haven’t read this far yet and was a little lost. I heard someone standing up and glanced over to the two in the corner. Keith was standing up and waving goodbye to Allura. I looked over to Allura again and she didn’t look back.

I thought about walking over to Keith and asking what Allura said, but decided against it. Nyma wanted to read with me, so I’m not going to ruin that for her. The more I thought about it, the more I liked reading with Nyma. That’s when it hit me. Nyma and I were really close. Our shoulders were touching and I could feel her breathing. I pushed the page with my thumb again and pushed it towards Nyma’s. This was incredible to me. The girl that I wrote the poem for was sitting next to me. She wanted me next to her, she wanted me right there.

So why do I feel so guilty? I promised myself that I would spend today with my best friend, yet here I am with Nyma. My best friend needs me right now and here I am reading with a girl other than her.

“Is everything OK?” Nyma asked me.

“Y-Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“Alright everyone!” Keith called out, “Time to share our second poems.”

Just in time. I stood up and walked away from Nyma. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement; and the fact that the girl I wrote my poem for was right next to me like that was making me shake. But right now, I have another girl to worry about. I made it over to Keith and he smiled at me.

“Is everything alright with me and Allura?” I asked.

“Of course, just give her a little bit of space, that all a girl wants really.”

That was really simple, but I want to know what’s wrong. I kept my mouth shut and handed my poem to Keith. If he wasn’t telling me what was wrong then maybe Allura didn’t want me to know just yet. For right now I can do what Keith said and leave her be. I won’t ask her what’s wrong, I’ll just be there when she’s ready to tell me what’s wrong.

“Wow, Lance, going deeper this time, huh?”

I scratched the back of my neck, “Well, I wanted to try something new.”

“Ha, ha. You keep telling yourself that. Nyma’s going to love it, so you don’t have to worry.”

My heart sank again, “How the hell did you find out this time?!”

“Well, it’s pretty easy to know when you’re someone like me. Everyone’s easy to read, and when something is actually written on paper, that makes it even easier.”

Easy to read, huh? Does that mean he knows more about everyone than I do? I thought I got them down pretty well, but maybe not. I didn’t have a response to Keith’s statement, but I don’t think Keith was waiting for one.

“Anyways, here’s Keith’s writing tip of the day! Sometimes you’ll find yourself facing a difficult decision. When that happens, know that no matter what you choose; it’s only a poem. If you don’t like it by the end you can delete it and start over. You can always start over on something like that. Don’t think that when you have something down that you have to stick with it.”

“He, he, sounds like you’ve been wait to tell me that tip all day.”

Keith laughed to and handed me his poem.

The colors, they won't stop.

Bright, beautiful colors

Flashing, expanding, piercing

Red, green, blue

An endless

cacophony

Of meaningless

noise

The noise, it won't stop.

Violent, grating waveforms

Squeaking, screeching, piercing

Sine, cosine, tangent

Like playing a chalkboard on a turntable

Like playing a vinyl on a pizza crust

An endless

poem

Of meaningless

Load Me

“Wow, this one’s a lot more different than the one you did yesterday.”

“I wanted to give a different approach to my writing. Everything has to change, and it’s better if you give everything a try first. Anyways, you should get going to sharing that poem with everyone else. Bye, bye!”

Keith walked to Nyma and they started chatting. Why does Keith do that? He reads my poem then I read his and he tries his best to get away. I really don’t know anything about anyone here. I turn my head over to Allura who was still sitting in the desk. I smiled and sat down next to her.

“Hey, Allura. Want to share poems?”

She didn’t say anything, but took my poem nonetheless. She read it and her face dropped again like last time.

“This one’s for Nyma, isn’t it?”

I sighed, “Yeah, she seemed down yesterday when I wrote the poem for Pidge, so I figured that I could make it up to her.”

Allura smiled but didn’t look at me, “You always put others before yourself.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that. I guess she got me there. She handed my poem back to me and gave me hers.

I pop off my scalp like the lid of a cookie jar.
It's the secret place where I keep all my dreams.
Little balls of sunshine, all rubbing together like a bundle of kittens.
I reach inside with my thumb and forefinger and pluck one out.
It's warm and tingly.
But there's no time to waste! I put it in a bottle to keep it safe.
And I put the bottle on the shelf with all of the other bottles.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts in bottles, all in a row.

My collection makes me lots of friends.
Each bottle a starlight to make amends.
Sometimes my friend feels a certain way.
Down comes a bottle to save the day.

Night after night, more dreams.
Friend after friend, more bottles.
Deeper and deeper my fingers go.
Like exploring a dark cave, discovering the secrets hiding in the nooks and crannies.
Digging and digging.
Scraping and scraping.

I blow dust off my bottle caps.
It doesn't feel like time elapsed.
My empty shelf could use some more.
My friends look through my locked front door.

Finally, all done. I open up, and in come my friends.
In they come, in such a hurry. Do they want my bottles that much?
I frantically pull them from the shelf, one after the other.
Holding them out to each and every friend.
Each and every bottle.
But every time I let one go, it shatters against the tile between my feet.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts in shards, all over the floor.

They were supposed to be for my friends, my friends who aren't smiling.
They're all shouting, pleading. Something.
But all I hear is echo, echo, echo, echo, echo
Inside my head.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. What happened to my Allura? Where did my smiling, happy, helpful Allura go? This isn’t something that she would write, this isn't something that she’s capable of. Or maybe I don’t know my best friend at all. Maybe Allura was right yesterday. I don’t know her as much as I think I do. Does Keith know about this side of her? How have I not seen this before?

“You should go share your poem with everyone else, Lance.”

I looked up to meet Allura in the eyes. The sparkle was gone, she looked to empty, so lonely.

“I’m not going anywhere, Allura. Something’s wrong and I want to know what. Tell me what I can do to help!”

Allura smiled, “Please, Lance, don’t do this. The last thing I want right now is for you to worry about me and stay here. I want you to go with the other’s and have fun.”

“How can I have fun when my best friend is acting like this. I’m your best friend, Allura, I want to help you!”

“Please.”

“Allura, I-.”

“Please.”

What could I do? She wants me gone but how can I go? She’s in pain and I can’t do anything about it! What kind of friend am I to just leave a friend in need? But that’s what I do. I obey her wishes and I walk away. My heart squeezes and rips apart as I do this, but I still walk away.

I fight back the tears that want to escape. I fight back the urge to run back to Allura and take her home. I fight everything in my body to just put on a smile pretend like nothing happened. I wanted to talk to her, but she didn’t want to talk to me. So what’s there to do?

I couldn’t believe that I was really doing this, but what else could I do. I walked over to Pidge who was currently reading over her poem. As soon as I got to her she snatched my poem away from me and read it. She rolled her eyes and shoved it back into my hands.

“Really? Now you’re copying Nyma! Don’t you have a writing style of your own?”

I rolled my eyes, “Of course I don’t have my own style, this is only the second thing that I’ve written. I liked Nyma’s style so I thought that I should try it out. Sheesh!”

“Whatever!” Pidge pushed her poem into my chest.

You know what I heard about Amy?

Amy likes spiders.

Icky, wriggly, hairy, ugly spiders!

That's why I'm not friends with her.

Amy has a cute singing voice.

I heard her singing my favorite love song.

Every time she sang the chorus, my heart would pound to the rhythm of the words.

But she likes spiders.

That's why I'm not friends with her.

One time, I hurt my leg really bad.

Amy helped me up and took me to the nurse.

I tried not to let her touch me.

She likes spiders, so her hands are probably gross.

That's why I'm not friends with her.

Amy has a lot of friends.

I always see her talking to people.

She probably talks about spiders.

What if her friends start to like spiders too?

That's why I'm not friends with her.

It doesn't matter if she has other hobbies.

It doesn't matter if she keeps it private.

It doesn't matter if it doesn't hurt anyone.

It's gross.

She's gross.

The world is better off without spider lovers.

And I'm gonna tell everyone.

It took me a while but I think I got the meaning behind the poem. Don't judge people based on one aspect.

Was the poem directed right towards me? I mean, I figured that the poem I wrote for Nyma would be good. I based it off of the book I was reading with her, but maybe there’s more to it than that. She seemed to be the darker kind of girl, but maybe not.

As for Pidge, she looks like someone who would like anything cute, but maybe she’s the dark one. What if Allura was the dark one, and nothing of what I thought she is? I turned around to see if Allura was sharing with anyone else, but she wasn’t there. I looked around the whole room and she was gone.

“Hey, do you know where Allura went?”

Pidge rolled her eyes, “Great, you can’t even say anything about my poem! She said that she wasn’t feeling well and was going home a bit early.”

Before I could say anything else, Pidge grabbed her poem and took off to find someone else to share with. I sighed and looked back at the door. I can’t believe that she left without me. Is she OK? I can’t think about it to much, maybe it was a stomach ache. Besides, I have something else to worry about. I walked back over to Nyma and held my breath. Would she like it?

We didn’t have to say anything to each other as Nyma grabbed my poem. Once Nyma finished reading her face was a bit red, “It looks like you got some inspiration from my poem the other day.”

I scratched my neck, “Well, I really liked the way you wrote your first poem, so I thought that I should try it.”

“U-Um,” Nyma’s face was a lot more red now, “Here.”

I took her poem.

It happened in the dead of night while I was slicing bread for a guilty snack.

My attention was caught by the scuttering of a raccoon outside my window.

That was, I believe, the first time I noticed my strange tendencies as an unusual human.

I gave the raccoon a piece of bread, my subconscious well aware of the consequences.

Well aware that a raccoon that is fed will always come back for more.

The enticing beauty of my cutting knife was the symptom.

The bread, my hungry curiosity.

The raccoon, an urge.

The moon increments its phase and reflects that much more light off of my cutting knife.

The very same light that glistens in the eyes of my raccoon friend.

I slice the bread, fresh and soft. The raccoon becomes excited.

or perhaps I'm merely projecting my emotions onto the newly-satisfied animal.

The raccoon has taken to following me.

You could say that we've gotten quite used to each other.

The raccoon becomes hungry more and more frequently, so my bread is always handy.

Every time I brandish my cutting knife the raccoon shows me its excitement.

A rush of blood. Classic Pavlovian conditioning. I slice the bread.

And I feed myself again

Man these things are getting longer and longer, “I like it, Nyma, it’s deeper than the first one.”

“W-What? W-Why would you say that?”

“Well, this one looks like it’s trying to get a different meaning across to the reader. I don’t know what it is, but it’s really good!”

“O-Oh,” her face was really read.

“Ok, everyone! Time to assign parts for the festival.”

I smiled and walked over to Keith with Nyma by my side. It felt so weird to not have Allura around the room. I’ll check on her tomorrow morning. Keith was right, I went to her to early and I need to give her space. By tomorrow, everything should have calmed down and I’ll ask her to talk to me then.

“Alright guys, here’s the plan. Pidge, you’ll be making cupcakes for people to take at the festival. Allura and I are working on pamphlets to give to newcomers. And Nyma, you’ll be….. You’ll be,” Keith seemed a bit lost for words.

“I’m not useless, Keith, I can help with things,” Nyma crossed her arms over her chest.

“That’s not what I meant, Nyma, and you know it.”

“That’s not what it sounded like,” Pidge crossed her arms.

“How about Nyma does the decorations? She knows how to set a room for just the right mood,” I suggested.

I didn’t like how everyone in the room was going against Keith like that. It’s not his fault that he didn’t have anything for Nyma to do. I don’t have anything to do so we were both in the clear of having to do anything!

“Uh, that sounds... right,” Pidge uncrossed her arms.

“Yeah, I guess I could do that.”

I sighed and pressed my hands onto my hips. Without Allura here to settle things, I have to do it. God I hope that she’s OK. Keith gave a sigh and agreed with what I said.

“Now all that’s left is for Lance to help one of us.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Did I here Keith right? I had to pick one of them to help? Seriously?

“Well yeah, Lance. You have to help. Now pick someone.”

Pidge stepped forward, “I’m the one that needs the most help. I can’t bake all those cupcakes on my own. Can you imagine how long it would take to frost them?”

“Help you?” Nyma stepped forward, “You’ve baked tons of cupcakes before. I’m the one that would need the most help out of all of us! Decorating this whole room is a two person job!”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough!” Keith yelled, putting his arms out to keep the girls from killing each other, “Lance gets to decide who he wants to help. And it’s not just you two. Allura and I are an option, Lance. I wouldn’t want to spend any time with them either.”

“Rude,” Pidge grumbled.

Who should I choose?

--------

Yay! Another chapter done! Alright, I’ll get right to the chase. If I keep doing these Doki Doki chapters, there’s going to be like five more. I don’t want to have a whole book in a one-shot story.

So, my question to you…

Should this Doki Doki series be a book?

I know, I know, I keep asking this and I’m currently working on another book, but I don’t want to keep putting this many chapters into a one-shot book. So should I make it a book or no?

I’m really feeling it, and I’m really excited about the idea, but I don’t want to write it and have like no one read it. So is it a good idea or no? Or what would be better to ask is do you want me to continue writing the story?

Yes?

No?

I don’t give a shit what you do?

Help!!!!!

What I do know is that this is the last chapter of the Doki Doki one-shots here. So the option of just putting them here is out of the question. There’s going to be so many more chapters if I keep this up and I don’t want that to happen.

Please help me here, people. I don’t know what to do, and I kind of want to do the new book but I need your help.

Please help me!

Thank you!

-Pinetree