The Non-Adventures of Genki Goth

Margaret Silvers and Chelsea Black

Chapter 1: Meet the Players

	Alison sighed as she sat down for her third class of the day,
absentmindedly twining a strand of her long, straight golden-red hair 
around one finger.  This period was American History, quite possibly the 
most boring history class available, but it was required for graduation 
and she wanted to graduate, so - here she was!
	And of course, the teacher was such a creep…  Did he really have to 
look that hard at all the pretty girls just to take attendance?  She 
sighed again, resting her head on the desk.  Why me? she asked herself.
	She heard more than saw the girl’s jingly, bouncy entrance.  “Huh…? 
Wha…?”  She looked up, blinking; there was nobody in the class who wore
enough metal to make a noise like that, or had enough energy to bounce 
into class.  
	The teacher had stood straight up, unconsciously tugging at his 
shirt.  “Well, well, here’s our new student,” he said, in that awful, 
oily, nasal voice of his.  “Why don’t you introduce yourself?”  His eyes 
were already crawling all over the girl, but she didn’t seem to notice.  
	She walked to the front of the class, nearly skipping, and stood in
front of the blackboard.  She had an incredibly cheerful look on her face,
the first thing that Alison noticed, and was dressed completely in 
tattered black clothes heavily hung with silver jewelry.  “Hi!!” she said,
sounding insanely happy and bouncy.  “My name’s Shiko Amaranth, and I’m
really happy to meet all of you!  I just know we’re going to have a great
school year, and I can’t wait to get to know all of you!”  She flashed 
the class a little victory sign before sitting down next to Alison, 
flushed and still grinning.
	The teacher eyeballed both of them oddly, but began to lecture about 
the different tribes of Native Americans that had lived in the area before
the Europeans came, freeing the class for personal talk.
	For some reason, the only question Alison could think of was, “What
drugs are you taking?”  She shook her head, dismissing the thought as 
rude, and gave the new girl a good look-over instead.  Her hair was short 
and spiky and so black that it looked dyed; her skin was almost too pale 
to believe, and though Alison couldn’t get a good look she thought that 
the girl’s eyes were as black as her hair.
	Shiko seemed to sense her scrutiny, and turned to look at Alison. 
Amazingly, she was still smiling brightly.  “Hi!  What’s your name?”
	“Alison Devar,” she replied.  “You’re - Shko?  What kind of name is
that?”
	“It’s Japanese,” Shiko answered.  “It can means lots of things, 
’cuz ‘shi’ is one of those really slippery syllables that can be written 
with a bunch of different characters, but the way I write it means ‘death
child’.  Cool, huh?”
	Alison stared at her in disbelief, using the time to take in details 
of the silver draped over her; it seemed to be a massive collection of 
random religious and New Age symbols.  “‘Death child’?  Where did you get 
a name like that?”
	“Oh, my parents are nuts about the Orient, they spend a month in 
Tokyo every year,” Shiko said, waving one hand dismissively in the air. 
“They didn’t mean the death bit - they were thinking of the ‘shi’ that 
means poem - but once I knew I was a Goth I just couldn’t resist.”
	Alison squinted at her.  “You’re a Goth,” she said flatly.
	Shiko’s smile faded a bit at that.  “You can’t tell?”
	“You’re cheerful,” Alison pointed out needlessly.  “Who’s ever heard 
of a cheerful Goth?  It’s an oxymoron.”
	Shiko grinned again, her entire face lighting up.  “That’s what you
think…  I’m not a Goth Goth, actually, or I’d already have killed myself,
probably, but I’m definitely a Goth.  I mean, check out these clothes.  
Look at this jewelry.  Is it all Goth or what?”
	“Well, okay, that part fits,” Alison admitted reluctantly.  “But… 
still…  Give me a minute to completely rearrange my mindset, okay?”
	Shiko giggled, covering her mouth with one thin hand.  At leisure to
observe her, Alison couldn’t help but notice how small and skinny she was.  
I could probably break her in half without trying, she thought, and the 
idea seemed a little frightening.  Hastily, trying to make up for the 
pause, she asked, “So, if your parents can afford to go to Tokyo all the
time, why aren’t you going to a good private school instead of this dump?”
	For a moment Shiko had a genuinely serious look, as if pondering 
some great secret.  Then she smiled, held up one finger, and intoned 
mock-solemnly, “Sore wa - himitsu desu!”
	Alison let her head fall onto her desk again.  “Why me?” she inquired 
of the world at large.  “Why me?”
	Shiko laughed again.
	“What does that mean, anyway?” Alison wanted to know, sitting up.  
She tried her hand at pronouncing it.  “‘Soda wa - heemeets des…?’”
	“ ‘Sore wa himitsu desu,’” Shiko corrected her gently, still smiling. 
“It’s Japanese for ‘That is a secret.’”
	“Great, great,” Alison grumbled.  “My third day of this third-period
class, in my third year of high school, and I finally meet one of the 
genuine weirdos of the world…”
	“Three, three, three…”  Puzzlement joined the cheerfulness in Shiko’s
face.  “A lucky number… a lucky time…”  Then she shrugged.  “Well, I guess
we’ll see, won’t we?”
	“See what?”
	Shiko’s grin spread ear to ear.  “Don’t make me repeat myself…”
	Alison groaned.  Secretly, she thought, Maybe this class won’t be so 
bad after all.

	Fortunately, there was only one more period before lunch.  Alison 
nearly cheered when the bell rang, and hurried to the cafeteria to meet 
with her friends so she could talk with them about Shiko.  They were 
waiting for her at their usual table; of the three that made up Alison’s
group, only Judy already had any food.  Judy, whose straight brown hair 
and plain brown eyes hid an obsessive-compulsive vegetarian, had no 
patience with the school’s ideas of a meat-free lunch and always brought 
her own container of salad to eat.
	“Hey, guys!” Alison said cheerfully, sitting down with them.  
“You’ll never guess what happened in third period today…”
	Tamisha snorted, pushing a curl of black hair away from her dark-
skinned face.  “What?  Mr. Jakson make passes at you or somethin’?”  
Tamisha had taken American History last year, and was all too familiar 
with the teacher’s personality.
	Alison made a face at her.  “Blechh!  Yuck!  No!  And thank you for
ruining my day, by the way…”
	Tamisha shrugged, uncaring.  Valentine spoke up then, brushing her 
blond bangs out of her eyes.  “So, what did happen?”
	“Well, there’s this new student, and she is so weird…” Alison began,
emphasizing her words with half-unconscious gestures.  “She says she’s a
Goth, and she looks like one, all in black with the jewelry and stuff, but
she’s cheerful as hell…”
	Judy squinted at her.  “Cheerful?”
	“Since when has being cheerful been part of the Goth job 
description?” Valentine added.  “I mean, really… all that black…”  She
shuddered; Valentine tended towards the conservative end of the political
rainbow, a set of opinions which at this point in her life manifested
themselves as a sort of horrified fascination with anyone she saw as
deviating from the norm.
	Alison shrugged one shoulder casually.  “Not a clue - but she’s 
really cool, actually.  She knows all this Japanese, and her name means
‘death child,’ and -”
	Tamisha raised an eyebrow.  “‘Death child?’”
	“Yeah, I know it’s weird, but it’s cool, too,” Alison replied.
	“Both!  At the same time!” Judy said senselessly.
	Alison rolled her eyes.  “Never mind…  Hey, there she is, over 
there!”  She waved at Shiko, who was wandering around the cafeteria
aimlessly, looking lost.  “Hey!  Shiko!  It’s me, Alison!  Come sit over
here!” she yelled, still waving.
	Shiko perked up immediately, bouncing over to the table.  “Hi 
again!”  Valentine, Judy, and Tamisha looked at her in studied disbelief. 
Shiko paid no attention to their expressions, instead directing her 
questions to Alison.  “Are these your friends?  Would you please introduce
me?  I’d really like to meet more people at this school!”
	“Sure…  This is Valentine, this is Tamisha,” Alison said, gesturing
towards them each in turn, “and the girl with her face in her salad is 
Judy.  Guys, this is Shiko.”
	“Niceta meetcha,” Tamisha said laconically.  “You in Mr. Jack-Off-
Son’s class, too?”
	Shiko nodded, bouncing up and down on her toes.  If she noticed
Tamisha’s tone or insult to the teacher, she gave no sign of it.
	Valentine was gazing at her, her dark blue eyes wide.  “Are you 
really a Goth?” she squeaked breathlessly.
	“Yep!” Shiko answered brightly.  “For as long I can remember!”
	“Wow…”  Valentine withdrew into herself, presumably to make some
internal worldview rearrangements.
	Judy sat up straight.  “Are you a vegetarian?” she demanded, cutting
straight to the heart of what she considered important.
	Shiko looked almost surprised.  “Well, of course!  How could I be
cheerful knowing that my continued existence depended on the slaughter of
other living creatures?”
	Judy grinned nearly as wide as Shiko.  “At last!  A kindred spirit!” 
She jumped up and hugged the skinny black-and-white girl, still smiling, 
and Shiko hugged her back.
	“Okay, okay, break it up, you two,” Tamisha cut in, smiling herself. 
“I’m gonna go get some lunch - be back in a minute.”  Then she looked at 
the lines.  “Or in an hour, take your pick.”
	“Yeah, I should go get in line, too,” Valentine said hastily, giving
Shiko and Judy strange looks.  Shiko grinned at her, but gently 
disengaged herself from Judy.
	“Don’t you need anything to eat, Shiko?” Alison asked.  “I mean, if
you’re hungry, you should go with Tamisha and Val…”
	“No, I’m fine!” she said, eyes closed in happy half-circles and 
hands clasped before her chest.  “Thanks for asking, though!”
	“You can have some of my salad, if you want,” Judy offered 
generously, pushing the container towards her, but Shiko just shook her 
head gently and pushed it back.
	“Thank you for the offer, but I’m really not hungry.”
	Alison mock-whispered to Judy, “I think she’s a vampire - of course 
she doesn’t want normal food.  She’ll probably drink our blood for lunch
instead.”
	Shiko stuck her tongue out at the both of them, but since she was 
still smiling the effect was somewhat ruined.  Judy began giggling
helplessly, and Alison thought, with quiet satisfaction, Now there are 
five of us.  That’s a lot better than four…  But for the life of her, she
couldn’t think why she’d have such a thought.

	After school ended, Alison waited in front of the building for 
Tamisha; since the two lived not far from each other, and too close to the
school for the buses, they had gotten into the habit of walking home
together.  Their neighborhood was a little shady, and though they might 
not say so, they were grateful for each other’s company.
	After the usual greetings, Alison delicately inquired, “So - about
Shiko...  What do you think of her?”
	Tamisha shrugged, it being one of her favorite gestures.  “She’s 
cute.  Weird as hell, but cute, too.”
	“That’s kinda what I was thinking.  I like her, actually.”
	“It’s hard not to.  She’s just so - well - cute!”
	Alison rolled her eyes.  “I think you used that adjective already.”
	“Yeah, well…  Is she in any of your classes?  Other than Jakson’s, 
that is.”
	“Actually, she’s in my seventh period class.  Latin, you know.  I 
think she’s actually pretty good at it, but we still don’t have a 
permanent teacher so it’s hard to tell.”  Alison frowned, thinking.  “We 
were watching this movie on Rome, and she kept snickering in the oddest 
way…  She thought it was hysterically funny, for some reason, especially 
the bits about all the Caesars.”
	“Yeah - she’s in my sixth period English class, and we were talking
about the Song of Roland, and she -”
	Just then Shiko appeared in front of them, as bouncy as ever.  “Hi,
Alison!  Hi, Tamisha!  How are you?!”
	“Not much changed since ten minutes ago,” Alison replied, a bit 
dryly, and Shiko merely beamed.  “Do you have to walk home, too?”
	“Yep!  I thought I saw you walking to school this morning, but I 
didn’t really know till now…  Is it okay if I walk back with you?  It’s not 
a very good neighborhood, though I guess you know that already…”
	“Sure, why not?” Tamisha said, patting the irrepressible little Goth 
on the head.  “If it’s not safe for us, it’s totally not safe for you…”
	Shiko kept right on beaming.  “Thank you!”
	The little threesome enjoyed a pleasant walk home, a rarity in that 
part of town.  It wasn’t a bad neighborhood, really - just a bit on the
naughty side, as Tamisha was fond of saying.  Alison had to keep slowing
down, as she had rather long legs and was always getting ahead of the 
other two girls.  Shiko’s expression never dimmed, but she did get a
distracted look from time to time, as if she was listening for some sound
that never came.