Betty woke up the next day with her phone blowing up with messages, most of which were from other vtubers that she had connections to. It was something that put a small smile on her face as she leaped out of bed and did some morning stretches. Walking out of the bedroom, she looked over at the kitchen; at the mountain of strawberry jam that she had on her table. "I still don't know why they sent this much to me. I didn't need a crate full of them, let alone three." She laughed, checking her phone once again after switching to a personal account. "Ah, I went into stream mode there. Why did I say that aloud?" She thought to herself as she entered the bathroom to freshen up for the day. Checking her phone as she brushed her teeth, she noticed that she'd have a busy day ahead of her.
She took a shower to wake herself up, had a few jam sandwiches for breakfast, and started splitting up the jars so that she could put them into bags; all the while she was playing an old video from a few years ago on her phone. "Baka! It means idiot. Now, repeat after me." The video was of an old vtuber that looked like a teacher. She wore a simple dress with a large hoop around her waist, and a large orange bun in her hair.
"I wonder what she's doing now, Sola-sensei..." She mumbled to herself, standing up to get some bags for the jars. As she tiptoed around the mess of packages that still littered the area, her phone started to buzz. "Hello?" She answered in her high-pitched voice after seeing the caller ID. "Ver-tan, it's odd for you to call me at this time, isn't it like, this is when you're normally asleep right?" She added, waiting for her to reply.
"Well, I was just wondering if you were free on... your Wednesday at... 8:30 in the evening... Timezones are hard." Ver asked, her voice coming out a little distorted on the call. "Because, if you're free, would you mind collabing with me?" The moment those words reached Betty's ears, she immediately started heading toward her room.
"Hold on, let me check..." Betty replied, opening up her schedule for the month. "So far, nothing except recording something for a song. But I can move that to Thursday since that's free."
"So you can do it, Mizu-tan?" Ver asked. "Thank you so much."
"So, what are we going to do?" Betty asked, starting a long and awkward silence that lasted at least ten seconds. "Verdan?"
"I... didn't think that far ahead. How about you, is there anything you want to do?"
"Well, I just lost to Kuma... How about something relaxing, like a puzzle game? Or we can draw, or play Pictionary. We could always just talk, too." Betty replied, getting up again and retrieving the bags she was looking for earlier.
"Oh yeah, we can read questions from the viewers. That's relaxing! Let's do that!" Verdan said, sounding content and happy. "I'll make the tweet! Take care, and good morning Mizuna-chan!" With those words, the call ended and Betty started packing up the jars for the five orders she got from friends and classmates in the area.
She got dressed and went outside, watching as people started walking around to get to work in the busy city. Her closest stop was a small bakery that was run by the family of one of her classmates. She could already smell the scent of fresh bread as she reached the door, getting interrupted by the family's dog that they had keep watch. "Oh, good morning. You're such a good girl." She said, bending down to pet it's brown fur. After playing with the dog for a bit, she headed inside, her foot landing in a small puddle as the distinct smell of paint reached her nose. Before she could even register what happened, a purple-colored cat dashed out the door, leaving paint pawprints in its wake. "The cat again?" She asked, looking around the mostly empty bakery. There was someone squatting directly in front of her, holding a paintbrush in one hand, and a wooden plank in the other.
The two of them exchanged small talk as the painter went to the back of the building to get something to clean up the mess. "So, you're busy as usual." They said, tossing a dirty rag into a bucket. Sitting down at once of the empty tables, Betty pulled out a bag that contained 7 jars of jam, setting it on the table as her friend grabbed some bread from behind the counter to taste it with. They shared some food, the painter enjoying the jam and taking the jars to the back before opening up the register.
"Wait, this is too much. I can't"
"It's a tip, just take it." They said as they handed Betty 40 dollars. Betty tried to deny it, but her friend was insistent; in the end, all she could do was thank them while furiously shaking their hand. She then skipped over to the next person's desired meeting place, a quiet park in the city. The lake had frozen over and it seemed like a few families were teaching their children how to skate. Small mounds of snow were scattered all around them, but the path and dirt were still visible in areas. After walking around for a while, she found her buyer sitting on a bench while listening to music.
"Hello! Sorry about the delay." Betty said, taking the seat beside her buyer. Upon closer examination, she noticed that her buyer was staring off at one of the people ice-skating on the lake, a younger girl of around the same age as Leslie's brother; around 17. "Your sister or something?" She asked, watching the girl skate over to them.
"Mhm. She forgot to buy jam when she went grocery shopping. We were going to bake something." Her buyer said. "I was just browsing the internet when I realized that she forgot it. And I happened to come across your offer." She said as her sister approached. She was wearing the usual thick jacket and pants, and the skates of course. Everything seemed normal except for the small moon-shaped pin in her hair.
"I see. Glad I could be of service." Betty smiled, looking at her customer again. She seemed stern and serious, already pulling out her purse to pay her. She looked over at the woman's sister, flashing her a smile as she pulled out a jar.
"Woah, that looks really good!" She said, taking a few steps closer before her sister put an arm out to stop her. Betty looked at her curiously.
"Have we met before?" She was tempted to ask; there was something about that voice that made the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. She held her curiosity back though, not wanting to pry too much, especially when this girl looked younger than her. "I hope you enjoy it." She said, watching as the two siblings got up and started walking away; well, the elder of the two walked. The younger one was skating on the ice by the path and was heading toward a shack.
With that odd exchange done, she looked at her phone to see where the next meeting is. Much to her surprise, it was in the same park, just at a different time. That gave her time to catch her breath and rest her legs for a little bit as she sat down. It took a while before the next customer showed up, so she let her mind wander for a bit.
"She sounded so familiar, kind of like..." She mumbled to herself, remembering something from a few years back. It was a dark night that she remembered, the only light she had around her was from the screen of her phone. She was laying on her bed, staring at the screen as a vtuber started up her last stream. For the next hour, she watched with a tearful smile on her face as she heard their final message.
"Everyone. I want you all to work hard, okay! Make sensei... no. I'm so proud that I got to be everyone's teacher! Please, continue supporting everyone! This has been Sola-sensei; class... dismissed." She said, sniffling as she held back tears.
Just recalling that night made a tear stream down Betty's cheek. "Mizuna-chan?" A male voice asked, a familiar one at that. "Or would you like me to keep that name a secret?" He smiled, taking a seat beside her as she pulled herself together. "Are you okay?" He was a young man, 20 years old, wearing a sweater to combat the cold along with a beanie that let a few strands of his hair peek out.
"Yeah, Kuma-sa... Should we tell each other our real names first?" She asked, reaching into her bag to pull out a bag containing 2 jars. "Betty. It's nice to finally meet you in person."
"We were going to meet in person anyways tomorrow, remember? We have a collab with Nebby-chan." The man behind Kuma's voice smiled, looking out toward the people skating. "Dylan. Oh, by the way, have you met with Nebby-chan in person yet?" He asked, taking out his wallet. Betty shook her head, standing up off the bench and stretching her legs and arms for a bit.
"Why'd you buy 2 jars, if you don't mind my asking? I told you that they were big." Gathering some snow in her hands, Betty started rolling up a large snowball with what few patches were around her.
"One is for me, the other is for my dad. I just posted an announcement that after the collab, I'll be taking a break; I'm going to go visit him." Dylan said with a smile, watching as Betty's pace slowed down. "Did I say something?" He asked, standing up himself.
"No, it's nothing. Anyway, I have two more orders to left, so I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow." Betty said, quickly gathering her things and walking away to the next stop. She found herself at the university for the last two orders, 2 students staying at the dormitories ordering 3 and 2 jars respectively. With her orders done, she hurried home. All she had to do now was prepare for the collab the next day and go on with her usual routine. "Oh, shit..." Her apartment was a pigsty, unlike how it was when Leslie came over to drop her off a few nights ago. She took a deep breath, the cold air nearly suffocating her as she felt her lungs burn with the chill. She trudged over to the most concerning thing, the multiple boxes, and plastic coverings that came with all of her streaming equipment. It would take her three hours to get everything to a presentable level of cleanliness.
Now that that was done, all that was left was her stream and her sleep.