My Best Friend is a Vtuber 7

The only notable thing that happened in their university that day was an announcement of the upcoming break, much to the delight of the student body. Leslie breathed a sigh of relief, pulling out her phone to mark it down on the calendar. While she had her eyes on the screen, she noticed that she had gotten a text from one of her commissioners, just a simple one that asked for a progress report. She sighed, pocketing the phone. "Not going to answer that?" Betty asked, walking slightly behind her as the two of them made their way to their usual lunch table.

"They can wait. I'll go and message them when I get home." Leslie sighed, turning the corner and finding someone already at their table. They looked to be the shy type, wearing a sweater that complimented her rather large rimmed glasses. The table itself was covered in an assortment of papers, books, and a few protractors and rulers, explaining away the stressed expression on her face. "Let's leave them be, they seem busy. I'll go look for-" Leslie felt her hand get grabbed as she tried walking over to another part of the campus to look for a free table.

"Maybe they'll let us join them?" Betty sauntered over to the table optimistically, a bit of a skip in her step as she gave a friendly wave and struck up a conversation. Leslie watched from where she was, a small semblance of unease bubbling up in her chest as she watched the girl's eyes widen. She was too far to hear what they were singing clearly, but it seemed to be going well based on the small smile forming on the girl's face. She looked over at her phone again as it buzzed in her pocket.

"Huh? Didn't I just get him medicine the other day? How can he be out already?" Leslie asked herself as she read the text from her brother. "Maybe I should head home..." She thought as she noticed Betty call her over with a smile. She walked over, her eyes looking at the meek girl as she walked around the table to shake her hand.

"Oh, so you're the one that's doing Mizuna's 3d model?" She said with a smile, giving Leslie a little shock. "My name is Tabatha. It's nice to meet you." She let go, flashing a smile, and taking a seat. She cleaned up the table, giving Betty and Leslie enough room to eat their lunch. Leslie wondered why she knew all of that but decided to not bring it up unless Betty did; it'd be bad if this secret went public after all. She got her lunch out, setting up her phone to play a video through her earbuds that appeared on her recommended feed; it was a collab video of Verdan, Kuma, and Mizuna. "Oh, that stream was fun. You did have fun, right?" Tabatha asked, her eyes moving over to Betty as she handed over a prepared sandwich. "Oh, thanks!"

"I had a lot of fun on that stream. But Kuma won all of them!" Betty grumbled, pulling out another sandwich and chomping down on it. It was certainly a strange experience for Leslie, how they were whispering while still giggling like loonies. She grabbed her food and started eating, feeling a bit of a prickling sensation run through her body that made her hair stand up; it was unnerving. She kept eating, multiple things running through her mind; the most prevalent thing was how they were able to talk about their vtuber stuff out in public like this.

"Shouldn't you not speak in the first person? What if someone overhears you guys?" She muttered as she ate half of her food. "Don't say I didn't warn you if you guys get caught." She added, trying to avert her gaze as she forced her mind to think of something else.

"Oh, you're right." Betty smiled, scooting over slightly to sit closer to Leslie. There was silence for a few seconds; the same strange silence that happens as everyone simultaneously shuts up for no reason, but their table remained still for much longer. Tabatha continued working on whatever she was writing down before they arrived, Leslie was typing something on her phone, and Betty had her cheeks filled with food. "Hey..." Betty mumbled after swallowing her bite. "Is something on your mind? You're unusually quiet."

"Me?" Leslie asked, pointing to herself. "I guess I am. Sorry." She added, pointing to herself as a cloud covered up the sun overhead. The wind picked up, the chill in the air washing over them as Leslie lowered her gaze. Tabatha and Betty both shot her glances, the former excusing herself for a moment to go answer a call on their phone.

"Did something happen?" Betty asked, placing a hand on Leslie's far shoulder to pull her close enough for them to start whispering. "Leslie, is everything okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just thinking about Zeke; I was wondering if I'd be able to go home early." She replied as she finished off her food, packing up and getting up from her seat. "I'm going to go and ask; I'm really worried..." Walking away as Betty bit into her food again, she waved her goodbye as she walked through the door and headed to a professor's office to ask around.

"Is everything alright?" Arriving a minute after that transpired, Tabatha took her seat again and started cleaning up her papers, taking care to make sure that everything was in order, including a cd with Verdan, her vtuber persona, printed on the case. "I hope it's nothing too serious." The crowd in the area started cleaning up as well; the wind picking up exponentially with each passing second.

"I hope so too." Betty wiped off some strawberry jam from her lips as the two of them walked back inside. "So, Tabatha, you worried about our collab?"

"Me? Not really. I'm more worried about these, I hope I don't forget to do them." Tabatha chuckled, scratching the back of her head with one hand as the other patted the bag she put her documents in.

"You? Forget? Never..." Betty chided, gently elbowing her new friend. "Want some help if things go wrong? Studying is more fun if you do it together, I think." A smile formed on her face as the two continued going through the halls of their university, with them eventually crossing paths with Leslie who still wore that morose expression on her face. "Hey, Les, you have plans this weekend? Wanna study together?" She asked, the two of them watching as Leslie walked past them while seeming entranced by her thoughts. Betty reached out, tapping her friend on the shoulder.

"Huh? What? Oh." Leslie said, looking up at them. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to know if you were free this weekend. Is everything okay? Are you going home?" Betty asked. Leslie nodded, looking at her phone again to see if she had any plans.

"It's not likely." She grumbled, continuing on her way as she went to the exit. "Hope you guys have fun. And it was nice meeting you." She waved, heading out the door and through the gates to rush home. Tabatha looked at her as she vanished from sight before turning her attention to Betty.

"Don't mind it..." Betty said before she could open her mouth. "It's not something we can help with anyway. And I know her; she can handle herself. Anyway, you wanna talk for a bit more once we're let out today? I've been meaning to upgrade my PC for a while." She smiled, trying to get her mind off of everything that just happened.

"What? Oh, sure! But let's get something to eat before we go part hunting. There's this place that I always wanted to try that's not too far from here." Tabatha smiled, the two of them bidding each other farewell as they went to their respective lecture halls.

The sun glided across the sky as the day slowly came to a close, Betty and Tabatha exiting the campus and walking down a few blocks before they happened across a stray kitten at a nearby parking lot. Betty had walked a few feet away from it before she realized that Tabatha had gotten distracted by it and started walking toward it to pet it.

"Isn't it cute?" Tabatha chuckled as she bent down and started gently running her hand across the top of the animal's head. "Man, if only I was allowed to keep pets at my place..." She smiled as the kitten walked a little closer. Betty was watching all this from behind Tabatha, silently smiling to herself as she realized that her airheadedness wasn't just a part of Verdan's character; though it was amusing and endearing, the way she acted with the kitten. "Hold on, let me take a picture; maybe we can move it somewhere and someone can adopt it." She straightened her back as the gears in her head sprung to life. She took a few steps back and aimed her phone's camera at it, steadying herself to take the photo as an incoming call made it buzz and scared the cat away.

"Pent-san?" Betty leaned in closer to read the name and look at the photo. It was the music-themed Vtuber that they collaborated with on the song. "Wait, why is he named Barry?"

"Oh, he and I go way back. Hold on, let me just answer it." Answering the call instantly put it into a video chat with Barry on the other end. He was tired as if he'd just woken up not but a few minutes earlier. "Hi, Barry! Good morning." Tabatha smiled, watching as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "What's up?"

"Uggh. I was just going to ask if you'd be okay with collabing on..." He yawned, looking over to the side as if to look at something. "Thursday at 7 pm your time? It's been a while since we last did something." With his head still to the side, he moved his arm as the sound of flipping pages came through the speakers of Tabatha's phone. "I'd love to ask Mizuna-san and Nebby-san too, but I don't have a way to contact her at the moment..."

"I'd love to." Betty said, pitching her voice up as if she was streaming. She then walked over and waved. "Hello, Pent-san." She said in her normal voice. Before the conversation continued, they were interrupted by footsteps and a woman's voice; it was a familiar voice for Betty.

"What? Okay then. Should I pick you up from there?" It was the woman that bought her jam a few days prior, she was standing outside of a car with her keys in one hand and her phone in the second. "Alright. Just stay safe, okay? Phoebe..." Her tone was a little worried as she entered her car. She passed a glance at the two girls, recognizing Betty who gave her a small wave in return.

As the woman drove away, they got back to Barry who seemed to still be in the process of waking up. "Alright, so let's collab soon, okay?" Smiling as the phone call ended, Tabatha winked as the two of them returned to their original plan of finding a place to eat. "He's been there for a few years now, I kinda miss him." They arrived at a small restaurant that served Italian food, sitting down at a table by the window that let them see the cars zoom by and the glistening snow that covered the tops of the nearby buildings. "So, what part are you going to upgrade? Your GPU?" She asked, looking at the menu as Betty's phone buzzed with a notification.

"Hmm? It's from Leslie..." Betty mumbled as she put the phone on the table. It was a text, and they both read it at the same time.

"Something came up, can't come to study this weekend..." Those were the only words that the text said.