Motoko Aoyama: Hi there! This is my first try at an Azumanga Daioh one-shot so please give me some feedback as to how I did and please tolerate the mistakes I may make in the story. Anyway, please enjoy my short story about my favorite Azumanga Daioh characters, Kurosawa Minamo and Tanizaki Yukari, the crazy teachers of our favorite students from our favorite anime!

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or...as a matter of fact...anything about or related to Azumanga Daioh. Now excuse me, I must start writing

A Memory We Share

The warm rays from the sun shone on the face of Yukari as she gazed at the colorful decorations looming above her. Beside her stood her friend, rival and colleague, PE teacher Kurosawa Minamo, known to her friends and unfortunately some of her students as Nyamo. It was a beautiful day to hold the annual cultural festival, and the dancing clouds in the skies seemed to have brought back some memories to Nyamo as she talked to her forgetful friend.

" So, it's time for the cultural festival again! Doesn't this remind you of ours?" Nyamo asked as she shifted her glance at Yukari.

Yukari laid her eyes momentarily on Nyamo's countenance, and then started pinching her chin, thinking hard about the subject. Nyamo watched on in hopes that her friend would remember at least a slight bit about the cultural festivals they had in the past, but her friend just turned to her and gave her a gigantic grin. Nyamo helplessly let out a sweatdrop at her friend's familiar expression.

" You don't remember? Not even a little?" Nyamo asked with a sigh.

The day progressed on as students happily walked around, enjoying their day. Wild Tomo started running all over the place in her cat costume, scaring the daylights out of everyone, Sakaki worked very hard to sell the strange creations she had made, and Kagura struggled to control her anger and frustration towards the lecherous pervert, Kimura-sensei. Meanwhile, Nyamo and Yukari were sipping on their drinks as they chatted, watching the students and other teachers come and go in the café.

" By the way, when we were in high school, our cultural festival was..." Yukari started as she chased the pulp in her orange juice with the straw in her hand.

" Did you finally remember?" Nyamo asked as she looked up after taking a bite of the ice cream floating on her drink.

Yukari narrowed her eyes slightly in a thoughtful manner as she whispered a single word.

" Café…" she said.

" That's right! You do remember!" Nyamo smiled, unable to believe that her friend finally remembered their past.

" I guessed right," Yukari answered bluntly, closing her eyes to enjoy the cool sensation of orange juice floating in her mouth.

" Idiot, this isn't a quiz show..." Nyamo said with a sigh. So, she really did forget. How could she!

" I don't even remember what my students did last year," Yukari said in an uncaring manner as if it had nothing to do with her.

" Don't brag about it...that's so sad," Nyamo muttered, narrowing her eyes in an expression that resembled disgust towards her irresponsible coworker.

" Don't be trapped in the past! Live in the present!" Yukari yelled harshly at Nyamo, suddenly standing up and banging her fists on the table.

Nyamo merely looked away, ignoring her friend's strange behavior.

" Don't be drunk on orange juice..." she said with her eyes closed, not willing to watch Yukari going crazy.

" That's why!" Yukari answered once more.

" Whatever...you really don't remember the first cultural festival we had? It was a great experience!" Nyamo said.

Yukari didn't answer as she seemed to calm down a bit, sitting down to continue drinking orange juice. Nyamo took another sip on her drink before looking at the cheerful crowds outside, her mind drifted back to the time they were young.

" Remember, we had a haunted house café, and everyone were dressed in scary costumes..." she started. Yukari looked at her for a while, and then she closed her eyes to remember the olden days when they were students, just like Tomo and Yomi...

In the Past

Nyamo was carrying a tray of drinks to the customers when a strange figure appeared behind her. She turned to see a person with thick brown hair dangling down her face covered with a red liquid that dripped down to her white dress and stained it a reddish tint a bit too bright to be blood. Nyamo gasped and dropped the drinks with a clatter as the figure laughed and leapt at her. Afraid, Nyamo dropped to the ground, looking up at the figure with fearful eyes, only to see that the face looked familiar.

" Yu...Yukari?" Nyamo stuttered, as a mischievous smile grew wider on Yukari's face.

" This is a haunted café, Nyamo, shouldn't this be expected?" Yukari said with a smile while she pushed her hair aside to completely reveal her face that was still dripping with fruit punch.

Nyamo sighed as she picked up the shattered glass from the floor and took a rag to clean up the mess. Yukari swept up the witch's hat that Nyamo dropped and turned it up side down.

" Nyamo, is this YOUR costume...it looks like an up side down boat to me..." Yukari said emotionlessly as if she was bored to death.

" I don't want to scare the daylights out of everyone, you know," Nyamo said, taking the hat from Yukari and putting it on once more.

" Isn't that the point of a haunted café? Come on! Get a life! This is where all the fun is, to scare people!"

" Right..." Nyamo said, pouring juice into a glass and carrying it over to the customer.

" That's why there aren't a lot of people visiting, Nyamo. This isn't even scary! It is not...fun!" Yukari exclaimed, dragging Nyamo over to the girls' washroom with Nyamo screaming her head off trying to know what her crazy friend was planning to do.

Once they were in the washroom, Yukari took out a pack of pastels and started to draw all over Nyamo's face. Nyamo tried to run away, but to no avail. It only messed up Yukari's already messed up drawing on Nyamo's face, covering her countenance with a thick mixture of pastel colors.

" You're not supposed to use them on your face, Yukari!" Nyamo screamed.

" That's why I'm not using them on MY face, but YOURS!" Yukari said with a wink. Nyamo gave up her struggle as Yukari added more green pastel to Nyamo's face.

" DONE!" Yukari exclaimed as Nyamo looked at the reflection of herself in the mirror. It was terrible! Her face with brown and green, with patches of blue and purple, and streaks of red. It was Yukari's idea of Frankenstein with bruises and scars covered with blood, but really, Nyamo thought that she looked more like an ogre.

" Now let's go do some advertising!" Yukari said as she pushed Nyamo in front of her, opening the girls' washroom door. The girls outside who were about to come in froze to their spots, some gasped, some screamed. Yukari seemed happy at their reactions as she pushed Nyamo onto the hallway where more people ran for their dear lives. Down to the food stands they went, Yukari screaming and Nyamo heavily sweatdropping as people ran away. They left a trail of fear wherever they went, and soon all the stands were deserted. Yukari was enjoying every moment they had, especially when she started feasting on the food the people left behind when they ran off after seeing Nyamo and her ogre look.

" Isn't this fun!" Yukari laughed after finishing another scooping of noodles.

" I'll remember this my whole life," Nyamo smiled. For once, her serious nature seemed to leave her calm exterior. She was going to remember it forever.

In the Present

" That WAS really fun, especially when your pastel won't come off the day after. Remember Arimoto-sensei's shocked expression when he saw you! That was priceless!" Yukari laughed as she finished her orange juice with a loud sip before getting up to stretch her weary limbs.

" Right...but really, come to think of it, I must thank you for that day. It was fun," Nyamo said, looking outside at the pinkish sky lighted by the setting sun.

" No problem. Besides, your ugliness scared off Sakurai-sempai so I was able to take him away from you," Yukari sang as Nyamo flushed a dark magenta, in both embarrassment and anger. The PE teacher chased her friend out onto the fields and amidst sounds of laughter; another typical school day had passed in the Azumanga Daioh timeline.

Motoko Aoyama: Well, hope you had fun reading the fic. Please give me some feedback on my work and hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!