A long, long time ago, in a prefecture named Gunma, there lived a pretty young woman called Mako, but most people called her Sentimental White. She was called thus because she was a sentimental girl by nature, and she wore white a lot. And she had a white complexion. Or something. Whatever.

Sentimental White lived with her stepmother, Queen Sayuki. Queen Sayuki was a beautiful woman whose only defect was that her voice was rather, err, shrill whenever she got a little excited. Queen Sayuki was also a big fan of driving, and in fact she was well-versed in various driving techniques. Well, at least in theory anyway. She never got around to actually practicing them in an actual car since she was too afraid to break her nails on the steering wheel.

It was her stepdaugher Sentimental White who decided to try her hand at driving. Right after she obtained her driving licence, she purchased a blue Sil-Eighty and immediately made some mods on it, even indulging herself with gold rims. She also began practicing driving down the local course, and soon set the fastest times.

Now Queen Sayuki was wholly unaware of her stepdaughter's activities until one day she opened up a copy of RevSpeed, expecting that she would be listed as the #1 female driver in Gunma as usual (Note that it's the ranking for female drivers. If the ranking was for both male and female, obviously she and her stepdaughter wouldn't be at the top now would they?). Her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped when she saw that her ranking had dropped to #2 (which is not saying much, since there were only two active female drivers in the prefecture), and that her stepdaughter topped the list, replacing her as the numero uno.

"Aaaaah!" Queen Sayuki screeched, "no way am I gonna let this happen! I'm going to kill that stupid girl!"

Queen Sayuki then called for her huntsman-cum-tofu supplier, Bunta, ordering him to kill Sentimental White and to present her with the girl's heart once he was done. So Bunta then escorted the unsuspecting Sentimental White to the edge of the forest in order to do the job, but since he was a bit of a kind soul at heart - and not to mention that he didn't like the queen much, since she had not settled her tofu bill - he told Sentimental White to flee far, far away, to a place where the Queen could not find her. Sentimental White then fled in her blue Sil-Eighty with much drama and weeping as expected from any distressed female in fairy-tales, and Bunta returned to the castle, presenting a fake heart made out of tofu to Queen Sayuki in substitute of Sentimental White's own heart.

Sentimental White drove on and on in her blue Nissan until she ran out of fuel and was forced to stop. She climbed out of her car and walked up the road until she reached a huge mansion. She was rather surprised to find that the mansion was equipped with huge garage with seven parking bays for seven cars. She wanted to poke her nose a bit in the garage, but she was too tired and so entered the mansion, where she found her way to a huge room that held seven beds. Yawning, she climbed into the nearest bed, covered herself with the down comforter and promptly fell asleep.

She was rudely awakened some hours later by an angry shout: "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my bed?"

With a startled 'eep', Sentimental White sat bolt upright in the bed, surprised. She found seven young men surrounding her (some of which were rather cute), and one in particular was glaring at her.

"Now now, Sneaky," said one of the young men, a handsome dark-haired fellow wearing a purple and white striped shirt and black pants that were hiked up just a wee bit too high (with the effect of making him looking much like a pimp), "the poor thing's frightened."

The rat-faced Sneaky, who wore a simple red T-shirt and jeans, merely snorted. "Shut up, Bishy!"

"Hey!" shouted a cute guy with rather spiky blonde hair standing next to Bishy, "don't you dare talk to aniki like that!"

"Oh give it a rest, Spiky," grumbled a young man dressed in a blue polo shirt and khaki pants whom Sentimental White thought would have looked rather cute if he wasn't glaring and frowning, like he was now. He had pretty nice eyes too, and Sentimental White wondered if he wore eyeliner.

Spiky whined, "Aniki! Grouchy yelled at me!"

"Aniki! Grouchy yelled at me!" a guy with longish hair who was dressed in a checkered shirt and jeans repeated mockingly with an even brattier tone. "Grow up!"

Spiky whined again, "Aniki! Checky yelled at me!"

Another cute guy wearing a leather jacket and jeans sighed. "Can we get on with this?" he pleaded.

"Sure, DB," Bishy agreed.

"DB?" Sentimental White asked in a small voice.

"Daddy's Boy," Checky answered with a smirk.

DB clenched his fists as he glared at Checky. "I am not," he hissed, "a daddy's boy!"

Bishy closed his eyes, counted to ten and coughed meaningfully, silencing everyone. "Now then," he said calmly, "who are you?"

"Uh, I-I," Sentimental White stammered, "I-I, um, I'm called Sentimental White."

"Aa," said a rather blank-faced young man, scratching his left cheek, "why are you called Sentimental White?" Sentimental White thought that the boy looked as if he could fall asleep any minute.

Bishy looked fondly at him. "Good question, Sleepy."

"Aa."

"Actually," Sentimental White admitted, "I don't even know why people call me Sentimental White. In fact, everytime I start thinking about it there's this oppressive force in my head that just blanks out my thoughts on it, unless I'm concentrating real hard. Like now." She blinked. "I dunno, it's like there's this person manipulating me... do you get that feeling?"

"Oh yes," Grouchy replied sullenly, "us too."

Somewhere else in the universe, a black kitty hunched over an iBook sniggered in a rather evil way as it typed. Now, back to the story...

"Okay," said Bishy, "so how did you get here?"

"And get the hell out of my bed!" Sneaky raged.

With a little 'eep', Sentimental White jumped out of the bed. "Sorry," she apologised to Sneaky. "Anyway..." She then explained to Bishy her current situation. She looked curiously at Grouchy. "Um... do you...?" she asked, pointing meaningfully at her own eyes.

"I see," Bishy said thoughtfully. "What do you guys think?" he asked, turning to the rest of his friends.

Spiky beamed (and Bishy sighed, realising that his younger brother had not understood a single word Sentimental White said). Sleepy looked blank and scratched his other cheek. Grouchy mumbled something about Sentimental White being welcome to stay, and dammit he Does Not Wear Eyeliner. Sneaky muttered that if she wanted to stay, she was not to mess around with any of his stuff, unless she felt like being shoved into a ravine. Checky shrugged, indicating that he didn't particularly care. DB had to run off to answer yet another phone call from his dad, who almost always checked up on him.

"I guess you can stay," Bishy spoke for all of them, smiling.

"Just don't touch my stuff!" Sneaky added in a growl.

And soon Sentimental White adjusted into the seven drivers' daily routine. During daytime, Grouchy and Checky would go to work, Sleepy would go and do his deliveries, Sneaky would run other drivers off the road for fun, DB would go visit his dad, Bishy would do all the cooking and cleaning (and Sentimental White wondered why he had so much free time even though he was a med student) while Spiky would just stand around and look pretty.

"Why?" she asked, looking at the oblivious Spiky, who was beaming and smiling at nothing much.

Bishy gave an embarrassed laugh. "He can't really do anything, and the last time he tried to do something, all of us ended up in the emergency ward for food poisoning."

"Aha." She pursed his lips thoughtfully before she asked Bishy (who was busy chopping up vegetables for dinner, wearing a cute white apron), "Um, can I help?"

Bishy looked at her. "Can you cook?"

"Not really," she admitted, "but I'm willing to learn!"

Since you're so cute and I really want to impress you!

"Okay then." Bishy then gave her a blue apron and instructed her in some basic culinary techniques.

And so she helped Bishy in the daytime with the cooking and cleaning, while at night she just tried to stay out of everybody's way when they went out for their driving practice. Bishy would study different race courses and later come up various driving theories and Spiky would be impressed even though he did not understand a single word his brother said, while Checky was rather fond of forcing Spiky to race with him. Sneaky and Grouchy however, would race with each other and later get into a shouting match or the occasional fistfight. Sleepy would do some fancy driving with a bored expression on his face, while DB would just annoy the hell out of all of them by cutting them off at hairpins.

Sentimental White then decided that it was best for her to practice on her own elsewhere. She didn't mind the arguing, shouting, complicated theories and lectures much, but the frequent occasions where some of the drivers would go off into some dark corner somewhere (where some of the most interesting noises could be heard) really embarrassed her.

She soon familiarised herself with a course and began setting the fastest times on it. The magazines soon found out about this and they were thrilled to find that the #1 female driver who previously disappeared some months ago was alive and well, and published the news. It was unfortunate for Sentimental White that Queen Sayuki opened the latest issue of her favourite racing magazine to find that her stepdaughter was again ranked as the #1 female driver.

"AAAAAAAAAARGH!" she screamed to Bunta, "I thought I told you to kill her!"

"So sue me," Bunta replied, "I must have killed the wrong person. I can't see much since my eyes are closed all the time."

Queen Sayuki then decided that she would have to take matters into her own hands, and that she would go find Sentimental White herself. "And I'll kill her!" she vowed.

Pin~pon~

"Coming!" Sentimental White called out as she raced to answer the front door. She opened the door and found a rather pleasant-faced young man with glasses standing in front of her. "Um, can I help you?"

"Hi!" the young man (who was actually Queen Sayuki in a very good disguise) greeted, smiling brightly, "I'm selling this great new vacuum cleaner-"

"Um," Sentimental White interrupted him, "I'm sorry, but the guys are not in. Bishy's gone out to get groceries, and the others have gone to work and stuff."

"Well you're here!"

"Um, yes, but I'm not exactly the owner of the residence, and I certainly can't afford that vacuum cleaner..."

"Aha! You should have let me finish my sales pitch. I am here to offer you a free 7-day trial of this new vacuum cleaner-"

"Well," she interrupted him again, "a free trial?" Thinking that Bishy would be pleased with a new vacuum cleaner, since he had complained some days ago that the one he had was not working too well... and if he didn't like it, they could always return it within 7 days...

"Well?"

"Sure, I'll take it!"

"Okay!" said the salesman, and he lifted the vacuum cleaner and brought it down on Sentimental White's head.

"We're ho-oof!" Sneaky managed to say before he tripped over Sentimental White's prone body on the floor. "What the- oi, you sure picked a stupid place to sleep!"

"Sneaky," Grouchy said, poking the unresponsive girl on the floor, "I don't think she's asleep."

"Really?" Sneaky squinted. "She looks asleep to me."

Grouchy poked once more. "Actually, I think she's dead."

Checky blinked. "Dead? Do you know what this means?"

Spiky beamed. "Well, since she can't see us-" He then immediately jumped on a startled Grouchy.

"Get off me!"

An embarrassed Bishy pulled the amorous Spiky away from Grouchy. "Not now, Spiky," he reprimanded his younger brother. "Anyway, let's see if she's really dead before we do anything else."

"Well?" DB asked after Bishy examined poor Sentimental White.

"She's not dead. She's just unconscious. In a coma, in fact."

"So what are we gonna do with her?" Sneaky asked.

"Just plunk her in a bed and wait for her to wake up on her own," Bishy replied as he picked up the unconscious Sentimental White and walked to the bedroom, where he placed her in DB's bed.

"Hey!" DB protested, "why must you put her in my bed?"

"Yours is the most comfy (since your dad got only the best for his precious little boy). You can sleep in Spiky's bed," Bishy said, and then winced when his younger brother jumped on Grouchy again, "since he's gonna *ahem* sleep in Grouchy's."

About a week passed; the seven drivers continued with their life as usual (with the exception of Spiky sharing Grouchy's bed), Sentimental White stayed unconscious while Queen Sayuki was thrilled to find that she was again rated #1 female driver in the magazines. In fact, things pointed to a not-so-happy ending when one day, DB's dad came to make a surprise visit. He was surprised all right, when he found a strange young woman asleep in his son's bed.

"Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my son's (comfy) bed?!" he roared and yanked Sentimental White off the bed, whereupon she hit her head on the nightstand.

And woke up. And blinked in surprise at everyone else.

"She's awake!" DB gasped.

"I can see that!" DB's dad snapped, "but what the hell was she doing in your bed?"

"Well, Bishy put her there, but it's okay, since I'm sleeping in Spiky's bed-" DB tried to explain.

"Ohooo! And just what are you doing in some guy's bed?"

Fortunately the misunderstanding was soon sorted out when Bishy explained the situation to DB's dad. "That's the story," Bishy ended his long explanation.

"I see," DB's dad said.

And so DB's dad went home (after making DB promise he would call home more often, and yes, he would challenge Sleepy to a rematch someday) and everyone was thrilled that Sentimental White was no longer unconscious. Well, Spiky wasn't too thrilled, since now he had to sleep in his own bed and not in Grouchy's.

"So what happened?" Bishy asked Sentimental White.

"Well," Sentimental White began, "there was this vacuum cleaner salesman-"

"Oh yes, we really need a new vacuum cleaner," Bishy said, interrupting her, "the one I'm using sucks."

Sentimental White blinked. "Anyway, when I said that I was interested in trying it out, he whacked me on the head with it. That's the last thing I remember."

Sleepy shook his head. "What a rude salesman. We really shouldn't buy anything from that company then."

Checky rolled his eyes and smacked Sleepy on the head. "Nitwit," he growled, "that guy's obviously not a salesman."

"Probably her stepmother in disguise," Grouchy suggested before he glared at Spiky, who had just pinched his ass. "Stop that!"

"Yes, probably," Bishy agreed. "Well, you'll just have to be more careful from now on."

Sentimental White then resumed her daily routine with a bit more caution. Unfortunately for her, the magazines published a story about her return (again!) and Queen Sayuki soon found out that she was alive and well (again!).The queen ranted and raved for a while before she came to the decision that she would just shoot Sentimental White.

Pin~pon~

Bishy sighed and went to answer the door. "Uh, can I help you?" he asked the short, but rather pretty young woman standing outside. He blinked. "Is that a real gun?"

"Yes," she snarled, "so where's that Sentimental White?"

"Umm..."

"Who is it, Bishy?" Sentimental White asked as she trotted off to the door. "Aaaaah!" she shrieked at the sight of her stepmother.

"Aaaaah indeed!" Queen Sayuki growled, but before she could do anything with her gun, Bishy grabbed it out of her hands. "Hey! Give that back!"

Bishy ignored her. "Why do you want to kill your stepdaughter?" he asked instead.

"Because she's the reason I'm #2 female driver and not #1 female driver in Gunma!"

"I'm not really interested in that #1 ranking," Sentimental White said in a small voice.

"Well I am!" Queen Sayuki shrieked, "and I can't have it as long as you're alive!"

"May I offer a suggestion?" said Bishy. "She's not interested in the ranking, but you are. She can drive although she's a little shaky in some spots, but you know how to fix that problem, since you understand the stuff in theory while she doesn't. So..."

"What?"

"Why don't the two of you team up? That way both of you can become the #1 female combination in Gunma."

"Hey, that would work!" Queen Sayuki said brightly before she dragged Sentimental White away to her castle and the two began practicing down the course together. True enough, they set even faster times and the magazines hailed the new duo as #1 female combination.

And so the queen and her stepdaughter lived happily ever after, at least until one day when Sentimental White's car broke down in a parking lot and a Prince Iketani fixed it for her and the clueless bastard didn't call her after she gave him her phone number.

The seven drivers were really thrilled that Sentimental White had made peace with her stepmother since not only they didn't have to worry about her safety anymore, they could also do all the stuff they couldn't do whenever she was around. Spiky jumped on Grouchy a lot, Sneaky jumped on Grouchy when Spiky wasn't looking, Checky jumped on Sleepy, Bishy jumped on Sleepy when Checky wasn't looking, while DB just ignored them all.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Well of course this is stupid... why do you think this is stuffed in the Junk section? Thanks to Kourin and Kristi for some of the names.