Disclaimer: I don't own the amzingness that is Gakuen Alice

Already boys and girls! I'm gonna make this very quick. This story was created by me about 3 years ago. I am 17 now and after getting back to this story and reading it, I realized something.

I kinda sucked hahahaha so HERE IT IS! We can get through this, edited, revised, and better than ever! I added so much more, and honestly, the plot has totally changed!

Hopefully this time, I have more success with this story, because, it's WAY better than the first one. Oh foolish, 15 year old me, what were you thinking?

CHAPTER 1

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Coming!" A cheerful voice was heard behind the door, followed by a few thumping noises and claims of pains.

A young boy standing on the other side of the door rolled his eyes "Hurry up, Polka the bus is going to leave."

"Okay I'm done." Said a smiling Mikan as she came out of the three-star room. Her hair whipping past his face as the brunette ran out of the room.

"Let's go, Natsume! We don't want to keep Hotaru waiting. We wouldn't want her to get mad at you for not being ready on time!" yelled Mikan, who was all the way down the hallways already. A little vain popped on Nasume's frowning face, irritated already that he had to wait for her. "What the hell? Who taught her to be so conniving like that? She really needs to stop hanging out with bad influences like lincho." Natsume whispered as he sighed and decided that catching up to Mikan would be the best thing to do. He didn't really want to be the cause of a moody Hotaru.

At the bus stop, a particular group of teens were chatting animatedly as they waited for two of their friends and the 12 o'clock bus.

"Wait wait wait, let me get this straight, are you, kitsuneme Yoshida, telling me, Kokoro Yome, that you, as a human being with at least an IQ of 90, think that Shakira is hotter than Megan Fox?"

"I don't think it, I know it."

"And they call you my twin?"

"If you were, I would deny you"

"Guys, stop it. Our "fun" day as a group is no time to be fighting." said Yuu in a worried tone, and a slight frown on his face. Meanwhile, you could here Nonoko and Anna scoffing at the argument.

"Leave them Yuu." said Sumire coldly, "they are obviously too stupid to realize that their useless, and very dumb banter could just totally ruin our day out." said a very pissed off Sumire, while glaring at Koko, "or relationships for that matter."

Koko only sweatdropped as he tried to pacify an annoyed Sumire, who just mumbled something that sounded like insensitive jerk.

A certain cerulean-eyed lad just stared at his friends with an amused face. He laughed and shook his head when Sumire started choking Koko. He turned from the sight to stare at the amethyst-eyed girl who was sitting quietly by Yuu. He was gripped by the picture of Hotaru staring off into space, her hair swaying with the light wind. She had a distant look, but suddenly turned to look at him straight on like she had heard him call her.

Her stoic face turned into a bemused one and when she quietly winked and turned from him, he cursed at himself for letting her catch him and just knew that there were going to be consequences for it.

She simply loves it when she's right.

Just when he was thinking of ways to avoid Hotaru that day, everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard the, slightly annoying sound of Mikan screaming.

"Hoootttaaarrruuu!"

The said person, even though had her head somewhere far away, reacted by instinct, got her baka gun out and shot at the brunette that was coming frighteningly fast at her. The running figure crumpled to the ground, and slowly vanished. The group was slightly confused, but then understood when they heard Mikan giggle as she hugged Hotaru from the back.

"I think you need to give Misaki-sempai her alice back, you're having way too much fun with it." said Hotaru. Mikan grinned at this, "you're just annoyed with the fact that I tricked you."

"You sucker hugged me while I was thinking. I know that you are not familiar with it because your brain is too small to even begin to process thinking, but it's something," she looked at Koko and Kitsuneme, "most of us do."

"Hotaruuu" whined Koko, Kitsuneme, and Mikan at the same time.

"She's right polka, now get off of her before we miss the bus."

"Just in time Natsume! The bus is here" said Anna gleefully. "Come on Mikan, Hotaru, we have some major shopping to do."

The boys stared as all the girls with maniac grins and a stoic Hotaru that seemed like she was being dragged, ran towards the bus. "Come on guys! yelled a hyper Nonoko, "you guys don't want to miss the bus now do you?"

"Actually, I kind of do." Kitsuneme murmured, "All we're there for is to carry bags and pay for our girl's meals." hesaid with a frown. As they all agreed, Koko stepped forward and with his fist held high he screamed, "God, protect us from the evils of the females and let us keep our head in the game, and the ultimate price!"

All the guys stared at him as they entered the noisy bus, "what's the ultimate price?" asked Yuu. Koko took his seat next to Sumire and waited for his friends to settle down."Well, my dear lincho, I don't know if you have noticed, but my Sumire is quite an animal, and I'm sure, from what I've 'heard'," he said while pointing at his head, "you receive the ultimate price almost every Wednesday night."

Lincho's face reddened as the boys snickered and took their seats next to their partners. Natsume sat next to Ruka, since Mikan had decided to annoy Hotaru with a story while totally ignoring him, which the raven-haired boy twitched at.

"Why Wednesday nights?" asked Ruka, who seemed truly curious.

Yuu stuttered, and leaned into the boys, whispering so Nonoko wouldn't hear him. "SShe's always...excited, after chemistry."

Ruka half-smirked, "stimulates her alice."

Yuu looked more embarrassed, "I guess"

Natsume listened to the guy's conversation with a bored face and turned to Mikan, who was still talking animatedly to Hotaru, who didn't to be listening much. He wasn't very happy so he did what an unhappy Natsume does. Insult.

"Hey, ugly." said Natsume by Mikan's ear, which made her snap out of her 'funny' story. "Who the heck are you calling ugly, ugly!" said Mikan huffily. Natsume smirked after getting a reaction from her. "Are you calling ME ugly? little girl you have to go get your eyes checked, I am NOT ugly." Said Natsume as he leaned back on his seat.

"Jeez Natsume, tell me, why did I fall for you, because you seem to be in love with yourself well enough for the both of us."

"Ah, but you said it, you did fall for me, so there's nothing you can do about it" said Natsume all high and mighty.

Mikan just looked at him. "Oh, you are absolutely right it's not like I can just dump you right now and say yes to that date I got asked to yesterday with that boy or that other boy OR how about those other, what was it Natsume, oh that's right, 17 boys, which I might add were rather handsome."

Everybody could swear they could count a few veins that were popping on Natsume. He opened his mouth to say something when the bus driver interrupted him.

"We are here!"

Everyone stood up and made the way slowly to the front to get out. While exiting the bus, Mikan snuck her hand into Nasume's and smiled at him, "I wouldn't dump you for any other boy," said Mikan and kissed him on the cheek.

"Well, you did say that you wanted to have a big family one day, and I just thought that it would be sad for you to end up with a boy that didn't have that part of his body to help you with that particular task."

Mikan gasped as she jumped down to the sidewalk. "Natsume, you would castrate them."

Natsume kissed her on the lips, "only while thinking of you." he said like it made complete sense.

Mikan frowned at him. "Selfish bastard. I'm gonna make sure to buy a lot of clothes today."

"I'm not your bitch, you know? I don't have to carry your shit."

"You will if you want the 'ultimate price'." stated Mikan, while she air quoted the words 'ultimate price' and said them in a mocking tone. She laughed at his disproving face, because of her snooping. She walked off with the other girls.

"I think you need to return that super hearing alice, you're having way too much with it." said the fire caster. Mikan just winked at him and laced her arm with Sumire's.

"Come on lets go" said the girls to one another and dragged their boyfriends and friend. The teens had gotten their allowance that week and didn't waste any time in making plans of spending their money. Sadly, the boys were forced to accompany them to the stores all around Central Town.

"How does this look, Kitsu?" asked Anna, as she twirled in front of a mirror.

"It totally doesn't" mumbled Kitsuneme, who was yawning and had a small tear by his eye.

Anna turned around, her bubble pink hair and the white dress she had on following behind her.

"What?"

"I said it doesn't"

"I doesn't what?"

"Make your butt look big."

"Did he just say that?" came a voice from a changing room.

"I think he did" answered a stoic voice.

After many more incidents like those prior and before to that one, and a congratulations and a pat on the back from Natsume to Ruka for not having a girlfriend to answer to, which he just nervously laughed at. The gang ended up stopping at one of the most famous fast food restaurants in Central Town, request of Natsume himself.

"That was so much fun!" exclaimed a happy Mikan on the table while they ate their food.

"Too loud, baka" said Hotaru, and chucked a fry at Mikan's head. Everybody laughed at the two and kept conversing with each other. Some bickering, some telling jokes, mostly Kitsuneme. At one moment, Koko asked Sumire if she wanted the rest of his fries.

"Why don't you ask Megan Fox?"

"Sumire, we are facing world hunger, and you want to worry about some stupid movie star, who is not that great an actress, and does not even have a third of your beauty?" said Koko with an almost serious face. Sumire laughed and pecked her boyfriend's lips.

Hotaru almost laughed at her friend's banters and then really smiled when she caught Ruka staring at her again.

Oh, how she loved winning. She had predicted this, and of course, she was never wrong, so she did what her brain had calculated for her to do by now, and she excused herself from the table quietly, but not before fully looking at Ruka in the eye, sending her message loud and clear.

'You're going to lose'

Ruka gulped at Hotaru's bemused expression, as she stood up from the table to head for the restrooms. She walked away with a little bit of an extra sway to her hips that you didn't see every day with Hotaru Imai, and he knew that she was tempting him.

Well, she won. He looked around the big table, noting that everyone would be way too preoccupied with the fact that his best friend was being the pervert that he is and was somehow making it awkward for Nonoko to keep eating her foot long, and for Yuu to look up from his plate. He downed his Dr. Pepper before slipping away from the table to the restrooms.

He waited outside of the ladies' restroom, tapping his leg in a nervous manner.

Nowadays only she could make feel as nervous as this.

The bathroom door opened, but was shut back again when Ruka stealthily maneuvered to push himself into the room while covering Hotaru's mouth, in case she decided to scream. He let her go, once she saw it was him, and turned to lock the door. When he turned around, she was putting her purse down on the floor, and turning to him.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"You wanted to play this stupid game"

"Why would you make the situation harder than what it already is?"

"Because I always win, and this," she said waving her hand around, "was what I needed to do to prove that. He had struggle written all over his face, but it suddenly changed to anticipation as he thought over the facts. She read him quickly, knowing he understood that she had just won the stupid game, and smirked. He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him, while snaking his arm around her waist. He pulled her letting their lips meet as a desperate action and kissed her roughly. She responded back, like it was an old routine and responded back with the same force. Their bodies were close now, hips together and just the feel of Hotaru's chest against his was enough to send him over.

Hotaru rubbed Ruka's leg with her hand and smiled into the kiss when she felt him shift. She did it again but this time she started by his hips and went slowly down. Ruka was, to say the least, excited, after nights of suppressed desires to, putting it bluntly, have sex, to finally get something.

She was fast unfastening his belt, as his mouth traveled from her lips to her jaw, and her neck, when he decided to open his big mouth. "You're the best girlfriend in the whole world." Ruka half sighed half quivered out, while smiling happily into her neck. Her slender fingers suddenly froze, and Ruka stopped too, because he knew that he just killed any chance of letting his little buddy be at least a little happy.

The raiven-haired's tone sounded pissed when she sneered the word 'girlfriend' at him and unlocked the bathroom door to leave. Ruka, in a moment of surprise, swiftly grabbed her wrist and turned her around.

"Oh no, you don't," Ruka pulled her back with an angry face "Dammit Hotaru! We are not fighting about this again!" huffed Ruka while tightening his grip on her wrist but failing to notice Hotaru's eyes widening and then closing from this sudden pain.

When he did, Ruka let out a low gasp and drew his hand quickly like he had been stung. Hotaru composed herself, and glared at him while holding her wrist. She turned to the door, but before leaving, she turned around and slapped him hard across the face. Hotaru went for the door, and before Ruka could get a word in she had left him alone in the pink bathroom. He reached for his red cheek and sighed sadly. He dragged himself back to his seat and noticed that the inventor was still in the restaurant, eating her blueberry cheesecake while Sumire told her about all the calories she was eating. Everybody had been so engulfed in their group conversations that they failed to notice that the two had left for almost ten minutes.

Everybody except a raven haired boy, who just looked up and watched his suspicious acting friends. From Ruka red cheek to Hotaru's stoic expression, that if you looked at close enough, could see something was bothering her. How big, he didn't know

-School-

Everybody was walking towards the girl's dorm, the boys to drop their girlfriends off. Then suddenly they realized something. "Where are Hotaru and Ruka-pyon?" asked the confused brunette as she looked around. Nobody answered since they didn't know either.

Natsume just glanced at Mikan and looked straight ahead. He was thinking of the event that had unfolded at the restaurant. He was worried about his best friend, and he would be lying if he said he didn't care about Hotaru's side of it. For some strange circumstances that come with life, the two most stoic and unmoving people in the academy found that they have a lot in common. For starters, they were both stoic and unmoving, and, of course, Mikan. Natsume figured that having her as a friend meant that he had one more person that could help him with Mikan which showed that the Black Cat had a little respect for her and trusted her enough to help her with his moody girlfriend. While for Hotaru that was one more person she could tease and blackmail, and occasionally be nice to

'I'm rather intrigued by this turn of events, and honestly, the academy was getting kind of boring. If this is what I think it is, things are about to get more interesting' thought a smirking Natsume.