Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. Seriously, ask anyone.
A/N: This entire story was a mistake. I meant it to be a one-shot but its spun out of control!!! It will now be a THREE-shot. Readers of my other stories, please forgive me for this distraction BUT I hope you like it!!!
WHEEEEE. Read!!!
Somewhere In the Middle
Chapter 1: WTH
Middle school, as it is known in the states, is a term used to describe the few school years between our childhood and our young adulthood. It is a transition from sitting in classes full of wild children to sitting in classes full of wild teenagers, and most, if not all, preteens must undergo its fateful conversion if they wish to survive high school.
Teachers begin to treat you like trash in middle school. Textbooks look like they should be thrown away, rather than used regularly, and lessons become harder and harder. Students, friends and classmates are separated according to GPA's, gender and talents. Enemies become friends, friends become boy/girlfriends and friends become enemies all as hormones drain what is left of our lives through the holes at our feet.
We are left confused, fuddled and somewhat grownup before we are thrown in to the world with nothing more than our wits and talents to tell us up from down; and this entire painful process begins the second we step through those doors on the first day of middle school.
Although those things may change, and our grades will slip to the dregs of our subconscious, as social interactions become our only worry, one thing remains the same...
"Ten dollars Mai will be late," Takigawa exclaimed, slapping his hand on his desk.
Ayako looked up from her nail file, her short red hair flipping up as she did so, "You're on," she challenged, "You have no faith in Mai."
"I have faith in her..." Takigawa teased, "faith that she will be late! Just like yesterday and the day before and the day before that..."
Ayako reached up with her sharp nails and smacked Takigawa on the backside of the head. He pouted at her and propped his textbook up so that it separated them. A second later he peeked over the top and stuck his tongue out. Stupid Ayako. Stupid nail file.
"Hello mates," a chipper Australian voice greeted, calling Takigawa over the edge of his textbook to inform John of Ayako's cruel, vicious ways.
"She took her claws and dug them in to my skull!" Takigawa complained, "Wanna see the scars...?"
John shook his head adamantly pushing himself further away from his friends desk as Ayako launched her file at Takigawa.
Shivering in his chair John looked up to see Masako entering the room with her head hanging low, unusual for the self confident sixth grader.
"Why Ms. Hara, what's wrong?" John asked worriedly, watching her as she took her seat beside the rest of them in the back of the class.
Masako looked up at him with a frown, "Please John, call me Masako, and anyway...Oliver rejected me again," she said, falling in to her seat with a 'flop', "I just don't see what he hates about me."
John watched her silently, his cheeks slowly turning red even as he averted his eyes from her face, "Well Ms. Ha-ah, Masako, I'm not sure that he hates you so much that he...likes someone else."
Masako's eyes widened, framing her long eyelashes, she leaned closer to John who promptly turned redder, "Who? Who does he like?"
John scratched his neck absentmindedly, "Well, ah, you see.."
"Morning class," the teacher announced, walking in to class with a wide smile and a clipboard under one arm.
"Morning Ms. Mori," the class responded diligently.
Takigawa and Ayako ceased their bickering long enough to pull out their homework and face the front of the class; before Takigawa threw a note at Ayako's head and Ayako scribbled a reply and threw it back, and after that John and Masako faced the front of the class trying very hard not to let it be seen that they were involved.
7: 45. The bell rang and Takigawa's head shot up so fast that he whacked his head on Ayako's hand which she had been preparing to smack him with.
"Ow," Takigawa winced, "I win!"
With no shyness of grumbling Ayako dug in her back pack, found a ten dollar bill and smacked it on Takigawa's desk so hard that half of the students turned around in their chairs.
"What are you looking at?" Ayako hissed, spreading a magazine out inside of her textbook.
The teacher, Madoka Mori, looked up as the classroom's door swung open. Nonchalantly a tall, pale sixth grader entered the classroom, not even sparing the teacher a glance. His taller, paler, older friend walking in behind him.
"You're late Oliver," Ms. Mori announced from the blackboard, "You too Lin."
Instead of protesting, rather, Naru turned to Madoka and pointed at Lin, "He's your teaching assistant, I was with him, so therefore I'm not late."
Madoka turned on Lin as she was halfway done writing out the greeting on the blackboard, he shrugged and spread his laptop out on her desk, making himself comfortable. She took a deep breath and rolled her eyes.
Naru took his seat in the back beside John and Takigawa and as he did so Yasuhara spun around and leaned against the stoic boy's desk.
Naru only stared at him, giving him a weighted look while Takigawa and Ayako stared until Takigawa shouted, "Where were you? Have you been here this whole time?!"
"Mr. Houshou please be quiet," Madoka requested, rubbing her temples in the front of the class.
"Sorry, Ms. Mori," Takigawa recited diligently, immediately leaning over the aisle to hiss in Yasuhara's ear, "Where were you?"
Yasuhara only smiled, his glasses glinting deviously in the sunlight bouncing through the windows. He adjusted his frames and faced the front of the class, copying what was written on the blackboard.
Takigawa leaned back in his seat sharing a look with Ayako of confusion. A look that Yasuhara did not see.
"Alright class, this morning we will be talking about-"
"I'm sorry!" a voice panted in the doorway, "I'm here, I'm here, I'm sorry!"
Madoka sighed, leaning against the blackboard in frustration as the class turned to stare at the person walking exhaustedly in to the class.
"Gene, you're late," Madoka said pointedly, scribbling something on to her clipboard before returning to the lesson. "Today, we will be learning about..."
Gene took a seat behind his brother, "Hey bro," he greeted.
Naru didn't gratify him with a response, instead he stared at the blackboard, copying the notes with fortuitous precision.
Takigawa leaned across the aisle towards Gene, he hissed, "Where were you?"
Gene smiled, pulling his pencils and leaf paper from his bag, "I got a little...held up. You see-"
Ayako smacked her gum in between her lips, startling Takigawa and Gene. She looked up at them, "What?"
Yasuhara spun around in his desk, "That was gross," he smiled, and then turned back around.
Takigawa stared at Yasu and then Ayako and his hand flew to his mouth. Gene watched him amusedly, as laughter just barely slipped between his fingers. No longer able to hold it in Takigawa's hand flew away from his mouth and he laughed out loud, startling Ms. Mori who tripped on a piece of chalk and landed on her fallen clipboard.
Lin stood quickly, he took Madoka's hand and helped her to her feet as she brushed off her skirt. She blushed. "Really, that's okay. You don't have to help me up," she insisted.
Lin watched her, "I'm your teaching assistant, it's what I'm here for. To assist."
He reached down and handed her, clipboard in one swift move. Madoka watched him as he sat down again, staring for only a moment before continuing her lesson.
Takigawa was leaning back in his chair, his textbook propped on his desk, hiding his face. Madoka sighed heavily and decided to let it go. Luckily she had taken some aspirin earlier that morning.
"As I was saying-"
The door flew open again, this time crashing against the wall so hard that its opener slipped, falling to the floor with her hand still firmly grasping the door handle. She gave a small shriek before saying, "Ow, I'm okay."
Madoka stared at Mai with tense, furrowed eyebrows. "Mai, you're late. Take your seat please."
The small girl looked up at her teacher and then, as she was standing, spotted Naru in the back of the class, "But Ms. Mori it isn't my fault! He did it! Lin and Naru tricked me in to going in to the teacher's lounge to make them tea, and hey snuck away when they saw the Principal going in! By the time he was done yelling at me I was already late! Please don't count me tardy, please, please, please with sugar on top!"
Madoka stared at the girl in bemused horror. Her head turned to Naru sporadically until she was staring at him, her eyes wide and her jaw hanging open.
"Oliver Davis...is this true?" she asked, her voice cracking.
Naru shook his head, "She forgot to mention that Gene tried to stop her and made him late as well."
Madoka slumped to the floor, Mai watching her in confusion.
"Ms. Mori are you okay?" she asked, lifting a hand to help.
"Go. Sit. Down." Madoka said through her teeth, and Mai hurriedly complied.
The rest of the class watched their teacher in expectation, except for Naru who was reading a book, Ayako who was filing her nails, texting and reading a magazine, and Yasuhara, who had mysteriously disappeared again.
Madoka looked up from her stupor only to find dozens of eyes boring in to hers. She blinked and then picked up her clipboard, stood herself up and brushed herself off. She was through trying to teach these children. This happened every single day...
"Okay kids, I'm going shopping. While I'm gone its study hall!" she announced, grabbing her purse and slamming the door behind her as she left.
For a moment after she was gone there was silence and then a chorus of cheers erupted from the students.
"That took longer than usual," Ayako grumbled, "She usually doesn't make it through the attendance."
Mai smiled at her friends from her seat beside Naru's. "So, anything happen while I was gone?"
Ayako, Takigawa, John and Masako spun around to face her but before they could say anything Naru cut in, "Shut up and make me some more tea."
To which Mai's face fell, her cheeks flushing furiously, she opened her mouth to give a snippy response but Naru only opened his mouth again, "It wasn't that bad. Maybe I'll even hire you one day, you can be my assistant and make me tea."
Gene's face split in to a smile as he watched Mai's face twist in to an excited grin.
"Yeah, and everyone else can help too. We can all work together," Mai exclaimed, "Monk, Ayako, Masako, Gene, Yasuhara and John! Oh and we could get Lin to help as well…and maybe even Ms. Mori, since Lin seems so taken by her."
Naru's eyebrows furrowed, he closed his textbook with a snap and leveled his gaze at her, "What do you mean Lin is 'taken' by Ms. Mori?"
Mai only blinked, "Naru, didn't you know? Lin is so obviously in LOVE with her. I am very good at telling things like this."
Naru put a hand to his forehead as most of the others tried to hide their laughter behind their textbooks. Finally, Monk couldn't take it anymore, he erupted in to fits of laughter until he fell to the floor, rolling in between his and Ayako's desk.
Ayako reached down and smacked him, effectively shutting him up.
"What's so funny?" Mai asked, clearly not understanding the situation.
Naru watched her, out of the corner of his eye, she was grinning slightly, the corners of her smooth face lifting in humor. Her hair brushed her shoulders and as she moved it moved with her, sending strawberry vanilla shampoo wafting towards his nostrils. He smiled.
"Oh my god! What's wrong with you! Naru, you just smiled! This has got to be something serious! Tell me, tell me, tell me!!!" Mai insisted, slamming her hands on to his desk.
The rest of the class, too busy with their own affairs, hardly seemed to notice the scenario taking place in the back of the classroom.
Masako's eyes widened as she slowly, slowly realized what John had meant…
Yasuhara, hidden behind a bookcase in the very back of the class, peeked his head out, grinning deviously…
Ayako shoved Takigawa out of her way, watching Mai and Naru in sudden interest…
Gene grinned, enjoying the sight of his brother being bothered by someone besides himself...
John sighed, rubbed his temples and enjoyed the bit of silence from his (well-meaning but still very loud) friends…
Takigawa diligently stood behind Ayako, his hands on his hips, warning Naru not to try anything outlandish on his favorite kouhai….
Naru looked at Mai, staring at her outright and not wavering his gaze. Her cheeks flushed, "W-What is it?" she stuttered nervously.
"Nothing," he promised, "We were just in awe of your stupidity. You are so attentive when it comes to other people but when it comes to yourself you are…DENSE."
Mai's face turned completely livid, she stood up quickly, her chair falling over in the process.
"I AM NOT DENSE YOU MORONIC SCIENTIST!!!" she screeched, Takigawa rushed forward and held her back easily.
"Come on Mai, you're wearing a skirt, don't kick him!" he begged.
"Fine." Naru said curtly.
Mai stared at Naru, suddenly calm, "Fine? What do you mean by that?"
"I mean," he said, looking at her, "I'll cut you a deal. We'll have a contest. If you win then I will take back what I said about you being dense. If you lose then you have to admit to me that you are the densest person in all of Japan."
Mai watched him with complete resolution, "Deal."
"But wait!" Takigawa cut in, "What's the contest?"
Naru grinned mischievously, causing Mai to shiver, "Oh its easy, Mai just has to figure out who the person I like is by the end of the week."
Mai narrowed her eyes on the narcissist. Naru liked somebody? This Naru? Sarcastic, rude, blunt, insanely smart Naru? Was she dreaming?
"Deal." Mai said quickly turning away from Naru with red cheeks. She picked her seat up and sat down, facing away from the moronic scientist.
A few seconds later she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around to see her friends, all of them, watching her with concern.
"Mai," Takigawa said, shaking his head sadly, "You have no idea what you just agreed to, you are going to lose so bad."
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