AN: Quick little one shot my friend said I should write. Hope you like it. (I'm hoping the next chapter of Last Stop will be out soon, but that's doubtful. I have eight full pages written, but there is still so much to happen, ha. And I don't have any time X.X))

Always Finish What You Start

The bell rang, signaling the start of the next period. Most were already in their seats; they had just come from lunch and had plenty of time. Even if you walked lethargically, you most likely wouldn't be late. Everyone sat down in his or her desks grudgingly, arranged into groups of four, although most groups only had three with an extra desk. The teacher wasn't there yet, so most kept right on talking.

A girl with shoulder length sandy blond hair sat quietly, nose in a book as usual. Her sparkling green eyes moved across the page rhythmically, although not with the greatest of speed. While she always had her face hidden behind a book, her reading level was not much above average, topping out at possibly eighth grade (they were mere sixth graders). Whoever invented the Accelerated Reading (AR for short) tests should get a life. Though books may have been her greatest downfall, she was a total tomboy who loved rough sports.

The teacher still hadn't arrived. The girl was interrupted from her book by a voice. "Hitomi? Hello?"

Hitomi looked over to see Jaymee sitting at her desk in another group. Jaymee, contrary to Hitomi, was a complete girly-girl, did not enjoy sports (unless there was a hot guy), and did not like school. Her hair was blond, coming to about her chin, with dark brown eyes. Perhaps her only fault was that she wore glasses, but that didn't necessarily have to be a fault. Together, the two girls somehow formed a rocky friendship, alternating between topics the other hated.

"What?" Hitomi asked, itchy to start reading again and feeling apprehensive as to what the teacher would say if he were there.

"Who was that cute boy you were sitting with at lunch?" Jaymee asked, smiling shyly and blushing slightly, as she always did when talking about the opposite sex. Gosh, they were only eleven . . .

"Cute boy?" Hitomi asked, drawing a blank. She wasn't aware that she sat with any cute boys at lunch. Boys, yes, but not cute boys.

"Yes! The one sitting across from you!" Jaymee cried, staring at Hitomi as if she should have known this.

Unfortunately, Hitomi sat with three boys, and two of them sat across from her.

"Which one?" she asked stupidly.

"You know! The one with black hair!" Jaymee said, exasperated.

"You mean Van Fanel?" Hitomi asked incredulously. "You think Van Fanel is cute!"

Van Fanel, Hitomi's best friend and next door neighbor, had short, messy black hair matched with these unique rust-colored eyes. He was rather popular, good all-around at sports, and definitely was not ugly. But he definitely wasn't cute, in Hitomi's opinion. Sloppy, yes. Crude, yes. Able to pressure you into stuff you didn't want to do, yes. Unbelievably cool, yes. But not cute.

And Hitomi was his very non-pretty, non-popular, on-the-edge-of-geeky-tag along friend.

"Of course!" Jaymee squealed. "Who else could I possibly mean?"

Hitomi thought about it. It was true, Van was the best looking one at the table, next to Gaddes and Kio. Gaddes, one who couldn't care less about school, was a friend of Van's who sat with them, and certainly wasn't appealing to girls like Jaymee. Kio, on the other hand, was another of Hitomi's best friends, and while he was pleasantly plump, he was a nice, quiet guy.

"How could you not think he's cute?" Jaymee demanded, snapping Hitomi out of her reverie.

"Because he's not," Hitomi protested. "At least, not to me. He's been my best friend since we were four."

"So you can introduce me?" Jaymee asked quickly, another blush creeping into her cheeks.

The teacher walked in just as Hitomi shrugged and said, "Sure."

oOo

Van stared dully at the disciplinarian table, after just being scolded from halfway across the lunch room. Crazy disciplinarians were paranoid. But Van wasn't one to care about adult supervision, or detention, or what he could or could not do. Because he could do anything; he was Van. But what were his concerns? Hitomi, for being his best friend, herself wasn't quite sure of the answer.

"Hey, Van," Hitomi said, waving her hand in front of Van's, and subsequently Kio's, face. Kio ignored her, while Van's lazy, playful eyes turned to her. They stared at each other for a moment, as they had so many times before, as Hitomi tried to comprehend what was so cute about him.

"What?" he asked, not in a demanding voice, but in a rather soft tone. Hitomi swore she could see Jaymee blushing already.

"Do you remember Jaymee? She wanted me to introduce her to you," Hitomi said bluntly, pointing at Jaymee, who was sitting next to Gaddes. Jaymee waved a bit hysterically, as Van, resting his chin on one hand, waved once, looking rather unenthusiastic.

"The girl from yesterday," Van said, glancing at Jaymee, then focusing back on Hitomi.

"Yeah, for some reason, she thinks you're cute," Hitomi said with a shrug. This brought out a bemused look on Van's face, while Jaymee yelled how could you! and other such things at Hitomi. Along with Van, she, too, found Jaymee amusing. Perhaps that was why they were such great friends: they could both laugh at other peoples pain.

No, there was definitely something deeper.

The prospect of attracting new attention, plus ostracizing Kio and Gaddes, seemed to perk Van up a bit. He put on one of his charms, accepting this praise with modesty. It was just one more thing that made females swoon, and Hitomi roll her eyes, not at Van and his antics, but at the girls who fell for them.

What, then, was his shadow Hitomi?

"Thank you," Van replied with a warm smile, making Jaymee giggle.

oOo

Everything was okay at first; conversations at lunch, introduction of Van to Jaymee's friends, a little less playing time with Van. Yeah, Hitomi could take that. She could even take Jaymee's raving about how cute and nice Van was. But with each passing day, it all became worse and worse, like a song on the radio you liked that was overplayed. Eventually, Hitomi was excluded from all conversations, Jaymee's friends were increasingly annoying, and Van would spend his recesses hugging Jaymee instead of playing tag.

And it'd only been a week since their introduction.

Van and Hitomi were playing basketball in the widened part of their shared driveway. Van stood at the farthest point from the net, up against the fence to Hitomi's yard. Concentrating, with a flick of the wrist, he sank the shot. Hitomi scooped the ball on its second bounce, and half-heartedly passed it back to Van.

"Hey, what's wrong? You don't want to play basketball?" Van asked, taking another shot and missing.

"It's not really that . . ." Hitomi murmured, although she really didn't want to play basketball. Then again, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

"What, then?" Van persisted.

"Nothing."

Van looked at her skeptically, but resumed his game of show off.

A few minutes passed, and they began to play a game of horse. Hitomi was a H-O-R, and Van was a H-O. These two letter configurations had to be about the only reason they both liked to play horse; they found it amusing to call each other a 'ho' and 'whore', and even 'whores'. Yet today, Hitomi didn't find it very amusing at all (being a whore wasn't a good thing, after all).

"So . . . how's Jaymee?" Hitomi asked, unable to repress the growing grudge within her any longer.

"Fine," was Van's monotone reply.

"And her friends?" Hitomi asked through gritted teeth.

"Fine."

"Do you have fun at recess?" Hitomi asked quietly. "Just . . . hugging her in front of all of her friends?"

Despite his "whatever" attitude towards school, Van was not an idiot. After sinking a shot, he turned towards her, allowing the ball to roll into the middle of the driveway. His maroon eyes connected with her green ones, and she felt herself shrink within. It was happening more and more lately. They disagreed so much, as a result of getting older; but every time they did, Hitomi felt as though she was always the one that was wrong.

"Are you jealous?" Van sneered. "You get to see me every day. You get to play with me every day. I only get to spend time at school with Jaymee. What do you want me to do?"

"I am not jealous!" Hitomi cried indignantly. "And that wasn't my question! I asked if you were having fun at recess without playing!"

"Fun . . . .playing without you, you mean?" Van stabbed again.

"Van, you're twisting my words!" Hitomi exclaimed. "How can you have fun being a puppet to those girls? You don't even know Jaymee! You only met her a week ago!"

Van paused. "Well, I have fun at recess. It's not so bad. I like Jaymee. She's nice."

Heated tears welled up in the corner of her eyes; her blood was boiling.

"And for the record, they have me kiss her on the cheek too."

Angrily, Hitomi kicked the basketball into the street, and stormed off.

oOo

The sun shined, birds chirped, happy children ran and screamed and played, yet a cloud hung over Hitomi, evaporating her feelings like water, waiting, ready to pour at any given moment. But she didn't feel any boiling anger, any energy, any desire to do much of anything. She just felt . . . lonely. Forgotten. Depressed. All she could do was sit and stare, with the words of one of Van's friends ringing in her head.

"So, I guess you're not playing today because Van isn't?"

Those words hurt deeply for some reason. What was she without Van? Nothing. What was Van without her? The same as the Van with her. The same cool, popular Van. She hated it. But even as she gazed out over the playground, she desired to play with no one other than him.

From up on the jungle gym, she watched them. There was Millerna, a girly, prissy brat whom Hitomi sometimes talked to. Then there was Merle, who was shier and not quiet so girly, and the twins, Naria and Eriya, who merely stood in the background.

Hitomi felt contempt for them. A very strong contempt.

Worst of all, however, was Van and Jaymee. They stood side by side, away from the group, looking cute together. Van was wearing a black, long sleeve shirt, ever so slightly too big, and jeans, while Jaymee wore her standard pinkness. Super guy going out with the cute girl.

Ever. So. Typical.

The group squealed in delight as Van kissed Jaymee on the cheek. Hitomi's grip tightened on the bar she'd been holding on to. She swore Van turned to look at her, just for a second. This was the last straw. She had to do something. She had to get her friend back (and make them see how stupid sixth grade romances were!). After all, she started it, so she could finish it.

With this resolution made, Hitomi stormed over to the little group. Jaymee shrank into Van a little from the sheer look on Hitomi's face, while Van just stared at her in surprise. Yeah, he would never expect that from his quiet friend, now would he? The silence was unnerving.

"Are you guys having fun?" Hitomi asked quietly, feeling greatly outnumbered and suppressed by Van's gaze.

"Aren't they so cute together, Hitomi?" Millerna squealed in delight.

"No. This is stupid. We're only eleven," Hitomi said.

"You're just jealous because Van likes Jaymee more," Merle sneered.

"He—I am not jealous! You all look so stupid, forcing them to hug . . ."

"Do you know how stupid you look watching us?"

"That's enough!" Van exclaimed, jumping in to defend Hitomi, who felt like crying. But she would not lose to these girls. She would prove to Van that she was better, and that this was insane!

"This . . . is . . . so . . . stupid!" Hitomi cried. All the girls ran in their girlish way, Jaymee dragging Van along with her. In a rage, she ran after them, only intent on catching Van and . . . tackling him. Yes, she would tackle him, and make him listen to her, make him see how foolish he was being. And then everything would be normal, and they'd all be happy.

Only one thing went wrong with this plan-- Hitomi tackled too high. Van had told her so several times before, yet she couldn't stop aiming for the neck instead of waist. So, when she dove to bring him to the ground, she only managed to latch on to his neck. No no no! Why, why couldn't Van just go down now? Now, to her utter embarrassment, all the girls, and some other meaningless spectators, thought she was crazy and . . . so very wrong.

"W-What are you doing, Hitomi?" Van choked, as she continued to try and knock him off-balance. He was rather resilient, however, and carried her on his back as he wobbled a few paces forward.

"This is stupid," Hitomi hissed into his ear. "We're eleven! Eleven!"

"Please let go," Van whispered just as low. "Let go, and we'll talk."

"You won't run away?" Hitomi asked.

"No! Just get off," Van said, just as thoroughly embarrassed, and blushing madly. Hitomi let go, sliding the few inches that separated their height to the ground.

"Gosh, are you crazy?" Van asked incredulously, turning to face her finally as he rubbed his neck.

"Break up with Jaymee," was all Hitomi could say.

Van sighed, and stared as Millerna was trying to comfort Jaymee, who was crying now for God knows what reason. Hitomi followed their path around the track, too, and felt a pang of remorse at what she'd just done. Turning back to Van, she was surprised to see a wow, you're-really-crazy-if-you-would-do-THAT-just-to-get-what-you-want, but-I'll-go-with-it-anyway smile adorning his face. As they stared, they couldn't help but crack up.

"You're a bit crazier than I thought," Van said.

"Drastic times need drastic measures," Hitomi shrugged.

"You couldn't have just waited until we just naturally broke up, right?"

"No, you were being slow about it," Hitomi laughed.

"Let's go play tag."

"Yeah!"

As they walked back to the jungle gym, Hitomi stopped abruptly.

"Hey, Van?"

"Yeah?"

"You are kinda cute, I guess."

Van smiled the smile he only gave her.

The End

AN: So, stupid, pointless one shot, yay. Only, it kinda wasn't stupid to me . . . since, uh, it was mostly true. Yeah. I really tried to tackle my friend like that. Yeah . . . you know you thought it was funny.

Okay, so frickin' all of it was true except for the end. I never said he was cute.

And I was not jealous.

You hear me, I was not jealous! XD

-Spirit0