Disclaimer: The original plot and story of PoT rightfully and legally belongs to Konomi Takeshi-sensei. This disclaimer applies to all chapters, by the way.

Author's Notes: Greetings. After reading fanfictions for god-knows-how-long, I finally decided to write one of my own. As a novice writer, I still have a lot to learn and would really appreciate it if readers would review my story.

This - refers to thoughts or flashbacks.

Chapter 1: The Dare

"I like you."

Three words. Three very simple words that barely carried any meaning to them (to the speaker, at the very least). That was all. But little did Minamizawa Nagi know that those very three words she uttered would spark off a chain of events that would change her life forever.

"KYAAAHH!! FUJI-SAMA!! KIKUMARU-SAMA!!"

The classroom during lunch break was almost never empty, thanks to the bunch of hormone-ridden fangirls that never failed to pour through the doors everyday to visit their most adored idols. The noise generated by all the high-pitched squealing was so loud, it could put even a dozen pens of pigs to shame. The classroom of 3-6 was definitely not, by any standard, the best of study environments.

Yet, sitting in the far corner of the classroom, away from the crowd and racket, sat a bespectacled girl, quietly reading a thick book. Unperturbed by the noise, she flipped page after page, calmly reading through the book until the end, after which she closed the book and finally left the classroom.

"Nagi-chan, you're really amazing, you know?"

The bespectacled girl looked up from her bento. "How?"

"Well," Kasuragi Misaki continued, "you're always able to study and do all sorts of other things in class even though it's always so noisy in there."

"She's got her earphones plugged on three-quarters of the time, you know," remarked Umezaki Hayate. "Of course the noise can't get to her."

"But still–"

"Alright, enough of that. Game's underway." said Hayate, cutting Misaki off. The latter pouted and flipped her long mahogany hair, an action she regularly did when someone or something displeased her.

Hayate placed a bottle in the middle of the circle formed by the three girls. Like many girls of their age, the game of 'Truth or Dare' formed a part of their staple lunch activity. The other two sighed and continued to eat their lunch as their green-haired friend fumbled around with the stubborn bottle that was refusing to stay in place.

Finishing the last bit of her lunch, Nagi said, "I thought you were sick of this already?"

At the question, Hayate instantly broke into a smirk. "Today's different," she said, "we're playing 'Dare or Dare'."

There was a pause as it took a while for the statement to sink in. When it had fully registered itself in the brains of the two, it was already too late.

Looking at the spinning object, the three girls kept their eyes fixed on it as it slowly came to a stop.

Kikumaru Eiji let out a sigh of relief as the last of the fangirls cleared out of the classroom.

"They're finally gone…" Kikumaru said as he slumped down his chair.

Fuji chuckled. "Was it that tiring?"

The redhead shot him a look and pouted. "You're one to talk. Your fans were making so much noise."

"Yours were too."

"At least they weren't as noisy as yours," Kikumaru remarked. "Can't you tell them to tone it down a bit?"

"You know I have as much control over them as Taka-san has over his power," Fuji stated matter-of-fact-ly.

The acrobatic tennis player sighed and sank further down his seat. Then, all of a sudden, an idea hit him. He jumped out of his seat enthusiastically as the glucose level in his body surged back to its original sugar high level.

"That's it! Fuji, why don't you get yourself a girlfriend? That'll be bound to stop them." exclaimed the redhead excitedly.

Fuji said nothing and continued smiling. Being the genius that he was, he had already considered that option long ago. Ever since the tennis player entered his second year, he had came to be more and more in the spotlight and, with his drool-worthy looks and pro-like tennis skills, commanded a formidable legion of fangirls, whose numbers proliferated with his every achievement on the courts. Though not entirely averse to the attention, the tensai was well aware that his fangirls –their ear-piercing squealing, to be exact– were a distraction for the club members, not to mention a huge headache for his friends. He'd once considered all the possible solutions to that problem, with only the aforementioned as the only long-term one. The only problem was how to go about with it, without, needless to say, the participation of his overly helpful teammates. And since he did not have many suitable female friends he could turn to to be his 'scapegoat', he needed to find an alternative way to solve his problem.

The brunette thought for a moment. There were not many alternatives, and even lesser feasible ones (he'd considered declaring himself homosexual but decided that that would do considerable harm to his reputation, not to mention sour the relationship with his teammates). The only possible alternative, he concluded, was to get one of the numerous girls who confessed to him to be his 'stand-in'.

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break and effectively ending the conversation.

"We'll see…" Fuji said as he watched the lunch crowd disperse.

During class…

That it was the last lesson of the day was obvious. Everyone was exceptionally fidgety, squirming about in their seats, anxiously counting down the last thirty minutes to the bell. Everyone was busy doing their own things to while the time away while the teacher was busy droning on and on about something or the other.

Nagi stared at the whiteboard. Nope, she wasn't staring at the teacher's handwriting and trying to figure out what the numbers and words meant. She was blanking out, plain and simple.

"Confess to Fuji-kun."

Nagi stared at her green-headed friend. "What?"

"Confess to Fuji-kun," Hayate repeated. "And ask him to go out with you."

Though no sophisticated vocabulary was used in the sentence, the context in which it was delivered made it a truly incomprehensible statement.

"I beg your pardon?" Nagi asked again.

" ' I. Like. You. Please. Go. Out. With. Me.' " said Hayate, stressing on each word. "Tell that to Fuji-kun."

"You're out of your mind." The former remarked as she packed her things.

"Oh, come on! It's only a dare," the latter urged. "It's not like you'd lose anything from saying it."

My pride. thought Nagi as she ignored her friend.

Hayate 'hmph'-ed and folded her arms across her chest. "Whatever it is, you're doing it after school and that's final! We'll be watching to ensure that you complete the dare before going home. Remember that."

The brunette let out a sigh. Just then, a crumpled piece of paper landed on her table.

Opening the note, it read: 'Don't forget! After school!'

With another longer sigh, she folded the note and slipped it into her pocket. There was no other way out of the predicament except to face it head on.

Then, almost on cue, the bell rang.

Students immediately filed out of the classroom, leaving the room virtually empty, save a few people who were packing their things.

From the corner of her eye, Nagi looked over to the other end of the classroom where Fuji's seat was. The tennis player was taking his time keeping his things while talking to his hyper redheaded friend.

Nagi contemplated getting rid of Kikumaru before calling out to Fuji but decided against it to prevent the inquisitive lad from asking unnecessary questions.

Adjusting her glasses, Nagi quickly stroded over to where the two were standing.

In the most polite voice she could muster, Nagi said, "Excuse me, Fuji-san,"

The said boy turned around. Though only for a moment, surprise was evident on his face. "Yes, Minamizawa-san?"

Whoa. He actually remembered my name…thought an incredulous Nagi. "May I have a word with you?"

Fuji had a puzzled look on his face. With me? "Sorry, but we have to go to tennis practice right now."

"That's right, nya," Kikumaru interrupted. "Tezuka-buchou's going to give us laps if we get to practice late."

Harsh… "I assure you it would only take a short while."

"Well," Fuji thought for a moment. "Okay then. What is it?"

"It's…" Nagi glanced around. Despite that the bell had rang five minutes ago, there were still a considerable number of people in the classroom, namely the unlucky ones on cleanliness duty, and all their attention seemed to have been riveted onto them as evident from the stares and whispers.

"May we take this conversation to some other place?" Nagi asked the tensai quietly.

"Sure," Fuji agreed.

The two then left the classroom, leaving behind a puzzled Kikumaru and a certain duo of smirking girls.

Fuji asked as the pair were walking down the corridor, "Are you in any extra-curricular, Minamizawa-san?"

"H-huh?" Nagi stuttered. The pair had been walking in complete silence for a while and the random question that came out of the blue threw her off balance.

"Are you in any extra-curricular activity?" Fuji repeated with a smile.

"Um, the Swimming Club." The girl answered, pushing her spectacles up the bridge of her nose. Why this all of a sudden?

"I see," As though he read her mind, Fuji continued, "Pardon me but you seem to be very free after school."

Nagi felt her eyebrow twitch. I'm about the LAST person to be free in this entire school!

"I see…" she trailed off.

The conversation ended there and the duo continued in silence again. Soon, they were out of the school building and facing each other in a secluded spot in a ring of trees near the back of the school.

"So," Fuji began. "What is it you want to talk about?"

Drat. Nagi shifted uncomfortably. She could feel her heart palpitating frantically in her chest. The girl looked around for some sort of distraction by unfortunately found none, save a certain bush that was fidgeting around.

"Erm… I… li…li…" Nagi hesitated.

Truth to be told, the girl actually found Fuji quite attractive. Looking at the tensai up close, she could understand why Hayate had been so obsessed with him. With his bishounen looks and gentle demeanor, he looked like a character straight out of the pages of one of the many shoujo mangas stored in her manga-maniac-friend's room.

"Is there something on my face, Minamizawa-san?" a gentle voice asked.

Nagi snapped out of her reverie. "H-huh? Yes? Uh… I mean, no, there's nothing." Realizing that she had been staring, she quickly looked down, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Hmm?" Fuji took a few steps forward. "Are you okay?"

"Err… Yeah, I'm fine." Nagi replied.

Meanwhile, behind a certain bush…

"Ooooohh, WHAT is that girl doing??!!" Hayate hissed.

"Shh." Misaki hushed her fuming companion. "They'll find out."

"Seriously," the green-headed girl folded her arms in displeasure. "It's just a confession, just spit out the words and she'll be over and done with it already."

"Wouldn't you be the same if you were in her shoes?" Misaki started. "And besides, telling her to confess to someone she doesn't even know is going to take some guts."

"Oh puh-lease, I'm over Fuji-kun already," Hayate said as she tossed her hair. "And isn't that girl a total skeptic about romance? Surely, it can't be that hard."

"Why'd you want her to do this anyway?"

Hayate slowly turned to face her clueless friend. As she did, a mischievous smirk formed on her lips.

"Because I want to see her embarrass herself."

Damn. What am I doing? Nagi internally berated herself.

All the while, she had been giving Fuji hesitant answers and shaky replies. Though she did not have any romantic feelings for the tensai, the thought of lying appealed to her as much as a pile of poop. And the fact that she had never successfully lied to anyone in her life before made her extremely nervous.

Looking at Fuji, she realized that all her preparation (she'd gone through all the possible ways of confessing while they were making their way down) was in vain. The very fact that she was about to lie to one of the smartest people in the school sent a million butterflies aflutter in her stomach.

Well, better to get it over and done with first. Nagi firmed her resolve and took in a deep breath. Bracing herself for the greatest embarrassment in her fourteen years of life, she said,

"I like you, Fuji-san. Please go out with me."

Author's Notes: I know and I don't need telling twice: This is one crappy beginning. I sort of wrote this across a few days so I'm not exactly sure whether it flows or not... (I re-read it a few times but it still feels kinda inadequate...) So bring on the flamethrowers! I'm also currently looking for a beta-reader to help me... If anyone out there who is willing, has enough free time to spare, and has enough patience to tolerate my horrendous writing and even more fantastical ability to forget deadlines (kidding), please PM me.

Once again, please read and review. Thank you very much. -bows-

-Rin