I don't own escaflowne.
Chapter1
Hitomi was bored. The teacher in front of her was boring her to no end, talking endlessly about Japan's military history in such a monotone voice that she was afraid she would fall down on her desk face first. Track and field is next…STAY AWAKE HITOMI! she told herself.
But it was no use.
"Hitomi!"
She awoke to find her nose had somehow made contact with the wooden table in front of her and that a strange shadow was casting itself across its surface. She looked up and found herself looking upon a huge monster of a teacher that was Mrs. Hazika.
"Think my class is boring hm? Perhaps you'd find it more interesting in detention today!"
"But Mrs. Hazika! I'm sorry. It's just that I've been staying up late recently trying to finish all the homework I had to do."
"Excuses! Detention, Kanzaki! My classroom!"
Hitomi groaned. Next to her, Yukari pitied her friend. It had been no lie that Hitomi had been having a lot of sleepless nights, recently, due to the overload of assignments they've been given. She's just not good at time management…
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Track and field has always been Hitomi's favourite subject, only she couldn't enjoy it, knowing that she'd have to go to detention that day with Mrs. Hazika. The old teacher was the meanest one on campus and she'd rather eat bugs than spend a whole hour in her class with her staring down her neck.
Despite her worries, when Hitomi's turn came to run on the track she forgot everything that happened in that last class. She just ran. The feeling of wind on her face and the way her legs didn't seem to touch the ground, she knew she was flying. She finished first and her PE teacher gave her a thumbs up.
"Well done Hitomi! Hope to see you on the team next year,"
Next year was Hitomi's senior year, when she would be allowed to sign up to join the team. As she reached the bench she had been sitting at and dried her face with a towel, she spotted the new kid. He had given in a doctor's note at the beginning of class to show that he didn't want to take part in the lesson, even though nothing seemed wrong with him.
Rumours had been going around that he was a slacker, didn't give in any homework or take part in lessons, who came from some weird backwater country and had only temporarily joined the school because his older, working brother, who looked after him now, owned a local company and wanted his sibling to stay with him.
He was sitting on the bleachers, laid back and actually wasn't half-bad looking, with messy, black hair that gave him a kind of rugged, gangster look. His brown eyes told her that he wasn't the smoking type though. They were mature, cultured and there was darker element in them to as if they had seen things that weren't meant to be seen. She suddenly realized that she had been staring at him and that he was looking at her. Embarrassed, she quickly turned away and looked at her running shoes.
Soon, class was over and Hitomi began packing up her things and walking to the girls' changing room.
"That was Van Fanel,"
Hitomi jumped. A smiling Yukari had appeared next to her out of thin air.
"I noticed you checking him out."
The taller girl blushed.
"I wasn't checking him out! I was just…curious…"
"Sure you were…" winked Yukari, with a sarcastic smile and a weird gleam in her eye.
Hitomi almost lost her temper.
"It was just curiosity ok? And in case you've forgotten, I have a boyfriend!"
She had been dating Allen for about a week now. He was pretty nice to her and was quite dashing himself. In fact she was going to celebrate their week anniversary with him after school…before she was put in detention. Yukari wasn't his biggest fan though…
"Anyway, I was just saying that Van is way more sophisticated and mature than Allen. Do you know how self-centred and lazy the guy can be? Did you even see him running on the track just now? Kept pretending to fall over so that he could convince the teacher of an injury and get himself out of class."
"So what? You're asking me to cheat on Allen?"
They had reached the girl's changing room now and were exchanging their sports bags for books in their lockers.
"No! I'm just saying that you should get to know Van a bit more and then decide whether you want to dump Allen or stay together with him, 'cause seriously! The only thing the latter has that's good is looks and even the Fanel kid beats him at that,"
Hitomi smiled at that. Yukari cared a lot about a boy's looks and she couldn't say that she agreed with her friend. She was Allen's girlfriend. That's like being married in high school terms.
"I have to go ok Yukari? Allen is handsome, smart and funny. Yes, he can be a slacker sometimes but isn't that what people say Van is too? Now please I've got Biology now"
Yukari opened her mouth to debate, but Hitomi ran away before her friend could say another word.
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Detention came too soon. Hitomi found herself sitting in front of a desk facing Mrs. Hazika who was marking papers with a feathered quill pen like the ones they used in the olden days. Once a history teacher always a history teacher…
Hitomi was meant to be reading her textbook but she found herself gazing out at the school grounds through the windows, looking for something to distract her wondering mind. She was watching a bird land on the window sill, twitch its head from left to right and peck in between its feathers. She didn't hear the knock on the door or Mrs. Hazika saying "Come in", all she heard was;
"You're late Mr. Fanel. Please take a sit next to Kanzaki."
Hitomi's head whipped around and stared as the boy dragged himself from the doorway to a desk that was next to her. Now that she was closer to him, she noticed dark bands around his eyes from lack of sleep and even the way he dropped into his chair seemed to suggest that he had been up for several days…What has he been doing?
He slumped back into his chair and threw a glare at her. Hitomi got the point and focused on the book in front of her. But she couldn't help but think; he has the most gorgeous brown eyes I've ever seen…And for the whole detention period she couldn't help but try to catch a glimpse of them again.
"I hope you know why you're here, Mr. Fanel," said Mrs. Hazika, straightening a stack of papers.
"Erm…" Van's face was screwed up as if trying hard to remember what it was he had done wrong.
"YOU FORGOT TO GIVE IN THE ASSIGNMENTS I SET!" Mrs. Hazika, suddenly angry, stood up behind her desk with both hands slammed on it.
Hitomi had jumped at the sudden reaction but Van wasn't even fazed. He looked calm, as if he'd handled yelling grown ups before.
"I'VE SET THE CLASS ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE ENTIRE THREE MONTHS THAT YOU HAD BEEN HERE AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T GIVEN ANY IN…I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION!"
"Well I've been kinda busy helping my brother with his business and all, plus I still have tuition classes and loads of functions to go to and…"
"EXCUSES!" she yelled again, thumping the table with her fist. Hitomi wondered why someone hasn't burst in through the door asking why Mrs. Hazika was shouting. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF
YOUR LAZINESS! YOU'LL BE HAVING DETENTION UNTIL YOU FINISH ALL THE HOMEWORK THAT YOU'VE BEEN ASSIGNED INCLUDING THOSE SET IN THE FUTURE! UNDERSTAND ME?"
Van nodded. A look of boredom in his eyes.
"Good. Now, I suggest you take out your book and start on that homework."
Mrs. Hazika slumped into her seat again and picked up a fiction book that she kept in her desk drawer. She then proceeded to ignore both of them.
Van had brought a school bag with him and now proceeded to empty it of the books inside. They piled up onto the table as high as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He then took one and began flipping through it looking for the right page.
Hitomi observed his actions out of the corner of her eye, bored to do anything else, and suddenly she caught Van's, causing her to look away.
A half hour passed when a sudden rumble, like an earthquake, seemed to echo throughout the room.
"I'm going to get something from the teachers' lounge…Don't any of you move when I get back!"
Mrs. Hazika got up and waddled to the door, holding her stomach with a pained expression. Then she was gone. Hitomi was alone with the Fanel kid.
The boy continued on with his work not even noticing that the teacher was gone. Hitomi cleared her throat and thought she mine as well take her friend's advice and find out what this guy was like.
"So…erm…My name's Hitomi…yours?"
"Van"
He didn't look up from his book, his pen scribbling over paper.
"Where you from? I heard you may have moved from some backwater, small country somewhere…"
"Fanelia is not a backwater country."
There was a tone of annoyance in his voice and Hitomi thought she may have offended him.
This conversation is already turning sour…
"I didn't say it was…it's just…Fanelia? I've never heard of it before…what's it like?" she said changing the subject
Van suddenly put his pen down and looked at Hitomi. His eyes filled with coldness.
"Why don't we stop talking about me and start talking 'bout you."
"Erm, ok…I'm from Osaka. My parents lived there for a long time before moving to Tokyo 'cause my dad had got a new job and…"
"You talk to much. You're boring. And you're really nosy. Please mind your own business."
He then turned back to the work in front of him. Hitomi stared at him in shock and felt a pulse of anger flash through her. Enraged, she stood up.
"NOSY? BORING? TALK TO MUCH? HELLO?! I WAS JUST TRYING TO BE FRIENDLY WITH YOU! IS THAT WHAT STUDENTS IN SCHOOL ARE SUPPOSE TO DO? BE NICE TO NEW KIDS?
WHATS THE MATTER WITH-"
Suddenly Mrs. Hazika burst in through the door with a donut in her hand.
"HITOMI KANZAKI! I WILL HAVE NO SHOUTING IN MY CLASSROOM!" the teacher's own voice echoing throughout the whole school.
"But-"
"DETENTION! ONE WEEK!"
"WHAT?"
"MAKE THAT TWO! NOW SIT!"
Hitomi sat heavily in her chair throwing a fierce glare at Van, who was still busy doing his work, ignoring her. Looks like we're gonna spend a lot of time together…
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Lol… Review please!!