A/N: Hello ~ !

For those of you who may read some of my other stuff, I know that I haven't been on here for quite a while now... GOMEN, everyone! School and work has been keeping me very busy. But, I thought that I would finally upload this story. I started it many years ago, while I was still watching the anime ('uh, but the anime finished'… yes, that is how long it's been!), but I kept getting stuck while writing, giving up on the story, and then returning to it later. And now, after all this time, I'm actually almost done with it! *showers self with cookies*

Anyway, enough about me... I've always been a sucker for high school stories, and, while I have not published a lot on here, I have written quite a few of those – and this is no exception! And Amu/Ikuto is one of my favorite anime pairings, so what could be better than a high school fic centering on them! I was writing this story while watching the anime, so some of the themes have been borrowed from there; however, the story in itself has of course not (that would be too boring!).

Enjoy (and review)!

1. First Day

Amu Hinamori turned the corner by the school one minute before the scheduled time. She was out of breath, slightly sweating, and she was pretty sure that her hair was one big mess because of the rush. To put it simply, the morning hadn't exactly gone as planned.

Amu's alarm clock had been supposed to go off at 7.45, but for some strange reason it hadn't, and she didn't wake up before 8.30. She had of course flown out of the covers and into the bathroom, somehow managing to get in and out of there in minutes. She had hurriedly found her new school uniform and pulled it on, realizing that she had put her skirt on the wrong way just in time. While jumping around with one foot in her skirt, she had also realized she couldn't find her hair clips, and when she finally did, she hadn't been able to find matching ones.

Amu drew a heavy sigh. It really hadn't been her morning. But at least, now she was here. And though she hadn't had any breakfast, her hair was sort of messed, and her hair clips didn't match, she felt happy butterflies in her stomach thinking about how new it all was.

High School. Amu let a small smile form on her lips. She was now officially in high school. She joined the crowd of excited newcomers in the schoolyard, trying to look as unaffected as possible. A few students turned their heads to look at her for a moment, but she just looked the other way, hoping they were only staring because they recognized her, and not because of her messy appearance. A few moments later they all looked away again, and she sighed quietly in relief.

Amu had to admit that she had been a little nervous about starting high school. Although, she had always been rather popular at her old school, she had never really had any close friends. She had earned a reputation of being cool and tough early on, which had made most of the others too timid to connect with her. Amu had always felt a little lonely for that reason, so when she had had to move during the summer, she hadn't been too upset about it, but rather been hopeful for the chance to start over in a new place.

She nervously tucked on her skirt and adjusted her hair clips. Maybe I can finally get some real friends, she thought, smiling optimistically for herself. Someone, who'll want to be my friend, because they like me as a person, not because I have a certain reputation.

She was suddenly pulled from her thoughts by a loud voice behind her. She gazed out of the corner of her eye to see if it was somebody interesting. They turned out to be more than that.

"I cannot believe they still make people stand out here, like it's Elementary School."

Amu turned her head. The blonde girl who had spoken apparently worked like that; a lot of guys turned their heads as well, when the beautiful creature approached. She didn't dignify to look at them, but just watched the tall guy next to her through passionate, dark purple eyes.

"Or what do you think, Ikuto?"

Amu just stared in wonder when the guy suddenly caught her eye. He was tall and lean and if Amu had been in doubt whether a school uniform could actually make you look hot, she wasn't anymore. The guy had messy, yet silky-looking navy hair that feel into his dark eyes. He had his hands in his pockets and a careless, yet serious look on his face.

Wow…

"Whoops, sorry!"

BUMP!

Amu found herself lying flat on her face on the ground before she had even noticed what was going on. When she realized that everybody was either staring or laughing, she blushed bright red.

And on the first day, too? Aww…

"Oh, no, I'm so sorry! Are you OK?"

Amu looked up at a pair of green eyes, surrounded by a cute face that right now held a rather worried expression. Rich brown hair fell in to the handsome face, sticking out of a casual basket cap.

The guy held out a hand and she gratefully took it, trying not to care about all the people looking at her.

"Thanks," she said coolly, sending him a sarcastic look a raised eyebrow. He grinned apologetically and rubbed his neck.

"My bad," he said. Amu noticed that he was carrying a ball under his other arm.

"Yeah, it was," she told him, but since he had apologized to her, she gave a friendly smile. "But I forgive you."

"Ah, you're great!" he exclaimed and made a thumbs-up. She just gave him another smile.

Then she heard a discrete cough. "Nice fall."

Being the ever proud and obstinate person she was, Amu turned around to tell off the one who had spoken. It was none other than the beautiful girl from before. The blonde was smirking at her with her arms crossed, and her expression quickly told Amu that this girl was nothing but trouble. She still wasn't just going to let this pass, though.

Amu just raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"Are you talking to me?" she asked coolly. The blonde narrowed her eyes, smirking even wider.

"Me? Please. I don't like to waste my time talking to losers."

Slightly annoyed, Amu turned her back at the girl, saying: "That makes two of us, then."

She heard the crowd snickering and the whispering, but she just ignored it. The blonde probably made a face at her or something right now, but she didn't care. Some people were just born jerks.

"Hey! Watch out!" The guy from before suddenly addressed her again and she just barely avoided getting hit by his soccer ball. He quickly caught it and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It seems to have taken a liking to you."

Amu shook her head, but couldn't help smiling. This guy surely was out-going.

Suddenly, the bell sounded, and the crowd of freshmen begun pushing and elbowing their way inside the school building. Amu just followed, getting mashed into the crowd along with the soccer player. Somehow, the navy-haired guy also ended up right beside her, and she quickly looked the other way and pretended that she didn't even notice him.

Not that he would care, anyway.

A bunch of teachers and upperclassmen were waiting for them inside. They were handing out papers, folders and student handbooks to the newcomers. Amu received her own paper stack and quickly skimmed the list of classes to see where she was supposed to go.

She quickly found her own name on the list. After a quick look at the school map she saw that her homeroom class was located somewhere at the far ending of the building, far away from both the laboratories and the cafeteria. Sighing soundly, she pulled her bag up on her shoulder and started walking down the hallway in direction of the class.

The other newcomers seemed to have located their homeroom classes as well, and the hallway was full of students milling about in different directions, school maps in hand. Amu noticed that a small group of students seemed to be heading to the same class as her, and so she followed a few steps behind.

Fortunately, the classroom was not quite as far away as she had feared. She anxiously entered, hoping that this really was the right classroom and that it wasn't too dingy. To her relief, her new homeroom classroom was big and bright with many big windows. She had spent way too much time in small, dark, and dusty rooms during her school years as it was, so she was delighted to discover that she did not have to cope with that anymore.

Some of her classmates had already found a seat. Amu nervously went to the back of the class to sit at a nice and discrete spot by the windows. She didn't want to attract attention.

"Good morning, everyone!"

A friendly man with wildly curly brown hair entered the room. He wore round glasses and a smile that went from ear to ear.

"Please be seated," he told the small groups of students who were still standing at the back of the class, engaged in conversation. They quickly found their seats and turned their attention to the teacher.

When everyone was ready to listen, he begun the introductions.

"Alright," he said, still smiling widely. "Hello, everybody. I'm Mr. Nikaidou, and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher." He paused to write his name on the blackboard. "I hope that you've all had a nice summer, so that you're pumped with energy and ready to learn!"

Some of the students discretely laughed. Mr. Nikaidou just smiled and winked at them. He looked down at his papers, pushing his glasses up on the brim of his nose with one finger. "So, let's check if anybody's missing, shall we?"

He coughed and began shouting the names. Each time he'd said a name, somebody replied tiredly.

"Abe, Natsumi."

"Here."

"Aoki, Hajime."

"Here."

Amu only listened half-heartedly. She looked around the classroom, peeked at people out of the corner of her eye, while discretely trying to manage her hair. When the teacher suddenly called her name, she instantly put her hands in her lap and tried to look attentive.

"Himamori, Amu."

"He…" Amu began, but then stopped herself, slightly annoyed. "No, it's Hinamori, not Himamori."

The teacher looked up at her, and soon everybody else did, too. Despite her efforts, she was apparently bound to be the center of unwanted attention today.

"Oh, my bad. You're right," Mr. Nikaidou said.

"Well, yeah, I know my own name," she mumbled, and some of the others snickered. But the teacher just brushed it off with another smile and went on with the list.

"Ikeda, Yuki."

"Here."

"Mashiro, Rima."

"Here."

The voice speaking was really cute, and like most of the others, Amu curiously looked at the girl. Her looks matched her voice; cute and girly. She had very long, soft, blonde hair decorated with a stylish black hair band, big golden eyes, and she seemed very small and fragile.

Even though more than half of the class was staring at her, she didn't react at all. She just continued to look at the blackboard with empty eyes, expressionless and motionless.

Freakish. Amu turned her attention back to the teacher, who was almost done with the name list.

"And finally: Tsukiyomi, Ikuto."

"Here," a voice replied at a table nearby. Amu looked in the direction of the sly voice, and found that it belonged to none other than the navy-haired hottie.

WOW! I'm in the same class as him?

Like most of the other girls, Amu watched him in awe. As she had noticed this morning, he was very tall and lean. Moreover, he also seemed to be bone-less: he wasn't sitting on his chair as much as lounging on it. He had his hands in his pockets, and his silky hair fell into his face in just the right way. He looked out from under the soft locks at the teacher with dreamy dark blue eyes and a neutral face. The whole 'I'm-totally-chill-but-I-know-I'm-hot'-look suited him pretty well.

"OK," Mr. Nikaidou said, looking up from the paper. "That was it. I'm delighted to see that you're all present today." He flashed a friendly smile at his students. "Just to let you know, I'll be making a sitting chart for the following classes, so don't get too comfortable where you are." He grinned. "And now let's go pick up your books!"

The library was just enormous. Amu couldn't believe how big it was compared to the one at her old school. She kept turning her head around, staring at the huge space with its endless rows of bookshelves, reading spaces and computer areas.

"Earth to Amu Himamori!"

She snapped her head towards Mr. Nikaidou.

"It's not Himamori, it's Hinamori!"

"Oh, sorry," the teacher said, smiling. "I'll try to remember. But it's your turn now."

"Eh?"

She suddenly found out that she was first in line to get her books, and she blushed bright red when she heard her classmates snicker behind her.

She quickly gathered the books she needed and wrote them in her name before hurrying out of the library again, still feeling the blush on her cheeks. While Amu hadn't liked her reputation at her old school as a tough and cool chick, she certainly didn't like the new one as a clumsy retard that she seemed to be earning now any better. She hated when people laughed at her, or whispered behind her back, or just simply treated her like she was beneath them. But then again, she had never experienced that before, so maybe she just wasn't used to not being looked upon as someone to be respected or idolized.

"Seriously, Amu, you're fifteen years old now. Grow up," she mumbled quietly to herself.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't have her guard up as she turned a corner, and of course she ended up running headfirst into someone coming the other way. Amu barely had time to react, before they slammed together, both of them dropping all of their books.

"Oh, sorry! I'm so sorry!" Amu said in a flustered manner, quickly bending down to collect the books.

The other person bent down as well. "It's OK."

She recognized the voice and looked up to find the navy-haired guy from her homeroom class elegantly picking up his books. He noticed her gaze and looked back at her.

"What?" he asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Eh, uh, that, um…" Amu stuttered for a moment, taken aback by his obvious hotness. "I mean, NO!"

Nice, Amu. She blushed hard, feeling stupid again-again. Just be a retard, that's all you're good at now.

The guy smirked at her when seeing her embarrassed blush. "Eh?" he said slyly. "You don't sound too sure." He leaned in really close, so close that she could tell exactly which hair products he used. "Why don't you check once more?"

"Uh…" She stared at him like an idiot for a few seconds, before willing herself to drop her gaze, her face burning like a million suns.

"There's nothing there," she told him quietly, quickly taking her books and standing up. He just chuckled under his breath at her obvious embarrassment. Standing up as well, he flashed a smile at her.

"Ah. I see." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Thank you… Amu."

ARGH! He can remember my name? She just stared at him. Shoot! I can't remember his at all!

"Uh… You're welcome… you," she replied, quickly backing away. "So, eh, I'll just… you know…"

Feeling even more embarrassed, she turned on her heel and walked down the hallway in a hasty retreat.

This was really not her day. I'm definitely not the cool and spicy girl anymore, she thought with a snort. Not when I look like a complete mess, constantly space out, and fall or get knocked over every five minutes. She sighed. Oh, well… I suppose I got what I wanted. I'm not the popular girl, anymore. I'm just one of the losers.

Fed up with her already unbearable school year, Amu clung tightly to the books and in the loudest voice she dared use uttered the worst curse she knew. "Oh, fuck it!"

A/N:

So, this is the first chapter. I hope you liked it! Reviews would be greatly appreciated.

Next chapters to come in the next couple of days! :)