Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn, to that Amano Akira has every right. I'm merely borrowing them for my own entertainment and make no money out of it. I do, however, own Arica D'Angelo, yay!

A/N: Hey everyone! This is my first fanfiction I'm posting here so I really hope you like =D I've written a few before this one, but they're just sitting in my computer, gathering dust. This is the only one I feel most comfortable posting at the moment *sweatdrop*. Anyway, hope you enjoy and please review and tell me what you think!

Chapter 1

Yet another new town, another new school. She hated how those bastards dragged her around with them wherever they went when they received a new job. They never stayed in one place for more than a year and it pissed her off. Why couldn't they just leave her behind in Italy when they had to move to another country? Probably half of the schools on planet earth had had Arica D'Angelo's metaphorical footprints in their halls.

Arica stood at the front gate of her new school, gazing up at the building and the students milling around on the grounds, chatting and laughing happily. The girl took a deep breath and straightened herself as she began to walk towards the front doors. Some of the chattering of the groups closest to her died down a little and she could feel the curious, prodding eyes on her back as she passed, but Arica ignored them, eyes fixed on the entrance to Namimori Middle School.

Arica D'Angelo was a quiet girl most of the time. As she was walking towards the building, the eyes were making her nervous, but not the idea of entering a strange new school for the millionth time. She had been to so many schools before that she didn't even feel nervous anymore. Most kids entering a new school would worry about making friends or what other people will think of them, things like whether they'd be bullied or just ignored, etc. Arica didn't care about any of those things anymore. She was the kind of person who made friends without even trying; people never picked on her or really hated her for that matter. Teachers always liked her, though she didn't really care what they thought of her. Some might call that being a goody-two-shoe, but to her it was just acting normal, being herself.

Inside, a middle-aged lady welcomed her with a warm smile and explained to her the rules, the layout of school and all the other important things. Arica listened with half an ear, the other half taking in the movements and sounds of her surroundings; all those eyes on her were making her nervous and paranoid. When the woman had finally stopped talking, she handed the girl a small map of the school and pointed out her class and told her she should go see the principle before heading off. With a small thank you, Arica headed in the direction the lady pointed.

When she arrived at her destination, she gave the polished wooden door a few light taps. "Enter," a muffled voice called from the other side and she stepped inside. "Ah, good morning. You must be our new student, Arica D'Angelo," the principle said with a kind smile. "Welcome to Namimori."

"Yes, sir. It's nice to meet you," Arica replied with a small bow.

"Likewise," the man responded in kind, lacing his fingers together as he leaned forward with his elbows on his desk, smile never wavering. "I have informed all the teachers that you're home language isn't Japanese, so they shouldn't be giving you any trouble, but you seem to be speaking it just fine. I've heard you're a very sharp young lady, so I'm sure you'll be just fine," he explained.

That was true, she didn't know much about the Japanese culture and ways, but at least her knowledge of the language wasn't non-existent like it would've been had they not forced her to learn it for the past year or so. Arica returned his smile and replied, "You're too kind, sir. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it after a while. I'll do my best either way."

"That's good to hear. Do you perhaps know any students who can show you around and so on?" he continued with sincere concern and curiosity.

"Not yet, but I'm sure I will soon. From what I've heard and seen, the people here seem very nice." The last half of her answer wasn't true at all. She hadn't even spoken to any of the students yet, so she didn't know what they were like. And every school had its delinquents, but being negative towards the school wouldn't help her much. She's dealt with far worse than middle school bullies, anyway.

The older man chuckled. "Well then, that will be all. Don't hesitate to come to me or any of the teachers if you need anything." With another word of thanks, Arica headed in the direction of her homeroom class, glancing at her surroundings every now and then to memorize the way so that she didn't look like a complete retard with her nose stuck to a map the entire time. Arica found that almost all the students had disappeared. Great, the girl thought sarcastically as she followed the route on her small map.

She finally reached her destination and she stared up at the sign that read '2-A'. She realized that her dilly-dallying at the school gate and talk with the principle had taken more time than she thought. She could hear the teacher inside already busy taking roll-call and she sighed. The only thing she always did worry about was walking in, in the middle of class, where everyone would stare at her even more than they originally did.

Here goes nothing, she thought and knocked.

For once Tsuna was on time for school with a few minutes to spare.

It was thanks to Reborn, though, as the arcobaleno decided he wanted to have some fun early in the morning and threatened Tsuna with the 1ton hammer. He was on his feet just as the hammer hit his pillow where his head had been a split second before. "Your reflexes have improved, Dame-Tsuna," the hitman smirked as he put the hammer back to…wherever it came from in the first place.

"Reborn!" the teen shouted at his tutor as he cradled his head in fear. "You're going to kill me one of these days! And what do you mean my 'reflexes have improved'; anyone would react like that when they're about to have their skull smashed by a 1ton hammer!"

"Stop your whining and get ready for school," Reborn said, completely ignoring the boy's complaints as he walked out the door towards the kitchen. "Do you want to get bitten to death for being late again like yesterday? And the day before, and before that…"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Tsuna said miserably as he rushed around his room to gather his school uniform. He cringed at the thought of the beating he had received from Hibari and his tonfas the previous day and absentmindedly rubbed his head where a large bump had been. He momentarily paused in his tracks and stared out the door where the infant had been a moment ago. Reborn woke him up so he could be on time for school and not get beat up by Hibari…maybe the Arcobaleno really did care for him.

Shaking his head, he finished up before running down the steps to grab some breakfast. When he arrived he nearly cried out in misery as he saw there was only one slice of toast left.

"Gyahaha!" came the loud, obnoxious laugh and Lambo could be seen running around the table, weaving through everyone's legs. "Lambo-san is so full after eating all Baka-Tsuna's breakfast!" he exclaimed loudly, sticking his tongue in the aforementioned boy's direction.

"Lambo! Not nice!" I-pin called after her hysterical friend as she chased his around the room.

The cow-child ignored her and the young Vongola boss watched as he leapt onto the table right next to Reborn who was calmly nibbling his omelet, sipping his coffee and reading the morning paper. "Reborn! Give Lambo-san your food or die!" the Thunder guardian yelled, pointing a threatening finger at the arcobaleno's face while holding aloft a pink grenade in the other.

Tsuna began to freak out upon seeing the grenade until Reborn took Leon, who morphed into a giant paddle, and whacked Lambo so hard he went flying out the window, all without looking up from his paper. An explosion was heard in the yard and the house shook. No one seemed to pay attention to it anymore since it was a daily occurrence at the Sawada residence.

"Morning, Tsu-kun!" Nana said cheerily, seemingly oblivious to what just happened. "If you don't mind waiting a little longer I could make you something; Lambo-chan was just so hungry."

Tsuna glanced at the wall clock. "No thanks, Mom, I'll be late." The brunette grabbed the piece of toast just as Lambo crawled back through the window, his hair smoking and his cow-print suit blackened. "I'm going!" That said the youngster rushed out the door as he yelled his goodbyes over his shoulder. Only a few feet from his front door, he heard two pairs of footsteps rushing towards him from behind.

"Juudaime!" the excited voice of his Storm guardian called out to him and he glanced over to see his friend running up to him with a large grin on his face. "Good morning, Juudaime."

"Yo, Tsuna," said another and the boy saw his Rain guardian come out from behind Gokudera and draping a casual arm over Tsuna's shoulders.

"Good morning, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto," Tsuna greeted his friends and they continued on their way to school. The younger sweat dropped as he practically felt Gokudera's mood shift before he went off like a time bomb as he yelled at Yamamoto not to 'address the Tenth so casually' or otherwise he's going to stick his dynamite somewhere the swordsman would find very uncomfortable, while the latter only laughed and countered with a few good-hearted jabs of his own.

Tsuna smiled fondly as he listened to his friends' bickering the entire trek to school. Once they reached the gates, he breathed a silent sigh of relief when the dark-haired prefect was nowhere to be seen – he didn't much desire a twin for the bump on the back of his head. They took their seats, just as the bell rang, and Tsuna mentally thanked Reborn for waking him early even though it was life threatening. The teacher came in and greeted them before setting up his things and taking out the class list, starting roll call.

The teacher was halfway through his list when a knock at the door interrupted him. He excused himself and went to check who it was. No one was paying any attention to him or the person at the door. A few boys were already starting to doze off and school hasn't even started yet – Yamamoto being one of them. Some girls were talking to each other in whispers, while others were passing notes or getting their books ready for first period. Gokudera was leaning back in his seat with his feet on his desk, as usual. Tsuna decided that he'll also get ready for math and took out his books.

"Can I have your attention class," said the teacher as he came back with a smile on his face. "I would like to introduce you to a new student. She's from Italy and doesn't know much Japanese, so please be nice to her and help her. This is D'Angelo Arica. You can come in now, dear."

A girl entered the room and went to stand in front of the class. Tsuna nearly dropped his pencil, along with nearly every other boy in the room, as they looked at her. Everyone's attention was now in the same place, except Gokudera, though, who acted like he didn't notice anything.

The girl was about 5'2". Her brown hair barely brushed her shoulders, a slight wave in it. Her skin wasn't pale, but it wasn't much tanned either, just barely sun-kissed, and is looked as smooth as porcelain, flawless. Her eyes seemed to change color from blue green to a bright forest-green to an almost silvery color, like moonlight. Her lips were full and a natural light red color – they also looked smooth and flawless. The uniform fit her figure perfectly and Tsuna could see she was thin – a healthy thin – and lithely built by the looks of it. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous like a world famous model, but she wasn't completely average either.

Everyone who was previously dozing off was now wide awake as they took in the new girl; even the girls were staring at her, though in jealousy it seemed. The girl – Arica – didn't seem to be bothered much by all the stares as she smiled lightly at everyone and said, "It's nice to meet you all." Her voice was soft and sweet and made some guys even swoon. Tsuna wanted to strangle himself as he realized that he was checking out a girl other than Kyoko, and he hated to admit it, but this Arica rivaled even Kyoko-chan's beauty, at least to him.

"The only open seat we have at the moment is in the back, next to Sawada-san," the teacher said, pointing at the open seat next to Tsuna. He could hear some students scoff and whisper, 'Poor Arica-chan' and 'Why does it have to be that Dame-Tsuna'. He blushed as he heard this, turning even redder when he saw her already making her way towards him. When she sat down their eyes met and she gave him a small smile.

"Uh, hi," Tsuna stuttered uncertainly, holding out a hand before he could stop himself. "I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, Tsuna for short, o-or Dame-Tsuna." Why was he telling her this! It's not like she's ever going to talk to him! She hesitated a moment before taking his hand and shaking it with another smile. Her skin felt as smooth as it looked. He blushed again once he dropped her hand and glanced over at Kyoko. To his relief she wasn't looking their way.

The first period started and most of the students turned their attention to the lesson, while others would glance Arica's way every few minutes. Tsuna did his best not to pay any attention to her presence and focused on the jumble of numbers the teacher was explaining. Even while he tried to concentrate on the hell going by the name of math, his intuition tingled. Something felt off about this girl, but he didn't know what or why.

Everyone's eyes were on her, like always. That was the only thing she really hated about coming to a new school. Just a few days or weeks and the students will start to ignore her; they always did when they realized she had no intention of accepting any of their advances.

There was one boy, however, whom she noticed wasn't paying any attention to her. His head was bowed as if he was sleeping or just too lazy to even lift it. His feet were up on the desk and she immediately pegged him as a troublemaker. But that silver colored hair seemed familiar somehow. She could've sworn she'd seen it somewhere before…but she couldn't remember. He didn't look Japanese either; was he a transfer student like her? Maybe she had seen him around Italy some time, though that was almost an impossible coincidence. He never looked up once the entire time, and the teacher would throw him a dirty look ever so often but didn't even bother to say anything.

The one next to her seemed shy, Sawada Tsunayoshi. The name sounded vaguely familiar too but, once again, she couldn't put her finger on it. She couldn't deny that she was at least a tiny bit happy though; he was the first person to even acknowledge her in a friendly way. Even though he was blushing so furiously, she didn't sense love, only childish fascination which she got from a lot of people in the class and her previous schools. She also didn't miss the glances he sent the pretty girl sitting two desks in front of her.

She listened attentively as the teacher wrote a few problems on the board for them to work out in their books. She was done with all ten in less than five minutes. She noticed the silver haired guy hadn't even moved and the teacher was about to pop a vein, before noticing her drifting eyes.

He came over and smiled. "Do you need any help?"

"No thank you, sensei. I'm already finished," she replied with a smile of her own as she heard some kids around her gasp and look her way. Even the delinquent's ear cocked her way just a fraction so he could hear the conversation. Apparently, the problems they were given were some of the hardest the teacher could dig up for their standards.

"A-already?" the man stuttered a bit. "Do you mind if I…" he trailed off, pointing at her book. She handed it over and his eyes scanned over them for a few seconds before handing it back. "C-correct. All of them. Well, looks like you will have no problem at all here at Namimori." He then walked away to check on the other students.

"Wow, Arica-chan is really smart," the boy next to her, Tsuna, remarked. She looked over to see him blush and fiddling with his pencil, his page still blank.

"Would you like some help with that?" she asked politely, pointing at his book.

"Oh, um! T-that's okay," he rushed to decline and she raised a brow at him, making him blush harder. "I-I mean, I already have a tutor a-and Gokudera-kun helps me, too, s-so…I don't want to bother you."

"It's no bother, but if that's how you feel…" she said with a light shrug before turning back to the front, only to be met with a shadowed gaze. As soon as their eyes met he turned away and went back to shutting out his surroundings.

The first period ended and the second began; so it went until lunch. During those few hours she learned quite a few things. Like where Tsuna got the title of 'Dame-Tsuna'. The poor boy was really horrible in all the subjects so far and she kind of felt sorry for him, but whenever she would offer help, he would turn it down with the same excuse. Who was 'Gokudera-kun' anyway? He must've been something to be able to help the boy so much.

She also learned that the silver haired delinquent was a bother to all of the teachers and ignored every subject. So far, only one of the teachers called him out for not listening and to sit properly, only to be answered with an irritated 'Tch'.

When lunch finally rolled by, everybody jumped up to rush over to Arica. They buzzed around her like a swarm of bees, eager to know everything about her and Tsuna even jumped out of his seat to avoid being trampled on. It was making her a little uncomfortable, all the crowding and questions.

"Are you really from Italy?" someone asked.

"Why did you come here?" one girl questioned, trying to push her way to the front.

Before she even had time to answer, a boy rushed out, "Do you have a boyfriend?" He was blushing and his friends were congratulating him, slapping his back and admiring his amount of guts.

"Are all Italians this gorgeous? Gokudera-kun is Italian too…" another girl swooned and went off to dreamland, causing a whole new wave of questions to erupt. That question had caught Arica's attention though. Gokudera-kun…as in Tsuna's Gokudera-kun? So that person was Italian, huh? Even more reason for her to be curious as to who this person was.

Arica fidgeted a little more, glancing around to see if she could find a way to escape her body-made prison. Two blobs of black and silver caught her and she saw the delinquent and another tall, black-haired boy make their way towards Tsuna, side stepping and ignoring all the squealing students. She frowned slightly; were they going to bully the small boy? It would make sense, both are much taller and stronger-looking than him…

"Juudaime, where do you want to eat today?" the silvette said, giving Tsuna a large grin. Okay, so they were friends…what a weird combination. Wait. Juudaime…? Why would he call him that?

"Don't we always have lunch on the roof…?" the dark haired teen asked, looking at the other in confusion while scratching his head. Arica realized throughout the day that he was a slacker who liked to sleep during class.

"No one asked you, baseball freak, I was talking to Juudaime!" the other snapped.

"C-calm down, Gokudera-kun! Yamamoto has a point…" Tsuna cut in, laughing nervously, trying to calm them down.

That's Gokudera? She thought in surprise. The way Tsuna talked, she imagined him to be a smart, mature, and good-mannered kid or man. Definitely not this delinquent. And if he was Gokudera, then he was the Italian, right? She knew he wasn't Japanese! Well, either way it had nothing to do with her and this was the time she would stand and head for the door but the millions of chattering mouths hadn't shut up yet and it felt as if they were closing in on her.

She caught Tsuna's eye and the boy seemed to notice her discomfort – the fidgeting fingers, the slightly panicked eyes – and he hesitated a moment longer. She had been nice to me even though she barely knew my name and she didn't mock me either upon finding out how dame I am, Tsuna thought, watching his new acquaintance get mobbed. It was the least he could do for her.

"Uh, Arica-chan!" a hesitant voice called out, making the other students quiet down to look at him in surprise and suspicion. "I-if you'd like, you can sit with us at lunch. T-that's if you don't have somewhere else to be, of course! We could show you around school, i-if you'd like…" Tsuna rushed, fiddling with his hands as he stared at the ground, trying to ignore all the loathing gazes he was receiving.

"What?" the teen, who was apparently Gokudera, exclaimed in disbelief. "Juudaime, is that a good idea? We don't know anything about this…this girl." The last word was spat as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Maa maa, Gokudera, don't be so mean," the dark-haired teen, presumably Yamamoto, said as he sent her a friendly grin. "What harm can it do? Tsuna wants to do something nice for her and I don't see the problem. What can there possibly be to worry about?" Famous last words?

There was silence as Gokudera glared at her for another second before sighing and bowing his head in defeat. "…If Juudaime wishes it."

She was shocked. This boy, who has barely known her for four hours, was inviting her to spend lunch with them. Yamamoto, whose name she learned only a few minutes ago, was even encouraging it and convincing the bad-tempered one to accept it. Yes, she was good at making friends, but this was somehow different. Usually it would be a bunch of girls she hung out with, the boys were always too nervous to ask her to be friends, most of them were just plain perverts. But this was…different, for lack of a better word. The students were stunned into complete, dead silence.

"Y-you don't have to i-if you don't want to; it was just a suggestion," Tsuna hurried to reassure her and she realized she had been staring at them in surprise for a minute or so too long. "I mean, it's not like–"

"I would like that," she said softly, affectively cutting the boy's rambling short and hearing a collective gasp from her 'fan club'. She was a bit surprised at this answer herself, but something just drew her towards these people… The names sounded familiar and Gokudera kind of looked familiar too, but she was never good at remembering names or faces she hadn't dealt with for at least a few weeks. He was Italian, like her, so maybe that's why: the company of another like her, so she didn't feel too left out in this new culture and way of living. Maybe it was just her imagination; that happened a lot. Or paranoia, considering the life she was born into and the lectures that were drilled into her since she was little.

A minute or so passed before the boys snapped out of it and started for the door. Arica stood up and the students instantly made a path for her. As she passed, the brunette heard a few whispers about 'Hanging with the wrong crowd', but she didn't pay much attention as she followed behind her new…friends.

A/N: And that's the end of chapter one. I already have a lot more chapters written, but I want to hear from you guys if it's worth it. I promise the story gets a looooot more interesting hehe, though I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the next chapter. I have to borrow a friend's internet, you see, so that could cause complications…but rest assured it'll be there eventually. Have a nice day! And Review!