I got a ginormous bug bite on my eyelid.
Ugh.
It's swollen and disgusting, hence I stayed home today. Which meant a lot of time to do nothing.
And then I remembered when I got an e-mail about a review from a reader of one of the stories I start-and-stopped a LOOOONG time ago.
Believe it or not, it feels sooo good to get a good review :))
And then I was inspired (Thanks meghanmoo!)! Thus, the new story (and I promise I'll continue updating regularly)...
Enjoy :) !
P.S. Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice for all the bug bites in the world! Hmm... Not a good comparison, is it?
Mikan stomped through the empty hallways one more time before her hazel eyes flashed fiercely towards her watch.
It was 10:31.
2 hours since I came to explore the school, Mikan thought bitterly. And I still can't find my homeroom.
She regretted rushing to her class as soon as she had arrived at her new school, Alice Academy. She wasn't even wearing a uniform, only an old blue hoodie over black skinny jeans. She had expected to arrive at the school at noon and start to move in, but the guard at the front gate had told her that school would start in five minutes.
"You can probably get to class on time," the guard had encouraged. "It's the first day of school and you don't want to miss out, do you?"
It wasn't only the guard that had encouraged her to hurry inside. It was the idea of the new school, the new people, the incognito status, the freedom...
Mikan sighed. She really should have taken the day off and unpacked her stacks of boxes in her dorm...wherever it was. She was thoroughly lost in the overly-luxurious campus.
"What a waste of tax," the brunette murmured out loud as she viewed the polished marble floor and the enormous arched windows looking over a dense forest.
This school had a forest for goodness' sake!
Sighing again, Mikan looked at the crumpled schedule she had. Alice Academy apparently had a system of using one class and different teachers for every period. She noted the fact that the school held only about 1,500 students in total (including kindergarten to university) but had several mansions dotting the school campus.
Where the heck did they use those extra rooms for? Closets? Mikan thought angrily.
This little system also meant that the students didn't come out of class until lunch or after school. Only teachers would be changing classes, but they hadn't appeared at all over the last two periods. She had no way to ask for help without interrupting a class, and even that wasn't an option with the auto-locks on the doors. They seemed to be accessible only with some sort of card swipe and a pass code.
Scanning the paper, Mikan re-read the litte box in the corner for the who-knows-what-eenth time.
Class 8.
Looking up at the individual doors lined up in the hallway, Mikan only spied elaborate signs reading heavily decorated alphabet letters.
"I'm never going to get out of here!" Mikan groaned out loud in frustration.
But just when all hope seemed gone, he appeared.
It was definitely a boy with his lean muscular body showing through the tight black clothes he wore. He was tall too, a half-foot taller than Mikan who was pretty tall herself at 5'9". He had appeared out of nowhere so silently that if Mikan hadn't been looking in his direction, she would never have noticed him. What shocked Mikan was the mask he was wearing. A cat mask to be specific and, Mikan noticed a second later, a curled stuffed tail.
Um, a cosplayer?
Suddenly, she heard a couple of girls' voices coming down the hall.
"Natsume, where are you?"
So the cat-boy had a normal name, Mikan absentmindedly thought.
"We're sorry about the drugged drink!"
Drugged drink?
"Natsume?"
Mikan decided that it was probably safe not to get involved with the cat-boy over there in a matter of seconds. Prejudice or not, there was no way that a cosplaying cat-boy followed by screaming girls who were apologizing about drugged drinks was good company.
The cat-boy seemed to tense for a moment and started to run. Mikan even shuffled a bit to the left towards the windows so that the cat-boy could pass by more quickly. Cat-boy would leave, screaming girls would pass by, Mikan would grab one and ask the way, and they would all be on their way to do whatever they were doing while Mikan found her homeroom at last.
It would all have gone according to plan if the cat-boy had gone through the stairs instead of jumping through the window.
From the second floor no less.
Oh, and he grabbed Mikan on the way (it might have had to do a teeny tiny bit with the fact that she was in front of the only window that was and could open... That doesn't mean he had to kidnap her, did it?).
A scream escaped Mikan's throat as a little shriek before the cat-boy had clamped a large hand over her mouth. Cat-boy flipped Mikan mid-air unto his back like a sack before landing softly on the balls of his feet. He ran quickly and silently through the forest Mikan had been viewing from the window just a minute ago.
It also took a minute for her to start squirming and attacking her cosplaying kidnapper from his back.
"Let me go! Are you trying to kill me? Jumping from the third story like that! And who are you anyways?"
Even as she squirmed and screamed, Mikan subconsciously realized that the cat-boy was incredibly fast and light on his feet despite his size. He also seemed to carry Mikan effortlessly.
After a couple minutes of Mikan's badgering, the cat-boy growled in a deep smooth voice, "Shut up" with so much authority that she immediately did as she was told.
It was silent for a couple minutes when a scream from the left jerked both the cat-boy and Mikan in surprise.
"Natsume is carrying a girl!" shrieked the voice.
"Who's that girl Natsume?" joined another girl.
"Who is she? ID yourself if you're a fan member!" one yelled from the right.
"Catch Natsume and the girl!" spat out another, hostility clearly laced in with the last word.
Oh great, Mikan thought. Cat-boy had fan girls.
Quickly, she tucked her long brown hair beneath the hood of her hoodie and tugged it low as to not be recognized. Though not much of a disguise, it would keep her anonymous from people, especially fan girls from afar.
Cat-boy soon ran out of the forest and into the a small clearing and a hill where an ancient cherry blossom tree stood. The boy nimbly scampered up the tree and onto a branch, crouching as he carefully listened for any noise. He tensed and a couple seconds later, a few unrecognizable shouts could be heard. Minutes which seemed like hours passed before the cat-boy finally relaxed. By then, Mikan had regained her composure.
"Can you let go of me now?" she hissed under her breath.
Nonchalantly, the boy shrugged Mikan off onto the tree branch. As soon as Mikan found herself supported on a stable area, she decided to take a swing at cat-boys face. She realized halfway that the cat-boy had a mask, a very sturdy-looking mask.
She tried to pull back only to have a weaker but nonetheless perfectly aimed punch connecting the haughty cat's mask.
"...!"
The cat-boy's mask flew off and Mikan could only bite her lip in pain from the unsuccessful punch.
She would have felt better if the cat-boy had fallen off, but he maintained his balance and even had the nerve to grab the falling cat-mask with a spare hand. Mikan groaned inwardly as she held up her arms in defense, expectant of a fight.
The cat-boy turned around to face Mikan, and what met her were two crimson eyes full of amused surprise.
Still holding her arms in front of her face in a defensive position, Mikan took in the boy's face carefully.
His eyes aren't red, she realized. Just rich amber that it looks red.
The boy was slightly tan with a set chin and straight nose. His black hair was tousled in a messy yet adorable way. Those mysterious deep eyes just added to his charm. In other words, he was hot.
Mikan started to understand why those fan girls were fan girls at all. She might have swooned a bit as well if it weren't for the fact that he was a kidnapping cosplayer that she had just punched.
"Are you done checking me out?" he smirked.
And he was a little egoistical.
"Excuse me?"
"You're looking at me like a wolf," he smirked. "You're gonna make me blush."
Scratch that. He was really egoistical and add the terms arrogant and sarcastic.
"Uh no, I don't think I'd do that to someone who just kidnapped me out of nowhere."
"Really," he said, more of a statement than a question.
Okay, I might have ogled a bit, Mikan admitted inwardly, but there is no way that I was admitting that to someone like this who was rubbing it in my face.
"Really," she replied. "Besides, I'm not really into people with..."
Mikan waved over him.
"...hobbies like yours."
He smirked.
"Do I look like I have hobbies like this?"
"Yeah," she replied. Obviously you don't dress like that if it wasn't your hobby.
He chuckled this time.
"So Cat-boy, I'm glad you're in a good mood and all, but can I please get off this tree?"
He stared in silence, an amused smirk glued to his face but a questioning look in his eyes.
Mikan was starting to get annoyed at Cat-boy.
With a slightly louder voice with annoyance clearly audible, Mikan explained, "I'm not spiderman, am I? Do you expect me to climb down or something?"
Cat-boy just outright laughed this time.
And Mikan was getting more annoyed by the minute.
"What are you laughing at?" she grumbled.
Cat-boy stopped laughing as he replied, "This outrageous situation. Really, you had the nerve to talk to me like that after punching me straight in the face."
Blushing, Mikan stubbornly retorted, "And you had the nerve to kidnap me in the first place."
Cat-boy laughed again before he asked, "Are you lost?"
"What?" Mikan blinked.
"Are you lost?"
"Random question. Uh yes and no."
"What kind of answer is that?" Cat-boy grinned.
"My answer."
He frowned this time. "You know what I mean."
"Nope."
He stared at Mikan in silence. Uncomfortable under his unwavering gaze, she wondered a bit about his mood swings.
"Should I help you?"
Mikan raised an eyebrow. How fishy. One moment he was staring at Mikan so intently it was uncomfortable, now he was offering her help? Is he PMS-ing?
"I just need to find my homeroom. No need for your help. Just get me down this tree."
"So you can't find your homeroom, huh?" he asked.
Darn, Mikan frowned. I messed up.
"Whatever. Just get me down."
"You said you didn't need my help." Cat-boy shrugged.
Mikan bit her lip in frustration.
Cat-boy merely watched this with a bored expression.
Mikan glared at Cat-boy.
Suddenly, he smiled and asked, "What room are you in?"
"..." Mikan refused to answer. Not to this random jerk she wasn't.
"You'll eventually ask someone, why not me?"
"..." Cat-boy was, annoyingly and sadly, right. "...8..." Mikan muttered.
Cat-boy seemed surprised for a minute before he frowned, "8? There's no class 8... unless..."
He burst out into laughter. A really hard one.
Damn his mood swings.
Mikan finally snapped, "Get me off this tree you jerk!"
Cat-boy, still chuckling, replied, "Why not jump off yourself? ...8..."
He glanced at her face and laughed again.
"You know what, that's a great idea!" Mikan snapped again. She wasn't standing his ridicule any longer.
The tree branch was about 2 meters off the ground. Not much, Mikan mused, compared to the oak tree in my backyard.
"You're not serious are you- hey!"
Mikan jumped, glancing behind at the shocked face of cat-boy behind her in satisfaction.
She landed as silently as cat-boy had been on the soft grass. She dusted off her jeans nonchalantly.
Above, cat-boy went into another fit of laughter before he chuckled, "You're funny. I really like you."
"And I don't like you," Mikan replied before starting to walk off.
Before long, the cat-boy called out, "Hey, your homeroom isn't 8, it's B!"
And then he burst into another round of laughter.
What a jerk.
And THAT is the end of the chapter. I decided to make Natsume a little more outgoing and random this time while Mikan becomes the hot-headed one with the complicated past... Ooooh interesting, isn't it? If you want more, check back often and make sure to review!
REVIEW AND REVIEW AGAIN!
...thanks for reading :)
