6

Chapter 1

My class for the day was over faster then I would have wanted, it was disappointing.

"Amu~!" Suu éclair, my best friend since grade school, rushed up to me looking distressed with a huge clump of frosting on her nose. Either she didn't notice it or she didn't care at the moment to fix herself up. "Is it true this is your last class with us in French cuisine? I mean you've only been here for about 3 weeks and it normally takes people months to perfect it…" She was trying to say that I completed this class faster then she liked, we normally moved through the classes together. I Just nodded, not really sure what to say to her without sounding sad and enthusiastic also.

My names Hinamori Amu, and I'm currently trying to get my degree in the culinary arts, but to be more specific I want to be a Pastry Chief. I'm currently 20 and just finished my second to last class to get my degree as a chief and I couldn't be more excited! Gathering my cooking supplies and arranging them back into the box, I couldn't help but hesitate. It felt weird leaving Suu here all by herself. We've been friends for as long as I could remember, and I'd meet her in France when my Family and I used to move around a lot for my fathers job. It was all thanks to her that I now wanted to be a chief.

"Miss. Hinamori, I have something to talk to you about." Mr. Nikaidou, the instructor for this class, motioned for me to follow him into his office. Wondering what it could be about I quickly packed the rest of my tools and carried it after me as I entered his office. "You've progressed well, you know Amu," He said smiling slightly, his personality was a little off in a way I couldn't have been able to explain but he was pretty amazing none the less, "At this rate you'll be able to get were your going in no time!"

"Thanks" I mumbled feeling slightly embarrassed to be complimented like that. I waited patiently as he started digging through all the papers on his desk, muttering: "it's got to be here somewhere." Getting kind of bored with watching him, I looked around him to the wall behind him, were I saw his degree framed and hanging there.

"Found it!" Nikaidou yelled yanking me from my snooping with a jump. "Here it's a recommendation letter to get you into a special class, the instructor there is called Ikuto Tsukiyomi, and He's strict so I wish you luck." He said handing me a small slip of paper, with the time the class started and the date. To my extreme excitement the first class started tomorrow. Saying my quick thanks and throwing him a huge smile I headed for the door but stopped when he called my name again.

"You're going to make it far Amu that I'm sure of."

Those last words rang through my head, I never thought about how far I'd make it before. I mean there was the reason I was taking other culinary classes, I wanted to be skilled in a lot more then just Pastry. Shaking my head to come back to reality, I noticed the elevator was coming to a stop at the first floor, rearranging everything I was caring in my arms I struggled out of the elevator toward the doors.

After struggling my way to my most prized yellow Ford Mustang GTR, I climbed into the driver's seat. "Keys, Keys!" I whispered to myself as I dug through my coat pockets franticly looking for them. With a sigh of relief I pulled them from my pocket and revived the engine, smiling widely as I pulled out off the parking lot heading for home. Turning up the radio, I sang along to Equilibrium by the Jackie Boys, lightly strumming on the steering wheel also. Before I knew it I was pulling up to the entrance of the apartment complex I lived in.

Pulling into my usual park I turned off the stereo and shoved the car keys back into my pocket, while trying to pop the trunk with my foot. After struggling with that for a while I heard the tell tale pop of the trunk and smiled in victory climbing out shutting the door behind me and grabbing my things from the trunk. Heading for the steps that lead to the entrance I decided I should probably check for mail while I was still down here.

With the little bit of mail I had clamped tightly in my mouth I started climbing the stairs to get to my apparent on the fourth floor. Not the easiest thing to do while trying not to drop everything else you we're carrying. Finally making it up the stairs and leaning against my door, I just barely managed to get it open, squealing with surprise when I fell right through the door.

After picking up the mess I made at the door, I sat down to relax and grabbed a post card that had a scene from Germany on the front and read: Hey from Germany! Turning it over I was happy to see that Miki and Ran wrote me back. I read it slowly smiling. Miki's a Famous painter who loves to travel the world and paint pictures of what she sees, while Ran is an accomplished athlete who also travels the world looking for challenges. Assuming they both decided it would be cheaper to travel together they sent me post cards from every place they visited.

Carefully tearing the colorful index card off the back I noticed they sent me another recipe from the town they just visited. I'd have to try it out later.

Stretching and climbing off my couch I sat the cook book I'd been reading on the counter behind me and turned off the light. Looking outside it had gotten dark and the clock read: 9:56pm. Where does the time go I thought to myself as I walked into the bathroom to take a shower and change into my pj's. After all that was done I climbed into bed, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

~~~~~~~Next Day~~~~~~~~~

The song Star Struckk by 30h!3 started to play from my iDock to signal that it was time to get up. With a groan I pulled the covers over my head and pretended not to hear it. Soon that was damned near impossible for it kept getting louder and louder. With a lazy swing I hit the off button and pulled myself out of bed and toward my closet. Deciding that today was probably going to be cold I pulled out a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a light pink long sleeved sweater that clung to my body and showed off my curves.

With my clothes picked out I staggered to the bathroom still half asleep and splashed water on my face, brushed my teeth, got dressed and pulled on my clothes. Shutting the bathroom door after me I tripped down the stairs catching my self on the rail and sighed. I really wasn't a morning person, it was hard enough trying to get up let alone move. Finally making it to the kitchen, I grabbed myself a container of strawberries and a banana, and decided that the strawberries would be for later. Eating the banana I grabbed my car keys and decided I wouldn't need anything else.

Leaning against the car, I brushed my hair out of my face multiple times, and then getting frustrated pulled and tied it into an elegant twist at the nape of my neck. It was about time I went for a hair cut, my hair was about mid back and getting to long. Jumping into my car I pulled out of the parking lot slowly. Noticing the time on the clock I realized I was going to be late. "No No No!!!" I practically screamed slamming my foot on the gas. I made it back to the campus in no time flat and rushed toward building two.

Stopping at the door to catch my breath and curse myself for going with heels, I collected myself before pulling open the door. Revealed to see that the Instructor, what ever his name wasn't there yet I took I seat at the table in the front of the room and looked around to see it there was anyone I recognized. I sighed when I noticed two really dressed and gorgeous girls sitting a few rows back from me. They both had blond hair; except one had blue eyes and the other had purple. They seemed like the bitchy type to me, which meant I would have to avoid them if I wanted to have a good day, and not cause any trouble. Sinking down into my seat I was surprised to see that the instructor had already made it into the building and was standing in front of the room staring at the clock with a bored expression.

I had to admit, he wasn't bad looking at all. Midnight blue hair that looked messy, in the good way and his eyes were breath-taking. He looked like he was just a few years older then me, probably 25 or 26. He held himself like he was bored and wanted to get the day over with. He didn't seem strict to me. I Noticed the two blonds behind me giggle and nudge one another, so that's why they were here. Lovely. Staring at my desk I waited for the class to start.

"Hey Everyone, I'm the instructor for Pastry 101" A deep voice said from the front of the room, I looked up and listened. "I'm not going to go easy on you, and most of you won't pass this class." There was silence, and then you heard everyone gasp when he smiled. "I'm kidding, even I'm not that bad," He chuckled, "I'm Ikuto Tsukiyomi, but call me Ikuto; we don't need all the formalities." He yawned lazily before taking a seat. "Now any questions before we get started?"

One of the blondes, the one with the purple eyes raised her hands and smiled when she was called on, "How old are you? You don't seem old enough to be a professor." She asked, her voice was too high. Ikuto blinked, but his face remained expressionless.

"And why do you need to know my age? Already infatuated with me are you?" He answered smoothly making the girl who asked the question blush from embarrassment. "I can already tell you, I'm out of your league Blondie." He winked before turning to the rest of the class. Wasn't he full of himself, I thought grimly. "Now since I don't know any of you I want you to tell me your names, starting with Pinky here." He motioned for me, staring at me closely.

"Amu," I said coolly, saying my name with a twist, "My Name is Amu Hinamori, Not Pinky." The look of surprise on his face was priceless, I thought darkly. I sighed inwardly when I heard someone behind me say: "Whoa, attitude much…that's cool, kind of hot also."

"Alright, thanks for the introduction Amu," Ikuto replied, but the way he said my name sent shivers down my spine, "Alright lets keep going." I listened as everyone introduced themselves and wasn't so excited when I learned that the two blondes that were sitting together we're named Lulu and Utau.

The rest of the class was pretty much explained how being a pastry chief isn't the easiest job like people thought it was. I ended up tuning out most of his lecture just wishing we could start by making something.

"Now before we officially start this class," the Instructor said loud enough to snap me out of my day dreaming, "I want to evaluate your skills already." Ikuto said smirking at me in particular. A groan went through the class which made me smile lightly. "I want to see each of you make sugar flowers for me. Starting with Amu Here. Come on up" He motioned for me. Getting up from my seat, I was slightly annoyed when most of the guy's eyes in the class including those of Ikuto flew to my stomach. Pulling my shirt down I walked to the front of the room and was surprised to see most of the ingredients on a counter behind his desk. "Help yourself to anything you need back there, and don't mind me while I watch."

Walking around the desk, I studied everything that was there and noticed something important was missing. "Where's the food coloring?" I caught him off guard. I mean how we're you supposed to make color flowers if you didn't have colored sugar or food coloring? Next thing I new the food coloring was placed on the counter next to the sugar. I set to work then, doing everything I remembered. Finally with the sugar cooling down I added the food coloring and started to cut out the petals. I was done in no time with at least 3 flowers. Turning around I smirked at him, "Is this good enough or would you like me to make more?" He smirked back shaking his head. I just noticed how close he was, his back to everyone else in the class, leaning against his desk.

"Not bad," Ikuto remarked picking up the flowers from the counter, inspecting them before handing them back to me. "But not good enough to start getting all confident sweetheart." That irked me, I wasn't confident, him watching me the whole time was nerve wrecking, and now he had the nerve to call me sweetheart. I don't think so. I smiled and started walking around the desk, making sure to pretend and stumble and dig my heel into his foot.

"I'm So Sorry." I said honestly before taking my seat back at my desk. It was going to be a long class, A Very long class. Ikuto stared at me with a strange expression on his face before calling up the person behind me, a guy with blond hair and pinkish eyes, Tadase I think he said his name was. Ignoring the looks that Utau and Lulu were throwing me I pulled out a notebook I started flipping through recipes that I had copied down. I was able to look at more then half of the recipes there before Ikutos voice broke through my concentration of trying to find something that I might want to make later when I get home.

"Class is dismissed for now; I need to see Ms. Hinamori now." That caused the glares to get even worse from the two behind me. Slowly gathering everything I had while everyone else filled out the door, I watched everyone leave before grabbing my bag and going over to his desk. "You did the best out of everyone in the class except for Lulu, have you made those before." He was staring at me like he was studying me. I shook my head slowly.

"No but I've seen it done many times, I used to travel a lot and got to see a lot of things being made…that's why I become interesting in becoming a pastry chief..." Ikuto just nodded before thinking.

"How about instead of being a student," He said slowly thinking it over before saying it out loud, "You can be my temporary assistant…you'll still get the credits you need but you seem to know what you're doing." This caught me off my guard, he couldn't be serious, but he continues to talk. "Your last instructor told me you had talent when it came to sweets, and I want to test this." Why didn't he ask Lulu this? If she did as good if not better then me then she would be more qualified for this right? "Your answer?" I could just nod, not sure what else to say, before I could leave Ikuto said one more thing: "I look forward to working with you…Amu."

Stretching out on the campus grounds eating strawberries was nice, but I was pretty confused, Mr. Nikaidou seemed like he was trying to tell me something the other day. Like I should expect the unexpected except not that cheesy. Suu Éclair came into view waving at me happily, before sitting next to me eating sliced pears.

"So I hear your new instructor," She cooed, "Is pretty good looking." That almost made me choke on one of my strawberries. "Besides that is it fun?" Just like Suu to worry more about how much fun the cooking class is more then how hot the professor is, I truly did love this girl.

"Hmm its pretty basic, instead of learning I'm apparently going to be helping in the kitchen and teaching the other students."

"Oh so that's what Nikaidou meant when he said: "Amu's going to have one interesting day Suu." to me." I just stared at her dumbstruck.

"He said what?" I struggled to say while swallowing another strawberry. She just motioned for me to be quiet and eat.

This was going to be a very interesting class wasnt it, something doesn't feel right about It though..

New story finally~ Haha and it looks like Ikuto and Amu have already gotten in on the wrong foot together~ Tell me whatcha think pwease

~Tama~chan:)