PRINCETON

First day

"Misao, look at this place!" Kaoru squealed, as she and her best friend stood outside the campus of Princeton.

"I know! I can't believe we got through!" Misao replied, her eyes beaming. She turned to the tall man with dark floppy hair next to hair, "Can you believe it Aoshi?"

"Yeah, I can," he replied, "We should go inside."

Kaoru laughed nervously, "Right."

She walked through the corridors containing oceans of students. Her dream had been to get into Princeton. She never thought it possible.

She hadn't been brilliant in school. But she had worked really hard to get into Princeton.

In school, she had met her first friend, Misao. Not that she hadn't had friends. Sure, she had people like Tae and Megumi. But they were seniors and she couldn't meet them much since they always had more to study. She never got along with her classmates. Being a tomboy never helped. But what could she do if she loved sports so much? She didn't have any particular love. She had taken a few martial arts lessons and had scored pretty darn well in them too! She met Misao in the 3rd grade.

She remembered the way they had met: in a martial arts competition held by the school. She had heard that a new student was competing against her. Not that she cared. She would still defeat her or him.

But Misao had put up quite a good fight. Kaoru still won. She smiled at the new girl who was pretty sore after losing. Since then, they had been close friends. Kaoru had told her everything and as far as she knew, Misao had told her everything too. First it was the marks they had scored in tests, where they wouldn't tell anyone else since the marks ranged between one to five over twenty.

Then came the stage of "crushes and cute boys" where they would giggle. Kaoru had never had a crush, except for one boy who came for a year. He was incredibly cute and was really good at fighting. But it came as a blow to her as she found out that he was involved in a gang who beat up little kids. She didn't know what came over her, but she had challenged the brat to a duel. He had won. But barely. When the principal furiously asked what was going on, Kaoru retorted that he was in a gang. The entire gang was suspended from the school and the boy had been sent to a missionary school.

Then, in the ninth grade, another new boy came to Misao and Kaoru's class. He was the silent, handsometype. What creeped Kaoru out was that he never once smiled. "Aoshi Shinamori" was his name. She had never understood him.

Misao oddly did. She followed him around like a prat. When Kaoru asked her what she was doing, she merely blushed and walked away. By some strange miracle, Misao and Aoshi had become an item by the tenth grade. Kaoru never felt any jealousy. She always felt that having a boyfriend was weird.

Aoshi hung around with them from then on. "Hung around" being a matter of speech. He barely said anything. Kaoru never understood what Misao saw in him. Maybe there was something after all.

The three of them finally graduated together. But graduation day was not a happy day for Kaoru. Her parents, on the way to the graduation ceremony, had been involved in one of those regular truck accidents.

Kaoru went into a state of depression and never ate or slept for a long while until her cousin came and straightened things up. She took Kaoru into her home and cared for her. Kaoru had a small fortune awaiting her in the bank, though. She decided to live on her own after applying to various colleges.

She shifted into a really nice place with a well affordable rate. One fine day she had got a letter from a college…Princeton. She had made it.

Kaoru smiled to herself as she reached her first class: Biology. It wasn't her favorite subject, but she would manage. The desks were two seaters. She looked around to Misao and Aoshi.

"Yeah, I know you guys want to sit together. I'll sit in front of you!" she said, brightly, but felt herself dread it.

"I'm sorry, Kaoru," Misao began apologetically.

"Is someone sitting here?" asked a voice. Kaoru and Misao turned around. A red-haired man with a cross scar on his left cheek stood. He smiled at them. There was a sort of gentle aura around him that normally men didn't have.

"Um," Misao mumbled, looking at Kaoru, waiting for an answer. "Kaoru?"

"Huh?" Kaoru said, wondering why she felt dazed.

"Kaoru?" said the young man, "Is that your name?"

Kaoru snapped to reality, "Uh, yeah." She turned away coldly.

"Does that mean yes?" the young man laughed.

Kaoru was dumbfounded, "Yes to what?" she wondered.

"Yes to the place being reserved," said the man.

Did she just say that out loud? Feeling like an idiot, she shook her head, "No, it's not reserved. You can sit. But don't pull any moves on me, wise guy."

The 21 year old held his hands in the air in mock surrender, "Sure." He sat down and looked around the class. Kaoru saw him from the corner of her eye as his eyes brightened up at seeing something or someone.

She followed his gaze and it fell upon a tall man with brown, spiky hair, held by a red bandana. Kaoru would have put him in the category of hot. On the other hand, she would've have put the guy sitting next to her in the hot category as well.

"Sano!" the man yelled out. The tall man, Sano, looked up and his eyes brightened, "Hey man!" He walked over. Kaoru noticed lots of eyes following him. Not just any eyes. The eyes belonging to the female population of the class.

"I was searching for you," said Sano to his friend, glancing at Kaoru, "Too bad we don't have the same class."

"Yeah," the redhead smiled, "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Ah, hell, fuck it. First rule about college: bunking class. You should try it out sometime."

Kaoru couldn't help hold back a laugh. Sano and the red-haired man looked over at her.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't introduce you!" the red haired man said, almost as though he and Kaoru had been the best of friends forever, "Sano, this is Kaoru. And, well, vice versa!"

Sano grinned at her, his hot features taking over. Kaoru almost melted. Wow, he sure could charm a woman.

"Hey," Sano smirked, "If Kenshin does anything he shouldn't be doing, tell me!"

"Kenshin?" Kaoru asked, blinking.

Sano turned to the red haired man, raising his eyebrows. The red haired man grinned apologetically saying, "Sorry, I'm Kenshin."

"Oh!" Kaoru flushed, embarrassed. The three of them jumped as the bell rang suddenly, deafening them.

"Sano, get out of here. And don't bunk. Not on the first day. I order you," Kenshin grinned at Sano.

"Yeah, yeah, see you two," Sano yawned.

A fat man who was balding with glasses walked in, carrying a fat textbook, which suited him. He smiled at the class, "Welcome to Princeton…"

A/N: Alright, I know it wasn't that good but seeing as you had time to read it, I'm pretty sure you could spare a minute in writing a review! Just, please don't make me cry!