Disclaimer: As much as I wish for it every Christmas to Santa Claus, no. I do not own Gakuen Alice.
"That will be three hundred and eighty yen." The cashier says monotonously.
A young girl with sparkling brown eyes and a brilliant smile hands the money to the cashier and picks up the groceries. She waves the cashier good bye enthusiastically and even when she gets a dreary farewell, her spirits remain unhampered.
She skips home with the plastic grocery bags worn on each wrist like bracelets. It was a warm summer day, school was starting tomorrow and it was the final year in high school, something all teenagers look forward to, graduation.
The girl stops occasionally to exchange greetings with neighbors or to pet a dog or simply to bend down and smell the colorful flowers that were in full bloom at every yard of the street. When she gets home, she puts the groceries away and gets started on dinner, blasting music as she works.
Hours go by until the front door opens and a woman with short brown hair and hazel eyes identical to her daughter's comes waltzing inside and greets the girl who just finished preparing a dinner for two. The woman puts away her keys and takes down her high ponytail, running her hands through her hair as she walks in the kitchen and sniffs the air appreciatively.
"Mmm, smells nice, what did you make?" The woman grabs plates and pours water into glasses as she sets the table. The girl grins at the woman, "Steak and potatoes."
The woman's smile widens as she takes her seat on the table and regards the meat, "special sale?" The girl takes a seat opposite of her mother and says proudly, "half off."
"Nice," she says and happily devours her dinner. As they eat, and exchange pleasantries, the news goes off and catches their attention.
"It has been reported as of today that Prince Natsume will be attending Gakuen Alice this year as a senior student." The news anchor, a beautiful woman with dark skin says smiling to the camera.
The woman turns to her daughter in surprise, "isn't that your school?"
Mikan nods numbly staring wide-eyed at the TV.
"The young prince will be turning eighteen this year and starting his official duties as the crown prince of Japan. As of next year he will be accompanying the king in his royal tasks. It has been rumored that the young prince's fiancé is actually a student within the school and this is a way for them to meet and spend time together. This has been confirmed by many authentic resources but as of now, doubt lingers."
Mikan blinks as the anchor starts going off about many of Prince Natsume's qualities, mainly his handsome looks and quiet personality. She scoffs at the TV and turns back to her steak.
Her mother smiles at her, "Not looking forward to studying with the hot prince?" she raises her eyebrows suggestively.
Mikan's face twists as though she tasted something bad, "that's not it, now school will only get noisier…and annoying." She almost flinched, thinking about the fan girls that drooled over the senator's son, Ruka Nogi. How would they react when a prince would be among them? Being a scholarship student among the rich and posh students of Gakuen Alice, Mikan needed to work hard to stay in, unlike most of the kids that simply went to school for appearances. After all why should they struggle and study when they have enough wealth to last a lifetime?
Mikan looked up as the news broadcaster showed a picture of Natsume Hyuga, scowling at the camera. She furrowed her eyebrows at his perfectly chiseled face, they would go crazy; yes, the fan girls would make her deaf for sure.
Her mother, Yuka smiled teasingly, "oh come on, it won't be too bad. Just think about all those fairytales, you might end up falling in love,"
Mikan grinned dimply, "Yes, oh right. That's very assuring."
Yuka nodded seriously, "make sure to seduce him, think about all the meat we can get if you become the princess."
Mikan snickered, "Yeah we can eat steak everyday."
"And the desserts, French pastries, Italian sweets, chocolate bon with tea…" Yuka says dreamily.
Mikan laughed, "Mom, you're not seriously thinking of selling me to royalty for food, are you?"
Yuka grinned, "Well I wouldn't oppose either."
Mikan smirked, "well maybe I would be the princess if I was the only girl left in the academy," then added, "Or the world." She turned to the TV as the news anchor finished off the exciting news.
"This could mean a lot to the students of Gakuen Alice. They get to study with the prince and spend eight hours with him under the same roof. Especially the females, one of them may turn out to be our future queen."
Mikan rolled her eyes, as if the females at school needed any more reason to attack the prince of Japan. She almost felt bad for the guy. Well, almost.
Japan was divided between a monarchy and democracy. The power was divided between the government and the King. Of course the citizens were told that they had all the power, but of course, they knew better. The power lies mostly with the government as the citizens elect them. The king could be dismissed by the government but the law is that the successor must be of royal blood. So in many ways, the power was divided.
As Mikan walked in through the double doors of Gakuen Alice Monday morning, she realized with dismay that her going deaf theory was right. Shrieks and high pitched voices screamed the same name that had been on the news all night.
"Natsume-sama!"
"Your highness, please accept this!"
"Prince Natsume, what class are you in?"
Mikan was tempted to cover her ears like a little kid. She couldn't see the prince as he was surrounded by a circle of female fans. A really big circle. It seemed like the whole female population had gathered in the hallway, ready to pounce on the beautiful prince at any moment. Curiosity got to Mikan as she walked towards the crowd wanting to see the caged prince. As she got closer, she realized that would be impossible without loosing patches of her hair and possibly a few limbs. She decided it was certainly not worth it.
But just as she was turning away she got pushed by a throng of girls trying to enter the predatory circle. She fumbled and lost her footing, cursing her terrible balance, and fell face first inside the circle. Once inside, she was pulled in three different directions at the same time and before she knew it, she was falling into the middle of the circle.
She got ready for the impact but it never came as strong arms encircled her waist. She froze and looked up into deep red eyes.
Her eyes widening, she found her footing and hastily started pulling away only to be stopped as the same warm arms tightened their hold on her and the prince pulled her to him. She was frozen stiff as she felt the boy hug her and then pat her head.
What the heck? Still frozen in shock or maybe just star struck she stood in the circle of this stranger's protective embrace.
After moments of shocked silence from the whole school it seemed, the boy pulled slightly away and said loud enough for the whole room to hear, "Where were you? I've been looking everywhere." He looked at her with such concern that she blanched, her heart racing, she whispered out, "I-I…" before he cut her off and put her hand in his, "Never mind, we're getting late for class, come on." And he pulled her away from the frozen female crowd.
She could barely register what was going on until they reached her classroom and the confusing and beautiful boy let go of her hand. He looked at her with the same smoldering eyes and grimaced, "Here, and don't let anyone know about what happened." He handed her a wad of money from his back pocket and walked away towards the classroom door.
Mikan looked down at the money in her hand and blinked. It was a bunch of thousand yen notes balled up. She looked up at the boy who was arrogantly walking towards the door. Then down at the money in her hands, and then back up at the boy's retreating back, suddenly something inside her cracked.
Just as the boy walked through the doors into the classroom she stalked up to him and threw the money at him. It fell like flower petals around him and he mechanically turned towards her with wide eyes. Mikan was red in the face and huffing with anger.
"I. Am. Not. A. Charity. Case." She said enunciating each word, then added "your highness." She was seething. It was one thing to be arrogant but then to do that. As if she wasn't already aware of her low status in the school. Who did this infuriating boy think he was? Ok, so he was the prince, but that didn't mean he could trample over someone's pride and dignity like that. To think her heart raced for this idiot.
"What?" He said half surprised, half angered.
But by then she couldn't hear him because the crowd had grown loud and they were surprised not only at the display but also the fact that the Prince would now be one of their classmates. She moved aside as boys and girls alike rushed towards the prince in excitement. She quietly made her way towards her seat in the back.
She tried to focus on the lesson in class but it seemed that not even the teacher could contain her excitement and was doing a poor job of explaining 'Protein synthesis.' Not like anyone noticed, they were too busy ogling their newest classmate who Mikan realized to her annoyance kept glaring at her from across the room. With a heavy sigh Mikan gave up and returned his glare, deciding to scowl back at him for the rest of class.
When the bell rang for lunch, she was the first one out the door but was stopped by a deep velvety voice.
"Wait." She stopped for a moment but decided to pretend that she didn't hear anything and kept walking. She could hear footsteps behind her and was getting ready to run but then the boy said, "Wait you stupid polka dots," and she froze on the spot.
She turned around with exaggerated annoyance, "What did you call me?"
The boy smirked, "It's not my fault you flashed me your underwear when you fell into my arms."
Unbelievable.
Mikan turned crimson as the air around her cackled with electricity, "You-you perverted idiot!" She thundered.
His smirk only grew infuriatingly bigger, "do you know who I am?"
Mikan scoffed and glared, "I don't live under a rock! I know exactly who you are."
The boy raised an eyebrow and she answered seething with anger laced in every syllable, "You're the moronic prince of this country."
"Then you should know that I have the power to throw you out of the country." He said examining his fingernails as though the conversation bored him.
The gesture only angered Mikan further, "And you should be aware that I can let the whole world see you for who you truly are."
The boy actually jeered at this, "My words against yours, who do you think they'll believe?"
Mikan was speechless for a moment before she cried in frustration and stalked away leaving the boy in amusement.
"Mom! I'm home!" Mikan said walking in and taking off her shoes.
She saw that there were two other pairs of shoes next to her mother's and hers. She glanced at them quizzically for a moment before heading inside. She stopped when she heard voices coming from the kitchen and called out, "Mom?"
"In here, sweetie," she heard her mom's voice and exhaled in relief.
She walked into the kitchen and froze for the second time all over that day as she saw her mom standing next to two men in black suits, black sunglasses and matching buzzed hair.
But what made her heart stop beating were the words that they uttered, "Hello, we come from the royal family to greet you Princess Mikan." And they knelt.
A/N: Hi guys…so I haven't been finding many stories to read and get lost in so I just drabble my own to get lost and disconnected from the world because, who doesn't want to escape reality once in a while? This one was pretty random; but tell me what you think and if you want me to continue, thanks guys.