A/N: Yeah! Chapter 2! So most of the chapters have song titles. Some of them are a combination of songs and one of them I think I just made it up? Anyways the relationship between Akimi and Mizukawa is totally different than in the original. I like this one better.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its characters, plot, etc. etc. etc. I only own my OCs, original dialogue, etc. etc. etc. Thank you, enjoy, R&R.

Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.


Akimi gazed out the window to her left catching glimpses of wispy clouds hanging in the startlingly blue sky, a breeze rattling the shining leaves on all the trees. It was an incredibly nice day and it seemed a shame to spend it inside – especially in her current class. Math. She wanted to go outside and bask under the warm sunshine and get funny tan lines that wouldn't go away until she stripped into a bikini and lounged on a beach or a backyard somewhere. She smiled at the thought and wondered who would be willing to join her in her escapade to absorb up as much sunlight as possible before evening.

"Kono!"

She broke out of her daydream and turned her attention back to her teacher who was staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"What?" she asked, dazed. The classroom rippled with laughter and Akimi blushed warmly. The teacher glared down the aisle at her, pointing a sharp index finger at her in warning and turned back to the blackboard. She shrunk down into her seat and propped up her open math book on her desk to create a barrier between her and the rest of the class. She didn't feel like looking at anyone.


The bell rang and she was up and out of the classroom first, grabbing a homework assignment from the desk. She desperately wanted to enjoy the warmth outside and considered skipping her last class in order to do so. She hadn't really skipped school before but it seemed like an optimal answer to her dilemma.

She wandered over to her locker and knocked once on the metal door. It swung open easily; luckily it wasn't stuck this time. She checked to make sure that no one else had tried to same trick in order to break into her locker, but everything seemed to be in class. She did a mental checklist of her items, scanning the locker for them. Pencil bag, backpack, books, notebooks and a glossy photo of her American penpal. Yep. Everything was there.

Akimi dumped her math notebook and textbook into the locker and grabbed a secondary notebook and a mechanical pencil lying on the bottom of the locker. She closed the cubby and attempted to lock it, knowing that the mechanism had been broken since Iruka was a freshman (he had had this locker before and had on more than one occasion come back to find items stolen). She bounced on her heels trying to decide what to do then, with a heavy sigh, headed off towards her next class. She wouldn't skip art class after all. At least she liked the subject, anyways.


One of the advantages of being the art teacher's favorite student was she got to pick wherever she wanted to sit at the beginning of the year and she had eagerly chosen the seat in front of the large bay window that looked over the sloping hills dotted with maple trees. So she wouldn't be outside until the end of the day, at least she'd be able to get a good look at it. Besides, the sun was in perfect position and warmed her body through the window without blinding her.

Akimi turned her attention to the bowl of fruit sat before her on the small table. She glanced around to see other kids scratching at their sketchbooks with thick, black lines of charcoal and muttering to themselves in exasperation. She looked back at her own bowl and squinted her eyes at it. Still life was always a problem for her. She had never gotten the hang of drawing inanimate objects, which she thought should've been the easiest thing to draw.

She hesitantly pressed the end of her charcoal to the rough paper and sketched out the round shape of the bowl and the basic outlines of pears, apples and an unnaturally yellow banana. She held the sketchbook back and judged the current shape of everything. The bowl was a bit lopsided and the apples were too big, overcrowding the misshapen pears and the banana she had drawn too thin and long. She sighed and looked back towards the other students. A few of them were doing okay, looking pleased with their drawings, but others were struggling like her. One student threw down his sketchbook and tugged at his hair with black-stained hands, marring his face with charcoal unintentionally.

She cast a glance at the foreign exchange student, Nicholas, who looked confusedly at his bowl of fruit. She wondered if he knew what he was supposed to be doing (maybe they didn't have art classes in America). He looked up at her, a bewildered expression on his face. He dropped his sketchbook and charcoal and grabbed the bowl of fruit, turning it so it faced Akimi from across the room. She squinted at it and then saw what caused him to make the face. All of the fruits in his bowl had been given a variety of facial expressions with thick, black Sharpie lines. The banana was looking sleepy and dreamy; the apples were arguing with each other; and the pears looked frightened and were tilted away from the apples, their little Sharpie-drawn arms pulled up to their face in fear.

Akimi threw her hands over his mouth to stifle her laughter but it was too late. She had had already let out a loud squeal of surprise which caught everyone's attention. She threw her head down, dropping her charcoal on the ground.

"Kono-chan?" came the soft voice of a young girl with black pigtails. She looked over from her table to the brunette girl who was huddled over her table. "Are you okay?"

Akimi nodded, leaning down to snatch up her broken piece of charcoal and sat back up, brushing back her hair. "Yeah," she nodded again, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the class. "I'm fine!"

"What happened?"

"Nothing..."

"...okay."

The class hesitantly went back to their own work, occasionally casting glances at the peculiar brunette sitting at her own table. She wiped her face with the white rag beside the bowl of fruit and looked down to see it was now spotted with dark marks. Great. So she probably had a face covered in charcoal now. She sighed and dropped the rag back on the table and began looking around the room again nonchalantly.

Her eyes landed on the tan-skinned boy across the room sitting at a table of three, his eyebrows pinched together as he studied the wooden bowl filled with oranges and grapes. Akimi smiled to herself as she watched him tilt his head this way and that to get a better angle at the smooth bowl but to no advantage. He sighed and began haphazardly sketching his piece. The other kids at his table looked just as loss and gave up trying to study the fruit and followed Iruka's footsteps in just sketching.

She hadn't noticed that she was still staring at him though her mind had wandered elsewhere. Iruka glanced up, feeling like he was being watched only to meet eyes with her. His face blazed red and he turned his eyes away quickly, too quickly – the others at his table noticed. They looked over to where he had been looking and began chuckling and nudging him with their elbows. They wanted him to go over and talk to her. Iruka shook his head violently and refused to budge from his seat.

Akimi, about as red-faced as her friend, turned away and sat back in her chair. She looked up at the ceiling in hopes that she'd find inspiration in the tiles, but no such luck. She looked back down at her sketchbook riddled with messy pencil and charcoal drawings and one half-decent watercolor that had leaked onto three other pages. She tore out the drawing of the lumpy fruit bowl and started to redraw it when she noticed that she'd already used the page – but not for a sketch. Written in sharp, thin lines were partial lyrics to another Lifehouse song. She forgot she had written those in there and read over them.

'Cause I'm hanging on every word you say, and even if you don't want to speak tonight that's alright with me … 'Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside your door and listen to you breathing, is where I want to be.

She smiled to herself, remembering the tune in her head and hummed softly to herself. It'd been a while since she heard the song so she made a mental note to play it once she got home.

Akimi glanced over at the wall clock sitting above Mizukawa-sensei's desk. She still had another 30 minutes until the class was over. She rolled her charcoal between her fingers, debating what she should do with the rest of her time. She didn't feel like doing the project they'd been assigned, but she needed to do something. Just because she was the favorite student didn't mean that she could just skip assignments. She'd have to turn in some sort of artwork. She considered pulling out an old sketch but remembered she'd showed her entire sketchbook to Mizukawa-sensei earlier in the week and she'd know if it was an old piece.

She could always draw someone instead of something. After all, she preferred to draw people. It was easier and more interesting. The curve of muscles and pull of tendons under the skin; the length of arms and legs and way light reflected off shoulders and hips. It all fascinated her. But who would she draw? It wasn't like she could just ask someone to model for her in the middle of class with only thirty minutes left. It'd have to be a quick sketch of them, anyways, if she was to get it done in time. Maybe if she hurried she could add some shading and get a decent grade on it. She didn't expect an A since it wasn't the assigned project, but it was better than nothing.

Oh, I know, she thought, looking across the room to the table where three boys sat. I'll draw him. She smiled and squeezed her charcoal lightly, subtly turning her chair so she could get a better look at the boys. Then she set to drawing.

"Akimi, I'd like to have a word with you," Mizukawa-sensei said, making everyone in the room cast apologetic glances at her.

"Yes?"

Mizukawa motioned for her to come over to her desk. She nervously gripped her sketchbook close to her body and headed over to the desk, avoiding direct eye contact. She hated looking people in the eyes when they were angry or upset with her.

"I'd like to ..." Mizukawa began, folding her hands together and staring intently at her student. A thousand thoughts ran through Akimi's head and none of them were pleasant Like to what? Fail her? Demand her to redraw the fruit bowl? Move her across the room into the deepest, darkest corner of the class? Oh, she'd redraw the fruit bowl a million times as long as she got to keep her seat by the bay window.

"...to..." Mizukawa paused, clearing her throat which meant "You should be looking at me right now and probably listening". Akimi looked up slowly at her teacher and was surprised to see her smiling. "To congratulate you," she said, smiling wider.

Akimi was lost. Congratulate her? For what? Did she win something? Was this one of those things where teachers enter their students in competitions without their knowledge and then when they win they're completely confused?

"Congratulate me?" she asked. "For what? I didn't do anything."

She laughed softly, "I wanted to congratulate you on your wonderful artwork."

"What?" Akimi was a half shocked and half relieved. "But I … I didn't do the assignment."

"I know, but your drawing of that boy was excellent. I was surprised at first that you didn't do the project but when I saw the exquisite detail and the shading, well I was just amazed. It would take at least two or three classes for half of your classmates to get the amount of detail you got in one class. With your permission I would like to frame the photo for the art show coming up."

"B-But .. I thought that the art show was to sell pieces?"

"Some pieces will be sold, but there's also a display that is simply meant for people to look at. If you're uncomfortable with the art show, I'd at least like to hang it up in this class for reference for other students. They could really learn a lot from your attention to detail and the way you captured shadows consistently. It'd be really nice to have in class."

"I …" She frantically thought of some excuse as to why she couldn't let the drawing see the light of day. There was no way she'd let it have permanent residence upon the wall in the art class. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Mizukawa knitted her eyebrows together and looked at Akimi a bit suspiciously. "Why not?" She raised an eyebrow at the girl in expectation. The brunette rocked back and forth on her heels, feeling anxious.

"Well … because I, uhm..." She searched for a reason. It would've been fine if she hadn't signed her name on the bottom, but she had in very clear print with a little flourish. If it was hung up in class, people would look at it. And if people looked at it then they would see her name. And if they saw her name then they'd know who she'd been staring at through the whole art class. The thought mortified her.

Mizukawa cleared her throat again and stared at Akimi.

"I, uhm, I just don't … I don't think I'm ready to have my art on display. I'm sorry... It's just … well this was a quick sketch, it's not all that good."

"I think it's perfect."

"Oh, well... I'd be happy to take time to do a real piece for you."

The teacher narrowed her eyes at the girl who fidgeted with the sleeves of her gray jacket. Finally she sighed and nodded. "All right, if you don't want me to hang it up, then I won't hang it up."

"Thank you!"

She handed the drawing back to the girl who took it and hastily shoved it into her sketchbook. She turned to leave but Mizukawa called out after her.

"Akimi?"

"Yes, sensei?"

"What's the name of that piece?"

"Huh?"

"All artists name their pieces. What's the name of that one?"

She looked down at the sketchbook under her arm and shrugged. "I don't have a name for it, yet."

"Hm... Just a suggestion, you don't have to take it, but I think you should call it Distant Admiration, or something of similar meaning."

She felt her face turn pink and she nodded, "Yeah, okay, I'll think about it." She turned to leave again but Mizukawa caught her once more.

"Who was your inspiration for it?"

"Huh?"

"Your inspiration? You drew it in class, so I thought maybe you'd picked a classmate to draw... maybe not. I'd be very impressed if you drew that from memory."

"Oh, uhm... It was just … it was just a kid across the room."

"Hmm... all right."

"W-Why do you ask?"

"Just curious who you were staring at that whole time. To me, personally, it looks a lot like that Umino kid."

Akimi was sure her face flared fire engine red at that but if Mizukawa noticed she didn't saw anything. She just shrugged and nodded. "O-Oh, well, maybe. I don't know. Just a kid!" She laughed nervously and mentally kicked herself. That wasn't suspicious. But her teacher just nodded and then waved her away.

"Sorry to keep you so long. Go ahead and get out of here. Enjoy that sunshine while you still can!"

Akimi bowed, thanking her and then raced out of the classroom. Okay so there was no way she was drawing Iruka anymore. At least not in art class.