Ah, the improved chapter 2 is up. As always, I don't own any part of Azumanga Daioh.

Yamanashi-sensei's lecture continued to drone as the minutes seemed to tick by slower and slower. Minamo could barely keep her head from dropping onto her wooden desk. She stole a glance at Yukari, who was probably the only one paying attention, and sighed. Sitting around at a desk and listening to boring lectures about things she didn't care about wasn't really Minamo's style. Minamo gazed out the window and imagined feeling the freshness of the water in a swimming pool during a race. She could feel the silence of the water closing in on her, allowing her to only concentrate on every single stroke. Why couldn't school be more active? Sure there were sports teams and gym class, but those weren't enough for Minamo. Given the choice, she would fill her school schedule with nothing but sports.

"Aw, poor Minamo-san," Hako whispered sympathetically, bringing her desk uncomfortably close to the back of Minamo's chair. Minamo almost jumped out of her seat as she was awakened from her daydreaming and turned around to face Hako.

"You always look so sad when you're not playing sports," Hako continued. Minamo was ready to run out of the room right then. Why was it that Hako always managed to guess what Minamo was feeling or thinking about?

"So you find my class boring, Kurosawa?" Yamanashi-sensei's voice echoed throughout the room.

"Huh? Who said that?" Minamo asked, trying to make herself seem innocent as Yamanashi-sensei approached her desk.

"Kurosawa, Hako, detention," Yamanashi-sensei said sternly.

"Really? I get to spend the afternoon with Minamo-san?" Hako almost fainted from excitement, but Minamo was trembling in her seat. "This will be so great, Minamo-san! We get to spend the entire afternoon together. Don't you think it'll be fun?" Hako leaned over her desk and brought her face right next to Minamo's.

"S-Sure," Minamo managed to blurt out. Hako smiled and sat back down in her seat.

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During lunch hour, Yukari, Minamo, and Chia were sitting in the cafeteria enjoying their break. Yukari and Chia were laughing hysterically as Minamo recounted the events of first period.

"Detention with Hako?" Chia said between fits of laughter. "Lucky first day for you, Nyamo!"

"Were you really not paying attention, or are you just pretending not to remember so that I have to talk about it?" Minamo crossed her arms.

"Paying attention to what?"

"English class."

"English class? When was that?"

"This morning!"

"Oh, that's why I missed it!" Chia smiled. "I was sleeping the whole time."

"How could you fall asleep in Yamanashi-sensei's class? It's so interesting," said Yukari as she chewed on some melon bread.

"You seem to be the only one who thinks so," Minamo replied and bit into her croquette.

"So, are you looking forward to this afternoon?" Yukari teased, not allowing that subject to drop contrary to Minamo's wishes.

"You have no idea how awkward it is to be the object of someone's obsession!" Minamo snapped and stabbed her croquette with her chopsticks.

"Hey, if you hate Hako that much, why don't you just tell her to go away?" said Chia.

"I can't just tell her to go away."

"Sure you can! Just tell her to go away and file a restraining order or something," said Chia lightheartedly.

"Chia, that's a dumb idea!" Yukari chimed in. "If Nyamo crushes Hako's fragile heart, Hako will go crazy and kill us all!"

"That's what the restraining order is for!"

"Don't you know anything, Chia? Restraining orders don't stop obsessive people; they just make the person stalk you more."

"Oh really? How would you know something like that?" Chia raised an eyebrow at Yukari.

"I just heard about it on T.V. last night. This guy was obsessed with this girl so he followed her around everywhere. She got a restraining order, but that only pushed him to actually talked to her, but when he did he accidently shot her and she died!"

"Yukari, what channel did you see that on?"

"14, why?"

"Yukari, you were watching a soap opera. None of that really happened."

Yukari stared at Chia blankly for a few moments, but then her usual confident look returned. "Well it could, especially since Hako's been obsessed with Nyamo since elementary school!"

"What?" Minamo jumped in her seat. "I didn't even know that! Oh man. . ." She let her head fall to the table and groaned.

"Yeah, don't you remember, Nyamo?" Yukari began. "It was the day I decided that 'Chisaki' was too long of a name, so we started calling her Chia. I remember because it was the year Chia had green hair. The school didn't like that very much, but they never did anything about it. Anyway, it was our first day of gym and we were playing soccer. Hako somehow got hit in the face with the ball and had to sit out. Me, being the good person that I am, decided to sit with her and keep her company--"

"--Sounds like you were just lazy," said Chia.

"Don't interrupt! Anyway, all she did was watch you play and then she started asking me all these questions about you."

"Is that really how it happened?" Minamo asked, amazed that Yukari remembered something like that in detail. Yukari nodded as the bell rang, signaling the students to return to their classes.

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It was finally time for gym class. Minamo had waited all day for this, literally. Why did gym have to be last period? That meant that Minamo had to go through the whole day without any form of exercise and that was almost intolerable. Minamo stretched her arms out and filled her lungs with the warm, spring air. She had completely forgotten about the fact that after this class, she was stuck with Hako for the entire afternoon.

"Hey, where's the teacher?" Yukari asked, looking around the field.

"To the center of the track, ladies!" came a booming voice from behind them. Yukari and Minamo jumped and stared at their enormous gym teacher with his large muscles and scowling expression. He was tall and wore a track suit along with a metal whistle attached to a red string. Yukari and Minamo slowly made their way to the center of the track, as their teacher instructed, and exchanged looks of fear.

When the entire class was standing in the grass area in the middle of the track, the teacher began marching up and down, explaining his rules and how his class was going to operate.

". . .And by no means should any of you be tardy! If by any chance you happen to show up late, you will do double the number of minutes you're late in push-ups, meaning that if you are ten minutes late, you will do twenty push-ups! Is that clear?" The teacher stopped and faced the class as he emphasized his last three words. The class shouted "yes" in response.

Once again, Chia appeared as if on cue. She came trotting out of the building at her own pace just as the teacher finished his lecture about being late.

"Hey look! It's Chia!" Yukari pointed at the approaching figure and the entire class stared in that direction. The teacher slowly craned his neck and glared angrily at Chia. When Chia finally stood in front of him, she noticed the number of veins popping through his skin.

"I don't think it's healthy to be that stressed," Chia said calmly, pointing to one large vein that looked like it was about to burst.

"You're late! Drop and give me twenty!"

"Twenty what? Twenty yen? I don't have any money on me."

"Twenty push-ups! Now!" The teacher pointed his finger down and Chia immediately dropped to the ground.

"Now class, you will refer to me as Master Katashi. Remember this, just because you're all girls does not mean that I will treat you like girls. You will work hard in this class or you will fail! Is that clear?"

The class responded in the affirmative.

When Chia finished her push-ups, she rose from the ground and joined the rest of the class.

"You," Sergeant Katashi bent down and pointed his finger in Chia's face. "What's your name?"

"Chisaki," Chia replied, showing no fear at all toward her towering gym teacher.

"Well, Chisaki, it'd be in your best interest if you arrived on time from now on!"

"M'kay," Chia replied and scratched her ear. Master Katashi hid the deep frustration he felt by Chia not being affected by his commands and strict shouting. He found it almost offensive when a student didn't show any fear toward him. For him, fear meant respect, so Chia's lack of fear was also a lack of respect.

Despite making his class sound like it was nothing short of impossible to pass, Master Katashi just had the class hit volleyballs to each other. Yukari, Minamo, and Chia made a triangle and hit the ball to each other. Hako was some distance away with another group, but Minamo thought she could feel Hako eyeing her.

The end of class came way too quickly, not only because Minamo's favorite class was over but also because it was now time to resign herself to her fate of spending the afternoon in detention with Hako. Back in the locker room, Minamo changed as slowly as possible in an attempt to knock away a few minutes of her punishment.

"Hey, good luck this afternoon," said Yukari and patted Minamo on the back as she and Chia made their way out of the building. When they were gone, Minamo sighed and slowly dragged herself to her classroom, trying to convince herself that it wouldn't be that bad.

That's all for now. Reviews are appreciated.

-LadyRushia