A/N: Alright here is the next installment. Sorry if it feels a bit rushed, it kind of was. I am also still setting up the plot. So please enjoy this chapter. I'm off to finish a research paper.
EDIT: Fixed minor grammar errors.
Bleach:
Red VS Blue
Summary: Grimmjow transfers to Ichigo's school and takes an interest in a certain boy. At the same time, Renji is also interested in the aforementioned person. Who will Ichigo choose?
Chapter 2: The Invitation and the Lunch
After the introduction of the two new students, school resumed like normal for the teens. As each class passed by, Ichigo kept feeling his eyes drift over his shoulder, inadvertently of course. Was that guys hair dyed, or was it just as natural as his own hair? At the same time, he was hoping that their eyes would not lock. After all, how would he explain constantly looking back? Once or twice is fine, since one could pass that off as disbelief, but on-going, now that was another story, in and of itself. The bell rang, dismissing everyone for lunch.
"Would you like to eat with me and my friends?" Ichigo asked as he turned around to face the blunette.
"Not interested," he answered. The bluenette stood up and Ichigo quickly rose to his feet.
"Yo! Ichigo!" a loud voice called out. A loud slapping noise was heard as well. The orange hair boy turned around to see his red-headed friend.
"Hey Renji," he responded with a small scowl on his face. Turns out that Renji slapped him on the back along with his greeting.
"What's going on?" the red hair boy inquired.
"I thought it'll be nice to invite Grimmjow to join us for lunch," he answered.
"And I told your friend that I was not interested," the bluenette coldly added. He started to walk away from the two teens.
"What about you?" Renji asked, turning his attention to the other new student who was still sitting at his desk. The raven hair boy looked forward with a bored look upon his face. Several girls crowed around his desk before he could respond to Renji.
"What's it like in America?" one girl asked. The group of about three girls giggled.
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"What bring you to Japan?"
"What kind of music do you like?"
"Are you going to join some clubs?" The barrage of questions kept coming causing the boy to stand up.
"I'm sorry," he said, making eye contact with each girl individually. "I just got here and I am still adjusting. Please give me a day or two to settle down." The girls looked disappointed, but nodded showing that they understood where he was coming from. Trent than faced the two warm color hair boys. "Thank you for the invitation but I must decline for today."
"Its fine?" Renji stated, albeit confusion was in his voice.
"Yeah," Ichigo scratched the back of his head, "just let me know." Trent bowed and left. Before he reached the door he turned around.
"Did either of you see which way the blue hair guy went?" Trent asked. The other two shook their heads. He turned back around and left the room.
"Why is he looking for that guy?" Ichigo pondered. The two teens followed suit and left the classroom as well.
Ichigo and Renji voyaged to the rooftop of their education center to join the rest of their friends for lunch. A group of about six people were seating around a large rectangular table. The school has rules that forbid students from even spending time on the roof, but with the consistency of visitors, the principle decided to let that rule be broken. In fact, he was the one who placed a table on the roof for the students. Even though there was a big group of students, it still seemed like there was a few missing.
"What took you guys so long?" A short black hair girl inquired the moment the two warm colored hair teens arrived. Ichigo looked around the table to see which of his friends were there. Chad, Uruyu, Orihime, Tatsuki, Mizuiro, and Keigo were all seated , with their lunch on the table, but not eaten or even picked at. Rukia, was also present, just wondering what was taking so long. After all, they all share the same classroom so technically they should have left in a group.
"Sorry," Renji half-hearty apologized, "Ichigo over here was busy inviting the new kids to lunch."
"Oh," was all she could reply.
"That is unusually out of character for you Ichigo," Tatsuki remarked, a bit throw off by the random act of kindness shown by the orangette.
"Gee, you make it sound as if I'm a bad person or something," he responded.
"Well Kurosaki," Ishida started as he pushed up his glasses, "your not exactly the most friendliest of people."
"Boy Ichigo, he got you pegged," Renji chuckled. Everyone at the table joined in as well.
"Wait," Keigo chimed in. "You said kids, right?" Ichigo nodded. "So you invited both the normal looking one and the one with the blue hair."
"I do believe his sentence was plural," the boy with the glasses bluntly commented.
"Don't you find it odd that his hair is blue?" Keigo questioned.
"He probably dies it," Mizuiro pointed out.
"It could be natural," Chad added.
"Who hair is naturally a weird color?" Keigo inquired, not liking the fact that he is losing the argument.
"Well mine and Kurosaki-kun," Orihime answered.
"Let's not get into this again," Rukia sighed in frustration. The group looked at her and nodded. The majority of them did not want to open the Pandora's Box that is known as this conversation.
"So where is everyone else?" Renji inquired.
"Rangiku and the others will not make it today or tomorrow," Rukia answered. "All the upperclassmen have some paper work to fill out or test to take, I don't remember." Renji opened his mouth and made a smart allelic response. She snapped back and a fight escalated from there. Everyone at the table continued about their lunch, eating and chatting as the two of them fighting was the normal routine. Although, to outsiders, it would seem kind of strange. Another thing that was strange was that Ichigo's mind kept drifting back to Grimmjow. Why was that?
The next day had arrived and Ichigo had gotten to class early. Something woke him up and he could not remember why. To make matters worse, he could not get back to sleep. He sat at his desk, blankly staring at the front of the room. This caused some worried looks to appear on his friends' faces, but they knew Ichigo well enough to know not to bother him when he got like this. It was not like he was depressed, more like lost in thought. Sometimes he just needed some space to think and reflect on things. A few minutes before class started, Ichigo saw a flash of blue and noticed that Grimmjow entered the room. His uniform was not worn as nice and neatly as it was the previous day. Maybe he looked his best since it was the first day was the excuse Ichigo came up with. Not long afterward class started and suddenly it was lunch time. Ichigo turned to face Grimmjow.
"Lunch," he started before he was met with cold blue eyes.
"Not interested," was the response he got. Grimmjow stood up and left the classroom.
"Maybe tomorrow," Ichigo muttered as though he calling out to him. Te orange hair boy wondered why the blunette did not want to eat lunch with him. Would this pattern continue? How long will he take to get used to the school?
It was Wednesday and once again Ichigo was up early and ready to go to school. He walked down the stairs and walked into he kitchen where he caught a whiff of breakfast being prepared by his younger sister Yuzu.
"Is everything alright?" she questioned. There was a pained and worried look on her face.
"Everything is fine," Ichigo forced a smirk, "what makes you think anything is wrong?"
"Well you been getting up early," she started as she placed a spatula in the frying pan and started moving it around. "Also you been ready for school with time to spare." She lifted the pan off the stove and held it over some plates that were placed to the side. "The semester just started so there is no last minute cramming either." Ichigo took in what his sister told him and really thought it over.
"There nothing wrong," he responded, "it just that my body tells me to get up and there nothing I can do about that."
"Oh," she looked shocked, almost pulling an Orihime, "I never thought about it like that." The two of them laughed. "Even I have had weeks like that."
"What going on?" another young female voice asked. "Everyone is in such a good mood this morning. Is it because goat face is going to be gone the entire weekend?"
"Goat face is leaving?" Ichigo wondered, "how come he didn't tell me?"
"Don't sound so hurt," Karin poked fun, "he never tells you when he leaves until the last minute."
"That is true," he muttered. He then glanced over to his other sister.
"He has to go to a medical conference," she walked over back to the stove. "He leaving Thursday night and won't be back until late Monday afternoon."
"So it'll just be the three of us this weekend?" the orange hair boy inquired.
"Hate you break your heart Ichi," Karin said in between bites of her food. "Yuzu and I are going to be at a sleep over this weekend."
"The whole weekend?"
"Sorry Ichi-nii," Yuzu apologized as she started to eat her breakfast, "your going to be all by yourself."
"ICHIGO!" a deep male voice screamed as a shadow appeared in the kitchen. Acting on pure reflexes alone, Ichigo managed to counter his father with relative ease.
"We were trying to have a warm family moment!" Ichigo scolded his father. Sighing, he picked up his bag and left for school.
"So you father is going out of town this weekend?" Renji asked. Rukia and Renji were gathered around Ichigo desk waiting for class to start. They were there early and still waiting for Orihime, Uruyu, and Chad to arrive. Normally they would walk together as a group, but Ichigo had to leave the house before his father started acting like his usual self.
"And you sisters are going to be gone for the whole time too?" Rukia asked as well. A smile slowly started to appear on her face. She glanced over to Renji who had a look of confusion on his face just like Ichigo did. After another second or two of exchanging looks, a grin grew on the red-headed teen's face. The orangenette continued to look for another few seconds before things started to click in his head.
"No!" he warned his two scheming friends.
"No what?" Rukia asked innocently, although the evil grin on her face said otherwise.
"We have no idea what your talking about," Renji joined in.
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Ichigo emphasized his warning.
"Don't worry buddy," Renji patted Ichigo back and began to walk off.
"We'll take care of everything," Rukia reassured her other male friend before catching up with the red head. Ichigo face-palmed. He should not have said anything about being alone this weekend.
"Wait a minute," he muttered, "where are they going to?" He glanced at the clock to notice the time. This is when his usual morning group arrives, which means... "Damnit!" Ichigo cursed as he left the room to try to stop whatever Rukia and Renji were planning.
The bell rung signaling the beginning of the school day. Ichigo glanced around the room and noticed that Renji still had that grin on his face. Its a little too late to stop them now. He noticed that Trent had a distance look on his face, so he must not being paying attention to the lecture. He slowly turned his head without drawing attention to himself and noticed that Grimmjow had a look of loneliness on his face.
"Eyes front," Grimmjow growled, and Ichigo immediately turned his head back to the front of the room. What is the reason behind that look? There must be a reason. Right? School continued like normal until the bell rang for lunch. Ichigo quickly turned around to face the blue hair teen that sit behind him. "Don't bother." He warned before the orange hair teen could open his mouth. He stood up from his chair and walked out, leaving Ichigo a bit confused and hurt.
"Excuse me Kurosaki-san," a male voice asked. Ichigo turned around to see the other new boy standing right next to him. He quickly scanned the room to see if any of his friends were still in proximity. He did not need any witnesses to his failed attempt at inviting Grimmjow to lunch.
"Trent, right?" the orange hair inquired, getting a nod back in return. "Please call me Ichigo."
"Ichigo," Trent sighed. It felt weird to say. Japanese was not his native language, although his name was much easier to say than some other words. "Is the lunch invitation still open?"
"Uh, sure," he responded. For a moment Ichigo had forgotten about inviting him to lunch as well, even if it was by association.
"Then would it be okay if I joined you and your friends today?" Trent asked, his eyes not meeting Ichigo's. After all, it was hard to ask something like this.
"Its fine by me," the orange hair teen responded. There was confusion in his voice as he wondered why he was asking in such a way. "I'm sure my friends won't mind. In fact, Orihime and Rukia been pestering me to bring you to meet the group."
"I see," the raven hair teen smirk. He could not tell if this was a genuine thing or if the boy made that up on the spot.
"Although," Ichigo added, "if you don't mind me asking. What did you do the first two day for the lunch period."
"Well the first day Jaegerjaquez-san and I walked around the school to get familiar with the area," Trent answered. The mention of Grimmjow's name caught Ichigo's attention. "Then yesterday, Jaegerjaquez-san and I went to the cafeteria."
"So are you and Jaegerjaquez-san friends?"
"I think we are acquaintances at best. Since we were both new, we decided that we should stick together for the first few days."
"So why are you guys not together today?"
"Well you heard that Los Noches High (may change to Heuco Mundo High) closed down right?"
"Yeah, that was in the news recently, what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well Jaegerjaquez-san was transferring out of that school regardless due to his father job. From what he told me, some of his friends are transferring over here so he wanted to meet with them today."
"I see," Ichigo sighed. "So why did he look so lonely? Would he be excited to have his friends come over to this school?" The orange hair teen shook his to clear the thoughts when he noticed that Trent was giving him a weird look.
"Are you okay Ichigo-san?" Trent asked. "You kind of spaced out there for a moment."
"I do that from time to time," Ichigo smirked. "We should probably go. My friends get tired of me making them wait." The two teens left the room and headed towards the roof.
The two teen arrived on the room after a few minutes. There was a huge crowd of people gather around a seemingly small table. It was probably bigger that it looked, but with as many people that were there, it was a crowed space. As the two of them walked up to the table, Trent got a good look at everyone there. The first thing he noticed was that there was a distinct lack of females. There were two busty ones, and two who was rather flat. You would think the two busty girls would share the blessing if they could. As for the guys, there was a lot. All of different shapes and builds. One even had feathers.
"Hey everyone," Ichigo waved. "Trent decided to join us for lunch today." Trent gave a light bow. "Allow me to introduce you to everyone."
"I recognize a few of you from class, but I do not remember your names," Trent confessed.
"Its alright," Rukia chuckled. "Your new and it takes some time to get to know people." She got up from her seat and grabbed Trent by the arm. "I'm Rukia Kuchiki," she introduced. "That guy with the long red hair is my boyfriend, Renji Abari."
"Yo," Renji acknowledge.
"You sit next to him in class. Those two at the end of the table are Keigo and Mizuiro. Next to them are Orihime Inoue and her best friend Tatsuki."
"Nice to meet you," Orihime Inoue smiled. Tatsuki glared at the boy. Watching his eye movements and making sure they do not wander to a certain place.
"The guy with the glasses is Uryu Ishida," Rukia pointed. Uryu adjusted his glasses.
"Nice to make your acquaintance," Uryu flatly said.
"The big quiet guy next to his is Sado Yasutora," Rukia mentioned.
"He and I been good friends since middle school," Ichigo chimed in.
"Hola," Trent said.
"Hola, hablo espaƱol?" Chad responded. Everyone glanced at the two of them. This was an unexpected development.
"A little," Trent answered. He looked around at everyone and noticed the surprised expressions planted on almost each of them. "The place I from is relatively close to Mexico. So the two cultures are mixed." Everyone's expressions wen back to normal. The response must have checked out with them.
"Now everyone to the left of him," Rukia continued pointing to the group of four teens, "are our upperclassmen. The girl with the long orange hair is Rangiku Matsumoto."
"Nice to meet you cutie," Rangiku winked. Trent smirked a little, but it was just to be nice.
"The two next to her are Ikkaku Madarame and his best friend Yumichika Ayasegawa," Rukia pointed out.
"How the hell are ya?" Ikkaku smiled wildly. He obviously has little manners. Yumichika just lightly waved.
"Finally," Rukia announced, "we have Shuhei Hisagi."
"Nice to meet you," Shuhei smiled as he stood up a little and stretched out his hand.
"Likewise," Trent slightly blushed at the man and shook his hand.
"Everyone, this is Trent Nocturne," Rukia introduced the new boy. The majority of the group knew him from class, but this was merely a formality for the upperclassmen. "He an exchange student from America."
"So that explains why he said the area he from," Rangiku realized.
"Now that we all know each other," Rukia smiled.
"Do you guys have any questions for me?" Trent interjected. Rukia shot him a quick glare and he responded with a faint smile. He did not mean to interrupt, but its only natural for people to have questions for the new member of the group.
"Questions can come later," the short black hair teen stated in a fierce tone of voice. Trent knew better than to challenge her. "Right now, let's talk about Ichigo party."
"I told you, I'm not having a party!" Ichigo argued.
"Ichigo, we told you we'll take care of everything," Renji rebuttaled.
"I told you I am not having a party! My old man will kill me if he found out," the orange hair teen reinstated his argument.
"In hindsight," Uryu said, "you probably should not have told those two that you would be home alone this weekend."
"I know," Ichigo sighed. "I realized it when it was to late."
"Come on Ichigo," Rangiku coaxed, "have a little fun once in a while."
"I'll help you clean up afterward Kurosaki-san," Orihime told him.
"You do not have to do that," he tried to tell her.
"It'll be fun," she smiled at him. Ichigo felt his resolve break down a little.
"If it makes you feel better," Yumichika chimed in, "We'll keep it small."
"Yeah," Ikkaku agreed, "It'll only be the people here a couple more from our class."
"I don't want to have a party!" Ichigo tried to make his intentions clear. He knew he was failing, but he was a fighter.
"Of course your invited Trent," Rukia told the guy who was now sitting next to her.
"Oh no," Trent tried to decline, "I do not want to impose. Beside, Ichigo said he did not want a party. So you cannot force him to have one." Ichigo shot him a look of gratitude.
"You don't have a choice," Renji told him. "Rukia is stubborn."
"Who are you calling stubborn?" she shouted at the read-head.
"You!" he shouted back. "You are stubborn."
"Kid," Trent heard a female voice from behind. An arm wrapped around his neck, "you have a lot to learn." Rangiku smiled at him. The arguments continued for sometime. Trent noticed that Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia were quite hot-headed.
"Fine!" Ichigo shouted as he slammed on the table. "We'll have that stupid party! Just make sure it doesn't last too long!" A slight cheer was heard amongst the group. Ichigo sat back down and sighed.
"I'm sure it'll be fun Ichigo." Trent gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Whatever," he responded. He gave a faint smirk back to Trent, making sure that the teen knew it he was not upset with him.
