Disclaimer: Yeah, I know that I don't own Bleach.
So I've been obsessing over this story a little. Even though I'm writing it. I should really start writing in a journal or something cause I'm putting some of my real life experiences from school in this. I think you guys will laugh at it. I bring the party to EVERYTHING. Hahaha yeah anyway. Here's the 2nd chapter :).
A Sophomore Life
Chapter 2: Center of Attention
Both Rangiku and Rukia were a bit disappointed that Chase did not show up in their French class. In their class Rukia could hear some of the girls around her talk about Ichigo.
"Oh for the love of freaking god!" she thought to herself. She rested her chin on her hand and blew her bang out of her face, although it would go right back to its same spot. They were all ranting about how cute he was, or how cool his hair was, or how he was so tall, on and on!
"Jealous Rukia?" Jenna asked her. She could tell from Rukia's body language that she was feeling a bit annoyed. It was a gift that Jenna had, and it was pretty awesome.
"Hell no, I only bumped into the guy this morning! It's not like we're going to fall madly in love!"
"It could happen…"
"Jenna, this is high school, people don't find their true loves at our age, but even if they do, I think it's all because of luck!"
"Well, I beg to differ oh jealous one," Jenna cracked a smile.
"Shut up" Rukia stuck her tongue out at her. The two both laughed.
"Hey Rukia," Rangiku started turning around for her seat to face her, "that Ichigo guy is cute!"
"Oh Rangiku! Not you too!" Rukia said burying her face in her arms. The older girl laughed quietly.
"Nah, I was kidding, besides I already have a boyfriend,"
"Rangiku, I hate you sometimes," Rukia replied back.
"Oh but you love me so, so much," Rangiku said in defiance. Jenna chuckled at the two.
Ichigo wasn't paying attention to anything in class, he just looked like it. He was sitting around 2 other guys and a girl. Christian, Weston, and Jamie. They were pretty cool; they made an effort to talk to him. He scanned around the room, and of course he found that girl that he ran into that morning. No doubt about it. Once again, he was staring at her. Rukia, at the same moment just happened to turn her head in his direction, and caught him staring at her. Their eyes locked, for about 3 seconds before Rukia turned away. Ichigo immediately looked down and pretended that it never happened. Rukia, however had a million thoughts racing in her head, of course, she's a girl!
"I remember when I was walking through the lunch area and I love seeing this kind of thing," Rukia remembered Mr. Gorgan saying to their 5th period class last semester, "The interaction of people, but what I love seeing the best, is when there's a girl in her own group of friends and a guy who's across the quad and with his own group of friends. He stares at the girl from across the quad, and either she feels him staring at her or her one of her friends tell her that he's staring, so she turned around to see. And BAAAMM!! Their eyes connect. It's only for about a couple seconds before it's too intense and one of them has to break it. That's the kind of thing that I love seeing on this campus. Little simple things that make a big impact. They say that if you stare at a person for 3 seconds or more that it's considered flirting." The class laughed, "No, no! I'm serious! Just wait until it happens to you…" Rukia sat quietly.
"Flirting…" she said to herself.
"Rukia! Hellooo!!! Rukia!" Both Jenna and Rangiku were looking at the girl with puzzled and worried expressions.
"Y-yeah?" Rukia snapped out of her daze.
"Oh god, you freaked us out for a moment there!" Rangiku told her.
"Yeah, what's up? You were fine a minute ago!" Jenna added on.
"W-well, it's just… I saw Ichigo staring at me…"
"WHAAAT?!" the two exclaimed together.
"That has to mean something!" the older girl stated.
"Mmmhmm, there's nothing on your face!" Jenna said.
"Oh thanks…" Rukia said back.
"Maybe… he likes you!" Rangiku said excitedly, "I can see it now! I think you two would make some pretty hot babies!"
"Rangiku! It's probably just nothing! He just happened to look my way when I looked his way, nothing more!" Rukia said in defense.
"Fine fine, whatever you want Rukia," Jenna told her, but both she and Rangiku were giving each other looks.
"I can't believe that I got caught staring at her! God I'm so stupid!" Ichigo scolded himself in thought.
"I don't even know her freaking name!"
"Hey Ichigo!" Weston interrupted his contemplations.
"Yeah…"
"Were you just staring at Rukia a moment ago?" Ichigo was at a loss for words.
'Great, another person knows that I was staring at the girl!' he thought again.
"Uhh, I, well I was just looking around and I just happened to look at her too…" he thought up lamely.
"Nice, well if you're wondering, Rukia's a nice girl, I was in her humanities class last semester with a bunch of other people and she's chill. Definitely one of a kind."
"Thanks for the info Weston," Ichigo told him.
"No prob, looks like the bell's gonna ring soon, everyone's packing," the dark haired teen replied back. He started to pack all his things away too. Ichigo took out a piece of wrinkled paper from his pocket.
'What do I have next?' he pondered as he skimmed through his classes.
"3) Algebra 4, Room 453, Teacher Smiten" he read to himself. He crumpled his schedule back into his pocket and the bell rang a few seconds later. Sighing, he grabbed his bag and headed towards the door like everyone else.
Rukia got to her locker again; Rangiku was with her because she wanted to see Chase. The smaller girl opened her locker and put in her APEC and French books.
"Rangiku tell me what I have next," Rukia told the older girl because she had given her schedule for her to see.
"Uhh, Humanities and Math," the junior replied back.
"Thanks," Rukia took out those books and put them in her bag and shut her locker closed.
"Rukia! Rangiku!" the two girls turned and saw CJ closing up her locker a few feet away from them.
"Hi CJ," Rukia called to her. CJ stood for Cameron Jane, but since it was too long, she decided for people to just call her CJ.
"Have you seen Chase?" Rangiku asked her.
"Mmm, not this morning," CJ said back. She was wearing a plain blue shirt from A&F and kaki shorts. Her dark gold/ light brown hair was down and her bangs barely touched her light blue eyes. "He probably has band right now,"
"Stupid bando," the junior muttered. The other two just laughed. "Well, maybe I'll just catch him at lunch, I've gotta go meet my boyfriend,"
"Ok, Bye!" CJ and Rukia said. When the older girl left, Rukia and CJ began talking.
"So what are your classes?" she light haired girl questioned.
"I just had APEC and French, I have Humanities and Math next, then after lunch it's Chem and Drawing/ Painting 1,"
"Nice, too bad I don't have classes with you this semester,"
"What do you have?"
"Next, uhh APEC, then Humanities,"
"Damn just one period off,"
"Yeah I know, well, wanna come with me to go and get Chase?"
"Sure," Rukia and CJ were off to the band room. Chase was in the drumline for band and since Marching Season ended a couple months ago, he was just in a regular percussion for Concert Season. He and CJ were going out ever since the last tournament for the season. They were a pretty cute couple, Rukia was a bit jealous for CJ and Chase, but she knew that the other girls like Orihime, Tatsuki, and Mae felt the same as she did, even if they didn't show it. Rukia thought it was the way that Chase would do the little things for CJ, like hold her hand, or carry her books or bag for her, buy her food… etc. It couldn't be that hard to have a man slave like that. But Rukia knew that it wasn't all easy stuff to be in a relationship. Humanities 1st semester taught her a lot about, well, being a human.
She remembered the drama after about 3 weeks when Chase asked CJ out. CJ called her in the evening; Rukia was just reading a book. CJ just spilled all of her problems to the girl. This wasn't the first time that people out of the blue called Rukia of their problems so she was used to it. She managed to calm her friend down and break it down to the main problems that were affecting her. They both figured out it was all because of Chase, and how CJ would always see him talking to other girls, she knew that it was stupid, but they were going out. Although Rukia had no experience in relationships whatsoever, she had either read, watched, or been told by another person something similar. So Rukia gave her opinion on what CJ should do. After about a whole hour of talking, CJ thanked Rukia and called Chase afterwards. Ever since then, CJ and Chase have been fine. Rukia was the type of person that apparently people open up to. She knew things about almost all her friends and kept their secrets. Proving that she's a trustworthy and good friend. She was the person who everyone could vent out to, and almost nothing seemed to sway her or truly affect her. However, there was really no one there for Rukia to vent out to except for one. Before Rukia could keep in her head, she and CJ were already at the band room. Noises from saxophones, trumpets, and other instruments were already heard from outside the room.
"Ready to go into the noisy pits of hell?" CJ asked smiling.
"Of course, we've been in here a million times anyway," The two girls ventured into the room and looked around for a certain teenage boy with golden brown hair and piercing green eyes. It didn't take long before they spotted him putting his stuff away.
"What's up bando?" CJ said as she crept up behind him.
"Hey" her boyfriend replied back grinning. The couple hugged and gave each other a quick kiss on the cheek. Unfortunately Rukia saw it all and made a face.
"Get a room if you guys wanna get it on already! PDA alert!" she told the young couple.
"Why don't you just not look Rukia," Chase said back his face with a pleased expression on it.
"As if! You guys are always doing something when I see you,"
"You must like it then huh?" CJ said this time.
"Shut up, you two make me freaking sick, I'm gonna go outside and puke now, thanks," Rukia pretended to make fake gurgling noises. All three of them laughed and started on their way out of the room.
"So, Chase what period do you have French now? Rangiku and I were looking for you last period," the small teen started as they walked outside.
"I know! I have French next though, our trio is split up," the boy pouted and his lower lip stuck out.
"Stop that freak, that doesn't work on me, only on your girlfriend," Rukia responded back disgusted.
"I can try can't I?"
"What, are you gonna cheat on me with Rukia?" CJ questioned putting her hands on her hips.
"N-no! I was just kidding!" Chase put up his hands in defense.
"That's right bitch, who's your master?" the blue-eyed girl stated. Rukia snickered at the scene unraveling before her. The bell rang signaling that break was over and the students had 5 minutes to get to their next class.
"I'll see you guys at lunch!" Rukia called to the two still bickering teens as she walked away.
'I'm surrounded by idiots,' she thought to herself.
Humanities class went by incredibly slow for Rukia, it always did, but it was a billion times worse since she knew absolutely nobody in her class, except for a few. She was glad when the bell rang, ending her class. Her honors algebra was better. Once she stepped in she noticed a familiar white / silver haired freshman.
"Hitsugaya! Hinamori!" Rukia exclaimed happily. She had made friends with him last semester along with another freshman, Hinamori Momo.
"Hi Rukia!" Hinamori welcomed the older girl. She was sitting next to Hitsugaya and pointed to the empty seat next to her. All the desks in the class were grouped into four.
"Kuchiki…" the boy nodded to her. For some odd reason, last semester the three used their last names for each other, except for Hinamori because she liked to call Rukia by her first name and she knew Hitsugaya since they were babies.
"So boy genius, I see we're all still together huh?" Rukia began as she sat down next to the dark haired girl.
"Yeah, I guess," Hitsugaya's green eyes looked over to the two girls.
"Rukia, I'm so glad we're all still in the same class, I'd probably fail algebra without the two of you in my group," Hinamori said with a laugh. Rukia and a few other people were sophomores in the class, but the rest were freshmen. Rukia had gotten used to the idea of it though, and Hitsugaya was probably the smartest student in the class.
"What are your classes' guys?" the raven-haired girl asked.
"I have all regular classes except this one still and they all stayed the same," the girl next to her answered with embarrassment. Rukia gave her a reassuring smile.
"It's okay, we can't all be a smart ass like this guy here," she pointed to Hitsugaya with an amused expression on her face. Hinamori giggled softly.
"Shut up, just cause I'm in a few AP classes and the rest honors classes," the white-haired boy responded back angrily, his right eye twitching.
"Oh don't be so stiff about it, chill," Rukia said waving her hand at the guy.
"Stupid sophomore…" he muttered under his breath.
"Shiro! That's not very nice!" Hinamori interjected.
"I thought I told you NEVER to call me that!" a red vein popped up on the younger teen's head.
"Oops, sorry, but Rukia is once of the nicest sophomores I've met!"
"I'm glad somebody likes me here,"
"Shut up and be quiet, or I'll just let you two fail this class,"
"Alright, alright… Hitsugaya," Rukia emphasized his name and sat back into her desk smiling along with Hinamori.
"I love math…" she added before the teacher began to take roll.
"Tch…" Hitsugaya scoffed and folded his arms across his chest with a scowl on his face.
Lunch came just in time for Rukia. She didn't know if she could take any more information on math. Yet again, she had a quiz to add on to her Friday.
"I HATE math," she said to the other two classmates as she zipped up her backpack.
"Just study Rukia, you'll probably do fine," Hinamori said to encourage her.
"You better not call me the night before and ask me to teach you everything like last time!" Hitsugaya informed her as well, with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
"Don't worry, I'll study, that was only a one time thing Hitsugaya!" Rukia told him.
"Yeah, yeah," He and Hinamori walked out the door. The younger girl waved goodbye to Rukia and she was out of sight.
"Ahh, freshmen," she said to herself before going out to lunch as well. For the third time that day, Rukia made her way to her locker. After putting away and getting books she walked to her usual spot at lunch. Already there was CJ, Chase, Orihime, Tatsuki, and Uryuu.
"Hey guys," Rukia said to all of them.
"Rukia!" CJ began, "Orihime just told us about what happened this morning! Why didn't you tell me about this guy you ran into?!?!?!"
"Oh- uhh…" Rukia stuttered trying to find the words to say. Luckily, Rukia was saved by a ruckus caused by Rangiku. The entire group gave their attention to the event just a few feet away from them'
"Ugh, Matsumoto! Get off me! You're embarrassing!" Hitsugaya said struggling to get the junior off him.
"Come on Shiro! Why can't you just hug me once in a while?" the older girl pleaded. Hinamori was next to Hitsugaya with a nervous expression but was just watching.
"Shut the hell up! I don't have to because I practically see you every freaking day!"
"All the more that you should say hi to me," Rangiku showed no signs of letting go of the freshman in her arms. Rukia remembered that Rangiku was also close to Hitsugaya because she'd known him ever since they were young as well.
"Rangiku, please get off Shiro, he might get mad," Hinamori finally said. Trying to pry her off of the boy.
"Mad? I'm pissed off!" Hitsugaya yelled out as he was finally free from the older girl's grasp.
"You need to lighten up," Matsumoto ruffled his hair like a little kids' and smiled at him.
"Shut up Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya was fuming, he and Hinamori walked away to get food. The group that was speculating all of what had just happened busted out laughing. Rangiku made her way to the band of sophomores and smiled.
"That kid needs to stop being so grown up, he needs to be a kid once in a while," she said sighing.
"I know what you mean," Rukia replied.
"Chase! We didn't see you in French!" the junior said to the green eyed teen.
"Yeah, I have Blak 3rd now," he ran a hand through his short wavy hair.
"Sucks, well, I just wanted to say hello… bye guys," Rangiku waved and walked to her usual place for lunch.
"So, Rukia, where were we?" CJ returned to the topic. Rukia shot a look of death at Orihime who in turn smiled widely.
"It's nothing big! I just ran into the guy and he helped me up, no big deal,"
"What's his name?" Tatsuki asked.
"Ichigo… Kurosaki…" Rukia answered, Tatsuki was about to say something but was interrupted.
"Whaaat?! Rukia! I thought you didn't know his name!" Orihime jutted in.
"Well, he's in my French class and the teacher asked him to introduce himself,"
"Why do girls have to make a fuss out of everything?" Uryuu asked Chase as they watched the rest of the girls gang up on poor Rukia.
"Girls are girls, and we men will never understand them no matter what," Chase sighed. Uryuu grinned and caught sight of Renji coming toward them.
"Hey, why are they crowded around Rukia?" the red head asked, setting down his backpack on the bench.
"They're ranting about Rukia bumping into this guy this morning…" Uryuu answered.
"Ahh…" Renji nodded and stood beside Chase.
"Why is this all a big deal?" Mae questioned as she came up to the group of girls, she was holding a sandwich in her hand.
"Rukia's never shown interest in a guy!" CJ said.
"What?! I just knocked into him! I never said I liked him or had ANY interest in him!" Rukia said in defense for herself.
'I shouldn't bring up the fact that he was staring at me…' she considered to herself.
"Look! He's right there!" Orihime pointed to a tall, orange-headed teenager walking past them.
"Oh god," Rukia put a hand over her face and dragged it down showing her annoyance. All the girls looked in his direction and examined him for a moment.
"He is cute…" Mae declared with approval.
"Nice job Rukia," CJ beamed at her.
"You. Guys. All. Suck. Ass." the small girl replied to her friends. Renji laughed and gave her a light hit on the back.
"Don't worry Rukia, if he breaks your heart I'll beat that bastard to the ground,"
"Renji!" Rukia punched him on the shoulder. He winced but still cracked a smile.
"Damn Rukia," Chase said to her, "you know we're just kidding,"
"Yeah, yeah,"
"It's just fun to tease you like this," CJ added on. She just rolled her eyes as a response and took out her lunch.
After lunch Rukia walked with Tatsuki to Chemistry because they had the same class together. Dr. Runner, their teacher seated the students in order of their last name. She and Tatsuki were separated but they could still make eye contact with each other.
"Kurosaki, I thought that name sounded familiar," Tatsuki told Rukia before class started.
"I used to live in Hawaii when I was younger, I met him at the dojo I was training at,"
"Small world huh?" Rukia said.
"Pretty much," Tatsuki nodded.
The bell rang yet again and the students took their seats. Runner began to take attendance when another person stepped into the classroom.
"Oh hell," Rukia thought, she looked over across the room to Tatsuki who grinned back at her. Ichigo was standing there and gave his schedule to the teacher.
"Kurosaki eh?" Runner said, "You'll be sitting next to Kuchiki… Rukia raise your hand," Grudgingly, Rukia did as she was told and lifted up her left hand. Ichigo went over to Rukia and took the empty seat next to her.
"Umm. Hi again," he said to her rubbing the back of his head.
"Hi," Rukia said back curtly.
"Listen, about what happened in French…" he began looking down at the ground.
"Don't worry about it… you just happened to look at me and I just happened to look back…" Rukia told him. Relief washed over Ichigo, he looked at the girl next to him.
"Yes, that's exactly what happened,"
"Well, since we never really introduced ourselves properly, I'm Rukia,"
"Ichigo," he replied back with half a smile. Rukia smiled back and turned to face the teacher. Chemistry was definitely going to be an experience for both Ichigo and Rukia.
I'm sorry if you wanted more! I know I'm kinda dragging this story on, but I wanted to put a bit of detail in the first day. So I'm a little more than 2/3 finished with Rukia's day :). Hehehe like it? So I'll be starting the next chapter now cause I wanna get it started already. Review if you like to… as a person it actually is nice to get some feedback, cause I don't know if I'm doing a crappy job or a good one hah. And so, they finally meet. :)
-The Bleach Guardian's Heart
