Chapter Two

Louise Valliere frowned and crossed her arms as she walked down her new school's hallway. Who was that girl? She obviously didn't have any manners. I mean, who did she think she was talking to? Louise came from a very rich family and at her old school in France, she was treated like royalty. But here she was just another high school student.

In the midst of all her thinking, she realized she had no idea where she was going. "Shit." She mumbled as the bell rang and all the students scuttled into their classrooms. Where was she supposed to go?

Looking down at the map of the school, she sighed. The principal had given it to her earlier that day, but it was so hard to read that it was useless. Finally, she saw an open classroom door and peaked inside. She recognized the teacher because she had met her in the morning, and knew that it was her new AP English teacher.

Louise took a deep breath and walked into the classroom. She hated being late. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at her as she walked to an empty seat at the back of the classroom.

The teacher, Mrs. Kita, smiled warmly. "Oh, right, I forgot to tell everyone..." she started.

Louise squeezed her eyes shut. Please don't mention me, please don't mention me.

"We're getting out early on Thursday. Instead of being dismissed at 3:00 like usual, you will be dismissed at 12:00." Mrs. Kita smiled again.

Louise breathed out a sigh of relief. She had been worried that the teacher would introduce her to the class or something.

The teacher then, to Louise's horror, walked over to her and said, "Also, this is our new student, Miss Louise Valliere!"

Louise cheeks burned as the whole class turned around to stare at her.

"She's come all the way from France and is spending the rest of the school year here in Japan." Mrs. Kita patted Louise on the shoulder and moved back to the front of the classroom.

As Mrs. Kita proceeded to talk about the books they would be reading that school year, the class still seemed to be staring at Louise. She looked down, embarrassed and angry at the teacher. It was then that she heard a familiar snicker.

The girl that had run into her earlier sat a few rows down, smirking at her. Louise narrowed her eyebrows. What was with that look she was giving her?

Suddenly, the bell rang and everyone stood up and made their way towards the door. Louise looked down at her books and slowly began to pile them p before she walked out the door. Once again, she saw the girl from earlier. Louise cocked her head to the side in confusion. What was she doing?

a.a.a.

Taiga slowly crept over to Ryuuji's locker. Even if she didn't have her original plan, she could still make this work, right?

Ryuuji was just walking out of the classroom and towards his locker when she noticed someone else. Gritting her teeth, she walked over to her. "You." She shouted.

The girl turned and frowned as soon as she saw Taiga. "I'm sorry, can I help you with something?"

Taiga threw the bag of broken cookies at her. The string came undone and the broken bits of peanut butter cookies flew everywhere. "Can you fix that?" she shrieked. "Because of you, now I can't..." Taiga paused, suddenly embarrassed.

Her face must have been bright red because the girl leaned forward and said, "What's wrong with you?"

For some reason, this angered Taiga to the extreme. She didn't know what came over her in that instant, but she raised her fist and punched the girl across the cheek. Startled, the girl fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Students began surrounding them with wide eyes and opened mouths. "What's going on?" she heard someone whisper.

"Taiga's gone mad!"

"I saw her beat up the new foreign exchange student."

It was then that Taiga realized what she had done. She looked down, only to see that the girl was still on the floor, rubbing her cheek that was now a bright red color.

More and more people began crowding around her to see what was going on. And then, right in front of her she saw the last person she wanted to see at that moment.

"Ryuuji?"