Drop Dead Gorgeous

It's midnight when we finally realise
It's only just beginning

Daemon Koneko/Tragic Lullaby/My Fleeting touch

Chapter two.

Sweeping the seconds away.

And the models weren't wrong; I was indeed assigned to cleaning and being cafeteria lady. But I could deal with that, I had always known I wasn't pretty despite some false compliments I had received as I child. The jerk however, declined the offer to become a model, and instead wanted to be a designer or a makeup artist, "Or…" I remembered him adding, looking not at Reo, but at me, "A person who looks for potential." Reo had accepted his terms, grudgingly. Now, I knew exactly where the jerk sat because there was always a crowd of girls surrounding his table, chattering away like there was know tomorrow. He always sat in the same place, the closest table to the serving place, where I was, so he could disturb my peace and quiet.

Speak of the devil, and the devil may appear. He, the crimson eyed, raven-haired jerk, had appeared and right on his tail, screaming and squealing fan girls, the models. He was doing a great job at ignoring them. Instead, he walked straight up to the serving place and leaned on the counter. "What do you, want?" I snarled, bored and irritated that, yet again; my peace had been disturbed by the jerk. I don't actually know his name, I can't be bothered to find it out and jerk suited him so much more.

"I could ask you the same, I haven't actually asked for your attention yet. I might just be leaning on this counter because I want to lean on this counter," he shot back. The guile of him! I seethed, hoping my eyes would burn a hole through his thick scull.

"I'm serving girl so it's my business to pay attention to any jerk who comes and leans on my counter," I snapped, "So if you don't have any business here, I'm going to ask you quietly to please, piss off." I turned my back on him, going back to whatever I was doing, which…god help me, was going to the counter and serving jerks their food. I heard a quiet chuckle from behind me. He was laughing at me! After I had done that oh-so-dramatic get out of my face speech! It angered my further if anything. "Why haven't you just gone and played with your fan girl models yet and left a peace and quiet wanting girl like me alone?"

"Because I have to sit around and hear their stories of how they went to a hairdresser and, god-forbid, the hairdresser had dyed their hair two shades off the colour they usually have their hair dyed, everyday. Besides, I'm interested in hearing a cafeteria girl's boring life story once in a while. It's a change to a model's boring life story," I don't think he knew my name either, and why did he care? My life story was exactly how he said it was, tragically boring. He was waiting for me to answer.

"Excuse me," oh my god, my saviour! I wanted to kiss whoever it was, if it wasn't for the fact that I don't lavish my affection on people. I turned, grinning from ear to ear to see the jerk scowling playfully at a man. A man with blonde hair and blue eyes, probably a model, I grunted to myself. Was I the only normal person around here, or was everyone devastatingly pretty? Well, it is a model company. "What's with that expression, Natsume, are you trying to hit on this girl now?" Hit on me? I snorted in a most unladylike fashion, puh-lease he just told me that my life story was boring, which is true.

"Why would I hit on that thing, which has all the grace of a pig," the jerk growled.

"And I don't understand why anyone would fall for that jerk there, who has the manners of a pig," I muttered, insulting my superiors could get me fired, wasn't that what I wanted? No,I got good pay here and I slept in the dorms with some of the models that happened to be orphans. I didn't make friends straight away, but I made enemies. One of the girls in my dorm, Sumare or Sumore or Sumire or something, she announced our rivalry as soon as I stepped through the door. And then she had said that the jerk was her's, I had shrugged and told to take him because I didn't give a damn.

The model looked amused by our exchange, "You're one of a kind, Miss Sakura." He said, addressing my nametag. "I'm Ruka, Ruka Nogi," he extended his hand, I smiled as charmingly as I could.

"A refreshing change to that jerk there, and you can just call me Mikan," I shook his hand. "Now, what would you like for lunch? After all I am a cafeteria lady and it is my job to serve people instead of arguing with them. Don't you agree that people who don't want lunch from the cafeteria shouldn't come here to annoy the hell out of the poor cafeteria ladies?" I shot the question at the jerk. "Who the hell is he anyway?"

Ruka's eyes were as wide as the platters that I served food on, the jerk smirked, and seriously, you could've heard a pin drop. It was totally silent. The models were staring at me like I was totally uneducated. Ruka was there first one to recover and I raised my eyebrow, was the fact that I didn't know who the jerk was all that unbelievable? "Mikan, he's Natsume Hyuuga," he said hesitantly.

"So?" I had never heard of him, he couldn't be that famous.

"Sakura, just where have you been living for the past few years,"

I was hesitant, "Oh, here and there, I moved around a lot." For some reason I didn't want any of these people to know I was an orphan. One look at the jerk's eyes and I knew that he would force it out of me. I had never experienced torture but I was stubborn, extremely stubborn, nobody could force it anything out of me. Or so I thought. "I didn't get out often…" I admitted, sighing.

"Still, your family should've mentioned him now and then, or you should've seen him on television," Nogi blue eyes were staring into my eyes. Thankfully, the bell rang, it was time to get back to duty. I didn't want to kiss Ruka, my saviour, anymore. I wanted to bash him for asking me about my past. About something I wanted to forget.

"You'd better get back to whatever you were doing," I said, trying to keep a smile plastered on my face and trying to keep the frostiness out of my voice. Slowly, they left, chattering, gossiping, saying things like, 'How rude she was to Ruka and Natsume-sama!' 'That girl needs to be taught a lesson.' The jer-, I mean Hyuuga was the last to leave.

"Hmm," he said, and chuckled, "I think I might come and lean on the counter a little more in future. See you around, polka dots."

"Yeah, see you around, jerk," I snapped. Polka dots? What the hell did that mean? Wait a second, I turned and looking down, I got a lovely view of my panties. He must've seen them when I had turned around… "HYUUGA!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I hoped that busted his perfect jerk ears, I hoped that busted them good.

Just because I lived in the fashion world, even as a cafeteria girl, that didn't mean I missed out of school. Did I mention that the Drop Dead Gorgeous company was massive? They even had their own school, but it wasn't called the Drop Dead Gorgeous School, ho no. They'd be ridiculed if they called a school that. Instead the school was called Alice Academy or something like that. At the age of sixteen, I still had to have my education and Reo had promised me that. Unfortunately, he hadn't mentioned I would be the only cafeteria girl there. Instead, he had surreptitiously ordered some make up artists to "clean me up".

Nobody told me this meant stripping me and tossing me into a hot bath where I was mercilessly scrubbed that I swear they took at least two layers of skin off, and where my hair was washed and washed until I was scared that I wouldn't be able to salvage my eyeballs from the soapy suds. The makeup artists were female, thankfully. Then, after I was dry, the took me to their parlour my long brown hair was combed, some sort of oil or something had been put in it, and then it was dried. Before my amazed eyes it turned from a knotty mess to beautiful soft waves. Then they put me into a school uniform. Still, despite the magic they worked on me, I called it two hours of living hell.

"Perfect," Reo grinned as I walked out, "Now nobody would guess you are a cafeteria girl." He swung me around, laughing. In my childhood I probably would've laughed along with him as he swung me around and I would've shouted, 'higher, higher!' But I was sixteen and I seriously; I did not like this man. So I stared at him coldly. Finally getting it, he put me down. I grabbed two hairbands from the hair stylist.

"I really love the way you've done my hair, but I like it better like this," I tied my hair up in two pigtails, the way it always had been, ever since I lost my memory. I smiled sadly at them, "I know it's a bit hard to understand, but please have patience. Thank you for your time." I gave them a little bow and dismissed myself, only pausing to kick Reo's shin. "Next time, think about you are twirling around, perv." I shot back at him over my shoulder.

Had I known that only Shouda was in my class, I wouldn't have cared. But instead I had the whole handful of them; the models that gave me problems at lunch time. I stared at my class through a crack in the door; the positive feeling that I would make at least one friend was sinking like the Titanic. Luckily; I seemed like I didn't have the jerk in my class and Ruka was here, I breathed a sigh of relief. "Could you move?" an all too familiar voice of a certain jerk commanded, making the hair on the back of my hair rise. "I don't have all day, you know. Who the hell are you anyway? Some new kid off the block who Reo picked up?" Who the hell are you anyway? Well yes, I could replay that; who the hell are you anyway? I could also speed it up; whothehellareyouanyway? And yes, my annoying little voice at the back of my brain concluded, I could slow it right down; Who. The. Hell. Are. You. Anyway?

But the point was: he didn't recognise me. He, Natsume Hyuuga, didn't recognise me, Mikan Sakura, when he irritated the hell out of me everyday. Did Reo's transformation actually work? I turned, smirking for ear to ear, "Well, I don't know, who knows who I am?"

I was gladdened to see the jerk's crimson eyes widen with disbelief, "You!"

"So that's who I am, you," I acted surprised, "Thank you for reinforcing my identity to me." My words were dripping with sarcasm, just like honey drips from the side of the sandwich when some stupid kid has spread too much on. "See you around," and then I added when I turned away, "jerk."

Acting before thinking, and doing anything to get away from Hyuuga, I pushed open the door, full of stupid confidence I had acquired because of my victory over Hyuuga, and I stalked into the room. Silence. Was it just me; or could I never avoid awkward silences? I froze, and all eyes were on me. Shit. The confidence evaporated, kind of like water does on a really, really sunny day. That was how I felt, like a puddle of water beneath their burning gazes, wishing I could evaporate.

"Ahem," the teacher coughed, he really didn't need to, not one mouth was making noise. "Everybody, this is our new classmate…Miss…"

"Miss You," I blurted, unable to stop myself. Nobody would get that joke; it had been a failed attempt at humour. But to my disbelief, I heard a low chuckle to my left. I turned my head to see, well, what was there to see? Well, truthfully, everything a girl wanted really, except me. Well, in my eyes, it was nothing but that crimson eyed, raven haired, god like jerk and the fact that he was a jerk ruled out everything else in my books.

"Looks like I underestimated you, Sakura," he said quietly so only I could hear it, "looks like we'll definitely have an interesting time. You can be sure of that." He's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a frigging good looking one at that, the voice at the back of my head said, let's replay that. 'Looks like I underestimated you Sakura.' What on earth did that mean.

Sorry it seems a bit short, I wanted it to be longer but see, I'm going to the beach tomorrow.

DK