A/N: Hi there again! First off, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed my story, both on and elsewhere. Please keep it up! I would like any suggestions that could possibly make the story better.

Alright, Chapter 2 is really lighthearted, but it mainly sets the stage for Chapter 3, which is where I'll go a bit deeper into the characters and they'll have some more light hearted fun.

Enjoy!

Gentle sunrays crept in from the window and traveled across the room where Mei was lying on his bed, embraced by his warm blankets. He groaned at the sudden intruders and covered his head with a blanket, but failed to fall asleep again. Defeated, he lifted his covers and walked into the bathroom to begrudgingly prepare for the day.

Then he remembered. Today was going to be a great day. He had finally found someone who cared about him, someone who wanted to be his friend. The thought put a wide smile on his face as he made his way downstairs to prepare his lunch.

He happily hummed as he searched his cabinet and refrigerator for the materials to make his lunch, his mind filled with thoughts of his new friendship. Mei even decided to make a lunch for Ritsuka. If he did nice things for Ritsuka, he'd always want to be friends right?

Mei readily agreed with himself while he quickly wrapped up the two meals and placed them gently into his bag, taking extra care of the one meant for Ritsuka. After brushing his teeth, combing his hair, and getting dressed, he walked out of his house, eager to get to school.

Mei quickly hid his eyes as the bright morning sunlight invaded them, painfully causing them to water. He gradually opened his eyes as they adapted to the sunlight, cursing silently at the troublesome light. He prayed to the Gods that this wasn't an omen, though he laughed at himself for worrying over such a ridiculous thing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ritsuka-kun! Over here!" Yuiko shouted, standing next to a group of girls. Ritsuka had barely walked into the classroom and already she was bothering him. He was further regretting being so cold to her yesterday. He hesitantly walked across the classroom to see what she wanted, already thinking of ways to get out of the conversation.

"Morning Ritsuka!" Yuiko shouted in a heavy, overexcited voice.

"…Mornin" Ritsuka responded in an intentionally uninterested voice.

"Aww, come on! Don't be grumpy so early; you'll ruin the rest of your day!" Yuiko scolded him, before he could respond she said "I want you to meet some of my friends. This is Asuka, Shion, and Erika" Pointing to each girl respectively.

Ritsuka gave them a quick look and then made a gesture that could be interpreted in some minds as a wave. Confident that the "wave" had satisfied them, he began walking to his seat.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Yuiko yelled after him. She was becoming increasingly upset with his demeanor this morning.

"Uh…"

"There are threepretty-"she seemed to strain herself on that word "-girls here introducing themselves to you, and you completely ignore them. Be a gentleman!" She grabbed his shoulders, causing him to stand up straight, and pointed him toward the girls.

Ritsuka didn't wait for orders from Yuiko, he just wanted to go.

"Nice to meet you" he said in a polite, but bitter voice.

The girls giggled and whispered hushed words to each other. Yuiko turned around to praise Ritsuka for his new politeness, but he had already made his way back to his desk.

"Jeez Yuiko, what's up with him? I thought you said you guys were friends." Asked one of the girls curiously.

"Yeah…we hit off pretty well yesterday" she shrugged "he must be in a bad mood or something, you know how boys are."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei panted and gasped for air as he ran furiously toward the school. That second lunch had taken more time to make than he thought, and now he was running late. The temperature had cooled down, but Mei was sweating buckets and his face was turning red from the heat.

"Damn, damn" Mei thought to himself "If I don't get there by the time they close the front gate I-"

His thoughts were suddenly cut off as his foot caught the edge of the curb and sent him tumbling onto the hard asphalt of the street. Mei only had a few seconds to anticipate the pain as he fell onto the street below him. His hips came first, then his shoulders, and lastly his face. The pain came a few seconds later, not just the throbbing, searing feeling that came upon the wound, but the dirtiness that came with falling on asphalt.

Mei took a few moments to absorb the pain, hissing slightly and cursing to himself as he rubbed the injuries, hoping it would somehow lessen the pain. Finally he stood up and brushed himself off, removing the small pieces of gravel that had stuck to his skin and wiping off the miniscule spots of blood that had appeared on his face.

The pain had reduced itself to a moderate sting while he was gathering up his scattered things on the street. He limped slightly as he flung his bag once again over his shoulder and made his way, more slowly this time, toward the school.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bell brought groans from Ritsuka's classmates as it clanged loudly, interrupting their precious conversations.

"Everyone please be quiet so I can take roll!" Hitomi yelled out, her first statement of the day.

Ritsuka's name was called out within the first few seconds of roll, and he used the rest of the time to quickly scribble something that could be conceived as an answer to one of the question assigned yesterday. A few points were better than none, after all.

"Mei…..Mei? Hmm…absent today I-"

"I'm sorry, Hitomi-sensei!"

That voice, was that Mei? Ritsuka hadn't even noticed until now that Mei wasn't present. Hie face was red and his forehead was damp with sweat. His hair was slightly disheveled, there were several small spots of black on his arms, and his face had trace amount of what looked like blood.

"Mei? Are you alright? You look like you're hurt" Hitomi said curiously worried.

"Huh? Oh y…yeah, I was running here because I was late and I fell on the street. I'm alright though, um…I'm sorry for being late" Mei responded, stumbling on his words a bit.

"I'll excuse your tardiness this time because you haven't been late all semester, but please manage your time more carefully from now on, ok?" Stated Hitomi, adding a smile at the end.

Mei nodded and lowered his head slightly as he hurriedly made his way to his desk, avoiding the eyes of the students looking at him and whispering to their friends.

Ritsuka tried to get his attention as Mei walked past him, but Mei was moving so quickly and wouldn't bring his head up. Ritsuka was a little worried; Mei seemed to have a clumsy tendency about him.

His attention was suddenly stolen by Hitomi, who had begun collecting yesterday's homework. Ritsuka scrambled to scribble a few more lines on the mostly empty paper before he handed it nervously to her, hoping she wouldn't notice the several blank answers on the paper.

"All right class" Hitomi said, collecting the last of the papers "Let's discuss the answers to the assignment, and we'll move on from there!"

The students sighed as she began writing the first question on the board. Ritsuka turned to stare at the window, hoping the time would go faster that way.

Ritsuka's cloudy thoughts were lifted when the lunch bell rung loudly in his right ear. He was a little surprised at the length of time that had gone by during his daydreaming. He strained to remember what he was thinking about, but he couldn't produce it. As he rested his hands on the desk, preparing to get up, he felt a pair a hands clutch his shoulders.

"Hi" grinned Yuiko, whose face had just appeared to the left of him.

"Uh…"

"Come sit with us, Ritsuka" Yuiko said, with a more playful tone in her voice now.

"Well…"

"Now, now come on, we had such fun yesterday didn't we?" She had lifted him out of his seat and now had his arm, dragging him to the area where the girls from that morning were sitting. Ritsuka's initial reaction was to jerk his arm away, but he could feel Hitomi's eyes on him, and he did not want a repeat of yesterday.

"Now what?" He thought to himself. If he left now, he ran the risk of upsetting Yuiko and in turn, causing Hitomi to punish him. If he stayed, he knew Mei would be crushed, especially seeing him eat with some of the more popular kids in class.

He had no time to do anything as he was lead to a circle of desks and forced into one of them. He didn't even have a chance to breath before the rampage started.

"So where did you move from?!"

"Who's your favorite singer?"

"Which one of us is the cutest?"

"You want some of my lunch?"
"Are you going out with anyone?"

Ritsuka opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly jumped in fright at a loud CLANG behind him.

"So, I see this isn't such an all-girls area anymore. Mind if I join?" Yayoi smirked; he had just moved his desk behind Ritsuka.

"Yes we do, Yayoi. Beat it" Yuiko stated coldly.

"Aww, come on! You always told me I couldn't sit here 'cuz I was a boy, but you're letting this new kid sit here!"

"That's because-…Hey, where is he going?!" Erika chimed in. Ritsuka had left the desk and was walking over to the corner, his hands comfortably stuffed in his pockets.

"Jeez, what's with that kid?" Shion huffed.

"Don't worry about him, Yuiko! You've got a grade A man right here!"
"Eww, Yayoi you're so gross! Go away!" Yuiko replied, kicking his desk over.
"You know" Asuka interrupted "The fact that he doesn't seem interested in us makes him all the more appealing."
The girls all nodded in agreement, and suddenly there was another loud CLANG next to them..
"Huh, you girls are pretty boring. I'm gonna go sit with those really cute girls over there." Yayoi said overdramatically.

"Okay, have fun" Yuiko replied dryly.
Yuiko suddenly jumped when she felt something pulling at her legs.
"Please Yuiko! PLEASE LET ME SIT BY YOU! JUST FOR TODAY!".

"Oh God Yayoi, grow up" Yuiko sighed, kicking him a final time. He finally gave up and, with his head hanging low, headed back to his normal area, where the other boys were grasping their stomachs in laughter, much to the dismay of Yayoi.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ritsuka quickly made his way over to where Mei was sitting; listening for any sudden shouts from the area he had just left. He turned his head toward Mei, praying he wasn't upset.. He had a black hoodie on, its strings hanging off of his shoulders, and reaching to his chest. He had longer dark green jeans on today, probably due to the sudden drop in temperature from yesterday. Mei's overall appearance made him seem a bit older than he had the previous day.
"Mei…" Ritsuka stated simply.
"Oh….H..hi Ritsuka" Mei replied, his ears drooping a little.
"Mei, I'm really sorry, I…"
"It's ok" Mei interrupted "You could've stayed with them, you know…they're pretty popular, I'm sure you could meet lots of friends by sitting with them."
"But you're my friend, and I promised to sit with you"

Mei turned his face away.

"It's really ok, Ritsuka. I understand if you want to sit with them"

Ritsuka placed his hand on Mei's.

"I want to sit with you"

Mei's ears perked up, and Ritsuka saw him smile for the first time that day.

"Alright…as long as you want to. Um...I made too much food today, and I thought maybe you'd want some, so I packed some for you" Mei said, grabbing a small box from under the desk.
"Oh…made it for me, huh?" Ritsuka said slyly, something that surprised himself. He unfolded the cloth from the box and began eating.
"This is really good, who makes this?" Ritsuka savored, pointing to the ramen.
"Me" Mei smiled "Do you really like it?!"
"Yeah, this is way better than that store bought kind I usually have at home."

"Those things are quite common nowa-" Mei was interrupted by a large SLAM on his desk that sent Ritsuka two feet in air in fear. Mei's face become extremely pale, and for a few moments, he could've been mistaken as dead

"Ritsuka! You know it's Sunday tomorrow right?" Yuiko bursted out in a happy sing-song voice "No schoooooool! Got any plans?"

"Uh…not that I-"
"Great, listen, my folks can score free tickets to Yomiuri Land whenever they want, so let's go tomorrow, ok?"
Yomiuri Land? That amusement park on the other side of Tokyo? Ritsuka had toadmit to himself, it did sound like fun. He was still a kid after all.

"Well…sure. If you can really get tickets, we'd love to go."

"We?" Yuiko thought, since when had Ritsuka and Mei become so chummy? She wasn't about to object though, She was already on cold terms with Ritsuka as it was, and this could be her chance to get him to warm up to her.

"Will your parents be ok with that, Mei?" Yuiko said, sort of hoping he would say no.

"His Dad isn't home, so it should be fine, right?" Ritsuka said, answering for Mei.

Mei thought a little and nodded shyly. Yuiko inwardly sighed.

"Alright then…three tickets."

"Make that four."

Now it was time for Yuiko to jump. Hitomi had snuck up behind her and sternly placed her hand on Yuiko's shoulder.

"Hitomi-sensei?"

"I'm not about to let you three go to an amusement park all by yourselves. You must have a chaperone"

"But-"

"No objections! Unless you can find another adult, I will be accompanying you tomorrow."

"No objection here" Yuiko sighed "Better you than any other adult I guess."

Hitomi was struck by that statement. Why was she so much better than any other adult? Just because she still had her ears and tail didn't mean she was a child! At the same time, she was excited to finally have something to do on a Sunday. She began making a list in her mind of all the things they could do at Yomiuri Land. Maybe being like a kid wasn't all that bad.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours after class ended, Hitomi had set her answering machine to proudly state that she was going to be away tomorrow. She had told everyone at the local bar that she had a romantic date at Yomiuri land, leaving out the fact that her 'date' was three of her students. She even described her imaginary date to the bartender: tall, blonde hair, nice car. The man of her dreams, she had told her.

Oh well, a little lie never hurt anyone did it?

A/N: Ah, a bit of Hitomi-bashing maybe? Didn't mean to be poking fun at her, but I really wanted to emphasize her loneliness, and how she feels people look at her.

Anyways, stay tuned for Chapter 3, where the gang (Hitomi, Ritsuka, Mei, and Yuiko. No Yayoi!) head to Yomiuri Land. Should be a lot of fun to write, and I hope you enjoy it. As always, reviewing is welcome and very much encouraged. Please tell me what I did wrong!

Thanks

-Pie.