A/N Note: ...So you guys are perfectly okay with me making this Nagamu (Nagihiko and Amu)? There's a poll up in my profile...if you have an opinion on what pairing you want me to write about, then vote ^_^ Nagamu is in the lead right now. I'm not doing any fluff yet, but, please, go to my profile and VOTE!

Chapter 2

"Nadeshiko?" I turn to see the said person smiling at me, "It's you!"

"Yep." She grins. I haven't seen her in a long time. So long, in fact, that I've almost forgotten how she looked like. Seeing her again brings back memories of my time as the Joker of the Guardians.

I drop my voice off to a whisper, "How was your battle against Easter? What happened after I left Tokyo?"

"Oh, that?" Nadeshiko smiles, "It turned out that the boss of Easter was just this misguided boy, about Ami's age. He was so lonely, and part of that was because of his grandfather, who kept pressuring him to not show any emotion..."

"Really?" A little boy? About Ami's age? And he was being pressured to become a stoic businessman. It sounded so wrong. I mean, look at my little sister, Ami. She's as childish as they come (although Yaya Yuki from the Guardians probably gets the medal). She's always wearing frilly dresses, and seems be able to show her emotions...a bit too well, if you asked me. And just thinking about her in that position...I felt sorry for that boy.

"Hai. After that, it kind of died down. We never found the Embryo, though." Nadeshiko confided, "And we got some new Guardian members before I transfered here."

"You transferred here, too?" I asked.

"A bit before you." Nadeshiko smiled, "In fact, most of the Guardians are here, though they're in different classes. I barely made it into Class 1." Most of the Guardians? I was at a blank. I guess that Seiyo Academy really did like people with charas...right?

"Wow," I say, because I'm not sure how else to respond to this weird bit of information. All the Guardians were accepted into this school? What were their talents? I guess Nadeshiko's was her ability to dance, Kukai's sports, Yaya's...and Tasade's...? I brushed that off as Nadeshiko started talking about the school in general.

"Class 1 is for the top students...they're really good, it's almost like they're robots..." Nadeshiko was correct. So far, into this day, all the class were perfect, almost like robots. Alas, it wasn't possible. They couldn't be-technology wasn't advanced enough for that. Also, they didn't have mechanical voices.

"That's impossible, though." I laugh it off. It wasn't...right?

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As the day went on, though, I could've sworn that it was true. The class freaked me out to no end. And they never used any chara changes to help them get those top scores!

During Math, I was at odds and ends with the trigonometry problem. i almost wanted to strangle the numbers, letters, and symbols-but they just floated out of my reach, laughing all the while.

"Why don't I have a chara that was smart and could do math?" I murmured to myself as I blankly stared at the paper crammed to the brim with math problems. The figures swam in my mind. My head was spinning, and I knew I'd be having nightmares about this tonight. My charas just shrugged, and I groaned.

"I guess I'll have to ask one of my classmates, ne?" Ran, Miki, and Suu nodded. I quickly scanned the room, crossing out asking Nadeshiko. She was sitting on the other side of the room, and Nikaidou-sensei might catch me in the act. When I was in Tokyo, maybe not, but it's been three years since then, and who knows how much he's changed since my last encounters with him?

I settled for a group of girls, all chattering, lounging in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I proceeded to poke the girl nearest to me to ask for help.

"Excuse me?" I asked one of them, a girl with reddish hair and greenish-brownish eyes, "Can you help me on this problem?" It was a complicated trigonometry question, and I was sure that it included the Law of Cosines...? Or was it Sines...?

She scoffed, "Wow, Amu-chan, I thought that you were the one and only brainiac. What happened?" Wait...Amu-chan? I didn't give her permission to address me on more familiar terms! Who did she think she was?

"It's Hinamori to you." I corrected.

She smirked, "What, now you developed this "cool" attitude, Amu? What is up with you, you brainiac?" Brainiac? I floundered. I wasn't one-if I was, why would I be asking her for help? And I really needed it.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, because there's no way I've seen this girl before, and she's referring to me in such a manner that you'd think that we knew each other. Which we don't, by the way.

The girl proceeded to flick some of her curly red hair and turn her nose up at me, "After I so generously took you under my wing...I made you popular. And now this is how you repay me after you transferred overseas a year ago? By being so mean?" She turned her head away from me, "And why would you need help? I should be asking you to help me."

Huh? I racked through my brain, trying to pinpoint her face to a school. No, it wasn't in Tokyo...nor in Shanghai...not in New York City...so where could I have met her?

"Saaya Yamabuki-sama, do you have anything else for us to do?" the girls chorused. My eyebrow raised. They were using the horrific -sama to one of their fellow classmates? How weird!

The girl who they referred to smirked, "No. You are dismissed." I craned my neck to see that the girl whom I was so wonderfully conversing with acting like a pampered princess of some royal kingdom. Like she was oh-so-important in Seiyo Academy! I scoffed.

I know she heard it, because her eyes narrowed at me. I glared back, seeing how her eyes were glittering with malice, and how her lips formed a tight line of distaste.

Looks like I just made a new enemy. I thought. Yep, this was every new kid's dream-to make a new enemy, a snobby and spoiled one at that, by the first day. No, it totally wasn't on the list of my life goals to make an enemy so soon in Seiyo Academy.

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When the final bell rang, I was so elated. Finally, school was over, and I could finally find out where in the world my dorm was! And I didn't have to stand another minute feeling inferior to all my classmates. I was expecting a prestigious group of people, but this brought that to a whole new level.

The crowd that swept me from Class 1 was tame compared to others, so I could tap Nadeshiko's shoulder, "Nadeshiko?" I ask.

"Hai?" she replies, turning to face me. I scratch the back of my head. I should know where my dorm is-but I didn't. Because Nakamura-sensei had suddenly decided to not give the information after that event with the wand and all.

"Um...well, Nakamura-sensei never told me where my dorm is..." I trail off, looking at Nadeshiko with pleading eyes, "So can you...maybe help me?"

Nadeshiko laughs gently, "Of course I will, Amu-chan! After all, you are going to be in the same dorm as I am!"

"Huh?" I reply. Really?

"Yeah. They put me and you in the same dorm." Nadeshiko smiled.

"N-nani?" I gasped. They did? "That's great!"

"Yep." Nadeshiko smiled, though it looked a bit strained. Why would her smile be strained? I resolved to find out later.

After all, a best friend will always be there to cheer the other one up.

As Nadeshiko showed me through the maze of dorms, I couldn't help but be a bit paranoid. After all, what are you to do if everyone's staring at you like you're a ghost that's haunting them? And scoffing at my usage of the uniform. What, did I meet them before somewhere else or something? I didn't get it.

Anyways, as I fingered the hem of the robe, I felt a glare focused on the back of my head. I turned around, trying to see who was glaring at me so. My gaze fell upon a dark blue-haired girl with green eyes. Her hair was short, probably as short as mine, curling around her face. She was clutching a hand on her thick book. Her knuckles were white.

I turned back to Nadeshiko, and tried to keep up with her.

"A-amu?" My ears picked up a murmur, hardly audible, and my head whipped around to the silver-haired girl.

"N-nani?" I asked. How did she know my name?

Nadeshiko turned her head, then asked me, "Amu-chan, what are you doing?"

"That girl...knew my name...how?" She wasn't in any of my classes. Or anyone I've seen.

Nadeshiko's face looked like she had just eaten a bowl of moldy oden. Her lip curled faintly. She saw that I noticed and immediately, a smile blossomed on her face. It looked strained, though.

"I don't know, Amu-chan." she replied.

I shook my head-Seiyo Academy seemed more and more complex by the minute, and it was only my first day!

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As I gazed at the spacious room that was dorm, I was awed. A room like this shouldn't be called a dorm-it should be called a part of a mansion or something like that? "Wow..."

"I know. I was the same when I first came." Nadeshiko smiled.

The dorm had four neat, folded beds, and plenty of room for each of the four to have a some furniture. There were some simple but side closets, and I think that the bathrooms were off to the side. I saw that my suitcase was already leaning on the side of a bed, and the one next to it had a dancing kimono laid on it, with a fan adorning the side table. It was obvious whose bed it was.

I noticed that the other two beds were empty, "Is it only the two of us?"

"Pretty much." Nadeshiko admitted, "I don't know why, though."

"Well, then, let's have some fun!" I said, grinning, "After all, it's my first day!"

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We were laughing over some corny jokes on TV, collapsing in fits of laughter. It was nice, to have a friend by my side. Because of my father's job (he was a photographer), he moved around a lot to get some good pictures of the places he was interested in.

That basically meant that I was friendless for my whole life. Even though I did make some friends, they never lasted long. I always had to move away. That was one of the reasons for my "cool 'n' spicy" attitude-I just didn't possess the skill of socializing.

I never had the chance to be totally me. It was always one facade after another, and I never strayed out of line for that facade.

Finally being so carefree-it was like a breath of fresh air for me.

Too bad it couldn't last forever.

A/N Note: Am I doing okay so far? I'm not sure if this chapter was good enough-I think I went a bit too fast, don't you? And if you want this to go towards a certain pairing, please take the poll on my profile page, okay? Thanks!