A/N: Whooohooo! Finished at last! It's been...uhm..i think ?four months? Since I last updated and I have to say SORRY to my readers - as of now there's...ten of you that's reading my fanfic^^. There are more but I didn't get their name cuz they didn't leave a - especially to mikanella-chan who had been...quite persistent in 'persuading' me into making chapter 2 of my =) So here it is...enjoy!
~ Chapter 2 ~
"MIKAN! Wake up!" Sumire shouted from her room to the entire dorm. Hearing this, Mikan fell from her bed in alarm and hit the floor hard. "Itai..."
"Ne, Sumire-chan. Don't be so loud..." She whined as she stepped into her living room to find her cousin crossed armed, already in uniform and tapping her feet in impatience. "G'morning..." she said groggily.
"Oh don't you sweet talk me. You're going to be late!" Sumire scolded her while her hands found her hips.
Mikan grumbled," Wha-what? But it's still – she glanced at her wall clock – 6:30. My class doesn't start for two hours...ugh, I'm still sleepy..."
She tried to stall her but Sumire arched her eyebrow and she sighed in defeat and made her way to the bathroom while complaining about how it is unfair and something about bad sushi.
Mikan smiled happily as she skipped her way down the hallway to her first class. Her bad morning wasn't going to stop her from having a great start on her first day of school. Earlier she met up with the principal to get her schedule and now she's just strolling around the campus to find her class. As she happily skipped, she caught a sight of the school's awards and athletes.
"Wow..." Mikan stared in awe while looking at them. Even though the Academy was a somewhat different from the others, they still participate in sports event and play offs among the other schools. There was a category for swimming, basketball, tennis, soccer...- Mikan stood unyielding, mesmerized by a portrait of a boy carrying a soccer cup quite arrogantly. She'd seen that boy before but she just couldn't put a finger in it. She tried to remember until she gasped when she saw the familiar onyx orbs...It was the boy from yesterday.
"Natsume Hyuuga..." she read the plate below his picture. Mikan studied his face thoroughly. Because yesterday had been dark, it was the first time she saw his face clearly. She has to admit he was kinda cute...
She was taken aback by the sudden self-confession. She started to walk from her position because she knew she was running late. 'Am I already...uhm...crushing on him?' she thought as she turned to her left. 'Maybe not 'coz I've never met him and I don't know his attitude and...and -umph-' she was too busy with her thoughts that she never noticed a student she was headed for. She looked up and her breathing caught.
Natsume.
They stared into each other for a few seconds before he looked away, a tiny hint of blush crept up his face. He just glanced at her and then turned to leave but she tentatively grab hold of his arm and stopped him.
"Wait," she said. Natsume raised his eyebrow at her. She tried to hold back her annoyance for him and took a deep breath, "you're that boy from last night, right?"
He straightened his position, "Hn, so what if I am?" he asked, keeping his straight face.
"I just wanted to apologize for yesterday when my best friend Hotaru, you know, hit you..." her voice trailed off while a blush was prominent on her cheeks.
"Whatever..." he grumbled and turned to leave again. But Mikan didn't let him, she gripped his arm that she realized she was still holding 'til now and stopped him again. "Wait."
"What now?"
"uhh...hi?"
Natsume rolled his eyes and retrieve his arm. "Sorry but I don't do polka-dots," he smirked then left before she could even stop her / leaving poor little Mikan dumbfounded.
"Polka-dots..." Mikan pouted while thinking of a possible reason why he would say that. Her face turned beet red when the flashbacks from yesterday appeared in sudden outbursts. "What the – Aaargh! You Pervert"
Natsume's P.O.V.
I walked through the forest with an irritated thought about the annoying girl I just bumped into earlier. She couldn't be any less irritating than the girls who would throw themselves at me every single day. I mean, the girl practically has a 12.1 in an IQ test and she acts like she had stopped growing since the second grade. She just tumbles into any given thing and she's...really beautiful. Ugh, I don't even know why I'm thinking about this.
I huffed as I sat down on one of the visible roots of my favorite tree and angrily glanced at my surroundings. It hadn't changed much, mostly because I usually spend a lot of time gardening the place myself. It's a simple small hill with a single Sakura tree on top of it, but the meadow just below it was breathtaking. I took a deep breath; the frustrated feeling was starting to disappear. I usually go here when I get too overwhelmed with the world I revolve in day by day. This is the only place I could escape to when I feel that way; because I used to relax here with her...
I smiled.
A thing that I haven't done for quite some time now. It feels so peaceful here; even more when she's with me...but the bad news is that she's gone now...and she may never come back...
And what's worse is that she looks just like Mikan.
Mikan...
I grunted. Shit, why does that girl keeps on coming back onto my mind?
Because she reminds you of her.
A voice inside my mind suddenly said. 'Well, who asked you?' I inwardly told my mind. Great, now I'm talking to myself. I should go back to class, the more I stay here the more I would think about her.
When Mikan arrived at her classroom, the students there were fewer than she at least expected. She can't find either of Sumire and Hotaru also.
'Maybe they're late...' she thought. She was deciding whether to enter into a crowd of complete strangers or wait for her friends outside the room. She decided for the latter so now she was sitting cross-legged on the side of the entrance door and waited for them. While waiting, she thought of her past memories. Her memories were mainly about the things she had done with her family and her friends. But her favorite memory, the one she doubt she could ever forget, was the time when se met her first true friend...
Flashback:
One spring day, Mikan caught a sight of an apple tree in a public park while she and her dad were heading their way to his office. She was four years old then and not aware of he dangers of a young child going out to public places alone so she snuck out of her father's office while her dad was on a meeting, went through the main gate without the guards noticing because they were too busy entertaining the hot new employee (Mikan stuck her tongue out in disgust at this; even when she was little she already hated flashy boys) and looked for the said tree.
Mikan knew her dad's office was not very far away from the park because she had counted the seconds that had past since they passed there. After counting for at least two minutes, she came across the park's entrance gate. And then at the right of the entrance a beautifully grown tree filled with ripe apples that remained untouched. Her face lightened p and she ran until she was face to face with the tree. She saw one just at the tip of the nearest branch and reached for it. The dreadful thing was that she was just three feet tall; it would take twice her height to reach the apple. She tried to reach it again but failed miserably; she was getting tired but she wasn't ready to give up yet. Mikan gripped the sides of the tree with her little hands and pushed her body up with her feet. She barely made it two climbs and helplessly falling off, scraping one of her elbow in the process.
'Ooww...' Mikan whimpered, hints of blood trickling from her elbow. She sat down below the tree and silently wept, wishing her daddy was there to take care of her boo-boo. She was crying for quite a while when she felt something – or rather someone – behind her. She sniffed and turned around to see a boy about his age intently looking at her. No one said a word for a moment before the boy spoke.
'Why are you crying?' he asked her. He got a little uncomfortable from standing 'coz he sat down next to her and continued to stare. 'Well?'
Mikan hesitated at first but eventually showed her grazed elbow. He took it gently in his hands and pulled out a white napkin. He folded the napkin like a boy scout and gently wrapped it around Mikan's elbow. After he finished, he gently laid it down onto her lap.
'Thank you,' she smiled broadly.
'Are you alone?' he asked.
She nodded.
'Where's you mommy and daddy?' he asked again, his voice was full of curiosity.
Mikan turned sad, 'My mommy's not here anymore. And daddy's at work on the big building over there,' she pointed to a tall business office not too far away from them. 'I snuck out earlier when he was talking to my big friends.'
'Why?' he always sound so serious.
'Uhm...because I saw that tree and wanted to pick apples,' she glared at it, clearly she was still upset with it 'coz it bruised her arm. The little boy kept silent for a minute looking like he was trying to decide on something. Then he suddenly got up and started to mount the tree. Mikan just stared at him while he climbed his way to the apple she attempted to catch. He immediately caught the apple and jumped to the ground. He landed with a thud and an apple on his right hand.
'Here,' he offered the apple to her, which she gladly took and said 'thank you' again.
Mikan contentedly munched away her apple while the boy was still looking with a straight face face. She was chewing rather loudly and it started to irritate him. But Mikan was left clueless and continued still. The boy had and took the apple away as she was about to take a bite.
'Stop doing that!' he shouted.
Mikan angrily pouted and reached for the apple, 'Give that back...'
'Say you'll stop that first!' he pulled the apple away but she didn't listened and lunged for it again. That caught the boy off guard and he accidentally dropped the apple to the dirty ground
'...WAAA!' Mikan buried herself in her elbows and wept. The boy must have felt guilty because he climbed the tree to get another apple and then approached her and knelt. 'Ano...Gomenasai...' he said quietly, extending the apple to her.
Mikan peeked from her elbows and eyed the apple, a few tears were still visible. She hastily took the apple away and then smiled broadly. She placed it next to her side; she'll save it for later when she gets hungry again. Then they were silent again.
'What's your name?' Mikan asked when things got a little uncomfortable.
'What?' the boy asked.
'Your name. What is it?' she repeated while staring into the shades of the tree.
'Mom says I'm not allowed to give my name to strangers,' he simply answered.
Mikan pouted and thought for a while, 'Then what should I call you?'
'What?'
'What should I call you?' she continued to pout. 'Geez...are you even listening to me?'
'You're annoying.'
'So are you.'
They were glaring at each other for a while when the boy sighed,' Fine. You can just call me...naa-kun?' he suggested.
'Okay,' Mikan beamed. 'And you can call me ika-chan...- Mikan...Mikan?'
Her flashback was interrupted by a voice calling out her name. She snapped out of her daydream and saw a pair of shoes with legs that continued up. She looked at the owner of those shoes and her eyes set eyes on blonde hair and a lean body.
"Are you okay, Mikan?" the man smiled at her. Mikan tilted her head as if to say 'Who are you?'
The man chuckled, "Ah, we clearly haven't introduced ourselves properly." He knelt down in front of her, "I am Anjo Narumi." He took her right hand and kissed the back of her palm.
Mikan blushed lightly at the simple gesture. But that wasn't the only reason; she was also embarrassed that she didn't know the face of her new Homeroom teacher. "Uhm...Gomen, Narumi-sensei-san. I'm still not familiar with the senseis here in the Academy yet."
Narumi smiled, "C'mon. The bell rang a minute ago. We should probably introduce you to your new classmates now, right?"
She nodded merely and moved to follow her sensei in entering her new classroom...
YEHEY! That's it for Chapter 2!^^ I know it's kind of a slow story but I'll try to speed things up if you like =) And I promise to try and not take three months for my next chapter. (As a matter of fact, it only took that long because I haven't decided yet on what to do with the rest of the story. But I do now...I think..) and please let me know if you noticed some of the mistakes I made^^ arigato