DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Bleach.

xXxXx

I met Uryu in the handicrafts club room the next day after school. He sat at the mahogany table with a notebook and some pencils.

"Thanks for doing this," I said. Uryu pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat nervously.

"It's no problem," he said quietly. Uryu opened the notebook and wrote at the top of the first page, "Advanced Math: Chapter 3 Notes."

"We're doing limits in the homework assignment we got yesterday. Do you understand how to find a limit?" he said. I grimaced at the mention of the word limit. I understood what we were doing the day we learned it, but then I completely forgot what I was supposed to be doing when I started the homework.

"Well, all I know is that you can replace x with the number it approaches, but I keep getting non-existent limits with zero as a denominator," I said.

"I see. It's ok though. That's why we're doing this," he said. Uryu smiled at me as if to assure me that I wasn't a total failure. He explained to me the different processes of solving our homework equations and why they worked that way. As he went along, he wrote notes down for me and made sure they explained what the letters stood for and why things were that way. I wished I would've taken my notes like that. Not only were they helpful, but he explained things better than Miss Ochi. Thank God for the geniuses that actually understand that crazy math.

"Tomorrow I'll go over graphing the equations. We learned it last year, so it's just a refresher of trig last year," he said as he stood from his seat. He handed me the notebook and slung his bag over his shoulder. When I got out of my chair, my arm accidentally hit a cup of pencils on the edge of the table. I bent down to pick them up, but so did Uryu. I didn't realize it until we both reached for the same pencil, and his hand brushed mine, keeping contact for a second or so. I blushed a light shade of pink and turned my face away from him.

"Sorry," I said quietly.

"It's ok."

-

When I got home from my tutoring session with Uryu, my dad was waiting at the front door of my house with an angry look on his face and his arms folded. I sighed to myself. 'Here goes again,' I thought.

"Where were you?" he demanded. "School got out two hours ago. It's almost dark. You were supposed to be home by 3:30." I mumbled something insulting under my breath.

"One of my classmates was tutoring me in math," I said bitterly. "You're always nagging at me to get my math grade up, so what's wrong with doing stuff so that I can get it up?" The pitch of my voice rose, and it got louder with each word.

"Well maybe if you would pay attention in the first place, you wouldn't have to have a tutor!" he fired back.

"Oh, so now it's MY fault! FYI, I do pay attention! I just don't understand what the teacher says!" I clenched my fist tightly, my nails digging into the palm of my hand.

"Don't yell at me, young lady! If you're going to be that way, then go to your room until you learn to treat your elders with respect!" My dad's yelling brought my mom to the front steps. She looked from me to him, a concerned look on her face.

"Calm down, Tatsuya. Akane-chan is trying to keep up with her grades like you ask her to. Please stop yelling," she said.

"If she weren't so disrespectful, I wouldn't have to yell," he grumbled. I rolled my eyes at my dad's idiocy. Wasn't he the one that started nagging at me the second I got home?

"Why are you such an idiot?" I spat as I pushed my way past him forcefully. He glared at me as I stomped up the stairs and slammed my bedroom door shut behind me. The moment I got in my room, I threw my stuff on my desk and fell back onto the bed. I sighed in annoyance at my family.

My dad had been really moody ever since he lost his job at a big architectural firm. He took the smallest things into offense. He would take his stress out on anyone--even my mom. My mom wasn't the type of person to yell at people. She was too forgiving to yell at anyone, finding an reason for even the worst behavior. I had yet to see her fight with my father. That is, I had yet to see her fight back. He would yell at her occasionally, but her face expression always became emotionless as if she were compressing her anger to feel nothing at all. I didn't think their marriage would last this long. When I was eight, I started a bet with my older brother on how long they would stay together. For every year they managed to stay together, I owed him five bucks, and if they broke up he owed me fifty.

I changed into my pajamas and decided to go to bed early. I'd feel better after I cooled off over a good night's sleep.

xXxXx

The next day at school, Uryu stopped by my locker to chat. I was so shocked that he was talking to me during the school day that I dropped some of my books. 'I'm such a dork,' I thought.

"How did your homework go last night?" he said. "Did you understand everything alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks a lot for the notes. They really helped," I said with a smile. Uryu smiled back as he pushed his glasses up and muttered something to the extent of "good."

-

10:45 AM, Karakura High School--Sociology

"Today we're doing an experiment on the impression that people give off," Takara-sensei said. "I want you to get out a sheet of paper and make two columns. Number from one to ten on each side." I tore out a sheet of paper from my notebook and did as he directed. "On the left side, I want you to think of someone who gives you a good impression. Write five reasons you like them. On the right side, think of someone who gives you a bad impression. Write five reasons you like them as well."As soon as Takara mentioned someone who gives a good impression, I immediately thought of Uryu. I easily scribbled five reasons to like him.

1. He's at the top of the class.

2. He's always really nice.

3. He's talented.

4. He's willing to help others.

5. His calm personality makes me feel comfortable.

On the right side of the paper, I thought of my dad. His attitude always gave off a bad impression to strangers.

1. He spoiled me a lot when I was little.

2. He's caring.

That was as far as I could get without thinking of bad things. It was true that my parents spoiled me rotten when I was very little, but as for the second good quality? Lies. It's one thing to be a concerned parent, but it's another to watch over your child like a hawk. Takara-sensei collected our papers when we were all finished. He read through all of them quickly, and then he mixed up the papers and gave us someone else's to read. He told us to analyze the way people perceive each other and if that person is able to see good in people no matter what they do to Takara handed me a paper, I recognized the handwriting as Uryu's. The left column read:

1. Always listens to others.

2. Kind to those around her.

3. Always comes prepared.

4. Nice to talk to.

5. Easy for me to relax around her.

I didn't know who he was talking about, but she must've been a really nice person. I could immediately tell who the other person was though. Instead of writing down the good qualities about them, he wrote all the bad ones.

1. He's too loud.

2. He makes stupid decisions.

3. He can't do anything without help.

4. He gives bad directions.

5. He doesn't listen to me when I'm saying something important.

'That's Kurosaki all right,' I thought. I knew Uryu disliked Ichigo, but I didn't think he hated him that much. I was snapped out of my thoughts when Takara called on me.

"What did you find about your person's paper, Matsura?" he said.

"Well, I think it's easier for people to think of the good qualities of someone with a good attitude because you don't see the bad qualities in them," I said. Like they say, "Love is blind."

"Very good. When I read through your papers, I saw that most of you either wrote the other person's bad qualities or couldn't even write three good qualities," he said while he wrote on the board. It read:

In order to take an unbiased approach on life, one must be able to see both sides of a situation.

I didn't see much point in Takara's lesson. Most of the content was common sense, unless you were a robot completely oblivious to human emotion. When I handed Uryu's paper back to him, he held out my own paper to me. I was a little embarrassed that he read what I wrote. He must have figured out it was about him. Who else could it have been?

xXxXx

Eh... I think I took a strange approach to this one, but I want to see if anyone sees something that stands out in Uryu's list. There's probably going to be about two more chapters, maybe one. I don't want to keep it too long.

Happy reading,

~Kai