Alright kiddies...chapter two! Yay for the amazing forgotten-muse08! *Hiei looks at author* Okay okay just kidding...
Anyway, enjoy!
Della's POV:
Stupid me. I should know better than to ask rhetorical questions…inevitably they get answered, which is almost always bad. After being introduced to the class by Mr. Takanaka, I reluctantly took my seat beside a boy who was asleep on his desk. The kid had ridiculously cut red hair and wore a blue suit. To my intense disgust I noticed he was snoring loudly and drooling all over the place, I scooted as far from him as my chair would allow. I looked at the board for the first time and saw the steps of mitosis on the board. Biology, great, I thought. It wasn't like I hated the subject or anything; I was actually really good at it. The problem was I had already taken the class and I was now doomed to ultimate boredom for the rest of the year, and to looking at the uggo who was supposedly my teacher. Ick.
As the rat faced man began some long winded diatribe on the lesson of the day I doodled on my notebook and generally tuned out the world. The snoring next to me continued. I was almost finished sketching my first horse, which was morphing into a unicorn, when I was interrupted by the teacher calling out a name in his wheedling voice, "Kazuma Kuwabara, tell me the steps if mitosis!" The boy next to me jerked awake with a snort and wiped the drool off his chin before staring blankly at the teacher. The man's overly smug expression annoyed me; it wasn't right that he was so happy about the boy's inability answer.
The boy, Kazuma, scratched his cheek. "What was the question?" His voice was deep and rough. The teacher's smirk widened into a gloating smile.
"The mitosis you idiot. Why don't you tell the class the steps? If you even know them that is." The obnoxious man laughed at his own witticism. Ugh.
"Uhhh…" It was obvious that Kazuma was floundering. I wanted to help him so badly but the pointy faced teacher was watching him squirm like a worm on a hook. There was no way I could do anything without being noticed.
"And this is why you'll never amount to anything, because you're a stupid lazy bum." The teacher turned back to the blackboard leaving Kazuma with his fists clenched, red faced in humiliation. I was angry on his behalf but couldn't do anything about it now. Except glare at the bastard's retreating back…
"…partner up and grab a microscope." I was jolted out of my thoughts abruptly. Oops, I had been so focused on Kazuma's distress that I had totally missed the bastard's instructions. Oh well, I guess I just had to muddle through as usual, only this time I didn't have my friends with me. Saddened by this thought I rose and walked to the front of the class.
After grabbing a microscope I noticed that everyone was already paired up, except for Kazumaand me. "And this is what you call irony" I muttered under my breath. "Hey, do you wanna be my partner?" I asked him, my tone slightly defensive. I waited nervously with the microscope in my arms, I have never been good in social situations and I had an intense fear of rejection. This was me going out on a major limb, in the middle of a hurricane. He looked up at me with a glare.
"Get lost, I don't need your charity," he barked rudely at me. My God, I thought, what was it with boys this school? They're even ruder than normal. I thunked the microscope down on my desk angrily. Sometimes I turned quiet when I got angry, today it seemed that I was in a shouting mood.
"Look buddy, this isn't charity. This is the new girl being shunned by everyone in class, I thought that we could be partners because you didn't have one either. My bad, sorry I woke you up." I stalked back up the front of the classroom and retrieved the box of slides that everyone else was already staring at. Or the slides that everyone should have been staring at, instead they were staring at me and whispering. I barely restrained the urge to hiss at them and give them something to really talk about, the American bear, once again providing a show.
By the time I was back in my seat I was really pissed off, I felt angry tears press against the backs of my eyes but I took a deep breath and forced them back. I so would not cry in front of everyone here, especially Kazuma, stupid jerk. I would wait until I got home tonight before wallowing in self pity. After staring at the twenty slides in the box I knew we had to determine which phase of mitosis the onion root cells were in. I hated this lab with a passion, stupid pointless mindless exercise that it was.
I had just started on my first slide when the dolt next to me twitched like he had something to say. "Spit it out." I snapped at him, when he flinched I felt sorta bad but then I remembered the way he had yelled at me. He totally deserved it.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you, I didn't really mean it. Can I still be your lab partner?" I looked over at him, intending to release more of my frustration but miraculously he seemed to really be apologizing to me. Since new friends were few and far between in this place I decided to forgive him.
"Alright, you can be my partner. I'm Della." I gave him a skeptical look, "Do you even know what we're doing?"
"Kazuma Kuwabara, but everyone just calls me Kuwabara. Uh, what are we doing again?" Against my will a smile tugged at my lips as he regarded the microscope as one would an alien or large ugly bug. It was blatantly obvious he had never used one before.
"We are trying to identify which stage of mitosis the cells on the slides are in. Here let's start with this one…" I picked up a slide and affixed it to the microscope, showing him how to adjust the focus. As Kuwabara and I worked we fell into a comfortable rhythm, by the time we got to the last slide, he was able to correctly identify it on his own.
"Oh yeah! I rock at this! Gimme another, I'm on a roll." He exuberantly punched the air with his fist.
I laughed, "We're done, you just did the last one."
"What? Really?" He snatched the notebook I had been using off my desk and looked through the labeled columns. Slides one through twenty were listed under the correct headings. "No way, we really did it. I've never finished one of these things first before." He got a thoughtful look on his face, "Actually, I don't think I've finished one of these before." I looked around the room and realized that the other students were still struggling with their slides. I also noticed that the sour looking teacher was coming directly towards us. I barely had enough time to whisper "In coming" before he was on us.
"Finished? Impossible, giveme that!" He snatched my notebook from Kuwabara's hand and meticulously scanned the answers. I gave Kuwabara a wink, I owned this lab and I had double checked everything, there was no way we weren't getting full credit on it. "You cheated. No credit for either of you."
"What!" I said indignantly, that bastard, how dare he accuse me of cheating. The room had fallen into a deathly hush as the entire class turned to look at me but I didn't care. "What do you mean we cheated? We did it by the book and I know for a fact that the answers are correct."
"Of course you do, you cheated. No one has ever gotten a perfect score on this lab." He sneered at Kuwabara, "Obviously you cheated."
I had just opened my mouth to argue further when Kuwabara grabbed my arm. "It's okay Della; he's just doing this to punish me." He let my arm go and said in a louder voice, "Yeah so what if I cheated, Della didn't have anything to do with it."
"Just as I suspected, go to detention Mr. Kuwabara, I'll see to your punishment later. Miss St. Clair, I'll give you…half credit for participating in Mr. Kuwabara's scam."
I literally saw red as Kuwabara started to stand, "No, this isn't fair, I've done this lab before I know all the answers. Kuwabara didn't cheat and neither did I." I realized I was standing in front of the teacher only after I finished speaking or yelling. Way to go St. Clair, I told myself sarcastically, just flippin' perfect.
"How dare you talk to your better that way, go to detention both of you! Now!"
I grabbed my book bag angrily and stormed out of the room behind Kuwabara, "Just because you're my teacher doesn't make you my better," I called over my shoulder as I left, leaving the class and the smug bastard with shocked looks on their faces.
Obviously my day had just gotten a whole lot worse. I had never been to detention in my entire life! At my old school I didn't even know where the room for detention was. And now, here I was, first day of school and in detention. Just great, exactly what I needed. A school yard fight and detention all in one day. My mom was going to die or kill me.
Kuwabara took my book bag from me as we walked through the deserted halls. It was a good thing he removed it from my possession; I was liable to start swinging it at things. "Wow Della, I've never heard someone stand up to a teacher like that, at least not someone who wasn't Urameshi. You should have just kept quiet then you wouldn't be in this mess with me."
"I don't let friends take the heat for that kinda stuff alone, besides it wasn't your fault that the guy was a douche bag." Kuwabara made a choking sound presumably at my language. I screwed up my face as the first part of his comment registered, "You know Yusuke Urameshi?" That stupid bastard from this morning, I was still mad at him, it was his fault my day was so rotten. Stupid boy.
"Urameshi's sorta my rival, it's a long story, but how do you know him?" I had no choice but to tell him about our spat that morning and how he had made me late to class. By the time I was done, he was in stitches. I couldn't get a word out of him even after he opened the door to the detention hall for me. Inside, Mr. Takanaka and Yusuke were arguing heatedly, Kuwabara took one look at Yusuke and started laughing again. I stomped on his foot to get him to stop.
"Miss St. Clair, Mr. Kuwabara, what are you two doing here?" Mr. Takanaka asked in a puzzled tone.
Kuwabara opened his mouth and I stomped on his foot again. "We got kicked out of biology for having the right answers, sir," I said in my best goody-two-shoes voice. I was a master at playing innocent, especially with teachers, parents not so much. I knew that if Kuwabara had opened his trap, he would have screwed us over big time. This had to be handled with a delicate touch, not random blundering.
Mr. Takanaka rubbed his forehead, "You had better tell me what happened Miss St. Clair." I could tell he was genuinely interested in why I was there at least, so I told him how the teacher was being a total prick and how he had accused us of cheating. When I was done Mr. Takanaka frowned, "I'll take care of this, you three, stay here and don't move. I mean it Urameshi." He growled the last over his shoulder as he exited the room, leaving us alone.
Kuwabara took a seat next to Yusuke in the second row; I glared at the source of all my problems and took the seat behind Kuwabara. "That's some sob story you two got. I hate how all the teachers here screw us over." he kicked the desk in front of him in frustration.
"Yeah but it's not like we can do anything about it," Kuwabara shot Yusuke a sly smile. "So Urameshi, I heard you got beat up by a girl this morning." He burst into laughter again; I rolled my eyes and looked anywhere but at the boy across from me.
"Shut up! It wasn't like that at all. The stupid bitch ran into me." He glared at me and I glared back.
"I would have apologized if you weren't such a dick!" I shot back.
"Come on Urameshi, just say sorry to the girl and get along, she's not that bad."
"Oh thanks," I said sarcastically, "see if I ever help you again."
"Fine, sorry I was such a jerk to you before."
I shot him a look; he appeared serious if totally reluctant, "Sorry I ran into you."
"See that wasn't hard. Urameshi this is Della, she's from California." Dancing bear, I gritted my teeth.
"Hey, you're the girl Keiko has been so worked up about. Maybe now she'll finally shut up and let me get some rest." I could tell that Yusuke had a wonderful way with women…not!
The bell rang signalling the end of class. Soon after Mr. Takanaka returned with our biology teacher and another man I didn't know. From the way Yusuke tensed, I could tell he obviously knew the man and didn't like him. The feeling appeared to be mutual. "Surprise surprise, if it isn't Urameshi," the man sneered, cracking his knuckles threateningly. "Haven't you been arrested yet?"
"Ah bite me, I'm outta here. See you around Della, Kuwabara." With that he got up and left. I stared in shock, sure that Mr. Takanaka was going to call him back but the principal made no move to, even when Yusuke physically shouldered past the mystery teacher blocking the doorway. Kuwabara looked like he wanted to follow but stayed put; it felt like he was a buffer between me and the new teacher. I was totally fine with that, he was one scary S.O.B.
"I have reviewed the matter of your detentions," Mr. Takanaka said. "I don't think your punishment was warranted, it appears that you completed the assignment successfully without cheating. However, Miss St. Clair, I think you'll be better off in Mr. Iwamoto's class for the rest of the year." Mr. Takanaka pointed to the unknown teacher who gave me an evil smirk and crossed his arms over his chest; the smirk sent a cold chill down my spine. Instinctively I knew I would never survive the year in that man's class.
"Uh…Respectfully Mr. Takanaka I think I'll have to decline. I stared in Mr...uh-this biology class and I'll finish in it too, besides Kuwabara needs me to be his lab partner." I turned to the teacher whose name I simply couldn't remember, didn't want to remember. "I apologize for my behavior; I promise it won't happen again, I don't know what came over me. It must have been my teenage hormones." Please, please accept the apology, I begged silently.
Mr. Takanaka smiled even as What's-his-face spluttered incoherently at my about-face, "Well if you're sure I see no problem in your continuing, just be sure that an incident like this never happens again." Strangely he looked at Mr. No Name when he said that. "You both may go now."
I don't think I had ever left a room so quickly in my entire life. Kuwabara was right behind me. "That was close, that Iwamoto is such a slime ball. You got lucky."
"Yeah," I shivered and looked around at the empty hallway, "Aw crap, I'm late…again." I sighed, "See you around Kuwabara." As I turned to go, Kuwabara stopped me.
"Let me walk you to your next class, it's the least I can do for all your help." His kindness made me smile; it was nice to have made a friend like him. Two friends in one day, that had to be a new record for me; that is if I could count Yusuke as a friend. I wasn't completely sure yet.
"Okay, but won't you be late for your next class?" I asked as we started walking. He reached over and grabbed my book bag again. I may be a modern chick but I'm still a sucker for good old fashioned chivalry.
"Naw, I'm ditching after this. I gotta go see what Urameshi's up to anyway." The rest of the walk was silent but it was a comfortable silence. He left me with a smile and a wave at my door before disappearing down the hall.
Uber long chapter, I know, but did you like it? And tell me how I did on Kuwabara and Yusuke, were they accurate?
Please R&R, if you don't I'll get Hiei to smite you! (I can do that you know) Thank you!