Okay, I guess it was inevitable that I wasn't going to have all twelve day-chapters done by the 25 (yes, I'm an idiot for trying…) So, let's just say I started on the 25 (give or take a few days). My deadline will now be on: January 5, my annoying nii-sama's (brother's) birthday (yay??)! Well, anyway… back to the story…
Day Two: 12/15/09
Each group of students was assigned a lodge with five separate rooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen and den; (Ichigo's dad and Uruhara nearly screamed at the cost for Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji).
In Rukia's group were Ichigo, Renji, Tatsuki and Orihime. Originally, Ichigo was in a group with Keigo and Mizuiro, but he had repeatedly complained that he spent too much time with them as is.
Ichigo was aware that there was an opening in Rukia and Renji's group after Chizuru had suddenly backed out of the trip (because of a head injury, apparently). The majority of people in that group were people he could handle, (save Renji, of course).
"At least it's another shinigami, and not that soul reaper-hating Ichida…" he reasoned with himself, "And Rukia, Tatsuki, and Inoe are there. What's the worst that could happen?"
Rukia had been resistant to the trip from the start, as if she was being forced to go, despite Renji, Tatsuki, and Orihime's attempts to rationalize it. But, when Ichigo joined her group, no one, not even her self, could explain why she suddenly seemed so set on going. (But, you could probably guess why.)
"Good morning Kuchiki-san!" Orihime beamed.
Rukia rubbed her eye sleepily and turned to smile faintly, "Yeah, good morning Inoe."
"Tatsuki is making eggs for everyone! I think Abarai-san is still sleeping and Kurosaki-kun is taking a shower." Orihime went on as Rukia, half-listening, was taking in her surroundings.
The kitchen took up half of the space in the room, and the den, the other half. The kitchen had a marble counter with five bar stools, a stove, a dishwasher and sink, and a bunch of cabinets and drawers. The den had two couches and three cushion chairs, all velvet red, surrounding a wooden coffee table; and a fireplace off in the corner.
Rukia felt a hand holding the top of her head and turned, glaring at Ichigo and his dripping wet orange hair.
"Are you still asleep or something?" he asked as he walked around her and sat on a bar stool. "Aren't you hungry?"
"Oh! Good morning Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime smiled as she handed him a plate with scrambled eggs and two sausages on it. "Kuchiki-san, there's one here for you too!"
Rukia blinked as she snapped back to reality and took a seat next to Ichigo. "Where'd the food come from?" she wondered.
Tatsuki came, holding two more plates. "The teachers dropped it off last night, but you, Ichigo and Abarai were already sleeping in your rooms; so Orihime and I put them in the fridge before we went to bed.
"You should've woken me up," Rukia mentioned as she stuffed her mouth with a spoonful of scrambled eggs, "I would've helped out."
"Too late now…" Tatsuki shrugged as she and Orihime began to eat, "But, thanks for the offer."
The sound of footsteps could be heard, slowly making their way down the hallway.
Rukia leaned back with the fork still in her mouth. "Mm… Good Mrning Rnji…" Orihime and Tatsuki laughed.
"Take the fork out of your mouth first!" Ichigo remarked as he pulled it from her mouth and handed it back to her. He turned to Renji, "Nice of you to finally wake up."
Renji, who was still fixing his ponytail, looked at Ichigo for a moment, and then, down to the food in front of him before beginning to eat. As soon as he put his hands down to pick up his cutlery, however, his ponytail dropped and his hair went down, causing the whole table to laugh.
"Dammit…" he muttered, taking a spoonful of eggs before trying to fix it again.
"What're we supposed to be doing today?" Orihime asked, after awhile.
"Today the teachers are supposed to be ironing out the itinerary," Tatsuki answered. "And we'll find out about it tomorrow. The real fun begins after that!"
"So it's a free day today?" Ichigo wondered. "What should we do?"
"How about a fight…?" Renji offered.
"You mean a snowball fight?" Tatsuki rephrased.
"Is that what I meant…?" Renji asked again, thinking it over.
"A snowball fight would be better…" Rukia nodded at Renji, "Then what you're thinking of, Renji."
He shrugged, "Alright, whatever… Let's go!"
The five ran to their rooms to get their gear and all met in the front foyer. "Hey Ichigo…!" Rukia called.
"What is it…?" As he turned to face her, his jacket hit him in the face.
"Wear a jacket!" she mimicked him as she contently walked away. "You might die!"
Ichigo smirked, putting it on, "Payback, huh?"
Rukia nodded as the five walked outside, "At least you can understand that much!"
"We should make teams!" Tatsuki suggested, "Like boys versus girls!"
"I don't wanna be on Renji's team…" Ichigo complained, "He'll end up throwing the snowballs at me."
"Yeah, well, I'm not too crazy about being on your team either!" Renji argued.
Rukia sighed, "Fine! Renji's on Inoe and Arisawa's team and Ichigo and I are a team, happy?"
The three nodded as they went to find a suitable spot for a base, leaving Ichigo and Rukia to look for theirs.
"Us as a team, huh…?" Ichigo asked as the two started working on the base.
"I just said what came to mind first." Rukia explained. She turned to him and smiled, "Besides, we make a good team, don't we?"
"Yeah we do…" Ichigo nodded, "So stop giving our fort bunny ears!"
Rukia laughed, "Sorry Ichigo, I'll try my hardest!"
Meanwhile, Renji had suddenly begun to enjoy his team members. "If it were Rukia or Ichigo…" he thought to himself, "They'd be ticked if I took control of the team, but these two won't care, right? I can become captain for once!"
"Alright listen up!" Renji started, "I'm taking complete control of our team! I'm the captain alright?"
Unbeknownst to the poor captain, Orihime and Tatsuki had started firing snowballs at Ichigo and Rukia. Renji sighed as he knelt down and began to take fire as well.
The whole day, the five played and played like little kids on the first day of snow; and Rukia's second day ended with five extremely tired and extremely content teenagers sitting around a fire, laughing, with hot chocolate in hand.
I kind of liked this chapter because it was like: "A day in the life of…" (insert name there). But, of course, just like Tatsuki said, the real fun is when the itinerary is finished, and it's almost that time! ~Ryu-Take
