Disclaimer: i do not and will never own Gakuen Alice.
Chapter 3: Signs and Polka Dots
Ever since Natsume was welcomed to the group, it has already been some sort of a ritual for them to meet each other during lunch at the right side of the cafeteria, at the exact table they sat on the very first day of school. Lunch time was considered as the group's "us time" as Sumire would call it.
"So have you already decided what club to join? You know the registration is only up to Friday," Yuu reminded everyone.
"Do we really have to join?" Kitsuneme groaned, absolutely not thrilled.
"Well, it is not mandatory but it really would be good on your resume when you start applying for a job after you graduate," Yuu explained while adjusting his glasses.
"But graduation is still years from now, we just started college," Koko cried out.
"We don't even know if you are going to graduate," Sumire smirked, clearly satisfied that she just one upped Koko.
A week after the start of classes, clubs and organizations started their registrations to recruit new students to join them. Some of them already signed to be on different clubs, just like Hotaru in Robotics club, Anna in Baking Club, Nonoko in Chemistry and Yuu in Student Government. The others were still undecided. Natsume, on the other hand, has a club on his mind. He was just not sure if it's the right one for him.
"What about you Natsume, do you have a club on your mind?" Mikan asked him who was seated beside him.
"I have one but I just—" Natsume stopped not knowing what to say next and just shrugged his shoulders.
"Just what?" Mikan was clearly waiting for Natsume to continue what he was about to say.
"I'm not sure if it is the right one for me," Natsume said under his breath, hoping not everyone would hear it.
"You will never know if it's the one for you if you don't try it out first. So what club is this?" Mikan whispered
"Debate club," Natsume responded.
"Nice," Koko butted in since he was definitely eavesdropping to the conversation. "And then you will start arguing if we should wear uniform or casual just like in princess diaries.
Everyone looked at Koko incredulously.
"Don't look at me like that, princess diaries was a good movie," Koko defended himself from the judgiing stares that he got from his friends.
"It will be good for you, Natsume since you are planning to be a lawyer—," Ruka paused for a bit and trailed off. "With its public speaking and all,"
"Well, Nogi since you have such great advice to your friends, how about you?" Hotaru raised her eyebrow at the now flustered blond.
"Well, I- uhm. I think," Ruka stuttered but was not able to continue when Hotaru took a picture of him from her phone.
"Hey, delete that, " Ruka grunted trying to get the Hotaru's phone but immediately stopped when he suddenly received a text.
Natsume saw Ruka open the message as the latter smiled while reading the text he received from Imai. he chose to keep to himself what he saw from Ruka's phone. It was not his place to tell everyone that Imai just helped Ruka choose a club and Imai would certainly cut his head off if he would do such a thing.
"Okay everyone, eyes here. I'm giving you all free autographs today since once I sign to be a part of the theatre club, there is no stopping me from becoming a star," Sumire suddenly announced with such enthusiasm as she stood up on her seat and started making curtsies.
Natsume stood outside Mikan's Social Studies room waiting for her. Well, aside from philosophy, both of them also have calculus together which was the second class after lunch and it has become Natsume's habit to wait for Mikan so they can go to class together. He did not really plan on waiting for her at first but when he realized that he would pass outside Mikan's room on his way to calculus; he deemed it convenient to just wait for her since Mikan always asks for his help in calculus.
"Hey, how long you've been waiting?" Mikan asked as she got out of the room as her class had just ended.
"Not too long," Natsume replied as they started walking to their next class.
"So I have a question," Mikan the opened her book which was on her hands and flipped the pages until she got the right one.
"I tried answering this one but I'm not sure if it's correct, can you check it?" Mikan passed the book to Natsume as he checked it.
"This part," Natsume paused as he encircled a part of the solution,"—is wrong. You need to first treat this one as the constant while you differentiate the v,"
Natsume continued to explain to Mikan how to tackle the sum of two different functions while they walked towards their classroom. When they already arrived in their room, they proceeded to their seats and Natsume returned Mikan's book to get his.
Natsume looked at Mikan as she rewrote her solutions and tried answering the problems again by applying what he just said. If this was in high school, he would have already grumbled and glared every time someone asks him about math or any subject. But with Mikan, he is actually okay with it, without the grumbling or the glaring even if she asks him to repeat what he just explained.
But then again, Mikan was not like his high school classmates, who would just ogle at him while he tried to explain. With Mikan, she actually listens and tries her best to do well. Mikan is smart as what he have observed but math wasn't exactly her "forte", as she complains.
Their professor, Jinno, arrived. He was a hard man to please and almost everyone fears him, except Natsume. Natsume finds calculus easy and because of that Jinno hardly gets mad at him.
"Can someone answer the problem on the board?" Jinno asked sternly.
No one raised their hand. They were either to afraid to answer or they don't even know how to answer the problem. Natsume glanced at Mikan who was busy trying to find the answer. If he was any other student, he would have raised his hand but he was not. Natsume started tapping his pen while everyone buried their noses into their books hiding from Jinno.
"No one tries to volunteer to answer this very simple question?" JInno then adjusted his glasses and continued. "Then I'll call someone,"
Natsume saw Mikan panic as she punched the numbers on the calculator quite hardly.
"Mr. Kenshi," Jinno said while handing the marker to the approaching boy.
The guy started answering as Jinno watched him like a hawk. The latter's eyebrows furrowed as the guy's answer was all wrong and Natsume could feel that his professor's patience was wearing thin, if he had the patience to begin with.
"It's all wrong, go back to your seat," JInno snapped while he rubbed his two fingers to his forehead to stop himself from getting a headache.
"Seriously class, do I need to call Mr. Hyuuga again just to answer this problem. Is he my only student here? If that is the case then at the end of the semester it wouldn't be surprising that he ends up passing my subject while all of you fail," Jinno's voice boomed across the room.
Jinno was looking once again at his class list trying to find his latest victim. "Yukihara," he called.
Natsume turned to Mikan and saw that her hands were trembling so he grabbed Mikan's hand and squeezed it a bit as a sign of support. Mikan mouthed a thank you as she made her way to the front to answer the problem.
Natsume silently hoped that she remembered what he taught her earlier. The problem presented was similar to the examples in the book. But Mikan tends to over think when she panics and would instantly black out.
Mikan started scribbling her solution on the board and Natsume couldn't help but silently groan to himself as she just answered the problem wrong. But as if Mikan could read his mind she paused for awhile and took a deep breath. She then erased her previous solution and then started a new one.
Mikan finished answering and hurried back to her seat. She immediately turned to Natsume to find out if she was correct. Natsume gave her a small smile and she sighed in relief.
"Well, someone studied the lesson. Keep it up,"
Natsume looked at Mikan who clasped her hands together ad grinning from ear to ear. She was definitely happy that Jinno decided to spare her head for the day.
It was the end of the class and everyone hurriedly left the room not wanting to stay any longer to the torture room as his other classmates had dubbed it.
"Thank you so much for helping me back there," Mikan said while stuffing her books into her bag.
"You did it all by yourself," Natsume reminded Mikan that it was her who answered the problem on the board.
"But you were a good tutor," Mikan pointed out and smiled.
Natsume just nodded at her as they went their separate ways.
It was already Friday and the university was busier than usual. The clubs were at full swing with their recruiting shenanigans, with all the banners, the loud speakers, and the flyers plastered around the campus.
Natsume and Mikan were at the quad just looking at the different clubs because by some miracle, Jinno ended the class thirty minutes early. So now they had enough time to go to the quad to do some "club-searching".
"So have you signed on to be a part of the debate team?" Mikan asked
"Not yet."
"Why?"
Natsume wasn't really sure what was holding him back. It was just that every time he passes the debate team's booth, he was just not in the mood to sign. He knows it was a lame excuse but he really doesn't know what was holding him back. Maybe he needed a little push, he could only guess. In high school, he did not bother to sign on to some club for he knew that joining clubs would require spending some money and he couldn't dump it on his father to shoulder the expenses.
"Well, it is not like you already signed up to something," Natsume said trying to change the subject.
"That's not fair, you already know where to sign you're just being a baby about it." Mikan pointed out. But then she stopped walking and hung her head low and whispered, "While I, on the other hand, do not really know where to go,"
He saw the look on Mikan's face. She looked lost and it was his first time to see Mikan so dejected. Mikan just sighed and he saw how she held her hands to stop it from trembling. Natsume, in the short time that he had known her, always thought that she was this optimistic girl who wouldn't let anything get to her, not even Jinno. But right now, he saw the other side of her.
"Hey, I'd help you find one," he said earnestly as he then led Mikan to one of the booths.
"Thank you," a smile graced Mikan's face once again.
After minutes of going to one booth to another they reached the 8th booth and the last booth that they are going to look into—the other remaining booths were all related to either science or math and Mikan was quite adamant about how she would never joins such clubs.
They were in front of the school paper's booth and Natsume glanced at the brunette who was now busy reading the journals that the school paper issued for the past years.
"What about here? I saw your essay in Philosophy, it was really good. Narumi even gave you an A for that," he asked Mikan who stopped reading.
"I'm not that good,"
Natsume could tell that Mikan was being hard on herself again by the way she slumped her shoulders and she shook her head as he gave the suggestion.
"Mikan, you told me one time that you like writing," Natsume reminded Mikan about the conversation they had during Narumi's class.
He can still remember how her eyes lit up when she told him about the essay she wrote back in high school about how their school should have recycling bins which became the reason that recycling bins could now be seen in her high school.
So Natsume without any hesitation wrote Mikan's name immediately in the Registration Sheet on the table before Mikan could stop him.
"What are you doing?" Mikan then grabbed the pen and was about to erase her name when Natsume stopped her and grabbed her hand.
"I saw your face lit up when I reminded you, you liked writing," he looked at her in the eye, still not releasing her hand.
Natsume felt Mikan's arm go down so he finally released her hand. She put back the pen on her table and brushed her hair with her fingers to help her relax.
They just stood and stared at each other for a good minute when suddenly Mikan hugged Natsume. He was shocked and did not know what to do with his arms on his side. He hesitated if he should hug back but even before he could decide, Mikan pulled away but still maintained the close distance between them.
"Thank you," Mikan said in a soft voice.
Mikan then took a step backward with a smile on her face.
"I'm sorry I'm letting this club thing stress me out. It's just that it made me question if I'm good at something," Mikan admitted and hung her head low embarrassed of what she was feeling minutes ago.
"Don't sell yourself short," Natsume said as he patted her back as if telling her that everything is okay.
Mikan's smile then changed into a gasp as she grabbed Natsume's hand and ran to the opposite side of the quad with a confused Natsume in tow. "You haven't signed up yet and we have 5 minutes left."
Helping Mikan also helped Natsume in some way. He was able to look at the other clubs and see if it interests him but every time a representative talks and present them what their club does, his mind always goes back to the Debate club. He was now sure he wanted to be a part of it
"Hi I'm Shuichi Sakurano a senior in Political Science Department and chairman of the debate team are you here to sign up?"
"Not me, him" Mikan grabbed the pen on the table and gave it to Natsume who then proceeded to sign his name up.
"We'll just text you where the first debate will be held which you will be judged if you have what it takes to be on the team,"
The both of them were walking out of the quad as they were going to their respective rooms since they only have little time to spare before classes start.
"Hey thank you again," Mikan said when she started walking opposite to where he was heading and was already a good two meters away from him.
Natsume then noticed the ladder near Mikan wobbled as the girl on the ladder shouted when a bucket of paint on the ledger started to fall.
"Mikan, watch out!" Natsume shouted but it was only enough for Mikan to move away as to not get hit by the bucket on her head but not enough to come out unscathed.
The bucket of paint fell beside Mikan and she was splattered with black paint. Natsume ran to MIkan as she just stood there clearly in shock.
"Are you okay?" Natsume then took out the handkerchief from his pocket wiping the black paint on Mikan's face.
To his surprise, Mikan started laughing. "I look like Perdita from 101 Dalmatians," she remarked.
"Polka dots," Natsume teased as he sighed in relief that Mikan was just taking what happened in stride.
"I know," she said while grinning.
Natsume was about to say something when he noticed a man clad in black walking towards them. Mikan then turned her head to where Natsume was looking. The man was wearing sunglasses but the way his mouth was curled into a frown suggests he wasn't happy.
"Rei, it is all okay. It was an accident. You don't need to tell dad about this," Mikan started explaining not giving the man the chance to talk first.
"Mikan your safety is our priority; it wouldn't have happened f the girl was being careful. I'll talk the principal and see what punishment is to be given,"
"Rei, please," Mikan looked at Rei in horror and begged him not to do anything. "It's just paint," she exclaimed.
Rei's face softened as he took a deep breath, "Fine, I will not do anything about it. But this is the last time I will let anything slide,"
Natsume then felt the man scrutinize him behind the sunglasses. It was a bit unnerving.
"Thanks, and Rei, can you please get my spare uniform in the car. I'll just be in the washroom to clean myself,"
"Who was that?" Natsume asked he followed his gaze to Rei who just hid himself again in plain sight.
"He's my bodyguard. He has been with the family ever since I can remember. He is like this big brother to me," she beamed, forgetting that she was still covered in paint.
Natsume saw the girl on the ladder jog towards them with such worry in her face.
"I'm really sorry. I was just painting the walls as our project. I should have been more careful," she started to explain.
"That's okay. I'm just glad I was not hit on the head or else the paint would have totally covered me," Mikan joked to lighten up the girl's mood.
"Let's go to the washroom. I'd help you get the paint out of your body. It's the least that I can do," the girl offered while she led Mikan to the washroom.
"Thank you—," Mikan paused trying to get the girl's name.
"Misaki Harada, senior in the Arts department,"
It amazes Natsume how Mikan handled the situation. He knows he will be super pissed if he it happened to him but Mikan she is taking it all lightly. Natsume followed the two girls when Mikan halted and turned around to face him.
"Natsume, you're already late for your next class," Mikan reminded him of his class. "Besides it's not like you can come with us in the girl's washroom. And I've got Misaki with me," Mikan tried to convince Natsume to go to his next class.
"Okay polka dots," Natsume teased while Mikan punched Natsume's shoulders lightly before she pushed him to go to his class.
Natsume then walked to his classroom without much hesitation, he realized he wouldn't really be of any help anyways.
Thank you to all those who reviewed the first two chapters of the story. It really warms my heart.
Reviews are always welcome.
