Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the wonderful world of Gakuen Alice does not belong to me.

Mikan hummed happily to herself as she got ready for PE, which was unsurprisingly her favourite class of the day. She sucked at everything else, but was wonderful at PE.

Hotaru was next to her, in the changing rooms. She looked at Mikan for a moment, and then proceeded to warn her.

"PE in this school is different. You should be careful," she said, quietly.

"What do you mean, Hotaru?" Mikan asked, innocently. "I know the standard would be higher, but what else?"

"The standard is much, much higher than you think it is. I usually sit out the matches, but you, being the idiot that you are, will probably not do the same."

"Why would I? PE's my favourite lesson!" Mikan exclaimed. She didn't miss Hotaru's sigh of exasperation, as she walked out of the changing room.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Hotaru called back.

Mikan rushed out of the changing room, and into the warm sunlight of the field. It was a hive of activity, everyone was rushing about with their respective sports. It was now that Mikan realized what Hotaru meant. Everyone was extremely competitive. A game of volleyball seemed about to turn into a bloodbath, with balls flying and being ferociously hit. The opposing teams seemed eager to kill each other. In a few minutes, half the opposing team had been eliminated.

The PE teacher seemed in total disarray. She seemed like she had no control over the misbehaving students, and simply nodded at Mikan to join the game. With trepidation, she agreed. She walked slowly to the girls' side, where Sumire Shouda, Hotaru, and a few other girls were. One of them seemed to have bubblegum pink hair, while another looked exactly like Mikan's version of an ice princess. She smiled at them in greeting, and most of them smiled back.

"Guys, we can't win this game. Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi are on the other side!" said the girl with the bubblegum pink hair.

"Well, we still have to try!" said Mikan, ever the optimist.

The other girls looked at her doubtfully. Did she understand what she was up against?

"Seriously, the injuries here are worse than broken nails. We're talking about broken arms, broken legs, and you know..." whispered the Ice Princess.

"Anyway, the game's starting!" said Sumire. "Pay attention, for gods' sake!"

Mikan looked forward. There were about five boys in the opposing team, and the worst thing was that Natsume Hyuuga was there. The jerk. Well, time to test out their abilities. Mikan confidently volleyed a ball over. Volleyball was a game she had played before, and she was quite good at it.

She didn't realize that it would be spiked back with such intensity. So that's how they want to play it, huh? Then she would do the same. Smirking to herself, she returned the ball with such force, she was surprised it didn't explode.

Natsume Hyuuga stared right back at her, before spiking the ball towards her. However, it missed, and knocked Anna, the girl with the bubblegum pink hair, to the ground. Nonoko, her best friend, saw her lying on the ground and lost concentration.

"Are you alright?" she shrieked, before running to her side. Unfortunately, she got in the way of the ball, which was being hit at about 80 kilometres an hour. She fell to the side, clutching her knee in pain.

Mikan's temper, already frayed, had reached boiling point. Hotaru had been injured in an earlier game, now only she and Sumire were left. How dare these guys think that they could walk over her and all of the other girls! Unknowingly, she was slipping into a mood of cool, calculative concentration. She seemed as if she was in a trance, spiking and volleying the ball with careful movements to inflict the most injury on all the other members on the opposing team. Sharing a dark look with Sumire, they both silently agreed to teach these guys a lesson.

Strike one. A guy walked off the pitch holding a hand to his head.

Strike two. Another guy has an injured foot.

Strike three. Is that a broken arm?

Finally, only Natsume Hyuuga and his blonde-haired friend were left. As Mikan lifted her arm to give the killing blow, the PE teacher blew the whistle.

"Time's up, everyone! 15-10, victory to the girls' team!" she said, evidently surprised with the result. The girls team hadn't won in ages.

"Mikan Sakura, I'd like a word with you in private please."

"Yes, miss?"

"I'd just like to say that I'm very surprised," said the PE coach, frankly. "I didn't expect much from you when you came, but you blew my expectations out of the water when you won the game like that."

Mikan blushed in embarrassment.

"It was nothing, miss."

"Oh no, it wasn't nothing. A small girl like you should not have been able to beat a team of werewolves and demons."

Mikan quickly thanked the coach and walked away to the changing rooms. Werewolves and demons? What was this school hiding? But what scared her most was the fact that she, Mikan Sakura, had just beaten a team of according to the PE teacher, werewolves and demons. What did that make her, a freak?

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice Anna, Nonoko, Sumire and Nobara trying to get her attention.

"Sakura!" called Nonoko, waving her hand in front of her face.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening, what did you just say?" asked Mikan. Great, they probably thought she was a freak for spacing out like that.

"I just wanted to thank you for sticking up for us like that," said Anna.

"Me too. No one's ever done that before. We usually get pushed around, just because we're quiet," stated Nonoko.

"Yeah. The people here can be such jerks sometimes," said Nobara, angrily.

"You're not actually so bad after all," sniffed Sumire. She then condescended to say, "I think I was wrong about you the first time."

"Thanks. It means a lot," said Mikan. "You know what? Just call me Mikan." They all laughed, and drew her into a group hug. Hotaru said nothing, but Mikan could tell that she was pleased with her. She hadn't been injured yet, which was a good thing. Mikan smiled to herself. She hadn't been at Alice Academy for awhile, but she had a hunch that she had just made friends (and enemies) to last a lifetime.

In the boys locker room

"Natsume, I can't believe you just got trashed by the new girl," chortled Ruka.

"Well, you got trashed too," he retorted.

"Yeah, well, I've never been that good at volleyball," said Ruka, sheepishly. "You're the sporty one!"

Natsume slammed his hand into the locker, not caring about all the weird looks he was getting. He got them everyday, all the time.

"I can't believe it, either," he groaned. "Isn't she meant to be just a human? No human can hit like that."

"You never know. She could be half-demon for all you know."

"Ruka, don't joke."

Ruka winced. He knew Natsume's demon ancestry was a sore spot for him. It was so obvious that it was even worse. No angel had red irises. Natsume was half-angel and half-demon, which was an odd combination to say the least.

"Natsume, what's this about being beaten by a girl?" asked Koko, mischieviously.

"Shut up!"

I don't believe she's human, thought Natsume to himself. There's definitely something different about her, and I'm going to find out what it is at any cost. Making up his mind, he walked off to his next class.

If you liked this chapter, please review! This is a particularly long one... I spent ages on it, hope it's good :)