Chapter Three
Ichigo liked to think of himself as a cool, laidback guy who wasn't concerned with people's opinions. He saw himself as one of those guys who kept his distance and didn't reveal much. You know, like that "I don't give a shit" attitude, with your hands shoved down your pockets and a lazy slouch. But how in the hell was he supposed to be able to keep up that rep if trouble attached itself to him like an eager parasite?
Girls were trouble. Well, girls his age. He began to realize that here at Seireitei High. At Karakura High, he had adjusted to their capricious and complicated minds. Besides Honsho, who was probably one of the creepiest girls he had ever met, most of the girls at Karakura were tolerable, such as Inoue. Even though she was the type of girl you wanted to cringe and constantly worry about because she was so ditzy and clumsy, she was nice. Hell, even his first elementary school friend, Tatsuki, was a girl. But then again, he sometimes forgot she was a girl.
So, maybe girls in general weren't that much trouble. But he could pinpoint exactly what his current trouble was. That trouble was less than five feet with an odd predilection for bunnies but was not to be taken lightly. Because of that particular trouble, he found himself dressing up as Chappy the Bunny for the school festival. He honestly didn't know how it all happened. One moment he was walking into the classroom to get his belongings, and the next, he signed himself up for a trip to reputation destruction.
Rukia threw him an icy glare during lunch to help her clarification, "Don't think I'm behind all this, because I'm not. It was unanimous against my vote. I'm just about excited as you are,"
He rolled his eyes at her while shoving rice into his mouth bitterly, "Oh, thanks, it makes it all better now that I know you weren't behind it,"
She narrowed her eyes at him while pointing her drink threateningly at him, "You don't deserve to dress up as Chappy!"
He muttered mostly to himself in disbelief, "I actually agree with you."
He glanced at his drink in her hands. They had fallen into the habit of switching drinks during lunch, which he didn't mind. Strawberry milk didn't exactly go well with bento, but Yuzu (who packed everyone's lunch) and Rukia both didn't seem to mind the strange pairing. Yuzu managed food in the house, so whatever she packed, the family would eat. He remembered a while back when he first opposed the drink. Yuzu was indignant while his dad attempted to show the brighter side of it to Ichigo, ardently complimenting Yuzu on her sweet innocence and how adorable she was for still being attached to strawberry milk. He wondered what it would be like if Yuzu found out that he had been trading his strawberry milk with a midget girl from school who also happened to like Chappy the Bunny.
"If you even dare slander Chappy's image, I'll make sure the whole school knows who to blame for ruining Ch- " Ichigo shoved a broccoli into Rukia's mouth and her eyes widened in surprise. If word got out that he was going to be dressed as Chappy at the school festival, he would cease to exist in society.
Trying to keep his cool, he nodded at Hinamori and Renji who were walking over, "Yo,"
Renji scratched his head, a perplexed expression on his face, "Did you just feed Rukia?"
Ichigo looked away and angrily replied, "No, why the hell would I feed her?"
Renji smirked, "Yeah, guess you're right. The only reason for that would be to shut her up,"
Also suspicious, Hinamori examined Rukia before plopping down next to her. Rukia was about to pipe up with an explanation but remembered the foreign vegetable in her mouth.
Rukia's attention averted to the two who just joined them as she realized that they were the reason for Ichigo's sudden broccoli attack. She slightly grinned mischievously to herself when she discovered she had a hold over Ichigo, although she didn't understand how he could be so embarrassed to dress up as Chappy. Aware of the bitter broccoli confrontation that soon awaited her, she cringed while eating it and contemplated spitting it in Ichigo's face. But knowing that she would get her revenge soon enough, she opted to throw her empty strawberry milk carton at his face instead, which elicited an angry scowl from him.
Ichigo grinned as the soda can obediently flew into the wastebasket, "Andd it's in again! Try and beat that, Abarai!"
It was after school before clubs began, and Ichigo was currently stuck doing his routinely classroom chores. He and Renji had thought the same thing when they saw neglected trash and a wastebasket near the entrance of the classroom door because they were now competing to get the most hoops.
Renji reached over and picked up a plastic bottle near the hall window and turned his back on the wastebasket, "Tch, I'll dunk it in without even looking,"
The bottle flew in the direction of the wastebasket but only kissed the edge of the basket before landing on the ground as Ichigo shook his head, laughing, "What was that again? You'll beat me without even looking?"
Renji turned around to see the plastic bottle near the wastebasket, slightly scowling, "That was practice, you ass,"
Ichigo merely sniggered before jogged over to retrieve the plastic bottle before stepping away to correct Renji's miss. Renji stood on the side, poorly attempting to disturb his focus. Unhindered by Renji's teasing, Ichigo shot, anxiously waiting for the bottle to fall into the basket. However, there was no sound of a dunk, for Rukia had popped outside the classroom and caught it.
Renji snickered loudly once he noticed Rukia with the bottle and Ichigo with a crestfallen expression, "Dumbass, you didn't even get it in yourself!"
After hearing that, Rukia promptly threw the bottle at Renji, who cradled his nose, "Ah! What the hell, Rukia?"
Ichigo wisely held in his snicker as he watched Rukia glare at Renji before sending him a glare as well, "You two are supposed to be picking up trash and sweeping the floor, not playing around with it like a couple of elementary school kids,"
Her reprimanding prompted Ichigo and Renji to peek inside their classroom where sure enough, a few other classmates were straightening up the desks and sweeping the floor.
Rukia pushed the two back outside into the hallway and explained before confused looks appeared on their faces, "We're out of cleaning solution for the windows, so go ask the upperclassmen. Hitsugaya will probably have some extras,"
Renji nodded dutifully before pulling Ichigo with him, "Alright, miss class rep,"
And with that, they proceeded down the hall in search of Hitsugaya's classroom. Rukia slightly grimaced at Renji's teasing before stepping back into the classroom as well.
Ichigo followed Renji down the hall with his hands stuffed in his pockets, "Who's Hitsugaya?"
Renji turned back to look at Ichigo while walking, "He's our class president. You know, that guy with the white, spiky hair?"
Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, Renji's explanation ineffective in jogging his memory.
Renji dismissed it with a wave, "Yeah, well, you'll see him soon enough."
"Hitsugaya?" Renji and Ichigo peered into the classroom to see Hitsugaya lecturing a bored looking blond girl resting her breasts on the top of a chair. They scanned the classroom to notice Ikkaku sweeping the floor while Yumichika sat on the ledge of a desk.
"Yo, Abarai, Kurosaki."
The class president turned around mid-lecture to see Renji and Ichigo waving to Ikkaku and Yumichika while the blond beauty also curiously poked her head out behind Hitsugaya.
"Oh, Abarai. What do you need?"
Before Renji could reply, the blond female got up and approached the two, particularly Ichigo, "Ah, so you're the new student! Kurosaki Ichigo, right?"
Ichigo leaned back from her close proximity, slightly uncomfortable. With his eyes fleeing away her far too revealing uniform, he nodded, "Yeah. Who're you?"
Unbothered by his blunt reply, she grinned devilishly, "I'm Matsumoto Rangiku. So I finally get to meet you!"
She then peered in to his face, her eyebrows slightly furrowed, "You really do frown as much as they say,"
Ichigo scowled even deeper while Matsumoto giggled, amused.
Annoyed, Hitsugaya thrust a broomstick into her hand, cutting off her amusement with her latest toy, "Stop wasting time and go back to cleaning, Matsumoto."
The two, slightly red in the face, watched her leave with a reluctant sigh. Renji cleared his throat before speaking again, "We're all out of cleaning solution for the windows. Rukia said you might have some extras,"
Hitsugaya nodded before uncrossing his arms, "I think we might have one left. Wait here,"
The two nodded as Ikkaku and Yumichika approached them.
"You ready for practice today?"
His competitiveness suddenly in gear, Ichigo replied with a confident grin, "If you mean kicking your asses, then yeah,"
Ikkaku laughed all too knowingly, "We'll see how you'll manage that, Kurosaki,"
Renji also snorted, his arms crossed. Ichigo would have it in for him today- Kenpachi took special care in making sure newly joined rookies caught up with the rest. He remembered the first few weeks of Kendo were memories that he would never want to relive. And soon, Ichigo would be feeling the same.
Kenpachi was insane.
Ichigo sighed and glanced at the storage room, which was a complete mess. It wasn't that Ichigo was anticipating a clean storage room to clean, but he wasn't expecting such a disaster. What was I expecting? Cleanliness and Kenpachi don't really go along in the first place.
He gripped his aching shoulders, stretching them. He had just gone through hell. Twice. Kenpachi was putting him through conditioning, blatantly questioning how he could have been top at his old dojo with scrawny arms like that. Ichigo snorted resentfully at that for just a few weeks ago, Kenpachi was commenting on his speed and high potential. The never-ending pushups with weights on his back in order to 'help with his breathing', the laps up and down stairs, nearly leaving practice with broken bones from Kenpachi's extreme spurring, and now cleaning the storage room. He couldn't wait until he got out of this 'rookie' position, which had been thrust upon him even with his skills.
He began to drag out a cart full of miscellaneous, neglected sports gear as he began to plan how to quickly finish the job. The dust piled up on the cart temporarily discouraged him as he sighed and stretched his aching back in the sun.
At least the weather's nice.
He turned around to examine the field behind him. Students were actively playing a soccer game in one field as he watched the goalie capture the ball rolling into the net. His eyes met the black surface of the track field as a few students practiced hurdles and jogged around the track. As he lazily scanned through the distant students speedily jumping over hurdles, he noticed a certain black haired student jogging around the track alone. His eyes narrowed when he realized the identity of the girl.
That crazy midget. Is there anything she doesn't do?
Track and field, class government, and on top of that, her brother owns the school.
She always keeps herself so busy.
He couldn't understand her persistence in pretty much everything. Girls…weren't like that. She worked her ass off, busy juggling several obligations by herself. Yet he didn't get the vibe that she was trying to show off to anyone. Besides the occasional jabbing insults and fingers at him, she was quite reserved. She even talked formally and politely to nearly everyone- he considered himself an exception because their first meeting was far from polite and formal.
Attempting to grab accurate information about Rukia was nearly impossible- not that he tried. While she had to be friendly and know plenty of names and faces because of student council, a wall of distance still existed between her and anyone. Some accepted her and simply saw her as a friendly but aloof student while others misunderstood her distance as snootiness.
He glanced one more time contemplatively at the small running figure of Rukia, steadily completing another lap around the track.
He would never admit this out loud, but that quiet determination sparked her individuality from anyone else he'd met.
"Come buy baked goods!" Rukia announced as they strolled through the school festival together. Well, strolling was far from what Ichigo was doing- he was hunched, dragging his feet with a scowl on his face even though no one could see. He was forced to stop though, when Rukia told him that Chappy did not walk like a Neanderthal but hopped. She then continued with a warning that if he were to continue like that, she'd be compelled to change his current style of walking. He glanced at her- she had a determined expression as she raised the box, featuring the cookies.
He was sweating under that thing, it was so damn stuffy! The girls in his class had only begged him to wear it for a little more than an hour, but time passed by like a snail's worth. He had already taken dozens of photos with rabid fan girls; apparently Rukia wasn't the only deranged one obsessed with Chappy. That conniving midget had been driving him insane this whole week, using the threat of revealing his identity as Chappy to get him to do her dirty work. Whether it was helping her pass out flyers for the festival or even her going as low as pointing to her parched throat, voicelessly asking for a drink. And of course, using it to counter attack every insult he threw at her was a given.
For a girl who was probably only chosen to be class representative because of cowardly students, Rukia worked too freaking hard at her job. He sighed. His Kendo team was probably walking around the school while he was secretly here disguised as Chappy.
They passed the never-ending line from the kissing booth hosted by the upperclassmen. He slightly cringed when he noticed the reason for the long line; a blond girl with a figure too womanly and mature to be considered high school. Matsumoto. He rolled his eyes. It would be a shock if she weren't doing that. She was probably the reason why the male dominated line was dripping with saliva, although the blond student seemed to only encourage it by crossing her arms under her disproportionately large chest and sending a wink.
Abruptly, the blond girl noticed him and waved with a mischievous wink, neglecting her next customer, "Don't be shy, Chappy! Hop on over when you have time!"
He blanched and walked away more hastily while Rukia slightly sniggered, jabbing him with her elbow, "Hey, Chappy, did you hear that? I think she's interested,"
He was grateful she couldn't see him turn red in the costume as he stuttered back, "Shut up! Shouldn't you be more concerned about the customers she's taking away?"
With that said she suddenly ran off and he was tempted to call her but stopped from fear of being recognized. He watched her go towards the students in line for the kissing booth as they eagerly took wrapped packages of cookies from her.
He softly snorted. She was so damn persistent, working like that. It was just like her to offer those cookies to the students who had been waiting in line forever, unable to move from the spot. He was tempted to even think that her idea was pretty genius, but he stopped once he remembered the hell week she put him through. Even though it was mostly beneficial towards the festival. As he watched Rukia sell, she unexpectedly turned around to face him and gestured, "Hey, Chappy! Come over here and lend me a hand!"
Several minutes later, the boxes that the two carried were empty while their pockets were rimmed with money. She indignantly pointed at him with an I-Told-You-So expression plainly on her face, "And you thought I wasn't even thinking about the kissing booth line. All I had to do was just take advantage of their success,"
Ichigo expressed his contempt by poking her forehead with his Chappy paw, "Tch, whatever."
She stopped in the middle of walking back to the booth to properly leer him, "You better be grateful you're currently dressed as Chappy…"
He tauntingly wiggled his Chappy paws at her as he amusedly watched her steam up, "Or what, shorty?"
She glared at him for another minute before yelling, "ICH-" Before she could even finish, Ichigo clamped a paw over her mouth.
"Shut up! How does a midget like you have such a big mouth?" She switched her attention to him and sent him a resentful look, "It's you who has the big mouth,"
Rukia glared at Ichigo inside the smiling Chappy and he returned the glare even though she couldn't see.
"Kuchiki-san!"
Rukia switched her attention to the voice which belonged to Hanatarou. She couldn't help but return his smile as he jogged over, a fancy camera swiveling back and forth tied around his neck.
"Hello, Hanataro,"
Hanataro took a quick look at Ichigo as Chappy before returning his attention to Rukia, "How's the selling going? Oh, hi Chappy- or whoever is in there,"
Ichigo silently waved to Hanataro from fear of leaking his identity out.
Noticing the suddenly quiet Ichigo, Rukia slightly shook her head, "It's going pretty well. Chappy and I are going back to stock up."
Hanataro took a step forward, engrossed in discovering who was in the Chappy costume. Ichigo retreated a step back uncomfortably as Rukia casually watched Hanataro examine him.
Dammit, Rukia!
Suddenly Rukia patted him, "Sorry, Hanataro. Chappy's a bit shy-"
She then promptly pointed to the camera dangling from Hanataro's neck, "Have you taken a lot of photos?"
Temporarily giving up on examining Chappy, he scratched his head shyly, "Ah, yeah. Oh! Can I take a picture of you and Chappy together?"
Chappy shook his head feverishly, wildly motioning with an X. His refusal only fueled Rukia's decision to accept as she gripped his arm so that he wouldn't run away.
"1…2…3, Chi-zu!"
Rukia grinned readily with a thumb up while Ichigo failed at pulling away from her grip.
Hanataro smiled at the seemingly successful photo, "Thanks! It looks great! I'll make sure to give you a copy once I finish,"
Drained of the remaining patience in him, Ichigo began to walk away. Rukia glimpsed at the Chappy beginning to escape, "Thanks Hanataro. I'll see you later!"
Still curious of the person dressed as Chappy, Hanataro watched Rukia catch up with Chappy as she then proceeded to whack him with her empty box. Furrowing his eyebrows, he lifted a finger to his lips. For some ridiculous reason, he couldn't help but feel that it was Kurosaki in the costume.
The two finally reached their booth as Ichigo quickly scanned the area for an abandoned tent to change out of the costume. After finding an empty tent, he sighed while he hastily changed out of the stuffy costume. At least no one recognized me. Putting on his Kendo outfit, he peeped out of the dressing room to see the booth empty besides Rukia, Hinamori, and a few other students. He glanced at the neglected costume before cautiously sneaking out to join Hinamori.
"Have some fresh cookies! Help out our class!"
He was relieved to find that everyone around was too busy with the event to notice him leaving the tent. He raised an eyebrow, puzzled at the fact that only a few of his classmates remained at their booth, "Where did everyone go?"
Hinamori, dusted with flour, turned back from the table, "Oh, Kurosaki! They all left to go look around, although I think some of them are going to the kissing booth to see what happened,"
"What exactly happened?"
She grinned winningly at him, "Well, Matsumoto kept complaining about being tired so the upperclassmen are scrambling to find a substitute. From what it looks like, we might have a chance at winning,"
Ichigo stepped forward and examined the booth, noticing ribbons in Hinamori's hands. Rukia had her back to him, her hands busily working on something while the other remaining students in the front were selling cookies, "Did you just bake some more cookies?"
She nodded with an eager smile, "Yeah, they've been selling rapidly! We ran out earlier but the home economics teacher let me use her classroom,"
Ichigo opened his mouth to excuse himself so that he could join his Kendo team when unexpectedly Hinamori placed her ribbons in his hands, "Hey, can you help Rukia with wrapping up the cookies? I've got to go get something,"
Before he could even muster an excuse, Hinamori dashed out of the booth and into the crowd to join some white haired student who looked suspiciously like their class president. He inwardly groaned, frustrated from losing the opportunity to finally escape his class's fundraising. Scratching his head while staring carelessly at the ribbons, he reluctantly joined Rukia who was currently trying to make perfect bows in wrapping the baked goods.
"What's up with Hinamori?" He blurted out while standing next to Rukia. He took the chance to steal a look at her bows; they were slightly crooked but done with precision. He nearly smirked when he saw how concentrated she was with her eyebrows bunched together and tongue darting out. He then lazily separated a ribbon from the rest bunched up in his hand and grabbed an unwrapped package.
Rukia merely snorted to herself once she heard Ichigo, "Oh, don't mind her."
Unable to tie another package again, she sighed and stretched her arms which were currently aching from carrying heavy boxes and wrapping the packages. It took her one glance at Ichigo's sloppy bows before she smacked him on the arm, "Idiot! What kind of bow is this? Are you trying to sabotage our booth?"
"They look perfectly fine to me, you crazy midget!"
She picked up one of his packages and gestured to it, "This looks okay to you?"
He scratched his head while glancing at his Kendo outfit, "Yeah! Whatever, I'm not even supposed to be here right now,"
Before she could utter another word, one of their class mates buzzed past them with a box of goods, unintentionally pushing Ichigo towards Rukia. Both their eyes widened from fear of tipping the table and baked goods over. Ichigo swiftly grabbed the unsteady table with both hands, stopping himself from tripping over the table while consequently trapping Rukia within his arms. They both stared at each other, dumbfounded by the sudden series of events as they froze in their current spot.
He could see his own shocked eyes in her widened violet eyes. It felt like minutes passed by before either moved or spoke. But ever the cool one, Rukia regained her composure, confidently meeting his eyes before slipping out a smartass remark. Ichigo slightly reddened before barking back defensively about how it was her fault that she was standing there and making fun of his bows in the first place.
…It was then when he was reminded of how much he hated her sometimes; she seemed to be the only one who could cause his emotions to churn anxiously. And cause him to be enormously pissed from feeling that way.
Me? I can't ever lose my cool.
After that little incident, he finally ran off to his kendo team. Relishing in the relief that he was done with wearing that stupid costume, he ignored his teammate's complaints about his mysterious disappearance.
Renji snapped his fingers, "Oh, were you helping out with the booth?"
Ready to change the topic, he rubbed his neck, "Yeah, yeah, they kept asking me for help,"
Renji smirked, "Tch, baking cookies, you mean?"
Ikkaku joined in the teasing, "No, no, of course not, Abarai. He was probably too busy making crafts and ribbons,"
The guys laughed as Renji slapped him on the back, "Or better yet, he was probably hopping around, showing off his snow white tail as Chappy,"
Ichigo nearly blanched before narrowing his eyes and pointing at the two teasing him, "Shut up! You-"his comeback was interrupted by a female voice, "Kurosaki?"
It was one of his classmates; or more specifically, one of those girls he saw at the after school festival meeting. Having overheard the conversation, she timidly approached him.
Surprised, he lowered his hand, "Oh, Hitomi, what's up?"
She shifted on the balls of her feet anxiously, "I was wondering if you could come back and help us with something,"
He hesitated, quickly trying to come up with a sufficient excuse, when she piped up again, "It's urgent!"
Rubbing his temples, he reluctantly agreed as she hurriedly motioned for him to follow her.
As he reached the booth, a few girls rushed up to him, their expressions desperate. He inwardly cringed, expecting bad news for him.
"Kurosaki!"
He replied monotonously, "What do you want?"
"Can you wear the costume one more time? We're about to take a class photo!"
"It would be awesome if Chappy could be in it!"
He gripped his temples in aggravation, "I already said-"His words were cut off when another girl rushed over, "Hey guys, Kuchiki dressed up as Chappy!"
AN: had to beat myself up to resume the story. Sorry about how late it is, I bet no one even remembers the story content but I didn't want to dish out a half assed chapter before at least writing up some of the next chapter. Expect an update in a couple of weeks at the very least because finals are kicking my ass. But I should be able to get more consistent (hopefully) in updating during break!