Wow, I'm a little surprised at the response this story's already gotten. Thanks for the support everyone, and read on! Yeah, I know Maka's getting a bit too comfortable with Soul already, but the story's not going to be long, and I still wanted to capture their meeting. Plus, I wanted it to be one of those from-the-start type things. Oh, and I want to make something clear later in the story; Crona is a guy.

I was dreading going to school in the morning. Death only knew how many people Soul would have told about last night.

Stupid papa, I sighed mentally, getting ready to leave.

"Maka!" came a cry from down the hall.

Damnit, he'd woken up.

A tall, gangly, red-haired fiend came barreling down the hall, nearly tackling me to the ground. As it was, he crushed me so hard to his chest that I couldn't breathe.

"Maka! Papa loves you!" he wailed, clutching me to him. "Papa loves you! Papa's sorry! Don't be mad!"

In the next instant, he was twitching on the ground, a hard cover Harry Potter book lodged in his head. I always kept a book handy for self-defense. They were great weapons. I frowned and read the cover. Ah, it was The Deathly Hallows. Yeah, that was the largest one out of them, I think.

"It's gonna take a lot more than sorry for me not to be mad at you, womanizer," I spat, throwing my bag over my shoulder. "You just won't stop, and I'm damn glad that I'll be gone in less than a year."

He twitched again, and I spun on my heel and stomped out the door. My bus stop was just down the street, and it didn't take long for me to walk there. My stomach was churning, prepared to face the scorn of an entire high school where any problem at home eventually turned into a problem there as well. I knew I would never hear the end of it from the popular ring leaders, and even the math geeks would probably be jumping at the chance for someone else to torment. Oh, well, may as well stand up and face it. No problem was ever solved by running away.

The bus pulled up and I climbed on, bracing myself for a flurry of mocking voices. But none came. The chatter on the bus didn't pause when I flung myself into the front seat. Huh. Had Soul not told anyone yet?

I wanted to smack myself.

Duh, of course he hadn't told anybody yet! It was past midnight last night when he found out. Without a doubt, the school would know by the end of the day though. I slumped down against my seat, so not looking forward to the day.

I hadn't realized how many of my classes Soul was in. We had seven class periods a day, plus homeroom as the eighth. He was in my Human Resources class, my History of the Arts class, English, and Homeroom. First, fourth, seventh and eighth.

I walked into my first period classroom, not looking around as per usual, and took my seat in the exact center of the class, reaching into my bag for a notebook and a pencil. When I finally looked around the class to get some clue as to what we might be doing today, my chest squeezed. Scarlet eyes were trained on me from the back corner of the room. Heat crept up my neck, and I turned away quickly. I'd never noticed him in class before.

For the rest of the period, I was tense and anxious, just waiting to receive a disdainful note or for someone to drop a not-so-subtle hint about dysfunctional families that fell apart because of a slutty parent. But, none of that happened, and I hurried from the room when the bell rang, confused but slightly relieved.

By fourth period, I'd started to relax. Not one person had said anything to me about my father, not one person had made fun of me. Nothing. I got the same level of attention from the populars that I always did—which was to say, none—and the math geeks, who happened to be my friends, kept laying on their weak jokes and talking about Pythagorean triples and pi.

In History of the Arts, there was no seating chart, but I sat in the same place every day; one row up from the back, against a wall right by a window. It was a good spot. I could watch birds flying by, I got to enjoy a warm breeze, and the smell of summer blossoms would drift in and fill my nose. The person that usually sat behind me was a girl of average height, with shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair that was almost pink. I think her name was Kim. Sometimes, if the lecture got too boring, we would pass notes back and forth, but I was usually riveted on the subject. It was interesting, in my opinion, to know where Calypso music started, or how people first made paintings or what the first material for sculptures was.

Kim wasn't there yet, but that didn't worry me. She was almost always late. I contented myself with looking out the window until the bell rang, watching hawks glide through the sky. A slight rustling sound in Kim's desk alerted me that she was there. I was impressed. She'd actually gotten here before the bell rang. More often than not she would be hanging with her boyfriend Ox Ford right up until the bell.

I smiled as Ms Marie came in, scribbling furiously on a clipboard. She was by far my favorite teacher. She was very funny, and a bit scatter-brained. She was a true romantic, and it wasn't hard to distract her in class. But she was really sweet, and she would always try to make time for any of her students if they needed help on something. A lot of girls went to her for advice on relationships, which I thought was hilarious, because she was nothing if not overwhelming to most guys that she dated. You'd have to be mad to be able to handle her.

"Alright, role," she called to the class. She was the only teacher to take role, because the rest took attendance based on who was in their assigned seats. "Maka Albarn?"

"Present!" I called from my seat.

Ms Marie smiled at me and put a mark on the clipboard, probably by my name. I looked back out the window, until a name caught my attention. Or, more accurately, the lack of answer from the name.

"Kim Diehl?" Ms Marie said. No answer. "No Kim?"

Ms Marie sighed.

"Probably late again. Oh, well. Alright, is Soul Evans present?"

I stiffened.

"I'm here."

It came from right behind me. It took all my willpower not to spin around and stare at him, or else leap to my feet and switch seats. But, that would be an elementary response, and I was not so immature. So I sat where I was, hands fisted in my lap, so tense that a single blow may have shattered me.

When Ms Marie finished taking attendance, she set the clipboard on her desk and smiled warmly at the class.

"Alright, class, today we'll be studying dance. More accurately, we will be dancing."

I rolled my eyes.

"Ms Marie, you forgot your lesson plan at home again, didn't you?" I asked with a grin. She only did these kind of lessons when she didn't have a real one planned out.

"Of course not!" Ms Marie huffed in mock indignation. Then she chuckled. "Well, alright, maybe I did. Regardless, we're dancing today, and you'll be graded on participation. If you kids would, could you push all the desks to the side? We need room."

Obediently we all rose and, with a loud scraping of chairs, dragged the desks out from the center of the room. When the center was clear, we all milled about, unsure what to do next.

"Alright, ladies, line up on one side, and guys, line up on the other."

There was a mad scramble as students tried to figure out which direction each gender was supposed to be going. There were a few collisions, but luckily everyone in my class had pretty thick skulls, so there was no permanent damage, clearly. Eventually, though, the guys were lined up on the left side of the class room, and the girls were at attention across from them.

"Okay, I'll read off your partners. If you want to trade your partner with someone else, just make sure everyone's okay with it, and don't do it when I can hear. I'm not supposed to condone that kind of thing as a teacher, but I think it's better that you dance with someone that you don't fantasize about killing. Maybe that's just me." The class laughed at Ms Marie.

She closed her eyes and put a finger randomly on her role sheet. She opened her eyes to look at it, then scanned the row of girls.

"Jackie, you are with…" She pointed to another name, supposedly without looking. "Harvar."

I barely refrained from snorting in amusement, because that matchup was most certainly not random. Anybody could tell how those two were clearly hot for each other. Ms Marie was trying to play match maker again.

"Hiro, you're with Sara. Crona, you are with Kim—oops, she's not he—"

"I'm here! I'm here!" shouted a voice, and Kim hurried into the room. "Sorry I'm late!"

Marie sighed.

"Kim, stay after class. But for now, Crona will be your dance partner."

Kim raised an eyebrow.

"Forget your lesson plan, Ms Marie?"

Marie flushed, and her eyes sparked. We all recognized that look, and cowered away from the teacher. Kim bowed her head and hurried to put her things on an empty desk before standing beside Crona. Marie went through several more pairs, then paused to check who hadn't been called. She glanced up, raised both of her gold brows at someone in the guys' line, and unsuccessfully tried to contain a smile. She looked back down at the list of names, and the sudden offhandedness of her tone made me sure that she was up to something.

"Soul, you will be with…" I locked my jaw. "Maka."

I pressed my lips together and threw a look around. Sure enough, in the direction Marie had looked, a pale-haired boy was watching me with intense scarlet eyes.

I barely bit back a curse as Marie told us to get with our partners. Why, oh why, did she have to partner me with him?

"Hey Maka," Soul said, approaching me.

"Hi," I answered stiffly. Quickly I looked around; Ms Marie had pulled Kim aside and was talking to her.

"You gonna tell me what happened last night?" he asked in a low voice.

"You already know what happened." Equally soft. "You gonna tell me why you haven't told anyone?"

He looked shocked by my question.

"Why in Death's name would I do that?"

"Because it's a piece of gossip. Most people here would love to send something like that around."

He smirked.

"Well, I think it's safe to say that I'm not most people. I would never go around talking about something like that. That wouldn't be very cool at all, would it?"

"No," I answered quietly. "I guess not."

I looked him over, head to toe. Soul certainly was different, with his pale hair and red eyes and weird teeth. But it was more than that. He seemed almost decent, and I could believe that he might actually respect other people's privacy. When I met his eyes again, he was grinning impishly.

"See something you like?"

I couldn't help but giggle as he repeated the line I'd fed him at Liz's party.

"I'm not sure yet."

Soul chuckled.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to work on that."

"Alright class, line up with the men on the left and ladies on the right. Guys, put your right hand on the back of their shoulder blade, and hold your left hand out, palm facing up."

Soul followed these instructions without hesitation.

"Hey Maka?" he said, laughter still in his voice.

"Yeah?"

"Wanna dance?"

"Sure," I laughed. "Why not?"