Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

Please... enjoy!

Ring Ring!!

"Ugh, who could that be?" Toshiro groaned as he got out of his chair to answer the telephone that was on the drawer on the other side of his bedroom. When he checked the caller ID to see who it was, his heart sank in anxiousness and fear and he slowly picked up the phone.

"H-Hello?" Toshiro said in a low whisper.

"Toshiro-kun?" the voice replied. "It's me, Momo."

"What is it?"

"It's your grandmother." Momo replied. "Her condition isn't getting any better."

Toshiro's face began to weaken and his stomach sank lower when he heard this.

"A-Are you sure?"

"... Yeah. In fact, the doctors said that it's getting worse." Momo replied in a soft whisper.

Toshiro could feel his stomach tie itself into knots. He could deal with this. Not now.

"So you called me in the middle of the night just to tell me this?!" Toshiro's voice began to rise in anger and frustration. "I don't want to hear it!"

"Stop running away, Toshiro-kun! You can't keep hiding from the fact that she's-" An angry slam of the phone curtailed what Momo was trying to say. Toshiro brushed his hands passed his white hair and rubbed his temples in frustration. He could feel the tears stinging his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall. Despite this, he could feel his breaths coming up short and jagged as he put his hand on his chest in an attempt to calm himself down.

He looked over to his desk. Before Momo had called, he was finishing the newspaper project that he and Ken'Ichi had been partnered together to do. He walked over slowly over to the desk and picked up Ken'Ichi's articles. For their project, they were supposed to have made a newspaper that contained five fictitious articles. The two boys agreed that while Toshiro layed out the design of the newspaper, Ken'Ichi would come up with the articles. After that was done, Toshiro would've have pasted the articles into the newspaper and turn it into their teacher.

Toshiro picked up Ken'Ichi's articles and skimmed through each of them.

Suddenly, Toshiro angrily ripped the small stack of papers to shreds, tearing the paper and turning it to the side only to tear it again, grunting madly with each tear while throwing some pieces on the ground and on his desk. He continued this pattern until the pieces became too small to rip. Breathing heavily and slightly panicky, Toshiro sat down on the edge of his bed and stared at the ripped up articles scattered all over the floor and on his desk.

"Oh god, what have I done? It's due tomorrow." Toshiro said as he buried his face in his hands. How was he going to explain this to Ken'Ichi?

"Okay, and last but not least, Hitsugaya and Kurosaki-Sado." Amegai said as he held out the graded newspaper project. Toshiro quickly got up to take the project but Ken'Ichi had already beat him to the front desk. Toshiro sighed anxiously, hoping that Ken'Ichi wouldn't open the newspaper and would just be satisfied with just seeing the grade.

"Toshiro, we got an 'A'!" Ken'Ichi said to the white-haired boy as he help up the newspaper that had the "A" grade that was on the upper right corner of the newspaper in red ink.

"Great, now just give it-" Toshiro's voice trailed off when he saw Ken'Ichi open the article to look inside. He knew he was too late when he saw Ken'Ichi's face gradually weaken in confusion with each turn of a page. When he reached the end of the article, Ken'Ichi looked over to Toshiro with a confused and slightly angry look.

"Toshiro, what happened to my articles?" said Ken'Ichi. The bell rang seconds later, with each student running out the door. Toshiro and Ken'Ichi stood exactly in place, unfazed by the stampede of students and Amegai rushing to go home.

"What happened to my articles, Hitsugaya?" Ken'Ichi said with his voice increasing slightly with anger.

Toshiro chuckled nervously. "I, uh, I didn't put them in."

"Why not?"

Toshiro sighed. He didn't want to tell Ken'Ichi that he tore them up in rage and he definitely couldn't tell him why. There was no way he would understand. He had to come up with something and quick.

"They reeked with grammar and puncuation mistakes. Guess I didn't feel like sending it in."

Ken'Ichi looked at the boy with disbelief. "So, you couldn't have at least told me before hand that you were going to do something like this?"

"Well, journalism is about telling the truth. And the truth is... your articles suck."

Ken'Ichi shot the boy an angry glare but was countered with Toshiro's scowl.

"I don't see why you're getting so emotional. We got an 'A'." Toshiro pointed out.

"And it would've been an "A+" if you had at took my stuff into consideration!"

"I did take it into consideration, and I considered it crap!"

Toshiro knew he went to far, attacking Ken'Ichi for no reason. But as long as he had his private life hidden, he didn't care. Ken'Ichi looked at the boy with slight disgust.

"Why are you being this way?" Ken'Ichi said in a mix of confusion and anger. "If you didn't wanna work with me, fine, but the how could you not even warn me!"

Toshiro sucked his teeth. "You don't get that it was pathetic, do you?"

"The only thing I don't get is why I thought you and me could ever cooperate." Ken'Ichi crumbled their newspaper project and threw it on the floor.

"Stuck-up asswipe! My friends were so right about you!" Ken'Ichi shouted as he took off for the door. Toshiro sighed heavily. He didn't mean any of the things he had just said. What were they even fighting for? It was stupid to fight over something so dumb.

"Ken'Ichi wait!" Toshiro shouted but Ken'Ichi had already slammed the door shut behind him.

Toshiro rubbed his forehead as he slumped back down in a nearly chair in the empty classroom, feeling a headache coming on.

"Nice going, Toshiro." the white-haired boy muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"Kurosaki-kun!" said Hachigen Ushoda. "I'm so glad you could make it."

He and Ichigo shook hands as Ichigo pulled out a chair from underneath the round table and sat down. Sitting next to Ichigo were three more of Minoru's teachers: Kaname Tosen, Shinji Hirako, and Love Aikawa.

"Ushoda-san, so what seems to be the problem with Minoru?"

The round man nodded at his fellow peers who in turn, nodded back at him. "We called this parent-teacher meeting because we're worried about your son."

"Humph, that's an understatement." muttered Shinji.

"His behavior has been very troubling for the past few months." added Love Aikawa.

Ichigo let out an annoyed exhale and rubbed his head in frustration. But then again, it wasn't really all that surprising for Ichigo. If Minoru was acting up at home, what made Ichigo think that school wouldn't be an exception? "Exactly how bad has his behavior been?"

"His grades are falling drastically." Hachi replied. "His highest grade right now is a 'C'. It's getting so bad that if he doesn't pull up his grades, he might get held back."

"Not only that, He has cut class 10 times in the last two months, received 7 detentions in the last three weeks, and has gotten into 2 fights this past week alone." said Tosen.

Ichigo sat in his chair and continued to listen to the things Minoru had done. A good two minutes went by and they were still venting about Minoru.

"He has been caught stealing from the vending machines and vandalizing school property." added Love.

"He has been shrewdly disrespectful, rude, obnoxious, condescending, and misbehaving. In fact earlier today, when he was talking in the middle of my lesson, I told him to be quiet and he called me the 'C' word and walked out." Shinji Hirako.

"Minoru had always been such a good student. Then something just changed." Hachi continued. "He have sat him down and tried to talk to him on multiple occasions, but he simply refused to tell us what the problem was. We've sent him to counselors and everything."

Ichigo shifted in his chair uncomfortably and smiled a sheepish grin. They all probably thought that it was all Ichigo's fault for Minoru's problems, and honestly, they weren't that far off. With Chad leaving the way he did and Grimmjow coming in the way he did, of course it would have a negative effect on him. Ichigo felt bad for not talking to Minoru about this.

"We didn't want to come to this conclusion without your knowledge, but if his misbehavior continues like this, we'll have to take disciplinary actions." Hachi said.

"What he means is that we'll expel if he doesn't clean up his act." Tosen corrected.

Ichigo's stomach sank into itself when he heard the word "expel". Minoru's behavior had gotten thatout of control. He couldn't believe he had let his son act up like this and not even try to see if he had brought this outside of their home. Now, his son was faced with the possibility if expulsion, and he felt like it was his fault. He had to explain Minoru's behavior situation to his teachers.

"I guess this is my fault." Ichigo sheepishly remarked. "You see, me and my partner, Yasutora Sado, seperated a year ago and Minoru's been-"

Shinji nearly jumped out of his seat and pointed his finger at Ichigo. "A-ha! I knew it! So this does all trace back to the family!"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly does that mean?"

"It makes perfect sense now." Shinji said. "With his other father gone, Minoru has been acting up for attention because he feels neglected by the rest of the family, including you."

"What? N-No! That's not entirely-" Ichigo pleaded.

"Not entirely true? Kurosaki-kun, did you know I caught Minoru with a lighter on school grounds the other day?" Love asked.

"... No I didn't, but I see the school is still standing." Kurosaki replied.

"Everyone please.." Hachi pleaded but he was ignored as the three men continued.

"And what about the time he stole my wallet and spent nearly 400 yen?!" Shinji's voice was starting to rise.

"Or when he mooned the superintenient last month?" Tosen added.

"Everyone...!" Hachi pleaded.

Ichigo crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair, looking slightly offended. "Look I know Minoru is no angel, but I am doing my best."

"Well your best clearly isn't good enough, Kurosaki-kun." Tosen remarked. "I'm sure your son is a handful."

Ichigo scowled at Tosen and gave him a offended look. "I can take care my son, Tosen-san."

Shinji chuckled. "Well maybe if you and Sado-kun were still together-"

"Shinji-kun!" Hachi said in a disbelieving tone. Ichigo simply stared at the blonde man with disgust.

"What? He's just being honest." Tosen defended. "In fact, if Minoru had an actual mother and a proper family in his life-"

Tosen!" Hachi said in a disbelieving tone.

"He has a point." Love added. "Minoru could benefit greatly from having a motherly figure around him instead of constantly being around gay men."

It took Ichigo every last ounce of control to not get up and punch all three of Minoru's teachers. He couldn't believe that he actually sat in that chair and listen to these men turn the table on him. Ichigo wasn't a perfect parent and he knew that; but his sexuality and the men he dated had nothing to do with what was going on with Minoru. The strawberry-blonde looked at the three men with a dirty, digusted, and offended look. He couldn't bear to listen to one more word of what these people had to say.

"Kurosaki-san, I apologize sincerly." Hachi said. "Let me-"

"It was very nice to meet you." Ichigo spat in gritted teeth, cutting off the round purple-haired man. Without another word, he got up and made for the door.

Issues at home aren't really getting any better. That and schoolwork. Please R&R and chapter 5 will be up soon.