Disclaimer : Nope, still don't own Gakuen Alice. Nor do I own the subtle Hunger Games reference, haha.

A/N : Thanks for all the reviews/alerts/favorites! Y'all are the best! :)

VI

The next morning, I was woken up by an earthquake.

Well, not an earthquake per say—it was just my phone on vibrate. Normally when I sleep, I put my phone on the small bedside table. However last night, I had been too lazy to stretch over and place my phone on the table, and had just shoved it under my pillow. And when my phone vibrated, indicating that someone was calling me, I honestly thought there was a flippin' earthquake going on because it felt like my entire bed was shaking. But obviously, there wasn't an earthquake going on. It was just my dumb phone.

Groaning into my blanket, I reached under my pillow and accepted the call. It was from Yura.

What a way to start the morning.

"Hello?" I groggily said into the phone.

"I've been ringing your doorbell for the past 5 minutes," Yura sounded irritated and rather impatient, "I have the keys for the locked room with me, open your door so I can unlock that room for Hyuuga."

"Yeah, coming." I grumbled into the phone. I carelessly threw the device onto my bed, stretched my limbs and then headed to the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth. As much as Yura annoyed me, I didn't want her to face the wrath of my morning breathe. Unlike her, I'm not a sadist. After brushing my teeth, I slipped out of the bathroom and walked over to the foyer, to open the front door.

"About time," Yura muttered as she walked in. She eyed my attire which consisted of my pajama shorts and a baggy t-shirt. "Just woke up?"

I nodded, still quite not awake.

Yura merely snickered before she headed towards the locked room. She pulled out a key from her pocket and unlocked the door. "There," she pushed the door open. I peered inside the room. It was stark empty, save for some blue curtains on the windows. But it was bigger than my room. I frowned. Hadn't she said that my room was the bigger one when I had been moving in? "Wasn't my room supposed to be the bigger one?" I asked her.

Yura shrugged. "I don't remember," she said, inspecting the newly unlocked room. "It's a bit dusty in here," she observed, her eyes had landed on the window pane. My eyes followed her gaze towards the window pane. It actually was rather dusty. "Just tell Hyuuga to clean this room up before he brings his stuff in, ok?"

"Yeah, sure. What time is he supposed to be moving in?"

Yura checked the time on her phone before answering, "In an hour," she told me, making her way to the front door, "I've already given him the key to the apartment."

I nodded. So this was actually happening then. My TA and I were going to be living together…ugh. "Okay, good to know." But it wasn't good at all though— it was horrible.

With a curt nod, Yura left my apartment. I shut the door behind her and sighed. I took a minute to look around my apartment. Everything looked so nice and Hyuuga-free. This was my last hour of having the apartment to myself, I realized with a twinge of remorse. In exactly an hour, Hyuuga was going to move in and infest my apartment with his presence. Sighing to myself, I decided to take a quick shower before he arrived. In 20 minutes, I was done with my shower and had already put on my outfit for the day. I decided on wearing skinny jeans with my University hoodie. Letting my hair dry naturally, I headed towards the kitchen and opened the fridge. I was in the mood for eggs, so I took out two eggs. Just as I was about to crack open the eggs and pour it on the frying pan, I heard the front doorknob turn.

Since the kitchen was just opposite the front door, I could see who had entered. I frowned slightly when I realized who it was.

It was Hyuuga.

I was hoping that he'd bump his head and get amnesia or something so that he'd forget that he was supposed to move in today, but I guess that's just too much to ask for.

He was holding a Starbucks paper bag in his right hand and a coffee in the other. He nodded when he saw me and then put the coffee and Starbucks bag on the small dining table, in front of the kitchen.

"I got your coffee and some blueberry muffins," he informed me, his voice crisp.

"Is it an Espresso?" I asked, my eggs momentarily forgotten.

He nodded. "I wouldn't make the same mistake twice," he dryly said.

I snickered. Damn right he wouldn't. "I didn't ask you to get the muffins," I told him as I walked over to the table and peeped inside the bag.

The muffins smelled good and looked amazing.

Yum.

"You know," he smoothly interjected, "a simple 'thank you' would suffice."

I couldn't help the traitorous grin that appeared. Who knew that Hyuuga could be decent? "Well thank you, Hyuuga," I took a blueberry muffin from the bag and bit into it. Just like I had predicted, it was delicious. "Where's your stuff?" I asked after I finished chewing, noticing that he hadn't brought anything else with him.

"It's downstairs with Ruka. I'm going to go get it now," he started to walk towards the front door. "Keep the front door open, I'm going to bring my stuff in," he instructed, and then he was out of the door and into the hallway.

Nodding, I pulled out a chair and slid into it while I took another bite of the muffin. All too soon, I had devoured the entire muffin. I grabbed the Espresso and took a swig.

It was bitter.

Exactly how I like it.

By the time I had almost finished my second muffin and half of my Espresso, Hyuuga and Ruka stumbled through the front door, carrying a single sized bed.

Both of them were panting. "I'm never going to carry something that heavy up 7 flight of stairs ever again," Ruka wheezed.

Hyuuga looked around the apartment, obviously in search of his room. Once he spotted the open, empty room, he slowly walked backwards to it, with Ruka trailing behind him. Hyuuga then set the bed onto the ground, Ruka did the same. "Let's go get the rest of my stuff," Hyuuga was already out of the front door. Ruka groaned.

I chuckled. "Hi Ruka!"

Ruka looked a bit startled, probably forgetting that I lived here too. "Oh hey Sakura," he gave me a brilliant smile (Why had Hotaru claimed that she wasn't dating this boy again? He was just so adorable!) "I didn't see you there."

"Well, I do live here."

He chuckled. "Of course."

"Ruka!" Hyuuga bellowed from the hallway, "Are you coming or not?"

Ruka sighed, "I guess that's my cue to go," he flashed me another grin, showing off his pearl white teeth, "I'll be right back."

With a wave, he too disappeared into the hallway. For the next half hour, Hyuuga and Ruka kept coming and going, each time bringing more and more boxes with them. I had offered to help, but Hyuuga and Ruka both insisted that the two of them could handle it.

Pftt.

Boys.

"Well this is it, the last box," Ruka said as he placed the last box into the room. The room was now full of brown boxes, a bed, a study desk, a bean bag and an office chair. "There's some dust on the window pane," Ruka observed.

"Oh yeah," I chimed in, remembering what Yura had told me, "Yura wants Hyuuga to clean it."

Hyuuga grunted and then proceeded to collapse onto the beanbag. Since the beanbag was huge, it immediately engulfed him. I snickered at the sight. Hyuuga looked so…small right now. It was funny.

"Well," Ruka started to say, looking around the room once more, "looks like my work here is done. I need to meet Imai for lunch, so I'll be off."

"You mean your girlfriend?"

Hyuuga snickered at my statement.

Ruka shot Hyuuga a quick glare before he grimaced and rubbed his neck. "Yeah..well not yet," Ruka muttered, kind of dejectedly. "But she will be..soon."

I grinned at that. "I'm rooting for the two of you!"

Ruka laughed and mumbled something incoherent under his breathe. "Thanks Sakura, but I'll be leaving now," he then pointedly looked at Hyuuga and then me. "Try not to kill each other once I'm gone, yeah?"

I scoffed, "Let's see how that goes," I mumbled as I followed him to the front door. "See you, Ruka!" I waved.

Ruka smiled, "See you, Mikan," then he leaned over my shoulder, "Oi Natsume! I'll come over sometime tomorrow!" he hollered at Natsume, who was still in his room, sitting on the bean bag.

There was a muffled grunt in response. Ruka just chuckled, "Later," he said and then he was off.

I closed the door behind him. It was just me and Hyuuga in the apartment now.

Alone.

Repressing the urge to shudder, I walked over to the living room, and plopped down on the couch. I picked up the TV remote which was just beside me, and switched on the TV. Lazily, I flipped through the channels and stopped when I saw that 'John Tucker Must Die' was playing. I grinned, I loved that movie! Stretching my legs out in front of me, I watched the current scene. As I was watching the movie, the seat beside me shifted, indicating that someone had just sat there.

"What are you watching?" Hyuuga asked, his tone mildly bored.

"A movie," I muttered, completely engrossed with the screen in front of me.

I heard him snort, and then from the corner of my eyes, I saw him place his shoe clad feet onto the wooden table, which was right in front of the sofa we both were currently sitting on. Immediately my eyes snapped to him.

"Get your feet off the table!" I exclaimed, pointing to the offending body parts.

He gave me questioning look. "Why?"

"Because tables are not meant for putting your feet on!" I hissed, "Plus, you're wearing your shoes!"

He rolled his crimson eyes at me. "It's just a wooden table, chill."

"Chill?" I repeated, glaring at him now, "I will not chill! Tables are meant for putting stuff like that!" I pointed to my favorite flower vase. It was a glass vase with an abstract design etched on the glass. I had purchased the vase from the Murano Glass factory the time I went to Italy (for an exchange-student program in high-school). There weren't any flowers in the vase though since I had recently thrown away the roses that were in it.

"I think the vase and I can share the table," Hyuuga had the audacity to say.

I gaped at him. Share the table!? He wanted his dirty shoes to share the table with my abstract designed, Murano glass vase from Italy?! Just who the hell did the boy think he was?

"Hell no!" I snapped furiously. "Get your feet off the table!" I tried to push his feet off, but they didn't budge. Damn, he was strong. "Get them off!" I screeched, still trying to push his feet.

He seemed to find this entire situation very amusing. "Go on," he prodded, taunting me because he knew that he was stronger, "Let's see if you can push my feet off the table."

I hissed in frustration but continued to push his feet. Using both of my hands, I shoved with all of my might. His feet, which were firmly planted on the table, lost balance, and then fell off the table.

"Aha!" I exclaimed, proud that I had accomplished the task. But before I could even bask in my newly obtained glory, he put his feet right back up on the table again. And this time, he pushed my hands away with his feet. This action caught me off guard and my hands sprawled across the table and hit my glass vase. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, my Murano glass vase toppled over the table and fell onto the wooden floor.

And shattered. Into a million tiny pieces.

I stared at the scene before me in utter shock.

"Wow, look what you did."

Now that's when I really snapped. "I did this?!" I bellowed, my voice rising an octave higher with each word. "This is all your fault! If you had listened to me, and taken your stupid feet off the table, then this wouldn't have happened!"

Hyuuga didn't look scared at my outburst or anything, in fact he just looked even more disinterested and slightly annoyed. "You shouldn't have pushed my feet," he shrugged.

"You shouldn't have put your feet on the table in the first place!"

"The table is just made out of wood."

"It's mahogany!" My voice came out as a shrill screech. "And you destroyed my Murano glass vase! That was the only souvenir I got from Italy! And now it's shattered into a billion pieces!"

"You only got one souvenir from Italy?"

"Yes but—"

"Who the hell gets just one souvenir from Italy? That's so—"

"—that's not even the point here! The point is that you didn't listen to me! And now my most favorite vase is br—"

"— lame. Why would someone just get a weirdly colored vase—"

"It's called abstract, you moron! And it's Murano glass!"

Obviously those two words didn't mean shit to him because he simply shrugged once more and leaned over to see the mess. He let out a low whistle when he saw the shattered vase on the floor. "That's quite a mess," he was still looking at the shattered vase. Then he turned to look at me. "Aren't you going to clean it?"

My left eye twitched.

This boy had some nerve.

"You are so unbelievable!" I hissed, absolutely raging now. Before Hyuuga could even open his mouth to say anything, I had already grabbed both of his feet, pulled his shoes and socks off and threw it where the shattered vase was. "There!" I all but yelled, "Now when you try to get your precious shoes, I hope pieces of my Murano glass vase pokes your stupid, smelly feet!" And with that, I angrily got off from the sofa, marched over to the dining table, grabbed the bag of muffins and headed out of the front door, banging it shut.

I didn't even know where I was going. I was just so fucking mad. He hadn't even moved in for more than an hour yet and he had already managed to break my vase! Gritting my teeth, and clutching the Starbucks bag in my hand, I stomped down the stairs, not even bothering to wait for the elevator. Right now I needed to get as far away as possible from that damn Hyuuga. Mutter profanities under my breathe, I shoved the entrance door to the apartment building open and walked outside of the building. A cold breeze blew and I shivered. In my rage, I had forgotten to wear my coat. I was only wearing my hoodie and since it was quite windy outside, it wasn't enough. However, I continued walking because I sure as hell did not want to go back to the apartment and see his stupid, smug face. Pretty soon, I found myself sitting at a park bench, eating my blueberry muffins while I thought of all the ways I could kill Hyuuga and make it seem like an accident.

Natsume Hyuuga must die.

That's how Anna found me. Eating blueberry muffins on a park bench, with a murderous look etched on my face. Quite I sight, I must say.

"Mikan?"

Mid-bite, I looked up to see Anna with another girl beside her. The other girl had bluish-black hair which contrasted with Anna's bright pink hair. The two were looking at me curiously.

"Oh, hey Anna," I quickly swallowed the remaining muffin. I held out the bag of muffins to the two of them, "Do you both want any?" I offered.

"No thank you!" Anna said while her friend just politely shook her head. "This is my friend from high school, Nonoko!" Anna chirped, indicating to her friend. The two of them then sat down next to me on the park bench.

I smiled at Nonoko. "Hi," I stretched out my hand, "I'm Mikan! I'm Anna's friend from work."

Nonoko shook my hand and smiled. "Nice to meet you!"

"So, is there any reason why you looked as if you were plotting someone's murder while you were ravishing that muffin?" Anna asked cheekily, as she nodded towards the half-eaten muffin in my other hand.

I widened my eyes a bit in surprise. Was I that obvious? I gave Anna a sheepish smile, "Actually yeah, Hyuuga moved in today and we got into an argument."

Anna nodded understandingly. "I'm assuming that's Red-eyed-Starbucks-boy's name?" she asked.

I nodded. I had forgotten that I hadn't told her the idiot's real name.

Nonoko giggled at that. "Red-eyed-Starbucks-boy?" she inquired.

Anna smirked. "Yeah, Mikan here has been having a rather interesting week," she threw her arms lazily over my shoulder.

I groaned. "Interesting week? More like traumatizing," I told her. With my consent, Anna proceeded to tell Nonoko about mine and Red-eyed-Starbucks-boy habit of pouring beverages on each other.

"So then on Mikan's first day at work, guess who shows up!" Anna was saying.

Nonoko widened her eyes. "Red-eyed-Starbucks-boy?"

Anna nodded, excitedly. I really don't understand why she got excited at this part, because the end of this story didn't fare well for me..

"Yes! And then Mikan refused to give him his taco; she did the exact same thing he did to her at Starbucks! But then, he also pulled the same trick as Mikan and poured his ice cold Sprite over her!"

Nonoko's eyes widened. "Wow," she breathed, "Nothing that exciting ever happens to me at work!" she complained. "The only remotely entertaining thing that happened was when these two dudes at the drive-thru tried to order two Tacos from us," she shook her head, obviously not amused by their tactics "They were obviously trolling. I mean, who even orders tacos from McDonald's?"

"Wait," I slowly said, looking at Anna. "Didn't that happen to us too? Only they ordered Big Macs instead."

Anna slowly nodded. "Yeah, it did! That was so weird."

"Really?" Nonoko asked.

Anna and I nodded.

"That's strange," Nonoko murmured. "I wonder if it's the same two guys."

Anna shrugged. "Who knows? It's not like we'll ever meet them again."

"Yeah," I agreed. "You'll probably never meet them ever again. For all we know, they could be halfway across the world by now."

Nonoko laughed. "Yeah, both of you are right," she said, "So, what happened after Red-eyed-Starbucks-boy poured sprite on you?"

"I almost got a cold," I told her, quite seriously.

"He now shares an apartment with her," Anna cackled. She seemed to be enjoying telling Nonoko my rather sad life story a bit too much.

Nonoko eyes were as wide as saucers now. "You're kidding!"

I shook my head. "I wish I were, but I'm not."

"And he also happens to be her calculus TA," Anna piped in.

I let out a sigh.

Yeah, Anna was definitely having way too much fun with all of this. I don't even blame her though. If this were happening to anyone other than me, I'd probably be finding the entire situation hilarious as well.

Nonoko looked absolutely scandalized. "Are you sure she's not joking?" she asked me, hopefully.

"No," I sighed. "I now share an apartment with my rude, annoying, calculus TA."

Nonoko let out a low whistle. "Girl, your life could be a reality show!"

I groaned while Anna laughed. "Don't tell me about it," I mumbled as I covered my face with my hands.

I could feel Anna moving to get up from the bench. "Nonoko and I are heading to the mall right now. Want to come?"

I lifted my head from my hands. The offer was very tempting….but I had to work on my Extended Essay and had to study for Calculus. I sighed. "As much as I'd love to go to the mall with you two, I think I should head back to my apartment. I've got a lot of work to do," I told Anna.

Anna nodded, "I understand!"

"The three of us should meet up for lunch sometime soon!" Nonoko added.

I smiled at the two of them. These girls were just so sweet! "Of course! How about sometime next week?" I asked.

"We'll let you know!" Anna said, pulling Nonoko up from the bench.

"That sounds good," I stood up too.

"It was nice meeting you, Mikan!" Nonoko beamed at me, giving me a quick hug.

"It was nice meeting you as well, Nonoko!"

"Alright, we'll see you later, Mikan," Anna gave me one last smile, before she linked her arms with Nonoko's. I smiled and waved at the two, and then started my walk back to my apartment.

It didn't take me long to walk back to my apartment. Before I knew it, I was already on my floor, pacing back and forth down the hallway. Although I was still mad at Hyuuga, I decided to act like an adult, and be civil to him. My outburst this morning was rather childish, and now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't have thrown his shoes like that. Taking a deep breath, and trying to remind myself to be civil, I reached for my keys inside my pocket.

But they weren't there nor was my phone.

Shit.

I had left my keys and phone inside.

Shaking my head at my own stupidity, I walked up to my door and knocked on it. I could hear the television from inside, indicating that Hyuuga was still in the apartment.

"Hyuuga?" I called out. "Are you there?"

There was now silence. He had either muted the TV or switched it off.

"I know you're there!" I banged on the door once again. "Let me inside!"

I heard muzzled voices from inside. He had switched on the TV again.

I scowled. What a bastard.

"Hyuuga!" I banged on the door even harder. "Let me in…please!"

The TV kept blaring on from inside.

I groaned. He was such a jerk.

I leaned my back against the door, and slid down so I was now sitting with my back against the door. I let out an agitated sigh.

Great. Now I was locked outside my own apartment without my phone and just had a bag of muffins (which was almost empty) with me.

Damn that Hyuuga.

~(*)~

Before anyone makes fun of Mikan for flipping out about a vase, I would just like to say that I happen to adore my Murano glass vase very much, and I would be extremely upset if someone managed to break it lol. And yeah, Natsume is a huge jerk, hahaha. But he did get Mikan her coffee and muffins though..

How many of you would be interested to read a chapter from Natsume's POV? Let me know! I might write an outtake from Natsume's POV once this entire story is done. If I do write a chapter from his perspective, I'll let you guys choose which scene/chapter :)

As always, thanks for reading!

-Carolle Royale

August 15th, 2015