Indigo's Corner
Ok, peeps. It's been exactly a month and fourteeth days since I updated this. I'm being a lazy bum and not updating lately, so yea...
And thank you xAvenging Angelx for stealing the 100th review. I have no idea how many times I said this so far, but you are truly my number one review abuser. Thanks to everyone else for reviewing. You have no idea how much I love you guys, =).

Note that I probably won't be updating this much since I've got about five projects going on at a time, not including school work. And on top of that, I'm a very lazy person.

Extra note to Pam: Sorry to keep you waiting, xD!

Disclaimer
Gakuen Alice still does not belong to me.


Grade 7
Valentine's Day

Student Body President Yuu Tobita's voice rang over the announcements. He may be the smart, but one thing was for sure, he wasn't a public speaker. Even without actually speaking in front of the whole school, he was stuttering and obviously very nervous.

"Um…" He fidgeted and a pause was heard when he looked down at the script. "Since it's almost the fourteenth of February, which you all know is V-Valentine's Day. Uh, we well be selling, um, c-candy grams in the cafeteria at lunch for f-fifty cents each. The money raised will go to charity. And, um, that concludes our announcements. Please stand for the singing of the national anthem."

The screeching of chairs was heard as students got up from their seats. One of them was Mikan Sakura, our lovely brunette. She gave a sigh.

"Poor Yuu, he never volunteered to do that in the first place."

Her best friend Hotaru, who sat beside her, gave an involuntary shrug as the students around them started singing. She was the only one that kept her mouth shut. Singing was never Hotaru Imai's forte, and she was sure that messing up the national anthem wasn't the best option to do when devil Jinno was your homeroom teacher. Shutting up was the best option for now.

Chairs screeched on the floor again as students sat down.

"Hotaru, Hotaru, are you getting me candy grams?"

She turned to see a huge smile plastered on Mikan's face. Her puppy dog eyes were already working their magic.

"If I give you one, that means I'd have to give everyone else one to be fair," she sighed. "Since I know about fifty people, that'd be wasting twenty-five dollars just to get you one candy gram."

"Please, please, please, please, please Hotaru! You'll my best friend for ever and ever! I'll do anything! Just please!"

Mikan repeated that phrase several times throughout the day, with a cuter pout and whinier voice each time.

"You're getting one," Hotaru finally commented flatly, admitting defeat, and joined the already long line in the cafeteria for candy grams.

"Yay!" the brunette exclaimed and wrapped her into a tight bear hug. When she let go, she was already calculating how much she would get from her friends. "So that's one from you. I know Ruka-pyon's getting me some, and Koko, and Permy. That's four… I don't know if Yura-chan and Kitsuneme are gonna buy any for me cause I hardly talk to them. Six, I guess. Oh! Nonoko and Anna for sure! Eight now. Maybe I could convince Iinchou to get me a few… And Natsume's getting me some for sure so I don't have to worry about him." She said that with a confident smile on her face.

"Yea, no. Sorry to disappoint you, Mikan, but Hyuuga's not getting anyone anything. I heard from reliable sources that he was broke."

"What?!" Mikan exclaimed vehemently, "He's not buying me any Candy grams?!?! He'd better!" Her eyes were shooting daggers at Natsume, silently chomping on his sandwich at the other end of the cafeteria beside Koko.

"You're not going to die, Mikan," Hotaru commented nonchalantly. "What's so good about candy anyway? Fifty cents is a rip off if you ask me. You can just get a lot more from the dollar store."

"But it tastes so much better when you receive it from a friend!" Mikan folded her arms and protested. "And part of the money goes to fundraising!"

The line shifted and both of them stepped up. Mikan peered at around the corner where the people turned. There were still about thirty students ahead of them.

"You know," scoffed Hotaru, "If the school trustees had one ounce of brain cells in their heads, they would have come up with much better ways to fundraise by now."

"Like?"

"Blackmail."

Mikan furrowed her brow. "Blackmail is illegal, Hotaru."

"Oh well."

"Hey guys, what's up?"

They perked up at the new, masculine voice that joined the conversation. The girls turned to see Koko and his constant smile. This time, though, he was smiling wider than usual and you could see his teeth.

"Huh? But you… There… How?" Mikan whizzed her head back and forth between Koko and the table he was just at.

"I walked over!"

"Five dollar fee if you bud in the line, just to tell you," Hotaru quickly announced, holding out her hand.

"Nah, it's ok," their friend refused politely.

"Hey, so what's up with Natsume?" Mikan demanded. "Why is he not getting me any candy grams? He usually gets me a lot of stuff, and he knows how much I love them!"

"Natsume's not doing anything this Valentine's Day," Koko told them, "Not even buying candy grams. He says that it's because he's broke from buying gum, but I personally think that he's just moody because it's Valentine's Day and he has an unrequited love." He winked at Hotaru.

Mikan gasped. "Who?"

"I… don't think that I'm allowed to tell…" Koko chose his words carefully. Very carefully.

"But I could help them get together!" she whined, jumping up and down.

"That'd be a bit hard to do if it were y- Ow!"

Hotaru struck him with her elbow and gave him a stern "you're giving away too much information" look.

"Anyway, tell him that he owes me," Mikan demanded, "And that I won't forgive him if he doesn't give me any this Valentine's."

"Alright, alright," Koko replied with a tint of annoyance and left them to go back to the table.


Ten people closer to the candy gram booth later, Koko came back with Natsume's message.

"He says no."

A vein popped in her head. "Well tell him that I'm not going to give him a Valentine's card then. I'll give one to everyone else, but not him." Her eyes flared. Fights over candy were dangerous if you had Mikan Sakura as your opponent.

So there Koko went and back he came.

"Well," he narrated, somehow pleased at Mikan's impatience, "after a long, long argument – er - pause. You see, Natsume usually argues with himself in his head but you can tell that he is because he always stares blankly at one thing and makes this incoherent sound. Sometimes you can even see confusion in his eyes. A lot of people say that they can't tell but it's actually quite-"

"On topic, Koko."

"Right. So as I was saying, after a long mental argument with himself," Koko smiled at Mikan's scowl, "Natsume finally decided that he's going to buy you one."

"One?" Her expression obviously showed that she wanted more.

With a sigh, Koko mumbled, "I'll go tell him to get you more then."

This time, he took his time, stopping to talk to several people on the way before he finally arrived at Natsume's table.

"She says one's not enough," he announced, hoping that it wouldn't earn him a glare from Natsume.

"Someone's greedy when it comes to candy," Sumire sipped her slushy and commented in an obnoxious tone. She gazed at Mikan and narrowed her eyes when she saw that Koko was watching her with one brow raised. "What? I'm rethinking whether I should get her one or not."

"Ten then," Natsume voiced gruffly, "Since I'm getting my allowance this week."

"She'll like that." Koko agreed.

Back he went to the two girls in line. They were actually quite close to the booth now, maybe only fifteen or so people ahead.

"He says ten. That should be enough for you right?"

She was surprised. "Ten? I was hoping that he'd get me five or so. I mean, ten is a bit expensive."

Koko folded his arms impatiently. "First you say it's not enough, and now you say it's too much. Geez, Mikan, what does it take for a poor guy to satisfy your needs?"

"No, actually, ten's fine. It's just that you said he was broke and ten costs five dollars…"

But Koko was already heading back, a devious plan in his head. Being a messenger was tiring when you had to send five word responses between two people over a long distance. He might as well make the most fun out of it.

"Well?" Natsume asked in a monotone that fooled all but Koko. "What'd she say?"

"Ten's not enough for her," Koko told him with a mischievous grin, "She wants twenty."

Natsume's jaw dropped and he gave Koko an "are you serious!?!?" look, at which Koko just smiled at. "Fifteen's the highest I'll go. No more, no less."

"Kay," he said and left the table. But this time, he didn't go to Mikan. Instead, he went straight to Kitsuneme."


"Ruka-pyon!" Two girls said in unison.

A shadow blocked the light that was shining on his lunch and he looked up to see Anna and Nonoko standing and smiling at him, a fork of spaghetti still in his mouth. Ruka swallowed, wiped his mouth with his napkin politely, and greeted them, "Hello Anna-chan, Nonoko-chan. What brings you here?"

"It's almost Valentine's Day!" Anna said.

"Almost Valentine's Day!" Nonoko echoed.

They were both smiling sweetly at him. Ruka knew that smile. It was the one that Hotaru always had on her face before she introduced him to one of her devious plans of selling his pictures for profit. He had to resist the urge to run out of the cafeteria this instant. The only reason Ruka stayed was because he didn't think of Anna and Nonoko as a threat. They were cute, innocent girls, not evil and dangerous like Hotaru.

That didn't stop him from the being nervous. "H-how may I help you two?"

"Valentine's Day is confession day!"

"And there's an angel at the candy gram booth that's waiting for you!"

Ruka glanced briefly at the candy gram booth. Hotaru and Mikan were talking with the student body president while filling out their slips of paper. Mikan paused and turned to ask Hotaru something, probably about someone's class. When she turned back, she caught eye contact with him and flashed a grin. Ruka felt the blood rush to his cheeks and immediately looked down.

When he looked up, Anna and Nonoko had the identical angelic smile on their faces again.

"What do you want?" he asked, desperate to be left alone.

"You've got a girl waiting for you!" they chorused, "So we're going to help you get her. Come on!"

Then they each locked their grip on one of his arms and dragged the unwilling Ruka out of the cafeteria.


The morning of February fourteenth, Jinno grumpily handed out candy grams to his students. Well, he actually got Kitsuneme to hand them out while he just sat there and grumbled about how Valentine's Day was useless and that the students were only in middle school and should concentrate on their studies and something that sounded like, "They should really save stuff like this until University or at least High School."

Fifteen anonymous candy grams mysteriously found their way to Mikan Sakura's desk. She blinked and looked at each one of them with the same amount of curiosity.

"Hotaru, who sent me these?" she asked in wonder.

"Obviously someone you know," she replied.

Mikan gasped. "Could it be that I have a secret admirer? Or maybe several secret admirers! Oh my god! I never thought that I was so popular!"

"You're not," Sumire commented dryly, a much bigger pile of candy sitting on her desk. "They're all from Natsume."

"Oh…" Somehow, Mikan managed to sound disappointed, but then she brightened up again. "Well he shouldn't have! I can't believe he actually spent…" – she paused for a moment to calculate - "seven dollars and fifty cents just to get me candy! I owe him so much for this!"

"You got that right!" Natsume called from across the classroom.

"Why're you here, Hyuuga?" Hotaru questioned icily. "Go back to your own glass."

"Chill, Imai," he replied, "I'm just dropping off a few textbooks, that's all. If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to be in your vicinity either."

"Go, go!" whispers came from the hallway and suddenly, Ruka was shoved in the classroom in a clean, white suit and holding a bouquet of flowers. As soon as he entered the classroom, he stared down at the floor, not letting anyone catch glance at his tomato red face.

Half the class just gaped.

Hotaru took out her camera and started snapping pictures from every angle possible.

Luckily Jinno went out of the classroom a few minutes prior, stating to himself that Valentine's Day was too lovey-dovey for an old grump like him and that he needed some fresh air so he totally missed the moment.

Natsume looked at his best friend, his mouth clamped tight into a straight, horizontal line. He already presumed what his best friend was going to do, but as much as he wanted to stop Ruka, he also had no right to. All he could do now was hope.

Ruka walked right up to Mikan, flashing an apologetic glance at Natsume on the way, and handed her the bouquet of roses. She was quite taken back, but accepted it with pleasure.

"Ruka-pyon, these are so pretty!" she exclaimed as she took the bouquet and took a huge breath in, inhaling the sweet scent of roses. "Thank you so much!"

Uh, you're welcome," he said, mentally taking note that he was never going to trust girls again, especially Anna and Nonoko since they had a habit of taking things way overboard. He took a deep breath in and prepared to confess. "Uh, um, what I mean is…"

"Hmm?" Mikan looked at him with her huge brown eyes.

"Uh…" Staring into her eyes was seriously making Ruka dizzy and he said it all in one breath. "MikanSakuraIloveyoureallymuchwillyougooutwithme?"

"S-sure," she answered on impulse.

Ruka sighed in relief and gave her a huge bear hug. Unsure of what to do, Mikan hesitatingly patted his back.

"Aww," the whole class went, touched by the cuteness of the couple.

Natsume stared dejectedly at the textbooks he was putting in the shelves. His eyes were dull and his lips were still pressed into a hard line. He didn't look up and he didn't see his best friend hug the girl he loved. What he heard was enough.


Anna and Nonoko entered the classroom squealing and clasping their hands together.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!!" Anna cried, "She said yes, oh my god!"

"Hey, but wait," Nonoko said, noticing that something was wrong here. "Why was he hugging her best friend?"

Anna gave her best friend a questioning look. "What do you mean? Weren't we trying to get him together with Mikan Sakura? You even said so yourself! 'There's an angel at the candy gram booth waiting for you!'"

"Hotaru Imai was at the candy gram booth."

"What, so you meant-"

"Well isn't it obvious that she likes him? I thought you would have seen it."

"But I thought you meant Mikan Sakura!"

"Oh, c'est un disastre!" Nonoko cried, throwing her arms up in the air, "Mikan Sakura belongs with Natsume Hyuuga, Anna. How can you not see that?"

"Well, I'm sorry for the misinterpretation," Anna cried back. "But still, you got to admit that Ruka and Mikan do look somewhat good together."

"Well look at Natsume there in the corner sorting out test books!"

They both glanced at Natsume at the same time. Even with his back to them, they could sense the gloomy atmosphere around him.

Nonoko and Anna both gave a defeated sigh.


While the rest of the people were crowding around Mikan and Ruka, Hotaru hopped off her chair and came to where Natsume was still taking his time and sorting the textbooks by number. As he inserted number twenty-one between number twenty and twenty-two, she asked, "You're not going to go congratulate your friend?"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't make my day worse than it already is," he hissed exasperatingly.

Hotaru rolled her eyes. "Chill, Hyuuga. It's only middle school. Middle school relationships last for about three months. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

"You're doing an awful bad job at sympathizing, Imai," he sneered, "Besides, what makes you think that I want them to break up?"

"I don't sympathize, Hyuuga. I emphasize. There's a difference. And though I'd hate to say this, but we've actually many similarities. Having our best friend date the one we like would be one example."

And thus, the truce was made.

End of Grade Seven


Oh my! I did my math wrong. Whoops! Anyway, a thank you to the anonymous reviewer that pointed it out to me, :).

An extra, extra note that the candy grams thing really did happen to a friend of a friend of mine back in grade seven. I don't know about you guys, but I found it hilarious.

You know what makes my day! *nudgeReview!nudge*

Love,
-IndigoGrapefruit