The school year went without any incident. Summer came and went, Chihiro turned 14 and had a small party with Haku and her parents. The school year started and Haku was glad to see that Chihiro had tested into some of the advanced classes, which meant that they would spend more time together. He was also upset to see that Mai and Tai were also in their classes.
The twins were more subdued. They basically ignored Chihiro and Haku, for a while at least. When the Backwards Dance came around, where the girls ask the guys, Mai asked Haku to go with her. He declined her, but then Chihiro came down with the flu. She told him to go with Mai, since she wanted him to have fun. He went, and ended up having a lot of fun with Mai. He walked her home, then invited her and Tai to hang out with them at lunch the next day.
Haku would still hold Chihiro's hand, but after a while, it became real infrequent. He started noticing that Mai was very pretty. She held herself with confidence that Chihiro didn't seem to have. He found himself attracted to the other girl. At the same time, Chihiro found things about Tai that she liked, things that Haku didn't do. Tai had a shorter temper and Chihiro liked poking fun at him and seeing him get angry, before realizing that she was doing it on purpose. He would chase her around the table at lunch and end up tormenting her during their next class, which was art.
Winter Formal was coming up fast. Haku and Chihiro already agreed to go with each other, so when Tai asked Chihiro to formal, she felt bad.
"Tai, I'm going with Haku." she told him apologetically.
"Oh, ok..." he said kind of sadly.
At school Chihiro noticed that Mai was upset.
"Hey Mai!" Chihiro called to her in between classes, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just kind of upset that I'm not going to Formal." she admitted.
"Go stag." Chihiro suggested, "It's more fun that way anyway."
"It's lame if you go stag by yourself, you have to go as a group."
Chihiro formulated a plan, later that night she was watching movies with Haku, "Haku, what if you and I go stag with Mai and Tai to formal?" she asked.
"Stag?"
"Where we go as a group instead of as couples." she told him.
"We could do that." he said and smiled, "But I get all the slow dances with you."
"Deal" she said and settled back to watch the movie.
The tickets were bought, the dresses chosen, and the tuxs were rented.
"We are a hot group." Mai said when she saw them all.
Chihiro was wearing a stripped tutu party dress, which had a green and white bodice, a white skirt, and a pink belt and a white corsage, her purple hair tie holding an updo together. Haku was wearing a white shirt with a vest that matched his eyes and a jacket and tuxedo pants. Mai had on a blue mermaid style dress and Tai was wearing the same as Haku, only his vest was blue.
"I'd date us" Chihiro agreed with her.
"I'd marry us" Mai said with a laugh.
The group linked arms and walked into the dance.
Halfway through, the couples songs came on. Haku danced with Chihiro for most of them, until Chihiro noticed Mai looking around sadly. She suggested that Haku dance with Mai. Haku nodded and asked her to dance with him.
"You don't have to." Mai said shaking her head.
"I want to." Haku told her and pulled her to the dance floor.
Tai walked up to Chihiro, "You wanna dance?"
"Sure." she said with a smile.
The rest of the night was relatively fun, until it was time to go home. When they climbed into Chihiro's mom's car, the girls and Tai sat together in the back.
"Thanks for telling Haku to dance with me." Mai whispered to Chihiro.
"No problem." she said with a smile as she looked at Haku through the rear view mirror. He turned around and made a face at her, which caused both girls to erupt into laughter. When they got to the twins' house, Haku and Chihiro walked their friends to the door. Mai hung back and turned to Chihiro.
"I still like him Chi." Mai confessed.
Chihiro felt her eyes go wide, "Oh...um..." she didn't know what to say or do.
"I mean, if you two are still like, an item, I won't come in between you." Mai said quickly.
"No, I mean, we aren't dating..." Chihiro told her.
Chihiro's mom honked the horn lightly so they had to make their way back to the car. Both kids sat in the back and Chihiro leaned on Haku's shoulder, "She likes you." she blurted.
"Mai?" Haku said looking surprised.
"Yah, Mai. If you want to date her, you can, you know. We aren't even dating." she wished she could get her mouth to stop talking.
"I'll take that into consideration Chihiro." he told her with a grin.
A week later, it was official. Haku had asked Mai to go to a movie with him, without Chihiro. Everyone at school knew it, and Chihiro felt as if she was bombarded with questions.
"How does it feel knowing your guy is dating Mai?" Jessica asked her a week after that.
"How am I supposed to feel? I'm happy for them." she said, slightly annoyed.
It was lunch and Mai and Haku were sitting together, Chihiro was on his other side, but she might as well have been invisible to the happy couple. She sighed and could have kicked herself at that very moment.
