Ello. I'm thankful for all my reviews you guys been giving me. =) Ok. I've recently been reading a book called Sweet Valley High. My older sister series. Nice book. There are so many POVs it very hard to catch up sometimes. =)… o well. I mention that because it helped me with writing POVs. Sorry if this chap may suck, Sorry if you guys don't like it, it may have some errors I think, I hope not. I feel as if my English is getting worst. Xp… And apparently I've been losing my older readers which is quite sad, my old supporters… Sniff Sniff… sorry, I'm being stupid. Anyway, dedicating this too ALL my readers, because you guys rock!!
I never really done this much o well : Disclaimer : I do not own Gakuen Alice. =)
Chapter 7: Tag Jealousy
ANA
I let out a small sigh as I walked behind towards the "Park" behind the school. I just feel like recalling those memories, I kinda miss those times. As I reached the corner of the building, my steps paused as I spotted Mikan under Natsume's tree, just putting something inside her backpack.
"Hi Mikan." I casually said. Standing there waving at her.
She looked up from her black backpack, noticed me, and smiled. "Oh. Hi, Ana. What are you doing here?" she said swinging her backpack across her shoulders standing up.
"I could ask the same for you." I chuckled.
She gave out a small laugh then suddenly changing into a gawking stare at me, tilting her head, narrowing her eyebrows, pouting her lips to a side.
"Erm, What?" I asked with a slight laugh quite nervously at her intense stare.
"Hmmm." She started. "It's just," she tilted her head to the other direction with the additional of bringing her hand up to her face putting her thumb on her check and her index finger folded under her chin, as if she was examining me. "You look kinda different."
My eyes grew big hearing that comment. I looked down at myself, my body, my arms and my uniform whether everything was in order and not having my underwear worn out or something. "I do?" I asked with curious tone.
"Haha. Yeah. Usually, your always uptight and neat." She said.
I haven't really noticed much about my looks. I couldn't really tell much. Me, myself didn't even notice the changes, but I guess yourself shouldn't really be able too.
"Oh." I said nodding slowly at the discovery.
She simply smiled shaking her head side to side. She bent down dropping her bag full of books onto the ground. I looked down at what she was doing as she was pulling my sulking socks up to my knee. She stood up and fixed my school collar shirt right then turned my skirt the right way around and she started combing my hair with her fingers.
I was feeling quite touched that I had a very caring friend, at the same time, I felt shocked that I was seriously dense about how I didn't notice about conspicuous looks. I mean, how could I not notice my skirt was on sideways?
Mikan smiled at me and took a step back taking another look at me carefully. "Hmm. Something is still lacking. Oh yeah." She said snapping her fingers bending down searching in her backpack.
I bend down in front of her silently curious on what she was doing next. She took out a ribbon that was one of our school colors, and she added it onto my ponytail which she neatly retied.
"There. Now you look like Ana." She smiled brightly, standing up.
"Urm" I stood up slowly. "Thanks Mikan." I said sincerely.
"Hey." She said with tone full of worry and concerned. "Are you okay? You seem a little bit off recently." she asked putting her hand on my shoulder.
"Urm, I," stammering. My mind completely lost in a blank thought. "Yeah. I'm fine." I lied. "Stuff's been happening lately but it's okay." I managed thought of words to say. Actually, I barely know what has been wrong lately.
"Hmm. Well, take care of yourself okay?" she said with a concerned smile. Removing her hand from my shoulder. I simply nodded in agreement.
"Alright then. I gotta go. Still have some finishing touches I need to do on that science report. See ya." She waved goodbye and walked off.
I turned looking at her go till she turned her back on me and jogged off.
I looked back onto the park and stood in front of Natsume's tree. "Hmm. One, two…" My index finger followed as I murmured the sequence of the right trees beside Natsume's. As I reached the third, I walked up to it and sat under it.
"Hmmm." I circled the tree in order to search for it.
Ana
Koko
Our names were carved onto the tree, bordered by a heart, Koko carved himself. Bent down, tracing the wordings with my fingers, recalling back the times both of us used to sit here. Remembering the laughter we shared. As I bent there facing it, staring at it intentionally, my thoughts were interrupted with gradually loud pants.
I looked across the tree finding Natsume, hands on his thighs, bending down, barely able to breathe, finding his breath.
That's strange though. I thought. I picked up my backpack as I walked slowly towards him. He was on his hands and knees, scanning the ground, looking everywhere.
I bent down in front of him, as he didn't even notice my presence. "Natsume? " I said being completely ignored. "What are you doing?"
"Er. Huh?" he looked up at me in a blink as I caught a glimpse of his fearful eyes. He started to crawl everywhere around the park. I followed. "Ana." He said finally.
"Have you seen two manga books around here? One is Slayer, and the other one is Soul eater?" He was on his knees now, sitting on his feet, looking up at me, it was pretty awkward a little for me, because, well, he longest sentence Natsume ever gave me was "Hnn", or just a simple nod or shaking of the head in sign of his agreement and disagreement, and now he's talking to me in proper sentences, and I can actually hear his voice.
"You know? The one with a bright colors, one looks quite old?" he said waking me up from my thoughts.
As I looked up from him, trying to keep my mind straight, my eyes caught an apple called Koko looking my way with an unemotional look.
I quickly bent down with Natsume without thinking and pulled up flirtatious smile. I started giggling and laughing bubbly without reason, as if Natsume had just said something funny. I turned back to see the direction he was standing and he was gone.
I sighed as I sat up, staring down at my knees. Why did I do that? Urgh. Whatever. Serves him right for just acting all short tempered for no reason. Let him feel some pain, or, will he feel any pain? Is not like he still likes me anymore… does he….
Suddenly, my mind came back to track, as Natsume was already suddenly behind me than where he was before. When I suddenly remembered what we were talking about were his manga books which he was looking for. The image in my head suddenly turned to Mikan sitting under his tree.
"Hey, Natsume. Mikan was here awhile ago. Maybe she saw your book." I said as I stood up walking towards him.
"WHAT?" his head turned sharply and swiftly to me. I saw his eyes opened even bigger than before with shock.
"Well, yeah. She was sitting right under your tree, but then she went to the science lab think to fi-" without even able to finish my sentence. Natsume ran off in high speed.
"Wait. Hold on!" I shouted running behind him.
I was afraid I had said something bad, I didn't want to put Mikan in trouble, She's one of my best friends, I cant let him do anything harsh to her, especially if it's my fault on whatever I said.
Natsume was running past everyone, pushing and shoving barely even stopping. I tried to catch up but the crowd he pushed towards me was to hard to get through. As I lost track of Natsume, I just jogged towards the science lab, without a single breath. I sat down outside of the lab, behind the door, resting and feeling dizzy.
"Where the hell is it?!"
I heard Natsume's voice. Oh No. Did I really say something bad? I didn't want to look as it kinda was a innovation of privacy, but my legs wouldn't move either, they were tired and weak.
"What do you want?"
There was Mikan. I had no choice but to sit there and listen.
"Just give me back the 2 mangas right now Sakura!"
There suddenly was a short moment of silence, I wondered what had happened, he didn't kill her or choke her or anything right?
Suddenly, a loud noise made me peek through the door holes. Natsume was down on the floor, crossed between some chairs and he was in pain but he still looked away.
"What is matter with you? You think you can just do this the same thing you do over and over again just cause you want to get it your way!?"
I heard Mikan shouting and her finger pointing towards Natsume. Wow. I never really heard Mikan speak like this. She usually was just a sweet girl.
"God. Man. Urgh. It's in my backpack."
I eyes tried to follow as I saw Natsume instantly standing up pushing over the chairs and such, running towards her backpack on the table. He held it upside down and started shaking it, pouring all of its contents out splatter and swimming on the floor.
"NATSUME!!" Mikan shrieked.
My eyes still glued onto him, I saw him search through the papers and books finding his precious two mangas. He let out a sigh of relief and hugged them both tightly in his arms. Pulling them back to his side, holding both in one of his hands. Then he just casually walked out the back down and down the stairs like nothing happened.
Thank goodness I was in the front door or he might have seen me. As I could feel my legs again, I stood up leaving my backpack on the floor, I was dusting off the dirt on the back of my skirt. When I looked front again, I saw Koko and Sumire together, they were reasonably far, so I couldn't really hear what they were talking.
But Koko looked quite pissed, and Sumire suddenly put her arm around him, which made both my eyes and mouth open in sudden shock, what was worst was, he didn't even push her away, they walked away together into the halls.
I cant believe this. Koko actually dumped me, to get together with Sumire? Is that even possible? I thought Sumire liked Natsume, why is she with Koko?? Urgh! Damn that girl! I'm not talking to either of them ever again! I yelled in my mind as I crossed my arms angrily. Fine. Two can play that game Koko. I am able to find myself a new boyfriend TOO. I don't need you at all.
I angrily stomped inside, grunting loudly unable to hold in the steam inside me, jumping up and down with fury, I so feel like killing him so much right now!!!!
"Ana?" I heard a voice behind me.
"What are you doing?" I turned my head and saw Mikan staring at me with a weird expression on her face. oh, I completely forgotten she was here.
I didn't respond and I walked to her, bent down, and helped her clear up her mess.
Ruka
I was walking to Science lab, class wasn't really going to start soon, but then, I needed to copy some answers of our last night homework from the monitor.
When I walked inside, I was surprised to see that Mikan and Ana were on the floor, I walked over to see, and turns out that a lot of papers and books were on the floor.
"Whoa. What happened?" I asked looking down on them, and then following the trails of notebooks and papers around the area.
"Do NOT ask." Mikan said deadly glaring at me.
Scary. "haha. Ok ok." I chuckled lightly. My eyes drew attention to the few papers behind them that they forgotten. I quickly gotten down and took it, neatly taping the few papers on the ground to even them out, then handed it to them.
"Thanks." Mikan murmured with a hint of deadliness in her tone. I smiled and patted her on the back for encouragement, "Cheer up, don't let one small thing let your whole day down." She stared back at me unconvincingly and forced out a small smile.
What would a guy that likes her do at this time? I saw her smile fall down to a frown in a flash. Everything happened as my impulse. The next thing I know, she was in my arms, her arms holding the papers were squashed between us. As seconds passed, I recalled back that I pulled her in by the arm and hugged her.
As I realized what I was doing, I let her go. Her eyes were wide in shock, and she was taking small deep breaths, hugging the papers in her arms tightly. "I, er," I said quickly thinking of something to cover up my embarrassment. "I thought you needed that."
She didn't give an answer, instead, she looked away from me, looking down wondering her eyes underneath her half covered lids unwanting to look up. I saw her cheeks bright pink, and I pulled myself to test my cheeks, and they were warm. Urgh. Guys don't blush, remember that Ruka.
I cleared my throat and looked around realizing that more people were already in class. I quickly remembered that, MY HOMEWORK'S NOT DONE! I ran to the monitor shouting "Yuu!! Homework!!" He innocently just took out his science Grade A Workbook and handed it to me. "K. Thanks!" I said walking off. "Wait! Hey!!" I heard from behind.
So class went on like usual, boring.
"Whew. Finally out of there." I said letting out a sigh of relief walking out with Mikan by my side.
"Haha. I guess." She laughed. As we turned front, we saw Hotaru, covered in big strokes of blue paint on her arms and patches and dots on her leg.
"Hi Mikan." She said unemotionally looking towards us.
"Hi! Hi! Hotaru!!!!" she said cheerfully jumping up to her giving her a big hug which Hotaru didn't return. She lightly pushed Mikan saying something about needing to finish the painting for blue team decoration and she only came back to the science lab to get her mechanical pencil she left. As she walked past me, she looked my way nodded once practically whispering "Ruka" indicating her style of greeting towards me.
It really annoys me. I took a deep breath as I thought of giving a smile but as the result came to be an unpleasant smirk, mocking her style of greeting, I nodded once replying "Hotaru". By that time, she completely ignored me and had already walked past me.
I stared angrily at her back looking her take the steps away from me. "Oh" was what she had always say when I confessed. I can always remember when we were walking alone together side by side, and I was just helping her out. I just confessed unthinking and her said that one word and walked off. I indirectly did it, and when I thought she didn't understand me, I just plain straight out said it. Whenever I thought of the two words "Confess" and "Hotaru" it automatically reminded me of the 4 embarrassing times I did it. A guy that confessed and got rejected 4 times. Real smooth Ruka. Real smooth.
"Ruka?"
I turned back to Mikan, totally bring my mind back to reality. "Yeah?" I asked slightly dumbfounded. I squinted my eyes, and started rubbing them with my index finger and my thumb, squeezing in between the beginning of my nose. "Well. Are you okay? You sure you still wanna go train?"
There was an announcement that most of the teachers are going to a meeting and sports team preparations. So I gotten permission yesterday that we can train whenever we like as long as we don't skip classes. So I'm not directly skipping classes when there are no classes to be skipped.
"Hmm. Yeah. Of coarse." I managed to reply. " Come on. Let's go." I smiled and we walked together to the track field.
"So Mikan. What events you taking for sports day?" I asked as we walked past the busy corridors filled with students taking advantage of the absence of the teachers to play around.
"Er. Mostly a lot of them. But as you know, an athlete for sports day is only allowed to do five events. I was mostly short listed for all of them." She said shrugging like it was not a big deal. But wow, to be short listed for everything is amazing, I didn't know Mikan was such a sport's woman. In my school, there are a lot of events, Short putt, hurdles, long jump, and the running events, and she got short listed for everything?
"Wow." I breathed. "That's really amazing. I'm only short listed for the long distance events like 1500m , 800m, 400m x 4 and such." I said looking up to the pale blue sky, remembering running long distance, the great challenge. "So what are you going to choose?" I asked curious.
"Hmm." Mikan started. "Well, the problem is that teacher said I've got a good shot and shot putt, and I won gold last year for long jump, but then this year we are joined by the year older than us, so they got the advantage of longer legs, and short distance, I'm not too confident about it either, but I like long distance." She explained.
"Haha. Well, that would mean I would really need a lot of time to train you wont I?" I joked.
"Don't flatter yourself, It's not like I never ran long distance before." She said holding her nose up high and crossing her arms cutely. Wait, did I just say cute?
We walked to the field and put our bags down. Training went on well, we ran together, and checked our time with our phones, had a few laughs even, and I gotta say, pretending to like Mikan, isn't getting very hard anymore. In a way, I know she might get crushed if she found out this is a fake to get Natsume jealous, and I know that she hates boys tricking her, I really hate this. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible, I don't want to push both of our feelings any longer.
Mikan
Whew. Training was very tiring. Ruka was quite strict on not stopping for a break and everything. After our about what it seems like 2 hours training, we went to the vending machine to get a can of 100 PLUS, and we had to share it because Ruka said something about drinking cold and sweet things right after exercise is really bad for the body. After that, he was walking me back home.
"Haha. I do not have a funny face when I'm sprinting!" I laughed at his comment. We were walking on the pavement on the way to my house.
"Don't worry. I wont tell anyone. Everyone makes funny faces in the last sprint." He said winking which made me blush. I bit my lower lip and tried to stop smiling. Urgh. Get a whole of yourself Mikan, this has happened too many times before, ignore your feelings, and it'll go away. I relaxed for a few seconds to make that giddy feeling in me fade away. I looked up, "haha. So anyway-"
"Mikan." Ruka interrupted me before I can say anything. I turned back realizing that Ruka had already started stopped walking and stood there seriously behind me. I was a little taken back at the atmosphere looking at his serious face. "erm. Yeah?" I smiled walking back towards him.
"Well. . . . " he lagged looking down on his feet. I just stared at him curious. "I know, that, we, urm, I don't know. Haha." He chuckled, disconnecting the conversation. "Haha. Come on, tell me." I encouraged.
"Well, remember that day, or rather yesterday, haha, erm…" I opened my ears up to what he was trying to say, I could barely understand because he kept pausing and hesitating. What is he trying to say? "Ruka, what are you trying to say?" I said echoing my thoughts.
He took a deep breath. I could hear him under his breath whispering firmly "Let's just get this over with."
"Ruka, what-"
"Remember that day in star bucks?" he said cutting me off. "Remember? You asked me why I followed you when you ran away from Natsume?" I vividly recalled and I did ask that. He continued. "Well, I told you that I couldn't tell you and answer right? And, I'm telling you now. I like you." There was an awkward pause. For a second, I couldn't think. "I know this is really weird for you. Because I liked you, I, well, I would follow you every where."
I could hear my heart thumping and felt my whole body turn numb. I was completely standing there dumbfounded. I really didn't know what think, I'm really scared, I really like Ruka I can admit that. But then, I'm not sure whether he's true or not, because this has happened too many times to me before.
"I- er, I really don't know what to say." I could hear myself saying, voice trembling.
Ruka just let out a smile. "It's ok. I, You can think about it, but I'm asking, will- well, will be my girlfriend?" when he said that, he didn't even look at me, instead he was still looking down on the ground.
"I, erm, will think about it." I managed to make my mouth say.
He looked up at me, and I could see that he was blushing quite badly. I helplessly let out a chuckle. "Well, I'll see you in school then Mikan. Bye." I saw him waving and walking down the road around the corner.
I sighed as I continued my path back home. A lot was on my mind. In a way, Ruka has been kinda show that he likes me when I think about it, I don't really need to be worried right?
When I opened my door to my house, I didn't say anything hearing the cooking sounds from the kitchen. I went straight up to my room.
I sighed as I threw myself onto my bed. Urgh. I don't need to worry about this too much. I still got homework I need to do. I sat up, carried up my bag up upon my bed, then, opened it staring at the clustered mess inside it.
I sighed as I remembered this afternoon's mishap. Wow, now that I recalled it, I finally stood up to Natsume didn't I? I pushed him down when he cornered me again. I finally didn't really stand there scared anymore. But as my consolation, I'm rewarded with my books pages and covers bended and thorn.
I sighed as I poured out my stuff out onto my bed the review my mess. I kept my books on to a side, making sure there was no pages bended or whatsoever. I slowly looked at my papers one by one, I took a file from my table and started organizing them, but do it now or never. I started scrolled through the contents of the pages and started arranging them by subject and homework or exercises.
Huh? What's this? My curiosity grew as there was a neatly folded paper sitting there in the middle of my mess. It looked quite small. I reached out and grabbed it and unfolded it. I looked at it wide eyed and felt a wave of shock.
Mikan
I
Love
U
This is very weird. Who could have put this in my back pack? Who knows how long it has been rotting inside. But as I recalled, my back pack is new, mom bought it for me at a Timberland sale just for my new year of school, so, it wasn't that long.
I took my hand phone sitting next to me and started texting. I knew that Hotaru wouldn't be interested in this, and well, my other option was Ana.
Ana,
You know what was weird? I suddenly found this weird love letter in my backpack. Do you have any idea on who would have send it to me?
I pressed send and waited for a reply. Fortunately, Ana is a fast texter, her messages are always replied within the next minute.
Wow. This is interesting! Haha. Er. Hmm. Guys, guys. Maybe it would be Ruka? He seems like he likes you somehow. N he also helped you in putting the papers into your backpack. Maybe he sneaked a love letter inside too. :P
Actually, in a way, that made sense, because, well, he just confessed to me this evening when he was walking me back home. So, he really does like me? And if Ana could see that he likes me, then it's gotta be quite obvious right? Maybe I should give myself a chance on a great guy.
I continued to finish organizing my books and papers with a smile on my face.
The next morning,
I tried to search for Ruka. I waited at my seat, feeling a little sleepy. As Ruka came in the doors, I happily waved high and walked towards him.
"Oh. Good morning Mikan." He greeted me with a smile.
"I erm… I thought about it Ruka, and, I say Yes." I looked at him feeling embarrassed. I could feel the blood rise up to my cheeks.
"Hmm. That's okay. Wait. What? DID YOU JUST SAY YES?"
There we go!! Finished at last. I cannot believe it took me so many months to finish this one chapter. Sigh. O well. Sorry for the long wait. sorry but i'm currently too lazy to check through it. So there are alot of mistakes inside it. Bare with me. =P. Hope you guys like it. I gotta warn you guys that my story writing is gonna be on pause for awhile. For one thing, I dont really know what's going to happen next. I have to think it through. And I'm quite busy. O.O... so yeah.... bare with me on waiting k?? =D ....
Love, LilMoonWritter
