A/N: To be honest, I'm a bit nervous about posting this chapter and the next. I liked them, my friends liked them, but who knows if my faithful readers will? Then again, this story is for Sharon, Gina, Megh, and Steph anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter. Anywho! Icompletely forgot to mention this in earlier chapters: "laoshi" is Mandarin for "teacher." Since most people who read anime-based fanfiction know some basic Japanese words, it's basically just like "sensei," however the literal Japanese equivalent of the characters for laoshi are the same as the Japanese roshi, or "master."

Chapter 9

The seasons began to change as time passed. Late spring gave birth to summer, one of the hottest they had ever seen and the most grueling one to ever train under, especially for complete newbies who really had no idea what they were doing. The sun beat down every day on their backs, often with very little clouds and sparse, rare rain. As August approached and arrived, the heat at noon was less intense and the first trimester was over. The final smells of summer were in the air as the humidity was finally fading at night.

The summer had been quiet. None of the questioning had lead to anywhere, and Relena's persuasion had worked, whatever she'd done. President Jenson was still willing to be publicly wary of Heero and demanded that he make an apology of some kind. Instead, Une had written a letter that she forced Heero to sign in ink and sent it off. The President had accepted it and announced that things had been "settled." He was now back on his campaign tour, probably wearing his arm in a sling a bit longer than he needed to.

With their last class behind them, this was the last time they really had to take a break before the first of the trimester exams would rear its ugly head. At the students' instance (along with Duo's) it was decided that there would be a picnic barbeque on the Friday before the weekend before finals. There were no clouds in the sky; only the twinkling of the stars in their night sky. Conversation was light and happy as hot dog buns were being placed on tables while Trowa and Quatre lit up the grill. Duo was arguing with Lady Une over whether or not the wine coolers he'd brought could stay or whether or she'd allow him to card students. He was losing the argument.

Jaenelle stretched and sighed happily, twirling in circles for no real reason other than the simple joy of the way it felt to watch her skirt twirl with it. "It's a beautiful night!" she declared openly, a wide smile on her face as she looked down at her friends sitting on the ground. "I wish all nights were like this!"

Having carried the two large coolers on his shoulders, Heero set them down next to the tables in time to watch Jaenelle spin and talk happily. She hadn't held the accident against him in the least and in fact her wound had healed nicely. There was barely a scar at all thanks to Sally Po's treatments along with some of Wufei's Chinese medicines. His lips tugged in the barest hint of a smile at the memory of her and Sharon trying to pronounce what they were called.

"Stop being so damn happy," Sharon snapped, laughing.

"You first," Jaenelle stuck out her tongue and laughed, spinning again and closing her eyes.

Heero watched her, almost mesmerized. The sight of her was breathtaking. Was that was it was like to be carefree? Sure he'd seen some of the students walk about and chatter like nothing important was going on, and he'd certainly seen Duo act like he was careless. But he'd never watched something like this before. Her smile was bright, light like a feather, and her eyes seem to sparkle their green color, even though the only light they had came from the stars, the building a few hundred feet away, and the campfire that Quatre was tending to.

I wish, Heero suddenly found himself thinking as he watched her laugh and dance, I wish I could learn how to feel like that. How to be like that. To laugh like that.

Duo approached then, raising up his hand for a high-five. Jaenelle slapped it in the appropriate manner as Duo clamped his fingers around her hand and shook it, laughing. Whatever expression Heero had had before, it was now a frown. He wanted to erase Duo out of the picture, to break his wrist for what he'd just done. The sudden anger that washed through Heero shocked him, left him blinking in total confusion. What was wrong with him? This was normal Duo behavior! No reason for him to get angry. That was pathetic of him. He knew Duo had become friends with the girls. He knew it. Why was he so angry?

Thinking he was going crazy, Heero turned his attention quickly to the grill and decided joining Trowa in cooking the hotdogs and other meats was a good idea. Usually he liked to always employ Odin Lowe's statement of, "The best thing in life is to follow one's emotions," but he had no idea what was going on right now in the slightest. Therefore it was better to just ignore it.

Meanwhile the other students were slowly emerging from the doors, all of them chatting excitedly in anticipation for the cook-out. "Hey, you know something?" Sharon said as she poured Skittles in her hand. "Today's the day that the trip ends. Well, over in China anyway."

Jaenelle stopped dancing. Everyone else held a somber look.

"You're right," Jaenelle said after a few moments, her eyes clouded.

Duo sighed, glaring at Sharon. "Now look what you did."

Ignoring Duo, Sharon sprung to her feet. "Hey Jae, don't let it ruin your good mood!"

"Sharii's right," Gina put in, flashing her best grin. "It's good to remember, but not good to let it damper your spirits."

"You're also right," Jaenelle nodded, giving her best smile.

After a few moments, Duo finally said out of nowhere, "Tell me about this Wang guy."

Everyone kind of stopped a little to look at Duo.

Shrugging, Jaenelle plopped down on the grass. "Well, alright. Why not? I guess it can't hurt. And… talking helps you get over something, right?"

"Right," Duo nodded. "So?"

"I met Wang two years ago at the airport," Jaenelle explained, feeling a little embarrassed to be talking about this. "He was helping out with our group that summer. He was a bit older than me and definitely out of college and settled with a job, but… I fell in love with him. I really did. He was me and Sharii's first Yang-style Tai Chi instructor."

"That asshole kicked us into position," Sharon put in, muttering. "He's not as much of a hard-ass as Wufei is, but he did."

Smiling at the memory, Jaenelle continued, "I tried very hard to get to know him that summer and to deal with my feelings. I ended up even having a letter sent to him, explaining that I was in love with him. I expected him to reject it.

"To my surprise, we somehow ended up closer friends," she laughed, almost bitterly. "He ended up paying more attention to me and we kept getting closer. I told him to not forget me when I left that summer and I promised I'd be back. We remained very close but I discovered something. He had a girlfriend, a Chinese girl."

"Whoa, whoa," Duo cut her off, waving his hands in the air. "He's taken and yet you still were going to try to be with him?"

"I didn't know what else to do," Jaenelle exclaimed suddenly. "You must understand; he mentioned her off-hand, only once, for the entire two years we kept in rather good contact. I figured… maybe I still had a chance…"

Duo shook his head, laughing. "Oh man! In a way," he mused, rubbing his chin with his fingers. "What you did was mean."

Jaenelle blinked. She definitely hadn't expected that. "How so?"

"Okay, think about it," Duo said with a chuckle. "You were like… like cheesecake to a fat man on a diet."

"Cheesecake?" Jaenelle echoed.

"That Aitkin's diet is bullshit anyway," Sharon laughed.

"Think about it," Duo insisted. "The diet is like his girlfriend. He may not like the diet much, it may be the same thing over and over again. But, that's his diet. Then all of a sudden comes the cheesecake, which is you. The younger, obviously foreign girl. It's like calling up the fat man and being like, 'Oh! Hey man, you gotta try this cheesecake. It's so delicious and it even looks gorgeous, you really gotta come down here and try some- oh wait, you're on adiet. Well here, let me offer you a piece of it anyway, just to try. C'mon, why not take a bite?"

Jaenelle was silent, worry etched on her face.

"Hey, hey, don't worry about it!" Duo grinned. "You're plenty cute. Hell, if I weren't you're teacher I'd ask you out on a date!"

"Really?" Jaenelle perked, surprised.

"Yeah! But I gotta admit, I think Sharii's more my type," he winked. "Or maybe Steph, she's got her feisty side too." Steph sputtered at that comment, a clear red blush coming to her cheeks as Duo stretched, laughing. "Hey, all you guys are pretty cute. But yeah, Jae, don't worry about him as much as it sucks to hear. He doesn't sound like much of a winner. Kinda sounds like he led you on."

Jaenelle nodded, once again silent.

Duo shrugged and gave his best grin. "But it's true! You're way cute and if you were to graduate tomorrow I'd ask you out on a- AAAAAAAAGGGHHH."

The other girls screamed, jerking away as ice soda was suddenly pouring all over Duo and splashing everywhere. Duo scrambled a few feet away, flicking liquid off his face and turning to the person who did it. "HEY. Heero, what the fuck?!"

All of the girls stared up at Heero in shock.

Heero stood rigid, holding the tray that had a few cups of soda still standing. "Oops," he shrugged in a monotone.

"What the hell do you mean, 'oops'?!" Duo demanded, shooting to his feet and glaring at Heero, anger burning on his face. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was intentional!"

"Maybe it was."

"What?"

Heero turned and was gone as quickly as he'd come.

"What the hell is up with him?" Duo scoffed, putting both hands on his hips. "Whatever. That was fucked up. Sorry guys, I'll get cleaned up and be back. Punch the shit out of Heero for me, will ya?" With that Duo headed off, leaving behind a rather confused gathering of Plan B.

A few minutes passed.

"What the hell just happened?" Megh asked out loud, breaking the silence.

"Heero just… dumped a bunch of pop all over Duo," Steph stated, looking very shocked.

"Dang… Um, I really think he did it on purpose," Gina voiced.

"Duo must've pissed off Heero earlier," Megh suggested.

"It's not uncommon," Jaenelle nodded, a blush coming to her cheeks.

Deciding it was probably something between Heero and Duo, the girls resumed their normal chatter, the action pretty much forgotten for the evening as the barbeque continued.

----

Monday reared its ugly head, signaling the beginning of exams. Instead of having homeroom, all of the cadets were sitting in the assembly hall to be read off their schedules for the week. This was the worst part of their exams. None of them knew when they were going to have which exam, so if they weren't each all prepared for perfectly then one could fail and it was a lot of information to take in at once.

Instead of Quatre at the podium it was Heero who had a stern look on his face. None of the other members of Preventer Five were in attendance, which was strange. Usually that look told the students to basically "sit down and shut up" and indeed that is what they did.

"There is a severe problem here," Heero said darkly, surveying the room. His blue eyes were blazing with anger. "This morning while running a weapons' check we discovered that all of the guns' ammunition has been tampered with. The rubber bullets are gone and have been replaced with actual bullets.

"I want to know who did this," Heero snapped, the expression in his set close to crazy with anger. "Each and every single one of you knows that we have field exams today which would involve you in combat. Whoever had the intention of the students killing each other is going to be found and we are going to get to the bottom of this. And when we find out who you are, you will deal with not only Preventer Five, but you will deal with me.

"There will be room checks," he continued, practically snarling. "All of your things will be checked. Every page in every book will be looked at and read. Yes, I mean every. Not a single notebook you possess will not be read. I don't care what is written in there. You don't like it, too damn bad."

Most of the students were practically huddled at this point. It was extremely rare to see Heero this angry, and considering the circumstances he had every right to be. Almost as frightening was the concept that had they actually gone on that field and begun the exam combat they honestly would have shot each other.

"You will all be escorted outside," Heero said as the doors opened. "And you will all stay there until all questioning and all searching is complete."

----

The August sun might've been less harsh than June or July's, but it was still hot. The fear had melted away and turned into agitation. People started proclaiming their innocence and complaining left and right. But nothing changed their situation. Worse, everyone was hungry and the only thing they were getting was bottled water.

"You know, we could build a mountain with these bottles," Sharon muttered, tossing one in the growing pile.

"You'd think they'd run out too," Megh sighed then perked when she saw Gina cross the field from the doors. "It's Gina!"

"How did the questioning go?" Jaenelle asked.

"Same as yours, really," Gina shrugged. "They re-took my fingerprints, examined my shoes and their prints, checked out my entire schedule, tried to clear any alibis I had with one of the other Preventers and then they let me go. It helps that Duo was pretty serious when he decided he wanted to be actual friends with us. He was always chilling with us in the lobby when we played video games, so we checked out."

"You're the last one," Sharon groaned. "So does that mean we can go the fuck INSIDE now?!"

As if someone answered her prayers, the doors opened and soon a very grim looking Lady Une, Noin, Zechs, and Sally Po were headed outside followed by the five ex-pilots. All conversation died at that point. The nine Preventers looked at each other before sighing almost in unison.

Quatre decided to take the initiative. "Well, everyone," he said, sounding a little hesitant. "I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, surprisingly, all of you check out. Your alibis clear and you're all free to go."

"The bad news," Lady Une spoke up then, "is that you are all being sent home."

Shock appeared on every single cadet's face. Voices of protest suddenly filled the field. Lady Une snapped up her hand, silencing everyone. "We are completely stumped. We have no idea who did this, or where to trace the activity to. This is the second big scare we've had in less than six months. Because of this, we are left with no choice. We cannot risk this happening again."

"This isn't permanent," Quatre quickly amended, sadness evident on his face. "I- We don't know how long this is going to take, but it's not permanent. It may take a couple of weeks, it may take a couple of months, we really don't know. But you're all being sent home."

"When we're ready, the school will re-open," Noin said with a slight nod.

"Should you wish to come back, you will be tested severely," Une added. "We will be screening everyone, no matter how long of a history you have with the organization."

"At least you guys don't have to take exams now?" Duo offered with a forced smile.

No one looked relieved about it.

"I tried," Duo shrugged.

"You're free to go," Heero said, disappointment evident in his voice. "As of now, you are all no longer cadets of the Preventer Organization."

"Keep your eyes on the mail or your e-mail's inbox," Trowa nodded. "Information will be sent there when we're ready. That's all we can say. You guys have twenty-four hours to pack."

In spite of the fact that there were perfectly clear skies, it seemed suddenly a whole lot darker outside. As the nine Preventers went back inside the building, all of the students began to talk amongst themselves, rising and heading back towards their dorms and discussing calling their parents, relatives, friends, or significant others to come and pick them up. Unfortunately this left five particular young ladies asking each other one very important question.

Where in all hell were they going to go?