I apologize for practically dropping this story into the dust! OMG, I feel so bad…! I should've at least tried or something…!

My spelling errors are getting fewer and far(er?) between! There's always the missing h somewhere, but my h key sticks… Weird… Oh, and my shift keys stick every now and then too, so sometimes Chase is left without his capital C… Poor guy…

Anyway, I'm working on improving, I think…

Stand Out

Chapter 9

Chase had taken Omi home before Keiko had even gotten back. Kimiko didn't care what was taking her so long, she was still high off having Chase coddle her in the kitchen. She had felt dizzy and light-headed for the rest of the night. After he left, Kimiko went up to bed and immediately drifted off to sleep.

When morning finally came, Kimiko had to wake Keiko up as usual, and she then got dressed. Today was her cocoa brown day. It actually complimented her pale skin and blue eyes very well; which surprised her.

On the way to school, they saw Chase walking with Omi. Omi had their uniform on, and it looked so CUTE on him! It was like a miniature uniform. Kimiko had completely forgotten that their school kept everyone from kindergarten to high school in the same building; just different wings of the building.

Girls were following Chase around as usual, but it seemed like Omi only drew more girls. Maybe girls saw Omi as their ticket to having a kid of their own with Chase; he was rather fatherly…

Kimiko decided to sneak up on Omi. She crept up behind them, Chase saw her, but didn't stop her, and Kimiko grabbed Omi and pulled him up onto her shoulders. Omi didn't scream, he just laughed. Omi was just so fricking CUTE!

Chase was happy to see her, but not as happy as Keiko was to see him. She ran up and immediately clung to his arm. Omi had his fingers entwined in Kimiko's hair, so it took a little time to get him off her.

First period was rather dull, they had a substitute that didn't know the dress code, so nobody got sent to the office. It was so boring to actually sit through an entire class! Se had yet to actually sit through an entire first period lesson! The teacher had always sent her to the office, at least once. She had been getting used to leaving.

Gym was strange. The teacher suddenly seemed interested in Kimiko. Maybe he had heard about how she had beaten Chase the other day? She wasn't sure, but she didn't like the smiles he kept flashing her. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable around him. So, Kimiko whispered questions to Jack about the couch being a pedophile or a pervert. Jack had said he wasn't sure; the coach was a widower, so he had no clue. During gym, Chase had occasionally tried to get away from the other girls, but he was never successful. And that made her laugh.

Resource fifth period was okay. Kimiko had gone to the library and had been nearly killed by Ashley when Chase sat with her. Ashley obviously didn't like it, she kept telling Kimiko to move. Kimiko had nearly lashed out at her, but the teacher had gone by when she was about to. As soon as the teacher went by, however, she pounced on her and immediately went for the throat. Chase had to pull them apart and walk them both to the office. Kimiko actually had some scratch marks on her face from the girl's nails. They were long, and they were sharp!

So Kimiko said she attacked Ashley because Ashley had been pestering her in the library. She got detention in the gym again. Honestly, Kimiko would have preferred detention anywhere else; she was still getting weird vibes from the teacher.

"You shouldn't have done that," Chase said softly, as they walked to their lockers.

Kimiko scoffed, "I wasn't gonna let her tell me where I can and can't sit. Besides, you were the one who sat next to me! I had already been there, so it wasn't even my fault!"

Chase smiled at her as she tried and failed to get her locker open. She looked at him and simply asked for help. Chase did, he pressed on the opposite end of her locker and pulled it open.

After he got it open, Chase put his arms around her. Kimiko went beat red, she hadn't been expecting that! True, she liked the feeling, but she still was caught off guard.

"I just don't want you to get expelled, is all…" he muttered as e sniffed her hair and nuzzled her.

Kimiko blinked and repeated, "Expelled?"

"People who fight too often get expelled," he whispered. Chase was hardly listening to himself, she smelled like lilacs and vanilla, and for some reason, the smell was driving him crazy.

Kimiko finally pulled herself out of his iron grip and got her stuff out of her locker. Chase leaned on the one next to hers, moving everything inside hers over a little. She would have to ask about her locker neighbor's habits of keeping too much crap in their locker.

Chase liked her. A LOT. It seemed like she wasn't afraid to talk to him anymore, so at least he knew he was making progress, but Chase wanted so much more than just to talk. He wondered if maybe at the dance, which was this Saturday, they'd actually be able to kiss or something. Fantasies were running through his mind.

He was woken when Kimiko punched his arm and walked off. He smiled after her, rubbing his arm.

"You know, if you keep that up, I'm going to file for abuse," he said, following her to lunch. Kimiko laughed heartily at that comment.

"Good," she said simply before punching him again and hurrying off to the cafeteria.

During lunch, Omi was sitting with Chase. Keiko kept using him as an excuse to go and sit with Chase; she was begging Kimiko to go with her. Kimiko thought about it and asked the guys if they wanted to go too. Everyone said they wouldn't mind.

So their entire table came over and sat with Chase and Omi. Omi was overjoyed to see them all sitting with them, Chase mostly looked surprised. Kimiko could feel death glares from all the other girls, but honestly, if they were going to be that petty then they could kiss her ass.

Kimiko went to the gym for her detention, Chase was still giving lessons to the guys. So she watched and listened to her music. She knew when it was time to leave on her own, the boys all started leaving.

When she stood up and took her headphones out, she noticed the coach had been heading towards her, but he stopped. When he noticed she knew it was time to leave, he walked off.

Kimiko watched him warily as she walked down the bleachers. When she reached the bottom, she was greeted by Chase. He said a happy hello to her, but noticed she seemed nervous.

"You okay?" he asked, following her gaze with his eyes.

Kimiko nodded and muttered, "Yeah… The coach just seems to be getting real friendly towards me all of a sudden…"

Chase simply went, "Huh…" He noticed she still seemed worried and offered, "If you want to wait to go home until I'm changed, you can… I'll walk you."

"Would you?" she seemed really happy to hear that, so Chase said he would. Kimiko didn't trust the coach; he was acting an awful lot like that drunken man who had tried to attack her.

Chase came back out and looped his arm in hers. The two of them walked out of the gym, and they each noticed the coach watching them. Kimiko felt Chase's arm tighten around hers. Obviously he got the vibe she was getting.

When they were out of the school Chase immediately addressed the issue.

"If he ever tries anything on you, let me know. I'll kill him," he said to her, still not letting go of her. Kimiko only nodded and walked with Chase. He told her that Omi was already home; the little guy had called his cell phone earlier to let him know, so Chase said he'd have to hurry with their walk home. Kimiko didn't care how long or short the walk was, she was just happy to be able to be so close to Chase without the fear of getting murdered by the other girls.

He dropped her off at her house and hurried off to his own. Kimiko came in and found Keiko was out. She had left a note saying she had gone to buy desserts with her friends. Whatever, Kimiko didn't really care.

She did he little bit of homework she had and Kimiko decided to work on her dress for homecoming. She was making it herself and she wanted it to be perfect. Although Keiko would still have to go dress shopping, Kimiko was thankful she wouldn't. Dress shopping never worked out for her, because there was never that perfect dress for her. She always had to make it.

Keiko finally got back around eight-ish. She brought Kimiko a rather large slice of cheesecake and asked how her detention went.

"Okay… the coach is trying to rape me, though…" she replied, groggily eating a spoonful of cake. Keiko flipped out when she heard that, but Kimiko calmed her down and explained it to her. Keiko was still fairly worried, but then, so was Kimiko. Gym wasn't going to be fun for the rest of the week.

The week went by rather slowly, gym was okay, but the coach still had a newfound interest in Kimiko that bothered her, Chase, and Keiko. Jack was beginning to take notice of the coach's strange behavior and he began offering to build Kimiko a rape-defend-o-bot. Kimiko said a rape whistle would suffice, and he actually bought her one! Kimiko kept it with her at all times; she ore it as a necklace. But other than the creepy feeling she got around the coach, things were pretty normal.

Kimiko and Keiko went dress shopping and they found Keiko a very pretty creamsicle orange sherbet dress that fit her figure perfectly. It had a cute frilly lace bottom that puffed out a couple inches. It was perfect for her.

Saturday came and at around 7:30-ish, Chase showed up. He said he had found a sitter for Omi, so they didn't need to worry. Kimiko had been worried.

Chase wore a fancy traditional black Chinese shirt that had white trimmings and had spikes around the ends of the sleeves. He had a black spiked collar on as well and was wearing black skinny jeans. He looked sort of emo, but he still looked really nice.

When he saw Kimiko, Chase practically died. Her dress was gothic princess themed. The black fabric draped around her little legs and the purple curtains in front of her legs. The top a tight black corset with purple lacings and strings tying the top. The dress puffed out and fell down around her waist, the ends dragging a little on the floor. It was like a gothic ballroom dress with a modern touch. It was perfect for her.

"Where'd you get the dress?" he asked, trying to hide the fact that he was incredibly aroused by how beautiful she looked.

Kimiko smiled. "I made it," she replied, then twirled a little and asked, "Like it?" Chase nodded, unable to find words for how much he liked it.

He walked them to school and of course there were death glares ad other such things, but this was supposed to be a night for fun, so none of it got to them. Chase let the two of them run off and dance and such, he said he wasn't big on dancing. Although every time he saw a guy try to dance with Kimiko, jealousy surged through him. None of the guys deserved to dance with her.

Kimiko was with Keiko at one point, and she looked over to Chase just in time to see him pass out. One of his drinks had been drugged.

"Okay, time to go home," she said, dragging Keiko over to help her take Chase back home. The two of them helped the unconscious Chase get back home; to his actual house because Keiko had found out where it was.

They knocked and the sitter answered. They didn't ask questions, but as soon as the sitter saw Chase, they left.

"Looks like we're gonna have to take care of him…" Kimiko grumbled as Omi came running over from watching television to see what was wrong with Chase. Omi was frantic; he thought Chase was dead. After Kimiko finally assured him that Chase was going to be fine once he woke up and they placed Chase down on a couch and covered him with a blanket.

Everyone stayed out in the room with Chase that night, Omi helped them to bring blankets and pillows out and they all slept in the room with Chase. At one point Kimiko had woken up to find Chase had knocked his blanket off; so she had to put it back on him. He looked incredibly peaceful while he was asleep.

She then laid back down and went back to sleep.

Chase woke up late that night. He sat and looked around for a few seconds. He noticed he was home, happy that Kimiko had helped him. He then noticed Omi sleeping on the ground near him, he was sucking his thumb. Chase looked to see Keiko sleeping on the other couch and Kimiko lying next to Omi on the ground. He smiled. Kimiko's hair was in her face. He gently reached down and tucked the unruly hair behind her ear and observed her sleeping features. Every part of her looked tranquil and relaxed. Her eyes twitched a few times, but that meant she was dreaming.

Chase smiled, watching her sleep made him feel calm. He watched her all night.