Author's notes: The following chapters will most probably span an entire week with alternating perspectives between Mikan and Natsume. Happy reading! Also, sorry for the long wait.

Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice is not mine.
-VCL, 3/24/16

I'm caught in the storm
I'm caught in the rain
I'm caught in the rush that hides this pain
-SMASH

Chapter 10: Monday

Natsume Hyuuga

The groan that escaped from her lips a beat after Narumi announced to "partner up with the person beside you" had me smirking. Because the person beside her would be me. I'd be partnered up with Mikan Sakura aka Ms. Brownies. She'd been avoiding me for a week now. Brownies has been silent the moment she took her seat. And I think, I knew the reason why.

The look on her face when she saw me exit the bathroom last week was something I wouldn't be forgetting for a long while. I had to admit, her presence caught me off guard for a second or two. Hell, she was in my dorm room. I did not expect that at all. But I remembered Koko saying that Sumire and her friend would be joining us on our way to Central Town to meet up with the others so it was obvious who the hell Sumire's friend was then. I suppressed my grin as her face turned scarlet after giving me a once over. In my towel. I was wearing boxer briefs underneath, but I had no plans on telling her. I also had no plans on telling her that the towel I left on the floor before I went to my room wasn't the one I had around my waist, but the other one I had over my shoulder which I used to shake the water off my hair. No plans on telling, whatsoever. I left that to her and her imagination. She's a writer, I thought, she's good with imagination.

When I got out of my room, fully clothed this time around, Brownies was nowhere to be found. I got a text from Koko that they already went ahead, but they gave me curious looks when I arrived at the café alone. I spotted them at the conference table in Alice Stars Café which was the only table that could fit all of us. Koko was the one who suggested that we have a study group because he was already slacking off even though we're only a few weeks into the semester.

"What?" I asked them after I pulled out a chair. The others were already here, I was the last to arrive.

"Where's Mikan?" Sumire asked.

I shrugged. "Koko said you already went ahead. I thought your friend went with you." I emphasized the words to let her know that she never once mentioned that said "friend" was Brownies.

Koko and Sumire exchanged glances and Sumire cursed. "Damn. This was not how I planned it to go." She heaved a sigh before meeting my eyes. "But you saw each other, right?"

I answered her question with a question. "This was planned?" When none of them answered I added, "What exactly did you plan?"

Sumire said, "Nothing."

While Koko answered, "You and Mikan going to Central Town together."

I arched an eyebrow at Koko's statement, thinking it was ridiculous as to why they wanted me and Brownies to go here together.

Before I could tell them that they were idiots, Nonoko piped in, "You're setting Mikan and Natsume up?"

The entire table went silent. Even Mochu and Kitsuneme who were busy talking about their science project stopped midsentece after hearing Nonoko's question. Jesus Christ, my friends were nosy little bastards. I narrowed my eyes at the couple seated across me, waiting for one of them to answer.

Sumire turned to give Nonoko a look, who in turn returned to her notes, before clearing her throat. "Chill. I wouldn't call it "setting up"," she did air quotes with her fingers. "I just wanted you two to talk, try to be friends, or I don't know, give you the chance to return her laptop."

"Return her laptop?" I remembered asking.

I was pulled back to reality when I heard Brownies ask Ruka, a little over above a whisper, "Hey, Ruka. Want to switch partners with me?"

I didn't even wait for Ruka's reply before I reached out and tugged her hair lightly and said, "No can do, Brownies. You're stuck with me."

Mikan Sakura

"You're a sadist," I hissed at him.

He raised a finger and shushed me. He freaking shushed me as he pretended to listen to what Mr. Narumi was saying (which was not important at the moment because Mr. Narumi was trying to silence the class)

I stuck my tongue out at him before turning my attention back to our teacher.

"I saw that."

I rolled my eyes. The nerve of this guy. "All the better then."

"Alright everyone, settle down," Mr. Narumi started. "This is a week-long project so you need to pay attention."

WHAT. WEEK-LONG?!

Good thing I wasn't the only one who thought that way. Some of my classmates voiced out their reactions but Mr. Narumi paid them no mind. "This will form part of your midterm grade. Also, I have a copy of your seat-plan, so no switching of partners."

"Ha." Natsume mumbled.

"I heard that," I said.

"All the better then."

ASDFGHJKL.

"This project is called Getting to Know You," Mr. Narumi continued. "It's simple, really. I'll be giving out different sets of questions until Friday and you have to ask your partner about it, summarize their answers in paragraph form, don't be lazy, I don't want to see lists of the questions with their corresponding answers. None of those. Lastly, write a reaction paper afterwards. Any questions?"

A part of me got a little bit excited. Reaction papers were my forte. I loved writing those.

Hotaru raised her hand.

"Yes, Hotaru?"

"When's the deadline? And will we be graded individually?"

"Ah, thank you for reminding me. The deadline is two weeks from now." I swear, almost everyone gave out a sigh of relief when he said that. "But if you pass your paper next week, you get additional points. You will not be graded individually. Buddy system, class, work with your partner. That's one of the purposes of this project."

"I have a question!" Koko waved his hand up in the air. He didn't even wait for Mr. Narumi to call him. "What does this got to do with Literature?"

A few others laughed at his question, myself included.

"If you've read the readings I've assigned to you last week, which you obviously did not, you'd know, Koko," was our teacher's reply. "Can anybody answer Koko's question?"

Nobody raised their hands this time around. I wanted to. I knew the answer. I read the list of short stories Mr. Narumi gave during our last meeting but, ugh, if I got called to recite, it would mean standing up and damn it, I did not want to do anything that involved moving my legs. It was a miracle that I managed to walk from our dormitory to the high school department. Don't even get me started with the stairs! I was panting like a dog by the time I reached the classroom. My leg felt worse than it did yesterday. I shouldn't have lied to my mom. I made a mental note to call her tonight.

I need a get a check-up. I need to tell my friends.

I gulped. Oh God. I haven't told anyone. Except the faculty. The faculty, or at least the high school faculty knew. My mom explained my… predicament during enrollment. I can't believe I've gone this long without telling anyone or without anyone noticing. This is insane. This is-

"Mikan?"

I snapped out of my reverie upon hearing my name. "Yes?"

Shit. I didn't want to stand.

"I assume you know the answer to Koko's question?"

"Ah, yes," I said.

I was about to stand but Mr. Narumi said, "It's alright, Mikan, you need not stand."

I wasn't sure if I should thank him since the pain was beginning to become unbearable but I didn't want my classmates to think that I was getting special treatment. Heck, I've been allowed to wear gym clothes every day and skip swimming class altogether. If that wasn't special treatment, I don't know what is. Well, if they moved our classroom to the ground floor then that would be great. I nodded my gratitude instead.

"It's in relation with the short story entitled Favorites by Anna Thompson," I answered, glad that my voice didn't crack. That story killed me. My emotions were everywhere after reading it. It wasn't a lengthy story, it was seriously a single scene and was two and a half pages short.

Mr. Narumi nodded, urging me to continue.

"It's, uhm, about a grandfather and his only granddaughter. The story starts with the granddaughter asking what her grandfather's favorite food was. They alternate answers, alternate their favorites. And every time the granddaughter says a favorite, for example, she said that her favorite color was green, the grandfather would say, 'Ah, when you were a little girl, you're favorite color was purple.' Oh! And I assume the granddaughter's in her early twenties since it was mentioned that she just graduated university," I explained.

"So, this goes on and on… the granddaughter finding out things about her grandfather for the first time while the grandfather was finding out the new favorites of his grandchild. The young woman couldn't believe that she lived that long before she had gotten to know the simplest things her grandfather favored. He thanked her granddaughter for spending time with him. As the story was nearing its end, the setting was revealed. It was in a hospital. That's when us, the readers realize that the granddaughter was making up for lost time. The grandfather passed away a few hours later." I titled my head towards Koko's direction who let out a low whistle and said to him, "You should read it in its entirety to really understand the… punch that it'll give. My summary serves no justice to it."

Natsume Hyuuga

I stared at the piece of paper Narumi gave us.

English Literature
Getting to Know You
Grp. No. 12

WOULD YOU RATHER…

I stood to leave. "I'm not doing this. This is stupid."

"What the hell? You can't do that!"

"You seriously think I'd answer these questions?" Brownies and I were out in the hallway, along with a few other kids from our class. Narumi told us to spread out after he passed today's set of question for this goddamn project of his.

"It's only fifteen questions and they're pretty basic for crying out loud. Lower your man pride for once." She pointed a finger at me while her other hand was on her hip.

I think I liked it better when she was ignoring me.

"Pride? This isn't-"

"Oh, please. If it isn't such a big deal then let's get this over with. The sooner we finish this, the better."

Yep, definitely liked it better when she was blatantly ignoring me. Karma moves fast.

"Need I remind you that even if we do finish early today, we still have to work together until Friday."

The look on her face made it obvious that she remembered. Of course she did.

It hasn't even been five minutes since this Getting to Know You shazam started and we're already arguing.

She grunted. "Look, I know you can get away without doing this project but it's a group effort. I'm not as smart as you-"

"Why thank you," I said sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and flipped me off. I had to suppress a grin, this girl may be annoying as hell but she has some spunk in her.

"-So I need to get a good grade for this project, okay? There's nothing wrong with us getting to know each other anyway. Have a heart, why don't you. " Mikan let out an audible sigh as if dealing with me was too much for her. Actually, now that I have a good look at her, she does look a bit tired compared to prior weeks. I noticed it yesterday too, at my dorm room, something was off about her, but I couldn't pin point what it was. Before I could ask her if something was wrong, she said, "Let's make a truce."

That caught my attention. "About?"

"Us! I try not to get pissed at you and you try not be a dickhead until Friday."

I look at her straight it the eye and she does the same, both of us standing our ground. It was only then that I saw that her eyes were a rich amber. Her jaw was clenched and her lips tightened in a thin line. I tried to contemplate what made this girl tick, what goes on inside that head of hers since the first day I met her during summer break. This girl who goes to school every day wearing gym clothes, can write pretty decent articles for the school paper, and a well written novel, unfinished at the moment but well written just the same.

I can't believe I'm doing this. "Fine. Truce."

That caught her by surprise. Her eyes widened. "Really?"

I didn't answer and sat back down on the floor with my back against the wall waiting for her to follow. "Well?"

She just looked at me.

"Aren't you gonna sit?"

She made an "oh" with her mouth without actually saying the word. "I'd rather stand. It's okay."

I remembered our truce. Don't be a dickhead. Don't be a dickhead.

"If that's what you want." I got up once again, there was no way in hell that I'd leave her standing there for whatever reason she had while I was sitting on the floor.

"You don't have to-"

And without looking at her I read the first question on the list, "Would you rather watch Star Trek or Star Wars?"

When Brownies didn't answer right away I glanced up at her and I found myself looking at her rich amber eyes once again. She looked amused. She looked… thankful.

I called her attention. "Hey, Brownies."

"Huh? What?"

I smirked. "Star Trek or Star Wars?"

She shook her head with a smile plastered on her face as if to say, 'is that even a question?'

"Star Wars all day, everyday, a long time ago in a galaxy far far way."

I wasn't expecting that answer.

That's a first. We actually have something in common.

And goddammit she even quoted the damn movie. If that wasn't sexy then I didn't know what was.