Disclaimer:I do not own Gakuen Alice or the characters from Gakuen Alice. I only own the characters that I made up myself.
Chapter 9: Interest
[Mikan's POV]
If I were a boy… I'd make the boy in front of me disappear… Or maybe actually get along with him. The two choices are pretty hard.
I don't get it.
Why is he here? Again. This is the third time. I stared at the crimson eyes in the doorway. Those beautiful eyes are driving me crazy. Wait, beautiful? No… Stop that Mikan. Just 'cause he keeps staring at you with those eyes does NOT mean that they are beautiful.
Okay, maybe they are a teeny bit beautiful, but the personality that comes with the eyes is pretty rotten. Yeah that's it. His only redeeming feature. The eyes… Well, that and the strange way he shows concern.
It's not like it bugs me. The fact that Natsume Hyuuga has been coming over every morning since the incident -snide comments and nicknames aside- has strangely made me happy. Not to mention that he has badass drumming skills, and can sing. Not that Youichi can't sing -he's pretty good actually-
Scratch that. Even though Natsume has badass drumming skills, he had the nerve to demand that he be able to leave his drum set in mine and Youichi's living room. He even went so far as to back up the demand with a threat, saying that he would burn my guitars and smash Youichi's keyboard.
We sweat dropped when he said that. It's not like we were going to argue with him about the drums in the first place. If he had let us talk, we would have told him that we would be more than glad to keep his drums at our place. The drums made a nice addition to our little jam sessions anyway. It made the songs we play more edgier.
[Youichi's POV]
Natsume's taken a weird interest in Minoru lately. He probably hasn't realized it, but he has started to slowly change ever since he met my roommate.
It's not like he smiles or anything. He's probably been concerned ever since the night that Minoru had that… sick experience. Ever since then, Natsume's been here every morning. His excuse was that he wanted to join our morning sessions, but anyone could see that he had a different motive. He even sticks around after school and after practice.
I guess that night has put everybody in our group on edge.
Ruka has taken to walking Hoshi to school, -only to get shot by the baka gun- and follow him to his lab whenever he wasn't busy. Yesterday evening, when we had our first volleyball practice, I saw the blonde boy call Yuu to ask him to keep an eye on Hoshi; at least until practice was over and he could go himself.
Koko and Mochu just kept being themselves, besides the fact that they kept trying to lighten the mood whenever it got too quiet.
"Oi, what's this?" I saw Natsume pick up a photograph from the floor. He frowned for a second, then smirked. "Hey Polka, did you have some weird fetish for dressing up as a chick when you were little?" Uh-oh.
"Excuse me, you jerk?" Minoru scowled at Natsume, then went over to look at the photograph in his hand. He paled. "Where did you get that?" he whispered.
I scratched my head and walked over to them, sighing. "Chill. That's mine."
Natsume raised his eyebrow. "Why do you have a picture of Polka cross-dressing?"
"You dummy. That's my twin sister, right Youichi?" Minoru asked.
Scratching my head again, I nodded. "Yup. Her name is Mikan Sakura. Identical twin of Minoru. I've never seen the two together before, but I guess that was because I never went over to their house."
Minoru smiled. "Mhm. That, and I was home schooled because of my asthma. I don't have it anymore though."
"Doesn't explain with why he has a photo though." Eh. Wait, am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Natsume has his eyes practically glued to that picture… and is that red on his cheeks? I must be seeing things, right?
"Ah, that's cause I used to be a weak kid with health problems. I began getting a stronger body in middle school. Mikan used to protect me from bullies, and she even beat them up. I used to play with her and Hoshi's twin, Hotaru. That was before I moved. I've had that picture since the day I moved away. Mikan is like a sister to me," I explained.
I gently pried Natsume's fingers from the photo and put it back in my wallet.
"Hn. Oi, Polka. What song we playing?"
"Hmm… How about Over My Head by The Fray?"
"Hn. Just get going already. Youichi and I are all ready to go."
"Fine, fine."
Minoru cleared his throat and took a deep breath, then began singing.
[Over My Head- The Fray]
I never knew Everyone knows I'm in Let's rearrange Everyone knows I'm in Everyone knows I'm in And suddenly I become a part of your past Everyone knows I'm in Everyone knows Everyone knows I'm in Everyone knows I'm in
I never knew that everything was falling through
That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue
To turn and run when all I needed was the truth
But that's how it's got to be
It's coming down to nothing more than apathy
I'd rather run the other way than stay and see
The smoke and who's still standing when it clears
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
I wish you were a stranger I could disengage
To say that we agree and then never change
Soften a bit until we all just get along
But that's disregard
Find another friend and you discard
As you lose the argument in a cable car
Hanging above as the canyon comes between
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
I'm becoming the part that don't last
I'm losing you and it's effortless
Without a sound we lose sight of the ground
In the throw around
Never thought that you wanted to bring it down
I won't let it go down till we torch it ourselves
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
Over my head
I'm in over my head
I'm over my head
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
The music died down, and Minoru gave a cheesy grin. "Well, we should probably get going now, right?"
"Hn."
We all grabbed our bags and headed off for the school.
[Natsume's POV]
Ever since I saw that picture, it's all that I've been able to think about. It wasn't the kid in the photo I was thinking about. Well, it was, but not the kid as a… kid.
If the kid in the photo was Minoru's identical twin sister, then she'd look exactly like him now, right? Only with longer hair.
Th-thump. Huh? Th-thump th-thump. Stop it heart. Ugh, why is it beating so hard?
I snuck a glance at my seatmate. Minoru Sakura; 16 years old, nephew of the Director, with a twin sister named Mikan. Other than that, I don't know anything about his background.
Mikan… I think I've heard that name before. It rings a faint bell but I don't remember. Maybe something from when I was a kid. Who knows. Not like my childhood was that great to begin with; no wonder I don't remember much.
Noticing that the auburn haired boy was spacing out, I glanced up at Jinno. Crap, he's looking this way. The way his fingers are clenched around that rod, I bet he's noticed that Minoru isn't paying attention. Shit.
I kicked Minoru's leg from under the table to get him back to reality. It seemed to work, since he shot me a what-do-you-want look. Seeing me jerk my head towards the front of the room, he got the message.
"Sakura." Too late.
"Yes Jin-Jin?" Came the innocent voice. Bad move.
"Answer the math problem I'm pointing to." Glancing at the problem, I saw that it was the hardest one up there. Leave it to Jinno to pick the problem that not many people can answer. Not that I couldn't solve it myself.
Minoru merely glanced at the problem for a few seconds before replying, "The answer is 3,486,916."
I raised an eyebrow. That should be the correct answer, alright.
Someone gave a low, slow whistle. We could all see Jinno's right eye twitching. "That is correct. I'll let your spacing out slide for today, but don't let it happen again."
"Yes Jin-Jin."
Wow. I didn't know the kid was so smart. I mumbled under my breath, "Good job, Polka." Hearing him hiss in response, I had to work to keep the grin off of my face.
[After Volleyball Practice, 6:30PM]
[Still Natsume's POV]
I don't know what's going on, but it sort of leaves me feeling irritated. We've just finished our second practice, and the coach has been pretty rough with us. He's too hardcore, but I guess this is why the school's volleyball program is top-notch. Only the best can survive these damn practices.
And then there's Minoru. He always changes in the bathroom for some reason. Not that I'm disappointed or mind or anything. It's probably for the best. Who knows how many perverts there are in the other sports teams changing in the locker room.
But that's not the problem. We all see him in the locker room, and when we get into the gym. Nakagawa calls for us to get into our teams, and then nobody sees the kid for the rest of the practice.
Then we'd see him coming out of the bathroom afterwards, dressed in his school uniform. When anyone asked him where he had been, he would just laugh and shrug it off.
It's weird. I mean c'mon. Nakagawa told us that our first practice game would be in two weeks, and he immediately sends us into hell drills. The man acts as if we aren't practicing one member short. No pun intended.
Good thing it's Friday. I want to know what the coach makes Minoru do during practice. I'll wrangle the information out of him tomorrow at Central Town if I have to.
Heh. A smirk grew on my face.
"Ne, Natsume. Is something wrong?" I looked at the hazel eyes in front of me.
My smirk grew wider. "Nothing, Polka." I chuckled.
"Jerk."
We were almost back to the dorms by now, when I noticed Koko, Mochu, and Youichi looking at me strangely -Ruka had gone off to Imai's lab to pick him and Yuu up-
"What?" Their eyes only narrowed, scrutinizing me. "What," I repeated.
"…"
"Nothing," they replied.
Everything you say to me
(Takes me one step closer to the edge)
(And I'm about to break)
I need a little room to breathe-
We all raised our eyebrows to stare at Minoru, who was fumbling for his cell phone. He finally flipped it open, and said, "Hello?"
After a few seconds, a smile broke out on the auburn haired boy's face. "Hey, Tsubasa-nii! Central Town? Sure, of course you can!"
Tch. Did I mention that I don't like how close Andou is with Minoru?
Hahaha. And here we go with Natsume's jealousy xD Song I used for Mikan/Minoru's ring tone: One Step Closer- Linkin Park Next chapter will be about the gang's trip to Central Town, and this time, they'll come across some girls from the sister school. Thanks again to those that review :D [8/28/10] Please review, and no flames~! :]