Chapter 10

Tara: Time for another update.

Amu: wow…for once she isn't as hyper as before.

Tara: who said I wasn't hyper!? –Chocolate bar in hand-

Amu: uh oh.

Tara: -takes a bite- WHAT?! I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM!

Amu: Natsuya! A little help please!

Natsuya: Tara, calm down.

Tara: Okay.

Ikuto: whoa…she calmed her down…

Amu: weird…

Ikuto, Amu: -backs away slowly-

Tara: Ahem…moving on…someone, do the disclaimer please!

Yaya: Tara-chi doesn't own Shugo Chara!

(Flashback to chapter 9)

(Tara's POV)

To be honest, I was kind of jealous of Amu and Ikuto. I was happy for Amu of course but I couldn't help but be jealous of her. I put on a sad smile behind the crowd when they went in. Natsuya noticed the look on my face.

Natsuya: don't tell me you're still thinking about him…

Tara: I can't help it…-sigh- forget it…come on, let's catch up to the others.

(End flashback)

(Natsuya's POV)

I couldn't help but feel sorry for Tara. Just before we left for Japan, one of Tara's other best guy friends confessed to her on the last day of college. Tara couldn't respond to it, and she ended up running away. She never answered him. Tara told me that nobody had confessed to her before. Ever since that day, they haven't talked since.

(Tara's POV)

I tried to lighten up my mood and pretend everything was all right, but I couldn't. Why did he have to confess to me when I was about to leave!? I thought. I replayed the event in my mind.

I was walking with Natsuya on our way home just excited about going to Japan to find Amu since it's been 8-9 years since we last saw her. I then saw Skye, one of my best guy friends come up to me with a light blush on his face.

"Hey, T-Tara…" did he just stutter? I wondered.

"Hey Skye! What's up?" I said.

"Can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Skye asked.

"Um, sure, Natsuya, do you mind?"

"Not at all."

I saw Natsuya with a smirk on her face. But, why? Natsuya backed away a bit so she was out of earshot.

"So…what's going on?" I asked him.

"T-Tara…Okay…w-well, you see…" He stuttered.

"Skye, why are you stuttering? It sounds as if you're about to confess to me or something."

"I am confessing to you, Tara."

I froze. What did he just say? I thought.

"W-what…?"

I'm saying I…I love you…Tara. Skye said to me in a quiet yet hearable voice.

"I…"

No words were coming out of my mouth. I didn't know what to say to him. I've been friends with Skye ever since elementary! In the end, I did the most pathetic thing. I ran back home. Natsuya, seeing this, ran after me, and I heard Skye calling my name. Tears were coming out of my eyes and I didn't know why. What should I say to him? When I got home, I instantly went to my room and lay on my bed sobbing into my pillow. I heard Natsuya come into my room.

"…Tara? What happened?"

I calmed down a few minutes later. Natsuya was sitting on the edge of my bed as I told her what happened.

"Ohh… Tara, do you have feelings for him?"

"Well…I…Natsuya, he's been my best friend since 6th grade! How was I supposed to respond?"

"calm down, Tara. It's okay." She said to me hoping for comfort.

She gave me a comforting hug. She said I would have to face him sometime, but I never did.

I brushed off the memory and thought to myself that I should be happy right now! We finally found Amu! But, I feel so empty… Natsuya nudged me and said Amu was talking to me.

"Hey! Tara!" I heard Amu trying to get my attention

"H-huh? W-what?" I answered in a daze.

"You okay?" Amu asked me.

I can't let Amu worry about me…I thought.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Just making sure."

(Rima's POV)

Those girls seem really nice. But, it makes me wonder about that Tara girl. She seemed kind of sad just now and when Amu tried to get her attention, she tried to tell Amu everything was fine. Anyway! Now to the real point of this trip! Operation: Get Amu to fall in love with Ikuto! Worst name ever, I know. I told Nagihiko and the others and lastly the new girls, Natsuya and Tara. They nodded. Looks like Tara immediately got into the plan.

"Natsuya! Look! Let's ride the rollercoaster. Let's go let's go!" Tara said energetically.

"Can Yaya come too? Yaya loves rollercoaster's!" Yaya yelled.

"Pepe too!" Pepe said excitedly.

"All right! Let's go!" the girl Natsuya said.

While Tara, Natsuya, Yaya and Pepe left for the rollercoaster. Ran, Miki, Suu, Yoru and Daichi left to go into the hall of mirrors. Dia and Temari went to the bathroom. Utau, Kukai, Nagihiko and I snuck away from Ikuto and Amu but still kept an eye on them. I saw Ikuto smirk and it looks like he found out what we were doing. He didn't seem to mind though.

(Ikuto's POV)

These guys…one word I can explain them as…matchmakers. I wanted to be alone with Amu anyway. I saw the haunted hotel and decided to have a little fun. I saw that I was holding Amu's hand and dragged her to the entrance of the haunted hotel. She saw where I was heading and struggled to get out of my grip but I was too strong for her.

"Ikuto! Let go! I'm not going in there!"

"You're going in."

"No." Amu said.

"Yes."

"NO!"

"Yes." I said.

"MOU, FINE!" she shouted.

I dragged her in. When she heard the door slam behind us, she screamed and she clutched onto my arm. She was so cute when she was scared. We saw a piano and it was playing on its own. We went through a hallway and there were windows. People were banging on the windows as if they were trying to get out. Honestly, I was a bit scared, but barely. Amu kept on screaming, which made me feel guilty for dragging her in. When we were close to the end of the haunted hotel, something grabbed onto Amu's ankle and she screamed and kicked. I think she's reached her limit so I hugged her and whispered in her ear that it was almost over. She calmed down a bit. When it was the end of it, I would've expected her to scream at me for dragging her inside, but she didn't.

To make it up to her, we went to get some ice cream. We both had chocolate flavor. Just to tease her, I took a lick of her ice cream.

"H-hey! P-pervert! You have your own ice cream!" She yelled.

"But your ice cream tastes better!" I whined.

"T-Too bad!" She is so cute when she stutters.

"Kawaii…" I muttered underneath my breath.

"Huh?" She asked.

"Nothing" I said.

(Amu's POV)

It was really annoying that Ikuto dragged me into that haunted hotel; I have never been so scared in my life! I was so scared, I was clutching onto Ikuto the whole time! The first few minutes of haunting, I swear I could feel him smirking next to me. Oh no…not now…Blush! No! Control the blush! God! I think he saw that I was scared. He started to comfort me when something grabbed my ankle. I have to at least thank him for that.

"Hey…Ikuto?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Comforting me earlier" I said.

"It was nothing." He said.

(Utau's POV)

We had been following Amu and Ikuto for the past 2 hours and Kukai and I were getting bored. Nagihiko tried to persuade Rima that they'll be fine and told her to stop taking secret photos of them. When she finally gave in, we decided to meet back at the entrance in another 2 hours calling the others in the process.

(Natsuya's POV)

I hope everything is going well with Amu and Ikuto. I can tell Ikuto really likes Amu and Amu also really like Ikuto but won't admit it. Overall, I think we went on almost every ride there was here. Tara seemed to get her mind off Skye for a while and was having fun with Yaya and Pepe. We decided to get some lunch since it was like 1:00pm. We went into a place called the star shiner diner. The place had midnight blue wallpaper with stars all over it. We all ordered our food and ate. Tara, having a Caesar salad, Yaya and Pepe, having chocolate cake, which isn't really lunch, but I guess Yaya and Pepe like sweets. Lastly, I had a grilled chicken salad. Yaya suddenly spoke up.

"Yaya got a message from Rima-tan!" she said.

"What does it say?" Tara asked.

"Meet at front entrance in 5 hours" she said.

"Okay, looks like we're meeting in 5 hours" I said.

(5 høu®s lå†e®) (Lazy…)

(Tara's POV)

We met up with the others again and went home. Ikuto said that he would take Amu home later since he wanted to show Amu something, and Ikuto looked at Natsuya and I. We got what he meant and said we would be going ahead.

(Amu's POV)

Ikuto led me to his car making me wonder where he would take me.

"Ikuto…where are we going?" I asked him.

"Somewhere you'd like…" he replied.

"A-are we almost there?" I wondered.

"Okay, we're stopping here" Ikuto said when he suddenly covered my eyes.

"I-Ikuto?" I said.

"Don't worry, we're close" he replied.

"We're here" and he uncovered my eyes. A big smile suddenly appeared on my face. He drove us to a beautiful meadow. "Ikuto…I love it!" I said. "I'm glad, I used to come here when I was younger to think and play my violin…" he said. "You play the violin?" I asked. "Hm." He snaked his arms around my waist causing me to blush, once again. "Pervert…"I muttered.

Amu and Ikuto were standing on the stone bridge looking over the meadow. The grass was really green and all the plants were in full bloom. There were a few fountains lit up with dim lights under the night sky. Amu and Ikuto started walking around the meadow and then Ikuto stopped on a hill and lay down. Amu followed soon after.

"It's so beautiful..." I said peacefully.

"Yeah...like you." He said.

Amu froze in place and a blush the color of her bubble-gum pink hair instantly plastered across her face. She looked towards Ikuto and saw he was at total peace. He looked so relaxed.

"M-me?" I stuttered again! God!

"Yeah, anyway, we should get you home, little kids like you shouldn't be out this late" he said teasingly.

"K-KID? I am NOT a kid! I'm 20! And a college graduate!" I shouted.

"Hai, hai, whatever you say." He laughed, which caused me to laugh along with him. We then got back into his car and he drove me home.

(Natsuya's POV)

Tara and I were talking about how much fun we had at the amusement park and wondered what Ikuto wanted to show Amu.

"They look so cute together!" I said to Tara.

"I know! And they seem perfect for each other, don't they?" Tara replied.

"Yeah! Hey, when do you think Amu will admit she likes Ikuto?" I said to Tara.

I saw Tara stop in her tracks as we were walking through the crowd.

"Tara?" I tried to get her attention. But, nothing worked. I looked at what she was staring at and my eyes grew wide. He was facing the other way, and Tara was frozen. She didn't do anything. She just stood there but said something shortly after.

"Skye…?"

Tara: and that's the end of that chapter.

Amu: Wow, that scene with Ikuto and I was really cute.

Ikuto: yeah, but you could've let me ki—

Tara: -covers Ikuto's mouth- uresei…I don't want Amu to know what happens…

Yoru: R&R!