Chapter Twelve

--

Chiyo-chan, Kagura and their classmates were sitting in their last lecture for the entire year. Well it was more like the last chance to for the lecturers to say their formal good-byes to the graduating class.

Graduation day was looming and everyone in the room had important thoughts in their minds. For Chiyo however, they were less of the 'where to now?' variety and more the, 'what the heck do I wear to the ball' variety or more importantly, 'how do I behave?'

It seemed to Chiyo-chan that the easiest part of the whole set up was asking Sakaki to be her date, or rather watching Kagura make Sakaki 'buy' her at an auction.
Now it was time to decide how she was going to take their 'semi-more than friends' relationship into full blown 'officially more than friends' territory.

Chiyo-chan sighed and counted down the top ten reasons this would not go her way. Reason one, Sakaki may think that this was going to be a group date scenario and behave accordingly, this would of course not give them nearly enough bonding time. Reasons 2-10, Kaorin was going too.

--

For Kagura the situation was a little easier, neither she nor Tomo ever had any major issues with telling things as they were. In fact the wildcat's behaviour at the auction and her well received kiss at the end of it, ensured that both she and Kagura knew where they stood.

This thought of course led the athlete to start thinking about her obviously worried friend who was sitting next to her. Not that it wasn't easy to tell already, but the fact that Chiyo-chan's right eye would break into a twitch every once in a while really gave her away.

'Hmm, what to do, what to do,' the athlete thought. 'Gotta give Chiyo and Sakaki that one last push into happy, fluffy romance.' Kagura smiled at the thought

'Maybe I should just trick them into kissing each other? Yes… excellent. But how? Spin the bottle? No, that's a little too cliché. Besides the whole 'bottle' aspect might be a little dangerous, in the worst case scenario, Chiyo-chan just might hit me with the thing. That would not be good.'

--

Tomo, who was sitting in the little garden area close to the lecture room was wondering something along the same lines as Kagura… except of course, in true Takino wildcat fashion.

'I gotta give those two idiots the last push. If only I could trick them both into not being morons… but how? Hit them both on the head with a bottle? No, then I'd get in trouble again. What to do, what to do…'

"Hey, Tomo, what are you doing?," asked Yomi who had just gone for a walk to catch up with her cousin.

Chihiro and Osaka who were laughing together about something closely followed them.

Tomo gave Yomi a questioning look with regards to the two and their private giggling but the other girl just gave a shrug before sitting down on the bench.

The wildcat stretched out and made herself more comfortable before she realised that something had gone very, very wrong.

"Yomi! What the hell are you all doing here?"

"Umm, Tomo is that supposed to be some sort of a trick question? We're sitting here, on a bench, enjoying the sunshine."

Tomo grabbed Yomi's face.

"Tomo! Get the hell off my face!"

"What's wrong with all of you?!," asked the wildcat continuing her panicked rant and keeping her friend's face firmly in her grasp.

"Oww… Tomo, starting to hurt."

"Hey, Tomo why are you so upset?," asked Chihiro.

Tomo finally let go of Yomi's face just so she could point at the three girls and one very, very confused second cousin sitting in front of her.

"You, you, all of you! Morons! I can't believe you left Kaorin and Sakaki alone together!"

Giving each other some rather quick 'uh, oh' looks, the girls ran off in the direction of the dorm rooms.

Kazuki sat alone on the bench and scratched his head.

"Umm ok, I'll see you guys later…," he half-heartedly called to the girls.

--

Sakaki hadn't gone with the other girls on their walk as she wanted to do some shopping on her own, she didn't know anything about the upcoming ball until just a week ago so of course she hadn't packed anything appropriate.

She was going to take Maya along with her of course, but as she didn't know how American shop owners would react to a wildcat wandering around in their stores, she left him with a very capable wildcat-sitter… Sakaki wasn't a fan of the literal meaning, but in that situation, the saying 'two birds with one stone' definitely made sense to the girl.

Unfortunately, the shopping trip didn't have very much of a happy ending for Sakaki. She didn't really know what she was looking for so she just spent the whole time wandering around the small boutiques near the University and wondering what Chiyo-chan would want her to choose.

--

In the dorm rooms.

A dejected Kaorin was sitting on the couch with Maya watching her intently.

"Dammit, it was my perfect chance to get in some quality alone time with Miss Sakaki and this happens… just my luck. And on top of it all… Maya looks like he wants to eat me…"

--

Yomi, Chihiro and Tomo had reached the dorms and the wildcat knocked loudly on both doors.

Unfortunately for Osaka, she did not have Chiyo's luck when it came to a great transformation regarding athletic ability and she found herself slowly climbing the stairs, exhausted from all the sprinting.

Tomo however, thanks to all her pumping adrenaline had energy to burn.

"Which one are they in?, she asked as she grabbed Yomi's collar. "Which one are they…"

"Geez Tomo what is it?," an annoyed Kaorin asked as she opened one of the doors. "I was going to open the door anyway, you didn't have to try and knock it down."

"Kaorin you moron! What have you done with…"

"Oh hey Kaorin!," said Chihiro, while giving Tomo a look.

"What have you and Sakaki been up to while we've been gone?"

Kaorin gave Tomo a 'what's your problem?' look but then she just shrugged it off.

'Maybe wildcats just generally don't like me today,' she thought.

"Kaorin? Hello?," Chihiro asked before repeating her previous question.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I've been here with Maya the whole time, Miss Sakaki went out for a bit. She said she had to go shopping for an outfit for that damn ball."

Tomo, upon hearing that Sakaki and Kaorin had not been alone all this time, distanced herself from a very irritated Yomi and collapsed on one of the beds.

--

By this time, Chiyo and Kagura had finished their last lecture and were making their way out when they over heard some people talking about the dresscode to the ball.

"Well, I'm not sure what I'm gonna wear but since it's the swim team's bash, do you think there's some sort of a theme?," a young man asked his friend.

Kagura gave a sly smile at this idea.

Chiyo-chan caught it and suddenly felt very nervous.

"You're planning something," she stated.

Kagura nodded.

"It's got something to do with me…"

Kagura grinned.

"Kagura stop it!"

"Come on Chiyo, you're gonna have to trust me on this one. Besides, when have I ever let you down?"

Chiyo-chan glared at her friend.

"Really now Kagura, do you actually want me to answer that?"

Kagura by this time had stopped listening and instead, seemed as though she was giving someone instructions on her cell phone. As soon as she had hung up, the university loud speaker gave a crackle before a voice was heard.

"Welcome to your University radio station 'BFM 90.6', this is a special live report as we've just had news from the upcoming ball's executive committee president!! It seems that all couples are urged to match their outfits, as there will be a prize for best dressed! So get those imaginations running boys and girls, the night's sure gonna be off the hook!"

Chiyo-chan gave Kagura her best incredulous look and was about to shoot off an insult or two when she found herself being 'shushed' by the athlete who put a finger on her lips.

"Also we'd just like to give a shout out to a Miss Tomo Takino who's going to be having the pleasure of taking none other than our swim team's hero of a captain to the ball! Congratulations Miss Takino!"

Chiyo finally opened her mouth just to let out one, quick statement.

"Kagura, you are unbelievable."

--

AN: Thanks for reading! Please review if you have a minute, I hope everyone will like Kagura's planned matching outfits for our heroes. You'll find out next time! I'm rather excited about it actually… would any one like to hazard a guess as to what they'll be wearing?? XD