Disclaimer: I do not own G.A. or its characters.

12

"Hey, Mikan. How was the retreat?"

"Good," I said, closing the door behind me. "How was your weekend?"

"Ugh. Don't even ask," Misaki said, flipping a page of her Vogue magazine. She was reading on the dining table, a cup of coffee in front of her.

"Hey, you're not supposed to drink coffee," I told her.

"Relax. I'm not. It's Mom's. She was in a hurry to leave this morning, and she didn't finish it."

"Oh," I said as I placed my back on the couch. "So, what did you do yesterday?"

She looked at me, annoyed. "What part of 'don't even ask' do you not understand?"

"Okay," I said, raising my hands up defensively. "No need to get cranky."

She sighed. "Sorry. I felt sick this morning. I vomited like forty times."

"Don't worry. Morning sickness will wear off around the fifth month."

"All right, fine," she said. "Mom signed me up in one of those therapy sessions for pregnant women. And it was the worst."

"You don't say," I said, getting a box of cereal from the cupboard. I haven't eaten since we arrived in Tokyo, Sunday morning. We left Camp Sakura at around six in the morning, and it was long two hour trip. I didn't know what I was thinking, sharing about my dad. Now I felt like everyone in the student council treated me differently. Except for Hotaru, that is. Oh, and Natsume. After me being the last one to share in that campfire, we actually sang campfire songs (okay, I had to admit, it wasn't that bad). That night, I wasn't able to get any sleep, so I walked around our campsite, and ended up by the lake. And surprisingly, Natsume was there. He was just sitting there, staring at the full moon. I debated whether or not I should sit by him, or just go back to the girls' cabin. Eventually, I just decided to give him some company, since I knew I wouldn't even be getting any sleep.

"Hey."

He looked up, surprised to me there, probably thinking I was some kind of ghost or something. "Oh. God, you scared me."

"Sorry." I sat down beside him. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Couldn't sleep. You?"

"Same," I answered. For a few moments, we didn't say anything to each other, just staring at the moon.

"I'm sorry again," Natsume said, not looking at me, "for what I said a while ago."

I nodded. "I understand. I know how you feel."

"I'm glad you do. It seemed like no one really understood."

"It does feel that way," I said. "But sometimes, you don't know that other people are having a much harder time than you are."

I felt him looking at me. "I'm sorry about your dad."

"I'm sorry about your sister." I really didn't know what I was thinking blurting out my life to everyone. I wasn't that type of person. But it was too late to take it all back, obviously.

"At least it wasn't your fault," he said.

"And it wasn't yours either," I replied.

"Stop saying that. You're making it worse."

"It's the truth," I said. "People do stupid things, Natsume. But life is long. There's still time to fix our mistakes."

He just stared at me. "You know, you sound like my grandmother."

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Yeah. She was always the one who gave me advice." He paused then said, "Were you always like that?"

"Like what?" I asked.

"You know, smart and so full of wisdom."

I knew I wasn't one of those things. But I answered his question, to be polite. "No. It's a promise I kept to my dad. I had to make him and my mom proud of me."

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that you get straight A's in all your subjects."

"No?" I was suddenly curious. "Then what does it mean, exactly?"

"You know, just being happy. Doing what you think is right for you."

"You don't know my mom," I said. "She is like the most demanding and perfectionist mother on the planet. You basically have to impress her for you to be her daughter. I guess she got tired of my sister's rebellious ways in high school, so she expected me to be the exact opposite."

"I'm sure that's not true," Natsume said.

"No? Well, I'm a living proof."

After a few moments of more silence, he finally said, "Why is being perfect so important to you anyway?"

"It's not," I said. "And I'm not perfect. Not even close."

"Okay, rephrase. Why are you such a perfectionist?"

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe because after what happened to my dad, I wanted to take control of things. And I didn't want my mom to see me as something she had to worry about. I didn't want to be a burden to her."

I could actually feel myself getting sleepy by the second. I wasn't used to staying up late, and God knows what time it was already. "Really," was all Natsume said.

"Yeah," I answered, stifling a yawn.

I knew I couldn't sit there for any second longer without closing my eyes, so I got up and said to Natsume, "It was fun chatting with you and all, but I really have to—"

I wasn't able to finish my sentence because of my stupidity, and drowsiness, I tripped on rock, and Natstume caught me just in time. But we both fell down to the ground, with him on top of me.

"Oh my God," I whispered, because if I screamed, I would wake up everyone up, and I really didn't want them to see I was alone (in what I think is in the middle of night) with Natsume. "I am such a klutz. I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," he said, getting off of me, and offering his hand to lift me up. "You could've just said that you were getting sleepy."

I took it. "I didn't want to be rude. And besides, thanks to my own doing, I am not sleepy now, obviously."

Now that I was facing him, I could see his face clearly, thanks to the moonlight. I also noticed that his eyes weren't black, they were crimson red. I stepped back, a little startled. I really didn't mean to. I think Natsume got the wrong idea. "Sorry," he said. "Was it something I did?"

I shook my head. "No. It's just—your eyes." God, what a stupid thing to say.

"What about them?"

"Are you—are you wearing contacts?"

"No, why?"

Suddenly, I remembered. Of course he wasn't wearing contacts. Those were the real color of his eyes. The only reason why people didn't recognize him was because he was wearing black contacts. Now, under the moonlight, he really did look like Natsume Hyuuga, the famous movie star. "Wait," I said, remembering another thing. "Why aren't you wearing your contacts? What if someone recognized you?"

Natsume rolled his eyes. "Relax. Everyone's sleeping, and you're not supposed to wear contacts when you're sleeping right? Unless you want to go blind."

"Oh, right."

He smirked. "All right, Polka-dots. Why don't we head back before you trip again?"

"Okay," I replied, walking ahead. I suddenly came to a stop."Wait. What did you just call me?"

"Polka-dots," he answered nonchalantly. "Your shirt's a little transparent, you know."

Transparent? What did he mean, transparent? Then, I suddenly realized. I looked down at my chest. I was wearing my favourite polka-dots bra. And he was right. My shirt was sort of see-through. But that doesn't mean that he should look at it! Or even mention it. And I thought he was the guy with manners. It took all my will and power, to prevent from shouting at him. "You pervert!" I hissed. "Who asked you to stare at my chest, huh?"

"It wasn't my fault." I could tell he was enjoying this. In the darkness, I could tell he was grinning. "You're the one who fell."

"No one said you had to catch me!"

"What, do you actually want to fall in the lake?"

I sighed, angrily. "All right. Fine. Let's just forget this ever happened, okay?"

He smirked again. "Whatever you say, polka-dots."

"And stop calling me that," I told him. Eventually, he stopped teasing me about my choice of undergarments by the time we got to our cabins. And as soon as I went inside the girls' cabin, I changed my shirt. Who knew if that pervert could be watching me from the window? Talk about creepy.

"Mikan?" Misaki said, snapping me back to reality. "Hey. Are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah," I replied, eating a spoonful of my cereal. "Therapy sucks, sometimes. But it helps."

"I don't even know what Mom was thinking, signing me up for that class," she said. "I mean, my house where I live in right now, is like ten miles away from here."

"No, it isn't. You just live in the next neighbourhood."

She glared at me. "The point is I hate therapy, okay? And I have to let Mom know that." She stood up from her seat, carrying her magazine. "I'll be in the den, watching movies. I just bought like ten thousand DVD's. Just come down if you wanna watch."

"All right. Good luck with Mom."

She grimaced at me and started walking towards the den. Then she turned around and said, "Oh and you can tell me about your retreat, later. I would love to hear all about it."

As if there was really much to tell. As I remembered that day, all I could think about was Natsume. God, why was I even thinking about him a while ago? I don't even like him. He is an arrogant and pervert movie star. So, what else was new? But even as I put my bowl in the sink, I ended smiling, remembering our conversation by the lake. I shook my head. No Mikan, I thought. You are not falling for a guy like him. Never.

The next day when I arrived at school, I saw Hotaru leaning on the hood of her car, reading her History book. When she saw me, she quickly headed towards me, without even giving me a chance to get out of my car.

She tapped on my window, and I lowered it down. "Mikan," she hissed. "We need to talk. Now."

"Okay," I said, grabbing my bag. "Just give me sec. What is with you? Do you have your period today?"

She ignored that. "Come on, hurry up."

"All right," I said, now closing the car door behind me. "Happy?"

Hotaru looked around, and made sure no one was listening. But obviously the parking lot wasn't a place for someone to say something important, or whatever Hotaru was supposed to tell me. "Let's talk in the bathroom," she said.

"Okay," I said slowly.

When we got to the girls' bathroom, Hotaru asked me to check every cubicle if there was anyone there. Still confused, I did, and there was no one there.

"All right," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I know about Hyuuga," Hotaru said, in a low voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Hotaru, I already told you. Natsuo and I are just friends. There's nothing going on between—"

"No, I don't mean about that," she said, impatiently. "I'll get straight to the point. Natsuo Hyuuga, is Natsume Hyuuga, the movie star, isn't he? And that other guy, Ruka is his manager."

I felt my jaw drop. How could she possibly find out about that? I mean, I know Hotaru's a genius and all, but Natsume's disguise was fool proof. No one could possibly find out. Unless…

"Admit it," she said. "I'm right. Am I?"

I sighed in defeat. I didn't see the point in trying to deny it on front of Hotaru. Besides, I was a terrible lair, after all. Well, according to Hotaru. "Fine," I declared. "It's true, okay? The only reason why I'm covering for them is because Mr. Narumi assigned me to be their student guide. And how did you find out about it, anyway?"

She rolled her eyes. "I always knew there was something off about the two of them. So I asked that Ruka guy point-blankly and I guess he cracked. He told me everything."

Suddenly, I heard a door slam from the second cubicle. Oh my God. Please don't tell me—

"Ha!" Anna exclaimed, as she got out of the cubicle. "I knew it! I just knew it! I knew it from the very first day that I saw him. If it weren't for his contacts, every girl would be mauling him by now."

"Oh, and that's how I found out about it too," Hotaru said. "I saw him without his contacts once."

I looked at her sharply. "Really? When?"

"At camp. I happened to run into him early in the morning. He hasn't put them on yet."

I shook my head, dismissively before looking at Anna. "Anna," I said, looking around the bathroom if there was anyone else in here. How could I have missed Anna's feet? "Please, please, please—"

"Oh my God!" she squealed. "I can't believe it! An actual celebrity is here in our school! And he's the hottest celebrity in all of America! Wait till I—"

"Anna!" I hissed. "You cannot tell anyone about this, do you understand? Natsume's here to research a part for his movie. And he wants to keep a low profile, okay? No one is supposed to know about this."

"Oh I swear not to tell," Anna said. "But, Mikan. Since you're close and all, could you at least ask for his number for me? Pretty please?"

I couldn't believe this. And I thought Anna would be more mature about this. Considering that she was in the student council and all. "No," I told her. "He cannot find out that any of you guys know about this, got it?"

Hotaru shrugged, now looking bored. "Whatever."

"But I won't drop a hint that I know about his real identity," Anna insisted. Just give me the number, pleeeeeeeeeeeease?"

"No," I said, sternly, sounding like my mother. "And Hotaru? Do you mind me dropping off by the yearbook committee's room later? I need to talk to Ruka."

She shrugged. "Fine."

"How about Ruka?" Anna asked me. "I'm sure being a manager and all, he could get me into a talent agency—"

"Anna. No." I sighed. "Look, I have to get to class, okay? I'll see you guys, later. And I please don't tell anyone about this."

"For the last time," Hotaru said. "I won't. I just wanted to let you know that I know all about it, so you won't have a harder time hiding it from me."

Anna raised her right hand, as a sign of promise. "And I swear, I won't tell anyone." I narrowed my eyes at her. "All right. Or ask for their numbers."

"Okay." I felt myself relax a little. "Good. I'm counting on you guys."

Was that fast? Hihi. Well. I guess I got my first hater. Oh well. Like that's going to stop me from writing. And I'm just saying I'm not gonna stoop down to someone's level who spends his/her time posting rude reviews on people stories. Oh, and I just wanna say that there's a better way of criticizing someone's story in a totally not rude way. :) and I'm not complaining. Just saying.

Okay. I just wanted to get that out. :)