"I hate school," Miku threw her head back. Due to Teto being out of town and Luka having some visiting relatives, practice was cancelled, leaving her and Rin walking around aimlessly.

"If only summer lasted a little longer," Rin whined. She had waited until the last week to do her summer homework so while she was at home finishing it all up, everyone else, including Miku, went to the beach.

Miku gave a little laugh. She had offered to help Rin multiple times during the summer, but Rin didn't even think of homework until close to it's due date. Both girls continued walking about when suddenly a ball flew in front of them and just barely missed. "Watch where you're throwing that thing!" Miku shouted.

"Somebody can get hurt if you're not careful!" Rin also shouted.

"I'm sorry ladies," a guy approached them. He was with two other guys, and the girls noticed that he stenched of alcohol. "Let me make it up to ya," he said as he placed a hand on Miku's shoulder.

"Get away from me you creep," Miku shook him off. Grabbing Rin's wrist she said, "Come on, let's get out of here!"

"Wheredaya think you're goin' in such a hurry?" one of the bigger guys asked.

"Away from here," Miku answered. "Now leave us alone or we'll use force."

"It's the three of us against the two of you," the last guy pointed out. "You're outnumbered."

"No they're not!"

All of them looked for the owner of the voice. Before them was a girl wearing the same uniform as Miku and Rin. "If you don't leave those two alone then you'll have to deal with me."

"Now, now, little lady," the leader approached the girl. "Don't get your pretty little head mixed with others' business."

"Don't touch me," the girl warned.

"Honey, I-" he began as he placed a hand on her shoulder but didn't get to finish. The girl had grabbed his hand, twirled herself so that she was behind him, and pushed him onto the ground.

"Don't ever call me 'Honey'," the girl spat.

"Why you-" the man called her a dirty name as he got up and tried to punch her. The girl merely dodged the attack.

"Missed!" her voice sang with laughter and amusement.

Miku and Rin just stared, this girl was taking what should be a serious situation and acting like it was all a game. The girl, they noticed, was very pretty. Her brown hair was cut to a bob, and her matching eyes shone with laughter. This girl truly was enjoying herself.

"Help me out guys," the leader ordered.

"We gotta help her!" Rin said. Miku nodded and joined with Rin to stop the other two guys.

Their attempts weren't very helpful, however. The men had an easy time fighting off two little girls. "Get off of me!" Rin shouted as she kicked the one in his area. At least that got him down. Rin then proceeded to help Miku.

Miku got behind the man that was attacking her and held his arms. "Now!"

Rin punched the man with all her force, knocking him unconscious. "We should see how that girl is doing," she said as she shook out her hand.

The girl was still dodging each and every of the man's attacks as if they were nothing. "Is that all you got?!" she threw her arms up. "Great! Now I'm bored!" She let the man get close to her but only so she could punch him in the gut and knee him in the face. "Learn to fight before attack!" she said to him despite that he was now unconscious thanks to her.

"Thank you," Miku said, "if you hadn't arrived then who knows what would've happened."

"Just don't come around here again," the girl said, "it's not a safe place."

"We know that now," Rin said. "I'm Kagamine Rin, by the way."

"I'm Hatsune Miku!" Miku chirped.

"And I'm-" the girl was interrupted because the man that Rin had kicked got up and tried to attack from behind. The girl grabbed him and flipped him like a pancake. "Stay down, why don't ya!" To Miku and Rin she said "My name's Sakine Meiko, but don't ever call me Sakine, it sounds old. Not that Meiko sounds any younger," she laughed.

"How about 'Mei-San'?" Miku tried.

"I love it!" the girl, Meiko, said. "Now let's get out of here before these nutcases try to attack us again."

"Agreed," Miku and Rin said in harmony.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sakine Meiko walked and talked with Miku and Rin as they left the area. They found out that she didn't live near there but was only exploring because she had nothing better to do. They also so learned that she was a second-year student from their school and the reason she's such a good fighter is because she took marshal arts as a child.

"Would you teach us, Mei-Senpai?" Miku asked. "I've never seen anyone handle a fight like you did."

"It was amazing!" Rin said. "It looked more like you were just dancing through the attacks."

Meiko laughed. "You two sure are energetic."

"Is that a 'yes'?" Miku asked.

"Maybe," Meiko said, "I would love to, but I shouldn't make promises I can't keep."

"Too bad," Rin said. "Do you know Megurine Luka? She's a second-year student, too."

"She showed me around the school," Meiko said. "She was so nice to me when she offered to help me around on my first day."

"Your first day?" Miku asked, confused.

Meiko nodded. "I just transferred here a few days ago, and I'm still trying to remember where everything is in the school so Luka-Chan has been helping me."

"Why did you transfer?" Rin asked. "Is it okay if I ask?"

"I got into trouble," she said. Miku and Rin wanted to ask but decided to let her continue is she wanted to. It was after minutes had passed and they had given up that Meiko spoke. "This guy, the school playboy, was flirting with this first-year student like yourselves. She was smart and knew to not agree with him, but he was too strong for her. He took her behind the school and," Meiko shook her head, "tried to do . . . THINGS, but I saw him and managed to stop him. The next day he called me . . . names in front of the whole school and began spreading false rumors about me. I put up with it for as long as I could. One day, in the middle of the cafeteria, I punched him; I punched him square in the face. Most of the students were on his side and made it appear as if I just randomly punched him, which you could say I did because I didn't give him a chance to say anything. No charges were pressed, but I was kicked out of the school. My parents didn't care what became of me after that so I took what I had and moved here by myself."

Miku and Rin's faces were filled with horror. "That's terrible!" Rin said. "You didn't do anything wrong! That guy got what he deserved!"

"You were just helping that girl!" Miku said. "That boy is the monster! Not you!"

"It's okay," Meiko smiled, "honest. I didn't like it there anyway so moving back here was the greatest thing that has happened to me in the longest time. If you ask me, all of my trials were really nothing but a blessing in disguise; without them, I wouldn't be here right now."

"So you're okay with it?" Miku asked.

"I still hate his guts," Meiko spat, "but I'm glad that after all these years maybe I can finally . . . well, you wouldn't care."

"We care!" Miku and Rin said. "You can tell us."

"You won't think I'm being silly?" Meiko asked. Miku and Rin shook their heads. "Well, it's just that I've had a crush on this guy for a very long time, and I was hoping maybe if I see him again then I can finally work up the courage to tell him."

"Who is he?" Rin asked. "Maybe we know him."

Meiko weakly laughed. Looking down she answered, "His name is Kaito. Shion Kaito."

Author's Note: The mysterious character is none other than Sakine Meiko! Her little secret is that she likes Kaito. So now three girls have a crush on Kaito, totaling five crushes (I can't believe I forgot to count Luka's crush on Gakupo). This really is fun~.

nekopyon: You guessed right.

Mirakurun26: AND MORE YOU SHALL RECEIVE!

Pokemon Guy 84: You, too, have guessed correctly. . . Maybe I made it too obvious.

Oh my gosh, guys! Are you serious?! Ten followers?! I never would have imagined that! Thank you all so much!

What I do wonder is, why is it called following? Following stories is okay but following authors. . .

*so-and-so is now following you*

Me: *looks over shoulder* *checks under bed* *looks in closet*

*new message*

Message: You're almost out of milk.

Me: *checks fridge* . . . It's true! O.O

-Ray