Hello, everyone! I'm sorry for not updating for so long~ My laptop is broken and I have no idea when to update the new chapters of my stories ):

Anyways, thanks for reading my story and I noticed that there are so many reviews in the last chapter of The Broken Pieces Left. I bet you can't sleep without thinking if Koko and Kitsuneme will recognize Mikan or not. Or the thought of what will happen if they find out that she's Mikan. Lol, you just have to find out in this chapter ;)

Thank you so much for my reviewers:

muzikchic4eva

puresepe : yes, I have an fb account :) do you have one?

Xxdarkness-angelxX

queen amazing

ohhh

Msdgirl

xxxHazelxCrimsonxxx

lightXdarkness

Suikahime

Melyss

june121995 : Mikan and the rest of the DFA went to Hawaii because of Mikan's dad's business trip and Koko and Kitsuneme are also there because their parents gave them a week vacation to Hawaii as their birthday present. The 8th grade class of Ms. Kira are the ones who went to Caribbean, with the exception of the DFA. Hope I cleared your confusions, if not you can refer to Chapter 12 and 13.

Gothic-Neko-Writer : Yesshhh! Sure, I'll tell ya if I ever go there in Hawaii ;)

xx-JayNell-xx : -giggles- don't worry you'll find out how will Natsume and Mikan meet... and thanks for the suggestion :D

Cinderpaw11

g6devilangel

Kylee-Cat

Crimson-Midnight-Moon

Sparkles585

midnight leo

anim3gurl

BeArOcKpRiNxEsS : Haha, no prob ^^

shimahiko4ever : lol, thanks for the compliment :D

Ikuta

YunnahVanila

xfayex bbzx

CrimsonKuroNeko-chan : XD Thanks! :) I'm glad that you liked my story

Amulet Crimson

Kuroichibineko : Thanks for the advice :D

Disc: I don't own Gakuen Alice

You can keep me or leave me take me or break me but just remember... you can't change me.

"Eh? Isn't that Misaki? Who's that girl with her?"

Mikan's heart skipped a beat and her blood ran cold. She didn't know if she was just hallucinating or not, because she could swear that those voices were very familiar. And she already had a hint to who were they.

"Koko? Kitsu?" Misaki asked in surprised voice. She looked at Mikan who wiped her tears and now her head was downcast.

Misaki remembered that she was supposed to ask why did she looked different from the Mikan that they knew before, because she changed in and out. She could hear the twins' footsteps to them and she glanced at Mikan at the corner of her eye. She was still not moving and that meant she didn't want them to see her, based on what they talked about earlier.

Oh crap, I think Mikan wouldn't like it if they find her out, Misaki was thinking of so many excuses. She would like to interrogate Mikan at that moment but seeing her paralyzed state made her think otherwise. She would save the interrogation later, but right now she had to think of an excuse so Mikan would be able to get away from the twins.

"Misaki! I thought you were still in New Jersey," Koko's cheery voice broke her train of thoughts.

Mikan finally looked up but she didn't glance at the twins. Instead, she stared straight at Misaki. Mikan began sweating a bit, her heart was accelerating and she couldn't look at those guys who were one of her so-called-friends that back stabbed her.

"I, uh, I was. But my friend Karen convinced me to come to New York to study there in Alice Academy," Misaki answered. She kept her composure on the outside even though she was still worried for Mikan.

"Oh," Kitsuneme and Koko nodded in understanding. Suddenly their gazes shifted to Mikan who was still not looking anywhere but Misaki. They grinned and pointed at her. "Who's your friend here Misaki?" they asked.

"Err...," Misaki stared at Mikan with panicked eyes. Mikan returned the same gesture. They were praying that someone could save them from this trouble.

"Kayla!" a familiar masculine voice called out a few feet away from them. Mikan looked to the person who called her 'fake' name and found herself sighing in relief when her eyes landed on a certain brown-haired guy.

"Alex!" Mikan waved her hand to him.

Misaki and the twins turned to see the young lad walking coolly towards them. The twins raised their eyebrows and they sighed in defeat. They were sure that this girl that was with Misaki was a full Japanese, not American. And they thought that she was single, guess not...or so they thought.

"Mi-, I mean, Kayla. I think I'm going with these two morons for a while and then I'll join you later," Misaki said in English.

"Sure. We will wait for you there, Misaki," Mikan replied, also in that foreign language.

She then walked away with Ralph on her side. Misaki stared at the two and narrowed their gazes on the twins.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Koko and Kitsuneme gaped in shock. They were about to burst when Misaki suddenly head-locked Koko and messed up his hair.

"Happy Birthday, you two!" Misaki greeted them.

"It's Belated, FYI," Kitsuneme tried to correct her.

"Well then, what are you doing here wasting your time for crap like walking here in the beach? We have to part-eyyy you know," Misaki high-fived them.

"Then maybe we can also join you later with that chick," Koko suggested.

Misaki froze. Well, she didn't see that one coming and she didn't know how to answer. She then thought for a minute. They didn't recognize Mikan and besides, it their birthday, it wouldn't hurt for them to come, right? She just had to warn Mikan so she could tell her members of the DFA about this.

"Yep! But I know that I must have missed something in Japan, so why not chat for a while?"

"Hurrraaayyy! We're not gonna feel gloomy again, right Kitsu?" Koko nudged his twin on the ribs.

"Ow! Well, of course! I bet we can do something more interesting with your friends here Misaki!" Kitsuneme said.

"Whatever, let's go."

Mikan's once calm mind had began functioning hundreds faster than usual. She was so relieved earlier that Kitsuneme and Koko didn't recognize her that she didn't even process what the heck was Ralph doing there and he also called her by her 'fake' name as if he really planned to call her that at that time.

"Hey, stop spacing out birdbrain," Ralph's deep voice broke her reverie.

She looked up to him and the worries were visible in his eyes, and...anger? It just added up to the conclusion that he might have heard her conversation with Misaki earlier!

"You... W-What we-were you doing there?" Mikan asked nervously. Her face must have been impassive but there thoughts in her mind were rampaging wildly inside her head.

There was a long silence after she asked that question and somehow she already knew where this would lead to.

"I followed you," Ralph's answer to her.

Mikan's hazel eyes widened. Her suspicions were right, he followed them and he must have heard all of those.

"W-Why?" Mikan asked, she stared at the sand beneath her white flip-flops as if it was the most interesting thing in the world for the moment.

"Because I'm worried," he quickly replied.

Mikan was surprised. She never expected him to be worried because if there was someone who might follow her, that would be Nobara. She understood that Ralph liked her and maybe that was why he was doing this.

"I'm worried because I've seen you really... acting different whenever you're talking to that friend of yours. I... I'm worried because I never seen you like that... not when you first came to Alice Academy," Ralph admitted.

Mikan looked up and her eyes were watering, tears were threatening to fall any minute now. She saw Ralph's face etched with worry and pain. She now understood that Ralph didn't just did it because he liked her, he followed her because he didn't like her to be in that state again. He was worried, worried about her feelings.

"Did you hear?" Mikan asked, in less anxious voice because Ralph's confession had managed to calm her down. Although it brought blush to her cheeks.

There was this awkward silence again that enveloped them. Ralph suddenly took Mikan's hands and put them on his chest part. He was inches away from her as he stared at her with amber eyes full of anger and sorry.

"Why did you let that bastard hurt you? Mikan... is that the reason that you can't accept me?" Ralph asked in a pained voice.

Mikan was taken aback. She didn't know that Ralph would ask something like that. She pulled her hands away and put it on his cheeks instead. She gazed at him as if she was really sure about something.

"You're the first guy who take me seriously. You're the guy who help me to pull away from the sadness that caged me in. I will never ever hurt you, Alex. The reason that I didn't accept you is because I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I accept you, I might get hurt again and I might lose you. That's why I want to make sure that everything is steady and just...right before I give you my answer."

Ralph stared at her seriously. He leaned in closer and brush his lips on her forehead. Even though it was just a small gesture, it helped Mikan to calm down because she somehow knew what was Ralph trying to convey to her. His feelings. She closed her eyes when Ralph's heat radiated to her and she found herself being embraced by the one of the most important people in her life. She couldn't just afford to lose him. She would do anything so neither of them would get hurt at the end.

"I'm willing to wait Mikan. I'm always gonna be by your side."

Those words were the ones that she wanted to hear the most. And just like that, he took her breath again along with the weight in her heart.

A twitching Ralph.

A paled Mikan.

And a partying group.

That's how things ended up when Misaki called Mikan and told her about Kitsuneme and Koko tagging along with her. Mikan wasn't able to protest anymore, seeing that Misaki had already hang up on her. She quickly told the DFA to call her Kayla, her 'fake name', for the meantime. They didn't ask anymore questions, with the exception of Nobara who stopped after an hour of nagging. But Mikan was sure, as hell, that they were all gonna ask a lot of questions to her later.

Now, they were in a club for teens who were underage. They didn't have any alcohols, just sodas and different flavors of juice. They have pools where Kitsuneme, Tsubasa, Craig, and Koko started playing. They played billiards and they even had a bet, involving their cars. Mikan and the others were in a living room-like area chatting, playing Wii, reading magazines, etc.. Ralph and Satoshi were there with Mikan, Nobara, Leanne, and Misaki.

"Afraid to lose your precious Ferrari?" Mikan taunted. She was sitting on the large, red carpet in front of the 42" inches plasma TV. She was eating popcorn while watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender".

"No. I don't wanna hang out with... them," Ralph replied slowly. He took a large bag of Lays potato chips and plopped some on his mouth.

"Well... They're all retarded," Mikan said, not taking off her eyes from the TV.

"Why do you seem do engrossed in this movie? Didn't we just had a movie marathon last night?"

"I was not able to watch it because I fell asleep," Mikan replied.

"Oh, yeah. So you decided to make me as your pillow at that time?" Ralph remarked.

"Whate-," Mikan trailed off when she found out that they were out of popcorn. She stood up, causing her shadow to loomed over Ralph and he wasn't able to see a part of the movie.

"Hey, I'm watching," Ralph protested.

Mikan rolled her eyes and purposely stayed longer than she had to. She then ran away when Ralph grabbed some potato chips to throw at her. She went to the counter and sat on one of the stools. However, she didn't expect Koko to also sat beside her and began examining her.

"Hey, are you a Japanese?" Koko asked in English with his Japanese accent.

"Yes, I am," Mikan's replied fluently in English.

"Cool! What's your name again?"

Mikan looked at Koko with expressionless face. Koko also stared back with his usual goofy grin and with his cheery eyes. Mikan couldn't help but remember some things that had happened in Japan so she averted her gaze away from him.

"I'm Kayla...Kayla Kinomoto," Mikan lied.

"Well, nice meeting you! I'm Kokoro Yome, you can call me Koko for short," he extended his arm to her and she stared at it for a couple of seconds before she shook it.

"You know, you kinda remind me of someone," Koko said out of the blue.

Mikan who was drinking an orange juice had almost spat it out. She turned sharply at Koko who seemed to be scrutinizing her. She narrowed her eyes on him and put her hands on her hips.

"You know that it's rude to stare at people like that, right?"

Koko looked up to her and instead of replying back, he stared at her hazel orbs. He was too absorbed to what he was doing that he didn't know that Mikan was beginning to freak out. She thought that Koko would find her out sooner because of the sudden knitting of his eyebrows.

"You look familiar," Koko blurted out. Her eyes... it looks so familiar. I remember staring at the same eyes before, but who could that be? Mmmmm, he continued to ponder.

Koko's head suddenly jerked at the front slightly. He then turned around and saw Ralph behind him with a bag of potato chips in hand, probably the one that he used to hit him.

"Don't worry, I'm not a going to steal your girlfriend. I just wanna meet Kayla and talk to her. Well then, I have to go," Koko said before going to the pool where Kitsuneme and Tsubasa were playing.

"That was a close one," Ralph told Mikan quietly. She just nodded and she watched her friends, Tsubasa and Craig, played with Koko and Kitsuneme. She still wouldn't consider the twins as her friends because she couldn't just simply forget and forgive them for all those things that they did to her.

"It's getting dark outside, want me to take you to your room?" Ralph offered her.

Mikan nodded and Ralph clasped his hand with hers. Mikan's cheeks turned pink as she looked away to hide it. It was quite too late because Ralph already saw her blush and he couldn't help but smirk.

"Falling for me already, little girl?" Ralph teased.

Mikan's cheeks turned a darker shade of red. She huffed and playfully glared at the brown-haired lad. "A-As if!"

Ralph just chuckled and patted her head while she tried to avoid him. Unbeknownst by them, someone was watching them from afar. Kokoro Yome had smelled something fishy going on.

It was past 9 already and most of the tourists in the hotel were already sleeping because of tiredness. The DFA was also exhausted and that they all fell flat on their beds without changing their clothes into their sleeping attire.

The DFA was in the bar for about five hours and they really had fun. Except from Mikan because she was not really that comfortable around Koko and Kitsuneme, seeing that they might suspect something. Mikan would not reveal herself to them, not unless it was really reasonable and necessary.

A certain amber-eyed lad was walking in the beach while kicking some stones along the way. The waves were crashing in the shore as it pulled some sand to the ocean. It was really a relaxing scene and that's why this lad was there. He wanted to become relax even for that moment and think things out.

"What are you doing here, baka?" a voice broke his peaceful silence and he mentally groaned.

Ralph looked at the younger boy walking towards him and he didn't know why was he still not sleeping in this time. Shouldn't he be sleeping right now like his sister did? He was stubborn, Ralph knew that, and there was no way that Youichi would obey him if he tell him to go to the hotel and get some sleep.

"Can't sleep," Ralph responded.

Silenced ensued between the two boys as they watched the dark blue sky turned pitch black and when the stars started twinkling in the dark. The loud crashing of the waves had tuned off a bit and it was replaced by animals or insects making little sounds.

"Say, why did you let onee-chan join your group?" Youichi asked.

"'Onee-chan'?"

Youichi looked at Ralph and muttered, "It's 'sister' in Japanese."

"Oh."

"So... why did you let my sister? I heard from her friend Nobara that my sister became the leader of your group," Youichi mentioned.

"We didn't decided that. Nobara and the others were the ones who gave us that title. I was actually the leader of the DFA before, and then Mikan also became one so it makes us two," Ralph explained to him.

"I see," Youichi nodded his head lightly. He then turned sharply to Ralph with an impassive face. "You like my sister, right?" he asked, but it came out as a statement than a question.

Ralph couldn't lie to this kid. He knew that Youichi was smarter than everyone gave him the credit for. He wouldn't be able to escape now that Mikan's brother was the one who was cornering him and he was sure that Youichi would take the answer from him, even if he was willing or not.

"What if I do?"

Youichi glared at him and Ralph returned the glare with ten times intensity in it. But the kid didn't back down, he also intensified his glare on him and Ralph found himself scoffing because he thought that he was being childish having a glaring contest with a kid.

"You're just one them," Youichi mumbled, taking off his glare from the older boy.

"What do you mean, brat?" Ralph asked, irritated.

"You just like my sister because of her looks. That's why I don't want you to come ne-," Before Youichi could even finish his sentence, Ralph had already cut him off.

"Oh, that's bull. I'm not that low. First time I saw Mikan, I knew she's different from the other girls. That's why I became interested in her. I didn't know that I will grow closer to her and found out about her secret, about her disguise," Ralph confessed to Youichi.

Youichi looked unfazed, he was clearly not believing him and he needed more proof than what he just said. Ralph looked at the ocean and inhaled the fresh hair. His amber eyes looked distant, Youichi noticed.

"Nobara was right, what she really needed is at least one friend to understand her. And that's when everything started. I found out that behind that cold mask of hers is a lonely idiot who wanted to look strong in front of everyone even though she's really breaking in the inside. I want to comfort her, to always be by her side and protect her," Ralph looked at the wide-eyed Youichi and smirked, "I know you feel the same 'cause you wouldn't be that protective to her if you don't really love your sister."

Youichi quickly compose his face from its shocked state. He coughed while Ralph merely snickered at him which annoyed him. He then said to him, "I didn't know that you're able of telling a long speech 'cause I thought you're just the silent type of a moron."

Ralph twitched. Here, he was getting serious and this kid would ruin it by giving rude remarks to him. He was older than him by two years for Pete's sake! However, his thoughts stopped when Youichi voiced out his next words.

"I want my sister Mikan to be happy again, and I'm sure you're capable of doing that," Youichi then stood up and was about to walk away when Ralph gave him a grin.

"You don't have to tell me that, because I've already decided that," Ralph said to him.

Youichi smirked and went to his room.

At first, he doubted that Ralph would be able to make her sister happy. But after he talked to him, he knew that he was able to blow away the sadness that his sister was feeling. Ralph wasn't like the other guys who just wanted Mikan because of her fame, her wealth, and her looks. Ralph liked Mikan for who she was. He liked her because his heart was telling him to.

"Didn't you notice something about that Kayla chick?"

Koko and Kitsuneme were staying in different hotel. Koko was exhausted but Kitsuneme were there sitting on the carpet with the joystick in his hand, playing video games. Koko's energy was drained because of too much thinking and they didn't stop playing in the bar for about five hours. But Kitsuneme seemed to be energetic as ever and he didn't look tired at all, except from the visible eye-bags.

"You mean, that hot brunette?" Kitsuneme asked.

Koko nodded. His back was lying on the couch and his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. There was something off about that 'Kayla' and he couldn't take that thought out of his mind. When he decided to just shrug it off, it just came back to him and didn't stop nagging his brain.

"Now that you mentioned it," Kitsuneme turned his full body to Koko and his face was serious. "Brunette hair? Hazel eyes? Fair skin? That Kayla is really giving me the creeps."

Koko raised an eyebrow. She was giving him the creeps? Maybe because she was smoking hot? However, Kitsuneme's next words stopped all of the functioning nerves in his brain.

"Take off the ponytail, braces, and glasses from Mikan Sakura and she's a full bloom Kayla Kinomoto," Kitsuneme blurted out.

Koko's eyes widened. Kitsuneme who had a late reaction from the things that he said, dropped the joystick and the game that he was playing told him that it was 'game over'.

Mikan Sakura is Kayla Kinomoto? That's impossible, right?

I'm so sorry if this chapter is kinda crappy -_- Don't worry, I'm going to do my best in later chapters ;) Thanks for reading and waiting for this chapter for such a long time, blame it to my broken laptop! :(

Hope I'll get a review from you!:D

CrimsonHazelEyes