Chapter 20

First Day of School

Walking through the gates of the school brought a strange sense of purpose to Hiro. She felt as though this, her senior year, was her mission—the last mission before she and Haku could... what? Live their life together? Hiro blushed shaking her head in agitation. One kiss and she was already thinking about the rest of her life. She shrugged it off as she headed for her locker to drop her bag off in it, taking only a notebook and pen with her as she did on the first day of school every year. Today would be decidedly boring with going over rules and regulations, the expectations and grading parameters of the classes and the like.

She also pulled out the schedule she had received in the mail just a few days prior confirming that her first class was, indeed, math. She groaned inwardly. She despised math and didn't like the idea of starting every day for the rest of the year with the cursed subject. Closing her locker door revealed a man leaning against the locker (causing a brief feeling of deja vu seeing as Cai had done the exact same thing the past 5 years), his dark shaggy hair concealing one of his snapping hazel eyes.

She knew that she was going to run into Antoni but she had figured that she would at least see him coming. Hiro stumbled backward raising her right hand as if to ward the tall figure off, her left arm crushing her schedule, notebook, and pen to her chest.

He looked genuinely shocked and... was that hurt? "It's nice to see you too, Chihiro," he said softly reaching a hand up to stroke her face and she repressed a shiver. He didn't know that she knew about his hand in keeping her away from Haku, right? Or why would he be treating her as if no time had passed between the last time they saw each other at the park and now?

Hiro filed the idea away to be explored later but tried to act as nonchalant as Antoni, "You just surprised me is all," she managed slipping easily out of reach of his hand and hoping he saw it as her regaining her balance. There was a flicker in his expression but he smiled at her and gestured in the direction of her class.

"May I walk you to class?" he asked. Seeing no way to refuse him politely, her thoughts being too jumbled to work the way they should, she nodded and fell into step beside him. They walked in silence and Hiro wondered if she should bring up the case of her missing hair tie or if it would seem too abrupt to ward off premature suspicions. "So how was the rest of your summer?" Antoni asked, his hands nonthreatening in his pockets.

"Mmm, quiet," she replied with a shrug. "Lots of reading, you know." He laughed in response before proceeding to inform her how he had gone out for the football team. Apparently the coach had decided to recruit him, hence his being MIA over the past few weeks. Hiro wondered at that before he tugged gently on her sleeve, bringing her to a stop outside her math class. She looked up at him in wary question.

"Our first home game is this weekend, and I wanted to know if you would come," he said, his eyes compelling and Hiro found herself agreeing to the invitation before she realized what she was doing but his smile showed he was pleased and he punctuated the silence with a swift kiss to her head, sending a chill through her. "I'll see you at lunch then, Chihiro!" he piped and left her in a daze outside her class.

The next few hours sped by sickeningly fast as Hiro tried to process what had happened between her and Antoni that morning. She knew he was bad news and yet... the compelling power he had had frozen her to the spot and it made her completely uneasy. She wanted to talk to Haku about it see if there was anything to be done to keep her from being so easily confused...

When the bell for lunch rang, Hiro had half a mind to go home, feigning illness but she knew it wouldn't set a good precedent to play hooky on the very first day of school. So instead, she found herself on the roof of the school, her lunch in hand. She had carefully surveyed the roof and found that no one else had taken up residence before she settled in to eat.

It was still pretty hot, the summer not completely having given way to autumn but sitting under the eaves of the building kept her comfortable.

Hiro was just finishing up her juicebox, when she heard the door to the roof open and she looked up in dismay, praying it wasn't who she thought it was. She let out a rather harsh breath of relief when she was confronted with a pair of blue eyes in the face of a young woman. The girl looked at her startled by the sound and suddenly looked unsure of herself.

"Oh, I didn't mean to disturb you!" she babbled eliciting a laugh from Hiro and the girl paused looking confused.

"You don't disturb me," Hiro finally managed wiping a tear from the corner of her eye and gesturing for the girl to join her. "Quite frankly, I am relieved that it is you and not someone else," she confessed when the girl sat next to her, looking much like a bird ready to fly at any moment. The admonition caused a small smile to flit across the girl's face as she pulled out a juice box of her own.

The young girl introduced herself as Raven, a freshman. Raven had been startled when Hiro had owned up to being a senior, causing another round of apologies for intruding on her space. But when Hiro had soothed the girl she asked why she had even thought of coming up to the roof.

"Some boys from my class were picking on me—saying my hair looks like a bird's nest and stuff," Raven said clasping her hands tightly about her knees. Hiro looked at the girl's tumble of blond hair—it was curly and short and rather unruly. She looked anything but like what one would imagine a girl named "Raven" to look like. But she was endearing, Hiro concluded, and she was pretty intelligent for a freshman.

"Honestly, I used to be picked on for my accent and appearance, as well," Hiro confided earning a round-eyed stare from the girl.

"But you're beautiful! Why would they pick on that?!" It was Hiro's turn to look shocked but it soon melted away into another laugh. She had never found any American so easy to be around than this girl.

"I guess we will never know," Hiro shrugged with a smile, "but how about we meet again here tomorrow? We'll keep away from your bullies and also steer clear of my trouble makers, neh?" she suggested.

"Really?!" Raven squeaked, her expression one of delight before she clasped one of Hiro's hands in both of hers. "You're the nicest person I've ever met!" she gushed causing Hiro to shake her head in amusement.

"I'm sure there are nicer," she said as the bell rang causing them both to cringe at the sound before standing up and dusting off their skirts.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hiro!" Raven said happily before scrambling through the door and down into the school. Hiro laughed through her nose with a shrug of her shoulders before looking up at the sky. There were a few clouds rolling and she wondered if it might rain later that evening before she picked up her trash and made her way to her locker and the next class in her schedule.

She kept her eyes peeled cautiously for any sight of Antoni and breathed in relief when she finally got to her art classroom and saw that, again, he was at least not in her class. Taking a seat at the table closest to the window (as she did in all of her classes) Hiro looked about at the class. It was very small—not many students in the school being either interested or at the same level of this particular class being the reason. Hiro preferred it that way, small, because it meant the noise was kept to a minimum and it was easier to get the instructor's attention and help when needed instead of having to wait almost all period just to have a small question addressed. Role didn't take very long but while it went, Hiro's ears perked up at a familiar voice in the classroom adjoining hers, the door being left open so that her class would be able to grab supplies to start right away on their first projects of the semester.

Haku's ceramics class was the same period as her drawing class and she couldn't stop the thrill the ran through her nervous system.

"Ogino, Hiro?"

"Here!" she exclaimed louder than she had meant to promptly feeling a blush in her cheeks while the class giggled and the teacher regarded her with a raised brow before moving on to explain the expectations of the class.

Halfway through the period, Hiro was finally allowed to move next door to gather her first cut of the nice drawing paper. While she waited behind one of her classmates, she let her gaze drift over the classroom trying not to allow it to snap to who she really wanted to see but when the girls behind her from her own class started tittering she knew immediately what, or rather who, it was about before she tuned in.

"That's the new teacher!"

"He's so handsome..."

"He doesn't look all that old."

"Do you think it's too late to change classes?!"

Hiro smiled inwardly with a roll of her eyes as she finally allowed her gaze to fall upon Haku. He wore a pair of glasses that he hadn't been wearing that morning and she wondered if he really needed them or if it was merely pretense.

His buttoned shirt was as fresh as it had been when he'd left that morning but he had rolled his sleeves up and some point probably so he could work with clay, his hair neatly held back by a simple black tie. When his gaze suddenly flicked to hers, the girls beside her nearly went into a tizzy, claiming that he had caught eyes with them and Hiro looked away, startled at the suddenness, her heart rate pulsing rapidly in her ears as, with shaking hands, she cut her paper to her needed size and then walked back into her classroom, not daring to look at Haku again for fear she might give them away from day one.

By the time final period rolled around, Hiro was anxious for school to be let out so she could go home and perhaps talk with Haku. She had discovered that she didn't like the way the girls in the school had started talking about him nonstop, some even voicing hopes of his falling in love with them. That plus her desire to get out of the same vicinity as Antoni were making her rather irritable from all the pent up energy.

She found herself looking forward to PE knowing that they would be doing the mile run to see how well they had all kept in shape that summer. Swapping her crisp uniform for the shorts and tee for activity, she filed into the gym with the rest of the girls from the locker room to find that the boys had been gathered as well. The air conditioning was on full blast eliciting a couple complaints from some of the girls but Hiro figured they would be let out to run around the school soon enough to put up with the cold for soon they would be complaining about the heat.

While they waited for the rest of the students to tumble out of the locker rooms, Hiro glanced around bored at the gathered students and remembered to thank her lucky stars that Cai was no longer in attendance—he somehow had always seemed to be in her PE class and now it was no longer an issue.

"Chihiro!" a voice called and Hiro felt the chill as an arm was slung about her shoulders. Sure enough, looking up revealed that Antoni was garbed in the PE uniform a plan headband holding his mop of hair away from his face. She had thought his not being in any of her classes was too good to be true...

Casidhe here! Ahem. So. Yes. I have updated! (look of triumph) I hope it wasn't too boring... I felt like she HAD to have a friend aside from Haku in the school and remember quite fondly having quite a few friends from the younger classes back when I was in highschool... :) The cycle starts again, I must update my other writings before I do another one here but hopefully it won't be as long as this last wait... I'm glad you all have lives. ;)

BTW, I just started watching Supernatural... oh. My. Gosh. I looooove it! :D Kinda obsessed. Anyway. I hope to hear from ya'll at least a bit to know if you like the way it's headed!

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CB