Prologue

"TSUKI-SENSEIIII!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, and threw open my door. There was that culprit – hurriedly trying to finish LATE WEEK's chapter.

"Oh..." Tsuki trailed off, and kind of grimaced. "Hello, Rima-chan."

"WHAT are you doing? What happened to your, "blah, blah, blah, update every Tuesday policy? You know what day it is?" I snapped at her. How the hell was she going to work up to the happily-ever-after climax if all she did was slack off?

"O-oh, well, er..." Tsuki-no-Kimi tried to think up an excuse. "Well, you see, I really wanted to watch this anime, Full Metal Alchemist, and it was super good so I had to watch more and see what happened, and so then I had to write a one-shot on FMA, OK?"

"what about your POOR readers?!" I said, attempting the guilt trip. "HUH?" I gestured to the flock of people off to the side. If I was not mistaken, a few of them actually had cat ears. "those poor things are going crazy because of the lack of chapters!"

"Uh – huh," said Tsuki reluctantly.

"and then you're totally disregarding me and Nagi!!!" I whined. "you better put something really hot about us doing it in the ending or something or you'll be sorry!"

"sorry I ever wrote a story about a spoiled brat like you," Tsuki said under her breath.

Nagihiko stuck his head in. "Did I hear my name? what's going on in here? Why are you in a conspiracy with the authour, Rima-chan?"

"She's FIVE days late with the chapter, Nagihiko!!!" I whined.

Nagihiko gave Tsuki a dark look. "Oh, that's harsh."

"WILL YOU ALL STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL GUILTY? LEMME GET ON TO WRITING THE STUPID STORY!" Tsuki screamed, whacking herself with the stapler – something she usually only did when Amu and Tadase started flirting during a Shugo Chara! episode.

The next day – June 7th.

I frantically tried to study this morning, but nothing really sunk in. Which was depressing. And I really did try to eat breakfast, but nothing really went down.

UUUURGGGGHHH. BLAAAAHHHLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

I will be so so happy when these things are finally written and done with.

Walking to school

Pretty much, what's going to happen is that all the grade elevens are going to write the test in the gym for an hour and a half, and then go home for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I ran into Amu on the way there, who just mumbled "hello".

"what's with you?" I said, staring.

"nothing! I'm just fine! Absolutely fine! Why do you ask?" she laughed like a demonic sheep.

Scary.

At the school

There was a bit of time before the test started, and I told Amu if we tried to study I would die.

"fair enough," Amu mumbled. She was acting strange. VEEERRRY strange. Suspicious! Maybe she stole something.

I could see the headlines tomorrow: LOCAL GIRL TURNS KLEPTOMANIACAL. (Nagihiko word).

Science Final. Oh my god. Oh my giddy god.

I have turned to Shinto to solve my problems as Vishnu, Jesus, and Allah all refuse to help me. Kami-sama of all holy, please let Nagihiko not have overslept. Stupid idiot. I bet he was up all night again!

Five minutes till starting. Amu keeps twitching and muttering, "Precipitation! Condensation! Evaporation!"

"Amu," I whispered. "where's Nagihiko?"

All she said was, "Perspiration! Constipation! Evacuation!"

Three more minutes till the final.

I stood up to look for Nagihiko, and my chair made a loud scraping noise against the gym floor. Everyone stared.

"be right back!" I said in a high-pitched voice, and scurried out of the room. I heard my chorus of fanboys singing in ten-part-harmony, "the Evanescence of Rima-sama! Observe!"

Nyaha.

The woods outside Nagihiko's house.

Nagihiko wasn't anywhere in the school. Nor (Nagihiko word) was he anywhere in the neighbourhood. So I had no choice but to go look for him near his house.

I looked at my watch, and almost screamed. THIRTY SECONDS UNTIL THE SCIENCE FINAL STARTED. Before I could scream, though, my feet took control and I ran through that damn woods like the devil himself was after me (this is a phrase I read in some old-fashioned book thing.) In fact, I even chucked a couple rocks at the two fat coyotes that got in my way.

That will teach them.

Nagihiko's House

I knocked on the door, and waited. And waited. And waited. I probably sat there for about five minutes before I gave up and tried the door. Please let it not be locked, I begged myself.

The handle stopped, and I realized it was locked.

Before realizing it was just jammed.

Suddenly, the door opened form the other side and Nagihiko came into view. Now, by now you're thinking, "Hooray! Rima-chan found Nagihiko and now they're going to write the final!" but, er it didn't really end up like that. Because the one minor flaw (I shouldn't use that word, because I didn't treat it like a flaw at all) was that he had no shirt on.

Now, I bet your thinking, "Lovely! Even better! Rima and Nagi are going to ditch finals and then dot dot dot!" (A/N: this is a reference to Mamma Mia)

Not really like that, either. I think I just stood there and gawked. Nagihiko kind of smiled weakly and said, "Rima-chan?"

"H-hello," I stammered, feeling my face go red.

Stupid Nagihiko bit back a grin. "your face is so red right now."

"why do YOU think, jerk!" I snapped at him.

"shut up, you little tsundere." The way he said it kind of made me think of one of those affectionate pet names, but it really was quite nasty. "I missed the final, didn't I?" he said miserably, but pulled on his uniform shirt anyway. "I totally overslept."

"where's your parents?"

"my mother's back in Europe again for a couple days." I was about to ask, What about your father? But I kept my mouth shut.

I tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. "It started ten minutes ago,"

He glared. "you idiot."

"what?"

"you get back there and take the stupid final!" he said harshly. "you're the one that needs the marks!"

"NO!" I yelled back. "YOU'RE the one that has a good shot at PASSING the stupid test!"

"big deal," he said, thankfully lowering his voice – Nagihiko yelling is most likely the weirdest thing you'll ever hear, like a chipmunk dying – "If I skip this final, I'll only get twenty percent of my mark of ninety-three, which would make it..."

"math isn't until the day after next!" I said, doing the big streaky-tears thing that those chibi-onion emoticons do. "I'm not leaving without you!"

Rose! Jack! Rose! Jack! You stuck in that Titanic movie or are you going to TAKE THE EFFING FINAL? yelled Kanon in my head.

"yeah, Kanon's right... we'd better get going," said Nagihiko grudgingly.

I stopped dead. "what?"

"we have to get going, right?"

"but... Kanon... she spoke in my head and then..." I stared at him as if he had dropped from Mars. Nagihiko stared back at me, a look dawning on his face. "you mean, Kanon didn't speak out loud?"

"of course she didn't!" I exclaimed. "she spoke in my HEAD! So how did YOU hear it?!"

"I don't know!" (probably the only time he'll ever say that).

I know why! said Kanon. It's 'cause you love him so your minds must...

Nagihiko almost tripped, and we both stopped dead.

THANKS A LOT, YOU JERK!!! I yelled at Kanon as loud as I could in my head.

"Rima?" he said uncertainly.

"What? Can you still hear Kanon?" I said, feeling my heart pick up. It was like in the shojo manga, where all the flowers start blooming on the edges of the panels and "DOKI" in big letters is written everywhere. Please say no. Pleeeeaaasseee say no. No? No.

"yeah."

CRAP.

"She said I could hear her in your head, because..." we were almost shoulder to shoulder. "... you loved me?"

There was ringing silence.

"Rima?" he said gently.

For a minute, I was tempted to just nod. Say it. have it out there in the open. I mean, maybe he does.

But probably not.

Instead, I checked my watch, and almost screamed. "NAGIII!!!" I said, really screaming then. "WE'RE FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE!"

"only one thing to do, then," Nagihiko said placidly, jerking out of his reverie.

"what?" I was feeling a cliché aura, and I could almost predict what he was going to say.

"RUN!!!"

Back at the school

Nagihiko murmured, "don't worry. I have a plan."

A plan to get us pulverized?

A plan to get us expelled?

We were standing in the gym, and everyone had turned around to look at us as we walked in – actually, mostly Nagihiko, because the top two buttons of his shirt were still unbuttoned and all the females were eyeing him, save Yaya and Amu.

Komiya-sensei, the other grade eleven science teacher, marched up and glared at me. Not the demonic long-haired boy, but me. "Mashiro! Fujisaki! Explain yourselves!" she said in her military-general voice. "you are twenty minutes for the Science Final! This will result in a score of zero!"

There was a ringing silence, and we could almost hear everyone inwardly gasp.

"I understand," said Nagihiko quietly. "but..." then he looked up at Komiya-sensei, and he made his eyes go big and shiny, much like Tadase's when Yaya steals the last pastry from him. "please don't punish Rima-chan along with me. It's... It's not her fault."

Komiya-sensei rolled her eyes. "right. whatever."

Nagihiko suddenly hugged me and made his eyes go even bigger. "Our parents wouldn't have wanted this for her!"

"why would your parents care about her?" asked Komiya-sensei.

"we have the same parents," said Nagihiko, as if this was painfully obvious. I stiffened under his grip.

Komiya-sensei suddenly choked. "WHAT?!"

"I don't want my poor little sister to get in trouble," Nagihiko whined. And everyone gasped. Except for Yaya, who was looking painfully confused, and Amu who was trying not to laugh.

"she's your sister?"

Nagihiko nodded and said in a stage whisper so that everyone else could hear to me, "it's OK, Ri-chan. Onii-sama won't let you be a dropout." It was actually pretty funny. Particularly because Komiya-sensei was falling for it.

"Y-you're right," said Komiya-sensei, shaking her head and wiping away a tear. "I can't let you poor siblings be dropouts. We'll give you a thirty-minute extension on the science final." She turned stern again. "but DON'T be late again!"

As I walked to my seat, Sayuri started choking.

HAAAAAA.

After

"I can't believe Komiya-sensei fell for it, either," said Amu in awe. "you two look nothing alike."

"I fancy she was drunk," said Tadase, making everyone look at him in horror.

"what?" Tadase laughed weakly. "I saw her drinking tequila in the staff room before the exam."

Even the teachers don't like supervising finals! They're so desperate they try and drink themselves into stupors before the exam even starts.

And we'll have to go through it all again for the next week...

Epilogue

"do you approve?" asked Tsuki sarcastically.

"I suppose," I said loftily, handing back Chapter 36. "I can't believe we were that close to confessing!" I whined. "But noooo, I just had to look at my watch."

Amu walked past Tsuki's room and looked at her and me funny. "confessing? What the hell are you talking about?"

"NOTHING!" we both chimed back. I grabbed my bag with a defeated air, and Tsuki grabbed her long red Edward-Elric coat and bunny slippers. "NOW," said Tsuki Kimino, glaring at us accusingly, "If you don't mind, Iiiiii need to watch Kamichama Karin and Full Metal Alchemist!"

THERE. I HOPE Y'ALL HAPPY! I got the chapter out admittedly four days late, but out all the same! And Rima and Nagihiko's relationship is slowly building! (at least, I'd like to believe it is...)

Lately, I haven't been watching shugo chara. I'm three epsiodes behind, because when i saw the baseball episode i got so pissed off i went on a shugo chara-withdrawal. FILLERS. SUCK. END OF STORY. And so i better go watch the latest one so I cna treat you all to yet another fangirl rant~*

I'm also proud to announce that the results for the poll are in, and that the next chapter's crossover is going to be Gakuen Alice! Hoorays! But that'll be next chapter, which I'll TRY to update on time, this time. Ehheh.

– Tsukichii~*