Ichigo's Crush

Summary: Ichigo develops a crush on a girl in his class, but it's not who you'd expect. Ichigo's weird when he's in love. Now his friends must decide if they should leave Cupid's arrow where it is or rip it out. R&R please!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its characters. Bleach and its characters belong to Tite Kubo. This is just a fanfiction written for fun. Please enjoy.

Chapter 1:

Ichigo yawned wildly at his desk, tired and waiting for class to start. An extra half hour of sleep would have done him well, but he didn't want to be late. Now he was sitting in his seat fighting off the urge to close his eyes for an extra few seconds of slumber. Several times he had come close to dozing off in class but never actually fell completely asleep and didn't want to break that record now. Others would tell him he had, but that was when Kon was in his body so those didn't count.

He glanced around sleepily, trying to wake up. When he noticed Chad walk in, he perked up slightly, sitting up in his seat. "Hey," he greeted and Chad came over. The two began to chat for a bit, then Orihime came over with her usual perky smile.

"Hi, guys! How was your morning?"

"Fine."

"Early."

She grinned, thinking Ichigo's heavy eyes were adorable.

Tatsuki came over and noticed that Ichigo was having a sluggish morning. "You could take a nap in the nurse's office if you're that tired."

"I'll wake up soon. It's just one of those mornings."

Another Hollow hunt had kept him away from his bed just as he was about to doze off under the covers. If it hadn't been for that intermission from his regular evening routine, he wouldn't be feeling so tried. He was used to sleepless nights because of his Soul Reaper duties, but after a while, they started to build up to the point of becoming taxing.

Tatsuki pinched Ichigo's cheek roughly with her fingers.

"Ow, ow, ow! What'd you do that for?" he complained.

"Awake yet?"

Ichigo rubbed his cheek. "I'm fine. Don't do that."

"Ah-ha! There's your usual scowl," Tatsuki said, pointing. She seemed quite pleased with herself.

Ichigo growled and turned his head away.

Orihime turned her head, noticing another friend walk in. "Good morning, Uryu!" Then she paused. "What's wrong, Uryu? Are you ok?"

Ichigo glanced up and saw Uryu keeping his distance with a paper mask over his mouth and nose.

"Keep your distance," he warned her, his voice slightly deeper than usual. "I have a cold."

"And yet you came to school to infect us all," Ichigo half complained, half teased. "Thanks a lot."

Uryu shot him a look. "It's a mild cold, I'll have you know, and certainly not something I'm willing to relinquish my perfect attendance for."

"What perfect attendance?" Ichigo asked, thinking back on how often they've had to skip class in order to save it.

Uryu took his seat without another word, frowning at him.

Ichigo rolled his eyes.

Eager to help a friend, Orihime clenched her fists in front of her chest with a determined look on her face. "I know just what you need. Some juice! I happen to have one in my bag. I'll give it to you. Don't worry. I can always get another. It's no problem."

While Orihime tried to be Uryu's nurse, Ichigo glanced out the window and noticed the tree branches bending slightly. One of the girls in the first row noticed the breeze, too, and started to open the window to get a little air into the room. Another girl did the same, squeezing behind Ichigo's desk in order to reach the window he sat by. He didn't mind having the windows open. The breeze felt nice.

The bell rang and the teacher stepped into the room as everyone took their seats.

Ichigo was just beginning to wonder if the smell of trees and dirt carried by the breeze would be enough to make him drowsy when the teacher made an announcement that had him wide awake.

"We have a new student joining our class today."

Based on past experience, Ichigo sat up straight to see if it was anyone he knew from the Soul Society. When no such face came into view, Ichigo calmed down but listened nonetheless, wondering if this was a potential friend or enemy he hadn't met yet.

It was a girl with dark hair down to her shoulders and a standard schoolbag adorned with a variety of colorful keychains. She wore the normal girl's school uniform but she had a pink wristwatch on her right hand and dark pink rimmed glasses on her lightly tan face.

"Um, hi," she greeted the class. "My name is Yuka Haruna. My favorite color is pink and I like reading and taking long walks. I have a cat named Kuro because he's all black, but I like all kinds of animals. Nice to meet you all. I hope we can be friends."

Their teacher told them to make her feel welcome and to be nice to her. She was told to take the seat against the wall, two seats behind Uryu's desk. She nodded and quickly took her seat. As she did, Orihime waved to her from where she sat and gave her a big smile.

So far, the girl seemed completely normal. A pretty average high school girl, as far as Ichigo could tell. She probably wasn't a Fullbringer or a Vizard he hadn't met before sent to keep an eye on him. If she was a Soul Reaper he hadn't met yet, her outfit would be all over the place as people from the Soul Society were so out of touch with the way people dressed these days in the World of the Living.

This was good. Finally, a normal person as a new student in his class. What a relief.

No longer on edge, Ichigo faced the front of the room and paid the girl no further attention.

When they took a break for lunch, the students tried to make the girl feel welcome, as instructed. The girls seemed eager to get to know this new girl and make a new friend. They invited her to sit and eat with them and asked her all kinds of questions. While the girls did that, Ichigo took his lunch to the roof as he usually did.

When he came back, he noticed that some of the boys in the class were starting to hover around the girl's desk. When she looked at them, they grew shy and moved away slightly or pretended to be looking somewhere else.

Yuka started to get out of her seat and head for the door. On her way out, she nearly bumped into Chad who was on his way in.

"S- sorry," she said nervously.

Chad looked down at her and stepped to one side. "No problem. You ok?"

She nodded.

He smiled. "Good." He remained where he was, allowing her to leave the room without bumping into each other again. She bowed politely at him and dashed out of the classroom.

Ichigo assumed the girl was worried Chad would be angry at her for running into him like that, but Chad was a very kind person and wouldn't raise his hand to a woman like that. It was clearly an accident that could happen to anybody.

The girl was probably heading for the bathroom before class resumed and was embarrassed about it; something which baffled Ichigo. Why were girls so embarrassed about such a thing? It's not like they were announcing it. Yet another typical girl thing as far as he was concerned.

Chad remained in the doorway for some time before turning inside and heading for his desk.

A few minutes later, Yuka returned and took her seat. Chad glanced her way from his desk.

Class started again and this time, though Ichigo didn't notice it, something was a bit different in the room.

Boys in the row behind Yuka were looking her way more often and the boy in the row in front of her was doing everything in his power to keep from turning around to look at her. She wasn't doing anything odd, so why were they looking at her?

We're off to an interesting start, I think.

Please review! ^-^