Chapter 2:

The following morning, Ichigo went to class as he usually did. When he arrived, he couldn't help but notice a couple of his male classmates staring at the door in the back of the room and the one in front, as if waiting for someone to enter. Assuming they were waiting for a friend to show up, Ichigo took his seat like any other day.

Yuka came into the room and the boys who had been staring at the door, straightened up in their seats and watched her sit down. One looked like he wanted to talk to her but was too nervous.

Another boy entered the room, walking right past Yuka on his way to his desk. He paused, then turned around. He looked at Yuka, who hadn't noticed him because she was busy reading, and studied her for a moment. When she moved slightly, the boy turned away and took his seat. He seemed nervous.

Another boy was doing something else odd. He kept making trips to the front of the room for different reasons each time. He had to sharpen his pencil the first time. Then his excuse was that the pencil broke and he had to sharpen it again. Then he wondered if he had left something when he had gone to sharpen his pencil the second time. Then he had to throw something in the trashcan near the teacher's desk. Then he wanted to open the window.

Tatsuki and the other girls in her group stood in the back of the room, shaking her head. "Any excuse to walk by that girl. How pathetic."

"You think he's got a crush on her?"

"What else would be the reason? Of course, he does."

"Well, she is cute, but not as cute as my buxom Orihime."

"Say prevented things like that again and I will punch you," threatened Tatsuki.

Though this had been going on all morning, Ichigo barely noticed.

That is, until Chad got out of his seat to throw something away. On his way back to his seat, he nodded to Yuka and said "Good morning."

"Good morning," she said back, giving him a shy smile.

"Your name is Yuka, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"I'm Chad." He then gave her a smile. "I know it can be scary your first day or two in a new classroom with a bunch of strange people. If you need anything at all, just let me know, ok?"

Yuka smiled at him. "Thanks. That's very nice of you."

Chad smiled.

The boy sitting behind Chad gave him a jealous look and blurted out. "I'm nice, too. If you need anything, let me know, ok? I don't mind. It's no trouble."

Chad remained where he was momentarily then walked back to his seat.

Chad normally wasn't very talkative, so he had Ichigo's attention. Chad was a nice person so what he said wasn't odd, it was just how he did it.

Before long, Chad wasn't the only one in the class to offer the new girl assistance. When it was time for gym, several offered to show her the way to the other building. Some even offered to carry her bag for her until she got to the changing room.

Tatsuki watched them all, shaking her head.

"What?" Ichigo asked, noticing the look of annoyance on her face.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" When Ichigo gave her a blank look, she rolled her eyes and explained. "All those guys have a crush on the new girl."

"They do?"

"Seriously? How clueless can you be?"

Ichigo looked at the boys watch the girl head into the girl's changing room, standing on the other side of the chain-link fence and bushes. When she came back out with two other girls, the boys all kept their eyes on her as the girls made their way to the playing field.

"It doesn't mean anything," Ichigo told Tatsuki, convinced there was another explanation for their behavior. "They could be looking in that direction for another girl. It doesn't have to be the new one. Even if it is, she's new. They're probably curious or just being helpful."

"Helpful?" she said, raising a brow.

He shrugged. "She's the new girl. Not everyone bullies the new girl. Sometimes the students are nice and want to make them feel welcome. The teacher told us to."

Tatsuki groaned. "Are you that bad at reading signals?"

She already knew he was clueless when it came to identifying if a girl liked him or not, but she didn't think he was also incapable of spotting it from a spectator's perspective. Ichigo was blunt and short-tempered, but maybe clueless should also be added to his list of less redeeming qualities.

Then again, he was a boy and as far as Tatsuki was concerned, boys weren't very good at recognizing romance unless someone shined a spotlight on it along with an explanation.

Since Ichigo had a lot of good qualities to him and was her friend, Tatsuki was willing to overlook his cluelessness for the time being. It wasn't that important. Since Ichigo was also a kind person, perhaps it was understandable for his mind to go towards spotting gestures of kindness rather than romance when it was presented to him. Maybe he wasn't being clueless or naive in that sense.

Class began by running laps. The boys were up first while the girls stretched and then the girls would be up while the boys gathered the heavy playing equipment.

Ichigo and a select few of boys including Uryu ran laps as they normally did: incumbently but also with a sense of pride to do their best. The rest proceeded to race each other around the track, but not in lieu of slacking off. No, rather to show off.

Ichigo dodged a group of four running as fast as they could around the track with the intent to show off how great they were while simultaneously trying to pull the leader back by his shirt and arms. As a result, they were pumping into each other and nearly tripped several times.

Even with a cold, Uryu managed to avoid being trampled as they went by a second time but succeeded in mowing down the boy beside him.

"You know this is just a warm-up, right?" he called after them from the ground.

Uryu helped his classmate to his feet. "At this rate they're going to tire themselves out before we actually get started."

"What's up with them?"

Ichigo could understand going all-out, but this was only gym class and, as Uryu pointed out, was just a warm-up. Ichigo had his pride, but even he thought this was a bit much.

Uryu noticed that Ichigo wasn't among the group of boys racing each other around the track. "I'm surprised you're not with them."

"If it were an actual race, that'd be different. This, to me, is just stupid."

"So you do have some sense in your head."

Ichigo shot him a look.

Then he directed his attention towards Chad who, though he wasn't amongst the four boys, was also racing around the track. Since he wasn't stumbling over any extra legs or being dragged back by three pairs of arms, he managed to maintain good form as he ran with his head held high. The same head which faced the new girl's direction every few seconds.

Now Ichigo was starting to think something weird was going on. His thought process didn't follow Tatsuki's but at least his attention was snared.

When the girls ran their laps, naturally the boys liked to watch them. It was typical of their age group. However, they only seemed to be looking at one in particular.

Ichigo finally managed to pinpoint the girl they were looking at and confirmed that it was the new girl. He was a bit annoyed that Tatsuki was right, but he still wasn't sure it was what she thought it was. To be certain, he watched the girl carefully. When he noticed nothing strange about her, he resumed handing out the baseball equipment.

He had turned away just as the girls were passing by again. A boy walking close to the track stopped as the girls passed by and remained still for a while. He started looking around slowly then continued his walk only to stop again as the girls got closer. This time when they passed, he stayed where he was and watched them. It took the coach's shrill whistle to bring him and everyone else back to reality.

From there gym had gone on like normal, aside from a few longing gazes at the new girl.

Now that they were back in class, things had gotten a lot stranger.

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