The summoning scroll was a huge hit. My classmates were happy. I was happy too, since it meant I could use the scroll Itachi gave me again.

We stopped bringing backpacks. Instead, we made cute cylindrical bags that fit our scroll. Some had flowers or animal stitchings. Others were one color. There would be charms that students clipped on at the ends. The girls liked to attach straps and swing them over their shoulders. The boys liked to keep them at their hips and pretend they were carrying the sword sheath of a samurai.

The summoning scroll was so popular that we got requests from other classes. Even the teachers wanted in. And so, I went to Teacher Iruka again for more scrolls, and I went to Aunt Mikoto again for more help.

I kept running back to the principal's office to write more names in the book. At some point, Tamaki and I gave up on names and wrote 'everyone'.

"There!" We high-fived.

As we stepped out of the office, there was an upperclassman waiting for us. He stood out, being well dressed and groomed. His posture was perfect, and he felt much taller than he was.

He was holding a summoning scroll, looking irritated.

"Uchiha Ayae, it has come to my attention that this is your doing."

I caught the scroll.

"Yes?" I looked up. "Do you want one too?"

"No, I…" He closed his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he said, "I'd like to politely ask, as student representative, that you rescind your permission and undo the rule changes. These things should be banned."

Tamaki stepped up. "What, why?" she asked, hands at her hips. "They're great! Ask anyone, they love them!"

"They're dangerous."

"How so?"

"Because they explode."

"What are you talking about? They don't-" Tamaki remembered my blown up roof.

"Did someone's explode?!" I asked.

I sighed in relief when the upperclassman said no. But that wasn't the point. The point was that they could.

I rubbed my neck. Technically, he was right. But only if they were badly made. The person who made them was Aunt Mikoto, who was not only skilled, but also responsible. I had no doubt her scrolls were safe.

"The students here aren't shinobi-in-training," the upperclassman said. "They will be defenseless in the face of accidents. So please, I urge you to take them away."

Tamaki crossed her arms. "Sorry, the chances of an accident is almost none. Compared to the good they're doing, they're worth keeping."

I nodded, siding with Tamaki. We left.

The next Monday, Dai came in with exciting news. She got her new apprenticeship. It would be at the Konoha hawkery for communications.

I still had nothing. All the places that were looking for an apprentice weren't looking for, well, me. They told me that while they were flattered I wanted to work under them, their job was too humble. I was overqualified.

"Overqualified. What does that even mean!" I complained.

"Don't worry, it sometimes takes a while," Ayame said.

Before I could say anything, I got a tap to my shoulder. I had been called to the principal's office.

Confused, I went.

Inside the office was the upperclassman. He was arguing with the principal.

"... they won't listen to me, and even if they did, the danger is still in the building-"

"Good morning, Miss Ayae."

The upperclassman locked his jaw. He turned around and glared at me.

Quietly, I closed the door. "I got called?"

"Takahashi was just raising a point regarding your latest policy. Do you agree with him?"

"On banning the scrolls?" I asked.

"Yes, that."

I shook my head. I didn't see why they couldn't be allowed. There were no downsides.

Well, there was one downside. You had to be extra careful not to lose your scroll. Losing your scroll was worse than losing a single textbook or pencil, because everything went missing.

When Sayuri lost hers, she had been in a serious panic. She asked me if there was some magical way to track it. I told her no, but my friend Hana might be able to help. Unfortunately, Hana was away on missions. Thankfully, our other friends volunteered to look. They eventually found it under her bed.

But that was no reason for banning scrolls altogether!

"Well, then, that's settled," the principal said.

"But-!"

"Takahashi, Miss Ayae knows much more about ninja tools than you do. She is much more experienced and equipped to make this judgment. We here at the school are highly gracious for her time and dedication to improving our educational experience. In fact…"

The principal smiled. "It is only deserving that she receives a promotion to student representative."

Both of us stared in shock.

Takahashi waited to see if this was a joke. It wasn't. Wordlessly, he took off his second wristband and threw it on the table. He slammed the door close.

I couldn't understand what was happening. I just wanted to make people happy, but I clearly upset someone. Now I had a wristband that I didn't know what to do with.

When I came back, my friends were as surprised as I was. They explained to me that Takahashi was the student representative. It was an important role with lots of extra responsibilities. Because of that, only the highest-achieving student in the entire school was chosen for the title.

"Am I the highest achieving?" I asked. I hadn't been at the school for that long.

"Well, the principal certainly thinks so!" Dai said, handing back the wristband.

"I think you'd make a great representative," Ayame said.

"It's a lot of work though," Setsu warned. "You better read up the guidebooks."

Tamaki was already flipping through some of them. Sweating, she said Setsu was right. The student representative organized the fall fundraiser, collected district donations, sent neighborhood pamphlets, hosted out-of-building activities, ran the intervention committee, ran the disciplinary committee, filed surveillance records, reported to bi-weekly meetings…

The list went on and on. We grew dizzy.

This was beyond the capabilities of a normal person! I didn't even know where to start.

Getting out a pencil, Tamaki took notes. She made sense of the massive list.

"Okay, I think I got this." She showed us her notebook, where she put all the responsibilities under five columns.

Event organization.

Finance.

Student monitoring.

Rule enforcement.

Relations.

"Wow," I said, impressed. I looked at Tamaki. "Would you help me, Tamaki?" She was picking up on this way faster than I was.

"Of course!" she said.

The rest of the Dropouts were happy to help too.

That gave Tamaki an idea. Since there were many duties, it made sense to split everything up. Everyone would be in charge of their own thing.

Tamaki said she would oversee the event organizations. She flipped through the binders until she found a schedule. There was writing on it, presumably Takahashi's, of what he was going to do next. There was a fall fundraiser coming up. She'd take charge of that.

Finances, Ayame was the obvious choice. She knew how to do math, keep books, and run businesses.

Student monitoring, Setsu was perfect. She listened well and was good at sensing how people were doing.

Rule enforcement went to Dai, who threw up her arms. "Whoo! Yes, best part!"

Finally, Tamaki put my name under relations.

I scratched my cheek. "So what is that exactly?"

"Basically, make people like you," Tamaki said.

"So… make friends?"

Tamaki nodded.

I beamed. I got lucky then! That's a great job, not hard at all!

As if reading my thoughts, Setsu shook her head.

"Relations is critical, Ayae," Setsu said. "The student representative is the main pipeline between the school and the village. If the student representative is well liked and can plea the right cases, then the village will continue to support the school. If not… there might not be a school anymore."

I froze. "WHAT!"

Normal school wasn't like the Academy. The Academy was core to the village. It was a high priority that the Hokage himself oversaw. Normal school was a community effort. It needed to prove it should even be there… and keep proving it.

On top of making sure the village thought well of the school, I had to make sure the school thought well of the village. Both sides had to trust each other, and that trust all depended on the student representative.

Who was now… me.

"Our futures are in your hands, Ayae," Ayame said, smiling.

"So please don't mess up," Setsu said, smiling.

"No pressure!" Dai said merrily, patting my back.

I banged my head on the desk.

.

"Council meeting!" Tamaki reminded.

I ran.

"Papers!" Tamaki added.

I ran back, grabbed the stack of papers, and ran back out.

After the board meeting, there was the secretary meeting, then tea with the aid office, then lots of bowing to the district staff, and then more tea with the tax office.

The rest of the Dropouts were just as frantic. Tamaki spent so much time after school, she practically lived in the club rooms. She had string between her teeth, flipping through records while trying to sew with one hand.

If I hadn't met Takahashi in person, I would have thought he wasn't real. No real person could do all this! We were five people, and we were barely handling it!

"Ayae, you're not in a meeting anymore. You can stop smiling now," Setsu said, collapsing in a chair.

"I'm not smiling," I cried. "My face is stuck!"

Ayame clapped both my cheeks, then squeezed and pulled until my face was normal again.

It was one thing to make friends. It was another to get a bunch of grouchy grown-ups to like me, especially when they couldn't even like each other! I had to agree with them to make them happy. But if I agreed with one, then I was disagreeing with another, so I'd upset someone either way. In the end, I learned the only answer was to nod and smile, no matter what was said.

After two weeks, I was ready to march into the principal's office and quit.

But then, I learned that my classmates loved that I was the new student representative. Everyone respected Takahashi, but no one liked him. He was strict and no fun. Even though the student representative was supposed to fight for the students, he never did anything but punish them for breaking rules.

But everyone liked me. They liked that I had changed the rules to let them have summoning scrolls. And that I wasn't scared to change the rules again and again.

It was now okay to eat snacks in class. We had ten minute breaks instead of five. You could go outside too.

There had been awful noise because of construction a few buildings down. It drove Setsu crazy, so Tamaki suggested sound barrier tags. We rewrote the rules to allow those, and suddenly, the classrooms were peaceful again.

Reina had a pack of chakra cards with pretty holograms. She begged me to allow them inside the school. Giant groups soon gathered every lunch break to play tournaments.

Riku's friends pushed him towards me. Shyly, he asked if he could do domestic arts instead of industrial arts. Overhearing, Yuuka jumped in and asked if she could have Riku's spot in industrial arts. They both walked away, chatting excitedly about borrowing each other's equipment.

Before I knew it, I had accepted that I was the student representative. People kept coming to me with requests, and it felt great being able to fulfill them.

On Sunday, I had not even stepped outside the class when a group of students rushed up to me. Exams were only a few weeks away, and they wanted to try shinobi pills. They heard it kept you awake and gave you energy to study longer.

I had barely walked away when Nanami quietly pulled me aside and asked about kunoichi pills. Like everyone else, she brightened when I said I'd see what I could do.

My dad was working late again, so I went straight to Aunt Mikoto's.

I kicked off my shoes.

"Hi Auntie! Question, do you have any kunoichi pills?"

I had walked in on their family dinner. Fugaku choked on his tea. Sasuke's eyes went wide, before he looked away. My heart skipped when I saw Itachi was also home.

Excited, I was about to join him at the table. But then Aunt Mikoto had my attention, and I remembered why I came.

Aunt Mikoto looked concerned and excited and confused and many things at once. But she held back saying anything until it was just the two of us in a different room.

"Ayae dear, did something happen? Are you starting…?" She was looking at my belly.

I realized my mistake.

"Oh, no, no. Not yet," I said, shaking my head. "I'm asking for a friend."

Hearing that, Aunt Mikoto relaxed. "Ah. Are the pharmacies out?"

I shook my head again. "This is a friend from normal school," I said.

I thought that was enough, and Aunt Mikoto would tell me where to fetch the pill. But this time, she only looked at me more.

"Why would your civilian friend want a kunoichi pill, Ayae?" she asked gently.

I opened my mouth. But then, I realized I didn't know. Nanami only pleaded for one. It looked like she really wanted it, so I said yes.

Aunt Mikoto's expression changed. Without looking back, she said, "Sasuke, you should be doing that homework now, no?"

Caught spying, Sasuke stiffened. A hand touched his shoulder. It was Itachi. Politely, he guided his little brother upstairs so Aunt Mikoto and I could talk in private.

Suddenly, I felt small and unsure. It was the feeling I got when I was about to get in trouble, but I didn't think I did anything wrong, and it didn't look like Aunt Mikoto was upset at me.

"You are a very good girl, Ayae, and I know you always want to help your friends," she told me softly. "But I'm afraid I can't give you this until I've spoken to your friend and understand why she wants it. Can you ask her to come talk to me?"

I nodded.

"What about the shinobi pill?" I asked. I told Aunt Mikoto my classmates asked for that too.

She listened patiently and told me the same thing. They would need to talk to her first.

I accepted that.

Pleased, Aunt Mikoto went on to serve me dinner.

I sat across from Fugaku and ate while he read the newspaper and pretended not to see me. That was fine. I pretended I couldn't see him too!

After dinner, I told Aunt Mikoto I was going upstairs to see Itachi. I didn't need to say it, but Fugaku was listening and I knew it annoyed him. He didn't like me. He didn't want me at his house. And he definitely didn't want me around his sons, Itachi especially.

Well, too bad for him! I wasn't going anywhere.

Giddy, I skipped up the steps. Itachi's door was already open.

"You're home!" I exclaimed.

He was at his desk, writing something. "Hello, Ayae. How has your new school been treating you?"

"Great!" I scooted up next to him and showed him my wristbands. "More than great, actually. I'm the student representative!"

His gaze flickered briefly to my wrist. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar."

"It's a job for the best student! I go back and forth between the school and the village. Like a pipeline!" I paused. "Okay, saying it out loud, it sounds like I'm moving sewage or something. Oh! A bridge! There we go, I'm like a bridge now."

Itachi didn't seem to have any words. Finally, he just gave a small smile. "That… could be a difficult job."

"Tell me about it," I grumbled. It was really easy to complain to Itachi, so once I started, I couldn't stop.

"... and, and I don't even know what they're talking about, they use all these big words, but it doesn't sound like they mean anything, they're just circling back to the same thing over and over, and they expect me to have an opinion, but they don't care about my opinion, they just want me to agree with their opinion, because they can't agree with each other. Like, what the hell! They're grown ups, but they're fighting worse than kids! Oh, and the tea! I'm so sick of the tea. How can-"

I stopped when I noticed Itachi was shaking. Was he…

Was he laughing?

"Itachi, are you listening!" I buried my face into my palm. "Ugh, you don't get it."

He lifted his head. "No, I understand."

"Do you really," I deadpanned.

"I know negotiation can be strenuous and it may not be possible to pacify everyone. In fact, any compromise will likely please no one." He set down his pen. "Please don't overexert yourself."

I huffed.

Itachi closed his notebook and paused. It looked like he was about to say something but stopped himself.

Finally, "Ayae… do you… want my assistance in something? Homework or…?"

I straightened. Oh shoot!

"AH! Yes, yes! Please!" I had been so busy with the representative stuff, I forgot about homework. My dad wasn't around tonight, so having Itachi help was a blessing. "It's math again. Ugh, I hate it so much…"

I handed my homework problems over to him.

Itachi studied them.

After a minute, he flipped the page.

I got my pencils. Okay, ready. It was late, but with Itachi's help, it shouldn't take more than a few hours. I hope.

Itachi flipped back to the first page. As he did, I pointed to him the question I was on and explained how far I had gotten. Itachi listened patiently.

"So yeah… do I bring this number down or…?"

"I don't know."

I was about to write that down. I blinked. "Sorry, repeat that?" He said x-squared, right?

"I'm sorry, Ayae, I don't know. Do you have a textbook or some reference material I may look at?"

I stared at him like he had two heads.

"It's just calculus," I said.

"I do not know what that is."

"It's math." I realized Itachi wasn't joking. "Itachi, aren't you a genius, didn't you already…?" I gestured helplessly at the stack of books on his desk. He knew chuunin and jounin level math before he was, like, seven! How could he not know!

"I studied intuitive mathematics, Ayae. It's probabilistic and approximative by design, which lends to the speed needed in combat. This is logical mathematics. It is perfect and absolute, and thus better suited for engineering and philosophy."

"It's just a derivative," I squeaked, handing him my textbook. I might as well have told him it was a watermelon.

As I watched him read my textbook, something dawned on me. Was I… smarter than Uchiha Itachi in something right now?

I wanted to laugh. I was! I was!

It didn't last long. After twenty minutes, Itachi flipped to the last page and closed the book. "I see." He turned to my homework. "The substitution is unnecessary, consider flipping the order then applying chain rule."

"You know, you could have taken your time with that," I grumbled. Like, two years of time.

"I did. It was quite captivating."

I gave him a light punch. He grinned.

We worked into the night. Being together made the math less intimidating. It was more fun too, like we were playing puzzle games. Itachi's voice was calming, and I liked the way his hands moved over the paper. It wasn't just his calligraphy that was pretty, but the strokes too.

My hopes of finishing quickly went out the window, though. The problems were unlike anything we'd seen, and they only got harder. More than once, Itachi had to pause and go back to the textbook. I could hear him thinking in the silence.

In those moments, I would just watch him.

Up close, I noticed Itachi had something special in his eyes. It was like a nonstop flicker, made more clear by the reflection of light from the desk lamp. My dad had something like it whenever he was reading a serious book or tinkering with an invention.

I wondered if, unlike my dad, Itachi had it always. Maybe that was why it felt like he could see everything at once, close and far, through and beyond. And why his stares felt so intense. It was all that movement coming to a sudden stop, a billion thoughts taken over by one.

I smiled to myself. I decided I liked it. It was very him.

His pen was nearly touching the textbook again, as if he was about to write over the existing words. He always pulled away before he could, but the pen would make its way back.

"You write in books," I said.

Itachi's hand tensed around the pen. His head tilted in my direction, but he didn't look at me, not completely. "I apologize if that bothers you."

I shook my head. It hadn't bothered me for years. In fact, textbooks without his writing looked weird to me now.

I thought back to our temple lessons. Sometime before we met, he liked to do calligraphy… for fun.

"Do you like to write, Itachi?"

He didn't expect that.

He put the homework on hold for a moment. "Not particularly," he admitted. "It's an empty gesture to me... a habit unintentionally formed in moments of frustration."

Alarmed, I glanced down at my homework. "Are you…?" As much as I wanted Itachi's help, I didn't want him to be miserable. If he was frustrated-

He caught my thought. "No. This is enjoyable," he whispered, breaking into a small smile. "I had not meant it that way. I am compelled in front of any book, regardless of circumstance. Though… the impulse gets stronger when faced with… erroneous claims."

He gave in. Before I could say anything, he crossed out a page of my textbook. In pen.

"The reasoning here is incorrect. I have not been able to formulate the proper proof, but I've stalled long enough. I'm sorry, Ayae, your answer has been sufficient for grading purposes."

A pause, before he flipped three pages back and added another correction in between the lines. Done, he seemed at peace.

"I'll pay for a new textbook."

Shrugging, I accepted back the old one. "It's fine. What would make you all frustrated?"

I never expected him to answer directly.

"The dumb judgments and terrible decisions of bickering old men. It'd be more tolerable if I weren't forbidden to disagree."

Unlike whenever Aunt Mikoto switched tones, Itachi kept his politeness. Only he could make "dumb" sound fancy.

"There's no punishment for talking back to a book," he said.

I recovered. "There is for vandalism," I said seriously.

"And cursing, though I suppose if you're cute enough, the clan will overlook it." He caught himself. "You're entitled to file charges," he mumbled.

I grinned. "I won't put you in jail if you don't."

A thought hit me. As soon as it did, I couldn't hold back anymore, laughing into my hands.

For years, Itachi's writing in my books had looked mysterious, like I was reading some secret, important message. But it was just Itachi's version of cursing?

Itachi didn't understand what was so funny. He wanted to know. But I never got the chance to explain.

His expression had already gone blank. I was confused for a moment, but then understood. My own smile faded.

I never heard the door open.

"You seem to have forgotten you have a mission tomorrow."

In my mind, I repeated to myself that Fugaku didn't scare me, even if his voice was definitely scary right now.

Itachi didn't turn around. "We were just finishing, Father."

"Finishing or finished."

Itachi went still.

A part of me hoped Itachi would snap back and tell him to go away. That he would take the pen and cross out Fugaku's face.

I hoped really hard.

In the end, only my homework disappeared.

Itachi kept his gaze down, my scroll presented to me. "Thank you for your visit, Ayae. I'm glad you're satisfied with your new school."

Fugaku waited.

I lowered my shoulders. Quietly, I accepted my scroll and left the room.

"Bye-"

My voice was cut off. Fugaku had already slid shut the door.