Another day, another chapter.

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You know me, plot pusher ahead. But the Winter Cup is so far away! Anyway. I want to thank you all for the lovely follows, favorites and reviews! Everyday I'm smiling when I'm reading your thoughts and ideas, it is amazing how lovely you all are!

DAY EIGHTY

"So, who's voting for the haunted house?"

Mia rubbed her face tiredly. It was a first that their homeroom teacher felt lazy enough to already let his class vote for their activity on the Culture Festival which was coming up. There were still a few weeks ahead of them but the way the older man leaned against the wall next to the blackboard, his eyes glued to his watch, indicated that he surely was only trying to kill time. The girl could bet that he enjoyed the slightly different school system their academy possessed...

She watched how many of her classmates lifted their hand to show their support for the idea. The class representative counted the votes before she turned around to the board to write it down. The orange-head didn't really know what she wanted to do. A haunted house? A café? Many other classes probably wanted to make one, the concept was pretty popular after all.

With all the different themes and costumes...their class had quite a handful of students which were part of clubs who wanted to show off their skills as well...a café would be too much work for the rest, she mused. So, in the end, she slowly lifted her hand as well, giving the class rep in the front the chance to take her vote into account, too.

Aomine had fallen asleep at the beginning of the lesson. He didn't miss much though, really. But the girl beside him couldn't help but wonder if he really wasn't interest in what they were going to do at all. Well, probably not. It was him she was talking about. He wouldn't even care if the school burned down...

...what an interesting thought...

"Alright, so it's decided." The class rep spoke up, tapping against the board with the chalk in her hand. "We're going to make a haunted house out of our classroom. Until next week I'll collect your personal ideas and we'll talk about the organization."

A chorus of agreements and some small curses that the other possibilities hadn't won rose into the air. The noise was actually loud enough to wake the tall teenager to her left whose breath hitched in his throat. He lifted his head heavily, rubbing the corner of his mouth to get rid of the drool. The motion was more or less clumsy thanks to his sleep drunken mind. It was expected that he'd glare at the other students in front of them, not thrilled to be awoken from his slumber already, but in the end it was his own fault, Mia thought quietly. He shouldn't fall asleep in the first place...

"The hell is going on..." He grumbled more or less to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose with a frown.

"The class decided what we're going to do on the Culture Festival." Mia replied anyway.

Aomine's eyes flickered towards her for a second, before he looked at the blackboard to see what his classmates had come up with.

"Haunted house? Well, whatever..." With familiar disinterest he rested his head on his folded arms again, easily ignoring the discussion about the event which still took place.

Mia supported her chin with her hands, watching her tall classmate as he was trying to return to the land of dreams. She couldn't imagine him joining the preparations nor taking part in the event itself, anyway. If anything she was sure that he'd escape the responsibility as quickly as could to sleep on the roof instead.

"What?" He grumbled into the sleeve of his cardigan.

Slightly surprised she blinked at his figure. His eyes were still closed, she had been pretty certain that he had already fallen asleep once more. But he seemed to have sensed her gaze on him anyway, something which actually made her look away quickly to hide her embarrassment. She had been caught staring.

"Nothing...just...you don't really look forward to the Culture Festival, do you?"

His eyes finally opened as he shifted his head slightly to get more comfortable, his gaze scanning her profile before he started yawning.

"Not really. It's too troublesome...my old class always got rid of me around that time anyway. 'Said I broke too much stuff."

Mia couldn't help but laugh quietly, her hands slipping from her chin to her lips to smother the sound. Only because their class had received a bit free time to talk about the festival didn't mean that they were allowed to do what they wanted. Although to sit in the last row of the class always helped to escape the most.

"Seriously?"

Aomine lifted his head once more, one hand forming a fist which he used to support his head with. He apparently gave up on sleep for now. What a surprise. And his narrow gaze locked with hers instead. The edge of his lips pulled into a mix of amusement and annoyance at the same time while the memory of his middle school years filled his mind.

"Yeah. I lazed around...and I sure ain't dressing up as a ghost or somethin'."

Oh, he didn't need to dress up, Mia mused. He could scare people away without even trying just fine. It took her days to get used to him and to not fear him anymore. Her tall classmate would actually be the best candidate to make this haunted house popular. With the natural scary glare in his eyes...just some dark light and poor naive fools...

But the girl wouldn't tell him that, she thought, he probably wouldn't appreciate it.

"But it would be good to at least help out in the preparations. You earn points for that as if it's a social study course."

The orange-head should know, she asked two teachers to make sure of that. And if there was anything any student who attended Tōō Academy needed, it were those certain points which decided whether you passed this school year in the end or not.

"Jeez...of course they'd pull such crap..."

The blue haired teen rolled with his eyes in annoyance.

"Satsuki will go nuts if I won't help."

Mia grinned at that thought, the picture of the fiery pink haired girl clear in her mind. If anyone was ever able to get Aomine to do something it was definitely her. No one was able to be as influencing as the female student. On her classmate's birthday there had been the whole basketball team of their school present even though they didn't strike her as good friends of Aomine. That could only be Satsuki's doing.

And poor Sakurai was the best example of a sick mix of friend and victim. Mia could never pinpoint whether he and Aomine were friends or if the brunette was more or less bullied into the position he found himself in.

The girl was sometimes uncertain too about her relationship with her table neighbor...

...alright, more like all the time.

The bell suddenly rung, indicating that the lesson was over. And Mia jumped at that sound, her thoughts had occupied her for so long that she hadn't even realized how the time had passed. A few more notes were written upon the blackboard, the teacher called it a day as he dismissed the class without as much as a blink of an eye. Leaving the students to leave for their clubs or for the few of them who were on cleaning duty today, to take care of their classroom.

Mia started to shove her books into her bag, she'd have to walk to the train station alone this time, because Nanami was drowning in her Club activities. The poor girl had told her that they had to work with their seniors for the project they had in mind together. And she was given the task of passing the messages and collecting the names of the elder students.

In times like these, it was surely nice to be too lazy to be in a club.

"Nidori-san?"

"Yeah?" The orange-head looked up as her fingers were busy zipping up her bag. "Uh..."

It was one of her classmates whose names she barely got right. There just existed too many and some were just a lot more difficult to remember than others. All of that only made her feel a lot guiltier, she was pulling here on excuses, because her classmates always appeared to know her name while she struggled with theirs.

"Kurosagi."

"Kurosagi-san, right." Mia smiled sheepishly at the male student in front of her before she stood up. "Can I help you with something?"

"The class rep said that the students who aren't part of any club will be responsible for the flyers, I'm one those...you're too right?"

Absent-minded she already tugged her schoolbag closer to her chest. Thank god, one of them had listened to what the girl had said because Mia hadn't. Easily she nodded, trying to memorize the name of the black haired boy in front of her since she couldn't continue to live with all these people here for the next two and a half years without knowing at least their surnames.

"Yeah."

"Awesome." Kurosagi breathed in relief. "It will be you, me, Daisuke-kun and the Yashio twins then...uh..."

The boy's eyes suddenly avoided hers as he chose to look at his feet. That was something which puzzled her, of course. She had been polite...or hadn't she?

"I'll...I'll leave then. Just, wanted to make sure - the class rep wanted a list." He laughed slightly, his brow twitching with his awkward smile.

"Okay?"

Confused Mia's eyes followed her classmate who left and fought his way through the other students who were all leaving for their club activities or home. Had she said something wrong? She didn't know him, but it certainly felt like she had suddenly stabbed him or insulted him. Pursing her lips, she turned towards her table neighbor who maybe had an answer for the unusual reaction she had received-

What she came to face was a nasty frown on his face, the blue eyes still staring at the bunch of teenagers in front of them.

Had he just?

"Did you just scare the poor guy away?"

Aomine slowly turned towards her, looking down because he had already stood up as well. The height difference was every time so big, her mind whispered. That would be something she'd never get used to. And his facial expression still seemed to be torn between relaxing or just continuing to glare at his surroundings. Barely easing away to offer a glimpse of his usual bored frown...

"Did not."

Mia furrowed her brow, shouldering her bag while she stubbornly kept their gazes locked.

"You totally did. That face of yours can be terrifying."

At that comment, he actually set his forehead in wrinkles, leaning his upper body towards her to reach the same height she had.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really."

"Heh, ya ain't looking terrified 'though." With a swift movement he flicked her forehead, the sensations more stinging than actually painful.

But it made Mia scowl nonetheless. Quickly, she lifted a hand to brush against the spot he had touched, her eyes were narrowing at his face which slowly but surely was graced by a familiar lopsided grin. Oh, she just knew that her blush had returned. The orange-head knew it and he knew it, too. Jeez, of course he did. He saw it.

Stupid.

"Ahomine."

That was her only triumph card. That silly nickname was the only thing which was able to let the grin he wore shrink in size while his shark-like eyes narrowed at her.

"I told ya to stop calling me that."

"Never." Mia huffed, shoving her chair back against her desk as she started to follow the other students out of the classroom.

The girl didn't have to turn around to know that the tall teenager had trailed after her, his long strides easily keeping up with her shorter ones. He certainly had no problems to catch up with her pace while she, on the other hand, always had to double her steps. As a thought surfaced in Mia's mind though, she turned towards the blue haired basketball player. Any annoyance or grimace forgotten.

"You're not skipping practice to sleep on the roof today?"

Aomine glanced at her and shrugged with his broad shoulders. "Not today, Satsuki is leaving with friends after practice anyway."

Oh. It was rare for him not do that. He either played with her basketball in the park or slept on the roof after school. And sometimes in the library, the pink haired girl had told her. Or the classroom. Or even the club room of their club. It didn't seem to matter where he slept, but apparently it was too much of a hassle to actually attend his club's activity. But that was one of the reasons, why she never really walked with her classmate or the bubbly girl to the train station after school together, even though they went into the same direction.

Weird.

Quietly, the two changed their indoor shoes for the regular ones, leaving the proud academy building behind as they fell into step beside each other.

It wasn't like she hated it, but it was still strange to walk with him alone around. Not to mention that the basketball player really stood out, no matter where and when. Mia felt honestly a bit misplaced beside him. Although that wasn't hard to be, she guessed. But no matter how much their appearance and personality may differ, the fact that her eyes were flickering to his hands only made it worse. It was a relief that he had buried them in his cardigan's pockets at least...but...

The orange-head averted her gaze, feeling a bit embarrassed as she played with the straps of her schoolbag to keep her fingers busy.

It was all his fault.

Damn him.

Since when had it become so strangely normal to walk the street down together anyway?