Before the start of the new term, the teachers of Shohoku High assigned to rooms 201 and 202 had developed a system of filtering the noise that they had anticipated coming from the room adjacent to theirs. They planned to simply let the racket enter one ear and pass the other.
It was a big surprise for them that during the third period, of the first day no less, hardly any noise passed through the walls after the bell had rung. Ordinarily they would have praised Buddha for this small bit of peace but their curiosity ate at them. They would have gone out of their classes and peeped through the next room door had their students not been there to witness their spying. They just contented themselves with keeping one ear open for any sound coming from the other side.
They would have had heart attacks if they had known that the class had actually been listening and participating as if interested in the subject since the new teacher had given them the scary face treatment. They were currently engrossed in writing their names on pieces of paper. Of course this was no ordinary class so there were the (un)usual student or two or ten taking their work to the extreme.
When Hanamichi Sakuragi finished writing his name, he immediately proceeded to offer it up to a mini-shrine that suddenly popped up on his table. Sneaking glances at the two people that haunted his life, he muttered a mantra under his breath that went something like, "Pair me up with Haruko. (hopeful glance) Please pair me up with Haruko. Don't pair her with Rukawa. (glare) Me. Partner her with me. (hopeful glance) Not Rukawa. (glare)"
Two rows from him, several girls and some boys were doing the same rite only with a different chant.
"RU-KA-WA. RU-KA-WA. PART-NER-ME-WITH-RU-KA-WA."
Haruko Akagi's friends looked at the chanting students then shifted their eyes to their friend who was thankfully not praying but whose glazed eyes showed to anyone who cared to look that she wasn't exactly in the same plane of existence as them either.
Three seats behind the dreaming brunette, Kaede Rukawa was drooling all over his piece of paper as he took the lull as an opportunity to snooze.
The whole class came back to earth when Ms. Tanada announced in a firm voice that carried all the way to the back that they put all their slips of paper in the assigned pencil case.
The obsessed students offered a final prayer before submitting their names. One brave girl asked Kaede if he wanted her to submit his name for him. The boy merely squinted at her before shoving his paper to his seatmate, Youhei, who had stood up to give his and Hanamichi's names. Youhei shrugged before taking the slip and dumping all three items inside the pencil case.
"Okay," Ms. Tanada said as all papers were put in. She shook the case around as she spoke. "I'll be picking out two names for each draw."
Everyone held their breath as she picked out the first two names.
"Mina Seishirou and Youhei Mito."
Ms. Tanada smiled at Youhei who was looking at a bespectacled girl sitting near the door at the front.
"Nyahahaha Youhei, you're lucky you got partnered with a cute girl," Hanamichi whispered loudly as he poked Youhei's ribs. His friend merely replied with a smile.
There was a collective sigh of relief before another sharp intake of breath was taken as the next two names were called. This cycle went on until most of the students' names had been picked out. All of Rukawa fans were disappointed when their prayers had not been answered. Worse, some of them had been partnered with rival Rukawa fans.
"For the last pair of the class…"
Everyone looked around. They had not really kept track on who had been partnered with whom. Most knew that Rukawa's name had not been called up but the other name escaped their minds.
"Kaede Rukawa and …"
Most of his fans gazed at the silent boy who seemed to be intently studying his table. If they had bothered to look at little bit to his right they would have noticed the quietly laughing boy seated beside him and the unusually silent class-loudmouth.
"Oh my," the class stared at their teacher, "our last pair is Kaede Rukawa and Hanamichi Sakuragi."
-And so the fun begins. To be continued-
A/N:
1. To all who reviewed, thank you very much. To those who asked whether this will be yaoi or not, all I can say is you can view the next chapters in two ways. One, Hanamichi develops a bond with Rukawa as close as the one he shares with Youhei or two, he flirts with Kaede and vice-versa. It's up to you to decide. Although considering all the other fics I've done…^___^;
2. I'm not sure about the room number. I'm just assuming that the second year students would be assigned to the rooms at the second floor of the buildings. Anyone care to clarify if this is correct?
3. Let's see, the chair arrangements would be Kaede near the window, Youhei beside him then Hanamichi, all three occupying most of the back row. Haruko would be somewhere near the front row in front of Kaede.