There was absolute silence.
No one moved. No one blinked. No one even breathe.
All stared at the teacher, who in turn, eyed the two slips of paper in her hands. The silence stretched on until, predictably, Hanamichi broke it with a shrill—
"WWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT??????!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Youhei let out the guffaw he had been holding back and this signaled the whole class to erupt.
Not that red-haired monkey!
Rukawa was supposed to be my partner!
Oh my.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
HA-HA-HA!
Woah! Those two…weird!
"Quiet everyone."
Aaaahhh! Those two are going to work together!
The world is coming to an end!
We're all doomed!
"Quiet!"
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
HA-HA-HA! MWE-HE-HE-HE! *snort* HE-HE!
Poor Rukawa! That ugly face is gonna make him fail!
Oh the horror! Rukawa!
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
HA-HA-HA!
"I said QUIEEEEEETTTT!!!"
Class 2-3 was once again treated to the Terrible Gigantic Head of Doom aka Ms. Tanada's angry face. Students settled down into an uneasy silence except for the redhead who had decided to just bang his head on his table with a muffled exclamation or two to boot. The raven-haired half of the newly declared partnership was as stoic as ever, although a very visible tick showed on his forehead.
"Now," Ms. Tanada took a deep breath and smiled calmly, "that's much better. Listen class—"
"This is really great," Haruko interrupted. "Now Rukawa and Sakuragi can try to become friends!"
Everyone gaped at the smiling girl. All jumped when the bell suddenly rang signaling the end of class. Ms. Tanada quickly gathered her things.
"Now class please read page 20 of your textbook for Wednesday. See you then!"
She beat a hasty retreat before the second wave of protests that she sensed came. Still, Sakuragi's loud voice caught up with her.
"I'm telling you this just once fox! I am not working with you—ever!"
She did not hear Rukawa's quiet but cold answer. All of his classmates heard quite clearly though.
"Who wants to be partnered with you? D'aho."
"What did you say?" Hanamichi stood up, ready to pounce.
Youhei was too busy catching his breath to stop him this time.
"D'aho."
Rukawa also stood up, glaring at his nemesis.
Several students rushed out of the classroom as fast as Ms. Tanada did just to avoid the impending fight. More importantly, they used the 10-minute break to tell fellow students what had happened. In a short while, half of Shohoku already knew what had occurred during Ms. Tanada's Social Studies class. By lunch the whole school had heard of the news.
Hey, you know about Rukawa and Sakuragi…
During the new teacher's class…
Yeah, that's really bad.
What was Ms. Tanada thinking when she conceptualized this project!
I pity their classmates.
I pity the teacher!
Imagine those two together on a project?!
My imagination doesn't want to go there.
Unbelievable!
¥500 says they'll fail that class.
¥500 says they'll change partners even before the next meeting.
Hanamichi's gang had a different say on the subject when they saw him at lunch.
"Yo! Hanamichi! So tell us, who's the bride and who's the groom between you and Rukawa?!"
Of course they didn't get to finish their meal after Hanamichi had given each of them his famous special head-butt, twice for Youhei whom he owed a head-butt after the laughing incident in class.
The comments, however, went on until the first meeting of the various clubs that afternoon.
Wow! Did you hear about Rukawa and Hanamichi being partners! Wow!
Yeah! Didn't they bring home the trophy at last winter's finals?
Yeah. I hear they're really good working together and stuff!
Nah. I heard that they hate each other but they just work together for basketball because they really love the game.
I heard they're both in love with the same girl so they're trying to outdo each other in basketball.
Nah! It's only Sakuragi who's got a crush on somebody.
I've seen those two. Rukawa used to be in my school. He's really quiet and cool. That Sakuragi looks like trouble. He's not really that good, only lucky with his shots. It must be terrible for Rukawa being paired with that noisy, bragging—
The new basketball recruit from Tomigaoka learned firsthand what the Sakuragi-special-head-butt felt like. The other freshmen of the group realized quickly that no matter what they thought, it was better to just keep their opinions to themselves. They all learned that a pissed off Hanamichi Sakuragi and an angry Kaede Rukawa is not a good combination, especially if those two vent their frustrations on the dangerous game of basketball. Most of that afternoon's session was spent trying to pry the two players apart and trying to save the various pieces of equipment from their wrath.
For the rest of the school, one question kept popping up since it had been brought up:
Who's going to be the mother and who'll be the father of the house?-To be continued-
A/N:
1. To all who reviewed, thank you very much! ^___^
2. To rhygell who clarified stuff about the room and classes, thank you very much!
3. To those who those waved the RuHana/HanaRu banner, ^______^;