(A/N: Thanq for more of that review! And Thanq for telling me things to work on! Also, I forced myself to install Win Doc 2000 and it has this different setting so it's not the same. Yeah…)

Tick tock, tick tock. The second hand on the clock went. For one hour straight they had been sitting in the private detention room after the Principle had dealt with them. Both of them were given an essay to write and were placed across from each other by the principle.

Duo scribbled down anything that came into his mind onto the paper. He wrote and wrote, making fast, loud scribbling sound with his dull custom pencil. Meanwhile, Hotaru was daintily writing her piece of paper with a light mechanical pencil and kept everything in order. She even calmly created a plan for her essay.

 And so they wrote. Duo's topic was about War and the Use of Weaponry to his relief. It was ironic that the Principle will give this topic to an ex-Gundam pilot who calls himself Shinigami. Hotaru's topic was Murder and Crime. This wasn't too hard for her.

With a loud sigh of relief, Duo threw his pencils down and cracked his knuckles making moaning sounds while doing so, indicating that he was done. He leaned back on his chair with his hands behind his head and looked away from Hotaru.

Then, she too put her pencil down, picked up her paper and read over it for mistakes. For another 20 minutes, nothing happened. All was quiet except that tick tock of the clock. Duo kept his gaze away from Hotaru and she did the same.

"Done." She said quietly putting her paper down neatly and lining up her pencil on it's side. Still, nothing happened. They didn't even glance at each other let alone talk. Duo kept leaning on the chair so it only stood on two legs and Hotaru stared down hard into her palms.

…

The door suddenly open, finally adding some sound to the mute room and stood in the way was the principle looking at them seriously. He was an old man, around 60, with balding, graying hair and his stomach prevented him from looking down directly to his feet and floor.

"All four feet on the floor Maxwell," he scolded in a gruff voice. Duo brought his chair back down.

"I want those essays." The principle commanded, "And you two have detention with me tomorrow also."

"What?" Duo asked in horror, "Wait, 2 days of detention because we started arguing in P.E?! What's this world coming to?"

"No complaints Maxwell," the principle growled, "You're lucky you don't have any parents young man or there will be more painful consequences for you." He turned to Hotaru, who cowered back a little.

"Now for you, you're um…" he cleared his throat, "Your parents will be informed. You have my permission to leave." Duo jumped out of his seat, grabbed his backpack and rushed pass the principle handing the essay on the way.

Hotaru packed her pencils and backpack before passing her paper in. She walked out of the room slowly and solemnly.

**

(Diary Form)

September 23,

My hands ache, and I have another detention. And I'm hella mad! What the hell got into her? I tried to be nice, but no! She goes on arguing with me and gets us both in detention!! And to make matters worse, Heero gets mad at me for getting in trouble and getting detention. This is so complicated…

I have another detention tomorrow with her.  Damn it! You know how much I hate her right now? No, I don't hate her, I loathe her. If I told Quatre, he would say it was my fault in the first place. Wu-man here will just say to me not to care about weak things like this. And Heero will tell me to worry more about what they're here for then this. And Trowa, I need to ask him first.

So, now I have to figure this out all on my own. Here is the list of thing I have to do:

1.Find out why Hotaru hates me.

2.Wait for Melinda.

3.Keep an eye on Olivia.

4.Score at least a B+ in the next French Test.

5.Keep my hair from burning in Chemistry.

6.Find out why Hotaru hates me.

7.Start helping Heero.

8.   Try to get Hotaru to be my friend again at least. I don't like it when people hate me unless they're the enemy.

September 24,

I completed 2 things on my list above; Wait for Melinda and Keep an eye on Olivia. Now I have 6 others to do. I'll probably complete 3 of them today at school.

Damn it's so cold in the morning!

**

(Story Form.)

"You didn't need to drive me to school you know," Hotaru told Haruka darkly, "I'm 16, I can take care of myself."

"Don't start that with me Hotaru," Haruka said in a low, angry voice. She cast a sidelong glance at Hotaru who stared blankly into the blur of passing trees and houses. 

"We can't have any interruption," Haruka continued, "You know that. If one thing goes wrong, every-"

"I know," Hotaru interrupted and sighed impatiently, "I know, we can fail and darkness can win. We…can't have any mistakes. Oh Haruka, sometimes I wish I didn't have to worry about these things. I just wish maybe one day, I can be normal, instead having the fate of the world in my hands."

"Oh…" Haruka murmured. Hotaru looked at up at her.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Hmm…"

"We're here."

The car came to a complete stop in front of the school. Hotaru slowly opened the car door and stepped outside. She pulled her backpack from the back seat and closed the door loudly. Haruka locked the car doors and watched silently as Hotaru walked away without saying Good Bye or any other words.

Maybe I am over protecting her, she thought to herself, maybe… oh, nonsense.

Haruka started up her engine again, revving it loudly and sped with a teeth-clenching screeching noise away earning loud, 3-second honks from the other cars.

**

"Class, settle down!" Mr. Hull called. The class quieted instantly and gave their full immediate attention to their P.E instructor.

"You know that there is a Presidential Fitness Testing this week," he continued and was interrupted by long, impatient and tried moans and sighs.

"The sheets for requirements are posted in both the girls and boys locker room," he continued again over the faint conversations starting, "Today is the mile run for the Testing."

WHAT!s and Aaawww!s suddenly sprang out accompanied by disappointed conversations and tired moans.

"But we just ran 2 miles 2 days ago!"

"You're torturing us…"

"I hate P.E!"

"Me too!"

"Can't we do it tomorrow?"

"Please!"

No matter how hard the class pleaded, Mr. Hull made them run the whole mile by threatening to make them run 4. The class immediately trotted to the starting line for the mile and stretched, getting ready to run. Mr. Hull chuckled to himself in amusement as he walked over to them with a yellow stopwatch.

"Always work."

** Hotaru's POV**

Hotaru stretched her legs and jogged lightly in one place calmly. Her goal for this mile was her best, maybe she'll even get 7 minutes or under. That'll be worth showing off to Haruka and Michiru.  And if she beat Duo, it'll make her happier.

She confidently stepped behind the yellow line in a running position and waited for the teacher's 'Go.'

"GO!"

They sprinted and trampled the poor dirt track making clouds of sand trail behind the 36 pairs of feet running at full speed.

11 other people were in front of Hotaru, and one of them was Duo Maxwell. Now this was the kind of energy she needed. Breathing in out and at a steady pace, she sped up biting her lower lip. She used more and more of her energy every second. Her blood ran faster then they had ever before, her muscles contracted and contrasted quicker then it had ever done. Every fiber of her body burned and ached but she kept on running at the same full speed. The trail behind her glazed and misted with thick sand she had kicked up, making other people behind her slow down and cough.

There were now 9 people behind her and Duo was only 4 people away.

Need more energy, her body told her, you can't run, you need more energy, slow down! But her mind said something different. Her mind wanted to keep on going and ignore the growing weakness. Her mind wanted to beat Duo Maxwell at all cost and it wasn't going to give up.

He was only 2 runners away and she tried to speed up but failed and even became slower. Her body was winning but her mind and determination was still fighting. Her legs were becoming stiff as a branch and her head was aching feeling as though it was going to split in half. There was a huge cramp in her stomach it felt as if someone kicked her in the stomach every time she took a breath. Hotaru closed her eyes to get rid of the pain and opened them again to find she was slowing down. The finish line wasn't far away, nor was Duo from it.

Now her mind was winning and forced her legs to go faster. Her arms ached and smarted so badly she didn't dare move them. She was speeding up. She was catching up to Duo. He turned around was surprised to find her just a meter behind him and was catching up real fast.

Stop it; you'll die! Her body screamed. She past him and she smiled triumphantly but all was lost after. Her legs gave in and went wobbly like rubber stopped holding her weight. Her mind blacked out and she fell to the ground and rolled a long length from the impact of her running speed.

**

(Diary Form)

Later: 

Well, I guess no detention today. The Principle excused us. I'm sitting right here in the Hospital room by Hotaru's bed. The nurses told me she had weak body and she pushed her self too hard and it exceeded her limit.

She's healing fast but lost a lot of her energy just on the run and collapsed. The doctors are afraid that it might me a coma. I'm afraid too. Why did she do that? How did she speed up so fast like that? If she held on just a little longer and past the finish line, her time would've been 7:12.

I have to go when her guardian comes. Especially the tall, blond one I'm a little bit afraid of.

…

Now I have to go, I can see them coming. I left a small note for Hotaru. Hope she'll read it. I wrote:

'Hey, hope you're okay. I want to ask you a few questions when you're awake. Call me and I'll come over.

-Duo'

Or something like that.