Chapter 1

the experiment

She took off the pink headband and headed off to the girl's bathroom.

Shohoku won, as usual. Thanks to the kitsune.

She was tired from all that cheering they did. She was acting really silly, her fraternal twin sister Miyuki had told her. Miyuki had thought that it was ridiculous, her joining a cheering squad dedicated to Rukawa.

Yeah, it was silly. But she kinda had to do it.

It was part of her experiment.

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FLASHBACK:

"Mitsuki, I have great news!" Miyuki whispered excitedly.

"I think we're finally gonna get adopted!" she continued.

Mitsuki frowned. "They always say that. But when they find out that we're teenagers and have minds of our own, they'll pick another pair. Besides, we're twins, people usually only want one kid to adopt."

"Ah, Mitsuki, why are you so pessimistic?" Miyuki chided.

"It's sorta for balance; you're so optimistic and cheerful I just have to be gloomy."

Miyuki shook her head. "You're crazy, ane."

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"Miyuki, Mitsuki, I think you know why we wanted to talk to you," said Rei Watase, the administrator of the orphanage.

Miyuki nodded while Mitsuki rolled her eyes.

"Someone wants to adopt you," Rei said enthusiastically. "Isn't that great?"

Miyuki squealed and hugged Mitsuki, who snorted in reply.

"We're already fixing your papers."

Mitsuki froze. "You mean it's actually going to push through? They already made up their minds?"

Rei nodded. "Isn't that great?" she repeated.

For the first time in her life, Mitsuki squealed and soon, the twins were laughing happily.

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"Good bye, Mitsuki, Miyuki. I wish you both a very happy life," Rei said, teary-eyed. she hugged the twins one more time and waved goodbye.

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"What do we call you?" Mitsuki bluntly asked the couple who adopted her and her sister. she stared ahead at Miyuki, who was playing with the dog who welcomed them.

The couple laughed. "You can call us by our first names. If Rei didn't say our names, I'm Riya Yuki, and my husband's name is Kiyota Yuki. Of course, we would prefer 'okaasan' and 'otoosan' but you don't have to call us that if you don't want to."

Mitsuki didn't reply, instead, she just stared at her sister who stopped playing with the dog and walked to them.

Kiyota spoke, "Come on, i'll show you your rooms."

"Rooms? we won't share a room?" Miyuki asked eagerly.

When Kiyota nodded, she jumped up and down like a 6 year old. Kiyota laughed and led Miyuki inside the house.

Mitsuki followed, and when she saw that Riya wasn't following, she turned around and said, "Let's go... okaasan." Mitsuki smiled.

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"So tomorrow, you'll be a student of Shohoku High," Riya told the twins.

"Shohoku High," Mitsuki echoed.

"We're actually going to a normal (mskitsune: yeah right. if they only knew... hehehehe) school?" Miyuki asked.

"Yup," Kiyota answered, grinning at the twins' smiling faces. "Now, you don't want to be late for the first day tomorrow, right? You'd better go to sleep already."

"At 8 pm? otoosan..." Mitsuki groaned.

"Okay, maybe 9," he amended.

Miyuki groaned.

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The Next Day:

Miyuki suddenly woke up. She sat up on her bed, and looked at the clock beside her bed.

4:05 am.

She walked to the bathroom adjoining her room with Mitsuki's, not noticing that the light was already on. She opened the door and almost screamed when she saw her sister inside.

"Miyuki, what the heck are you doing in here?" Mitsuki asked, frowning.

"I should ask you that, it's four o'clock in the morning for God's sake! What the heck are you doing awake?" Miyuki inquired.

"I'm getting ready for school," Mitsuki told her in a boring tone.

"at 4 in the morning? You're nuts."

"I guess I am," Mitsuki murmured, staring at herself in the mirror. "Do you think I should get a perm?"

"A perm?" Miyuki asked. "Okay, if this is some weird nightmare, I wanna wake up right now." She started to pinch herself.

"Miyuki, stop that, okay? It's just that... I'm nervous... We're finally going to be normal teenagers. We're finally going to meet people our age and well, what if they don't like me? As you said yesterday, I'm so pessimistic. I couldn't bear if it people didn't like me because of that, especially since this is our chance to, um, fit in, I guess."

Miyuki laughed and hugged her sister. "They'll like you, okay? You don't have to change because I love you the way you are, even if you are a tad too bossy sometimes," Mitsuki glared at her, "and I'm sure that everyone will also love you, okay? If you really want to fit in, maybe you could join a club so you could get to know people."

"hmm. That's a great idea! I'll sign up immediately! Arigato, imooto," Mitsuki said.

"Okay, now let's go back to sleep, dozo?" she yawned.

END OF FLASHBACK

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When she walked into school that first day, an enthusiastic trio of girls hurriedly welcomed her and asked her if she would like to join a cheerleading club. She accepted happily, even though the thought of making splits and screaming a cheer was a sort of daunting thought.

She didn't know that the club was exclusive; meaning they only cheered one person. Rukawa Kaede.

She didn't understand the big deal about Rukawa. Yeah, so he was handsome, and sometimes when she looked at him in class she felt like melting, but she wasn't the type who would go for looks instead of brains and personality. Yes, she did get hooked by looks but she always thought that it was the inside that counted. Kinda cliché, Miyuki had commented, but true.

She sighed and took a shower.

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author's notes:

so what did you think? please give me reviews so i can fix it up if it needs editing. Was it easy to understand? (gee i hope so)

i should be working on my other rukawa fic (unexpected, the one with misato) but the idea for this story suddenly came up (i felt as if there was a light bulb beside my head) that i just HAD to put it down on paper.

this is my third fic so I'm still kinda a beginner.

Please please please review! (i live on reviews.)

arigato!

--mskitsune--

Ane - older sister; mitsuki's older by five minutes, also oneechan/oneesan

imooto - younger sister

okaasan - mother

otoosan - father

dozo - please