Disclaimer: I can't think of anything witty to say here, and I'm tired, so I'd just like to make it clear that no, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters. They belong to their creators (the lucky bastards), and that's that, okay? Great.
Author's Note: Hello everyone. Well, this is Chapter 4. I hope you enjoy reading this, so I'll see you later. I'm going to bed. Thanks and please enjoy.
Chapter: 4
"Hey, Yusuke, wait up!"
Yusuke stopped and turned around at the sound of Keiko's familiar voice. She caught up to him and they began walking together.
"So listen, I have acting in about a half hour, but afterwards, let's get together and work on your report, okay?" Keiko said.
Yusuke frowned. He didn't want to, but . . .
"Yeah, sure." He said dryly.
Keiko jumped in front of him. He stopped.
"Yusuke, how did the talk with Ms. Yugumai go?" She asked.
"Fine. She says that she'll pass me if I come in every day after school for an hour."
Keiko beamed.
"Wonderful. Now all we have to do is compromise in History, Math, and Gym and you should be okay."
Yusuke nodded. A thought occurred to him then.
"Keiko, how's your injury?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
The girl's honey colored eyes widened slightly, and she blushed.
"How'd you find out?" She asked.
"I had a free period so I snuck up on the roof. I saw everything."
"Oh, uh . . . well, I'll live. Teacher let us off with a warning. Hm, things are so hard now that she's back. It's driving me insane."
"Hey c'mon, you're so much better than she is Keiko. You're smarter, more kind . . . prettier." Yusuke said.
He gave her a small, crooked smile of reassurance, and Keiko smiled back.
"Keep thinking that way Urameshi, 'cause if I ever see you with her there won't be a demon in the Makai who could stop me from wailing on your sorry ass." Keiko replied playfully. She gave him a light punch on the shoulder.
"One more thing. Go to the library and start collecting information now. I'll meet you there later."
She paused.
"Um . . . you should probably bring Kurama with you. He'll keep you on task, okay? Bye."
And with that, she turned in the opposite direction and walked off. Yusuke watched her leave before letting out a sigh. Research . . . yeah, that's definitely what he felt like doing.
Two hours passed that evening and Yusuke was still in the library with Kurama. The fox searched the net, while Yusuke flipped through pages in a large collection of books that he'd found. He had Keiko's notebook and was writing sources and key information when Kuwabara rushed.
"Urameshi!" He yelled. His voice echoed, and he got a harsh 'hush' from the librarian.
Kuwabara apologized hastily and all but sprinted over to the table where Yusuke sat. The taller boy's outburst had drawn Kurama toward the other two boys. Yusuke lifted and eyebrow.
"What is it Kuwabara?" He asked, as his friend looked fairly anxious.
"It's about Keiko."
This caught Yusuke's attention, and his expression turned very serious. Kurama pulled out a seat and motioned for Kuwabara to sit and explain. Then, the redhead also sat down.
"Right well I was at school and heard that the acting class was doing their try-outs today. I didn't have anything else to do, so I went in to watch because I knew Keiko was in there. Well so, I sat down and everything was lit up on stage and there were people practicing their lines and the teacher sat up front, taking notes I guess. So Keiko was up and she was trying out for the lead role, and she did awesome, but then this other blonde girl came up and she did well too. The teacher liked them both, but she ended up and gave the part to the blonde girl because she was new here. Keiko looked really angry, but otherwise she was pretty nice about it, and then the class ended and I was going to meet Keiko outside. I was waiting at the gate when I saw her and her friends come out, but then the blonde girl came out with a group of her own friends. She said something, I couldn't hear it, but Keiko was angry enough to say something back and then the blonde one said something. Keiko looked really pissed off about it though, and the next thing I know, she flew at the other one, knocked her to the ground and she slapped her across the face. Well the blonde girl managed to grab Keiko's wrists long enough to get up, then she backhanded Keiko who smacked her right back. A lot of the other girls were screaming or looking just plain scared. Keiko had the upper hand for a long time, and then something happened. Keiko went to punch the blonde girl, but the blonde, out of sheer luck I think, caught Keiko's fist in an attempt to block the hit, and when she realized that she had Keiko's fist in her hand, she just kind of smiled and twisted her wrist, Keiko cried out and then there was this cracking noise. At about that time I ran up and the blonde girl and her friends backed up and eventually left. Keiko's friends and I helped Keiko up and took her home. Her wrist is broken pretty badly." Kuwabara finished.
Yusuke sat back in his seat in both surprise that it had happened, and relief that it hadn't been worse. Kurama looked at him with concerned eyes. Kuwabara took a deep breath.
"But, Keiko told me to come here and tell you that she's sorry she couldn't make it." He said.
Yusuke cracked a smile, and chuckled a little bit. Leave it to Keiko to worry about something like that. He sighed and closed the book he had in front of him. He examined his stack of literature, chose a few select books, and gathered them into his arms.
"I'm going to check these out for later and go over to see her then." He said.
And so, Yusuke checked out the books, and left, followed by Kurama and Kuwabara. Kurama gave him a small, brown envelope and told him to sprinkle its contents into Keiko's tea. He said that it would help the healing process as well as dull the pain. Yusuke thanked him and the boys parted their separate ways, Yusuke bound for Keiko's, Kurama and Kuwabara bound for their respective homes.
A few minutes later caught Yusuke at the Yukimura residence. He knocked. The door opened to reveal Keiko's mother and father. They greeted him warmly and told him to go on up to Keiko's room, that she would be glad to see him. Before he went up, Mrs. Yukimura handed him a tea tray.
Yusuke knew exactly where Keiko's room was and he didn't even knock before coming in, he never had. A surprise entrance was his custom.
Keiko looked up when he entered. She was sitting up in her bed reading, and she frowned at him.
"You could have knocked." She said.
Yusuke smiled and shrugged.
"Since when have I ever knocked?"
Keiko nodded.
"Touché." She complimented.
Yusuke set down the tea tray on the nightstand by Keiko's bed. She watched him curiously as he took out the brown package and sprinkled some dull colored grains into the steaming cup of tea. He stirred the tea and handed her the cup. She eyed him and then it.
"Drink it. The herb that I put in was from Kurama. He said it would help your wrist heal." Yusuke said as he climbed onto the bed, sitting opposite Keiko, cross-legged.
"Well, how'd the research go?" Keiko inquired.
Yusuke pulled out Keiko's notebook and flipped the pages to the new information he'd collected and a few printouts that Kurama had given to him. Keiko looked over the notes and nodded in approval.
"This is all pretty good." She commented, still scanning.
Yusuke's handwriting was messy and hasty looking, but she had learned, after many years of practice, to read his writing with no problem.
"Yeah, I got a few books that I want to look through and get some more information from, but I'm almost done."
"Good. After this, we'll start writing the rough draft; get it checked by Kurama, and Ms. Yugumai, and an English professor that I know out at the college. After that we'll type out the final draft, fasten it in to a portfolio and you will have a passing grade in Science. Am I great or what?" She asked, smiling.
Yusuke grinned. He decided not to ask about what words had been exchanged between Keiko and Amissa that had caused them to lash out at one another so violently, because he knew that Keiko wasn't proud of it. So the two teens merely chatted with one another about this and that and everything in general for the remainder of the evening, and they were happy.
The next day was as the prior one, perfect, and Yusuke was, again, in a state of awe that he was in school. He managed to reason with his History teacher. All he had to do was a huge stack of worksheets and take a test afterwards with a passing score of at least a D+. Yusuke wasn't overly worried about that. Although the worksheets would be time consuming, he actually had a knack for history, and so the test wouldn't be terribly hard to pass. His Math teacher was pretty strict, but he liked Keiko, and with her influence Yusuke thought that that class would be taken care of. All he really had to do was confront the gym teacher and he'd be set for graduation. He did wonder why all of the teachers were allowing him to go on, but then he realized that they probably just wanted him out of the building. This thought had made him laugh.
"Hey, did you hear what happened between Keiko and Amissa yesterday?"
Yusuke was at his locker when he heard the gossiping girls not far down the hallway.
"Yes, can you believe it?" The other replied.
"I dunno, I kind of like Amissa. She's so pretty, and she gives Keiko a run for her money."
The other girl gasped.
"Come on. Don't you think that Amissa was cruel for what she did?"
"Maybe, but then, Keiko acts so . . . perfect all the time. Sometimes, I get a little annoyed about her popularity and things. I think it's about time that she have some competition."
Yusuke rolled his eyes. Stupid girl.
"Speaking of competition, I hear Amissa is running for head of the dance committee."
The other squealed.
"Really? Keiko is too, which means . . . wow, this could get really crazy."
Yusuke grabbed his gym bag and closed his locker. Yeah, in fact, with both girls running for the same position, it could get insane. He shook his head. If this was something that he'd have to put up with through high school, then breaking his promise to Keiko was sounding all to good.
He shook his head and walked off to gym class. For the first time all year he dressed and participated in the "oh so fun" game of touch football. He hated gym class, he hated football, but he played it, and his team won. No one really talked to him, which he was fine with him because he didn't like any of those boys anyway. After class he went to change in the locker room and had to keep from blowing a bunch of them away with his spirit gun when he heard a few saying some very inappropriate things about Keiko and a few other girls, Amissa included.
He was the last out of the locker room, as he didn't want anyone to see him going to the teacher. Hey, he still had an image to keep!
He waited for the clear and then went to see the teacher in his office. The door was open, so Yusuke stepped in cautiously.
"'scuse me . . . uh, Mr. Tekeshi?" He asked, clearing his throat.
The gruff, built man looked up.
"Hm, Urameshi. Never expected to see you here today. What happened? You run out of kids to knock out?"
Yusuke frowned, and he fought his anger.
"Listen, I came here to ask you if there was any way that I could pass this class?" He said.
Mr. Tekeshi let out a chuckle and leaned back in his chair.
"No can do kid. You ain't been here but maybe twice out of the whole year, and that's including today. Plus, you got a little bit of an attitude that I don't really appreciate."
Yusuke narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, and I don't really appreciate your breath, or the dumb way you try to act tough, so it's safe to say that we dislike each other, right?"
He paused to gather his words, and he didn't wait for Mr. Tekeshi to let out his anger.
"I need to pass this class, and I'll do just about anything if you'll please let me."
The older man kept his angry expression for a few moments longer, but then he seemed to begin considering something. He sighed and eyed Yusuke curiously.
"Anything?" He asked.
Yusuke fidgeted at this question, but he nodded.
Mr. Tekeshi bit his lip.
"Then, I'll pass you if you do me a favor."
Yusuke waited.
"I heard that you were working after school with Ms. Yugumai, and well . . . I was wondering if you could find out if she's got a boyfriend or not." He said in a small voice that Yusuke wasn't used to hearing.
The boy grinned.
"Oh, so SOMEbody has a little crush do they?" Yusuke asked slyly.
Mr. Tekeshi blushed, and Yusuke chuckled.
"So let me get this straight. You'll pass me if I find out whether or not Ms. Yugumai is going out with anyone?"
The man nodded sheepishly.
"And one more thing Urameshi . . . could you find out her favorite kind of flowers if it turns out that she doesn't have a boyfriend?"
Yusuke nodded.
"Sure thing. A favor for a favor. Deal?" Yusuke stuck out his hand, and Mr. Tekeshi took it.
They shook, and that was that. Yusuke left with a huge, silly grin on his face.