1/23/03- You know, these college people keep mentioning that they sent me brochures and letters in real mail, but have I been receiving any? Nooo…
Whatever. I'm going to save my rants for in the omake section, which has ANOTHER drawing by me!! (Not related to this fic this time…)
(at less than two pages done) Um… this one has a lot of scene changing…
And, no, I'm not removing that note :P

Cinnamon Eyes

Hitomi woke up Monday morning, the events of the weekend pounding in her head. The pounding could have very well been her collision with the wall, of course.

What was I thinking? she scolded herself. I almost let myself be kissed by him. It wouldn't be that bad if it were just his doing, but I practically asked him to! She got out of bed and got ready for school, convincing herself that Otogi had drugged her or hypnotized her or something of the sort.

***

She walked into the classroom and was surprised to see the majority of the class already there.

"What's going on?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"Nothing!" exclaimed one boy. "What makes you think we're doing anything?"

"You're all huddled together and the only people not present in your little group of fun are Otogi and me."

"What about me?" Hitomi twirled around to see Otogi standing behind her. "Have you thought about what I said at all, Hitomi-chan?"

"I hate your guts."

"Aha. Keep thinking." He brushed past her and sat down in his seat.

She stared after him for a bit. That Otogi! He makes no sense! He's drooling all over me one day, and the next day he's acting as if he doesn't care!

***

Their homeroom teacher stood at the head of the class, looking over his students. "You all know that the Sakura Matsuri is going to be held soon." The entire class tittered with excitement, and he continued. "It's a little late this year, due to the cold weather, delaying the cherry blossoms' blooming. The festival is next Saturday, and each homeroom is to prepare a booth, and we need to elect two captains to-"

Twenty-eight hands pointed to two specific people.

"Alright, Otogi and Kawara… whatever ideas you may have for the booth are to be submitted to them…"

The entire class gaped at the selected captains. Neither one of them was showing the expected response; Otogi wasn't jumping out of his seat in glee, Hitomi wasn't shouting in protest. Both wore the same calm, bored expression.

Ridiculous, conniving classmates… Hitomi sighed, and got ready for the first class.

***

"Hi, Yuugi-kun!" Hitomi popped her head into the room. "Can I eat with you guys again?"

"Sure! Come on in!"

"Can I, too?!" Otogi popped his head in, imitating Hitomi.

They looked at her, who only shrugged. "Fine. I don't care."

"So!" Honda clapped his hands together. "Who's paying today?"

"I am!" Yuugi pulled out the lunch money.

Hitomi perched herself on a desk, as usual. "Why don't you each just bring in your own money each day?"

Anzu sighed. "That would make the most sense, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, well, we don't like sense!" Jounouchi struck a pose.

Otogi chuckled. "Is that why your classwork is so abysmal?"

Jounouchi blinked, thinking that over, then realized it was an insult. "HEY!!"

"I'm only kidding with you." He waved it off. "Yuugi-kun, I'll go get the lunches if you want. I'll pay for me and Hitomi."

"Sure, Otogi-kun." Yuugi passed him the money, and Otogi left the room. Then he turned to Hitomi. "You seem to be on relatively good terms."

She shrugged, and Anzu giggled. "Well, we're both the captains in our class for the-"

"Ah! The Cherry Blossom Festival!" Yuugi smiled. "Kaiba-kun and I are the captains for our class."

Honda smirked. "It's only natural. We'd want the most strategic and creative students running the program, of course."

Hitomi stared. "Kaiba… Seto? He's in your class?"

"Right here." The unnoticed boy in the corner waved without taking his eyes off the screen of his laptop.

"Oh. Hello!"

He paused, then turned to look at her. "I already waved."

Anzu rolled her eyes. "He's always like that, Hitomi-san. Just ignore him."

Yuugi seemed to shrink a bit in his chair. "Yeah…"

"Yeah, but," Jounouchi started, "he's going to have to be a bit more social for the festival."

Yuugi looked even more uncomfortable. "Um, that's really not necess-"

Seto sighed, stood up, and shut his laptop. "Fine." He walked over and stuck his hand out. "I'm Kaiba Seto. It's nice to meet you."

Hitomi smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Kawara Hitomi. Do you mind if I call you Seto-kun?"

He blinked, taken aback. "Um… I guess… it's okay…"

"Hey, that's not fair!" Otogi marched back in with a few boxes, a white-haired boy following with the rest. "You just met him and you're on given name basis! But it's all 'Otogi' with me! Even after you almost kiss-"

Hitomi quickly covered his mouth, and the others stared. "Um, it's nothing!" Out of the corner of her mouth, she ordered him to be quiet. He responded by kissing the palm of her hand. "Augh! Otogi, you…"

Everyone was staring again, and she blushed. "Um… um… who's that?" She pointed to the boy she hadn't met.

He smiled and bowed. "Hello. I'm Bakura Ryou. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Otogi looked at Bakura, then at Hitomi. "Oh, and you're going to call him Ryou-kun now, huh?"

"Um…" Hitomi stood there, looking Bakura over. Something's odd about him… "No, I think I'll call him Bakura."

"WHY?! Can you tell how you're going to like a person when you first look at them?!"

"Um… no…"

Bakura watched on obliviously.

Otogi peered into Hitomi's face for a little while, then broke out in a smile. "Well, that's better, then! It won't be as confusing when you start calling me Ryuu-kun!!"

She gritted her teeth. "Who says I'm ever going to call you that!?"

"I do!"

"Oh, quiet, you." Honda took the lunches from Otogi and passed them out. "Lunch will be over soon, so let's eat!"

"Um…" Bakura took a box and opened it. "Could someone explain what is going on with Otogi-kun and… um… what's your name?"

"Kawara Hitomi, and it's a long story." She snatched the box that Otogi was handing her. "You better not have put anything 'special' in here for me…"

Anzu laughed. "I don't think they're even telling us that whole story…"

"There's nothing more to it, Mazaki!" She waved her hand, blushing. "All it is that Otogi loves me and I hate him!"

"That's really not much of a long story," Seto commented, stealing some rice from Jounouchi's lunch.

"Oy! Kaiba!"

"Shut up, you loser dog…"

Yuugi then spoke up. "Well, I know that there's more to it than just that…" He sat up in his chair. "But I think there's even more to it than I know…"

"That's right! You two went on a date!" Honda winked and nudged Otogi in the side. "Well, tell us what happened…!"

Otogi looked a little uncomfortable. "Um, well…"

"I'm warning you, Otogi, if you say a word…"

"Aha!" Jounouchi jumped over Yuugi's desk to stand right in front of Hitomi. "Something must have happened, then, if you want to be so secretive!"

"Jounouchi-kun, my desk isn't a hurtle…"

Seto scoffed. "Leave her alone, nameless one."

"Hey! Who's the nameless one…!!"

Yuugi had to duck as his desk went flying over him, just nearly missing Seto. "Jounouchi-kun!!" He ran in front of him and attempted to prevent him from advancing, while Honda and Bakura held him by the arms.

"Let me go! I'll get that…!"

"Jounouchi, don't!" Honda struggled to keep Jounouchi's right arm in control. "Bakura, you okay over there?!"

"I… um…" He was looking as if he were using all the strength he could to keep Jounouchi back.

"Jounouchi!" Anzu grabbed the back of his collar. "Don't do this, we're in school!"

"You guys, let go, I'm going to beat him…!"

Hitomi looked at Seto, who looked completely bored and unnerved by this event. "Um, do you guys need any help?"

"Ah! Hitomi-san!" Anzu let go of Jounouchi's collar and started ushering Otogi and Hitomi out. "You shouldn't get wrapped up in this, don't worry, everything's under control!" She took them to the door and gave them a weak smile. "This is normal, you two should get back to your class now, the bell's about to ring!" She closed the door.

Hitomi looked up at Otogi, who was staring at her strangely. "What?"

"Do you really believe everything that you said in there?" His face was completely serious.

Hitomi turned away. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't even know how you feel. You can't truly think that you do hate me."

She paused, then turned to look back at him. "You're right. I don't think I hate you." She stepped closer. "But don't think that what happened on Saturday is ever going to happen again."

He chuckled, and leaned down to lean his forehead on hers. "Then stand back. You're as close to me right now as you were then."

Hitomi blushed and pushed him away. "Don't think anything of it. It's not love." She turned around again and ran into the room as quickly as possible.

***

x_x Omake!! x_x

Hello! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter done. I've been watching lots of Gravitation… and Fruits Basket, but more Gravitation, when you consider that Furuba has double the amount of episodes that Gravitation has…
I wouldn't suggest Gravitation unless you're over the age of… maybe 14. It has some adult themes… but I love the music! ^^
Actually, I've been listening to a single song over and over again while writing this chapter. It's from Gravitation, in case YOU COULDN'T GUESS!!! It's called Rage Beat, and it's so good! You can download it from this site:
http://www.maloca.com/isis/music2.html
Just scroll down until you find the Gravitation section… Oh! But here are the lyrics to the second chorus!! (I decided to give you the SECOND chorus because it has "hitomi" in it and WHEE HEE HEE!!! I'm SO very easily amused!!!) I translated it, also, but I put absolutely no effort into it so it's probably not right at all. x_x

Saka maku kodou kara
Kirakira gin no Passion kakehiki dake yuuwaku
Koware sou na kimi no hitomi ga ikeru DOA tataite
Sagashi tsuzukeru You Just a New World

Coiling in reverse
A shining silver passion with temptation as my only strategy
Your seemingly broken eyes are traveling to the door more and more
I'll step back and just continue to follow you in a New World

WHEE HEE HEE!!! Isn't that so fun?!

Yayayayay! At least I know that Anime*Angel reads this section…

AND! TAIYOU!! I'm not going to make it that easy for you and your brother!!! *smiles evilly*

Enough for the happy stuff, now, though. Because I'm going to rant. And if you don't like it, TOUGH!!

Oh, but first, here's another picture I drew. It's a character from one of my manga… Watching Gravitation has made me want to draw people singing, and she (her name is Himawari…) sings, and… yeah. I DREW IT DURING GIRL SCOUTS!!! (Girl Scouts ROCKS!!) (I'm just kidding. It stinks, especially when your leaders are completely unsupportive, biased racists.)
http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/himawarising.jpg

Okay, now for the rant.
Okay, so. There's this boy in my homeroom named… Makkusu (name has been changed) who is also one of the most active members in my school's anime club (of which I am an officer). Now, my school is really really big on sports, and we've won… at least twelve state championships during the… seventeen (?) years of its existence (our principal calls himself the "Champion Principal"… and he looks like Hitler). What does this have to do with anything? Well, you see, our entire homeroom just happened to be composed of jocks and cheerleaders. The only two people who are NOT a jock or cheerleader are Makkusu and I. So, since we're "artistic" instead of "athletic," we're sort of shunned off from the rest of our homeroom (they sit at the two round tables in the front of the room, and we sit… ON the two round tables in the back of the room). If that note in parentheses makes no sense, here's a diagram of our room:
http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/room.jpg
Just in case you're wondering, our high school has a preschool in it, and our homeroom is the preschool room.
So, anyway, needless to say, Makkusu and I became pretty close. And he's kind and polite, too, not mean and rude like the jocks in our room who threaten to beat me up if I mark them absent… grr…
Anyway, we became pretty close friends, and everyone thought that we'd get together or whatnot. (Some meant it more as an insult… such as the jocks and cheerleaders in our homeroom…) Nothing really happened, though, except that at his birthday party in September he started holding me close to him and holding my hand, but that's it. So once my friends found out (at least a month later…), they were convinced that he'd be my boyfriend and stupid stuff like that.
Heck, I don't want a boyfriend.
Anyway, in November he got together with a girl from my church, whom I will call Arisu. She's a senior, and nobody seems to like the fact that they're going out. They're literally connected at the hip (well, not literally, but… you get the idea). This is upsetting everyone that they're friends with, because they can no longer have any time with them without the other. (Arisu's best friend, whom I've known since I was a freshman, is especially upset, and wants to "throw him [Makkusu] off a cliff.") Likewise, I haven't been talking to Makkusu recently, or vice versa, and he denies that anything is wrong when I ask him. And I can tell that something is bothering him.
His relationship with her has also put me in some odd situations. For example, I was to read during the service on Christmas Eve at my church. Coincidentally, Arisu's family was to light the Christ candle, and sat in the front row. Now, of course, Arisu had to bring Makkusu along, which annoyed me, because they were talking to each other when they were supposed to be standing up and singing hymns, as well as the fact that I had to read with them right in front of my face.
Now, when the new semester started, we got new classes and new lunch times. None of the classes I have are with any of my friends, save for art, which I have with Mab. It turned out that the lunch I had was with Makkusu (and a few of my other friends, whom I would prefer not to talk with, as their conversations tend to center around… things they do with their boyfriends…), and Arisu was not in that lunch. Now, I was happy, because I could finally socialize with Makkusu without Arisu around.
Then, today, it turned out that Arisu had switched her third block class so that she could have the same lunch as Makkusu. The thing that annoyed me the most about that… no, wait, that's what annoyed me the most. The fact that Arisu is completely obsessed with Makkusu. That's the kind of behavior that I see from girls that consider their boyfriend a material possession, and the main reason that I so not want a boyfriend. That really annoyed me, because I only want the best for my friends and what will make them happy, even if I won't end up happy in the end.
The thing that annoyed me second is that they went off to sit at another table and left me alone. Actually, there were my other friends at the table with me, but they were quite a ways away from me, and, as I stated earlier, I'd rather not converse with them. And they ignored me, anyway.
So, what did I do? In protest, I didn't eat. All I did was write out my chemistry homework (which then turned out to be the wrong assignment). Okay, I wasn't planning on eating anyway, since I wasn't hungry at all. Also, I made sure that I was making no eye contact with anyone, especially with Makkusu. Not that I could if I even tried, since Arisu was blocking him with her obsessive bulk.
Okay, now that's mean. Sorry…
Anyway, did anyone notice or care? No… And, mind you, I'm usually so very cheery and happy in school, I'd find it hard not to notice. But that's just me. I mean, I actually pay attention to myself, unlike anyone else. And this was right after a rather upsetting Spanish class, which I will get to in a moment.
Actually, I'll get to that now. See, we had to write some dialogue about something, I can't remember. I was in a group with the girl who sits next to me, and the girl who sits in back of me. This girl who sits in back of me obviously thinks that she's all high and mighty and knows everything, and speaks Spanish in such a haughty tone, as if she is perfectly fluent in the language, which she isn't. She won't let anyone correct her, either. So, we had to write this dialogue, and she basically took it upon herself to write the entire thing. Every fifth word had some sort of grammatical error or structure flaw, so I'd try to correct it, so that we wouldn't get any points deducted or anything. Each time, she'd just glare at me, and, if she couldn't find an excuse for it to be correct, she'd say, "Well, fine!"
…Um, I sort of didn't make up the language here. I'm not coming up with these grammatical thingies off the top of my head, you know?
What's even more annoying is that this is a freshman. She's acting as if she knows everything, or at least more than me, and I'm a whole two grades ahead of her. Shouldn't she respect her elders or something along those lines? Not only that, I just had Spanish last semester, so all this stuff is fresh in my mind, unlike most of the other students who haven't had it since at least June.
Then this freshman (the root word of her Spanish name is "dulce," or "sweet." Ironic, no?) was yelling at me if I didn't read my lines on time, because I didn't hear them because they were talking in basically a whisper. This got me extremely upset, and I cried for a few seconds. Not long, though. Because she's an idiot that I shouldn't get upset over.
And then, after lunch, I had chemistry. I found out that I had done the wrong homework assignment. And on top of that, my teacher thinks I'm some complete idiot because I said you could find plasma in blood.
Unfortunately, she had been talking about the other plasma.
Oh, and, by the way, both my parents are chemists. So is my grandfather, come to think of it.
Shall I rant about what happened in chemistry yesterday? I think I will, since it's really quite amusing when you ignore the annoying factor.
Well, our teacher was showing us the vinegar-in-baking soda experiment, and taking the gas that was released into a beaker and putting a candle out with that gas. As she was doing this, she asked, "What am I scooping into the beaker?"
"Uhhhhhh…." said most of the class.
"Water!" said some kid.
"Carbon dioxide!" I said.
She shook her head, saying, "No, no, no…" Then she rephrased it. "Okay, what gas is being let off by the reaction?"
"Uhhhhhh…." said most of the class.
"Carbon dioxide," I said.
She shook her head, saying, "No, no, no…" Then she rephrased it. "Okay, what gas is it that extinguishes fire?"
"Uhhhhhh…." said most of the class.
"Carbon dioxide…" I said.
She shook her head, saying, "No, no, no…" Then she said, "Okay, I'll tell you. It's carbon dioxide."
I slammed my hands on my desk in frustration, and the girl next to me just looked at me with a What in the world is she smoking? look.
I'll take this opportunity to stress the fact that I have grown up under heavy influences of chemistry.
I'll also take this opportunity to stress the fact that I was saying this in a reasonably loud voice.
I'll also take this opportunity to stress the fact that I sit in the desk that is closest to the front.

I think I've finished with my ranting.

Luigi- YAY FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN RANT WITHOUT CURSING!!!!!

See you all next chapter!! *waves*

Next Chapter
Chapter 6: Kangae Tsuzukenasai! (Keep on thinking!)