A/N » Thanks blueverry88 for that review! ^^ I've got more time to update earlier now that the hols are coming and exams have ended! Haha. Please review more. You might see 2 chapters per day if there are more reviews! Lala! Never thought I'd last to chapter 8 though. Good luck with my story. Oh wait, damn, I've suddenly developed writer's block. Hope this chapter turns out well. -_-;

Disclaimer » Hana Yori Dango does not belong to me. It never will belong to me. It never has belonged to me. ^^

Generation Y

Chapter 8 » Alls well ends well

"Rise and shine Ikina sama." Said Yafumi as she pushed the curtains away. Bright sunlight danced into the bedroom and Misao covered her face with her hands.

"Let me sleep longer…" she mumbled.

"You have school today. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be late ne?" asked Yafumi, folding up Misao's blanket.

"…"

Yafumi let out a small sigh. Without second thoughts, she kicked Misao's butt and woke her up, in an instant.

"Itai! What the!" shouted Misao as she jumped off her bed.

Yafumi, amused at her mistress's reaction, chuckled softly and pointed to the clock on the dressing table.

"My Mashimaro clock. Is it spoilt or what? Why are you pointing at it?" asked Misao dumbly.

"For god's sake, don't look at the Mashimaro! Look at the carrots! [The clock as cartoon carrots as it's hands]" burst Yafumi madly. At times like this, she wondered how come her blood pressure hasn't rose to the degree of bursting yet.

"Carrot? Oh time. It's 10am… 10 AM!! ARGHH! I'M LATE!" Misao shouted, finally regaining her senses.

She hurriedly brushed her teeth, changed into her uniform, and then dashed out of her house.

"Ikina sama! You want a lift?" shouted Yafumi as she witness the young lady bang into yet another lamppost.

"Ah… ah… sure." Misao said and banged into the neighbor's gate this time.

"Yare yare. I pity the lamppost more than I do you." Grinned Yafumi as she opened the door for Misao and pushed her into the sliver Porsche.

Minutes later [thanks to Yafumi's excellent SPEEDING], Misao arrived in school, just in time to hear the bell ring.

"Arigato Yafumi san! You can park my Porsche anywhere, just give me the keys later and tell me where you left it. Sayonara, I've to rush!" shouted Misao as she almost trip on a rock.

God. Now where's the E.Lit classroom? Thought Misao as she zipped in and out of the other Eitoku students. Turning left from a corridor, she saw Hitori Nishirou walking along a deserted hallway. "Hitori! Oh am I so glad to see you!" shouted Misao across the hallway. Nishirou turned to look at the person calling his name. Didn't something happen between her and Takizawa? Why does she look so cheerful? Does it mean she's fine? Or like Ryuki said, nothing happened? What does she want with me now anyway? Thought Nishirou. Misao dashed towards Nishirou and suddenly, tripped over a book. Before she knew it, she was falling… on the cold hard floor. A book? What's it doing at the most deserted hallway of Eitoku? I'm going to fall. Now I'll look like an idiot in front of not only Shono, but Hitori too. This is really not my year, time, day. Thought Misao as she prepared herself for the impact of the hard floor.

BOOM!

"Itai!" she muttered. Half of her knew she was going to fall, the other half secretly wished Nishirou would come out of his cold self and rush forward to save her from falling.

Nishirou laughed. He found it amusing to see the 'strong' xena-like Misao fall down and shout like every other normal girl.

"Oh my, what a gentleman you are. Laughing when a lady has just fell down. I haven't lecture you for not rushing forward to save me yet, so can you at least help me up." Said Misao, her voice practically dripping in sarcasm.

Nishirou stopped laughing and extended his hand to her. Plotting in her head, Misao took it and threw him on the floor instead. Nishirou landed with a hard thud like Misao.

"Ha! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!" Smugly, she dusted her hands on her skirt.

Nishirou realized what Misao just did and just couldn't stop laughing at it. Watching Nishirou laughed made Misao herself laugh as the two idiots sat down laughing at each other's mishaps. [Sadistic Nishirou and Misao? I'm weird.]

Along more corridors

Misao dashed along more corridors after asking Nishirou about the Literature room. Glancing at her watch and muttering curses, she was more than half a period late.

She finally saw the words ENGLISH LITERATURE – FIRST YEARS and pushed open the door.

"Sumimasen sensei! I didn't mean to be late! I knocked into Hitori Nishirou on the way here and fell down!" burst out Misao, not daring to look at her teacher.

"IKINA SAN!" the sensei shouted, but stopped after he realized she said out one of the F4's name. "You knocked into Hitori sama?! You want to get yourself killed?! You stupid girl! Your family may be rich, but not rich enough to avoid detention after school! You better hope that Hitori sama doesn't sue your entire family or set the school against you! Now get to your seat young lady!"

Misao cursed at her own luck and sat down beside Nikkie, who had a look of disbelieve on her face.

"You knocked into Hitori Nishirou? Do you know how lucky you are! The entire student body of girls is going to come after you once they hear about this Misao!" whispered Nikkie.

Misao shot her a I-don't-give-a-damn-about-them look and proceeded to take out her Literature book. She was glad that not many people, especially girls, knew she went to the Hatakaru ball yesterday as a date of Takizawa.

Takizawa! She panicked as she suddenly recalled the incidents that happened yesterday. She didn't realize that she'd completely forgotten about it. What if I see him later? What will I do or say or think? Should I avoid him? Is it possible? Should I just forgive him and act as if nothing has happened, like he should be doing so now? Or should I just give him the cold shoulder treatment? Kami sama please tell me what to do?

Misao shut her eyes and tried to concentrate on the Shakespeare sonnets that they are learning now. In the end, she decided to forgive Takizawa, but she's not sure about the act-as-if-nothing-happened part. Sighing softly, she suddenly found it easier to understand Shakespeare and his weird quirky quotes in Romeo and Juliet and other sob stories with love here and there.

As the bell rang, signifying the end of Literature, Misao grabbed her things and headed for the Chemistry room. She bid a hasty goodbye to Nikkie and tried to rehearse her lines, in the head, to say to Takizawa later.

"BOO!" shouted someone from behind her.

Misao jumped up and came face to face with Shono Ryuki.

"Why you jerk! How dare you scare a young lady in her thoughts! Baka! Watch out or you will get it from me!" shouted Misao who would have murdered Ryuki if not for the strong arms of Hatakaru Saota stopping her.

Gritting her teeth, she wriggled out of Saota's reach and stomped down the corridor, a dark aura floating behind her. Students jumped out of her way and wondered among themselves what on earth happened to Ikina Misao.

"Touchy isn't she?" joked Ryuki.

"Weirdo. I don't want to have to come to your rescue every time you anger a girl, particularly one that has Ikina's character." Said Saota.

He looked ahead of them and saw Takizawa standing there like a statue.

"Now what's his problem?" asked Saota.

Ryuki muttered lots of oohs and ahhs before saying he doesn't really know. Meanwhile, Takizawa was still standing there quietly like he saw a ghost.

That was Misao right? She seemed so cheerful. Does this mean she's forgiven me? Or did she forget about the whole thing? Or… she's trying to put a brave front in front of them? We are having Chemistry together later; maybe if I offer to be her lab partner, she will give me the opportunity to talk. Thought Takizawa.

He walked to his friends and forced a smile. Ryuki knows better and Saota's starting to smell something fishy. They never talked and just walked down to the Chem lab while practically every girl they passed by starts fainting or squealing.

At the Chemistry Lab

Misao kicked open the Lab door and found it surprisingly empty, except for an amused Hitori Nishirou, seating there watching as Misao kicked every object weighing less than her.

"Hitori! You pig! Because of you the stupid sensei scolded me back in Literature! Why of all people to bump in and knock down, it had to be you!" burst Misao angrily.

Fire could be seen dancing around her head in chibi form.

"Erm… sorry… for not rushing to save you from hitting the ground just now." Said Nishirou quietly.

Misao's expression and mood soften after hearing the apology. It was weird hearing Nishirou talk, but he sounded sincere and… nice?

"Uh… it's uh… not your fault anyway. You were standing so far away, not even superman could have rushed there straight away." She said, surprised at her loss of words.

The both of them smiled. For the first time, Nishirou blushed. He stood up and turned around, pretending to examine some specimen of dead babies, in their different stages of growth, kept in bottles.

"Yuck! Dead babies. Preserved in bottles too. This school is so weird." Said Misao looking at what she thought, caught Nishirou's attention.

"Huh? Oh. It's quite ok really. This aren't real specimens anyway. They are just models made out of clay." Said Nishirou.

"Genuine or fake I don't care, as long as Eitoku keep this is their labs, they are weird. Eirin will never do such a thing." Said Misao.

Nishirou turned to look at her at the mention of Eirin.

"You really do like Eirin a lot don't you?" Nishirou asked.

"Of course! Eirin's the best! They have more bishonens there then here, the senseis are kinder and smarter, the students are more friendly, with one exception Yaoda, and their lessons are far more interesting." Replied Misao dreamily as she thought of her old school.

"So you like Eirin for their bishonens eh?" asked Nishirou cheekily.

Misao's cheeks turned a tomato red color. "Well, no, I mean yes, erm… no, wait yes, erm… Arghh! Partly yes and partly no! Stop probing Hitori!"

Nishirou chuckled. "Hey, I'm no longer a stranger to you, so drop the formalities, call me Nishirou."

Misao was surprised. Hitori Nishirou had been famous for being the cold one that hardly talks but of course will talk to people that he like.

"Hmm… I should be honored right? Ok then, Nishirou, you drop your formalities too and start calling me Misao instead of Ikina." She grinned.

"Deal." Nishirou smiled.

They walked away from the exhibition of dead babies [my school really has it in their lab, and the freak part is, I think they are real. -_-;] when the door suddenly pushed open.

"Ikina! Nishirou! There you guys are! We've been looking for you!" shouted Ryuki joyfully.

He rushed forward to hug Misao but got kicked away.

"Don't take advantage of me Shono, this is Chem period, if we're not in the lab, where are we? The landfill?" said Misao sarcastically.

Out of the corner of her eye, Misao noticed an expressionless guy standing at the door with Saota.

"Takizawa…" she mumbled softly, so soft that only she and Nishirou were the ones that could hear it.

Plucking up the courage to walk towards him, Misao sucked in some air and stood in front of him. Everyone was clearly shocked, including Takizawa himself. Tip-toeing up to his ear, Misao muttered something.

"I…I… forgive you for last night's event. Let's be friends again." She said.

Takizawa stood rooted to the ground. He slowly and softly answered her.

"… Erm… I'm sorry about last night. Thank you for your forgiveness. I'll really cherish you as my friend." He said while trembling at the same time.

They smiled at each other and then walked to their seats as the rest of the class came pouring in.