Fourth chapter! Enjoy!
Kka: What can I say? Have fun with your voodoo dolls! Ha ha! I might make two myself!
Joy: Whoa, calm down, Joy. Am posting next chapter, so relax!!
Yoriko: Ika, run over by a truck? I can't drive yet, sorry. :P You do it.
Silhouette Panther: Heh heh, they are SUPPOSED to be irritating. *looks at the hair-less patches on Eddie's head* Wow.
Fiery Ice: Tell you? Why would I do that when you can find out sooner or later?? *smiles like an angel, even with fiery-chan's blunt ruler in her face* Thanks for the hug!
Reiko naoe: Okie dokie! I'll try to focus on Sendoh in the near future. : ) Do you REALLY want to know what's going inside his head??
Reika zelon: Thanks for the pocky. Ha ha! Feel free to beat Suki up. I don't mind. Just keep her alive enough so she can appear still later on. And thanks again for the idea!
Tensaispira: Ika and Suki – interesting. That's a nice way to put it!
Frozenfemale: No, I'm not telling. But I'm continuing. : )
Jo-sen7: No, don't twist Suki's head, please. I still need her. : ) Thanks for reading! And yes, Akima pinched kAede's butt. To tell you the truth, I'd like to do that myself. *looks around for Kaede's butt* Where can it be?
Tiran: How I created Suki? By muching on a chocolate bar and typing away half-asleep. : ) You never really know who's your friend and who's not, do you? It's all a puzzle, until something big happens. Then you know – and usually, it's already too late! Waaargh!
Unchained: Thanks!
Sakura Rui: I'm still not sure if suki is a protagonist or an antagonist – but by the looks of it, she's an antagonist, isn't she? Oh well.
Super rookie: *looks at super rookie throttling Suki* Emotions are there for you to express – even if in violence. He heh!
: Hello. Thanks for reading the sequel. Me glad you like Poor You. Yes, Suki's supposed to confuse the hell out of everybody! *devil's horns pops out* Ke ke ke ke! Keep on reading!
Kathleen: Hi, Kathleen. It's okay that u dunno how to review. That's probably my fault. : ) Am continuing, thanks!
SLL: Don't apologise. I hate those two too, but I have to admit, I like them sometimes. Thanks, that was such a nice thing to say. No, I don't read/watch Hunter x Hunter. What is it about? Maybe you can persuade me into reading them, hmm?
Maemi: Thanks for taking the time!
Lazuli: No, me didn't mind the flood. : ) *looks down at the flood of Ika's blood at her feet* Er….
Lotus: Thanks! *enjoys herself seeing lotus curse all over the place at Suki*
Choco_no_baka: yeah Suki's actually likeable, underneath it all. : ) Wad plan? You think me going to tell??
"How was I supposed to know hydrogen wasn't supposed to be exposed to hot air?" Akima was animatedly telling Kaede the next day as they jogged around the neighbourhood. "I mean, they don't say that in textbooks. So I took that tube of hydrogen gas and twisted it open on top of the Bunsen burner. Next thing I knew, five glass pipes were broken and black, ten different liquids were flowing from shattered glasses due to the explosion while another two were thrown about a metre away from the table. Not to mention our crushed experiment and the black soot on my face."
Kaede smiled briefly, imagining the situation.
"Luckily, Rudi – my lab partner – was there. He grabbed something from a cupboard – I found out later that it was an ice-sprinkler – and started dusting the entire place with ice coats. It stopped the fire in time, but it created a big mess. We had to spend an extra three hours in school just cleaning up and clearing away the evidence." Akima laughed. "Just imagine how I felt in front of Rudi."
Kaede looked at her. "What did you felt?" he asked a little too quietly.
"Hmm?" Akima gave him a puzzled look. "Well, ashamed, of course. I mean, he's like, the best there is in Chemistry, and I'm supposed to be his partner. Instead I go and fumble up and destroy all his work. That ought to set certain bad impressions, don't you think? I felt really, really stupid."
He stared on ahead. "Does it matter what he thinks about you?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Well… I suppose so. He has that aura that makes you want to look your best around him, you know? Smart people are like that. They exude these waves that make people desperate to prove themselves." She smiled. "And being me, I certainly don't want him thinking I'm an idiotic moron who incidentally escaped the zoo."
He scowled a bit. Akima wasn't all that obsessed about being her best around him. "How long will you be working with him?"
"Until we finish off the project."
He snorted in dissatisfaction at the vague answer.
Akima reached back into her backpack for her bottle. She drank noisily and then set the cap on the bottle back, making sure she was keeping up to his pace. "Why are we talking about this anyway?" she muttered. "Why don't you tell me about your baby cousin?"
He squinted into the far distance, struggling to remember which baby cousin and how he looked like. "He's … small."
Akima rolled her eyes. "Why, yes, I think I know that already."
"He has eyes. And a nose."
"Doesn't every baby?"
He let out a frustrated sound. "He's just like every other baby. You don't have to ask for descriptions."
"All babies are different, Kaede," Akima said patiently. "It's important that you realise that and not mistake a baby elephant with a baby human."
He snorted. "I'm not going to have babies, so why bother?"
She stopped suddenly. Already a couple of steps ahead, he stopped too and turned around with a puzzled frown. "What an interesting thing to say," she told him, eyes glinting in a way that made him nervous. "Why don't we discuss it further? Exactly what do you mean by 'not going to have babies'?"
He paled a bit, aware that he was somehow on dangerous grounds. "I have to go to the toilet."
Akima watched him make an uncharacteristic escape. "Coward."
"I'm not sure," Suki muttered doubtfully at Ika, who sat across her. "Why can't we do it any other way?"
"Because," Ika said patiently, "this way would shatter her even more."
Suki narrowed her eyes. "I don't want to shatter Akima," she said, suddenly hot and angry. "I think you go too far."
"Hey, it was your idea in the first place, all right?" Ika hissed defensively. "What you're doing is enough to make her crumple down into a messy heap. What I'm suggesting is just a way to go around that idea of yours."
"But why that way?" Suki demanded. "Why video tape and recorder?"
Ika shrugged, smiling. "You wouldn't understand. It's my way of revenge."
Suki still looked dubious, but let the matter drop. "All right. Whatever."
"You better watch your back, Kaede Rukawa."
He looked drowsily at Ika Kirani, who had burst into his class after school and now loomed down on him, with her usual pack of friends behind her. He squinted, struggling to clear the dots in his vision. "What?"
"I said, you should watch your back."
He yawned. "I will," he muttered, "once you tell me how to twist my head around or get a new pair of eyes attached to the back of my head."
Ika turned visibly red. Akima, her mind told her irritably. He's been spending too much time with that girl that he's catching on her sarcasm. "I've been hearing a lot of rumours," she started again, calming herself with much effort.
"Hmm."
"You don't happen to have heard the name 'Rudi', do you?"
His eyes, which were slowly but surely drooping down and closing into sleep, stretched open. He stared at his table, frowning. Then, he bent over the table to sleep again, ignoring Ika's entire existence.
Ika gritted her teeth. "Fine," she said imperiously. "You can just listen then. I've heard rumours that your bratty Akima has been seeing someone else other than you. Someone better, from the likes of it. A brilliant, straight-A student. That's so unlike you, isn't it? I don't remember seeing any A's in your report card." She smirked. "Are you sure she's trustworthy, Rukawa? Because she never was. I've always seen that side of her."
He slowly turned his head to look at her. "Don't ever look at my report card again."
Ika's face was one of absolute frustration and disbelief. "Don't you see what I'm trying to tell you??" she screeched. "Akima is cheating on you! She doesn't deserve you! Break up with her! She's no good for you!"
He was clearly snoring, a puddle of saliva already beginning to form on the table.
Ika clenched her fist and stomped out of the room.
"He wouldn't listen to me!" Ika yelled into her handphone. "That idiot just ignored me and slept. SLEPT! Can you believe it??"
"What possessed you to do that?" Suki snapped back. "You should've known he wouldn't trust you after what you've been doing to Akima in his face. He knows you're Akima's enemy. So OF COURSE he wouldn't listen to you."
Ika made some unflattering noises.
"I told you," Suki continued, "I told you to get someone he trusts. Someone he'll listen to. Going up on your own is possibly the stupidest thing you could ever have done."
"All right! All right!" Ika muttered. "I'll get someone he trusts." She slammed the phone shut and looked at her friends. "Girls, let's go see some basketball people."
"Really?" Ayako's eyes were wide with disbelief. "Is that so?"
Ika nodded firmly. "That's the way it seems to be." She put on an innocent face. "I know it may seem as if I'm intruding, but I simply don't think we should let Akima Hanashi lead Rukawa around by the nose anymore. The guy deserves more, don't you think?"
"Yes," Ayako agreed, motherly instinct leaping up. "Absolutely. I didn't know. I had no idea Akima was like that."
"That's because you barely know her."
Ayako nodded. "That's true. I've only met her twice. She looked nice enough to me, though."
"Looks can be deceiving," Ika said simply, with a hint of a tragic tone. "I just hope you'll warn Rukawa about this. I believe he'll listen to you. The rest of us here mean nothing to him, no matter how much we talk our tongue off."
"I will," Ayako assured, still with that dazed look. "I won't allow him to be hurt."
"Me too." Ika said empathically.
"You're very kind, Ika. I'm sure others wouldn't have been bothered to alert Rukawa about this."
Ika lowered her eyelashes. "I do what I can."
Methinks that was a rather long chapter. : )
Anyway, BAD NEWS – well, for me, it is.
the computer in my house has BROKEN DOWN. Along with all of my files and Rukawa pictures (waaaaaaa!) I cannot retrieve my files and have to rewrite everything. I can't rewrite everything because I don't have a computer I dunno when the comp's gonna be fixed. And even if it IS fixed, my dad has just been banned me from using it because he thinks I was the cause of damage (It's not my fault! Somebody believe me!) So now, I rely on my mom's office computer which I can only use once a weekSo to put it shortly, updating and even typing fics have become practically impossible for me. *looks at the sky and demands 'Why ME???"* I'm really depressed cuz I have nothing better to do at home and am now stuck in a boring holiday, which was boring enough even when I could type my stories.
Okay, sorry about that little outburst. So I have to apologise. Sorry. Hope you understand. I'll try my best to update as soon and as often. *breaks down and wails like a mad girl*