YES! I'm up to chapter 8!!!!!! Yay! Thanks once again to mirofiber shoelaces for the help!

Disclaimer: I don't own FLCL or Cowboy Bebop...and the song Haruko sings is from Will Smith's 'Born Ta Reign'. (The sad part is, I know the entire song)

Chapter 8 – Naota's First Kiss

Haruko walked down the corridor of her school, early Monday morning. She was rocking her head in tune with the music blasting from her headphones. "Well! I was a born ta reign! Hell yeah! My name ta be etched in stone; my destiny is pre-or-dained! I'm tryin ta live righteous! Fighting for life, wasting truth on da ruthless and doubt on da right! Made a lot of new friends, got a lot of new ends...da dee da, da dee dum, da dee da, da dee dum!" Meanwhile, Ed was chasing her down the hall, Spike right on her tail. (Wait...SPIKE!!!) "SEMPAI!!!!" she yelled, dragging Spike by the arm down the hall. "Haruko-sempai! Wait!" Spike's eyes just bugged out. He dove behind the lockers, yanking Ed with him. She slammed against the wall, and Spike covered her mouth with his hand. "What the HELL do you think you're doing!!!" he hissed dangerously. Ed chomped down on his hand. "YEEEE- OOOOOOOOWWW!!!!" he screamed. Haruko's head turned to the direction of the scream. "That sounded like Spike-y!" she said excitedly and ran towards the sound. "...shit!" Spike squeaked. He ran as fast as he could towards the boys' bathroom. Haruko's eyes lit up. "SPIKE-Y!!!" She motored after him. "Wait! Wait! Spike-y! Come back!" Spike looked behind him, legs moving as fast as humanly possible. "STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, YOU PHSYCOTIC LITTLE STALKER!!!" he yelled and dashed into the boy's bathroom. Unknown to him, Haruko followed right behind him, but froze at the door. Spike looked out of the corner of his eye and shifted in horror. "WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!" he screamed, in extreme rage (not to mention shock). "Uh...uh...SMILE!" she said, taking out her Polaroid camera. The bright flash stunned Spike. He stumbled backwards and fell into the hot air hand dryer. The hot air whooshed out into Spike's face, sending him stumbling more. He crashed into the wall, flailing his arms, trying to keep his balance, but ended up bringing down the hand dryer with him. It smashed down onto his head and Spike fell on the floor, out cold. Haruko looked as if she was going to crack up and burst into tears at the same time. She pulled her guitar out of her bag and poked him with it. Spike didn't even twitch. 'Is he even BREATHING?' she asked herself. 'OH DEAR GOD! I-I've killed Spike!' Haruko ran out of the boy's bathroom screaming. "SPIKE IS DEAD!" Meanwhile, Spike sat up on the floor laughing hysterically, and rubbing the large bump formed on his head.

"Are you gonna try out?" said a girl's voice. Naota looked behind him. It was Ninamori. "First time you've spoken to me all year." Naota said matter-of-factly. "Yeah." she sighed. "Your confidence level seems to have risen a lot since 9th grade, you know." she laughed. Naota didn't respond. Ninamori smiled. "What's up with you?" Naota asked. "You're smiling too much." She didn't respond. "I'm gonna try out for Lady Macbeth." she said, still looking at the poster. "You'd make a good Banquo, Naota." Naota just shrugged. "Whatever." She looked him dead in the eyes. "When did we stop being friends, Naota?" Naota averted his eyes and blushed slightly. "W-what do you mean?" "Just what I said." she said. Naota shrugged again and started to bite his lip and play with his shoelaces. He stared straight at the poster on the wall. She put her head on his shoulder. "You're taller than me now. I only come up to your shoulder." she smiled. Naota shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, I grew a lot, I guess." he laughed nervously. She looked at his face. "Why aren't you looking at me?" He gulped and looked at her. "I-I don't know! I-I-I-I never n-noticed I wasn't!" Naota turned bright red and started to sweat, before he gulped again. "I have to go to class!" he yelped, louder than he wanted to. He started to hurry off to class, but Ninamori grabbed him by his arm. "Don't leave yet." she said, almost pleadingly. He looked the girl in the eyes and gulped yet again. "I have to give you this first." she said. Naota turned neon red while Ninamori gave him a kiss. "Uh.... uh...uh..." he stammered. She let go of his arm. "You can go now, Naota." Naota just stood there in shock. "Uh, right! Bye Ninamori." he stuttered, and ran towards his Science class.

Sorry that the past chapters have been so short! I promise the next one will be longer! ~shadow