First Silvera: You have to think about it first, though (or reread the first couple of chapters, as I've been lazy and haven't updated). Quite a few years have passed (6, assuming that Conan is currently "8"), since he's known that Shinichi Kudo would never be "resurrected", including the four years Ran spends at college. I think six years is ample time to forget someone… and he wasn't choosing just a 'few' people over Ran; it was a fairly large number (I think I made it a thousand or so? Anyhow, the number's way off from the truth because I have no idea how many people live in this fictional city in Japan…) and anyone with an ounce of righteousness would pick any number of innocent people (well, a reasonable number larger than one) over a single person, let alone Conan. As for "being fair to Ran", I'm not doing it intentionally, it's just that most authors only include Haibara in the beginning to miraculously come up with the antidote overnight, then suddenly decide to run away, kill herself, or get captured and killed. Since no one bothers to be fair to her, I'm writing one where she's actually a main character. Also… I would change the parts concerning Ran as you asked, but she's already dead and there's not much I can do at this point… thanks for reviewing, though!

Kasuga-sempai: Yeah, I am sure. If you haven't already, read the note above.

Author's Notes (A/N): School's started…

Disclaimer: I do not own DC, any of these characters, etc.

The Quandary

Chapter 4 - School

The soft, cheerful glow of dawn shone through the open window, painting the room a gentle pink hue. A small figure on the bed blinked sleepily, yawning and stretching before checking the clock, heading to the bathroom, and getting dressed. Conan Edogawa emerged from his bedroom and headed for the stairs, noticing the rays of light emitted from the room beside his. Quite obviously, the door was open. He stopped and peered inside the room, curious to see why anyone else was up so early. As he peered into the room, he saw a neatly made bed, a plain desk furnished with only a desk lamp, a pristine, white carpet, and a bookshelf with the books packed neatly. It was quite a contrast to his own room, which looked like a tornado had struck recently.

Standing by the open window, Haibara was gazing outward as a gentle breeze rustled her hair. Conan continued into the room silently, like a stealthy predator stalking its prey. When he was close enough, he extended an arm and gently tapped her on the shoulder. The effect was instantaneous. She whirled around, the soft pink light playing across her face and her sparkling blue eyes wide in surprise – for the few milliseconds before Conan found his face mere inches from the carpeted floor, his arm twisted behind his back, and a hand gripping his wrist, applying slight but steady pressure upwards.

"Oh… Kudo… sorry," she apologized in a sincere tone that contradicted the amused glint in her eyes as she released him. "Are you hurt?"

"What was that?" Conan groaned, rubbing his shoulder and seating himself on the edge of the bed.

"You came intomy room, didn't announce yourself, approached within arm's length, and made physical contact," Ai replied matter-of-factly.

"You tried to rip my arm off because I surprised you?" Conan exaggerated, as people from the victims' point of view tend to do.

" 'Rip your arm off'? I would never do that!" Haibara replied, donning a mask of innocence. "It was just a gentle hold; there is a very large difference between such a lock and 'ripping someone's arm off.' Besides, it's 5:34 in the morning!"

"Well, the fact that the sun had indeed risen by 5:34 in the morning means that you were provided with ample light to see. You saw me. You knew it was me, yet you still did it; what are the chances that it was an accident?" Conan demanded.

"Um, mathematically and technically, that would be a rather strong argument, as the chances are extremely low. However, you do have to take a look at the other factors. Perhaps you 'surprised me' and I just did it naturally, without thinking. The chances of that are fairly high," Haibara answered in a childlike fashion, widening her eyes to enhance the look of innocence. "…and I didn't mention the time as an issue of visibility; I meant it's kind of early, and you should notbe in my room."

"I… well, the door was open, and I just…" Conan stuttered, trying to formulate an excuse.

After a few seconds of silence, Haibara broke the tension, "I'm going down to get breakfast. Come if you want, but get out of my room, okay?" she turned and exited the room.

Conan leaned back, staring at the ceiling. Almost immediately, his mind began to replay the incident, displaying picture after picture: Haibara staring out the window with her back to him, the peaceful, childish look upon her face as she turned, mixed with some surprise, the calm manner in which she delivered her 'defense' – What's wrong with me? It's not like I like her, why do I keep thinking about her? Quickly, he stood up and left, intending to return to his own room. His feet carried him down the path he'd taken millions of times, down the steps and to the left. Down the steps? Looking down at the tiled floor, Conan found himself in the kitchen. He wandered over to table and sat down, giving a start when a voice addressed him.

"About that earlier-" Haibara began, picking up a quarter of an apple raising it to her lips.

"I thought about it a little, and it was my fault," Conan interrupted quickly.

"…if you say so," Haibara answered with a small smile. A genuine smile, not a derisive sneer or a mocking smirk. "But… you should get some breakfast; school starts in approximately 45 minutes, after the time it takes us to walk there."

"The first day of school always sucks," Conan replied unhappily, "but I guess I should get something to eat…" he headed for the pantry, grabbed a slice of bread, and stuck it in the toaster. "I don't see why the professor can't register us as "home-schooled"… it'd be so much better that way."

"Yeah, but at least we're not in stuck in elementary as the freaks who knew how to multiply," Haibara answered, finishing her apple.

"But still, it's like regressing from college level to 9th grade. We all know about Darwinism, no one believes in creationism, we obviously don't need to take English, no one cares about the obvious relation between calculus and physics..." he trailed off.

"That's post graduate school for me, but yeah, you're right, although… reading 'The Book of Five Rings' and 'The Art of War' for summer reading is a new one; it does not give the impression that the gym teacher is… sane; it's not boot camp we're going to, or a specialized course like Military Science; it's just normal physical ed." Haibara voiced her opinions in an amused tone.

"Actually, the school board does give him free rein to do as he likes, so if he/she really wanted to, he could actually make it a 'boot camp'," Conan pointed out.

"Of all the moronic things to do…" Haibara sighed, checking to make sure she had her books, "but we all underwent intensive physical ed. when I was younger, so gym class won't be much of a challenge," Seeing the confused look on Conan's face, she elaborated, "Yeah, we all had to go through training, which incorporated many styles of martial arts, mostly empty handed combat because the Organization believes in guns over a bamboo staff, and everything about guns: maintenance, troubleshooting, parts, and shooting, of course. It was 'just in case', for emergency situations; mostly ones such as exposure and getting away from cops. But…isn't it taking an unusually long time for your toast…?"

A scorched, burnt smell wafted across the kitchen from the toaster's location.

"Aaaahhh! Stupid toaster!" Conan cried as he rushed to the counter and hastily unplugged the toaster. "These stupid appliances never work properly!" He looked into the bread slot, only to find a crushed, blackened slice of 'toast'. Dejectedly, he reached into the dishwasher for a pair of chopsticks and managed to retrieve his breakfast.

A muffled chuckle reached his ears, and he turned to see Haibara shaking with mirth.

…I guess we've all changed over these past six years, he thought in surprise.

"Here, you can have the other half of the apple," Haibara offered, holding out the two remaining quarters of the apple.

"Thanks," Conan replied gratefully as he reached for the apple. As he did, his hand grazed Haibara's fingertips, sending a jolt through his body, rooting him to the spot.

Wordlessly, Haibara raised her eyebrows questioningly as he paused.

"N…nothing," Conan stammered, taking the apple and turning to repair the toaster, glad for an excuse to hide his blazing face but wishing he could control the wild pounding of his heart.

"We should leave…" Haibara announced softly, rising from her seat at the table and grabbing her backpack.

"Right," Conan agreed as he promptly set the toaster down and picked up his backpack, then headed for the door. "So, what classes do you have?" he asked as they set off in the direction of school.

"Bull like "AP" Physics, "AP" Biology, "AP" Chemistry, whatever math class they stuck me in, and the other requirements," she listed, pronouncing the letters "A" and "P" skeptically while pulling out a schedule, "Calculus 2? What the heck?"

"We're only 'freshmen', remember?" Conan replied

"Calculus 2 is simple enough for freshmen," Haibara stated simply, "if it's considered hard, what do normal freshmen take?"

"Uh… I think it's Algebra 2, but ranges from 'Foundations' to calculus," Conan answered before changing the subject, "Hey, we have virtually all of our classes together," he noticed after a quick glimpse at Haibara's schedule, printed on a sheet of light blue paper.

"Yeah," Haibara replied after glancing at Conan's schedule. "It's not that surprising, since we're both taking all the requirements and the hardest electives."

"… So why is your backpack so light?" Conan demanded as he hunched forward to counter the weight of his backpack.

"It's not; it's almost an entire third of my weight," Haibara answered calmly.

"A third of your weight amounts to a staggering 25 pounds," Conan replied sarcastically.

"28," she corrected quietly, "Anyways, 25 pounds doesn't seem like that much, but 25 pounds' worth of books is pretty heavy to shoulder the whole day."

"This should be illegal," Conan grumbled, reducing his speed as they approached the school.

"This is only the first day of school; you'll get used to it." Haibara pointed out. "We have calculus first…"

"Wow, I still remember how to get around this place," Conan stepped through the doors and turned to the right. "Come on, I'll show you around; we've still got almost 15 minutes."

Haibara followed silently, taking in her surroundings.

"This is the garden," Without slowing his stride, Conan gestured at the clusters of colorful flowers and continued forward. "These doors are the entrance to the math pod; the stairs to the left lead up to the science pod, which is directly above math," he explained, starting up the stairs. He paused at the top of the stairs. "To the right, this leads to the cafeteria, which is fairly large, and beyond that, outside." They continued down towards the cafeteria, pausing by the doors. "To the left, this ramp leads to the library and language pod. That ramp leads to math, which is where we're headed."

"Yeah, since we have our whole schedule together, I'll just follow you after class. Let's head to Calculus…" Haibara suggested reluctantly, heading down the ramp leading to the math pod. "Room 218…218…" She glanced at the room numbers as she passed the rooms.

"It's that one, the one over there," Conan pointed at a door to their right.

When they entered the classroom, they noticed that the desks were the crappy kind that consisted of a very small writing surface attached to a plastic chair. The only others in the room were two people sitting in the back of the room, so they just picked the two seats closest to the door and put their stuff down. Over time, the room gradually began to fill up. At promptly 7:25, a tall man with glasses who looked as if fresh out of college entered the room.

"Okay, guys, I'm Eguchi, your Cal 2 teacher for the next year!" the way he delivered his introduction and his general manner marked him as an enthusiastic, energetic person. "Here is a syllabus and a list of my rules/expectations. Please study them carefully and abide by the rules," he began to read the most important rules, and those governing food/drinks in the classroom. "I'm supposed to go over the emergency procedures with you guys as well… in case of a fire, we are to silently but swiftly exit this room, head to the left, and out the doors by the gym, then meet at the stop sign to the right of the 'Teitan High School' sign, everyone understand?"

"Seeing as this classroom is on the first story, why can't we just open that huge window and crawl out?" Conan asked. "It's more logical, because there would be tons of people out in the halls…"

"Whatever… it's not like this is my Foundations class. I trust that you are all capable of finding an exit and waiting at the assembly point," Eguchi shrugged carelessly. "Other natural disasters…" After running through the emergency procedures, he began teaching the first lesson "Let's start the actual math… today we're going to learn about vectors. Vectors…"

The rest of the period inched by slowly. Time itself seemed to have frozen as Conan struggled to stay awake. Haibara was openly ignoring the teacher, staring out the window.

"Hey, Haibara! Give me the equation of the plane perpendicular to the one containing points {(5, 12, 3), (2, 4, 7), and (4, 6, 14)}," the teacher snapped, noticing the inattentiveness of the red-haired girl.

Turning her head slowly, Haibara answered almost immediately, pronouncing the words in a bored monotone.

Taken aback, Eguchi merely stared at the 'freshman'. "Well… seems as if you know this lesson already. Whatever," turning to the class, he proclaimed loudly, "if you already know this, I don't care what you do in here as long as you make acceptable grades on my tests; pass notes, do other homework, whatever. Just don't talk or disturb the class."

Upon hearing this, Conan immediately pulled out a sheet of wide-ruled notebook paper and a clear blue mechanical pencil, and began scrawling a note, then handed it to Haibara, who unfolded it and began to read as the teacher began to issue textbooks.

Note

I know this is really boring for you, but it's the highest-level math course offered here… yeah, pretty pitiful. But anyways… our next class is Physics, which I'm sure will be much more challenging for you. It's in room 666, according to my schedule sheet. Appropriately located, if you ask me. The teacher from when I was here was such a …yeah, you get the idea. You do know where the science pod is from this morning, right? …just in case we get separated in the crowd… after Physics is English, which I'm sure will be exceptionally challenging, given your circumstances: "studied in America for large portion of life". Depends on which teacher we're assigned; some are pretty cool, and others aren't at all. Gym… well, the coach is obviously a bit strange this year, so I'm not quite sure how it'll go. Biology will be more tedious; we start by learning about functional groups and sugars. Computer science shouldn't be a problem; the teacher's a pedagogue. As for chemistry… the teacher's ok, but like biology, we start at the basics, so you'll be really bored. Oh, I almost forgot, lunch, the highlight of the day; we're not assigned seats, tables, or areas, and some days the people who don't pack lunches can sneak off campus in pursuit of edible food. It's directly after English…

/Note

After she finished reading, Haibara turned the paper over and began to write a response. Yeah, today's classes are pretty boring and pointless, but since it's required by law that we attend school, well, we're here. Physics…

"Okay, guys… your homework is on page eighteen, problems one through 45 every other one," the teacher announced. "Go ahead and start on it since we're done for today."

The rest of their classes flew by fairly quickly, and neither Conan nor Haibara paid attention to either the Physics or English teacher, except during the Physics teacher's speech when she announced that she didn't care what they did during natural disaster drills as long as she was the first one out the door. It wasn't until they were walking towards the cafeteria that Conan remembered that he hadn't packed a lunch.

"Oh, screw it!" Conan exclaimed as he came to a sudden halt.

"What's wrong?" Haibara asked.

"I forgot my lunch…" Conan explained.

"Wow, the college-level student forgot his lunch," Haibara answered, an amused smirk on her face.

"Well, did you bring your lunch?" Conan demanded.

"No, I don't eat lunch." Haibara replied.

"What?! How could you not eat lunch? Are you serious?"

"No, I just didn't want to admit that I also forgot mine," Haibara admitted softly.

"Well… we could leave campus for lunch; there's a great drive-through kind of restaurant, Buddy's†, like five minutes away. I used to skip class all the time to go there; my last class was English, and since it's not required, there were only two classes, so each class consisted of over a hundred people, so no one ever bothered to take attendance. I'd just sneak out, go to Buddy's and get some food, then walk home," Conan suggested as he started walking in the direction of the gym. "We can go out through the doors near the gym; there're a lot of doors there because that's where we gather for schoolwide announcements, and it's required just in case there's a fire or something. Anyways, no one's ever hanging around those doors."

"Whatever," Haibara shrugged, then followed Conan in the direction of the gym.

- According to his age, he would be somewhere in his sophomore/junior year when he shrank, but given his intelligence and knowledge, (plus his ego)…

- This is actually possible; I always have to lean forward because my teachers are evil and act as if their very existence is dependent upon assigning homework.

- I know nothing of Japanese architecture, and with school in session, I'm too busy (lazy) to do research on it, so the school won't be a vivid picture. However, since most of us have been stuck at school for some number of years (too many), we can all formulate a picture…

- Foundations is the lowest level of math, hence 'foundations'. Kids in that class are taught stuff like the four basic functions.

† This fast food restaurant is kinda based on a small one I know, but I changed its name (which is why it has such a stupid name). If there really is a restaurant called this, I didn't know.

25 pounds is around 11kg

"AP" classes are like International Baccalaureate, if you're more familiar with that term…

If the way I mutilated the Japanese culture when they're at school violently ticks you off, tell me how to fix it… I know there isn't a school in the world where teachers really don't care if you don't pay attention (maybe college… for most professors, as long as they're paid, you might as well cease to exist)