*

The rest of the long weekend seemed to fly by and they were back at school in what seemed like no time at all. Relatively uneventful, considering the start of the weekend, he thought to himself, biting his pen. Geography was so tedious. Why did I even pick this stupid subject, anyway? What was I thinking? What was I on?

He glanced across at Jann-Lee, who was carving something into the desk. That guy sure is weird. He's more likely to be on something then me.

Over the room, he could hear several of the girls gossiping happily about the formal. It turned out that it had been planned for months, and everybody knew about it, but the posters hadn't gone up until a week beforehand. He sighed. He would have to think of somewhere where he could get a tuxedo or something before Friday evening.

The bell rang with an abrupt shrill. "Great. Off to English Lit. I can hardly contain my excitement," he muttered to himself.

He stopped at his locker, kicking his friend softly, who was kneeling down, putting books in his locker. "Hey, Ryu. Do you have Lit or maths this lesson?"

Ryu shrugged absently, and it was only then he noticed the fading, but still obvious bruises adorning his friend's face. "I think I have Lit this lesson, maths next time. Why?"

"Run headfirst into your locker or something?"

"You could say that," With a mocking bow, Ryu cleared some space so that he could get to his locker. "Hurry up. I'm not going to stand here all day, you know,"

"Talk about impatient," he teased, pulling out his English Lit books. "You think I'm going to hurry for the sole likes of you?"

"Worth a try, wasn't it?" With that, they set off, but a call interrupted them.

"Hey! You two! Wait for me, you stupid idiots!"

"Ayane?" he wondered aloud. "I thought she was playing no-speaks,"

The young girl ran up, holding her books. "Arseholes. Now you can go,"

He dropped his books onto the far back desk, only just saving the row from some angry looking year elevens whom he didn't recognise. The geek showed up eventually, and asked them to read silently from Frankenstein, which he did, although reluctantly.

"Oh, if anyone's finished it…" a pointed glance was shot at him and Ryu, "you can write an essay. Was the meaning of love described in this story literal or simply jaded naïveté? Hand it into me by the end of the lesson,"

"Bloody hell," he muttered under his breath, pulling out some pens and paper. "Talk about obsessive compulsive essay writing disorder,"

Ryu, however, was in the process of playing with his hair. Twirl, twirl, loop, plait. It was making him dizzy, among other things.

"Are you planning on doing anything halfway constructive?" he whispered.

"Not really," was the response. Twirl. Loop.

Ayane, pretending to read, smirked evilly behind the book. "That's the spirit. Be a rebel,"

Ryu shrugged. "Rebelling is too difficult. Simply not doing work is much easier,"

He sighed. "You two both suck,"

"Whatever you reckon," Within seconds, a paper aeroplane, courtesy of Ayane's question sheet, flew at him, hitting him in the head. He crumpled it into a ball and threw it back.

"Miss Ayane, Mr Hayate. Is there a paper war going on back there, or am I just imagining it?" the geek asked.

"You're just imagining it," Ayane responded briskly.

"I certainly hope so. Because the next time I see any imaginary paper flying across the room…" the geek trailed off warningly.

"…he'll be carted off to the local psychiatric ward, probably," Ryu finished with a small smile.

Ayane snorted aloud, causing half the class to turn around, craning their necks to look curiously at her. He, on the other hand, was now just as restless and as reluctant to do work as Ryu and Ayane, and annoyed with everybody staring at them.

"Hey, look, a flying cow," he said, pointing at the window. Ayane snorted again as half of the people who had been looking at them turned to look at the window.

"Wasn't it a pig?" Ryu asked, having stopped playing with his hair for the time being.

"Yeah. Cows jump, pigs fly," a young year eleven girl added from the front row.

"Who cares?" the geek exploded finally. "It's not important!"

"I beg to differ, sir. On the contrary to what you are undoubtedly thinking, we are simply exerting our conversational talents in practise for proper class discussions. Forgive me if I am incorrect, but isn't it a part of our English study to discuss and form opinions and conclusions from the discussions we exhibit?"

The entire class turned to Ryu, who was now looking increasingly uncomfortable with the attention, but still continued.

"Yes, perhaps so, but pigs and cows…" the geek blustered.

"As petty as it may seem, sir, it is the basics that are the stepping stones to lead us up to more advanced discussions and further our skills," Ryu surmised quietly.

"Fine!" the geek exploded. "Keep on talking about your stupid pigs and cows! Mr Hayabusa, I want to see you after this class finishes,"

So they did happily. "What's better, a flying pig or a jumping cow?" he asked Ayane.

"That's a hard one," she admitted, joining in on the joke for once. "Depends how high the cow could jump, I suppose,"

"Well, the cow could jump over the moon, right?" Hitomi asked. "And that's pretty high,"

Tina nodded. They were sitting in the other corner in the back row, doing as much work as anybody. "Cows are better then pigs. Pigs are horrible and stinky,"

"Pork's better then lamb, though," one of the guys sitting down the front added.

"Lamb comes from lambs, dip-shit," Ayane sneered.

"Whatever. Beef, lamb, same difference,"

Ryu shrugged, an elegant movement which sent his hair over his shoulders. "There is a visible difference. Lambs are small, and some would describe them as cute and fluffy. Cows on the other hand, have a completely different skeletal structure…"

"And they have horns…" Tina added.

"And you don't get lamb from them…" he suggested.

"Personally, I think that a cow would be better," Hitomi smiled. "Mostly because I like cows better, but even still,"

"Okay, class is over!" the geek yelled into the room.

"But we still have five more minutes," someone from the front row said.

Silence for a moment.

"I don't care!" the geek exploded. "Just go! Mr Hayabusa, you stay,"

He walked up to the front desk, where Mr Gale was standing. "Yes, sir?" he asked, putting his books down on the table in front of the main desk.

"Never, in all my years have I had a student who is the biggest smart-arse, yet still manages to get the best marks. If you weren't such a good student I'd probably give you a dozen detentions at the very least,"

He remained silent. Talk about a backhanded compliment…

"On the other hand, have you ever considered taking up debating? We do need some extra people…"

Emerald eyes blinked.

"I'll think about it,"

"Good. You can go,"