Disclaimer: BLEACH belongs to Tite Kubo.
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Orihime is not bright. She has never been confused with what anyone would call "bright." She's too busy daydreaming to pay enough attention to reality to become bright.
She's cheerful, though, and she's been informed many, many times that she has nice breasts; so she knows she has that going for her. She's gotten through life pretty well so far, and she figures she'll be fine not being bright.
Plus, lots of people confuse staring with daydreaming, so she gets away with watching Ichigo a lot more than she would if she were smarter.
But it's not just Ichigo she watches lately. She watches Rukia, too.
Rukia makes Orihime's head hurt. Ever since the first day they met, Rukia has always been so polite that it confuses her, makes her forget the right words to say in reply and makes her feel a little embarrassed and a little more stupid.
And because these things usually happen around Ichigo, it makes her feel a little resentful as well.
But that never lasts for long. Rukia's nice, and polite, and as long as Orihime doesn't talk to her there's not really a problem.
Rukia isn't always polite, though. Sometimes, her voice gets darker and ruder and she yells a lot. Usually at Ichigo, or her cell phone, or thin air. People other than Orihime have seen her act like that, so she knows it's not just her; but since it's so weird to see Rukia acting differently, they usually brush it off.
Orihime brushed it off the first few times, too, until she noticed Ichigo's reactions.
Whenever Rukia is her usual self, Ichigo gets a slightly more disbelieving than usual look on his face, and he glares like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. But whenever Rukia acts strangely or yells or drags him out of the classroom, Ichigo is the only one who doesn't look surprised.
Orihime thinks that he might just be used to it, in a way that everyone else isn't, because most of the times when Rukia acts weird is when she believes she's alone with Ichigo. Orihime thinks Ichigo might always get that disbelieving look on his face because he believes that when Rukia is polite she's acting weird. Or just acting.
Orihime is starting to think that there's something about Rukia that Rukia and Ichigo aren't telling anyone. Something other than the rumors that are all over school. She thinks Rukia might be a spy, or some kind of medical undercover agent and she's recruiting Ichigo to join her ranks since Ichigo must know a lot about medicine anyway, living in a doctor's office.
Or not. But whoever Rukia really is, she's not a bad person, since Ichigo hangs out with her. Orihime thinks that her secret can't be awful, whatever it is.
She's noticed all this about Rukia because she likes to watch Ichigo, and lately watching Ichigo means watching Rukia.
Orihime thinks it's kind of funny that she realized it before the rumors started spreading. After all, she's not bright. But nobody else noticed until the TV show--not even Tatsuki, and Tatsuki knows plenty of things about Ichigo, and she's lots smarter than Orihime is. But even Tatsuki didn't really notice before she did.
But then again, it kind of makes sense.
Because Orihime is not bright, but she's not dumb, either.