Chapter 3b:

The poem unraveled in her head. Yes, yes. It was appropriate, and it didn't sound too corny. She scribbled it down 7:00 in the morning amidst the happy birds outside.

Risa handed in her poem and sat back down in her seat. The math test came back to her last period, and not surprisingly, she achieved a grand total of 10 out of 100, written in accusing red ink. She thought she was over the test. She had moped over it enough yesterday. Still, she couldn't help wandering off by herself again to that forsaken little corner of the school. Back on the stony steps she went, and back to watching the birds.

But today, she heard footsteps behind her. Who could be following her? She hoped that it was Satoshi. She sincerely hoped that it was him. She didn't want him to see her in such a state, but she still wanted to see him.

The footsteps stopped.

"I failed the test." she offered to whoever it was. They were waiting for her to explain why she was here, of course.

"I know how it feels." the voice said.

She almost smiled at the sound of his voice. She loved his voice.

Without missing a beat, she said, "You get perfect on everything. How would you know?"

"I thought about what you said." Thought about what? What the heck was he talking about?

"What did I say?"

"...thinking about it everyday."

"What would that be?"

"The consequences of success and failure." Um, and what would that be?

"As I said, you've never failed—"Risa stopped mid-sentence for some reason and turned to his intense stare.

Out of the blue, a white piece of paper slipped out of Satoshi's bag and landed face down on the cement steps. Risa plucked it off the ground and turned it around. She gasped in surprise. It was a watercolour drawing of two birds. Two happy little birds flitting about in the foliage. Each feather was well-defined, and the detail was overwhelming. A mysterious glow emanated from the drawing. She was instantly drawn to it. And Risa was struck speechless.

"... Hiwatari-kun ... this is ... amazing. Did you draw this?"

"Yeah. Don't these birds remind you of something? I thought of you yesterday when I drew it."

Risa shot him a questioning look.

He simply shrugged and walked off.

Talk about rudeness! Risa fumed in her head. But still, she felt a bit more cheerful after their encounter.

School was finally over. Each class dragged on forever. But she forced herself to pay attention, and take good notes. It was the least she could do to compensate for her last screw up. As she walked out the main door of her school, the last thing she would have expected was Satoshi, in all his cool and collected glory, standing at the base of a tree, boring holes into her. He waved her over.

She had no choice but to comply.

"I was thinking," he said slowly, as if he was carefully selecting his words, "if you wanted some help in math." "To catch up, I mean." he added.

Risa blinked at him. And she blinked some more before the implications his words caught up to her.

"Umm..." she stammered, "that sounds great, Hiwatari-kun. I...I would love that so much!"

His expression was still as unreadable as ever, but his eyes softened. "Then I'll meet you tomorrow after school here."

"Thank you for being so kind. Oh! I almost forgot, you left me with your drawing." Risa fumbled around in her backpack for it.

He grabbed her arm to stop her. "You can have it." he stated, and once again, walked away. She stared after him. She must be dreaming. There was no way Satoshi would ever, ever, in a million years, offer to help her in something as trivial as math. In addition, he touched her.

Oh wake up wake up, Risa! This wasn't really happening, was it? She yanked her own hair.
"Ow!" There was no doubt about it. She was awake.

Risa smiled uncontrollably all through dinner, all through her bubble bath, and all through brushing her teeth.

Riku pulled her aside. "Risa, what the heck's wrong with you?"

"What, never seen a girl happy?"

"But you've had that silly smile plastered on your face for the entire day! That's definitely NOT normal! And especially after getting 10 on your math test!" Riku expected the smile to turn upside down after that comment.

Instead, Risa's smile turned into a grin. "It's a secret," she said cryptically.

Riku rolled her eyes.

All throughout the day, she reveled in the thought of him just reaching out to grab her. Such a simple gesture, but it felt like a milestone. Like she's accomplished something. Satoshi had trusted her enough to touch her. Risa felt giddy. The feeling was not unlike what she felt a year ago for Dark. But underneath these shallow hormonal-surged emotions, there was something firm and very real there. That was the difference. She knew that, without a doubt, she cared deeply for this boy. And most of all, she wanted him to be happy. Her spirits were again lifted, just by that thought.

A.N: This was super corny! And super schoolgirlish! This popped out of nowhere. I swear, it wasn't written down in my plot outline. Um, but at least all of chapter 3 is out. This will be longer than the intended 4 chapters now. There are the poems, the "tutoring" from Satoshi, and of course, more sap I have to deal with!