The New Façade

Disclaimer: I sooo own DC (squeals)! … And whoever believed that shall be branded loser for the rest of his/her lives.

"Haibara?"

Ai immediately turned towards the voice. She pondered for a moment, trying to have a clear view through her tear stained glassed. She blinked, then to her despair saw Shinichi, some she had unconsciously dubbed, "The official let-me-butt-in-your-live guy'.

"You seem to be appearing at the worst moments, Kudo," She proclaimed Kudo with a sneer, again unconsciously. However the rest of the sentence had no apparent expression at all.

Shinichi looked sheepish upon hearing this, "No, I… never mind about me." His expression turned serious, "Did you just cry, Haibara?"

Ai was taken aback, but her cool expression remained unwavering. She wiped her tears on her cheeks with her sleeve and went back at Shinichi. "Did your detective business go as far as invading people's privacy by asking unnecessary questions and seeing things you're not supposed to see? If it is, I pity Mouri for her involvement with you." Her remark was cold and harsh, and it bit. Shinichi couldn't help but flinch. He suddenly felt guilty even though he didn't have any reason to.

I was just concerned about you.

Of course he couldn't voice it out. He had no reason to feel guilty or anxiety towards Ai. And she was being difficult too, why would she be angry towards him when he was just asking the obvious? His friends did say that he was being a little too cocky and nosy, but still…

While Shinichi was having trouble sorting out his thoughts, Ai began walking towards him and stopped just before him. Ignoring his "huh?" she fished something out of her pocket and threw it at him. Shinichi caught with his hands and looked at it.

"An eye dropper?"

"Use your deduction skills, Mr. Detective." She gave him her trademark indefinable smirk and left. It was twice that day that she had left him flabbergasted.

---

The next day was a pain on the back side, or so Ai would say. Before the class started, Makimura suddenly appeared with his cronies and tried to pummel Ai, probably due to revenge. Lucky a teacher saw that incident and somehow saved her.

Then at the second period, one way or another she managed to get into trouble. The teacher, Sakaki-sensei, caught her sleeping while she was lecturing the class about safe, err, sex.

"Haibara-san!" Sakaki-sensei's voice billowed, surprising Ai from her deep, peaceful sleep.

Literally.

What was the chance of getting a good with a certain teacher letting out her annoying voice on full blast and an energetic nosey girl nudging you with her elbow every time you were just starting to drift off to dreamland? Close to zero, she would safely assume.

"HAI…BA…RA…SAN" the voice repeated. Sounding slow and clipped, the type of tone you get when you did something wrong and your father was trying to tell you to get back to your senses without screaming his head off. Well, literally anyway.

She ignored how it sounded. The thing that worried her was that it sounded dangerously close.

She slowly raised her head and found herself staring at the ugly moon rimmed glasses wearing monster. Her glasses covered eyes met those of the monster.

She smiled weakly, "Oh, hi Sakaki-sensei, is there anything I can help you with?" Even though she tried with all her might to sound at least polite and respective, what came out was a dull, lifeless tone, a tone that showed anything but politeness and respect. Didn't she mention that she had trouble controlling the tone of her voice?

The mons- the teacher glared at Ai. If looks could kill, she might as well be lying 6 foot under the ground in some abandoned cemetery by now. Not that she was the least affected or anything. We're saying things from the perspective of a normal human being.

"May I ask you" Sakaki said with fake sugary sweet voice, "Why are you sleeping in my class?"

Just trying to figure out about what you did with the principal in his office the other day.

"I…" Ai started to say, but was cut by Sakaki.

Well, she was going to say that she wasn't exactly sleeping; she was merely not paying attention with her eyes closed. Not that it made any difference anyway. It'll only land her deeper into the pit hole of trouble.

"Now, I know what you're going to say-"

Oh really? What am I going to say anyway? She knew it sounded silly, but replying to the teacher inside her mind made her feel slightly better.

"-Detention seems a bit harsh for a new student like you, so I will give a chance to redeem yourself."

What am I, a criminal being admitted to court?

"So would you kindly give your opinion about the discussion we had before?"

Crap. Ai glanced at the board. There was some scribbling about being responsible and safe. Then next to it was a drawing of a circle inside a square, then the word rubber and latex next to it with an arrow pointing to the circle. She had no bloody idea. Although a vague recollection of something entered her mind briefly, it was too well, vague for her to remember anything useful. But she decided to give it a shot anyway.

"…fitting a circle inside a square is safe and responsible?" She could've sworn that that was the single dumbest sentence she had said in her whole life. She was surprised that no one even laughed at what she said, judging by the horror stricken face of Ran.

Sakaki stood completely still, looking very, very pissed off and angry and hateful and an array of other expressions that would mean trouble, serious trouble. Ai knew that now Sakaki was the same as an extremely fragile time bomb that would explode any minute.

Then, from the back a ring of laughter exploded. This, unfortunately, also triggered for the explosion of the teacher.

"KUDOOOOUUHAIBARAAAA!DETENTIONNN!"

---

Click.

Click. Click.

Ai pressed her mouse numerous times, clicking through files that didn't seem to end. 30 minutes had passed since she began searching for that file and she still hadn't found it. Can't those teachers arrange things a bit more neatly? And the tech center's as hot as hell, how would they expect anyone to study at this atmosphere? Oh, they're not here, why would they care about us anyway? Not that it mattered anymore though; she was simply fed up of searching.

And those girls in the back weren't exactly helping her mood.

"Gee, that girl's really ugly you know?" One seemed to say, and she didn't even try lowering her voice.

Ai twitched.

Then the other said back mockingly, "Yeah, and yesterday I saw her talking with Kudo-sama!" She practically shrieked the last word out.

"Damn, and she was having detention with Kudou-sama after this!" Some other girl chimed in.

"She was pretending to cry after being bullied by Makimura, she's trying to make him pity her, I mean, that's so wrong, can't she see her own totally hideous face? I'm sure Kudo-sama like, also thinks that she's a total bitch, but he's like too kind to ignore her! And I would put a hundred bucks up that she intentionally landed herself in detention just to be with Kudou-sama!"

Veins began popping on Ai's forehead. The pen in her hand threatening to snap in two.

Calm down, Shiho, just pretend that they're a bunch of old hags gossiping over worthless things.

"Too true, we'll have to confront her if this keeps going. Anyways, I wonder what she looks like under her glasses, I mean she's already ugly even with glasses, bet she'd be the ugliest thing in the world without it!"

"And her hair's totally coarse too" (A/N: Sorry for the insults that seemed too light, I'm bad at insulting, well not that much, but if I put anything heavier here, the rating would go up)

No, pretend they're lab rats being experimented upon and that's their cry of pain...

"You know what? I bet her parents regret having her in the first place, heck; I'd immediately abandon my baby if it's as hideous as her"

Snap

Oh, the pen broke.

Then with the speed of a shinkansen, a string of R rated colorful words ran through her mind. She muttered those words under her breath and would've already taught those bitching girls a lesson if it wasn't for a particular someone interfering.

A hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed her shoulder. She spun around and came face to face with no other than Mouri Ran.

"You should just ignore them you know? They're just jealous that you're already the top student when you've just moved here for a few days," She said to the oh-so-pissed Ai with a worried look plastered all over her pretty face.

Ai glanced over to the girls who were still gossiping about her. She'd gladly run 100 laps if that was the case. But she had to thank Ran nonetheless; her anger had dissipated a little because of the interruption. It was only tiny potion of the whole, but it was enough to regain her right self back, the always calculating, cold and rational Miyano Shiho.

"Yes, I will take your advice into account. There's no use noticing them. Thank you for your advice, Mouri-san" She said callously and went back to her seat.

Despite how polite she had sounded; Ran couldn't help notice the coldness of her tone and somehow felt that she disliked her for some reason.

Several minutes later the bell rang. Ai frowned then sighed. She packed her things up and began walking steadily towards the detention room.

Continued…

Hmmm…I'm beginning to think that this fic sucks. Anyways, please review, my soul would be lost without it.