Title: Song of the Bird
Author: xxShadowSpiritsxx
Summary: Takuya, Izumi, Kouji, and Kouichi all attend the same middle school. And of course, this means new arrivals, new challenges, and new problems to face. (A twist of teenage romance, humor, and drama.)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fic, except the fic itself.

xxShadowSpiritsxx: Hey! Me here again! So…came back for the next chapter, eh? LOL I sound Canadian…eh? Hehe but yeah, I Am Canadian:P And proud of it! Come to think of it…it was Canada day just a few days ago. Anyways, getting back to what's important…well I hope you enjoy this chapter of my fic. The first one was pretty brief and not much happened. But, there is more excitement and conflict ahead! So without further ado, here is chapter 2! Oh yeah, and don't forget to review please!

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Izumi Orimoto had just come back from her two-month stay in Italy. She met up with Kouji Minamoto and Kouichi Kimura, who were all on their way to their new middle school. They were looking forward to the rest of the year, and hearing about all their adventures they had over the summer. But first, they had to find the fourth member of their circle of friends--Takuya Kanbara.

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SONG OF THE BIRD

Chapter 2: Detained

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The school was painted white and turquoise, with a large field to one side, and a parking lot to the other. The place was filled with the noise and chatter of students, both eager and disappointed about the commencement of the new school year.

Izumi, Kouji, and Kouichi strode up the walkway towards the front doors, but didn't go in. Instead, they walked around to the back of the school, knowing they would find Takuya coming from there. They all lived fairly close to the middle school, and therefore walked to and from.

They waited and waited, right up to the second bell. No Takuya. After about ten more minutes of waiting past the bell, they started to wonder if something had happened to him.

"This isn't like him. He's sometimes late, but he doesn't usually keep us waiting like this."

"Yeah, Izumi's right. Most of the time he calls. I know he's memorized all of our cell numbers by heart, and yet…nothing. Not even a message," Kouji observed as he pulled out his cell to check.

"Something must be up. But for now, maybe we should just go inside. It's way past the bell." Kouichi always liked to play it safe. He rarely got in trouble, and was never caught without his work done. In a way, he was a goody-goody, but not a suck-up. And his friends respected him the way he was. "After all, Takuya would never want us to get in trouble because of something he did…well in this case, something he didn't do: show up."

"I think we should wait a few more minutes. He's bound to come, right? Besides, the teachers don't really care if we're late. They let a lot of things slip on the first day of school," Izumi said.

One minute passed, two minutes, three, four…and still no Takuya.

"Oh well, fuck this shit. Let's just go." Kouji wasn't pissed off or anything--he was just tired of all the waiting.

By that time, the rest just decided to follow Kouji and give up on Takuya. They proceeded to their homeroom classes. Not even caring to try to sneak into their classrooms, the three just walked straight in, confident their teachers wouldn't object. For a change, the teachers were unusually strict, and gave all latecomers a detention after school ended for the day. Of course, the common reaction of this was shock, and each reluctantly agreed to stay in.

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After school, the halls grew noisy, with the voices of excited teens racing out of the doors. Obviously, they were glad that the first boring day of sitting around in their homerooms and trying to get things organized for the rest of the year, was over. After fifteen minutes, the corridors remained once again, empty and silent. The only disturbance was from the three unlucky students who had come late.

"Oh my god! I can't believe those damn teachers! They gave me a detention on the first day!" Izumi screamed.

"Yeah, they gave me one too! And Kouichi! And it was all just for being fuckin' late!"

"Hey calm down, you guys. See? I told you we'd get into trouble if we stayed out too long. And Takuya didn't even come…" Kouichi policed. Besides being the goody-goody, he was also responsible for keeping his friends out of trouble. When they didn't listen to him, he took the blame and he felt it was his fault for not warning them enough.

Izumi sighed. "Let's look at the bright side. At least we're all in detention together…" But was that really that great? It was still a detention, no matter which way you looked at it.

The three disappointed friends walked down the dull, empty hallways of the second floor, all the way to the end. Kouichi felt it was also his duty to keep them all together and out of even more trouble. So, aside from trying to find which room was number 201, he had to watch over Izumi and Kouji as well. By the time they did find 201, twenty minutes had passed since the rest of the school had been let out.

Room 201 was fairly large, the size of two. It was the student help center, where students who, let's say: 'require extra attention' when studying. This included the classes: course support, ESL, and various other tutoring lessons. Apparently, it was also the detention base. On one side of the room there were numerous tables set up, big enough for two people to sit at. In addition, there were a few ancient, brown couches along the side, and a chalkboard with a bunch of times written on it. The other side of the room was filled with desks lined up in rows and columns, each spaced out individually. The center had two large, round desks and five, rather old, computers to each of them.

Kouichi, Izumi, and Kouji assumed they were to sit at the single desks, so they proceeded in that direction. Suddenly, a teacher the size of a giant appeared out of nowhere! Or…that was what they thought. The three detained stared up at the white bearded, middle-aged man. Behind his thick glasses was a pair of deadly evil eyes that seemed to pierce right through them. His voice was crackly and deep, like the sound of trees creaking in the cold, night wind.

"And just what are you doing here?" he inquired. "School has been out for almost half an hour now!"

That was the perfect time for them to simply make up an excuse about forgetting something that was left in the room, and walk right out. However, they were smart enough to know that if they cut detention, it would be fatal. Fortunately, the homeroom teachers had gone over how the secretaries always receive a notice identical to the detention slip issued to the student, and so would be aware if they skipped out.

Grudgingly, Kouichi, Izumi, and Kouji each showed the giant their slips.

"Right…I see…" he said as he read the small paper notes. "Late for class, huh? Well since it is the first day of school, I'll let you off with a more lenient punishment. You have one hour to write a five-paragraph formal essay about why it is important to attend to things on time. I trust you won't do anything stupid, and I will check back on you after that one hour."

"Yes sir…"

The teacher left the room, slamming the door closed as he rumbled out.

Izumi headed towards the other side, jumped up, and sat on top of one of the larger desks. She sighed.

"So now what?" Kouji asked and followed Izumi. He sat at the other end of the same table she was at. There was enough room for another person to sit between them. Kouji never really liked sitting too close to people, as he hated people sitting right up to him. He stared around the quiet room, none of them saying a thing. His eyes somehow were drawn to Izumi. He watched her for a minute, until she turned her head his way. Kouji tensed up and tried to look a different way. His cheeks had a tint of pink to them.

Izumi looked over to Kouji, and noticed he had tuned away. But why? She rushed the thought out of her head, refusing to admit to being paranoid. Instead, she glanced at Kouichi, all the way across the room, who seemed to be busy with his own task.

"Hey Kouichi, whatcha doing?" she wondered. She didn't just ask that to break the awkward silence--she was really curious as to what exactly Kouichi was up to. She watched him shuffle through drawers behind the teacher's desk.

Kouichi continued rummaging, but still managing to keep things in order. He was a relatively organized person, and liked things to stay in their rightful places. "I'm trying to look for some paper and pens and stuff…"

Kouji heard his brother and remembered he was still on earth. "What? You mean you're actually going to do the fuckin' essay?"

"Yeah, of course. Aren't you guys too?"

"…" Izumi and Kouji stared at him with blank expressions.

Kouichi raised an eyebrow. "Anyways…yeah, I'd better go find that paper." He started to dig through the desk again. Sometimes he would get so caught up with work, he would just forget about the rest of the world.

The other two just remained there, sitting on the tables. Izumi looked over to Kouji, who had his eyes off her once again. She wanted to know what was up with him and why he was acting so. Izumi's worst habit was jumping to conclusions. It always ended up with misunderstandings, mistrust, and very awkward situations. That was why she constantly made an effort to stop this before it's too late. Izumi looked away as well, and her eyes fell to the ground. Deep in thought, she tried to figure out everything in her head. Nothing had changed since the other year. She hadn't seen any of her friends over the whole summer because of her family's trip to Italy.

Izumi snapped out of her gaze. She reassured herself that there was nothing to worry about. Sitting on that table, she noticed a small black speck on it. Her eyes widened when she thought it had moved. That was impossible though. Dust couldn't move by itself. She peered closer and saw little legs attached to it. Realizing what it was, she screamed and jumped across the desk.

"Eeeeeeek!" Izumi rushed to get away from it. Subconsciously, she leaped over to where Kouji was and crashed into him.

Kouji looked up when he heard a high-pitched scream. Suddenly, Izumi had flung herself over to him, and he fell backwards onto the table, with her on top of him. This was bad. Very bad, Kouji was thinking. Luckily, he saw Izumi found out she was lying on him, and she backed away nervously.

Unexpectedly, he heard something--or someone coming. He panicked and assumed it was the teacher coming back. Abruptly, he jumped up and didn't notice Izumi was standing in front of the desk. Again, they crashed into each other without warning. But this time, Kouji found himself on top of Izumi! He felt a rush of fear as he figured this out. However, Izumi opened her eyes, and when he looked into those deep emerald eyes, he felt as if the world around him had just disappeared. Him there, over her body made him feel…something. He gazed at her, mouth opened, as his chest rested on her soft breasts. He knew he was blushing, but he didn't care. He wanted to…to…

Izumi stared up at the red-faced Kouji. Something was different about him.

Just then, Kouichi dropped the pens and papers he had found. They landed on the floor with a thump, as he glared at the two. What was going on? "…Uh…" he mumbled.

Kouji snapped out of his trance and immediately jumped up, off of Izumi. He quickly turned his back to them, his face redder than ever! "Shit…" he said under his breath.

Izumi was left there on the ground, lying on her back, only staring up at the ceiling. She saw a hand come into view, and realized it was Kouichi's. He helped her up, and brought her to the other side of the room, away from Kouji. "Um…what just happened?" he asked.

"…A…spider…I…I just…" Izumi whispered, her voice lost. She stared blankly again. Her eyes were fixed on one spot in the room, not moving.

Kouichi focused on Izumi, showing his concern for her. He had no idea what was going on, but something brought his hand up and rested on it her shoulder.

On the other side of the room, Kouji slammed his fists against the wall. "Fuck…what the hell is wrong with me?" he muttered quietly. He slid down to the floor, and sat there, his forearms leaning over his knees. "Fuck…" he said again. He unbent his knees and stretched them onto the carpet. His head rolled back and for the next half an hour, Kouji did nothing but gaze up at the ceiling.

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What's up with Kouji? And what about Izumi?

Do Kouichi and Izumi suspect Kouji's suspicious behavior?

Don't forget about their detention. What's going to happen when the teacher comes back?

And what about Takuya? Where has he been all this time? Read to find out what happens next!

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xxShadowSpiritsxx: So…what do you think? The thing about Kouji is kind of obvious, but it's so cute:P Hehe…well at least Izumi and the others don't suspect anything…YET! Oops! I'm giving too much away. Anyways, please review! I appreciate your reviews and they mean more to me than you think : )! I hope you liked this and please stay for the next chapter, which will be coming soon! Peace out :P