"Class! Pay attention: do any of you have your partners for the science fair?"
Tomo thrust her arm in the air. "Ooh, I do! Me and Chiyo are working together. Right, Chiyo-Chan?" Chiyo looked around nervously.
"No," said Yomi, rising from her seat, "I'm working with Chiyo!"
"What! You're supposed to be working with Osaka! Remember this morning?"
"Well Chiyo-Chan wants to work with me, anyway!"
"No, she does NOT! Do you, Chiyo?"
Chiyo-Chan glanced back and forth between Tomo and Yomi. "Um…"
"Well," said Kagura out loud, "I know who I want to enter with. Miss Sakaki!"
Kaorin blushed slightly. "I'd…like to work with Miss Sakaki myself, if it's not a problem with her."
Sakaki was too preoccupied to worry about the science fair: she was daydreaming about kittens. Lots and lots of adorable little kittens…
Yukari had had enough. "Alright, obviously you guys CAN'T choose your own partners. Looks like I'm going to have to pick…" the class groaned, but Yukari smiled, as if she liked to torment her students.
"Okay, Kagura, you will be working with Tomo…"
"WHAT!" exclaimed Kagura and Tomo both at the same time.
"Sakaki and Kaorin…"
Kaorin beamed, inside and out.
"Yomi and Osaka…"
Yomi was about to object, but she noticed Yukari's piercing stare and stopped.
Yukari finished pairing up the other students, and only when she was finished did she see Chiyo-Chan waving her hand frantically in the air.
"What is it, Chiyo?"
"Um, I don't have a partner."
Yukari thought for a while. "Well, you're pretty smart, aren't you? You wouldn't mind working by yourself, would you?"
"Um, well, the rules say –-"
"Forget the rules! I'll see if I can get you to enter alone!"
Chiyo-Chan frowned but didn't say anything else.