Academy Days
A Ranma Alterverse
by Chikiko (Chikiko@thekirealm.com)
Webpage: (www.thekirealm.com)


Disclaimer:

Ranma ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.


Academy Days Chapter 2

Ranma awoke to the rhythmic pounding of her door. She stumbled out of bed and hobbled to her door. "Huh?" she asked as she opened the door.

"It's about time! What took you so long. I was about to -- Oh! I'm sorry, I thought this was my room. I didn't mean to wake you."

Ranma would have told her that she was used to waking up early, except she was too busy staring both in freight and fascination at the towel clad girl in front of her. "Oh um uhh."

"Are you ok?" She asked sounding a bit worried. "Your face looks a bit flushed, are you sick? I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have waked you up."

Before Ranma had the chance to respond to her, another voice answered. "Way to go Akane. If you can't even find your way back to our room from the showers, how do you expect to make it in school?"

"Nabiki! I didn't get lost, I just wasn't paying attention." Turning back to Ranma she said. "anyway like I said earlier I'm really sorry about waking you up so early when you sick. I hope you feel better soon."

It wasn't until she shut her door, that she really came to her sense. She had to shake her head a few times to remove the picture of the towel clad girl from her mind. "Ah man if mom hears about this, I'm never gonna her the end of it -- Wait a minute! Did that other girl just say shower?" Ranma looked around the room and confirmed, what she had suddenly begun to fear. There was no bathroom in her room. She opened the door and to her horror, not only did she hear the sounds of showers going, but she also saw small groups of girls walking past her room in either direction carrying their toiletries.

Ranma rand down the nearest staircase to the basement, where her parents were staying and knocked furiously on the door. When her mother opened the door, she all but jumped inside. Nodoka, seeing Ranma was quite obviously disturbed, asked. "What's wrong Ranma? Has something happened?"

"mom, can I take a shower down here in your room?"

"why? What's wrong with the one in your room?"

"I don't have one in my room! Apparently they have a public bath!"

His mother looked pensive for a moment. Having come from Japan, the idea of a public bath was hardly new. While she didn't mind the idea of Ranma having to take a bath with all those other girls, she didn't think the school's administration would share her sentiment. However, she decided to tease her son-turned-daughter a little bit. "So what is the problem?" She asked him innocently.

Ranma inwardly groaned. She should have known better, her mother always seemed to have strange ideas when it came to girls. "MOM! I'm a guy! I can't take a bath with a bunch of girls, that wouldn't be right. Besides, that means I'll have to take cold showers every day. If any of them used hot water, everyone's gonna know about my curse."

Nodoka valiantly fought down the urge to smile. Ranma was too much of a prude at times, but she did admire his sense of nobility, if not his lack of initiative with girls. "well, I guess your right, go ahead dear." She said sounding slightly disappointed. "I'll go speak with your dean while your taking a shower, And see what she wants to do about it."

When Nodoka left the room, Genma said. "Boy, you have to stop this nonsense! The longer you stay here, the weaker your going to get. Look at yourself, your already halfway to being a girl as it is. Next thing you know you'll be all weepy and emotional again."

"Well this body's your fault! Mom tried to warn you. She told you Jusenkyou was cursed, but you were the one who insisted. I'm just glad you finally got what you deserved this time. Anyway I'm going to take a shower."

While Ranma preferred to stay a boy, truth be told she didn't really mind being a girl all that much. Although initially there were some problems, she had pretty much gotten used it. In the four years she had the curse, there were only a few times that she truly hated her curse. The first was just after got her curse. Her father had always talked about how girls were weak and couldn't do martial arts, so she was scared when she herself became a girl. But her mother and the amazons helped her realize, how stupid that idea really was. The next time was when she hit puberty.

Puberty is normally hard enough on a person, but having to go through puberty as both a guy AND a girl was pure hell. Too many things were happening and changing way too fast for him and her to handle. She nearly lost it, when she had her first period. Thankfully they quickly headed back to the amazon village, or she would have probably gone crazy. The tribe matriarch, Cologne, helped her and her family through that ordeal.

During the several months they stayed there, Cologne had became like an adopted grandmother to her. It was also at the village where she met two of her best friends, the cousins Soap and Shampoo. He enjoyed her time in the village, even though she had to change forms every other day to get used to the differences between both sides.

For the first time she was actually able to keep friends for longer that a few days or weeks. Until staying at the amazon village she had only had one friend. It was also the only time she had met people who knew about her curse, and didn't automatically make assumptions about her because of it. Usually whenever someone found out about the curse, they treated her as if she were a freak, a pervert, or a had highly contagious disease like leprosy.

That was what she hated the most about the curse, it segregated her from everyone else. Her parents had once tried to put her into an all boys school while so her mother could study to renew her teaching certification. But he was expelled two weeks later when his curse was discovered. After that, only one school, and very reluctantly at that, accepted her. Yet nevertheless, her time at that school was also a disaster.

Although school wasn't something that she valued very much, it was extremely important to her mother. Her mother had been crushed when none of the schools would take her, after being expelled from the all boys school. If there was one thing she hated, it was seeing her mother cry. After seeing the shy cried then, she promised herself that she would do whatever it took to prevent her from ever crying like that again. Which is why she volunteered to go school as a girl, when they denied her application as Ranma. She knew it upset Genma, but she was far more willing to upset her father than her mother.

Boy or girl she was more than willing to go to school, if it made her mother happy. It was the fact that she had to lie and hide in her girl side that she didn't like. More than anything, she hated that she had to hide her curse because people couldn't accept her for who she was.

She was actually quite surprised that they had even continued talking to them after they had explained the curse. Most schools would have usually rejected them right there, the fact. That they still considered her was simply amazing. Yet on further reflection, she realized it could have easily been because her aunt was the international academic superintendent of the private school system that the school belonged to. Still despite her aunts high position, they still could have reject her as they nearly did. Ranma's mother had explained to her in the plane, that her aunt couldn't directly do anything to get her accepted other than giving her personal recommendation and cosigning the finical agreement. While it was pretty impressive that they had almost risked annoying their supervisor by rejecting her, what was truly impressive was that it was because of a side effect of the curse instead of the curse itself. Though he didn't really blame them for rejecting him for that particular reason, he knew from experience that the older dean was right about the shower problem.

Ranma shuddered as she thought back to the two times it had happened to her. They were far from pleasant experiences. She closed her eyes to block the memories from resurfacing. That was over a year ago, and it wasn't going to happen again. This time she wasn't going to let things get as bad as they did before. She had her aunts guarantee that it wouldn't happen, and the promise of her fathers retribution should that not be enough. With a sigh she took off her cloths and entered the shower, forgot her troubles as the hot water flowed over her turning her in back into a boy.

********

Genma was completely angry. Both at the his wife and son. He couldn't understand why they were being so stubborn. He though Nodoka would have learned from the last failed attempt as putting Ranma in a school, he just couldn't understand why she would try yet again. Putting him in a school would only result in disaster, again. He knew it was obviously his wife's sister who had convinced her to put Ranma into a school again, especially since she was picking up part of the ten thousand American dollar school cost for room and board.

Then as if just going to the stupid school wasn't enough, Ranma volunteers to go as a girl! "Why that ungrateful boy! This is all his mothers fault. None of this would have happened, if she hadn't come along. I could have turned him into a real man amongst men, what kinda of man would pretend to be a girl like he is? Oh why? What have I done to deserve this?" He bemoaned.

"Try throwing our son into a pit of starving cats for one! Do not start this whole argument again Genma. Our son IS going to get a good education."

"But that's just it. By the time he's done here, we wont have a son. Instead we'll have a daughter just like to crazy amazons would like."

"Now Genma you know that is not true. Especially after the way they've help Ranma in the past. You leave me confused sometimes Genma. We find a group of people who place the martial arts above everything else, and you don't want Ranma to have anything to do with them. I would have thought that you would want Ranma to spend as much time with them as possible."

"That's not the problem. For a tribe of women they're amazingly good martial artists, and I'm glad that Ranma was able to pick some things up while we were there. What I don't like, and what I will not stand for, is Ranma picking up their crazy ideas. Everyone knows that men are stronger than women, we don't need those bunch of crazy women putting crazy idea's into Ranma's mind. I know that they'd like nothing more than to have Ranma became a woman and add him to their tribe. That is unacceptable! Ranma is supposed to be the heir of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts and marry one of Soun's daughters to unite the school. That is a matter of family honor, how is he supposed to do that if he's a girl!"

Nodoka gave him a calming smile. Having known Nodoka since elementary school, this smile only served to make him feel more apprehensive. "Is that what you worried about? Than I guess you don't have anything to worry about. First off, the amazons have already accept Ranma as a boy, so you don't have to worry about them trying to convert him into a girl. Anyway Ranma's a great martial artist, and in a dorm full of women there's no way our manly son would ever stop thinking like a man. Besides, so far everything has been turning out perfectly." She finished with another smile that put Genma even further on edge.

"What do you mean 'everything is turning out perfectly? What is turning out perfectly?"

"Well remember how my sister works with the Ministry of Education and other educational organizations? Well she pulled some strings and she had one of Soun's daughter receive a scholarship to this school. I just passed his two youngest daughters in the hallway upstairs."

Genma's eyes began to sparkle in glee. "Oh at last! The school can be united. I can't wait for the boy to come out to tell him the good news!"

Nodoka looked shocked. "You certainly will not! You know how Ranma is! If you try to force the issue with him, he'll just get as stubborn as his mule of a father. Perhaps if I talked to him, I could probably convince him to go along with it. But is that what you really want? Wouldn't it be better for them to just naturally fall in love, without having to have been forced into it? I'm sure once they get to know him, they'll fall madly in love with him."

"But No-chan, the boy must know! As his father it is my obligation to inform him. After all what kind of father would I be if I kept secrets from my only son?"

"Tell me what pops?" Ranma said as he finished opening the bathroom door and stepped into the room."

Genma turned to face him and eagerly began. "Boy, you'll be so happy to hear the good news!"

"The school has accepted both of our application." Nodoka said as she put her arm through Genma's, and interrupted him. "We've both been hired by the school. Aren't you happy for us? I'll be working as an ESL teachers, while Genma was hired to work at the academies industrial center. Its just so wonderful isn't it?" She said cheerfully.

Ranma smiled equally cheerful. "Ya that's great! Wow pops! I can't believe you actually got a job!" Seeing the look of consternation on his fathers face, Ranma had to laugh. Turning to face his mother he asked. "So mom, what did the dean say about the showers?"

Nodoka who had also been laughing at her husbands expense, turned to face Ranma and said. "Oh yes, she said it should be fine. The bathroom has individual showers and a public bath. So you'll just have to stick to the showers. Though next time you should check first. Anyway dear you should hurry along and get dressed, you have to attend a meeting for all the international students. I'll stop by your room to pick you up in a little bit."

With a sigh, Ranma went back into the bathroom. A few seconds later she came back out with a towel wrapped around her head. "Ok thanks for reminding me mom." Turning to the still upset Genma, she said. "Oh and good luck pop with work pops. Try not to get fired on the first days ok?"

Nodoka waited until Ranma had left before turning to look at her husband, who still seemed to be in shock from learning that he had to goto work. "Genma, I'm serious about this. DO NOT tell Ranma about this yet. If you tell him now, you're going to make him resist it. Let him get to know the girls first. Then you can tell him like you had originally had planned at sixteen."

************

Ranma had just finished getting dressed, when she heard a soft knocking on her door. "Coming!" She called out. As she opened the door, she was stunned. Her mother was at the door dressed in an beautiful dress given to her by the amazons. Ranma looked at her speechless. After her mother entered the room she finally found her voice again and asked. "Wow! What's the occasion." She asked knowing that it was a ceremonial dress used only for special occasions.

"Well as I told you before, I was hired as a teacher here in the ESL. This meeting being for the international students, I am required to attend. Do you think its too much? I'm just so excited. I used to dream of being a teacher when I was a little girl. I've been able to live out that dream all these years that I've been teaching you, but now I'll have an entire class of students." Enveloping her daughter in a big hug, she said. "Oh Ranma this is like a dream come true for me. Seeing you get a great education and being up front in a classroom, I can't remember the last time I felt this happy."

Ranma couldn't help but feel happy at her mothers happiness and he hugged her back. He loved his mother and was glad she was happy, even if it meant she had to do something that she didn't like. "Well that great mom! I'm really happy for you, but you do realized I'm not Ranma, I'm Ranko. Ranma is my brother. We don't want to let the secret out already."

Letting go of her hug, Nodoka said. "Yes of course. You're right dear, I was just so excited. Well we should hurry, we wouldn't want to give everyone a bad impression of us by being late."

As they opened the door to Ranma's room, they saw a brown haired girl standing there. "Akane! Can you hurry up? We're going to be late if you keep taking your time."

"Geez Nabiki! I was just going back to get my room key." She said to her sister as she came out of the room and threw a pair of keys at her sister. Then noticing Ranma she said. "Oh, hey there again! Are you feeling better? I'm really sorry about this morning."

"Nah, that's ok. My pops usually wakes me up a lot earlier than that."

Nabiki noticing the confused look on Nodoka's face clarified for her. "My little sister here, is still apparently having a hard time counting in English. This morning, she started pounding on your daughters door without even checking to see if it was the right room."

"I said it was an accident. I just wasn't really paying attention."

Seeing an argument in the making, Nodoka quickly decided to end it, before it made them late. "Now girls, I don't think now is the time for this. Not only that, but there's a meeting we should be heading off to." Waiting a minute for them to agree, she led them off to the library.

When they arrived, they found several tables each with a little flag of a different country; at each table were seated a few people. Seeing someone they knew sitting at the table with the Japanese flag, the sisters went to the table and sat.

Ranma and Nodoka were going to follow, when a lady walked up to Nodoka and whispered something to her. She nodded her head, and turned to Ranma. "Go on ahead dear, I need to go with the other teachers. Just go sit with those nice girls we met. She said with a familiar smile.

Ranma groaned when he saw that smile. It was one of those smiles. The ones she had when she was going to try and set her up with a girl. Not wanting to dwell on yet another of her mother's schemes, which could sometimes even rival her father's dumb half-baked schemes, she sat next to the two girls and three other boys at the Japan table.

It wasn't very long after she sat, that the lady who had talked to her mother stood up front. "Welcome to Broadview Academy and its English as a Second Language program. My name is Marion Kutchra, I am the director of both the library and the ESL program here at Broadview Academy. On my right, are rest of the ESL teachers. We have Sarah Paulson, Jacquelyn Rivera, Rick Silvers, and the newest edition to our team Nodoka Saotome."

"If any of you need any help with anything what so ever, please ask one of us. Now as you have noticed all of you have been divided up according to your home country. The reason for this is to help you feel more comfortable. We know some of you have been have just arrived and you're probably feeling a little nervous. Hopefully being around others you can relate to might lessen that."

"On the other hand though, we also want you to make other friends. While being around people from your own country will be easier, it will be in your best interest to make friends with other ESL and non-ESL students in the academy. Making friends with those who don't speak your language, forces you to speak English. Otherwise when speaking to others who also speak your language, both of you will be tempted to use it instead of English. Remember the more you practice speaking in English, the more comfortable you will be using it.

"There are a lot of things we must discuss, but first lets start off by introductions. We'll start here at the Angola table. I would like each of you to one at a time, stand and tell us your name, age, the country your from, and how long you've been here."

Slowly one by people started getting up to introduce themselves, starting with a girl named Tariana Veloso from Angola. After the Angolans, came Brazil, Cuba, and many other countries. Finally Japan came up, and one of the boys stood. "I'm Tomohiro Shiomi, I'm sixteen. I came from Hiroshima Japan. This is my second year here at Broadview."

Another of the boys stood nervously. "Shimitsu Akira. Eighteen years old, Japan. I arrived last week."

The third boy stood. "I am called Tatewaki Kuno, age fifteen. I hail from the glorious and majestic nation of Japan, and while I have just arrived yesterday, already the next four years show great promise to the great shooting star, as many of my fellow kendoist have come to call me, seeing that the fair sisters Tendo Akane and Nabiki will also be attending this great institution; as well as this fiery tressed pigtailed girl."

Had she not been forced to sit next to him and listen to him go on incessantly as he was the entire nonstop flight from Japan, Akane might have let him go on. However, since she did, Akane decided she had more than enough of Kuno's babbling for her lifetime and pushed him down as she stood up to introduce herself. "I am Akane Tendo, I am fourteen years old and I come from Japan. I am new here and I just arrived yesterday."

Nabiki stood next and lazily began. "Nabiki Tendo. Fifteen. Everything else is the same as her." She finished by pointing at Akane, and sat back down in her chair.

Ranma slowly stood, taking a quick glance at her mother. Nodoka was beaming proudly at her. So much so, that Ranma thought that part of the room was a bight brighter than the rest. "I am Ranko Saotome, and I'm fourteen. I've come from just about everywhere, but I guess I'm mostly from Japan. I came here yesterday with my parents."

After the rest of the students introduced themselves, they spoke about a variety of things ranging from meeting times, to placement test, and filling out forms for a variety of things. During a particularly boring part, Nabiki poked Ranma to get her attention. "So your mom works for the school? Must be pretty nice. So where you from?"

"Pretty much all around Asii. I've spent most of my life on the road, heading from one place to another." She whispered.

"Why?" She asked.

"I've been training in the martial arts since I was a little kid. My pop's always finding some new training grounds or something. So we're always on the move, the longest I've ever spent anywhere is about nine months."

Nabiki gave her a curious look. "That sounds pretty exciting, you must be pretty good then." Seeing Ranma just shrug, she continued. "I used to do a little myself when I was younger, but I got bored of it. My daddy owns a dojo back home. So daddy taught my sisters and me, but it just wasn't my thing. My sisters are pretty into it though, especially Akane. So have you been any place particularly exciting?"

"Not really, I guess. I've spent a lot of time in Korea and China though."

"Can you speak either?"

"Well mom was starting to teach me Korean, but then we moved to China. So we started teaching me Chinese instead cuz we were there for so long. We even stayed at an amazon village there a few times, that was the place we stayed for nine months."

"That's pretty impressive Saotome. Not only are you a jock, but you have a brain too. Most of the martial artist I know, are all brawn and no brains. Kuno and my sister are two perfect examples."

Akane who had gotten tired of listening to the boring speech up front, had started listening to their conversation, and was quite naturally not pleased. So she kicked her sister under the table. "I may not be as smart as you, but that doesn't mean I'm as dumb Nabiki."

"Funny it sure seems that way to me. Like this morning for example, if that wasn't being brainless I don't know what is. Beating on Ranko's door the way you did, I'm sure half the dorm heard you. Our room isn't even on the same side of the hall as hers, how could you mix it up? We may both have corner rooms, but our room is right next to the stairs. Remember? You had to walk right past our room to get to hers."

Akane grit her teeth. "I said it was a mistake ok! Sheesh! So I mest up once. It's not that big a deal you know. Besides you're always the one doing stupid stuff like the time you went to school in a boy's uniform or going to all you finals half an hour late!" She said desperately trying to keep from yelling.

Nabiki shrugged. "But hey, I was still the first one done in the math final and I got a's on all of them. Completely unlike someone else I know, who only mostly gets b's and c's. Not to mention a that d she got in science."

Akane had just reached the breaking point, when the speaker stopped talking and the students to get up. Noticing their confused face, Ranma explained. "It's lunch time!"

"Oh! Oops! Do you mind if I sit with you during lunch? I don't feel like sitting with my sister and I don't want to sit alone." Akane said giving Nabiki a quick glare.

"Uh, well I was gonna go eat with my mom and pops. I guess you can sit with us if you don't mind."

"Oh, I don't mind. Besides your mother is going to be one of my teachers, I would like to meet her."

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Whatever, obviously hime-sama doesn't want me around, so I'll see you around Saotome." She gave Akane a cold glare for a moment, before walking off.

Ranma felt really bad. "You can come too Nabiki."

Nabiki shook her head. "It's ok. Not right now, but I'll take a rain check on that some time later."

"Well then, I'll see you after lunch during the placement tests." Ranma said waving to her. Once she walked out the door, she turned to Akane and said. "Well let's get my mom and go eat."

Nodoka was still talking with the other teachers, as they approached her. So Ranma asked Akane. "So what's up between you and your sister?"

Akane rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oh don't worry about her, she is always like that. She's just trying to get attention. I should apologize for that, I shouldn't have brought you into our fight. It was rude."

Ranma waved it off. "Nah! Forget about it. We fight a lot in my family too, although it's usually with my pop. So uh Nabiki says you're into the art."

"Not really. I'm not very good at drawing."

"No, not that kinda art! I meant martial arts!"

"OH! Martial arts. I feel so stupid! Yes, I do. My dad taught me and my sisters. What about you?" She said feeling completely embraced.

"Ya, I know a little."

Having heard her daughters statement as they caught up to her, Nodoka said. "Now don't you listen to her, Akane dear. She has practically been training since the moment she was weaned. My husband is a strong martial artist. Although, he's done some extremely foolish and insanely dangerous things, he's made Ranko into a great martial artist too."

"Really!?" Akane asked excitedly. "We'll have to spar together a bit sometime."

"Ya sure, maybe sometime. But anyway, let's go get pops and eat, I'm starved."

"Since we're right here next to the office, let me go call your father so we wont have to wait on him." The girls watched as she entered the school office and used the phone. After a few minutes she came back. "Ok girls let's get going, Genma will meet us there.

When they arrived at the café, Ranma was quite happy to learn that the food was served buffet style. Ranma then proceeded to help herself to extremely large servings, prompting everyone to stare at her as she filled her tray

Ranma turned to Akane as they stepped out of line and found the table Genma was sitting. She leaned close and whispered. "Hey just so ya know. My pop says weird things sometimes. A buncha stuff happened when we were in china that caused my family a ton of trouble. Of all of us, it changed pop the most. Now he thinks I'm really my brother Ranma, so he might call me Ranma or something. Just ignore him when he gets like that."

Akane who had been shocked by how much food Ranko took, could only nod her head as she was in complete dismay by the size of Genma's servings. She noticed that Mrs. Saotome didn't look slightly surprised by either how much food her daughter or husband had taken. She also noticed that while Mrs. Saotome servings were no where near as big as theirs, she had served herself a bit more than Akane would have expected. Shaking her head, she took a seat next to Ranko. As she was still thinking about the servings the Saotome's had taken, who was completely taken by surprise by Genma's sudden outburst at Ranko. "Boy! We need to leave this place! It's nothing but trouble!"

"What's got you all worked up? With all the food you got, i'da thought you'd never want to leave."

"Oh don't mind Genma. Your lazy father just came back from seeing his new job." She said with a touch of laughter in her voice. She turned to Akane and said. "I'm sorry Akane dear, we're being rude. Akane this is my husband Genma. Genma this is one of our international student from Japan, Akane Tendo."

Genma was about to say something, but was quickly silenced by a look Nodoka gave him. Genma hmphed. "I still don't like it." Then to Akane's even greater shock, Genma began trying to steal from Ranma's food. Ranma protected his food, but for the most part ignored her father.

The three women had been having a pleasant conversation, when Nodoka glanced at the clock and abruptly interrupted them. "The three of you should hurry or you'll be late and yes Genma you have to go. This school isn't free, neither is all that food you just ate. So unless you want to fast or go on a diet, you better go to work. And you two should run or you'll be late for your placement exams."

Looking at the clock themselves, they realized she was right. They quickly dropped off their trays and headed back toward the library. The teacher, Mrs. Rivera, had just stood up to give the test instructions when they entered. She looked at them for a second, before saying. "If you two would please have a seat, we're about to begin."

She waited for them to sit, before continuing. "This test is to help us find where you are in both your English and academics. This will help us to determine in which class to place you, and which ESL classes you will need. Take your time. When you are done with the test you may leave. We should have finished grading your papers by supper time, and there will be a meeting at seven to present the results. You may now open your booklets and begin."

Every quickly began working on their tests. Ranma was a bit uneasy at first, he was never very good at taking tests. However, thanks to a trick her parents had pulled on her by making her think her mother was disappointed in her for getting low grades. Grades that, thanks to her father's suggestion, were dropped an entire letter grade by her mother, when she told Ranma how she did on her exams. While she wasn't very thrilled when she found out, it did help had spurred her to study harder, both then and now.

To her surprise, she didn't find the test extremely difficult. In fact, this test was actually somewhat easy. There were still several questions she had a hard time on, but for the most part, it wasn't very tough.

After trying, unsuccessfully, to solve a particularly hard question, Ranma decided to take a small break. Which she learned really helped relieve a lot of the stress, so long as she didn't take too long of a break. She began to look around the library to see what everyone else was doing. She saw her mother in the small office in the upper corner of the library talking quietly with the other teachers. By the expressions on their faces, Ranma tried to figure out how some of the other students were doing. From the looks on their faces, it seemed only a few of them found the test either extremely easy or extremely hard. Having had a long enough break, she was about to try working on the hard question again, when she noticed the student in the far back corner.

There sat Nabiki, sitting all by herself staring at her test. Ranma watched her for a minute, and in that time all she did was stare at her test. The sight of her sitting back there in a corner all alone made her feel really bad. With a sigh, she turned back to her test having already spent to much time "on break."

After another minute of struggling with the question, she decided to simply guess and move on. Yet every once and a while she would take a moment and glance at either of the sisters. Every time she glanced at Akane, she found her hard at work on her test. Yet when she looked at Nabiki, she usually found the brown haired girl staring at the test.

When she finally finished her test an hour later, half the other students, including Akane, had already left. As she handed her test in, she noticed that her mother wasn't in the office anymore. So when she entered the dorm she decided to go there, instead of her own room. Once inside, she made her way to the bed and lifelessly fell onto it. Nodoka smiled at Ranma's theatrics. "How did you do on the test?"

"I think I did ok. There were some really though questions, but it wasn't as hard as I was expecting it."

"Very good!" She said proudly.

"So where's pop?"

"He's still at work dear."

Ranma sat up. "Oh, well do you know when he'll be back?"

"He should be back in about half an hour. Why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to practice a little, that's all."

Nodoka turned to face Ranma. "Is something wrong dear? You don't sound to happy."

Ranma debated with herself for a second before saying. "Ya sorta."

Nodoka frowned. "What is it dear?

"Its just well . . . it's about Nabiki. Her and Akane got into a fight before lunch and she looked pretty depressed during the test. I just kinda feel bad, cuz we left her alone when we left for lunch."

Nodoka forced herself not to smile. "Well, why not sit with her during supper? I'm most likely going to be late for it anyway. I'm going to have to go soon, to start correcting the exams. I'll let Genma know you want to practice when he arrives from work."

"Thanks mom. Can I another shower while I'm here?"

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until after you finish practicing with your father."

"Ya, but I'm just don't feel like being a girl right now."

"Of course dear, go ahead."

Thanking her mother again, Ranma made her way to the bathroom and soon the water could be heard. When Ranma was out of sight, Nodoka began to smile proudly. It made her so happy to see that although he just met them, Ranma already had feelings for them. Still, more importantly they weren't just any girls, one of those two girls would most eventually be his wife. They were both so beautiful, Nodoka couldn't help herself from imagining what her grandchildren might look like.

Sadly her daydreams was interrupted when she heard someone knocking on her door. As she reached the door, she heard the shower turn off. She thought it was perfect timing that Ranma finished his shower just as Genma arrived. Since she was expecting Genma, she was quite surprised when she opened the door to find Akane. "Hello Mrs. Saotome. I'm sorry to disturb you, but do you know where Ranko is? I was hoping we could spar a little before dinner."

Nodoka was about to answer, when the bathroom door opened. A now male Ranma, clad only in a towel, stepped into the room. "Hey mom, can you get me some -- " His eyes went wide as he saw Akane standing staring at him. He quickly jumped back into the bathroom and waited for his mother to come to the small crack he left open to talk to her. "Can you get me some cloths? I didn't bring any to change into."

"Of course dear, just give me a minute." She turned to Akane, who was still staring dumbly to where Ranma had been standing. "I'm sorry Akane dear. Ranko's not here at the moment, but should be here soon. Would you like me to tell her that you wanted to speak with her?"

"Uh . . . yes. Thank you." She said sounding a bit dazed, before slowly walking out of the room.

Seconds after the door closed, Nodoka began giggling uncontrollably. She knocked on the bathroom door and in between giggles said. "You can come out now, she's gone."

"It's not funny mom, stop laughing."

"Is it so wrong for a mother to be proud at how manly her son is? She likes you. Perhaps the two of you should spend more time together."

Ranma groaned. "Mom! Please, no matchmaking! I'm here cuz you want me to, but because of this dumb curse, I have to go to school as a girl. I'm already gonna have to come up with something to explain my guy side. I already told her there was a big incident in china four years ago and that he thinks that Ranko is really her brother. But now I need to think up a reason why Ranma isn't going to school here as well." He sighed deeply and continued. "Pop's is probably gonna make goin to school here hard enough for me. So please, please no match making. Ok?"

Nodoka began to pout. "You are NO fun. Besides, there's nothing wrong with a mother wanting to see her only son happy with a nice girl. Still, if you really want me to, from now on I will not do any match making."

Ranma smiled and hugged his mother. "Thanks mom. Things are hard enough as they are, besides with me goin to school as a girl, it kinda makes it hard to have a girlfriend anyway. Well I'm goin to my room, come get me when pop gets back from work."

"Of course dear, but there are two things I have to tell you before you leave. First stop by Akane's room. Don't look at me like that, I'm not trying to do any matchmaking. She came here looking for you remember? I told her I would tell you she was looking for you and that you should stop by her room to see what she wanted."

Ranma looked at her suspiciously for a moment. He knew while she promised no matchmaking, what she really meant was no obvious matchmaking. Knowing his mother, she would use every trick she knew to match him up with someone, all the while making it seem as innocent as possible. Ranma sighed. "Ok. I'll stop there on the way to my room. Maybe Nabiki will be there too. So what was the other thing?"

"Oh, nothing at all. I was just going to remind you to change back before you go. Because while I'm sure Akane wouldn't mind, I'm sure dean Rey would be very upset."

Ranma looked down and realized he was still a guy. Smacking himself in the head with the palm of his hands, Ranma walked back to the bathroom. He turn on the shower and stuck his head in. Ranma thanked his mother and left the room heading up the stairs. Having reached the top, Ranma turned to the room where she saw Akane leave from earlier. Slowly she knocked on the door.

Akane quickly opened the door. "Ranko! There you are!" She stepped aside to allow Ranko to enter the room. She took her seat at her desk and turned to face Ranma. "Where were you? I've been looking for you since the placement tests ended."

"I've been taking a shower. Sorry about that, I kinda zone out when I take a hot shower or bath."

"You don't have to stand. We don't have that many chairs, but you can sit on my bed or in Nabiki's chair."

"Um its ok, I'll stand I don't mind." She said as she leaned against the wall of Akane's room.

Akane turned her chair so she could face her directly and excitedly asked. "So.... who was he?"

Ranma blinked. "Who was who?"

"The guy in your mother's room." She said emphatically. "Was that your brother? He is so cute! I mean wow! With a body like that, he has to be your brother." Akane said fanning herself with her hand.

Ranma suddenly turned red enough to match her hair color. "Ya.. That was him.."

Noticing Ranko's discomfort with the topic, Akane stopped and said. "Sorry, I'm embarrassing you aren't I? But you have a really cute brother. How much older than you is he anyway?"

"Well.. Actually we're twins. I came after he did."

"You're twins? Wow! "Ya now that I think about it, I do see the resemblance. You even have the same hairstyle. So did he just get here? I haven't seen him at any of the orientation meetings or the placement test."

"He doesn't go here, he was just visiting and he's already gone."

"Gone? But he was just here? Why did he go? Where's he going?"

"I'd rather not talk about him. We've kept our distance ever since the incident. Since I'm around he won't be, so let's just leave it at that."

"I'm sorry. I just curious, I didn't mean to pry."

Ranma shook her head. "It's ok. It's not your fault, since you didn't know. So um my mom says you wanted to talk to me?"

"Oh ya!, I wanted to see if you wanted to spar a little before dinner?"

"Well . . . I would, but I'm already supposed to practice with pops."

"Well that's not that big a deal, we can spar until your dad shows up."

"I don't think pop will like that. He already thinks that I've been slacking off, so he'll really want to go at it today. I don't know what he'd do if he caught me sparring with another girl, but I'm sure he'd be pretty mad about it."

"Why would he be mad?"

Sighing, Ranma said. "Cuz pop says girls are weak, so they can't really be as strong or as good as a guy in the art."

Akane's face turned red in anger. "That's just so stupid! Why would anyone think something so dumb?"

Ranma rolled her eyes. "Ya my pop ain't the brightest person. I'd hate to imagine what it woulda been like without mom around."

Akane looked puzzled. "But if he thinks girls can't be martial-artist, why did he train you?"

"Pop usually sees me as a guy remember. When he does actually acknowledges me as a girl, he doesn't think I'm as good as Ranma because I'm a girl."

Akane shook her head and rolled her eyes at the stupidity of Genma's idea's. "All right, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with your parents. I was really looking forward to sparring with you. Besides Kuno, you're the only martial artist I know here. I really don't want to spar with him, he just goes on and on and on. If you think is little speech today was something, that was nothing to the twelve hours plus I had to sit next to him. It's a miracle I survived the trip! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to practice by myself from now on."

"I didn't say no. We could always do it later, though it'll have to wait until pop has had a chance to get over coming here. Not only that, but it gives me a chance to beat him up so he can stop going on about how soft I'm getting."

Akane laughed. "My dad's the same way. He called me up just to make sure I was practicing! It was around two hear, which means it was like five am over there! He's never up at that time!"

"You're lucky. My pop's idea of waking me up is to either splash me with a bucket of freezing cold water or throw me in a lake followed by three hours of nonstop training. All of this before my mom wakes up and makes us breakfast! Talking about pop, I'd better get going. He's probably back by now, and the longer we wait the grumpier he's gonna get." She stood up and walked to the door. She opened the door, but turned to face Akane before stepping out. "Hey Akane can you do me a favor?"

"Sure Ranko. what is it?" She said with a friendly smile.

"Well I need to talk to Nabiki, do you know where she is?"

Akane frowned for a moment before answering. "No, sorry. I haven't seen her since the test.

The redhead sighed. "Well when you see her, can you tell her I want to talk to her?"

"Well, I was about to leave so I can practice. But I'll leave her a note on her desk, in case she comes back while I'm gone."

"Thanks Akane. I'll see when I can get away from pop long enough to spar with ya. It'll be kinda fun having someone other than pop to spar with. Anyway I gotta go, the old man's is already gonna be more of a grouch than usual since mom's got him working. So I'll see you at the meeting tonight?"

"Ya, sure! I'll see you there. Have fun training."

Ranma left Akane's room and headed down the stairs to her parents room. She was about to knock when she heard the arguing. "Have you not learned anything about your son these last few years? If you try to force the issue, Ranma will resist you in ever way possible."

"Of course he fight it! He fights any thing I say, wether it's good or not. Nevertheless, it is for his own good and it's a matter of family honor, so he will go through it." Genma said resolutely.

"If you try to force the issue Genma, I will NOT support you. I will not try and force Ranma. It is entirely his choice. Just remember what the elder told us before we left the village. But now I have to go work. Goodbye."

Gathering her purse, she opened the door to leave. She was quite surprised to see Ranma there with her arm raised ready to knock. "Oh, hey mom. Uh, is pop back yet?"

Nodoka gave her a smile. "Yes he is. I'm sorry I can't stay to watch to two of you practice, but I really have to get going." She turned Genma she gave him a stern glare. "I'll be back around supper time. Wait for me before heading off to eat, there are still things we must discuss." She gave Ranma a quick kiss and left.

After she left, Ranma looked at her father with a questioning look. Genma opened his mouth to say something, but reluctantly closed it. He then turned and grabbed a tea kettle. "Let's go practice Ranma." He said in an upset voice.

Ranma blinked in surprise. If her father actually stayed quiet about something that he obviously felt so strongly about, then it must have been really big. "Ok pop." she answered.

She followed her father to the gym, located on the far end of campus. In the gym, they saw Kittleson cleaning the floors. Hearing the gym doors open, he turned to face them. "Why hello there Ranma, Mr. Saotome. How can I help you?"

"Umm, I'm Ranko. Remember?" Ranma said feeling a bit uneasy.

Kittleson instantly remembered and looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I don't know how I could have forgotten."

Ranma still felt a bit edgy for some reason, but she ignored it. "It's ok. It took me a while to get used to it myself. I'll probably answer to both names. They're so similar that it'll be easy to confuse them, which is why mom picked the name."

Kittleson nodded with an impressed look on his face. "Well what can I do for you two?"

"Well we're just looking for a place to practice." Genma stated in his more accented English. "I am not about to let my only heir become as weak as the girl he pretends to be!" He said quite gruffly.

Kittleson stepped back a little. Ranma seeing this quickly responded. "Ah, don't mind him. He's just a bit moody, and he's had a bad day."

Kittleson nodded his head "I see. Well you can use the gym for the rest of the week, but next week gymnastics tryouts start begin and I'm afraid I wont be able to let you use it then."

Genma grunted his thanks and turned to Ranma. "Ok boy. Start warming up boy. Double the normal amount, since we haven't been able to train in two or three days. I'd say about fifty laps around the gym should be enough."

Kittleson's jaw dropped. "Fifty laps! That's crazy. Do you know how many miles that is? How do you expect her to run that many miles, and as a warm up no less?"

"She may look like a girl, but she is really my son. Before coming to this school, he used to run many more miles while carrying heavy loads. Now if you'll excuse me, while I go through warm ups myself."

Hearing a telephone ring, Kittleson shook his head and rushed to his office to answer the phone. After talking on the phone , he decided try to plan start planning a few routines he wanted to try. After a while, he decided to check on how the Saotome's were doing. He open the blinds to the office window that overlooked the gym, what he saw made him forget about making routines. He saw Ranma, still running around the gym, fighting with his father. Just the trading of punches, kicks, and throws the two were giving each other wasn't what astounded him, thought it was pretty impressive. No, what astounded him, was that they were jumping nearly to the two story roof of the gym while doing it."

Kittleson ran out of his office to get a better look at them. He stood in utter disbelief at the sight before him. Most of the girls in his gymnastics team couldn't be tossed that high with a four man throwing group, yet those two were doing it quite casually. Not only that, but they were seemingly hanging in the air longer that one should, all the while engaging in extremely complex maneuvers.

Ranma and Genma saw him gawking at them, but they simply ignored him, as people stopping to stare at them was far from new to them. "So what are you so upset about this time pop? Is the new job getting to you already?" That caused her to suddenly have to dodge a series of really quick punches and kicks. "Don't tell me you wanna quite already do you? It can't be that bad!"

Genma scowl turned into a smirk, which made Ranma very uneasy and suspicious. "Oh you'll know soon enough."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma asked while avoid several of her fathers attacks.

"Your mother didn't tell you? Starting tomorrow, we'll be going to work together. It's part of the school rules, anyone who goes to school here has to work. Since you don't have anywhere else to work, guess where you get to go."

"Wha -- " Genma used Ranma's momentary distraction to pluck her out of the air at the peak of their jump, and threw him toward the hard concrete floor below head first. Ranma quickly twisted herself around and landed safely on her feet, before jumping back to avoid her father's follow up kick.

"Ranma stop fighting like a girl! Has running around pretending to be one made you this weak?"

Ranma was about to retort when something caught her attention. With a smile, Ranma feinted a kick and jumped over her father. Genma turned ready to attack, when a bucket of water hit him in the head. "Hey pop, why dontcha cool off? Just in case you forgot, this is your fault. It was your bright idea to go to Jusenkyou and then ignore mom when she said it wasn't a good idea."

The panda was indignant, and with growl he charged the redhead. Ranma and the panda back to their deadly dance as they continued to do laps around the gym. For nearly an hour they continued, trading both blows and insults, until a loud piercing scream filled the gym.

Ranma and the panda quickly turned toward the entrance of the gym, to see what was wrong. Their in the front was a blond haired girl staring at Genma with undisguised fear. Seeing how scared the girl was, Ranma quickly said. "Don't be afraid, this is my pet panda. He's been trained so you don't have to worry." That helped to alleviate some fear, but Ranma could tell she was still pretty scared. "Watch." She told the girl before turning to Genma and saying "Sit!"

Genma glared at Ranma, but reluctantly sat. "Now stand." With a growf of complaint Genma stood back up. Again the redhead spoke and said. "Now walk on your hands."

Genma folded his arms across his chest, refusing to humiliate himself any further. "Growf! Growf!"

Ranma frowned and whispered to the panda. "Stop being stupid pop. You saw how scared that girl was of you!"

Genma sighed at the indignity of it all, and began to walk on his hands. An extremely amazing sight, considering how big and round of a panda he turned into. The effort was rewarded with applause, both from the girl and from Kittleson, who ran out of his office when he heard the girl scream.

Ranma was really enjoying herself, not only did she get to order her father around for once, but she could also have her revenge for all the times her father had embarrassed her. "Now watch this." She said as she picked up a basketball from a nearby cart and threw it at Genma. "Catch it and don't let it stop spinning."

Genma caught the lightly tossed basketball and let it roll toward his claws where he balanced the still spinning ball. Just then he heard Ranma's mirthful voice say. "Here's another, and another!" Genma "Growfed" as ran to catch the other two. Once in position to catch them, he dropped the one on his hand to balance it on his foot, so he could catch the other two. Again the two spectators clapped. Unfortunately for him, that caused Ranma to broaden her smile.

"And now lady and gentleman, our grand finale. Watch as he balances a fourth basketball on his nose." That said she threw yet another ball. Genma growfed in surprise and moved as quickly and as carefully as he could on one foot to catch the ball on his nose. Genma grumbled to himself as he stood there in balancing four spinning balls. His catching the fourth ball brought in yet another round of applause from the two watchers. Ranma bowed to them, before telling him. "Ok pop, you can stop now." Genma was more than happy to comply. "Well I guess that's it for training, how about we head back now?" Ranma asked her father.

Genma nodded his head and began to leave the gym. Ranma quickly ran out to follow him. As they walked toward the café Ranma said. "That was a pretty good show." Ranma ducked under her father paw, as he struck out at her. Laughing Ranma responded. "Ok, ok! Do you want me to get you some hot water before we go into the café?"

Genma made quick sign. "I'll get some in the room. Your mother and me have to talk."

Ranma's eye's nearly bugged out, at the thought of her father skipping a meal, even if it was to talk to her mother. Never in her entire, did she ever remember a time her father skipped an opportunity to skip an opportunity to eat, whatever it was they had to discuss was definitely very serious. She thought back to the fight they were having, when she came to their room. She began to get worried, since she couldn't remember a time her mother had seemed that angry at her father. She knew how different her parents felt about her going to school there, especially since she had to be a girl to do so, as her parents had been fighting about it since it was first brought up three months ago. Scared of what his answer might be, Ranma hesitantly asked. "Is everything between you and mom ok?"

The panda nearly fell over from the shock of hearing Ranma ask him that question. He quickly made another sign. "Don't be stupid, of course it is!" He the flipped the sign around. "We just have some things we must discuss."

The redhead gave the panda a skeptical look. "You sure? It ain't like you to skip a meal."

With growf, he produced two signs. "OF COURSE, I'M SURE!!!" "Now get out of here before I decide to pay you back for that incident in the gym."

Ranma was about to say something, when he suddenly started throwing dodging the signs Genma was throwing at her. "Ok! Ok! Geez, I'm going already!"

Ranma quickly ran inside the café and watched the panda sighed before making his way back to the dorm. She sighed heavily herself, before she got into the line get food. After finally convincing the dinner lady that she didn't have too much food for one trip and that she would eat it all, she found an empty table. She took a seat at the middle of the table, and began eating slowly, which for her meant she was eating as fast as normal people. So lost was she thinking about her parents, that she nearly gave a shout of surprise when someone next to her said. "Mind if I join you?"

Ranma turned to see Nabiki next to her with a tray of food. Shaking her head Ranma said. "No, go ahead and sit down."

Setting her tray in front of redhead girl, Nabiki moved around the table to where tray was. "You know, I'm not sure quite what to make of you. You sit at an empty table, which implies you want to be by yourself. Yet at the center of the table, you sat in the most sociable seat. Granted, you could have been waiting for company. However, I doubt it, since you were eating away oblivious to everything around you when I approached you. So which is it?"

Ranma blinked and shrugged her shoulders. "I just sat here, I mean I don't know anyone else here."

Nabiki nodded her head. "So what's up? Akane left me a note saying you wanted to see me."

"Oh ya. Well I wanted to see how you were. I mean I felt bad leaving you at lunch and you looked kinda sad during the placement test."

"Oh is that all? Don't worry about it. Ohime-sama is always like that. Daddy has always spoiled her. While my older sister and I have to work our butts off doing chores, she's in the dojo practicing. As if she needs more practice breaking concrete blocks. But hey, it happens all the time. That's what sisters are for, bugging the daylights out of each other. So what about you, what's got you down? You looked down yourself when I got here."

Ranma sighed. "It's my folks. They've been fighting nonstop since mom came up with the idea of coming here. They're in there room now, having some kind of private fight. Pop said everything was all right, but I -- "

Nabiki interrupted her. "If your father says everything fine, then trust him. He has a better idea of what the situation is like than you do. If he says everything is fine, then why worry about what could be?"

"Ya I guess your right." She reluctantly agreed and began to eat. They eat together silently for a few minutes, until the silence began to bother her. "So . . . how'd you do on the test?"

"I suppose I did adequate. But you do realize that you can't fail the placement test right?"

"Oh . . . well then how does it work then?"

"If you do really well, then they place you with the American students. If you do an ok job, then you'll still mostly be going to school with them, but you'll have to take a few ESL classes to patch up your problem area's. If you do really poorly, then you're stuck taking ESL classes for the year."

Ranma looked at her dubiously. "How is that different from failing a normal test? If you can't do good enough your kept back, just like on the placement test."

Nabiki sighed. "You're thinking about it too negatively. The ESL program here is designed to teach someone with virtually no English experience, how to speak English as their second language. Hence the name, ESL means English as a second language."

"Thinking about it differently ain't gonna make it different."

"Of course it does. Attitude is everything. You're a martial artist, you should know that if you go into a fight thinking you're going to lose, then that is exactly what's going to happen. If you want to win a match, you have to go in believing you're going to win."

"I supposed you're right." Ranma consented. After taking a few more bites of her food, she noticed she was done. "It's not as good as my mom's cooking, but it's ok. Say do you know if we have any more meetings after this?"

Nabiki shrugged. "You're the teachers kid, you should be the one to know. What I do know though, is that we need to get going if we want to get there on time.

Ranma followed Nabiki's example, as the brown haired girl stood up and too her try to the designated rack near the exit. The two girls walked back to the library. Once there, they were seated alphabetically with Saotome placed next to Tendo. Akane and Nabiki shared a look to let the other know, she was still mad. As Nabiki moved past Akane to reach her seat, she said. "It's so good to see you too hime."

Akane chose to ignore her sister and turned to Ranma with a smile. "So how did your practice go?"

Ranma wasn't sure what to do. Past experience had taught her that getting caught in the middle of two other people fights was anything but pleasant. Even talking to one of the feuding party members could be dangerous, as she learned when her best friends, Soap and Shampoo, got into a fight. Soap had assumed Ranma was siding with Shampoo and she was also giving the silent treatment. Ranma barely knew these girls and the last thing she wanted, was to get them mad at her.

Unfortunately, Ranma realized she was already caught in the middle. Just answering Akane's question was probably going to get him in trouble with Nabiki, despite how unrelated it might be. She couldn't just ignore Akane either, as that would be rude and seem as if she were taking Nabiki's side. Realizing there was likely no way to not get someone mad at her, she decided to answer Akane's question and just try to calm Nabiki down if she gets mad at her. "It was going ok, until some girl came in the gym and got scared of Mr. Panda."

"Mr. Panda?" Akane asked quite confused.

Ranma wanted to slap herself for being so careless. Now she had to find some way of explaining her father's panda form. She knew it would come up eventually, but given the choice, she would have much rather picked later. "Mr. Panda is my pet panda. We've had him since our trip into china four years ago."

"A panda? You have a panda as a pet!?" She asked in shock.

Ranma nodded her head. "He's been trained, so we did some tricks for the girl so she wouldn't freak out."

Akane shook her head in disbelief. They didn't get to say much more, because just then Mrs. Saotome entered the library. Ranma was happy to note that while she seemed a bit embarrassed at being late, she also seemed much happier.

She immediately walked to the front of the library were the other teachers were, and began speaking with the director. The woman smiled at her as she nodded her head and told her something. Nodoka nodded her head and sat down next to the others. When Nodoka was seated, the directory began speaking. "Thank you all for coming, I'm sure you're all quite tired of all these meetings. The good news is this is the last on. As you may have noticed, this group is only half as large as it was this morning. There is no need to worry about them. There is no need to worry about them as most of them are returning students and we already know what level they are at. The rest are students who had already signed up for the complete ESL course. So don't be afraid that you'll be asked to leave if you didn't achieve a high enough score. All we ask is that you do your best."

"To help you do your best, we have divided you into small groups of about five, with a teachers in each group. We tried to separate you from the others who speak your native language. The reason for this is to reduce the temptation to not speak in English. The only way your English will improve is to use it. The more you use it the better you will become at speaking it. Also speaking it more will help you to feel more comfortable speaking English. Both of these are our goals for you, to improve your English while also making you feel more comfortable speaking it. We couldn't do that with some the larger groups, and we'd like to ask you to try and limit yourself to only speaking your native language to help each other."

"Now we will split into our groups, your group leader will give you the results of your test and answer any questions you might have. Let's start by having the leaders move into their positions. Sarah you take the top right corner of the room, Nodoka you take the back right corner, Jacquelin the back left, rick the center and my group will meet in the top left corner next to my office. I will read each of your names and your group leaders name. Please go to your group leader when you are called."

After everyone had been grouped, it quickly became obvious to Ranma and just about everyone else, that one group hadn't been divided. It was them, the entire Japanese group was given to Nodoka. Ranma was curious why they weren't separated like all the other groups. "Hey mom, why did they stick us all together?"

Nodoka smiled at Ranma, a smile Ranma knew meant there was more to the situation then she was going to say. "Well that's somewhat complicated."

"We felt that due to the certain circumstances, it would probably be best for you to have a group leader who can understand you both linguistically and culturally."

"And what circumstances are those?" Nabiki asked.

"Well besides being my child, Ranko has a condition which requires special care. So she was placed in my group since I am the most qualified to work with it. Tatewaki-kun you did well enough to be placed on a full time academic schedule. What concerns us is your cognitive and reasoning abilities. Straightforward tasks and studies such as mathematics or subjects that rely primarily on memorization, but you showed a great deal of difficulty when it came to analysis and interpretation."

Kuno stood up. "I must protest. There has obviously been a mistake, surely there was a mix up of some kind. No doubt you have mistakenly read the results of another's exam. For am I not the great Tatewaki Kuno, the undefeated kendo champion known as shooting star? It is impossible that one such as I have the faults that you would heap upon me."

"Actually Kuno-chan, she seems right on the money." Nabiki said to Kuno with a smirk.

Seeing that Kuno was going to speak again, Nodoka quickly said. "Kuno-san! Please sit down. You are drawing attention to yourself." She waited until he had seated himself before continuing. "I wish I could say differently, but our results agree with the report given to us by your former teachers. Ms Kutchra would like to see you privately after this meeting is done." Seeing him nod, she turned her gaze to Nabiki.

Seeing Mrs. Saotome looking at her, Nabiki asked in a sugar-coated voice. "How did I do sensei?"

Nodoka shook her head. "Your test is very confusing Nabiki-chan. While you made the highest grade in the English competency section, you extremely poor the academic section. As it stands you obviously do not need full time ESL, so you too will be placed as a full time student. However, due to your low academic score, we simply can't progress you to the tenth grade. That's troubling since your transcript shows your normally a straight 'A' student, we simply can't explain how you could have scored so low on the tests. I'm really sorry, but we had no choice."

Ranma saw Nabiki lower her head as her mother about results. The redhead nearly didn't hear Nabiki when responded, because of how softly she had spoken. "I understand. I'm sorry I could not meet your expectations for me. Hopefully next time I'll be able to do better."

Akane's eyes narrowed and she began glaring at her sister. "Right! I'm sure you're really sorry, I bet you failed the test on purpose?"

Nabiki's head shot up and glowered at Akane. "Don't you even start! In case you already forgot, you were the one that was going to fail last year! I did your entire research paper for science class, just so you could spend some time with 'Amano-senpai.' So don't act so holy and self righteous hime."

"Girls! Please this is not the time for that. This is still not even the first day of school! Is this the way you want to be remembered? I understand you're upset with each other, I can remember some of the fights I used to have with my own sister. Still this is not the place to argue like that. If you need someone to act as a mediator, please come to my room and I will be happy to try and resolve this properly, without having to create a show of it. Are the two of you clear on this?"

She waited until both of them nodded their heads before continuing. "Good. Nabiki please come by my room after you are off work tomorrow. We can discuss your options, before you start classes. Now unless any of you have any questions, you may pick up your schedule and return to your respective dorms."

"Sensei?" Akane asked timidly.

"Yes dear?"

"Is there some reason for me being placed in the group?"

Nodoka slowly shook her head. "Not really dear. Your test results were quite satisfactory. The reason you were placed in my group, is because of your track record from your previous school. Your teachers said that you seemed 'full of spirit,' and that you also had a tendency to get a bit angry and violent. Since every member of my family, myself excluded, cannot so much as have a family dinner without some type of battle being waged, my experience at having to deal with these types of problems is what swayed the committee to place you in my group."

Nabiki took one look at the reddening Akane and started laughing. Akane, who was now both angry and embarrassed, threateningly warned her sister. "Nabiki shut up right now!"

Nabiki's laughing stopped immediately as she turned a stern face to her and in a challenging voice asked. "Or else what hime? Oh wait, let me guess, are you going to hit me?"

Akane clenched her hands into fists at her side, then she surprised everyone when she abruptly turned and stormed out of the library. Nodoka immediately turned to Nabiki and said. "That was completely uncalled for. She was already embarrassed by what I said, all you did was to further provoke her."

"Good! I'm glad. Maybe next time she's having one of her temper tantrums, she'll remember this. It's not like she's ever gotten in trouble. Daddy always just dismisses it by saying she's just high-spirited and sending her into the dojo for some extra practice! She gets rewarded for getting in trouble! But I doubt you care either. After all she yelled at me for falling and didn't say a word. I'm going now, I'll see you tomorrow after work."

Ranma, Nodoka, Kuno, and several others watched as yet another Tendo left the library angrily. Ranma was surprised when Kuno quietly took his schedule and left. She had expected to him start spouting off like he normally did whenever he spoke. When it was just her and her mother at the table, she turned to her mother and seeing the look on her face asked. "You ok mom?"

Nodoka began rubbing her temples. "Yes, I'm fine. I should have told each of you in private, not to the whole group." She sighed heavily. "You might as well head back to your room as well. I have to stay by for a staff meeting. Oh yes before I forget. Here is your schedule, and could you drop of these schedules when you pass by the girls room. Though I wouldn't recommend giving it to them personally, I would just slide it under their door as you walk by. Also don't forget your father wants to spar early tomorrow and that you begin work at 8:30."

Ranma nodded, took the schedules and left for the dorm. As she walked there she taught about everything that had gone on the last few days, from stepping on the plane till just now. It was just one thing right after the other. Despite not having trained as hard as she normally did, she couldn't remember the last time she felt that exhausted. Training for the breaking point didn't even get her as tired as she felt now. She couldn't wait to get to her bed and fall asleep. "But first, I better drop off these schedules."

She entered the dorm through the front entrance and ran up the stairs toward the Tendo sisters' room. She heard the two girls fighting as she neared their room. Doing as her mother had instructed, Ranma bent down and slid the envelope under the door. When the fighting sisters didn't stop to investigate the delivery, she continued down the hall to her own room. When she reached her door, she began searching her pockets for her room keys. She opened her door, after finding her keys, and was about to enter when the Tendo sisters' door opened. "Ya well I don't want to share a room with an ungrateful spoiled brat! You can keep the room, I'll find somewhere else to sleep." Nabiki yelled before closing the door.

Ranma turned to see Nabiki, in her green paw print pajamas, holding her pillow and blanket. She watched as the girl angrily threw her pillow on the floor. Ranma heard her muttering something as she spread her blanket on the floor and laid down. Ranma hung her head and sighed. "You're not gonna sleep on the floor there are you?"

Nabiki turned her head to look in Ranma's direction. "Sure I guess, why not? It's better than sleeping in there with Ohime-sama."

"You can stay in my room tonight, I gotta spare bed." Ranma knew she was probably going to get into trouble for that, but just felt like she had to after the sadness in her voice.

Nabiki sat up and stared at intently at the other girl. Finally after some time had passed, she shrugged. "Sure, thanks. I really wasn't looking forward to sleeping on this hard floor." She picked up her things and followed Ranma to her room.

Pointing at the bunked in the middle of the room, Ranma said. "You can have whichever bunk you want."

"I guess I'll take the top." She said as she placed her pillow and blanket on the bed, and then climbed up. "You know, these are the ugliest rooms I've ever seen."

Ranma shrugged. "I'm just glad I have a room. When you're always on the move, you pretty much only get a tent. Do you mind if I practice a little before going to sleep?"

"Go ahead, it's your room." Nabiki watched the pigtailed girl as she went through her practice. "You're pretty good Saotome, I'd go so far as to say, your in the same league as my sister. That's pretty impressive. Despite being a spoiled brat, she's likely the best martial artist I've seen."

"Thanks. So what about you? Akane told me your pops taught both of you."

"Me? I stopped practicing a long time ago, after my mother got sick. I had just turned seven at the time, when daddy told me and Kasumi that mom was in the hospital. He didn't tell Akane about it because she was only five. The doctors had told daddy that they didn't expect her to live, left a baby sitter for Akane and took me and Kasumi to see her. After that I just too depressed to practice anymore, so I just gave it up."

Sensing the change in the mood of the conversation had gotten very somber, Ranma decided not to press farther. Nabiki wrapped herself up in her blanket and began to stare up at the ceiling. Not knowing what to say, Ranma continued going through her kata.

As she began approaching the end she started getting a bit worried. She still needed to change into her sleeping cloths, but she didn't want to have to change in front of the other girl. Even if they were both girls at the time, she didn't feel right about changing in front of one. The other choice was to go to the bathroom to change, but then she might get offended. Luckily for her, the problem was soon solved when a voice over the intercom announced. "Lights are now out, lights are now out."

When she finished speaking a loud thud was heard, and the room suddenly became very dark. Ranma, feeling immensely relieved, finished her kata in the dark. Once she finished, she walked to the corner of her room where her traveling pack was. She found a muscle shirt and boxers, and quickly changed. As she got into bed, she heard Nabiki say. "Ranko?'

"Ya Nabiki?"

"Thanks."

Ranma smiled despite not being able to be seen. "No problem, that's what friends are for right?"

Nabiki laughed a bit. "Goodnight Ranko."

"Goodnight Nabiki."