Ah, Chapter Three...guess what? We have internet now! Yay! Rejoice rejoice! I've been bored out of my mind here for a month now in the house! Yay! Thank you, Switzerland companies!

Anyway,

Hala: I know it was a bit short, see that was suppose to be one chapter only, but once I edited it, it became too long, and I don't know about you but when one chapter gets to be too long, I kinda lose interest in the end, so there yougo, butI promise, next time thechapters will be longer. Pinkie swear! And yes, this will be kind of a long story, since my shortstories are usually one shots and the rest will just have to go on and on and on...

dollarbanks:hello! Thank you for the information, will change all of Ryoga's name to Ryota right now! Again sorry to all the Ryota Miyagi fans! SorrySorrySorrySorrySorrySorrySorrySorrypantpantSorrySorrySorrySorrySorrySorrySorry! Oh, and Sendoh won't be evil bad man, I likehim too...

Miss Hachigatsu Kuroi Hello! Yeah, thanks to those who told me who about Ryota is and his name. Thankyou thank you thank you. Oh, and I'll try to make sure that you know who's talking about what and stuff. Thanks!

Anyway...

On to the story!

You mean, Rukawa has a best friend?

Chapter Three

Monday just didn't start out right for Kira. Not right at all. She woke up right on time, and there was the usual 'good morning' text from Rukawa. That made her smile a bit (it took a lot of cooing and coaxing from her to convince him to get a cell phone). But that was the end of a good run.

She took a shower, expecting some nice hot water but then screamed in surprise and shockas she was hit directly by extremely freezing cold water. It was by some miracle that she didn't just jump up from the bathtub and hit her head squarely on the cold tile bathroom floor.She didn't imagine that she can move so fast when it came to washing her hair, which she was extremely fond of.

Her mood becoming more irritable by the minute, she left for school and locked the house. Her parents had already gone to work halfway through her fast shower. Halfway to school, she then realized that she forgot her term paper that was due today. She glared at the cement floor for about five seconds before she turned around and stomped back to her house, and grumbled all the way to school.

When she got there, she was ten minutes late for her first class, even after she decided she should just give up her pride and run all the way to school. The result was when she opened the door furiously hard, the entire class looked at her while she panted, trying desperately to catch her breath. She was also trying hard not to think about that poor man she knocked down the pavement, shouting a fast apology to him, but still feeling quite embarrassed.

"You're late," said her sensei coolly, staring at her through his thick glasses.

Ooh, well spotted, she thought, looking at her sensei, still trying to catch her breath. She dearly wantedto say those wordsbut what came out from her mouth was , "I'm sorry, sensei, it won't happen again." She said this in the sweetest I'm-so-sweet-and-adorable-please-don't-punish-me-way.

It seemed to have worked, because he nodded. "You make sure of that," he said, accepting her term paper.

Kira grumbled all the way to her seat, someof herclassmates hearing her and giving her amused smilesand when she got there, to her seat that is,she rested her chin on her palm and looked out at the window, which was not reflecting her mood at all. It was bright and sunny, without a cloud in the sky. In all essence it was a perfect day.

She wished she reflected the world's mood, but she barely took in what her sensei was saying as sighed heartedly.

Monday just wasn't her day.

Monday didn't turn out to be so bad after that, but Kira wasn't still in the best mood. The fact that her perfect attendance record was blemished by her tardiness today was annoying her to no end, and she felt like annoying anyone who would talk to her, which she did. She was usually a nice friendly girl who would gladly talk to anyone with a smile on her face, but today she ended most conversations with one snappy retort or the other, which she always ends up regretting afterwards.

It was the end of the day and she was stuffing her things in her locker, with much more force than needed be, so that many of the other students had to jump away because she was slamming things into the metal box so hard the whole thing might just topple over and hit them.

She saw one of the big books that she needed for her homework. She took it out with so much force that she lost grip of the book and it went flying over her shoulder and heard it hit something.

"Ow!"

Apparently, it hit someone.

She gasped and turned around. She felt an embarrassing flush of pink on her face and she felt it warm up.

"Oh. My. Goodness," she said, her hands going over her mouth. Sendoh Akira was standing in front of him, one hand holding her book and the other massaging his forehead as he looked at her. "I am so sorry," she gasped, forcing, willing herself to not blush. Donotblushdonotblushdonotblush. "I didn't realized that you were there!"

Sendoh handed her her book as he waved it off. "It's okay," he said, "I get hit by books all the time."

"I really am sorry. I didn't mean it." She said, again, looking at her foot and then looking back at him.

Sendoh looked at her, a small smile in his face.

"Honest," she added weakly.

"I told you, it's all right,"

She looked down on the ground, her face was probably flushing furiously now, and she ordered herself to calm down and stop blushing.

When she looked up, she expected Sendoh to be gone, or at least to start walking away or something. She didn't think of anything to say to him and she didn't think of anything he can say to her.

But he was still there, looking curiously at her, a smile in his face.

"Er," she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, "did I mention that I was sorry?" She could see behind Sendoh many girls whispering to each other and glaring at her slightly. Please, she thought, trying to look at the heavens without making it too obvious, I don't need any more embarrassment.

"Yeah," said Sendoh cheerfully, "three times now."

"Oh," she said, going red again, "right."

These were just one of those times when the Big Guy Upstairs abandons you adn enjoys watching you squirm, thought Kira, who managed to supress a giggle, because it was one of those lines that she had learned from Kaede growing up.

Apparently, supressing her giggles didn't make Sendoh not notice. "Is something funny?" he asked curiously.

Kira shook her head quickly. "No, no," she said, "It's nothing..."

Silence then consumed them for another half a minute.

In those thirty seconds - for seconds can go notoriously slow when they are spent incomplete silence - Kira wondered why Sendoh was still standing in front of her. They didn't have anything to talk about after all. In fact, if Kira had not stategically hit him with her book, he wouldn't be standing in front of her, staring. Why doesn't he just give a final smile, wave and head off to the gym, like any normal guy who is obsessed with the game of basketball?

Finally...

"Are you in my year?" he asked curiously, "I haven't seen you before."

She shook her head. "Er, no," she said, "I'm a freshman, and I don't usually watch a lot of your practice so you don't see me screaming at the top of my lungs." She grinned. Mocking those kind of girls had been a favorite past times of hers, until Rukawa's three die hard fans decided that they should meet up after the game and pull all her hair out, a fight that was quickly stopped by the timely arrival of the object of said three girls' affections.

Sendoh took out his hand. "I'm Sendoh Akira," he said.

I knew that, she thought. She took his hand and shook it. His handshake was firm and warm. She wanted to swoon right then and there but she managed to control herself. After all, she still had some dignity left in her. "I'm Yamato Kira," she said.

"Nice to meet you, Kira," he answered, smiling.

"Likewise," she said. Then she looked at her hands, he was still shaking hers. "Er, my hand?"

"Oh!" he said, quickly letting go, "sorry."

"No problem."

"Well," he said, putting his back over his shoulder. "I have to go, practice you know."

She nodded. "Of course," she said nodding fervently, "Go. Uozmi might go ballistic if you're late."

He had started to walk away, and a few steps later he turned his head over his shoulder and smiled at her. "I'll see you around then?" he asked.

Gosh, I hope so, she thought. "Absolutely," she answered, smiling back, then wanted to smack herself for thinking that she was a little bit too enthusiastic.

His smile turned to a grin as he turned back and ran all the way to the gym.

She leaned casually against her locker as she closed it softly and sighed, a goofy smile still in her face. It was after she realized that many girls were giving her loathing looks that could easily spell her murder,she straightened up, wiped the grin off her face and started to walk out of the school before any of them start thinking of doing something drastic to her.

She took out her cellphone quickly and dialed a number she dials so many times a day that she has it memorized. She smirked as he thought what his reaction might be."Hey, Kaede," she greeted enthusiastically. She was almost skipping on the way out of school. "Yeah, I know you have practice, okay I get it, but listen, remember when I told you over lunch that I hated today? It might not be so bad after all…"