Popularity Isn't Everything
By: Fumi

Chapter 8: Some Strange Conversations and Bad Special Effects

"Um… Manta lock up will you?" an eighteen year girl asked peeking at her worker. "I'm going out… Yeah…" God, I need a raise, the drama is way more than I bargained for… She then left the store out the front door.

A couple moments later Lyserg ran into the room. "I forgot my jacket," he explained.

Lyserg looked around the room at the now foaming Manta, the red faced Yoh and the shocked Hao. "Did I miss something here?"

Yoh was the first to break the silence. "Um…" he gave a weak smile. "I guess you could say that…" He poked his face cutely for emphasis, but wound up wincing as he poked the same cheek that Anna had slapped. "Ow…"

Hao stared at Yoh. I'm glad I didn't get slapped. Wait, this kid's a normal civilian! I can't have him see me all out of sync! Image control! Image control! Hao smiled sexily at Lyserg. "Nothing I couldn't handle happened," he said suavely.

That arrogant… I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! Lyserg thought, he mentally glowered at Hao. That full of himself attitude! It's that kind of thing that makes Jeanne-sama— Lyserg was interrupted by his thoughts. "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE---------LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOO TOKYO!" a voice cried.

This voice forced everyone to stare at the door only to be blinded by a flashing light.

"What… the… hell!" Hao managed to cry.

"My eyes!" Manta screamed. "Oh the agony!"

Yoh was the only one still standing. "This can only be the work of one person!" he cried.

"IT IS I!" the glowing person yelled out. "THE ONE… THE ONLY…"

The lights turned off and everyone blinked madly trying to make sense of a figure standing triumphantly in the doorway.

"HORO-HORO! The coolest guy ever!" Horo-Horo finished with a wink and a thumbs up.

Lyserg gaped, "You… HIRED people to display these sorts of lights!"

Hao looked at Lyserg with disgust on his face, "That is your first question? A better one would be 'Where did you hire them?' or 'Why are you so tasteless as to pull a stunt like this?' Those are the proper questions Lyserg my boy!"

"How about where did you get such a bad brain? That way, I can avoid becoming as stupid as you," Lyserg retorted. He paused. "And I'm not your boy!"

"Ooh good comeback," the longhaired god sarcastically replied.

Yoh tried to mediate the situation. Oh man, I can't get in trouble with another lawsuit! "Er… guys…" he tried. I have NO idea what to say… "Manta!" he cried as the first thing that popped into his head. "Are you alright?"

"Whole… life… flashing…" Manta murmured on the ground twitching every now and again. "Noooo!" he cried leaping up. "Not the dictionary! I don't want to be any shorter!"

Everyone looked at the small fry oddly as if he were insane.

"Hehe?" Manta tried. "I'm okay… really…" I think I'm going to need an emergency appointment with my therapist when this whole thing is over…

Horo-Horo tapped his foot against the floor. Everyone's IGNORING me! Why did I go through all this trouble to be ignored! "Hello? People?" Horo-Horo asked. "Remember me at all?"

"Ah yes, the class-less clown Horo-Horo!" Hao titled Horo-Horo.

"CLASS-LESS? Dude! I have way more class than you!"

"It's not my fault you have to take summer school to make up the classes you failed."

"That was to keep guys like YOU away from my sister! It's not my fault Otou-san wouldn't let me transfer!"

"If you actually had class you wouldn't have had to fail all of your classes to get what you wanted." Hao flipped his hypnotic hair for emphasis. "I get everything I want."

Yeah, Onii-chan gets everything… I mean, he got the special premium Neopets account even though Otou-san and Okaa-san think he's too old for Neopets, and he got a different ipod for everyday of the month… He even gets all the girls… Like Kasuragi-san and Himura-sensei… Even complete strangers bow to his will… Wait! Ooh, I can't miss this opportunity. "Not everything Onii-chan" Yoh slyly called out.

"Yes everything! Name one thing I wanted but didn't get!" I dare you to try!

"Does a certain blonde spark a memory?"

Hao blushed, yes, blushed. "W-well, that's a special exception" he stuttered. "It's not like you did any better!" he snapped. "We don't even know her name!"

Yoh grinned triumphantly.

"Yeah, yeah whatever people" Horo-Horo grumbled. "I'm on an errand." What was it again?

Manta whimpered. "She had the coldest eyes I'd ever seen. Her slap leaves people begging for death…" he muttered.

Lyserg blinked, "Surely Kyouyama-san isn't that bad…"

Manta shook his head no, "That's right, she's worse!"

"Wait, are you guys talking about Anna?" Horo-Horo asked. Anna, the errand had something to do with Anna…

"Anna?" Hao asked. "You know this girl?"

"No duh, she's imouto's best friend. About yea tall, blonde hair, glare that leaves people cowering, a slap that hurts for hours… you get the picture. I'd be one lame dude if I didn't know who my sister's friends were," Horo-Horo explained. Oh yeah! It had something to do with Pirika!

"So her name's Anna…" Yoh mumbled. What a beautiful name, short and to the point just like her personality…

Wait a second, that means Anna and Pirika came by here today, and I came by here on an errand that had to do with Anna then… "DUDE! Stop right there! You guys saw Anna and Pirika right?" Horo-Horo asked.

"Is Pirika that blue haired girl clingy girl?" Lyserg asked. Scary, her cheerfulness was just plain creepy in comparison to Kyouyama-san's cold demeanor…

"Yeah, sounds about right…" our Ainu began before switching into overprotective oniichan mode. "Wait! CLINGY! How dare you call my little sister clingy! You're probably the one clinging to HER! Don't ever go near Pirika again if you know what's good for you!" Horo-Horo shook his fist for good measure.

"Whoa there, no one's clinging to anyone," Hao intervened. "Now lower the fist before you injure yourself."

"HEY!" Lyserg cried out. "Who asked you to take charge? I can take care of this sort of thing myself thank you very much!"

"You should be honored that I would even bother to help you!" he snapped back.

His twin grabbed his arm. "Now Aniki, don't let this get out of hand. It's not that big of a deal, if you'd just apologize…"

"APOLOGIZE! What did I do wrong? I was just trying to help someone out!"

"But, if they don't want the help you should just let it go…" Yoh tried to explain. "If it's necessary I'll call Okaasan on my cell phone and she'll agree with me…"

"Okaasan! Do you really think it's necessary to call Okaasan!"

"That's it! I remember my errand!" Horo-Horo cried out. "I was supposed to give Pirika her cell phone because she left it at home. So I came here because Pirika said she was going to help Anna buy a new uniform!" he kneeled down with a ponderous look. "But, she's not here… so what should I do now?"

Yoh, Hao, and Lyserg sweatdropped. Did he forget about his protecting his sister so easily?

The most likely forgotten Manta shakily stood up. "I-I have a suggestion" he stuttered. Come on Manta! Stand up for yourself! "I-If Kyouyama-san has a cell phone, and is best friends with Pirika-san. Shouldn't they have each other's numbers programmed into their phones?"

Horo-Horo pulled out Pirika's cell phone and looked at it. "That's true, but what do I do then? I don't get it…"

"That's brilliant Manta!" Lyserg complimented. And yet so obvious, why didn't I think of that?

Hao nodded in agreement and grabbed the cell phone. Let's see… A's at the beginning of the alphabet so… Oh! It's the first number in the list… This might be your only chance, use your neopets pricing memorization skills to remember Anna's phone number. Done. He pushed the talk button and the phone started ringing.

After a couple rings a "Moshi moshi" could be faintly heard on the other end of the line.

Hao smirked. "Hello Anna, we met earlier today. If you recall you slapped my twin brother."

Yoh frowned. He had to bring that up didn't he? How am I supposed to make her like me if everyone refers to our first meeting?

"You!" Anna cried into the phone.

"Yes, me. Are you happy to hear me? Most girls would kill for the opportunity of me calling them." He flipped his hair for emphasis, but of course Anna couldn't see that because they were talking on the phone.

"Well, I'm not one of them. How did you get this phone!"

"Now now, don't get your shorts in a knot. My old friend Boro-Boro came by and asked if I knew how to get a hold of you and your blue-haired friend to return a cell phone. The simple answer is of course to call one of you so that we know where you are." Hao was pouring on the charm, but of course our blonde was not amused.

"I doubt that you are friends with Pirika's older brother. You don't even know his name. Now hand the phone over to him before I hunt you down and castrate you." Anna coldly commanded.

Hao gulped and handed the phone to Horo-Horo. "It's for you."

"Moshi moshi?" the Ainu boy confusedly asked. "Oh! Anna! How did you get on the phone? What! Don't call me an idiot! I'm very smart! Yeah yeah… So you're at the Starbucks around the corner? 'Kay see you in a bit. Bye." Horo-Horo turned to face the guys. "Looks like I lucked out and Anna called when I wasn't paying attention. See you around!"

With that Horo-Horo threw a smoke-bomb on the ground and escaped with a cheesy exit rivaled only by his entrance. Manta went to an emergency appointment with his therapist and Hao pissed off by his lack of progress spent five hours in the bathroom fidgeting with his hair. Yoh, unaffected by Anna's words spent the evening watching a biography of Boblove while eating oranges and Lyserg went home and studied. Anna planned her entrance to her new school for the next day and Pirika beat Horo-Horo up for being such an idiot. Thus ended a day that spanned six chapters that left many people wondering what the hell happened. The end.

You're probably wondering what the heck happened at the end of the chapter. Well, it was getting to be a little long and I just wanted to finish the silly thing already so I wrote a long narrative paragraph. I think that Yoh like Boblove. If I spelled his name wrong or something please correct me, I've only seen the Fox Box Shaman King and that isn't always accurate (Ha! It's more like is never accurate!) Anyway, I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I wonder if I even have any readers still because I didn't even get that many reviews for the last chapter.

Well, this AN has gone on long enough. Please review and tell me if this story still has any humour whatsoever. Otherwise… I might continue discontinuing it. I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, but it will cover Anna's first day of school.

7/3/06