Ch 59
V 1.0
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
mid February, mid Friday afternoon
"You want me to kiss you?" Shinji Kazawa asked incredulously, his eyes wide. "In front of my girlfriend?" Sarah McDougal nodded. "To make up for the fact that you kissed her?" The blonde nodded again. "How does that work again?"
The young upperclassman was standing in the middle of the Manga Arts Appreciation clubroom, the blonde American girl in front of him, his girlfriend off to one side with her arms crossed under her chest in a defensive manner and the dusky islander girl standing behind her friend with a emotionless expression on her face, her hands crossed in front of her waist with her right wrist held in her left hand.
"Look, I got a little annoyed at Aki-san for flirting with me all the time and not making a move," Sarah explained. "She says it's because she didn't want to push me further than I was comfortable with, but I think it's because she gets off on being a tease." Aki Wakirihara shifted uncomfortably besides her. "So I kissed her to see what it was like, and now I want to know what it's like to kiss a guy. You're the only guy I know here at school who isn't a dickhead, so I figured I could ask you, especially since Aki-san keeps offering to have me join in a threesome with you."
Shinji took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose for a moment before looking back up again. "Can you please give me and Aki-chan a moment, Sarah-kun? I want to talk to my girlfriend for a minute."
"Sure. Yell when you're done." Sarah turned and left the classroom with Nyamo following behind her, the door softly clicking shut. Shinji turned and looked at Aki for a long moment, not saying anything but merely raising an eyebrow. It did not take more than ten seconds for the taller girl to break.
"Shin-chan, you know I've never had someone take us up on my offers, I didn't think Sarah-chan was going to act on it…" Her voice trailed off when Shinji raised a flattened hand gesturing for silence.
"Aki-chan, this is as much my fault as it is yours. I've seen you joking around with Sarah-kun and others about threesomes but I thought you knew as well as they did that I wouldn't go through with something like that." Shinji eyed his girlfriend who was now standing with her eyes focused downwards and her shoulder slumped. "I love you, and I have since we were friends as little kids. I don't want to let anyone get between us or play with other people's emotions, and that is what is happening now. What I should have done was tell you to stop doing it and I didn't. Now we are in a fine mess of your own making. We have to make this right and short of you breaking off your friendship with Sarah-kun there is only one way to do it, and it's not the way you would want to!" Shinji's voice rose slightly as Aki's eyes came up with a hopeful look in them, only for them to go down again.
"Sarah-kun is a friend of mine as well as yours, and this little stunt of yours could very well ruin that! Never mind the fact that she is the ward of the freaking Urashima clan heir, you know, the guy that just had three of our classmates forcibly transferred from our school! Who knows how he will react if he thinks you are playing with her!" The bespectacled teen stared at his girlfriend for a long moment. "Aki-chan, look at me." The girl raised her eyes and looked at his stern face. "I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I'm going to have to do something I don't want to try and save your ass, and I am NOT happy about it. So I'm going to say yes to her request and you better hope to the gods that she doesn't ask for more, because I may very well have to say no and then we have to deal with Keitaro Urashima. It. Won't. End. Well!" Shinji's voice sounded like thunder and Aki gave a jerky nod. "Now get them back in here."
After Aki went to the door and called the two girls back in she walked back and stood next to her boyfriend who then spoke. "Sarah-san, I apologize for my girlfriend's actions and for my own in not asking her to stop." Shinji gave a deep bow and Aki followed suit a moment later before the two came back up, causing the blonde girl to blink. "As reparation, I will perform the action you have asked of me, so long as it is reasonable." Shinji was praying to the gods that the American girl was not completely familiar with the rules of reparations, since he did not want to wind up doing more than he was comfortable with.
"Don't worry, I won't go farther than I did with Aki-san." Sarah stepped forward and Shinji did the same, leaving the two face to face inside arm's reach. He was actually slightly shorter than she was, especially since she was wearing Mary Jane shoes with clunky heels. She smiled slightly and said, "This won't hurt…much," before putting her hand against his cheek and leaning forward, her eyes closing.
Shinji stood stock still as the blonde's lips touched his. For a long moment he did nothing as the girl brushed her lips against his, but then her tongue brushed against the seam of his lips and his mouth involuntarily opened as his own eyes closed. The tip of her tongue slipped into his mouth; his own slid against it before he started to gently suck on it for who knows how much time before Shinji felt Sarah shiver slightly and after a few moments she pulled away.
Opening his eyes, Shinji could see Sarah smiling slightly at him, a faint blush on her face. "Not bad, Shinji-kun. Better than your girlfriend, at least." The teen flicked his eyes past the blonde toward Aki, who did not look happy at the remark, while Nyamo was standing behind her with a dangerously blank look on her face. His eyes came back toward Sarah as she spoke again. "This proves two things though. I like guys as well as girls, and while I like you Shinji-kun, I don't like you like that."
"Thank you, I think." Shinji said in return, not having to force the return smile much.
"Sorry I asked you to do this, I really should not have. I guess I owe you one. A reasonable one." Sarah stepped back and picked up her book bag from a nearby desk. "We have to get going, Shinobu-chan and Su-chan are waiting for us. See you guys next week?" Shinji and Aki nodded as Nyamo picked up her own bag. "Later guys." The blonde turned and walked out of the room, her shadow following behind her.
The remaining pair stayed quiet for a long moment as Shinji turned and walked to the table behind him, dropping into a chair and resting his forehead against his hand, his arm braced against the tabletop. Aki followed suit and sat in front of him, only she stayed upright and looking at him.
After a few moments Aki finally broke the silence. "So how was it?'
Shinji glanced up at her with one eye, the other covered by his hand. He stared at her for a long moment, long enough for her to start feeling uncomfortable, before he finally answered. "Pretty damn good. I was starting to get turned on by it, thankfully she pulled away at that point."
"And this being her second kiss…" Whatever Aki was going to say got cut off as Shinji dropped the hand against his face so that he could stare at her.
"That was her second kiss? You took her first kiss?!" Shinji looked decidedly un-amused.
"She kissed me first!" Aki protested.
"Gods." Shinji dropped his face into both his hands now. His mouth was still uncovered so that he could speak. "Oh, and Aki-chan? As punishment? No nookie for two weeks." Aki gave a loud whine of dismay as Shinji stayed face down for a long moment before he looked up his girlfriend. "By the way, Nyamo-san was looking pretty angry there when the kiss stopped and she was looking right at you. Didn't you tell me she was a knife fighter? Keep that in mind." A whimper now escaped Aki's mouth as she thought back to the look on the islander girl's face. "Let's get going, this day is pretty much shot." Shinji started putting his drawing pads and books away as Aki sat there motionless, contemplating her future, or lack of one if she angered the islander girl again.
Hinata-sou Dormatory
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
mid February, early Monday morning
"Good morning everyone." Sarah greeted the occupants of the kitchen as she and Nyamo walked in. The residents of the Sou was sitting around the table eating breakfast except for Shinobu, who was standing next to the stove holding a spatula, which she promptly fumbled once she got a clear look at the blonde American girl. That drew everyone's attention up from their food toward the pair.
"Good morning, Sarah-kun." Keitaro said evenly after a moment. "New uniform?" He was referring to the fact that the blonde was wearing the male gakuran school uniform, consisting of a navy blue button up tunic with a high band collar and slacks with black loafers. The top was unbuttoned at the moment, showing that Sarah was wearing a dark blue and white horizontally striped undershirt. Behind her Nyamo was wearing the standard girls sailor fuku uniform.
"Never mind the uniform, what did you do with your hair Sarah-kun?" exclaimed Kitsune, referring to the new style she was wearing her hair in. Her shoulder-length blonde tresses were pulled back into a thick loose French braid that started at the top of the back of her head and ended slightly below her tunic collar and tied off with a red ribbon in a bow. However the front of her hair was loose and divided into equal chin length bangs that framed her face and bright blue eyes after rising slightly from her forehead, her padawan braid tucked back into the main braid. "Do you want to fight off every girl in school, Sarah-kun? Because this look will do it." Beside her Naru was looking at the blonde with a faint blush on her face, and Mutsumi had her normal smile as she ate, the same as Su who was eating a bowl of oatmeal with sliced bananas.
Sarah snorted. "Yeah, right. I was getting tired of the damn fuku uniform, and I wanted to see how the other half lives. I looked up the school uniform rules and they specify that student have to wear an authorized seasonal school uniform, not which one. Plus it still feels like winter and I'm getting winds blowing up my skirt. To hell with that," she finished.
"Would you happen to have a copy of the school rules, Sarah-kun?" asked Keitaro politely. The blonde handed her guardian a copy of the school rule book, a slip of paper marking the proper page. After reading the applicable section the young manager nodded his head and handed the book back. "Looks legit to me."
"You're kidding, Keitaro-kun." Kanako said with a raised eyebrow. "Even if the rules don't prohibit her from wearing that uniform, they could still say that she is being disruptive."
"You mean more disruptive than wearing skirts so short they barely cover your butt?" Sarah asked, looking at the younger Urashima. "Tunics worn hanging open, blouses that are unbuttoned enough to see bras? Pants worn low enough that you can see if they're wearing boxers or briefs? Because all of those happen every day at school and the teachers don't say jack about it. I'm actually going to wear this uniform correctly, which is more than I can say about fifty percent of the students at school."
"She's right, Kana-chan, I've seen how students dress at her school. It's not like it is at our school," Keitaro told his sister. Kanako was attending the same prestigious private prep school that he had gone to, and the dress code there was enforced more rigorously than at the public school Sarah and the Hinata girls attended. "Besides, I think you might be jealous that Sarah-kun thought of this instead of you." Keitaro smiled at Kanako, who blushed slightly and looked away.
"Well if that's the case I think I might have to check the uniform rules for my school as well." Kanako muttered. Not that she really wanted to wear a boy's uniform, but it certainly was more practical when she rode a motorcycle everyday to school.
"Where did you find the uniform, Sarah-kun?" Keitaro looked back at his ward again, smiling slightly.
"Second hand store. Su did an internet search and I was able to get it for about half price." Sarah plucked at the tunic, brushing her hand over the poly/wool fabric, which was much warmer than her normal jumper, blouse and skirt. "It actually a little big on me, which is cool. I think I might be outgrowing my regular uniforms."
"And the telnyashka?" Keitaro was referring to the dark blue and white undershirt she was wearing.
The smile faded from Sarah's face. "They had them on sale there at the store when I went to pick up the uniform, I got a couple in blue and black. They didn't have them in red like Yuri's, but I put in an order for some." The girl was referring to the red and white shirt that the Russian merc wore, part of his uniform from when he was with the Internal Security forces during the Russian Civil War.
"That reminds me, there is something I want to talk to you about regarding Yuri and Gaz. We don't have enough time to do it now, so it can wait until after school." Seeing the slight frown on Sarah's face Keitaro smiled encouragingly. "Don't worry, it's not a bad thing, we'll do it before we start afternoon training."
"Hai, sensei." Sarah felt a little down after the mention of Yuri. She had found out about his fatal injuries during the initial pirate attack on Ko Tao while she was being rescued from Roanapur, and she had certainly mourned for him both during Gaz's funeral and in Japan. That had been the main reason she had bought the telnyashka shirts, to honor the memory of the man who died as a result of trying to protect her and Seta and Nyamo.
"Hand me a piece of notebook paper and a pen if you would, Sarah-kun. I'm going to see if I can head off some trouble at your school." The blonde handed her guardian her notebook and a pen, which he began to write a note in. "By the way, who did your hair? It looks good on you."
Sarah blushed at the compliment. "It was Shinobu-chan, she did it for me last night. I had looked up the instructions to do it on the internet but it's a lot easier if you have someone helping you." Everyone looked over at the young domestic, who had a deep blush on her face. "I saw an anime character that wore their hair like this, and it looked pretty badass, so I did some research. Not bad, huh?"
"Just keep in mind you might have a bunch of schoolgirls mooning after you if you go to school like that, Sarah-kun." Kitsune smirked at the younger girl. "In that uniform you totally look like a bishounen action character."
"I guess I do." Sarah smiled slightly. "Better than having a bunch of pervy guys chasing after me."
"You might change your mind on that, Sarah-kun." Kitsune's smile got even larger.
"Eh." Sarah shrugged and kept speaking. "That reminds me, what's with all the girl-on-girl action I'm seeing at school? I've seen more girls holding hands, hugging and kissing than at a gay pride parade back in the States." Considering that Sarah had lived in San Fransisco before coming to Japan that was really saying something.
"You want the societal explanation or the realistic one?" Keitaro paused in his writing to look up at his ward.
"Both." Sarah was looking curious.
"Well, the societal explanation is that homosexuality has openly existed in Japanese society all the way back to before the Heian period." Keitaro stated. "It was accepted so long as the participants fell into certain roles per their societal rank and did not openly push the boundaries. After the start of the Meiji period it wasn't quite as public but it was still there, up to the current day. There really isn't that much discrimination that isn't based on either people pushing those boundaries that I spoke of and stick out in society, like transgenders and crossdressers, and pressures by parents on their children to produce grandchildren. Japan has a declining birthrate and negative population growth and there is a lot of pressure to have children because the marriage rate is dropping and the average age of people getting married is rising. As to the whole 'girl-on-girl' thing you spoke of happening in school, it's because that kind of thing is considered kawaii and it helps maintain the illusion of girls innocence and purity by being with each other rather than being with 'dirty' boys and risking unwanted pregnancy, so there really is no pushback against it."
"Ok then," Sarah nodded. The blonde noticed that both Kitsune and Naru had been unknowingly nodding during Keitaro's talk. "And the realistic explanation?"
"The realistic explanation, and this is my personal theory alone," Keitaro waited for Sarah to nod in acknowledgement, "is that most anti-gay prejudice is religious based. Shinto and Buddhism have no prohibitions against homosexuality, in fact there is quite a bit of history of that going on in those religions, and those faiths make up over ninety percent of the population of Japan. It's a Western religion, Christianity, that has prohibitions against homosexual activity, and only the fundamentalist groups. They are not in a position to push their beliefs on other people in Japan the way they can in other countries." Sarah nodded again as Keitaro went back to writing.
Taking the notebook that Keitaro handed back to her Sarah quickly read the note inside. "Hey, this is really helpful, thanks Keitaro-san!" she exclaimed before carefully tearing the page out of the notebook and folding it to place in her school rule book. "Let's get to eating, I don't want to run late to school." Looking down at her inexpensive Casio wristwatch, Sarah was reminded of something and looked back up again. "Girls, let me see your wrists."
All of the younger girls raised their arms to show that a dark blue polymer band was on their right wrist, opposite their watches on their left wrist. Similar to the fitness band that Sarah wore that Su had rigged up with electronic countermeasures when she found out that someone was trying to film her for money, the new bands that all the Hinata girls were now wearing had some new features. While Sarah still had the ECM in her band, both she and the other girls had a GPS locator, panic button and life signs sensors built into it. The button was positioned under and inside the band and had to be deliberately pushed to activate, and the locator could be remotely accessed by a MolMol computer tablet or smartphone. The bands had been made of polymer material that required bolt cutters to cut off after they were electronically code locked in place, and were waterproof and shockproof as well.
After the residents of the Hinata had been informed about Junko Himura's violent escape from foster care, everyone immediately focused on Shinobu. Not only was the young girl unable to protect herself, she was the easiest target for the disturbed girl, as all the other girls had some measure of martial arts training to protect themselves with. Everyone had immediately agreed that Shinobu would have an escort at all times outside the Hinata-sou, and it was recommended that the other girls pair up as well whenever possible. It was a sign of how frightened the blunette was by the fact that the bully that had almost hurt her badly had escaped that she did not protest the close protection.
Su had then come up with the idea of an electronics bracelet with a panic button and locator for Shinobu to wear in case she was accosted again. Keitaro had asked how much it would cost for bracelets to be made for all the younger girls and the blonde islander shrugged it off, saying that the expenditures would be minimal. The dorm manager has his doubts about that, since wearable electronics were not exactly cheap, but the princess-turned-techie stated that she could get a good price through the vendors she usually bought from. She had worked on the bands throughout the weekend and after proving the bands were safe to wear by dunking her own wristband in water after smacking it against a table top a few times, the other girls agreed to wear them. Sarah did not have a problem wearing the band since it was linked to her mobile phone and would give her vibrating text and phone call alerts on the miniature display as well as panic alarms, effectively becoming a wrist-worn version of the old belt pagers from home.
"Good to see. Load up a plate for me, would you Shinobu-chan?" Sarah grinned at the younger girl, who blushed again and started serving food for her and Nyamo, who was now pouring orange juice for the two of them. "Give me ten minutes and we'll get going."
Classroom 2-A
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
mid February, early Monday afternoon
Hikari Horaki did not know whether to cry or to have a nervous breakdown. Either prospect sounded good to her at this point after all the tumult this day.
The Class Representative did not like Mondays. More times than not all the students in class would be busy catching up with what they had done on the weekend – not that they had not been updating their Twitter and Facebook accounts – and were even less like to do as she asked. By this point Hikari did not even try to maintain classroom discipline without the teacher present, restricting herself to merely calling the room to attention at the beginning of and end of each session. Attempts to enforce school rules outside the classroom were even more of a disaster, since at best she would be ignored and at worst pranked heavily in retaliation; Sarah McDougal had not been the first or the last student to have her shoes or her slippers in her locker dosed with urine. It had gotten to the point where she had seriously considered resigning her post, but some of the other Class Reps had talked to her about it, saying that they had similar problems and the only reason they had keep on the job was to have another achievement to list on their college applications. Hikari had almost resigned anyway, but ultimately decided not to in order not to shame her mother and her family, who had a tradition of being Class Representatives going back to before the Pacific War.
Sitting at her desk at the front of the class that morning Hikari had been going through her notes for her History class, determinedly ignoring the raucous voices behind her but keeping an eye out for the teacher entering the classroom. Even with her ears filtering the sounds around her, the twin pig-tailed girl became aware of another sound, one that was not that common yet painfully annoying; the sound of fangirls squealing. Looking up at the door Hikari wondered who was causing this outburst. To be sure there were good looking male students attending this school, but by now both the novelty of their looks had worn off and most of them had girlfriends by this point, reducing the outbursts of feminine admiration but increasing the amounts of whispered gossip.
The door to the classroom opened and a blond boy with his hair in a thick braid wearing a gakuran uniform stepped in. Even as the sounds of squealing from the hallway increased, the sounds in the classroom dropped, both from the good looks of the new student and interest about who he was. Hikari was curious herself, as she had not been told that a new student would be joining their class. The curiosity increased when the boy stepped to the side to let Nyamo Namo, Shinobu Maehara and Kaolla Su enter the room, with no sign of Sarah McDougal. Had the American student called out sick?
The blonde boy had walked toward her and without saying a word hung his book bag on the provided hook on the side of the desk next to hers and dropped into the seat. Just as Hikari was about to tell the boy that the seat next to hers was already assigned to someone else, the boy turned toward her and asked in a carefree manner, "Hey there Hikari-san, how was your weekend?"
The brunette's eyes almost doubled in size. The blonde hair was not that uncommon, the American-accented Japanese was familiar, but the crystal blue eyes and the blithe manner of speaking made her realize who the boy was… or girl, actually.
"Sarah-san!? What are you doing wearing a boy's uniform?!" The desks were spaced about a meter apart, so Hikari was fairly close to the other girl, enough to see that she was not wearing the minimal makeup she normally did, except for some lip gloss, and there was a faint scent of… "And you're wearing men's cologne as well!?"
"I'm glad to hear that you had a pleasant weekend, mine was pretty good as well." Sarah continued speaking as though the pig-tailed girl had not almost yelled at her. "My weekend was pretty interesting, I kissed a girl and a guy, at different times of course," she said in an aside, "but I still haven't made up my mind what team I want to bat for, so I decided that since I am in my experimental phase to see how the other half lives."
Hikari blinked hard a couple of times. "You're dressed up like this to see if you're straight or gay?!" The pig-tailed girl was almost shouting, not realizing that the entire classroom was now focused on them.
The blonde waved her hand dismissively. "Straight, gay, whatever. We all don't fit in neat little boxes. Right now I would classify myself as 'flexible'."
"This is not gymnastics class, I don't care how flexible you are!" By the looks on the faces of some of the boys and girls in the classroom behind them they would disagree with Hikari's statement. "Girls are not allowed to wear boys uniforms!"
"Ah contrair, mon frère, the school rule book merely states that a student has to wear an approved seasonal school uniform, and it doesn't specify that the gender for each uniform. It says gakuran uniform and fuku uniform, not boys uniform or girls uniform." Seeing the disbelief on the other girl's face Sarah pulled out her school rulebook and handed it over. "Read for yourself, the page is marked."
Hikari read the relevant section quickly and then looked back at the blonde. "It might not say boys or girls uniform, but it's understood that gakuran is for boys and fuku is for girls!"
"Perhaps, but it's not actually spelled out." Sarah now had a thin smile on her face. "Which means it's the student's choice as to what wear as long it is appropriate for the season."
"But the staff can order you to wear the girls uniform!" Hikari was starting to get flustered.
"They could… but then I have this." Sarah handed a folded piece of paper to the Class Rep. Opening the paper, Hikari could feel her eyes widen again.
-To whom it may concern;
As per the Kanazawa High School Uniform Policy, students are required to wear approved school uniforms in the prescribed manner while on school property and participating in school activities. The policy detailed in the school rulebook does not mandate that students were a gender specific uniform, only an approved one. Therefore I give my ward Sarah McDougal permission to wear either authorized uniform as she prefers so long as she wears it appropriately and properly. Should there be a disagreement as to this interpretation of school rules, I will request a review of the school uniform policy as to selection and mode of wear at the appropriate level of the school district administration.
Please contact me if you have further questions.
-Keitaro Urashima
As Hikari kept staring at the paper while her mind crashed to a halt at the implications, she heard the sound of a throat being cleared. Looking up, she saw that Sensei Ito had entered the room without her noticing and was now seated at his desk and looking at her expectantly. Jumping to her feet, the Class Rep gave the standard 'Stand, Bow, Sit' commands by reflex, the classroom full of students following the orders in response.
As the students sat back down the older man was looking at Sarah with a bemused expression on his face. "McDougal-san, you appear you be out of uniform."
"No, sensei. If I may approach your desk I have a note that explains all this." Seeing the homeroom teacher nod, Sarah plucked the note from Hikari's hand and stepping up to the desk handed the sheet of paper over. That worthy read the note twice before handing it back to the blonde and asking "Do you have a copy of the rule book, McDougal-san?" After Sarah handed him the book and he read the appropriate section and handed it back, he spoke again. "Everything looks to be in order. Please take your seat, McDougal-san."
Sarah turned and walked back to her seat, a half-smile on her face even as Hikari slumped down slightly in disbelief. The blonde wiped the smile from her face as she sat down facing the front again, and the teacher stood up and started reading from the school bulletin.
Sarah had to go through the same routine with each new teacher that morning. However by the time it was almost time for lunch word had spread throughout the school up to the administrative level, which resulted in the blonde student being called up to the front office. She had returned fifteen minutes later with a smile on her face and sat down without a word; Hikari had understood this to mean that the school administration had seen Sarah's note and decided not to contest the issue, at least at this point in time.
Lunch time had brought more stress to the Class Representative. The weather had taken a turn toward the unseasonably warm and some of the boys started kicking around a soccer ball on the school lawn. During lunch the uniform policy was relaxed so that the students could loosen or remove uniform items so long as they were covered up properly. There was a great deal of variance as to that interpretation, but it was commonly understood to mean that tunics could be removed so long as the student was wearing an undershirt that covered everything and wasn't overtly inappropriate. Since the weather was actually warm the boys playing soccer took off their woolen gakuran tunics, revealing mostly white t-shirts underneath. Sarah had taken one look at the game and jumped in to play, removing her tunic to reveal that she was wearing a blue and white striped sleeveless undershirt. A very snug undershirt that highlighted her slim figure, flat abdomen and muscled arms. Hikari could not complain since the shoulder straps of Sarah's bra were visible through the shirt, but there were quite a few students, both boys and girls, that were watching open-mouthed as the blonde girl ran and laughed with the other boys on the grass, her thick braid bouncing along behind her.
Hikari looked up as Sarah and the other Hinata girls entered the classroom after lunch, the blonde girl telling a joke that had the other girls smiling, or in Su's case, openly laughing. The other three girls went back to their assigned seats and Sarah hung her school bag up (a habit she had not fallen out of since her pranking) before buttoning up her tunic except for the collar band and sitting down.
The blonde caught the look the pig-tailed brunette was giving her and turned to face her. "You want to ask me something, Hikari-san? You have this look on your face…" Sarah widened her eyes and turned her head sideways slightly so that she had a questioning look on her face.
The Class Rep gave a slight start. "Yes, actually." She looked around and saw that while people were looking at them they were not actively eavesdropping. Lowering her voice, she asked "Why are you acting so giddy? You're not normally in this good a mood."
"Well… part is it is that I'm not wearing the stupid fuku uniform, except for the collar this uniform is much warmer and more comfortable. No freaking wind blowing up my skirt!" Hikari nodded slightly at Sarah's words; even with tights the knee-length skirts were not anywhere near warm enough with the winter winds. "Second, the damn perverts aren't gawking at me so much." The Class Rep tilted her head slightly at that statement; boys were still staring at the blonde, but it was more confusion than anything since she did not look much like the bad tempered American girl they were all used to. "Last, the girls that acted like I was gum on the bottom of their shoe are damn near panting and drooling after me now!" Hikari snorted in agreement, as some of the most noticeable of the girls that were disdainful about the blonde were now acting like fangirls at a male idol concert.
"That doesn't explain you talking to all those girls now," stated Hikari. The pig-tailed brunette noticed that instead of ignoring the fangirls Sarah was actually talking and joking with them between classes and in the hallways. If she did not know better she would say that the American girl was flirting with them.
"Well, because I think it's funny that they're acting so dumb just because of my new hairstyle and uniform. Plus after seeing Aki-san flirting with girls I decided to take a crack at it and see what the appeal about it is," explained Sarah. "It's actually kind of fun to see girls blush and stutter, and apparently I flirt a lot differently than Japanese boys do."
"Different how?" The taller upperclassman girl had flirted with Hikari once or twice just to see her twitch, but due to her rule-enforcing personality she was not really a target of affection in their class.
"Well, for one thing I don't stare at their boobs." Sarah grinned. "I'm actually looking at their faces when I talk to them. I ask them what their interests are and then have intelligent follow-up questions. But mostly I have the Urashima secret weapon in my arsenal."
"Secret weapon?" Hikari asked doubtfully.
"You know how Tom Cruise sometimes smiles in his movies and the panties damn near start flying?" Hikari nodded reluctantly; she had seen The Last Samurai and some of the Mission Impossible movies at home on DVD with her family. "Well, Keitaro-sensei can do the same thing, only it's much more effective in person, and I've seen him do it enough times for me to replicate it."
"Really?" Hikari was not ready for Sarah's response. Her bright blue eyes crinkled slightly and focused right into her own; a half smile formed on her lips and her head tilted slightly and she leaned forward, close enough to smell her cologne again, but the pig-tailed brunette stayed frozen in place, her brown eyes going wide.
"Hikari-chan," the blonde girl purred in a soft voice that sent shivers down her spine. Sarah was leaning out of her seat and across the aisle way so that her face was about a foot away from the paralyzed brunette. "Am I turning you on?" she whispered in a tone that made Hikari give a soft shriek and cover her face with both hands, her head bowed over her desk. The American girl looked around the class and saw that everyone was now staring at them wide-eyed.
"Huh. Guess I overdid it." Sarah moved back into her seat and faced forward, only to see Sensei Wada standing beside the teacher's desk, an un-amused look on her face.
"If you are quite done, McDougal-san?" The music teacher sat down in her chair and looked expectantly at Hikari, who was still dealing with her mini-breakdown and not paying attention. But before the teacher could say anything, Sarah decided to cover for her.
"CLASS-ROOM!" Sarah stood up and faced Sensei Wada. "AH-TEN-SHION!" she called out in her best drill sergeant voice, and the students sat up at attention. "STAND! BOW! SIT!" All the students followed the orders automatically, including Hikari whose face was still dark red in embarrassment.
Sensei Wada was still looking at Sarah before she spoke. "McDougal-san, you are not in proper uniform."
"With all due respect Sensei Wada, didn't you get the word from the front office about my uniform?" Sarah was sure that the entire school by this point knew she was authorized to wear a male uniform and the music teacher was being a bitch because she was still holding a grudge about refusing to join the Choral Club.
"I'm not talking about the uniform itself, I am talking about you wearing it correctly." Sensei Wada pulled out a slip of paper and started writing on it. "Your collar is not fastened. Five demerits."
"Hai, sensei," Sarah said after a few moments while buttoning up her band collar. Never mind the fact that most of the boys in the classroom were wearing their tunics incorrectly, some of them did not have them buttoned, the teacher was going to throw the rulebook at her, therefore confirming her status as a chickenshit.
"Since you already have demerits from previous infractions, report to the disciplinary office after school for detention." Now Sensei Wada was not just a chickenshit, but a chickenshit bitch. "And Horaki-san, either do your job yourself or resign."
As Hikari flushed in embarrassment again, Sarah's face went blank. Picking on her was one thing, picking on her friends was going too far. As the teacher stood and walked to the blackboard, the students pulled out their notebooks and pencils. While the blonde's hand was taking notes, her mind was going through various ways to payback Sensei Chickenshit, as she had now named her in her mind.
Author's Note: As you call can see, Sarah has entered her experimental phase, and his having a lot of fun with it; Hikari, not so much. She's going to keep on exploring her flirty side, and will actually be asking a female classmate out on a date next chapter (not Aki, Nyamo, or Hikari, and some of them will not be happy about that fact).
As to why Sarah is wearing a male uniform, it can be rather attractive when a girl does that, and not the sexualized fetish uniforms. Once upon a time I saw a girl wear a complete United States Marine Corps Dress Blues uniform (technically illegal since she was not a Marine) and she looked damn good in it, better than she would have in female Dress Blues. Even a girl wearing a polo shirt and slacks can look better than when she is wearing a blouse and skirt. But to wit, Sarah is so aggressive compared to most Japanese girls that she actually sticks out less in a male uniform. And just to give credit where it is due, the 'girl in a boy's uniform' idea was partially inspired by shanejayell, a FFN author that never met a fandom that she/he did not think could be improved by adding lesbians, making the characters lesbians or gender-flipping characters so they could become lesbians (that being said, I do like the stories). The story that I talking about in particular is Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies where Shinji Ikari is a girl who alternates between boys and girls uniforms at school.
Virtual Christmas chocolates to anyone who figures out what anime character Sarah based her new hair style on.
The FFN story stats page is down *whimper* so the Most Unlikely Place Reading My Story Awards are post-phoned for now; I may update these author notes when they come back up again, so check again later if you are into that kind of thing.
Once again, many thanks to AZ MII and PCH for beta reading this story and to my FFN beta WalkerOfDarkness.
As of 0030PST03Jan17 this story has 359K Words, 799K Views, 908 Reviews (come on One Thousand Reviews!), 61 C2 Listings (that hasn't changed in a long time…hmm), 1383 Story Favorites and 1261 Story Alerts.
Thanks again to everyone one reading this story. *thumbs up*