December 31

8:15PM

'Its going to be a long night.' I thought, having dressed up in a casual dress attire. It was about four hours before New Years and everyone was ready for it. Decorations were around, and some people were missing, like Mitarai who was with his family, Kuzuryu and Peko were with the Yakuza family, Mahiru was with her middle school club, that includes Sato, Sonia went back home to spend time with her family as well, even Hanamura flew home to spend new years with his mother. So far, it was just nine of us. Akane, Ibuki, Chiaki, Saionji, Mikan, Tanaka, Kazuichi, Nidai, and finally me. It wasn't much, but we were going to enjoy our time together.

Chiaki and I decided to start dating the day after our first kiss, and Ibuki understood that I didn't feel the same way for her as she did me. Don't get me wrong, because if I had never met Chiaki, I just might of fallen for the loveable Rocker Girl. Still, Chiaki made me feel normal again. After everything I went through, War, Loving a Battle Maniac, it was all worth it in the end. I wasn't even sure if I was going to go back, I found myself thinking of a normal life, one of prosperity and a family with Chiaki. I thought of different jobs I could of taken to help pay bills, even thinking of becoming a teacher here in the future if all goes well.

Then there was Hinata, if we ever found him again, he would be our family as much as the class was. It would be hard to get him back, but never the less, we would get him back. Life without him was different than it was before I had met him, it was like Chiaki was a two in one package, it wasn't the same without him. I know without him, I had a huge hole to fill in both my heart and Chiaki's.

"You spaced out again." Chiaki said, with me blinking, seeing her standing in front of me. "Still thinking of Hinata?" She asked with me nodding. "I'm sure we'll find him." She said, taking a seat next to me.

As of right now, we were at the Fountain, where we would hang out with Hinata. "I'm sure we will." I said, resting my head on Chiaki's as she rested hers on my shoulder. "I'm just tired, my brain is always on, I could use a rest." I said, letting my eyes close.

"We could just skip the party." Chiaki suggested, with me shaking my head.

"No, we have to be there." I said, where darkness over came me.

December 31

9:22PM

Opening my eyes, I found that I was in the classroom with everyone, with me laying down on a few of the tables. "Hey, he's up!" Kazuichi said, with me holding my head as it felt like I was having a headache. "Easy, you had a stress overload!" He said, setting me back down.

"Stress...Overload?" I asked, not knowing what that was.

"Ya, its something that happens when you have trouble concentrating, your brain feels fogged, trouble remembering what you just did or recalling things, putting a lot of pressure on yourself, taking on too much, feeling overwhelmed, when you feel down, sad, or depressed, your thoughts racing, busy, and hard to control, predicting the worst outcomes, constantly worrying, planning, and thinking, struggling to remember." Mikan said, with me staring at her as I didn't know what was going on. "You need rest, you can end up hurting yourself if you keep moving forward." She said, where I just closed my eyes and passed out, not sure what the hell was going on.

10:11PM

Waking up with a jolt, I was back at Afghanistan, feeling fear with every second getting worse. I fell off the table, gaining everyone's attention as I flipped it over and placed my back against it. I didn't know what the fear was, but it was MASIVE, and I knew that I would eventually have to deal with it. I searched myself for anything to use as a weapon, but suddenly stopped to think to myself on where I was.

I was in the classroom, and the table I had flipped was actually the desks that I was on. I calmed down, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. I was going to need to find Seiko, because I knew that I was having more than a stress overload. No, I was suffering from PTSD as well, something I didn't expect to happen, but was to be expected.
Standing up, I looked over at the others, seeing them staring at me. "So... I had a nightmare." I lied, rubbing the back of my head. "What's going on?" I asked, changing the subject as I picked up the desks and set them up right and sat on them.

"Well, we were talking about what we were going to do with you." Kazuichi said, confusing me.

"What shark teeth means, is that you have too much stress and need to relax more." Saionji said, with me looking at her. "We were talking about shipping you to some Island by yourself, sending you to a that Ultimate Masseuse, she has godly hands by the way, or tying you down in your room and letting you sleep all day." She said, with me shacking my head at her.

"Naw, I know what to do, I just have to find Seiko." I said, gaining there attention.

"Why Seiko, need her to conjure up a potion of immortality?" Tanaka asked, with me staring at him.

"No, just something that should prevent me from getting like this again." I said, rubbing the side of my head. "Till then, I need water and food, I'm going to go get those, and I'll bring some up for you guys." I said, standing up with Chiaki rushing to my side with Akane catching me before I could fall as I was still disoriented from the stress overload.

"Take it easy, Ibuki and I will go get the food, you need to rest." Nidai said, with me shacking my head.

"What I need to do, is focus on one thing, and I'm choosing food." I said, giving them a small smile. "Trust me, I'll have...Chiaki with me!" I said, taking her hand in mine, gaining her attention. "If anything goes wrong, I trust her with my well being-"

"Then I'll help out as well!" Ibuki said, with me staring at her as I didn't expect her to volunteer. Nodding, I looked over at Akane, who let me go so that I could stand on my own. "I'll get the doors, Chiaki... Continue holding his hand." She said, looking said girl in the eyes, not smiling once.

Ever since Chiaki and I started dating, officially, Ibuki had shown that she wasn't a big fan of Chiaki, but was still her friend and was willing to help, they would even compete in small things every now and then. It was funny at times, and scary at other times. I had questioned her on why she encouraged the competitions, and Chiaki had given me a great response. "It promotes a friendly rivalry, and I know its clear to everyone, but her, Ibuki is my best girl friend." Her response was perfect, and was one of the reasons why I love her.

11:30PM

We didn't make anything hard, as we just made what was taught to us by Hanamura. I made steamed vegetables for my headacks that was on and off. I wasn't going all out, because I wanted to focus on one thing at a time to slow the pain from coming, but I did watch both Ibuki and Chiaki compete again and it was like watching pros going at it. All together, we made 5 items.

Chiaki made Jalapeno popper Stuffed Onion Rings, using three onions that you slice, not dice. 2 cups of cream cheese, 2 cups grated cheddar cheese, 1 cup, cooked, diced bacon, 3 finely diced jalapenos, 1 pinch Garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp pepper, mix all of that together. Then you set apart the Onion rings on a sheet and then placed the mix inside the onions, Freeze them. While they are freezing, take 2 cups of flower, 4 beaten eggs, 2 cups seasoned Panko breadcrumbs, and then mix each onion ring in them after they are done being frozen in the order that was provided. Then deep fried them, where she then placed them on another plate, stacking them.

Ibuki had made Meatball Wellington Ring, as to go against her Onion Rings. 1 kg beef mince, 500 g pork mince, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp chili flakes, 1 tbsp black pepper, 1 tbsp organo, 1 tbsp parsley, 1 cup parmesan, 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs, and 1 egg, before mixing all of it together with her hands. Once she was done, she placed it on a pan and turned it into a ring and then grilled it for 5 minutes. She then took 1 kg puff pastry, slices of mozzarella cheese, and made a ring out of it, before placing the cooked meat ring on top of it and placing more cheese on top of it. She then placed egg wash in the center of it, but not much before moving to the outer ring and placing another puff pastry, where she made sure that it wrapped around the ring and then used a perfect size cup to cut then center up where she was then able to completely finish wrapping it, then used a pizza cutter to cut apart the excess puff pastry that wasn't needed. She then used a fork to make sure that the puss pastry was closed on the ends, where she then went over the entire thing with egg wash. Baked it for 35 minutes at 400F in the oven. Once done, she cut it into slices so that everyone else wouldn't have to worry about cutting it to get food.

Chiaki used her second dish as Fried Lasagna Nuggets. She took 4 Lasagna sheets, 1 cup ricotta, 1.5 cups Ragu, 16 sheets mozzarella cheese, and then rolled each sheet up once made and froze them for 30 minutes. once done, she cut them into fours. She then got 1 cup plain flower, 3 whisked eggs, and then the 2 cups of panko breadcrumbs, mixing each cut piece in them, then deep fried them as well, before placing them on a separate plate with marinara sauce dips beside them.

Ibuki used her second dish as Mini Cheeseburger Dough Balls. 800 g beef mince, 2 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder before mixing all of that together. She then took a small bit and made a patty out of it, the size of her four fingers across. Once she was done making them, she cooked them like actual burgers. Once she was done with that, she took pizza dough and flattened it out before placing small slices of cheddar cheese, bacon then placed one of the patties on top of it before placing another thing of cheese on top of it and then wrapping the dough around it and placing it on a tray. She then took the egg wash and covered all of them, before placing sesame seeds on top, placed in in the oven for 25 400F, cooked it with her first dish, but the proper way was 30 minutes at 360F. Once done, she placed them on a plate with a bowl of marinara sauce next to them.

Looking at the food, I looked at the girls, seeing Ibuki holding her head up high with her hands on her hips while Chiaki just smiled, making me smile. "You two did good, better than me." I said, rubbing both of there heads. "Come on, lets get this back to the class before they start looking for us." I said, where we placed the food on a cart and started walking away with said cart.

11:55PM

"Hey everyone, we're back!" Ibuki yelled as she pushed the door open, with everyone cheering for our return. "And from the looks of things, I made the better food out of all of us!" She said, rubbing her nose with a grin.

"There is only one way to determine this." Chiaki said, looking at said girl. "We have a taste test." She said, with both of them looking at me. "Dakota, you will determine who wins." She said, where I knew a headack was going to start.

"I don't think that its the best Idea-"

"Please!?" They both said, with me face palming.

"Fine, Ibuki, I'll try your mini cheese burgers first!" I said, with said girl taking a tooth pick and stabbing it, where she held it out to me. Taking it from her, I bit into it, where she had a hopeful look on her face. "Chiaki, Lasagna nugget please." I said, with Chiaki getting a toothpick and doing the same thing as Ibuki, but I bit it while she held it in her hand, shocking Ibuki. Chewing it, I nodded as the winner was obvious. "Point Chiaki!" I said, holding my hand up on the side Chiaki was standing, with Ibuki puffing her cheeks out.

"Fine, I'll win the next one!" Ibuki said, grabbing a slice of the Meatball ring and FORCE fed it to me, with me not having enough time to react as I backed up with it in my mouth. Grabbing it, I bit down through it, getting a mouthful. Nodding, I swallowed, where I then saw Chiaki holding her onion ring out to me. Chuckling, I bit into it, where I suddenly felt like my mouth was on fire. I swallowed it and was sweating, looking for something to douse the flames with. I didn't get the chance to move for the water, when Chiaki suddenly grabbed me by the back of my head and pulled me into a kiss, with a bell going off.

"HAPPY NEW YEARS!?" Everyone yelled, with me forgetting the hot flames and enjoying the kiss.