Writer's Notes: Hey guys, so I didn't realize that fanfiction removes double spaces between paragraphs, which is what I used to separate scenarios. I've re-uploaded those chapters that needed the fix.

Also, I'm sorry that the romance between Ukyo and Ryoga is a little slow. I never imagined them to be walking down the road and suddenly be hit by their love for each other. Instead, I always saw it as a slow process. A smile here, a nice gesture there, etc. etc. but I promise that each chapter from this one and on, there will be something that indicates their growing feelings for each other. Thanks!

…

Why's everyone talkin' about the New Kid?

Ukyo ran as fast as she could through the halls, down the stairs, pass the dressing rooms and barely halted in front of the doorway into the gym. The gym doors were already open and she could see her class standing in clusters, all their faces peering in one direction. Ukyo pushed through the crowds, trying hard to see what they were all staring at. She stopped in front of her classmates and found herself next to Ranma and Akane. Her eyes followed their gazes and fell on what she could only describe as chaos.

Ryoga was in the middle of a student body battle where several dozen guys were fighting him at once from all directions. About 20 or so bruised or unconscious students lay scattered around the feet of the onlookers.

"What's happening?" she asked Akane.

"Oh hi, Ukyo," said Akane, turning to her. "All these guys just jumped Ryoga as soon as he got out of the changing room and they've been at this for the past 10 minutes." She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I don't know why this happens every time a new guy enters the school."

"Not every new guy, Akane," said Ranma, his eyes not leaving Ryoga, who had knocked down another 4 opponents with one move. "Just the ones the schools deem strong. Though I don't know how pig-face there got picked."

Ukyo saw Akane roll her eyes again. "You know he's strong, Ranma. He's the only one you ever want to train with."

"Yeah, whatever." But Ukyo noticed he said nothing more.

She turned her gaze back to Ryoga's fight. Hadn't there been about 30 guys still fighting him? In only the few minutes she was talking with Akane and Ranma, he was now down to 6.

Her brows bunched up as she watched how effortlessly he blocked and moved. Just one punch or one half-moon kick and guys larger than him, obviously from the wrestling team, were sprawled on the ground. Ukyo then realized that she had never actually watched Ryoga fight before.

It was strange. Just a few minutes ago she had been worried, running at full speed to try and reach him to make sure he didn't blow his image or wreck the whole school. Instead she found herself watching aptly, glued to the spot, a little astonished at the side of Ryoga she barely knew existed. He was all grace and form. He wasn't as fast as Ranma but he barely needed to move as he met all attacks with faultless blocks. What's more, Ukyo noted was that his attacks were tempered. He swept his attackers to the floor but the damage to their bodies were minimal. His control was startling. No wonder Ranma considered him a rival.

"That jerk!" Ranma suddenly growled and both she and Akane turned to face him. "Why does he get to train while I'm standing here watching from the sidelines."

"You can't be serious, Ranma." Akane rolled her eyes. "How can you be jealous of poor Ryoga? He just started school and was ganged up on by a bunch of idiots. Anyways, you fight some of those guys almost every morning."

"Yeah but they don't all attack me at once. That would be more challenging. Urg I wish I could go in there and fight too but I don't want to be grouped with those idiots," he grumbled.

Ukyo smirked.

Turning back, she noticed that Ryoga had obviously won. He was standing in the middle of gym, his arms down to his side. Please please don't do anything stupid like letting out a maniacal laughter, Ukyo thought but Ryoga merely looked down at where he flung his last opponent and extended his hand, not saying a word.

The guy on the floor, Ukyo recognized as the captain of the Judo team, stared at it before nodding and took Ryoga's outstretched hand. She was, Ukyo noted, surprised. She hadn't expected such a cavalier gesture from Ryoga.

"What is he doing?" came Ranma's voice, running into her thoughts.

"That's Ryoga for you," Ukyo responded, just now realizing it herself, "A gentleman through and through."

"Hey! What's happening here?" came a deep voice a few students behind where Ukyo and her friends stood. The gym teacher was suddenly next to her, a big man with a slight pot belly, as he looked at Ryoga, the judo captain, and the throng of guys pulling themselves off the floor.

The judo captain looked at Ryoga for a moment and walked forward. "Nothing is happening, Coach. We were just sparing with uh," he looked back at Ryoga, who promptly walked forward.

"Ryoga."

"Ryoga huh?" the captain looked at the retreating guys, some were limping but most were fine. "You do all this?"

"Uh..." Ukyo felt sweat forming on her temples.

Before Ryoga could answer, a large beefy hand smacked him on the back and he staggered forward a few steps. "I think you should join the judo team, son," said the coach, grinning ear to ear. "You look a little small," indeed he was a few sizes smaller than the judo captain, "but I can see that you're packed full of power." He slapped Ryoga's stomach, laughing as Ryoga hunched over a tiny bit.

"Uh, thank you."

"After school, I want you here in this gym and we'll see what you're made out of, kid." The coach separated himself from Ryoga and turned to look at the students. "Alright, enough staring. Let's start with a couple of stretches," he said and proceeded to start their gym lessons.

Ukyo breathed out a relieved sigh and walked up next to Ryoga. "Ryoga," she said softly, "that was good!"

Ryoga smiled at her. She realized it was his real smile not the half grin they had agreed would be the one he used at school; she mentally noticed she liked this one much better.

"Yeah, they came out of nowhere." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I wasn't sure what to do at first since we didn't plan for this but it turned out alright."

"Of course it did! Not only that, it looks like we got you into a team and on your first day too!"

"Huh? Oh! The Judo team? Yeah, it looks like it." He smiled again. "Hey, Ukyo?"

"Yeah?" She wasn't facing him, rather the instructor who had proceeded to lead the class in a series of leg stretches. She bent down, her legs shoulder length apart and knees stiff as her fingers touched the floor.

Ryoga's eyes widened a bit and he coughed, turning away from Ukyo's bent form. For gym, she had worn her female gym uniform and unfortunately for Ryoga, the clothes fitted her well and more unfortunately for him, the shorts, being true to its name, were very short.

"Pst! Stretch, Ryoga!" He looked back to see Ukyo staring at him from between her legs, her hands pressed firmly on the floor and her gulp backside lifted to the sky.

"Uh right!" Ryoga bent down, stretching until this hands touched the floor between his feet. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and a familiar but unfamiliar (in terms of Ukyo) feeling left him. Phew, what was that?

…

By lunch time, it was all over the school. The new guy's name was Ryoga. The new guy was a hottie. The new guy had won in a fight against some of Furinkan High's strongest. The new guy was pensive. The new guy was dreamy. The new guy was the school's newest hottie.

Ukyo had found herself walking alone back to their homeroom classroom. She had been with Ryoga most of the day but Eimi, the female class president, had stepped in between her and Ryoga, claiming her duty to take him around the school to show him the facilities during lunch.

Ryoga had taken it well, surprising Ukyo once again. He had nodded and given Eimi a half smile, the tips of his canines pointing out and Eimi had almost swooned, or would have had she been one of the more ridiculous girls in Furinkan. She instead gave him a sultry look and linked her hands around his arm and without even a look in Ukyo's direction, led him away from her.

Ukyo had rolled her eyes and picked up her book bag and headed back to the homeroom class where she had planned to have lunch with Ranma and Akane.

"Hey Ukyo!" Ranma called out as soon as he saw her walk through the door.

Ukyo smiled at him, sliding a chair next to his desk. She nodded at Akane, who was sitting on his other side.

Ukyo was unpacking her lunch when Ranma asked her "Hey Ucchan, what's up with Ryoga?"

"Ranma!" Akane scolded, "She hasn't even started eating yet."

He ignored her. "So, you've been with him all day. You're the only one who can tell us anything."

"Yeah, Ukyo," said Akane, obviously having forgotten what she said a second ago. "What is up with, Ryoga? I've never seen him act like this before."

Ukyo shrugged, knowing exactly what Akane meant but now it was her turn to play her part.

"Come on, Ucchan! The Ryoga I know is not like this. He's actually popular! Ryoga!" Ranma stuffed a rice ball into his mouth but continued talking, "I mean girls were calling him 'dreamy'." He made a face.

"Ranma!" Akane yelled, "Close your mouth when you're eating!"

"Huh?" he looked at Akane. There was a piece of rice on her cheek, one he had spit out while talking. He reached over casually and flicked it off. "Oh sorry."

Ukyo saw the exchange and felt her heart clench. Ranma rarely ever touched Akane even if it was a flick…

But she had a part to play. "There's nothing different about Ryoga, Ranma honey. I think this was just a side of him we never saw."

"Uh huh, yeah okay. Then why is he here in school?"

She had placed a piece of squid okonomiyaki into her mouth. She chewed for a minute and swallowed. "He came to me last week saying that his parents had registered him into this school and require that he graduate with us."

"That's good!" said Akane, "I was always worried if Ryoga would get his required education."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "What's education gonna do for that idiot? He can't even figure out his right from his left. Anyways, that don't explain why he's actin' all funny!"

"He's probably just nervous, right Ukyo?"

Ukyo smiled, "I don't know, Akane. I think this is a side of Ryoga that we probably didn't see because we never seen him a situation like this, you know?"

Akane gazed at her face thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

"Well I don't like it!" exclaimed Ranma, suddenly standing up. "Something strange is going on here."

Just then, Ukyo heard a sultry feminine giggle come from behind her. She turned and saw Ryoga walking in with Eimi still clutching his arm. She expected a googly eyed expression on his face and was almost startled when only a polite, slightly amused countenance was all she saw.

"Ryoga," Eimi was saying, her voice soft. "I hadn't realized you were so funny."

Ukyo felt her eyes roll of their own volition.

"Hey Ryoga!" Ranma yelled, "Get over here, will ya."

Ryoga walked over to where they sat, Eimi still clinging to his arm. He turned to Ranma and smirked. "Hey Ranma."

He then turned to Akane and Ukyo feel the smooth, velvetiness of his voice and the gravity of his gaze. "Hey Akane."

"Hey, you jerk! Now tell me, what are you really doing here?"

Ryoga pulled out a seat for himself and Eimi. "Like I said earlier, Ranma, I'm here to study. My parents gave me no option."

"I think that's great, Ryoga!" said Akane beaming. Ryoga turned to her and Ukyo noticed his pupil's expanding. The start of a love sick grin started to form on his face when Ukyo coughed and all eyes turned to her.

"Sorry," she pointed to her throat, "got a piece of cabbage in my throat." She patted her chest and stood. "Hey Ryoga, come with me to get a drink?"

"Oh I'll go too," said Eimi standing as Ryoga stood. Ukyo noticed Ryoga's eyes widening slightly.

"Oh nonsense, Eimi!" said Ukyo, pushing her back down. "You haven't even started lunch yet. Ryoga and I will get your drink. What do you want? Soda it is!" And before Eimi could answer, Ukyo was pushing Ryoga out the door.

"Whew!" she said when they stopped in front of the vending machine.

"Thanks, Ukyo," said Ryoga shyly. "I almost blew it there with Akane."

Ukyo looked at him for a second. For once, she wasn't angry. She had gotten him out of there on time and more than that, he had done everything nearly perfectly so far today. "Don't worry about it, sugar. We got you out of there before any harm could be done." She patted him on the shoulder and Ryoga smiled at her, again his genuine rather than practiced smile.

She lowered her voice a bit as she watched Ryoga put in a 100 yen coin into the vending machine, "so it looks like our plan is working. You already got Eimi interested in you."

Ryoga blushed and Ukyo idly thought that that was the first time she had seen him do that all day.

"Oh, well I don't think she actually likes me," he said.

She ignored that. Ryoga selected a clear soda. "How was it talking to her without me there? From the looks of it, you didn't screw it up."

He put in another 100 yen coin and shrugged. "Every time I looked at her, I imagined you. It was easy then, it felt just like one of our training sessions. I acted."

"Huh." Ukyo fished into her pocket to pull out some money to put into the vending machine when a can of green tea was placed in front of her face. He had already purchased it for her. "Oh, uh how'd you know I was going to pick green tea?" she asked as she took the can from him.

He shrugged as he turned to walk back to the classroom. "You always pick green tea."

Ukyo found herself rooted to the spot as she watched his retreating back. Why was she suddenly so surprised? No, that wasn't right. She suddenly felt… odd. She watched as hewas about to make a turn at the corner but stopped. Instead he turned back to her, his eyes raised a little, surprised that she hadn't followed him.

"Come on, Ukyo" he called out, that genuine, slightly goofy smile back on his face. He held up his hands, each hand was holding a can of soda.

Ukyo suddenly shook her head and started walking. The odd feeling started to slowly retreat from her body but her mind was still a few steps behind her as she reached his side. And it only had one thing to say:

What the hell was that?