I'M BAAAAAAAAACKKKK! ... After a really long time.

But you don't know how busy I've been! College, Exams, Life, Sleep... I try to balance it all. But most of the time, something doesn't go right. But anyways, this has been stuck in my laptop for a really long time now. I write it every time I'm not busy or when I feel inspired, so it turned out really long!

My bad. But I hope this will make up for the wasted time!

Enjoy!

By the way, how was everyone's Valentine's Day? Mine was terrible, I was playing Sims 3 in my college's student lounge. And then when I got home, no one was home. And so I was just singing some sad love songs to myself.

"NEVERMIND I'LL FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU" - was my twitter status that day. The guy I like has a girlfriend, and when we met the next day (we have classes together every Mondays and Wednesdays) it was whatever. He doesn't know that I like him, of course. Or else I'd be dead. HEHEHEHE.

So, yeah. I'm still sad about it. But whatever. We just met, and as long as we're friends, I'm happy.

FOREVER ALONE FRIEND-ZONED GIRL. HAHAHA :

Anyways...

:?

My life is a total cliche.

"I hate my hair!" I scream as I stomp from the mirror to the bed. I sit on the seat with my arms crossed. It's a good thing Hotaru allowed me to not agree with the make-up part though. I never did trust people I didn't know to do my face.

Normally he would comfort me, but not this time. "Nevermind the hair! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Tsubasa asked as he sat in front of the mirror, applying some weird face cream. I wonder where he got that cloth-like headband. I don't even have those.

I sighed. "Hotaru would've gone insane with rage if she found out."

"You're right," Tsubasa says. His reflection shows him crinkling his nose. Then he faces me, with his face all white. "But I could have done something. To make him jealous,"

"What's the point, Tsubasa." I say, lying down. "He didn't even recognize me."

"Only because you're so gorgeous now," He turns back to the mirror. "Ten years ago, it was probably covered with three layers of fat or something."

"THANK YOU FOR POINTING THAT OUT, TSUBASA." I say loudly. I want to feel offended but, what he said was most probably true. I stare up at the ceiling, and allow myself to space out. He did say that I looked familiar, though. Why couldn't I have said it? I then furrow my eyebrows. So what if he didn't recognize me? He's such a prick! A flirtatious bastard! A pitiful excuse for a man! Who does he think he is, flirting with almost every girl he happens to pass by?

"Your face is showing a lot of weird expressions right now," Tsubasa says. I tear away from the ceiling to look at him.

"Sorry. It's just hard to take in all that happened today." I'm including the part where my credit card almost maxed out. I die inside whenever I remember.

"You know what would make you feel better? Sleep." He says.

"Or… we could return all the clothes you guys bought." I say, redirecting my attention to the mountain of bags piled up beside the dresser.

"Not a chance," He says as he walks up to me. I cough hysterically.

"What is that smell? It's too strong for me! Water!" I complain, and he immediately pulls out a bottle of tea from his bag. "I don't have any water right now, hopefully this will do just fine."

I don't hesitate to grab the tea and gulp a large portion of it down. "It's sweeter than I remember this flavor being." I say, examining the bottle.

"I added a little something extra," He says. I want to say what, but all of a sudden I feel too sleepy to even open my mouth. I lie down slowly and Tsubasa pulls the blankets over me. He puts his large hand over my eyes.

"Sleep."

Tonight is the reunion. I should be feeling excited. Seeing all those faces of all my friends (or should I say people who know me, although I'm trying not to be so pessimistic about it.) and visiting my old school (or should I say hell).

Funny, though. I feel something breathing down my neck.

Or should I say, someone.

My eyes crack open and was greeted by a shiny round thing which, I realized seconds after, was the lens of Hotaru's DSLR.

I look down and I scream.

"TSUBASA, what are you doing!" I cry.

He looks up at me and chuckles. "I told you, Hotaru. She would scream." He said. Only this time, there was something different about his voice.

It was manlier and wholesome.

"She would kill herself if she could see the rest of the video. But I won't let her." She says, smirking. I push Tsubasa off me, who rolls to the side of the bed laughing hysterically, and get off the bed.

Then I look down once more. It takes me so much time to process it.

"Hotaru," I say, unbelievably calm. "What am I wearing?"

A/N: I shall leave how she looks like up to your imagination, guys. *smiles*

I watch Hotaru as she zooms into Tsubasa, who's lying down, resting his head on the palm of his hand, as if trying to be seductive. "Didn't we have a great time, Mikan?"

As I take in the situation slowly, I tell myself that it's gonna be alright. It's not like she's going to project the video in front of all my old classmates, right? RIGHT?

Who am I kidding? This day is going to be an absolute nightmare.

I'm done with my make-up, actually Hotaru is, and just as I was about to do my hair, she stops me.

"Here's your dress. Put it on carefully," Hotaru says as she hands me a beautiful black dress. "The cloth's extremely delicate. Especially on the zipper part." I sigh as I walk to the bathroom.

When I come out, Hotaru as just finished buttoning her blood red tube dress. I have to say, her dress looks amazing with her short hair. The moment she looks at me, she sucks in her breath, which confuses me. I didn't look in the mirror, since it only goes until my neck.

"I was scared to zipper myself, could you do it for me?" I ask. She nods, as she ushers me to go to her. When I was about to come face-to-face with the mirror, she stops me. "Not yet,"

She carefully zips me up and turns me around. She looks into my eyes. Hers is filled with all kinds of emotions, like a mother who's just about to watch her daughter get married. Then she blinks and there's danger in it. "If you tell anyone about this moment, I will murder you. Understand?" I nod. She blinks again and the mother-like eyes return.

"Are you ready to see yourself?" She asks gently. I nod slowly, almost scared. She slowly turns me around, and I gasp.

The person I see in the mirror is absolutely beautiful, although her hair needs some more work. The black, silky dress hugs her hips lovingly and flows elegantly right until her knees. The contrast of the its color against her body makes her look like she has porcelain-like skin. Probably even better. I see the person behind her, it's Hotaru. Which confuses me. "That can't possibly be me, right?"

"Are you idiot?" She says, but not the way she usually says it. It's more like a rhetorical question. She's emotional. "That's you, alright. And you look absolutely gorgeous."

I smile, and the girl in the mirror does as well.

"C'mon, let's do your hair." She says, normally. Our dramatic moment has ended and the usual Hotaru is back.

Once she's done with my hair (which is just brushing and some curling at the ends), and once we wear our heels, we go to the lobby of the hotel, where Tsubasa and Ruka are waiting.

When we walk down the stairs, all eyes are on us. Especially Ruka, he was absolutely entranced by Hotaru's beauty. As she takes her last two steps down the stairs, he scoops her and twirls her around, and they share a kiss. It was phenomenal, really, like we were watching a romance movie. All the girls sigh, and some jealous.

"Hey there, gorgeous." A person calls out in a very manly voice. Tsubasa. That's when I notice I stopped on the stairs, with four more steps to go. "Ruka stole my idea. So I can't do anything, really. Because that would give the air ultimate cheesiness."

"I don't mind. And I don't want to be touched by you, anyways." I say, my voice low. I'm still mad at Tsubasa for what they did to me this morning. I know I should be mad at Hotaru too, but how can I after such a heartfelt moment upstairs?

"Aw, don't be like that." He says, smiling. "I hope you can forgive after this,"

He leads me down the stairs. "I notice that your neck is bare," I nod. "Yeah, Hotaru told me not to wear anything, in case it might be too much." I'm already wearing gold stud earrings.

"I disagree, my lovely Mikan." He says a bit louder, for others to hear probably. He reveals something from his pocket. A casing, and inside…

The most beautiful necklace I have ever seen.

"Oh, Tsubasa." I cry. I think for a moment that this could've been all Hotaru's idea, but I brush it aside. Why shouldn't I? It's gorgeous!

"A necklace fit to be worn by a beautiful lady such as yourself," He says, putting it on me. When he's done, he tucks my hair behind my ear gently. I blush, but not for the reasons you may think. This is a guy man, practically pretending to be in love with me under Hotaru's demands just to put on a show. So many people are watching, and I'm afraid of what he'll do next. Our face distance is closing by the second (like his eyes), and just when his lips was about to touch mine, Hotaru calls us out.

"Come on, you lovebirds. The car's here." He opens his eyes, revealing a pool of blue and an extremely amused emotion, mixed with several others I can't identify at the moment. This makes me angry for some reason. He gives me a quick kiss on the cheek instead, grabs my hand, and says in the most loving voice ever, "Let's go, my princess."

As soon as we stepped into the car, I pull back my hand. I feel my face burning up. "What the heck was that, Hotaru?" She turns to me, and looks confused.

"What was what?" She asks. I sigh. I wanted to shout, get out of this car, and never show my face to the world ever again. But instead, I put my hands up in surrender. "Nevermind,"

She laughs. I peek to the person beside me, but he's looking out the window.

My heart feels like it's about to burst… While Ruka's hand was about to as well, seeing that Hotaru's hand was gripping on it like her life depended on it.

"Darn it!" She cried. "Why is the traffic so terrible tonight?" She rolled down the window of the limo and shouted at the cars in front. Ruka tried to calm her down, but seeing that it only made her grip on him less bearable, he decided to stop trying.

"She's breaking it… my hand." He says weakly. All I could do is just stare at his hand sympathetically.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not feeling so happy myself." I say. Tsubasa immediately scoots away from me, his gay nature coming back. "Please don't break my gorgeous hand."

"I'd rather push you off a cliff." I reply bitterly. I know that he's trying to break down the awkwardness between us, but it isn't that easy.

"Don't be mad. Fine, you can kill whenever you please." Tsubasa says, almost in a flirty way. It makes me almost want to puke.

But I don't. Not quite yet, anyways. "Yeah, yeah. I'm just not ready as I thought I was." I remember the scene that took place back at the hotel lobby. I look at Tsubasa directly in the eyes for the first time since we got in the car, and I can see that he's trying to say sorry, and that it that easy for him to do what he's doing. Having known how he feels, I squeeze his hand and smile at him.

He's doing this for me. This is hard for him, and yet he's doing everything he can to do his part correctly, and with no complaints. It's about time I start doing mine. And besides, he's gay. And he has a gay love interest (I can't say boyfriend because they aren't exactly dating), Ron.

"You are. We have to really convince them that you're not the same Mikan you were back ten years ago." Hotaru says, finally reeling back her head and rolling up the windows. This statement catches my attention.

"Yeah, but you didn't have to do it in that way! I look like I'm about to audition to be part of the cast of Jersey Shore!" I don't know why I had mentioned the show, but it was the first ugly TV series that crossed my mind.

"Oh, I didn't even know you heard of the series," says Hotaru.

"I see issues about it in the late night news." And to tell you the truth, the things they say about the show? Not good at all.

"The thing is, Mikan," starts Hotaru, bringing us back to topic. "They have no more power over you. They can longer hurt you. In fact, if they see you now, they'd be wishing they treated you better."

I catch sight of our location. "Whether that's true or not, we're about to find out." The moment the car comes to a stop, Hotaru jumps out of it and fixes herself in the reflection of the tinted windows. I'd immediately say that she looks fine, great even, but I had a feeling that now's not the time.

"Damn it, we must be the last one's here! We won't get a good table." She mumbles in anger. "Probably most of the food is gone as well."

That statement makes me quite disappointed as well, because I hadn't had my dinner, nor had I eaten a very complete lunch meal. Hotaru told me not to, so that I would look better in the dress. Sometimes, I can't help but think that she's trying to take over my life.

Oh, wait. What life?

Hotaru walks to the door, and touches the handle. She turns to me. "Go in first. I wanna see if they could recognize you," Then she opens the door and pushes me and Tsubasa in it.

The doors swung open, and to tell you the truth, I had expected more. What was waiting for us on the other side of the doors were four women, in their late-twenties, behind a long red table. Then I notice their name tags, and remember who they are. They're some of the cheerleaders who used to "accidentally" push me to the ground. They put on so much weight since then. When they look up, they give out a polite smile.

"I'm sorry, this venue is closed for our special event," One of the girls, Wakako, says nicely. I was about to tell them who I am, but Tsubasa grabs hold of my hand.

He smiles to me gently and then to the women. "Don't worry, ladies. We know why we're here," Tsubasa says in such a manly way that I swear I can see hearts floating around the blushing four.

"I wish I had such a handsome boyfriend like that," I hear one of them whisper to another. They giggle and do tiny jumps. That's when Hotaru and Ruka decide to come in. And when they do, the four women stop talking and gasp at the pair.

"Imai-san! Ruka-kun!" They squeal and giggle, telling each other how beautiful the couple looks. I eye their ring fingers, and as I thought, none of them are married yet. Maybe because of their annoying little voices.

"Don't introduce yourself just yet," Hotaru whispers to me, then she turns to greet the women. They congratulate the couple on their marriage, and they ask if they have had any children yet.

Ruka's face reddens a bit (the four squeal again) as he says, "Our first ones on his way,"

"Or her," Hotaru adds.

Wait. What?

"How could you not tell me that you're pregnant?" I almost shout in anger. Those hags got to know this before me? "I thought I was your best friend. I thought we told each other everything!"

For the first time in years, I see Hotaru's guilty face. "I-I didn't mean to not tell you, I was going to surprise you! Then this idiot over here destroyed everything." She points to Ruka, who looks like just as guilty. Tsubasa's just watching, having an amused expression written all over his face. "Look, I'm really sorry, Mikan. I promis—"

"MIKAN? SAKURA MIKAN?" The three shout. One faints.

Nothing is heard for the next few seconds, but then is quickly disrupted by Tsubasa's chuckle. He takes hold of me gently and tells the women, "It's about time you noticed, yes?" He says as charmingly as ever.

Another women down. I see the two struggling to stay conscious. "L-let me just write down your names on the tags," Wakako says as she grabs the marker and messily scribbles our names on it. Then she looks up to Tsubasa. "What's your name, again?"

"Andou Tsubasa," He says in the same charming way. Then her legs gives in, and she collapses to the floor. This makes Hotaru impatient.

"Oh for goodness' sake, let me do it!" She writes down our names in a clean font and sticks on our clothes. The last one standing points to a door to our right. "The party's just started, we'll be there as soon as I call the ambulance."

Tsubasa was about to say something, but I quickly close his mouth. "Seriously?" I ask him incredulously. "I just never thought I was this attractive as a man." He says happily.

Hotaru turns to me. "Look, I'm sorry again for not telling you," She holds my hand. I all of a sudden remember not telling her about my encounter with Natsume. All the anger drains away from me. "I have something to tell you, too." I say.

"So you forgive me?" I nod. She hugs me, feeling relieved. The doors automatically open, just as she breaks away from me, and my eyes widen.

I don't notice the people. I don't notice the food.

All I notice is that big banner showered in glitter.

The theme is Prom Night.

(End of Chapter)

BEHEHEHEHEHE. Sorry for the cliffhanger. I love you. :

KBYE.

Don't forget to review! :D

KBYE, AGAIN.