Happy New Year! This is a end of the year present for you all! Thanks for being with me this year!
I know this isn't much of a present though...its mostly a buildup chapter with lots if 'Normal POV' XD I still like it though.. You guys better like it! I got up early to finish writing this... Well, early like the time I usually wake up to go to school...
R&R!
You know...your present to me could be reviewing...*winkwink*
Disclaimer: I don't own Shugo Chara. 'Precious Secrets And Beautiful Liars' by TheLingeringWolf=most of the story's inspiration. 'Got to be perfect Not' by bleachlover1999=Rima's original disguise. The story is also influenced by Durarara
Not expecteD
Normal POV
"Amu!"
"...Yaya?"
\
He felt like he was drugged. He could not find a reason for why he was so tired. Dance practices didn't take up that much energy.
He felt like he was missing something huge.
\
Kukai left school for lunch. He went to the closest convenience store and grabbed an egg sandwich to eat. He walked along the healthcare aisle and casually picked up ointment for scraps and other medical supplies.
\
Her hair was swiftly floating behind her as she stared down, looking at the school's courtyard.
She felt free as the cold wind blew against her stinging wounds. She thought of nothing in particular.
\
"Is there something the matter?"
"You know the new girl, right Amu!?"
"Um, you are Yaya, right?"
\
The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the staircase. They were running, giving no attention to how hard their feet pounded against the stairs. It was a messy, desperate sound.
When the two pairs of footsteps reached the top, they saw Rima and stared in shock. Their breathing was ragged and their posture was hunched.
It was a perfect picture of unkemptness.
The owners of the two pairs of footsteps focused their gazes on Rima.
Slowly, Rima turned around, wanting to see who had been pounding their way up to the rooftop.
They were two girls.
Staring at each other, the first one to break their silence was one of the newly arrived girls:
"Oh my god, Amu, she's alive," spoke the shorter girl sporting caramel-colored pigtails.
Clearly, it was not the most intelligent phrase.
If it had been her mom who had said that, Rima would have felt happy she finally noticed.
If it was Nagihiko, she would have laughed at him, thinking he was dumb.
If it was Kukai who said those words, she would have questioned him, wondering if he had finally gone crazy.
If it had been one of the girls who beat her up, she would have ignored her coldly, thinking that the girl was blind.
But it was none of these people. In her mind, the two people in front of her had no relation to anything that had happened to her except being fellow Seika Academy students.
She did not know why they were there or why they cared.
The girl who spoke those words was not someone she expected.
Rima speculated that the lollipop-licking girl was a very kind person, as well as the girl who had previously saved her from the soccer ball a few days ago during physical education. Thankfully, at least, Rima knew their names.
So at last Rima spoke, but her words felt foreign to her, she felt the words leave her mouth slightly earlier than she was ready, "Thanks for the concern."
As she said that, she was facing them fully, her hair flying annoyingly in the front of her, covering her face. She then gracefully turned sideways, still facing them, but in an angle that allowed her hair to flow away from her face. They looked at her, aghast and she wondered what was wrong. But the two girls, Amu and Yaya, were looking at two entirely different things.
Amy stared at her beauty, the Rima she was seeing was so different from the Rima she had seen a few days ago. Amu had seen the full difference between the beanie-covered version and the completely undisguised version of Rima. Her shock was in par, if not more, than Nagihiko's on Monday.
Yaya, in contrast, stared at Rima's wounds, thinking about what had happened to her and that she wasn't fast enough to stop it from happening. Yaya felt pangs of shame and sadness thinking that her friends were the ones who inflicted damage upon Rima. It was not like Yaya was not awed at how different Rima looked, but she had seen Rima in the phase that was in between the two Amu had seen. The shock was there, but not as big.
"Um...," Amu trailed off, "Hi, remember me? Oh! And this is―"
She was cut off by Rima.
"Of course I remember, Amu right?"
"Yeah! Nice too see you again, you look, um, different...prettier, than the last time we met."
"Thanks!" Rima said smiling, feeling slightly annoyed. She knew that already, and she didn't like it. In fact, she wondered why she was being so friendly to the pink haired girl.
"My name is Yaya," the shorter girl besides Amu revealed. Her voice was oddly less giddy and less happy than Amu's.
It was a subdued voice.
But the reason for the tone of voice Rima did not know or understand.
"Yeah," replied Rima, "I'm Rima, I'm in your class. Nice to meet you."
Yaya looked up at Rima, a hopeful look on her face.
Rima was gently smiling as if to say: Its not your fault, don't worry, I forgive you.
Yaya breathed in relief and unconsciously began to smile too.
That was the beginning of a new friendship between the three of them.
\
In truth, Rima did not know what Yaya knew, but she unconsciously gave her a gentle smile and it seemed to rid Yaya of all her worries.
"Um, Rima? Can I ask you a question?" Amu nervously stuttered out.
Yaya wondered where Amu's cool aura went, but thought nothing more as she had seen Amu break her facade before.
"You already did," Rima smiled. They stared at each other for a few seconds and broke out giggling.
Yaya, seemingly left out looked at them in confused wonder, but oddly she had a smile stuck on her face.
"Hey! Don't leave Yaya out, Amu! Rima!"
The formalities between them were gone in almost a second and Yaya reverted to talking in an excited third person point of view and half licking a lollipop.
Yaya imagined Saaya would be mad at her for not only not participating in hurting Rima, but for being missing for all of lunch. Yet, Yaya believed, it was worth it.
"Sorry Yaya couldn't help Rima earlier in class," Yaya apologized to Rima.
"Don't worry about it, you didn't really notice that it happened, right?" Rima replied. As Rima replied Yaya looked at her, realizing how pretty Rima looked.
"But Yaya's sorry she didn't notice in time to stop it from happening! She should have stayed in the classroom when the warning bell rang instead of going to Minami's classroom. When Yaya came back, there wasn't any time to do anything!" Yaya wailed.
"Yaya, its okay. If you had stopped them they would have been more angry, causing them to want injure Rima more," Amu reasoned and Rima nodded along.
"Besides, multiple pins stabbing at the same time can't hurt you," Rima added, "only one or two pins at a time can hurt...something about having multiple pins stabbing you numbs the nerves, I think. Didn't you guy learn this in science last year?"
They both looked at Rima.
"Yaya didn't know that."
"Um, I don't really go to class and I doubt that was on the test, so I didn't know that either," Amu chirped.
Rima sighed.
"Well excuse me for listening in class."
"Yaya doesn't mind!"
Rima wrinkled her eyebrows together.
"Why do you talk like that?" she asked Yaya.
"Like what?" Yaya questioned.
"In third person," Rima answered briefly.
"Oh! I can talk normally if you want me to, talking in third person is Yaya's―I mean, my habit"
"No, you don't have to, I like it. Its unique."
Yaya beamed at Rima.
"It takes some time getting used to, the first time I met her was when she tripped, facedown on the ground in front of my favorite store at the mall. It was so funny! Her friends apparently ditched her and I thought I was talking to elementary schooler because of the way she talked," Amu spilled.
She proceeded to tell the story of how she and Yaya met. According to her, it was a brief acquaintance. Yaya occasionally added to the story and Rima just sat there, listening, nodding, and laughing at just the right spots.
\
The story was interrupted when the door to the rooftop burst open. It swing open to reveal Kukai, egg sandwich stuffed in his mouth and plastic bag in his left hand. He tried to speak, but instead had to crouch on his knees, hand over his mouth, trying to swallow the food stuffed down his throat.
The three girls stared at him for a moment then burst out laughing. Amu walked over, red with laughter, to pat Kukai on the back in efforts to help him.
Finally, when Kukai had finished choking, he held out the plastic bag for Rima. She took it cautiously.
She peeked into the bag and saw the medical supplies.
"Thanks," she smiled as she took out some of the contents of the plastic bag.
She first undid the screw on the ointment bottle and squeezed it on her cuts. There was some on her legs and some on her arms. Also, she disinfected the small scraps on her face.
She did it in such practiced professionalism that the three others were just standing there in shock, not daring to intervene.
They all wondered how many times she had done those things to be able to do them so efficiently.
Soon, she was all bandaged and covered. She had even replaced the huge bandage on her cheek. The trash was oddly neatly piled into a stack.
The bandage wrappers were evenly piled on top of each other, straightened so it wouldn't curl around. The ointment bottle was besides it and it was nearly empty. The used disinfectant wipes were in a messy stack. Rima looked at the remains of the supplies that she used and glanced inside the plastic bag to find some bandages and one disinfectant wipe leftover. She got up and dropped the trash into the trashcan besides Kukai.
"You bought a lot," Rima commented.
"Yeah, I did get the value packs," replied Kukai, grinning while walking over to pick it up the plastic bag. It was considerably lighter than before.
"It stings."
"You did use disinfectants."
Rima pouted slightly, and Amu, after seeing Rima give herself medical attention, realized just how much she was hurt.
"Rima," Amu began, "Who did it?"
Kukai and Rima looked at her as if she was an idiot and Yaya looked towards the ground, her everlasting smile faltering.
"It," Rima said slowly, picking her words carefully, "won't help if you know, and it doesn't matter."
Amu looked like was going to demand for information, but the warning look on Rima's face stopped her.
"Fine."
\
"Don't you feel guilty?" Minami whispered almost inaudibly to Saaya. The atmosphere in the group of four was heavy as they sat on the cool grass at the edge of the courtyard.
"No," Saaya whispered even more softly than Minami, "She deserved it."
Minami went back to feeling uneasy.
"Where's Yaya?" Saaya asked in a normal voice.
After she finished asking the question, as if on cue, the bell signalling the end of lunch rang. Silently, they all got up to go to their respective classrooms.
Nagihiko POV
Slowly, I trudged down the hallways, as if I was sleepwalking. Right before I entered the classroom, I nearly collided with someone.
"Were you sleeping all of lunch?" a voice asked.
" Yeah," I said, oblivious to who asked the question.
"Oh," the person said," I guess I can't really blame you." The person walked into the classroom.
Finally, I blinked, trying to focus my sight to see who it was. A ponytail swished along her short back as she walked. It was Rima.
I next noticed were the bandages on her arms.
She was covered in bandages. They were overlapping, but in a neat way. Her legs had at least 4 bandage per leg. I looked at her in shock.
Kukai came and patted me on the back.
"Don't worry, she's okay," he told me. I could do nothing but nod. I had known something was going to happen after Rima got her makeover, but I didn't know what and I didn't think it would be so extreme.
It was all my fault.
I made my way towards my desk, feeling shivers down my back.
The teacher made his way in but all I could do was feel the rage and hatred throughout the room.
I should have known.
I should have been there.
For once in a long time, I felt like crying. If this was the price, I should have left her alone. She didn't need any more of that.
Rima would have been fine if I had left her alone.
Why didn't I leave her alone?
I knew why. It was because I thought it would be fun. Something different, something new, something exciting.
Why did I have to play with someone so innocent to satisfy my own wants?
The real burden I knew I was holding came crashing down onto me.
That was why I was so tired. It was because I subsciously wanted to let myself know what I was doing and what was wrong. It was because I wanted to show myself I still couldn't protect what was important to me.
I was still weak.
Time had flown by and I had found myself in my third year of middle school. Time had flown and I was still powerless.
\
"Nagihiko? Can you solve this problem?" the teacher called.
I stared at the problem. I walked up and I was done solving it within seconds.
Why can't I solve real problems that easily?
I sighed as I sat back down. As soon as school was over in about an hour, I knew I would have to face Rima.
Rima POV
Tch.
The gloomy, hostile atmosphere was getting on my nerves. I began to think that the girls hadn't really been able to take out all their anger on me yet. Or even just enough to make them satisfied.
The only good things was that my wounds had stopped itching and Yaya was giving me reassuring smiled now and then.
As if I need them.
And I did.
Normal POV
It wasn't pleasant.
The moment the bell rang, everyone jumped out of their seats almost a hundred times faster than they would have if there was a sale at their favorite store.
It was scary.
Quicker than anyone else, Yaya was out of there, Rima and Nagihiko right behind her.
The look on Saaya's face was annoyed that they escaped so quickly.
Kukai was in the second bunch to make it out of there. Everyone seemed to know staying on school grounds was the least safest thing possible at the moment. So they all ran.
\
"You! Nagihiko uncharacteristically exclaimed, "What happened!?"
He was glaring at Rima at the park they had run to after school. It was the same one Rima had cried in the day before. Yaya for some unfathomable reason was there with them. Kukai was there too.
"I got a little beat up," replied Rima.
Nagihiko facepalmed.
He sighed.
Still, no further explanation came.
"I need to get home," he said as he started inching away from them.
He paused.
"Whats wrong?" Kukai asked.
"You guys, come with me."
"Huh?!" Rima's voice seemed unnaturally high.
"I have dance practice and I don't want to skip it again."
"Oh. I remember you told me you danced this morning."
"Coming?"
"Can Yaya go too?" Yaya inquired. Nagihiko looked at her for a moment.
"Sure."
Kukai POV
Nagihiko walked ahead of us all while we made our way to his house. Rima was trailing silently behind him. Yaya was bouncing along. I strolled, the last person in the group.
Special thanks~
Jo-chan/Kokokage/Squishu: Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou for being the best FF buddy ever as well as an awesome beta-reader. I'm so happy we became friends this year! I love your writing and like I just bursting with happiness every time I PM you or read one of your stories! I'm such a ninja for not telling you about this chapter. Wahahaha! Was it a good surprise? LOL XD
Mahagony07: You have this girl to thank for giving me both a science and history lesson and being the funniest girl ever. The weird pins-can't-hurt-you-when-theres-alot thing in this chapter? I learned that from her...so disclaimer! (you have to become a doctor, girl so we can magically meet in college or something!)
Magical girl4: Ever since you read my one-shot 'At the Basketball Court', you have been such a great reviewer. Thanks for giving great feedback on my stories. :) I'll make Utau appear soon, I promise!
XxNYCgirlxX: HELLOOO! I'm not sure if you're still here, reading my fic, but I always wanted to thank you. At the beginning of this year, you sent me a PM, telling me to continue Not Expected. You don't know how happy that made me. In fact, if you hadn't sent me that PM, I probably would have never sat down and finished writing my 4th chapter. So I have you to thank for me even being here. I, from the bottom of my heart, am thankful for you.
MY FRIENDS:you have all been awesome people and I don't really know if you're reading this bunnies, but whatever, thanks so much! Golden dragon of the skies, Kiribunny101, and Ryuuko Haruna: nearly two years ago, I dragged you into making FF accounts with me. Thanks for putting up with me ^_^ Special thanks to Sara, who helped me get started with my account by letting me post her awesome Kutau poem on my account.
THANK YOU ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE FAVORITED,FOLLOWED OR REVIEWED! YOU ALL MAKE ME GO ON A FAV/FOLLOW/REVIEW HIGH!: Children of Light, Dream For Tonight, Enarcia96, FreezingSapphire,GoldGarden, KokoKaga, Made2352, Mahagony07, Moonshinehearts, MythologyFreak123, Ruby-Ray, Snowflake-Lady, Yuriko9001, friesyay, jhope, Ice0024, , animelover479, Jinja-chanlovesRimahikoAmuto, TheLingeringWolf, and my Guest reviewers
And last but not least, THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO EVEN READS THIS STORY. CHOCOLATE COOKIES FOR YOU ALLLL!
New Year Wishes~
~KiMi