Disclaimer: I DO NOT own DN Angel. I would sure love to own my own life. Too bad I sold it to marching band.

A/N: That's right, the OTHER P. Fishie has returned. Goodness help you all. haha I know this is my sister's story, but as this particular chapter is the story of my life (which I started during homeroom today by the way), I thought I'd see if she liked it enough to include in Overdone. So hope you enjoy, and I hope some of y'all can relate to this kind of thing.

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Homecoming

"Remember, Homecoming T-shirts…"

"Buy your tickets for Homecoming…"

"Homecoming dress code includes…"

"Do you have a date for Homecoming?"

"He finally asked me to Homecoming!"

"What's your Homecoming dress look like?"

"Are you going to dinner before Homecoming?"

"Want to hang at my place after Homecoming?"

"I wonder who the DJ is for Homecoming?"

"Oh my gosh, I have a date for Homecoming!"

"Argh!" Risa Harada growled in exasperation, wishing she could scream without being stared at by the classmates around her. "I'm so fed up with this!"

Her science partner glanced up from his notes, surprised. Risa buried her chin in her arms and glared at the couple I front of them, who were currently in a blushing heap of embarrassment because the dark-haired boy on the right had just asked his science partner to the Homecoming dance in 10 days-- rather loudly and in the middle of a busy science classroom. The entire room and had turned and stared at them when the girl had said yes, and broken into applause when they had shared a Disney-movie smile, causing both of them to turn bright crimson. The teacher, of course, was out of the room, looking for more supplies for one of the groups' experiment. At least, that was what they were supposed to be doing, and they had been until Risa had watched yet another demonstration of how life and the invention of Homecoming existed to torture her.

Risa's partner quickly moved the beaker of water away from Risa (who had nearly crashed into it in her exasperated motion) and pushed his thick-rimmed glasses up his nose to settle more firmly in front of his piercing blue eyes. He paused, then said carefully, "Is something wrong, Harada-san?"

Risa snapped her head up to glare at Satoshi Hiwatari coldly. He took no personal offense, merely shrugging lightly. "Standard question." Risa dropped her face back into her arms, moaning. Her partner paused again, hesitant. "Well?"

"Well what?" Her voice was muffled by her arms.

"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?"

Risa leaned back, running a hand over her glimmering brown hair, tied back in a tight ponytail for the lab. She blew a stray strand away from her chocolate brown eyes and leaned her forehead into her hands. "I'm just tired, I guess. Not exhausted tired, like I just ran a mile, but sick-and-tired, tired."

"Why are you so tired?"

Risa huffed. "Because this whole damn school is obsessed with this freaking Homecoming dance and I'm the only girl in the entire population who hasn't even been asked." She snorted. "Well not seriously, anyway."

Satoshi absorbed this statement, his pen hovering over his notebook. They had stopped in the middle of recording some of the data. "Someone asked you?"

Risa shook her head. "They weren't serious. Every one of them was just another one of those jerks who only talk to you because somehow he and his friends think it's a walk in the park to just ask the first decent-looking girl they see and expect to get more than a corsage come Homecoming night."

Satoshi paused again. "How many people asked you, Harada-san?"

Risa snorted. "Five if you count the guy who asked me in 3rd person while he was talking to one of his friends."

Satoshi's face remained unreadable in response, but he fell silent and returned to recording his data. When he had taken the last note down, he set the pen down and removed his glasses, cleaning them with his sleeve.

"I doubt that they're all like that, Harada-san." He set the glasses back on his nose.

Risa shot him a sharp glare.

Satoshi wrinkled his nose. "Well, perhaps many of them I don't have too much doubt..."

Rise returned to her submissive position with her head in her arms.

"You may just be blowing this dance situation a bit out of proportion, though."

"You have no idea."

"Surprise me." Satoshi replied calmly. This controlled reply surprised Risa. She wasn't use to Satoshi Hiwatari showing a genuine interest in anything but school or work. His quiet challenge caught Risa off guard.

"Well." Risa grabbed her mechanical pencil from the table and began fiddling with it, pushing the led out rapidly and pressing it back in when it got too long. "I'll be blunt with you. I've spent the last four weeks hearing nothing but plans for Homecoming, dresses for Homecoming, dates, suits, cars, shoes for Homecoming. Homecoming T-shirts, Homecoming tickets, Homecoming dinners, Homecoming parties. Guys asking girls to Homecoming, girls asking guys to Homecoming. Homecoming queen, Homecoming court, Homecoming game. The DJ, the decorations, the posters, the music, what happened last year, what happened two or three years ago. Nothing but Homecoming, Homecoming, Homecoming! And you know, this wouldn't even bother me if I had a reason to be even remotely as excited about this rotten dance. I mean, every single one of my friends have dates-- my sister included by the way. My own genetics! How can she find a guy who will leave chocolates in her locker --and even spout love sonnets on occasion-- when I have never even felt what it's like to be asked to Homecoming for real? I mean, somehow, I must be missing out on some big secret the entire school but me has figured out because everyone else has found a decent guy who actually has interest in them and I'm stuck here, unable to even impress a guy enough for him to--"

"Risa!" Risa suddenly stopped, realizing she had pushed the lead in her pencil until it had come completely loose of the tip, and it was now rolling a bit on the table as Risa pressed an empty pencil. This, however, was not the end of her discoveries. Along with the shocking realization that Satoshi Hiwatari had called her by her first, informal name (abandoning the manners that structured his entire being), she realized that he had grabbed her restless hands to stop her words, and that his pale, strong hands now blanketed hers. As if all this added to the embarrassment of having babbled like a shallow idiot weren't enough…

She was blushing.

Risa ducked her head sheepishly as the crimson warmth crept up her cheeks, searching desperately for a way to keep Satoshi from seeing her pink cheeks. She settled for shoving the lead back into her pencil as Satoshi withdrew his hands, returning to his notes as he double-checked their data. Worse yet, Risa was now working to fight the sense of emptiness the absence of his hand on hers left on her quivering fingers. Risa risked a glance at him. He was ducking his own face as he glared in hard concentration at his notebook, running his pen down the page to mark the line he was reading. She couldn't make out the look on his face, but noticed he was fiddling with his glasses mercilessly, fixing them retentively on his nose, a habit he had when he was thinking hard or became nervous. He rarely ever showed emotion on his face, let alone pick up habits to release them, but this was one pattern Risa was perceptive enough to pick up in her months of getting to know him in Science class. Risa glanced around them, but everyone was still murmuring about the boy and the girl in front of them to notice Satoshi's motion, even after the teacher had re-entered the room.

The silence between them stretched, Satoshi quietly reading over their notes and Risa risking glances at him between staring at her fiddling hands. When she couldn't stand the awkward silence anymore, she cleared her throat. "What about you?"

He looked up, his face once again completely blank and unreadable. "Pardon?"

"Aren't you at all fed up with the big deal this school makes out of Homecoming?"

Satoshi paused at this, considering it carefully as he did with every question pointed his way, no matter what it was. "Honestly, yes I am."

Risa cocked her head as he returned to reading over his notebook. "What, you don't have a date, either?"

For a second, Risa was convinced Satoshi almost laughed. It came out as more of a snort, though. "No."

"I'm guessing from that tone that's not without continual turn-downs on your part to the girls in your fan club?"

He shot her a quizzical look. "Is that what they're calling themselves?"

Risa smiled. "It's more or less what they are."

He shook his head disapprovingly.

Risa paused as he added something to the data. Then she asked carefully, "So what did you tell them? That you'd rather deal with the push-button-get-banana's at your work than go with them to Homecoming?"

Satoshi cocked an eyebrow at her. "How'd you come up with that nickname?"

Risa shot him a somewhat proud smile. "You always say they can't do anything on their own, that you're always funnel-feeding them, so to speak. You know those monkeys in the laboratories that are trained to push a button to test if a machine works and when they do they get a banana? Push button, get banana."

He didn't laugh, didn't smile, he never smiled, ever, but in his glimmering blue eyes she saw a dancing sparkle that was better to her than any smile he could have given. He ducked his head again, studying the notes, then he set the notebook down, closing the cover and scribbling something down on the front of it.

"So what did you tell them?" Risa pressed, curious.

Satoshi lifted his pen, closed the lid, and gathered the emptied beakers and equipment they had used during the experiment. "I told them I was planning on asking someone else." He shoved the notebook into her hands as he got up to return the materials. "Hold this a moment while I put these beakers away."

Risa, insulted, gaped at him speechlessly as he passed, his arms full of beakers, graduated cylinders, and other measuring instruments. She was insulted and somewhat annoyed as she watched him walk off, then dropped the notebook on the table, leaning her elbows on top of it and gazing at it tiredly. She blinked, then scowled at the cover again, the neat, slanted writing on the cover making her double-guess it was Satoshi's. No, it was his, she knew. It was what it said that she was having trouble comprehending.

In Satoshi's signature, flawless handwriting, a single phrase sketched the bottom of the maroon-burgundy cover:

Homecoming with me

Following it, a single question mark.

Risa gazed after him, shocked, unable to say or think anything. His back faced her, and he stood in a line, waiting to return the graduated cylinders. She gazed at the notebook again, then back up at him, then back at the notebook. As the lightbulb went off in her head, she realized that the tmeperature of her cheeks was rising, and there was no doubt her face was bright red. She glanced around, wondering what to do, what to say. She stared again at the cover, then, as the idea dawned on her, she felt a part-sheepish, part delightedly excited smile creep up her face to touch her eyes. She grabbed Satoshi's pen.

"I don't think you want to forget this." She said to him teasingly as the bell rang and the class moved out the door, handing the thick notebook back to him. As she headed out the door, books and bag in hand, only then did Satoshi glance down at the perfect, curving words.

Of course.

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REAL P. Fishies speaking: It's been on my documents list for ages, so I finally decided to put it in. True, Risa's OOC in this thing, but I still think that the idea is cute. I didn't want to change it too much, so I thought I'd see how people would react to an OOC Risa that's actually quite admirable in this piece. If it's not horrible, I'm sure that my sister would be very happy to hear that.