Himeno: I was watching Yakitate! Japan and I couldn't stop laughing and getting hungry at the same time. That Anime gave me some ideas.

Natsume: You better not force us to bake bread.

Himeno: No, I will not!

Mikan: Baking? I love to bake!

Anna: Me too!

Nonoko: Himeno-chan, what's this chapter all about?

Himeno: I'm not telling.

Mikan: Don't be so stingy, Himeno-chan.

Himeno: Sorry, I don't want to be a spoiler.

Kokoroyomi: Seriously, when will I come out?

Himeno: Just be patient, Kokoroyomi-kun.

Yuu: Himeno-san doesn't own Gakuen Alice. She doesn't have any rights to this series. The only thing she owns is the plot of this story.

Himeno: Thank you, Yuu-kun! Please read on, minna-san!

Natsume the Jerk

Episode 4: The Bully and the Bullied

Natsume Hyuuga walked home alone, shuffling his feet along the dusty sidewalk as he reviewed his disastrous day. It had started yesterday night. When Natsume walked into McDonalds, Hayate, Raito, and Kyo standing in the line had spotted him and challenged him to a fight outside.

Natsume hardly broke a sweat in dealing with them. He beat the crap out of them. But when he turned his back at them and walked away, the weakened Kyo managed to throw a steel pipe at him. The pipe hit Natsume's back pretty hard, but it wasn't enough to break any bones in his body. He picked up the pipe and threw it back at Kyo, hitting him square on the head. Kyo's head was starting to bleed, but Natsume didn't care.

He lost his appetite to eat, so he went to the park and sat down on the bench. He was exhausted. Even though Hayate, Raito, and Kyo lost, they still managed to do some serious damage on Natsume. He didn't want his sister to see his wounds, since he knew Aoi would only pester him to death. He slept on the bench that night.

And then, when morning came, he went to get breakfast at McDonalds. While he was eating his breakfast meal he saw Aoi walking down the street like a zombie.

That stupid girl, he thought angrily. She didn't get much sleep last night.

He rolled his eyes away from his sister and focused on his food.

Later that afternoon, at the park, Natsume saw his sister again, but this time she was walking home with Ruka and Mikan. Seeing the brunette smiling happily at Ruka and Aoi made his blood boil, and because of that, Natsume refused to show himself to them.

When he finally walked up the driveway of the Hyuuga home, he saw his sister, Aoi, earphones on her head, an IPOD in hand, dancing to the beat to whatever she was listening.

"Onii-chan," the younger Hyuuga called. "Where have you been?"

Natsume shrugged. "Out there."

"Can you please answer my questions properly for once?"

"No, idiot," Natsume said, annoyed.

"Onii-chan, you're a complete mess," Aoi pointed out, taking a careful look at her brother. His uniform was more ruffled, there were some cuts and loose threads, and his pants were a bit dirty.

"Whatever…"

Aoi switched off her IPOD and approached her brother. She noticed the bruise, the cuts, and the wounds all over his face, neck, and hands. She quickly grabbed his arm and pulled up his sleeve, revealing more bruises. "Onii-chan, you're hurt!"

Natsume mumbled something, refusing to look at Aoi. Won't his sister ever stop bugging him?

"Come on," Aoi said, pulling his arm. "Let's get those wounds treated."

"Leave me alone!" Natsume grasped Aoi's arm, making her wince in pain.

"Onii-chan, that hurts!"

Natsume pushed her aside and forced himself to move toward the house. He couldn't bring himself to look at his little sister anymore. He didn't want to care. He didn't want anyone to help him.

When Natsume entered the house, Aoi held her arm—where Natsume grasped—and pulled up the sleeve. Her arm was wrapped in a bandage. Red stains started to appear on the bandage. It seemed that Aoi has a cut there and thanks to Natsume's brutality, the wound reopened.

Aoi hurried to her room and shut the door behind her. She took out her first-aid kit and started treating her wound.

Onii-chan doesn't really care about me, Aoi thought. But I won't give up loving him. He's still my Onii-chan.

She shivered the sight of blood after she took off the bandage. She closed her crimson eyes as a drop of tear trailed down her smooth cheek.

Friday arrived, and Mikan spent her morning posing for the camera in the studio. She was having a pictorial for the teen magazine, Hanayume,and she was going to be the cover girl. At exactly 11 AM, Mikan was dismissed from the pictorial. She didn't want to miss the afternoon classes, so she told her driver to bring her to Alice Academy.

When it was time for lunch, Mikan walked merrily down the hall, humming a sweet tune of her song. As she walked up to the wide doors, she heard a group of 1st year middle school students talking among themselves.

"That Aoi Hyuuga is so annoying," one girl said. "She's such a klutz!"

"She sure is," a boy agreed. "That girl is nothing but a nuisance."

"We threw her into the janitor's closet yesterday," another boy said, snickering. "Man, you should've heard her cry."

"Bullying her is a lot of fun," the previous boy added. "I don't get tired of pushing her around everyday. A stupid girl like her doesn't deserve to be in this school—she and her arrogant brother, Nat—"

Mikan turned away sharply, not wanting t hear the rest. She decided to skip lunch. She headed toward the classroom, intending to talk to Natsume about his sister.

When she got to her classroom, her fan boys greeted her cheerfully, and Mikan greeted them back with her oh-so-alluring smile. She found Natsume in his seat, his feet on the desk and a manga in his hands.

"Natsume," she called.

Natsume ignored her and continued reading his manga.

Jerk,Mikan thought. She had a feeling he didn't like being bothered at this time. In that case, Mikan swiped his manga away and hid it behind her back.

Natsume cocked his head and narrowed his deadly crimson eyes at the brunette. "Give that back."

Mikan stuck out her tongue. "Make me, jerk!"

Just as he was about to insult her, Mikan rushed out of the room. Natsume had no choice but to run after her, since his manga was on the line again. He caught a glimpse of Mikan entering the music room and quickened his pace. He went into the room and saw Mikan standing beside the piano.

"Do you have a death wish?" Natsume said, his voice hard.

"No…" Mikan answered.

"Stop fooling around with me!" He pinned Mikan against the wall and stared intensely into her hazel orbs.

Mikan's smile faded. "Natsume…" She lowered her head and sighed. "I heard some students talking about your sister."

Natsume raised a brow. "So?"

"They seem to hate Aoi, and the boy even said that he liked bullying her a lot."

Natsume already knew that his sister was practically being bullied everyday by her classmates. He can beat the crap out of those bullies, but Aoi refused to resort to violence. He cursed his sister for being so naïve and dumb.

"I guess this is what you call Karma,Natsume." Mikan looked up at him, her expression serious. "You bully other people. In return, your sister gets bullied."

"That's her problem—not mine," Natsume replied coldly.

Mikan got agitated. For crying out loud! Natsume was an irresponsible brother, she screamed in her head. She'd like to knock his head off!

"You're impossible!" Mikan uttered, pushing him away. She lobbed the manga back at him and ran off.

Natsume stared hard at the floor. Yes, he was an impossible case. Why would he even bother to care for anyone? He had been hurt and shunned in the past, and he didn't want it to happen again. To love and care were just rubbish to him.

Mikan could hardly concentrate on the book she was reading, because she kept thinking about Aoi. She was in the library, together with Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, because they have a research work to do.

"Ruka-pyon, can I talk to you for a minute?" Mikan asked.

From the look on her gentle face, Ruka sensed that something was wrong. "All right…"

The two of them went behind the shelves to get some privacy.

"I'm worried about Aoi-chan," Mikan began anxiously. "She's being bullied."

"I know," Ruka replied with a sigh. "It happens everyday. It's either she gets framed or hurt."

"That's terrible."

"I tried my best to protect her, but I'm not always there for her," Ruka said sadly. "Aoi is not that good in academics or in sports. She doesn't have friends and she's always alone in class. The teachers don't even mind her."

Mikan felt like crying. The Aoi Hyuuga she met yesterday was so cheerful and bright. She didn't expect a sweet girl like Aoi to live a life of misery.

"Another reason why people hate her is because of Natsume," Ruka concluded.

"Aoi-chan…" Mikan muttered, thinking of Aoi's smile and the gentleness in her crimson eyes.

"But you know what, Sakura," Ruka said, "Aoi is a lot like you."

"What do you mean?"

"Aoi smiles a lot and she's very optimistic like you," Ruka said, a smile plastered on his handsome face. "Even though Natsume probably doesn't care about her anymore, Aoi still loves Natsume. And you—even though Natsume picks on you, you're not afraid to stand up to him."

Mikan's face brightened up with a smile. "You're right!" she said. "But we still have to do something about Aoi-chan's predicament."

"Aoi tries to stand up to them," Ruka said, exasperated, "but those bullies overpower her so easily."

Mikan giggled at the disgust in Ruka's tone. "Don't worry… I'm sure we'll be able to think of something."

After the research work was done, Mikan hurried to Class 1-C to catch up with Aoi. Halfway down the hall, she saw Aoi being bullied by her classmates. She could see two girls mocking her and three boys throwing thrash at her.

"Stop it!" Aoi said.

"You're such an eyesore," one of the girls said. "Why don't you and your pathetic brother leave this school?"

"You guys don't belong here," the other girl urged.

One of the boys pushed Aoi to the floor and gripped her neck. "What an ugly bitch!" he uttered, laughing. "It's no wonder guys don't like you."

"Yeah…" another boy agreed. "Nobody will ever fall for an idiot like you."

Mikan recognized one of the boys. That boy had asked for her autograph one when she first came by Aoi's classroom.

Aoi was crying miserably. "Please stop it…" she pleaded.

"Don't tell me what to do!" the boy said as he slapped her face.

Mikan couldn't take it anymore. She marched up to them and pushed the guy away from Aoi. "Would you quit bullying her!" she exclaimed.

Normally, the guy would get mad at the interruption, but since he saw that it was Mikan Sakura, he immediately smiled nervously. "Oh, Sakura-san, it's nice to see you again."

The other two girls and guys flashed the brunette a smile. All of them, undeniably, were fans of Mikan.

"Don't act nice with me," Mikan said as she helped Aoi up. "Don't you have any shame? Bullying such a defenseless girl is awful!" She let Aoi cry on her chest as she rubbed her back for comfort.

The bullies were speechless. How could they be so careless enough not to realize that Mikan had been watching them doing their bullying on Aoi? Next time, they thought, they would be more careful. They don't want to look bad for their idol. But they couldn't care less about picking on a defenseless girl. They hated Aoi Hyuuga as much as they hated Natsume Hyuuga.

"We're very sorry, Sakura-san," one of the girls said. "It won't happen again." She was lying, but it wasn't that obvious.

"Don't apologize to me," Mikan said, her tone gruff. "Say sorry to Aoi-chan!"

The bullies hesitated. To say sorry to such an insignificant girl wasn't worth it, they wailed silently. But they must do it in front of Mikan. They didn't want to disappoint their idol.

"Hyuuga-san…" the girl started. Oh how she wanted to barf when she mentioned Aoi's name with respect. "We're really sorry."

Aoi didn't bother to reply. She was slow, but not that slow to realize that the girl was lying.

"Come on, Aoi-chan," Mikan said, helping Aoi back on her feet. "Let's go." She held onto Aoi's hand and dragged her off.

As soon as Mikan and Aoi were out of sight, the bullies groaned in disgust.

"I can't believe I said sorry to that bitch!" the girl said, clamping her mouth.

"Since when did that Hyuuga girl get so close to Sakura-san?" one of the boys said, feeling very jealous.

"That girl should learn her place!

"That's right. Sakura-san is too good for a scrawny and ugly girl like Hyuuga!"

This particular group of students was just some of the bullies who like picking on Aoi Hyuuga. There were many more, but they seem to toy with her almost everyday. One of the reasons here is because they've been classmates with Aoi since elementary days.

End of Episode 4

Mikan: I feel sorry for Aoi-chan!

Himeno: Me too. I feel bad writing about the bullying part.

Aoi: You just did that to make it deeper and darker, right?

Himeno: That's right.

Mikan: Oh, please review for this chapter! Himeno-chan doesn't want any flames.