"No. I'm not going to school and you can't make me!" Raya said defiantly, sitting on the couch in a tee shirt and sweat pants, school uniform nowhere in sight.
" But if you don't go to school, you'll fall out of good graces with your teachers and they might actually get mad when you must 'take a leave of absence' for long periods of time and your father will get mad because you failed and NO ONE wants your father to get mad!" Akira said bluntly, sounding more like Raya's older sister than her younger one.
"Nope! Not going! Not no way! Not no how!" Raya stood fast in her current 'yes-I-know-I'm-acting-like-a-two-year-old-but-you're-going-to-deal-with-it' attitude.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" Izzy sing-songed at the person she had yet to see.
"Izzabelle!" Raya scolded, "Did we not already have the 'he-could-be-an-axe-murderer' discussion?"
"Oh! Right." Izzy thought for a moment, "Come in if you're not an axe murderer!" She chimed back.
The door slowly swung open to reveal a very amused Shuichi.
"Rayanna?" He questioned.
"No." was her only statement as she fell over and pulled the throw over her head.
"I came to see if you would walk with me to school."
"Not going."
"Why? Are you sick?" He sounded almost worried.
"No. Just don't wanna go."
"But won't your grades suffer if you don't come?" He had the stern big brother voice going now.
"Don't care. Go away; I don't want to see you." Rayanna sounded sad, like she really meant what she said.
"What?" She yet again confused him.
"Follow me." Raya sounded exhausted, "I need to speak with you. Alone." She sounded forceful enough to keep her sisters from listening in on the conversation. She walked toward the stairs and s obediently followed. As she closed her bedroom door, she asked the one question that immediately lets you know that you are in trouble
"Is there something you'd like to tell me?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Shuichi smiled just enough to make the casual observer think he was trying to be mysterious, but to Raya, it made him lose all guiltlessness.
"Oh! I don't know. The fact that you aren't human might be a good start!" She sounded pissed, but only because she was.
"So you know." All traces of the smile erased themselves from his features as he became much more serious.
"I thought you would have told me after you overheard my rant, but I guess I was wrong." Rayanna retorted bitterly.
"I'm sorry, but I don't normally tell people things like that. Hi, I'm Shuichi Minamino. I am sixteen years old and a student at Meio, an academically advanced high school. Did I mention that I'm a centuries old mythological being from another realm?" He shot back, even more bitingly than Raya.
"I'm sorry." Rayanna said quietly upon regaining her senses. "I had no right to say something like that and I apologize greatly for it. Do you still want me to walk you to school?" Raya looked coyly at him.
"You might need to put this on first." He said, holding up her uniform.
She took it and stepped into the closet to change, wondering how he had gotten the outfit out of there in the first place.
By the time she was dressed and ready to go, Kurama had found a problem with their going to school plan.
"You know we've missed half our morning classes by now, correct?"
"Yes, I know. But it was excused." Raya took a piece of paper from a dark wooden box by the bed.
"Really? And how is that?" He questioned, actually curious.
"Because, we have been aiding the chief of police in decoding an encrypted letter from a crime scene. We were there all night and into the morning, but being the two dedicated students we are, we still wanted to come to school, so as to not hurt ourselves academically." Raya stated, showing him the paper.
"Do I even want to know how you got this?" He asked, smiling.
"My father is the king of Spirit World. I can have anything my heart desires." Rayanna smiled back playfully.
As they entered the school, they stopped and gave their excuse note to the secretary.
"Are you sure this is what you two were doing?" she asked them teasingly.
"Of course!" Raya beamed back.
"You are such a liar!" Kurama laughed when they were out of earshot.
"I know, but it's for her own good, so I don't feel bad about it."
The entire class smirked at them when they walked in together.
"See! I told you they were siblings!" one commented as they passed.
Rayanna turned around to check if the teacher was in the room. He wasn't. "We are not siblings." She said bluntly.
"There's too much in common for you not to be!" he persisted.
"Yea!" added another, "you are both intelligent, both of you have bright red hair, plus you both have the same last name!"
"That is true, but it doesn't automatically mean that we're related." Kurama looked at them coldly.
"You we're both just gone at the same time! You have to be related!" he persisted. "And nothing you can do will change my mind."
"I beg to differ!" Rayanna proceeded to turn around and kiss Kurama. No one made a sound.
"I suppose what we have learned here is that for every stroke of genius there is an equal and opposite retard moment. What we have just witnessed, students, is one such retard moment. So, who had a stroke of genius?" Rayanna looked up to see the teacher looking very amused. "I hope it was good, because now I'll see you both after school." He smiled and motioned for them to take their seats. He turned and began to write on the board, then looked slyly over his shoulder at Kurama, "Was it good?"
Kurama looked away sulking, as Raya blushed profusely and the entire class snickered.
Later that day, they found they were not alone in detention.
"Okay. To start this detention off right, I want each of you to stand up and say why you're here and what you learned."
The first person stood, "I back talked a teacher. I learned that teachers deserve respect."
"I didn't do my homework. I learned that your work is an important part of your education." The second stated, not sounding like he planned to learn from his 'mistake' at all.
"I skipped school. I learned that you can't learn if you don't show up."
Kurama was next. "I was caught for PDA. I learned that there are some things which are simply inappropriate at school."
Rayanna stood up confidently as he sat down, slightly shamed, "I was the other half of his PDA. I learned that you shouldn't get caught." She sat down, looking cockily back at the teacher.
He looked back at her with the same amused look he had when he caught them that morning, "At least we all learned something from our mistakes. Now leave, I have better things to than baby-sit a bunch of would be delinquents. Shoo! I do not want you here! Go home!"
They all began to gather their things, wondering if it was even legal for him to do this, but not really caring because they were now out of trouble.
"What now?" Kurama asked as they left the building.
"Now, you do as you please because I have a previous engagement that I am late for. You can come if you want." She added after seeing the look that had momentarily crossed his face.
"I too have somewhere to be, but not for a while. I'll come with you if you go with me."
"Okay. Follow me."
He unexpectedly stopped and looked at her questioningly, "What exactly are you going to do?"
"Going to a place to see a person about a thing." She skipped ahead, silently pondering where this conversation would end up.
"I'm fairly certain that should worry me." He smirked as he passed her.
"You're probably right." She giggled as she skirted around him.
The pair had walked all the way through town and well into the forest when he stopped again.
"Where are we going?" He sounded forceful this time, as if he really wanted a straight answer.
"Fine. I am going to see Master Genkia. There is a new fighting team I'm supposed to meet. It shouldn't take long. I have to meet them, fight them, and decide if I think they'll actually live through the tournament or not. We'll be done in no time." Rayanna smile as she began to walk again.
"I guess we'll just have to see about that." Kurama glanced at her, as if to say that she was wrong, she just didn't know it yet.
"Something tells me that I should be worried, but I'm not." She shot back the same look he had given her.
A/N: Yes the chapters are short. Yes, I like them that way. Yes, that is how they shall stay.