- Usagi - Chapter two:

After Haruka's little adventure, the next few days went as they normally did; crap from Minako, lunch with Haruka, the same old, same old. I never expected to see Seiya Kou again, not on T.V any more and thankfully not in person. Or so I had wished. On one rainy Wednesday, I spied a pair of familiar blue eyes peering at me from an English class I happened to be strolling by. Just my luck.

The girls flocked around him and the guys hated him. He was a hack in their eyes and not nearly worth the amount of girls he was getting. Though he was being offered endless female pleasure everyday of the week, he simply ignored it and moped to himself. I didn't bother going to greet him, I was actually afraid he'd try and kill me. The way he would look at me as I passed him in the halls was enough to send shivers down my spine. I figured from how I read him, he wasn't happy to be at a public school and he was probably there because of me.

I sat against my tree by the fence as I usually did, and as scheduled, Haruka's sandy head popped over the side. She gave me her cocky tom boy smile and blew the hair from her eyes with her bottom lip.

"How's it going?" She asked me as she casually leaned against the fence.

"Eh…Not so good." I said as I pulled out my lunch.

She sighed and looked at me with the look of a scolding mother, "I told you not to let her get to you." She said.

"No. It's not Minako." I looked at my sandwich and realized I wasn't in the mood to eat. So I set it beside me and quickly forgot about it.

"What's wrong then?" She asked. I looked over my shoulder around the tree and pointed at Seiya who was sitting at a picnic table by himself, his head in his folded arms. It was a perfectly depressing picture.

"Oh wow!" She said with a giggle.

"You're way too happy about this…He looks so sad."

"Oh I am," She said then suddenly talking louder she screamed "Looks like the shit's really hit the fan for Seiya! Whew!"

I jumped up and tried to silence her with my hand all the while she was hooting and laughing hysterically. I looked over at Seiya who had now popped up from his seat at the table and was quickly walking in our direction. I tried to wave him away pretending that she had said something else but he had heard it crystal clear.

"What the hell do you want from me?" He asked as he closed in on Haruka, his hands balled up into fists, "You've ruined my career and now you need to add insult to injury?"

"Yeah I do. Someone needed to teach your cocky ass a lesson." She said looking as if she was ready to climb over the fence and pop him one.

"Come on you guys, can't you just apologize and put this behind you? The damage has been done, let's not cause anymore!" I tried to reason with them but the two were lost in their own argument, both shouting louder than the other to be heard but in the end they were both just screaming. I pushed myself away from the argument knowing that anything I said would have been a waste so I sat back down and watched them duke it out.

"Um Usagi?" A soft voice came from behind me, "I wanted to return your book that you lent me. It was a big help with my project." I looked over to see striking green hair flared about on top of a beautiful porcelain doll face.

"Oh it's no problem Michiru." I said as I took the book from her delicate hands. Michiru Kaoh was a girl in my class that I had known of for years but never really got to know enough to call her a friend. She was nice to me but from a completely different world. I was a bit of a middle class out cast while she was rather rich and popular and, of course, stunningly beautiful. I think Haruka had no troubles noticing that. She stood wordlessly with a goofy look on her face as Seiya continued to argue with her but it was safe to say, by looking at how far her jaw had dropped, she wasn't listening.

Michiru blinked for a second and tried to look away to shake Haruka's eyes off of her but that girl's stare was relentless. Trying to make it a little less awkward for her, I felt it was necissary to introduce them to each other.

"Oh, Michiru, this is my friend Haruka," I gestured to her, "Haruka this is Michiru."

Michiru smiled and waved at Haruka and she returned it but she abruptly began muttering something, still not able to peel her eyes from the girl. I couldn't hear what she had said very well but it sounded like she suddenly had to go somewhere. And it must have been an emergency as she immediately bolted down the street without saying so much as "bye". Meanwhile, Seiya slammed his hands into the fence pissed that he was stuck behind it having to watch his enemy sprint away.

"Hey! I'm not finished with you!" He screamed at her backside, but she was almost completely out of sight by then.

"Well!" Michiru said awkwardly, "I have to go, thanks again!" She gave a quick wave, and then rushed off to her group of friends who were waiting for her at her lunch table.

Seiya walked over to me with his hands in his pockets. I looked up at him and gave him my friendliest "don't hurt me" smile. However, he didn't look like he was in a forgiving mood. Feeling uneasy as he came closer, I placed my face in my knees and covered my head.

"I'm not going to hit you - I wouldn't hit a girl," he said nudging my leg with his foot, "If I did I would have punched your friend in the face by now."

I stood up and held out my hand in the universal shake sign, "Um. My name is Usagi Tsukino." He humored me, taking my hand and shaking it while staring me in the eye. His hand was warm and sent the same shivers up my spine I got in the halls when I glanced into his eyes. He really was a rock star. He had the hair, the attitude, and those eyes. He probably had won over hundreds of girls with those eyes, not me though. I found them frightening. I found it all odd though; we were inches from each other's faces at the dome. We were so close I remembered feeling his breath on me. I saw his face in angles only the way a girlfriend could, yet despite how intimate the situation was, we only had hatred between us.

"I'm sorry… About the wires…" I said as I pulled my hand back. His face went from neutral to angry in only a second. It appeared that the subject was not expected and certainly not welcome with him, I should have known better.

"Do you know why I'm here?" He asked glaring a hole into my skull. I shook my head and backed away a little, "I was fired. The record company I was signed onto decided they didn't want me anymore after finding out that I was lip syncing. So I have to get a real education since I'm no longer wanted in the music industry."

I was silent for a moment, I didn't expect to have anything to say to that but there was something I felt I had to. It was probably suicide but I said it anyways.

"Well had it been just a technical error wouldn't you have been let go anyways?"

He shifted a little where he was standing; he folded his arms in front of his chest and looked away for a moment. He appeared as if he was going to counter my statement but after fighting a small inner battle he just decided to sit down next to me. He sighed and stared blankly at the fence, his head hanging progressively lower and lower.

"Probably," He said as he rested his elbows on his knees, "I can't really sing. My manager discovered me when I was modeling for local menswear stores in my hometown. He asked me if I could sing, and I showed him what I could do and he seemed to think I was good. But it wasn't good it was 'good enough'."

I shakily placed my hand on his back, unsure if he would accept the gesture, "I'm sure you were good. I mean you did get as far as you did." I tried to reassure him but he gave a bitter chuckle and shook his head.

"He started adding all sorts of special effects to my voice so no one could really tell if I was good or bad…Truth is, I'm not good. I'm average. I don't even know how to read sheet music."

I never expected him to tell me all of this. Maybe he had been so humbled by what Haruka had done he decided to accept everything with grace. We sat together in peace for a while, I felt too uncomfortable to say anything though. Suddenly he shrugged my hand from his shoulder and stood up.

"Just because I told you this doesn't mean we're friends. I may have been fired if it was a technical issue but it wasn't the hand of god, it was you. You should know I was living a perfect lifestyle. I was rich and famous and loved. And now I'm the subject of every joke on late night T.V." He looked down and smiled resentfully, "So needless to say, I hate you."

"Seiya…I'm sorry." I said looking up at him. Suddenly a pair of black high heels appeared before me. I followed them up to their owner's pale legs, shamelessly short skirt and long blond hair. Her mouth was curled up in a malicious smile and suddenly a ball of sharp paper edges was thrown at my forehead. I stood up and took the wad of paper and squashed it so tightly in my hand my knuckles had gone white.

"Minako, what do you want?" I asked sharply, she smiled and shook her face at me.

"Even a stupid bitch like yourself should know why I'm here. I made another masterpiece for you." She said with a witch-like laugh. She turned to Seiya, who looked a little confused, and forced a handshake on him. "Minako Aino." She stated as she violently shook his hand.

"Hi." He replied, his eyebrows curving in befuddlement. Only a few seconds after she introduced herself, she had an arm draped over his shoulders and a hand on his chest.

"I see you've met the dyke queen here," she looked up to him lovingly, "I suggest you stay away from her. She has all sorts of nasty diseases from licking too much carpet. You won't be able to get a girlfriend here if people think you have contagious dyke diseases." The anger was rising up in me every time she gave out her exasperated laughs. She normally didn't talk to me, she just tortured me from afar but today she was different. She knew she had an ally against me, someone whose popularity could send waves of hatred from the entire student body directly at me. Seiya was the photon cannon of peer torture.

Minako leaned closer to Seiya who was now looking a little unstable under her weight, she was still making her stupid bitchy comments at me but after a while she was just repeating the same lines over and over again. She wasn't much of a thinker, so she had to keep her old train of thought running. I quickly pitched the paper wad at her own face and it bounced off her head like it had done with me but it ricocheted back and hit me in the chest. A boob hit. Real smooth, Usagi.

"Nice shot." She said as she continued to belt out her loud donkey-like guffaws. Completely fed up, I decided it was time to go to Chemistry. I walked passed her and gave her a slight bump with my shoulder sending her and Seiya toppling to the ground. I could hear some more nasty comments coming from behind me but I didn't really care. I just pretended I couldn't hear her.

-

By the time I had settled down at my desk I was beginning to regret reacting to Minako. I was seeing so much red I had forgotten I had to deal with her in my Chemistry class. In fact she sat right behind me, the most excellent place for her to quietly harass me without getting caught. She would undoubtedly jab me in the back so many times she'd start to draw blood since I pushed her. I could see it in her face as she walked into the class room shaking her rear a little more than she usually did every step. Then I noticed why. Trailing behind her was Seiya. He was apparently in my Chemistry class now and most likely would be Minako's new best friend.

I ducked my head down into my arms as I listened to the chair behind me pull out. The blond demon didn't hesitate in violently kicking my seat immediately after she had sat down. I peeked over my shoulder to see her and Seiya glaring at me. This wasn't my day.

Mr. Chiba, our Chemistry teacher sat up, peeled his reading glasses from his handsome face and placed them on the desk. He stood up and held a hand out gesturing to Seiya introducing him and then quickly got to business, as he always did. He took out a large stack of papers and aligned them by tapping them against his desk

"These are your projects." He informed us as he held them high up in the air, "It is due one week from today. You will work with a partner of my choosing and together you two will decide what your topic will be."

As he began to pass the papers out, I looked nervously around the room. My normal chem. partner, Rei, patted my hand and smiled at me with her deep blue eyes, "I hope we get to be partners" she said cheerfully.

I nodded, "I hope so too."

Mr. Chiba then pulled out his seating chart and studied it for a second, "Ok, these are your partners. Listen closely, I'll start alphabetically: Minako Aino is partnered with Usagi Tsukino."

Damn it all to hell.

I wanted to slam my head into my desk and end it right there. Of all the people in a class of twenty-five I was stuck with the daughter of Lucifer himself. She pounded on her desk in protest but her efforts were ignored by Mr. Chiba who was relentlessly continuing down the list. I then started to hear snickering from behind me. It was Minako and her snotty party girl friends verbally tearing me apart "behind my back". They knew I could hear them though. This was going to be an awful week. Not only was I probably going to have to pull Minako's dead academic weight, I would also have to deal with her insults the entire time.

Mr. Chiba then allowed us time to go to the library to start our research for the rest of the period and everyone exited the classroom to go do everything but. I followed Minako out of the classroom all the way until she pushed open a black door and we were out of the building all together. She plopped down on a short brick wall that separated the building from the landscaping.

"What are we doing out here?" I asked. Not looking at me, she shrugged and pulled a pack of cigarettes and lighter from her purse. It was strange; though she was still very cold she wasn't trying to ruin me. Perhaps she only did it when her friends were around? If that was the case I figured I had the power to turn our bad relationship into a better one.

I stood and watched her blow some of the smoke out of her nose as I thought of some casual conversation starters. I decided I'd start with something simple. "That perfume you're wearing smells nice." I said, my voice shaking in fear of all the possible outcomes of that one innocent statement.

"It's mango body spray," she corrected me in a monotone voice, still not looking at me, "My dad owns the company that makes it, so I have a lot of it at home. It comes in apple too."

Great, I was getting somewhere. "That probably smells good too, right?"

"Yeah…" She laughed, though still halfhearted about the conversation, "No. My mom uses the apple spray when she's done dropping a bomb in the bathroom. So I now associate the smell of apples with bathroom farts." She said as she took another drag from her cigarette. I just stood silently trying not to show my "what the hell?!" expression that was battling to take over my face.

I leaned my upper body over the wall and watched my pigtails dangle over the sides. This wasn't going the way I planned, maybe I was wrong and she still hated every fiber of my being even when she wasn't with her friends. She had to be just screwing with me. She called all the shots with my life. Who would like and who would hate me rested in her hands. I could never win. I was thinking of giving up and going back inside when suddenly out of the blue she asked a question that startled me.

"Do you like the new kid?" She asked.

I started to feel my face get hot so I held my head a little lower as I felt my pigtails touch the dirt below, "No. He's a jerk to me. If I did, he wouldn't deserve it."

She did another carefree shrug and blew some more smoke out of the side of her sparkly pink lip glossed mouth, "I think he's got a thing for you." She stated. I then looked up questioningly at her and she finally broke her gaze with nothing and looked down at me, "He said I was a bitch for calling you a dyke earlier. If you weren't such a dork I would be positive he had something for you."

This was news. From what I saw he wasn't interested in me in the slightest. He told me he hated me. But what if it was a lie? I shook my head shaking the idea out of my head. "Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it," I said backing away, "If he knows what a great big bitch you are then why is he hanging around with you?"

Minako put her cigarette out on the concrete top of the wall and flicked it into the grass. She then straddled the wall in her skirt and flipped her blond hair to the side, her mouth curled up into a strangely playful smile, "I think you're afraid of him."

"Yeah, I'm afraid he's going to end me." I said with a nervous laugh.

"No, no, I think you're afraid of him because he's a guy," her voice was now becoming devious and her smile was growing wider with every second. She was like a wolf, she could sense how uncomfortable she was making me and she was enjoying it, "Now that I think of it I've never seen you with a guy."

"I have a few guy friends…" I said shakily, it was a lie though.

"Yeah right," She said with a laugh, "That transvestite you hang out with doesn't count. You're a virgin aren't you?"

I started to back away to the doors behind me, this wasn't something I wanted to think about let alone talk about with my nemesis. She was starting to push me to the edge.

"Ok…ok…What if he asked you out? Would you go with him?" She asked. This was beginning to sound strangely like girl talk.

"No." I stated with confidence, though inside I was thinking other things. I wouldn't know what to say if he asked me out. I didn't know him. I didn't know what he would want from me.

"Oh! Why not?" She said as she slapped her hands against the concrete.

"I'm not that type of girl…" I wrapped my arms around my waist.

"You're afraid he'll want to have sex with you aren't you?!" She said joyously as she watched me flinch a little. I could see a spark in her eye. Se was pleased to know that she had pushed all the right buttons, "Oh my god! You're afraid to be fucked! That explains so much! I've seen nerds worse than you have better sex lives. I mean even Runny Risa has fucked someone and she's a god damned tank - that smells like piss no less! Oh and then there is Nami Tomokazu, you know the girl with the pizza face? She's boasted doing it doggy style in the library after school! You need to get that ass in the game!"

She was now breaking out into laughter that was like poison to my ears. Here I was willing to make an attempt to meet her half way and be friends but she just pushed me right back into my hole. With my throat too closed up to speak I swiftly turned around and ran back into the school pushing the door shut with my back, all the while cursing her, wishing the worst on her.