A shower of whispers scattered the room.

"Man, she is g-o-o-rgeo-us," whispered Horohoro, in the state of a trance. The man glared at him, causing him to shrink timidly into his seat and wish he could disappear forever. "Too bad," replied Yoh to Horohoro, "Cause I get first grabs." An uproar issued, surrounding an unconcerned Ren. He was too busy observing the girl to take part in Horohoro and Yoh's stupid fights. There was something strange about the girl, something that created an uneasy atmosphere around her. Then it hit him.

The girl was blind.

She was playing with her fingers, head towards the floor with her eyes in a dark shadow. Everyone was too busy obsessing over her looks to notice the way she would stare blankly at an empty wall, then back to the floor again, staring through them as if they didn't exist. The Tao smirked. His lack of interest in girls' looks had finally paid off. Now, to tell the rest of the world...

Ren Tao took a good look at her. Shit damn, she was beautiful all right. Her silky long hair had been combed into a messy bun, which complimented her sparkling black-blue eyes perfectly. Not to mention her perfectly carved body, arched slightly at the chest and thin at the waist. Every girl's dream body. With a slight 'hmph', Ren looked back to his vocabulary book. 'I'll never fall in love, not for all the milk in China.' He folded his arms and stared blank-faced at the definition of the word 'stubborn' in front of him.

stubborn (adj) - unreasonably or perversely unyielding

Ren raised his eyebrows and slammed the book shut.

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20 minutes later...

A frantic Jun, finally able to get the class in control amongst piles of paper wads and broken pencils, screamed at the top of her lungs.

"SHUUUUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!"

Horohoro froze midway from being about to stab his pencil into Yoh's thigh. Yoh stopped halfway from lodging a sticky-looking wad of paper mache in Lyserg's hair, and several other students were either engaged in fights with the girls, or were involved in the paper wad fight as well. Jun looked on the verge of tears.

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" She broke out crying and went to her desk, sinking down into her chair and sobbing into her arms. Ren was shocked.

'You're not supposed to cry... you're my sister... you're a Tao!'

Horohoro was silent as he went over to comfort Jun. Sure, she was the teacher, but she was still a friend. The rest of the class, heads down in shame, began to pick up after themselves. The blind girl kept her head down, eyes in shadow, and did nothing. Her father had left already, leaving the girl in care of the teacher. He somewhat reminded Ren of his own father - uninvolved, leaving everything to someone else.

Jun had recovered from her state of depression and began helping everyone pick up. Ren, flushed from the recent experience with his sister, simply sat in his seat and did nothing. He didn't have anything to do with angering Jun, and therefore would have nothing to do with helping the other students pick up. Instead, he took to watching the blind girl again.

She had been making her hair. After untying the ten, twenty ribbons that had wound their way around her tangled up arms, her hair was let down with a soft whoosh. Horohoro began blushing profusely. She brought her hair up in a double loop, then tied it up again with her ribbons in the exact same way. 'Well, that was pointless,' thought Ren.

She did this over and over again, achieving the same results each time, until Ren could take it no longer. "Why don't you quit doing that?" She sure was strange. Shaking her head frantically to try and find the source of the voice, she gave up and replied, to no one in particular, "Because I have nothing better to do. Because I don't want to be here. Because this school is filled with bitches and bastards, that's why. To think you would have the nerve to do that to your teacher is... shameful." Ren was unmoved. "Whatever." The girl winced and went half-heartedly back to doing her hair.

By now the class had finished picking up. "Miss Jun," they sang out, "we're do-oo-one!" Little Miss Sunshine smiled her happy grin and turned her attention back to the girl in front. "I'm sorry..." mumbled Jun. "They get out of control a lot... you must think horribly of us, don't you?" The girl was silent. Jun mumbled again. "Why don't you tell everyone about yourself?"

'This is really stupid... why am I even here? Why can't I go back to China?... And the people here are seriously out of control! God, why can't they shyuuut up!' thought the girl. "Ok, well... uh...lesee... My name is Li Mei, I come from Chinaaaaa... uuuh... aaah... I like strawberry shortcake? Iono..." Several of the girls giggled. Li Mei glared at the floor and continued. "Um, well, I'm fifteen, and I'm living with my father on Funbari Hill. We're only here for a little while, until my dad gets some business sorted out here with his realtor, and then we're moving back to China." A disappointed sigh was let out by Horohoro. "So... yeah. Any questions?"

"Yeah." Ren raised his hand. "What...? Oh, you again. Yes... what is it?" Li Mei sighed.

"Are you blind?"

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Li Mei was paralyzed. 'That bastard, fucking bastard you, saying it straight out like that! Don't you care... how would you feel if you were blind?'

Soft murmurs could be heard around the classroom.

"Well? Are you? Cause it's not like we'll disrespect you or anything if you are..." This time it was Yoh speaking.

"So what if I am? OK, then, I am. Now what are you going to do?" She was furious, outraged.

"Nothing, really, unless you want us to." Horohoro whispered quietly.

Li Mei lifted her head to reveal shock. 'They... don't care? It doesn't matter to them... They won't discriminate me?' Tears filled her eyes. "Thank you."

Jun grabbed Li Mei's arm and dragged her to her seat. "There. Sit. Good girl. Now then, let's all help Li Mei however we can, ok?" She ruffled her hair. "She's counting on you."

Li Mei was sitting next to Ren, with Horohoro on the left and behind Yoh, in front of Lyserg. All four of them stared at her: one with pure admiration, one with care and friendship, one with curiosity, and one with... a Ren-stare. You know, the one that's completely emotionless. Li Mei was slightly intimidated. She resumed to doing her hair absentmindedly with one hand while the other traced the outline of the words 'Pre-Calculus' on her newly purchased schoolbook. Li Mei sighed happily. She loved math.

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