There are a few problems with being best friends with your worst enemy's cousin.

That was the topic Azami reflected on as she sat in art class while said best friend and said enemy flicked elastic bands at her. Talk about betrayal.

Ping! 'OWWW' she shouted, as something hit her square in the back. She whirled around. Mads and Kai were both apparently intent upon their work. They looked up simultaneously, with matching innocent expressions. She was going to kill them both.

'Is there a problem Azami?'

Azami looked up at her teacher, whose name she couldn't remember. Azami often went through whole school years not having learnt the names of her teachers and the vast majority of her classmates. She had a mind like a sieve.

'Yes...Mr..Sir...' Azami said, she threw a glare Kai's way, 'someone is flicking things at me'

Kai looked up from his work, and then looked around the room with a stern expression on his face, like he was trying to find the culprit. What a cheek! Azami glared at him harder and Mads persistent cough sounded awfully like a disguised snigger.

Azami got back to work after a few more minutes of protesting at her teacher who obviously thought she was pretending. She would have argued the issue but she had a feeling she would have just found herself hauled up in front of the school counsellor for 'disruptive' tendencies.

She got back to work and then it happened again, two minutes later. Except this time, the elastic band hit her right in the back of her head.

She turned around, this time he didn't even bother to pretend. He mouthed something at her, smirked and looked back at his work.

BULLSEYE. That's what he mouthed at her. Azami could almost feel her blood boil. This meant war.

She got up, with the pretence of fetching a new paint brush and stalked across the room to where Kai and Mads were sat talking to each other. In Russian. Oh that was another charming family trait. Whenever they wanted to talk about something private, often from other sides of the room, they would just slip into their mother tongue. It was irritating to say the least. Especially when Kai developed the habit of smirking at her every time there was a pause in dialogue. Azami would totally learn Russian if it wasn't for the fact that after four years of French she hadn't got beyond 'My name is...'

'Uh hum' Azami cleared her throat. They stopped their conversation and turned to look at her. As if they didn't already know she was there. She glowered at them.

'Can we help you?' Kai asked with every semblance of politeness except for that damn smirk.

'I thought you might like these back' she threw the elastic bands down onto his desk.

'And' Azami carried on, turning to look at her best friend, 'Why are you taking his side?'

'Side?' they did that damn simultaneous thing again.

'Yes, you're flicking things at me' Azami hissed at him, and then turned on Mads, 'and you're letting him'

'Are you flicking things at her Kai?' Mads turned on him, in outrage.

'Well of course not' Kai replied shocked, 'Are you?'

That was it.

Azami lost it. She flipped.

'You threw a bowl of paint over your teacher?'

'No...' Azami started, 'Well, it was a bowl of water mixed with paint'

Mariah sat down. She felt faint.

Stupid Kai. Stupid, stupid Kai. He moved out of the way at the last moment. And, splash, it went all over Mr Art Teacher Man.

It had been awful. Azami hadn't been shouted at so much since...well since the last time she tried to best Hiwatari. He was always one step ahead of her, or three or four.

Then a new voice joined the din. She swore that people in this school had radar for any new gossip or scandal. 'Is it really true that you punched Mr Wright?'

Azami fell off her chair. 'WHAT!? Tala where the hell did you get that from?'

Tala shrugged, 'Everyone's talking about it'

'HIWATARI!'

So that was how it was for the rest of the day. Just about everyone Azami knew, even the sane reasonable people like Ray and Max, approached her to ask her whether or not it was true that she'd assaulted Mr Wright. Her previous notoriety among her fellow students had been related to her aptness for turning up to the wrong classes with odd shoes.

However this cloud did have a silver lining. She had heard so many people say 'Yeah that crazy Tokyo chick attacked Mr Wright in class!' she was never ever going to forget her art teacher's name again. What a comfort.

So now she had detention after school in the art department, clearing up paint and sorting out materials and whatever. Just great. Not to mention the detentions she hadn't finished yet for the previous misdemeanour. She was double booked for detentions. That was pretty shameful.

That's why she could be found after school getting her hands dirty trying to wash dried up paint off hundreds of paintbrushes. The art rooms usually the busiest place in school was completely empty after school.

And Azami was BORED, so very bored.

She was never good at tidying up. It was a well known fact that you entered Azami Tokyo's room at your peril. There was a foot layer of rubbish in there. You literally couldn't see the floor for junk.

She was still bent over the sink, futilely trying to wash up when she heard the door open behind her.

'Yeah I know I'm not even half way finished' she muttered knowing it was going to be a glowering Mr Wright, see she did learn his name, come to check on her.

Nobody answered so she turned around.

It was Kai. A very alone Kai. With none of his groupie or followers or minions. Not even Tala.

'What do you want?' she snapped at him sullenly crossing her arms.

He looked at her for a moment and sighed. He walked past her to the sink. She watched as he rolled up his sleeves. He turned and smirked at her, as she carried in gaping at him.

'What are you doing?' she asked slowly.

He smirked at her, 'Washing up. What are you doing?'

She frowned at him 'Why are you helping me?'

'Who said I'm helping you' he replied without glancing at her, 'I always stay behind after school to help out'

She couldn't help but grin at him, 'Oh because you're a model student'

He passed her a paintbrush to dry, and grinned 'Well you said it'

They entered into a little routine where he would wash the palettes and brushes and she would dry them. It was actually kind of comfortable. Kind of nice, Azami thought. Not that she would ever, ever admit it.

'Thanks' Azami muttered eventually breaking the silence.

'What?' Kai turned to her, a frown fixed on her face.

'Thank you' Azami murmured again, this time a little louder.

Kai continued to frown at her, she started to wonder if she was doing that thing where she thought she was saying something out loud but it was just her own thoughts. That happened nearly as often as the times when she said her random thoughts aloud without thinking.

'Seriously, I don't know what you're saying' he replied quietly, leaning in closer.

'Thank you' she repeated herself again, practically shouted at him.

He smirked at her, 'You're welcome' then he leaned forward whispering into her ear 'but I heard you the first time'

ARGH! He was the most annoying person ever. One minute he could do the most selfless, thoughtful things then the next he was back to his usual smug, self serving ways. She glared at him and marched to the other side of the room.

He could never just be nice. Everything had to come back to his love of annoying her. He was just so...frustrating!

And she was so busy thinking about that evil, evil boy, she didn't even notice when she bumped into a bottle of paint, precariously positioned at the edge of the worktop. Splash it went all over her sweater. It was just another thing. Another stressful event in another stressful day. It was just too much. If it wasn't for him standing there, she probably would have burst into tears.

'Don't even say anything' she snapped at him, he raised both his hands in an ironic gesture of peace.

She had to take her sweater off and wash the paint out while it was still wet. Azami had long since gotten used to her reputation among her friends, and the student population in general, as the klutz. The person who could be counted on to trip over her feet. Drop plates. Walk into doors. Fall down the stairs. Fall up the stairs. She was a walking accident zone.

And it had to be this time, when she was in the room with her worst enemy that the bubblehead syndrome kicked in. It got worse. Of course it did. She was half out of her sweater when she realised she was stuck. She had gotten her head stuck in her own clothing. You wouldn't believe it, if you hadn't met Azami before. She was one of a kind.

She struggled for several second, well aware that Kai was probably sitting back watching her like she was great entertainment. Or worse he could be filming her on his phone. It'd be all round the school. Line up; line up, to see the girl who got stuck in her sweater! She could end up on Youtube. She wouldn't put it past him.

Suddenly, she felt his hands on her. 'Go away' she muttered but it was so muffled she was sure it came out more like 'Geray'.

'Do you wanna stay like this?' he asked her, a note of amusement in his voice she deeply resented. She shook her head, he couldn't see it but he probably got the message anyway.

He pulled the jumper up over her head and she inhaled deeply. She might have to add claustrophobia to her list of mental ticks. 'Hey' she squeaked randomly when she was free, suddenly aware of how close they were. 'Hey' he murmured back, his voice strangely deep, somehow more mature than usual. And Azami was sure they were much closer than before. She didn't remember moving closer towards him. That was strange.

'We leave them for half an hour and they're already taking each others clothes off'

Azami jumped back, hitting her elbow on a desk.

Mads, Nami and Mai were all stood in the doorway, with very different expressions plastered on their faces. Mads could only be described as looking as though she was the cat that had got the cream. It was her of course that had made the opening comment, mostly for Mai's benefit Azami surmised. Mai in fact looked like she was about to throttle someone, but she quickly covered it with a look of surprised concern. Nami just looked bored but that was one of her signature looks whenever she got in range of Azami anyway.

'I got paint on my sweater' Azami commented lamely.

Mads raised an eyebrow, in such a jauntily suggestive way as to make Azami's cheeks flush a deep crimson. Azami ran over to the sink just so that she wouldn't have to look at the Hiwatari and their varying smirking expressions, not to mention Mai's irritating beyond belief simper.

'You should really rinse that out quickly before it stains' Mai said in that faux sweet voice, somewhere behind her. Azami was pretty sure she heard Mads snort disparagingly. Azami mumbled something that was meant to be a thank you.

It was Nami who spoke up next, interrupting the all too awkward silence that had emerged. 'Are you going to drive us home now?'

'Sure' Kai said, 'Let's go'. Azami still didn't turn around, although she could actually imagine their gazes burning into her back. The door closed unceremoniously with only Kai's small 'bye' as they all left.

Azami turned around. Or rather not all of them had left. 'What are you still doing here?'

Mads smirked, 'You think I'd leave with them? Because I really want to spend twenty minutes listening to the gruesome twosome babble on about Justin Timberlake or hair bands or whatever else cheerleaders talk about?'

Azami smiled semi cheered up, 'And anyway' Mads continued, 'I have to drive you home don't I? We don't want a repeat of that infamous incident where you got lost in your own street'

'That only happened once' Azami protested, 'all the houses look the same after dark' she added sulkily.

'Come on' Mads grinned pulling her friend along, 'Now, you can give me a long blow by blow analysis of exactly what happened with you and Kai in detention'

Azami wilted, Mads was probably the only person in the whole world who could make 'blow by blow analyses sound dirty. Seriously.

This was the strangest day ever.