c h a p t e r 6

She smiled at me as I walked by, and my face immediately flushed red as past events entered my mind. I sat down in my seat, not late for once, and ignored the look of shock I received from Sting.

"Yo.. what's up with you?"

"Nothing!"

He narrowed his eyes, then saw Mr. Lorrnoke enter the classroom, surprised as well that I was there before him. Stellar grinned at Mr. Lorrnoke, AKA Neo, and her eyes widened with happiness when he set some package on her desk.

"There you go Stellar, I bought it just for you."

"Thank you Neo!"

She opened the package hastily, then gasped with delight when she found a necklace. She put it on immediately, the little pendant of a silver heart shining around her neck.

He smiled at her, "glad you like it."

I frowned, looking out the window, away from Stellar. I could felt jealousy rise in me, I was the one who wanted to make Stellar smile like that. I wanted to make her eyes shine with clear happiness, not Mr. Lorrnoke.

"Well class, today we're not going to be doing much, I'll be pretty busy so you can go on a scavenger hunt, the first to find all the items get's a prize."

'Oh brother..'

The class partnered up and took a list, then went outside, looking for the items. I was partnered with Sting, and Shinn was partnered with Youlan.

My aqua eyes looked on the list, then widened, 'an opal? Damn! How can we find an opal around here?'

I looked to the other partners, then saw the look of confusion on their faces, smirking. Shinn caught my eyes, then he glared at me, a sudden, determined look in his eye. He then began to dig around the earth, everyone looking at him strangely, then held out something.

An sparkling opal.

"Where the hell did you find that, Asuka?" Yzak questioned.

"Mr. Lorrnoke wouldn't give us impossible things, he'd hide them in certain areas."

"Oh.." Dearka rubbed the back of his head, "to think I could've slacked off at this subject.."

Shinn went over to Stellar, then I could see that he was trying to impress her, seeing her give his opal to her. I frowned when I saw her hug him happily, and my fists clenched when I saw his cheeks redden.

'Oh.. two could play at this game..'

I began to hurriedly look around, then something caught my eyes in the tree. Something shiny, small, and easily spotted if you looked up into that tree for awhile. I jumped up, then landed on a branch, picking up the item I had spotted. It was a silver shell, pretty rare around our area, and certainly impossible to find in a tree.

I jumped down, seeing Sting's strange expression, "what?"

"Since when are you interested in doing any part of the work? Not to mention tree climbing?"

I held up the silver shell, a smirk playing on my lips, and saw Sting look to the paper, "silver shell... hmm... I'm actually surprised."

I shrugged, then walked over to Stellar, ignoring Sting's puzzled look. I smiled, "here Stellar, I found it for you," I said, holding out the sea shell towards her. I knew she loved the ocean and sea shells.

Her eyes widened with happiness, her cheeks flushing with excitement, "wow Auel! Thank you! Stellar loves it!"

She accepted it, staring at in intensely, and I turned, facing Shinn, smirking. He looked at me with pure anger, and I turned back to Stellar, giving her a hug.

She smiled at me, "Stellar likes Auel."

"I like you too Stellar," I said, thinking, 'cross out like... I love you!'

I went back to Sting, then continued looking for new items, this time for myself, I didn't want Shinn to win this thing. I wanted the prize, so I could impress Stellar with it. Since it was from Neo, she'd probably want it.

"Athrun!! That's not fair!" I heard Kira cry out.

"Oh yes it is! They dropped it so I guess it's ours now."

"But... that's stealing!"

"No it's not.. think of it as... finders keepers."

I sighed with annoyance, then got on my hands and knees, looking through the grass for something. I found something shiny, and it looked like the silver pendant Stellar had around her neck. I looked to her, and saw the chain was pendantless. I slipped the heart into my pocket, feeling suspicious about this pendant.

"Cagalli... That's not a hawke feather..."

"Yes it is, Lacus! What do you know?"

"I know that that is not a hawke feather... look at it! It's a crow's feather!"

Cagalli sighed, then tossed the feather away, "whatever.."

Soon, the scavenger hunt was over when Mr. Lorrnoke called us in. I sat beside Stellar, with Shinn on the opposite side of her, his arm around her as if he owned her.

I growled, then looked away, pretending to ignore them.

"Well well, the winner appears to be Shinn Asuka and Youlan Kent."

The two stood, highfiving eachother, a grin on their faces, "Alright!!!"

Mr. Lorrnoke smiled, "alright, the prize is, you two get to choose your own partners for the next assignment, worth half your mark this semester. You two, however, cannot choose eachother."

I slapped my forhead, already knowing who Shinn was going to choose, and scolded myself, I should've won!

"Hmm... I choose Stellar."

Youlan sighed, "I choose Vino."

Mr. Lorrnoke grinned, "thought your prize would be better than this? Well this is a good prize, because the rest of the class is partnered randomly and this assignment will be worth a lot of your mark."

The class groaned, then saw Mr. Lorrnoke walk to the front of the class from behind his desk, holding a piece of paper.

"Meer Campbell and Auel Neider."

We looked to eachother, and Lacus' twin smiled at me. I knew she would be a good partner. Lacus and Meer were both twins, although Meer was picked on because of that.

"Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yula Athha."

I saw Athrun grin at that, and Cagalli blushed a little. I wondered if this was actually random pairing, or Mr. Lorrnoke trying to play match maker.

"Lacus Clyne and Kira Yamato."

Yep, for sure. He was playing match maker.

"Rey Za Burrel and Lunamaria Hawke."

'Ew... weird couple there. But maybe Rey would like her.. after all, he was weird too.'

"Dearka Elsman and Miriallia Haww.. Yzak Jule and Shiho Hahnenfuss.. Sting Oakley and Fllay Allster.."

Everyone seemed pretty happy with their partners, I was happy too, but not as happy as I wanted to be. I wanted Stellar to be my partner! It wasn't fair... now Shinn was going to spend a lot of time with her and she might fall for him!

I sighed, then saw everyone walking to their partners, and I got up, walking to mine. Meer was organizing papers from her binder, and I glanced at the writing, my eyes widening when I recongized it as notes from previous classes. Score! We were so going to get an A on this with all this information.

I sat down beside Meer, kicking the guy out of the seat roughly, then began to engage in conversation. She seemed pretty nice and intellegent, and we seemed to already have a plan on what we were going to do for our project.

I turned my head in Stellar and Shinn's direction when I heard a soft giggle come from her mouth. I grumbled and muttered to myself, glaring daggers at Shinn and sighing. I turned back to Meer to see her bright blue eyes staring at me.

"You like her don't you?"

I was taken aback by the sudden and unexpected question, "w-what?! That's so wrong!"

"I saw you when you reunited with her, you looked pretty happy, Lacus told me all about it as well. Besides, I keep seeing you glance at her and glare at Shinn..."

My face turned red, "s-shut up!"

She smiled, "I knew it, but that's alright, it's perfectly understandable.. So let's continue our work ok?"

I nodded, then set to work, pretending that conversation never happened and pretended it didn't bug me, when it lagged in my head over and over again; echoing continuously.

-------

"Hey..! Auel!"

I turned and saw Athrun, Kira and Sting running towards me.

"Oh uh.. Hey guys, what's up?"

The caught up to me, grinning, "so you're Stellar's date for that night club, eh?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Oh.. She's inviting people, didn't you know?" I sighed, nodding, "yeah sure, I guess it would be best if lots of people came, so just in case there was a fight, there would be back up."

They looked at me strangely until I quickly added, "not that I need any."

Kira grinned, "I'm taking Lacus!"

Athrun blinked, "but you said you'd take Fllay too..."

He slapped a hand to his forhead, "oh that's right! Dammit! I forgot about Lacus when Fllay asked me!"

We all smiled nervously, muttering good luck to him, until Athrun cut in, "I'm taking Cagalli!" Everyone turned to Sting, who was glaring at Kira right now for Fllay asking him, "I'm apparently, still free."

We all sighed, except for Kira, who was lost in his own thoughts, probably debating on who he should take to the club.

I looked to them, "well, I'm going to go now... Meer and I have to work on our project, she insisted we start early."

They all nodded, "alright! I'll call you on your cell to remind you when you should start getting ready for the night club."

I nodded back, then walked away, seeing Meer waiting by a cherry blossom tree. She greeted me with a warm smile, one that would make my heart melt if Stellar flashed it at me.

"So shall we get started?"

I nodded, "yeah, hey are you going to that night club thing? Everyone's going... you should too."

She smiled, "sure."

I grinned, "well, we'll sure have a lot of people there, and back up just in case of fights."

She looked at my strangely, just like the guys did, and I sighed, "what's up with you people and thinking that me having back up is weird?"

"It's just, you never really needed backup.. ever!"

I smiled, "yeah I guess, let's go."

-------

I smiled, ruffling my black hair as I gazed at the blonde girl before me. She was so beautiful, and I intended to keep my promise to her... that I would protect her.

My smile faded when my thoughts came across Auel, and how I knew he wanted her too. He probably just wanted her for her body, no way he actually loved her.

...Did he?

My thoughts were interuppted when Stellar was waving her hand in front of my face, "Shinn..? Is Shinn there..?"

I smiled, "yes Stellar, what is it?"

"Stellar wanted to know if Shinn was going to the night club tonight?"

I blinked. Night club? "Sure."

Her expression immediately lit up, "yay! Stellar is happy!"

I blushed, "just out of curiousity... Is there anyone taking you?"

She nodded enthusiatically, "yeah! Auel is!"

My heart and hopes dropped, and I plastered a smile, murmuring an 'ok' to her. We continued our work, both of us wanting a good grade, and Stellar wanting Neo to be happy with her since she heard him say, 'I'd be happy if you could all get to work.'

I liked that guy just as much as Auel did.

"Who is Shinn going to the night club with?" The blonde asked out of nowhere as we wrote down notes.

"Oh uh... Nobody, I had actually hoped to go with you, Stellar," I said, blushing.

She smiled, "then Stellar will go with Shinn and Auel!"

I smiled, "alright, thanks Stellar."

-------------------

Kira sighed on the other end of the line, 'Auel! Time to get ready! We got to get down there in an hour!'

I turned to Meer, then grinned, "I'm going to go back to my dorm to get ready, you should get ready too." The pink haired nodded, then put away all our books, standing up, "I'll see you there then."

I left her dorm, walking to mine and seeing Shinn and Sting there already, looking through their drawers. I went to mine, then pulled out my orange shirt out. The one that showed most of my chest. I then pulled out my jeans, slipping them on as well as my shirt.

Shinn wore a black, button-up shirt and jeans as well, and Sting wore a strange tube top looking thing under a white jacket and normal, brown pants.

"What the heck are you wearing, Sting?"

He turned to me, sticking his tongue out, "just showing some skin, you know, for the ladies."

"I don't think you should try and scare them away..." I muttered, then pulled out my cell phone, calling Kira and Athrun.

"Hey, Kira here."

"Hey buddeh, meet us downstairs ok?"

"Alright."

I hung up the phone after that brief conversation, then turned to my companions, nodding. We went downstairs, preparing for a long night, Stellar giggling when she saw how serious our faces were when it was supposed to be party time.

I smiled.