A/N: Ugh... Fanfic dot net is being a pain this start of the year. The hit counter isn't working and remains at 0 even now. Thankfully, there are reviews. I thought you guys have abandoned me. T_T

Pages of a Storybook

Chapter 09: September 4 - Dreams

Kei's dreams had always been pleasant. It was one of the reasons why he liked sleeping so much. He dreamed of a wide variety of things: cats, jewelries, planets, parks, faceless people, photo shoots, steamed bread, and so much more. Most of his dreams were downright ridiculous and he never placed otherworldly meanings in any of his strange dreams. There were even some rare times where he'd dream of unbelievably huge and nasty looking vegetables that spouted nonsense of being delicious. But even then, he always assumed they were all nice dreams because he always woke up feeling great and refreshed afterward.

So when a figure of a person with blazing yellow eyes and a reptilian face appeared in his mind's eye, he quickly brushed it off as another figment of his imagination. It was only a long while later when the figure didn't disappear that Kei realized that something was wrong.

The more he focused on it, the more it dawned on him that he was looking at something that was disturbingly familiar. This monster-like figure had spiky purple hair and its bright large eyes reflected light as if it was wearing glasses. It seemed to be angry at him judging by the way it was threatening him with the sharp end of its spear.

And... What in the world was it wearing? A neck-tie... and a suit?

It was too late before his brain managed to connect the dots as he was rudely jolted awake by a loud smack that almost sent his heart lurching from his throat. He looked up to see a grim-looking Mr. Himuro glaring down at him with the same ferocity as the monster with the blazing yellow eyes.

"Hazuki Kei." He drawled, his tone dangerously low. "Go stand in the hallway. Now."

He blinked a few times, still a bit dazed from being woken up from his sleep. He didn't want to infuriate Mr. Himuro even further so he bit his lip to stop the yawn that wanted to escape from his lips. Ignoring the incessant whispers that erupted from his classmates, he stood up and headed towards the door. To everyone's surprise, however, Mr. Himuro whirled around and slapped his stick against another desk.

All whispers instantly ceased and he tilted his head to look at the other unfortunate person who was under the intensity of the teacher's wrath.

She looked like as if she had stopped breathing altogether and she was as pale as a ghost. Something fell from her desk and Kei shifted his gaze on the floor to find the cause of her distress. It was a half-opened magazine.

"Kimura Akari." Mr. Himuro was in a dark mood and he didn't give the already mortified girl a break. Not that she deserved it, of course. Reading magazines while Mr. Himuro was teaching? Did she have some sort of a death wish? He conveniently ignored the fact that he was no better off than her. "Go stand in the hallway." The teacher bent down to pick up the magazine before tucking it firmly in his arm. "And consider this magazine confiscated."

And sure enough, the both of them were left standing in the hallway outside the classroom... with buckets half-full of water at each hand.

Kei struggled to keep his eyes open, the weight of the buckets not bothering him at all. After all, this wasn't new to him. He'd been ordered numerous times to stand in the hallway for sleeping in class during middle school, so he was sort of used to it by now. His previous teachers had been strict with him at first, but as time went by and they realized that his grades were still top-notch even though he sometimes slept or spaced out during lessons, they learned to just let him be.

When Mr. Himuro's voice boomed from the classroom like a commanding officer from a military defense unit, he cringed inwardly.

Then again, he'd never had a teacher like Mr. Himuro. He was the epitome of how a perfect professor should be like, so it made him wonder how long it would take for Mr. Himuro to get used to his sleeping habits. Or if he'd ever get used to it at all.

A loud sigh distracted him from his wayward thoughts and he turned to look at his companion. The frown on her lips was foreign to her face since she had always been too peppy in his opinion. She was staring at a particular spot on the window, her expression forlorn and distant. He would have contented himself by staring at the window, too, when she suddenly spoke.

"That was Natsumi's, you know..."

He raised a puzzled eyebrow. What was she talking about? Natsumi? He only knew a few girls with a name like that and the first person that came into his mind was an energetic light brown-haired girl who chattered endlessly on just about anything under the sun.

She lifted her chin to look straight into his eyes, and he recognized that guilty look she wore. "It took her a lot of trouble to get her hands on it and I carelessly let Mr. Himuro confiscate it." Her words came out as a whisper and he got the impression that she was talking more to herself than to him.

She was talking about the magazine? He didn't really care much about that sort of stuff, but being a model and working for an uncle who was a magazine editor, he was more than aware of which magazine was popular among teens. In fact, if he remembered correctly, he'd seen a magazine like that somewhere in the studio...

"Why were you reading it in class?" He asked after a while, curious at her audacity to risk Mr. Himuro's anger. She brought the trouble on herself, so she didn't have a valid reason to mope around about it. For example, he knew perfectly well that he was at fault for sleeping during the lessons. He took his punishment without complaining.

"I wasn't reading!" She protested almost too readily that it was painfully obvious that she really had been reading it. "I mean... sneaking glances at the pictures doesn't really count as reading, right?" She sounded more like she was convincing herself. Eventually, she let out an exasperated sigh when she couldn't handle being under his scrutinizing stare any longer. "Can you blame me? Summer break has just ended... I guess I'm still in vacation mode." She threw him a frown as if expecting him to understand. "What about you? Why were you sleeping in class?"

He was about to answer her when she suddenly shook her head as if she already knew what his reply was going to be. She held out her hand to stop him, completely forgetting that she was holding a bucket of water in each hand. She gasped when the water wobbled dangerously towards him and he barely had the chance to take a few steps back when some of the water splashed messily onto the floor.

"You..." He narrowed his eyes at her startled expression and the growing puddle. "...are really clumsy." The orange soda incident during the fireworks festival came back to haunt him with a vengeance. He inwardly berated himself for forgetting to be careful whenever she was around.

"S-Sorry." She murmured sheepishly and avoided looking at him altogether.

Half an hour passed in silence and he started to feel his arms straining from the weight of the bucket. His grip on the handles were slowly slackening as his drowsiness from before was beginning to catch up to him. His eyelids felt heavy like anvils and he caught himself nodding a few times.

"Hey, Hazuki-kun..."

His eyes snapped open at her voice, but it only lasted for a mere five seconds before they started drooping again.

"Hazuki-kun!" She called more insistently this time and he forced himself to look her way with a questioning grunt. He was too sleepy to care about how she was biting her lip to stop herself from chuckling. She was laughing at him? What was she being so happy about now? Wasn't she the least bit sleepy at all? He was fighting a losing battle against sleep and yet here she was acting as if she'd never been sleepy in her whole life.

Again, he completely ignored the fact that falling asleep while standing upright and carrying buckets of water in each hand wasn't normal at all.

"Hazuki-kun, what were you dreaming of?"

That effectively caught his attention. Shaking the last traces of sleep in his glassy eyes, he turned to look at her more fully, wordlessly asking to repeat her weird question again.

"I mean... You must have been dreaming before Mr. Himuro noticed you, right?" There was no malice in her voice, just plain curiosity. "You certainly look as if you were enjoying your sleep. What were you dreaming of?"

What was he dreaming of? Why would she ask that? Was she making fun of him or something?

The unanswered question hung over their heads like a thick blanket. When he didn't show any indication of giving her an answer, it compelled the girl to explain herself further. "Was I being too nosy? I just can't think of anything else to talk about..." Her eyes flickered towards his buckets. "You were falling asleep on your feet. Mr. Himuro won't be pleased if you spill those, you know."

Again, he was struck by her unnatural concern for him. When was the last time he'd met anyone - besides his parents and other relatives - who expressed genuine concern about what was going on with him? Although she was wary of him, he could not detect any real fear or hostility in her eyes.

She was treating him like a friend... or at least, how he thought friends were supposed to treat each other.

"Kittens..." He saw her face light up at his reply. She was looking expectantly at him as if he was telling her a very interesting story. "...playing chess."

"Chess...?" She stared at him for a whole minute before biting her lip, clearly suppressing a chuckle. "That must have been hilar-"

He gave her a glare.

"I-I mean... adorable!" As she fidgeted, the water in her buckets sloshed furiously from side to side. "You really like cats, don't you?" Even though she had nearly laughed at him a minute ago, she made it obvious that she didn't mean any harm. "I like cats, too, but I'm really more of a dog person. My parents won't let us have a pet in the house, though." And she continued to rattle on and on about pets and responsibilities. She didn't mind that he didn't contribute anything else to the conversation.

Curious of how she would react, he made up his mind to tell her about how he dreamed of Mr. Himuro with his yellow eyes and reptilian features.

As expected, she started to giggle like crazy. She even had to pinch her arms - while juggling with the buckets - a couple of times to stop herself from being so loud. She really was making a huge mess on the floor. Once she calmed down a bit, she then told him about how Natsumi had kept on planning elaborate pranks to catch Mr. Himuro off-guard. There was even a time when Natsumi had covered a hole on the street and hoped that he'd fall in it, but in the end, she foiled Natsumi's trap by accidentally falling into the hole. She didn't think she'd ever forget that day since she was the one who was ordered by Mr. Himuro to clean up Natsumi's mess afterward.

When the school bell rang and they were finally admitted into the classroom, Kei felt surprisingly tired but strangely in a better mood. He'd never been stuck so long with someone who chattered non-stop about peculiar things with such high enthusiasm. His eardrums had taken quite a beating.

And yet, as he threw a brief glance her way and was met by a knowing smile that was sneakily directed at the oblivious Mr. Himuro, he found himself not minding it at all.

Well, at least not that much.

A/N: Yes, the heroine's just a normal girl who gets scolded for misbehaving every now and then. =P Oh and am I the only one who thinks that she's a little wacky? Some of the choices you can make her say in the game are hilarious. And, in case you're wondering, the Natsumi and Himuro prank scene really did happen in the game. Himurocchi was sooo cute there! XD

Oh and about that punishment thing... I have no idea if in Japan they still make students stand in the hallway while holding buckets of water, so please do forgive me if I made a mistake.

Again, thanks so much for reading and reviewing. I'll give a cookie to anyone who can guess what the next chapter's going to be! =P Hint: Look at the dates. XD

darkness01: Ack... I was hoping they'd get rid of it in the 2nd game. Hahaha! Oh well. And thank you very much for liking the heroine! It's actually a huge relief. That last thing I want to do is to make the heroine unbearable. XD

nattie: I know right? Why did they have to force a day to pass with just one phone call? O_o Oh and about the heroine being good at swimming, skating, or skiing, it really depends on how high you've raised your fitness stat. If it's at 0 and you say that you're good at it, you're just gonna end up falling flat on your face and your date's gonna get mad at you. XD But of course, the heroine here's gonna be good at those since 150 fitness is a requirement to end up with Kei-tama. =P