Author's Note

1. Some of the things in this story are different from the actual Bleach story, as you will find out when you get farther into the story.

2. I do NOT own Bleach or any part of it. Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo. If I did own Bleach, the storyline definitely would not be half as good, and I would've killed off half the characters, as well as adding some romance to the story.

1/27 - Wednesday

Ichigo woke with a start as his alarm clock blared to life. After shutting it off, he stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen and made himself a bowl of cereal with some orange juice. He put his earphones in and listened to his mp3 player to wake himself up. Then he thought about how he felt about Orihime. No matter how hard he thought about it, no matter how long he took to dwell on it, for the life of him, Ichigo could not decide as to whether or not he liked Orihime.

He joined up with Inoue and Hisagi in the morning. He had run into Rukia when he first came into school, and told her he was going to hang out with his friends. He asked her to come along, but she didn't want to. Inoue had to go downstairs for her first exam that day, so Ichigo walked her to the door to the first floor. He didn't walk her to the actual class because his was on the third floor and he wanted to be there early. He hadn't really studied for this exam, and hoped to get a good grade by copying off of the boy next to him. The exam went without a flaw, as the boy next to him never once covered his answers. Twice he almost caught Ichigo looking at his paper, but Ichigo averted his eyes quickly enough to escape detection. The kid was smart and had a good grade in the class, so Ichigo was relying on him doing well on the exam in order to raise his grade in the class.

After the exam was over, Ichigo hurried to Rukia's class in order to catch her in time to walk her to her second class of the day. He got there in time, and grabbing onto her hand, asked how her exam was. She told him it was ok.

"Listen, Ichigo, don't give me a hug when we get to my next class, because the hallways are really crowded and someone is going to run into us if you stop to give me a hug."

Ichigo agreed, despite thinking it was a weird request. They reached her next class moments later. As he was walking to his next class, Ichigo ran into his friend Nemu. She was walking with another one of her friends that Ichigo did not know. Since there was 10 minutes left before the next class, Ichigo and Nemu decided to wander the third floor, talking, until the late bell rang. They circled the third floor three times before thy went off to their respective classes.

The next exam Ichigo took that day was killer. He didn't know half of the answers, and ended up guessing his way through it. He finished just seconds before the bell rang to go home.

After school let out, Ichigo walked Rukia to her bus, kissing her farewell. He then walked to his father's car and hopped in. They drove to the library so Ichigo could use the computers there to do research for an essay that was due on Friday. However, as he looked through his belongings for the previous research he had done, he couldn't find it and realized he had left it at home. Approaching his father, Isshin Kurosaki, he explained to him the situation, and he proceeded to driving Ichigo home. When he got home, he entered the house to look for his research. His father stayed in the car, leaning his chair back and falling asleep.

Once he entered the house, he whipped out his cell phone and called Orihime. She picked up after a few rings.

"So how were your exams today Orihime?" asked Ichigo.

Orihime replied, and Ichigo went on to telling her how much of a pain the Foreign Shinigami Arts II exam was, as she was taking it the following day. They were all the same courses, but unfortunately only had one class together due to the fact that their schedules were mixed up.

Orihime groaned. "I have to take that one tomorrow."

Ichigo explained to her what the test consisted of, and warned her that she should study.

"Yeah . . . wish me luck in finding time for that." She chuckled. "I have an essay due in the History of Shinigami Arts tomorrow, and I haven't even started yet."

"Yeah, I have that essay too, but it's not due until Friday. I was just looking for my research / class notes on the subject - Oh, here they are!"

Ichigo's desk had been extremely messy, and although he had recently cleaned it up, and it was orderly enough; weirdly he had even more trouble finding what he was looking for. He told Orihime this, and she could completely understand what he was talking about, as she had the same problem. Another thing they learned they had in common was that they picked up certain things from other people, an example being Renji. He said "I suppose" all the time, and both of them, being his friends, had picked up on the saying.

They continued talking, and they home phone at Ichigo's house rang. Iqt was his father.

"Hold on a sec, Orihime, I have to put you down. My dad is calling the land line."

Picking up the phone, Ichigo was yelled at for taking so long, to which Ichigo lied, telling him that he had yet to find his research, and needed a bit more time, knowing that he was not supposed to be talking on the phone. About ten minutes later, Ichigo called Isshin from the land line, keeping his cell phone close so Orihime could hear the conversation.

"Yo, dad, this might take a while so why don't you go get yourself a burger or something?"

"I'd rather you hurried up and got back out here," Isshin said curtly, hanging up the phone.

After a few more minutes of talking to Orihime, he decided to broach a certain serious topic with her. He explained to her what he had been thinking about and what he had been feeling the night before.

"Well maybe the necklace would glow green," Orihime suggested.

"No, it only glowed red, actually." stated Ichigo. "But this indecision as to whether I like you or not is killing me, especially because I have Rukia. Although, if such a necklace actually existed and you were to put it on me it would probably flicker red."

After a few more minutes, Orihime had to go, because she needed to start writing her essay.

Ichigo went back outside to Isshin, and had him drive him back to the library. After a half-hour or so of doing research, Ichigo told his father he was going to go outside for a walk, as his legs were cramping up.

Once outside, he proceeded to call his friend Momo Hinamori. She was one of his best friends, and they had known each other since a few weeks into the school year. They had met when she came up to him and offered him some candy. He had been sitting alone, as he didn't know anyone in that lunch yet. Actually it was due mostly to the fact that he couldn't find anyone he knew.

He politely declined the candy. She sat down across from him and pouted.

"Aw man . . . you're the third person today to say 'no'."

After that, they formed a strong friendship, and grew closer and closer over time. Now they were best friends. རྫ Momo soon picked up her phone, and somehow they got on the topic of 'Battle Royale', a book in which a class of 21 girls and 21 boys were dropped off on an island. Each was given either a weapon, ir something to defend themselves with. Each person was equipped with a collar strapped to their neck, and if no one is dead within 24 hours, all the collars explode and everyone dies. Basically it's a survival of the fittest novel, which interested Ichigo greatly. You knew everyone but one person was going to die, but you just didn't know who it was that was going to survive, as well as how the others would die.

"Yeah, so they made a manga out of it, and I read it, but you wouldn't want to," said Hinamori.

"Why is that?" Inquired Ichigo.

"Just a sec . . . it's kinda hard to put into words, let me look up a description off of Wikipedia. Oh yeah . . . there's sexuality and stuff, as well as it's pretty much like a slasher manga, because they show everything. So yeah . . . there's this one girl, she's like a prostitute, and she lures the guys in with her "goods, and then chops them to pieces with her scythe."

"Oooh . . . that's gotta hurt. But you're right, I probably wouldn't want to read that."

"Oh, and there's this one guy who got like, a spork, as his weapon."

"A spork? Seriously? I mean, how are you going to kill someone with a spork? I mean, I suppose you could slit their throat, but . . ."

"Actually, he lasted rather long."

"How so?"

"Well, mostly he just hid and stuff. And then there was this one guy who got a machine gun, so he was shooting everyone. That's why it was kinda like a slasher manga."

"Oh my gosh . . . a machine gun?? That is so cool! Much better than a spork anyway . . . But when he went to sleep, couldn't you just sneak up, steal the machine gun, and shoot him with it?"

"No, because, he was, like, a black belt in every form of martial arts ever invented, so if you tried to sneak up on him, he'd beat you up and then shoot you. And besides, he had a bulletproof vest on, as well as a protective helmet."

"That is so not fair."

"No it is . . . there was this one guy who was only given a bulletproof vest, as well as a protective helmet with a visor, etc. So he's sitting there laughing as the guy with the machine gun tries to shoot him. You wanna know how he kills him?"

"He shoots him in his unprotected legs, and when the guy falls down, the one with the machine gun goes up to him, rips off his helmet, and shoots him?"

"No. He knocks him down and shoots him in the crotch."

"Ouch. That must have been painful."

A few minutes later, Ichigo had to go, because the temperature outside was below freezing, and he was not dressed very warmly, so he was shivering with cold. Once he went back inside, he got some more research, and then looked up a song Orihime had suggested to him. The name of the song was Raze! and the artist was Exodus. It was an explicit Trash Metal song. After listening to it, Ichigo decide he rather liked it. A few hours of research later, Ichigo was driven home, where he ate dinner. Afterwards, he stayed up, waiting for his mother to go to sleep, then snuck into the basement, and called Momo Hinamori on his cell phone. They talked and laughed from about 10:30 to 11:30.

Then at about 11:30, Ichigo's mom came downstairs, and wondered why he was in the basement with the door closed and the light on. Ichigo made up a lame excuse and went to bed shortly after.

Again, PLEASE review! It really means a lot to me!