Wow it took forever to finish this chapter! I'm really, really sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this, but… the holidays, with writers block, with my normal laziness wasn't a very good combination. I promise I'll try very hard to write the next chapter much faster!

Perfect

Chapter 4

I woke to a screeching in my ear. Turning my head, I glared at the beeping clock by my bed as I slammed my hand down on it as hard as possible. I groaned as I pulled myself up, pushing my wild, yellow hair out of my face. I started as I heard a small sound of protest behind me. I twisted my head around to see Haku maneuver herself so that just her eyes could be seen; glowing from the dark recesses of the warm cave she had made for herself. They glared at me reproachfully.

"No decent person should be up at this hour Neru," she said as she shifted to get comfortable on the rumpled bed. I looked over to the clock.

"Its 10:32 Haku. All decent people are up by now," I corrected as I stretched my arms high above my head, opening my mouth in a yawn.

"Well its Saturday. That's an exception," she argued, her disembodied eyes following me as I stood and walked over to the door of the bathroom connected to our room to brush my teeth.

"You're just irritated because you have a hangover," I said before I stuck the toothbrush in my mouth. I looked out the door out of the corner of my eye, watching Haku disappear back under her covers, only to spin around in a circle on her bed and reveal her eyes to me once more. I rolled my eyes and proceeded to ignore her piercing gaze as I finished brushing my teeth.

I walked out of the bathroom and collapsed on my still sleep rumpled bed. I looked over to the clock once more. 10:40. I had plenty of time. I let my head drop back down and looked at the ceiling. The bright sunlight streaming into the room from the small window wouldn't allow me to sleep anymore. I sighed as I turned my head to the side and glanced around the room, squinting at the bright colors.

Since this was our room, we were allowed to paint it, as long as the walls were white when we moved out. We made sure to take full advantage of the privilege, but didn't know what color to paint it. I said yellow, Haku said purple. After more than a week of arguing we finally came to a compromise, if a strange one at that. We decided that we would paint half the room purple, and half the room yellow. The result was difficult to look at without squinting, but it made both of us happy. I heard rustling next to me as Haku moved again, jerking me out of my thoughts.

"You know, if you go to sleep now you'll never get up." I turned my head in her direction to see she had turned around again.

"Don't treat me like I'm a child! I can wake up in time."

"Hey now, don't blame me, I'm just looking out for you." I rolled my eyes at her amused tone. "But you seriously need to brush your hair. It looks like shit."

I ran my hand self consciously through my hair only to get it caught on a tangle. I grimaced as I extracted my hand and opened the drawer in the table beside me, reaching for the brush I knew was inside. I groped around for it before looking into the drawer. Empty. I heard another rustle and turned my head towards it.

A pale hand appeared from under the purple cover. I sighed in frustration as I saw the hair brush that was clutched in it. I sighed.

"Ok, give it here." I rolled my eyes as she disappeared back under her cover, becoming an indiscernible lump again. I got up and bridged the gap between our beds so I was hovering over her. I stood there until it became apparent that the hand wasn't going to resurface and grabbed the edge of the cover, pulling it off the bed so that it lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.

Haku groaned and covered her bloodshot eyes with both her hands, abandoning the brush by her side. I didn't hesitate to snatch it up.

"Neru!" She whined, "give me back the cover! The light hurts my eyes…" She looked at me between her fingers when I didn't respond. I made a dismissive noise and gathered it in my arms, throwing it on my bed. I sat down on the fabric to prevent her from getting it.

"Your only delaying it, you'll have to get up eventually," I said in a mothering tone of voice, giving her a pointed look as I ran the brush trough my hair. She returned it with a glare of her own before closing her eyes and sighing.

"No. I don't have to get up eventually. As I said before, its Saturday. Your just pissed that you have to go meet Meiko and receive your 'Punishment'." She stretched and pushed herself up to the top of the bed, leaning her back against the head board. I huffed indignantly and look away as she smirked.

"Well how would you like it if you had to go meet her for some mysterious punishment? I don't even have any clue what it is! It could be something weird for all I know…" I let my sentence trail off as I looked down at the floor and let my hand fall to my lap.

"I dunno, Neru." I could hear the amusement in her voice. "I didn't think she swung that way, but if you know something I don-"

"Haku! Not that kind of weird!" I rolled my eyes at her as my face heated up at the suggestion. "That is definitely not happening," I said firmly. I heard Haku giggle slightly.

"Oh, you're so much fun, so easy to tease," she said in a delighted voice. "Umm, Neru…" I looked up to see her pointing at the clock. I jumped up quickly as I read the time. 10:56. It took at least 10 minutes to get to her office. I quickly ran back in the bathroom to grab a hair tie.

"Have fun!" I heard Haku tease as I ran out the door, hurriedly pulling my hair up in my usually side pony tail as I ran down the hall in the direction I knew Meiko would be.

Meiko might be a slacker when it came to her duties, since she was usually more interested in drinking or harassing some innocent random, but she had a total lockdown on being prudent. If you were just one minute late to an appointment, she wouldn't hesitate to come down on your head. Viciously. Her punishments were always harsh.

I ran down the last hall to her office and skidded to a halt in front of the door, putting my hand flat against the wall for support as I struggled to catch my breath. I straightened up and turned to her door when my breathing had slowed to a normal pace. I took a final deep breath as I knocked on the door.

"Come in," I heard Meiko say loudly. I opened the door and pushed it shut behind me, leaving it slightly open. You never know when you will need people to hear your screams. I suppressed a smile at the thought.

"Well, it took you long enough didn't it? I thought you would never get here," she said with a scornful expression. I looked at the clock and sure enough, the big hand was just barely past the twelve. I sighed lightly and made a small sound of annoyance, not going unnoticed from the brunette. She narrowed her eyes at me as I spoke.

"I'm very sorry, Professor Sakine. I came here as quickly as I could," I tried reasoning with her, but to no avail.

"It doesn't matter; I'll just add it to your overall punishment. Think of it as a sort of credit, you can do whatever you want, Neru, but you will have to pay me back later."

"Of course...," I let my sentence die out as I waited for her to tell me what I had come here for, the dreaded punishment. She leaned forward in her seat and put her elbows on the desk in front of her, lacing her fingers together.

"I have thought this over all night and couldn't come up with a sufficient punishment for you, seeing as all other punishments I give you never seem to work. I have decided that I will have you clean the basement under this building. Monday through Saturday at 4pm until I have decided you have finished it." She sat back in her chair and proceeded to look incredibly pleased with her decision. I crossed my arms and frowned at her.

"Are you sure that's safe?" I asked doubtfully.

"Of course it's safe!" She countered indignantly. "What are you afraid of a few rats?"

"But who knows what could be down there? No one even goes down there anymore. There could be a freaking dragon down there and no one would know!"

"I believe we would notice if there was anything dangerous in this school," she drawled with a disinterested expression plastered on her face. "If you're really that worried just take a large knife down there or something. You're a big girl; you can take care of yourself." I rolled my eyes at her and spun around to leave.

"Oh, and Neru!" I halted as she called my name. "I heard you were looking for Rin." I turned around and looked at her with what I hoped was an indifferent expression.

"Yeah, what about it? She went missing so I was worried about her, anyone would be." Even I could hear the uneven tone of my voice. The mention of her name made me remember the way her eyes had glowed last night under the moonlight as I shuddered imperceptibly.

"I want you to leave this alone." I blinked at the sudden malice that laced her sugary sweet tone. "You don't want to get into something that doesn't concern you, now do you Neru?" I began to turn back around as I answered her, eager to get out of the conversation.

"Of course not, now if you'll excuse me…" I grabbed the handle again without waiting for her answer.

"Of course, just make sure you're down there by 4. Don't be late; trust me when I say I'll know." I sighed and stepped out of her office, making sure the door was shut firmly behind me as I strode back down the hall toward my room. Might as well rest before I had to go down into the basement.

"Basement. More like dungeon. I wouldn't be surprised if I found a pile of bones down there," I muttered to myself. No one had dared to go down there in years. I was sure there was some rule preventing me from going there as well, but Meiko was probably just trying to push one of her duties onto my shoulders.

I got to my room and opened the door so that I could slip inside. I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today when I saw Haku had stolen her blanket back and was curled up on her bed. I decided against waking her and fell back on my bed, pulling a cover up to my chin and closing my eyes. It wasn't even 11:30 yet, I had time to get a little more sleep in before I had to go clean the horror I knew would await me in the basement.

Uhhh yea I really wanted to add more to this chapter but I really wanted to post it so I'm sorry that it's pathetically short! Once again ill try to post up chapter 5 soon. Since I finally have a computer of my own, that shouldn't be a problem. REVIEW! Or I will kill you slowly with a dull spoon :T….. I'm not kidding