Disclaimer: I don't owb Bleach.

Author Note: Woot! I updated on time! YAY! You're all lucky, because I considered updating my arc thingy last wake just to be irritating. But then I decided that would be cruel and unusual punishment. Thank you everyone for reviewing! It makes me so happy I feel like exploding! So keep doing it!! Oh, and any constructed criticism is welcome. Oh yeah, and I changed the tittle, because it's just way too long.

"Welcome to class everyone!" My English teacher told us, a pleasant smile on his face. I've always thought Shunsui a little weird, especially since he had the habit of wearing a pink yamaka. He isn't too bad, though, and he's a fun English teacher.

"Morning Shunsui-sensei." We chorused back as we sat down. He smiled cheerfully, and brought out the book we'd been reading as a class with a flourish. It was the well known book by Jane Austin, tittled Pride and Prejudice, which we had recently finished. It wasn't bad in my opinion, although I felt that Darcy was a bit of prick, and didn't deserve forgiveness.

"Guess what happens now that we finished? The whole junior grade, even those in honors English, will be performing the play Pride and Prejudice for the school!" He said happily, and everyone except the people of the drama club groaned, including myself. I was terrified of crowds, and to participate in front of the whole school (over 1400 kids!!) would most likely lead to my death. I'll just sign up for stage crew or something…

"And the best part is that the whole school gets to vote for who they think should take the main parts!" Shunsui cried, and I winced.

Dammit, what with my luck, some idiot was going to vote me in for a part as an actor. And I still had this strange suspicion that some idio fanfic writer was trying something with me and Toshirou. I'm probably just paranoid. But then again...

"Ooh, a play! Doesn't that sound exciting Karin-san?!" Matsumoto squealed, and I rolled my hazel colored orbs.

"Nope." I said flatly, though it was the tuth. Matsumoto's face fell, but then her pale eyes regained a mishcevious glint that I immediately feared (she always gets that look before putting someone in her death hug).

"You should try out for a part!" She said happily, and I facefaulted.

"No way in hell." I countered, and Matsumoto frowned.

"But why nooooot?" She asked, and I made a face.

"I hate crowds." I admitted, feeling my face flush a little. Matsumoto brightened.

"They say the best was to destroy a fear is to face it." She said, and I stared. Did Matsumoto just say something wise and smart sounding?

She probably got it off Cosmo or something, I thought to myself with a sigh. Matsumoto frowned, looking unhappy.

"Hey, don't you like my advice? The almighty Cosmo said it was good advice!!!" She complained loudly, and I snorted. Typical. At this point, Shunsui noticed our conversation, and bounded over, smiling cheerfully. He tipped his hat and winked at me, still smiling. Ew, shoot me now.

"And what might you two lovely ladies be talking about?" He asked with a big smile on his face, and Matsumoto turned to him.

"Karin-san won't rake the advice of the mighty Cosmo, Shunsui-sensei." Matsumoto complained, and Shunsui gasped.

"WHAT?! KARIN-SAMA, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THIS UNTIL YOU READ THE MIGHTY COSMO! DEEETEEENTIIIION!"

Well, this sucks. I'm sitting in Shunsui's room, being forced to read Cosmo. God, do me a favor and strike me with a lightning bolt. Now.

"Hey Karin, where were- are you all right?" Rukia asked, concerned, as I stomped angrily into the lunch room. I glowered at Matsumoto, who was gazing at the recently set up ballet for the Pride and Prejudice play, which had zilch voters. Unsurprising, to say the least.

"I'm going to kill her." I grumbled, storming past Rukia and sitting down. My brother noticed me and smiled.

"Hey Karin, how's it going?" He asked, brown eyes glinting, and I sat down with a heavy thump.

"Don't wanna talk about it." I grunted, grabbing food off my brother's tray and gulping it down. No way in hell was I waiting in that monster line to get food. Ichigo raised an eyebrow at me before shrugging, looking faintly exasperated.

"Was it really bad?" Madarame asked, and I stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Let's just say... Shunsui's a fan of Cosmo." I said, and all the boy's at the table paled, except for Yumichika, who clapped.

"I absolutely adore that magazine!" He cried, resulting in incredulous stares by everyone. Toshirou rolled his eyes, looking annoyed.

"Why is it that no one is normal at this table?" He muttered, just as Matsumoto leaped to her feet. This had the unfortunate side affect of sending her lunch in all directions, and hitting Toshirou in the face.

"MATSUMOTO!" Toshirou yelled, wiping rice pudding off his face, while everyone at the table, myself included, burst into a round of hearty laughter. She ignored him and strode off to a nearby table where all the emos and goths sat at.

"I'll be back!" She called over her shoulder in a sing-song voice before sliding into an empty seat on the bench. To say the least, everyone at the table had a look of absolute shock as they stared at her. One boy actually dropped the senbon her was eating, staring at her with heavily pierced eyebrows (how does that work? It looks so incredibly painful...). Matsumoto leaned forward and began to talk to the group in a low voice, and the expressions of the males at the table changed from shock to lust to greed to excitement so fast it felt like I was watching the fast forward of a film.

Then, almost as one body, every male at the table got up and raced towards the polling area for the play, It was wierd, they were practically fighting each other for a chance to vote.

"Woah... what's she doing...?" I muttered, and Ichigo frowned.

"I, quite honestly, have no idea. And I don't think I really want to know, either." Ichigo admitted, and everyone at the table nodded their agreement except for Toshirou, who was watching with narrowed eyes.

"I'll be right back." He said abruptly, standing up and racing over to where Matsumoto was watching with the proceedings with a content expression, while the girls at her table seemed struck dumb. In retrospect, it was actually a rather comical sight. Toshirou sttempted to talk to her, but Matsumoto merely brushed him off before going to the next table where a bunch jocks were sitting, watching her with intrested eyes.

Toshirou stormed back, fuming and bright red, before sitting down at his seat and digging into his food. I considered asking him what Matsumoto had said, but then decided I didn't need to know that badly. Meanwhile, the jocks had a similar reaction to the goth/emo kids, getting up and rushing over to the poll area.

"Wow... didn't know she had it in her." Rukia commented as Matsumoto used what I called the Rangiku affect to get all the boy's in the lunch room fighting for a chance to vote for the play (except for the ones at our table). This left an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, though I pushed it aside. I ignored it as best as I could, however, and continued to steal food off of Ichigo's lunch tray.

"Enjoying the new found pleasures of Cosmo, beautiful Karin?" Shunsui asked me as I walked into English class a week later. I grimaced, not needing reminding of the event. I was also sore and short tempered, because I'd had a difficult soccer practice the day before, followed by a nutty night at the Kurosaki residence. Which is pretty much normal, so I'm not sure why I'm even bothering to state this. Whatever.

"Uh... yeah..." I replied, and Shunsui smiled happily before tipping that stupid straw hat at me (I mean honestly- who wears that kind of shit anymore?!) Shunsui bounded over to the center of the room, still smiling idiotically.

"As you all should know, the results of the play have come in!" Shunsui said happily, and I crossed my fingers. Nothing important, please, nothing important. Let me be stage crew or something like that please. Taking off his hat, Shunsui gazed at us all with solemn eyes before speaking.

"For some odd reason, the only poll that got a serious amount of votes was for the main characters, Elizabeth and Darcy," I resisted the urge to snigger, noticing the fact that Matsumoto was smirking. No shit no one else voted, since only the drama students really cared about this stupid play.

"But all the same, we have gotten the results in and ready." Shunsui said, and I felt a thrill in my heart. The moment of truth…

Walking over to where a piece of cardboard hidden by a cloth hung up on the chalk board, Shunsui ripped it off and pointed.

"As you can see, the two in the middle are who will be playing Darcy and Elizabeth, all the other minor characters are around them." Shunsui said, and I immediately began to look at the fringes, where I would most likely be. After all, who in their right mind would vote for me?

Thank god, I was seriously worried for a moment… I thought to myself, slumping in my seat. However, several loud protests startled me out of my relief.

"WHAT?! HOW IS IT THAT KARIN GOT THE MAIN PART?!!" Someone shouted, and I whipped my head to face the board again so fast that I got whiplash. And there it was, directly in the center, my name underneath the name Elizabeth.

But that wasn't even the worst of it.

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Toshirou… is Darcy!!! I realized, utterly and completely horrified. And then it all clicked.

"MATSUMOTO!!"

Author Note: Hahaha, Matsumoto's dead once Toshirou finds out. Anyway, time for anouncments. First of all, congrats to DD for being the 100TH REVIEWER!! You, if you want, you can come up with an OC for this arc. If you don't want to do that, then you get a cyber cookie instead. Yay for cyber cookies! Also, I know this arc is probably going to be cliche, but I don't care! I'm already in love with it, and have a bunch of events involving one my favorite characters involoved! Let's see... that's all I can think of for now, though I'll update my notes if anything else occurs to me. Although I'm surprised people actually red these things... anyway, ciao!

-Firefox53022