Shadow Apparation: Wow, thanks :3 I'll keep updating, I just have a bunch of stress on me PLUS trying to write an original story at the same time. Oh yeah, I realized that after I wrote the first line, lol, and I was like, that would sound deep, I should put that in! lol. This chapter focuses a lot on those two :3
xMaskedDestroyerx: Well, you saw what happened with Hikari- I think she's just hesitant, despite being outgoing. Don't worry though, she can't keep her mouth shut forever. I love Shion, but she is a bit tedious with her stubbornness :P
Jacheis: Yep, must love girls, lol. I'm a girl too, it really is impossible to avoid angst as one, even if you try. Sorry, I'm trying, but there's a bunch of stuff going on.
Huggler: They'll get their act together soon enough :P Don't worry, Tamao's in this one, though I'm not sure you'll like her pairing- I don't know if I do either, but it fitted the story. That's a good idea, only where would our gaynst be? D: He'll only further the plotline, don't worry, lol :P Aww, I'm sorry…I mean, I've never been in the EXACT situation, but I know how it can hurt when someone you care about wants someone else.
Smiles: Aww, poor guys, go easy on them :P
Kaze Rei: I do love Shion and Chikaru :3 Miyuki did talk to Shion once in the beginning, but she's mainly an instigator for the poor girl in this :P Oh, I'm glad you like that, I just added it in as a thought :P
XxBloodwolfxX: Thanks! I'll update as quickly as I can :3
So I've revealed my Tamao pairing…I'm sorry to those of you who wanted a different one, I kind of did too, but I was afraid of making it out of character…I might write another story with her and one of the other characters, though.
oOOOo
Strawberry Boys?
Four: This is How We Fall Apart
iAtethePoisonApple
oOOOo
Shion stood a few paces behind Honda Kenshi, violet eyes following him like a hawk as Chikaru gave him a tour of the Le Rim campus. The boy had been slightly confused (and mildly terrified) when he learned that the Spican president would be accompanying them. He'd asked Chikaru about it discreetly when he'd first seen Shion, but she'd just smiled enigmatically and tugged at the Spican's collar, causing her to stiffen and blush profusely.
Shion had no less than insisted on attending the scheduled tour, much to Chikaru's amusement. She knew Chikaru thought she was being ridiculous, though she wasn't entirely sure if the raven-haired girl had figured out why. But she wasn't about to let this boy charm his way into Chikaru's heart, not after her conversation with Miyuki a few days back.
The whole arrangement was rather amusing for Chikaru, who had actually taken to stepping within Kenshi's personal space on purpose just to tease the blonde behind her. It had been an accident at first, or close to that- Chikaru was simply the type to touch people as she was talking, or stand closer to them to show her interest. The first time she'd touched Kenshi's arm, though, the Spican had cleared her throat loudly behind them, and the reason for her attendance was suddenly crystal clear to the Le Rim president. Chikaru had been mildly annoyed at first, because for as patient as she was, her feelings for Shion were constantly causing inner turmoil, and it didn't seem fair for the Spican to keep her away from other people and yet not take her for herself. But, being Chikaru, she'd quickly made a game of it, having found a way to subtly get revenge on Shion for her recent behavior.
Unfortunately, Kenshi seemed to be reading too far into Chikaru's actions; had Shion not been so intent on keeping them apart, she might have understood why the boy seemed to think Chikaru was interested in him, and maybe even sympathized with him. But as it was, the moment Kenshi placed his hands on Chikaru's arms to gently move her out of the way of a sudden barrage of first years, Shion growled and tugged Chikaru back by the hem of her sweater. The smaller girl let out a small, surprised yelp, but recovered quickly, turning to face Shion, who had yet to let go of her sweater, meaning they ended up about an inch from each others' faces.
"Is there a problem, Shion-chan?" she asked, smiling sweetly at the glowering blonde, reaching up to straighten her bow.
"Don't play dumb, Chikaru," Shion growled. "I know you better than that; it's insulting that you think I'd fall for your innocent routine."
Chikaru's smile fell slightly, her expression becoming one of resigned acceptance. "Do you, though, Shi-chan?" she asked quietly. "Know me, that is? We haven't spoken properly in years."
"Don't start this now, Chikaru," the Spican replied. "You know you're leading him on."
"Am I?" she asked, turning to find Kenshi conversing with the head Sister, who had just walked into the entrance hall. Then she turned back to Shion, her head tilted to the side, expression unreadable. "Are you sure?"
Shion frowned in confusion. "Of course I'm sure," she stated, running a hand through her hair. "He thinks you're interested in him; don't tell me you haven't noticed him returning your little gestures. And if I've noticed, there's no way you haven't, Chikaru."
Chikaru giggled slightly, shaking her head. "No, Shion-chan," she replied, pulling away from the Spican as Kenshi began to walk back towards them. "I mean, are you so sure that I won't return his affections?"
Violet eyes almost tripled in size, and Shion's body went rigid. "Chikaru-"
"Are you ready to continue the tour, Kenshi-kun?" Chikaru asked, pasting her usual smile back into place as she twirled away from Shion just in time to cover up their conversation. "I think the best part of Le Rim is our clubs…"
The two headed towards the staircase, leaving Shion standing behind them, paralyzed with shock. Helplessness was an emotion of the weak, or so she'd always said, but at the moment, she felt so hopeless and utterly lost that she couldn't even bring herself to move. The emotions were shooting through her at an indescribable pace- first shock, then fear, then an irrepressible wave of jealousy, and finally, pain.
She was losing Chikaru, the one person who had always stood by her side- the one person she'd always taken for granted. She'd never felt so helpless in her life; what could she do to fix things now if Chikaru was finally moving on?
No.
She wouldn't lose Chikaru, not without a fight. That wasn't in the Spican nature. She wouldn't let this stupid Kenshi boy steal sweet, forever-smiling Chikaru away from her.
PGBR
Yaya was just about ready to murder someone, preferably someone scrawny, blond, and too small for his ears.
The boy that had been talking with Tsubomi the night before was in the pinkette's art class, a class that Yaya was taking as a teacher's aide, and the two appeared to be glued at the hip. They'd already partnered up for portrait-painting, and had hardly picked up their brushes for being so busy talking to each other. It was uncharacteristic of Tsubomi to do anything but follow the teacher's orders, and Yaya was just about to break character herself to go split them up under the pretense of not doing their work and talking in class, but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her. She glanced up to find the teacher of the class gazing down at her sympathetically.
"I know it's hard, Nanto-san, but she'll only resent you if you come between them."
Yaya huffed, turning back to face the two, her arms folded over her chest. "So what am I supposed to do? Let it happen? Again?"
"How about showing her that you're a better choice?" the teacher asked. "There are other ways to keep her than splitting those two apart. Better ways."
"I don't like him being around her," Yaya pointed out unnecessarily. "Can't we bust them for talking and pair her up with Acne-san over there?" She pointed to a boy with a particularly bad breakout, and the teacher chuckled before patting her shoulder reassuringly.
"I'm sure we could," she said, "but that's pretty out of character for you, Nanto-san, and I think Tsubomi's smart enough to realize that."
Yaya grumbled.
"Just hold on, Nanto-san, I've seen the way she looks at you." she said before walking away to check up on the students' progress, leaving Yaya to sulk on her own.
When the class ended half an hour later, Yaya was sprawled out across the teacher's desk, blatantly skipping out on her duties as teacher aide, doing everything she could to banish the image from her mind.
"Yaya-senpai?"
The brunette lifted her head slightly to find a concerned Tsubomi staring down at her, frowning slightly. Yaya sat the rest of the way up, immediately assuming a nonchalant façade. "What's up, Tsundere-chan?" she asked, but her playful grin was a ghost of its previous self.
Surprisingly, Tsubomi didn't rise to the bait. "Is something wrong?" she asked quietly.
"You mean wronger than whatever you've been asking me about for the past week?" Yaya replied, raising an eyebrow. Tsubomi sighed.
"I mean today…or then, I guess," she said, eyes falling to the floor, her books resting on her hip. "Whenever I ask you about it, you act annoyed and brush it off, but then when you're alone, you just seem really sad."
"I think your vision's going, Tsubomi-chaaan," Yaya drawled, yawning widely and stretching as she stood up. She walked around the desk and thrust an arm over the pinkette's shoulder, pulling her out of the classroom to finish the conversation.
Tsubomi frowned. "I hate it when Yaya-senpai lies to me," she muttered, drawing Yaya's expressive eyes to her face once again. "She's really bad at it, I can always tell when she's not telling the truth…"
Yaya felt an uncharacteristic wave of guilt for upsetting the girl she liked to think of as her pinkette, and ducked down to press a quick kiss to Tsubomi's cheek. The reaction afterwards was only icing on the cake, really.
Tsubomi flushed brighter than an overripe tomato and stood stock-still for several moments, floundering as if trying to say something, before she finally decided on wiping away the kiss and smacking Yaya on the back of the head. "People might start getting ideas, baka!" she hissed, although the brunette noticed that she didn't shrug away from her arm, and took advantage of this by drawing the cherry-red pinkette closer to her side as they walked to choir together.
PGBR
Up until this point, Suzumi Tamao had hardly been affected by the integration of men into Astraea Hill- Shizuma was keeping Nagisa far and away from any and all things with male reproductive organs, and even if she weren't, she'd already lost Nagisa to the silver-haired girl, so there was no real threat. She didn't even get involved at all until Rokujou Miyuki had approached her with the intention of training her to become the next Miator school president, and, once she had accepted, informed her that Honda Kenshi would be attending the council meetings that she'd be sitting in on.
"This should be interesting," Miyuki said as she led Tamao to the council room. Tamao cocked her head in confusion, and she specified, "Toumori-san in particular has a problem with Honda-san. Usually she focuses all of her energy on arguing with me, but with Honda-san around, it might be a bit of a balancing act for her."
"She just doesn't like that he gets along so well with Chikaru-sama," Tamao replied with a shy smile. "I don't think she should be so threatened by him, though, if she knows how Chikaru-sama looks at her…"
Miyuki raised her eyebrows. "I'm impressed," she said after a moment. "You're quite perceptive." Tamao nodded slightly and blushed. She'd always had a small crush on the Miator president, but it had never posed much of an issue- up until now, when she'd have to work in close contact with her. She'd never been the best at hiding her feelings. "But on that note, I don't think Toumori-san realizes how Minamoto-san feels about her at all. She's always been bull-headed." Miyuki sighed, running a hand through her hair tiredly as they came closer to the council room. "It looks like she's already gotten started…"
Sure enough, as Tamao slipped into the room after Miyuki, she found the fiery Spican president already on her feet, leaning onto the table towards Kenshi, fire in her eyes. "You have no right to propose something like that- you and your school will be here temporarily!"
Tamao sat down in between Miyuki and an amused Chikaru, who had Kenshi on the other side of her. "I'm just saying, our choir is renowned, and together with Spica's female choir-"
"No!" Shion roared, and Tamao jumped slightly, surprised by how threatening her somewhat high-pitched voice could sound. "You're sitting in on these meetings through our Head Sister's orders, nothing more; do not be fooled into thinking you have any kind of pull at this school!"
"Shion-chan," Chikaru began mildly, still wearing her effervescent smile, "at least give him a chance. Put it up for vote with the girls of the choir, perhaps? I agree with Kenshi- with the right combinations, male voices would add a whole new dimension to the choir."
Tamao felt as though she were looking in on a private moment as Shion's gaze shot to Chikaru, eyes tinged with poorly disguised hurt masked by annoyance. "The choir is strictly the business of the Spica council," she said coldly. "And therefore, up to myself to decide whether or not men should be integrated."
"Unless you bring it up with the Head Sister," Miyuki added, earning herself a lead-melting glare from Shion. The blonde gathered her things into her arms and made her way toward the door, making sure to shoulder Kenshi on her way out.
"Just stay out of my way, Honda-san," she growled, her eyes flashing with anger and something that Tamao was hesitant to place. She glanced over to Chikaru, who looked like she might cry, and back to Shion's tense, retreating back, and her shoulders slumped.
It seemed like nobody but Shizuma and Nagisa would ever have their happily ever after.
No, teacher gets no name, though it probably would have flowed better if she had…I'm at college right now, it's too much of a hassle to look up another Japanese name.
So I'm supposed to go to a HUGE job fair at this one place on the 8th, but the problem is, I have been (unprofessionally) diagnosed with social anxiety, which means I'm awful in crowds, and especially when I need to be impressing people and have high stress on me. It's something my mom's forcing on me, I'm nowhere near prepared enough, there's so much that you need to have done that I don't, and I KNOW my mom is trying to make me feel like I'm the only teen in the world without a job (and sometimes it feels that way and I just want to curl up and cry) even though I know I'm not, just because of my classes alone. I'm not ready for it, and I won't get my medication (for my anxiety and stuff) until the day AFTER. I just don't know what to do, there's going to be huge crowds and I'm TERRIBLY shy, and that's the last thing employers want. I'm scared, I'm not ready to be kicked out of the house like I know my mom's trying to do, I'm ready for a job but I'm NOT ready to go out into a huge MOB of people and try not to pass out from fear. And my mom keeps making me feel like a lazy bum, like if I don't have a job, I'm not good for anything just because I'm in college and (legally) an adult now. I just hate me sometimes…