THIS IS THE SECOND CHAPTER! AND AGAIN I DON'T OWN THESE CHARACTERS! PEACH-PIT DOES!

(by the way, the girls' high school uniforms are what imagine the girls uniform to be at Ikuto's high school when he was enrolled in it, the guys' are obviously the same and THOSE DON'T BELONG TO ME EITHER!)

ENJOY!

She woke up surrounded by her gag manga. She realized that she must've slept reading them last night. She turned groggily to her clock. 6:00, good she had an hour to get dressed and eat before meeting up with Amu at 6:50 to meet Nagihiko at his place for the orientation at Seiyo High. She placed her manga back in the case and shoved it under her bed before getting up completely out of her bed and going to the bathroom for a shower.

When she stepped out she had to towel dry her hair before letting it curl naturally, it was easier to handle now that she was taller and it no longer reached her knees but instead down the length of her back. She pinned her bangs back with a clip before wrapping a towel around her body to go back into her room. She heard her mother making breakfast and smelled the aroma of pancakes. She figured that her father probably left earlier after he sobered up if her mother was in this good of a mood to make pancakes.

She looked at the uniform hanging on her closet and put it on after putting on her red bra and matching underwear. She buttoned up the black dress shirt noticing the blue lining detail. Next was the blue, black and silver plaid skirt that ended mid-thigh. She slid on knee high black see through tights before going downstairs. She wouldn't put on her jacket until she was going to leave.

"Good morning Rima," her mother replied. She could see the slightly dark circles around her mother's eyes as she ate her pancakes that were on her plate. She only smiled, "it won't be in the next few hours." She felt her mother's eyes roll in response to that comment as she are.

Rima was soon done her breakfast and went upstairs to check over her uniform once more before she checked the time.

6:45. Amu would be here soon. She went to the washroom to apply some simple brown eyeliner to her eyes. It was less noticeable then black but still made her noticeable. She grabbed her tan brown bag, the jacket and her cell phone before closed her door before finding her black calf high laced boots. She put them on before putting on the black her black jacket on that had white lining on the edges. She took one last look in the mirror near the door, and took one last look at her silver ear studs before putting back her hair in its regular place.

Checking her phone one last time for the time she called back to her mother to announce her leave. She unlocked the door and found Amu to have completely added her typical twist on her uniform as she did every new school year. She added chains and she added a black choker, as well as a black cross hair piece which she clipped to the side. Rima smirked, "I see you spiced up your uniform."

Amu only rolled her eyes, "c'mon, Nagi's going to torment us if we're late."

"You only know the word 'torment' because of Nagihiko," Rima said back to her. Amu scoffed, "Whatever, I still find it amazing how I am up right now and he should at least be thankful for that even if we are a little bit late." Rima laughed, "It wasn't that difficult. Although I am dreading the gates of prison."

Amu laughed gently. Rima only smiled before her cell phone went off. She picked it up rolling her eyes seeing the name displayed telling her who was calling her this early in the morning.

"You guys only have five minutes…are you even walking?" the voice spoke into the phone. He was always someone with time issues, she thought. Over the years she came to realize it was something they had in common, however, when he did it this early in the morning it was annoying to her. Rima rolled her eyes before responding, "Yes, we're half way there Nagihiko. What else would we be doing? Crawling?"

She heard him laugh. "Very funny Rima," he told her before letting out a breath, "just get here already. I've seen plenty of students walk by already."

"Shut up, we'll be fine." she reassured him.

He chuckled, "Okay, okay, I won't bug you any longer. It might keep you from walking faster."

"I am a great multi-tasker I'll have you know," she said through her teeth. Again, he laughed which bugged her, "I bet you are Rima-chan."

Rima smiled at that response before they both said their goodbyes to each other.

"Since when does he call you this early?" Amu commented smirking.

"According to him we're running late," she said to her as she slipped her phone in her back. When she looked back at Amu, she saw her smirking and knew that the answer she gave would not satisfy her best friend.

She sighed, "Amu there is nothing, absolutely nothing going on between me and Nagihiko!"

"Mhm," Amu smirked but left it and laughed. Rima glared before letting it go seconds later. She was too tired to keep up the glare, and besides what was the point in glaring at someone that wouldn't glare back? Reasoning to why she liked her glare wars with Nagihiko, he either smirked or glared back which made it all worthwhile.

Finally, he sighed noting two people in the distance. He jumped off of his roof in the uniform he found hanging on his closet. He figured one of his servants set it there for him to look at when he woke up yesterday. He liked the dark aura that surrounded it and decided to embrace the rebel in him now that Rhythm and Temari went back into his heart.

He smiled seeing the two teenage girls, "good morning." He smiled at both of them.

"Nagi!" the rosette lunged to hug him. He laughed hugging her back, "I guess that means Ikuto is treating you well." She froze and the blush maddened in her face.

"DID YOU TELL HIM?!" Amu yelled at Rima.

"NO! WHY WOULD I TELL THAT TO HIM!? AND WHEN WOULD I HAVE TOLD HIM ANYWAY YOU WERE THERE WHEN I TALKED TO HIM YESTERDAY!" Rima yelled back at her quite flustered since it implied that she and Nagihiko talked about intimate and gushy stuff like that which she believed would be fairly easy because Nagihiko was plainly easy to talk to, but still the idea was quite embarrassing and, ugh, just not something that would particularly appeal to her...sort of.

"Actually," Nagihiko said now walking in between the two, "Ikuto and I met at a coffee shop later in the evening. We talked and he told me."

Amu sweat dropped, "He told you…" she let out a breath, "Of course he would." She knew it was only natural her boyfriend would go and tell anyone, especially one of her best friends that has been out of the country, that they were dating.

Nagihiko laughed at that response.

"You were at a coffee shop." Rima looked at him. He blinked, "Yes."

She snorted, "That's a hell of a way to get off of jet lag."

He laughed, "I know it's not one of my best ideas but I was hungry and everything in my pantry wasn't appealing to me. I went to buy a muffin, just a muffin. Then i realized that I would get thirsty eating just a muffin. I was just going to buy water but then I thought it was rather ridiculous since I was in a coffee shop, and besides the clerk was persuading me with everything he had to buy coffee instead of water so I felt bad and bought the coffee." he said to them, "I've been up since 2 o'clock and oddly enough I feel perfectly fine."

Rima and Amu both sweat dropped.

Nagihiko brushed off their looks and smiled, "so how was the rest of your break without me?"

"Rather how was London?" Amu said back to him.

"Rima didn't tell you…" Nagihiko blinked turning to the blonde. Rima only blushed, "It slipped my mind…" she mumbled. Amu stopped and looked at the two.

"What do you mean 'Rima didn't tell you'?"

"Well," Nagihiko started, "I sent Rima emails about the work I was doing in London."

"You didn't tell me to share them with anyone else," She retorted looking away from the both of them holding her blush. Nagihiko smirked, "That's true. I guess it was an oversight."

Amu looked at the two suspiciously, "Whatever, just tell me," she nudged him.

He laughed, "Ok, ok so I went to an academy…"

Rima listened to him speak to Amu about his work in London but noted he left out many details and how it was like to actually live in London. She remembered him writing to her about the several odd teachers that either loved or hated him and then the few male dancers that continued to mistake him for a girl because of his hair even though he clearly wasn't. She chuckled gently at her imagination of Nagihiko pretending to be Nadeshiko again.

"What is it Rima?" Amu asked her friend noticing her subtle laughter. Nagihiko only smiled.

"Nothing, just reminding myself of the gag manga I read last night."

"Oh," Amu shrugged it off, "so what do you think high school will be like?"

"Kukai has told me minimal things," Nagihiko stated briefly, "but if anything it just seems like there's more homework, everything else is basic. All I know is that I will be trying for the varsity basketball team. Oh! And I actually am really excited for Home Economics."

"Of course," Amu laughed gently, "you are a natural at Home Ec."

"Home Economics is definitely going to be interesting," Rima smirked.

"And why do you say that?" Amu asked at her facial expression changed. Nagihiko snorted, "Don't you remember Valentine's Day last year? When we had that contest and Rima and I were tied for the best chocolates made."

"Oh yeah," Amu chuckled gently. Rima rolled her eyes, "It will be interesting to see if Nagihiko will be able to get a higher mark than me in Cooking, it is most obvious he will be able to in Textiles." She said to him.

Nagihiko laughed, "Yes it will be quite interesting Ri-ma-chan."

Amu blinked at how he said that and watched her blonde friend flushing with a glare.

How things never changed.

They were a couple of blocks away from the school now seeing others from their junior high school started to arrive, and others that were older that had to come to the orientation as well.

"Amu-chan!" a voiced yelled behind them. All three of them turned back to find none other than Tadase Hotori. "Good morning Amu-chan, Mashiro-san, and Fujisaki—"

"Tadase," Nagihiko looked at him, "we've known each other for 8 long years. You can call me Nagihiko. We've reached that point in our friendship to be on first name basis." He said slightly annoyed. The blonde boy just smiled, "Ok Nagihiko-kun." Nagihiko rolled his eyes.

"Let's just go already, I want to get this damn thing over with." Rima said walking ahead annoyed with the unnecessary chatter of the two teenage boys. Amu blinked, "Y-yeah, we should go. We don't want to be late." She quickly followed the shorter girl surprised at her distance already having shorter legs. Both boys followed behind them.

"How was your trip to London Nagihiko-kun?" Tadase asked his friend.

"It was as brilliant as usual. I haven't been there in a while, but I am glad I went back." He smiled, "I finally got to experience more dances then I usually get to. I am finally getting my freedom, and surprisingly my mom is accepting about it."

Rima smiled hearing that. She had already read it but it was great hearing it. Amu looked at Rima who was suddenly smiling and nudged her, "Since when are you excited about school?"

"I'm not," Rima retorted.

"Then why are you smiling?" Amu asked curiously.

"I just…I wonder if the teachers are going to be really stupid like last year."

"Mashiro-san," Tadase looked at her, "that's a mean thing to say…"

"Goody two-shoes…" Rima rolled her eyes.

Nagihiko snorted, "They were irritating Tadase." He smirked, "besides didn't you say that half of them only got hired because your uncle wanted to keep us focused on our studies and not how good looking the teacher was."

Tadase only looked away hiding his embarrassment.

Amu laughed out loud and so did Rima. Nagihiko smiled seeing those two; especially the blonde who he's missed severely on his trip to London, in fact the only reason why he sent those emails to her was that he wouldn't feel so alone. He knew she could take care of herself after all that's happened over the years. He was happy that she responded with lengthy emails in return, she sent pictures of the gang as well when they went to the beach, when they had a picnic and at Tadase's place for his birthday party which he had missed but had given him something before he left. Nevertheless, she kept him up to date on everything that was happening within the group and he was glad because the one thing that he didn't want to happen was that he was going to be left out because he didn't get a chance to be with them over Spring Break.

When talking with Amu, Rima turned briefly to find Nagihiko smiling at her. He noticed and smiled brighter hinting pink in his cheeks. She smiled back having a tint of pink along her cheeks as well.

KAWAII! Well…I thought so anyway.

Thank you again for the reviews on the last chapter, I REALLY APPRECIATE IT! :D

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