- A Beautiful Tomorrow - An Ambient Generation
. . .Break of Dawn . . .
Yay another chapter. Sorry if you guys waited too long, I've been busy I never have free time; it's such a sad thought. Ha. You guys will kill me when you find out who one of the exchange students are. Or maybe laugh one or the other. XD
"Oh Alice I knew I would see you here one day!" Mr. Zhuzhen, the history teacher beamed at her. They were standing in the cafeteria on Friday she had delayed it that long, at the FSE Sign Up table.
Alice smiled gently. "How… nice. So… what do I do?" The teacher handed her a sheet.
"Your name, address, student ID, your grade, your telephone number, and what time is most likely your parents could be reached." Mr. Zhuzhen explained, "We need to make sure the parents are agreeing to it."
Alice bit her lower lip. "My mother went on a business trip yesterday and won't be here till Wednesday. But she told me I could do it! I mean we have spare rooms, so I know it wouldn't be any problem."
She gave him another smile, "And anyway, my mom's all for the credit!"
Mr. Zhuzhen grinned gladly, "Alright then kiddo. Just sign it and I'll drop it into the box. You better hurry… you might not have enough time for lunch."
"That's okay." Alice bent down and began jotting down her information quickly. While she was busy printing her ID, she felt someone's presence behind her. The person leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing, and that person was--
"You're signing up?" Yuri asked suspiciously.
Alice looked at him from the corner of her eye. Turning her head to face him wouldn't be a very good idea, seeing how close he was leaning.
"Yes. What does it look like?"
"You're doing it for extra credit aren't you?" He said, huffing.
"So?"
"So you have enough extra credits! You don't need anymore."
"It doesn't hurt to have one more credit, and can you please get off of me?" Alice asked, trying to sound irritable. He was practically leaning on top of her to look over her shoulder.
His presence made her nervous and her hands kept trembling, creating her handwriting sloppy.
Mr. Zhuzhen looked over to them and Alice wanted to throw Yuri completely off of her back, in case the teacher said something. They were in an awkward position after all. But Yuri pushed himself off anyway when the teacher turned to them.
"Are you signing up, Mr. Hyuga?" Mr. Zhuzhen asked eagerly.
"Nah, sorry." Yuri waved it off and disappeared.
"Can I have another slip?" Alice asked embarrassed. "My handwriting is sort of…"
"It's fine." The teacher assured her. "Now you better hurry and go eat before lunch time if over."
Alice handed him her slip, thanked him and left. She had no intention whatsoever to eat lunch and exited the cafeteria.
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Alice walked down the school corridor after Mrs. Isant's class; she had only 3 minutes to get to Mr. Simon's. She jostled through the slightly crowded halls, desperate to reach her locker and then hurry to Pre-Calculus. Her locker came into view and Alice lurched for it, quickly turning the combination and flinging it open. She grabbed her books and was slamming the door shut when she heard a quiet voice behind her.
"Al--c'mere."
Looking up, Alice was astonished to see Nicholai Conrad standing at the end of the lockers, signaling for her attention. Her surprise turned apprehensive. What did he want? Slowly, she made her way towards him.
"Yes?" She said, forcing politeness into her voice.
Nicholai smiled at her sincerely. "Hey, how you doing?"
She stared at him for a second before nodding slowly. "Fine, thank you. And you?"
"I'm great." He said, shifting his books, glancing around. Alice did the same and felt her stomach reel painfully to see that the hall was slowly emptying
No! Don't leave me here by myself, She thought desperately.
"So, anything wrong?" She asked, trying to keep the conversation light.
Nicholai smiled again. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry." He purred, "For you know… for rumors and stuff."
Alice's mouth fell open slightly. He was apologizing? Now after so long? What the hell was he expecting anyway--her to run into his arms?
She raised her head. "Okay." She said simply.
"Okay?" Nicholai echoed before laughing. "Aren't you going to say something like, apology accepted or something?"
Alice kept her defiance and replied coolly, or tried to.
"No. Because your apology is not accepted."
She turned to leave when he suddenly grabbed her arm and yanked her back to him. She let out a soft cry of surprise.
"I'm not forgiven?" He repeated, voice sickly sweet but Alice saw how his jaw clenched, "Well you're going to forgive me, Alice." He said forcefully, his hands digging into her arms in a steel grip. "Or you'll be sorry."
"Let go of me." She said in a high-pitched voice. She didn't bother to struggle because she knew he was going to just tighten his grip on her. His cold emerald eyes gleamed mirthlessly.
"Let's see… this scene seems familiar to me." He murmured nastily, "Oh yes… after the dance, alone in the parking lot…"
One cold finger traced down her cheekbone viciously. " I'm sure you remember, don't you?"
Alice's body went slack and she froze. "If you don't let me go…" She whispered, trying to come up with something. "I'm going to scream rape."
Nicholai snickered harshly, "Like anyone will believe you. You know they'd rather believe me than you--"
The girl was frantic now, a terrorized feeling sweeping her as she finally tried to struggle. "Let--go!" she managed to utter, between her futile attempts.
Nicholai gave a light laugh, and as Alice predicted, his grip tightened and she cried out in pain.
"Everyone believes anything I say," He started to say boastfully, "I'm so popular now--" Suddenly, miraculously, he let go of her and she stumbled.
Alice staggered back and hit somebody. The person grabbed her arm just like Nicholai had done and pulled her upright, pinning her to their side close.
"I thought I told you not to touch her." Yuri said coldly.
Nicholai was suddenly looking flustered and angry. "Yeah well, we were just having a reunion session, Yuri." He replied spitefully.
The brunet laughed brusquely, "Reunion session. You fag, come up with a better excuse. I'm not going to beat the shit out of you now Conrad, but I will once I get this damn cast off. And if you ever touch--even talk to Elliot, I'm going to go report you myself."
Nicholai suddenly looked drained. "Report me for what?" He snarled, trying to act tough.
"Rape."
Yuri smirked at Nicholai's open mouth. "Now fuck off."
He turned around, dragging Alice with him down the hall. She didn't say anything. She couldn't think of anything to say.
"Thank you." She whispered. He didn't respond and continued dragging her somewhere.
Relief pounded in her chest and Alice wanted to sink to the ground. She felt pretty exhausted herself.
Suddenly they were standing a few feet in front of the Girls' bathroom. Yuri released his death grip around her and started pushing her forward, when the bathroom doors itself opened and out streamed a couple of cheerleaders.
"Hi Yuri."
"Hey Yuri."
"Heya Yuri."
"Hey Yuri-boy."
"Hi darling."
Yuri nodded his head at them as they walked past, single file. Alice caught some of their looks of disgust they threw at her. The last two cheerleaders were Margarete and Lucia.
"Hi baby." Margarete purred when she saw Yuri.
"Hey Yuri." Lucia flashed him one of her dazzling smiles.
"Hey." He muttered, his hand still at the back of Alice, and was about to haul her into the bathroom the minute Margarete and Lucia walked away. They didn't however and continued smiling at them.
"Are you two, like, going out?" Margarete gushed.
"Yeah are you? You guys are always together." Lucia said, smacking on a piece of gum. "I heard a few rumors, babe."
Alice really wanted to sink to the ground and disappear now.
"No," She said quickly, "Of course not… we're… we're…" she glanced at him, but his expression was blank. "We're bio partners!" she smiled weakly at them.
Lucia made a flabbergasted face. "You are SO not!" She said, folding her arms, "I happen to be in Yuri's biology class, and I never saw YOU there! Don't you have Biology for fifth period? Yuri and I have it for second."
Alice smiled faintly at her. "Sorry." She mumbled.
"So are you going out?" Margarete now directed the question to Yuri, who was staying unnaturally quiet.
"She has to use the bathroom." Yuri replied bluntly.
"Huh?"
"Elliot has to use the bathroom." He repeated. "You're blocking the way."
"Oh!" The blonde and brunette girls started giggling. "Well, we'll be going then. Bye Yuri."
"Bye baby!"
Yuri muttered under his breath before finally pushing Alice into the bathroom. "Don't go near Nicholai. Ever." His tone was serious.
"He wanted to talk," Alice mumbled, casting her eyes downward.
"About what?"
"Forgiveness."
"He asked you to forgive him?" Yuri sounded a bit pissed off. "What a bastard."
"Rapist." He added under his breath.
"But he didn't rape me." She reminded him.
"He was damn well near it." Yuri turned away. "Take care."
Alice leaned forward and grabbed his sleeve. "Wait." She said.
Yuri didn't look at her, but he stopped. "Don't thank me. I hate people who thank me."
She stared at the back of his messy brown hair for a second, before regaining her composure.
"No, it's not that…"
He finally looked over at her. "Then what?"
Alice mouth wordlessly for a second, trying to think of a best way to put her question. After a minute, Yuri turned to leave because she wasn't saying anything.
"Why do you hate me?" She finally blurted.
Yuri stopped again.
"Excuse me." He turned around, his light amber eyes glazed with disbelief and annoyance, "If I happen to have saved you from some asshole, how can you think I hate you?"
"Well--" She struggled for words. "I mean you used to hate me. And we never really did come to some sort of topic where we didn't hate each other any more."
Yuri didn't say anything for a second,
"We? We never really came to a topic where we didn't hate each other anymore?" He sounded a bit amused. A bit. "You hated me too?"
"You made fun of me all the time." The girl defended herself. "I have a right to hate you."
Yuri smiled and snickered softly. "Maybe." He turned to leave but she grabbed the back of his shirt.
"Elliot, if you don't stop grabbing my shirt so much, it's gonna come off." He said, annoyed.
The blonde girl flushed. "Sorry."
"What?"
"Can we be friends then?" She gazed at him innocently, "I mean I never know what the heck your actions mean. You're nice at some point, but then you tick me off after…"
"Fine," He said shortly. "Friends."
Alice released his shirt and watched him walk away.
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"This is where the guy is going to sleep!" Kurando said excitedly, showing Alice the roomy guestroom he had especially redecorated for the honored foreigner.
"That's great, Rando." Alice had said, brightly.
"His name is Masaji Kato!" He continued to ramble. "He was studying a high school, as he says it, when he was 12, and now he's about to graduate! And he's only 14! Or 15! Waaay younger than us! Isn't that so INGENIOUS?"
"Very."
Her raven haired friend smiled happily. "At least I can talk to him at the dance right? I won't be a loner, will I?"
"No, you won't." Alice humbly agreed.
"And you're going to dance with me right?" he added, glancing anxiously around at her.
Alice couldn't suppress a smile. "Yes, that too."
Kurando's head bounced up and down, looking contented.
"Hey, who're you housing?"
Alice shrugged. "Some girl named Yoshiko. She's the same age as us. 18." She glanced at him. "She's arriving Sunday night, like around 7:00."
"Mine too!" Kurando shouted excitedly, glasses toppling off askew. "I sent a driver to go pick him up! I didn't want him to waste his money on a cab fare!"
"Oh wow Rando, how thoughtful."
"I know!"
Alice glanced at the small clock on the wall. "Well, I better run. See ya later." She turned and headed down the deep-carpeted stairs.
She slowly looked back and found Kurando staring after her, a weird expression on his face.
I always asked myself, why do I answer everyone's reviews? Maybe my kind heart? What ever the matter, here's your responses people.
Aegis – I still need to review your fic, you're going to kill me, aren't you? lol
SonChan – Cute indeed
MusicalDragons – Heather, are you also going to kill me for not reviewing? Or wait... did I? I don't remember. XD
Anime-Alee – Yes don't we all love trying to be macho pretty boys:P Sorry for taking long. I hoped you liked it though.
Little Ballet Rat – I love the new penname. XD
Roxsheena – I'm glad you still review this fic!
Kingleby – Yes, nerdy Kurando + Dancing disaster.
I-luv-Dom – Update for you, ma'am.
Yaara –A new fan! Yay!
Wanderer of the Dark – I already talked to you on Email, and I hope you like this chapter and I'm getting prepared for another analysis of it. lol
Queen of the Moon – Yeah this is going to be a long story.. more than 25 chapters. Well more or less anyways. I'm making you painfully wait for their kiss. Hehehe
Unknown Heart – Sorry for the suspenseful moment. And you like manga? I love manga too, my fav is Chobits. Hmm I'll look into Wish -
smb0621 – Yeah this is my first attempt at an alt. reality because I usually don't them much either, but I'm glad you love mine
Ame No Uta – We need to talk more on AIM!
Asnee – Ditto on the "If Jr. looked his age I would--- him." lol Omg illegal! XD Yeah Momo is 12 so that's why I really really detest Momo x Jr. fanfics. That's just not cool… that's plain sick and twisted. She's programmed to look and act 12. Isn't that wrong? Jr. why not take up Shion? Or Shelley and Mary? Momo has bug bites. lol I hope you like this chappie by the way. Dang I should email you cuz your comments from me are long and we talk about dumb crap.
Crescent-Wish-Forever – Read, my underling! Kiddin'
Tiger5913 – I MISS YOU! Where the heck are you? – cries –
xxLadyx1xonxyouxx- I can't wait for you fic, and I need to edit your other one. I'll get on it soon.
Shadow Fox 05 – Thx. :D
Kendra – Yay you still read this! I'm so happy and I need to email you back don't I? I'll tell you about Japan and stuff. I don't want to write a huge message on here, I'll email you soon. Thanks for the comments!
Lil Doro – New reader! You are so nice! I'm happy you like the funny parts, you really appreciate them, so thankie thankie. And I love your review even though it's babble. XD And don't worry Lucia is going to show up and I'll try my best to keep her in character.