I could be editing my Wallflower oneshot for all I care but I have way too many ideas spouting out of my head like my period on day one to do that. Okay, bad analogy. I don't want to start the year with a period (albeit I had no choice but to let it flow TTuTT)

Happy New Year, my darlings! Here's a chapter to celebrate.

Disclaimer: Don't own the fandom, don't own the song.


22: The Girls and Boys in School

Would you ever dance with me like that?

Mark was still holding on to the school president's small hand when they reached the bridge above the riverbank. The elderly couple he had spoken with (or had barely did, seeing as he was practically playing charades with them in an attempt to communicate) had informed him that the two very odd colored-haired cohorts had headed out to cross the bridge leading back to where majority of the neighborhoods were (A/N: For the record I know nothing about Inazuma Town's geography.).

"There," The chestnut-haired American sighed in relief. Sokudone, on the other hand, and no pun intended whatsoever, picked it up as something else even the foreigner hadn't realized.

"Seems to me you're more comforted with finally being reunited with the other one."

He looked at her with plain question and pure delight in his features. "What do you mean?"

The black-haired Japanese eased her palm out of the boy's grip and used as much self-control not to attempt to sterilize it in front of him. When he noticed the sudden absence of squishy in his palm, Mark blushed, mortified. But the girl gave him a different reason to be. "It's not very nice a view when Tom sets his sights on a feline than play with Jerry."

"Right. I should—"

"Mark!" Dylan had spotted them first after he had made a curtain out of Rein's hair and had gotten her momentarily disoriented with the tactic. "Bro! Get down here!" He grabbed the still-confused white lady by the neck and wrung a free arm around it. "Are you with someone? How'd you find us?" It was at that same moment when Rein's ears perked up, and not because anything, they simply just did.

"Donnie helped me around town," Dylan's alleged other half and his escort walked down the stairs leading to the riverbank. When they stopped in front of them, Mark's face changed into that of a bitter lover. "No calls or texts? Not even a tweet about where you could've been? Did you purposely go ahead of us to wait for me to rot my chunks out?"

"Did you just say junk?" He grinned in that suggestive way that he sometimes did.

'Who the heck's Donnie?' Rein thought despite her compromising position.

"Real mature, Dyl."

"Who's that?" Donnie finally pointed out. Mark's dreamy look, as Donnie had finally found a word for, returned to his features. In fact, he looked hopeful. "Who else would it be?" Dylan grinned again, then directed his attention to the conniving Donnie. "Darling," He purred, drunk from glee, ignoring the dangerous looks that she and Mark were giving him, "Have you met our…what's the Japanese word for it…"

"I can understand English, Dylan, it's—"

"Osanana-Jimmy!" He grinned, satisfied with his memory. "Karai Rein-chan! Have you, you squishy white Asian, you, met our Lioccott friend? Megami-no Sock-oo-Donnie?"


"I have never heard more horrid Japanese pronunciation," Sokudone was still clutching her head in another failed attempt to block out and forget Dylan's major mispronunciation on her apparently long name. "For a year I had to deal with Dawn from the English, Donnie from the Americans, Donya from the Spanish and Portuguese, Dana from the Argentines, and even Danny from the Italians!"

"All while you were at Liocott?" Rein couldn't help but cringe as she and the other girl walked behind the two Americans. She was lucky her name sounded like an English word, so it didn't sound as bad, and she knew Americans had horrible pronunciation (after three years of watching English dubbed Bleach episodes and being subjected to "Ichigows" and "Uryews"), but Dylan was the definite end of the line. "During and after," Sokudone explained, still rubbing her temples. "I enjoy keeping in touch with foreigners."

"I'm so sorry about Dylan," Rein's voice was hushed, as if she knew that despite the blond's limited Japanese vocabulary, he could still understand whether it was something bad or good.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry about Mark."

Rein snapped her head at her, eyes wide and vulnerable. "W-Why? What happened?" Realizing the croak in her voice, the red-eyed beauty cleared her throat as inconspicuously as she could.

Sokudone grinned at her, knowing she had hit the right mark. Oh, mark. Mark. Get it. "You two didn't get to talk much today, and he's been clinging on to Dylan the moment those two spoke boy lingo. He was looking forward to seeing you though."

"He couldn't have. Classes are still going on."

"Yes, they are," Sokudone nodded, still calm with the situation. "So what's Karai Rein-san doing outside of her school and uniform?" The addressee felt herself running her mental self over with a steamroller. Of course. She was talking to a bigwig school head…and speaking of whom… "And how come you're not in class, hm?"

"Same reason you're not in it either." Sokudone tried to contain her embarrassed blush. She couldn't just say because she felt like it and she was the school president so who was going to stop her, especially since she was already on probation. Also, that was not her reason. She was going to return to class after lunch; she just didn't think it would take this long to find Dylan. "Ditched it."

"I didn't ditch classes because I'm a delinquent," Rein whipped her knee-length locks back, her mouth fixated in a smirk. "I didn't want to go to class today. Surely, a bigwig like you shouldn't be spotted frolicking out here on a class day just because you weren't up for it?"

Oh for the love of – "Well, what can I do but clean Raimon Natsumi's mess of guests cavorting about in my territory?" If Natsumi didn't invite the FFI teams, this never would have happened and she wouldn't have had to keep trying to talk to Gohin-kun (A/N: Seriously. How many chappies has it been?). "Mark got lost on the way to the hotel that that Japanese Barbie must have booked for them, and had by some stroke of luck, as he had claimed, ended up at Teikoku. Raimon's treasure became my trash."

"He's not trash."

Sokudone glanced at the parasol user with an apathetic eye. "He's great company, yes, but I'm speaking business here. And in such field, he's my dead weight when he's supposed to be Raimon's Heart of the Ocean." Rein understood what Sokudone had meant, but it wasn't Mark's fault he got lost, and it wasn't Mark's fault he was invited to Japan. Heck, it wasn't Mark's fault he was part of Team Unicorn!

"So you're going to get in trouble for this?" She asked, even though she knew the answer.

"More trouble, actually," The violet-eyed teen sighed. "It won't make that much of an impact. I wouldn't be surprised if they fired me now."


"Bro, I have no idea what in hell they're saying, but their accents are like heaven to the ears."

"Christ, Dylan, this is what you pulled me away from the girls for?"

Dylan backtracked, feeling the false hurt emanating from his chest. "Bro, would you rather spend your time with me, who hasn't seen you for like, months; with Donnie, whom you basically spent most of your alone time with upon arrival; or with Yami-tan, whom you're going to elope with anyway soon enough?"

"Anyone but you would do." As quiet as the two boys had thought they were, the girls walking behind them had overheard and couldn't help laughing. Mark reddened for the umpteenth time that day, and Dylan had a partly-accusing, partly-pouty expression that deemed appropriate for the situation.

"It's almost dismissal," Sokudone suddenly said as she checked her onyx-hued flip phone. "I better get back." She looked again from the two boys to the silver-haired belle. "I'm confident that Karai-san will be able to take care of you till then. Raimon…Raimon-san would love to see them." The blackette shared one more look with Rein before turning on her heel.

It's like we learned our lesson, but conveniently forgot the rules.


Now that last part was unnecessary but spontaneous. Man! I have never been more surprised with the weird I came up with! :'D This barely reached 1500 words, and it ended at exactly 3 pages in MS Word. Yes, I use, MS Word. Okay, leave a review and enjoy your new year, my darlings. :*

-Strawbeariiis