Chapter Ten

Of course they overreacted a bit when I told them.

In fact, I hadn't even gotten through telling them. The bell rang before I had time to finish our story that isn't even finished in real life.

Ha ha.

What a great story to tell my children someday. I could almost picture myself, tucking little kids into bed and saying, "Did you know I once had to live with this totally obnoxious jerk who just happened to be one of the most popular boys in my school at that time. But now, we just laugh about it. Ha, ha, ha…"

Right.

Like Shinji could ever laugh.

I've never even see him smile.

Well, back to the story.

So, when I finished telling them my story, well, let's just say they flipped. Of course Satoshi didn't. He never overreacts, being the dense person he is. But he's not stupid. He gets pretty good grades and stuff. He's more of, you tell a joke and he doesn't get it.

Kasumi went in over her head. I don't even know why. It hadn't been such a big deal to me. At least, until the boxers thing…

I wasn't really worried about their reaction anyways. My goal had been to keep as much people in the dark as possible. But the more people that found out, even more people would soon know. Oh, how I hoped school would end soon.

The one thing that really worried me, was how Shinji would react. I mean. Jun had blabbered everything to two more people. Shinji's taken some items out of his room before, and some things he brought out looked like it hurt. A baseball bat, for one thing. Why in the world would he have a baseball bat in his room? Metal!

And I can't help but wondering why he has the following, other than the bat: hammer, a glass rod, a bamboo stick, and a big metal spoon. Beware the spoon people. It can cause a lot of harm.

So I was immensely surprised when he was a bit cool with it. Of course, he went to go hunt down Jun. Poor guy, I feel sorry for him. But when they arrived, he was in one piece. From the looks of it, I guessed that Shinji had only threatened him or something. Not like it'd effect Jun or anything.

Of course, there were a lot of other things that Shinji did that was mean to him over the past week.

One time, Jun had been very excited about a new story he'd gotten.

"Look, look!" Jun cried as he ran over to where we were all talking. I didn't know how he could run. It was so humid today that the windows were actually open.

"What's got you all hyped up?" Kasumi asked. She'd kind of forgiven him for the festival news since he'd told them about my little secret.

"I just overheard these people talking about how the principle doesn't plan to buy new text books!" He said quickly, so quickly I barely made out what he said. "Yay. Yeah. That's so awesome." I recited in a bored tone. But of course, Jun didn't notice.

"It's all written down in this notebook." He said, holding up a green, portable notepad, "This is great." He had that real glow around him like the shine that really happy people have. This must be big. In his book at least.

"Let me see that." Shinji said, coming over to us. Which nearly made me think that this was someone other than Shinji. "Look, look, look!" Jun cried, practically shoving it in his face.

He should've noticed something was wrong right then because normally Shinji doesn't give a damn in what we do.

"Isn't it all interesting?" Jun asked. We were practically drowning in his anxiety.

"Yeah, yeah." Shinji said, in a cold, and bored tone. (I seriously needed to take lessons from this guy) And clearly he threw it out the window. Well, it was clear to me. He'd flicked his wrist toward the window, at least, and let go of it at the exact time.

Jun rushed to the window, crying, "Noooooo! This can't be happening!" And when he turned around, his bottom lip was quivering in a very cute way. So cute, I couldn't help but feel pity for him.

We couldn't really do anything about it. People would find it a bit weird if we just walked up to Shinji and started shouting at him to apologize. No one had done that before. It was, as Shinji called them, "Extra Precautions" We couldn't even acknowledge at school.

And if being mean to Jun wasn't enough. I just had to be nagged when I got home. Mostly about tests, sometimes about everything being too messy for his liking when he got home. He was acting like my mother. Seriously.

When I had pointed this out to him, he'd said that he was only caring because he was the one that taught me how to do all this stuff, and I still managed to fail.

I almost laughed. It was as though he was telling me that by my failing, it was taking a big blow to his ego.

I thought the rest of the week would get better from then on, but of course, thinking never works. And neither does hoping, or wishing, or even dreaming. Sue you Cinderella. I can't believe you betrayed me.

"What are you all whispering about?" I asked suspiciously at the clustered group in front of me. It's been about a month after school started again, August about.

"Oh, nothing." Haruka said nervously. Her face didn't give, but of course, everyone knew that she was nervous when she pulled the hem of her skirt down. "Hikari, would you like to sleep at my house today?" Kasumi asked casually. "Why?" I asked, eyes wide with surprise, "It's a school night."

"So? We go to the same school. It's just like a sleepover, without the staying up late thing." Kasumi urged, "I even invited Haruka, who agreed." To show that what Kasumi was saying was true, she nodded her head vigorously.

"What's going on here?" I asked, one eye- brow raised in a suspicious way. "She has the right to know." Jun said, "It's her neighborhood. But, I can't believe you haven't heard. It's a good thing my dad is an editor or you might-" "What is it?" I snapped.

"There's this girl kidnapper on the loose." He said, shuddering, "Actually, not girls, more like teens. Ranging from 13 to 18. He's been running around for a while, and they think he's going to hit around your neighborhood next." I felt my heart pumping madly, but I kept a straight face and pretended not to care. "So?" I asked. "You're not worried? At all?" Haruka asked, her fingers touching the bottom of her lip. She looked like a hamster.

"It's fine." I assured with a gentle smile, "I can take care of myself. And I'm sure no one will approach an apartment with a guy in it. Especially as someone as intimidating as Shinji." "But, just in case." Kasumi said with a frown, "You should sleep over."

"I said it's fine." I said, "Don't worry. It's only for a day right? I'll make sure I have maximum protection tonight." I rolled my eyes at this part. Right. Like I had anything to keep me safe. Except a pencil. And maybe a few more.

But, how could my friends keep from worrying when I couldn't even take my own advice?

The news began growing inside my head. Growing larger and larger. Like a humongous kind of fungus. Whatever I thought of, I suddenly thought of this "Girl kidnapper."

I mean, what kind of sick, perverted person goes around kidnapping girls? That was just wrong.

"Are you okay?" Kasumi asked, crashing me back to reality, "You've been looking at the board for over five minutes now. It's making me worried."

Right, right. English. That was an A. That was a B. That was an S. That was an I. Or was it a T? Ugh! I hate English. I heard there was even more perverted sickos roaming around the United States. So I shouldn't be worried.

No!

Just don't think about it Hikari. Remember? Nothing's wrong. Just some kidnapper that abducts girls. You just happen to be a possibility to be one of those abducted girls.

I groaned and hit my head with my palm.

I saw Haruka and Kasumi both looking at me with a worried expression, but I pretended not to notice. I scrunched my eyebrows in concentration at the page I was supposed to be reading.

What was I supposed to do now?

I looked around nervously. My eyes rested on the clock. Only two more minutes till the bell rang for school dismissal. Please don't let that bell ring. I found myself wishing. My stomach started churning when I thought about why.

I felt my skin prickling, and all of a sudden, my whole body grew hot in the anxiety. I didn't want to go home. This was an all too new experience for me.

Between all of my thoughts, I heard the bell ring. But, it sounded very distant.

I could hear my teacher distinctly say to read the rest of the page at home, but I wasn't exactly paying attention. I felt like I was going to retch and I was sweating too much. Why was I sweating so much!?

I walked out of the classroom a bit too quicker than usual. And that certainly caught the attention of Haruka and Kasumi. They've been eyeing me ever since Jun spilled the news.

"You want us to walk you home?" Haruka asked. I gave her my best cheerful look and flashed her a wide grin. "Nah." I said, waving my hand in the air dismissively, "That's fine. I'm not a little girl you know. I can walk the streets alone."

"Ok." Kasumi said worriedly, "Call both of us when you get home."

I rolled my eyes, pretending to act as though that was the most absurd thing I'd ever heard. "Don't worry mom. I will."

After our goodbyes, no matter how reluctant, I trudged on home.

Just get there. Just keep on walking and get home. I kept thinking over and over again. And before I knew it, I was walking faster and faster. My breath came in quick pants as my slow, turtle- like walk became a fast- paced hare.

Just as I started calming down. Relieved I was nearly home. I swore I heard footsteps. I stopped for a minute, thinking that the footsteps would stop also, like in those horror movies. But the thuds kept coming. Closer and closer.

I started walking again. Faster this time. My heart beat faster than the one before. I could hear the footsteps sounding louder and louder. And I realized that running wasn't going to work. I had to use self defense.

I swung my bag around, eyes squeezed shut tight, and screamed, "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU PERV!!"

When I felt the bag hit something, opened my eyes. One at a time. I let out a little scream and took a few steps back. "Sorry." I squeaked.

"You should be." Shinji said, rubbing his red cheek.

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

"What were you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?" I asked heatedly. He gave me a sarcastic look. "Yes, I wanted to torture you as much as possible and see you squirming on the driveway where many people can witness me hurting you."

"Don't do that anymore!" I cried. "You're telling me? You passed me five minutes ago!" He retorted, "I was supposed to reach home before you, like always!"

And we bickered throughout the whole walk home, which wasn't very long, by they way.

After that, I completely ignored him, since my way of making peace was indifference. Even after he went to work, I didn't even bother to tell him to buy anything on his way back, I just sat on the couch, watching a horror movie. He didn't bother saying anything either, when would he?

"Don't open the door idiot!" I muttered, as the girl in the movie opened the mysterious door. Then a man with a chainsaw popped out and she screamed. I took two popcorn and popped them in my mouth. "I told you so." I said, quite snobbishly, if I must say so myself.

Then I heard something rustle on my right, and on instinct, I swung around to look at the noise. It was just the trees. I stared at it for a moment, entranced by the rhythm of the wind.

Then, quite frightened by the screaming coming from the movie, threw my bowl of popcorn in the air and screamed myself.

"Aw, man!" I moaned as I started picking out pieces of popcorn out of my hair.

After picking up all the popcorn off the floor, I dove under the coffee table to pick up any that had fallen under there. Then, I heard more rustling. Thinking it was the trees again, I resumed with my chore. But, noticing something different, I hesitated. This rustling was coming from behind me.

I tried getting my head up as fast as I could and hit the back of my head on the table.

"Ow." I groaned, pressing on the place I had hit.

I froze for a moment as I heard the rustling again.

I placed my hand on the seat of the chair and slowly pushed myself up. Halfway up, I stopped and picked up anything hard I could get my free hand on at that moment, which just happened to be a bowl filled with dirty popcorn.

I pushed myself up quickly, ready with the bowl in hand, but found that the window in kitchen was open. I heaved a sigh of relief. It was just the curtains.

"Get a grip on yourself Hikari." I muttered to myself, "You're getting paranoid. So what if some female kidnapper is on the loose, probably at this very neighborhood right now?"

An owl hooted somewhere in the distance and I jumped a foot into the air.

"That's it, I'm going to find things that really hurt." I murmured. The only thing I could think of was the items in Shinji's room, and I was pretty reluctant to go in there. Suck it up. I told myself, He's been in your room several times. Just go in, get the stuff, and get out.

So I did.

But, I couldn't help noticing some things.

His room is so dirty! I mused, my eyebrows scrunched in obvious frustration, And, eew! Are those his clothes from the last few weeks or something? It's okay Hikari, just look away and don't think about it.

And that's what I did.

"They've got to be here somewhere." I whispered to myself, "Think! Where would a eighteen year old boy hide a baseball bat, a hammer, glass rod, a bamboo stick, and a spoon?"

And that's when it came to me.

If it was anything unusual, they were usually in the closet. If the things Haruka complained about were true. And thank goodness Shinji didn't keep his clothes in his closet, because if he did, I would've died of embarrassment right there, then Shinji would've found me. But then dieing was a good thing. Right?

When I found all necessary items, I slinked back to my room. I don't know why I was being extra quiet. It was probably still the paranoia.

I placed the glass rod under my bed, the bamboo stick, under the sheets, the baseball bat was squeezed between the wall and my bed, just in case I needed it fast, and the hammer was under the pillow.

I looked at what I'd done in triumph. No one would notice anything different. Except the bulge under my blanket where the bamboo stick was. But then, I would be under the covers, so no one would see anything unusual.

I glanced at my clock. It read 9: 45. This wasn't very unusual. Sometimes, Shinji worked late at night, he'd been later before.

After I took a nice, hot bath, brushed my teeth and hair, and changed into my pajamas, I opened up a book that was getting to be popular now- a- days. As I was reading the book Haruka had recommended to me to read (or forced me, but she didn't think there was a difference), I started dozing off. Reading was just like homework to me.

The door opened soon after that and Shinji walked in coolly.

"Have you seen my-?" He started. I squeaked in surprise, interrupting him. "Aren't you breaking that rule with the room thing?" I asked. "There it is." he said, slinking his hand under the covers.

I pounded his arm with two fists.

"You get that hand out of there you pervert!" I screamed, my face flushed. "Relax." He said, not even wincing, "I'm just getting this out." And he took out the bamboo stick out. "Oh." I murmured, looking away sheepishly. "And I shouldn't be talking about the room rule." He continued, "You broke it too, if you have this."

I remained silent, waiting for him to ask why I had it in my room.

When he didn't, and headed for the door, my eyebrows shot up in surprise and without even thinking, I shouted at him, "Aren't you going to ask me why I dug through your room to get it?"

He gracefully lifted one of his eyebrows. "Why should I?" "Well, I just dug through your stuff. And I went into your room." I said, my gaze still somewhere else other than him, "By the way, you should really clean the place up."

I looked up at him, and saw him glaring at me.

"Whatever the reason, it's not my problem." He said. Ignoring him, I told him anyway. "B- but, Jun said there's a mad girl- kidnapper on the loose in this very neighborhood tonight!" I wailed, "I don't want to be kidnapped, Shinji! I really don't!" At this point, I had unconsciously crawled out of bed and clung on to his arm.

It must've been very awkward for him, but I really didn't want to be abducted by a mad-man.

"G-get back on the bed Stupid Girl." He said awkwardly. I shook my head fiercely. He tried shaking me off. "Get off me!" "I'm scared Shinji! I truly am!" And I looked at him.

He sighed and practically dragged me to my bed.

"Please don't go." I whimpered. I couldn't help I was acting like a spoiled brat. This was like being five all over again, except, without the willing protection.

He muttered something unintelligible.

"What was that?" I asked quietly. "I said…." And again, Shinji said something I couldn't make out. "Speak louder." I said. "I said, I won't let anything happen to you. Geez." He turned away. I felt my heart pounding. It had actually started pounding long ago, but I had ignored it.

"You promise?" I asked him. "Yes, I promise." He murmured. "Then say it again." I said, crossing my arms. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He said quickly, "Now go to bed." "Are you ready to say that with one hand on the bible?" I asked him suspiciously. He shot me a menacing look I was already used to.

"First of all, I'm not Christian. Second, if I were, yes. Now shut up." He was very frustrated at this point. I had already gotten the point, but I couldn't help asking once more. "You promise sincerely?" I asked.

He crouched down next to the bed where he had forcefully laid me.

"I promise." He said slowly. I could feel the blood rushing up to my face. "You're not kidding, right?" I muttered.

I could swear amusement flashed across his eyes, even though his face was emotionless. I had learned that Shinji might be the master of masks, but he couldn't hide anything if you looked deep into his eyes.

He placed a hand roughly on my head and looked straight into my eyes, making my heart go crazy.

"I swear I will not let anything happen to you." He said in a serious tone I'd never heard him use before. "You promised." I gasped out. My heart was pounding so fast, I couldn't even breath!

His hand trailed down some hair over my shoulder as he let it fall.

Now, I was sure he could feel my heart beating.

"Yes, I promised. Now please go to sleep." He said in a weary tone.

Then, as though he had just realized what he was doing, he leapt up, cleared his throat and walked out the door.

Realization hit me hard when he closed the door.

I realized a lot of things.

That I was sweating, that my face felt hot, my heart was pounding harder than I thought, and that this only happened when I was around Shinji.

Surprisingly, I didn't freak out, like I thought I would. Not like I ever thought this would happen. Especially with Shinji.

"Oh." I said, "Oh. I see now. I think."

My eyes were wide as I looked down at where my heart would be. I placed a hand gently on the spot.

I'm experiencing a crush.

My first crush. Ever.

I liked Shinji Ikari.

So that's the weird feeling I've been experiencing for the last month. I frowned ever so slightly. I didn't like this feeling, but liked it at the same time.

Wait. I started feeling this since last month? I've only been living with him for three months and I like him? Doesn't that make me a hormonal crazy fan- girl?!

"Aw man!" I groaned, "This sucks!" Who knew that Hikari would turn into a fan- girl. And with the one guy she wouldn't have any chance with.

Then the door opened again.

Shinji came in and asked, "Hey, you don't happen to have my baseball ba-" I shoved him out as hard as I could.

"CAN'T YOU SEE I'M HAVING A MOMENT!" I screamed at him, "GET OUT!" "Be quiet! I just want my-" But I never found out what he wanted, because I slammed the door on him.

I wanted to hit my head on something, and this urge was stronger than the time with Jun. And that would be saying something.

Well, at least this time, I had something to bang my head on.

AN. FORGIVE ME ABOUT THE CLIFFY LAST CHAPTER!! I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE IT WAS A CLIFFY! No I seriously didn't. It was really surprising for me when I got my first, "You left a ciffy, I hate you" review. But, hah, one week. That's… pretty good. You people must be crying tears of joy. Hikari finally realized it! Yes! No, I'm just kidding. Maybe I should change back to a whole year. This is going way to fast in my opinion. But, I have a lot of ideas, and they're all chapter stories unfortunately, and I can't work on two chapter stories at once, or I'll quit on one. My greatest goal in fan fiction is to finish this story, and Contestshipping story, and a Pokeshipping story. And I already have the story, idea, and plot, and everything! I just need to figure out which one to write first. Somewhere near the end of this story, I'll probably put a poll up. So look out for that. I want to write in Shinji's POV now, but, writing in Hikari's POV is so much easier. So you people tell me, is seeing someone fall for you more interesting? Or falling for someone? I'm thinking still keeping it in Hikari's POV, because I've already wrote someone falling for another person. I've never had first- hand experience on having a crush, because I've never liked someone, but my friends've explained it to me. I would've put more flashbacks, but this is eleven pages already, and to me, that's really long. I know I shouldn't be complaining to those of you who write way more than me. I'm… content with this chapter. That's all I'm going to say.

Kahmelion