~Chapter Two~

...Chaos…

Ravyn woke up, and freaked out. She was already late to school, and it was raining outside. She went over to the window, and corrected herself. It was pouring, not raining, and it didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon. Brilliant. It didn't help that her dad was asleep, so she couldn't beg him to let her skip school that day.

Fifteen minutes later, she was walking out of the door, her jacket completely zipped up and the hood pulled over her head, and a 3 Musketeers in her hand. She slung her backpack over her shoulder, and ran outside and into the rain. Though she wasn't the athletic type, she could still run pretty fast when she wanted to, and that was exactly what she was doing. She had her head lowered so the wind and rain wouldn't hit her, but that failed as the wind made her hood slip off, and making her hair get soaked and fly all over the place.

"Damn wind," Ravyn muttered darkly, holding her hair back so she could see. Luckily, the school was coming up, and she was never more glad for it, either. She ran under the cover of the roof, and paused to catch her breath. When she was sure she wasn't going to get rained on, she rung out her hair and peeled off her soaked jacket, thankful that her shirt didn't get wet. Her jeans were soaked, too, but somehow it wasn't that bad. She opened up her 3 Musketeers, which was serving as her breakfast, and walked into the building, groaning when she saw the empty hallways. She ran to her homeroom, walking in just as the announcements ended, and sighed with relief as she noticed that Mr. P wasn't there. She glared at everyone who was staring at her as she walked over to her table, and threw her stuff on the floor. She took another bite out of her candy bar as she sat down.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked.

"What does it look like? Rain and wind happened," Ravyn said darkly.

"Why didn't you ask your dad to drive you?" Brayden asked. She stared at him.

"Now you tell me," she muttered. "I wish I thought of that... I wouldn't be here soaked to the core with screwed up hair if I did..."

"At least you can pull of the rain-soaked look. Not many can," Yumichika offered, and they all laughed as she angrily ate the rest of her 'breakfast,' and then went to throw out the wrapper. By the time she sat back down, Mr. P had walked in the room, and was looking at Ravyn, who was playing hangman with Brayden.

"Ravyn, were you late?" he asked, and she groaned before nodding. So much for no one noticing.

Mr. P nodded, and then had someone pass out the quiz. Everyone finished in twenty minutes, since it was easy, and then they were assigned a project that they had to complete with the people at their table. They had to create a CO2 car made of wood, and there would be a contest at the end of the month where they raced the cars. Apparently the winner was going to get a prize, though what the prize was, they didn't know. The rest of the class was spent deciding on who would do what. In the end, Brayden would be making the car with Ichigo, and the designs and painting of it would be done by Yumichika and Ravyn. That way they could make sure that the car wouldn't fail when they raced it, and that it would pretty enough for Yumichika.

The other classes went by uneventfully, aside from a growing amount of homework, and at lunch, Yumichika invited Ravyn to sit with him and Ichigo. Taking this as a perfect opportunity to find out some information, Ravyn agreed, and promised her friends to tell them everything during Geometry. She went over to their table, and sat down across from them.

"So..." she said after an awkward silence spent staring at each other.

"Does it always rain like this?" Ichigo asked, staring out the window. It was still dark outside, and the rain was still falling hard. It didn't seem like it was going to be letting up any time soon.

"Yeah," Ravyn replied. "You know, the rainy season and everything. It sucks."

"You don't say," he muttered.

"You should've known about the crappy weather before coming here," she told them reasonably. "Speaking of which, how long are you guys gonna stay here for?" They glanced at each other, and Ravyn sighed, taking a drink of her ever-present Cherry Coke.

"Probably for the rest of high school," Yumichika said at last.

"Then you better get used to the Florida weather," she replied, and they nodded. "Hey, I just noticed, you two speak English pretty well."

"I've always wanted to go to America, since I've heard some states are beautiful, so I started taking English classes as soon as I could in case I ever did go," Yumichika told her. "After a few years of taking it, I would think I'm pretty good at speaking it."

"For me, it was a class that everyone thought I'd fail, so I was determined to prove them wrong," Ichigo said, shrugging.

"Well at least you guys had reasons for learning English. Next year, I'm taking Spanish, but only because I have to," Ravyn said. "I wish I could take Japanese, though. I mean, I know some words and the honorifics and stuff from watching anime, but I'd like to know more."

"Why?" Yumichika asked her.

"Because it's cool. And also so that I know what people are saying without having to read the subtitles in whatever anime I happen to be watching," she replied, and then paused. "Oh yeah, and so when you guys return to Japan, I could, like, visit you guys, and understand what everyone's saying, and I could reply to them!"

"How're you going to learn?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm not," she said simply, and then explained as they looked at her oddly. "I'm too lazy, plus all the online things that could teach me Japanese require money. As much as I wanna learn, I'm not going to waste my money on it. I'll just figure some stuff out by continuing to watch anime, but…. It's not like I'll actually be able to go to Japan anyway."

"How do you know that?" he replied.

"Well, I don't have enough money, for starters, and I don't have a passport thing…." Ravyn trailed off as the bell rung, signaling the end of lunch.

"They really do need to make lunch longer," Yumichika complained, and they agreed as they walked out of the cafeteria. Ichigo disappeared somewhere, leaving him and Ravyn in the middle of the hallway, and he walked her to the Geometry classroom. She followed, walking slightly behind him, and got a sudden feeling of déjà vu. She had a feeling that she'd be getting that feeling a lot, so she just shook it off and thought nothing of it.

"After school, go to that ice cream place, okay?" he said to her as they reached the classroom. "It'll probably stop raining by then."

"Sure," Ravyn replied, nodding, and walked inside the room. She took her seat next to Ember, and after the lesson ended early, she told them what happened at lunch… which they all agreed on was nothing. She didn't tell them about her meeting later with Yumichika, since she didn't think it was important, but if she got any real information, she'd tell them. They spent the last ten minutes of Geometry copying the answers for their homework from the back of the book (why did they even put the answers back there, anyway, if it was just going to be used for cheating?) and then talking about some anime-based video game Rozalin was obsessed with.

The class ended, and they all left, heading to their last class. Art once again flew by, and Ravyn noticed that it had finally stopped raining sometime during the class. She walked out of the room, and left the school. Once outside, she started walking towards the ice cream shop, wondering why Yumichika had asked her to meet her there. Well, not necessarily there, but why would he want to meet her at all? She walked in, looking at Yumichika in surprise since he was already there, and ordered a chocolate cone. Alex gave her the ice cream, and disappeared somewhere behind the store. She walked over to Yumichika, put her backpack on the chair, and sat down across from him at the table.

"What's up?" she asked him.

"I was wondering why you asked me yesterday if I ever left Japan before," Yumichika replied.

"That's it?" Ravyn said, and he nodded. She sighed, and then figured that she might as well tell him the truth, since she felt as if she could trust him. "Well, you're probably going to find this crazy, but you seem sort of familiar to me. As if I met you before, but I just don't remember it, or something."

He stared at her with the same thoughtful look as yesterday as she ate her ice cream slowly. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions this time?"

"Go ahead," she replied, wondering where he was going with this.

"The first time you saw me was yesterday at school, right?"

"Well…."

"What?" Yumichika asked.

"Again, you're going to find this weird, but I had this dream the day -or would it be night?- before I saw you at school. You were in it, and you were wearing some weird Japanese thing, with something orange. It was like a scarf… or something. I don't know," Ravyn said, shrugging. "But anyway, you had a sword, too…. It was pretty cool."

"Hmm," he said, thinking, then changed the topic. "Does the name Ikkaku Madarame sound familiar to you?"

She stared at her ice cream in thought. It seemed as if she should know the name, but she didn't. "No, why? Who's that?"

He paused. "No one important. One more name, though. What about Kenpachi Zaraki?"

Again, Ravyn felt as if she should recognize the name, but for some reason, didn't. "No, sorry."

"Just tell me if you suddenly do find those names familiar," Yumichika said, and she nodded.

"Why should they sound familiar to me, though?" she asked, finishing up the last of her cone. There was a long pause, and she was starting to wonder if he was going to answer or not.

"It's… complicated," he said at last. "Don't worry, though, Ravyn. You'll find out sooner or later."

"Hopefully sooner," she muttered, and he smiled at her. It wasn't the normal half-smile he usually had at school; it was a full smile, one that would make all the girls forget about Ichigo and start worshipping Yumichika instead. Of course, Ravyn felt awesome that he would smile at her, and was trying not to blush and turn into gross mush on the floor.

"Do you want to come over tomorrow night for dinner?" Yumichika asked her, and she looked at him in surprise.

"Yeah, sure. I'll tell you either later, or tomorrow during school if I can go or not," she replied.

"You have a cell phone?" She nodded, and he got out a piece of paper and wrote down his number on it, sliding it to her. She took it and put it in her pocket, and then gave him her number. "Call me when you find out."

"No problem," Ravyn said, and followed him out of the shop. They walked to her house in a comfortable silence, Yumichika slightly ahead. Instead of feeling déjà vu again, like she expected, it felt natural to walk slightly behind him. She wondered, not for the first time, why. At last, they reached her house, and she turned to him.

"See ya."

"Bye, Ravyn," Yumichika said, flashing her another one of his smiles, which she returned before turning around to hide her blush. She walked up to the front door, and turned back to see his retreating back, and then walked inside. She dropped her stuff up in her room, and then went back downstairs, collapsing onto a chair in the living room while she waited for her dad to return from work. She didn't have to wait long, though, since ten minutes later he walked in. Ravyn got up and met him in the kitchen.

"Hey, dad," she said. "Can I go over to a friend's house for dinner tomorrow?"

"Who's house?" he asked.

She sighed; she had hoped he wouldn't ask. "Um, there's this new transfer kid, and we're sort of friends?"

"Is it that orange-haired gangster?"

"Ichigo? No," Ravyn said, smirking. "And he's not a gangster, dad."

"The feathered pretty-boy?" he guessed, ignoring her last statement.

"Yumichika. And yeah, him," she replied. "He lives down the road, so…."

"Well, he doesn't seem too much like a gangster, and his hair's a natural color," he mused, purposely taking his time to decide just to annoy her. "I guess you can go… but on one condition."

"What?" she asked.

"You're coming back by nine, nine-thirty at the latest," he said, ignoring her protests. "And then you're telling me what happens there."

"What do you mean? We're just going to be talking, eating, and talking some more!"

"You never know," her dad replied mysteriously, leaving the room.

Ravyn rolled her eyes, and went up to her room. A few hours later, she finally finished her homework, and since she had nothing better to do, she decided to call up Yumichika.

"Did you find out if you can come?" he asked.

"Yep," she replied cheerfully.

"Well?" Yumichika said after a few seconds. "Can you?"

"I didn't say 'yep' for nothing, you know," she retorted, and they laughed. "So, I guess I could just hang out at your place after school or something?"

"Yes, that would work," he replied. "Ichigo is learning how to read a cookbook right now, so-"

"Is it going to be edible?" Ravyn asked, interrupting him. Ichigo didn't seem like the type of person who could cook, much less follow instructions from a cookbook.

"We can always order takeout if it's not," Yumichika replied.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Well, speaking of food, I have to go now. So, see you tomorrow, Yumichika!"

"Bye."

The next day, school dragged on for Ravyn.

In homeroom, they got the block of wood they'd need to make the CO2 car out of, and Brayden took that home to start working on it. By the time lunch came around, she was wondering if the day could last any longer. She was excited about hanging out at Yumichika and Ichigo's place, and was looking forward to it. She thought about what would happen, and if she was going to, by any chance, find out anything. No, tonight she wasn't going to worry about anything like that. She was just going to find out what Yumichika and Ichigo were like outside of school, and if she got any information from them, then she'd be happy. If not, she'd still be content.

At long last, she was in her Art class, which luckily passed by as quickly as it always did. When the bell finally rung, Ravyn rushed out of class, and went outside, where she met up with Ichigo and Yumichika. Halfway to the house, Ichigo remembered that he still needed to buy stuff, and the other two watched as he ran back the way they came so he could go to the grocery store.

"Hey, I'm gonna go drop off my stuff at my place, 'kay?" Ravyn asked as they neared her house. "I'll be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere," Yumichika replied, and she rolled her eyes before disappearing into her house.

Ravyn headed up to her room, where she dropped her backpack by her desk, then stared in the mirror at her hair. She decided to do something different with it for once, and she pulled it back into a ponytail with her bangs covering her face like they usually did, and also covering the sides of her face, too. Surprisingly, her hair looked good that way, and she ran back downstairs and outside to Yumichika. He glanced at her hair, and shock and some other emotion that Ravyn couldn't place flickered in his eyes for an instant before disappearing. Before she could wonder about it, they started walking again.

"Ichigo ran by a few seconds after you went inside," Yumichika said after a few seconds of awkward silence. "He didn't buy much."

"Maybe he didn't need a lot… or he forgot something, or was too lazy to buy more," Ravyn suggested.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough," he replied as the house was coming into their view. A few seconds later, they were walking inside, and were greeted by Ichigo, who stuck his head out of the door leading to the kitchen.

"You guys came back fast," he commented and then disappeared.

"Is that a bad thing?" Ravyn asked.

"Yes!" Ichigo shouted from the kitchen. "Now I'm under even more pressure to learn how to cook!"

"Learn?" she asked under breath, looking at Yumichika in alarm.

"It'll be fine," he reassured her, though he looked as if he was also convincing himself as well. "Hopefully…."

"I heard that," Ichigo said, and was followed by a crash and some swearing.

"Let's go somewhere else, before he somehow manages to blow something up," Yumichika said quickly, and lead her through the living room and into a hallway. He opened a door hidden in a corner, and they walked in. The room had a light and airy feel to it, mainly because it was painted light blue, and the window let in lots of light. There wasn't much furniture- just a bed in a corner with a small table next to it, a desk by the window, and a sofa along one of the walls.

"This is your room?" she asked, and he nodded.

"It's not as beautiful as it could be, but I didn't have any time to do anything to it," he replied, shrugging, and she wondered how a room, of all things, could be considered beautiful.

"Well, it's still cool, compared to my cluttered and dark room," Ravyn said, sitting down on the edge of his bed while he went to the sofa. Not even ten seconds later, they heard the loudest crash yet coming from the kitchen, followed by doors slamming, and she looked at him in alarm. "Yumichika, don't you think we should-"

"Fire!" Ichigo yelled as he kicked open the door. "There's a fire in the kitchen!"

"Didn't you put it out?" Yumichika asked, and he shook his head. "Why not?"

"We don't have a fire extinguisher thing, remember?" Ichigo replied as he freaked out, and Yumichika nodded.

"How big is the fire?" Ravyn asked.

"Well, when I ran out of there, it was small…." he said, and she rolled her eyes before leaving the room. Ichigo and Yumichika followed her into the kitchen, where they got hit with the heat from the fire, which was consuming part of the table… which happened to be near the door they were all standing by.

"Idiot! Haven't you ever heard of a fire getting bigger?" she asked, freaking out, and then took a few deep breaths before turning to face them. "I have a fire extinguisher at home; you two stay here and don't go near the fire."

"Ravyn, what are you-" Yumichika started, but stopped as she pushed him and Ichigo away from the kitchen, and proceeded to run outside. Ravyn ran into her house, and headed towards the living room closet. She grabbed the extinguisher, ran back outside, and headed towards their house. Smoke could be seen coming from a window, and she quickened her pace. Luckily, the door was still open, and she ran inside, while pulling the pin on it, and went to the kitchen. She squeezed the trigger, the white foam inside of the extinguisher started shooting out and covering the fire. After a minute, the fire had disappeared, and Ravyn turned around to face Ichigo and Yumichika, who were staring at her.

"You put out the fire," Ichigo said, and she calmly aimed the nozzle at him, and pressed the trigger again, making the stuff hit him in the face. "What the hell was that for, Ravyn?"

"You're an idiot! What were you even doing that could cause a fire, anyway?"

"Cooking?" he replied uncertainly, and was hit with the foam again.

"Again, Ichigo, you're an idiot," Ravyn said, shaking her head.

"An idiot who's going to buy me a new door," Yumichika added.

"Why do I owe you a door?" Ichigo asked, staring at him in confusion.

"Because you broke it when you kicked it down," he replied. "Even if you didn't break it, I still would need a new door, since it's ugly, and no amount of paint can fix that." Ravyn nodded, and then aimed the nozzle at Ichigo again.

"Don't shoot me with that thing again!" Ichigo said quickly, raising his hands up in a sign of surrender. She stared at him thoughtfully, and he gulped.

"On one condition," she said at last. "Whenever I'm here, you don't cook at all."

"Even microwaving stuff?" he asked.

"Even microwaving stuff," she repeated, nodding. "Deal?"

"Why don't you just ban him from entering the kitchen at all?" Yumichika suggested, and she grinned evilly while Ichigo looked from her to Yumichika and back again.

"Y-you wouldn't dare," Ichigo said nervously.

"Oh, I would," Ravyn replied, raising the nozzle of the fire extinguisher threateningly. "Is it a deal or not?"

"It's a deal," he agreed a few seconds later, and then disappeared.

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully. They had ordered a pizza, which they ate in the living room, since the table in the kitchen was demolished. They talked about random stuff for the rest of the night while snacking on ice cream, and Ichigo and Yumichika told her a little bit about Japan. Before they knew it, it was time for Ravyn to leave, and she said bye to them before taking the fire extinguisher and walking back to her house.