Wow, wow, wow. I'm really on a roll. Enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Azumanga Daioh. I repeat: I do not own Azumanga Daioh.

The Kagura household was unusually quiet. The three family members were gathered around the dinner table about to eat dinner and Kagura's mother, Reina, was a bit worried about the stillness of her children. Well, she wasn't too concerned about her son; he had just woken up from a nap so he was still snapping out of the drowsiness. She was mostly concerned about her daughter, who, normally by this point, would have said something about the sport's festival.

She raised her chopsticks, as if to signal something. Her children followed suit. In perfect synchrony the family said, "Itadakimasu." By this time Uehara had fully woken up and was loudly attacking his plate of food. Satisfied that one of children had returned to normal, Reina focused her attention on the little jock next to her. "How was your day," she asked.

Kagura shrugged her shoulders while slowly lifting pieces of food her mouth. "It was good," was the response.

"You had the sports festival today? How did that do?"

At the mention of the festival, Kagura became a little more animated. "Oh, it was good. We came in first!"

Reina smiled. "That's great. I take it you had a big part in that victory."

"Well, I don't mean to boast but… Yeah!" Kagura chuckled to herself.

The room fell silent again, save for the aggressive sounds as Uehara ate his food as if it would be his last meal on earth. Reina quickly tried to think of a subject to talk about as she didn't like her daughter being so silent. "You did the relay this year, right?"

"Yeah. I was the anchor," Kagura said proudly.

"Wow. Impressive. My little Yu-chan is one cool chick." Reina said, in an effort to make her daughter laugh.

"Well… I guess a little." Kagura smiled. "Rin was the starter in the race and she gave a good lead. She'd probably give me a run for my money in a race between us. And this other girl Kaede was in the race, she's a good runner too. But for some reason, they put Kaiya in and she gave up most of our lead." Kagura laughed as she remembered the race. "But of course, I got it back and won. So the class treated me to drinks and candy afterwards."

"Kaiya? Isn't she the one tutoring you," Reina absent-mindedly asked as she brought some food to her mouth. "Oh my, I'm such a good cook," she added as she waited for Kagura's response.

Due to her distraction, Kagura's mother didn't notice as the young girl's smile faded. Opting to stare at her plate and play with food some more instead of looking her mother face-to-face Kagura let out a little a quiet, "Yeah, she's the one."

"Well, that's nice of her. Are you paying her?" Kagura shook her head no. "Such a nice girl. I'm glad you're making friends. I know you're not anti-social, you've just never had any good friends and I'm glad that's finally changing."

Feeling like she might cry if she said anything, Kagura remained silent. She began to quickly eat as an excuse to not speak. Lucky for Kagura, her little brother was making enough of a distraction for her mother to not notice that the girl had stopped talking. '…Kagura's too dumb…" She couldn't get it out of her head. Maybe I am just a moron. "Mom," Kagura started, effectively gaining her mother's attention. "Mom… Am I stupid?"

Reina was taken aback by the question. She stared at her daughter a moment, fully taking in the miserable sight before her. "Is that what's bothering you? You think you're stupid?" The mother took her daughter's hands in her. "Darling, you are not stupid." Kagura just looked down. Realizing she had not convinced her daughter otherwise she sighed. "Did I ever tell you how I met your father?"

Kagura immediately looked up. "No." Kagura was always interested to learn more about her father but was always too afraid to ask.

"He was such a goof," Reina smiled as she began to remember that first encounter. "We went to the same high school, but didn't actually meet until the last year. Entrance exams were coming up and I was walking down the hallway after school to go to a prep session. That's when I heard yelling. I quickly realized it was a teacher yelling at a student. I decided to go have a listen. Your father's homeroom teacher was yelling at him for failing all of his classes. You see, the entirety of high school your father barely made passing grades and during the last semester he stopped trying altogether. He walked out of the office, smiling as if nothing had happened and spotted me next to the door. I'll never forget the first words he said me. 'Wow, you're such a nosy girl.'"

Both mother and daughter laughed at this. As did Uehara, who began chanting, "Nosy. Nosy. Nosy."

Still chuckling, Reina continued. "I guess I was being a bit nosy. Either way, he found me at lunch the next day and began talking to me. Your father was very bold. The day of entrance exams came and to the surprise of everyone he passed with flying colors. He found me later that day and showed me his results. He told me, 'Thank you. If not for you I would not have have passed. You were my drive to succeed.' I was so moved that we began dating, and I guess you know what that led to." Reina put her hand to daughter's chin. "So my dear Kagura, you are not stupid. You just need to find something that drives you. Once you find that, you'll be unstoppable."

Kagura smiled widely. Her mother always knew what to say. She hugged her mother tightly. "Thanks mom. I love you."

"I love you too, darling." Reina gave her daughter a kiss on the head. She then looked over at her daughter's plate. "Yu-chan. Eat you food. You have the world's best cook as a mother and you don't eat your food!?"

The young athlete let go of her mother, picked her chopsticks back up and began to happily eat. Reina watched with a smile as her daughter's mood returned to normal.

zzZZzz

Kagura woke up the next day with determination. She pulled out her latest report card to see which subjects she was struggling in. Although, in reality, she didn't need the report to tell her. "Just as I feared… I knew it was all of them…" Except for physical education, which she had an A in, she had D's in all of the other subjects. "Well, at least I'm not failing… But then again Kaiya was tutoring me…" She grunted as she remember what Kaiya said about her. "I bet she was just viewing me as some charity case." She crumpled up her report card and threw it in the trash can. "Ok, time to start fresh!"

She grabbed the nearest textbook, which was her science book, and opened it to the chapter her class was on. She began reading, trying to make sense of anything on the paper. "Well… I don't get most of it… Ah, I know!" She opened her desk and found a brand new package of index cards, and a piece of paper. "I'll make a plan." She began outline a study routine. The routine involved reading the text book for thirty minutes a day, followed by thirty minutes of looking at flashcards of the words she didn't know. She began to copy words in the chapter that didn't make sense, using up half of her index cards.

She looked at the clock on her desk. "Eh!?" She had been working on this for about two hours. She didn't even realize the time was passing by so quickly. She then looked at the other untouched textbooks, all seven of them. "At this rate, I'll be working for fourteen hours." She closed her science textbook, she hunched over in defeat. "There's no use…"

The young athlete went and changed out of her pajamas. Feeling no use in studying, she decided she'd go to the arcade instead. She was about to walk out of her room, when she heard her mother talking to her little brother. "Uehara! You didn't wet the bed," was the happy exclaim.

"I'm a big boy!"

"Yes. I'm so proud. You and your sister are both the best children."

Kagura leaned against her door and closed her eyes as tears began to form. "I can't let mom down." She walked back over to desk. Picking up her math textbook, she sat down and continued on her studies.

While studying and reading the textbooks, Kagura realized there was a lot of material from some classes she quickly picked up on. She had already known a lot about health from her training, she was good at music and realized music had math in it so she applied those lessons to her math formulas, and she noticed that the majority of history is predictable. She didn't spend the fourteen hours she had expected to spend on her studies. Instead, five hours later she felt like she was done for the day.

Feeling accomplished, she got up from her desk and headed out of her bedroom. She went to the kitchen to get a quick snack. She then went over to the living room with an apple in hand and turned the TV on. Reina walked into the living room, finding her daughter sitting on the couch. "I was beginning to worry. You've been in your room all day." Reina understood the need for the privacy that young girls felt they needed, she decided to leave Kagura to herself until she was ready to come out of her room on her own.

"Oh yeah." Kagura took a big bite out of her apple. "I've been studying," she said in between chews.

Raising an eyebrow, Reina looked over the TV. "Nice choice of television." Kagura had turned the channel to Dragon Ball Z. They both watched as Nappa unleashed his Saibamen onto the Z fighters. "You are one interesting kid, Yu-chan," Reina chuckled as she walked out of the room.

There was a knock on the front door, and Kagura made an unhappy noise. "Just as the good part is coming on." She began walking towards the door, eyes still on the television as a second knock occurred. "I got it," she shouted. Lucky for her, the show cut to commercial. She walked over to the door and opened it quickly. "Hello," she said with a wide smile. Her smile faded quickly as she saw who was at her door.

"Um… Hi," said a shy looking Emi.

"Yu-chan, who is it," Reina said as she walked over to the door. "Oh, you must be Emi," the mother said as she reached the door.

Emi bowed. "Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Reina smiled. "Come now, no need to be so formal. Come in, come in," the older woman ushered the American girl into the house. "Yu-chan was just watching some television. Although I don't know if you'd like the same shows as her, you can still join her if you wish."

Kagura walked off to the living room, and Emi was about to follow her when she remembered her shoes. She quickly took them off upon remembering and smiled at Reina. "Thank you for welcoming me into your home."

"Hey, you're really good at speaking Japanese. I wish I could say the same about me and English,"

Emi nodded. "That's what I'm told. Mama-san told me she wouldn't let me out with improper Japanese, so she took it upon herself to teach me 'the right way.'"

"How long have you been here in Japan?"

"A little more than a year now. I go back to America during the winter break. I was supposed to leave over the summer, but my sponsor extended my stay."

"Oh, well that's good. Now you must say goodbye before you leave," Reina said with a stern look.

"Of course!"

"Ok, well go ahead and watch TV."

Emi bowed as she was dismissed and went over the living room, where Kagura was laying on the couch still watching Dragon Ball Z. She went over and sat on the floor, right at Kagura's feet. They sat there in silence for about ten minutes until the show ended. When the ending theme song came on, Kagura turned the TV off. She stood and began walking away. She paused and looked over at Emi. "Well, don't just sit there. Come with me to my room."

The taller girl nodded and stood up, following Kagura as commanded. They entered Kagura's room and the first thing Emi noticed was Kagura's desk cluttered with textbooks and notebooks. Kagura went over and sat down at her desk chair. Emi took a seat on Kagura' bed. There was a long silence before Emi spoke. "Kag... Yuso, about yesterday..."

Kagura leaned back in her chair. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry. For all of that. Kaiya should've never said those things."

The young athlete sighed. "Well… she said them. She thinks I'm dumb and you lied to me to get me to start dating you."

Although Kaiya had said hurtful things about her, Emi was quick to defend her. "Yuso, she doesn't think you're dumb. She likes you a lot… Just like Rin and I. She got caught up in the moment." Emi looked down at her feet. "And I'm sorry I lied to you. I should have never done that."

Kagura rocked back and forth on chair. "I don't understand it. You guys are so fixated on me. If I were anyone else, I'd probably find it creepy," she admitted. "I guess I'm so used to the attention that it didn't faze me."

"I know, it doesn't make sense, but we like you," Emi said plainly.

There was no response from Kagura. She just continued to rock back and forth. She observed the American, not knowing what to think. She liked the girl a bit, but not to the extent that Emi liked her. "Emi-chan, I don't know about this whole thing. It's weird. I don't really like situations like this I'm starting to realize. Maybe this is why I avoided thinking about relationships." Kagura looked up at her ceiling. "I don't think we should date. Especially if it causes such a rift with your friends."

Emi was about to protest when Kagura stood up. Kagura went over and gave the girl a kiss on the cheek. "Besides, we're only thirteen. There are more important things than dating. Like… Swimming," Kagura said excitedly. "I guess I'll talk to Kaiya later. You shouldn't have to give up your friends. You're here in Japan for fun, not misery!"

The American wiped a few tears from her eyes as she nodded. Kagura was right after all. She should be enjoying her time in Japan, not fretting over petty matters. Emi left Kagura's house shortly after the conversation. Kagura laid in her bed, hands behind her head, happy to have solved that issue. "I'm thirteen. How complicated does my life need to be," she thought out loud. "I already have enough on my plate with school and athletics." She looked over at her cluttered desk as she began to fall asleep for an unexpected nap.

Thanks for reading. Reviews are appreciated. Thanks again!