Thanks for reviewing, everybody! Here's Chapter 2, and I hope I didn't disappoint you too much...
Chapter 2
"Ohayou." She smiled politely at the boy beside her. He was the same boy who had showed her around the school yesterday. Not a particularly interesting specimen of a boy, but still, one had to mind one's manners, no matter how loathsome the person.
Not that he was loathsome. In fact, he was pretty good-looking, to tell the truth. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He flipped a page and continued reading as if he was in a private world where only he and the book existed.
He was just very boring.
And even that was an understatement. He hadn't uttered a single word, either to her or to anyone else since he entered the class. Instead he had headed straight to his table, taken out a book and started reading. She had never seen such a hermit before. And being who she was, she simply decided to return the favour.
The teacher swept in, putting his books on the table with a flourish.
"Today, we have a new student here from Kyoto. Tawako-san, can you please introduce yourself?"
"Sure!" She flashed a dazzling smile at the teacher and stood up, suddenly feeling very insecure as she saw all eyes directed at her with bright curiosity.
Well, all except one.
Tezuka still had his nose buried in the book.
Who does he think he is, anyway? It's insulting!
She pointedly turned her back on him as she started her introduction. "Hi. My name is Tawako Kamaika, and I am..."
Her introduction turned out to be a lot more spirited than originally planned.
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The whole day, she managed to keep up with what the class was studying. For although Tezuka had informed her in a monotonous voice that if she needed any help she could ask him, he had also made it quite clear that short of an earthquake happening, she was to disturb him only at risk of incurring his great wrath.
She had a sudden, immature urge to stick out her tongue at him.
She'd never, ever ask for help from him, anyway. Not even if he were the last person on earth. She turned her thoughts back to the doomed story of World War II and started pondering how to make an atomic bomb.
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He looked at the book, detailing how the war started. He knew all this by heart already, but he reasoned that reading it another time wouldn't hurt him, and he listened to the teacher's explanation intently.
A slight stirring by his side startled him, and he was extremely disturbed to find that the word 'ghost' came to mind first. It was a moment before he remembered that someone was sitting here now.
Tezuka sighed. He was so used to having the place next to him empty (partly because nobody managed to survive the forbidding aura surrounding him for more than a day) and now this girl was sitting there. He knew it was ridiculous, but he felt like she was encroaching on his space.
He resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose and settled instead for another sigh.
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Maika took her bento and sat the nearest empty table, ignoring the curious looks some people were shooting at her. Taking out her chopsticks, she was about to put the sushi in her mouth when she had a sudden inkling of what was wrong.
"Hurry, up, Fujiko! I'm hungry, nya!" She looked up to see two boys headed her way, one redhead and a brunette, both chatting animatedly.
Then they noticed her sitting there, and they froze. Seeing the expressions on their faces, her sushi stopped halfway to her mouth, and she started to panic. What did I do wrong?
"Who are you?" The redhead took a step nearer, looking at her as if she was an alien.
She swallowed audibly, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Tawako Kamaika, new student at Seigaku."
"Oh, new student!" He smiled, showing a whole row of pearly whites. "Welcome to Seigaku! My name's Kikumaru Eiji, but you can just call me Eiji."
He turned to the other boy and whispered, "For a moment, I thought she was one of those rabid fangirls, nya!"
Rabid fangirls? She didn't know whether to laugh or to be affronted.
The brunette simply smiled and extended his hand to her. "Fuji Syuusuke, Class 3-6. Dozo yoroshiku."
She shook his hand, and started to lift her neglected piece of sushi to her mouth when she realised that they were sitting at the same table as her. Her eyes grew wide as she realised what a terrible social crime she'd committed.
"This is your table?"
When Eiji nodded happily in confirmation, she put down her chopsticks. "Then I guess I shouldn't bother you here..."
"Oh, don't worry about it." Fuji said, waving a hand dismissively.
Eiji was somewhat more specific. "Stay, nya! It doesn't really matter. Besides, all the other tables are full already!"
She looked around and saw that it was, indeed, the truth. The whole cafeteria was teeming with students, and needless to say, every table was fully occupied. She didn't really relish the idea of another round of introductions either, so she took them at their word and sat back down.
"Fuji. Eiji." A sudden deep voice disrupted her current enjoyment of her food. She turned around to see who it was, and came face to face with the one person she most definitely did not expect, nor want to see.
Tezuka Kunimitsu, her seating partner.
By the look on his face, Tezuka was about as happy to see her as she was to see him. He wore the sort of expression you get when you find an extraordinarily smelly sock in the wash. Which was extremely flattering.
Not.
"Maa, Tezuka, say hello," Fuji looked at the bespectacled boy, grinning as the older boy started slightly.
"Hello, Tawako-san." He greeted curtly, to which she replied with an equally curt nod.
Tezuka knows her? Fuji made a mental note to look that up later.
Maika chose to totally ignore Tezuka's presence, concentrating instead on her food and Eiji's lively conversation. She was so caught up in the contemplation of her food that she got quite a shock when she looked up and saw that the table had filled up with boys of all sizes and shapes. She got a second successive shock when she realised that she was the only girl there.
Eiji noticed her uncomfortable behaviour and mistook it for shyness, but of a different sort.
"Don't worry, nya! They're just the other regulars. Some of them are pretty creepy, like Inui, but – "
"Regulars?" Unable to contain her curiousity, she interrupted him.
"We're the tennis club regulars, hoi! Everyone knows that!"
"Tennis club regulars..." She repeated. Somehow, she had a bit of difficulty picturing Tezuka playing tennis. The others were believable, but any picture of Tezuka without a pile of books in the background felt a little off to her. After all, he was a proven and certified bookworm. And bookworms and sports usually didn't go together.
It seemed that Tezuka was an exception to this rule, however, as she overheard him telling another boy that they had to be careful and that Ginka Chuu should not be underestimated.
He obviously wasn't the adventurous type, that much was apparent. She choked as a sudden picture of him bungee jumping surfaced in her mind. I have to stop thinking in graphic images...
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It was only a few days later that she found out what Eiji had meant by "rabid fangirls". There was a sort of mutual agreement between Tezuka and herself now, which consisted mainly of ignoring each other's existence. It suited both of them just fine, and she was beginning to think that perhaps sitting next to a human ice block wasn't all that bad until those illusions were rapidly shattered one fine day.
"Tawako-san." She looked up to see a few girls in front of her.
She simply smiled, as she had not the faintest idea who they were or what they wanted.
"Could you please do me a favour?"
She came out of the meeting burdened with some very pink envelopes and a few gifts addressed to Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of Seigaku's tennis team.
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Tezuka looked up as a small avalanche of assorted junk came raining down onto his desk, courtesy of the one and only Tawako Kamaika.
He frowned irritably. "What are these?"
She shrugged. "Some girls asked me to give them to you."
As she walked off, she shot over her shoulder. "And do tell your fan club that I'm not their mailman."
"Unless they pay me, of course." She added as an afterthought, a twinkle in her eyes.
And she walked off, leaving him staring at the unwanted pile of presents on his table.
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Some of his fangirls, however, had different concerns.
"Don't touch my Tezuka!"
She snorted slightly. It wasn't even a week since she'd moved here and people were accusing her of stealing their imaginary boyfriend! Unbelievable, especially since said boyfriend's words to her only amounted to less than ten sentences per day.
"Don't worry, he's all yours." And she walked off, wondering what kind of school she had transferred into. The girls here weren't just crazy, they also had questionable taste. How could you ever hope to start a relationship with a walking iceman? It was testament to the girls' staying power, she supposed, that they kept on showering him with gifts and attention despite being rejected over and over again. Either that or they were infinitely obsessed with Seigaku's star player.
Who just happened to have the emotional capabilities of a block of wood, unfortunately for them.
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So how was it? Review, ne?