Chapter Six

As the dance was nearing, many of the people in Fuka Academy were buzzing around wondering what they were going to wear. Students and faculty were discussing all the possibilities.

Shizuru was surrounded in a usual circle of fan girls. "Shizuru-sama! What are you going to wear to the dance?" one of the president's fans asked. The other fan girls agreed with the question and continued to ask the president.

"Ara… I do not know. I have not thought about it yet. "

"It's pretty obvious what Shizuru-sama should be," said the president of the Fujino-kaichou fan club Tomoe Marguerite, "she should be a princess." Tomoe's idea sparked many approvals from the other fan girls.

"Yes you should Shizuru-sama! It suits you perfectly!"

"Hmmm, being a princess does not interest me." Being a princess is what Shizuru already felt like. At her house, she had a butler, a personal driver, and a personal maid. Their house was bigger than her family needed. It was a seven room traditional Japanese house with a good chunk of acres to have a half of a mile drive way and gates to surround the property. All she was really missing was the moat and the puffy dresses.

What Shizuru really wanted to be was something scary. She thought the purpose of Halloween was to scare people, not to be dressed as something so clichéd. But she did like some of the other ideas her fan girls gave her, though they were all about her dressing in almost nothing. I should go as a vampire. That would be sexy~

Somewhere else in the school, some faculty members were discussing the same thing.

"Yohko, it's obvious, you should be a doctor." Midori answered the doctor's question.

Yohko gave her an irritated look. "Midori! Halloween is about dressing up as something you're not!"

"I know," Midori gave her a wink.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm already a doctor!" Yohko was starting to steam with irritation from the conversation.

"Not the type I want," Midori couldn't help but smirking this time as Yohko finally got what Midori was trying to say. Instead of blushing as the headmaster was expecting, Yohko slapped Midori with a rolled up bunch of paper leaving her with a slight red mark. "I was kidding! Kidding! … actually not." Midori laughed off the small pain on her face.

"You know I could charge you with sexual harassment," Yohko said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"But I know you won't." Midori smiled as Yohko sighed at her statement, because they both know that what Midori said was true.

Another teacher walked in as the two giggled off their conversation. "What's so funny?" asked Mai. She felt like she walked in a little too late and started to feel a little awkward.

"Don't worry, Tokiha-san, you didn't miss out on anything." Yohko reassured her.

"We were talking about what Yohko should wear to the dance." Midori explained. "What do you plan to wear Mai-san?"

"I haven't really thought about it. Though I think I have a costume tucked away somewhere…"

"That's good that you have one instead of having to hunt one down." Midori pointed out as thoughts of her costume came into her head. She showed a displeased face. Obviously she had to hunt hers down. But other thoughts came to her head as she continued to think about the word: 'hunt'. Hunt = wolves = lone wolf = Natsuki! "Speaking of which, Yohko, you said Natsuki-chin was going to the dance right? What's she going as?"

Somewhere else in the school, the said teacher sneezes while in mid speech in front of the class. "In the reading, what did we learn about what they think about sex—ACHEW?" She grabbed a tissue from the desk but was a little surprised at the silence. No 'Bless you' or anything?

Shizuru noticed her teacher's confusion. "Ara, Ms. Kuga, someone must be talking about you," she cleared up. Shizuru was tempted to add: "maybe they were saying sexual things." But she settled for: "Maybe it was about something inappropriate." She said with a coy look.

The teacher gave her a glare. "Now why would you say that?"

"Well you did sneeze right after your question."

"What does my sneeze have anything to do with that?" Ms. Kuga was trying to not get riled up. But it was getting to be inevitable.

Shizuru wasn't sure she should assume that her teacher did not know some of Japanese culture. "Ms. Kuga, you do know that in the Japanese culture, a sneeze means that you're being talked about right?"

Ms. Kuga was in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Ms. Kuga, you didn't know that?" Another student asked.

"…No I didn't." Damn, I guess I should have studied Japanese culture more.

Later in the day, Natsuki was in town searching for more books to buy. As she was walking, she saw a familiar redhead looking at the window displays. Natsuki wouldn't have paid so much attention if it didn't seem odd. The redhead was looking at cloth and bookstores. The redhead decided to stare at a bookstore's window display for a bit longer than Natsuki thought she would have.

She decided to walk over to the younger girl and stood slightly behind her to her side. Natsuki was planning to go into the store anyway so there was no avoiding her. The younger girl didn't take notice of the newcomer, so Natsuki took it upon herself to say something, "Are you planning to make your Halloween outfit?" It wasn't a serious question, but it was the first thing she could deduce.

The younger girl turned around petrified at the new voice almost subconsciously going to hit the person. She was glad that her reaction was slower than normal as she realized who held her arm. "Relax; you could have really hurt someone." Natsuki held Nao's arm in midair.

It took her a second before she let the weight of her attack go. "Kuga-sensei, what are you doing here?"

Her teacher pointed to the store. "I'm an English teacher, didn't you know?"

The redhead almost forgot what had just happened. She felt like she was getting attacked. "Why would I know that? I'm not a stalker!" Though she actually knew that. And the entire school did too. But she was hoping that her teacher didn't.

"I thought everyone knew that." She said to no one in particular. Her student looked back at her as if she was crazy. Although it was more that Nao was hoping that Kuga just thought it and not knew it. "So you didn't answer my question."

That brought both of them back to reality. "Why do you think I was going to make one?"

Natsuki looked at her unentertained. "You were just looking at a cloth store and now a bookstore. I'm not dumb."

Nao was a bit dumbfounded that she found out. She didn't want anyone to know that she was going to make her own costume. Wait, she was watching me since the cloth store? Nao grew a sinister smile. "My, Kuga-sensei, you've been watching me?"

Natsuki's face changed instantly. "Baka! Don't make it sound like that!"

Nao saw the hints of pink take over Natsuki's face. She was hesitant to make a move, but it was too much fun. "Make it sound like what?" She asked in a cute innocent voice. She took a step closer to her teacher.

"Stop it, baka!"

"Stop what?" She asked innocently again as she took another step closer. This time it caused her teacher to take a step back.

On the other side of the street, someone was watching them and was getting annoyed at the whole interaction. "What are you doing!" Both of them turned to the voice and saw that Mai was walking towards them with an angered expression.

Nao's playful look turned upside down. She stopped her engaging with Natsuki and started to glare Mai down.

Natsuki oblivious to the younger girl's change of attitude looked at Mai and was wondering why she was here. "Mai, I'm surprised you're here," she said as Mai came closer.

Mai participated in the stare down with her student. She didn't want to break eye contact with Nao but thought it best to let it go. She gave Natsuki the benefit of the doubt that she wasn't doing something stupid with her. She looked at Natsuki readying her answer, "Why would you be surprised?" Mai was confused with her question. It was almost like why shouldn't she be here? "Why are you two here?"

"I'm here to get more books. I'm not entirely sure what this one is doing here."

They both looked at Nao waiting for an answer. She started to feel pressured, which she did not like. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

Natsuki started to feel like this conversation was going nowhere. "Okay, fine. You don't have to answer that question, but it's seriously late. You should go home. Where are your parents?"

Nao started to feel dejected. And Mai knew why. "Don't worry, I'll take her home." Mai interjected.

"Tok—Mai-san?" Natsuki was never going to get used to this. She looked at both of them. But it looked like Nao had got all her energy sucked out of her. Did Natsuki just say something wrong?

"Will that be alright, Yuuki-san?" Nao just shrugged. She didn't want to start talking about her parents. It was completely unnecessary. But she was completely capable of going home by herself, but she knew that Mai wouldn't have let her.

Mai and Natsuki exchanged good-byes, but something kept itching at Natsuki about Nao. Something was just off. And she couldn't figure out why. So as they turned to walk away, she quickly blurted, "Yuuki, didn't you have to buy something in the bookstore?"

Nao turned to look back at Natsuki. She looked flustered from her question, a little too cute for the current situation for her liking. Was this an opening for her to get closer to Kuga-sensei? And Kuga-sensei was the one opening the door for her! She was welcoming her in. She looked at Mai, almost looking for a decision. Was this even okay? She knew with Tokiha it was. But with Kuga, there seemed to be a bold line she couldn't pass. A bold line that was invisible.

Tokiha shot her a glaring look. Well that made her decision way too easy. "It's fine. I'll buy it some other time. Thanks for keeping me company, Kuga-sensei." She gave her a slight bow and a wink before she rushed back to Tokiha's side.

What the hell was that?

But a thought entered her mind: what was she going to wear to the dance?