Hey there! :) I did my best with this one and while I was writing it, I kept thinking "Damn, this sure is a long Friday!" lol. My Fridays are really long, but not as eventful as Mikan's Friday :T
Thank you for the reviews and messages, hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: None of which belongs to me except the eccentric Mrs. Tanaka, bipolar Nurse Ayama, Yuka's new bf Arata and of course, the plot!
Ch. 4
"Goodness! What happened here?" said the Nurse Ayama.
"Someone was being a pain in the ass, and karma got to her." replied Hyuuga. I glared at him, "If someone wasn't chasing me like a psychopath then maybe this situation wouldn't happen. And aren't you supposed to be in class? It's your first day and you're already di—ow!" I winced as Nurse Ayama massaged my ankle. That got a chuckle out of him, "Well maybe if someone didn't try to avoid me, I wouldn't be here."
"Well if so-"
"Okay! Enough! Hyuuga get back to class and Sakura, you need to stop moving around so I can apply the ointment." Nurse Ayama yelled. I looked at Hyuuga and his all-knowing smirk was on his face. I groaned and laid down on the bed. "This day can't get any worse." I mumbled to myself. First, I'm told that I can't even get into my dream college, I get pushed around by someone I don't even know, and now this. Truly ridiculous.
I was still laying on the bed as Nurse Ayama applied the ointment. I didn't hear Hyuuga say anything so I figured he left. "Okay! All done, now just gotta bandage you up and you can go back to class." she said as she roughly pushed aside my ankle. I winced at the pain as I was getting up, "Careful you idiot." the familiar gruff voice said.
I ignored it and properly sat up this time. "Just go back to class, you don't need to be here." I said. I tried to focus on my ankle, the wall, the view outside, anywhere but his face.
After a while, he still didn't say anything. Even as Nurse Ayama shoo-ed him away, he stayed. I still couldn't bring myself to look at him, I felt tense and my palms started getting sweaty. The peach fuzz on the back of my neck were standing. My arms were getting goosebumps. My eyes were still flickering around the room, trying to concentrate somewhere. I could feel those crimson eyes on me.
"Okay, all done!" Nurse Ayama said, breaking the silence. She wrote me a pass and kicked us out. For a nurse, she was really rough, even if you were injured, she'd act like she's worried, but her actions show how much she could careless. How she's still working here—as I'm sure there were many, many complaints—is what I still ponder about.
We awkwardly stood there as I could here the faint voice of a teacher lecturing. "Bye." I said and started limping back to the gym. I had a feeling once Mrs. Tanaka sees me, she'll be laughing for days. "Hey, wait." he suddenly said.
I turned around, giving him an annoyed look, "What?" it was a bad decision. Those red eyes that seemed to go on forever locked with my eyes. It felt like I could only see his eyes, I tried mentally slapping myself out his hypnosis but it didn't work.
His husky voice spoke, "Never mind." and the spell was lifted. I didn't know what to say, so I turned back and limped back to the gym.
;p
Mrs. Tanaka bellowed with laughter, "Did you see the look on your face when you took off? It was hilarious! Now look at you, you're broken! Bwahaha! Mikan, you honestly just made my day." She wiped a tear from her eye.
"You're such a traitor." I muttered under my breath. She started laughing again. "You should've seen it. When all those girls were around him, he looked like he was suffocating. He told me, 'That girl..is she here?'" she tried mimicking Hyuuga's deep voice. "He seemed like a nice kid, maybe you shouldn't have socked him in the face."
I swiveled around my chair, and stared at Mrs. Tanaka in disbelief. "Are you serious? Look at what that jerk did to me and you say he's a 'good kid'? Are you going senile?"
Now it was her turn to glare at me, her smile completely gone, "Watch your mouth."
I gulped, "He threw me on the floor and said it was because of karma! And that's your example of 'a good kid'?"
"Yeah, you're first...and second impression of him wasn't good, but you haven't really gotten to know him yet. He may be a jerk now, but who knows, you guys might end up as good friends in the future." she said with her professional teacher voice.
I sighed, the idea of him being a good friend of mine made me laugh. 'Who'd want to be friends with that jerk.' I'd thought as I finished up the p.e roster and filed it under sixth period.
"Bye Mrs. Tanaka." I said as the bell was going to ring soon.
"Bye. Oh! And be careful with your ankle, don't want your good friend worrying about you now." She said with a toothy grin. I gave her a glare before walking outside. 'Finally school's over. Can just go home and sleep. This day was unbelievable.' I thought as I trudged to my locker. "Do I have any hw?...Oh yeah, English." I said to myself.
"Hey Mikan." the owner of the voice appeared next to me.
"Oh hey Ruka." He still was the same guy. His dynamic, jewel-like eyes. The way his hair seemed to flawlessly sway on his head. I noticed he was taller than me, he must've hit his second growth spurt. I said I was over him, but sue me for having atleast a tiny bit of feelings for him. Who can forget about his pearly white smile, and how he glows whenever he smiles—BAM! I hit my head on my locker. When Ruka gave me a confused yet concerned face, I laughed nervously, "Blood circulation sorry. What's up?" I lied. I needed to stop those abnormal thoughts from occurring again, 'Get a grip Mikan, you're over him. He doesn't like you.'
"I just wanted to know if you met the new kid yet." he asked with that innocent voice of his.
I groaned, "What about him?" I slammed my locker shut a little too hard, earning some stares from people around, but I ignored it.
"He seems pretty cool." he added. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. He continued, "Yeah, me and him are gonna hang out at Central Town."
"Good for you." I chimed in.
"Wanna come?" he looked hopeful. I didn't want to, but he made me feel obligated to.
"..No." I said and kept walking/limping. He asked why but I didn't feel like explaining how much I just wanna go home and sleep.
;p
There was no one home by the time I got home. 'Finally, peace and quiet.' I flopped onto my bed, kicked off my shoes and pulled the covers over my head.
I was almost drifted into a sleep bliss when Youichi barged in my room. "Get. Out." I said under my covers, but he jumped on my bed screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Mikan!" I tripped the twerp but he landed on my legs.
"What! What do you want?" I screamed, sitting up.
"Ugh, well nevermind." He said as if in disgust and stalked out of my room. I am going to hit him. I pulled off the covers and ran over to his room. "What'd you want?"
"I'm hungry." he pouted while rubbing his stomach, "Can you take me to Central Town to buy me something to eat?"
I rubbed my temples, "Where's mom?"
He shrugged and if he didn't know then that must mean she's on one of her 'adventures' again. Mom is single and is already mingling, so whenever she has a new boyfriend, she'd go off on an 'adventure' for days. The longest she's been gone was a month, without a word. This all started when I just turned thirteen and Youichi still eleven. We didn't know what to do since dad was gone and we had to fend for ourselves.
"Ugh, be ready in 5 minutes." I rubbed my head in annoyance. Youichi jumped for joy, as he scrounged around to put something decent on. Now that I was sixteen, I had a job and whenever mom went on her 'adventures' I could pay for food and other necessities since we didn't know how long she might be gone.
I went to the kitchen to see if I needed to buy other things. I saw a yellow post-it note stuck on the fridge door.
Went with Arata. Be back in a few days,
don't forget to take care of the little one!
Yuka
Typical. I don't know who this 'Arata' is, but I'm sure in a couple days, his heart will be broken just like the rest of them.
"You done yet? Let's go!" I yelled, Youichi racing to the front door mumbling 'okay okay'. Why did today feel so long? I had no idea, maybe becos today was Friday and Friday's always felt the need to be prolonged. As I was backing out the drive-way and pulling onto the road, I didn't question or think about it anymore. Today was already a bad day, I'd hoped going to Central Town would atleast make it better.
;p
"What'd you wanna eat?" I asked Youichi as he looked around.
"I dunno, you're the one paying." he said. I stopped and squinted at the little rugrat.
"You didn't bring any money?" I asked as he shook his head. "Do I look like an ATM to you?" but he shrugged it off and hopped along. I sighed, taking out my wallet to see how much I have. 'Good just enough.'
"Hey Youichi! We're going to Q-Cup, stop being such a little kid and let's go already." I said as he was skipping around a man in a tiger costume advertising cereal. When we arrived Youichi was still grumbling, "I'm not a little kid." to which I replied, "Then stop acting like one."
"Hi, how can I help you?" The worker said with a smile. "Two Taro milk teas, howolan, fried dumplings, and spicy chicken."
"Okay, you're total will be $13.50." the worker said.
"You're such a little kid." Youichi scoffed.
"How?" I asked after handing over the money. "Howolan? Really?" he said,
I glared at him and that kept him quiet. Once we got our food, Youichi ate like a grizzly bear on the prowl. "Damn, slow down or you'll start choking." I said as I casually started eating my fried dumplings and howolan. He grabbed his milk tea to help swallow the load in his mouth. I found it funny to watch but also disgusting. If you were an outsider, you'd think he was starved for a week. 'Wow mom, can't believe you didn't even feed your own son.' I thought as I dipped my dumpling in the sauce and took a bite.
"Mind if we join you?" a cheerful voice asked. I looked up and immediately scowled.
"Yeah, I do." Youichi piped in with a mouthful of food, as Ruka dropped his smile and Hyuuga looked away. "Just sit down." I said. I gave him a glare and he kept on eating. Ruka sat next to me as Youichi sat next to the 'other'. I kept eating my food, looking the other way as they awkwardly sat there.
"So..I thought you had other plans Mikan?" Ruka asked.
"I never said that." I finished the last bit of my food and started sipping on my milk tea. There was another awkward silence, Youichi also done with his food and finished his milk tea. He got up to throw away his trash, "Throw mine away too." I said. He grumbled but did it anyway. I propped my arm on the table, leaning my head on the palm of my hand. "Who are you?" Youichi asked as he was sitting back down, looking at Hyuuga. He looked at him, then at me.
"Don't worry about it." I said.
"You look like a guy version of this new girl in my class." Youichi kept talking. I groaned, feeling that we were gonna be here longer than I wanted. Youichi just kept on talking to him while Hyuuga grinned and chuckled occasionally, but didn't say a word. Ruka switched gazes from Youichi, Hyuuga, then me. It seemed I was the only one uncomfortable with the situation.
After what seemed to be hours, "What are you even doing here Nogi?" Youichi asked while glaring at Ruka. Ruka looked a bit shocked then laughed it off, "Just showing Natsume around-"
"Why?" he asked, his voice flat.
"Uh, well.." Ruka stammered. I looked at Youichi, "Youichi, that's enough." but he continued.
"I'm just asking him a question. He doesn't say anything, just sits there comfortably next to you, acting like nothing happened-"
"Youichi Hijiri Sakura. I said, that's enough." I said clearly with callous. All three of them looked at me but I kept my gaze on Youichi. "If you're done, let's go." I stood up, the chair scraped behind me. "Later." I said to the two guys, Youichi muttered something I couldn't catch and said bye to Hyuuga.
"Mikan!" Ruka called out to me when we were outside of Q-Cup. I stopped but didn't turn around.
"Don't talk to her!" Youichi yelled, I could feel Ruka's eyes on the back of my head.
"Youichi, shut up." I turned to look at Ruka and gave a small smile, "Bye Ruka."
;p
I was tired, so tired. Today was a long day, and yet I couldn't fall asleep. Hyuuga coming, punching him in the face then being stalked by him, the silence between us, Ruka, mom's gone, Central Town. Youichi didn't speak to me during the car ride and when we got into the house. The thoughts of it all lingered within my head making me awake. All of this happening was too sudden, as if I got sucked into a black hole and landed in another universe. I keep remembering those red eyes staring at me as if he wanted to say something but held back. I shut my eyes and counted backwards from ten, maybe tomorrow will be a better day.