Hi everyone! Bet you thought I was never coming back. Life has just been speeding on, and it's been all I could do to keep up with it. So it looks like I'll finally have more time to write for a good, long while now. I want to thank everyone for their helpful reviews, especially Adelaide Pitman and Facades. Facades, I promise, I'm still planning to reply to your last review. Like I said, I really needed to take a break from FF for a while, but now that I'm back, I'm back in full swing. I've finally decided exactly where I'm going with this story, and I'm really excited to see how it plays out. I hope you enjoy! R&R please!

Recap: Ikuto looked completely despondent and refused to meet my eyes. His expression slapped the grin off my face and replaced it with a scowl of my own. If it were up to me, I'd see him strung up by that blue hair of his. I focused my negative energy on the textbook in front of me, certain that Ikuto would, indeed, regret spending the day with me.After class, it took me a few minutes to finish my notes and pack up. Airi said goodbye, and Ikuto waited for me, not acing very patient. I yanked out the piece of paper with my class schedule and locker number on it and placed it on my desk before bending over to zip up my backpack. When I sat up again, Ikuto had my schedule in his hand and was perusing it thoughtfully.

"Hey," I started. "Wha-"

"That's weird," Ikuto mused. "You have all the same classes as me, except here."

I looked over his shoulder and saw that his finger lay on the block marked "Music Theory." How strange. He was a serious musician, yet he wasn't taking any music classes at school?

Ikuto stood up, still holding my schedule, and walked to the door. "Come on," he said with a lazy shrug. "I'll help you find your locker."

Not wanting him to wander off and leave me abandoned without my schedule, I had no choice but to hurry behind him. The going was tough, because my backpack was immensely heavy, not to mention the fact that Ikuto's legs were much longer than mine. Only a few yards out of the classroom, Ikuto looked back to find me panting, struggling to keep up. He bridged the gap between us in one long stride.

"Do you have all your books in there?"

Embarrassed, I nodded.

Ikuto closed his eyes to keep me from seeing them roll, and then reached out his hand. "Trade you."

Next thing I knew, he was walking again, having slung my backpack onto his shoulder as if it were nothing, while I trotted alongside with his much lighter messenger bag.

We walked on in silence, attracting stares that made me look down and shuffle my feet. Ikuto, it seemed, wither couldn't have cared less or didn't even notice the kids staring at us. He stopped in front of a locker and entered the combination.

"Here's your locker." Ikuto let my backpack fall on the floor next to me and lifted his own bag from my shoulder. "Now dump some of those books before your bag crashes through the floor."

I nodded and quickly began my task, but then I froze when my train of thought took a sudden turn. "How'd you know my combination?"

He smirked. "You have a four-digit number written on your left hand. It wasn't that hard to figure out."

Without another word, he crossed the hallway to his own locker, leaving me to sort out my books. Only half-absorbed in my work, I managed to pick up a couple of voices across the sea of students flooding the hall.

"Tsukiyomi!"

"Hey, Seichi-kun."

I looked over my shoulder, trying to find the source of the familiar voice amidst the crowd, curious whom Ikuto was talking to.

"I heard you got stuck with the new girl," said his friend. "Bummer."

Ikuto threw a glance in my direction, and for a split second our eyes met. I quickly turned back to my locker, heat rising to my face. Wondering what Ikuto would say in reply, I quickly closed my locker and studied the floor.

Luckily for the silent Ikuto, Seichi changed the topic. "You have to work tonight, huh?"

"Yeah," Ikuto answered.

"Aw, man. You're too much of an adult." I surreptitiously peeked over my shoulder to see Seichi playfully punch Ikuto on the arm. "See if you can get your boss to lighten the load. You are still a kid, after all."

Ikuto offered a half-smile that was gone as soon as it had come.

"And besides," Seichi added, "I want our Friday nights back, yo. Catch you at lunch, okay?"

"Sure," Ikuto murmured as Seichi turned to walk to his next class.

The crowd in the hall had thinned by now. Ikuto turned to look at me as I picked up my now much lighter backpack and crossed the hallway to stand next to him, still staring at the ground.

"Sorry," he said.

My head snapped up at his unexpected change in attitude.

"For what Seichi said about you, I mean," Ikuto finished.

I shrugged my shoulders and started walking down the hall. "Sticks and stones, right?"

"That's not what you really think, is it, Cynthia?"

Ikuto's words froze me in my tracks. I felt a breeze as he brushed past me and turned left. "Come on," he said, waving my schedule. "The chemistry room's this way."

Numbly, I lifted my feet to follow him.

Mere hours later, I stood on the verge of a great, throbbing mass of students. The telltale scent of rice balls and bento boxes tickled my nose, and the cacophony of countless Japanese conversations teased my brain. My mind was so overcome that it tried to translate all the bits and pieces it took in, and in the end, what I understood was, "Your mother's dog swam in my orange homework hair." I strained my eyes and ears for any sign of my English-speaking traveling companions but found none.

I looked up at Ikuto with the eyes of a scared rabbit. I hadn't ever particularly enjoyed his company before, but now how I gloried in it! He was the one person I knew, the one Japanese voice I could zero in on and understand. Though I had hardly known him for more than a day, now I felt as if he were my lone soul mate in a sea of absolute strangers. I stared at the shock of blue hair that fell into his face, prepared to go where he bid. As he opened his mouth to speak, I leaned in, ready to hang on every word he said.

"I'm out of here."

The noise of the cafeteria flooded my ears again as Ikuto's voice died.

"What?" I demanded.

"I'm going to find Seichi. You're on your own here. I'll see you after lunch." Without so much as an encouraging smile, he turned and walked away, leaving me alone and helpless in an unsolvable, ear-splitting maze.

I gingerly waded ankle-deep in the Japanese sea, straining my eyes for a single empty table. Maybe I could sit alone and start studying for that test…

"Cynthia-chan! Over here!"

Airi's voice interrupted my thoughts, and I eagerly turned toward it, like a drowning man grasping a life preserver. But as I walked to Airi's table, I saw that there was a snake clinging to my lifesaver as well.

"Oh. It's you," said Utau Hoshina.

Cliffhanger, huh? I love writing those. It makes me feel like I'm getting back at all those authors who leave ME hanging at the end of a chapter - or even at the end of a book in some cases! Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, I arrived home from Kansas City to find Ikuto acting the perfect angel. There were only a few claw marks on my furniture, and only half of my Easter chocolate was missing...hehe.