This chapter has a dedication! This chapter goes out to yAkArI-TaKaRi lUvEr. You know why, yAkArI-TaKaRi lUvEr.

It's been two days since that night at the school feastival and now I seem to see Yamato everywhere. Or maybe... he was there before, but I'd never really noticed him until now? How could I not have noticed the God of our school? Was I really that out of it with the oppisite sex? Gods, I hope not. Miyako was right, I might as well be a lost cause on the dating thing. But... maybe I wasn't. Yamato had- No! Bad Hikari! I'd already told myself I wouldn't think about that. So what if he'd almost kissed me, the point is that he didn't and he wasn't going to... not saying that I wouldn't let him, I'm just saying that he probable wouldn't try again. I mean, I hadn't stopped him the first time, he'd just pulled back and left.

Oh gods! Was I ugly? I ducked into the school's restroom and checked my face in the mirror. I didn't think I was ugly, but that was just me. I wasn't overly beautiful, like the other girls of my class, but I could be considered cute at least. Though I examined myself more closely in the mirror. I had mouse brown hair, how beautiful could mouse brown be? And my eyes were brown, too. I looked plain, almost boring. I didn't wear make-up or perfume, I'd never thought that much about how I looked. I'd always figured that if people didn't like me, they didn't have to look at me... but now. Now I was having thoughts about that girl I saw Yamato talking to, how she wore that bright red lipstick that didn't exactly match her complexion and the eyeshadow that reached to her eyebrows and the glitter that she'd worn enough of to be a disco ball. Was he into girls like that?

No, stop it! Stupid thoughts. Who cares what kind of girls Yamato likes? I sure as heck don't! I was not going to be one of those superfical people anyway. I didn't wear make-up and I wasn't about to start. Others could, that was fine with me, but I was not going to allow that stuff on my face. The only thing I'd ever gotten close to wearing was the stage make-up for theater and this lip gloss Mimi had gotten me for my birthday last year.

I sighed, heading out of the bathroom, eyes glued on the floor as I walked. I guess I still need to finish the errand I was on. I was going to get paper for my fourth period teacher and so far today I'd seen Yamato at least eight times this morning. That was more than I normally saw him, or at least, what normally registered when I saw him. So why was this happening now? Why was I becoming so... so... unconfident? Did life just honestly hate me? To toy with this emotion that welled up in me, one that I had yet to actually figure out what it was? And I thought life was just plain difficult when you couldn't speak, but now it's even more difficult because I can't even talk to Yamato about what happened without having to tell someone else to translate. Or write the note, which I'd already decided was a no. It was way to junior high for this kind of thing.

Whap!

"Oh, whoa! You okay?" a voice asked. I blinked a couple of times. I couldn't breath. What the... what just happened here? "Yo... Hikari? Earth to Hikari, come in Hikari." I blinked again, not registering what was happening. Something was waving in front of my face; what was it? Rather pale looking, but my eyes wouldn't focus and I still couldn't breath. I felt myself waver, tittering on my feet, then I black out with a falling sensation. Was I actually falling or was it all an illusion?

--

I heard murmuring when I came to, voice that I couldn't make out. They sounded groggy and distant, almost like a hullicination. My abdomine hurt and so did my head. I opened my eyes part way, only to squeeze them shut again because of the bright light that engulfed me. The voices quit speaking and a door opened and closed. I blinked, allowing my eyes to adjust to this new lighting as I propped myself up with my elbows. A figure had plopped itself down in the chair, leaning back, head rested against the walls, eyes closed. I drew a sharp breath and sat bolt up. Yamato.

"Huh?" Yamato must have heard my breath because he opened one eye and looked over. When he saw me, he opened the other eye and leaned forward in the chair, staring at me as I stared at him. Daja vu, much? I don't think it quite registured to him that I was actually up and staring at him until a few seconds later when his eyes widened in realization and he jumped up. "Oh my God, Hikari! You're okay! You're up! Oh, thank God. You had me scared for a little bit there." All I could do was nod dumbly and blink up at him as he stood over me. I must have had confusion written all over my face, because Yamato continued, "You got hit with a baseball, pretty hard, too. I was outfielder, suppose to be paying attention, but by the time it actually registured in my brain that they were yelling at me to catch the ball, I looked up in time to see it fly past me. When I turned and saw you get hit, all I could think was "Oh shit" and I hurried over and... uh.. yeah." Yamato stopped talking when he realized I'd held up a hand to stop him from talking.

Oh boy. This was going to be fun. Now... how to ask this. Maybe he knew sign language and I didn't know about it? Worth a try, right? I started to sign Where did the nurse go? I need and that's as far as I got before Yamato told me to stop. He didn't know a thing of sign language. Goody. How was I to do this? I looked around the room. Ah ha! A backpack sat under Yamato's chair. Obviously, it was his. I climbed off of the little cot and headed over to his bag, grabbing it and pulling it out from under the chair.

"Uh... that's my bag," Yamato sounded confused. Well, duh! Of course it's your bag. I had no way of telling him this, so I merely nodded my head. I grabbed a notebook, that he had labled, "Stupid." Never heard of that subject before. Wonder if it was any good? After I grabbed his notebook, Yamato seemed to catch on to what I was doing. "Pen in the side pocket." I opened said pocket and pulled out a Bic black-inked pen, then made my way back over to the cot. I sat on it, cross-legged so I had something to stable the notebook with so my hand writing would at least be ledgible. On it, I wrote, "Where did the nurse go?"

"To call your classroom and tell your teacher that you would be late, and then she was going to head out, hence why I'm still here," Yamato explain, though it didn't clear up everything.

"Explain?" I wrote, then showed him so he could do just that.

"She wanted me to watch you, make sure you were okay. She has to head over to the junior high," Yamato said with a shrug as he moved over to sit at the other end of the cot, facing me.

"I see." I wrote. "Now what? Do I go back to class?"

Yamato shrugged after he read it. "If you want to. You are excused from it."

Amazingly, I didn't feel like going to class. I looked over to Yamato then wrote, "So, I could stay here if I wanted? Because I don't feel like going to class."

Yamato chuckled at that. "And Taichi told me you loved school. Why miss a class?"

I wodner how badly he'd freak if I said, "because I'd much rather be in this room with you than a classroom full of other people." Oh yes, I could see that going over real well. Instead, I wrote, "My abdomine still hurts and my head. Besides, I don't know you that well for being my brother's best friend and my best friend's brother. Tell me about yourself."

"Ah... what's to tell?" Yamato said and looked down to the cot. Obviously their was a lot to tell, a lot that he didn't want to tell, which could only lead one into thinking that it was bad things. "I like music, obviously. Uh... I can play the piano, but you can do that too..."

I snapped my fingers to get his attention, which made him look up quickly. I wrote, "I can't actually play the piano. I just memorized how to play three. I couldn't even begin to tell you what notes thay are."

"Oh, I see. So you memorized Down?" Yamato raised an eyebrow, obviously questioning my motives as to why I would memorize that song out of all of them.

"I like the song. It seems romantic, in the way that he wants her but is unsure of whether to take her again, but he needs her."

"You get really deep into songs, don't you?" Yamato asked after he read what I wrote. I nodded and began to think. I stole the notebook from his hands and wrote another note.

"Teach me to play the piano?"

"What?"

I pointed to that sentence again. I was pretty sure that it was clear.

"Why?"

I sighed and wrote, "Because you know how and I want to know how, so teach me how."

"I don't know..." Yamato looked over to me. I put on my best puppy dog eyes and scooted closer, clasping my hands together. I made my bottom lip quiver. "Ah... why me?"

I picked up the notebook. "Because I actually know you and I wouldn't have to pay. Would I?"

Yamato sighed. "No, you wouldn't have to pay, but I see how you are. Not wanting me because I'm good, but because I'm cheap."

I nodded my head eagerly to that. Cheap was best, especially at our house where cheap was the only option. It's not like we actually had spare money lying around anymore.

Yamato smiled, obviously at my antics. "Fine. When are you free?"

I just knew my eyes lit up like Christmas lights and I leaped forward and hugged him. Yamato seemed to stiffen under my hug but he relaxed after a bit and place one hand on my back to return the hug. Chills ran down my spin when he touched me and after I pulled back that place felt warm. I tried not to notice and instead on the notebook, I wrote, "Any day. When are you free?"

"Would today after school work? We could probable use that piano that's in the theater storage room," Yamato suggested.

I nodded. The Spinet! I would get to see it again. The only thing I would have to do was tell Taichi I was staying after... to do homework, of course.

"Alright then. After school it is," Yamato nodded and stood. "Now, we should get to class. The bells about to ring anyway, so might as well head to lunch. Be the first in line."

Standing, I followed.

--

Alright... not that long and kinda boring. But anyway, you are probable wondering how Hikari got hit by a baseball while going to get paper. The school is set up like mine, which has two buildings. One holds the Print Shop, as we call it, and the other holds everything else. The Print Shop is where we get our paper/fliers/poster/whatever from, be it printed or blank. The buildings are connected by the overhang thing that is completely pointless, as it doesn't keep out snow or rain, and it barely blocks the sun, but anyway, it's got no walls and the field for PE is right by it, hence how Hikari bit the dust. Anyway, feel free to review or not. It's a free internet... for the most part.