Chapter 2: An Award, A "Friend", and a Note
Amu walked in her bikini by drooling guys at the pool and rolled her eyes. She sat he towel down and went to the diving board with all confidence. She braced herself and then jumped off the edge. She felt the cold sensation on her face as she hit the water and spun under it, swimming back to the surface.
She didn't mean to, but when she came out, she flipped her hair back out of her face and took a deep breath, making guys' noses bleed. She sunk down into the water and then made her way for the underwater stairs to climb out.
Amu didn't feel like swimming much anymore so she went back to the rented house and took a shower, dried and brushed her hair, and headed back down to the campus. It was getting even more boring as night fell.
An entire weekend gone now. They had classes on Sundays and that particular one, they were having some big business man come and give awards to them for their achievements. Amu hated the idea really because it just wasn't cool. "I wish I was head dean, then I could just say 'You graduate, Hinamori-san, you're off to Paris now,'" she sighed, looking at the sky above her.
On the dinner bell, she headed to the mess hall to eat and thought she'd meet Rima there. She'd been so bored all day, maybe Rima could tell her a joke, or something. I ran into Tadase by accident and then fell right back down rather than have him catch me.
"Geese! Watch where you're going next time!" she said, walking by. She'd gotten over him, but he was still her friend. She turned and smirked, something she'd picked up from an old friend, and took his hand to lead him into the mess hall. "This is how you walk right," she said teasingly.
After they all ate, they returned to their houses. Amu walked alone to the house and studied for the next day's exam again. It was usually pretty quiet at the house because they all had to study or Kukai and Yaya were somewhere and it just was boring.
Amu had grown close to her friends and almost all of the guys had gone out with her. She had WAY too many love interests! Her Chara called it her 'flexibility'. (I don't mean that in a way Ikuto would, I mean as in she can have two different guys who are totally unalike and can like both.)
Amu sat on the couch, her history book resting on her thin leg and her robe thin robe around her slender form. A mere lamp lit the room dimly next to her on the table and the only sound was the humming of the refrigerator in the kitchen.
She liked to study after everyone was asleep because it was quiet. She studied down in the living room in case someone needed her so they didn't have to look in her room. Nagi normally came down to talk to her, but not tonight, which was strange.
He'd been acting all weird around her lately; weirder than usual. Amu sighed and closed her book, unable to stay awake through anymore of it. She yawned, turning the lamp off and heading upstairs. I looked at the coffee table in the slight darkness and saw three tiny forms, breathing slowly.
She smiled. There was a tiny person in blue with blue hair, blue eyes, and a blue hat and bag. Another had on a pink cheerleader outfit with pink pom poms, pink hair, pink eyes when she was awake, and a pink visor. And the last had on a Hollis outfit of the color green and had white-blond hair with blue eyes when she was awake.
Amu carefully picked them up with her slender hand and began to creep slowly up the stairs, careful not to trip or stumble.
She pulled back the blankets and lay on her double-sized bed, looking out of the window it was up against. She could see the campus below and the street lights. Sighing, she pulled the blanket to her chin, turning over to sleep.
A dark figure loomed in the corner. She didn't see him, luckily. He sighed silently in relief. He waited until her breathing evened out until walking to the balcony. First, he turned and looked at Amu. She had grown up, big time. He looked at her before jumping down from the balcony.
THE NEXT MORNING IN THE ASSEMBLEY HALL:
Amu yawned. "Man, why do I feel like this is only the beginning?!" she complained to Rima, who was uninterestedly reading a magazine. Amu had personalized her uniform once again by cutting the skirt to her top-thighs and loosening the tie around her neck, undoing the buttons on the collar and the cuffs, rolling each up unevenly, and wearing the thigh-length tights that were white.
The shirt was white as well and the skirt was a dark green and red plaid with a red blazer jacket and the tie had the same design as the skirt. "Amu-Chi, I am so hungry!" Yaya groaned, her brown eyes hardening. She had light-brown hair pulled up into a high ponytail off of her shoulders by a red ribbon. Rima still wore her hair down and Amu wore hers pulled back.
"We can go to the mess hall right after we get our awards okay?" she assured Yaya. A tall man with black hair that was going gray in a white suit stepped up to the microphone and the huge room went silent.
"Our first award goes to the Designer Course's number one designer and will be presented by," Amu whispered to Rima, "A big jackass," making Rima stifle a laugh. "Tsukiyomi Ikuto of Easter Inc.!" the dean finished, making Amu's golden eyes and Rima's honey brown eyes go wide. A tall, handsome man with a thin but strong build with midnight-blue hair and sapphire eyes stepped out onto the stage in a tux. It seemed pretty casual.
Rima and Amu exchanged shocked looks. "A REALLY big jackass!" Amu whispered. Ikuto took the mic and a piece of paper from the dean. "Okay, thank you," he said, settling the booming applause. "The award for number one designs on this course goes to," he unfolded the paper. "H-Hinamori Amu…?" he said.
Amu was glued to her seat and didn't want to move. All eyes fell on her and Rima was trying to shove her out of her chair, but she wouldn't budge. "Amu-chan! Go up there! NOW!" Rima whispered, tearing Amu from the safe distance from Ikuto.
She put on her façade as she walked down the aisle with a bored expression, though she was freaking out inside. The Shugo Chara case around her waist seemed to bounce a little. She gulped and walked onto the stage. Ikuto looked at her with wide eyes and she looked blandly at him. "Uh, don't I get some kind of certificate or trophy whatever?" she asked boredly.
Ikuto nodded and the dean handed her a framed certificate with a red ribbon on it. It had her name on it and everything. Ikuto reached out to shake her hand and jammed a piece of paper smoothly into it without anyone noticing it.
The photographer for the local newspaper wanted a picture so Amu held onto the frame under her chest, which had grown out QUITE a bit. She and Ikuto looked at the camera, holding a hand shake. Amu was trying to hold still but slipped on something or another and fell forward just as the picture snapped. The picture ended up being a shot of Amu falling with a surprised expression on her face and Ikuto having the same expression, catching her from around the torso.
It went to print on every newspaper in Tokyo. The headline was: Ikuto Tsukiyomi's New Lover Amu Hinamori!
Amu groaned the following morning as she read this. She crumpled the paper up and balled into her fist. She had a bowl of cereal in front of her with a glass of half-empty orange juice. "It's not that bad, Hinamori-san," Tadase said hesitantly. Amu shot a piercing look his way and a split second later, he was dodging a bowl of flying milk and a wadded newspaper.
"Okay! Okay! It's a big deal!" he said quickly. Yaya and Rima were laughing and Amu was sulking while Tadase cowered. Kukai, Nagi, and Kairi were playing cards. Amu stood from the kitchen table. "I-I'll meet you all at lunch, okay? I have some things I have to do before first class." She said, running upstairs.
She shut the door and the pink Chara flew over to her. "What's wrong, Amu-chan?" Amu sighed. "Ran, it's not right! I was getting along just fine and then HE had to show up!" Amu almost started crying.
Miki and Suu flew up as well, sympathetically patting her pink locks with their tiny hands. "What was in the note he gave you yesterday~~desu?" Suu asked in her motherly voice.
Amu shrugged. She hadn't even read it yet. She thought things couldn't get any worse, so why not? She walked to her white dresser and looked in the mirror for a moment before picking up the crumpled piece of notebook paper.
She smoothed it out and read it. Her eyes widened. "What is it Amu-chan!?" all her Chara asked at once. She was twitching in one eyes and she had an anime sweat bubble. "Note to self; NEVER think things can't get any worse!!!!"