Hey you guys! Thanks to those who reviewed! Anyway guys, I'm not forcing you to review or anything but...please? (puts on puppy dog eyes) Your reviews keep me fueled so no reviews, no fuel. No fuel, no energy. No energy, story will crash and burn. Okay? Once again, I'm not forcing you guys! Even a simple 'nice' would make my day! Anyway, I'm sorry if Atobe was a lot OOC in the last chapter!
Anyways, some facts about Rukia;
Name: Fujiwara Rukia
Age: 14 years old
Year: 3rd year at Hyoutei Gakuen
Family: Mother, father, little brother
Likes; Reading, listening and dancing to music, watching TV, surfing the net, practicing gymnastics
Attitude: Clumsy, hotheaded, impatient, potty mouth, friendly, sweet, cheerful, proud, trusting, trustworthy, silly, childish, half shy and half bold, sassy, silent
Over all attitude:
Rukia is a proud victim of multiple personality disorder.
She can be outgoing and spontaneous, and then turn shy and silent the next minute. She is quite clumsy at times, and loses interest quickly. She can be quite a hothead at times, and is very prone to provocation.
She is a bit like Carmen from the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants. As soon as she gets the first drink of anger, she just can't stop. She'll keep shouting and shouting until you find a way to shut her up. Like shoving a hamburger into her mouth.
Rukia doesn't have patience with subjects like Math and is very proud, but not in the sense that Atobe is.
Rukia is emotional, she likes to emote. She sometimes unexplainably stares out the window when it's raining and starts singing love songs in an overly dramatic tone like there's no tomorrow. Then she cries. For no reason at all. Dear God save us all.
She also has the tendency to swear out loud and is quite opinionated. Rukia is afraid to try out new things, love, which is a first (I know she had a boyfriend but you'll find out later why love is a "first").
Once you get to know her though, she's open and friendly and cheerful. She knows how to keep a secret and is someone who enjoys the feelings of being trusted. She's silly and childish at times, which heavily pokes her instinct to slash back with witty remarks at whoever insults her.
Indifferent to most, Rukia's already immune to the fact that people call her a lazy, immature git.
Woosh. This chapter was looong. 12 pages in Microsoft Word. I know you guys have had longer, but this is a record for me. Whee!
Okay then, let's start! Flames are welcome since I got this little thing called a fire extinguisher.
P.S.: All of these are in Rukia's POV so no need to label it.
It was Monday morning and I was officially bordering on insanity.
Why, you ask?
Well, it must be partly because of the ride home with Atobe a couple of weeks ago (six, to be exact) and the fact I had been too slow to notice that he had never even uttered the word 'ore-sama' during the whole time.
Bordering on insanity, I tell ya.
I've been feeling all sorts of weird chills and I've been breaking into goose bumps whenever I accidentally hear his name ringing in my head.
Damn you, Keigo Atobe.
What was it with me? It had just been a simple kiss on the cheek. I shouldn't even be overreacting. It didn't mean anything.
Then why do I wish it did?
Why am I feeling this way?
But that was beside the point. The point was that kiss happened six weeks ago and Atobe had never even mentioned it NOT once.
So what, I was his play toy? He would just make me feel this hopeful and then act as if it never happened?
I hadn't even slept the night after that. I lay awake contemplating the possibilities. The possibilities that were squished after a few weeks of waiting.
I felt hurt for some reason. Why would he just...kiss my cheek and flirt with me when all he was going to do was give my parents a reason to send me to an asylum?
Shit! Why did it have to be like this?! My whole world was falling apart.
Reasons?
One; I did not LOVE Atobe Keigo. I simply had a... passing fancy for him. Crush sounds so naïve.
Two; He didn't seem to return the feeling. ANY FEELING AT ALL. It's like, he's emotionally detached himself from me. I get along great with the other regulars but with him it's either monosyllabic or non existent responses accompanied by the occasional grunt.
Three; I had been stalked numerous times for the past three weeks by various fan girls armed with posters and signs that demanded me to stop 'flirting' with the Hyoutei Regulars.
Groaning, I opened my locker and took my books out.
Feeling a sudden wave of dizziness, I shook my head and walked back a few steps.
This was a mistake, due to my clumsiness which was only supported by my sudden wave of vertigo.
I tripped.
Typical.
Grimacing, I braced myself from the impact of hard ground on my shoulder.
And...
Nothing.
All I felt was a sudden feeling of warm arms supporting my waist and my shoulders.
Eyes widening, I looked up at my savior.
And found a pair of warm brown eyes looking back at me.
(A/N: You were expecting Atobe, ahn? (laughs) Don't worry, Atobe will get his time later. This is for all you JirouXRukia fans)
"Jirou-kun!" I gasped, my cheeks colored pink.
"Ruki-chan! You really should be more careful you know! You could have hurt yourself," he grinned, wagging a finger at me.
He really was quite cute, with his crazy orange locks and wide anxious chocolate brown eyes. I loved looking at them, they reminded me of Cadbury and I loved said chocolate bar.
Of all the regulars, Jirou had been the first one to accept me. He had waited for me after school every day since the disastrous movie day and walked me home. His chatter left me happy and occupied. Not empty and alone like I used to be. I owed the guy a lot. He had also convinced the regulars to give me a try.
I couldn't help but smile at the boy's cheerfulness. Atobe took a backseat in the corner of my mind. For now.
Grinning, Jirou brushed my bangs away from my face, causing me to look like an overripe tomato.
I had never been used to these kind of things. Gakuto and Oshitari especially enjoyed it when I would turn into different shades of crimson whenever Jirou hugged me out of pure joy or caressed my face happily.
I felt his fingers touch my skin lightly, as he brushed another strand of black away from my eyes.
"You really are cute, ne, Ruki?"
I began stuttering but luckily, Jirou's eyes suddenly lit up as he remembered something he had watched on Sunday.
With wide chocolate brown eyes, he talked about a movie that concerned ninjas and whatnot called 'Attack of the Hamburger Ninjas'
Suddenly, Jirou stopped talking. He looked anxious.
"Eh? What's wrong, Jirou-kun?" I looked at him worriedly.
"I swear I saw a pair of dark blue eyes glaring at me... Ne, that was sorta scary..." Jirou's brows furrowed as he surveyed the gaggle of students.
My head whipped around and I too, searched the crowd. What kind of freak would glare at Jirou?
"What kind of blue?" I asked, spotting several different shades of said color.
Not much of Japanese were blue eyed. I think some of the people here were wearing contacts. Go figure.
"Dark, very deep. I don't think I've known any darker. I think I've seen those pair of eyes before... I don't know where though..." Jirou huffed his cheeks and pouted cutely.
"Never mind, Ruki-chan, I'll just continue," he grinned at me and proceeded blabbering about ninjas.
*******
I was struggling to keep my eyes open by second period.
Try as I might, I really couldn't care less about Math.
Especially not now.
My eyes searched the room for some form of putrid entertainment when my eyes alighted on Atobe.
We had all the classes together. Frankly, I was smart enough to be booked a slot as the school nerd. Yeah, well if I was a nerd then he was the supreme pinnacle of nerdy geeks. The dude just couldn't fail a single subject now could he?
It's not that he looked like a nerdy geek or whatever. Frankly, he looked like a supermodel/actor and whatnot. I so despised those people who were SO smart and were SO good looking and SO good at sports and just happened to know how to do EVERYTHING and also happened to like playing with girls' emotions.
So it was really quite a wonder why whenever my gaze alighted on Atobe, I felt goose bumps and my heart would drum out an extremely fast paced song that would have pleased the most metal of metal bands.
I was supposed to hate his guts. Why wasn't I hating his guts?!
"Fujiwara-san, please answer the problem on the board,"
I looked up to see my annoyed sensei. My face flushed beetroot red and I heard several chuckles among my classmates.
Traitors.
"Ah, eh, su-sure, sensei." I walked resolutely to the board, picked up a chalk, positioned myself in front of the problem and tried to look as if I was immersing myself in the wonders of Math.
I probably just ended up looking constipated.
My eyes swept across the board. Math was SO not my strong point.
I stared blankly at the string of jumbled at numbers and letters.
What the hell.
I was still staring at the board, chalk ready and absolutely failing to think of anything except for the floor to just come to already and swallow me whole.
Sighing, I finally whirled on my heel to look at sensei apologetically. Sensei Nakamura rolled her eyes at me.
"Fujiwara-san. This is your assignment. Please be ready to go to the front tomorrow morning, execute the needed processes, and explain how it's done." Sensei Nakamura said in a clipped tone.
"Tomorrow morning?" I sighed in defeat. 'Oh just shove a toilet down my throat and get it done with already.'
"Yes. Unless there's a problem with that?"
"No. None at all. Nakamura sensei."
Cough. I think I'm coming down with a cold.
******
Monday after classes found me waiting for the Hyoutei Regulars in their goddamn tennis courts.
I didn't even know how I got here. Jirou and Gakuto merely asked me to wait for them and I was lifted by Kabaji-kun to this fucking bench.
Sighing, I crossed my legs and stared blankly at a crack on the ground, ignoring the bunch of whores dutifully glaring at me.
I feel a migraine coming.
Glaring at the gate that led to my freedom, I contemplated how much life had changed during that faithful day that the Hyoutei Regulars had seen me without my shell.
A lot had changed in such a short span of time it was almost unbelievable. I had friends. Even though I was supremely annoyed at them for being so... them, they would cheer me up whenever someone taunted me. Gakuto amused me with his general stupidness. Oshitari amused me with his playboy ways. I amused him simply because of the fact that I used to think that Gakuto was a girl. A fact that had slipped out during morning practice two weeks ago. Jirou amused me with his childish actions that made my childish actions look like old woman habits. Shishido was amusing to tease. Choutarou was an extremely nice friend. Hiyoshi was just utterly, hilariously fun. Seriously, the evil, sadistic things Hiyoshi dreamt of doing to his beloved buchou in his sleep scared the crap out of me.
Atobe. I didn't even know him. He would always find a way to stay away from me. What had I done? Maybe he had finally taken a good look at me and said, 'Oh God, this is the girl I kissed? I better avoid her like the plague. She might get ideas.'
It hurt. It hurt worse than getting hit a thousand times by a train. It hurt to know I will never be good enough for him.
He was a stupid, narcissistic idiot who could spend an eternity and then some checking himself out in a mirror.
It was beyond annoying though, when my heart would immediately start up again when he was around.
It was so annoying I just wanted it all to stop.
Look at you, Rukia! I scolded myself 'You're acting all down and emo just because of that Atobe guy. Get your act together! Show him it doesn't bother you.'
I felt so annoyed. I had given him the pleasure of watching me sulk around. What I always hated about heartbreaks was that you would become emotionally unstable and give your ex the privilege of seeing that. Not that Atobe was my ex. Or friend or acquaintance or rival.
My eye twitched once. I wasn't going to give him anything. Anymore. I was just going to have to survive each Atobe-less day and do it cheerfully.
It didn't matter. I had always been the sort of girl who could cheer people right up into thinking she was happy when all she wanted to do was breakdown and cry.
Woah. That is one for the Book of Quotes.
Sighing, I shifted in my seat absentmindedly.
Suddenly, Jirou came slumbering over, his head hung low.
My eyes widened as he found his pillow.
My lap.
Smiling as I felt him snuggle to fit his head into my lap, I ran a hand through his hair.
He had been such a great friend.
I really missed this feeling.
Closing my eyes, I was blissfully unaware of a deep, dark set of blue eyes watch me and Jirou with evident anger and frustration.
*****
Did life hate me?
Did life hate me so much that it just HAD to rain after we had gone to the Arcade (Gakuto's request) and played mindless games, while I was just trying to wheedle out of having to spend the ride home in luxurious cream seats?
"There's no point in walking home, Ruki!" Jirou had pointed out happily as soon as the torrents of rain fell.
I silently cursed Jirou in my head. There was also NO point in being the last one dropped home by a piece of cement chunk who goes by the name Atobe.
Finally, I breathed as I spotted the cream walls of my house as we neared my safety port.
The ride had been silent and the tension had been so thick you could have cut it up and served it on a plate.
"Fujiwara." His voice cut the silence. His tone was ice cold.
"Hm?" I murmured, eyes still outside his window. Just a few more blocks...
"Why?"
His questions stunned me.
"Why what?" I asked, eyebrows raised.
"Why are you avoiding ore-sama?"
My eyes widened but I kept my voice cool.
"I haven't been avoiding you Atobe-san. Quite the reverse if you ask me,"
"Don't play stupid, girl. Ore-sama knows you've been avoiding him."
Girl?Girl?! GIRL?!?!?!?!?
"I have a name you know. And I have not been avoiding you. I try to get to know you better but you keep on edging away." I glared at the carpet, imagining burning holes through Atobe's head with a laser gun.
"Once again, you seem to like Jirou more than ore-sama," He was frowning.
"Tell me Atobe! Tell me then! How can I NOT like Jirou more than you?! He's friendly to me. He's never ever ignored me. You've been avoiding me. Ever since you kissed my cheek and flirted with me during that movie. I just- I just wish you never did that! It's not convenient that I spend every fucking second of my life wondering if you meant it or not! It just sickens me Atobe! Tell me, did you really want to be my friend, or was that just a stupid cover to let the public know you just LOVE the little nerds of this world?! Because it hurts, did you know that? It hurts that I like you and you made me hope and just...disappeared!" I was shouting now, tears streaming down my cheeks.
He looked stunned.
I sobbed and shook, my hands flew to cover my face.
"Rukia I-"
I didn't care anymore. Violently, I shoved the limo door open, got out of a moving car, fell down badly, scraped one knee then ran home.
Distantly, I could hear him shout my name, but it hurt too much. I loved him. That was the truth. And he had only used me for enjoyment. He didn't, never, ever did love me back
Tears slid down my face, mixing with rain.
As soon as I reached our front door, I swung it open to be met by my mother who looked anxious.
Sobbing, I took of full speed to my room and locked the door.
Seconds later, with my face smushed against a pillow, I was faintly annoyed to remember that he had said my name without the usual 'ore-sama' nonsense.
This failed to make me feel the slightest bit better.
And I was fairly certain it wasn't supposed to.
Ah that was a long chapter. Sorry if I've bored you out. The plot was emo and the words totally lame, I know. I just really needed a break from real life. Anyways, review, review, please. Thanks for reading!