chapter II
The sound of my hand hitting his cheek reverberated throughout the room. Everyone's eyes bugged out with their mouths agape, and time stood still. But Blondie broke the spell, as he rushed over to his best friend.
"Natsume..?" His melodious voice asked mildly. "Are you alright?"
Six million, bazillion eyes whipped towards Natsume to see his reaction. They got their wish as Natsume lightly touched the red handprint on his cheek. He looked at me with calm eyes, but I detected a hint of anger and.. interest? My gray eyes met his crimson ones, and we were left in our own little world analyzing each other. A few seconds later my eyes started to water, so I broke our telepathic connection and looked at the only thing that didn't stare accusingly at me: my feet. When I looked down, everyone whipped out their cell phones and texted all of their friends about what happened. Great.
"I'm fine." He finally answered quietly. His low voice sent shivers down my spine, and I could feel his unblinking stare still directed towards me. Luckily, my history teacher just so happened to enter the room right then. Everyone walked to their seats and sat down, whereas I practically ran to my seat. I sighed with relief, while the teacher (Mr. Narumi) clapped his hands delightedly.
"Now, now children, no need to sit down with your friends! I'll be assigning seats for y'all." Everyone groaned simultaneously while they got their stuff, and lined up against the wall. God, if you're there, please put me somewhere next to a friend. Mr. Narumi began to pick students at random as he walked through the rows of seats. When most of my friends were seated, except for Sumire, he called out my name. "You sit here." I grabbed my stuff off the floor and walked slowly to my seat. "Ah, and you miss, you may go ahead and sit next to her." I smiled giddily as Sumire slid into the seat next to me. Yes! I love you God! But my smile quickly disappeared when Mr. Narumi decided to put Blondie and the jerk behind me. I gulped audibly while what's-his-face quietly sat down in the seat directly behind me. Why me? Oh no.. He's probably going to make smart ass comments throughout the whole lesson...
Surprisingly, he stayed silent during the history lesson, but his gaze never wavered.
When the heavenly bell rang, I bolted out of the room to second period. I wish I could switch classes... was my only thought. After getting lost several times, I finally found my english class. I burst into the room and excitedly looked around the sea of unfamiliar faces, until I found Hotaru. I giddily ran to her, but then I saw who she was talking to; Blondie. I frowned, but nonetheless, I greeted him politely. He smiled at me, which instantly made me realize that he wasn't like his friend.
"Hi, sorry about earlier.. Natsume can say some inappropriate stuff. I'm Ruka Nogi by the way, may I ask what's your name?"
"Oh, I'm Mikan Sakura, but you can go ahead and call me Mikan. Nice to meet you!"
Hotaru spoke up after our introductions. "So I heard from Nogi that you slapped Hyuuga? I didn't know you were that moronic. I'm surprised he didn't do the usual thing Hyuuga does to his fan girls." I furrowed my eyebrows and frowned.
"Okay, first of all, that jerk had it coming to him. I mean, anyone who's ego is as big as a continent, has a stupidly cocky attitude and makes unnecessary comments will get smacked sooner or later. Also, what do you mean by moronic? I'm quite smart, thank you very much. And that jerk has fan girl's? Who in their right mind would go after that piece of work? People here are seriously out of their minds." I blabbered angrily, and I still had more to say, until Hotaru interrupted me.
"So why hasn't he told her off yet, Nogi?" She asked blandly. Ruka shrugged.
"I have no idea really. I expected him to go ahead and get her kicked out of the academy right away. But he didn't, which is not like him.. he was also unusually quiet during first. Maybe he's interested in you Mikan." I shivered at the very thought of it. No way in hell would he be interested in me. I'm too boring, and I hate his guts. The day he starts liking me is the day pigs fly, the end of the world is here, and the Jonas Brothers stop wearing tight jeans. While I was mentally criticizing Ruka's comment, Hotaru looked at me thoughtfully.
Lunch
I could hear everyone whispering in the lavish cafeteria. Disdainful looks were tossed at me and many weren't bothering to mask their remarks. I attempted to make myself look small by looking at the carpeted floor. I quickly stepped over to the lunch line, where everyone chose to ignore me. Some even walked out of the line just to get away from me. Well isn't this dandy? Two other guys joined the line as it finally started moving again.
"Oh, yeah, she slapped Natsume. I can't believe he put up with that crap." Good question, why didn't he do anything?
"You mean she's the new scholarship student? Dude, I heard she used to be Natsume's girlfriend, but then she found out he was cheating on her with Koizumi." Err.. say what?
"No way, the Koizumi?" Who's Koizumi?
"Yes, that Koizumi. Anyway, I would much rather have a piece of that, then Koizumi. I like the feisty ones." I abruptly turned around to the rude teens behind me, clenching my fists, attempting to keep my temper in check.
"Excuse me, but could you perhaps whisper a little quieter? The 'feisty one' in front of you can hear every single vulgar thing that's coming out of your mouths." I was blinded with frustration, and I didn't realize that the two were grinning like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Only when I realized that the two weren't responding did I actually look at them. I realized that they were both in Hyuuga's little clan. My brain then processed the upward curves of their lips and their perfect white teeth shining brightly at me. "Um.. Did I miss something here? Why are you both smiling at me?"
The two of them kept on grinning annoyingly. Oh, I get it. They're trying to rile me up, because they think it's fun. I rolled my eyes at them. It's like middle school all over again. Just as I was about to order my bowl of lobster bisque, someone grabbed me by the shoulders out of nowhere. I shrieked out of reflex, but that was no use, because instead of letting go like what I wanted, my kidnapper put me over his shoulder and dragged me out of the shocked cafeteria. I flailed around on his shoulder as we exited the building, my kidnapper finally put me down; he was one of the guys behind me. Behind him, I saw his friend gingerly rubbing his ears.
"Damn, you can scream! Seriously, I feel bad for you Koko." I looked at him curiously, and saw that there was a small star-shaped scar under one of his cerulean eyes. The vulgar kid, Koko, winced as his back cracked audibly.
"You should pity me. She scream right in my poor ear... and she's heavy." He complained. Koko's hazel eyes turned to me. "Are you alright, Screamer?" One of my eyebrows shot up.
"What did you just call me?" People like giving me a lot of nicknames here..
"Screamer. Or would you prefer the Feisty One or Sexy?" Koko replied, brushing his dirty blonde hair out of his face.
"Do I have to choose?"
"Yes." Koko's friend said instantly. I sighed in exasperation.
"Could you please introduce yourselves like proper gentlemen? I mean, you did make a scene back there, and I seem to be racking up too much unwanted attention today."
"Oh, very sorry. I'm Tsubasa Andou, and this is Kokoro Yome. Oh, hey, Koko! I just got an idea for a nickname. We should call her Gray!" I shot him an inquiring look. "Well, your gray eyes are very distinctive and I just finished watching Catch and Release with my girlfriend." His friend snickered quietly.
"Hey, at least I have a girlfriend." Tsubasa said defensively.
"At least I don't have to watch romance movies, like The Notebook or Pride and Prejudice."
"Dude, that's low."
"Well you started it."
"Okay, fine, at least I didn't make an absolute ass of myself in 6th grade." Tsubasa shot victoriously.
"Oh, so pretty boy wants to fight dirty? Alright then, how about that time-"
"Look, hopefully you guys didn't drag me out of the cafeteria just to argue about who's better and whatnot. Is it alright if I call you guys by your first names?" They nodded mutely, surprised by my angry outburst. "Excellent, so what do you want with me?" They paused for a moment, and then shared a secretive glance with one another.
"We wanted to ask you.."
"If you're Natsume's secret lover-"
"Or something of the sort."
"Oh, like Natsume was in love with her-"
"But it turns out that Mikan likes his best friend-"
"So then he tried to piss her off with that awful remark of his-"
"And then that's when she slapped him? Very good, Watson." For a second, I was mesmerized by their perfect synchronization. Wow, they can finish off each other's lines like Fred and George Weasley! That's amazing! Wait- what did they just say about me and him?
"Okay, we don't have any chemistry together, we've never dated, we've never seen each other until today, and he's NOT interested." I stated adamantly. The two shared smirks.
"But are you interested?" They said simultaneously.
I groaned with exasperation. "Forget it, you guys are obviously not being serious." I stalked off in a direction that took me away from those freaks and the rest of the student population. I didn't care if I got lost in the middle of nowhere, I just wanted to get away from everything. Thankfully, the two had enough brains to figure out that I wanted to be alone, unless they wanted to be in excruciating pain. Soon, I found myself at the entrance of the courtyard behind the high school; the one where Hotaru and I promised to meet. I looked for the Sakura tree and found it in a secluded clearing. I purposefully made my way over, came to a stop at the base of the tree, and tiredly dropped my bag down. I plopped down on the fluffy grass and proceeded to angrily take down my hair from its bun. Then, I fell back onto the soft grass with a passing sigh. My hair was all over the place and I was sprawled out on the ground. I knew that if someone came by right now, I would be in serious trouble for skipping school, but I didn't give a damn. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh, floral scent of the floating Sakura petals, mixed with the scent of.. musky cologne? My eyes instantly snapped open, and I realized that I drifted off into a content nap.
"Hey." I closed my eyes tightly and tilted my head towards his voice. Please let it be an illusion, ohpleaseohplease! I slowly opened my eyes and saw Natsume with a confident smirk slathered all over his face. Damn him.