chapter V
"So? How is Hyuu- I mean how is the Jerk doing?" I politely asked the nurse, I just came back from the cafeteria, and Hotaru went off on her own somewhere. The nurse beamed at me as if I was a kid who was bragging about the blisters on her hands.
"Oh, he is just dandy! He just had a minor fever, poor guy, it looked like he was a bit too stressed. He should be fine after a good night's worth of rest. He might get better if his pretty girlfriend went to take care of him..." She gave me an obvious wink, not noticing my clenched fists. I resisted the urge to kick her.
"I- Well that's... dandy. I think I will just peek into his room, thanks for the unnecessary comment." I responded with a strangled voice. The nurse nodded at me with approval, once again, not noticing my sarcasm laced remark, and bustled off to bother some other poor soul. I gently pushed the slightly ajar door. I could just make out a dark figure splayed out on the bed. I silently shuffled over to the moron and sat down on the edge of the bed.
Up close, I observed Hyuuga's long, dark lashes and his tanned skin. His silky, black hair was sprawled out on the pillow, and I could tell that under his hospital gown that his lean chest moved up and down to the rhythm of his slow breathing. His high sculpted cheek bones and face had no traces of any imperfections, but his brows bunched together like he was worried. I breathed in deeply and smelt the faint scent of sandalwood and autumn. Strangely, a hushed tranquility stole over me, as I sat there, unconsciously playing with strands of his hair. It was then that I saw a black scar on his shoulder. I had a feeling that it was not a tattoo, and that it was causing him a lot of pain, but the mix of revulsion, pity, and a want to protect him from the scar was not enough to overcome my drowsiness. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I just napped here for 30 minutes. I mean, it's not like he's going to wake up, right? It's not like I'm going to do anything immoral to him... yeah... just for a little bit... I snuggled under the covers and drifted off into a dream of sweet smelling trees, unknown to me that Hyuuga was watching my every action.
It's so warm... I greedily moved towards this firm warmth, and burrowed my face into this warmth. I breathed in the woody scent that reminded me of home, and a sense of nostalgia stole over me. I clung onto this heat, wishing that it would never go away like my parents, and I felt its arms go around me. Wait... I immediately opened my eyes, and saw Hyuuga's sleeping face near mine. I was about to scream, when the memories from last night came flooding into my mind. I tried to slither away from his embrace, freaked out by Hyuuga's lazy smile. Oh god, he's smiling... is the end of the world finally here? I finally was able to get out of his death trap, dismissing the sudden pang of loneliness that poked my heart. Hyuuga's content grin turned upside down, and his eyebrows bunched together again, as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Finally awake, are you?" I commented, trying to gloss over the fact that I was trying to fix my disheveled hair and my hospital gown. Unfortunately, the Jerk was no idiot. He arrogantly smirked at me, and propped an elbow up as he watched me.
"So... was I a satisfactory pillow?" I grabbed whatever object that was in reach of me and threw it at him. It was a measly pen, much to my dismay. "I'm guessing that is a yes." I gave Hyuuga the dirtiest look I could muster, but this only made him chuckle. I turned away from his disgustingly flawless face and brushed my hair up into a high ponytail.
"How tall are you?" I narrowed my eyes at him with suspicion.
"Five feet four. Why do you ask? Are you going to make a nasty comment on my three sizes or something?" His smirk got bigger.
"No, but good guess. I was just wondering if you were tall enough to be eligible to be my girlfriend." Hyuuga got up from his hospital bed, and we both heard a small pattering noise. Simultaneously, we both looked at the ground and saw pebble sized stones that were an eerie black.
"Great. Not only are you an idiot, but you're losing your marbles!" I giggled at my own joke while Hyuuga picked up the pebbles and stared at them.
"These aren't mine. All of my Alice stones are red..." He trailed off as he looked at me with a face of realization. He quickly strolled over to the mirror that hung at the opposite end of the room and tugged his gown over one shoulder. I walked up behind him with a curious expression.
"What is it Sherlock?" I whispered humorously. Hyuuga adjusted his gown and looked intently at me.
"Do you know what kind of Alice you are, yet?" I nodded my head.
"Yeah, but I'm not sure if it's right." I muttered. The moron didn't say anything, but looked out the window with a thoughtful face, surreptitiously slipping the pebbles into his gown's pocket, when Hotaru entered the room. We both spun around to face her, and I saw her holding my tote bag. I looked up to see her amethyst eyes bearing into my gray ones, and I felt her analyzing me. I silently mouthed to her "later." She nodded in response.
"You two can leave the hospital now." She said in her monotone voice. "But Mikan needs to go to Mr. Narumi's office. He says that he wants your answer." Hyuuga snorted, and I could literally hear him thinking as if the academy is giving Strawberries a choice. I thanked Hotaru and glared at Hyuuga pointedly.
"What?"
"Well, I need to change, so could you please get the hell out of my room?" He rolled his eyes.
"As if there's anything for me to see, anyway." I mimed strangling him as he sauntered out of the room. Hotaru snorted at my childishness. "I know what you're doing, by the way." I stopped my miming and stuck my tongue out at his back.
"Here are your clothes." She handed me my bag. She turned around the closed the door, and walked over to the stiff looking chair that was situated by the bed. As I began to change, she asked me what was happening before she entered the room, and I told her about the black pebbles, of course, I left out the part where I willingly slept on the same bed as the moron. Hotaru wore the same thoughtful expression as Hyuuga, and I could hear her mind whizzing through the explanations of why this could be. After I finished changing, Hotaru gracefully stood up from her chair. "I'm going to the library. Come over when you're done talking with that good for nothing teacher." I cheerily grinned at her.
"Then we can explore the campus!" Hotaru nodded in agreement and we left the hospital, going our separate ways.
I sighed with discontent as I stared at Mr. Narumi's door. When I first arrived at this door, I never got the chance to examine it... fortunately. His door was covered in obnoxious hot pink paper hearts and some of them even had the words "I love you" written on them, along with obese cupid stickers. As I wondered what happened to Mr. Narumi's childhood, the door swung open. He smiled kindly at me, and like before, he steered me into his office, closing the hideous door along the way.
"Have you come with your answer, Mikan?" He asked, gesturing with his pale hand for me to sit in the over stuffed chair.
"I... Well, first of all, it is not like I have a choice, right? I have a feeling that this school keeps all of the Alices they can find. I highly doubt they will accept a 'no' as an answer." Narumi chuckled quietly.
"You know this school all too well, Mikan. What you said is correct, we keep all the Alices we can get our hands on." His lavender eyes darkened with loneliness for a millisecond, but returned back to his normal expression. What was that all about? "So I'm assuming that you've decided to stay in this school! Excellent. Now, I must explain some more things to you since you are now an official Alice." I rolled my eyes.
"More things? Are you going to tell me that I'm actually an alien and..." He laughed at my sarcastic remark.
"No, nothing of the sort. Basically, now that you're an Alice, you must follow our rules concerning your Alice. One, you must not use them on an ordinary citizen, and two, you must not expose, or tell, your abilities to anyone outside of this academy, including your family members. It is of the utmost importance that no one know you are an Alice, besides the people in Alice Academy." I looked at him with a curious look, and was about to ask him to elaborate, but he interpreted my look correctly. "This is mainly for your safety, because there are people who sell Alices for money, or kidnap them for their own use." I gulped audibly.
"Do I get any privileges?" I joked feebly. The burden of being an Alice was beginning to get heavy, and I began to fret over Grandpa. What if someone manages to find out that I'm an Alice and they decide to hold Grandpa hostage so that they can get to me?
"Well, we have a special evaluation system, here in Alice Academy, to determine what level you are, and your privileges depend on how high your level is. Privileges such as receiving discounts on food and at Central Town. Adding to that, you will now be using a currency called Rabbits- one rabbit translates to about 100 yen. These are basically gold coins that are given to the students every six months, I guess you could say that the academy gives you an allowance."
"And what is the evaluation system, and how do you evaluate an Alice? How about levels? How many are there?" I was surprised with how well I was handling all of this. I smiled proudly inside and gave myself a pat on the back.
"Well, we give evaluation tests, but they all differ from each other, and I can't disclose any more information on this, unfortunately. As for the evaluation system, we base one's level on how well they do on the test, and how well they do in school. I can't go into detail about this, but that is the gist of the system, and as for the levels, there are four- the single, double, triple, and special levels." I nodded with comprehension.
"So when do I begin my test?" Mr. Narumi stood up with a clap of his hands. "Right now, Mikan! Let's go, my precious little noob, off we go to the Principles' office for your evaluation test." I choked on my saliva and stared at my ludicrous teacher. I was so scared that I almost fainted right then and there. WHAT? Bu-but I'm not even ready! I didn't get a chance to go over my math notes, because heaven knows I'm horrendous with it, and I didn't even get a chance to tell Hotaru to go back to our dorm! And- oh god. I'm absolutely not ready, I'm going to fail and I'm going to flunk out of this school! And as Mr. Narumi laughed gaily, dragging me along with him, I silently prayed to the man upstairs to let me do well on this test.