Ok. I feel pretty good about the last chapter. BUT I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S ANY GOOD BECAUSE ONLY 3 PEOPLE HAVE REVIEWED!!! YOU READ IT, YOU REVIEW IT. Moving on… enjoy the next chapter. :P

I woke up Monday morning wondering why my body was aching so bad. Then I recalled the battle between me and that horrible man. I groaned as I rolled over to look at the clock. It was 6:00, an hour and a half before I had to wake up, but I supposed it was better this way. I wouldn't be late for school.

I didn't bother trying to back to sleep. Once I was up I was up. Even if it meant I woke up at 2 in the morning… I was up. I tip-toed down the stairs and into the empty kitchen. I was surprised to see a note lying on the table from my parents. They were out of town. They had left for America yesterday for the week to take care of unfinished business.

My eyes opened wide as I read the note. It started out explaining the usual. Follow bedtime. Feed Nikko. No parties. However, right in the middle, squeezed in the smallest possible handwriting was the following sentence:

Nikko doesn't start school until next week, but you can't leave him home alone.

I supposed I should have expected something like this. My parents had only registered Nikko for school when we got here, whereas I had taken charge and called ahead and registered myself while we were still in America.

I mentally slapped myself. What was I going to do!? I couldn't ditch the entire first week of school… that would give me a bad impression. I couldn't leave him alone either... he was only 8 for crying out loud. If he was 3 or 4 years older maybe... but right now that just wasn't an option. I couldn't afford a sitter either. The only plausible option popped into my head, but it didn't seem like an option at all.

We got to school a half hour early. It was nearly deserted, except for an occasional student on their way to morning clubs and activities. I headed towards what I hoped was the main office. Nikko followed groggily behind, the sleep still heavy in his eyes.

I pushed the door open and walked up to the desk.

"Excuse me. I have a slight problem." I said to the secretary. She nodded at me to show she was listening and I continued. "Y-you see," I stumbled, "I'm a new student and-and today is my first day-"

"No need to worry," she cut me off with a smile, "I can give you your schedule and a map to the school."

"Uh… thank you, but that's not exactly my problem." She looked at me, obviously confused. "You see, my parents are out of town, and my brother doesn't start school until next, and- and- I'm the only one who can watch him!!" I blurt out a lame finish.

The secretary looks at me gravely. "That is a problem," she agrees. "Why don't you go up and talk to the principal. See if you can work something out." She leads me to the principal's office. I speak with him and he agrees to allow Nikko to follow me to my classes for this week, and this week only, as long as he doesn't disturb anyone. He writes me a note to show to all my teachers, and hands me a copy of my schedule. He doesn't hand me a map but I am so mortified and grateful I don't ask for one. Nikko and I walk up to the roof where we will wait until class starts.

My cheeks are burning bright red as I stumble around the empty halls, desperate to find my class. I am now at least 5 minutes late. I curse myself for not finding the class before.

"Arrrghhhh," I whine exasperated. Nikko rolls his eyes at me. He yanks my already crumpled schedule out of my hand and stares at it. It says A1. He looks at the room we are standing next to. It says C3. His eyes narrow and he gives me an Are you really this stupid look. I grimace at him in return.

He opens his mouth to say something, probably an insult, but is cut off by an icy, familiar voice behind us.

"What are you herbivores doing? Class started 6 minutes ago. I'll bite you to death." I turn around and see the face that I have had nightmares about. Why out of all the schools in Japan does he have to go to this one? The only thing that keeps me form screaming and cursing is the fact that Nikko is standing right next to me, already trembling in fear. Our previous encounter with this man had been had been traumatizing for him.

"H-HEY!!" I stuttered/shouted/freaked out. "WE WERE JUST LOST, BUT WE AREN'T ANYMORE!!" I shout, terrified. I turn without allowing him to speak and shove my way into C3, dragging an unresponsive Nikko behind me. Everyone in the class turns to stare at us. I walk up to the teacher and mutter to him.

"Ummm… we're lost. Can you tell us where to go, and maybe have someone escort us, because there's a crazy person outside of this room who wants to kill us." The teacher just looks up at us, shocked and confused. I ignore him and grab the arm of a strong looking kid sitting in the front row. I don't give him a chance; I only drag him out of the room.

"Extreme!!" He yells. When we step out of the room, my heart skips a beat. That Hibari kid is still standing there. His eyes narrow as he sees me.

"Ummm… This kid here is going to show us to class. You can leave." I urge him.

"What are you and that tiny herbivore doing here?" He obviously isn't going to let this go easily. The kid I pulled out of class is just standing there looking confused but excited. Nikko is still silent next to me.

"I am a student here," I say. "I have permission to have my brother here for the rest of the week." A bead of sweat dribbles down my forehead. I take off at a sprint, dragging Nikko and the poor boy that has nothing to do with this behind me. I don't look back to see if he is following us.

I stare up at the board blankly, one of the few people looking at it at all. The rest of the class is staring at Nikko and I. Already I can hear the start of rumors floating around me.

It was bad enough that I was a new student. There were, however, several things that made it much, much worse.

1)I ran into class 15 minutes late, panting and looking like crap.

2)I was dragging one of the strongest second years behind me.

3)I had a nasty looking bruise across my face.

4)I brought my younger brother to school

I was mortified. I hadn't been forced to introduce myself since I had made such an inappropriate entrance. The teacher had pointed Nikko and I to a couple of seats in the back after reading my note from the principal. He didn't bother explaining why Nikko was here, so students were forced to form their own speculations. They were failing. Miserably.

Now I was pretending to pay attention to the lesson, but in reality I was scribbling notes to Nikko. Since I was determined to continue staring straight ahead, I was having him be my eyes and ears. He was looking for the kids that weren't gawking at us like we were aliens. He wasn't having much luck.

So far, every single kid in the class had at least glanced at us. The kid with the fewest glances though, was going to be the one we ate lunch with. So far, the winner was kid with odd looking silver hair. He was sitting with his feet up and he looked like he was zoned out of the lesson. He was probably a delinquent… so I decided I'd go with the second pace winner.

This was yet another boy. He was a brunette, also with unusual hair. I t was sticking out at what seemed like impossible angles. He, however, was paying attention, but he looked totally lost. It wasn't hard. Well, maybe it was.

Although I rarely admitted this, I was amazingly, and surprisingly, good at math, I was decent at LA, but math was my strong point. I guessed that this was because Kami-sama* felt bad when He made such a weird person as me, so decided to add in at least one good quality. The current equation on the board ran through my head and 2 seconds later came out my head solved.

Luckily, or maybe not, the teacher called on me for the answer. "3.27," I called out confidently. He looked at me surprised, as did the rest of the class.

"I didn't expect you to answer correctly, especially without using a pen and paper… only Gokudera is able to answer as immediately as that." He gazed at the silver-haired delinquent as he said this. The delinquent glowered at me for a moment before snapping his head away. So he was a smart delinquent huh?

After a drearily easy worksheet, I realized I no longer had an excuse to stare at the board. To distract myself from the stares of I whispered to Nikko.

"This is not going well…" I spoke in English, to prevent our conversation from being overheard. I could immediately tell this was a bad decision. Voices were immediately raised as the students whispered to each other excitedly. If they hadn't known we were foreigners before, they did now. This would start another round of rumors. Not that the first was anywhere near over.

"Is the math hard?" he asked. He wasn't paying attention, busy with my orders.

"No," I answer calmly, "but everyone thinks we're freaks."

He rolled his eyes at me. "What did you expect?" I often forgot he wasn't an ordinary eight year old.

We discreetly followed the brunet. Well I discreetly followed the brunet while Nikko just tagged along as his usually quiet self. I had been surprised to see the delinquent jump up and walk beside the brunet the second the bell had rung. Apparently, if all went well, I would end up eating with the both of them.

They walked until they reached the roof, since they obviously couldn't walk more after that. As they were settling themselves down to eat along with one other black haired boy, I sprang up next to them. Nikko walked over next to me, obviously thinking I was an idiot.

"Uhhh… haha… HI! I'm Konowa Nekko. This is my younger brother, Konowa Nikko. Can we eat lunch with you?" They looked at me like I was a crazy person. This was certifiable, since as far as they knew I was a crazy person.

"Uhhh… sure Nekko-chan. I'm Tsuna. This is Gokudera and Yamamoto," he said, gesturing to the delinquent and the black-haired boy.

I smiled. "Arigatou, Tsuna-kun."

"No problem, Nekko-chan," he wiggled nervously, "just out of curiosity, why is your brother here with you?" I opened my mouth to explain, but never got the chance. I was cut off by the voice Nikko and I had already come to dread in our short 3 days of being in Japan.

"Are you herbivores crowding?" I spun around, roughly yanking Nikko behind me in the same fluid motion. This was just precaution though, as we had both immediately flung ourselves behind the group of boys the second we heard that horrible man's voice.

Tsuna immediately began stuttering an explanation and an apology while Gokudera looked pissed and Yamamoto laughed. Me? I was pissed. This bastard just couldn't leave us alone.

"I'm in a bad mood," he said, pulling out his tonfas. "I'm going to bite you all to death." That was it. I'd had it. I marched up to him already yelling my lungs off.

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!?! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE US ALONE!! WE HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO YOU! DAMNIT! CAN'T YOU GO TWO DAYS WITHOUT MAKING AN ATTEMPT TO KILL US!?" I could already tell that I was going to regret this. To my surprise, he didn't attack, even after I had stopped right in front of him. Maybe he was shocked I'd had the nerve to yell at him… I paused, taking a moment to glare at him.

Then, before realizing it, I had kicked him in the shin so hard he bled. He didn't double over in pain or cry out like I had wanted him to. He did, however, tilt his head down a bit to examine the small trickle of blood, a small frown, hardly appropriate, on his face. That was all I needed. I swung my hand up and punched down; hitting his head with so much force I felt my hand might break. It would have sent a normal person straight into a face plant, (I had an unexpected strength when I was upset) but he only stumbled forward a bit.

I quickly stomped back to the boys, who were gaping at me. It was almost certain they had concluded that I was indeed crazy. Tsuna had fear in his eyes as I approached them.

"Err… Nekko-chan, do you know Hibari-san?" he asked timidly, then flinched as my hand struck out, apparently believing I was about to hit him. Instead I grabbed Nikko's already outstretched hand. We were going to have to hide from Hibari for a while, and he knew it. We started towards the stairs without answering Tsuna's question. Right before we reached them, I called over my shoulder.

"Unfortunately."My voice was soft, my tone dead. I didn't bother wondering if they'd heard my quiet reply. As we started down the stairs, I heard a high pitched voice behind me.

"We should let her into the family."

Wow. This chappy is like ridiculously long. Maybe I should split it into 2...

Anywayz… I hope you like it. This chap was fun to write. I got a little carried away though. I know Hibari only had a short debut… and he probably wouldn't have went down as easy as that… so I'm really sorry if he seems way too ooc.

I just want to thank my dear Tsukeshi for helping come up with Nekko's name. Nikko is all mine… but that just proves my uncreativity…

R&R. I mean it. Even if you hate it… review to tell me it sucks Asian pants.(don't tell L&L I said that.) If you have no feelings towards it… Review to tell me it's boring. If you love it… well no one loves it… no need to instruct for that… R&R please. Thank you! xD

P.S. I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any of the characters. I only own Nekko and Nikko.(Go ahead and make fun of my creativity)