Disclaimer: Do I need to put one of these in each chapter? If so: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters. I tried to think of something funny and sarcastic to put here, but I couldn't think of anything :P
About this chapter: This time, I swear, they will meet! I've even planned it out and everything, which is pretty big for me! Please review, I've only gotten one review for this story :'(
XDXDXDXD
I stare at the page of the book, the first chapter of which we're supposed to be reading for school. It's Friday night, and I got home four hours ago from my first day of school. Why Karakura high school started on a Friday, I do not know, all I know is that I'm on my last homework assignment for the weekend and have nothing planned for my two free days. I look up and blink a few times; I'd been staring at the page so intensely while spacing out that I'd completely blocked out the color of my room. The hot pink shocks my eyes and almost makes my head hurt. I blink a few more times for good measure and look back down at the page, then hear a knock at the door.
I get up and open the door and see Hisana standing there, smiling and holding up some money in front of her.
"How about you go do your Onee-san a favor, little sis?" She asks, practically shoving the money into my hands.
"What would that favor be?" I ask, suspicious.
"Nothing much. I just want you to run over to that book store a couple blocks away and grab me a book." She says, smiling as if there's no way I'll say no.
"Why can't you go get it?" I say, though I'm already getting prepared to leave by pulling out some better clothes than the school uniform I forgot to take off.
"I am busy with work, silly." She says, poking my nose.
"If you're so busy with work then how did you start thinking about books?" I ask, pulling on a yellow and red striped hoodie, and then a pair of light jeans.
"Because, my boss asked me to read a book for him and then tell him what it's about because his boss told him to read it but he doesn't have enough time. Then, I was sitting there, reading," She starts, talking like she's telling the most interesting story that could ever be told. "And I thought about how BORING that book is, and I thought how much I'd love to read a different book, and then I thought about how busy I am, and about how much time you have, and, well, you put together the puzzle pieces." She concludes, ending in an and-there-you-have-it type of tone.
"Fine. What book do you want?" I ask, heading down the stairs with Hisana following me.
"Hm," She says, hugging Byakuya, who happened to be going up the stairs while we were going down them. "Maybe the third book in that series I'm reading." She says without further explanation, but it isn't needed; I know what she's talking about.
"Well, I'll see you." I say, walking out the door and locking it behind me. The bookstore is a couple of blocks away, and I only have about an hour or so before it closes, so I'll need to hurry. I start walking in the direction of the bookstore, not really thinking about anything in particular.
I get to the bookstore right when it starts to sprinkle. I rush in and look around. It's about half an hour before closing, and there's practically no one there, only a few scattered people.
"How are you?" Asks the person working behind the counter.
"Good, thanks." I say then start looking around for the book Hisana wants.
I find the section it's in pretty quickly. I head into the section and start looking around. There's someone standing next to me, but I don't look up to see who it is, I'm too busy trying to find Onee-san's book. I look until I find it, wedged tightly between two other books, only one copy left. I reach out to grab it, but the hand of the person standing next to me gets there first. We both take our hands back and look at each other.
"You're... Rukia?" He asks, and I nod. It's the boy, Ichigo, with the orange hair I'd seen with Renji after school. The scowl he'd had earlier is replaced now by a look of shock, and I notice the color of his eyes—he was too far away to tell earlier. They're beautiful light brown.
"Uh." I say, sort of blushing, though I don't know why. "How do you know my name?" I ask.
"Your sister yelled it after you today, remember?" He says, and I nod, surprised that he remembers .
"Yeah." I say, looking at the floor, blushing even harder. "And you're Ichigo." I say, looking back up at him.
He nods. "Kurosaki Ichigo. Good to meet you." He says, an air of gruffness coming off him, his earlier scowl plastered back on his face.
"Kuchiki Rukia. Nice to meet you, too." I say, taking his hand and shaking it briefly.
"So." He says after we stand there for a moment of awkward silence. "Since we go to the same high school, I suppose we could both pay half for the book, and then you can take it home and give it to me when you're finished." I think about this, and then think about how the book's for Hisana, the slowest reader in the world.
I shake my head. "Naw, you can take it first." I say. "It's for my older sister, and she reads really slowly, so you might want to read it first and then give it to me."
"Okay." He says, and takes the book off the shelf. "So, why did you come to get the book for your sister instead of her coming to get it herself?" He asks as we walk up to the cashier, both pulling out half the price of the book.
"Well, she said she was busy, but really it's because she's too lazy to get into her car and drive out here." I answer, taking the receipt.
"You're pretty stupid." He says.
"Did you just call me stupid?" I say, raising my voice indignantly.
"Why yes, I did." He says, raising his voice, too. We walk out of the bookstore after receiving a few angry glares, and then we continue our argument.
"Why in the world did you call me stupid?" I ask, glaring at him.
"Well, it's stupid that you went out to get a book for your sister when she could've gone herself." He says. For some reason, I'm not really mad about him calling me stupid, I'm just reacting this way because it's sort of fun arguing with him.
"Well." I say, turning my back on him and walking back home. "Don't forget that I paid for half of that book. I'll beat the book out of you if I have to."
"Aw, that's not nice." He says, catching up to me and stepping in time with me towards my home. I look at him and see he's wearing a small smile. I smile, too, and speed up.
"Why are you following me?" I ask, wanting to give him a hard time. "Stalker." I say.
"It's polite to walk a girl home." He says. "Though, obviously you know nothing of manners, so I'm not surprised that you're puzzled by my actions." He says, teasing me. I just look up at him and stick my tongue out.
We walk on, getting close to my neighborhood, not saying anything more until I think of something he said earlier and bring it up.
"Hey, earlier you said you know my name's Rukia because my sister called me that." I say, and he nods. "But, how did you know she's my sister?"
"Well, you two look almost exactly the same." He says. "Except she seems taller, shorty."
I ignore his comment on my height and continue to question him. "She could've been my mom." I say.
"No, she's too young. She would've had to be like, twelve when she had you for her to be your mom." He says, and I nod. We arrive in front of my house and stop.
"Well, thanks for walking me home." I say, turning to go inside.
"See ya." He says, and he walks away.
XDXDXDXD
My weekend passes with absolutely nothing interesting happening. The only thing worth mentioning is Hisana complaining about not having her book. Soon, I find myself at school, sitting at my desk before school starts and waiting for the bell to ring.
"Shorty!" I hear someone call. I have a bad feeling it's me being called, so I turn in the direction of the voice. I see Ichigo near the doorway, walking towards me.
"What do you want?" I ask, suppressing a smile. He dumps the book we bought on my desk and sits on top of the desk next to mine.
"You're done already?" I ask. It's a long book, and he doesn't seem like the type to read a lot, so I can't imagine him reading it over the weekend.
"No." He says. "It was for my sister, Yuzu, but it was the wrong book in the series. She needed book two, apparently."
"You're pretty stupid." I say, turning to the window so that he can't see the smile I can't force down.
"Aha," He says. "Very funny. I said it was worthless for you to go get the book for your sister because she could've gone herself. Yuzu was sick, so she couldn't have gone to get it. It's not stupid if you're doing it for someone sick." He explains, and I look back over at him.
"Stupid." I repeat, and he growls.
"I was going to ask you if you'd like to meet some of my friends, as obviously you're totally incapable of making friends on your own, but now I don't think I will." He says, standing up.
"Why? Afraid I'll steal them all from you?" I ask. He stops and turns around, then motions for me to follow. I look at the clock and see that we have ten minutes before class starts, so I follow him out of the classroom and into the hallway. He keeps on walking and goes farther and farther into the school until he gets to the stairs up to the roof.
"Where are we going?" I ask at last.
"Where does it look like we're going?" He asks, opening the door and walking up the stairs. I hesitate, but then my curiosity gets the best of me—I'm curious as to what kind of people Ichigo hangs out with—and I head up the stairs. When up there, I walk over to the big group of people Ichigo's standing by, and my jaw drops. In the very front of this group stands Renji, a scowl on his face as Ichigo introduces me as his new friend.
I'm thinking of making the chapters longer, but if I do that I won't be able to update as often as I want, and the story won't have as many chapters. I can't decide. If you want to give your opinion, review, and if you don't, then, well, don't review XD Thanks to the people who've added this to their list of favorite stories, it makes me happy to know people like what I write! Sorry that this chapter isn't as long as the other two, I tried to make it the longest, but it came out this length, so…