Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or the characters

After earthquakes, hurricanes, school work, another impending hurricane, labs, research, and now a lost tape recorder (which was hiding in some strange hidden pocket in my purse), I feel like typing something. Lol, hope you enjoy more drama.

"Hey, Kara, how was your weekend?" Jen asked early Monday morning.

"Huh?" Kara asked obviously shocked by Jen's appearance. "Oh, it was okay."

"Okay?" Jen asked. "Just okay? Didn't you go out with Jesse? How did that go? I want details."

"There are none," Kara said. "I cancelled."

"Why?" Jen asked nonchalantly although she had an idea as to why.

Kara muttered quietly, "I didn't want to hurt him more."

"What was that? You were mumbling."

"I said that 'I didn't want to hurt him more,'" Kara said a little louder.

"And by him you mean Kuronue, right?" Jen asked. Kara gave a quick nod. "So, you finally admit you like him, huh? What changed?"

Kara looked back at Jen sadly and said, "Nothing changed."

Kuronue barely paid any attention in his business class. He was too busy thinking about his conversation with Kurama the night before. At least he finally admitted to someone why he was afraid to pursue Kara. He cared about her and didn't want her to get hurt. Who could fault him for that?

"Kuronue," the teacher snapped after trying to gain Kuronue's attention. He looked up front with a blank expression. "Can you please pay attention? I'm only going to go through this once." Kuronue nodded and the teacher noticed that he looked depressed about something; however, it wasn't her business. But then again, Kuronue was a very promising student. Maybe she shouldn't look the other way on whatever was going on.

When class was over Kuronue moved fairly slow to get packed up. His teacher came over to his desk and sat in the one next to it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"About what?" he murmured.

"Whatever is bothering you. Don't think I don't see it."

Kuronue sighed. He knew she wouldn't leave him alone. But he didn't want to tell her anything either. "I just didn't get enough sleep last night. I had some family friends visit and they didn't leave until late."

"Did something happen to anyone in your family?" Kuronue shook his head. "Then why do you seem so down?"

"I'm not," he lied. He got up to leave the room. Yes, she would definitely have to watch this one closely. If he got any worse, she would probably report him to the school counselor.

Kara was packing up her things after her ichthyology class going over the topics they covered that day in her mind. As she was about to leave, Jesse showed up.

"I know you cancelled on me and I understand, but do you think we can at least study together for the test next week?" he asked.

Kara felt a little uneasy. She thought he would be mad after she cancelled, but maybe he wasn't like that. "I would prefer to study by myself," she finally answered. "I'm sorry."

Jesse gave her a slight smile. "That's okay," he said. Kara started walking to the door before she heard him say, "Have fun with the gangster."

Kara froze. She was certain that only she and Kurama knew about Kuronue's father. How did Jesse find out?

"So how was class?" Kurama asked Kara at lunch.

"Class was fine; after, not so much," she replied.

Kurama frowned. "What happened?"

"Jesse asked if we could study together; I said 'no;' and then he said 'have fun with the gangster.'" Kurama tensed when he heard her.

"How did he find out?" he asked.

"I don't know," Kara stated, "but it's not fair. When I asked him about it, he blackmailed me."

"With what?" Kurama asked. He was now growing concerned.

"It's nothing," Kara said. Then she whispered quietly so much that it didn't sound like words, "He wants me to 'help' him on the exam in exchange for his silence."

Kurama heard her and was now even more furious at the guy. He needed to talk to Jen; and then he needed to talk to Kuronue.

"He asked her to what?" Jen shouted. "That jerk!"

"Yes, and now Kara might be in more trouble because of it."

"You don't think Kara would actually go through with it, do you?" Jen asked. "She could get into a lot of trouble."

"The secret he's blackmailing her with is not her own," Kurama explained. "It's Kuronue's."

Jen looked at Kurama with wide-eyes and frowned. She had known Jesse since she had started here and, to her knowledge, he had never done something like this.

"I'll talk to him," Jen said. Before Kurama could object, she was gone.

"He wants her to do what?" Kuronue asked quietly.

"I'm not going through it with you again," Kurama said. "You need to talk to her."

"I know," Kuronue replied. There was no way he was going to let Kara ruin her chances there because of him. "Do you know where she is?"

Kurama shook his head. "She said she wanted to go for a walk to think. I tried to go with her but she kept telling me to leave her alone."

Kara didn't return to the dorm until hours later and found Kuronue sitting in her room.

"You know, you really need to start checking on if you locked the door or not," he teased. She smiled in return.

"Hey," she said ignoring his remark.

"Hey," he answered back. There were a few minutes of silence as Kara began to unpack her backpack. "You can't do what he's asking you to."

Kara stopped and looked over to him. "But he knows-"

"He knows what? That my father's a gangster; that I have people checking in on me all the time? I don't care if people find out."

"But then you'll be unfairly judged…again," Kara responded.

"Not by you," he whispered. She heard him. "Not by you or Kurama," he said louder. "That's all that matters to me. But you can't risk your future here by cheating. It would be a terrible loss for the, uh, university."

"I understand," Kara said knowing it was his way of saying that he didn't want to be away from her again. "Don't worry about it. I won't put myself at risk. However, I might let the teacher know about the threat. I'm sure he'll know of a good way to get me away from Jesse. My teacher and I get along great, so I'm sure he'd help."

Kuronue smiled. What teacher wouldn't like her? She was smart and studied extremely hard. "Okay," he replied before getting up to leave.

To his surprise, Kara stopped him. "Wanna go get something to eat?" she asked. "I haven't eaten yet."

Part of him wanted to turn down the invite, or at least not read too much into it; but the other part of him didn't care. He had missed her during that week of self-seclusion. "Yeah, that sounds good," he answered. "I'll drive."

A/N: Okay, I lied...not TOO much drama in here. First of all, yay for teachers. I have to admit that I love all of mine this semester, especially my Ichthyology and Invertebrate Zoology professor. They are some interesting people. Anyway, I just think we should all appreciate teachers because they do a lot for us students that we don't really know. For example, the business teacher in here can apparently tell when her students need help and trust me, in a few chapters Kuronue is going to need a lot of help.

As for Jen, she's going to try her best to get Jesse to keep the secret, whatever it is (since she doesn't know). Just wait until you see how that blows over.

Anyway, time to study more. Peace out XD