This chapter is really short but they get longer after this. Also Usagi gets a bigger role because. Hi, my name is Antigone2 you may know me from such fics as, well, Everything Else I Wrote starring Tsukino Usagi no 1 role.

Chapter 2: Ami

It has to start with Ami.

Rei ran that thought in her head like a mantra as she ate breakfast, having woken up with that sentence on the tip of her tongue with no determinable reason why. She decided she'd have to consult the fire later that evening to see what - if anything- was causing the strange feelings she'd been having. Sighing, she flipped the page of the local daily paper and froze at a headline on the middle of page.

MIZUNO AMI YOUNGEST WINNER OF NATIONAL EDUCATION GRANT

The rest of the article didn't have any useful information on the girl herself, but Rei still folded it up and put in her schoolbag. If there was some cosmic reason the gods wanted her to find someone named Ami, the chances were pretty good they meant the smartest girl in the area. Right?

"Not that this whole thing isn't stupid," she muttered to herself as she left the shrine and headed toward her school, "and probably nothing."

"Juuban Public Middle School?" Rei frowned at the students streaming from the gates. She recognized the uniform. Of course she did, after all, she lived in Juuban Ward, this was the local school uniform, there is no reason she shouldn't feel a jolt at the blue and white sailor-suits the girls wore all around her. "Get a grip, Hino," she chided herself.

Just then, the same pig-tailed girl from yesterday - Usagi- exited the school, walking slowly and alone this time. She passed Rei without a glance and Rei saw the charm she had bought yesterday hanging off her school bag. Rei followed Usagi with her eyes until she noticed the small black cat meet Usagi at the school gates. Usagi knelt and ran her hand over the cat's head affectionately. Suddenly Usagi looked up and Rei turned her head toward the school again.

"Focus," she said to herself. When she glanced back, almost involuntarily, Usagi was gone.

Technically people weren't supposed to walk right into a school they didn't attend and march through the halls like they owned the place.

But people weren't Hino Rei.

She found Ami gathering her things by the 8th grade lockers, shoes in hand.

"Mizuno Ami?" Rei asked, and introduced herself. Ami returned the greeting in kind, eying Rei's pressed TA Academy uniform with apprehension.

"Thank you very much for your interest in me," Ami said, right after introductions were over, "but I believe I've told your school representative that I'm quite happy here at Juuban."

"My scho-" Rei blinked and looked down at herself and then back up at Ami. "Oh," she said quickly, "Well. I thought maybe we could chat a little and maybe you'd change your mind?"

Ami slipped on her shoes and shrugged her school satchel over one shoulder. "I don't think so. Excuse me."

Rei followed Ami out of the school and to the main gates of the property.

"C'mon let's just," Rei thought fast, how did one usually start up a conversation? And why did she suddenly, desperately, not want Ami to walk away from her? She was at a loss.

"Perhaps if you just let me buy you tea," Rei found herself blurting out.

Ami turned and looked at Rei for a long moment. "Um," Ami took a step back, "I appreciate the invitation but... no thank you."

"I'm not a representative for TA! I just go there!" Rei called, running a few steps to catch up with Ami.

Ami turned and looked at Rei with a strange expression in her blue eyes.

"I- I, um, I work at Hikawa Shrine! Actually, I live there. With my grandfather? So if you ever need to come wish or buy a charm- please, um, come see me! Okay? Anytime!" Rei's mouth seemed to working without her mind's permission. What are you doing?! she screamed at herself internally.

Ami, for her part, just smiled, nodded and hurriedly walked away.

Rei watched her go and resisted the urge to stamp her foot on the ground like a child.

Finally, she turned to head home and started as she noticed the black cat again, perched on a nearby wall and watching her with intense feline eyes.

toldya it was short.