Hello! I'm back again with another new chapter! Pls enjoy.
Thoughts
Chapter 11: Thursday, I'll always protect you
My life is now horrible. Those three girls are really making fun of me every single minute. They sabotage my study materials, make me trip over at every single area we meet and they even threw my bag into the fountain. Those three girls were the presidents of the 'Prince Fan Club', Fujimoto Yumiko, Morimoto Naomi and Hiiragi Midori. They made it very clear on the boundary I should have with Ichigo, Hitsugaya and Kuchiki sensei. One wrong move, and I get a lesson from them in many different ways.
The only one who I could turn to was Kasandora. She agreed to keep this a secret from them and helped me out in my times of need. It became harder and harder for me to keep this from my friends. I've been avoiding them for at least a week. Before I knew it, I became more distant from them.
At the Household
I was packing up my things for school and found a very visible bruise on my wrist. It was from when Hiiragi when she twisted it yesterday. I tried to cover up with my sleeve when someone knocked on my door.
"Oi Haruno! Are you done? We're going to be late." Hitsugaya asked from the other side.
"Yeah, I just finished." I replied as I grabbed my remaining things and left the room. "Where's Ichigo?"
"He had to leave early. Something came up at the basketball group and they needed everyone there." Hitsugaya answered. Since that day, I've been trying to distance myself from the boys. So that the guilt of lying to them won't hurt me that much. But I knew that they know that something was up thanks to my unusual acts. Before I knew it, something tightly grabbed my wrist.
"Where did you get this?" Hitsugaya asked sternly as he stared at the bruise that I tried to cover up.
"It's nothing." I replied quickly as I tried to pull my wrist back, but Hitsugaya remained his tight grip on it.
"This is something! It's huge. Who did this to you?" Hitsugaya asked again, even more stern this time.
"I said this is none of your business!" I cried out.
"THIS IS MY BUSINESS!" Hitsugaya exclaimed with the loudest voice I've ever heard. I was shocked by his sudden loud voice. He looked at me deep into my eyes, with his scary teal eyes, hoping that'll I'll answer through fear. I've never seen Hitsugaya this angry. I couldn't help but tremble. Hitsugaya sensed it and slowly let go of my wrist.
"Forget it. Let's get going or else we'll be late." He said silently as he continued to walk towards school. I just gave a slight nod but I knew he couldn't see it. I'm sorry Hitsugaya.
In class
I was trying to remove all the pieces of paper which were filled with rubbish words off from my notebook when I sensed someone coming towards me and I hid the notebook.
""Ichigo?" I looked up and saw the cheerful orange hair boy looking down at me with a smile.
"Hey are you free next weekend Kurara?" he asked cheerfully.
"Yeah why? Do you need more help for literature?" I asked back, silently wishing that this conversation would end soon.
""Not really. It's just that…" then I saw Ichigo blushing a bit while nervously scratching the back of his head. "Well, there's a tournament coming up for the basketball team and I was wondering whether you want to come to watch it." He asked. Woah! It's like he's asking me on a date! I was about to agree to it but I flinched. As I turned around, I saw three pairs of eyes glaring at me from outside. It was them.
"I'm sorry Ichigo. I can't, excuse me!" I replied and quickly left the room, leaving a worried Ichigo behind. I'm so sorry Ichigo. Man do I really hate myself!
"Good job Nitwit!" a familiar voice said, one of which I did not want to hear. "Looks like you finally got it into your head on the boundary between you and the princes. Keep up the good work, or else…Well you'll find out." Hiiragi spat before she and her friends left, cackling down the hall. Man, I don't think I can handle this anymore. Should I tell the others? But I don't want to keep depending on them. They already did so much for me. I don't want them to get into trouble. While I was in a bind trying to figure out a good solution, I never noticed that someone was watching me with worried eyes.
When I got back to class, I found that something sticking out from my book. Wanting to ignore thinking that it was another harsh note, I saw a small smiley face drawn on it. Knowing that it wasn't from the Devil Trio, I took it out and read it.
"Kurara, come out to the roof. There's a surprise waiting for you there!" It was signed by no one, but the happy drawings around it told me that this was going to be a good surprise. It's a good change from all those skulls and daggers I keep seeing every day. Once I got there, I slowly opened the door, only to have streamers falling towards me.
"Gah! What the!" Once I got the colorful streamers off my face, I met a very happy scene. All my friends, Rangiku, Rukia and even the three princes were all there with smiles on their faces.
"Kurara! So? Were you surprised or what?!" Rangiku cheerfully asks me as she grabbed both my hands in excitement.
"Yeah! I'm still kind of in the surprise state. What is all of this?" As I looked around, I saw picnic baskets and bottles of drinks lying in the middle of the roof.
"You've been really down in the dumps and everyone was worried. So we decided to host an all-together picnic so that you can relax and have fun!" Ayame from my Home Ec group said cheerfully. "It was actually Kasandora's idea." Kasandora?! I turned and saw her giving me a small smile.
"See! We even got Hitsugaya and my big brother to participate!" Rukia said, pointing to them.
"I only did it since Rukia asked me to." Kuchiki sensei covered up, using his brother tone.
"I was dragged into this by Ichigo so I had no choice." Hitsugaya simply said.
"Hey! Don't use me as an excuse!" Ichigo complained and the two started bickering again. I couldn't help but laugh at the two.
"So you finally smiled." Huh? Startled, I looked and saw Hitsugaya smirking at me.
"Finally! I thought I'll never see that smile again." Ichigo commented.
"That smile of yours suits you better than those frowns you wore back then. You should continue smiling." Kuchiki sensei continued. Hitsugaya, Ichigo, Kuchiki sensei…
Then I realized, after all those days of avoiding them, I lost what really was important to me. Happiness. I lost touch of that emotion and dragged myself into a sullen state of mind. I'm truly grateful for these guys. Even when I was constantly ignoring them, they still stayed by my side, even thought of ways to make me feels better. That moment, I totally forgot about the consequences.
Hallway
I never felt this happy for a long time. Maybe I should do something to…
My trail of thought's was lost when someone grabbed my wrists and locked them on to my back and covered my mouth with such strength.
"Looks like we meet again…Ready for another lesson?" an evil voice said. One which I wished I could forget.
Classroom
"Sorry for calling you here at this time Kurosaki. I just had to tell you now."
"No worries Kasandora. But what is it that you want to talk about?" Ichigo asked.
"It's something important, and it has to do with Kurara." Ichigo flinched at the sound of her name and suddenly looked at Kasandora seriously.
"Go on."
Bathroom
BANG!
I was pushed hard against the wall by the two girls and Hiiragi stood before me with the most evil look I've ever seen.
"I thought I made it clear on where you stand. You're quite stubborn for a scholar." Hiiragi spat as I tried to break loose from her friends' hold. It seems like they saw me at the picnic with the princes and as you can tell, not very happy.
"You got it wrong! My friends were just throwing a party for me. The princes are just my friends!" I cried out.
"I don't care whether your friends with them or not! The fact that you are so close to them irks me! It's disgusting to see someone like you be so close to them!" Hiiragi spat and drew closer to me. "Now I'm going to give you the lesson which you'll never forget. Hey dimwit, do you know boys hate girls with short hair?" she snickered as she pulled out a pair of razor sharp scissors.
"You…You can't be serious?!" I cried out as I struggled even harder to get out.
"This will teach you your place here!" Then the scissors came closer and I closed my eyes, not daring to see what's going to happen to me.
Except, nothing did happen. I felt no impact.
"Hit…Hitsugaya-sama?!" What?! I opened my eyes and saw that Hitsugaya was really there in front of me. He protected me by grabbing hold of the scissors. The girls were so shocked and backed away from us.
"I think it's you lot who should know your place." Hitsugaya said emotionlessly and dropped the scissors. Then I noticed a tinge of red on the blades.
"Hitsugaya! Your hand! It's bleeding!" I shouted as I saw blood trickle down slowly from Hitsugaya's palm.
"It's ok, I'll take care of it later. More importantly…" he then placed his clean palm on my cheek. "…are you alright?" he asked with those sincere eyes. All I could do was nod.
"Kurara!" I heard Ichigo exclaim and he slammed the door open. "Are you ok Kurara?! What the heck happened to you Toshiro?!" Ichigo asked as he looked at me and Hitsugaya.
"It's Hitsugaya to you. And yes we're both fine." Hitsugaya replied.
"I…Ichigo-sama?!" Hiiragi stammered.
"You know, those who pick on the weak, really annoy me." Ichigo said in a dark tone. "Also, those who hurt my friends are not allowed to call me by my name." I've never seen Ichigo using this kind of tone.
"Why…Why are you guys with her?! What does she have that we don't?!" Hiiragi exclaimed.
"Easy, she doesn't let her emotions overrule her." Kuchiki sensei who came out of nowhere said. "I believe it's time that I have a straight talk with you three, in the principal's office." The three girls flinched and stared at the ground. "Haruno, Kurosaki. Take Hitsugaya to the infirmary and bandage that hand."
"Got it. Come on let's go." Ichigo said as we walked out of the room. As I passed Hiiragi, I could hear her cursing me. But this I hope, will be the last time.
Infirmary
"OW! Damn it Kurosaki! Be a little gentler will ya?!" Hitsugaya complained as Ichigo cleaned the wound.
"I would if you wouldn't move so much!" Ichigo said back. These guys never change huh. Then the door slid open, revealing Kuchiki sensei.
"Kuchiki sensei. So what's gonna happen to those three?" Hitsugaya asked.
"Well, if their parents can make a good reason why they did it, they will be expelled from the school. After all, bullying and hurting an innocent is what I call major offences." Kuchiki sensei answered.
"Hey Kurara, you can bandage it now." Ichigo told me. When I saw Hitsugaya's wound, I was appalled. I did this. I caused this to happen.
"I'm sorry." I started to cry and held on to Hitsugaya's hand as if my life depended on it. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault! I wanted to protect you guys but I ended up getting yourselves hurt. I'm the worse aren't I?" my tears continued to flow down and I continued to hold on to Hitsugaya's hand. Then I felt something big and warm pat my head.
"It's not your fault Kurara. You were in a difficult position then so we don't blame you for not telling us." Ichigo reassured.
"And you did it for what you thought was a good cause. We can't blame you for that either." Kuchiki sensei continued.
"Listen Kurara. You don't have to hide things from us. After all we're family right." Hitsugaya said. Family… "Just think of us as your older brothers for the time being, and as your older brothers…"
"We'll always protect you." The three of them said at the same time. They'll always protect me… I couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks you guys!" I smiled at them with the brightest smile I ever wore during the past few days.
That's it. I won't be updating for a while since exams are coming up. So pls be patient for updates. Thank you for your support and continue reviewing my fanfic.