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Study Groups

Momoi preferred studying in a group. She found it less stressful, and actually rather enjoyable as compared to studying alone. She understood more when everyone discussed what they knew together, and she learned much more easily. This way, studying didn't seem to be as tedious as it really was and Momoi liked that.

That until she was with a couple of basketball idiots, who, ever so often interrupted her in the middle of memorization, or distracted her from reading. To put simply, there wasn't exactly any 'studying' going on for Momoi. She was already dreading the results of the exams, and she hadn't even taken them yet!

"Oi, Satsuki! Explain to me this part again!"

Momoi was in the middle of concentrating intently on solving an equation, when Aomine's gruff demand shattered all her train of thought. She resisted the urge to break her pencil in two, and instead took a long breath and calmly faced Aomine.

"Aomine-kun..." She began, tearing off a piece of paper from her notebook and went over the procedure of simplifying negative exponents to him…again. It was the nth time that hour! "I told you, you have to use this formula to get the answer to this number..." She explained, going in further detail as she wrote numbers and symbols on the piece of paper. "I've taught you this several times. Don't you get it?"

Aomine stared at her blankly, as if processing what she had just said, before belatedly replying, "But it's too complicated!"

"It's not! If you put your mind to it, I know you can—"

Momoi was cut off when she felt a poke on her knuckles. She looked up to see that Kise was already batting his eyelashes at her as he presented her with a history book.

"Please, Momoicchi..." Kise trailed off. And with just that short phrase, Momoi already knew that Kise meant 'Please help me go over through this one, too...'

"Again, Ki-chan? I've already helped you out on the previous ones. Can't you do this by yourself?" Momoi reasoned, but Kise was staring at her with those pleading look in his eyes, matched with a full-on put. Who would honestly be able to resist that? "Fine... But this will be the last time, okay? Just read it thoroughly, and I'm sure you'll be able to understand it."

Kise nodded happily. "Yes! Thank you, Momoicchi!"

"Hey! Wait a second!" Aomine said suddenly. "Satsuki, we're not done!"

Before Momoi could say anything, Kise took it upon himself to reply in her stead—which wasn't exactly the smartest thing he could have done. "She'll get back to you later on."

"Hah?" Aomine quirked an eyebrow. "Keep out of this, Kise! She was teaching me first!"

"And now she's teaching me!" Kise insisted like a persistent child.

"Don't go on making decisions by yourself!"

But the funny thing was, they both were deciding for themselves. Not even letting Momoi get her say in it.

"Calm down, you two. We're in the library..." Momoi said, in hopes of getting them to settle down. But to her dismay, neither of them even spared her a glance.

(It was a relief that they were the only students inside the place during that afternoon, plus the fact that the librarian had a little hearing problem. Otherwise, they would have been kicked out long ago.)

Momoi groaned in frustration. "What am I going to do with you?"

Just then, she heard a familiar drawl from across the table. "Sa-chin..." It was Murasakibara, and he was looking rather agonized in his seat. "...Help..." He had on a droopy expression (droopier than usual) as he sprawled his upper body over the table, the length of his arms easily closing the distance between him and Momoi as he held open a book in front of her. "...This part..."

"Muk-kun, not you, too..."

Murasakibara's forehead met with the table.

Momoi was left with no choice.

Suddenly, a loud "NO!" burst out. Momoi could have only guessed that it was Aomine and Kise. When she looked back at the two, they were both staring at Murasakibara with a sort of threatening look in their eyes. "We asked her first!" They said in unison.

"Oh? But you two were busy arguing..." Murasakibara replied in his usual idle slur, not bothered at all by the tension they were giving off.

"That's not the point!"

"Momoicchi!" Kise finally announced. "Help me first and I promise I won't bother you after this."

"Tch. Don't listen to him, Satsuki," Aomine interjected, advancing in front of Kise to deliberately block him. "I'm you childhood friend. It's your responsibility!"

"Sa-chin..." was Murasakibara's desperate cry.

Momoi felt herself being driven to a corner—literally by the way they were gathered and towering over her. Momoi was thinking on how she'd be able to handle the situation properly, but their voices drowned out her thoughts, especially since they were all speaking at once.

"Satsuki, did ya hear me?" came Aomine.

"Momoicchi, please consider it!" pleaded Kise

"Sa-chin..." whined Murasakibara.

As if to make matters worse, Midorima decided to join in on the commotion. "Momoi, I need your notes," he prompted. "It seems that Kuroko over here has pointed out something I was not aware of and I wanted to make sure."

"If it's not too much trouble," Kuroko added.

Oh, but it was.

It was only a matter of time until Momoi's patience withered away, and she finally snapped. "ENOUGH ALREADY!" She yelled and briskly pushed her chair back. Sure enough, this finally got their attention. "Give me a break! I'm a student too, you know? I also have to study like the rest of you!"

This left the boys speechless and gaping in their seats at the prominently flushed Momoi. "Honestly!"

With that, Momoi grabbed all her things, stuffed them in her satchel, and stormed off. Not even waiting for any sort of response from either of them. And she was actually quite proud of this, too. That would show them to be more sensitive of her feelings.

"I hope this'll knock some sense into them!" Momoi huffed as she made her way towards the library's exit.

"SHHHHHH...!" The librarian by the desk hissed.

Momoi gave a small apologetic nod. Library, right.

Just then, Akashi entered just in time to see Momoi stomping her way out. He didn't speak to her, seeing as she didn't look like she was in the mood to talk. Instead he guessed as much and went over to the table where the rest of the boys were.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves," he said, shaking his head in disappointment.

They were.

Tsk, tsk. They totally pissed her off.

I apologize for the incredible shortness (and possible inconsistency) of this chapter. I've been kind of low on motivation and creativity lately. Sighs.