Chapter 7

"Hey," Rin started, her voice harsh and cold.

She was currently standing in front of IA's desk, after having been pestered by Luka ever since she arrived to apologize to the pink-haired girl for what happened on Friday. IA looked up at her with a plain expression, either not noticing the tone of Rin's voice or simply not caring. Both of which ticked Rin off.

"Listen, you're annoying as all hell, but I'm sorry," Rin said quickly, just wanting to get this dumb thing over with.

"Apology accepted," IA replied before returning to doing her work.

Rin stared down at her, more than a little dumbfounded. Seriously, who was this girl? With an irritated sigh, Rin went back to her desk and plopped down rather ungracefully into the seat. She didn't even care at this point, she just wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. She felt like she was going to lose her mind if she spent one more second next to that girl.

"For the new unit we're starting this week, I decided to have all of you do a project on something of your choice, as long as it relates to the subject," Luka started. Then, she picked up a piece of paper and waved it around a bit in the air. "I've already put together a list of who will be partnered with who, so no, you don't get to choose your group."

A collective groan of complaint arose from the class. Luka didn't seem to pay any attention to it and simply went on by reading out the names of the groups on the list.

"...Group nine will be Rin Kagamine and IA..."

Rin froze as a wave of dread and exasperation overcame her, before she groaned and laid her head on the desk.

"You've got to be kidding me," she growled under her breath, moving her head ever so slightly to send IA a death glare.

Of course, the pink-haired girl didn't even notice. Rin groaned again and turned her head back to the way it was, only able to stare at the wooden surface of her desk. God, why do you hate me? Rin thought to herself as she closed her eyes and frowned. Am I a bad person? Did I do something horrible in a past life? Did I kill your dog? I just don't get it... Luka remembered what happened only a few days ago between them, Rin knew she did because she had forced the blonde-haired girl to apologize just a few minutes ago, so why did she think it was a good idea to put the two of them together? Either her teacher was absolutely crazy or just plain dumb.

"Now, I'd like for all of you to get with your partners and start brainstorming ideas for your project. Remember, it has to somehow relate to forms of expression," Luka stated.

Unlike the other students, Rin didn't move an inch from her seat. Though, it wasn't like that really did anything. It just meant that IA came to her instead. IA sat down at the desk beside her, instead of the usual one desk-space apart distance, but Rin didn't even bother looking at her. In fact, she figured it'd be best if she just ignored IA all together.

"You don't look very happy," IA commented plainly.

Rin snorted. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious."

Well, looks like she didn't get very far with the whole "ignoring" thing.

IA rested her chin on her propped up hand and looked at Rin curiously. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I just don't like having food shoved down my throat," Rin replied, her voice dripping with both curtness and sarcasm.

"Even before that you seemed to act like you hated me. The very first time I talked to you, you called me an idiot, remember?" IA pointed out.

"Whatever," Rin muttered, not wanting to continue the conversation.

IA was proving that she was absolutely horrible at reading moods (that or maybe she still didn't care that she was annoying Rin so much). "I think you just have a problem with people."

"I think you just have a problem with your face."

"That was a really dumb comeback."

"Shut up!"

IA sighed, as if she were the exasperated one. "There you go again... We'll never get anything done if you can't at least cooperate with me."

"Hey, it's not like I'm the only problem here! You're also at fault too!" Rin retorted angrily.

"What have I done?" IA tilted her head, showing a hint of puzzlement in her face, the first emotion Rin had really seen her express ever since they first met.

"You annoy me," Rin replied bluntly.

"I'm starting to think everything annoys you," IA stated.

"That's not true at all! I just really do hate you!" Rin exclaimed, feeling her temper rise again.

IA hummed thoughtfully before rummaging around in her bag a bit and pulling out a pencil and a piece of notebook paper. "Here." She said simply as she set the two objects in front of Rin.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" Rin asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly at the pink-haired girl.

"Write something, anything. If we can't communicate properly by talking, maybe writing everything down will work," IA answered as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

Rin sent her a thoroughly confused look before writing "You are literally the weirdest person I have ever met" in big letters all across the paper. She then picked up the piece of notebook paper and shoved it in IA's face, not even caring that it was too close for her classmate to read. IA took the piece of paper in her hands, read over it quickly, then looked back up at Rin. For some reason, she looked slightly pleased.

"What? What's with that look on your face?" Rin asked, feeling more than a little weirded out.

"Nothing, it's just that I was right," IA replied.

"Huh?" Rin was, once again, puzzled.

"You're not as harsh when you write things down. Quieter, too," IA continued.

Rin glared daggers at her. "I hate you."

A/N: Okay, I was going to post this last night but for some reason wouldn't let me sign in, so I had to wait until it fixed itself today. Sorry about that :/ (To make up for this late update, I might post another chapter early since it's a 3 day weekend for me right now.) On another note, I'm beginning to really love the Rin & IA duo. They're so much fun to write, and the way IA handles Rin even makes me laugh sometimes. I hope you all are having as much fun reading about them as I have writing it. As always, please let me know what you think about things, and:

Have a wonderful day/night/whatever~