I was going through my abandoned writing and found this. A complete chapter that I'd forgotten about. I thought I'd post it.

I think I'm going to rewrite this story, since it's going a bit off point.

In other news, college starts in a week. I think what I'm going to do from here is focus on one story at a time. I think that way I might actually update. So I can either focus first on rewriting this one, which is going to be really long and really angsty, or I can finish Letters to No One, which I don't think many people read, or I could go on a complete tangent and focus on my Code Geass AU story.

you to all the reviewers, and to everyone who followed/favorited this story. I hope you like this!

Two weeks later, Ryoma was used to the school, and its slightly disturbed occupants. He'd discovered that, coincidentally, he was the only person on the fourth floor who didn't play tennis, and that he and Kintarou were the only first years there. The majority of the fourth floor was occupied by third years, and two or three second years, like Momo and Kirihara.

He also discovered that his schedule made no sense whatsoever, and that he probably hadn't been thinking straight when he'd filled in his subject form. He didn't even know why he was taking psychology.

But anyway. That was beside the point.

The point was, that he was now on the ground of the school corridor, with an overly enthusiastic Kintarou sitting on top of him, and was, quite unfortunately, used to it.

"Koshimae! I told you to wait for me in the common room!"

"You were taking too long!"

"Was not. I was perfectly on time."

Ryoma sighed. "Whatever. Just ...get off."

Kintarou obliged, and the two of them began to head towards the cafeteria, wearing identical scowls on their faces.

Ryoma stared absentmindedly at the windows of the classroom as he passed by. It never failed to surprise him how bland the rooms were. There wasn't much on the walls (except, say, the periodic table, which only served to make things even duller), and everything was impeccably clean. There wasn't even any evidence that people had tried walking up the walls.

But then again, that was probably just a Seigaku thing. Or maybe just a Momoshiro thing.

His train of thought halted abruptly when he realized that one of the rooms he'd passed had been occupied, by someone who seemed suspiciously familiar.

He took a few hurried steps backward and peeked inside again. Sure enough, there was Misora-sensei, sitting at the teacher's table, and sitting before her was his roommate, Fuji Syusuke.

"Koshimae, what are you –" Ryoma shushed him quickly and held a finger to his lips. Kintarou blinked at him, and then peeked through the window himself. "It's...Fuji-senpai!" he whispered loudly, "Do you think he's in trouble?"

Ryoma shrugged. Kintarou pressed his ear against the door to eavesdrop, and after a moment, Ryoma joined him.

"-results came to me today," Misora-sensei was saying. "You ranked second in your year."

"I see," Fuji replied, voice emotionless.

Misora sighed. "Fuji, we both know you're capable of more than this."

Kintarou snorted. "He's second in his year – he beat Yukimura, and he's capable of more?" Ryoma shrugged.

"With just a little extra work you could rank first in the finals. Maybe nation-wide," Misora continued.

There was a pause. And then Fuji began to laugh. His voice echoed around the room, and Ryoma could only imagine the utter look of shock on Misora's face.

"I'm sorry, sensei," Fuji said at length. He'd stopped laughing, but he still seemed highly amused. "I'm sorry, that was very rude of me. But yes, thank you for the advice. I'll work harder next time."

Misora sighed. "I really don't know what to do with you," she said, and Ryoma could tell that she meant it. "Very well, then. You may leave."

It took Ryoma and Kintarou a moment to realize that that meant that Fuji would be opening the door, so before they could escape, the door opened and hit them both in the face.

"Spying, are we?" Fuji said mildly, as they both scrambled away to hide from Misora. He shut the door behind him and sighed. "You're lucky she didn't see you."

They were, really.

"So, shall we head to the cafeteria? We're rather late as it is," Fuji said, before starting down the corridor. Ryoma and Kintarou hastened to catch up with him.

"You laughed at her," Ryoma pointed out, rather unnecessarily.

Fuji's smile widened. "Of course I laughed at her."

And that was the end of the conversation.

"Well?" Yukimura asked, raising an eyebrow, as Fuji settled down next to him at the cafeteria. "What did she want?"

Fuji shrugged, scooping out a spoonful of his pudding."Cycle test results came out, apparently. I placed second. She wanted to tell me that I could do better."

"What did you say?"

"I laughed at her, apologized, thanked her for the advice, and promised to work harder next time."

Yukimura sighed. "We both know that not working hard wasn't the problem."

It was true. Fuji had known all the answers on his paper. He'd missed a few on purpose.

"Why do you do that, anyway?" Yukimura asked him, frowning.

Fuji sighed. "I don't want my parents to have that satisfaction. If I place first, that'll just make them think that they were right in making me enrol here."

Yukimura smiled wryly. 'It's such a pity,' he thought. Fuji probably could have placed first in the country in the final exams, no matter what school he went to. But because he'd ended up here, he was willing to give that up for his own petty revenge.

But then again, he couldn't blame him. He would've done the same thing.

"Stop writing, please. Put your pens down."

Ryoma looked over his answer papers quickly, before arranging them in a neat pile for the examiner to collect. Kintarou turned towards him and gave him a huge grin, showing him the thumbs up sign. Ryoma shrugged back at him.

After whisking away their answer sheets, their teacher, Shiro-sensei, clapped his hands for attention. "Class, I have an announcement to make." He shuffled through several papers on his desk and pulled out a sheet. "It's about your Biology project work for this year. Each of you will be assigned a partner, with whom you will have to work on an experiment, the details of which I have on this," -here he held up his paper. "-and next month, on open-house day, you will present your experiments to our visitors."

He'd heard a lot about open-house from Fuji. The tensai was supposed to make the opening speech at the invocation. Open-house was more for the school's business than anything else, it was their way of saying, 'Look at how smart these kids are! Your child could be one, too!' It was also the only day the students were excused from their schedules.

"I will put this list up on the notice board. Please have a look at it, find out who your partners are, and come meet me by the end of the day for your project details. I want to see what you've worked on by the end of this month. Dismissed."

Ryoma scowled to himself. He hated partners.

'But,' he thought, as he surveyed his classmates, 'It shouldn't be too hard.' Everyone was too studious to give him any trouble. Except for Kintarou and Horio, and maybe Tomoka, but those three were exceptions to everything.

Hours later, during lunch break, the school's entire population of first year Biology students stood huddled around the notice board.

"I can't see anything." Kintarou observed, after five minutes of standing in the same place.

"What an observation," Ryoma said dryly. They'd both arrived later than the others, so they were now stuck at the end of the crowd.

Kintarou made a face. "This is taking forever, geez...Oh, I know!" With a sudden light in his eyes, he dropped to the ground, and crawled between his classmates' feet. Within moments, he had disappeared.

Ryoma blinked.

A minute later, Kintarou crawled out again, his signature grin on his face. "Hey, I'm with Kachirou-kun! Isn't that so cool? And you're with Tachibana An from 1-D!"

"...who?"

"You know, Tachibana-san's little sister!"

Kintarou deadpanned. "...you don't know him either, do you."

"Am I supposed to?"

"Blah, you're hopeless. He stays on the third floor, but he usually studies in our common room. He's a pretty cool guy. And he's on the tennis team! And his sister is so nice!"

He sure hoped so.

After classes that day, during his only hour of free time, Ryoma stood at the door to class 1-D.

To open, or to not open. That was the question.

Eventually, he decided opening couldn't hurt, and turned the knob. The classroom was empty. He should have known.

He was doomed. He had no idea where his partner was, and he still had to meet Shiro-sensei. Maybe he should track down her brother instead? He'd probably know which tower her dormitory was in.

Yes, he could do that. That meant that he had to return to the North tower.

Ryoma paused. He looked to the left.

He looked to the right.

And he realized that he was lost.

Class 1-D was nowhere near his own classroom. He had no idea how to get back to his tower from here, and there wasn't even anyone around to help him. If he didn't get back in an hour, he really was doomed.

"If you're expected in the study hall at five, you'd better be in the study hall by five. Am I clear?"

...He hated being doomed.

Taking a wild guess, he started towards the left, one hand trailing on the wall beside him.

The walls in this part of the tower were mostly bare, except for the occasional framed certificate or photograph. What the school really needed was a 'You are here' poster in every corridor.

He randomly turned a few corners, passing rows and rows of classrooms, all of which were empty. All the students had probably returned to their dormitories. But there had to be someone who was still around. He couldn't possibly be the only idiot on the campus.

He was right. When he turned the next corner, he found a tall, black haired figure near the end of the corridor. Ryoma let out a sigh of relief, and almost called out to his savior, when he recognized him as his roommate, Kirihara Akaya.

That was one person he would never want to ask for help.

However, he realized a moment later, he didn't have to ask for help. There was only one place Kirihara could be heading to - his room. And his room was Ryoma's room. So all he had to do was follow him.

Satisfied with his plan, Ryoma put his head down and made himself look as inconspicuous as possible, then followed Kirihara at a safe distance.

At last, his surroundings began to look vaguely familiar. They passed the main hall, and the lobby, but instead of turning into the corridor that led to the spiralling staircase of the North tower, Kirihara took a wild turn and went in the opposite direction.

So maybe he'd been wrong, he thought, as he followed his senior with a frown on his face. Maybe that wasn't the right corridor after all.

Or so he thought, until Kirihara turned around and faced him, arms crossed and mouth turned down. Apparently, he had noticed him. So much for being inconspicuous.

"You," Kirihara bit out. "I knew it was you. Why are you following me?"

Ryoma hesitated. "Well..."

"Fuji put you up to it, didn't he?"

"What? No! Why would I be spying on you?" Or any one else, for that matter. He had better things to do.

Kirihara paused, and he blinked at Ryoma for a second. Then realization seemed to dawn on his face. "You were lost, weren't you?"

Ryoma shook his head vigorously.

Kirihara smirked, highly amused. "Oh, you were definitely lost. Been here for two weeks, and you still don't know the way to your own dormitory."

"Hey, I've never been to that part of the building before..." Ryoma defended, scowling.

Kirihara waved a hand in dismissal, and pushed past Ryoma, heading back to the corridor that led to the stairs. Ryoma followed him grudgingly, checking his watch as he went. Five forty. He still had time to find Tachibana.

When they reached the third floor, Ryoma stepped off the spiralling staircase. Kirihara frowned.

"You're on the wrong floor," he stated.

"I know, geez. I have to find Tachibana-san."

"Tachibana? Why do you need him?"

"I need to know which tower his sister is in. She's my partner for a project."

Kirihara paused for a moment and looked at him. "Tachibana An, right?" He asked slowly.

"She's in the East tower. Second floor. But you don't have time to meet her now. Go see her after self-study." He continued up the stairs. "You've already made me late, anyway."

That was totally unfair, because all Ryoma had done was follow his senior, which couldn't have made him any later than he already was. But he decided to keep that to himself. It would be stupid to test Kirihara's patience. It was already a miracle that Kirihara was willingly helping him.

More importantly, he couldn't believe that Kirihara actually knew where An's dormitory was. Apparently he wasn't as oblivious as he looked.

Or maybe there was something else to it.

After a moment of wondering, he decided he didn't care, and forgot all about it.

After self study that day, Ryoma trudged back up the stairs, utterly exhausted. Momo walked a few steps in front of him, chatting animatedly with Kikumaru.

"-and then the hero suddenly jumps in through the window, and gives the bad guy a mega-kick, sending him flying across the room! And then the bad guy pulls out his wand, but the hero throws a match stick at it and it burns into a pile of ashes!"

"Oooh!" Kikumaru said, grinning like a lunatic. "The hero is so cool, nya!"

Momo grinned back, nodding his head vigorously. "I know, I know!"

Ryoma mentally face palmed. Inflammable wands? Seriously?

At that moment, Mukahi came jumping(?) up the stairs behind him. "Oi, oi, Echizen! There's a really pretty girl waiting for you at the foot of the stairs!"

Ryoma frowned. Now who could that be?

Kikumaru waggled his eyebrows at him. "Seriously, Ochibi? It's barely been two weeks, and you already have a girl friend?"

Ryoma gave him a look, but Kikumaru ignored him. "Ah, young love," he sighed dramatically.

"It's only An-chan, idiot," Mukahi said, marching past them up the stairs.

Kikumaru deflated. "Oh."

Ryoma nearly did a victory dance right there. His partner had come to him! Never again did he have to get lost in those lonely, dark corridors...

It took him a moment to realize that he was being overly dramatic, so he shook his head and aced down the stairs.

He jumped off the last stair, stumbled, and nearly fell flat on his face, but someone grabbed his arm just in time. He straightened himself up and turned to thank his savior, a first year, blue eyed girl, wearing a shiny butterfly shaped hairpin in her light brown hair.

"Hello, Echizen-kun!" She smiled. "I'm Tachibana An. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She held out her hand, and Ryoma shook it, then checked his watch. "Do we have time to meet Shiro-sensei?"

An nodded. "Of course. Let's go, shall we?"

Ryoma followed her down the hall, wondering why so many of his dorm-mates knew her so well.

Please review!

I know that nothing is really happening yet. That's why I'm going to rewrite it.