Chapter 7: The Chase!

Of all the people in the world, Haruhi was next to the last person I wanted walking through my classroom door, and yet there she was. Misawa and the other girls quickly took notice and stared at her with goo-goo eyes.

"Hello, Aya," Haruhi called to me.

Misawa's smile disappeared. I watched Haruhi blankly as she walked up to my desk.

"Would you like to have lunch with me today?" she asked, and I gave her a suspicious look.

"Just you?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. "Not the happiness club too?" She smiled and laughed once.

"No, just me," she replied. I glanced in the direction of Misawa; she was staring daggers at me.

"Sure," I said uneasily. I stood and followed her out of the room, Misawa's glare following me.

I walked with Haruhi through the halls and into the gardens. We walked along the path until we came to a single bench, alongside the trail, under a small tree.

"I'm sorry about what happened at the club the last time you were there." She said, taking a seat, "Those guys can be a bit over the top sometimes."

"It's okay," I replied, sitting next to her.

"I'm also sorry about our conversation in the halls yesterday, it was rude of me," she added and I smiled at her.

"No big deal, you're just worried about me, right?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" she asked, and I sighed.

"Not really," I answered, poking at my lunch, "but if I don't talk to someone, I'm going to explode eventually." I half-laughed at myself and took a deep breath.

"I think," I started, "that there's only one more." She looked at me, confused.

"One more what?" she asked.

"One more meeting until my mother gives up her parental rights."

"Now, why would she do that?" she said unbelievingly.

"Well, just think about it, my mother already hates my guts, so she threw me out. Now I'm living with my father, so he doesn't have to pay her in child support. Lawyers will only point to her throwing me out as bad mothering, some might even say child neglect. If that gets around, then child protective services might take Hero, Kotomi, and the triplets away from her. She doesn't want that, so she'll make a deal with my father to give up any and all parental rights to me if he doesn't file a complaint against her. Meaning that he won't have to pay her in child support or go through a tedious joint custody trial. Not to mention that it would also be a way to get at me if she could make it so that legally I could no longer meet my siblings because she knows how much I care for them." I ranted, and Haruhi listened carefully.

"I see," she said, "I guess it makes sense when you put it like that."

"Adding to that," I started.

"There's more?" she asked, and I nodded.

"It turns out that..." I paused and swallowed my voice got quieter. "I have a brother on my father's side, an older brother." Her face was covered in shock. She knew about Yoshiro and understood what that meant to me.

"That must be difficult," she sympathized.

"You have no idea," I chuckled lightly, "He even attends this school." Her jaw dropped a bit in shock.

"Really? Have you talked to him," she asked.

"Yes, but he doesn't know who I am... yet that is."

"Do I know him?"

I nodded. Her surprise and interest were both growing by the second, and I could see it on her face as she started going over the possibilities in her head. I glanced at her and sighed, she noticed. "Oh, sorry."

"No, it's okay. That's just how you are." I said, then there was a moment of silence. We both sat eating our lunches, neither knowing what to say. "One more thing," I said, and she looked up at me.

"There's even more?"

"Well, you sort of already know about this one." I sighed. "I have to take those lessons on how to be a proper lady so that my father can present me to his family as his official daughter. I'm guessing that it's going to be some big to-do because he has me learn how to dance and social skills on how to act at fancy parties." I stopped, and she watched my expression.

"What would you do?" I asked, staring off into the garden flowers.

"I don't know," Haruhi said. We both stared into nowhere as we finished our lunches.

"Haruhi." I finally spoke and she looked at me. "Please don't tell the host club about any of this, or they might start-up that weird operation Ayami's Happiness thing again and I really can't handle the stress at this moment." I pleaded with her, and she smiled.

"Okay," she said.

"Thanks," I said, packing up my lunch things. "See ya later." We waved good-bye to each other. On my way back to class, I thought of different ways to avoid Misawa, but all my plans lead to dead ends. 'I guess there's no escaping the bullying for now.'

When I got back to my class, I realized that I was really early. The lunch wasn't even over yet, so there weren't many students in the classrooms. There were a few guys whispering to each other standing at a desk close to mine. When I walked in, and they looked up at me. I got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach when one of them smiled and waved for me to come over.

"Hey, you're Sohma-san, right? Wanna chat for a bit?"

I didn't move.

"Come on over here, we won't bite." He joked. His two friends chuckled.

Keeping my eyes on them, I took one step closer to my desk, and the boys all stood up. I froze.

'Something's up here.' I thought, then I took a step back towards the door. They took a step toward me, and that was it. I threw my empty lunchbox at the one closest to me and darted out the door.

I started running down the hallway. I could hear them chasing after me. 'Not good.'

I ran down the halls hoping that there would be a teacher or another student, but there wasn't. I tried to ditch them by making a couple of sharp turns. It slowed them down a little, but they kept up the chase. 'Darn!' I thought as I dashed around corner-after-corner until I ran into somebody, literally. I bumped into this person and fell backward on to my butt.

"Ow," I said, hitting the ground.

"Hey," said a guy's deep voice.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," I said, trying to stand up; he put out his hand to help me up, then I looked up at who I had bumped into. Before me stood a tall boy with red hair and a terrifying expression like someone had just short-changed him at the supermarket. I was a bit reluctant to grab his hand.

"Are you alright?" he asked his expression unchanged.

'Is he making that face because he's upset with me?' I thought, 'but he's asking me if I'm hurt.' Just then, I heard the boys round the corner behind me. They stopped and looked around.

"There she is!" One said, pointing at me and the group began running in my direction.

Without thinking, I grabbed the boy's hand, and he helped me to my feet. I didn't let go of his hand and started pulling his sleeve to follow me.

"Sorry again, but this looks like it's going to be a hit and run, you should run too. Those guys are chasing me, and I don't think they have good plans for me." I said, trying to get him to move, but he didn't budge. He glanced around the corner at the three boys coming our way.

"Here," he said, pulling away from me and putting his hands in his pockets. "Let me take care of this." The red-haired boy stood at the corner, and I stood behind him. Just as the boys came around the corner, they looked up, saw him, and froze.

"It's Kasanoda!" They exclaimed in shock and fear.

"Now - why are you three dimwits chasing a pretty girl, HAH?" He exclaimed, his voice striking the boys with an insurmountable amount of fear. I couldn't see his expression, but I'm guessing it must have been terrifying.

"We- um- that is- RUN!" The one shouted. They all turned tail and ran away, scared silly. I couldn't help it, they looked so frightened, I burst out laughing, and the red-haired boy looked at me.

"That- was so- funny! They ran off like dogs- with their tails between their legs!" I said in between bouts of laughter. I leaned on the wall for support. The boy stared at me like I was crazy.

"Wow! Now that was amazing!" I whipped a tear from the corner of my eye and smiled at him, and he averted his eyes.

"Not really," he mumbled, "They always run from me."

"Well, I think it's amazing.! What I could do if I could instill that much fear in a person with just a look and a single question, oh man I wish!" I praised him with a grin. "Besides, you called me pretty, so I have to pay you back a compliment, so you're amazing." He looked at me, surprised and flattered. I could see a hint of blush on his cheeks.

"Aren't you," he said, looking away again, "going to run away too?" I looked at him confused.

"Why would I do that?" I asked. "You may look scary, but that doesn't mean that you are scary. I mean, sure you scared those boys off, but you also saved me. Now, why would I fear someone who would put themselves on the line to help me when they didn't even know me?" I held out my hand. "Nice to meet you, by the way, I'm Ayami Sohma. What's your name?"

"Kasanoda, Ritsu Kasanoda," he mumbled, shaking my hand sheepishly.

"Nice to meet you, Kasanoda," I said, then I heard the class bell ring.

"Oh," I said, looking off towards my class. "Well, I'm gonna be late even if I run, and I've been running for a while now. Not to mention that I was late to the same class yesterday, so I doubt that the teacher will let me off again." I sighed. "Oh well, guess I'll just skip." Kasanoda gave me a funny look of disbelief.

"What?" I asked.

"So you're just going to skip class?"

"Yeah, so are you," I said and he looked surprised at me.

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"Well, I don't see you running off to class right now," I teased with a grin. "Hey, wanna skip together?" I asked, and he blushed again.

"Whatever." He shrugged and started walking away. I followed behind him.

As we walked through the halls, he didn't say a thing.

Once again, I somehow ended up at that same big tree in the gardens. I took a seat in its shade with my arms around my knees. He watched me then took a place next to me with one knee up, resting his arm on it. He kept a bit of distance between us.

"So," he spoke, suddenly making me jump. "Why were those boys chasing you?"

"Um," I said, thinking it over, "I don't know for sure, but I think, maybe, a girl in my class asked them to do it." He looked confused.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I ate lunch alone with the host that she likes from the host club and she thinks that I'm trying to steal him away from her. The truth is that we're just old friends from middle school, and I have no intention of dating him." I said, laughing at that last bit. He thought about what I said for a second before asked his next question.

"Which host?"

"Haruhi Fujioka," I said, and he nearly jumped out of his pants in shock.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," he lied horribly while looking away. He looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh and there could be only one reason for that.

"You know, don't you," I asked, and he looked at me uncomfortably, "Haruhi's secret, that is?" He nodded slowly.

"En," he responded simply.

"How long have you known? No, wait, scratch that, how did you find out?" I asked with a laugh. Blush covered his face.

"I saw her..." he paused, his blush deepening even more, "changing clothes." I snickered but couldn't hold it in, and burst out laughing again.

"Wow! that must have been a shock!" I exclaimed. I could tell he was really uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed by my laughing so I switched the conversation to myself to hopefully give him some relief.

"I've known her since middle school, so I knew she was a girl from the start. Did you know that she used to have really long hair?" I asked him gesturing with my hands about how long her hair had been. He must have imagined her with long hair because he zone out a bit still blushing.

"Wow, crush much?" I mumbled in English, and he looked at me a bit confused. "You like Haruhi, don't you?" I asked him. All his blushing up until now were just small little blushes this time he went red from ear to ear. His entire face glowed redder and redder until his face almost matched in color to his hair.

"Shut up," he said, looking away, but I was still giggling.

"Don't worry, dude," I said casually as I leaned back on my palms. "I won't tell her or anyone. I'm not that kind of person, I don't gossip," I said, stretching out my legs and looking at my feet.

"Anyway, back to why those guys were chasing me." I switched gears. "I think one of the girls in my class hates me because I'm closer to Haruhi than she is. Which is why she asked those boys to beat me up or something, but that's nothing new."

"What do you mean?" he asked, and it was my turn to blush a little.

"Well," I said, tilting my head, "Like Haruhi now, I used to dress differently, too. I had shorter hair and only wore boy's clothing, so I got teased a lot in school. I was required to wear a school uniform, but I broke that rule a lot, and it landed me in detention more times than I can count." I said with a laugh. "When I lived in America, the guys there didn't like that I could beat them at basketball, so they beat me up for that too. Heck, up until just recently, I still dressed that way." I stopped talking because I thought I had lost him.

"Why did you change?" he asked. I blinked and looked at him blankly. "I mean! Not that you look bad as you are now!" He started rambling a bit of his blush returning. "Actually, I think it looks nice. I mean, you look really nice but ah! Oh man, I mean, that is-" I cut him off by laughing.

'I think that this may be the most I've laughed in months.' I thought with a sigh.

"No, I'm not upset with you. I was just surprised, that's all." He watched me as I tried to configure an answer to his question. "I guess, the first question you're supposed to ask is 'Why did you start dressing like a guy in the first place?' and that would answer a lot of things." He stared at me as I thought back to the time it all started.

It was a week before our move to Japan when my mother found me sitting on the bathroom floor with a pair of scissors, cutting off all the brown locks.

"What on earth are you doing!" she exclaimed, taking them away, and I started crying loudly.

"But... Hero and Kotomi won't have a big brother! They need a big brother!" I was screaming as she dragged me down to the hair salon. They fixed the mop that was my hair and, while my mother left to talk on her cell phone, I told the clerk that my mommy wanted my hair blonde. I slipped her a couple of twenties that I had stolen from my mother's purse, and she dyed my hair with no disagreement. When my mother came back in, the lady had already finished coloring my hair. Needless to say, she freaked out.

I smirked at the memory and realized that Kasanoda was still staring at me.

"Oh, sorry, I was having a flashback," I said, blushing, then I sighed. "This isn't the real me, and that wasn't the real me either."

"Then what is?" he asked, and I realized something for the first time.

"I don't know," I said. Over time, I had completely lost me? I laid back on the grass. 'This is getting too deep for me, and I just met this dude.'

"I'm gonna nap a bit, wake me up ten minutes before the bell." I said closing my eyes. He stayed silent while I snoozed, never really falling asleep. I thought he had left until he mumbled something I couldn't understand.

"Hey," he said after a while; I opened my eyes and looked up at him. He was looking across the gardens, the wind blowing through his hair. "I think you should be whoever you want to be, dress, and act the way you want. Do what you want. You shouldn't let others decide who you are for you." He said, looking off into the middle distance like this was some dramatic turning point for the main character of a movie whose getting some advice from a helpful stranger.

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, and I smiled at him, one very close to my real smile. 'I like this guy, he's interesting.' I thought as I saw blush cover his cheeks for the millionth time, and he stood up quickly.

"It's time to head back to class," he said. I sat up, and he offered me a hand.

"Thank you," I said, taking it, and he helped me up. "Not just for this, but for everything you did today. Thank you." He blushed more. 'He gets embarrassed too easily.' I thought as we started walking together.

"No problem," he mumbled.

"See ya later," I said, heading down the hall to my class.

"En," he said, shuffling off in the other direction.

After he was gone, I giggled at how shy and not really scary he actually was.

I walked to my class, and when I arrived, I found my lunchbox sitting on my desk. I wondered why for a few seconds until I picked it up. Under it, sitting on my desk was a note that read, I told you to stay away from Haruhi now you'll regret it. I sighed, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the trash.

The rest of school dragged on with me getting angry stares from Misawa all afternoon. So when the last bell rang, I was relieved. I gathered up my things and noticed that one of my library books was due back, so I hurried off to return it.

As always, the libraries were full of noisy groups of students. I dropped my book in the return box, then turned around and began heading back towards the doors. I looked up only to see the same three boys from earlier waiting by the entrance. I glared at them, and they grinned. I glanced at the librarian, but she was busy with the long line of students.

'Well, they won't attack me with all the people here, I could stick around a while, I guess.' I thought while walking towards the English Literature section. I walked calmly down one aisle and searched for a book to read. I found a book and took it with me to a table. I took a seat, glancing at the door. They weren't there anymore.

'Maybe they gave up?' I thought then I saw three familiar people sit at a table, three down from mine. 'Or not...' I sighed and opened the book I had grabbed.

I wasn't reading it. I only vaguely remember the title. Something to do with Shakespeare. I was trying to think up an escape plan.

'They're going to wait until I leave to attack me, they won't do it in front of witnesses.'

As time ticked by, one by one, students began to leave.

'Crap, pretty soon the Library will close, and I'll be on my own after that, so they're inevitably going to attack me. But, if I can get to the halls before them, I'll have a good chance of being able to run away again. Ugh! I hate this, makes me sound like a coward! But father forced me to promise not to get into any fights! Ugh!'

I noticed a large group of students about to leave and took my chance. I stood up quickly and quietly, and the boys did as well. I left my book on the table and walked swiftly towards the door, cutting in front of the group of students. The boys followed but got caught behind the group. I walked quickly around a corner and out of view, then I made a mad dash to escape.

After a short while, I looked back, sure enough, they were there. 'They're very persistent. I wonder what Misawa offered them in exchange for roughing me up or whatever.'

I ran through the halls and cut around a couple of corners. I was getting tired, but so were they, so if this came down to a fight, I would have at least already tired them out a little bit.

'I doubt that these rich kids know any sort of fighting skills, and I only know what I learned from my many street fights. Even so, I'm one girl against three guys. I've taken on more, but all those times, the fight was interrupted by some bystander calling the cops about a group of boys roughing up some scrawny kid.' I took a corner and noticed something.

"Wait a second..." I mumbled. 'I know where I am!' I gave myself a mental pat on the back for actually not losing my sense of direction entirely.

As I rounded that last corner, I saw the doors to music room three come into view, but I was going too fast, and I lost my footing. I slipped and fell to the ground, out of breath.

"Damn it," I breathed. I looked up the room was too far down the hall even if I did scream, which I wouldn't, it could reach, but it's a music room, so it's probably soundproof. I pounded the ground with my fist lightly as I heard them getting closer.

"Now," the one said out of breath as he got to me. I scurried to stand, but he grabbed my hair before I could get to my feet.

"You'll pay for making us run so far!"

AHH! NO AYA! Lol Please review!

~Thank you for reading~

~MiraCarpathia