Hi, thank you to everyone who read/reviewed Like Autumn Leaves

Here's Day 2 - School Days

This one is set when they are around 14/15

Hope you enjoy it :)

What's A Little Detention Between Friends?

The sound of the clock ticking on the wall above the teacher's desk was starting to drive Sora a little crazy. The silence in the classroom only seemed to amplify the sound even more, much to her displeasure. There was nothing worse than being stuck in a room in complete silence. And she was stuck; for a whole hour through absolutely no fault of her own.

She was seated in the middle of the classroom, slouched back with her arms crossed scowling ahead at nothing in particular. She was not happy. It had only been four weeks into the first semester of ninth grade and she had already been given detention. It wasn't the first time she'd received detention, and it probably wouldn't be the last, but this detention had been a bitter pill to swallow as she had been punished for something she hadn't been responsible for, which in turn had ruined her after school plans with a few friends from the tennis club.

The teacher supervising the detention, Mr Yamada, was sitting at his desk marking test papers from his last class. She wasn't the only student in the room; there were three others having to wait out the rest of the hour in the unbearable silence.

There was an older boy with short black hair sat in one of the desks at the front. He had his head down using the time wisely to work on his homework. Across on the other side of the room, sitting by the window was a girl who Sora recognised from the eighth grade. The blonde haired teen was gazing aimlessly out of the window, sitting in a similar position to Sora with her arms folded. Sora wondered what they were in detention for, and if it was as stupid as the reason why she was here.

And then there was Tai; the one responsible for her now being stuck in the stuffy classroom on a warm spring day, and thus ruining her plans. He was sitting next to her slouched back, his green school jacket hung over the back of his chair. He was fumbling with a pen between his fingers that had already been on the desk prior to them taking their seats.

The incident that had landed them both the one hour detention had been during their Math class earlier that afternoon. Math was one of Tai's least favourite subjects, so naturally his attention easily wandered during the class. He had started to pass her notes when their teacher's back had been turned. She had tried to put a stop to it by scribbling responses back telling him to stop it and concentrate, but that had only encouraged him more; even going as far as to doodle a small drawing of their teacher, Mrs Sato, riding a broomstick. Of course, that had been the moment Mrs Sato had caught them. Or more specifically; caught Sora with the note in her hand.

Despite Tai owning up and admitting it was him who had drawn the little sketch, Mrs Sato had still given both of them detention; much to Sora's frustration. The only slight consolation was that whilst Sora had only been given the one detention for passing notes, Tai had been stuck with detention for the rest of the week thanks to his little artistic skills; resulting in a total of three.

Sora continued to look straight ahead, having told herself not to even look at him. It was his fault she was here, and she wanted to make that perfectly clear to him. But she couldn't quite help stealing a little glance at him out of the corner of her eye. It went unnoticed, as Tai had his head down slightly, still playing with the pen between his fingers. The top button of his white shirt was open, minus the blue tie as he never wore it, and he had rolled the sleeves up to just below his elbows. Regardless of not dressing as smartly as most of the other students, he still looked quite handsome. Despite his obvious childish behaviour during class, he had certainly matured physically from the days when they were in elementary school. Sora then felt her cheeks warm up as she realised where her mind was starting to wander to. She discretely turned her head a little to the right to try and hide the slight blush in her cheeks from her best friend. She was supposed to be angry with him, not thinking how good looking he was becoming…

She glanced up at the clock, which read 3.22pm. Was that all? It felt like it had been longer… Right now she should have been on her way to Roppongi Hills. A new movie theatre had just opened up near there and she, along with three of her friends from tennis, had planned to see a movie. Of course, that was not going to happen now as by the time detention ended at 4pm it would be too late for her to reach the movie theatre in time. Her friends had suggested they reschedule, but Sora had told them to go without her; insisting that her immature best friend shouldn't spoil their afternoon as well.

The silence in the room was broken by the sound of the teacher's chair sliding back against the hard floor as Mr Yamada rose to his feet. He excused himself, telling them to behave in his absence and that he would be back shortly.

Once Mr Yamada had left the classroom, Sora heard the creak of the chair next to her as Tai had now moved, sitting up straight.

"How long are you going to stay mad at me?"

Sora hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not to answer him or continue to give him the silent treatment. He sounded a little timid when he had spoken; like a child trying to act all innocent, and if he was a little afraid of the answer he would get. "… Until we graduate high school," she replied bluntly, making sure he knew how annoyed she still was. "That is if you actually do graduate."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means if you keep pulling stupid little stunts like that you might get suspended Taichi, or worse."

"Ouch," Tai playfully flinched. "You must be really mad at me if you're calling me by my full name."

"Of course I am. It's your fault I'm here."

"I said I was sorry. I didn't mean to get you in trouble. It was just a harmless bit of fun Sor'"

Her heart seemed to flutter every time he called her that… It was his little nickname for her recently. "Well, your bit of fun has ruined my afternoon. I was supposed to go see a movie with my friends from tennis. You can be so selfish sometimes, Taichi."

"Hey you should be grateful then I saved you from having to sit through a chick flick."

Sora scowled at him out of the corner of her eye, choosing not to dignify that comment with a response.

"But look on the bright side; you get to have an afternoon date with your best friend instead."

At the mention of the word 'date', Sora felt herself blushing again, although she couldn't quite understand why. She decided to quickly change the subject before he noticed. "You should know better than to pass notes in class, especially Mrs Sato's class. You know she never tolerates that."

Tai shrugged. "She hates me anyway."

"That's no excuse, Taichi."

"Will you stop calling me that!" he whined.

"Why? It's your name isn't it?"

"You know what I mean," Tai grumbled, slumping down in his chair. "You only call me that when you're angry with me."

"Well I am angry with you."

"You can't be that angry with me; it's only detention, and this isn't the first time we've gotten in trouble together."

"It's your fault I'm here," she reminded him again. "...and I pity your first girlfriend if this is your idea of a date." she then muttered a little teasingly.

The pen that Tai had been holding suddenly hit the desk, as he dropped it from between his fingers. "What? Not that kind of date Sora!" he exclaimed quietly, sitting up straight again. It was his turn to now blush a little. He could see even though she wasn't looking directly at him; her mouth was curved a little in a devilish smile. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Sora rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah," she said somewhat sarcastically. "I'm really enjoying having to sit through an hour of detention for something that wasn't my fault."

"I mean you're enjoying giving me a hard time over this. How many more times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"I don't know, I haven't quite decided yet."

The blonde haired girl that was sitting by the window, turned her head and looked over in their direction. "Will you two just kiss and make up?"

Both Tai and Sora froze, and turned to look over at her; their cheeks turning a slight shade of crimson. "What?" They both exclaimed in unison.

"Are you two not a couple? Because you certainly act like it."

Sora was left a little speechless, and Tai was about to respond when the classroom door opened.

Mr Yamada had returned and they were forced to remain quiet. Tai sunk down in his chair once more, frowning. Why was Sora being like this? It was only detention, something she had been through before, and he had apologised more than enough times so he couldn't understand why she was still angry with him. It wasn't like he had done it on purpose. She could be so stubborn sometimes… It was like the hairpin incident all over again… at least this time Sora was actually speaking to him. During the fallout over the hairpin she had refused to talk to him when he tried to apologise; that is until she had received the email he had sent her... the email where he had by accident signed it off with 'love' instead of 'from'… but that had seemed to have done the trick as she had forgiven him after that...

Maybe that could work its charm again? Tai thought with a bit of a smile, as if a light bulb moment had gone off in his head...

Staring at the clock hoping the time would tick by faster, Sora heard Tai's chair creak again as he moved, bending down to retrieve something from his school bag. She watched him out of the corner of his eye as he took out his history book before ripping a blank page out of the back. He would probably get in trouble for that now as well… He started to write on the piece of paper, the sound of it being ripped out surprisingly hadn't caught the attention of Mr Yamada who had returned to marking his papers. What was he doing? Surely he wasn't deciding to now work on some of his school work after tearing the paper from his history book…

After a few moments of him writing, he slowly slid the piece of paper in her direction. Seriously? He was serving detention for passing notes in class and he was now doing it again in detention? He really was glutton for punishment. Sora quickly checked Mr Yamada wasn't looking before she sighed quietly to herself, sliding the paper a little closer using her finger before glancing down to see what he had written;

'Sora, I'm really sorry I got you in trouble… I promise I'll make it up to you. How about our own movie night? I'll let you choose the movie. We've had our share of detentions together; so what's one more between friends? Love Tai'

Sora couldn't help but smile once she had finished reading his little note. Just like the hairpin incident when they were eleven years old; her heart had melted and all her anger and frustration towards him seemed to fade away. He definitely knew how to get back on her good side, and she knew deep down she could never stay mad at him; regardless of how immature he could be at times… Maybe that was something she loved about him? Taking the pen from his hand, she quickly scribbled her reply back underneath his note before sliding back across the desk;

'It's a date'