Yu Kaito bought Kurama a gigantic bag of chips at lunchtime, just as promised, and Kurama sat down on the steps in his normal place in the courtyard to eat them. It looked like Kaito was going to try to sit next to him and make conversation, but luckily, Chizuko turned up just in time and plunked herself down next to him. He had literally never been so glad to see her.

"Hey, girlfriend," she said, taking a sip of flavored water. "This seat taken?"

"Of course not," Kurama replied, gesturing for her to sit next to him.

"I'll leave you girls alone." Kaito kind of wrinkled his nose and walked on, while Kurama breathed a sigh of relief.

"Whew," he sighed. "Thank you, Chizuko."

"Anytime." Chizuko rolled her eyes. "You can tell that nerd totally looks down on me because of my gossip column. Well, I'll hit him up for one of those essays of his next time I run out of sleeping pills. I'm unfortunate enough to be in all his writing classes, and I don't know what the big deal is. He's a total snooze-fest. At least I know how to write things people actually want to read." She grinned and waved at Aratani, who was on the other side of the courtyard. "C'mon, sis, get over here!"

Aratani walked over, carrying her lunch tray, looking down at the ground to make sure she didn't trip and spill her food, which she did twice just this past week. She looked a lot more withdrawn than Chizuko did.

"Hi, guys," she said, sitting down on Kurama's other side, so he was sandwiched between the two girls.

"Feeling any better?" Kurama asked, offering her some potato chips.

"Maybe a little." Aratani took a chip out of the bag and munched on it. "I shouldn't even be eating these. Didn't Kaito buy them for you?"

Kurama couldn't bring himself to tell her that Kaito seemed to be making a play for him, so he just shrugged. "I think he was just trying to be nice."

"Everyone's talking about us," Aratani said miserably. "It's awful. I even heard some kids saying that he was the one who dumped me."

"Oh, please," said Chizuko. "Don't worry. Sakura and I will set the record straight. I'm so over that gossip stuff."

"I'm so glad to hear it," said Kurama. "Does that mean you're truly giving up your gossip column?"

"Sort of," said Chizuko. "In fact, I was going to bring that up to you today."

"Me? Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She grinned. "I'd like you to be the focus of this week's column."

"Chizuko—"

"That's what I call a suspenseful first sentence," she laughed. "You didn't let me finish. Listen, I was thinking about what Aratani said—about how I should be using my writing abilities for good instead of evil. So that's what I'm going to do. My new column is going to be about not gossip, but actual newsworthy stuff that goes on around here, written in a creative nonfiction style. I know I'll probably lose some readers that way, but it'll be fine. I don't want to be that person anymore, you know?"

"As I said, it's never too late to change," Kurama agreed. "It's a big step in itself that you're actually asking people before featuring them."

"So what is your next column going to be about?" Aratani asked.

"Let me guess," said Kurama with a smile. "It's going to be the inside scoop on why you changed, with an emphasis on introspection and healing."

"Hell no," said Chizuko. "It's going to feature your big moment during Biology yesterday."

"I suppose everyone in school really did hear about that," said Kurama. "But it sounds an awful lot like something you'd put in your old gossip column, Chizuko."

"First of all, if I was still writing my old gossip column, I'd do some scathing piece on what happened between Kaito and Aratani," she reminded him. "I'm trying to repair my friendship with Aratani, so I'd never do that now. But anyway, I'm trying to be a girl's girl now, to atone for the way I've treated other girls in the past. So I've decided to gear my column towards empowering the girls of this school."

"Oh, I get it!" said Aratani, her face lighting up.

"I'm afraid I don't," said Kurama.

"She's framing the story in a lens that challenges the idea that girls like us should be ashamed of our bodies," Aratani explained. "I'm sure a ton of us will be able to relate. I mean, a lot of teenage girls would rather die than do what you did, Sakura. But you had no shame at all. And that's the way it should be."

"I didn't really mean for it to be that complicated," said Kurama. "But if you think it will help the girls of our school, sure, you can use the story for your creative nonfiction."

"Thanks, Sakura," said Chizuko. "Aratani, I was actually thinking of using your quote for the title—I want to title it, 'Why Is Everyone So Embarrassed'?"

"Of course you can use my quote, Chizuko," Aratani said, and gave her friend a hug.

"Plus," Chizuko told her, "with any luck, it will get these idiots to stop talking about you and Yu Kaito."

"We can only hope," said Kurama.

"Yeah," Aratani added, "we—hey, wait a minute! Isn't that Hiei?"

"What?" Kurama turned to look, and sure enough, there was Hiei, standing on the other side of the courtyard, watching them. "Why, yes, I suppose it is. I wonder what he's doing here?"

"Why is he just standing there watching us?" Aratani asked.

"Usually he doesn't make the first move in social situations," Kurama explained. "Why don't I go and ask him if he wants to eat lunch with us?"

"Maybe Chizuko should do that," said Aratani, beaming. "I've got to use the bathroom. Sakura, do you want to come with me?"

"Yes, of course," said Kurama, because of course he understood what her game was. "Let's go."

…

Hiei tried to stay cool as he waited by the edge of the courtyard for Aratani's curly-headed friend to approach him. She didn't show an ounce of shyness, which he found interesting. It was a bit of a relief, too, because he didn't want to be in a relationship where he was expected to "start" everything they did together.

"Well, if it isn't Hiei," she said, leaning on the fence next to him. "Come back to see me already?"

"I actually came to see Sakura," he said.

"Right." She laughed. "Let's go with that. How's it going, then?"

"It's going," said Hiei.

"Did Sakura tell you about the party tomorrow?"

"No," said Hiei sharply. "What party is that?"

"One of my neighbors is throwing a college party, and Sakura, Aratani, and I are going to crash it." Chizuko had a glint in her eye. "Sakura asked if she could invite her three friends who go to different schools. I say, the more the merrier."

Normally, Hiei wouldn't have gone to something like that. But her rebellious spirit stirred something in him, too. And he wanted to accept her invitation, even if he wouldn't exactly be the life of the party.

"Yeah, sure, I'll go," he said. "And I'll tell our other two friends. The shorter one is Yuki, and the taller, oafish one we call Kuwabara." Hiei remembered how Kuwabara was the only one out of the four whose height hadn't changed, and apparently there weren't any other girls in Yusuke's middle school who were six-foot-four inches tall.

"It'll be nice to meet them." Chizuko leaned so close that Hiei could smell her fruity perfume. "And I'd like to get to know you better, too."

When her body touched his, it was like an electric shock. Hiei didn't think he'd ever felt something like this before. And, oh man, he wanted to feel it again, again, and again. It was like being filled with flames—not flames of hatred, but flames of desire. Even better, Chizuko seemed to desire him as well. Hiei was used to his relationships not lasting long, and he decided that even if this fizzled out, he was going to make the most of it while it was going strong. He was starting to forget that technically, he was still female. It wasn't obvious with him like it was with Kurama.

"I can tell you're speechless," said Chizuko, setting one sparkly purple fingernail on his lips. Her voice was low and sultry. "But that's okay. We can have fun together with no words at all."

Hiei stared up into her eyes, and he relaxed as the flames inside him kept burning…

…

"It's so romantic," Aratani gushed as they left the courtyard and headed to the cafeteria bathroom. She pulled a bristle brush out of her book bag and leaned against the sink as she brushed her long black hair. "Two of our best friends, falling in love right before our eyes."

"Actually, Aratani, I was meaning to talk to you about that," said Kurama seriously. "Would you excuse me for a moment?"

"Oh—yeah, sure," she said, as he went into a stall.

"Look, I know Chizuko is trying to be a better person now." Kurama cringed as he fished around in his messenger bag for one of the many tampons he'd brought. No matter what Chizuko wrote in her article, this was still going to be annoying, not to mention messy. "But you can't deny she's got a bit of a bad reputation when it comes to boys. Reeling them in, then spitting them out with broken hearts. I don't want that to happen to Hiei."

"You just said it yourself," said Aratani. "She's trying to be a better person. She wouldn't hurt Hiei."

"Until she decides she's bored of him or some such."

"What do you mean, bored?"

"I mean, she gets into relationships quickly, while Hiei tends to get into them slowly." Ouch. This was really getting ridiculous. Not only was it a little painful to remove his "equipment," but his period was even heavier today than yesterday. And now he had to pee, too, but it was going to have to wait until he was done with this. "So he might go along with it just to please her, and end up getting hurt if it doesn't work out."

"Well, all that means is that she has to take it slow," Aratani pointed out. "I can talk to her about that, if you want."

"Yes, that would be perfect," Kurama said gratefully, since he wasn't so sure Chizuko would listen to him about this. Hiei certainly hadn't.

It was a relief to finally get the new tampon in, even though the stall was unfortunately a mess and Kurama knew he had to clean it up. The whole time he was sitting on the toilet, hoping that relieving himself would help get rid of the slight stabbing pains in his lower abdomen, he was thinking about how much easier this would have been if he'd been in his male body. He could have just ducked into the boys' bathroom, spent a minute or two at the urinal, washed his hands, and left. But this was taking forever, it was uncomfortable and messy, and overall, having a female body was just so much more complicated. As Chizuko might put it, he was "so over it."

When he was done and the stall was clean, he headed to the sink to wash his hands, which definitely needed washing. Aratani must have seen the look on his face, because she looked sympathetic towards him.

"Rough month, huh?" she said. "I'll admit, there have been a few times where I found myself wishing I had just been born a boy. It's got to be so much simpler."

"You could definitely say that," Kurama agreed.

"But still, I like being a girl," she continued. "When you get past the pain and inconvenience, it's pretty incredible what our bodies can do. Of course…that could just be the biologist in me speaking."

"So you're definitely going to pursue that for your career?" said Kurama, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder. "You'd be good at it."

"Thanks," she said. "It's all I ever wanted to do. Anyway…" Her face fell, and she looked a little worried all of a sudden. "I can talk to Chizuko for you, Sakura, but to be honest, I don't think it's going to do much good."

"Why not?"

"Because in the end, if they really like each other, we can't stop them from falling in love," Aratani explained as they headed out to the courtyard. "No one can. And if they really do fall in love, why not just be happy for them?"

"Hiei's been hurt so many times, Aratani." Kurama glanced over at her, and the look on her face was sad. "I…I don't think he could stand to get hurt again."

"But if he doesn't go for it, he could be missing out on the best thing in his life," Aratani argued.

Kurama tried to remember Hiei's words. The reward is greater than the risk. Wasn't that what he said? Wouldn't that apply to him, too?

"I'm sure Hiei can take care of himself, Sakura," Aratani said kindly, patting Kurama's arm. "But you're a really good friend, to be that concerned for him." She paused and looked around. "Where are they, anyway?"

"Over here," Kurama whispered, gesturing for Aratani to join him by the wall of the school, where students often hung around to do things they didn't want the teachers to see. He knew he had a strong sense of smell, but it was possible he could have hunted down the smell of Chizuko's perfume without the aid of his foxlike nose.

"Oh my gosh!" Aratani shrieked.

Hiei and Chizuko, who had been passionately making out, turned to stare as one, their cheeks bright red.

So much for taking it slow, Kurama thought, his stomach sinking like a stone.