Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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Today was the first week in June at Tokyo-4 high. Monday, June third to be precise. But while the start of June meant this was the last month of school before getting off for summer break none of the teenagers belonging to the second year class at the high school were all that happy. The first full week in June was the start of a one week event that no one liked. It coincided with the more advanced version of sex education that they had been learning in health class. Basically this was the follow up lesson on the results of sex. And as each second year student entered their classroom they got a vivid reminder of the embarrassing torture that lay ahead of them for the week. For every room had many five pound bags of sugar just waiting inside for the students.

 

That's right, it was baby week. The glorious week in which you, along with a partner of the opposite sex, took care of a bag of sugar that was supposed to double as your baby. And the event also crossed the border line between school and real life as one person for each couple had to have possession of the “baby” at all times. If a couple was caught without their kid devoid of a good reason more than once it would automatically result in a failing grade and a summer class would have to be taken to make up for it.

 

And it was pretty easy to get caught too as the teachers of the school were always on the lookout for possible rule breakers. If a teacher came up to you and you were without your sugar baby, it better be with your partner. And the teachers would sometimes check up on this to make sure. But that only made getting caught likely, what screwed you the most were the seniors in the school. They all remembered having to do this and they would rat you out in a heartbeat if you and your partner tried to weasel out of this. The same thing had happened to them last year when they were second years and they were more than willing to keep up the tradition. In fact it was a lot of fun for the seniors as it was a legitimate reason to bust the chops of the second year students. Not that they really needed a reason though.

 

As each teen took their assigned seat Mr. Ohta watched them while he leaned against his desk. It wasn't like he was a cruel guy or anything but he did enjoy this week. He thought this was a good lesson for the kids to learn and truth be told it wasn't anything like the real thing so it wasn't as bad of a situation as the students made it out to be. But as he watched his students come in he wondered how each of them would react to this assignment. There were certain people he figured would have no problem whatsoever while others probably would be nothing but trouble for their partners. And as for picking partners this year he was going to have luck play the part. For once he had an equal number of boys to girls in his classroom so he was going to put all the names of the girls in a hat and let each of the boys in the classroom draw a name. A pretty ingenious idea in his opinion.

 

While still waiting for the rest of the class to show up he saw Asuka walk into the room with Shinji. “Just a second Miss Sohryu.”

 

Asuka turned to look at her teacher “Yes?”

 

“You are aware that you will be taking part in this exercise with the rest of the class, right?”

 

“Yup” Asuka answered.

 

The teacher was surprised at this. He almost expected because of Asuka's unique situation that she would be fighting against this class activity. He then saw Asuka pull something out of her book bag.

 

“I even brought a doll.”

 

“You came prepared?” the teacher questioned out loud. This was very unexpected.

 

“Of course I did.” Asuka responded looking at the teacher oddly. He wasn't exactly making sense to her at this time.

 

“Huh” the teacher said slightly amused. “I thought I would have to fight you on this.”

 

“Please” Asuka scoffed. “It's just a bag of sugar. What's the big deal? Remember I live with a real baby at my home, this is nothing.”

 

That explained a lot to the teacher and he let Asuka go. He was actually worried that her cooperation was going to be one of the biggest problems he would have but it turned out to be a non-issue with the girl. Now if the rest of the potential problems would just repeat that pattern.

 

A couple minutes after Asuka and Shinji took their seats the bell rang to signify the start of another school day. Hikari did her job as the class rep and issued the command to bow to the teacher and then take your seats. After this the teacher looked out and saw quite a few apprehensive faces. He didn't waste anytime though as he got right to the point and also smirked as he told his students how he was going to choose partners. Let's just say the reaction to that was neither what he expected nor one of approval. More than just a couple girls had already picked out their partners and surprising to the teacher even his reliable class rep voiced her objections. It wasn't nearly as loud as Asuka's objection but it was a surprising objection nonetheless. But that was the way things were going to be as he was the teacher and they were the students.

 

Or at least that's what he thought, because no more than a minute after he quieted down the girls he saw Asuka circumventing his idea again. The piece of paper she wrote her name down on was folded up in a special way. She had made a little origami star out of it, and she was quite clear on this being hers. If anyone other than Shinji picked up that star there would be hell to pay. And that wasn't the end of it either as picking up on the idea Hikari did the same thing. Except her piece of paper was shaped like a swan. All Touji had to say was “That's a pretty swan Hikari” for his message to be delivered loud and clear.

 

The teacher was about to say something about all this but stopped after he noticed two more girls fold their paper in special ways. He simply shook his head and gave in, letting the four girls get away with this. Luckily for him the rest of the girls in the classroom just folded their pieces of paper in half like he had told them to so the rebellion against him wasn't total.

 

And when he had all the girl's names he put them into a hat. Since their was four special ones he went to four particular boys first. There was no use fighting it now and it was probably better off this way. Just going up and down the rows of students might lead to some boy picking a name they weren't supposed to and that in turn could lead to something ugly. He knew very well he had a couple boys in his class who would do that just for the sake of being a smartass. So as it turned out the four couples got their way while the rest of the students would be the luck of the draw.

 

So as the teacher went around to the rest of the boys in the classroom and let them pick a name from the hat things went back to the way he wanted them too. He was in front of Kensuke Aida right now and the boy stuck his hand into the hat and pulled out a random name without even looking. He thought it wouldn't matter who he got, he was going to get ridiculed for it anyway. Plus the girl would probably yell out “ewww I got teamed with the hentai.” His over embellished reputation was something most of the girls in the class played with as well, it wasn't only Asuka. Actually most of the girls in the class didn't mind him a bit as he was much better now than he used to be and they knew he was just playing around. There were far worse boys in the class to get paired with who actually meant the lewd things they said.

 

Unfortunately for Kensuke he got one of the names of the girls that made the difference between most and all. Mana Kirishima. He slunk back into his chair and almost tried to put the name back in the hat. It wasn't like he had the same kind of relationship with the girl as Asuka, one of hatred, it was just that the two of them were from completely different worlds.

 

Mana's father owned a hotel and real estate along the shores of Tokyo-3 Sea so her family was rather well off and the girl had never worked a day in her life because of that fact. Something she never neglected to tell people. Kensuke though was just another working stiff and one of the lower class to her. And when her name was read she only reacted with looking up for a second and then went back to working on her nails. She couldn't care less who she was partnered with, they were going to do all the work as far as she was considered. She had better things to do and a reputation to uphold.

 

While this was not exactly a match made in heaven it wasn't the match from hell that showed up a couple minutes later. This was a match that made the teacher rethink his idea and next year he was going to match up the students himself ahead of time to prevent something like this from happening again. When Kaworu Nagisa drew a name from the hat he picked the worse one possible for him. Rei Ayanami.

 

There were actually a couple audible gasps when Rei's name was read. It was no secret to the class that those two people didn't get along. To say they didn't ever talk to each other was putting it mildly, it was more like the two of them didn't even recognize the other's existence. The bitterness between the two started very early on when they were both Angels. It got even colder when Rei canceled out his AT field and forced him to go to a different plan of attack, one in which he had to sacrifice himself for SEELE's objectives. The desire to see Kaworu gone was more than just an order from the Commander but what Lilith wanted as well.

 

But while Rei cast off that part of her when she came back it was obvious that Kaworu didn't. There was still a lot of hatred brewing there and considering he knew he couldn't manipulate her like other girls he wanted nothing to do with her. To him Rei was an annoying little prude that didn't deserve to come back. They may not have been the hosts to Lilith and Adam anymore but they still couldn't coexist all that well. This was a war so cold you would freeze to death in a second if you somehow found your way in the middle of it.

 

For the first time all year the teacher saw Rei look perturbed. She wasn't the only one though as another girl was boring a hole through the back of the gray haired kid's skull, looking like she wanted to kill him. While this wasn't the first time he had seen Asuka look at Kaworu like that he was genuinely worried about Rei. She was one of his favorite students. While she was obviously very smart she was also humble and polite too. Any time he tried to help her with anything she always told him thank you no matter if he was helpful or not. Add to this that she was never rude or disrupted class and she was basically a perfect student to him.

 

And now the teacher felt really bad for Rei as she had gotten arguably the worst of the bunch of boys in his opinion. Kaworu was obviously a bright student but his grades were only average as he never put forth any effort into his homework, if he did it at all that is. The kid always had some excuse or another why he didn't do the homework and usually it was one that made him look like a saint so it wasn't really his fault. A teacher may swallow an excuse like this once in a while but after enough times it's clear that the student is unreliable. In the beginning of the year the teacher was actually sort of fond of Kaworu but by now he realized the kid was another one of those that believed life should be handed to him on a silver platter.

 

But unfortunately there was nothing he could do about it as this was just the way things turned out to be. He quickly moved on to the last group of boys and let them pick the few remaining names left. Once that was done he handed out the bags of sugar to each of the girls and went over the rules of this exercise. The whole time he was doing this he continually felt worse and worse as Rei's expression never changed and he could read the words Kaworu was grumbling to himself. None of them were flattering in the least and he could clearly read the words “fucking prude” on the boys lips a couple times.

 

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After the lunch bell rang all the teens were going to their various places to eat and Mana walked by Kensuke's desk. She dropped the sugar bag down on it. “Here it's your turn now. I'm done taking care of this stupid thing.”

 

Kensuke didn't mind having it from now till the end of class but he did tell her “I have baseball practice this afternoon.”

 

“So?” Mana said.

 

“I need you to watch it for me then” Kensuke answered in a leading way as Mana should have already figured that out in his opinion.

 

But Mana told him “No. I got better things to do than carry around some stupid sack of sugar.”

 

“I can't carry around the bag while I'm at practice.”

 

“Then skip practice” Mana told him. “It's your problem now.” And then Mana walked out of the room to go join her senior friends outside.

 

After staring at the back of Mana in disbelief as the girl left the room he turned his attention over to the teacher. “I can't skip practice.”

 

In the real world he would have had to but this was high school and the teacher recognized that fact. While the official rules involved with this project seemed harsh none of the teachers were hard assed about them. If you had a true problem you could always ask your teacher for help. “Well” the teacher started. “Think of this as a situation with two working parents. Right now both of you are too busy to take care of your child for a certain set of time, what do you do?”

 

A fairly simple question with an obvious answer. “Get a babysitter.”

 

“Exactly” the teacher answered. And as a little hint to point Kensuke in the right direction the teacher told him “You know you're not the only person who has this conflict. Certain other parents in this room have conflicts due to baseball as well, you might want to talk to them about what possible help they found.”

 

Kensuke bowed respectfully to his teacher and thanked him for the help. He then walked over to where Touji was sitting with Hikari as he garnered rather easily that is who the teacher was talking about. “Since you both are busy with baseball, who are you getting to help take care of your baby?”

 

“Isn't Mana going to take care of yours during that time?” Hikari asked as she really should have been.

 

“No” Kensuke sort of grumbled. “She's “too busy” to do that.”

 

“That's not a surprise” Touji said after swallowing down some of his lunch.

 

“Tell me about it” Kensuke griped. “I knew something like this was going to happen the second I picked her name.”

 

“If you want I could go talk to her” Hikari offered as she was the class rep and this was in the realm of her responsibility.

 

Kensuke sighed “A fat lot of good that would do.”

 

Hikari wanted to argue that point but sadly she couldn't. She had already talked to Mana several times about various things this year but her words always fell on deaf ears. The girl was just too conceited for her own good. And if Mana couldn't whine or complain her way out of some task that everyone else had to do, like cleaning the classroom, she would simply call home and get her parents to complain. She kind of gave Kensuke a sorry face as she didn't know if she could do anything to help him.

 

Touji though asked “What're you going to do when you have to work and she won't help?”

 

That was a pretty good question and unfortunately for him he didn't have the answer. Technically he could just throw the bag of sugar in his apartment and leave it there but knowing his luck he would get caught doing that as he delivered food to teachers at this school quite frequently. And he didn't want to risk having to take a summer class because Misato already gave him the okay to return to 40 hours a week at his job for the summer months. Failing this assignment would probably put that agreement in jeopardy. “Crap! This sucks. Why couldn't I get a better partner?”

 

Hikari though was a nice friend and she helped him out. “If it's ok with the teacher I will take care of your baby while you're at work.”

 

“Really?” Kensuke asked. And when Hikari nodded yes he told her “You are a life saver.” The teacher didn't have a problem with this considering the situation and it was an agreeable deal.

 

As for Kensuke's original question about who was going to take care of Touji and Hikari's kid, Hikari told him “Asuka said she would do it.”

 

“You're kidding me?”

 

“No” Hikari answered. “She doesn't have any problems with it. She's going to be there anyway taking care of Shinji's and hers so it's no big deal. If you asked nicely she would probably take care of yours too.”

 

Kensuke didn't know if he believed this or not but it was at least worth a try. It's not like he had that many other options so when Asuka and Shinji came back into the room from having lunch together Kensuke went up and asked her.

 

Considering Asuka felt bad for him getting stuck with such a loser in her opinion she didn't have a problem with it. So it meant she was looking after three bags of sugar now instead of two. It was no biggie to her.

 

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At the same time Kensuke was dealing with his problems Rei had some of her own. Since it seemed that all the other kids were switching up who was taking care of their baby during lunch she figured she might as well too. So as she made her way out of the classroom to find a nice sunny spot to go eat her lunch she placed the package of sugar on top of Kaworu's desk. Not a word was said between the two of them.

 

Unfortunately for Rei when she got back from lunch she found the sugar bag sitting back on her desk with Kaworu nowhere in sight. This was a major violation of the main rule and she became worried that she was going to get called on it as the teacher was sitting at his desk and was sure to have noticed the bag sitting by itself already. But she didn't have to worry too much as the teacher told her it was ok. Apparently Kaworu had a family emergency come up that he had to leave school for so that is why the bag was just sitting there instead of being with him. While Rei was relieved at this turn of events for herself she was also very angry with her assigned partner.

 

While most of the other people in the class didn't know much about Kaworu's family life she was well aware of his situation. Both of them came back from third impact with nothing and nobody, or at least that is how it seemed to be. Out of the graciousness of her heart Misato took in and protected Rei. But after what Kaworu did to Shinji she refused to extend that same gratuity to the other former angel. She wanted nothing to do with the boy and she left it up to others to figure out how to handle him.

 

But that never happened as while Misato was trying to get Rei situated and under her custody Kaworu went out and emancipated himself. He didn't need anyone to take care of him as he had the resources to take care of himself. Before Misato could even sign Rei up to live in the studio apartment down the hall from her he somehow found and paid for a posh apartment near the school. Where he got the money to do this no one knew. Not even the people from Nerv or Kaji had ever heard about the bank account that he was using, and technically it was his as it was under his name. The benefactor who deposited the money into this account was unknown so there was nothing anyone could do about it.

 

As for Kaworu he created a back-story for himself so no one would be suspicious of him or his surroundings. While he was technically an emancipated adult and lived alone he apparently had family in the area and only moved out to make it easier to commute to school. Unfortunately those who knew the truth about him couldn't say anything about this without casting unwanted questions on themselves so no one ever said anything about his supposed family.

 

This is what pissed Rei off. He had used an excuse she knew was blatantly false to get out of the assignment, and there was nothing she could say about it. The jerk was being his usual manipulative self again and she just had to put up with it. And at the end of the day while everyone else in the class was making up schedules on who got to take care of the baby when, she was stuck holding the bag by herself.

 

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The next day when Rei got to school she was surprised to see that Kaworu had shown up. She almost expected that he was going to be gone for the whole week. But considering what he told her when she tried to put down the bag of sugar on his desk he might as well have. “Keep that stupid thing away from me or I will have another family emergency.”

 

Rei could only glare at him with malice for that. But the kid didn't care as he got up from his desk and went to go talk to a girl out in the hall. Rei was going to be stuck with this pseudo baby for the whole time. Somehow this didn't surprise her as much as it should have. It did raise a question in her mind though, what was she going to do about tonight? She could just throw it in her apartment and leave for work but that would be irresponsible of her. While she wasn't exactly fond of this assignment she did respect the true nature of it. It was supposed to teach kids a little something about responsibility and some of the travails of taking care of a baby. And taking care of a bag of sugar was nothing compared to the real thing as the teacher repeatedly told the class so she suspected it was also an assignment meant to help ward off teenage pregnancies.

 

Since the teacher wasn't around yet to ask what to do she walked over to Hikari and explained her problem to the class rep. Hikari had told her the same thing was happening to Kensuke and also told her the solution that was approved by the teacher. While Hikari did offer to help her too, Rei wasn't going to burden her friend with yet another bag of sugar. She had a different idea and called Misato, who had no problems helping her out while she was at work. Misato was actually a bit impressed with Rei for finding a responsible way to handle her problem. And when Rei talked to the teacher he had no problems with the set up. Lots of kids in his class had after school jobs so he was pretty flexible towards that sort of thing.

 

After all of those complications were taken care of Rei sat down at her desk and took out one of her study books. With the end of the school year coming up she was starting to feel the pressure of her upcoming entrance exams. How she wished she were just a normal student as plain old high school final exams would be a fantasy right now. Those things were nothing compared to entrance exams. Even Asuka told her she wouldn't trade places with the girl as those exams were more troubling then the ones she was going to be taking for her college finals. While Asuka's exams were more in-depth they were only on a couple basic subjects. Rei had to study for anything and everything.

 

She let out a sigh as she opened up yet another in an endless stream of exam books. That was probably the most annoying part of her advanced situation. No matter how many exam booklets she seemed to do there was always another one waiting for her. Misato had a pile of them at her disposal for the girl, the teacher had a bunch of them sitting in his desk for Rei, and even Asuka had several that she would give her. Mostly they were ones that Asuka had never gotten around to doing herself. So as Rei scribbled away in her test book the teacher started on the first topic of the day for the rest of the class.

 

Well except for Asuka of course. She already had a pair or headphones on and was listening to a lecture. This was one of the ones she couldn't tune out either as it was taught by Professor Fuyutsuki himself. And not only did she have to pay attention she had to answer him too, by way of instant message. For the good professor had a laptop sitting on his desk all queued up for Asuka's interaction with his class. If he had gotten his way there would also be a little video camera attached to Asuka's computer too but the girl successfully argued that it would be a distraction to her fellow students. His follow up argument was always the same, that she should really be there in person but luckily for her she had Misato on her side in this matter.

 

Academically she knew she could probably handle college with very few problems but her current relationship with Shinji had taught her she still had some growing up to do before she should truly try it in person. Plus she was enjoying hanging around with kids her own age, they just seemed to understand her better than all the adults she used to be around.

 

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Asuka was sitting in the bleachers watching the baseball team practice. Currently she had three bags of sugar with her, two with dolls strapped to them to make them look better and one that was still just a plain bag of sugar. “Hey computer stooge! When the hell are you gonna fix your bag of sugar? You look stupider than usual lugging around just a plain bag while the rest of the school has dolls with theirs.”

 

“And just where do you expect me to get a doll?” Kensuke asked the obnoxious redhead.

 

“Mana duh!” Asuka replied. “Even that stuck up bitch has to have one or two around.”

 

“She says hers are all too valuable” Kensuke answered. He then threw the ball in is glove back to the pitcher. “Apparently they're all collector's items or something.”

 

“That dipshit” Asuka grumbled. This just sounded like some sort of stupid excuse to her. Although she wasn't all that surprised at having to take care of Kensuke's child again.

 

Apparently Mana didn't want to take care of it yet again today during class so she made a deal with Kensuke. If he took care of it during class she would take it home afterwards. You could tell just how good her word was based on the fact that Asuka was babysitting the bag of sugar right now.

 

Personally Mana didn't want to be seen with a geeky bag of sugar as it would ruin her reputation with all her senior friends. Who cared what her classmates thought, they were only second year students. She was so much cooler than any of them, after all why else would senior girls hang around with her. Plus she had another little surprise for her classmates that in her opinion made all of this baby crap pointless.

 

But Asuka knew she could get back at Mana for her abuse of Kensuke. It wouldn't even be that hard and she reached into her book bag looking for a couple pens. If Mana wasn't going to be courteous enough to strap a doll to the bag the least Asuka could do was make the sugar look presentable. So while the boys practiced Asuka entertained herself by drawing on Kensuke's baby. She knew he wouldn't get in any trouble for this as long as she left the teacher's signature on the bottom of the bag alone so it couldn't be a bad thing. Hell at least this way it would look more presentable. Plus it would royally piss off Mana, always a fun thing to Asuka. So Asuka drew a baby face on the bag of sugar and after practice was over Asuka gave the baby back and told Kensuke “Look, I made it cuter.”

 

Kensuke took one look at his bag of sugar and shook his head. “Red you are one in a billion.”

 

“Thank you” Asuka replied.

 

“That wasn't a compliment” Kensuke answered dryly.

 

Asuka just laughed at him “I don't care.” And then she took off for home with her baby in her arms and Shinji right next to her.

 

Kensuke just sighed as he looked down at the bag of sugar. It wasn't that Asuka did a bad job, in fact he was a bit impressed with her artistry. But did she have to give his baby blue eyes and red hair? It was just so tacky and conceded of the girl. Although as he thought about what Mana's reaction to their child would be he started to laugh. It served the girl right after she ditched him even after she promised she would take care of the baby tonight.

 

Kensuke wasn't the only one to chuckle at this either. He had to work tonight so he gave his baby to Hikari for safe keeping while he took off for his job. “This is so typically Asuka” Hikari giggled as she looked at the bag of sugar again while walking home with Touji.

 

“I think it would look better with brown eyes and brown hair” Touji replied.

 

“I don't know” Hikari answered. “I think brown eyes and black hair would look even better.”

 

Touji just turned to her and smiled. He then wrapped an arm around her waist and asked softly “Do you want to eat over at my place?”

 

“You mean cook dinner for your family?” Hikari smiled back coyly.

 

“Well we all love your cooking” Touji answered and then whispered into her ear “And I want to pay you back for it.”

 

Even though they intimately knew each other very well that still made Hikari blush. It also made the girl hurry up her walking pace and on the way into his apartment building she called her step mom and told her she would be making dinner for Touji tonight. Asuna just told her to have a good time and to be back before curfew. Lately Asuna and her had been getting along better, not like there was a real problem before, but the relationship was just different now.

 

It had been that way ever since Asuna bumped into Touji in the hall leading to the bathroom at Hikari's house. This just happened to happen at about 1:00 am and it was pretty obvious by his flustered appearance what was going on. But Asuna just told him to hurry along and didn't say a word to Hikari's dad about the incident. It wasn't like she was covering for Hikari so much as she approved of their adult relationship more than Hikari's dad did. And what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

 

Hikari's dad himself didn't even really disapprove of it in certain ways either, the guy very much liked Touji and knew the boy would protect his daughter. It was just that with Hikari being so grown up and in “that” kind of relationship it was sort of making him feel old. It didn't help matters that his youngest daughter was starting to show signs of being sexually active in some ways herself. And to beat all he couldn't even surrender to feeling old as he had another kid on the way.

 

So for the time being, and the sake of his sanity, it was just easier for him to do the denial thing and make life look like it was the way he wanted. Eventually he knew he would have to get over this but for right now that was the way things were going to be. A man can only handle so much stress, especially when it concerns his precious little girls who aren't so little anymore.

 

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When Rei got home from school she threw her book bag in a corner of her place as she had enough of those blasted study books for the day. She then set her sack of sugar down in one of her other chairs and retired herself to her massage chair for a little bit. She had to work today so she only had a little private time between school and her other commitments and in her mind this was the best way for her to spend it.

 

The only bad part about spending it this way was that it made the time move by oh so quickly and soon it was time for her to get up and go. She reluctantly stretched herself out a bit and then headed over to Misato's place.

 

Misato met her at the door with “Don't worry, I promise I will take good care of your baby for you.”

 

Rei gave her a half smile for that when she entered the apartment as she sort of felt silly doing all of this. She also felt silly as she asked “You're sure that this won't be any trouble?”

 

Misato only chuckled at that in response. Yes this whole thing was a bit on the ridiculous side but Misato understood what the teacher was trying to teach his students so she didn't have a problem with it. But as Misato set the bag of sugar down on the kitchen table Keiko asked from her highchair “Where baby?”

 

Both Misato and Rei looked at the real child questionably. “What are you talking about honey?”

 

Keiko looked back at her mommy for a second and then pointed at the bag of sugar. “Baby?”

 

Misato had to chuckle to herself again. Apparently her little girl must have made some sort of connection between the bags of sugar the teens were carrying around and a baby. But considering Asuka was playing with Keiko last night and had her “baby” with her the whole time she shouldn't have been all that surprised. Real little ones can make some rather peculiar connections in their minds. Plus add onto that was the fact that the doll Asuka was using for her baby was actually one of Keiko's and it wasn't so hard to believe. After figuring out what her little one was talking about Misato picked Keiko up out of her chair and brought her over to where the sack of sugar was. “This is Rei's baby.”

 

Keiko looked over at Rei first and then back at her mommy. She had a look of confusion on her face. This wasn't anything like her auntie Asuka and Uncle Shinji's baby. It was missing something so she started wiggling in her mommy's arms.

 

It was obvious Keiko wanted down to Misato so she obliged the little girl. Her and Rei then watched as the young one waddled over to her mass of toys and then started digging in it, throwing many things around in the process and creating a big mess. Misato could only cry quietly to herself as she had just picked up the mess that child had created before only moments ago. Sometimes her place resembled a battle zone and this time around it had nothing to do with her.

 

Finally Keiko found what she was looking for and she pulled one of her dollies out of the pile. She then walked back towards the two women looking at her and held out the doll. “Baby.” When both women didn't react to that correctly she walked close to Rei and pushed the doll at her feet “Baby.”

 

Misato figured out what Keiko was trying to say before Rei did so she told the confused blue haired girl “I think Keiko is trying to give you that doll so that it will be like Asuka and Shinji's.” Misato then bent down and picked up her little girl. “Are you sure about this Keiko? That's one of your favorites.”

 

Keiko cooed out a yes and pushed the doll into Rei's hands. She wanted Rei to have it so her bag of sugar would look like a real baby, at least to her.

 

Rei smiled at Keiko for this. “Thank you Keiko. You are a very nice girl.” And she gave the generous little cutey a kiss on her head.

 

Keiko absolutely loved this. Her auntie Rei was one of her favorite people in her life so she had no problem sharing one of her favorite toys with her. Plus maybe Rei would play with her and the dolly later on when she gave it back. That was something else she would really love.

 

So now even Rei had a doll for her so called baby and while she was away at work Misato strapped it to the bag of sugar and got it ready for when Rei would pick it up later.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

That Wednesday was a rather interesting day. The first explosion started off in the morning when Mana got a good look at Kensuke and hers baby. “How the hell could you let that bitch do this?!”

 

“Well if you would have took the baby home with you like you said you were going to, I wouldn't have had to leave it with Asuka during practice” Kensuke replied back smugly. There was nothing like a bit of divine justice to start out the day.

 

This of course infuriated Mana and she tore the sack of sugar out of Kensuke's hands and marched up to the teacher's desk. “Sohryu drew all over my baby. I demand that you fail her now!”

 

The teacher simply grabbed the sack of sugar and looked at the bottom of it. His signature was still there so he didn't see a problem. “All she did was decorate it. That isn't against the rules.”

 

“But this is my baby and I didn't want her to touch it” Mana complained.

 

“Then how did she get a hold of the baby?” the teacher asked. He was leading her somewhere with his questioning even if the girl didn't realize it. Other than Monday when he first handed out the bags of sugar he had yet to see the girl take care of it. He had even overheard the girl say she was going to take care of it yesterday but the fact that she was up there complaining to him right now must have meant that it didn't happen.

 

Mana responded to the teachers question with an accusation as she pointed at Kensuke. “That idiot let her do this.”

 

The teacher looked up at Kensuke and asked out “Mr. Aida, did you give your baby to Miss Sohryu?”

 

“Yup” Kensuke answered. “She takes care of it while I'm at practice.”

 

“See. He should fail this too and have to take a summer class.”

 

The teacher just shook his head. “Miss Kirishima, considering he seems to be the only one of you two who is actually taking part in this assignment I find it hard to agree with your argument.” The teacher had wanted to use whining instead of arguing but that would have been unprofessional of him.

 

“I have taken care of the baby too.” Mana replied quickly.

 

“When?” the teacher asked. And even before the girl could make something up he added “Because other than when I first handed out this assignment I have not seen you with your baby. And on top of that I remember overhearing you tell Mr. Aida yesterday that you were going to take care of your child after school if he took care of it during class. Now considering he had to use a babysitter during practice again I can only assume you didn't hold up your end of the bargain.”

 

“Well I….. uhhhh…” Mana started to stumble at this point as she didn't have a good answer for the teacher. Truthfully she never had any notion of taking care of the bag of sugar as she was going out with her friends after school and she only told Kensuke what she did so the kid would take care of it during class too. Still she was not happy with what Asuka had done and she protested “Well that doesn't change the fact that Asuka scribbled all over my baby. She should fail.”

 

The teacher let out a hasty breath as he was getting tired of this. “Mr. Aida do you have a problem with what Miss Sohryu did to your baby while she was taking care of it?”

 

He answered “No” with a straight face completely hiding the fact that this was funny to him.

 

“I see no problem then” the teacher responded. “If you don't want this to happen again Miss Kirishima I would suggest you start taking some personal responsibility in this assignment yourself. Otherwise I WILL be seeing you this summer.” Anyone in the room who overheard that could easily tell what the teacher was saying. It was a rather clear warning that Mana should start taking care of her baby or she would fail and have to take the summer class.

 

Mana responded to this warning with contempt as she swore under her breath and walked back to her desk. Along the way she showed just how much she was going to listen to her teacher as she shoved the sack of sugar back into Kensuke's arms. It didn't matter what her teacher said or did, she was not going to have to take that summer class. But while she was supremely confident of that what was bugging her the most was Asuka. The girl didn't even pay attention to her during all of that and was talking to Hikari, Touji, and Shinji over in a corner of the room. Not even once when Asuka's name was mentioned did the girl look up, the gall of that bitch. No one ignores her. She was after all so cool that she hung out with seniors.

 

Over in the corner though Asuka did know what was going on but it wasn't that big of a concern to her. Mana was just being her usual bitchy self and trying to get her in trouble again. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for this year. She knew Mana had it out for her but at this point she just didn't care anymore. But Asuka's nonchalant attitude didn't last as she overheard something else, which while she didn't show it, pissed her off royally.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

When Rei walked into the room she walked right past Kaworu. She wasn't going to try and get the kid to take care of their baby anymore as she knew it would be a waste of her time. And in fact since it now had one of Keiko's favorite dolls attached to it there was no way she was even going to let him touch it.

 

Kaworu on the other hand knew how much his abstention from the assignment was bugging Rei and also making her life a bit harder so he was loving it. So when she walked by he couldn't help but make some sort of crass statement that was designed to make this assignment even worse for her. “What kind of stupid looking doll is that? Only someone with absolutely no taste would play with that eyesore.”

 

Kaworu was surprised at Rei's reaction to that, she simply snubbed him and continued on walking to her desk. He figured even she would have taken offense to that.

 

And he was right, she did take offense to that. But Rei knew she didn't even have to say anything to get retribution. Sure it was true that the doll strapped to her package of sugar looked a bit different from everyone else's but there was a good reason for that. It wasn't a doll you could buy in Japan. In fact if you wanted a doll like the one she had you would have to go online and be able to read German for it was an exclusive limited edition Kathe Kruse doll. That was all Rei needed to know.

 

That jerk was going to get his comeuppance and she knew she wasn't going to have to dirty herself by talking to him for it to happen. Someone else had heard him say that too.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Right before lunch Kensuke got an IM from Asuka.

 

Asuka: Kensuke, do you still know how to impersonate other people on IM?

Kensuke: It's pretty simple actually. Why?

Asuka: No questions asked. Just send angel boy an IM from one of his sluts telling him to meet her on top of the roof at lunch.

 

Those words really made him want to ask why even though he wasn't supposed to, and normally he would have anyway, but he did owe Asuka big for taking care of his sack of sugar during practice so he decided this would be a good way to pay her back. He was just going to have to swallow his curiosity for now.

 

Kensuke: Ok.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

There was an immediate reaction when Kaworu walked back into the classroom near the end of lunch. He was limping, groaning a bit as one of his hands held his stomach, and the other hand was holding an ice pack on a swollen shut eye.

 

There were a couple of his fan girls in the room and they immediately rushed over to him along with Hikari following behind them. Even if she didn't like the kid it was still her responsibility to check up on him as the class's designated representative. She of course had to ask “What happened?”

 

Kaworu just sort of grumbled out “I tripped on the steps.”

 

Hikari didn't believe that explanation for a second. She had seen the aftermaths of fights enough times to know when someone got in one and there was no way Kaworu suffered the injuries he had by falling down the stairs. She began to stare at him and demanded “I want the truth.”

 

Kaworu didn't even look at her as he said “Just go away. I tripped on the steps and that's all.” Along with what he said there were two girls that echoed him with “Leave him alone Horaki. Can't you see he is hurt?” And “If he said he tripped then he tripped. Kaworu never lies.”

 

Hikari didn't like this one bit. It was her job to get to the bottom of this and administer punishment but the one person who could shed light onto the situation was not cooperating. But since he already had an ice pack that meant he had already been to the nurse's office so his fight must have happened at the beginning of lunch. She thought about this for a couple seconds and came up with a potential suspect.

 

She whipped her head around and yelled “Touji Suzuhara get over here right now!” Even though he was her boyfriend she still expected him to follow the rules and she personally didn't like him fighting as that was something she told him he was supposed to leave in his past.

 

Touji, who did look guilty because he was laughing at all of this in the back of the room, told the class rep “Don't look at me babe, I didn't do it. Wish I did but I didn't.”

 

“Then where were you at the beginning of lunch?” Hikari asked as he was her primary subject for the fact that he left for a little bit when lunch started. Plus while Kaworu was beat up it wasn't an ass kicking so it would have only took Touji a couple seconds at the most to inflict the type of injuries the kid had.

 

But Touji had an alibi. “I went to hit the can and then got a candy bar. Just ask Shinji, he was with me the whole time.”

 

When Hikari looked over at Shinji the boy nodded his head yes to that. She wasn't exactly sure if Shinji was telling the truth but she doubted he would collaborate with this excuse if it were false. It would be just too easy to disprove. “Ok, you're off the hook Touji. But you're going to tell me what happened right? Because I bet you know.”

 

Touji looked at Hikari from his desk “Sorry babe but I don't have a clue.”

 

Hikari stared at him a second more. She had been around him long enough where she could tell if he was lying or not so she sighed when she realized he was telling the truth. He may have found the situation funny but he didn't have anything to do with it. This of course left her not knowing what happened and she didn't like that. She took her duty as class rep seriously so she had to do her best to find the truth. Now if Touji hadn't beat up Kaworu, who did? She thought about it for a couple seconds more and remembered Touji wasn't the only suspect who left at lunch time. “Asuka Langley Sohryu!”

 

There was a little “Ooooo” from the class after that. Hikari had said Asuka's name in a way that just meant trouble.

 

Asuka though just blew it off with “Wow. You can say my name just like Misato does.” The naughty little laugh after Asuka said that made Hikari suspect the girl even more.

 

Another similarity between Hikari and Misato is that they both didn't like Asuka fighting and even though she was her friend if Asuka did beat up Kaworu, Hikari would have to go after her for it. But that didn't happen as after Asuka got a good laugh out of the situation she simply said “I didn't do it.”

 

Hikari was about to tell her she didn't believe her but she then heard “Asuka was helping me out with a physics question from one of my study books.”

 

Hikari heard several things at once after that. Since she was standing by Kaworu she heard him mutter a pissed off “Fucking prude” under his breath. At the same time she heard Asuka say “See I told ya so.” And finally she heard Kensuke almost fall out of his seat in laughter. If Hikari didn't know better she could have sworn that Rei had just lied for Asuka as a cover story. Now that was something that just didn't happen. Rei was one of the most truthful people she knew. But as she was standing there confused as all could be the teacher walked in.

 

When the teacher walked back into the classroom from lunch he immediately noticed there was a problem. It was kind of hard not to with Kaworu sitting up front holding an ice pack to his eye. Something had obviously happened during lunch and he signaled for Hikari to come up and talk to him. He listened closely as Hikari explained the situation but it was clear from it that while Hikari had her beliefs, she didn't have any proof. He then looked over at Kaworu “So you're saying you tripped on the steps and that was it?”

 

You could tell Kaworu didn't want to answer this question as he sort of looked away and just grumbled “Yes.”

 

The teacher though wasn't looking at Kaworu so much as the red head in the back of the room that he could see out of the corner of his eye. The horribly arrogant smile she displayed when he answered yes was all he needed to know. But while he knew the truth now there was nothing he could do. If Kaworu wasn't making any accusations or admitting he got beat up there was nothing he could do about it. And since Asuka wasn't bragging about it right now he knew she wasn't going to say anything either. Without definite proof his hands were tied. He looked back over at Hikari “Let this one go.”

 

“But I can't do that” Hikari answered.

 

“There's nothing else you can do” the teacher told her in a hushed voice. He didn't want the other kids in the class overhearing this conversation. “Listen, both you and I know what happened but neither of us can prove it so there's nothing we can do about it.”

 

“But if we just pushed a little more I'm sure Nagisa would say something” Hikari answered. She had picked up on this being a private conversation so she whispered that to him.

 

“No he won't” the teacher answered. “Think of it this way. He just got beat up by a girl. Do you know what will happen to his reputation if he admits that?”

 

“But this is Asuka we are talking about.” Hikari countered as truthfully there probably wasn't a guy in the school who would want to go up against her.

 

“Still she's a girl” the teacher repeated. “His reputation would be destroyed and he would lose a lot of respect from not only guys but other girls. And to a boy like him his reputation is more important than the truth.”

 

Hikari sort of glowered at this as she made her way back to her seat as the end of lunch bell was about to ring. The teacher was right and she knew how calculating Asuka could be. The girl must have planned this out ahead of time so she would be able to get away with it. The question was how. She knew her friend had wanted to lay a beating on Kaworu for a long time now but she always figured if it was going to happen she would be very public about it. Not only would she have beat him up but she would have publicly embarrassed him. That was more of the girl's M.O. than staying quiet.

 

Plus it raised the question of just how exactly she did it without getting caught. This was high school after all and if there was a fight usually everyone knew about it and a good many people would have seen it as well. But that didn't seem to be the case, and in fact no one really seemed to be reacting to this at all. She wanted to go ask Kensuke because of the way he laughed but the boy was not as much of a blabbermouth as he used to be. In fact she knew he would be as tight lipped about knowing anything as Rei would most likely be.

 

As for Rei, Hikari knew there was no point even asking the girl anything. If Rei really did lie to cover up for Asuka then that lie was going to have to be the truth as Rei was not a girl who you could get to recant things she didn't want to. Other than those two the only other person that might have known anything was Shinji. She didn't even have to think to know that was a dead end. And as Hikari looked around the room during class she could see confusion. She suspected most of the class must have been in the dark too.

 

And Hikari was right about that. If Touji hadn't done it and neither did Asuka there weren't any real suspects left in the room. Both of those people had alibis that were verified by other people so the rest of the room was left thinking that either he did fall down the stairs like he said or he got beat up by another guy. Kaworu was after all one of the bigger flirts in school so he probably hit on some guys girlfriend and got beat up for that. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened in their school. Hell it wouldn't even be the eighth or ninth as that sort of thing happened quite often as quarrels over the opposite sex was generally the biggest provocateur of fights in most schools.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

The next day Kaworu was still steamed about the whole thing. It wasn't that Asuka had beaten him so hard, in fact other than the shiner on his eye he was fine now, it was just that he didn't understand why she beat him up. All he remembered was walking up to the roof and after he shut the door he saw Asuka waiting for him. He wasn't even able to ask why as she slugged him right away and told him to watch what he said about Keiko. Then she kicked him in the stomach while he was down and then again in the leg for good measure.

 

He knew the girl had it in for him but even Asuka didn't beat people up for no reason. And for the life of him he couldn't figure out what he did to piss her off enough to get her to strike. That was a line in the sand that he always stayed away from. At first he thought maybe she had a friend named Keiko and it was one of the girls he had been with recently but he never remembered sleeping with a girl by that name. Then again he did score with a girl that was drunk at the last party he went to. But he specifically remembered that her name wasn't Keiko. He wasn't drunk like the girl so it was easy for him to remember that. He tried to think up a couple other scenarios but he just couldn't ever remember hooking up with a girl named Keiko. He was left rather confused by all of this and because of that he was pissed off. According to his thinking if he was going to get beaten up for being with some girl he should at least have been able to be with her in the first place.

 

And when he saw Rei come into the room in the morning with what was supposed to be their baby he decided to take it out on her. He was very condescending as he told her “I would take care of that baby if you weren't such a prude and knew how to spread your legs.” He finished that slight with a callous little snicker.

 

The fact that he had said this out loud caused a couple gasps and a few more snickers around the room. It also caused Rei to stop dead in her tracks and whip around to face him. She gave him an icy cold stare for a couple seconds before she raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face. She then glared at the shocked boy for a second longer before turning back around and walking towards her desk.

 

The funny thing about the slap though was the inverse ratio it caused in the classroom. For those that snickered before at what Kaworu said gasped this time while those that gasped, snickered. Or just flat out laughed as Asuka almost fell out of her seat when she saw that.

 

Hikari was shaking her head at the whole debacle as while Kaworu had it coming with regards to what he said she still wished Rei wouldn't have slapped the boy. Now she would have to report it to the teacher and Rei might get in trouble for it.

 

Then again she might not as a lot of times teachers will relegate such incidents as teens being teens and as long as the situation was done and nothing else happened it wasn't worth worrying about. Luckily for Rei that was the case as the teacher only told her not to do it again and Kaworu to watch his mouth. The last thing he needed was a repeat of yesterday.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Asuka was doing her usual babysitting while watching the baseball team practice. It was a rather intense practice too as the coach was putting them through the ringer for losing yesterday. Granted the team they lost to wasn't in their league and was actually one of the Koshien favorites that was stacked with a bunch of kids that had a shot at going pro. But none of that mattered to the coach. He viewed this as a statement game and wanted to show the big boys what his little team could do. Unfortunately it was a statement game for the other team. Basically the statement was that if Tokyo-4 high wanted to compete with the big baseball schools they would have to start recruiting players instead of relying on a couple good ones from the area. The 6-0 drubbing was proof of that. But while they did get drubbed it wasn't as bad as last years drubbing in which they lost 15-0. Too bad the coach didn't take that improvement into consideration as he had the team running around the diamond as fast as they could over and over.

 

This was an interesting perspective to Asuka and she asked Hikari tentatively “I don't act like that when we lose a meet in swimming, right?”

 

Hikari just laughed at her “Oh god yes” while getting some more water for the boys.

 

Asuka sat there on the lowest bleacher for a couple more minutes watching the baseball team get run into the ground before she said to herself “I really need to learn to lighten up.” She then looked around nervously to make sure no one heard her say that. There was a quick wipe of the brow when she realized no one had.

 

A little later on while the baseball team was vigorously practicing their defensive skills Asuka noticed a baton fall by her foot. She looked down at it and then picked it up as one of the cheerleaders came running over. It was obviously a first year as the girl was very much intimidated and bowed nervously while saying “I apologize Miss Sohryu. I didn't mean to drop it. I promise never to bug you again.”

 

“For crying out loud girl, I'm not as big of an ogre as some of the girls tell you” Asuka laughed. She realized the poor girl was probably scared half to death about this. Maybe in hindsight beating up that cheerleader last year wasn't as good of an idea as she thought. She then smiled at the young cheerleader and said “The key to the move you're trying to do is all in the wrist. Keep moving your wrist like you are still twirling it while the baton is in the air so when it comes down you will be in synch with it.” Asuka couldn't resist the chance to show off and she added “Like this” as she twirled the baton with multi colored streamers at the ends at an incredibly fast pace. After a couple seconds of doing that she threw the twirling baton high up in the air and perfectly snatched it when it came down, never once missing a beat.

 

The astonished cheerleader with giant eyes muttered out “Y-you're even better than Kaiya at that.” She then slapped a hand over her mouth as that could have been construed as an insult towards the head cheerleader.

 

Asuka though just chuckled at this and told her “I won't say a thing if you don't” as she was sure Kaiya hadn't overheard that. She then gave the baton back to the girl and told her good luck in getting the trick right. The girl bowed to her and thanked her for the advice before she ran back over to where the other cheerleaders were. Asuka watched for a second more and then frowned as it looked like all the cheerleaders were surprised that she came back intact. She was really going to have to do something about that image of hers. But while she thought it she wasn't actually going to do anything as she turned her attention back to the boys.

 

No more than a minute later though did Kaiya walk over to Asuka and tell her “If you're going to show me up like that the least you could do is do it while wearing a cheerleader outfit?”

 

“I thought you guys didn't want me on the team” Asuka sort of smarted off. Asuka was bored right now and looking for someone to talk to as watching over three bags of sugar while everyone else was doing something was not that much fun.

 

“That was last years cheerleaders” Kaiya said. “If you can behave yourself I doubt anyone would even care if you came back.”

 

“See, that's where the problem is” Asuka explained. “I can't behave. Just ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you it's true.”

 

Kaiya just stared at Asuka. On one hand the girl was absolutely right about that. And on the other, well the girl just had some amazing talents. “So you're just going to let your talents go to waste then?”

 

“Afraid so in this case” she told the cheerleader. “Besides you wouldn't want me on the team as you'd never get me to participate in the competitions.”

 

“Despite what you think those events are really fun” Kaiya told her trying to persuade Asuka a little.

 

“Oh I'm sure they are” Asuka said seriously. “It's just that I wouldn't react well to the judges and I might do something to get the team disqualified. I don't think the team would want someone who was like that on it.”

 

“True” Kaiya said looking down. “It's just that” she then whispered this next part to Asuka “I would like someone with talent around next year. I'm not knocking your class or anything but none of the 2nd years really stand out. Plus some of them aren't who I want leading this squad when I'm gone.”

 

“What's wrong with them?” Asuka whispered back sensing this might have been something Kaiya didn't want the other cheerleaders to overhear.

 

“A couple of the girls who are leading candidates to take over the squad when I leave are too much like the girls that trained them” Kaiya whispered.

 

That got Asuka to raise an eyebrow. “I didn't exactly like who trained them.”

 

“Me neither” Kaiya answered. “I was never fond of the bully tactics they used. In fact that's the problem I have right now. Some of the girls who were pushed around by the seniors last year see next year as their chance to do the same.” It was at this point that Asuka could tell that Kaiya was serious about what she was talking about as the girl sat down right next to her on the bleachers. The girl just had a look on her face that said she was worried about the future. “I mean it's not like all the second year girls are like that, it's just that it only takes a couple of them to influence a squad. And that's what we have.”

 

“I can kinda see your point” Asuka said looking over at the practicing cheerleaders.

 

Kaiya sighed as she looked too. There was a reason the team was made mostly of seniors and first year girls with only a handful of second year's. Most of the girls from last year didn't want to put up with all that bossing around and humiliating shit so they left. Already it left the squad looking a little unbalanced and if the old string of events happened again it would leave the squad in sorry shape for the future. “Typically first year girls don't even compete in competitions as they're still in training but this year we had no choice but to put a couple on our squad.”

 

“Things didn't go to well I take it?” Asuka asked.

 

Kaiya shook her head no. “We pretty much have been coming in last or near last for the whole year.”

 

“Wow, that's rough.”

 

“Yeah” Kaiya sighed again. “Not exactly the type of legacy someone can look back on with pride. But at least I won't be known as a bitch who terrorized her squad.”

 

“Ok I'm about to sound like a total hypocrite here but I would be more proud of being known as a good leader versus a successful one.” Asuka almost had to take a double take at her own words as they were uncharacteristically not her. But she had done a lot of growing up this year and she was starting to realize what was more important in the grand scheme of things.

 

“Oh I'm proud of the job I have done in that sense” the cheerleader responded. “It's just that I don't want it all to be undone next year.”

 

“Well can't you pick who is going to be the boss next year?” Asuka asked as that would pretty much solve all of the girl's problems right there.

 

“I get to have a say but next year's leader of the squad will be voted on by the second years at the end of the school year. As reigning captain I'm allowed to vote too but my vote only counts as much as any other girl's vote.” Kaiya explained.

 

“And your worried your vote isn't going to mean anything?”

 

“Exactly” Kaiya responded. “Out of the six second year students there are two that I wouldn't mind being in charge as they are nice but also two that I definitely don't want as it will be a return to the old ways. As it stands now it's one of the girls I don't want in charge that will probably get voted in as the head cheerleader next year.”

 

“Can't you get the two you like to band together and force her out?” Asuka asked as that would be what she would try.

 

“I already did that, but it isn't enough. It's only three votes and we need more but I doubt we'll get them. The two girls I don't want in charge are in collusion with each other because they both want to boss people around and one of the other girls is a toady of theirs.” Kaiya explained. “That leaves the last girl as the swing vote, and while she's nice too she knows if she sides with me she will get bullied to no end next year by the other three girls.”

 

“Winning by scare tactics” Asuka said looking at the girl sorry. “It's a very effective technique to get what you want and I'm sorry to tell you this but you're screwed.”

 

“I know” Kaiya replied looking down. This sense of foreboding was not a good feeling for the girl. But then Kaiya looked up at Asuka “I have given this a lot of thought so please just hear me out before you say no…”

 

Asuka interrupted her right there as she knew where this was going. “Don't even try it. There's no amount of begging that will get me to join the cheer squad. I simply don't want to put up with all that crap.”

 

“I'm not going to beg” Kaiya explained. “I want to propose a compromise.”

 

“Compromise?”

 

“Yes. I came up with this idea a while back and I think I can make it fly” Kaiya told the reluctant redhead. “Since you got kicked off the squad last year for fighting letting you back on without some form of “punishment” simply wouldn't be fair.”

 

Asuka couldn't help but smirk at this. It was very clear to her that Kaiya herself was using some very underhanded tactics to get what she wanted. This was something Asuka could sort of appreciate as she herself may have been known to stoop to such levels on occasion, even if she never admitted to it.

 

“So I was thinking since your fight caused us to pull out of one of the main cheerleading competitions last year it would be unfair to the other girls if you came back and were allowed to participate in such events.”

 

“So basically I would be something like a cheerleader under probation?”

 

“Yes” Kaiya answered. “And since what you did was so bad last year, even though I don't want to, the only punishment I can think of that would fit this particular crime was to ban you from all competitions for a full year. Starting next year of course.”

 

“Well of course” Asuka smiled back. “After all I was a very bad girl last year and this would only be fair.” Asuka was finding she had a whole new level of respect for the cheerleading squad and especially its captain. But there were still some minor concerns before she would say yes. “What about the teacher who's the squad's advisor? If this would mean going behind a teacher's back then I doubt it could happen. I got a guardian who is very intrusive into my life and would not like it one bit. And I really don't want to go against her just for a situation like this.”

 

“Don't worry about her” Kaiya answered. “I already discussed some of my apprehensions about next year with her and she told me to do whatever I thought was appropriate.”

 

“She didn't even question what you had in mind?” Asuka asked.

 

Kaiya shook her head no. “She told me rather pointedly that she was just an advisor and the running of the squad was up to us students. Anything we came up with by consensus would be fine with her.”

 

Asuka could read between the lines in that statement rather easily. Kaiya was given complete permission to solve this problem by whatever means necessary. But Asuka wasn't ready to say yes yet as she spelled out another one of her concerns. “I have swimming in the spring… and I dedicate myself to that completely.”

 

“That's not a big deal anymore” Kaiya answered. “We lost a lot of students last year because the old captain required mandatory practices and that you drop out of all other sports. In order to get our numbers back up I rescinded those rules. Just show up whenever you can during the spring and that should be good enough. There are already a couple other girls on the squad with the same situation as yours so it won't matter.”

 

“What about summer?” Asuka then asked. “I like my vacation and I have zero intentions of giving it up to go twirl a baton.”

 

“You and most of the rest of the squad” Kaiya sighed. This was another reason why the team wasn't that good. Not too many of the girls took it seriously.

 

Asuka was very impressed by how much Kaiya had thought this out and under these conditions she was very tempted to say yes now. But there was one final concern she had so she asked if Kaiya could watch her “babies” (that elicited a giggle out of the head cheerleader) while she went to go ask someone a quick question. Kaiya of course said yes and Asuka walked up to the backstop fence and yelled out “Hey Shin-kun! I decided to forgive and forget with the cheerleaders. You mind if I join the squad?” and just to make sure she got her way she added on a tempting “I promise to wear the cute little cheerleading outfit a lot.”

 

At first Shinji couldn't believe what he heard. But the boy sure as hell heard the second part and he turned to look at Asuka, completely missing the ball that was thrown in his direction and not even caring that it dribbled into the outfield.

 

The stupid looking grin on her boyfriend's face and the glazed over eyes were all the approval Asuka needed and she knew he had no problems with it. If anything she thought she saw a twinkle of lust in those dark blue eyes. She made a quick mental note to pick up a cheerleading costume before she left for home today. She also stuck her tongue out at the baseball coach as he yelled at her to stop distracting his second baseman.

 

Just about every practice that girl tried to do something that would totally and completely distract Shinji just so she could prove that she was more important than the silly game he played. The coach hated this, but Shinji didn't care and most of the team found it funny. Especially today as it was a much needed break from the grueling pace of practice.

 

Asuka then returned to the bleachers and her attention to Kaiya “So who is it that we want in and who do we not?”

 

“Umm do you have a piece of paper and something to write with?” Kaiya wanted to get this written down so there would be no screw ups.

 

“Sure” Asuka answered reaching into her backpack. She then gave a notebook and pencil to Kaiya.

 

“Ok, here are the six girls on the team that along with us are going to be voting.” And Kaiya wrote them down: Rini, Tia, Kotono, Tani, Sumi, and Shika. “Rini and Tia are the girls I like. We flipped a coin earlier and Tia's the one we're going to nominate as captain but that doesn't really matter as the two of them are best friends and will share the responsibility.”

 

“Better them than me” Asuka interjected with a chuckle.

 

“Trust me, there are days I feel like that too” Kaiya kidded back before continuing. “Kotono is the girl I want to introduce you to as she's the one who we need on our side to avoid a tie.”

 

“So she's the one the other three are threatening to bully?”

 

“Yup” Kaiya answered. “This is really unfair because she's a nice girl too. She just got stuck in a bad situation that she didn't deserve to be.”

 

“I'm all too familiar with those kinds of situations” Asuka told her. “Don't worry I will just drop a hint or two that she's with me and that should chase the other girls off. At least if they know what's good for them. So who's the lead bitch of the other three?”

 

“That would be Tani. Sumi is her little flunky and Shika is just going along with her till she finds the right time to stab Tani in the back.”

 

“Oh one of “those” deals” Asuka remarked. Asuka always found the intricacies of high school life so interesting. It was like having a first hand view of a soap opera. “Well I can guarantee you one thing, Shika's absolutely going to hate you now.”

 

“You have bad blood with her or something?”

 

“Not her specifically but one of her friends and I don't get along” Asuka answered.

 

“Mana Kirishima?”

 

“How'd you guess?” Asuka answered not expecting Kaiya to even know the girl.

 

“She shows up at all the senior parties” Kaiya responded. “Trust me, we have all heard her bitch about you to no end.”

 

“Well that's because I have something that she wants” Asuka smirked. “And there's no way she will ever get it.” Asuka then looked out at the ball field to clarify what she was talking about.

 

Kaiya just chuckled about that. Nothing in the world could get two girls to hate each other more than a boy. Kaiya then gave a clue to Asuka on just why Mana was so popular with the seniors. “I guess throwing around money doesn't impress guys like him?”

 

“Money means next to nothing to my Shin-kun” Asuka answered and then let out a frustrated guffaw. “Almost to a fault even.”

 

“Oh I'm sure that's such a bad thing.” Kaiya kidded back sarcastically before asking “So do you know any of the other second year girls?”

 

“I sort of know Rini. She was in my class last year” Asuka answered. “Always had boy troubles from what I remember.”

 

“That's Rini” Kaiya giggled. “She's got that cute little innocent look going for her that the boys fall all over. Makes me jealous sometimes.”

 

“You?” Asuka questioned as being the head cheerleader pretty much solidified Kaiya's reputation as being one of the hottest girls in school.

 

But the girl nodded her head yes. “When a boy sees Rini they see a girl they want to date. When they see me all they think about is sex.”

 

Asuka could understand that rather easily. While it is nice to know that a guy desires you for your body most girls also want that same guy to desire them for who they are. Most times those things aren't mutually exclusive to each other and it is hard to find that special guy in which they are. Asuka had to smile while looking out at Shinji when that thought ran through her mind. She had found the right guy for her and it made her life so much happier.

 

Also at this point Kaiya called the other cheerleaders over to introduce them to their newest member. The announcement created a gamut of emotions. Some girls were intimidated by Asuka's presence while others were down right scared. Some even were royally pissed off about it. Then you had other girls who were ambivalent about the whole thing as she was just another girl to them. A couple were worried as they thought she was going to take over the squad due to her aggressive reputation and make life hell again. But it wasn't all bad as some were happy about it. Over all this was something that was just going to have to work itself out.

 

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On Friday morning Asuka took advantage of the first opportunity she was given to wear the cheerleading costume. At least at school that was. To make a long and perverted story short let's just say Asuka and Shinji were very sleepy when they walked into the classroom due to Asuka showing Shinji how hot she could be wearing one of those cute little outfits the night before. And Shinji did not shy away from showing his approval of said show. I mean Asuka wasn't wearing any underwear at all under her outfit last night so the least Shinji could do to show his appreciation was eat her out several times.

 

This was one of those days in which the two of them would probably have to take a couple quick catnaps during lunch and other various breaks between classes. After all they both needed to be awake later on today as Shinji had a game and Asuka was going to be one of the cheerleaders for it.

 

This was a good thing and a bad thing for Asuka. Sure she would still be cheering for Shinji, in an upgraded form no less, but now she had to watch what she said. Half the fun for her at the games was her salacious German cheers. Now she had to stick to the plain old family friendly Japanese cheers though as her other stuff would get frowned down upon. It didn't matter if no one understood what she said just the fact that they were in a foreign language would be enough to rile some of the old geezers at the game. And since some of those old geezers were or worked for the school sponsors she couldn't tell them to go bugger off. Stupid politics had even seeped into the fun part of cheerleading in her opinion.

 

But none of that was important right now as class was starting and she had an online lecture right away today. As tired as she was she had to stay awake as falling asleep during a lecture got her much more than she bargained for now. Not only would the teacher come over and rap the top of her headphones to wake her up but he would also send a note to Professor Fuyutsuki telling him she had fallen asleep during one of his lectures. This in return would get her saddled with more homework than she could ever imagine in the name of catching her up with what she had missed during her nap. So full attention right now was paid to staying awake as the good professor gave a rather in depth lecture on the uses of mitochondrial deoxyribose nucleic acids. Not the most interesting topic in the world but something she was intimately familiar with, almost to the point of a couple bad flashbacks of the time before third impact.

 

Shinji was doing the same thing as Asuka, trying to pay attention to his teacher, but he had the added bonus of taking care of Asuka and his baby. He usually did this while Asuka was paying attention to one of her online lectures as it was hard for her to split her attention due to her having to be interactive with the college professors. And it was difficult to type and hold a sack of sugar at the same time. It was no big deal to him anyway, it's not like this was a real baby. Which always struck him odd as he listened to the complaints of the other students in the classroom. This was a much bigger thing to them than it was to him. But as long as he didn't have to change diapers for said baby in his hands he wasn't going to care about their complaining. They could whine all they want but it would be much ado about nothing to him. Plus in only a couple short hours this assignment was going to be over with anyway.

 

Actually the hardest part of this day was not taking care of the baby or trying to stay awake but was not staring at Asuka. That cheerleading outfit she was wearing was scorching hot. He kept thinking naughty thoughts he shouldn't have been as his mind kept wandering to what they did last night. Watching a very hot cheerleader give you a blowjob is a hard thing to shake from the mind after all. The worst part about all this is a couple times Asuka looked back at him with the same longing eyes he had. She was obviously on the same wavelength as him and it just wasn't fair that they had to go to school today. Sometimes he wished for the old days when he could skip school anytime he wanted to.

 

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After the lunch period was over the teacher finally ended the pain and suffering many of the kids felt they had to endure. He checked each of the bags of sugar to make sure everyone had the same bag they started out this assignment with and no one tried the old switch-er-roo. Once he was satisfied with what he found he handed out the grades. Mostly this was just a pass/fail type of assignment but he felt certain people should get bonus points. He called up three of his students as he thought they should receive some special recognition, Kensuke and Rei were among the three.

 

First he pointed at Kensuke and the other girl that was up there with them. “You two are going to get some bonus points toward whatever subject you like for basically having to be single parents throughout this exercise.” He turned to look over to Rei as that reward wouldn't work well for her. “Is there something you would like as a reward?”

 

This was a very pleasant surprise to Rei as she was only doing what was expected of her considering the situation she was put in. She even let a warm smile come over her face as she was appreciative of the teacher going out of his way to give her some type of reward. She had to think for a second before she came up with what she thought would be an ample reward. She looked outside, it was warm with crystal blue skies that were dotted with big fluffy white clouds and an ever so light and refreshing breeze. “May I study outside for the remainder of the day?”

 

“Of course” the teacher responded and then added “And I'll give you two more days of studying outside if you want?” as he thought Rei deserved much more than she was asking for. A little bit of guilt on the teachers part may have played into this as he still felt bad for sticking her with Nagisa. Plus the even brighter smile he saw on Rei's face as he said that was more than enough payback. That was the odd thing about Rei to him, he never saw Rei smile all that much but when she did he couldn't help feeling good about things.

 

After the other two students told him what subject they wanted the bonus points put towards and Rei garnered all her study books together and headed outside he called up five other students to his desk while he told the rest of the class to do some general studying. Curiously three of the five were the partners of the three that got rewarded for their efforts along with another couple who got caught trying to get out on the assignment by storing their baby in their lockers overnight two times too many. All five of these students were informed that they had failed the assignment and were to take a five day summer course to make up for it. Four of the five kids protested greatly with Kaworu leading the whining as he tried to blame Rei for him not taking care of the bag of sugar under the grounds she wouldn't let him.

 

The teacher didn't exactly listen to him as he was watching Mana walk back to her seat. The girl didn't react to what he told her at all and if he didn't know better he could have sworn he heard her say “like that's going to happen” under her breath as she walked away. Something was up with that girl that he didn't know about. She had been seriously slacking off lately and it didn't even seem to matter to her that she was on the verge of flunking some subjects.

 

With the unpleasantries taken care of the teacher then addressed the rest of the class. They were all pleased to hear they passed but that wasn't all they heard as he gave them a little lecture at the end. “Now if you thought this assignment was tough you're dead wrong. Taking care of a real baby is infinitely more difficult and demands much more time and an absolute sacrifice of everything else in your life. Remember that whenever any of you decide to get intimate with someone in a way that could produce a child.”

 

Well that got him a bunch of dirty looks as he pretty much squashed the libido of almost ever person in the classroom, including some of those people who weren't even at that stage in their relationships yet. But it had to be said as that was part of the lesson and then he gave his students a ten minute break to let that message soak in. But a touch of worry did work its way into his mind during that time. His class rep seemed to be a little too complacent with the idea.

 

(A/N: And that is the end to chapter 15. (On a side note this is starting to get sad as I actually had to look up what chapter I was on. I really, really need to start labeling these things because I can't keep track of how many I already did.) So this chapter turned out to be a 15K+ word tangent on an idea that I originally scrapped. It might be time for me to spice this bugger up or I might just do this again. See you guys again next month. I Re-re-edited. Changed a few words around. Fixed some grammar. Broke up some of the bigger blocks of text. And expounded on some parts to make them clearer. Basically gave this a good once over to improve its quality.)