Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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It was the Saturday before finals week in June, in the evening to be precise. Misato was sort of pacing outside the door to Asuka's room. She had something she wanted to discuss with the two but she really didn't want to interrupt them. It was Saturday and they were young lovers so she could easily guess and agree with why the door was closed. It was only natural after all. Its just that the two had never come out of that room for more than a couple seconds today and what she had to talk to them about was sort of important. She had planned on doing it during dinner but apparently the two of them were too “busy” to eat with them as Shinji just came out of the room for two seconds and grabbed some leftovers from the fridge for the two of them before returning to Asuka's room and shutting the door behind him. So Misato wasn't left with too many other options and while she really didn't want to interrupt their fun she decided she had to as she knocked on the door. “Umm sorry to interrupt you guys, but I need to talk to you two.”

 

The answer she got back was from Asuka. “Were busy. Come back later.”

 

There was a definite purr to the way Asuka said that and she heard a giggle from both the people in the room afterwards. This just made her feel worse as she said “I'm really sorry but I need to come in.”

 

She heard an ardent “Just a minute more… Pleeeaaaasssseeee!”

 

The thing with that though was Misato heard Shinji chuckle after that again. Plus that drawn out please didn't sound like Asuka's normal voice of enjoyment but instead like she was hamming it up. Plus if Asuka really were in the middle of rapture everything that was just said would have been in German. “You ain't messing with me girl, are you?”

 

Asuka responded to that with a sensuous “Oh Shinji!”

 

That was enough to make Misato open the door on the two of them. There in front of her was Asuka and Shinji on her bed, along with a bunch of books of many different subjects sprawled out in front of them. While Shinji was sitting there snickering at his guardian Asuka was sticking her tongue out at her. “God you're such a brat.”

 

“I know” Asuka answered with a little laugh. “We needed a little fun brake.”

 

“Have you guys been studying all day then?” Misato asked a bit surprised.

 

“Pretty much” Asuka answered in a beaten down tone while Shinji just nodded his head yes. It was obvious that the two were working hard in preparation of their upcoming exams. Asuka decided to stretch out the little break as she smarted off to Misato “Why? What did you think we were doing?”

 

Misato just smirked at her “Are you done being a brat yet?”

 

“No” Asuka answered and then pouted, “Because once I stop being a brat I have to go back to studying.”

 

Misato let out a unsympathetic “Poor Asuka” and then asked “So why are you guys here and not at Rei's place? And what's with the door always being shut?”

 

Shinji answered the first one “Rei wanted to study alone today.”

 

Asuka added on to that with “I don't think she wants us to see her cussing out her exam books.”

 

Misato saw Shinji sort of nod his head in agreement to that. Rei must have been awfully stressed out and needed some time to herself to air out her frustrations.

 

Asuka then answered the second question “And we shut the door because we don't need a particular person's help.”

 

That was something Misato could easily understand. With Keiko being firmly entrenched in her terrible two's it would have been a pain for the two teens to have to put up with her while studying. Plus she knew her child, if Keiko saw Asuka and Shinji writing things down on a sheet of paper she would want to as well. Except her version would be with a crayon and in the form of scribbles. Misato doubted either of the two teens would be too happy about having that kind of help on their study sheets. And the second one of them would tell her to stop or no she would start bawling. Because of this Misato shut the door to Asuka's room behind her as it would be only a matter of time before Keiko became curious of what was going on in there and she would come to investigate herself.

 

Misato was thinking what she had to say might take a while so she grabbed a chair and sat down looking at the two studied out teens. “Ok, I'm serious about it this time. When you guys are done with school this year and after our family vacation you two have to get jobs for the summer.”

 

Asuka didn't even look at Misato as she had already returned her attention to one of her books. “Yeah, sure.” Which was better than Shinji who didn't even look up.

 

“That answer isn't going to work this year” Misato quickly told her as that was the same thing Asuka had said last year without it coming true. “I really mean it this year. You're going to get a job” she turned her attention over to Shinji “and you're going to keep a job longer than a couple weeks.”

 

This time she did get one of the teens to look up from their books, Shinji. “We know Misato. And actually we already have planned on finding jobs.”

 

Misato gave him an unbelieving look. This sudden change in attitudes toward jobs was not something she expected so she wasn't sure if she was going to believe what he said or not. “You aren't lying to me, are you?”

 

That got Asuka to look up too. Not so much as what was said but the tone Misato used. It was definitely that motherly one and Asuka wanted to put a stop to this as quickly as she could. Mainly because most of the times that Misato used that tone were times when she was in trouble. “We're honestly telling you the truth this time” Asuka said. And then Asuka added on to that statement a rather droned “We kinda have to now.”

 

“Really?” Misato asked. “Why?”

 

“We're broke” Shinji answered.

 

“You guys are always broke” Misato kidded back.

 

“Well this time we mean it” Asuka answered. “Dead broke, Yenless, so broke that we sorta owe money even.”

 

“I couldn't even buy Asuka her chocolates this month” Shinji added on with a pout. And Shinji wasn't the only one sad about that as you could see Asuka's bottom lip quiver for a second when he said that.

 

“Wow” Misato said surprised. “I didn't know you two were that bad off. Who do you owe money to?”

 

“Kaji” Shinji answered with Asuka adding on “He let us borrow his credit card when we went to Shin Seiki's.”

 

“You're still paying him back for that? I thought I told you two not to go overboard at that place.”

 

“Since when do we ever listen to the voice of reason?” Asuka sort of sassed back comically.

 

Misato did chuckle at that. Those two weren't the best in the world at that sort of thing. “So how long is he going to be garnishing your allowance for?”

 

“That's why we have to get jobs” Shinji answered her. “Our allowances are gone until we do.”

 

“Well except for our vacation” Asuka added on. “He said he will borrow us money for that but we have to pay him back.” Asuka then smiled really nicely at Misato and asked “You don't suppose you could go talk to him and maybe get him to lighten up a bit?”

 

“No” Misato answered much more clearly than either of the two teens wanted her to. “You know the rules. You borrow money from either of us and you have to pay it back in the form you are told.” Actually Misato was pretty impressed with her husband at this point. He had made her job of making those two get jobs so much easier with what he did. Maybe later on tonight she would show him how much she appreciated what he had done. But for now everything seemed to be in order and she let the two return to their studying as first things first, they had finals next week and she expected them to do very well on them.

 

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After Misato had put Keiko down for the night, this was a long and arduous task that night, a slightly worn out mother sat down on the couch next to her husband. “Peace at last.”

 

“At least for now” Kaji grinned. “So what should we do about it?”

 

Misato gave him a sexy little smile in return for that. There was a good bit of longing for some very physical pleasure in the way he said that. “Oh don't worry about that Ryo-kun you're going to get very lucky tonight. I owe you big time for helping me out in getting the kids to work this summer.”

 

He let out a soft little chuckle as Misato rested her head on his shoulder. “I figured you would appreciate that.”

 

Misato kept her head on his shoulders as she sighed out “But that's going to have to wait. I need to go check up on Rei first.”

 

“Something wrong?” Kaji asked with a voice of concern.

 

“Asuka just said she's very stressed out right now” Misato answered.

 

Kaji gave Misato a little kiss and said “Then why don't you go on over there. I think I can handle things here right now.”

 

Misato smiled at that and gave him another little kiss as a thank you. She then got up and headed towards the cabinet, she had something in there that would be a nice treat for Rei. It was a tin of gingersnaps. Sure they were just the thin crispy little wafer kind and not as good as the warm and fresh ones she could get at the mall but she knew Rei liked these treats as well. It was just the little snap of flavor in them that Rei liked. So with tin in hand she headed over to Rei's studio apartment.

 

At first when she got there she didn't get an answer at the door. But as she used her key she could hear why, the shower was running. She just walked up to the bathroom door and rapped on it letting Rei know she was there so the girl wouldn't be surprised when she came out. And while Rei finished up her shower Misato looked over what the girl was working on. She wasn't so much checking up on the girl to see if Rei was doing the work she was told but was genuinely curious to see how the blue haired girl was doing. While doing this Rei came out of the bathroom dressed in her pajamas and was stroking a comb through her hair. Misato looked at the girl and patted the chair she was standing by, inviting Rei to sit down. “I'm very proud of you sweetie. You're doing very good. I doubt those exams will even be a problem for you.”

 

Rei sort of blushed a bit at that as she let Misato take the comb from her. After the blush though she let out a little breath of contentment. There was just something very comforting to Rei about Misato combing her hair. This combined with the tin of gingersnaps in front of her was an even more relaxing break from studying than her shower. After a little bit she just sort of breathed out a soft “Thank you Misato.”

 

“Any time sweetie” Misato replied. “I just figured you needed a break.”

 

Rei let out a little sigh to that as Misato was a hundred percent correct. Even though her practice test grades were very good she still had a great sense of dread about her upcoming tests. “I hope I do well.”

 

“Don't worry, you will” Misato reassured the stressed teen that had a lot of apprehension in her voice while she got her hair combed. And then in an effort to lighten up the conversation she kidded “I bet you would much rather be at work right now?” Typically right now Rei would be at work but with the exams happening next week she was precluded from going there by the raven-haired woman pleasantly combing her hair.

 

Rei nodded her head yes to that. “I don't know why but I don't find my job as tedious as all the other girls complain it to be. Am I really that different?”

 

“Yes and no” Misato answered. “Your job is based on politeness, manners, and self control. Those traits are not as common in most girls as they used to be. I doubt I would be any good at your job either.” Misato then chuckled as she added on “But I am a little jealous of the clothes you get to wear. I may be even less traditional than the girls you work with but even I like to wear pretty clothes like that.”

 

That got Rei to smile a bit. Those kimonos that she had to wear were really starting to grow on her. She even had a kimono or two of her own in her closet as testament to that. “I may even get to wear more traditional ones like true geisha girls do.”

 

“Really?” Misato asked.

 

“Yes. Li Mei has asked me to be one of the lead hostesses for the formal banquet room they are opening up later this summer.” Rei tried to hide her excitement over this but a little slipped out anyway as her smile grew larger. This new area was being built to accommodate traditional wedding banquets, important meetings, celebrations and other such things so the area was going to be steeped in the old rules of honor and tradition. Basically just another little niche market the restaurant wanted to get involved with as it could be rather profitable.

 

But while Rei sort of agreed with her fellow waitresses that the performance they would have to do for it was going a bit too far and would require a whole lot more work what made Rei feel good about being offered the job was that Li Mei and Zukav only wanted the best of the best for it. In order for this to work they needed girls that looked respectful, acted respectful, and most of all girls that could hold their tongues. It was a bit regressive of the times they lived in but they wanted their geisha girls to be seen and not heard.

 

Plus you needed to be in decent shape as the job was more physically demanding than most girls believed. Li Mei was very clear on the point that kneeling for long periods of time can be strenuous on the legs if you aren't used to it, and the roles they were to play depended on it. And also that the girls stay there motionless and not fidget around, that was the hard part. To compensate the girls for the extra troubles they would have to endure the position paid a good bit more. That made this job much easier to swallow and a lot of girls applied for it. Except for Rei, she did not have to apply like the other girls. Secretly Li Mei gave her one of the lead positions before any of the other girls had even heard about it. That sort of helped make this a minor ego boost for Rei that even she could not ignore. Even right now just mentioning it felt good to her.

 

“That sounds exciting” Misato told her. “I bet you'll be really good at that job. But remember what comes first?”

 

“Family, life…” Rei's voice dropped a wee bit as she didn't want to add this next part but knew she didn't have a choice “… and education.”

 

“Very good” Misato said and added on “And also I want to be able to see you all dressed up once in a while. You're going to look so pretty.”

 

Rei let out a little “Misato!” as she was embarrassing her with that kind of flattery.

 

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Kensuke was at the library. Like his friends he was studying for the upcoming tests as well but he was with some other people right now. He was perfectly content to sit at his own home and study actually, with his cat being his only company, but he got guilt tripped into this by Kaede. Basically she told him he could make it up to her for ignoring her all trimester and not watching her practice if he helped her study for the upcoming finals. At first Kensuke was leery of this as it sounded like one of her traps but while talking to her on the phone he could hear other voices. Along with that he doubted she would try one of her pranks in the library where she would get in trouble for it. Along with those two facts was that Kaede was basically pleading with him on the phone to come over and help her. Eventually he gave in and went to the library.

 

Right now though he was helping Kaede with her English skills. That was the main reason she had called him as most of the friends she was studying with were as clueless about the language as her. Being as Kensuke was fluent in the language, thanks to his mother, he was the perfect person to call for help. This was something that made his life so much easier. Of the foreign languages English was one of the most important as it was the language of business. Just knowing how to speak a little of it could give you a heads up in the job market. But Kensuke wasn't only bilingual, he knew a third language to a minor extent. Italian was the language of his father and uncle and he had picked up a good bit of it from listening to them. He rarely used this skill though as he wasn't as proficient at it as he was at English. Plus a bit of resentment towards his father and uncle played a role in his eschewing of this language from his speaking patterns.

 

“What's this mean?” Kaede asked him.

 

Kensuke looked at the word she was pointing at. “That's inauspicious. It means unfavorable or unlucky.”

 

“So basically my love life” Kaede answered.

 

Kensuke just chuckled about that “It's better than the word that describes mine” and he pointed at the word absent. This little joke didn't work out very well as the girl didn't know what that word meant either so Kensuke had to explain that word to her too. There were a couple giggles from the people by him who overheard his explanation. Once they all understood it the joke was funny.

 

Kaede though told him “It doesn't have to be that way you know?”

 

“We're here to study Kaede” Kensuke quickly reprimanded. “We can joke around with each other later.”

 

“Who said I was joking around?” Kaede told him and wrote out a phrase in English. “What does this say?”

 

Kensuke totally ignored the impish smile on her face as he told her “It means you need to study more.” Kaede's attempt at seducing him failed in that she wrote `Let us had sex?'

 

“What I'd do wrong?” Kaede asked, well more like pouted. “I worked really hard to get that right.”

 

“First of all” Kensuke started “You used past tense when you wanted to use future tense. Using the word “had” implies that it already happened. You probably should have used the word “have.” And also you could have combined the words “let us” into “let's” as it would be more commonly spoken that way.” Kaede was looking a bit down at this point as she had more than just failed but failed miserably so Kensuke at least tried to cheer her up a little. “Your use of punctuation was correct though. Good job.”

 

Kaede replied with a “Thanks” that clearly didn't mean it. “Just show me how I should have wrote it so I don't embarrass myself again in the future, ok?”

 

With a little chuckle Kensuke wrote “Let's have sex?”

 

Kaede's impish smile returned as she quickly said “Okay. But “let's” (she used the English word she had just learned) go to your place where it will be more private.”

 

“I think you have learned enough English for now” Kensuke told her dryly. “Why don't we switch to math? I need to work on that myself.”

 

“Ah you're no fun” Kaede chided at him but took the hint. One of these days she was going to break that shell around him but it wasn't going to be today. Plus she was struggling in that subject too so she needed all the help she could get.

 

A little bit later Kensuke was tapping his pencil on the table trying to figure out a math problem. It was the trickiest of the ones that the teacher had given them to study. While he wasn't bad at math it also wasn't his strongest subject. One of the girls there was in the same class as him and saw what he was working on. “Do you understand how to do that one?”

 

Kensuke shook his head no. “I'm stumped.”

 

“Shoot” the girl replied. “My sister had our teacher last year and she said she remembered him putting a question like that on the test.”

 

“Figures he would put one of the harder questions on the test” Kensuke grumbled to himself. He was actually just about to blow the question off and call it unimportant. But now he knew he had to know how to solve the problem.

 

He tried for a couple more minutes before he gave up and pulled out his cell phone. Usually when he was stuck on a math problem he called Hikari as she was better at math than him. But she didn't answer her phone so he tried another girl. This too ended in failure as the red head who would have made fun of him for not knowing how to do the problem didn't pick up either. Which kind of sucked as even though she would have ripped on him, Asuka still would have shown him how to do the problem and also whether there were any easy tricks to use to get the answer. That was the thing about Asuka, once you got pass all the bravado she was actually pretty helpful. This left him with only one other person and he placed his last call.

 

“Hello, Rei Ayanami's phone. She's busy getting her hair combed, can I take a message?”

 

While Kensuke listened to that he also heard Rei herself talk. “Please don't tell people things like that Misato!”

 

Kensuke though didn't want to talk to Rei's current receptionist and he told her “I called Rei. Not a busybody who doesn't know enough to mind her own beeswax.”

 

“Well tough” Misato sassed back. “You got me. Now what do you want?”

 

“Fine then” Kensuke said smirking to himself. “I have a tough trig question I need help with…” no sooner than he said that did he hear “it's for you” as Misato handed off the phone. The easiest way to chase off the over intrusive guardian was to ask her for help on homework.

 

When Rei got the phone she answered with a pleasant “Hello.”

 

“Hey Rei, It's just Kensuke. I'm sorry if I'm bugging you but I really need your help on a math problem.”

 

Rei didn't mind this at all. She sort of knew that she was Kensuke's last line of help as he would always call Hikari or Asuka first as he didn't want to be a bother to her. Most girls would probably have took that as a slight but she knew he only called her as a last resort out of respect for her privacy. “I'm not busy right now, what do you need help with?”

 

Kensuke went on to explain the problem and in return Rei explained how to do it. This was just what friends did for each other in her opinion. Plus she kind of owed him as he was going to help her out in the upcoming weeks with something.

 

Kensuke properly thanked Rei afterwards and then hung up. But after he put away his phone he noticed all the weird looks he was getting. Kaede had the weirdest as she asked “Since when do you show manners?”

 

One of the guys at the table though had more of a curious look than an odd one as he asked “Was that Rei as in Rei Ayanami?”

 

He looked at Kaede first. “You were her teammate. You know that's just how you speak to her.” He then turned his head over to the guy “Yup. She's pretty smart so I call her every once in a while if I can't figure something out.”

 

He got a stunned look from most of the guys for that. Most of them would have loved to be able to call her, even if it was just for help on homework. She was one of the hottest and most mysterious girls in school. But somehow this guy who couldn't get a girl to go out with him if his life depended on it was allowed to call her. This was Rei Ayanami after all, the same girl who rarely talked to anyone else other than her friends, especially when it came to boys. This wasn't exactly fair and one of the boys stood up and said “I demand that you give us her number so we can call her for help too.”

 

Kensuke almost couldn't even tell the kid “No” he was laughing so hard. Rei's phone number was a tightly kept secret that only a handful of people knew. He considered himself lucky to be one of them so there was no way he was going to give it away.

 

But his laughing stopped as heard a jealous sounding “Why would you want the number of that freak?” The very dirty look that girl got from Kensuke for that made her say “What? Everyone calls her that…” as a defense.

 

“Only jealous bitches call her that” Kensuke replied a bit on the cruel side and then shut his books. “Since Ayanami was nice enough to show me how to do that problem I think I'm done studying for the night.” And he left after saying that.

 

And not only did he leave but he left the other kids there in a lurch for he left without explaining how to do the problem. In his opinion that group didn't deserve an explanation anymore. There were several evil eyes directed at the girl whose jealousy flared for that one. And another girl who refused to talk to the other girl for the rest of the night because she had really loused up a situation that said girl wanted to take advantage of. Basically Kaede had plans to get a ride home tonight on the back of Kensuke's moped, and now those plans were dashed along with any other ideas she had after he gave her that ride.

 

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Things were a bit different at the Horaki residence. Touji and Hikari had been studying but they took a little breather from that to do a little heavy breathing. Right now though “That's enough for now stud. We really need to get back to work.”

 

Apparently Touji didn't agree with her as he started to fondle the perky brown haired girl again. “What's the rush? We have all night.”

 

Hikari giggled out a reprimand at his actions “Touji… hehe… stop that! … How…. Do you…. You…ououou… Oooh Touji if you don't stop that…. We're never going to get back to s-s-s-studying.”

 

“Sounds good to me” Touji whispered into her ear. And with that there was another heavy breathing break taken. Touji could be such a rascal in bed if you let him and despite Hikari knowing better that's exactly what she did. In fact she didn't even hear her phone ringing as she buried her face into a pillow and let out a squeal of pleasure. All thoughts of studying dissipated from her mind and the only thing that distracted the girl from her bliss was a loud knock on the door about fifteen minutes later.

 

That froze everything as there was some worry that daddy dearest was about to check up on them. And while the position they were in was great for what they were doing getting caught in this particular one wouldn't look the best to a father who didn't want to know his daughter was having sex . Luckily for them it was only Nozomi. “Your TV show is on sis.”

 

“Th-th-thank you-uuu… We wi… ill….be down la…ater….”

 

Nozomi just shook her head and said “Ok, whatever” as she left to go downstairs. Truthfully she knew what they were doing even before she knocked, she just wanted to razz her sister a bit. When she walked into the living room she saw a rather pregnant Asuna and her father already sitting on the couch waiting for them. This was a show the whole family liked to watch.

 

“Where's Hikari and Touji?” her father asked.

 

“They're still busy studying” Nozomi answered with a huge grin eliciting a concealed chuckle by Asuna. “She said they would be down later once they're done studying.” That time Nozomi made quotation marks in the air when she said studying. She was sort of testing the boundaries of her smart mouth.

 

Her father completely ignored the disingenuous statement though as he said “Hikari's such a good student. Always studying up there and helping Touji out. Makes a father proud.”

 

Asuna had to get up and go over to the kitchen after he said that. It was so cute the way he totally denied what was really going on but also very funny. Plus while she was in the kitchen she could get something to snack on. And while she was digging in the freezer for some ice cream she heard Nozomi grouse “When is he just going to give up already?” as she entered the kitchen.

 

“Probably never” Asuna answered pulling out some Chunky Monkey. “He's a father. He wants you girls to be pristine little virgins in his eyes for his whole life. Even when you girls are all grown up with kids of your own he's probably still going to see you in that light.”

 

“That's so stupid” Nozomi complained. “Can't he see that I am a grown woman who needs some romance in her life?”

 

Asuna recognized that call of the young very easily. She had the same feelings as Nozomi was having right now when she was at that age. But now Asuna had a sense of maturity and she tried to calm her frustrated step daughter down with a compassionate “You were a nice sweet little girl with no interest in boys just a year ago but then those started to really grow” Asuna pointed at Nozomi's chest. “Now you have a different boyfriend every other week. Do you think that's easy for your father to handle?”

 

Nozomi sighed out “No… but he could at least cut me some slack. I know I'm his youngest daughter and all but I need some privacy too.”

 

“I know” Asuna told her and placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. “But just give your dad a little more time to come around. He's really stressed out with the baby coming soon and all. I don't think he's ready to handle his baby girl being active in those ways yet.”

 

Nozomi actually shuddered a bit at that guilt trip. It was a doozy and not one she felt she had the right to argue. She may have had an absolute gamut of emotions running through her right now but she was smart enough to realize that was nothing compared to the feelings her dad must be having with a new child on the way. She rolled her eyes as she said “I supposed I could behave like a good little girl till you have your kid. But I'm getting another boyfriend right after that.”

 

Asuna smiled at that but told her “Make sure it's a good one this time. I think your father actually told Touji to beat the last one up. He didn't seem to like him at all.”

 

Nozomi chuckled “Then tell him to go ahead. He was a jerk. I want a guy to romance me, not one who expects me to strip naked after only two dates.”

 

Asuna told her “Good Luck” as finding a boy like that at her age wasn't going to be easy.

 

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When Asuka got up to get some breakfast the next morning she saw Misato was at the table with a bowl of ramen in front of her. “Where's Keiko?”

 

“Kaji took her out with him while he ran some errands” Misato answered slurping up some noodles.

 

“I wondered why it was so quiet around here” Asuka commented humorously while getting a bowl of cereal for herself. “So what's up for today?”

 

“Nothing much” Misato answered. “I probably should figure out where we're going on our summer vacation though.”

 

“You still haven't done that?” Asuka asked surprised as by now getting a reservation anywhere would be next to impossible.

 

Misato just shrugged her shoulders “Nope. I got to find all the brochures and stuff I collected before I can make any reservations.”

 

“You're so disorganized it's not even funny” Asuka told her.

 

“Look who's talking” Misato shot right back. “You even have the house's clean freak living in your room and it's still a pigsty.”

 

“Well….” Asuka said looking away trying to dodge that comment. No matter how many times Shinji cleaned up her room it always seemed to be a mess so Misato definitely had a point. Asuka then got away from that area as she asked “So do you even have a clue where we are going to go this year?”

 

“Not really” Misato answered slurping up some more noodles. “Got any suggestions?”

 

Since Misato was going to say no to her suggestions anyways and there was no way they could logically get reservations for anywhere in her opinion she decided to go outlandish with her destinations. “Monte Carlo!”

 

“You're still too young to gamble so no.”

 

“Hawaii.”

 

“Too crowded this time of year.”

 

“Bahamas.”

 

“C'mon, Kaji and I went there for our honeymoon. I don't want to go back there already.”

 

“Fine” Asuka griped. “How about the Caribbean's then?”

 

“That would be the same as the Bahamas” Misato griped back.

 

“How about Australia?”

 

“Maybe some other time” Misato answered as while it was a fine place to visit she didn't want to go there right now.

 

“China then?”

 

“No.”

 

“Spain?”

 

“No.”

 

“New York?”

 

“No.”

 

“Florida? Disney world's there. I bet Keiko would love it.”

 

“Maybe next year when she's out of her terrible two's.”

 

Asuka then just rattled off a bunch of ideas as she knew Misato wasn't being serious about anything she said.

 

“England, Ireland, Minnesota, Germany, France, Brazil?”

 

Misato quickly answered “No, no, no, yes, no, no.”

 

Asuka was just about to say another country when she stopped dead in her tracks and rewound her brain. Misato had just said yes to one of her suggestions and she had to figure out which one. “Germany?”

 

“I think that would be a good idea actually” Misato told her. “It's been some time since Kaji and I were over there and it is your birthplace.”

 

“Really???” Asuka said completely amazed. She hadn't for one second believed Misato was going to say yes.

 

“Of course.”

 

“You're not just pulling my leg are you?”

 

“Why would I do that?” Misato asked.

 

“Well” Asuka said and in a voice of amazement “You never say yes to any of my suggestions.”

 

“That's because most of your suggestions are unreasonable” Misato told the starry-eyed redhead. “But I like this one. It will be a good chance for you to visit your family over there and for Kaji and I to catch up with some old friends.”

 

That got Asuka's mood to change dramatically “I am not visiting my father! He can rot in hell for all I care.”

 

“Settle down Asuka. If you don't want to visit your father I'm not going to force you to. I just thought it would be the friendly thing to do since we're going to be over there.”

 

“If he wanted to be friends with me then he shouldn't have abandoned my mother for some whore!” That came out a bit more resentful than Asuka meant it to. Ironically she hated her own flesh and blood father more than her stepmother. Her stepmother she didn't really mind. The woman never tried to be a replacement for her mother and most of the time just left her alone. Back then that was probably the best way to get along with Asuka.

 

Misato could understand that kind of anger as she herself still had some of it towards her own father. “Ok we'll just visit with our friends and be tourists the rest of the time. Is that alright?”

 

Asuka smiled again as that was much more acceptable but then she brought up “And just how do you expect to be able to get reservations for stuff to do and places to stay on such short notice?”

 

There was a lot of smartass attitude to that comment so Misato sassed back at her “That's none of your business. Just be packed and ready to leave by next Sunday ya little priss.”

 

Asuka only responded to that with a sticking out of her now multi colored tongue.

 

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

 

Later on that afternoon Rei was hard at work studying again. She was still at her place but now she wasn't alone as the whole group had come over. Everyone wanted to get together and study because that way it wouldn't be so tedious and you could take the occasional break to talk to each other. Rei's place was deemed the quietest and had the least distractions, therefore the best place to do this. That made Rei happy as she liked her place the best and this way she wouldn't have to go anywhere. This was desirable to Hikari and Touji too as they weren't having much luck studying at either of their places. There was just a bit too much privacy for them to concentrate on what they were supposed to be doing so a study group was just what they needed.

 

You would expect Asuka and Shinji to have that same problem but they didn't. They both had a little too much stress to think about intimacy. Professor Fuyutsuki had signed her up for some very hard courses and she really needed to study for her finals. As for Shinji, Misato had set his expectations pretty high so he really needed to do good on these upcoming finals to meet them. And while studying with Asuka was fun and all he wanted to be around some kids studying the same thing as him. Asuka herself didn't have the time to be helping him out. Not that she was supposed to anyway but the two of them weren't very good listeners to Misato when she told them that particular rule.

 

Shinji, Hikari, Kensuke, and Touji were seated around Rei's dinner table all working on a history lesson while Asuka and Rei were sitting around Rei's coffee table over in the living room area. “Are you absolutely sure you aren't going to go on vacation with us?” Asuka asked. “You're more than welcome and it would be a bit of a downer if you didn't come.”

 

Rei was very flattered that Asuka wanted her to go to Germany with her to the point of almost begging but Rei could not. “I have to start classes next week in preparation for my new job. Thank you for asking but I'm sorry I just can not go.”

 

That of course drew out Asuka's pouty face making Rei really feel bad. “How can you put work over this?”

 

Rei though leaned forward and whispered exactly how she could do it. She told the girl how much she would be making. “Do you understand now?”

 

Asuka's eyes got large as she exclaimed “You gotta be kidding me?”

 

Rei shook her head no. “As a lead hostess it is my job to make sure everything runs smoothly. And as such I need to be very well trained and know the task of every girl working there. Li Mei has made it quite clear that she expects the best and will reward the workers quite well for fulfilling the roles they are asked to play.”

 

“Nice answer” Asuka remarked. “No wonder you're going to be in charge. But you know you don't have to do that proper act with me.”

 

“I know” Rei replied back. “It's just that I would much rather practice on you than study these stupid exam books.”

 

Asuka could appreciate that answer. “I feel you Blue. I really do.” Asuka then leaned back and rested her self against the couch. “What I wouldn't give to be a normal girl.”

 

“A girl like me can only dream” Rei sighed back.

 

While Rei and Asuka griped about their advanced situation in an effort to avoid doing any real studying the four kids at the kitchen table had their own problems. “Who gives a crap about the exact dates of the fucking Edo period?” Touji grumbled loudly. “None of this shit's ever going to be important to me.”

 

“I know Touji” Hikari said and gave him a kiss on the cheek to try and calm him down. “But just do your best. Even though you don't have to I think your dad would be very proud of you if you graduated from high school.”

 

Touji's situation was very much different from the other three at the table. Kensuke, Shinji, and Hikari were all college bound. He was bound to be working for his dad in the masonry business. Everything he needed to know was or could be taught to him by his grandfather and his father. Those two were old pros around the town in this line of work and he was expected to follow in their footsteps. And for the most part that is exactly what he planned on doing. He already worked for them in the summers and it was only a matter of time before Suzuhara & Son Masonry would refer to his dad and him rather than his dad and his grandpa. And a high school education was nice but not necessary for his future line of work. Neither his dad nor his grandfather had one and the only one in the family that was expected to finish high school was his little sister Mari. The Suzuhara women were the smart ones in the family, the Suzuhara men were expected to be the hard working ones. Many times he was tempted just to drop out and work full time for his father but it was Hikari who always helped him stay the course.

 

Secretly she was asked to do this by Touji's father as he wanted his son to be the first male Suzuhara to get a high school degree. It would help him out in life and maybe in business too. While his father and grandfather knew everything there was to know about masonry the business aspect of the company was difficult for them and they usually depended on outside sources to run it. Right now it was an old friend of Touji's father who was an accountant for Nerv back in the day. In the future though he wanted it to be run by someone else, specifically someone that was family or would soon be.

 

Hikari's supportiveness and understanding always hit his soft spot and Touji sighed as he calmed down “Ok but we have to go over who did what and when again as all these names and dates confuse the hell out of me.”

 

“That's ok” Hikari told him nicely. “We can go over this as many times as you need to.”

 

“But you need to study too” Touji quickly told her as her grades were much more important than his. She was expected to get high grades, he was only expected to pass.

 

“I am studying” she told him. “I'm comfortable with where I'm at in everything but history and English. So studying history with you helps me out too.” And with that Hikari and Touji went back over the history lesson they were working on.

 

Shinji and Kensuke on the other hand switched over to math as they both had a good grasp on history in their opinion. “So Shinji, how good are you at complex quadratic equations?”

 

“Good enough to ask Asuka how to do them” Shinji answered.

 

“Well that's not good” Kensuke chuckled. “I had to depend on Rei last night for help.” Both boys then turned their heads over to the women sitting across the room from them. Unfortunately right now Asuka was stabbing her textbook with a pencil and Rei looked like she was about to rip an exam book in half. “Umm… maybe now's not a good time to ask for help?”

 

“Ah, no” Shinji answered. “Looks like we will have to work on this by ourselves.”

 

But they did get a lifeline as Hikari told them “Later on if you two help me with my English I will give you a hand on the math.”

 

And that was the great thing about studying in groups. Everyone was usually good and bad at different things so as a collective you could balance each other out and study more effectively.

 

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

 

Later on that night the group was whittled down to just Rei and Kensuke. Touji had just about enough studying as he could handle and Hikari felt she had a good grip on things and wanted a good night's sleep before the tests. Sadly for Touji she meant what she said and really did want sleep. As for Shinji and Asuka, they had left about an hour ago to go get something. Obviously the stress level must have went down because they didn't come back and when Rei went over to check why all she got as an answer from Kaji was a sly grin and a finger pointed towards Asuka's closed door. So that left it with Kensuke and her being the only serious students.

 

“Thanks again Rei for giving me some help.”

 

“It was no problem” Rei replied. “I think I'm done studying for now anyway. I have had enough of exam study books for a lifetime.”

 

Kensuke could understand that. He also felt a little depressed about it as he was going to have to go through the same thing next year as he got ready for his turn at the entrance exams. “I think I'm going to give it up tonight too” he commented as he yawned. “All this studying drains a person. I'll sure be happy when this is all over with and I can go back to wasting my free time working on my bike.”

 

That comment reminded Rei of something. “Thank you again for agreeing to help me out with selecting a scooter.”

 

“No problem” Kensuke quickly said. “Should be fun to look at all the new models. Plus I got to pick up some parts from Snake anyways.”

 

This got a weird reaction from Rei as she asked out “Snake?”

 

“It's just a nickname he picked up back in the US when he was younger.” Kensuke answered trying to relieve the little bit of fear he saw Rei developing. Truthfully he could understand her apprehension as that was definitely a biker name and the whole biker stereotype didn't exactly mesh well with her beliefs. “He came over here as a mechanic for Nerv and just stuck around opening up a bike shop. He doesn't do that crazy biker thing anymore.”

 

“I would hope not” Rei responded. “But what's wrong with your bike this time?” It seemed to Rei that Kensuke was always working on that bike of his lately. If it was giving him that much trouble he should just get a new one in her opinion.

 

“I just have to fix my seat” Kensuke answered. He could have gone into detail but he knew Rei wouldn't have been very interested in hearing the specifics. “Just to make it better that's all” he added.

 

“So it's not really a repair so much as an upgrade?” Rei asked.

 

“Something like that” Kensuke smirked.

 

Rei looked at him for a second longer and then told him “It's a boy and his toy thing, isn't it?”

 

That got Kensuke to laugh. She was absolutely right about that. “You're learning way too much from Misato and Asuka.”

 

“It's not that hard to learn” Rei replied dryly.

 

She along with most other people could tell that Kensuke had shifted his priorities over the years. Before third impact he was a military otaku and heavy into computers. Since coming back though he seemed to drop the military thing entirely and greatly cut back on how much time he spent on the computer. He was better than most when it came to them still but somewhere along the lines he came to desire a more hands on hobby. And messing around with his bike was it. With a computer he could only see the results but with his bike he could feel and hear the improvements as well. He liked what he was doing so much that he was thinking about being a mechanical engineer. “So have you decided what kind of moped you want?”

 

“I'm leaning towards a Vespa” Rei answered.

 

“Most girls love those” Kensuke commented. “Can't say I blame them as they look real nice and run like a dream.”

 

“As long as it can get me to work on time is all I care about” Rei said. Since she was going to be working up to forty hours a week now she wanted a better mode of transportation. The buses and trains could get her to and from work easily enough but she still wasn't very comfortable riding them. If she was with friends it was all right but when she was by herself she generally felt nervous. There were just so many strange people standing around her with intentions she didn't know. And now with her ramped up hours she would be working even later so there was no telling what kind of weirdoes she would meet on the train or bus. Plus a little part of her may have liked the ideal of mobile freedom she would get from a scooter. She wouldn't have to rely on any time schedule but could go at her own pace and speed.

 

“So when do you want to go to the shop?” Kensuke asked.

 

Rei ran through her upcoming schedule in her head. “Monday would be best for me. I'm not working that day and don't start my training till Tuesday.”

 

“That should work” Kensuke said. “I have all of Monday off too.” Kensuke then asked the all important question “So who exactly knows that you're getting a scooter?” This was in reference to Rei asking him not to say anything about her upcoming purchase when she first approached him about it several weeks ago.

 

“Misato and Kaji” Rei simply answered. “It would be best for others not to learn about it till after the fact.”

 

“A little worried about Asuka's reaction to it?”

 

“Not so much worried as I know she would be a major pest about it” Rei clarified. “I have heard her mention she would like one to Misato on several occasions but Misato has always told her she would have to buy something like that herself. Since I often hear her complain about how broke she always is I doubt it will happen anytime soon.”

 

“And you don't want the help she would give you instead.” Kensuke finished up for Rei as he could see where she was going with that.

 

Rei nodded her head yes to that. Asuka would mean well and all but she would get carried away and most likely try to talk Rei into getting the one she personally liked the best instead of the one that Rei deemed the best. That and most likely she would try to drag Rei all over town looking at every bike shop in the entire city to find the best scooter out there. And that was not something she wanted to do. Her way of thinking was more along the lines of go where the gear heads would go as they would know the best places. Kensuke was one of those gear heads so that is why she went to him.

 

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*********** OOO ***********

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Today was a bad day if you were a student. Correction, today was a horrible, awful, atrocious, terrible day if you were a student. In fact the whole beginning of this week was three shitty days back to back to back. Monday and Tuesday started out the same with the first couple hours dedicated to studying, followed by the bulk of classroom time being dedicated to taking tests, and then the last couple hours you were free to study for the next day. And if that wasn't enough your nights sucked pretty badly too as you were stuck studying then too. Then finally on Wednesday you got your facetious respite. All you had to do was study for a couple hours in the morning again and then you got to spend the rest of the day taking the hardest exams. It was so much fun that every student wanted to jump for joy but only if fun meant living hell and jump for joy meant jumping off a building. Thursday would be a much better day as it was the end of the year clean up day and on Friday you only had a half day of school as you got your grades.

 

Asuka wasn't all that much better off than the other students in the classroom. She had one final on Monday afternoon in which she had to spend the whole morning studying for. After that she of course couldn't put down her books yet because she had two finals on Tuesday. And then it was right back to the books once again as she had Fuyutsuki's, aka her hardest final, late on Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say she wasn't in the greatest of moods for those first three days.

 

As for Rei, she had a different schedule. She didn't get to study in the morning on Monday, she had to start right away on her college entrance exams. And worse yet she had to do this in a room full of seniors who were totally stressed out. Not exactly the most pleasant atmosphere. And the college entrance exams took all of Monday for the first part and then all of Tuesday for the next part. And you would think having no tests on Wednesday would be a welcome relief but it wasn't. She spent the whole day outside, she didn't want to be inside disturbing the rest of the class, pacing around in worry. Her odd little status was accentuated by the dean of Tokyo-4 University taking a personal interest in her test scores and grading her tests himself. So instead of having to wait a couple weeks for the results like everyone else, and maybe being able to calm down a bit, she was going to get her test results on Thursday.

 

She had so much anxiety about all this that she ended up looking even more frazzled than the students who just finished taking their last tests. Her teenage emotions were doing the very best to make her a nervous wreck right now. So much so she was almost in tears as she saw her friends coming out of the school.

 

When the students came out of the school there was no leaping for joy or any of that stuff, just a whole lot of sighing in relief that this was all over with. And also some shading of the eyes as this was the first time in several days that a good majority of the kids had seen the sun. The only thing most of the students wanted to do right now was crash. All the celebrating could be done later at the many parties that would pop up here and there but for now sleep and/or relaxation was required.

 

So the last thing that Asuka wanted right now as she was leaning on Shinji for support was a panicky blue haired girl racing up to her and pouting “I think I failed my test!”

 

Asuka pouted a bit herself as she was too tired for this. “No you didn't. You did just fine and have nothing to worry about.”

 

“But as I was going through the questions in my head I think I missed one. And if I missed one that means every other problem after that will be wrong. I know I failed.”

 

Asuka put her hand over Rei's mouth at this point to stop the panicking girl. “Listen Rei. I'm too tired for this so I'm only going to say this once. There's no way in hell that you failed, so knock it off and let's just go home.”

 

Rei quickly quieted down after that brash bit of curtness and began walking with Asuka and Shinji towards their home. Maybe unloading all her problems out on an equally washed-out Asuka wasn't such a good idea. “Sorry” Rei told her softly as an apology for bugging her.

 

“It's ok” Asuka replied. “You're frazzled, I'm frazzled, Shinji's frazzled, hell everyone is frazzled! If you want when we get home you can let it all out on Misato. She would be better at helping you than me anyways.”

 

That made Rei feel a little better actually. It wasn't that other people were suffering but more along the lines of other people were going through the same thing as her. Rei then ended up using Shinji as a shoulder to lean on much in the same way as Asuka. This just felt comfortable right now.

 

Of course Shinji didn't see it that way. He was just as beat up as the other two girls. He let out a rather whiny “Why do I have to be the person supporting you two?”

 

“Because you're the guy” Asuka retorted back sharply. “Now just be a good one and drag us home so I can get some sleep.”

 

“I'm too tired for this” Shinji griped.

 

“Save it for later” Asuka told him. “And if I start sleep walking, don't wake me.”

 

Shinji let out a very tired sigh and just resigned himself to his current fate. He also noticed Asuka shut her eyes and started wondering if she really did fall asleep on him. On the other side though he saw a girl with eyes that were no where near shut. You could literally see the panic in Rei's eyes. He didn't know if he had the energy to do it but he might as well try to get these girls home.

 

And for the most part he did. He did fall asleep while waiting for the elevator but a little nudge from Rei was all that it took to get him going again. Once at the Katsuragi household though he dropped off the worried girl in front of Misato and then carried the sleeping girl over to her bed where he proceeded to fall down onto the bed right next to her and fell asleep.

 

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

 

It didn't take long for Misato to talk Rei down from the particular ledge of worry she was standing on. All it took was a call to a certain professor who was doing the grading to assure her that she did everything correctly after all.

 

Rei was very much relieved to hear that and she calmed down a great bit. She was still worried about her score but at least now she knew that she didn't screw up. Since she felt better she decided to stick around and give Misato a hand with things. She pretty much figured out that even though it was Asuka's turn to cook dinner today it wasn't going to happen, yet again. There were certain things about Asuka that ceased to ever change. The girl seemed to learn Misato's pass the buck type of cooking technique a little too well.

 

“So were those two up all night?” Rei asked while helping Misato tidy up some displaced toys.

 

“My guess would be yes” Misato answered while holding back Keiko who currently wanted all her toys to be strewn about regardless of what her auntie Rei or mommy were doing. “I went to bed around ten or ten thirty last night and they were still at the table studying. When I got up at six to check on Keiko they were still there. Both of them were asleep at the table but judging by the amount of drool on Asuka's book she hadn't been sleeping long.”

 

Rei had to giggle at that. Asuka would threaten to kill almost anyone if they ever accused her of drooling in her sleep, even if it was the truth. But Misato never had any worries about saying that even in front of the brash redhead. For as easily as Asuka could kick a normal high school girl's ass Misato could kick hers. But right now Asuka was sleeping so Rei was free to laugh at that. After the laugh though she let out a “Keiko please don't…” but it was too late. The precocious two year old had wriggled out of her mommy's grasp and started to throw around all the things that Rei just put away.

 

Misato though rolled her eyes and told Rei “Just let her be for now. I'll pick the toys up later after she gets all of this out of her system.”

 

“I suppose” Rei commented and then sighed. How Misato put up and dealt with that little girl was beyond her comprehension some days. To Rei it seemed like the older Keiko got the more work it was to take care of her. But since she wasn't going to be able to clean right now she decided to head over to the kitchen as she might as well start supper. “Is there anything you would like for dinner?”

 

Misato looked over into Asuka's room and could tell the girl was down for the count. “You know since she's asleep and can't argue, how about some sushi tonight?”

 

“That sounds very good” Rei answered finding she might just have a taste for that now that Misato had brought it up. This would make her cooking even easier as all she had to do now was throw some left over miso soup on the stove as a side dish and go down to the corner market to pick up some sushi as the main course. And since she was feeling much more relaxed she might even enjoy a little walk down to the corner store. It was a rather nice day out now that she noticed.

 

She was even going to get some company as Misato decided a little walk might be just what Keiko needed right now to burn off her excess energy. So she left a little note for Kaji telling him they had just popped out for a couple minutes and then she took off with Rei.

 

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

 

When Rei showed up for school the next day she stopped outside the door to the room. She could see a manila envelope sitting on her teacher's desk. And even from out there she could see her name written across it. Her test results had already come back, much sooner than she had expected. The professor was a busy guy and while she knew he would have the results done by today she was expecting to get them later this afternoon when school was over. Not right away this morning. She became rather nervous all of a sudden and didn't know if she wanted to go into the room anymore. She just stood there frozen in the doorway and didn't even hear the start of school bell that went off right beside her.

 

Which of course caused an odd sight as while the rest of the class followed the class rep's instruction to bow to the teacher and then be seated Rei was still just standing there in the doorway staring at an envelope on the teacher's desk. There were even a few snickers about it but the teachers silenced his students. “Watch it you guys. Your grades come tomorrow and I know some of you have much more to worry about than Miss Ayanami.” That little gloom and doom prediction shut the class up real quick.

 

The sound of her name though snapped Rei out of her daze and she quickly bowed to the teacher and apologized for disrupting his class.

 

“There is no need to apologize” Mr. Ohta told her. “I remember when I took these exams. It took me over an hour to get up enough nerve to go look at the acceptance list outside the college I applied to.” He then looked out at his class. “And those of you who are moving on to college will be feeling the same way Miss Ayanami does right now in a year. This is a very nerve wracking experience.” With that he signaled for Rei to come over to his desk.

 

She slowly walked towards it feeling nervous and a slightly embarrassed the whole way. She was well aware of the fact that her future was heavily dependent on these results. Even before she opened the envelope she asked fretfully “Do you think I did ok?”

 

“I'm sure you did fine” the teacher responded and handed her the envelope with her exam results.

 

Rei's hand was trembling as she took the envelope. And they were still shaking when she handed it back and asked quietly “Could you open it please?”

 

The teacher chuckled at that while nodding yes. Interestingly this wasn't the first time some nervous student had asked him to do this, and probably not the last either. But as he did he saw there was a note attached to the results. He could tell it was for Rei but he read enough of it to tell her. “See I told you Miss Ayanami that you didn't have anything to worry about. With these grades I think there is a fine chance that you will get into the college you applied for.” What he said was a very humble version of what was written on the note.

 

Rei actually stumbled back a bit on hearing that. The girl looked unsteady enough on her feet that it prompted action by the class rep who ended up helping her to her seat. Once she was sitting though she was able to calm her nerves enough to look at her results. There was a bunch of different numbers on her card but no real ranking results so it was hard to tell how well she did. But along with those numbers was a personal note from the good professor.

 

-Congratulations Rei, there is no doubt in my mind that you made it in. Normally the way this university chooses who makes it in or not is they take the top ten percent of all exams sent in for recommendation to the college. While we have not gotten those results in yet as there is still much grading to be done I can tell you that based upon previous year's results there is no way you will not get in. In fact based on your results I am sure you would qualify for honors level classes. This is something I will talk to you about later though so for now don't bother thinking about it.-

 

Rei could not help but smile widely at this information as all that hard work she did really paid off. Basically she was really proud of herself right now. That smile also said a lot to other people and she got a couple congratulatory IMs from her friends. She did the polite thing and sent back some thank you IMs and then she got asked a question by the teacher as he was doing roll call. “Miss Ayanami, do you know where Ikari and Sohryu are?”

 

Rei looked around the room and realized for the first time that they weren't there. And not only that but she hadn't come to school with them like always either. She must have been more nervous than she thought. She answered the teacher with a mystified “No” as she was wondering where they were too.

 

The teacher just shrugged his shoulders and said “Oh well” as it was no big deal. While you were supposed to come to school today it wasn't unusual for kids to skip. Out of his class a total of ten kids were missing right now. He had only asked Rei because Asuka and Shinji were among the ones he didn't think would. After all there was a big baseball game later today so both of them should be around if they wanted to participate in that event later. But since they were missing he marked them absent along with the likes of Mana and Kaworu. Those two he knew weren't going to show up and wasn't surprised by their absence in the least.

 

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

 

Eventually though Asuka and Shinji did make it to school to help clean, they just showed up about an hour late. It seemed that the two of them woke up during the night before and decided to play around a bit with each other now that they were all rested up and under a lot less stress. Asuka even put on one of her cheerleading outfits to spice things up. Unfortunately for her she failed to realize that was her last clean outfit. It seemed that due to all the extra studying someone had forgotten to throw the rest of her outfits into the wash a couple nights before and now she was out of clean clothes. She wasn't so much panicked when she realized that as she was embarrassed. Mainly because Misato couldn't help but laugh at the two of them when she was told why they couldn't leave for school on time. But Shinji was a quick guy with the washing and drying so they weren't too late for school. The teacher even cut a deal with them once they got there, if they did a little extra cleaning during the day he would overlook their tardiness.

 

And for the most part Asuka and Shinji did pull their loads plus a little more, right now though Asuka was taking a break and talking to the teacher. “So teach, I keep hearing stories from Misato about how Japanese schools used to run. Any chance I'll be able to see it next year?” This was in reference to how teachers used to move around from classroom to classroom instead of having one static teacher.

 

The teacher though shook his head no. “Sorry to disappoint you Miss Sohryu but we simply don't have the resources to teach like we used to.”

 

“I thought Misato said most schools are very well funded now?”

 

“Wrong kind of resources” The teacher corrected. “We don't have enough teachers to go around. We had to let go of so many of the old ones as all they knew how to do was preach about second impact that we created a shortage. Hopefully your generation will produce a lot of teachers as we really need the help.”

 

“Hmm?? Teaching” Asuka wondered out loud before returning her attention back to the teacher. “No big deal, I was just wondering.”

 

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*********** OOO ***********

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Right now there were some big group meetings going on. It was Friday afternoon and officially the school year was over with now. The end results were pretty desirable. Rei got her favored results and then some. Hikari got good grades. Kensuke got good grades. Shinji let out a sigh of relief when he found out he kept his grades in good standings and stable with the last ones. Touji actually let out a celebratory “Hell yeah!” when he got his grades back. He didn't do nearly as good as his friends but he passed with some nice average grades. Normally he just skirted by with rather low ones. Hikari was very proud of him for his hard work. Out of the whole group Asuka was the only one with grades lower than her average. In her four college classes she got an A, A-, B+, and a B-. Even though the B- was her lowest grade she was actually happy to get that one. It was in professor Fuyutsuki's class and she could have gotten much worse if she hadn't studied her brains out for his test.

 

And even right now all six of these people were together, just not in the same groups. All of them were at Shin Seiki's but doing several different things. Shinji, Kensuke, Hikari, and Touji were together as they were part of a party for the baseball team. The whole team was together and they were celebrating their first place finish in the division. Sadly this was also the end of the season party. The winner of their division had the honor of facing Rinkai Dai High who coincidently always won the division they played in. The Central Tokyo-4 division champions couldn't stand up to the perennial powerhouse and the same thing happened as last year. They lost. But at least they lost respectably as the final score was only four to nothing, which was a big improvement on Hori Academy's twelve to zip pounding last year.

 

Also going on was the election for the next head cheerleader. Asuka was part of this group. Normally this event was held in secret at the cheerleading club's room in the school but a certain soon to be former head cheerleader dumped this tradition in favor of one where everyone was involved. When she asked for opinions on a nice open place to hold the meeting Asuka was quick to suggest Shin Seiki's as that is where her friends were going to be. Since there was no other suggestions that is where they went. Actually this is exactly what Kaiya wanted, someplace nice and public where acting bitchy about the outcome would result in embarrassing yourself in front of everyone else.

 

Rei was at Shin Seiki's too but she wasn't there to goof off. She was a responsible young woman and she knew Li Mei was going to have troubles finding girls to work today because it was the last day of school. So she volunteered to come in early and help out. This wasn't a case of sucking up so much as she was trying to get back some of the time and money she missed out on when she was studying.

 

Asuka had just swiped Shinji's baseball cap off his head. The two rather large and loud groups of teenagers were sat close to each other so the only people they would be bugging would be each other. And since Kaiya had just called to order the vote for the next head cheerleader they needed something to collect the slips of paper in. Shinji's hat was the perfect thing.

 

“Hey!”

 

“Relax Shin-kun. We just need your cap for a couple seconds.”

 

“Oh, ok then” Shinji replied. Since it was only Asuka it was no big deal. He only said hey in the first place because he got surprised.

 

“Here you go” Asuka said giving the hat to Kaiya.

 

“Thanks” Kaiya said and then she handed out some strips of paper. “Ok everyone write down on the strip of paper who you want to be the head cheerleader next year and then throw them into the cap.”

 

Once that was done and the votes were gathered she handed off the hat to Asuka to be the official counter of the votes. Being as part of her punishment she was precluded from having any leadership type responsibilities she was marked the most impartial one in the group. She started to read the votes off “Ok we have one vote for Tia… and another vote for Tia… and a vote for Shika.” Apparently with the tide turned Shika no longer felt she had to be loyal to Tani so she started the back stabbing early. “… a third vote for Tia… a vote for Tani… another vote for Tani… a vote for Tia… and the last vote is for Tia.” Asuka looked up at Tia after she read all the scraps of paper. “Congratulations, you're the boss now.”

 

There was a good bit of celebration after that. Most of the first year girls like Tia as she was really nice and they were hoping either her or Rini would win the vote. The other senior girls liked her too not that it really mattered, they were all done with high school so they were generally very happy about that right now. The few girls who didn't like the outcome were left to brood as there was nothing else they could do.

 

Tani and Sumi wanted to go after Kotono because she was supposed to side with them but somehow Kotono got in good with Asuka and they didn't want to go up against her. They also wanted to go after Shika but she was more popular than them so they couldn't do that either.

 

As for Shika, she knew she wasn't going to get her way so she figured she might as well spoil it for Tani too. And now that she had done that she got up from her chair and told everyone “I got a party to go to” and she left.

 

After she left though one of the seniors snickered. “If she's talking about the party Kirishima's throwing she's going to be very bored.”

 

“Wait didn't you tell her about the party I was throwing?” Kaiya asked sarcastically.

 

“It must have slipped my mind” the other girl replied.

 

Asuka though was really confused about all this. “Wait, why is Kirishima throwing a party? She's not a senior.” After all end of the year senior parties are usually thrown by seniors.

 

“To get back at me” Kaiya answered. “Apparently she's mad at me over something I did. I don't even know why.”

 

“That bitch doesn't really need a reason” Asuka said with a roll of her eyes before switching the conversation over to something else. “So who's going to be at your party?”

 

Kaiya answered “Pretty much everyone I know.” Kaiya was throwing a big bash and invited not only all the seniors but also pretty much all the cheerleaders and anyone else who wanted to come. Being a social queen meant you had to be exceptionally social. She then asked the magic question “So you coming or what?”

 

Asuka nodded her head yes. “We'll make an appearance. But we can't stay long because Mr. Responsibility over here…” As she said that part she swatted Shinji's cap back onto his head inducing some girl type giggles from those around her. “…says we have a lot to do tomorrow since we got to get packed and everything for our trip to Germany on Sunday.”

 

That of course elicited several remarks of “You're going to Germany for vacation! That's so cool.” And this in return led to a lot of girl talk between everyone about where they were or weren't going to go on summer vacation this year.

 

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

 

It was about three in the afternoon and the parties were starting to wind down when an elegant looking figure with striking blue hair and a lotus intertwined in it came down a long flight of fancy stairs. Many of the baseball player's jaws dropped to the floor as they watched this alluring vision gracefully make her way across the room over to the big Russian guy who was at the front entrance. The very appealing girl then handed him a telephone and waited patiently beside him while he talked to someone. A minute later he handed the phone back and had a short conversation with her. Then the mesmerizing looking girl in the very fine-looking kimono turned back around and made her way over to the stairs to go back up to the fancy part of the restaurant.

 

Her pleasant cadence across the room was interrupted by a wolf whistle from one of the baseball players. When she turned around she saw a spoon fly across the tables and hit the boy squarely upside the head. That rather rude action was followed by a brash red head yelling “Don't patronize Rei like that. She doesn't like it.”

 

Rei's reaction to what happened was a slight shake of her head no directed at Asuka as that was not an appropriate thing to do. Of course she got a tongue stuck out at her in response but she sort of expected that. She also noticed something else. Kensuke bowed respectfully and said “Sorry Rei.”

 

“It's ok” Rei replied serenely. “It's nothing that hasn't happened a million times before from the bar patrons.”

 

Kensuke had to chuckle a bit at that. That bar up there may have been for the trendsetters but it was most likely filled with the same kind of jerks as any normal bar. He then asked “So who's coming in tonight that you had to talk to Zukav?”

 

“One of the Minister's of the State along with some foreign dignitaries” Rei replied politely. “He wanted to make sure Mr. Zukav had everything ready for their arrival later on.”

 

“Cool” Kensuke replied and then said “Have a good night” politely as he knew she had to get back to her post.

 

Rei replied with a little bow and a “Thank you” before heading up the stairs.

 

After Rei was up the stairs though Asuka looked at Kensuke and slandered “You're as bad as she is with that politeness crap sometimes.”

 

“It's just part of the job red” Kensuke sighed as Asuka just didn't get it.

 

“Yeah, whatever stooge” Asuka shot back.

 

Kensuke rebutted that with a curt “You know it wouldn't hurt if you actually learned some manners one of these days.”

 

Asuka let out an offended “AH!” before lamenting “I have great manners!”

 

There were quite a few snickers generated from that comment. Including one from a source that wasn't supposed to be snickering. Shinji may have had his back to Asuka but he instinctively drew his hand up to his mouth to cover it so she couldn't see him laughing. Unfortunately from behind Asuka could see this action and she knew what it meant. “Hey! You better not be laughing at that.” She then went up to him and tried to pull his hand away so she could see if he was in trouble or not.

 

This led to a little lighthearted tussle between the two and eventually Shinji overpowered her and pulled the frumpy red head into his lap. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and said “Sorry.”

 

“Hmmphff” Asuka pouted in reply. “You're mean.”

 

Shinji apologized to his girlfriend again this time adding “How about if I promise to do whatever you say for the rest of the night?”

 

That quickly turned Asuka's frown upside down and she stated “That's better.” She then got up off his lap and pulled on his arm “Let's get going. I need to change and do my hair before we go to the party.”

 

“Ok” Shinji replied and waived bye to the guys as him and Asuka left. Lot's of other people were doing the same thing as the parties were pretty much over with now and people had places to go and things to do. Well except for Kensuke that is. He stuck around and gave the people who got stuck cleaning up after the two large, and messy, parties a hand before he went to work doing deliveries. After all tonight would be a big night for him. With multiple parties and school just ending there would be much business for him. Plus since people were in celebratory moods he knew their pocketbooks would be open a slight bit more and he was going to get some big tips tonight.

 

(A/N: And that folks is the end to chapter 16. I finally got the kids out of school so we can have some summer fun. Or maybe some summer “other” things too, you'll just have to wait and see. Either way there will be much to peruse as I have some big plans and changes in store for certain people. Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter and see you all in another 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.)

 

(Extra A/N: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Rohatsu, Happy Ramadan, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Yule, and have a happy and safe new year. May you not have to spend the next day worshiping the porcelain god.)