Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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On the second day of school it was like a pack of wolves advancing on a flock of sheep as various senior boys trolled the halls of the first year students. These girls were seen as fresh meat and since they were seniors that made them men compared to all the little first year boys on the first floor. Of course the flip side of all this was that these were the boys who had built reputations for themselves that made all the senior and second year girls turn them down flat. But the first year girls didn't know any of that stuff yet so they could get away with their old tricks and cons.

 

If you went up to the third floor where all the senior girls were you would get the impression `good riddens to bad rubbish.' They may have felt a little sorry for the first years but as long as these boys left them alone they weren't going to do anything about it unless they had a really good reason. By now all the girls knew exactly who and what all the dateable boys of their class were really like. The good ones who were honest and trustworthy, not to mention cute, were already taken. Then you had the middle ground that was filled with boys that might be ok to have some fun with but it wasn't going to be anything serious or something that would last. The availability of these boys varied depending on whether a dance or something was right around the corner or not. Finally you had the boys who were downstairs. These were the ones that would say all the right things to get you into bed and then never say another thing to you again afterwards. Unfortunately these boys were always available, especially if you had the reputation of putting out.

 

As you can guess Kaworu Nagisa was right in the thick of things down on the first floor. He was in serious need of a new girlfriend, or two, as he had lost his last couple. Apparently over the summer the two girls he was “secretly” dating found out about each other and now he was girlfriendless. It was no big deal to him though as he was growing bored of them anyway and he could always find other gullible girls to take their place. And right now he was trolling the halls in search of said girls. He was all primped up and flaunting his pretty boy looks while spinning some sad yarn about why he had gray hair already along with red eyes. Unlike Rei he used his distinctive looks as an advantage over other people. It made him oh so different and so much cooler than normal people. While the senior girls no longer believed his spiel and most of the second year girls were wise to his ways the first year girls were naive to his methods. The added bonus to all of this was that most of these girls were inexperienced so he could get them to do whatever he wanted them too and they wouldn't even know he was taking advantage of them. Or at least they wouldn't know till it was too late but by that time he would have cast them aside for a new flavor. This year's goals were a fresh virgin for every trimester and whatever stupid party sluts he could hook up with.

 

And right now he thought he had his first virgin in sight. She was a tad tall for a first year but all girls were the same height to him when they were on their knees and sucking away. Plus she had a sweet rack on her that would be all sorts of fun. Then there was the added bonus of her hanging around with some friends that were cute as well. It was always fun when you can get together with two girls who were friends with each other and them not know about it. That way if one of them does find out later on they have to keep their trap shut or they will ruin the friendship. A win-win situation no matter what happened in his opinion.

 

He flashed the girls a cool smile as he walked up to them. “Hello there I'm Kaworu Nagisa” he began as he properly introduced himself. “I remember how hard it was for me when I was a first year so I thought I would come down and offer any of you my personal assistance. Just call me for anything, I'm always happy to help out.” The cool calm look, the slight flip of his hair, and the dashing twinkle to his eye. He had the knight in shining armor guise down pat.

 

The group of girls all giggled at his entrance, it was so suave. Much better than any of the other senior boys they had met so far today. And he was cute too as he had that complete bishonen look going for him. It was the tall girl he had his sight set on that responded. “Hi! I'm Nozomi” and she stuck out her hand.

 

Being of the debonair type of guy he was he did not just simply take her hand and shake it but instead took it tenderly in his and raised it up to his lips and gave it a kiss. “Hello Nozomi it's my pleasure to meet you.”

 

Two seconds after he said that though he heard the cracking of knuckles. It was no surprise to him that a girl like this already had a boyfriend but also nothing to worry about. At best he couldn't be more than a second year but was most likely some runty first year student. This wouldn't even be a challenge. Kaworu turned his body partially around while saying “Go away little boy. It's rude to interrupt a man when he's talking to a lady.”

 

He didn't even look at the boy though and kept his eyes on Nozomi while giving her a wink he was so confident. Unfortunately for him when he tried to push the kid away he wasn't pushing some shrimpy little first year's head away but instead ran into a chest that was like a wall of bricks. Or more precisely the chest of someone who's job it was to make said walls of brick. But then again if you think about it there is rarely a difference between those two connotations.

 

It was only a matter of seconds before Kaworu guardedly crooked his head to see who his opponent was. This was no first year. It wasn't a second year student either. In fact it was a third year student, aka a senior just like him. And a very big one at that as Touji grabbed Kaworu by the front of his shirt and lifted him clean off the ground. “If I don't like you even looking at Hikari why the fuck do you think I want you talking to her little sister?”

 

“L-little S-s-sister?” Kaworu choked out while starting to shake. He was in a very bad spot right now.

 

“Yup, Hikari's little sister” Touji answered while making a fist with his other hand. “The girl you're talking to is Nozomi Horaki.”

 

He looked over at the girl in question and noticed she was smiling over all of this. It was then very clear to him, this stupid little first year slut had just set him up. How dare she do that to him. He was far better than her, didn't she know that? “Y-you can't do this to me?”

 

“And you can't dishonor my onee-san and get away with it” Nozomi vilified him back. She knew all about Kaworu Nagisa as she was warned by her older sister to stay away from him. She also knew what he did to her so she was pretty happy with how things turned out. And why did things turn out this way, well maybe it had to do with that text message she sent to Touji asking him for help because her locker was jammed. Sure it was a ruse but since she sent it the second Nagisa headed towards her it was a ruse she knew would work.

 

The last thing Kaworu needed right now was for her to bring that incident up and he let out a feeble “I- I didn't know” in an effort to stop Touji from beating the tar out of him.

 

Touji sort of laughed at that. “Know what Asuka always says to me when I answer like that?”

 

Kaworu answered with a scared “N-no.”

 

“That ignorance is no excuse.” And he reared his arm back to punch him. “Then she usually wallops me like I'm about to do to you.”

 

But the punch was stopped though as there was a sharp “Touji Suzuhara! Put him down right this instant!”

 

Touji looked to his side and it was sort of a déjà vu moment. Just like during his first year Mrs. Kumara was standing there telling him to let Nagisa go. Unfortunately for the gray haired boy Touji answered his old teacher pretty much the same way as before. “Sorry teach but this pussy has it coming.”

 

It isn't only students who learn things at school, teacher do too. Mrs. Kumara knew she wasn't going to be able to stop Touji, she just wanted stall him long enough so the person who was able to could get there. “Do you really want to risk a week's suspension or even expulsion over him?”

 

“It would be worth it…” Touji started to say before he heard a distinctive sound. It was a steady tapping of a foot against the school's floor. And just from the sharp tap of it he could tell it was from a girl's shoe as a boy's shoe hitting the floor would make more of a thud than a tap. And the absolutely worst part about it was that it was a familiar sounding tap. Touji let out a defeated breath and said “Hiya babe.”

 

“Don't you hiya babe me” Hikari scolded him. “You drop him right this second!”

 

“But babe…” Touji tried to argue.

 

“No buts” Hikari snapped back cutting off any excuse he could give. “Drop him!”

 

“He was hitting on Nozomi” Touji said in refusal. He really wanted to get at least one good shot on the boy he was holding up.

 

“I know exactly what happened. I heard everything” Hikari answered.

 

There was two gulps from that. One from Touji and one from Nozomi. They then both said the same thing “Everything?”

 

“Everything” Hikari repeated.

 

It was then that Mrs. Kumara held up her cell phone. Hikari was one of the leaders on her team so it made perfect sense that she had the girl's phone number programmed into her phone. The teacher must have had it on this whole time.

 

Upon this realization Touji let go of Kaworu. He was in enough trouble already so it was probably best that he did so.

 

While Kaworu was relieved to be let go of he wasn't relieved at being made a fool of as he fell to the floor flat on his ass, banging his head against a locker producing a sharp clang right afterwards. Granted most of the damage in that action was done to his ego. It was very hard to make yourself look like a cool dude when you just got shook around like a rag doll by another guy. It only got worse too as standing right behind Hikari was Asuka. She was very directly and most vocally laughing right at him.

 

“That's enough Asuka” Hikari said as her friend wasn't making things any better before turning to look at Touji. “Upstairs.”

 

“But babe…”

 

“No if, ands, or buts about it. Get moving!” Hikari ordered.

 

Touji let out a grumbling “Yes dear” as he turned around and trudged up to the third floor. Hikari went to follow him but before she did she dropped the words of doom on her little sister as she told her “I will talk to you later.”

 

With a sunken posture Nozomi said to herself “I'm so dead.”

 

“Oh don't worry about it” Asuka told her when Hikari was out of earshot. “If all else fails just tell her I dreamed up the whole scenario.” Asuka then laughed “Considering the amount of crap I've pulled she will probably believe it.”

 

“Really, I can do that?” Nozomi asked as this was definitely a silver lining.

 

“Sure” Asuka said. It didn't really matter to her as she knew Hikari was going to have some words with her anyway over what she was mouthing the whole time Touji had a hold of Nagisa. She was basically telling the big lug to punch the asshole's lights out while Hikari was trying to get Touji to put him down.

 

As for Kaworu Nagisa, he was getting an earful from his old teacher Mrs. Kumara. He was also sent upstairs along with the warning that he better not show up back on the first floor again without good reason again. He was no longer welcomed there as he was nothing but trouble.

 

“Every year it's the same thing, isn't it coach?” Asuka asked her old teacher as she stood next to her watching Nagisa slink his way up the stairs. Last year four big fights broke out during the first week of the new school year. And if the incident between Nagisa and Touji had gone any further it would have already been number three for this new year.

 

“Yes it is” her coach sighed. “I wish these boys would just go away. All they do is cause trouble when they come down here.”

 

“I think I can do that” Asuka smirked and started to walk off.

 

Mrs. Kumara was about to say something as she didn't like the sound of that but she stopped and observed Asuka do something first. The girl was now wearing a ring on her finger. Except hers was too big for her own finger and she had just turned it around so that the face of it pointed down. Mrs. Kumara took a deep breath and said to herself `I don't want to know' and she retreated back into her room. If one of the other teachers wanted to handle Asuka they could have at it, she figured she had enough aggravation for today.

 

As for why Asuka had a ring, well lets just say jealousy had a little part in that. Yesterday she had seen Hikari get lost in herself a couple times while she stared at her ring. She even got caught not paying attention during class once while she did it. But she didn't get in trouble for it, only a little giggled at as every girl knew she was picturing her wedding in her head. The guilty blushing smile Hikari displayed told everyone how happy she was.

 

Asuka wanted this too. But the problem was that while she did have a ring or two from Shinji, none of them even remotely like Hikari's, she couldn't wear any of them to school. While the school would break the rules for an engagement ring they wouldn't do it for anything else. If Asuka wanted to wear a ring it would have to be a school ring. Personally she hated school rings as they were just so big and garish so she didn't have one. But then a thought came to her. While she didn't have one Shinji did. He never wore it because he thought it was sort of silly to and he wasn't all that big on school spirit. And the only reason he got one at all was because he was on the baseball team. All the other boys on the squad had them so he caved in and got one too so he would fit in. But that didn't mean he had to wear it. And since he didn't wear it that meant Asuka could.

 

And it wouldn't even be that big of a deal as boyfriends routinely gave their school rings to their girlfriends as a symbol of devotion. Hell people wouldn't even look twice if she wore his ring. Probably more than anything people were wondering why she wasn't. So before she left for school today she asked Shinji if she could have it. He didn't really care at all and if she wanted it, it was all hers. So that is why Asuka had a ring on her finger now.

 

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Asuka walked back into her classroom following behind a boy. “It still hurts!”

 

“I said I was sorry” Asuka laughed.

 

“Why'd you hit me anyways? I wasn't doing anything.” the boy said as he rubbed the back of his head.

 

“Well I thought you were hitting on those first year girls” Asuka answered in a way that she thought explained everything.

 

“I was talking to my little sister” The boy groused back though.

 

“Well how was I to know that?” Asuka said looking at him like it was still all his fault she slapped him upside the head. Basically Asuka's method to getting the senior boys to go back upstairs was to hit them over the backs of their heads right in front of the first year girls they were talking to. She also spilled the beans about just how nice some of those boys really were. Needless to say most of the boys scurried off because Asuka knew too much and that damn ring she was wearing really hurt when she hit them with it.

 

“You know Sohryu” the boy said looking at her in disbelief that she could be so high and mighty. “You're a real Amazon.”

 

“Shows what you know” Asuka said throwing the statement back in his face. “Every recorded documentation of Amazon warriors says they had golden or flaxen blonde hair. And my hair is certainly not boring old blonde.” And just to make her point even clearer she flounced her hair in front of the boy while looking at Shinji. “It's a vibrant, beautiful, and exciting red. Right Shin-kun?”

 

Shinji of course agreed with that completely causing Asuka to smile happily and exude an air of superiority over the other girls in the class as she was the only true red head around. The boy was absolutely flabbergasted by all this and asked Shinji “How do you put up with her?”

 

“Put up with her?” Hikari scoffed as she answered for Shinji. “He encourages her more than anything.” She then turned her attention over to Asuka as the only answer she was going to get out of Shinji from that comment was a guilty smile. “Did you really just go around and hit all the senior boys downstairs?”

 

“Yup” Asuka answered proudly.

 

“Why?” Hikari asked as she just couldn't understand Asuka's actions this time.

 

“Because they're all skeezeballs and deserved it” Asuka answered. “Plus I wanted to see if the stone in Shinji's ring was harder than their thick skulls.”

 

“I am not a skeezeball!” the boy Asuka came upstairs with yelled. “I was just talking to my sister!” He really did not want to get lumped in with those others boys, it would be rather detrimental to his dating life.

 

“So I made one little mistake” Asuka said totally blowing him off. “Sue me.”

 

“And get what?” the boy argued back. “You're always complaining about not having any money.”

 

“I have money” Asuka argued back. But then she stopped and had to think for a second. “…Wait… maybe not… Um Rei do I owe you my next paycheck?”

 

From across the room Rei answered “Yes.”

 

“All of it?”

 

“Yes” Rei repeated herself. “And some of your next one too.”

 

That left Asuka scratching her head. “What exactly did I borrow that money for again?”

 

“A sweater you simply couldn't live without” Rei replied plainly. During the whole time Rei was talking she didn't take her attention off her computer screen and was tapping away at the keyboard. Unlike everyone else she was using this time to write out her homework assignment for the week.

 

“Oh yeah” Asuka said now remembering and completely forgetting about the boy she was talking to as she turned her attention to Hikari. “It was that cute pink and white striped one.”

 

“The one in the store front outside of Reiko Haga's boutique?” Hikari asked.

 

“Yup.”

 

“That's going to look so good on you this winter…” and the two girls went into the whole fashionita world. And they weren't alone as a bunch of other girls in the room joined right in on the gabfest.

 

The boys just backed away as they wanted nothing more to do with this conversation. They weren't the only ones though as Rei paid no heed to the conversation either and instead continued to do her homework. Partly because it was the responsible thing to do but also because she was enjoying this particular assignment. It was sort of exciting writing about all the different experiences she had over the summer. And this time when she did it she didn't have to hold anything back like she did in the past. Well maybe a little holding back about some things right now, but that was due to the very private nature of it.

 

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It was only Thursday and Asuka was already tuckered out. With the advanced load on her plate she felt she was getting pulled in all directions at once. With regular school, college courses, swimming, and cheerleading all going on at the same time things were a bit hectic. But at least she was better off than Hikari who wasn't able to get home from school till at least six or seven o'clock in the evening because of her duties.

 

Asuka sat there on the bench in front of her gym locker staring at it for a few seconds before asking her best friend sitting next to her. “So what's next for you?” They had just finished with swimming practice but neither of them was done with the day. They both still had stuff to do.

 

Hikari breathed out a sigh while putting on her shoe. “First I have to sit in on a budgeting meeting to decipher who gets what concerning money for the culture fest. Then I have to listen to complaints about who knows what that some students have about the school rules. And finally I have to listen to complaints about some disciplinary measures. I swear this school's full of nothing but whiners.”

 

“I hear you” Asuka said sharing in her lassitude. And since Hikari had brought up the topic of culture fest Asuka announced out loud “I'm taking any and all ideas about what the team's going to be doing for culture fest this year. And let's do something different this year girls.” With as busy as Hikari was Asuka knew this was going to be up to her this year. And since she was the captain of the team it was a bit of a case of rightfully so.

 

“Why are you asking us that now?” one of the girls spoke up. “Culture week isn't for like a month.”

 

“Yes but I need to turn in what we're doing in two weeks” Asuka answered. “And knowing you slackers you'll need that long just to get yourselves motivated enough to think up an idea.” This was just the typical berating of a team that captains are known for.

 

She got a lot of “Yeah, whatever's” from the girls she was in charge of but she didn't really care. She knew eventually someone would come up with a good idea. She then looked over at Rei and laid her head on the blue haired girl's shoulder. “Mind if I take a cat nap here blue?”

 

“No” Rei answered wishing she could do the same. “But I have to go to work.”

 

“Lucky you” Asuka said in a totally facetious way.

 

“Are you and Shinji working tonight?” Rei asked.

 

“No” Asuka answered. “We're going to be working tomorrow and Saturday…. I still don't know how we got talked into that though.”

 

“Because it's really hard to say no to Li Mei” Rei answered. At least for her it was.

 

“I suppose” Asuka said getting up. “Well I guess I'm off to go pick on the cheerleaders some more. See ya tomorrow everyone.” She got the consensus goodbye from all her teammates and headed out the door.

 

But as she made her way over to the cheerleading team's clubroom she heard a “Miss Asuka, can I talk to you?”

 

Asuka slowed up so Yuma could catch up to her. “You need something?”

 

“I was wondering how you and Shinji feel about school dances?”

 

“I think they're fun but it would take an act of god to get Shinji to show up at one” Asuka answered. “Why?” Even though Asuka asked why she figured she already knew the reason. At the end of the trimester there was going to be a big dance, sort of like a homecoming dance and prom wrapped together, and the girl was probably looking for people to go with.

 

Yuma looked a little down at that answer and she answered with a glum “No reason. I was just wondering.” Yuma then waved at her and said goodbye.

 

`Poor girl' Asuka thought to herself and continued on her way. But it was better that she learn they weren't going to go to that dance now than after she already started making some grandiose plans. Granted she might have liked to go to it but she knew Shinji would find the event dreadful. He would probably be pretty antisocial and gloomy during the whole thing and then it wouldn't have been any fun. Of course that didn't mean she wasn't going to be able to dance with him all romantic like. She very much had plans to shade her room and turn on some romantic music. That way they could dance as slowly and as closely as they wanted to and do so many more things as well than what wouldn't be allowed at the dance at school.

 

Just thinking about it made her smile and when she got to the clubroom she was in a sort of good mood. “Hey Rini. How's it going?”

 

Rini though gave her a depressed look as she pointed over to the captain of the cheerleading squad Tia. “That's how it's going.”

 

Considering Tia was right now checking on two girls that just got walloped by batons during practice Asuka could easily guess what Rini meant by that. “That good huh? Well…. What can I say?”

 

“Anything but we're screwed” Rini almost cried.

 

“Then I won't say it.” Asuka then watched as another baton went up in the air and the poor girl missed catching it on the way down. It ended up hitting the girl in her shin. “But you will allow me to think it right?”

 

“Oh god yes” Rini answered and went over to check on the first year cheerleader that was now howling in pain.

 

A very rough and raw group of first years was nothing to get excited over. It was very early in the year and this was normal. What wasn't normal was while the girl Rini was checking up on was a first year the other two that Tia was working with were second years. And to make matters worse was the fact that Kotono was trying to teach some other girls how to do things. You could tell she was rather uncomfortable with this as even by her own admission she wasn't the best cheerleader in the group to be doing this. She was great at the rah rah sis boom bah and the shaking of pompoms at games but when it came to the competitive components she was usually put in back. And that is where she was the happiest. “Hey Kotono. You want me to take over now?”

 

Kotono was quick to turn around. “Please do. I don't know what the heck I'm doing.”

 

Asuka chuckled at that a bit and took over for the overwhelmed girl. Kotono was much more a follower than a leader but due to the severe lack of senior cheerleaders around she had been pushed into the unfamiliar position. “So has Shika showed up for practice yet?”

 

“No” Kotono answered. “Tai said she talked to her and it didn't sound like she was going to show up for practice anymore.”

 

“Is her knee that bad?”

 

Kotono nodded a yes to that. “She can't even stand up without crutches right now.”

 

Asuka could only shake her head at that. While Shika was a bit of a pain at times the girl did know what she was doing. “So has Tai had any luck at getting Sumi to rejoin the team?”

 

“Nope” Kotono answered as she watched what Asuka was doing just as closely as the other girls. It was plain weird how good Asuka was at using a baton. Although sometimes there seemed to be a viciousness to her technique. And if you ever watched her when she was just messing around you got a little scared as some of the moves she did almost gave the impression that she was attacking something.

 

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When Asuka and Shinji got home from school that night Asuka went straight over to the couch and collapsed on it. “Rough day?” Misato asked.

 

“Too rough” Asuka whimpered. “Can you tell the world to stop for a minute? I want to get off.”

 

“Trust me girl, I feel the same way sometimes” Misato told her as she went back to doing what she was before Asuka and Shinji showed up. She was trying to clean the place up a bit. Keiko on the other hand was trying to destroy everything her mommy did as she didn't want her toys picked up.

 

Asuka then had a doll thrust in her face. “Asa pay wif me.”

 

Asuka let a deep breath before dealing with the hyperactive two year old. “Not now Keiko. Auntie Asuka is very tired and wants to rest.”

 

“I wanna pay” Keiko said being persistent and pushing the doll further into Asuka's face.

 

Asuka may have loved Keiko to death but right now the little girl was really pushing her luck. “Later Keiko. I will play with you later.”

 

Keiko answered that with a temperamental “I wanna pay now!” and started having a little tantrum. The girl was getting close to three now so telling her no about anything caused a fuss.

 

“Keiko if you don't stop bugging your Auntie Asuka right this second you're going to get a time out!” Apparently Asuka wasn't the only person who was stressed out today. Mommy seemed to be on her last nerve as well.

 

Keiko backed off quickly as she didn't want that. Those time outs were horrible, she had to sit in a corner all by herself with no toys for five whole minutes. But she was also concerned because her mommy sounded mad and she went over to her sniveling because she didn't want mommy to be mad. She held out her hands to be picked up and cried “Mommy?”

 

Misato picked her up and carried her over to a rocking chair while telling her everything was ok. She also tried to explain to Keiko why she needed to let people be at times and that she needs to be a good girl. Much of this went in one ear and out the other and Misato knew it but if you kept repeating yourself enough times eventually the lesson on civility would stick. She also started to rock in the chair and got a book from the stand next to her, this way she could read a story to Keiko and content her while Asuka wound down from her long day.

 

As for Shinji, he was whipping up dinner. It wasn't going to be anything elaborate as he was tired too. Some rice, teriyaki chicken, and whatever frozen vegetable he could find in the freezer. After he heated everything up, and ignored the penguin begging for scraps, he set dinner to the side of the stove so it would stay warm and headed over to the couch. When Kaji came home he would get back up and they could eat but for now he lifted up Asuka's legs and placed them on his lap. He then began to rub her sore legs and she let out a soft moan.

 

A relaxing leg massage was exactly what she needed to unwind from today. But if she didn't know any better it looked like her boyfriend was going on cruise control right now. That didn't sound like too bad of an idea to her but she did one up him as she fell asleep during her massage.

 

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It was Wednesday afternoon during the next week and Asuka was just getting back to school. Her college classes on Wednesday took her out of class for most of the morning but they ended right before lunch so she was able to eat with her friends back at the high school. She went to her classroom first. “Hey Shin-kun, I'm back” and gave him a little peck on the cheek.

 

Shinji in return reached into his book bag and pulled out a bento box that had her lunch in it. “How was class today?”

 

“It was ok” Asuka answered. “My public speaking class is full of chickens.” Obviously when it came to public speaking Asuka had no qualms about standing up in front of other people and voicing her opinions. If she had any problems with that class it may have been that she was too much of a public speaker and needed to learn to hold her tongue. But considering the rest of the class always clammed up, remember for a normal person public speaking is a fearful thing, there was no one around to tell her that. As for the professor, he was glad that at least one of his students would actually talk more than when they were just forced to. This was a public speaking class so speaking up publicly was encouraged.

 

“So is this class” Shinji said chiding himself a little as he knew he didn't do too well on the public speaking aspect of last weeks assignment. He then gave her a little peck on the cheek back and said bye as she went off to go eat with her friends.

 

Asuka didn't stick around because Shinji was talking with Kensuke and Touji at lunch like normal and she didn't really want to intrude too much on their conversation. Then again in her opinion it wasn't like she was missing much as they were only bullshitting each other or talking about sports. Sometimes that was one in the same as Kensuke had introduced the two to fantasy leagues.

 

After a quick glance around the room Asuka noticed that Hikari had already taken off for room A. Because of her position on the school board Hikari didn't want to stick around her own classroom as that would make it too easy for people to find her and bug her during lunch. The solution to that was to eat in another classroom or outside. When inside, classroom A was picked because that is where Rini and Kotono went to eat lunch with Tia and also because there were a couple girls from the swim team that ate over there too. This way Hikari would be able to have normal girl talk during lunch instead of listening to complaints and requests. “Hey everyone” Asuka said walking into the room.

 

A lot of the girls in the room said hey back and Asuka sat down by Hikari. “So anything exciting happen while I was gone?”

 

“Not really” Hikari answered back. “The teacher caught Touji, Kensuke, and Shinji trading players when they should be working.”

 

“Figures” Asuka said with a roll of her eyes. “They were doing that when I got my lunch from Shinji.”

 

Rini giggled at that a little. “The teacher looked like she was more mad at Kensuke than the other two.”

 

“That's because he was trading off her favorite baseball player because he thought the guy was an underachiever” Hikari told her. “I don't think Mrs. Amano shared his opinion.”

 

“So our teacher's a baseball nut too?” Asuka asked.

 

“Remember what country you're living in” Hikari told her.

 

“Yeah, yeah I know” Asuka said shaking her head. “Baseball is king over here. Only God knows why though. It's such a boring sport.”

 

There was a lot of hey's to that comment as it was a definite slander against their country's national pastime. “I suppose you think soccer is better?” one of the other girls said back with a touch of attitude figuring since Asuka was born in Germany that would be her opinion.

 

Asuka though surprised them as she answered “It's about the same to me. While soccer's a faster moving sport it's one of those that's more fun to play than to watch. If I had a choice of what sports I would want to watch I would probably choose football or hockey. They're a lot more exciting.” Obviously when it came to sports Asuka's American background played a bigger role in her preferences than her other two nationalities.

 

A couple of the girls in the room raised their eyes at that answer and Tia commented “Aren't those like really violent sports?”

 

“I don't think so” Asuka said. “Sure guys hit each other a lot but it's just part of the game.”

 

But she was alone in that opinion as the other girls didn't agree. Because of her diverse background Asuka's train of thought on subjects like this usually was on totally different tracks from her friends. It was basically cultural clash. But it didn't really matter for as much as Asuka was different she was also the same as she switched the conversation over to a more enjoyable subject matter, clothes. In that area her ideas and thoughts were very similar to the other girls.

 

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

 

While Asuka was finishing up her lunch she noticed something peculiar again. Every time Hikari and her came over to this room to eat lunch there was one lone girl sitting in the back of the room eating all by herself. It was Sumi. She found it odd that the girl would be by herself and not with Tani since at times it seemed like she was Tani's indentured servant. She whispered “So what's up with Sumi?” to Tia.

 

“From what I heard” Tia whispered back. “Tani's mad at her.”

 

“What, she didn't grovel at her feet enough over the summer?” Asuka scoffed.

 

“Actually it's because of a boy” Rini answered. “Tani likes a certain guy but that guy says hi to Sumi every time he passes by her in the hall. She never says hi back or anything but Tani still thinks she's trying to steal the guy away from her.”

 

“Remind me again why Sumi's her friend?” Asuka asked sarcastically as this sounded really stupid to her.

 

“Because Tani tells her so” Tia responded back with a shake of the head as this sounded just as stupid to her as it did to Asuka.

 

“How long has this been going on?” Hikari asked.

 

“Since junior high.” Kotono was the one to answer that question as she had known the two the longest. She went to the same junior high as Sumi and Tani while the other girls hadn't. In fact they were teammates together on that cheerleading squad too and she was sort of friends with Sumi back then. Unfortunately Tani squashed anything that was like friendship between the two girls as she didn't like Kotono. Kotono didn't do everything Tani said so Sumi couldn't like her and had to be mean to her.

 

“That girl really needs to learn what a friend is” Asuka said. Truthfully Asuka was felling sorry for the girl. She had spent many a meal times all by herself when she was younger and that wasn't a memory she looked back on fondly.

 

“I told her she could come back to the cheerleading team if she wants to” Tia answered bluntly. “But it's up to her to do it. I'm not going to beg.”

 

After hearing that Asuka's mind started working and the situation became clearer to her. Tia and the rest of the cheerleaders wanted Sumi back because she had talent and could help them. But at the same time they didn't want to admit to her that they really needed her as that would seem like they were begging. There was the pride of the cheerleading squad at stake here so there was no way Tia was going to do more than put out an offer that she could rejoin the team if she wanted to.

 

On the other side of the issue was Sumi. Asuka could tell that Sumi wanted to be a cheerleader again. All during lunch Sumi was indiscreetly looking over like she wanted to join them or something. Plus she had seen the girl sigh once or twice in the past as she watched one of the cheerleaders, in their outfits, walk by. Most likely Sumi had been forced to quit the team even though she didn't want to by Tani. And now that she had a falling out with Tani that left her with nothing. She didn't have her friend and she wasn't a cheerleader. Not exactly a nice position to be in if you ask me. At the same time, even though she was invited back, she couldn't go back to the cheerleading squad after how she acted towards them. Yes she was just doing what Tani told her to but still it was mean and she mostly likely felt she had no right to come groveling back. Pride, vanity, humility, ego, sense of self worth, and dignity were all at play here.

 

Asuka turned to Hikari and whispered “Was I really this stupid in the past?”

 

“Times a hundred” Hikari whispered back honestly. “And you still are sometimes.”

 

That sort of stung Asuka but she knew why her friend said that to her, it was the truth. All she had to do was look back in the past for proof. Still whispering she asked “Do you think I should do something?”

 

Asuka got back one of those “That would be nice” from Hikari.

 

But it was one of those that implied more than just that it would be nice, it was one of those that implied it was what should be expected of her. She was partly responsible for this whole mess as it was her who took sides last year. Be it for the right reasons or not she should still hold her self accountable for the outcome. “Why do you have to be so good at guilt tripping me?”

 

“Because I'm your friend” Hikari answered back.

 

“Ouch” Asuka said as that was another hard shot to her conscience. She then got up and walked towards Sumi before Hikari could say anything else. If she didn't she was worried her own sense of self worth might end up dropping due to a disappointed look she would have gotten from Hikari for doing nothing.

 

Sumi easily noticed Asuka was heading her way and she was worried about it. She had done some mean things and she thought Asuka was coming over to pick a fight with her. Her life was about to go from bad to worse in her opinion.

 

Luckily for her that was not what happened as Asuka walked up to Sumi's desk and said “Please just come with me and don't ask any questions.” And in typical Asuka fashion she didn't even give the girl a chance to do otherwise as she grabbed Sumi by the arm and dragged her over to where the other cheerleaders were sitting. “Listen closely because I only want to say this once. Sumi swallow your pride and apologize to the other girls for being an idiot and doing all those mean thing because that bitch Tani told you to. And you girls…” Asuka was pointing at the cheerleaders. “… admit to Sumi that you really need her back on the team because you guys are severely lacking in talent and are desperate for help.” And even before any of the girls in question could get over the shock of Asuka's bluntness she added on “And do it quickly so I can stop feeling like a louse because this is as much my fault as it is all yours.”

 

Not exactly how she would of handled it but it was good enough for Hikari to give Asuka a reassuring smile and a look that told the redhead she was proud of her. Asuka only sort of cared what happened between the cheerleaders and it was Hikari's approval that she was looking for and was what lifted the guilt off her shoulders. What her best friend thought of her was much more important than what these other girls thought of her.

 

As for those other girls, right now they were thinking that not only was Asuka from another country but from a whole other planet as normal people didn't do what she just did. They were also in panic mode as this was a rather uncomfortable position to be in as all the cards had just been laid out on the table face up. And to make matters worse the dealer, Asuka, was leaving as Hikari and her headed back towards their own classroom because they wanted to go talk to their boyfriends before lunch was over.

 

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

 

It was the last break in-between classes before school would be out and Asuka decided to see how the cheerleader situation was going. During the last break she had watched as both Kotono and Rini left, most likely going over to room A. They had both left looking like they were in a hurry so something must have been happening. She thought maybe she should have followed them then but she decided against it. While she liked cheerleading and everything she wanted to keep herself seen as an outsider to that group of girls. She was a friend and was there for them if they wanted help but at the same time she wasn't a real cheerleader as she wasn't allowed to compete in the competitions. This was that comfortable middle ground she wanted to stay in so unless she had to she wanted to stay out of any real decision making processes. And the decision to let Sumi rejoin or not was squarely up to the cheerleaders. That is why she did not go last time.

 

Why was she going this time? Well it had nothing to do with influencing a decision but everything to do with curiosity. She wanted to know what was happening and this time her good judgment got overruled by simple curiosity.

 

But as Asuka was heading over towards room A she saw another girl approaching it in front of her. This girl did not look happy at all and you could tell she was going to cause trouble. `News travels way too fast in this school' Asuka said to herself as she sped up to catch the girl in front of her. And right before that girl got to classroom 3-A Asuka reached out and grabbed a fistful of hair.

 

There was a resounding “OWWW!” let out from that.

 

“Shut up and listen Tani” Asuka said pulling up on that clump of hair in her hand. Having bohemian blood mixed into her really helped her out at times like this as it made her taller than the average Japanese girl. “Leave Sumi and the other cheerleaders alone or I'll rip your hair right off your scalp.” And using a fair amount of force she threw the girl backwards so she could look down at her. “And if you're wondering if I'm a violent enough girl to do such a thing the answer is yes.” Asuka knew damn well that Tani was aiming to put a stop to Sumi rejoining the cheerleaders. She may have been mad at the girl but Sumi was still her flunky and she wasn't going to give her up without a confrontation.

 

Tani scurried back to her feet and let out a “Why'd you do that you bitch? This has nothing to do with you.”

 

“Actually it does” Asuka told her. “I'm the one that instigated this whole reunion.” Asuka then stepped right into Tani's face. “And I don't appreciate you doing anything about it. GOT IT?”

 

There was a crowd starting to build up around the two of them in the hall but no one was yelling fight just yet. The problem with Asuka when she confronted someone was that she had already established her reputation as being a good fighter. There was no doubt who was going to win the fight. Another problem was that Asuka would let her victims go if they backed down from her. Which is exactly what happened as Tani quickly retreated.

 

There was some whining and complaining in the hallways as the boys wanted to see a catfight but it turned out to be just another case of Asuka being pushy. Asuka's response to those boys was a mocking chuckle “You guys are pathetic” and she turned back towards room A.

 

But she didn't get too far as she was stopped by a snarky sounding question. “How come whenever any other girl in this school picks on another one they're considered a bitch but when you do it, you're glorified?”

 

Asuka turned around and smirked at the girl on crutches. “That's because all the girls I pick on are bitches themselves. Everyone wants to see them knocked down a peg or two. Some of you girls really need to smarten up and learn that.”

 

“So I take it I'm next on your list?”

 

Asuka sort of chuckled to herself at that one. “I think you've done a good enough job of picking on yourself already.” An obvious reference to Shika's accident.

 

Shika looked down at her knee for a second and then back up at Asuka. She really couldn't argue that point as right now she was pretty much in constant pain. “So I take it you guys got Sumi back on the team?”

 

“Actually that's what I'm here to find out” Asuka answered. “What are you doing over here?”

 

“Actually I came to tell Tia I'm quitting” Shika replied.

 

“Why?”

 

“Duh, isn't it obvious” Shika said back looking at Asuka like she was an idiot.

 

Asuka though scoffed at her “So what if you have a bum knee. There's plenty of other things you can do for the team than just feel sorry for yourself.”

 

“I tore both my ACL and MCL” Shika jeered. “I can't even walk so how the hell do you think I can cheer?”

 

“Who said anything about cheering?” Asuka answered. “With all the new first years we got plenty of cheerleaders, what we need now are people to teach them. And if I recall correctly from all the bragging and boasting you did in the past you're supposed to be a pretty good cheerleader who can do that.”

 

“Well I umm….” Asuka wasn't only a brute, she had a lot of brains and could as easily back you into a corner with her words as she could with her fists. And since Asuka had used her own boastful words against her Shika got a first hand experience at how good she was at that.

 

“Listen Shika” Asuka said as she started to explain herself. “I know we don't get along but just listen to me this one time. Stay on the team and give the girls a hand. Even if all you do is sit there and boss people around it will still be better than nothing.”

 

Shika just stood there tottering on her crutches. She could easily live with what Asuka suggested, hell that is what she planned on doing anyway. The real reason she sided with Tani last year is that she agreed with how Tani wanted to coach the team. It was not exactly a hands on style and involved more bossing around the girls till they got a move right than showing them how to do the move first hand. Tia and Rini on the other hand were the exact opposite and wanted the senior girls on the team to be very active participants in teaching of moves. Back then her thoughts were that was going to be too much work and she didn't want to do it.

 

Since then though she had a little change of heart. “Fine” she exhaled. “I will at least think about it some more.” And so she could save face and not let the others around her think that Asuka had just manipulated her she added on “But this doesn't mean I'm going to stay on the team or anything. I will only think about it some more and that's it.”

 

“Ok” Asuka said backing down. She figured if she pushed Shika any further the girl would probably flip flop on her decision. She then watched as Shika turned around and hobbled down the hall back towards her own classroom. Asuka let out a sigh at herself “Jeeze, I hate being all responsible” and went into class A to see if Sumi was on the team again or not.

 

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

 

Mrs. Amano was grading the homework assignments from last week while sitting at her desk. Right now her students were using the end of the day to study for exams, work on this week's assignment, or to gab. How they used this last hour was left up to each student. Basically a lesson in self-discipline as those students who chose to study or do their homework were going to be much better off later on than those who slacked.

 

She looked up for a second to check on her class. The first person she saw was Asuka. Right now the girl was surprising her as she was helping out a student with their studies. While she wouldn't have been surprised to see her helping out her friends the fact that Asuka helped out anyone who needed it did. She was finding Asuka's new sense of goodwill towards helping others a delightful divergence from what she was told to expect from her. It made her job easier too. But at the same time she felt the tiniest bit intimidated by Asuka. Even she had to admit that Asuka was smarter than her in most things.

 

The only thing that kept her student from totally dominating her in the scholarly sense was that Asuka would ask for her help once in a while concerning the kanji. It seemed that Asuka was still a little weak in that area. But while she was weak Mrs. Amano could tell that Asuka was really working on it and soon the girl might not have that weakness anymore. Asuka came off as an incredible learning machine to her. The flip side of that though was while Asuka had the ability to be a learning machine she didn't have the mentality to be one. She was too much a teenager still but the teacher knew that down the road Asuka might live up to her potential. She was still young and had a great many things to learn, mostly stuff that wasn't in textbooks.

 

Mrs. Amano's then noticed the other person in class that would help people out. Rei was much more like she expected though as if Rei was helping someone it was either Kensuke, Shinji, Touji, or Hikari. She had only known Rei for a short time but already the girl was an intriguing mystery to her. Around her friends Rei was a completely different person than when she was around other people. While in some ways everyone was like that the variation in appearance was much more grand concerning Rei, almost like a night and day thing. Take right now for example, she was currently helping Kensuke with studying and it almost appeared to her that the blue haired girl was smiling and having a good time working with the blonde haired kid. The two were being relatively social with each other as well. But she knew if another student who wasn't one of Rei's friends tried to join in on their conversation Rei would instantly clam up, especially if that other person was a boy. Actually if that other person was a boy more often than not Rei would probably leave the conversation entirely. If it was a girl Rei might stick around but most of her answers would be limited to head nods or one word answers.

 

It was a lot like Rei's assignments from last week. When it came to her speech Rei did rather poorly. And according to her verbalism relatively little happened during the summer. The only thing Rei had going for her during the speech was that she had the classroom's rapt attention. Of course that was because to the boys she was cute and that was why they were paying so close attention to her, which incidentally was why Mrs. Amano figured she was so nervous in the first place. And as for the girls, they were paying really close attention because if they wanted to hear her they had to. Rei was speaking barely above a whisper. Combine this with Rei's very monotone public speaking voice that was devoid of emotion and you can see why she did so poorly.

 

But in stark contrast to that was Rei's written report. Not only was it the best in the class but it had to be one of the best reports she had ever read. What Rei could not say verbally in front of the class leapt off the pages in vivid details with her words. Mrs. Amano even showed the paper to Mr. Ohta and Mrs. Kumara and asked if this was normal for her. They both said no as in the past while Rei's reports were always technically perfect they never had this level of writing talent involved with them. Then again both those teachers now knew that Rei was purposely underachieving in their classes and hiding her talents back then so that may have been the reason why. That realization though begged the question, what other kinds of hidden talent did Rei have?

 

A rather cute giggle followed instantly by a “Will you stop doing that!” interrupted all this pondering and thinking the teacher was doing.

 

“What?” Asuka asked with feigned innocence. “I didn't do anything.”

 

“It's bad enough that you do that in the first place” Rei huffed back. “But do you always have to lie about it as well?”

 

“I maintain my innocence” Asuka smirked and then fluttered off to the other side of the room.

 

“I swear that girl has no manners at all” Rei complained as she turned her attention back to Kensuke. Once again Asuka had got her good with a tickle to her sides. What made it worse was that Asuka always caught her completely off guard when she did this. The flighty red head just had the uncanniest timing in this sort of friendly teasing. It was almost like she was timing out her attacks. Which very well may have been the case as Rei understood Asuka very well. More than likely Asuka was simply trying to get her to show off her softer, girlier side. The thing with that though was Rei didn't want the general public to see that side of her, it was her private side and only special people were allowed to see it. Plus whenever she giggled like that she got the attention of the boys in the room and that freaked her out. She didn't need any sort of special angel powers to know what some of them were thinking.

 

“You working tonight?” Kensuke asked her.

 

Rei shook her head no. “I'm going to be working a wedding this weekend so I can't work my normal shifts.”

 

“Then you probably haven't met the new girl who started working on the second floor?”

 

Rei thought for a second and couldn't figure out what Kensuke was talking about. “There aren't any new girls.”

 

“Sure there is” Kensuke answered. “The one with the glasses. I saw her bring the phone down to Zukav the other day.”

 

“Oh her” Rei said and chuckled to herself for a second. “She's not new.”

 

“I've never seen her before” Kensuke replied.

 

“Yes you have” Rei corrected him. “In fact you have seen her working there longer than you have seen me working.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“It's Hanna” Rei answered the confused boy. “She just got tired of wearing contacts and switched back to glasses.”

 

“Really?” Kensuke said surprised. “She looks totally different. I didn't even recognize her.”

 

“She doesn't look that different to me.” But right after she said that she turned her head quickly “What do you want now?”

 

“Jeeze” Asuka laughed. “Stop being so paranoid. I just wanted to ask you if you wanted…” Asuka stopped there as she whispered the rest to Rei so Kensuke couldn't hear it. Not because it was something he shouldn't know but more because she knew it would bug him. The boy hated not knowing secrets.

 

After Asuka got done asking her question Rei nodded yes back. “Can we do it on Sunday though? I'm working all day Saturday.”

 

Asuka asked across the room “Can we do Sunday instead? Rei has to work Saturday.”

 

“Sure” Hikari answered.

 

“Ok, Sunday then, maybe around noon? We can go to a café or something” Asuka said to Rei.

 

“That will work” Rei answered and then she watched as Asuka went back over to where Hikari was sitting.

 

“Um Rei?” Kensuke asked getting the blue haired girl's attention again.

 

“Yes” she answered.

 

“What's Asuka up to now?”

 

Inside Rei had to laugh as it was very clear the boy wanted to know what was just whispered. It was written all over his face. “We're only going to meet up and look at some magazines for bridal dresses” Rei answered alleviating his severe inquisitiveness.

 

That wasn't exactly something that could be thought of as a secret and he asked. “Why'd she whisper that to you? It's not like anything can happen if others know.”

 

Rei let out a little breath and shook her head at Kensuke. “Honestly Kensuke you should know the answer to that. She did it just to bug you.”

 

“Oh… um, yeah… I guess your right” Kensuke replied feeling a bit foolish. This was Asuka they were talking about after all. After that the two teens went back to work.

 

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

 

It was really hard for Asuka to show up at cheerleading practice that afternoon. She was very much tempted to say screw it to anymore activities and take a nap on the bench in front of her locker. But she was a good girl and she showed up anyway. What she saw made her feel good as Sumi was showing how to do a particular move to a bunch of girls. And she wasn't the only person that was new to the first years. Shika was there too, except she was sitting on a chair and making certain girls do a routine over and over again until they got it right.

 

“Well it looks like my work here is done” Asuka sassed before adding on “Now excuse me while I go lie down and take a nap.”

 

“Hold it” Rini told her. “We need you to show us how to do something.”

 

“Do I have to?” Asuka whined. She really was tired.

 

“Yes you do” Tia answered. “If you have enough time to mess with all our lives you have enough time to help us out with moves as well.”

 

“Damn” Asuka said. “You must be getting tips from Hikari on how to talk me into things.” Guilt tripping Asuka to do something was a rather effective method. Her conscience was so stretched out already from her past that she simply didn't want to add anything else to it.

 

All the senior girls got a chuckle out of that. Then they were amazed that after only showing Asuka the basics of the routine once she was able to reproduce it and improve upon what she was shown. Actually it wasn't that hard in Asuka's opinion as most of the moves she had to learn in her previous life were much more complex. The moves the cheerleading squad was doing were basically beginner type stuff. But the real key to the routine was not getting the moves down but getting the moves down so that they corresponded with all the other girls in the group. Synchronization was the key and boy was she happy that she didn't have anything to do with that aspect of training. She would show the other girls how to do something but she wasn't going to do it alongside them. That would be too much like training for a competition herself and as she routinely pointed out she was forbidden from such activities because of her “just” punishment for her past crimes.

 

Some of the first year girls were really confused about this aspect of Asuka. Basically they were told nothing about what happened as they didn't need to know. No sense drudging up the past and all. All they were told was that Asuka was suspended from competitions and could only be a cheerleader at games and the such. And Tia and Rini knew better to mess with that provision even if they had the authority to. Kaiya, last year's head cheerleader, had explained the whole situation to them over the summer. The fact that they were in charge this year had everything to do with Asuka's arrangement so they were quite cooperative when it came to enforcing Asuka's punishment.

 

“Ok, you girls got it?” Asuka asked out. There was a lot of unsure yes's and umm's in reply to that. “Just give it some practice and it'll come to you. It only looks difficult, it really isn't.”

 

Rini and Tia agreed completely with that and the rest of practice was everyone trying to get the routine down while Asuka sat there and watched. She was only half watching though as she might have nodded off for a few seconds now and again. It didn't really matter as with Shika watching the new girls like a hawk any errors would immediately be caught so Asuka didn't have to worry.

 

About twenty minutes later the girls were happy to see Shinji show up. His arrival marked the end of practice usually. “Time to go kätzchen.”

 

Asuka let out a big yawn before replying with an okay. “See ya everyone” Asuka said as she waived goodbye and left with Shinji down the hall while the other girls went to the locker room to go change. “Please tell me we don't have to work tonight” Asuka said as they left the school.

 

“Not till tomorrow” Shinji answered making Asuka happy.

 

“Good, because the only thing I want to do is take a nap.” Then deviating from the norm Asuka stopped at a bus stop and sat down on the bench.

 

Now Shinji could tell Asuka was really beat. The only time they took the bus home was when the weather was bad or when one of them was totally worn out and didn't want to walk home. And when the two of them got home Asuka opted for the elevator over the stairs.

 

Because they took the bus they got home a bit earlier than normal. Misato actually looked out a window when she saw them come in the door. The weather was perfectly fine outside. “You're home early.”

 

Asuka answered her with a one-word answer “Tired” and headed over to her room, falling onto her bed.

 

“Wow. Not even a short massage” Misato commented to Shinji. “She must be exhausted?”

 

“She had a busy day” Shinji replied. “The team has a practice meet coming up and she wanted everyone ready for it so she went a little hard in practice.”

 

“That would explain why Rei hasn't come over yet” Misato said. “It's her turn to cook tonight.”

 

“I'll do it” Shinji said as he knew he wasn't nearly as tired as the girls were. He looked over at Keiko who was playing with PenPen. He was the daddy penguin and she was the mommy penguin. And all her stuffed animals were their babies. “So what do you want for dinner Keiko?”

 

She squawked back her answer as penguins didn't talk.

 

“Ok, I'll take that answer as fish” Shinji chuckled at the young one. Keiko respond with a cute nod of her head. PenPen responded with a happy wark and then started begging for some scraps.

 

“You're so spoiled” Misato said shaking her head.

 

Shinji ribbed Misato by asking “Which one are you talking about?”

 

“Hardy, har, har” Misato said with apparent sarcasm. But in her head she said both of them. Then again she spoiled everyone who was close to her, it was just her way of showing them she cared.

 

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

 

“So how was work last night?” Asuka asked Rei as she was sitting with her and Hikari outside at a lunch table. It was really nice outside right now so this was preferred to eating in a classroom.

 

“A bit too easy” Rei answered. “The only one who asked for anything was the boss. The rest of the people at the meeting were very quite.” Rei had worked a dinner meeting the night before.

 

“How long did the meeting last?” Hikari asked.

 

“Only about an hour” Rei replied. “I was hoping for something longer but that was it.” Personally Rei was a little miffed about the whole thing. It took a good amount of preparation to get ready for one of those traditional dining events so to have only last a short time was a bit of a bother.

 

“That's got to be so annoying” Asuka commented. “It probably took you longer to get dressed and undressed than the meeting itself.”

 

“Tell me about it” Rei said with a frustrated breath. “If I have to put on all that make-up, the wig, and the kimono I want to at least work for a couple hours. Otherwise it's a big waste of everyone's time.”

 

“Does Zukav and Li Mei even turn a profit on a one hour meeting?” Hikari asked.

 

Rei shook her head no. “Meetings have to go longer than two hours if they want to make a profit. Next year they're going to change how they take reservations and instill that as the minimum rental period but for now they have to deal with it as all these reservations were made when the ceremony room first opened up.”

 

“Well at least you got to play dress up for a bit” Hikari said looking on the bright side. “I have always wanted to try on that stuff… you know just to see how I would look in it.”

 

“Then ask Li Mei if you can” Rei told her.

 

“Really?” Hikari said surprised. “She would let me even though I don't work in that part of the restaurant?”

 

“Sure” Rei answered. “She gets that request quite often actually.”

 

“More from the boyfriends of the girls working there than the actual girls I bet” Asuka said with much chagrin.

 

Rei giggled a little at that. Asuka may have thrown a dart closer to the bull's eye than you would have guessed. She also added on in a bit of friendly teasing “Well not all the boyfriends.”

 

Asuka knew what she was teasing her about and sassed back. “That just means mine's super special.”

 

Hikari looked at them with a lost look as she didn't know what they were talking about.

 

Rei explained to her friend. “Shinji doesn't want to see Asuka dressed up in the old-fashioned way.”

 

“Why?” Hikari asked as it didn't make sense.

 

“Because I'm too beautiful to cover up in makeup” Asuka let out while adding an egotistical flip of her hair.

 

Hikari merely looked at Asuka for that one and then turned to Rei for the truth. “So what's the real reason?”

 

Asuka let out a loud “Hmpff” to Hikari's disbelief of her answer. Rei's answer though was much more truthful. “I think Shinji has a problem with the wig. He seems unnaturally infatuated with Asuka's red hair.”

 

“He's not that bad” Asuka said defending her boyfriend.

 

“Not that bad…” Hikari laughed. “Wasn't it just last week that he almost looked like he was going to cry when that one girl asked if you every thought of dying your hair blonde?”

 

“Stop picking on my Shin-kun!” Asuka proclaimed loudly. “If he likes my hair a lot more than normal guys then that's just fine!”

 

“Oh settle down Asuka” Hikari said with a giggle as it was funny how this topic got her so flustered. There must have been a lot more to this than Asuka was telling them about. “Although I do think you should cut it. The long hair look was so over two years ago.”

 

“But I like my long hair” Asuka whined back. “I can do so many things with it.”

 

“But it takes so much more work” Rei replied. While Rei still had what could be classified as short to medium length hair she was well aware of how much more work her hair was now than what it used to be when it was shorter.

 

“I know” Asuka sighed. “It's such a hassle sometimes. But I really do like it long. I think it just suits me better.”

 

“You know I've been thinking about cutting my hair shorter” Hikari said. “Not a lot shorter, maybe something neck length?”

 

“I could see you with a haircut like that” Asuka said looking at her hair. “But what would Touji say about it if you did?”

 

“More like would he even notice?” Hikari kidded before saying “I don't think he would even care. I've mentioned stuff like this in the past and all he says is “It's fine with me babe”.”

 

“You know I have noticed that Touji seems to be getting more and more lax lately” Rei commented.

 

“That's because he's comfortable with where he's at right now” Hikari explained. “School's so much easier for him now than it used to be and he knows that once he's done with high school that's it. And apparently me saying yes to his proposal was a big weight off his shoulders. Plus he knows exactly what he will be doing after school. You know there are days I wish I was in his shoes.”

 

Both Rei and Asuka nodded their head in agreement to that as it would be rather nice to have your life planned out already. Still being at the crossroads made life somewhat stressful at times.

 

“Was Touji that worried you wouldn't say yes?” Asuka asked.

 

“Yes and no” Hikari answered. “He probably knew I was going to say yes but there is always some amount of doubt and I think that's what was weighing him down.”

 

Rei let out a little sigh “Doubt always makes things more troubling.”

 

Asuka and Hikari both looked at Rei with puzzlement for that one. It wasn't what she said so much as how she said it. The girl definitely looked off into the horizon as she said it. Almost like this was an internal statement and not an add on to Hikari's. Both the girls had been noticing of late that Rei was doing a lot more of this kind of thing. They could tell something heavy was on her mind but at the same time she was not mentioning anything. Asuka and Hikari would be lying to themselves if they said they didn't want to pry and find out what was on Rei's mind but at the same time they knew they shouldn't. When it came to big decisions, which this one seemed to be, they both knew Rei really liked to think them through before she said anything about it.

 

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

 

“So you guys up to anything this weekend?” Kensuke asked Shinji and Touji while they ate lunch.

 

“Not really” Shinji answered with Touji throwing in a “Nah. You working the whole time?”

 

“Nope” Kensuke answered. “I filled in for someone who called in sick twice this week and now I can only work for a short time on Saturday.”

 

“So you got nothing to do either” Touji chuckled.

 

“Basically” Kensuke answered.

 

“Then think something up” Shinji told him. “Because if I got nothing to do then Asuka will make me go shopping with her.”

 

“I hear ya man” Touji replied. It was dangerous not to have any guy plans for the weekend when your girlfriend was a shopaholic. Because if you had no plans then that meant you had no reason to say no to going shopping with them.

 

“I suppose we could go see a baseball game or something” Kensuke offered.

 

“No money” Shinji rebutted. “I'm broke.”

 

“You're always broke” Kensuke accused.

 

“That's because his girlfriend's too high maintenance” Touji slandered.

 

“You can say that again” Kensuke chortled.

 

“So what if she is?” Shinji replied not caring. Asuka's happiness was worth every penny he spent on her.

 

“So you agree that Asuka is high maintenance” Kensuke said. “Well at least that's a start.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever” Shinji replied to the friendly teasing. “Just think up something cheap.”

 

“And be quick about it” Touji added on. “By now Hikari's probably already making plans for me.”

 

“Could you get a basketball game going?” Kensuke asked Touji.

 

“Probably” Touji said back as that was a real option. Unfortunately it was only a short-term option as back alley games never lasted to long. “What else you got?”

 

“Damn if I know” Kensuke answered. “I'm so rarely free on the weekends I don't even know what to do with them anymore.”

 

But as Kensuke said that Shinji thought up an idea. “How about we go fishing?”

 

Both Kensuke and Touji looked over at Shinji for a second while thinking about that. Fishing for them would mostly be sitting on the shore of Toyko-3 and bullshitting the whole time. Maybe stop for a bite and get some bad ramen from one of the touristy noodle stands. Hell maybe it would even involve catching an actual fish or two. It was a rather good idea.

 

“Fishing it is” Kensuke announced. And with plans for the weekends the other two boys were able to have legitimate excuses not to go shopping this weekend.

 

(A/N: And that's the end to chapter 24. I figured I would do something a little different in this section this time around. I am actually going to respond to some of the comments. I bet most of you are surprised I even bother to read them after the poison pen message that starts my stories, but I do on occasion. Admittedly probably not as much as I should.

 

The ending of this particular story is nigh as it will end with a wedding this summer. How many chapters it takes me to get to that point I don't really know. I have some ideas about what I still want to do (and no, I don't need any suggestions) I am just not to sure how long it will take me to write the ideas out. Some of them may take two chapters to do while others are only going to be a blurb.

 

As for those of you who want this story to become more adult all I have to say is be patient. That and I have a feeling you will be very happy with next month's extra long chapter.

 

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.

 

To PlatinumSabr I want to say thanks as you are absolutely right with my lack of contractions when people are speaking. I never really noticed I was leaving them out before and I will try to work on catching them in the future to improve my writing. You might see thru a couple more times though as I don't seem to catch that one as easily as the contractions. Not quite sure why as I never use the short and informal form in any professional report I write for work but it seems to pop up in spades in my stories. Maybe it is because I am not serious in the least when I write these things. They are purely for my enjoyment and maybe I am thinking to informally while I write and proof them. *Re-edit: A lot of those thru's are now gone and I fixed many instances where I should have used a contraction when the people are speaking.

 

For the rest of you, thanks for reading the story and sorry if it seems like it is dragging on too long. But I am not going to be changing what I'm doing as I like what I'm doing and how long it is taking me. This story is giving me a pleasant distraction in my overall hectic life. Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter and see you guys and gals next month.)