Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 25 ( Chapter 25 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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It was lunchtime and Yuma's classmates were putting some serious pure pressure on her. “C'mon Yuma, you have to ask her” one of them begged.

 

“But I already did and she said she doesn't go to dances” Yuma replied. When she asked Asuka about dances at the beginning of the year this is what she was inquiring about, not the dance Asuka was mistakenly thinking she was talking about.

 

“Well ask her again” one of the other students said. “Maybe she will change her mind.”

 

“I don't think so” Yuma replied. Her two friends Kohama and Tamiko both nodded their heads yes in agreement to that to help bolster their friend's position.

 

“How do you know if you don't ask?” her classmates kept up.

 

“Because I know Miss Asuka” Yuma replied. “She doesn't change her mind on anything unless she has a really, really good reason.”

 

“This IS a really good reason.”

 

“Guys, she's not going to say yes” Yuma said imploring her classmates to stop asking her. She had been getting bugged big time about this for a solid week now and was sick and tired of it all.

 

Not that any of that tiredness mattered to her classmates as all this haranguing of Yuma was for a good reason. Her class was going to put on a dance for culture fest so they could raise a lot of money. Their teacher told them if they did this maybe they would be able to go to Hawaii for their class fieldtrip this year. Otherwise the class fieldtrip was going to be some boring old place like Kyoto for the millionth time. Actually Kyoto was even more boring now since half the city was still underwater and most of the old buildings and shrines were destroyed or still flooded.

 

The thing with the chance to go to Hawaii was that it was dependant on them making enough money to pay for the trip and right now they were thinking they weren't going to be able to reach that mark. Unfortunately from the start their dance idea was looking doomed. The other first year classes were jealous of them for maybe getting a chance to go someplace cool while they didn't so there was a lot of resentment. And when teenagers are jealous they do petty things like saying the dance was a stupid idea and spreading around all sorts of bad rumors about how dumb it was going to be. Worst yet it was a lot of the popular first year kids doing this so it was hard to fight back against them.

 

And if that wasn't bad enough the actual worse part about all this was that was the only recognition of the dance going on. The second year students wanted nothing to do with this as going to a dance put on by first years would make the second year students look bad to the third years, aka the top of the school hierarchy. And the third years didn't even know about it for the most part as they didn't ever pay attention to what the younger kids were doing. They were seniors so all that “kiddy” stuff going on in the halls below them was too juvenile for them to pay attention to. This was high school life at its most normal. Everything was a popularity contest.

 

“Pretty please. Just ask her again” one of her classmates begged not giving up. “No one wants to go to our dance but if she says she is everyone else will too.”

 

The truth about the matter was that Asuka was the queen of the school. She was a very atypical type of queen though. Most of the time the top girl in the school has her nose in everything but Asuka was basically the opposite. If it had nothing to do with her she generally didn't care about what was happening. Her life was difficult enough as it was in her opinion than to worry about the social in's and out's of the school. Plus there were plenty of other senior girls who fit the role as queen of the school much better than her and they were perfectly welcomed to that role if they wanted it. There was one little problem with all that though, none of those girls could totally be in charge. When it came down to the pure basics of it Asuka could push those girls around if she wanted to but they couldn't push her around. So by de facto reasoning Asuka was the real queen. And using this reasoning if she said she would show up then a lot of attitudes would quickly change because it would be seen as popular.

 

Her class had finally reached Yuma's breaking point and she gave in to all the begging. “Okay, okay I'll ask her again but I know she will say no.” Yuma giving in had more to do with that girl being right about what she said. At this point none of them were going to get to go to Hawaii anytime soon because there was no way they would be able to raise enough money by throwing a dance no one showed up at. “But you guys have to go upstairs with me.”

 

That got a big flat NO by everyone else. There was no way any of them were going to go up to the senior's floor. They were first years after all, if one of them went up to the third floor the seniors would probably throw them out a window for having the gall to appear in front of them on their domain. Granted that was unfounded stupidity on the first year's half behalf that would never happen but it didn't stop them from thinking and spreading false rumors about it.

 

Yuma was viewed as an exception to that kind of threat since she was a friend of Asuka's. If she went up there to ask her a question the other seniors wouldn't care. More than anything they would just giggle and call her Tails. That nickname was widely known by now, unfortunately. She didn't exactly like it but at the same time there was little she could do about it. And also at the same time there was little she could do about her current predicament as she left her homeroom on the first floor and headed up the perilous stairs to the third floor, all by herself. Not even her two best friends would volunteer to go with her. They knew Asuka but not as well as Yuma so they weren't going to risk getting tossed out a window.

 

While going from the second floor to the third Yuma let out little “Why me?” to herself and stopped before she opened the stairway's door to the senior's hall. For a second she thought about totally wussing out on this and running back downstairs saying Asuka said no. It's not like the result would have been any different. But then she remembered what Asuka told her, “Never back down.” Yuma summed up all her courage and swung the door open.

 

She was instantly greeted with… absolutely nothing. In fact as she walked down the hall it was like the seniors didn't even notice she was there. Truth be told it was more like they were totally indifferent about her being there. She was just another girl walking down the hall. In fact it was a full minute before anyone of them even really noticed her.

 

“Hey Tails, what're you doing up here?”

 

Yuma turned around quickly and noticed it was one of her teammates. “I- I am looking for Miss Asuka. Do you know where she is Kei?”

 

“She's over in class B” Kei answered.

 

Yuma bowed towards her to thank her and then set off for that classroom.

 

Kei was walking with one of her friends at the time and that friend commented “What's with her? She was like all jumpy.”

 

“Eh, she's a first year” Kei answered. “They're all jumpy when you talk to them. Damn if I know why.”

 

When Yuma finally got over to room B she peeked in through the door. Unfortunately Asuka was nowhere in sight. And neither were Rei or Hikari or any other girl she knew for that matter. In fact it was a boy she didn't know that greeted her as he saw her peeking her head through the doorway first. “You looking for someone?”

 

“I… uhhhhh…. Ummm.” She was totally embarrassed right now and unable to give a real answer.

 

Luckily for her Shinji was in the room with Touji and Kensuke. He didn't notice her at first because he had his back to the door but was drawn to her attention by what his classmate said. “Hey Yuma, you need something?”

 

“Um yes?” Yuma answered nervously as she was feeling very uncomfortable right now. “Do you know where Miss Asuka is?”

 

“She's over in room A with Hikari and Rei” Shinji answered. “They eat lunch over there or outside.”

 

“Thank you Mr. Shinji” Yuma said while bowing politely and then quickly took off. That first boy who talked to her was majorly cute and he was looking at her the whole time. It was really nerve rattling.

 

And as the first year left that boy sort of watched as she turned and looked at her from behind for a second longer than he had to. “I think I see why every calls her Tails. That's one sweet…”

 

He was interrupted by a “Watch it man” from Kensuke. “That's not why they call her Tails and all I did last year was whistle at her once and deliver food to her house and Asuka duct taped me to the diving board and tortured me by bouncing on it for an hour.”

 

“Dude Ikari, your girlfriend's psycho” the boy said in reply to that while laughing. It was pretty funny after all.

 

“Trust me” Shinji answered him. “It's not only Asuka who's protective of her. That's a direct order from above.”

 

“Huh?” the boy asked confused. But at the same time it didn't matter, that girl was cute but she wasn't worth the apparent hassle of getting somewhere with her.

 

What he didn't know was that all the girls on the swim team were actually protective of Yuma and that stemmed from their coach. Yuma gave her coach stars in her eyes with how good she was and the last thing coach Kumara wanted was for some boy to mess up the young girl's life with some type of fling romance.

 

When Yuma got over to room A she looked inside it first to see if Asuka was in there. She was but so where a lot of other girls. And it wasn't just Rei and Hikari either. It was full of senior girls from her swim team, senior cheerleaders, and a lot of other really popular senior girls. This room was even worse than the one she just left. If she said something stupid in here she would probably get teased about it for the rest of her school life. Now she really was going to wuss out of it and take off, this was just too risky. Maybe she would ask Asuka later during swim practice.

 

Unfortunately for her she got noticed standing in the doorway before she took off though. Rei had seen her and tapped Asuka on her shoulder alerting the redhead to her friend's presence. “Hiya Yuma…” and since Mrs. Kumara was Yuma's teacher, go figure, she thought the girl had come up to tell her something “…Coach need something?”

 

“I uh, well, um no…” Yuma said nervously while slowly walking towards Asuka, past all the other girls. This was like traversing through a verbal gauntlet. One wrong word and she was a goner.

 

“Then why are you up here?” Asuka asked while taking a bite of her lunch.

 

“Well… it's just that um… my class is doing a dance for culture fest…” The worst thing possible, in Yuma's mind, happened after she said that. She got interrupted. All she wanted to do was quickly ask the question, get the answer no, and go back downstairs and be done with all this.

 

What she got interrupted with was Asuka laughing. “You got to be kidding me?… Coach finally got her students to go with that crazy dance idea of hers?”

 

Yuma responded with a really confused “Yes?” as she didn't understand why Asuka was laughing. And it wasn't only Asuka either as several other girls in the room were laughing too. Even Rei had a smirk on her face and you could tell she was giggling to herself inside. Oddly enough Hikari was the odd girl out and sort of glaring at the other girls for their reactions, making this situation even more confusing.

 

Just from Yuma's expression you could tell she was totally lost right now so Asuka filled her in on the joke. “Ok Yuma, coach really wants to go to Hawaii. Her best chance is by way of some type of school sponsored activity because it won't cost so much that way. So ever since she has been teaching she has been trying to get a class to agree with her dance idea as that's about the only way you could raise enough money for a trip like that.”

 

“You mean you didn't want to go to Hawaii?” Yuma asked. She knew that Mrs. Kumara was her teacher in the past so that meant Asuka must have had this same opportunity when she was in her class.

 

“It wasn't that they didn't want to go to Hawaii” Hikari answered for them, with a touch of firmness at that. “It was that they were all too lazy to put on a dance as heaven forbid it would require work.”

 

All this scolding did was set off another round of giggling by some of the girls. The history behind this was when they were first years' Hikari was the only one in the class who agreed with their teacher that they should put on a dance. But they ended up doing the same thing as always, and what they were going to do this year too, they made their room into a café because it was easier. It's not like they hadn't thought about putting on a dance it was just that when Hikari started spelling out all the things that had to be done they quickly changed their minds. Hikari was a highly motivated girl stuck in a class full of slackers.

 

Hikari ignored the other girls as she was not impressed that they all thought that this was a laughing matter. But she was surprised about not hearing about this earlier. There was still a week before classes were to hand in their paperwork for what they were doing but she figured something this big she would have heard about already. “You know you shouldn't wait till the last second to send in the paperwork. Throwing a dance takes a lot of preparation and the sooner you start the better.”

 

“I know” Yuma answered. “But we aren't even sure if we are going to do it now.”

 

“Why not?” Hikari asked and then threw a glare at the other girls telling them to keep their traps shut as she didn't need them offering reasons.

 

“Well... it's just that… ummm no one wants to go…” Yuma answered sounded more than a little bit depressed. “All the other first year classes said it was going to be stupid.”

 

“Typical” Asuka said with a huge roll of her eyes.

 

Rini was on the same page as Asuka on this. “It's just like first years to try and kill something like this.”

 

“Huh?” Yuma answered confused.

 

In a rare case of Rei speaking in public she explained. “Because the other classes will not be going with you they want the idea to fail. They are acting out of jealousy.”

 

There was a lot of head nodding to Rei's statement as it was what all of them were thinking.

 

“So what do you say girls?” Asuka then said. “You want to go to a dance?”

 

Yuma was surprised at the answers. “Sure” “Why not” “I got nothing better to do” “I got to find a date” and a lot more positive answers.

 

“You mean you will all come?” Yuma asked as a big smile crept over her face.

 

“Yup” Asuka answered. “It should be fun.”

 

“But I thought you said you don't go to dances?” Yuma was confused again as this was the opposite of what she was told before.

 

“Oh I go to dances, it's Shinji that hates them” Asuka replied.

 

“But you can't go to a dance without Shinji?”

 

“Why not?” Asuka asked.

 

“Well won't Shinji be upset about it?”

 

Asuka chuckled at that. “Trust me, he isn't going to be upset. If anything he will kiss me for not forcing him go.”

 

“Just kiss you?” Tia teased in the very adult sense. Unlike last year there was no secret about Asuka and Shinji's relationship. And Asuka was quite clear that they were in a very adult type of one.

 

“Well…” Asuka smirked devilishly. “If he wants to show his gratitude in a rock my world sense I think I would have to let him. I mean it would only be fair.”

 

“You're such a dirty girl” Rini laughed.

 

“Oh and such a happy one too” Asuka giggled right back before turning her attention again over to a blushing Yuma. “So what's the theme of the dance?”

 

“Theme?”

 

“Yeah theme?” Asuka repeated. “Every dance has to have some sort of theme. I mean how else are we supposed to know what to dress like?”

 

“Well we don't really have a theme” Yuma said apprehensively. “I guess we haven't thought that far yet.”

 

“Then I have the perfect idea” Asuka said and motioned for her to come closer so she could whisper it in the young girl's ear.

 

Yuma's eyes went wide when she heard it and took a step back. “We can't do that!”

 

“Oh yes you can” Asuka said with a devious smile. “And if you want everyone to show up you will.”

 

“Do I have to?” Yuma whined.

 

Asuka nodded her head yes to that. “Now run along and go tell your class the theme.”

 

“But she's in the classroom right now” Yuma argued.

 

With an evil smirk Asuka answered “I know.”

 

Yuma looked like she was about to cry when she left the room. And any thoughts of her trying to talk Asuka out of it vanished as no more than did she get six steps away from classroom A did she hear a lot of laughter. Asuka must have told them what she had told her and it sounded like they all approved. She took her time walking back to the classroom and entered it looking very defeated.

 

The class took this as a bad sign and her class rep said “I take it she said no?”

 

Yuma shook her head no to that. “Actually she said yes. And most of the other senior girls from the swim team along with a lot of the senior cheerleaders are going to come to…”

 

A resounding “WHAT?” interrupted her after she said that. Yuma should not have been looking down as she scored a virtual jackpot in her quest. Those girls right there were some of the most popular ones in the whole school. If they said they were going that meant everyone else would too and their dance was going to be a major success.

 

Yuma looked frightfully at her teacher before she added on her but. This was not going to go over well and she knew it. “But they told me we have to use a theme they thought up.”

 

“So what is it?” the class rep asked as he was all ears. If the seniors wanted his class to cater the dance to them he didn't care, as long as they showed up was all that mattered. Because if the seniors showed up then the second years would show up too. And if those two classes were there then the kids from the other first year classes would have to eat crow and show up too or they would be seen as uncool.

 

Yuma actually regretted saying this while she was still in the process of saying it. “The theme of our dance is `Let's send Mrs. Kumara to Hawaii.'

 

Yuma gulped nervously as the room went dead silent. And because it was silent you could hear her teacher drop the pen she was using to grade papers onto her desk. Mrs. Kumara then looked up from her desk and straight over at Yuma. “Would you mind repeating that Miss Siratori? I don't think I heard you right.”

 

No one would have blamed Yuma if she would have broken down and cried on the spot right now. Their teacher did not look all that amused at the moment. “The theme of the dance…” Yuma gulped again “… is going to be `Let's send Mrs. Kumara to Hawaii.'”

 

The class watched as their teacher started to rub her temple like she had some sort of headache. “Let me guess” she started. “My little brat of a captain put you up to this?”

 

Yuma timidly nodded yes to that.

 

“Why doesn't that surprise me” she said to herself. “I'm really going to have to work her over at practice today.”

 

“Please don't!” Yuma cried out after hearing that. An answer like that was what Yuma was worried about.

 

“And why not?” Mrs. Kumara asked darting her eyes back over to Yuma.

 

“Because if you work her over, she will work us over in return….” Yuma stopped there as she saw an evil smile, much like Asuka's, come over her teacher's face.

 

“I know.”

 

This time Yuma really did break down as she went over to her desk and buried her head in her arms and started pouting. In only a few short hours she was going to have to go to a hellish practice. It was all just so unfair.

 

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There was much moaning and groaning after practice that day.

 

“Oh suck it up” Asuka yelled out from in front of her locker while most of the other girls were still soaking in the showers. Their muscles were a wee bit sore right now and the responses she got for that were rather unladylike. Of course that just made her laugh at them. She then looked over to Rei. “You didn't think practice was overly-hard today did you?” Coach Kumara had gone through with her promise to push Asuka today and in return Asuka pushed the girls on the team hard during practice. She also pushed them hard in the gym as well.

 

“Not really” Rei answered. “It was challenging but by now everyone should have been in good enough shape for it.”

 

Rei was absolutely brutal at times as the girls were learning. It was obvious she was in very good shape and unlike last year she could keep up with Asuka energy wise. She also expected that if she could do it so could you. Then there was her unabashed honesty if she was helping to run a drill, which was quite often now, thanks to the coach. If you didn't do well enough she would tell you that flat out. Others girls might try to sugar coat it a little before telling you to try again but Rei would simply say your time was unsatisfactory and order you to do it again. Rei was more a scary girl now than ever before to a lot of the other girls on the swim team.

 

Hikari was sitting on the other side of Asuka. “You're not too tired right?”

 

“I don't have time to be tired right now” Hikari answered. “I have a meeting to go to.”

 

“Another one?”

 

“There's always another one” Hikari sort of grumbled back.

 

“Well before you leave I need to run something by you about the swim team's culture fest activity.”

 

“Go ahead” Hikari told her while she finished getting dressed.

 

“One of the girls had a good idea but coach told me to run it by you first. What do you think about us giving people swimming lessons or something like that?”

 

“I love the idea” Hikari answered. “But we can't do it.”

 

“Why not?” Asuka asked.

 

“It's too risky legally.” Hikari replied and then explained “Since the culture fest is a school sponsored activity the school would be personally responcible for anything that happened. All it would take is for some kid to slip while running alongside the pool and hurt themselves and we could get sued.”

 

“That's so stupid” Asuka declared. As much as the world had changed since third impact it was still the same.

 

“Tell me about it” Hikari said as she agreed with Asuka completely on this. She liked the idea as well but she knew what the student council would say about it. “Any other ideas?”

 

“Not really” Asuka said feeling defeated. “Looks like it will be the same old same old this year.”

 

Hikari gave her a little “Sorry” for that as she got up to leave. The same old same old would directly involve Asuka this year and it was not exactly something you could look forward to.

 

“Well I suppose I should get going too” Asuka said to Rei as she got up as well. “The cheerleaders are probably waiting for me. You going to be around for dinner tonight?”

 

Rei shook her head no. “I'm working this evening.”

 

“Ok, say hi to Li Mei for me then” Asuka said and waived goodbye to Rei. But as she walked past the coach's office Coach Kumara stopped her and asked her to step inside for a second. “You need something coach?”

 

“Not really” coach Kumara answered and then smiled. “I just wanted to say thank you.”

 

“No problem” Asuka smiled back. “I figured after all the shit I put you though over the years you deserve some type of reward.”

 

The coach lightly chuckled “You got that right.”

 

“Oh by the way” Asuka added on. “I just talked to Hikari and she said no to the swimming lesson idea.”

 

“I figured she would” Mrs. Kumara said. “I guess we'll just go with what we always do.”

 

“I suppose” Asuka said back. “But where did you get the idea for it in the first place? It's so hokey.”

 

“That may be but it brings in enough money were I can afford to keep you girls in new swimsuits every year” Kumara answered. “And I got the idea from a teacher at a school I used to work at when I first started teaching. I always thought it was weird too but he said it brought in big bucks and he was right.”

 

“Well whatever keeps the team afloat I guess” Asuka said as if this was what needed to be done to fund the team she was ready to bite the bullet. “See ya coach.”

 

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It was the day you had to turn in your sheets for your class or club's culture fest activity. Hikari had been sitting on her class's paperwork in hopes of getting them to do something different this year. “Just once, can't we do something different?” she pleaded.

 

“But we always do a café for culture fest” one of the girls answered.

 

“Exactly” Hikari replied. “Aren't you bored with doing the same thing over and over.”

 

“No” most of them said back. What made this situation even worse was that the kids who were part of the “other” group went right along with the establish group of kids. It was like her classmate's unmistakable apathy towards doing work had spread and infected the others. She decided to try another route. “Maisaka, do you really want to run something as boring as a café?” After all it was going to be the assistant class reps job this year to run the class's activity since Hikari was going to be busy.

 

What she back from him was a lackadaisical “I don't care. If that's what the class wants to do it's fine with me.” Personally he didn't want to have to do anything challenging and running a café was about as least challenging as you could get. Just clear the room of the desks and set up some tables to eat at. Then buy some snacks and drink mixes and Viola! instant café.

 

Hikari was down to her last idea and she tried to see if she could get Asuka to say anything. She was really grasping at straws now as Asuka tended to be one of the laziest ones of the bunch when it came to things like this. To tell you the truth the only thing Asuka could be depended on doing was telling everyone else what to do while she sat back and watched.

 

“Sorry Hikari” Asuka answered. “I'm not even going to be here. I have to work the swim team's booth the whole time.” Asuka then added on to that with something that rankled a lot of the people in the classroom “And I'm taking Shinji with me so don't bother asking him for ideas either.”

 

Out of every one in the classroom Shinji was by far the easiest to pressure into doing things. He was pegged from the get go to be the patsy this year and the one who was probably going to be doing most of the work since Hikari was not going to be around. “Why does Shinji have to go with you?” one of the guys complained.

 

“Because he's the manager of the girls swim team and I need him to collect the money for our booth” Asuka explained rather plainly. And as usual there was no arguing with Asuka over this and looking over at Shinji only got you a shrug of the shoulders from him. To him the choice was between being a patsy for Asuka or being a patsy for his class. Asuka was his girlfriend and as such came with many enticing fringe benefits so the choice was a no brainer.

 

Hikari let out a mean little “Serves you right” to the rest of the class as she finally wrote `Café' on the slip of paper for what they were going to be doing. “At least do something creative ok guys?”

 

“Ok whatever” was the only reply she got.

 

The worst part of this whole situation to Hikari was that she couldn't even depend on her boyfriend in this matter as he was arguably the worst of the lot. For the last two years in a row Touji said he was in charge of the advertising portion of the café they would be doing. And to him all that encompassed was writing down on a sheet of paper the name of the room and that it was running a café. Then he would tape the piece of paper to his back and walk around the school like that. His advertising was more him going to all the other rooms to see what they were doing or serving than anything else. What gave Hikari fits was half the time he came back to the classroom during the day the sign on his back would have fallen off without him even noticing. So even his half hearted attempt to help was in vain.

 

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It was the day before the culture fest and Hikari was true to her word about not being around. In fact for the past two days she wasn't around as she had a hundred things to do and only enough time for half of them. She wasn't the only one missing from the room though. Asuka and Shinji were gone too as they were over in the gym getting the girls swim team's booth ready and filling a large tank full of water. Asuka was rather adamant that they do this now instead of tomorrow as she wanted to give the water a chance to warm up. That left a classroom full of kids who each didn't want to do a whole lot of work.

 

“Ok” Maisaka started. “So what do we do first?”

 

There was a lot of ummm's and I don't know's in reply to that as normally it was Hikari who told them what to do first. One of the boys in the classroom then asked Touji a question. “Is there any chance Hikari might be able to find time to help us?”

 

“Don't even ask that question” Touji said quickly. “She said last night that if we even attempt to bug her that she's going to sign us all up for cleanup duty afterwards.”

 

“She was just kidding, right?” The kid asked nervously after that.

 

“I don't think so” Touji answered as he got the impression she was dead serious about that. Cleaning up after culture fest was a big job and the student council was always looking for extra workers so they didn't have to do as much. And since culture fest happened on a Friday that meant when you worked was over the weekend. That last part was the reason this was a despised job among the general student population. Already Hikari had volunteered one person against her will, her little sister, and she was on the hunt for more. If it wasn't for him having to work this weekend Touji knew he would have been the second person she volunteered.

 

“So that just means we leave Hikari alone” Kensuke said as it was as simple as that. “We can handle this. It's not like we haven't done it before.”

 

“But we have never done it without Horaki before” one of his classmates said as the class continued whining instead of doing anything.

 

A sharp, and slightly grumpy, voice cut through the room after that as she was sick and tired of hearing them all complain. “All you have to do is push the desks up against the wall, set up the tables, put tablecloths on them, place our chairs around the tables, and then decorate the room. It's the same thing we have been doing since we were first years in junior high.”

 

A couple of the people who were standing near Rei took a step away from her after that. Ever since yesterday that girl had been nothing but cold stares and snappiness. They figured it was because she hung around with Asuka and Hikari, who was also rather crabby this week, too much.

 

Kensuke stepped up again after Rei spelled everything out. “Well you heard her, let's get to work.” And with that everyone begrudgingly started to think about preparing the room like how Rei had told them. Well almost everyone, the person who told them what to do herself left. She had enough of these idiots and decided to go help out Asuka and Shinji instead.

 

“Dude, what is up with Ayanami?” one of the boys asked after she left.

 

“Probably PMS” another joked. Of course that got him dirty looks from all the girls in the room as they generally don't appreciate when you make jokes about that particular feminine affliction.

 

“What do you think is up with her?” Kensuke said back looking at him like he was an idiot, proving it wasn't just the girls who didn't like that joke. “She just got told yesterday that we `e going skiing for our class trip.”

 

“What's wrong with skiing?” the kid said. “It's going to be an awesome trip.”

 

“Are you nuts?” Rini accused. “Ayanami hates the cold. You really think she wants to go skiing?”

 

“Well I uhh?…” the boy started.

 

“The answer is NO… Duhhh” Rini interrupted and answered for him in a preppy tone.

 

“How was I supposed to know that?” the boy shot back. “I'm not part of the group that's been together forever.”

 

“Neither am I” Rini challenged back.

 

“Yeah but you were part of this class two years ago” the boy argued.

 

“So? That doesn't mean anything” Rini argued back. “Kotono, you're new to this class and you knew that Ayanami hated the cold right?”

 

“How could you not?” Kotono said back. “All last winter I don't think I ever saw her without her coat on.” And then in a more gabby tone she added on “I even heard she came to school with an electric blanket.”

 

“Really?” Rini asked as she totally switched over from arguing with the boy to gossiping with her friend.

 

“I swear that's what Kin told me and she sat right next to her last year.”

 

“Oh I'm so jealous!” Rini gossiped back. “I would've killed for something like that.”

 

“Me too!” Kotono chattered. “I wonder how she got her teacher to let her do it?”

 

“By not even giving Mr. Ohta a choice in the matter” Kotono was answered. But that answer made her, along with everyone else in the room, jump. Hikari decided to make a brief appearance after all. And as she looked around she noticed very little had been done. “You know this makes me think you guys have a lot of free time on your hands. If I come back to this room and see it like this again I will assume you guys will also have the same amount of free time over the weekend as well.” After issuing that threat she walked over to Touji. “I'm not going to be around for lunch so here you go hun” and she gave him a large bento box.

 

Touji gave her a kiss on the cheek and said “Thanks babe” as this was his lunch. This was nothing unusual as Hikari always made him his lunch. If she didn't her boyfriend would either have starved or loaded up on junk food from the vendors that sold food to the students at lunchtime.

 

After giving Touji his lunch Hikari took off again as she didn't have time to stick around. But she was around enough to inspire the class to get to work in earnest, or at least her very real threat was enough.

 

\\\\||||////

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

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“So let me get this straight” Asuka said to her coach as she couldn't believe what she was just told. “I am supposed to sit up there and heckle people?”

 

“That's correct” Coach Kumara told her. “The more you heckle the more they will want to knock you down. And the more they want to knock you down the more money we make.”

 

Asuka developed a deliciously evil smirk after being told that. “This is going to be fun.”

 

“That's why I picked you to do this” The coach told her. “You were born to do things like this.”

 

“Actually I was born to do something else entirely different but I don't mind switching” Asuka replied and then started climbing up a ladder outside a big tank of water. At the top of the tank she sat down on a plank and scooted over till she was in the middle of it. And there Asuka sat, perilously hovering over a thousand or so gallons of water while wearing nothing but her bikini. And that plank she was sitting on, well all you had to do was hit a target and the thing would brake in two sending her straight down into the wet and watery depths below.

 

Yes folks, the T4 girls' high school swimming team's usual culture fest fund raising booth was a dunking booth. And this year Asuka was the dunky. Shinji sat at a table about ten yards from the tank with a bucket of balls. All you had to do was throw the ball and hit the target and Asuka would be sent into the drink. It was easier said than done though as the target wasn't that big, only about the size of a pie tin, and you only got one shot. Of course you could take a second shot at Asuka if you forked over another hundred yen. And that right there is how they made money as a hundred yen was such a trivial amount of change to see the pretty red head in the bikini splash into the water and get wet. Of course that was only if you were a good hurler. Most people weren't so having to throw quite a few balls to knock Asuka down added up. Last year the coach told her they averaged three to four hundred yen per person so they made enough money off of this one event to last them though the school year without having to do a fundraiser.

 

Which was good as the queens of fundraising was stationed right next to them. The cheerleading squad had a very good racket going in that they sold candy and snacks of the booster variety. Truthfully they didn't even need to set up a booth at the culture fest to make money but they did anyway. The girls would all be dressed up in their outfits and do various routines for the people and then ask you to buy a box of chocolates to help support their club. But in reality they made most of their money off the general population of the school as they had a table right next to all the other vendors selling food at lunchtime. That is how they raised more than enough money to compete in all the various different cheerleading competitions. And this year they would have a bigger reserve of cash than last year as they weren't going to nearly as many competitions. They were skipping out entirely on all the ones that took place during the first trimester as they were seriously not ready for them. Maybe later in the school year they would start participating again but for now it was mainly cheering at games and practicing routines.

 

Before Shinji opened up the booth he walked over to the tank and climbed up the ladder outside of it. “Are you ready?”

 

“As ready as I'll ever be” Asuka said back.

 

They both looked over to the front of their booth, there was already a line forming. “I don't think you even need to heckle them” Shinji said nervously as he saw who was in line. It looked like there were as many teachers as there were students.

 

“Oh but where's the fun in me staying quiet?” Asuka smirked. “If I'm going to have to get all wet, I'm going to make damn well sure I deserve it.” Asuka then whispered to him. “But between you and me I would much rather it was you getting me all wet like you did this morning.”

 

Even from the front of the booth you could see Shinji blush at what Asuka told him as he crawled down the ladder. And as he walked up to the front table the only thing he could think of was how good Asuka looked in her swimsuit right now. And also how good she would look out of it later on when they got home. He let out a muted sigh as this was going to be a long, long day for him. He then looked up at his first customer. “Hello Mr. Ohta. It's a hundred yen a ball.”

 

“And well worth the price” he smirked as he grabbed the ball from Shinji.

 

Right after he said that though Asuka started up. “Good it's only you Mr. Ohta. I was worried the first person in line was going to knock me down.”

 

“I will have you know young lady, I played on the baseball team when I was in high school” Mr. Ohta barked back at the sassy teen.

 

“Yeah but that was what, four… five decades ago?” Asuka said back smugly. Considering that Mr. Ohta was only in his early forties that was a pretty effective taunt. But Asuka was right and he was a little off the mark as he missed the target. “A little rusty are we?”

 

“Give me another ball” Mr. Ohta said throwing down another hundred yen coin.

 

“Here you go” Shinji answered handing him another one.

 

Mr. Ohta took another shot at the target and missed again. “I sure hope you weren't a pitcher” Asuka laughed.

 

“Another one” Mr. Ohta commanded. This time he really concentrated and he finally hit the target, dropping Asuka into the tank of water.

 

Now you might think Asuka would have been mad about doing this sort of thing but she wasn't. This was all in fun and game and when she popped her head back up from the water she told him. “Thank you for supporting the T4's high school girl's swim team.” Asuka then looked over to Shinji. “Please put Mr. Ohta down for three throws.”

 

“Ok kätzchen” Shinji said and got up and wrote his teachers name down on a big sheet of paper hanging on the wall. And next to his name he wrote the number three.

 

From the tank Asuka told her old teacher “Why don't you come back later and see if you can improve your score. If you get me down in one shot we will put your name on the honor role list.” This was in reference to the smaller sheet of paper hanging next to the large one. On the top of it was written in fancy letters `Honor Role.'

 

Mr. Ohta could only chuckle to himself as he realized what Asuka was doing. Not only was she goading people but she was also playing them off of one another by creating a list. You of course wanted to be on the honor role sheet of paper but chances were you were going to have to come back several times to do it. And each time you came back would cost more money. He looked over at Mrs. Kumara who was watching everything from the side. “The list thing is an interesting idea.”

 

“I think so too” she smiled. “I'm glad Ayanami came up with it. I have a feeling the team's going to have a record year in raising money.”

 

“I'm sure you gals will” he chuckled as he walked away. He was chuckling because he couldn't lie to himself, he was going to come back. And he knew he would keep coming back until his name was on the honor role list. His honor was now at stake after all.

 

What didn't surprise though was whose idea the list was. Rei was a very ingenious girl and he could tell she was one of those people who had more to them than they showed. While many in the school thought of Rei as a quiet and shy student who didn't really understand the people around her he knew that wasn't exactly the truth of the matter. Rei Ayanami was more a student of human nature than she was a student of the school. Her simply sitting there and being quiet was her way of observing everything that was happening around her. While you could tell she was still learning things this idea proved that she was a very astute at what she was doing and that this was a perfect way to manipulate people into shelling out more money without them even knowing it.

 

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

 

Hikari was busily surveying what was going on in and around the school to make sure everything was running smoothly. Which of course it wasn't as leaving it up to high school kids to plan and run their events were many disasters waiting to happen. Already today she had to deal with several booths or rooms that weren't able to open on time because they weren't ready yet. Mostly for the typical reason of students waiting till the last second to do something combined with them foolishly thinking everything would go smoothly and they could just throw everything together and it would be fine.

 

She needed a break already and went looking for a room that would lift her spirits. A room that re-established the thought that not all teenagers were lazy bums that couldn't be depended on to do anything. She stayed as far away from her homeroom as possible. The room she did visit though was one of the first year classrooms. Yuma's class was by far doing the biggest thing this year with the dance and a lot more than just them going to Hawaii was ridding on this.

 

The student council was against a first year class throwing a dance as they didn't think they could handle the responsibility. They foresaw a great many problems and were about to decline the idea and tell those students to try something else. Hikari did not agree with them and told them to leave this whole thing up to her as she would handle it personally. Since she was the vice president there wasn't much the other students could say, if they had a problem with it they would have to go to the president. And by now they all knew that was a fruitless task.

 

The school council's president was a great delagator and had no problems telling everyone else what to do, he himself did very little, which is sort of what he was supposed to be like. And while he could tell you what to do it was becoming clear that the rules weren't the same when it came to him dealing with Hikari. Hikari was a totally different breed of teenager, driven and focused, and he had no clue how to deal with her. If he told her no and she wanted to be told yes she would look him straight in the eye and force her case. It usually didn't take long for the president to fold under this pressure. But it wasn't only that Hikari was such a strong person it was that he was intimidated by her. Her ambition and drive was much greater than his and during the meetings he would be sitting there, while watching her run them, thinking to himself that maybe she wanted his job. And sometimes he would get the vibe from any teacher who was sitting in on the meetings that they were thinking that too. And that maybe they should give her the job as well. There was also a bit of physical fear as he was afraid of what would happen if he stuck to his guns and didn't let Hikari do what she wanted. Would she go running to her boyfriend and cry about it? Touji was a big dude and he knew that kid could rearrange his face but good. She didn't really seem like the type of girl who would do something like that but that seed of doubt was planted inside his mind so he let Hikari do whatever she wanted to because of it. Whether or not Hikari was the one who inadvertently planted it so she could get her way was an argument for another day.

 

So this dance had Hikari's reputation at stake as well and she knew a great many people wanted it to fail. A lot of the student council members saw her as pushy and would have loved to see her fall back down to earth from her lofty position because her special project flopped. She was determined not to let this happen so she kept very close watch over everything Yuma's class did. Every day, even on the weekends, she got a complete report on their progress from the class rep. And if she thought they were behind in their preparations she would personally pay the classroom a visit during the breaks to make sure they got back on schedule. And you pretty much had to do as she said because she had the teacher's full support in everything she made you do.

 

Right now as she popped her head in the door to see how they were doing she noticed there were only a handful of students in the room. “Where is everyone?” she asked.

 

Yuma was one of the people in the room so she answered her while she was making some tropical looking origami flowers. “Most of the class is out looking around.”

 

“Are you sure you have time for that?” Hikari asked raising an eyebrow.

 

Yuma gave her a big nod of the head yes, she was proud of her answer. “Everything's done. We called the DJ this morning and confirmed our reservation, all the refreshments and snacks are bought, we reserved all the tables we need with the student council, and we have most of the decorations completed. Now all we're waiting for is the stands in the gym to be taken down so we can set up.”

 

That answer felt so good to Hikari. At least someone was doing what she told them and was living up to the expectations that they themselves had set. “Thank you Yuma. I really needed to hear that.”

 

Yuma giggled in response to that as she could tell Hikari was already flustered about everything. “Umm Hikari?.. All the third years are still coming right?”

 

“As far as I know” Hikari answered. “There are some of them still scrambling around for dates but I think you guys will do just fine in attracting a crowd.” Hikari then sighed a she asked “And speaking of third years, you wouldn't happen to know what my class full of delinquents are doing, would you?”

 

“Not really” Yuma answered. “I haven't looked around yet but I did see Touji walking around earlier with a sign on his back. It said you guys were running an all you can eat café.”

 

“What?” Hikari said as that surprised her. That almost sounded like something that would require work. It also sounded like something you might not make any money off of and while they didn't need to make a whole lot to go on their skiing vacation they did need to make some. She was going to have to go upstairs and check this out.

 

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

 

When Hikari got up to the third floor she saw Rei sitting at a table outside the room. In front of the table was a sign that read `Class 3-B All You Can Eat Café - 500 yen.' And on the table was a jar full of money. As for Rei herself, she was dressed in a pretty kimono and had her hair styled with pretty hairpin in it. Basically she was dressed like she would be when she was at work. And just like at work she was being the hostess for this eatery. But unlike work she wasn't being friendly or greeting people. In fact she looked sort of grumpy and had her nose stuck in one of her classical literature books she had to read for college.

 

But even acting like that and emanating a `go away' presence she was attracting questions from people. The boys wanted to talk to her because she was looking very pretty and the girls wanted to know where she got her clothes. No matter what you asked her though she only answered by pointing at another sign on the table. It read `You will get all your answers inside.' Of course to get your answers you would have to pay 500 yen but that was sort of the point of her putting up that sign. Well that and she wasn't really in the mood for conversation at this particular time.

 

Now many people did this as they figured with Rei sitting out here looking like that it meant that the people inside would too. They were probably going with a traditional Japanese tea house theme in there. At first Hikari was very impressed as it looked like her class actually did something more than just the norm for them. Sadly she didn't stay that way when she walked up to Rei and talked to her.

 

“Hello Rei” Hikari started but then got distracted as some people left the room. She clearly heard one of them say “Man what a rip off” with the other totally agreeing. Her mood instantly dropped and she switched her hello to “Um what's going on in there?”

 

For Hikari Rei would take her nose out of her book. “You would be better off not knowing.”

 

“Oh god, what did they do this time?” Hikari asked as while she agreed with Rei that it was better if she didn't know the reality of the situation was that she had to know.

 

“You remember how we discussed earlier that those who worked in restaurants and the sort would show up today in their uniforms?” Rei asked.

 

“Yes” Hikari answered as she could tell Rei was leading somewhere with that question.

 

“Except for one other person in the class I was the only one who went through with it.” And that right there was the main reason Rei was grumpy. She sort of felt like a fool and that the class had played a trick on her.

 

“You got to be kidding me?” Hikari replied back as that was rather hard for her to digest.

 

Rei let out a sigh and shook her head no.

 

Hikari then knelt down in front of the table so she could be at eye level with Rei. “I apologize profusely. They shouldn't have done something like this and you shouldn't have to be putting up with their laziness.”

 

Actually that little bit of courtesy and respect made Rei feel a little better. “It's not your fault. You've been very busy lately and you cannot be held responcible for what others chose not to do.”

 

“Yes but I can hold those inside responcible for their actions” Hikari said and marched right into her classroom.

 

She was greeted with a casual “Hello, sit anywhere you want….” The girl's voice switched over to one of worry “Oh it's you Hikari… I… Ummm…. We thought you were going to be too busy to show up… hehe...” That was followed by a nervous gulp.

 

“I am” Hikari said in a rather not nice way. She was very disappointed in what she was seeing. There was almost nothing she would consider decoration. All this room had was a bunch of table with chairs around them. And as for dressing up, the only other person was quite noticeable. Kensuke was wearing his Shin Seiki's delivery jacket. Granted she suspected he was wearing that because he was being a shill for the restaurant, still it was better than nothing. Which is exactly what described the rest of the classroom as they were all in their plain school clothes. She then noticed what their all you can eat café entitled. Your drinks were either water, kool-aid, or instant tea. And the food was nothing more than a bunch of cheap snacks bought from a corner market. They spent next to nothing on the food so she could easily understand how they were going to make money off of this. She then asked one simple question “Have we made enough money for our ski trip yet?”

 

“Almost” one of the students answered.

 

“Ok then” Hikari said looking very unhappy with her classmates. “When you guys hit the amount we need you will shut down this farce of a café. And right after that you will clean up this room, and I mean a total cleaning. Windows, floor, walls, ceiling, desks, everything. And you will take your time doing this and you will do a good job because I will be coming back periodically to check up on you guys.”

 

“But if we do that we won't have any time to go to the other classrooms” one of the teens complained.

 

“That's the whole point!” Hikari answered raising her voice. “This is a total embarrassment and you have let me, and considering our teacher is no where to be seen I bet her, down. You people should be ashamed of yourselves.”

 

This butt chewing didn't go without finger pointing as everyone was now going to try and get out of this. “Well it's all Kensuke's fault. He was the one who bought all the food and brought it here.”

 

“That's because you told me to” Kensuke shot back. “And when I bought this stuff I thought the rest of you guys were buying stuff too because all you told me to get was snacks.”

 

“Wait a second” Hikari interrupted. “Are you telling me Kensuke was the only person who even got anything?”

 

There was a lot of umm's and ahhh's to that from the rest of the class.

 

“Weren't the rest of you guys supposed to bring stuff?” Hikari continued questioning.

 

“Well yeah, but we ran out of time and couldn't get anything.” As you can guess that answer wasn't satisfactory to Hikari.

 

“You guys really are a bunch of slackers” Hikari said shaking her head negatively at them. “Kensuke, since you were the only one who brought anything AND was the only other person than Rei to dress up you can go and enjoy the festival.” There was a lot of whining and bickering about that but Hikari silenced them while Kensuke headed quickly for the door. And when he was gone she added on another punishment. “And for those of you who promised to show up in a uniform and “forgot” you will be cleaning even more over the weekend. What you did to Rei was inexcusable and you better apologize to her.” That wasn't the end of it either as Hikari was really mad at what her class did and she royally chewed them out for it.

 

When she was done she left the room and didn't even give the other students a chance to complain. They had disappointed her enough for one day. What she saw out in the hall though cheered her up a little bit. Kensuke was standing there talking to Rei and it looked like Rei was using her book to cover up the fact that she was giggling. “I take it you could hear what I said?”

 

“And what I couldn't Kensuke told me” Rei said still hiding a smile behind her book.

 

“Since you two are the only ones who did anything why don't you go have some fun. I will sit here and watch the room till we make enough money.”

 

“Actually we already have” Rei told her. “The last time anyone from the room came out to check with me about how much me made was over an hour ago.”

 

“Well then I will sit here and cool down a bit” Hikari replied as that was her real reason. She then asked “I can't be here for long though, so if you see Touji around can you ask him to come back here. I need someone to watch the room and make sure none of those lazy asses try to slip away and get out of cleaning.”

 

Both Rei and Kensuke said they would do that and they took off to go see what some of the other rooms were doing.

 

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

 

Kensuke and Rei found Touji rather quickly as he wasn't a hard person to spot. He was down on the second floor eating some steamed pork buns in a room that was decorated like a Chinese restaurant. They themselves didn't stick around though after they told him to go upstairs and see Hikari, if they wanted to eat Chinese food they would just go to work were they could be assured it would be good. Kensuke was still generally unfussy about his food but Rei had grown picky when it came to eating.

 

“So you want to go drop Asuka into the water?” Kensuke asked as they left the room.

 

Rei gave him a little nod of the head yes as she agreed to that. It was obvious to her that he was speaking more about what he wanted to do rather than asking her what she wanted to do. But in this case she could indulge him. It wasn't like she wasn't thinking about it too. More than just a little part of her wanted to send that nosey redheaded friend of hers into the drink.

 

The only problem with that though was the line they found waiting for them down in the gym. “Damn, I knew Asuka was a pain in the ass but I didn't think this many people were out to get her” Kensuke remarked.

 

Rei was a little surprised as well as by far the dunking tank seemed to be the most popular both around. “I would say, lets wait till the line goes down…” Rei started. “…but I doubt it will.”

 

Kensuke and Rei then heard “Well it's your fault Rei.”

 

Rei looked at her coach who was smiling widely. “How so?”

 

“Your little honor role scheme has everyone coming back for more” The coach told her in a very good way. “If this keeps up we're going to have enough money to buy the really good swimsuits next year.”

 

“I'm sure Asuka's ridiculing has nothing to do with that” Kensuke chuckled sarcastically.

 

“Oh I love that girl” the coach said back. “She's an absolute gold mine. As a teacher I shouldn't be saying this but that girl's ability to taunt and incite people borders on genius.”

 

“I predict she would say that is because she is one” Rei said with a little smile. It wasn't hard for her to guess what that girl was going to say at times.

 

Then again at others stuff Asuka said to her came totally out of the blue. Asuka had seen Rei and Kensuke show up, then again it was hard not to spot Rei considering the kimono she was wearing. She stuck out like an elegant sore thumb. “Hey Blue, awesome kimono. You look really hot in it. I bet you won't have any troubles finding a date to the dance tonight.”

 

As you can guess Rei blushed, deeply. Asuka did not need to be saying such things. While it was on the true side as she did get a boy or two ask her to the dance when she was sitting outside her classroom, she ignored both proposals and kept reading as she was too embarrassed to tell them no, she didn't want such attention to be thrown on her. “You should be focusing on your assigned task Miss Sohryu” Rei lectured back still a little flustered from her comment. “And not bugging other people.”

 

“Oh I wasn't bugging you” Asuka said back with feigned honesty. “I was just letting all the boys out there know that you still needed a date to the dance.”

 

Rei sort of went ballistic at that one as she ringed out “I do not!” She then marched right up to the tank and swatted the target while demanding “Now hush you!”

 

This wouldn't have been half as bad if Asuka didn't come up from the water laughing her pretty little head off. That meant everything she said was to purposely get Rei to do what she just did. And more than likely Asuka was doing it so that Rei herself would be the center of attention.

 

And it worked for the most part as the line was watching her. There was even a comment of “Hey! Ayanami didn't even have to pay.”

 

Rei's reply to that was a curt “I live across the hall from Asuka. I have paid more than everyone in this school today put together… and then some.” Rei then took her leave from this situation and went to stand over by her coach. Or more like hide behind her coach as she wanted to get out of the limelight.

 

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

 

Rei stayed standing by her coach and chatted with her while Kensuke stood in line. He felt that Asuka needed another soaking to get her to behave better and keep that bratty mouth of hers shut. Unfortunately he couldn't do what Rei did and had to wait in line. The crowd would tolerate one budger but most likely would draw a line at two.

 

Where coach Kumara and Rei were standing was near the cheerleader's booth. Now the cheerleaders were having much fun watching Asuka. Her taunting people and then seeing her splash into the water afterwards was a great source of amusement. But right now what was catching their attention was Rei. They were dieing to know where she got that kimono she was wearing. Now who would be asking her that question was a totally different matter. Talking to Rei when she was with Hikari and Asuka was relatively easy, talking to her when she was by herself could be nerve wracking. She was a very different girl and hard to approach. But since Kotono and Rini were in her class they were the ones volunteered by the other cheerleaders to ask her. You could read that as they were basically forced to and you would be right.

 

“Umm… Hi Ayanami” Rini started getting Rei's attention.

 

Rei turned around and nodded a hello back politely.

 

“I, umm… I mean the girls, were just, you know, wondering where you got that kimono?” There was just something about Rei that made Rini nervous. It was almost like the blue haired girl was so smart she knew what you were going to say before you said it.

 

Kotono tried to help out her friend with a “It's really pretty and we all like it.”

 

“Thank you” Rei replied politely to the compliment. “This kimono is one I got from work.”

 

“I wish I worked with you then” Rini said as she would love to be able to wear stuff like what Rei was wearing to work. In her case she worked as a cashier in a store at the mall. While what she got to wear wasn't exactly ugly it wasn't nearly as nice as what Rei had on. “You wouldn't happen to know what kind of kimono it is? Like who made it and stuff?”

 

“It's a Sakuraba” Rei answered.

 

Both girls went wide eyed at that, along with most of the other cheerleaders. Even her coach lifted an eye and took a second look.

 

“That's a genuine Saku?” Kotono said absolutely amazed while Rini got overtaken by her impetuous nature. The girl reached out and looked on the inside of one of Rei's sleeve.

 

While this was a little rude Rei did not mind. It was clear that Rini was excited and indulging the girl was the friendly thing to do. It was also no surprise to her that Rini knew exactly where to look for the label. Rini and Asuka weren't friends because they were both cheerleaders, they were friends because they both shared the common teenage girl love of clothes.

 

“Oh my god, it really is!” Rini exclaimed after seeing the authentic label. “You're so lucky. I would kill to wear something like that everyday.”

 

“It's not so much a matter of luck” Rei explained to her. “It's a matter of appearance why I get to wear such fine clothing. Where I work is upscale and caters to people who are used to being around people who can afford to dress like this. So in order to meet our customer's expectation my employers must provide us with top of the line outfits by top manufacturers.” While Rei said that in a very technical way inside she was sort of flaunting that she got to wear such clothing. She really did love the kimonos she got to wear.

 

“Any chance I could work with you?” one of the girls jokingly asked.

 

“Maybe” Rei said back. Even if it was in jest you never know what answering a question like this in earnest might result in. Also she was playing off the reason of the restaurant was always looking for new people as turnover tended to be high during the school year. Not so much where she worked as her coworkers upstairs were mainly college students but they did need help in the regular part. “But if someone like Shigeru Aoba comes into the restaurant you have to be able to hold your composure.”

 

“Does trying to be his lover count as composure?” one of the cheerleaders jested. Most of the other cheerleaders giggled in response to that.

 

Rei knew the girl wasn't being serious. “Not quite. And more than likely it would get you fired. Sleeping with the customers is a violation of the rules.”

 

“I could live with that” the girl kidded.

 

Rei's coach though looked over at graceful looking teen with a little surprise. “They actually had to make a rule about that sort of thing?”

 

“Unfortunately” Rei answered.

 

That was one of those answers that was more than a simple yes or no. It was one of those answers that told the person asking the question that it was a rule that had to be made after such an act took place and caused some trouble. It was also an answer that caused curiosity to grow as one of the cheerleaders asked “Who slept with who?” This was momentous type of gossip, not the everyday type the girls generally partook in.

 

“I don't know” Rei answered. “It happened before I was hired.”

 

That let down a lot of people. They wanted to know what happened. Even the coach looked a little depressed. And it was the coach looking depressed that almost got to Rei, the other girls she didn't really care about. For a second she thought about telling her coach that what she had just said was a manufactured lie to conceal the truth. She knew exactly who slept with who but the baseball player that slept with one of the waitresses was actually married so it was better that she kept her mouth shut. The last thing the restaurant needed was negative press of this type. One it would be bad for the restaurant. And two, it would probably encourage some of the patrons to hit on her more than they already did.

 

All this gossip and attention was interrupted by the fact that Kensuke was at the front of the line now. Rei's immediate attention went solely to that event and she watched as Kensuke picked up one of the balls and threw up into the air a few times while saying “This is going to feel so good.”

 

“In your dreams” Asuka slandered back. “If you throw like you bat I'm going to be up here all day.”

 

“Oh yeah” Kensuke weakly challenged back as he couldn't think up anything better than that on the spot. But he didn't have to as his throwing abilities were a lot better than his batting and he knocked Asuka down on his first throw. He was a catcher after all so accuracy was sort of an important ability to have.

 

For the first time today the coach saw Asuka come up from the water looking unhappy. But it was not for the reason you would imagine as she shouted at Kensuke “What the hell do you think you're doing you baka? We're trying to raise some money here.” And then in a way like she was mockingly trying to teach him a lesson Asuka explained “If you want to knock me down in one throw you have to purposely miss a couple times on your first try and then come back later on and do it on your second. Don't you know anything?”

 

“I.. uhhh… ummm…” Kensuke stammered out as he was more than a little confused. Asuka was making a rather big fool put of him for doing what he thought he was supposed to do. Since saying something to Asuka would probably get him even more ridiculed he looked over at Shinji and said “Your girlfriend's psycho.”

 

Shinji simply shrugged his shoulders at Kensuke. “I'm not any better.”

 

Kensuke then went over to where Rei and Mrs. Kumara were. “Did I do something wrong?”

 

“No” Rei responded with her hand over her mouth to conceal the fact that she was giggling. Asuka totally did not expect to go down on Kensuke's first throw so her reaction to it was quite funny in Rei's opinion. “Next time you go up there miss a couple times on purpose and she'll be happy with you again.”

 

Kensuke reached into his wallet to see how much money he had left. “I don't know if there will be a next time. I only have enough money left to spend it on what I already earmarked it for.”

 

Rei smiled while she said “Well I guess if it can't be helped she will just have to live with what happened then.”

 

“Guess so” Kensuke said back and looked over at Asuka. It seemed the girl was already over it as she was back in her playful taunting mode. “You want to go do something else now?”

 

“I suppose” Rei responded and the two of them took off to see what else was going on in the school as they didn't really have anything better to do right now.

 

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

 

Near the end of the culture fest Asuka noticed a couple oddities in the line. There were several girls standing there that were gossiping with each other. By their uniforms you could tell they weren't from this school. In fact they were wearing the uniforms of girls who went to one of the prestigious, not to mention horribly expensive, private schools in Tokyo-4. And you could distinctly overhear them talking as they were quite vocal in saying they were “slumming it” by visiting this place. Technically this was nothing new as school rivalries abounded and stuff like this was always happening. Students from a certain schools were always going to other ones and shooting off their mouths about how much better their school was than yours.

 

Normally Asuka was above all this as she generally didn't give a rat's ass about school rivalries, or school spirit for that matter. But one of the girls in the line caught her attention, it was a girl she knew. She also knew how to royally piss this girl off. The girl was throwing little darting glares at her the whole time she was in line, daring Asuka to say something. So Asuka did the exact opposite and totally ignored her. She could tell this tactic was working as the girl was increasing talking louder and louder about the girl sitting in the dunk tank being a whore, bitch, slut, cunt, and any other dirty word she could think up. None of it seemed to be affecting Asuka though as she never said anything in return to the girl. Asuka simply bantered teasingly with who ever was next in line.

 

“Oh c'mon Mr. Ohta, give it up already. You're not going to get on the honor role.” Her old teacher was back for the third time.

 

“Never say never Miss Sohryu” he replied back. “If you paid better attention in class last year you would know I tried to teach you that.”

 

“Hey!” Asuka challenged back. “For me, I did really good last year when it came to listening to teachers.”

 

The worst part of that statement was how proudly Asuka said that. You could tell she really meant it. “Sometimes I wonder about you” Mr. Ohta said shaking his head. “Do you think you live in our world or do you think we all live in yours?”

 

“A little of both” Asuka smirked.

 

And for that little smirk Asuka got the reward of a splash. Mr. Ohta had finally got her off her perch on his first throw, and it only cost him 700 yen in total to do it. Which wasn't bad as many other people had spent much more than that to knock Asuka down. Teachers, students, family members of students, strangers, it didn't matter. Everyone's money was good to her and she would bilk you out of as much as she could. Hell she even went after Misato when she showed up with Keiko. As you can guess Misato went right back after her. But it was only light stuff and the two had more of a problem afterwards with Keiko. The little girl though what Asuka was doing looked like fun and she wanted to join in. Let's just say there was waterworks involved and Misato had to bribe her little girl with treats to get her to stop.

 

After a couple more people went through the line it was finally the preppy girls' turns. First up was Mana Kirishima. Originally she had only shown up during the culture fest to show off in front of her former classmates but after she heard about Asuka being involved with a dunk tank she had to get even with the girl.

 

That was easier said than done though as Asuka wasn't only going to sit there and keep that pretty little mouth of hers shut while you tired to drop her into a tank of water, she was going to earn that dunking. And for this particular person she was really going to earn it. “Well if it isn't poor little Kirishima. You come back here to show everyone that you finally found a school where everyone's as stuck up as you.” Asuka had no clue who the other girls with Mana were but just by them being with her that made them fair game.

 

The other girls and Mana took great offense at that. Just because they were better than you did not give you the right to call them stuck up. “I switched school because I couldn't stand being around you lower class losers anymore” Mana insulted back.

 

“No you switched schools because you couldn't stand the thought of always being second best to me” Asuka replied with absolute evilness. She was playing this tetchy conversation like it was a fiddle. She waited for the flustered and unsettled gasp from Mana in reaction before she corrected herself. “Oh wait… I'm wrong. You were never even second best. In fact you weren't even close.”

 

“How dare you!” Mana stammered. “I was way more popular than you were.”

 

“Oh please” Asuka said with a laugh. “You were just the girl all the gold diggers hung out with.” Asuka then raised her voice and said in the direction of the cheerleaders “Isn't that right Shika?” Asuka played this card because she knew the injured cheerleader was still rather pissed at Mana.

 

Back when they hung out together Mana wouldn't be caught dead with one of those stupid sugar sack babies as it would damage her reputation with the seniors. Because of this she made Shika hide her baby in her locker anytime they hung out together. Shika got busted doing this by her teacher a couple times and had to take the summer class. It was all right though since Mana said she would be there too. Except when the class started Mana was no where to be seen. It seemed that Mana forgot to tell Shika that she was switching schools so she didn't have to go to any summer classes. Or as a matter of fact that she changed her cell number as she didn't want to be seen hanging out with any of her old loser friends now that she had new ones.

 

Needless to say Shika was rather miffed about all this and it was no surprise to Asuka when the girl responded with “I certainly didn't hang out with her because I liked her.”

 

Mana stared daggers at her ex-friend for that embarrassing remark. She then thought up the most perfect comeback to the both of them, well at least to her it was perfect. “You're all just jealous of me.”

 

Asuka really laughed at that one making Mana feel like a fool again. But she wasn't done making her feel like that as the redhead added on “Jealous of you? You got to be kidding me? I'm a better swimmer than you, smarter than you, I have better taste in clothing, way prettier than you for sure…” and if that last comment wasn't mean enough Asuka put it over the top with “… and remember who won Shinji's heart. Oh and in case you haven't heard we are doing wonderfully.”

 

Mana let out an offended “Why you…!” and picked up a ball, throwing it at the target.

 

Asuka laughed again as the girl didn't even get close. “I know she's rich and all but give her another try on the house Yuma.”

 

Yuma was the one that was handing out balls because Shinji had gone over to help out at the baseball team's booth after Kensuke asked him if he could fill in for him as he had to run an errand. Since Yuma had nothing to do till later she was filling in. She handed Mana another ball while saying “Here.”

 

Taking the ball from the bratty little upstart that replaced her on the swim team wasn't making this situation any better and she let out a “Well I never!”

 

“Which is why we're giving you a freebie” Asuka yelled back. “Because you're never going to hit the target.” Which Asuka was right about as Mana missed with that throw too. And the next thousand yen worth of balls that she tried to dunk Asuka with too. And her friends were no better as together they went through another thousand yen trying to get her down.

 

“Man you guys suck” Asuka said getting genuinely bored of all this. This was the longest she had gone without getting dunked this whole day.

 

“That's because you're cheating somehow” Mana accused.

 

“Only your convoluted mind would think that” Asuka said with a roll of her eyes.

 

“Prove it!”

 

“Ok” Asuka said. “Hey Shika, want to take another shot at me? It's on the house.”

 

“Sure” Shika said getting up from her seat. She then made her way over to the booth, crutches, cast and all, and picked up one ball. She hit the target on her first try.

 

“See” Asuka said in a smartass tone when she popped her head above the water. “If Shika can do it, anyone can. I mean look at her. She's basically crippled right now.”

 

If Shika wasn't hopped up right now on painkillers due to her knee operations she might have taken offense to that. But as it stood all she did was give Mana and her friends a look of superiority and hobbled off to go sit back down.

 

That insult was the last as Mana whined “See this is why I can't stand common people. They have no class.” And her classmates and she stormed of complaining about all the tasteless people around and vowed never to show up at this dump again.

 

Asuka looked over at Shika. “Guess I should have told her you used to pitch on the softball team before you became a cheerleader, huh?”

 

There was a lot of laughing and giggling at Mana's expense over that one. Asuka had totally set her up for that embarrassing end as she purposely chose Shika due to the girl already being on the honor roll list, twice. The whole she being injured was just icing on the cake.

 

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

 

Asuka was sitting in a chair with a warm towel wrapped around her, courtesy of her boyfriend. They were watching as some people were draining and taking apart the dunking tank. All the other booths around them were being taken down too as the gym needed to be emptied so that the class throwing the dance later on could set up.

 

“So what was Kensuke's big errand?” Asuka asked.

 

Hikari was with them as she needed to sit down for a second and since everything was in deconstruction mode this would probably be the only time she could until after the dance. “He volunteered to pick up the party platter Yuma's class ordered for the dance.”

 

“Why'd he leave so early?” Asuka asked as that didn't make sense. Kensuke had asked Shinji if he could fill in for him over at the baseball team's booth over an hour ago. Even if the delivery boy left now he would still have plenty of time to get to the restaurant and back before the dance started.

 

“He probably wanted to make sure everything was correct” Hikari said as she vaguely remembered hearing him saying something like that earlier. Unfortunately she was in the middle of three conversations at the time so she didn't catch exactly what he said.

 

“That sounds like him” Asuka replied. “Plus those party platters are pretty big. He probably needed to make two trips.”

 

Hikari shook her head no at that. “I saw Rei take off with him. I bet she volunteered to give him a hand.”

 

“It's just like those two to skip out of culture fest so they can go to work” Asuka said with a little chortle.

 

“Well I'm certainly not complaining about it” Hikari said. “Anything someone else does is one less thing I have to do.” Hikari looked down at her watch. “Although I wonder what's taking them so long?”

 

“Rei wanted to change first and they got stuck in a gawker slowdown on the highway” Shinji answered as he got a call from his friend earlier on his cell phone.

 

“Figures” Hikari said with a troubled breath. “If it isn't one thing it's another.”

 

“Don't worry” Asuka told her. “They'll be here on time.”

 

“I hope so” Hikari breathed out. She was very stressed out at this point.

 

About five minutes later though she got some good news. “The classroom is clean babe.”

 

“How clean?” Hikari asked as her definition of clean varied greatly from the rest of the classrooms' clean.

 

“I would say about Nozomi level clean” Touji answered.

 

This was based off of Hikari's levels of cleaning. The top of the scale was of course her. In order for something to be Hikari level clean it had to be almost perfect. A general step down from this was Nozomi level. Her little sister was good at cleaning, just not as good as her older sister. The bottom level was Hikari's oldest sister, Kodama. The reason Hikari was so good at cleaning was because her big sister hated to do it and always made her little sisters do it for her. So if it was at Kodama level that would mean nothing was done.

 

“Well I was hoping for something better” Hikari said looking tired. “But I don't want to deal with them anymore today.”

 

“Okay babe” Touji said. “I'll go up there and tell them they're done for you.”

 

“Thanks hun” Hikari replied and stayed in her chair for a couple minutes more. Things were getting moved out at a fast pace and soon she would have to get back up to help move in a whole different set of things.

 

Asuka put a hand on her friend's shoulder. “Don't worry. I'm sure everything's going to go off without a hitch.”

 

“I hope you're right” Hikari weakly smiled back and waved goodbye to the two of them as Asuka needed to get home, cleaned up, and changed before she could go to the dance.

 

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

 

Back at home in the Katsuragi residence a little bit later the bathroom resonated with blissful cries of “Mehr!” It was all Asuka could cry out for as she stood slightly bent over under the rushing water of the shower head above her. And with one arm up against the shower's wall, steadying her quaking body, she called out “Mehr!” again.

 

Shinji did not disappoint her as he slowly continued thrust himself in and out of her from behind. He was showing this beautiful and dripping wet body his appreciation for not making him go to the dance in the most intimate of ways. What had started out as him helping her clean up for the dance quickly ramped up into a heavy breathing session in the shower. Which wasn't all that surprising considering every cleaning session they shared together ended up with them having sex.

 

And how could it not as after Shinji had stripped her of the cumbersome clothes she was wearing he followed her into the shower to help out some more. The first thing he did was wash that luscious red hair of hers. It was just so beautiful, especially when it was all wet. All day long the sight of Asuka being wet had driven him crazy and considering the sexy little winks she was giving him throughout the day he could tell she was on the same wavelength. If only they could have frozen time and played around in that tank for a bit. He was sure they could have created some really big splashes doing that.

 

But right now what they were doing was very enjoyable too. He had delicately washed her hair using her favorite shampoo with one hand while the other hand washed another patch of red down below. It kept washing until Asuka became weak in the knees. And it only got better as after her hair was clean he moved on to the rest of her wet body. He could have used the lufah sponge that Asuka usually used when applying her body wash but he chose to go the more sensual route and used his bare hands, cleaning ever inch of her soft skin with his well experienced hands.

 

Asuka did not mind this cleaning at all and even started moaning loudly as his soapy hands washed and caressed her bosoms. Then there was the way he was making all those little hairs on the back of her neck stand up as he slowly kissed up and down her neck, stopping to nibble on an earlobe or two in a very sensual way. But what was making her really cry out for “Mehr!” was that he was cleaning her out inside and out. And the very hard and special tool he was using to clean out the greatly aroused and wet from more than just the shower bottom part was doing its cleansing job wonderfully. It was scrubbing and thrusting and pulsating the inside of her so perfectly well. It even filled her insides with it's own soap making everything so much better.

 

Just simply the perfect tool for the job causing a sharp cry of “Mehr!” to fill the bathroom again. And many more sharp cries were to follow as Asuka was cleaned to her limit and her whole body trembled as waves of pleasure rippled through her.

 

She had to stand there, her hands against the shower wall, for a couple seconds trying to catch her breath before she was able to move again. And move she did as she gave him an enticing lesson in her body's flexibility as she raised one leg straight up and turned her body around so she was facing him, breasts to chest, now. Never once getting even close to taking out Shinji's special cleaning tool that was still deeply buried inside of her. She looked down and purred “I think some of your special soap is coming back out. Why don't you give me some more to make sure I'm really clean?”

 

Shinji looked back up at her, straight into those beautiful blue eyes. They were still burning hot with passionate flames. “If I clean you again you might be late.”

 

Asuka didn't care as she purred again, this time while pressing her lips to his “Mehr!”

 

And mehr is what she got as they rhythmically pushed and grinded against each other while sharing deep kisses in an embrace so tight they could feel the other's heartbeat. And as those heartbeats' paces escalated once again until sweet cries of “Mehr!” filled the air. Neither could get enough of the cleaning as both bodies cried out for more, and more and even more.

 

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

 

Yuma was a little worried as the dance was about to start and Asuka was no where to be seen. “Hikari where's Miss Asuka?”

 

“Don't worry, she'll be here” Hikari told the nervous young teen. “Now go put these over there, make sure we have enough ice for the beverages, and go ask Mrs. Kumara if she needs help with anything.”

 

Yuma let out a little “Okay…” as she was asking Hikari where Asuka was, not for more work.

 

But Hikari was under the impression right now that a busy mind wouldn't have time to be a worried mind. She knew Asuka would show up eventually, Yuma just needed to give her some more time. Asuka had a tendency to show up late for things now and again.

 

Hikari then moved onto her next task, the punch bowl. This dance was supposed to be operated only by Yuma's first year class but there was a dirty rumor floating around that some kids were going to show up and spike the punch. While this was only a rumor and probably not something that should be taken seriously she still wasn't going to take any chances. She put a senior behind the punch bowl. And not only just a senior but one that was intimidating, one that knew how much her personal pride was wrapped up in this dance, and one she could trust. I.e. she put her fiancé behind the bowl.

 

“I'm sorry for making you do this Touji.”

 

“Eh… It's no big deal” Touji said back.

 

“You know what to do, right?” Hikari asked as she wanted to makes sure he had his job down pat.

 

“Yup” Touji answered and rattled off what he had been told earlier. “I keep the punch bowl near the back end of the table so people have to reach for it. I'm the one that fills and hands out all the glasses. I fill all the glasses full so no one can add anything to them. And most importantly I don't let anyone pour their glasses or anything else back into the bowl.”

 

That was absolutely perfect. Hikari gave him a big hug and told him “Thank you for doing this.”

 

“Anything for you babe” Touji said back holding his fiancé and smiling. His girl had been running around all day with nothing but responsibilities and he wanted to help her out any way he could so things would be easier for her.

 

He also held onto her for longer than he should of as Hikari had to say “You can let go of me now hun. I really have to get back to work.”

 

“Nope” Touji replied and started swaying a little with Hikari in his arms. “The way I figure it, if I gotta be stuck here, then I can't dance with you.”

 

Her boyfriend was being sweet to her and that was making her feel a little less jittery. But she did have to say to him. “Um hun? You don't know how to dance.” There was a smile attached to that sentence so it wasn't a comment that was supposed to be degrading or anything like that.

 

“I may have picked up a step or two” Touji smiled back and continued to sway around with Hikari in his arms.

 

Thirty seconds later though Hikari repeated herself. This time she was giggling. “Hun, you really don't know how to dance.”

 

Touji chuckled back “I know. I just wanted to practice because I know I have to learn by the end of this summer.”

 

Now that melted Hikari's heart and made all her troubles disappear for a second or two. He was thinking ahead to their wedding, what better thought in the world could there be? She looked up into his eyes for a second and said “Thank you” before she gave him a light kiss.

 

This time Touji was the one to repeat himself. “Anything for you babe.” And he gave her a little kiss back before letting her go so she could get back to work.

 

But that brief respite did exactly what it was supposed to. It calmed Hikari down a couple notches and her instructing people to do things came out more like she was kindly asking you to do something rather than ordering you to do it. This in return calmed down the other people in the gym doing these things and the situation became much less tense and more like a relaxed atmosphere. Which was the atmosphere needed to make this party a success.

 

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

 

Asuka showed up to the dance about forty five minutes late. She was greeted with a “Well it's about time you showed up” by her best friend. “Yuma has been panicking ever since the start of the dance.”

 

“Really?” Asuka replied. “I could have sworn I told her I was probably going to be a little late.”

 

“My guess is that she took that as five minutes late” Hikari said with a slight chuckle. “Not your usual lateness.”

 

“Well I got busy” Asuka replied. She had a huge grin on her face to whole time she said that.

 

“Oh I'm sure you did” Hikari laughed. She could tell by the glow just what exactly Asuka was “busy” with.

 

It was then that an excited first year hurriedly made her way across the gym. “Miss Asuka! You're finally here.”

 

“Yes Yuma, I'm here” Asuka said with a little laugh to herself. “The gym looks pretty. You guys did a good job.”

 

“You really think so?” Yuma asked. If it was enough to impress Asuka then it was certainly enough to impress everyone else. At least that was the thought going through the young teen's mind.

 

“I wouldn't have said it if I did mean it” Asuka told her. “I especially like the tiki torches. They're cool.” With the theme of the dance being `Let's send Mrs. Kumara to Hawaii' naturally the gym itself was decorated like a Hawaiian luau. “So have you danced with any cute boys yet?”

 

Yuma went from being excited to blushing heavily in a split second. And with a little trembling in her voice she said quietly “Miss Asuka, please…”

 

“Don't say such things, I know” Asuka interrupted as she was only teasing the girl. “But you know you shouldn't work too hard and not have any fun yourself. This is a dance after all.”

 

“But- but I got things to do.”

 

Hikari looked around for a second. Everything seemed to be running smoothly for the moment. “You can take a break if you want.”

 

That was not what Yuma wanted to hear. She may have been excited about throwing a dance but she was deathly afraid of actually dancing with a boy. “I-I- I can't do that” she said blushing just like before.

 

“And why not?” Asuka asked. “You know how to dance. I have seen you do it myself.”

 

“It's not that…” Yuma answered getting so quiet it was like she was whispering.

 

“Then what is it?” Hikari asked as she saw no reason now that Yuma couldn't go out and enjoy herself.

 

“Well it's just that….” Yuma whispered very quietly the rest of it to Asuka and Hikari. “… I don't have a date.”

 

“Is that all you're worried about” Asuka said with light titter. “I can fix that in a second.” And while Yuma let out a terrified “WHAT!?” Asuka scanned the gym. She was looking for a cute looking boy who currently wasn't dating anyone. Making this even worse for Yuma Asuka was only looking at her fellow seniors. “Hey Kato! Come here for a sec, would ya?”

 

The boy wandered over to the three of them. “Hey Hikari, Asuka. What's up?” This was a kid from the baseball team so he knew the both of them.

 

“You here with someone?” Asuka asked.

 

“Nah, I came stag” He said back.

 

“Good” Asuka said. “Because my friend here needs someone to dance with.”

 

Yuma let out a little “Eeep” when the older boy looked at her. This was so embarrassing.

 

“Hey, don't I know you?” The kid asked as Yuma looked familiar to him.

 

Yuma let out a “no” that couldn't even be heard. How could any senior boy know her? She was just a lowly first year.

 

This kid used to date one of the girls on the swim team last year so in the past he was at practices. Asuka remembered seeing him around so she answered. “She was on the swim team too last year.”

 

“Oh yeah” the kid exclaimed as he remembered. “You`re that girl from middle school that kicked ass.”

 

“That's our Yuma” Asuka said with pride while the girl in question was absolutely mortified about all this. “So you want to dance with her?”

 

“Sure” the kid said and reached out for Yuma with his hand while adding on “I better do it before she gets too popular for me.”

 

Yuma didn't even have time to register what that boy said as she got a little push from behind and found herself out on the dance floor with a cute senior boy.

 

Even if she did get time to think about it she probably would never have figure it out. She was a humble girl and rarely acknowledged that she was a gifted swimmer. Already this year though she was being looked at as a swimmer to pay attention to and was among the national rankings. Basically what happened was when the swim meets results came out the name Siratori was showing up a lot more than it used to. Not too big of a deal considering her big sister was a champion swimmer. But what caught the national swimming people's attention was that name was showing up in a different division. It took them very little investigation to discover that Yuma Siratori was the little sister to Mai Siratori, one of the top high school swimmers in the nation. And it seemed like little sister was following in her big sister's footstep as the girl had not lost yet in a fifty or hundred meter sprint at her meets. Accomplishments and recognition like that tends to spread around school rather quickly, even if the girl in question didn't realize it, so Yuma was getting to be well known.

 

As Asuka stood there watching her blushing friend dance she heard someone come up behind her. “I don't know if you're purely evil or incredibly nice.”

 

“For the sake of my ego don't tell me the answer” Asuka replied. “So what's the deal with your scooter?”

 

“Kensuke said he would come over and look at it” Rei replied back. Surprisingly Rei agreed to show up at the dance when Yuma asked her to. And since she was going to go to the dance she decided to go with Asuka and they had ridden over together on her scooter. Unfortunately during the ride Rei seemed worried and kept commenting on how the bike seemed to be pulling in a certain direction. Asuka herself didn't notice this but considering this scooter was Rei's baby she wasn't going to argue with her friend. If Rei said it was pulling to the left then it was pulling to the left.

 

“Kensuke has time to look at it?” Hikari asked as since it was a Friday evening she was sure he would be working.

 

“Actually he took today off when he found out that there was going to be a dance” Rei told them. “I'm not exactly sure why as he told me he decided not to come just a couple days ago.”

 

Asuka snickered out “Probably because he couldn't get a date.”

 

“I'm sure that's not true” Rei said back in a bit of a lectured tone as that was mean. “If he wanted a date to the dance I bet he would be able to find one.”

 

“You stick up for that boy way too much now” Asuka said back. She knew Rei was only doing it because the two of them were friends but still this was Kensuke. Even if he wasn't there to fire back, picking on him could still be fun.

 

“I guess he turned that girl down then” Hikari said as she saw someone ask him to the dance.

 

Both Rei and Asuka turned to look at Hikari. “Huh?”

 

“Oh it's nothing” Hikari said. “I saw Hayashi ask him if he wanted to go to the dance with her about a week ago. But since he's not here I guess he turned her down.”

 

As Asuka said “Wow… he turned her down?” she saw a smile creep onto Rei's face. “What're you smiling about?”

 

Rei quickly wiped the smile off her face and said. “I don't like her very much. She's one of those that whisper freak girl behind my back.”

 

“You know, that's kind of evil of you reacting that way to Kensuke turning her down” Asuka snickered.

 

Rei quickly replied back “Probably something I picked up from hanging around you too much.”

 

“I think you're right” Hikari laughed. Even Asuka herself laughed at that. She rather liked the way Rei zinged her at times. It was just so sly and not something you would expect from the blue haired girl.

 

After that Rei told the two girls she would talk to them later as originally she had only come in to get something to drink. She wanted to go back outside and wait for Kensuke. And when she left the gym Asuka kidded “A thousand yen says she has more fun waiting outside and watching Kensuke fix her scooter than she would in here.”

 

“If you think I'm going to take a bet like that then you really are psycho” Hikari teased back.

 

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

 

Over the next half hour Asuka went around and basically socialized with her friends while Hikari sort of watched everything. The dance was running rather smoothly and she wanted to make sure it stayed that way. As for Mrs. Kumara, being the patron of honor for this shindig she had to attend, she was watching the money board very closely. They had whipped up a cute little display that had a monkey climbing a palm tree. The further up the tree the monkey climbed the more money they had brought in. It was updated every half hour to some cheesy Hawaiian music for added effect. She felt a little embarrassed being here but she couldn't lie about her being happy to watch that little monkey climb that tree. The dance at this point was about half over and already the simian was already in the leaves. And even with the dance being half over people were still showing up and there was another count coming up in a matter of minutes. Mrs. Kumara was doing her very best to look like a mature school teacher but inside she was jumping up and down like a giddy school girl because she was sure she was going to go to Hawaii.

 

She wasn't the only one feeling good about this. Hikari had already peaked at the latest amount and knew soon Mrs. Kumara would be very happy and probably thanking everyone for their generosity. But while she was happy for her old teacher and coach she was happier because this meant the dance was a success. All those nay-sayers who told her this project would fail and she couldn't pull it off were proven wrong. It didn't hurt any that this was also something she could throw on a college application under large scale activities she was in charge of.

 

Asuka had just come from talking to a beaming Yuma. “You won.”

 

“I know” Hikari smiled back.

 

“I would go tell you to go gloat but it seems I can't find any other people from the student council here.”

 

“That's pettiness for you” Hikari said as she was fully aware of that fact too. But that wasn't totally true as she added on sarcastically “I did see our esteemed student body president earlier.”

 

“Yeah, I saw him too” Asuka snickered. “He came in just long enough to leave with a girl on his arm.”

 

“I wish I could say that surprises me” Hikari said back before being distracted by one of Yuma's classmates climbing a ladder to move the monkey to its new perch. “Well, here we go.”

 

“Yup” Asuka said nodding her head. And soon there was an eruption of joy from the Yuma's class as they realized they were going to go to Hawaii for their class trip. The rest of the people at the dance clapped in approval as Mrs. Kumara thanked all of them. “I'm so going to tease her for tearing up like that at practice on Monday” Asuka said.

 

“She will probably still be so happy she won't care” Asuka was answered.

 

“Hmm??... You're probably right. Guess I should wait till Tuesday or Wednesday?” Asuka replied in return. The whole point of Asuka teasing the coach was for her to get Kumara to take it out on them in the form of a good hard practice. She then asked “I'm surprised you came back in here. I figured you would've stayed outside.”

 

“All the other gear heads have shown up” Rei sighed. She also added on “Plus it's cold out there.”

 

If anything could scare Rei off it was definitely cold weather combined with having a bunch of boys around her. “So is there anything wrong with your bike?” Hikari asked.

 

“Not really” Rei answered. “Kensuke said a bearing was loose but he can fix it quickly.”

 

“You sure he didn't just say that so he could monkey around with your scooter?” Asuka kidded.

 

“Positive” Rei smiled back as she added “He doesn't like to fiddle with my scooter anymore as I make him put everything back together in the same way he took it apart.”

 

“You meanie” Asuka laughed as that would be torture to the tech minded boy. There was nothing that kid liked better than taking a bike apart and redesigning it as he put it back together. All you had to do was look at his mismatched moped for proof. Asuka then noticed something as Rei had swept her hair back. “Those earrings are really pretty.”

 

“Thank you” Rei replied to the compliment. “A certain someone bought them for me earlier because they thought they looked nice on me.”

 

Misato was the name that went through both Hikari and Asuka's minds naturally. “They go really well with that dress” Hikari added on.

 

Rei said thank you to that comment as well. “To tell you the truth though I think I would have preferred wearing my kimono again.”

 

Both Hikari and Asuka smiled at that comment. Rei was wearing a normal dress that had a floral motif to it. It wasn't exactly Hawaiian but was probably the closest thing the girl had to something of that nature in her wardrobe. She wasn't like Asuka and Hikari who went out and bought dresses especially for the occasion. But the dress she was wearing was a normal length dress so it only went down to about her knees. And with it being the last days of September the breeze outside at night chilled her a bit. Her kimono was full length gown so if she was wearing it right now she would have been much warmer.

 

“So what do you think of your first dance?” Asuka asked.

 

“I think it's too many people in one place for me” Rei answered truthfully. “I feel very crowded in here.”

 

Asuka could understand that. Asuka may have been a social butterfly but she was very clued in to how someone like Rei would view this kind of spectacle. After all she was dating someone with the same opinions as her. “Are you going to stick around for very long?”

 

Rei shook her head no. “When Kensuke finishes with my scooter I'll probably leave.”

 

“I wish I could go with you” Hikari told her. “I'm exhausted.”

 

“Then leave already” Asuka said.

 

“I can't do that” Hikari said back but you could tell she wished she could have.

 

“Why not?” Rei asked. “According to the display the dance was a success.”

 

“But I still have so much to do” Hikari told them. “I need to be here to make sure no problems come up. Then I have to make sure that everyone leaves on time because the school doesn't want this running long. And finally I have to help clean up afterwards.”

 

“Isn't that Yuma's class's responsibility?” Rei asked.

 

Technically Rei was right but Hikari was skeptical about that. “I don't know if they can handle it. Too many things could go wrong.”

 

“You really need to learn to relax and let other people handle things sometimes, you know that?” Asuka said. What she got back was two looks of “look who's talking” in reply to which she replied “What?... I dribble on my dress or something?”

 

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

 

It was about ten minutes later when Kensuke came into the gym. Asuka, Hikari, and Rei were all standing by each other talking. With one boyfriend busy with duties, another one not even at the dance, and Rei not with anyone there was little else for them to do. Well Asuka did try to trick Rei into dancing with a boy like she did Yuma but she failed miserably in her attempt. Rei was much too smart to fall for Asuka's little smarmy matchmaking games and the redhead didn't even get through with her inquisitive questioning before Rei called her out on it and flatly shot her down.

 

“Hey gals” Kensuke said walking up to them.

 

“Hey Kensuke” they all said back with Rei adding on “Is my scooter fixed?”

 

“Yup, but I want to follow behind you for a bit to make sure.”

 

“Ok” Rei replied as this was nothing out of the ordinary. All his friends knew that when Kensuke fixed something for you he always wanted to be with there when you first tested it out just to make sure he did a good job. The boy took pride in his work. Rei then said goodbye to Asuka and Hikari and left with Kensuke.

 

But as the two were walking out of the school they bumped into someone they did not expect to see tonight. “What're you doing here?” Kensuke asked. “I thought you got let off the hook.”

 

“I did” he sighed. “But then I opened my mouth without thinking. Now I'm here.”

 

Kensuke laughed out a “Tough luck man” while Rei shook her head at him. From past experiences she had a good idea as to what happened. “You know she's a sore loser. How many times do you have to be forced to do something you don't want to before you learn how to respond properly?”

 

The boy looked down at this point. He answered with a sighed “I don't know.” He got another disapproving head shake from Rei and then continued on his way into the gymnasium. Once there he immediately started feeling uncomfortable. Just too many people in too small of space for him. Right away he looked for Asuka as he wanted to sort of hide behind her as all these eyes staring at him made him feel even more uneasy.

 

He knew it was already around the school that he wasn't going to go to this dance. He also knew that spawned many rumors about his relationship with Asuka. Some people were even going so far to say that they were breaking up. Personally he didn't care what other people said as most of the time he didn't have to be around them. He was mainly around Asuka, his family, and his friends so that's whose opinion he cared about. One of the things he learned from third impact is don't worry so much about how everyone else see you. Because all that will do is drive you insane.

 

But unfortunately it was hard to drown out all the other voices at this particular moment as he was surrounded. Surrounded by gossip, surrounded by rumors, and surrounded by people whose only goal was to degrade and make fun of him and worst of all try to put thoughts of doubt in him. Those old personal demons of his always hit him hardest at these times.

 

But he didn't have to worry too much as Asuka was quick to notice his arrival and walked over to give him a helping hand. She did it by absolutely showing everyone else up as she said “You decided to come after all! I love you so much Shin-kun.” And she gave him a big hug. The thing about that was you could plainly tell what her underlying words were. She told Shinji he didn't have to come yet he came anyway, just for her. Would your boyfriend do that?

 

There were quite a few girls who stopped having looks of smugness and started looking at their boyfriends with shifty eyes. They didn't know the answer to that question and the cute little private talk Asuka and Shinji were having while they hugged stirred up a pang of jealousy or two.

 

That was mainly because no one else heard what Asuka and Shinji were really saying. “Why'd you come?”

 

“Misato made me” Shinji whispered back.

 

“What you do this time?” Asuka said with a slight giggle.

 

“We were playing video games and I kept on beating her” Shinji answered. “After about an hour she told me to take it easy on her.”

 

Asuka looked Shinji in the eye and said “You didn't?” as she could guess what he said back.

 

“I did” Shinji replied in shame. “I told her I had been the whole time.”

 

“Shinji, Shinji, Shinji. When are you going to learn to think before you speak?” Asuka lectured. This wasn't the first time Shinji got tasked to do something he didn't want to because of something like this.

 

“I don't know” Shinji sighed again. “You know, I should stop playing her all together.”

 

“Not smart” Asuka warned him. Doing something like that would probably insult her even worse than telling her you were beating her with ease. When it came to video games Misato had a child's heart towards playing, unfortunately this was coupled with a general bitterness towards losing. “Well since you're here anyways, you will dance with me right?” Asuka asked letting go of him.

 

“I suppose” Shinji half smiled. If he had to be at the dance at least he could spend it with Asuka. Plus he got the feeling that he didn't really have a choice in the matter as Asuka grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out onto the dance floor.

 

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

 

Hikari was standing by the punch bowl talking with Touji when Mrs. Kumara walked over. “Wow! For a kid who is relatively shy, Shinji's a very good dancer.”

 

“Let's just say he has some experience in that category” Hikari giggled.

 

The teacher responded with a curious “Really?” as the way Hikari said that indicated there was more to this.

 

“Before third impact Asuka and Shinji were partners in a dance competition of sorts” Hikari explained staying somewhat close to the truth of the matter. “They looked so cute in the matching outfits they wore.”

 

“Matching dance outfits?” Mrs. Kumara questioned with a snicker.

 

“Oh yeah, right on down to the leotards” Touji chuckled. “Shinji's so lucky the pictures we took got destroyed.”

 

“Well that's a shame” Mrs. Kumara said. “I would've liked to see them.” She then noticed a peculiar action from one of the people in question. “Did Asuka just basically flash her fangs at that other girl?”

 

Hikari had seen what Asuka did as well. The clingy redhead dropped her hands down slightly below Shinji's waistline, smiled viciously, and made direct unwavering eye contact with the other girl. “Yes.”

 

“She isn't trying to start something is she?” Mrs. Kumara said slightly raising her voice as that would be something she would not approve of.

 

“Not really” Hikari answered claming her coach down. “That's just Asuka's insecurity at work. That other girl once said she thought Shinji was cute so in some deranged way Asuka sees her as competition.”

 

“Like anyone in this world is competition against her when considering Shinji” Mrs. Kumara said shaking her head. It was very clear to the woman just who was number one in Shinji's heart. Hell all you had to do was watch the two and you would be able to figure that out quickly. Then again she had a life time of experience on her side so that is probably why she was able to pick up on it so easily. Most high school kids are lacking greatly in that department though and she realized that fact was what led to Asuka's latest territorial actions. She then looked down at her watch. “Looks like we have enough time for one more song before wrapping this up.”

 

“Finally” Hikari said with a little relief.

 

“Why don't you and Touji go out there” Mrs. Kumara told the two as they deserved to have at least one dance together.

 

Since everything was pretty much over with and the punch bowl was empty anyway Hikari smiled and said “I guess I could squeeze in one dance.” Touji was more than willing to go out there and join her. So what if he couldn't dance too well. Just swaying together peacefully was enough for Hikari. So peaceful that it wasn't enough for her as that last song ended so very quickly. “I don't want to start cleaning yet?”

 

“Who says you have to?” Touji replied back while still holding onto her.

 

“You know I have to help” Hikari said admonishing him. She wouldn't have minded him holding on to her for a couple seconds longer but the sooner she got to work the sooner she would be finished.

 

Touji disagreed with her on this point and he yelled out “Hey Mrs. Kumara. Do you need Hikari's help to clean up?”

 

“Not really” the teacher said back. In her opinion Hikari had gotten run ragged enough today. If anyone deserved a break it was the tall brown haired girl. “Why don't you two head home and get some rest.”

 

“But…” Hikari started as she felt it was her responsibility to help clean up.

 

Touji though wouldn't let her finish that complaint as he started pulling her away. “You've done enough babe. Let someone else handle it for a change.”

 

“Are you sure it's ok?” Hikari asked out one last time as she was being dragged away.

 

But she didn't get an answer from her old teacher as she was basically ignored and Touji continued to drag her home.

 

Asuka and Shinji though were still out on the dance floor. The end of the night had come much too quickly for her too. Dancing closely with Shinji always made her feel good. She looked up at him with pouty eyes “Is it over with already?”

 

Shinji nodded yes to her. While he was happy the dance was over with he couldn't help but feel bad for his girlfriend. “We could go do something else if you want?”

 

“I suppose” Asuka sighed. “But want do you want to do?”

 

Shinji whispered one word into her ear. “Mehr.”

 

Asuka's eyes absolutely flared up at that. And with those blazing eyes she told him “Ich liebe dich, Shin-kun” and she started pulling him towards the door in a rather impatient manner.

 

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

 

By the time Touji got home with Hikari the day's strenuousness had caught up with her, she was basically sleeping while walking. Mainly because she felt very comfortable and protected walking with her boyfriend. The way he wrapped his arm around her waste and held her close to him was a physical reminder of how much he loved her.

 

It was also what her father saw as the two of them walked up the driveway towards the house. He of course was waiting for his daughters to get home from the dance. Hikari being the first one home surprised him a bit. This was one time he expected her to be home late as he knew she was planning on clean up after the dance. “What are you doing home so early?”

 

Touji was the one who answered for her. “They were making her do too much so I brought her home.” He also handed her dad a note “Give this to Nozomi when she gets home.” He then told his future father in law that he would let himself out later on after he talked with Hikari for a while up in her room.

 

That's why Hikari's dad liked Touji so much. He looked out for his daughter. Hikari always felt like she had to do everything and he knew there were a lot of people out there who would take advantage of that trait. But Touji was there to protect her and limit how much she actually did so the girl wouldn't burn herself out. He also like the way Touji pandered to his insecurities about his daughters. He knew Touji was going to be staying the night and he wouldn't be letting himself out till the morning when he left for work but just him saying what he did showed respect. And as a father he appreciated stuff like that.

 

What he didn't appreciate was that it took another half hour for his youngest daughter to get home, which was ten minutes too late. Also the bike his daughter came home on was different than the bike she had left for the dance on. That also meant the driver was different and in this case it wasn't even a guy as it was one of her friends who gave her a ride home. Due to his many years of parental experience he could tell something was wrong. Well that and the fact his daughter was cursing her boyfriend's name loudly while she stomped up the driveway. That made him mad but also happy. One he was mad at the guy for distressing his baby girl. But also two, he never liked the guy in the first place and it very much looked like this was a break up.

 

The break up part was enforced as the first thing out of Nozomi's mouth when she saw her father in the doorway was “It's not my fault I'm late daddy. It's all my stupid jerk of an ex-boyfriend's fault.”

 

“What happened?” Mr. Horaki asked.

 

“Well after the dance he said he was going to take me home” Nozomi started. “But the idiot took to some house party instead. Then he told me I had to earn my ride home.”

 

He could tell his daughter was really steamed about this all still which is why he believed her. If she was making all this up she would be sniveling and playing her daddy's precious little girl card. He wrapped his fatherly arms around his little girl and said “It's ok. Why don't you go upstairs and go to bed and we can talk about this later.”

 

That made Nozomi feel a little better as for a while she thought not only did she have a breakup with her boyfriend, but she was also going to be in trouble with her daddy too for getting home late. But she was totally forgiven by him and wasn't in trouble at all. But after getting the note from her dad that Touji had wrote for her she kind of felt like she was getting punished. There was another note inside that she would have to deliver and she didn't really want to do it. Then again after noticing how hectic Hikari's life had been over the last week she understood why Touji was doing what he was doing. She decided to chalk this up to her big sister owing her one for this.

 

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

 

As for Nozomi's big sister, she was being very spoiled right now. When Touji brought her into her room and set her down on her bed he whispered “Let me handle everything tonight.”

 

Considering she was very tired she was inclined to do that. Plus she knew her fiancé was very good at handling her, he had proven that many times before in the past. And he was doing it again as he sat down in front of her and reached around to unbutton her dress, not forgetting to kiss Hikari the whole time he undressed her. She put up no resistance as she raised her arms up so Touji could pull her dress off. That nonresistance held up as she didn't stop him in any way or form when he stripped her of her bra and panties too. She may have been tired but she wasn't about to give up on some loving attention.

 

With his beautiful fiancé absolutely naked sitting beside him Touji gently laid her down on the bed and snuggled right up next to her. With one of his gentle hands he placed it on her cheek and tenderly turned her head so they could kiss. For as big as he was Hikari always loved the fact that he could handle her so softly when she wanted to be touched that way. And as they kissed she felt his other hand gently start to caress one of her breasts. He wasn't pinching or groping or squeezing them but just simply and affectionately touching them, treating them like they were delicate flowers. And her buds stiffened and tingled pleasurably in response to his kind treatment as she let out a little moan of happiness while sharing some romantic kisses with her fiancé.

 

Touji made no rash or quick movements and he waited until it sounded like Hikari was ready for more before he moved on to making his future wife happy. In the process he took off his own clothes so her flesh could feel the warmness of his. And while snuggling closely he moved his hand slowly down her body, tickling her tummy lightly along the way, until it was in her curly patch of brown hair down below. His fiancé giggled a little while sharing more smooches as he tickled her there too. But he didn't stay there for long as his fingers went a little further down and delicately started to rub her womanhood until she started to breath a little more heavily than she was before. Then bit by bit he pushed one of his fingers inside of her while another brushed itself against her clit in a stimulating way.

 

Slowly he got his fiancé ready for himself as he stroked his index finger in and out only stopping once to engage in a deep and loving kiss while he carefully slipped in a second finger. This was something he loved doing to his girl. The tightness around his fingers he felt while doing this only emphasized how much better that same tightness felt when he slipped his manhood inside of her.

 

Hikari started to moan a little louder with the addition of another finger but the deep kiss she was involved in muffled it. This was by far her favorite way to be silenced while having sex. Screaming into a pillow was all fine and dandy but moaning into your lover's mouth while he kissed you passionately was heaven. And it was this kind of heaven she depended on as she felt him pull his fingers out only to replace them with something much thicker and longer as he crawled on top of her.

 

Touji slowly and sweetly stroked himself in and out of his lover, kissing her the whole time while pressing his hard chest against her heaving bosom. He was doing all the work as he promised and letting his girl simply lay there and get enjoyment out of everything. But he did feel some effort on her part as she came close to orgasm. Hikari wanted closeness and her arms wrapped around his broad back and her legs encircled his hips. He didn't disappoint her as he wrapped his arms around her to and pressed her tightly to him. And he continued to hold onto her and she trembled in his arm and called out his name in sweet rapture as she came, getting pushed over the edge by the warm feeling of her lover's ejaculation that one day would make her a mommy. Her body desired this more than anything else.

 

When it was over Hikari whispered how much she loved him onto his lips. Touji smiled at her and told her he loved her too while crawling off and lying by her side again. He then pulled up her covers and snuggled up to her. Hikari had no problems falling asleep in this position as the warm embrace of her lover's arms comforted and relaxed her.

 

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

 

That wasn't the only tenderness going on in this city. In an apartment complex a little ways away a red headed girl was screaming for “Mehr!” into her pillow as her boyfriend thrusted in and out of her from behind. But this act was more of the hot steamy sex variety as it was hard and fast with Asuka bouncing back against Shinji's thrusts in an act to pound their flesh against each other harder and to get him in deeper. Later on things would turn more tender as they would switch from having sex to making love but for now the only thing they wanted was mehr and mehr and even mehr of each other. (A/N: Hint, try the German to English setting when you babel fish a particular word because you want to know what it means.)

 

Maybe if you looked in another room of that very same apartment you would find tenderness, but you would be wrong. The only thing you would find is a voluptuous raven haired woman riding up and down rapidly on her pony-tailed husband's hard member while he pinched and lightly bit her nipples. Only to get bit himself later on in a lustful passionate fit as she buried her mouth against the nape of his neck in an effort to stifle a loud scream of unbridled passion as he let loose in her at the same time. But Kaji never minded these love bites as they were proof of his ability to satisfy his still smoking hot wife.

 

For tenderness you would actually have to go across the hall and down a couple doors to another apartment where a uniquely blue haired girl was being wrapped in an electric blanket as the long ride in the cool fall air had chilled her. But she quickly warmed up as the blonde haired spectacled boy who wrapped her in the blanket then sat her down on his lap and leaned in to give her a kiss. And for the first time it was more than just a simple peck as it was long and drawn out.

 

The blue haired girl took the spectacled boy's glasses off his face and looked deeply into eyes. She saw nothing but trust, love, and acceptance. She then leaned towards him and returned his kiss as her arms came out of the blanket and embraced him. The kiss went longer when she felt his arms do the same thing. And there they spent the rest of the night tenderly kissing each other, opening up more of their guarded hearts in the process to one another.

 

(A/N: Well that certainly was a long chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. Have fun all and see you next month. . I Re-re-edited. Changed a few words around. Fixed some grammar. Broke up some of the bigger blocks of text. And expounded on some parts to make them clearer. Basically gave this a good once over to improve its quality.)