Pretear Fan Fiction ❯ One and Only ❯ Chapter 9

Chapter 10

 

Author's note: Eh… the anime's not mine. Not in the mood to write anything funny. Maybe I'll talk to another knight next chapter.

 

“Look!” Himeno exclaimed, looking at her schedule for school. “I've got math with you, Hayate!”

He looked up from his schedule to look at hers, and sure enough their class was the same teacher, same period. It made him smile at how excited she was about it. But when he looked back at his schedule, his smile disappeared. Good lord! How can anyone expect to take 7 periods in one day?

Over the years, he had gathered a lot of knowledge. At one point, he did attend high school. But he quit after he became a knight. Now that he was back, he recalled how miserable he had been in school before his aging process stopped. He shook his head and sighed. How did the American Leafe Knights do this, homework, and a part-time job every day, as well as fight Demon Larvae? It was baffling.

At least he could look forward to Algebra II.

 

 

As Himeno and Hayate walked down the hall together to their first period classes, they uncomfortably hid their gaze from everyone. People were staring and whispering, pointing at them occasionally. Himeno felt herself blush under their scrutiny. What was wrong? Did she have something on her face? Was it the fact that she was Japanese? Did they hate her?

But Hayate heard some of the comments coming from guys and knew nothing was wrong with her.

“Would you look at that chick?” he heard some comment with grins.

“Geeze, what a looker,” one whistled.

“I'm going to try my hand at her.”

“Betcha she's way out of your league.”

“Yeah, and who's that guy next to her? Boyfriend?”

“Probably her brother.”

Hayate glared at the guys, suddenly feeling very protective of Himeno. He was not about to let the guys have their fun with her. He saw the way they looked at her, and it made him sick.

Himeno's ears picked up some of the comments from the girls as well. When she heard them, she felt like driving a hole into their faces.

“God, what a man!”

“Tall, muscular… he's so gorgeous!”

“What I wouldn't give to have five minutes with him.”

“To do what?”

“Oh… things.”

“Nasty.”

“No, clean. You just think nasty `cause that's what you want.”

Himeno's eyes flared with anger and her gaze snapped to Hayate. He looked at her, and both of their glares melted away. The hard gaze he had for the guys changed into a soft look for her, and the fiery look in her eyes changed to an entranced gaze. She blushed and gave a soft smile.

Without warning, his hand found hers and entwined their fingers. She looked down at them, the blush deepening. They were… normal teenagers in high school going out. They were boyfriend and girlfriend. They weren't Pretear and Knight right now. They were just normal people in love. And it made her heart race knowing that he felt the same way.

When people saw the protective gesture Hayate made, making his position known, the whispers ceased. He almost smiled smugly at the silence, knowing they were probably dumbfounded. They weren't going to get to her now. He was in their way. He heard one guy saying he could take Hayate, and he threw a glare as cold as Mannen's ice beams at the guy. He went silent and so did his buddy.

“Dude, he'd kick your ass,” one guy commented after Hayate had passed.

Now, he smiled smugly.

 

 

“Class, I'd like to introduce a new student to our class,” the teacher said. “Himeno, would you stand up here?”

Himeno did as she was told, and shyly stepped to the front of the class. All the eyes were on her, and she could feel the butterflies in her stomach.

“This is Himeno Awayuki,” the teacher introduced with a smile. She looked down at Himeno. “She's from Japan.”

She heard the oohs and ahhs across the classroom. Suddenly she was bombarded with questions.

“Do you watch a lot of anime?”

“Say something in Japanese!”

“Are there any hot guys over there?”

“When's the next Final Fantasy game coming out?”

“Do you really eat a lot of rice?”

“How can you read backwards like that?”

“Class!!!” the teacher yelled, demanding quiet. Soon the students went silent, allowing their teacher to continue. “Keep your questions until the end of class. Himeno will answer them all then. Please be patient. Himeno, you may go sit down.”

She sat with a sigh back in her seat in the back of the class, worried about what would happen afterwards. She could answer some of the questions. But the one telling her to say something in Japanese? If she did, it wouldn't come out that way to them because of the automatic translator she had. Maybe she should just keep quiet. That way they'd think she just didn't understand them. That would work, right?

She hoped so.

 

 

Hayate sat perfectly straight at his desk, trying to avoid eye contact with every girl who stared at him in the classroom. He felt heat rise to his face under everyone's scrutiny, and just wanted to scream, “Leave me alone!”

But he remained calm. Unfortunately, this was English class. He didn't know much English at all. He knew that what he said would come out as fluent English to everyone, but that didn't mean squat to him. He would still have to write things in this class… that meant he'd fail miserably.

“Class, I'd like to introduce you to Hayate,” the teacher from the front of the room said with a booming voice. Hayate's eyes snapped up to the man, who stood straight and tall, just like a military general. “He just transferred here from Japan and will be staying with us for a few months. I hope you'll all treat him with respect and give him the hospitality of Americans.”

“I'll give him hospitality,” he heard one girl whisper behind him. “Just as soon as he comes over to my place.”

He rolled his eyes, but remained silent. He was going to keep himself in check and not blow is anger on a complete stranger. She was being stupid, and he wasn't going to acknowledge her presence. Plus, he had promised Himeno that he'd be good.

“I bet I'll get him to my place before you do,” another girl whispered with mischief in her voice. There was a pause in the conversation, and then he felt tapping on his shoulder. He slowly turned and saw two blonde girls sitting behind him with seductive smiles on their faces.

He tried not to gag.

One girl held up a piece of paper with something scribbled on it between her forefinger and middle finger. He took it slowly and opened it. On it was her phone number and address. He looked at her again to see her grin wider. She winked at him.

He did the first thing that came to his mind. He took the piece of paper in his hands without looking away from her and crumbled it.

“No thank you,” he said coolly. “I've already got a girlfriend. Wrap your claws around some other deadbeat.”

Seeing the look of surprise on her face as well as her friend's, he turned around with a sigh, knowing that this was going to be a long class.

 

 

“How was your first day so far?” Brian asked. He had come by during lunch to see the Japanese Leafe Knights and found them with the American Knights at a table in the cafeteria.

“Mine was alright, I guess,” Himeno answered with a shrug, looking awkwardly at her hamburger. “Kind of long so far. The people were friendly.”

“How friendly?” Hayate asked, snapping his attention to her, panic rising in his chest. She looked at him in surprise, and he suddenly felt foolish. Just because there were weird girls in his classes didn't mean any guys were hitting on her in class, too.

She looked back at her hamburger with red in her face and answered quietly, “Pretty friendly. Actually… they were a little too friendly. Three guys gave me their phone numbers. I used the paper they wrote it on to wrap my gum in to throw away. I'm starting to run out of gum…”

He tried not to laugh. At least she was more polite about it than he was.

“Sorry about that,” Brian said with a sympathetic smile. “Before long, they'll get used to having you in their class, and you won't have to worry about them treating you like that any more.”

She shrugged again and took a bite of her hamburger. “It's not all that bad. As long as they don't do anything serious I'm fine.”

“So, other than that, how are your classes?” Brian asked.

“Actually, they're kind of fun,” Himeno answered with a smile. “I have drama next period, which I'm looking forward to, and then I have Algebra II with Hayate.”

“You guys have the same math class? Cool,” Brain responded with a smile. “You can keep each other on track with homework and such.”

Himeno groaned, her smile disappearing. “Great. Homework.”

“Don't worry about it,” Brian said, patting her on her shoulder. “You'll do fine.”

“Sure hope so,” Himeno grumbled, taking another bite of her hamburger.

“So what about you two?” Brian asked, turning to Kei and Go. Both looked at each other and shrugged.

“Computer Tech is fun,” Kei answered, twirling his spaghetti with is fork. “I showed the teacher some of the graphics I can do, and he was impressed: said he'd let me do an extra credit assignment if I wanted to. I'm just doing it for fun so far.”

“Good!” Brian said. “This'll come in handy when we're looking for an internship for you at the company.” He looked at Go. “And how `bout you, Pyro?”

Go shrugged. “Nothin' special. P.E.'s a blast, though. I whooped their asses at dodge ball. They ain't got nothin' on me.”

“Nice,” Brian replied with a half grin. He glanced at Ashlee, who was glaring at the table in silent anger. “'Sup, Pyro Number 2?”

She shot a glare at Go, who smiled smugly at her. “I'm in his P.E. class. Guess whose ass he beat today?”

“Yours?” Brian asked with a half-pitying smile.

“No duh, genius!” she growled at him.

“Down, Kitty,” Go said mockingly. She threw him a piercing look, and then turned her attention back to Brian.

“He's been calling me that all day!” she said with an “I-give-up” look in her eye. “It's getting on my nerves!”

“Then why are you blushing?” Go asked with a cocky grin and a raised eyebrow. She put her hands up to her face and glared at him.

“I am NOT blushing, you crazed moron!” she bit out. “Why would I be blushing?”

“That's what I was asking you,” he said with a nonchalant grin on his face, propping his cheek against his fist against the table, clearly enjoying himself.

“You watch your back,” she hissed, “or Kitty's gonna scratch your eyes out tonight.”

“I'm shaking in my boots, Flame Tail,” he said sarcastically.

“Oh, so now it's Flame Tail?” she said, throwing her hands up in indignation. “You know what? You can take your cockiness and your pet names and shove them all up your—,”

“Guys, shut it, both of you!” Hayate said, interrupting their argument. “If you're going to flirt, do it elsewhere.”

“Flirt???” Ashlee cried in disbelief. “You think that's what this is???” She got a nod from everyone at the table besides Go, who was still staring at her with his cocky half-grin. She stood up and said, “All of you people are full of it. I'm going to go… do something. I don't know what yet, but as long as it doesn't have anything to do with you lunatics, I'm sure I'll be fine.”

With that, she got up, turned on her heal and marched out of the cafeteria with all of the Knights' eyes on her.

“Yup, she digs me,” Go said with a grin.