Vampire Knight Fan Fiction ❯ Of Living and Learning ❯ Of Living and Learning 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter6

Really, it's a great idea. Kills two birds with one stone, Kairi repeated for the fifth time in her mind.

She trailed behind the Night Class, Seiren surprisingly walking alongside her. The redhead was grateful for the company, though the vampire kept silent.

Her great spur of the moment idea was simple: Enter Night Class tonight. Convince Kamakuro sensei for a change in assignment, showing the Day Class trampled the worksheets and not because she'd used them for toilet paper overnight. And try getting the vampires' attention on her for the research by taking this giant leap of attending their class.

See? Three simple steps with two (hopefully) achievable aims.

The doors for the Chemistry class appeared and Kairi tamped down on her panic attack, reassuring herself it would work. To a degree anyway. If she couldn't have both, she could at least have one of her aims.

At that point, she also realized she'd make a lousy salesperson as she still couldn't even convince herself. Her stomach was doing violent flip-flops while she approached the perpetually scowling teacher, praying to every god out there that Kamakuro sensei would accept her idea of an assignment trade.

Seiren offered her a nod before she stepped into the class. The quiet vampire's way of encouragement, Kairi was sure.

“Ratoleia! What are you doing here? This isn't your class hours!” The teacher barked at her.

“Um…Sir, I have something to ask you.” She began awkwardly, aware that the entire Night Class was focused on her. The teacher's table was also conveniently located in the center of the classroom, making her all the more prominent.

She revealed the dirty stack of papers and shoved them under the sensei's nose. “An unfortunate…accident happened during prefect duty. I was hoping to get an assignment trade…”

She trailed off at the dark glare the teacher pinned on her. She sweated nervously as Kamakuro sensei studied her for a full minute.

“Very well,” He said in resignation. Kairi blinked owlishly, hearing but not believing.

“Y-you're giving me the okay?”

He scowled at her. “Didn't you hear?”

Kairi nodded frantically. Satisfied with her response, he went on, “Your assignment trade would be to…teach the Night Class tonight's Chemistry lesson.”

The papers she was clutching tightly onto now fell from her numb fingers to land with a dull thud on the teacher's desk.

“Teach?!” she screeched, causing some eyes to swerve in her direction.

Kamakuro sensei gave an evil smirk. “Yes, teach. They will be reviewing what you aced on the test this afternoon. Think of it as a student-to-student help session.”

Kairi swallowed. Of all the assignments he could have issued her, it just had to be something impossibly difficult. Go figure. That man was one hell of a taskmaster. No wonder he was the No.1 Public Enemy on Yuki's shit list.

“Couldn't I have something…less stressful?” she pleaded weakly.

Kairi knew she was more than able to teach organic chemistry but she couldn't teach on such sudden notice! Wasn't your great idea also a spur of the moment thing? A voice rang through her head. She shoved the voice to the darkest depths of her mind and ignored it.

“Or you could stick to the worksheets. But I'll expect them on my desk before breakfast tomorrow morning. A little something in exchange for having me grade such ruined papers.” Kamakuro sensei rolled out casually.

Damn him, she thought viciously. Neither choice was good. Admittedly, the worksheets were the lesser of the two evils but teaching would give her a chance to familiarize with Night Class atmosphere and it'll help her gain trust from the vampires. She gnawed her lower lip indecisively. True, she'd given herself a mini prep talk about tackling the Night Class head-on but now that the opportunity actually presented itself….she was having second-thoughts about it.

“I don't have all night, Ratoleia!” Sensei snapped at her irritably.

I'm not gonna like it, but I've gotta do it. She told herself firmly, opening her mouth.

“I'll teach.”

Kamakuro sensei's face broke into a Cheshire catlike grin and Kairi's alarms went on red alert. He was most likely imagining her making a fool out of herself in front of the elite class.

He stood abruptly from his chair and addressed the Night Class.

“Ratoleia would be teaching tonight's chemistry lesson as an assignment trade. Class, greet your temporary sensei. Meanwhile, I shall sit at the back of the room to observe.”

Dubious frowns and catcalls were thrown her way.

What did I get myself into? She was distracted from her thoughts when Evil Incarnate turned back to her.

“If you can pull this off with good inputs from the Night Class, I will waiver your homework for 3 months.” The man looked downright smug as the stakes were raised.

3 months! Her mind screamed. If she were homework free for 3 months, she could do a ton of research during that time, making progress significantly. Determination flared in her eyes.

“You got a deal.”

Kamakuro sensei moved to take a seat at an empty desk at the far end of the classroom and Kairi hung onto her resolve, facing the Night Class to begin lesson……

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

A gloved hand with a stylized `L' on the leather held out a manila folder.

Another hand, this one with age lines, held out a metallic briefcase.

An exchange was made and the information inside the folder was quickly digested. A pause and then, “Everything stated here is printed with the most current details?”

“Of course; I have realized the consequences of sloppiness.”

“I see. I have come to a decision.”

“I'm sure you would have.” The informant answered.

“Do you accept?”

Whirling and clicking of machines droned in the background. The dim lighting hid the feral grin of the informant.

“I would have it no other way.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“To wrap it up, the homologous series are the indicators of what kind of—” Kairi halted at the sound of sharp rapping against the window pane. Who?

The face of Yuki Cross peered into the classroom as the girl stood on the wide overhang outside the window. Kairi crossed the room and flung open the window, ignoring Kamakuro sensei's outraged cry of curriculum interruption. Her foster sister poked her head in and looked from the Night Class students to the tables and diagrams on the whiteboard.

“…Are you teaching the Night Class?” she asked in utter disbelief.

“Yeah, I am—” Kamakuro sensei hollered for Yuki to remove herself from the classroom premises immediately as lessons were ongoing. “—I'll explain later. You'd better go before he bursts a blood vessel.” Kairi whispered.

Yuki pulled away from the window, giving a discreet evil eye at Kamakuro sensei. “You're skipping on prefect duty. You'll have to make up for it!”

She turned and ran to the edge of the overhang before leaping off to the ground. Kairi closed the window and resumed finishing up class. The bell dinged while she was in mid-sentence and she closed the lesson by completing her words. The Night Class students began gathering their materials to move ahead for their next class and Kairi was about to bolt herself to join Zero and Yuki in prefect duty when Evil Incarnate stopped everyone.

Returning to the front of the classroom, Kamakuro sensei dropped the bomb. “Now then class, what do you think of Ratoleia sensei's teachings?” Sarcasm lined his voice when he mentioned `sensei'.

Kairi could see some vampires ready to fire out that she was just some incompetent twit with zilch teaching ability. So much for winning them over, she thought sourly. Then she'll lose the No-Homework deal as well. The redhead thought it was a failed attempt to hit either of her targets when Kaname complimented her.

“Kairi makes a decent teacher.”

She looked at Kaname in surprise. Who'd have thought? It wasn't the most wonderful thing he could have said but it worked. Kamakuro sensei grumbled before grousing out, “Fine. You're homework free for the next 3 months.”

Her indigo eyes widened to golf ball proportions. Kaname also held influence over the teachers? And Evil Incarnate had simply agreed by the Pureblood's decision alone?

Wow.

Her grin could have rivaled the sun. “See you tomorrow, sensei!”

That said; she moved along with the throng of leaving students before heading in the opposite direction, skipping along the way to find Zero and Yuki. She'd reckoned they'll be hanging around the Sun Dorm area to prevent any Day Class student from sneaking out. Humming, she made her way over.

She was jogging toward the Sun Dorm when a tingle of awareness shot up her spine. She felt something—no, someone watching her. Her hairs stood up and she froze on the spot. There was something about this feeling…something oddly familiar. Her eyes scanned the surrounding foliage but the moonless night sky coupled with the few lamps made it difficult to detect if anyone was truly present.

Then as suddenly as it had appeared, the eerie sensation of being watched vanished. Kairi didn't allow herself to relax yet, her spine still stiff straight, hands clenched at her sides. She listened closely to any kind of strange scuffling sounds but the only thing she heard was the rustling of leaves in the wind.

A hand descended on her shoulder out of the blue and Kairi screamed loudly.

On automatic reflex, she dug her elbow into the person's gut, grabbing the wrist and bended at the waist to toss the fellow over her shoulder. The person landed with a loud thump just as Kairi heard Yuki gasp.

Her fear left her to be replaced by panic when she saw whom she attacked.

Zero Kiriyu had his eyes shut from the dizzying effect when his head hit the pavement solidly. Opening them once his head cleared, he speared Kairi with a fierce lilac glare and the redhead `eeped'. Pushing himself up, he rubbed his head while the foster sisters crowded around him, Yuki checking his head while Kairi apologized profusely.

“Who else do you think was out and about at this hour? Night Classes are still going on.” He growled, furious the petite redhead managed to pull one over him.

“Someone…”

Yuki stopped fussing over the small bump and Zero took in the unsure scared expression on Kairi's face. Something had happened before they located her. But what could have scared her so?

“Kairi…” Yuki began.

The redhead shook her head vehemently. “No, no. Nothing. It was probably nothing.”

The seasoned prefects eyed their new comrade. Zero figured she'll come clean when she wanted to and closed the topic for now. “Duties are waiting. You've got extra patrol hours for skipping.”

Thoughts of the eerie experience earlier flew from her mind at Zero's words.

“Aw man!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Notes:

The teaching thing wasn't too overboard, I hope. I needed to have her focus completely on the research rather than have her time divided by schoolwork. I thought the evil sensei making a wager with Kai was a rather good way.

Yes, the reason for her focus on the project would be because the suspense starts kicking in. We had a break in between, of a conversation among two unknown individuals. That was the starting point.

I also hope that I can keep the entire suspense thingy rolling. It's my first time writing anything of that kind and if I didn't do so well….there's more chapters for improvement.

The evil sensei, by the way, is the guy from one of the manga chapters (I forgot which) where he yells about Yuki and Zero sleeping in class all the time and wonders what they do. I think he also gave Yuki detention. So yep, that's the sensei and I decided to name him Kamakuro (no specific meaning, just a random name). He has a vendetta toward prefects, obviously.

And please review!