Kobayashi Makimi's Story

Makimi straightened her tie, adjusting her hair. "Today is going to be different, today is the day." She whispered to herself, nodding and continued on her way. She walked to the SA class through the garden, smiling brightly. She picked a flower, skipping slightly the rest of the way to the classroom. Makimi sat in her desk, placing her book bag on her desk, she put her earphones on, playing her music. Maki hummed the tune, giggling to herself and playing with the flower she had picked.

Shino:

Shino lingered by the entrance of the school building, eyeing Rina and her boyfriend curiously. He clumsily recovered as his bag began to slide off his narrow shoulders, and tossed his bangs out of his face with a flourish. Today was a new day. He was going to completely banish his clumsy, silly aura and replace it with a new attitude. He was going to straighten things up a bit. He didn't want Rina thinking he was a totally unorganized mess of a person. That wasn't the kind of guy anyone wanted. And he needed to be perfect, at all costs. He needed to be perfect for her.

Shino tossed his scarf around his neck farther, standing up straight. No more slouching, he told himself. He waved politely to Makimi as she passed by on her way to class, but she didn't seem to notice. He walked by a bed of flowers in full bloom. They were beautiful, elegant and graceful. They seemed to be taunting him. Telling him that no matter what he did to change himself, nothing would do the trick. He was beyond help. He would never raise himself up to Rina's level.

Kenji:

Kenji threw his cigarette off the curb, rounding the corner back onto school grounds. He often wandered away for a while, not long enough for anyone to miss him. Usually. He'd been caught occasionally, but they wouldn't dare expel him. His family was too rich. His grades were barely passing, so his dad was pretty much buying his son's way into higher level classes. Kenji knew he'd never make it in the academic world. His brain just didn't work that way.

The garden breeze was strong, and the sky was full of clouds. Kenji hurried into the school building just as raindrops began to fall. He cursed silently, remembering he had again forgotten his homework. Oh well. He probably wouldn't have finished it anyway. He threw the door to his next class open, just as the bell rang, and took the last available seat, next to a girl named Makimi whom he'd heard of but never spoken to. She was supposed to be smart. Sweet. A real goody-goody. He sighed and prewpared himself for a long, boring day of classes that he was bound to fail all of by the end of the year. Great. His parents would be thrilled.

Yuki smiled as she read the text her boyfriend sent her, 'Good Morning! Love you & have a gr8 day @ school!!!' she really was falling head over heels for this guy. She walked briskly to the SA class waving to her sisters when she passed them on the way to class. She saw Kyoya holding Rina, mentally cringing, she couldn't have liked that at all. Yuki almost felt sorry for him though, she knew about the games Rina always played, but honestly, Yuki just didn't have the heart to tell him. As she passed Maki, she let out a silent 'aww' at her cute, childlike behavior. Yuki arrived well before the bell rang, taking out her phone and texting her boyfriend. She dully noted that others were beginning to show up, too absorbed in texting.

Makimi quickly pulled her earphones out of her ears, biting her lip as she looked over to Kenji as he sat in the seat beside her. Makimi turned to him, smiling at her long time crush, "Good Morning Kenji." she nervously played with the hem of her skirt, she wanted to turn away and just slam her head on her desk, but she made a promise to herself that she'd at least try to get over her shyness. Instead of turning away, she just bit her lip, struggling to think of something to say to him, "Um, how are you?" She pushed her hair back, out of her face. Miss Tomoya came into the classroom, causing Maki to turn towards the front of the room, flashing another kind smile to Kenji.
Maki quickly took a notebook and a pen out of her book bag, prepared to take notes. She slightly wiggled around in her seat trying to get comfortable as the teacher fumbled through her papers.

Kenji:

Kenji glared stupidly at Makimi as she greeted him, not used to such a fond "good morning" from one of his peers. He noticed her red cheeks and excessive blinking. She had nice eyelashes. Kenji yawned, still not fully awake, and turned his attention to the other side of the room. He didn't have many close friends, but everyone knew him. He had quite a reputation, in fact. Apart from the attention he got from being so highly ranked in the SA classes, he was also known for his rude outburst, angry explosions, and all-around bad attitude. He noticed Rina and her boyfriend, Kyoya, chatting and Shino staring on enviously. The teacher stumbled forward, mumbling something, but Kenji didn't snap to attention. His eyelids were heavy. His stomach rumbled hungrily.

He remembered his unfinished homework questions, and huffed impatiently. He wished he could only remember these things, even if he had to resort to copying somebody else's work. He noticed Makimi pulling her papers out of her book bag, and he had an idea.

"Hey, uh, Makimi," He whispered, leaning over in her direction, "I, well . . . I didn't get my homework done. Can I copy yours real quick? I heard you're pretty smart." He shot her a convincing smile. "Please?"

Rina heard her boyfriend's teeth grind together behind her, the sound rather grating and annoying to her, as they entered the classroom. Kyoya was chatting with Shino rather animatedly, the smile on his lips only partially forced now as he did so. This nearly caused Rina to laugh bitterly but, of course, she held the bubbling negative emotions within her from tumbling from her lips and burning Kyoya cruelly.

She felt a tad put off as Kyoya placed himself between her and Shino, causing her to be nearest to the wall and making her annoyance level rise all that much more. Yes, the girl would be finding a new seat sometime soon as her dark eyes swept over the classroom and took in the teacher who had just entered and was scrambling to organize her thoughts... Let alone the many papers littering her large desk.

The name on the blackboard read "Ms. Toyama", clearly indicating their new teacher's name as she searched among her desk.

Rina couldn't help but think of how long this year would be; sitting next to the ever-clingy Kyoya and away from any other guys and girls, including good friends, and what appeared to be a scatterbrained teacher? How boring.

She pulled out one of her textbooks, not necessarily for this school's curriculum, and began to page through it. Her eyes scanned the words as she soaked up bits of information on most of the systems of the body. Since she was still deciding on her job choice for the future, she was rather happy to have it narrowed down to three possible choices; neurosurgeon, anesthesiologist, and oncologist. She found it amusing how different each was and had faith she'd manage to achieve at least one of the three, with little to no issues. Of this she was quite confident.

" So," Rina finally said softly, her tone off-handed as she raised her eyes from the pages to look over at Kyoya and Shino, " By this time next year, I think I'm aiming to finally beat Kenji." Her eyes darted to the male for an instant as a slow smile spread over her lips, displaying her self-confidence and radiating warmth. Which, to be honest, was completely different to how she'd been acting toward Kyoya, especially him, earlier. Then she turned and glanced over at another who had entered the room, beaming at the male as she waved over at him.

" Ishida!" She called, not bothering to raise her voice due to the room's size and the small amount of people within it. " How was your vacation in China?" Though, of course, she ignored her two sister for the time being.

Makimi looked back to Kenji, and as much as she really liked Kenji, she so hated cheaters, "Well if I let you do that, you'd be a cheater and I'd be a cheater and I really hate cheaters." She widened her eyes as she realized what she had said, she quickly turned towards the front looking at her desk, "Why does it matter anyways, if you drop a rank, there's your dad who will just 'donate' more money to the school, so why even worry about it?" Maki said quickly, looking to Kenji sheepishly, "Um, sorry, just forget I said anything." she tossed him her homework looking to the front of the class room, blushing madly.

Kenji:

Kenji was utterly surprised by Makimi's harsh reaction. Usually people just did what he wanted. He looked at the ground for a moment, almost ashamed of the notion of cheating, but quickly recovered. He watched her blush and throw her homework in the bin. Kenji hadn't guessed a girl so sweet and shy could be so saucy. "Fine, I'll leave you to be a good girl and do your own work," He whispered harshly in her direction, "I know plenty of other girls who are always willing to lend he a hand. Next time I'll know better not to count on you!" He huffed around, facing the front of the room. His bad mood was expanding, overwhelming him, and he was still very hungry and tired. The day was definitely not off to a good start.

Shino:

Shino vaguely tuned out on the conversation between Rina and Kyoya, and glanced up as Ishida walked in, happy as ever, on return from his vacation. "Ishida! How was your vacation in China?" Rina asked. Kyoya looked somewhat annoyed at Rina's friendliness to Ishida, but Shino thought nothing of it. Everybody loved Ishida. He was just a great guy, super nice and really smart. Not to mention, rank three in the SA class. Shino smiled as Ishida took a seat near the group, smiling and greeting his friends.

Ishida smiled as he turned in his seat to face his friends, smiling brightly, "China? Oh It was great! Plenty of pretty girls, and lots of fine attractions!" He looked to everyone in the room, seeing the other Kobayashi girls, he turned back to Rina, "Rina? I had no clue your sisters were in this class as well!" He smiled and shook Rina's hand, "Oh and, congratulations on your number 2 spot! Your parents must be so proud!" Ishida toned his smile down slightly as he looked to Kyoya, who looked back to him almost annoyed. He let go of Rina's hand, smiling wider, "Oh what a dedicated boyfriend you have Rina," Ishida smiled sincerly, "But it seems I still haven't said hello to your sisters."

He moved over a few desks sitting besides Makimi, Kenji on the other end, who seemed to be in a bad mood, Ishida touched Makimi's arm, smiling, "Maki! How are you! It seems I haven't seen you in a while." Maki turned to him, blushing, causing Ishida to laugh, "Aw, Is mean old Kenji bothering you? That's alright, It's not just you, he acts that horrid way with everyone." He grinned hoping for a reaction, he even went to the extent of wrapping an arm around her and patting her knee. He looked over to Kenji grinning, "Tsk Tsk, see this is how you should treat a lady. Your way is sure to repel them." He grinned before letting Makimi out of his grasp, "Well, Maki, I'll probaly stop by your house later just to, you know, hang out."

He turned, looking to other student he hadn't recognized, he walked up to Kohei smiling, he sat in the seat beside him smiling, "Hello, I'm Tsukimori Ishida, are you new to this school? I feel I've seen your face somewhere..."

Ishida smiled brightly, "Yes, of course! I remember watching you with my father! No need to be sorry, you were really very good, it was quite impressive!" Now he scratched the back of his head, "I've played a few sports, but I've never really been any good at them." He grinned, "My true assets are in the classroom, hence my being here." he finished by gesturing to the classroom.
He looked back to Kohei, "Well, since your new here, I could show you around, and tell you about a few of your classmates." He said looking around the classroom, pointing to and listing off the names of their classmates, as well as their ranking and small facts about them. "Ryota Kenji, Rank 1, really his father pays for his rank, not to mention he has bad temper. Then sitting next to him is Kobayashi Makimi, Rank 6, she's really nice, if you ever need anything you could always go to her, or me of course. She and her two sisters are in this class too, smart family... See that girl texting? She's Kobayashi Yuki, Rank 4, also nice, kinda distracted by her boyfriend, some college guy. Then over there is Kobayashi Rina, Rank 2, she is pretty... confident. She's dating Akami Kyoya, Rank 7, he's usually level headed and such. And sitting next to Kyoya is his best friend, Akihira Shino, Rank 5, nice enough guy." He smiled again to Kohei, pointing to Masato, "And finally, he is Shi Hoon Masato, Rank 8, nice and sunny personality. Though you might already know that, you two were talking earlier, right? Or was that my imagination?"

((hope you guys don't mind me 'introducing' everyone, if you don't like it i will edit it))

As Maki watched Ishida leave she turned back to her desk, mortified. Her blush had only gotten worse, it felt like her face was just radiating red, which it probably was. She gulped as she realized that Kenji was most likely even more annoyed. Maki turned slightly towards him, head still bowed, tooking to the floor. "I- um... I'm sorry if I insulted you earlier... it was probably wrong of me to assume that you were cheating, err you were trying to cheat but..." she shook her head trying to clear her thoughts, a mumbled curse slipping out. She finally looked up to him, locking her eyes on his, "Look, can we just kinda start over? Please?" It was a lame apology, followed by a lame plead but she hoped he would accept it either way. She copied his convincing smile from earlier, remembering something he had said earlier, ::: "Fine, I'll leave you to be a good girl and do your own work," He whispered harshly in her direction, "I know plenty of other girls who are always willing to lend he a hand. Next time I'll know better not to count on you!"::: Makimi grinned, giggling slightly, "And to be honest, you really shouldn't be so cocky, your not that much of a 'chick magnet'." She laughed slightly into her hand, when she looked back to him, her smile faded, "Err, sorry..." she grinned sheepishly upto him.