Edit:March 17, 2007 (ah, I'm not wearing green! O-O): Please excuse any typing errors that occur in the story. I wrote this almost two years ago and my writing has improved since. I'm afraid I don't have much time to correct all of them so I have to leave them as they are.

Chapter 1: A New School

Riing! goes the alarm clock. "Aaahh! I'm going to be late!" yelled Mai Suzuki.

She jumps out of her bed and rushes to the the restroom. A few minutes late, she's dressed and walks out the front door. Mai checks her watch and groans. 'Great, I'm going to be really late' as she sets her watch to the current time.

Mai had long, wavy, raven colored hair, and sharp, emerald colored eyes. She wore a turquoise, long sleeved blouse, and flared blue jeans. Her sneakers were sky blue with sparkly streaks. she arrives at the Takahashi Intermediate School. Mai runs throught the hallways, searching for the main office. Then, smack! She crashes into someone, causing her books to fall out of her arms and spill all over the floor.

"Sorry," she says.

She looks up and stares into the bluest eyes she's ever seen. Her face automatically turns blank, revealing no emotion, stopping her from blushing. Mai took a good look at the person she ran into. He had raven colored hair tied into a ponytail, with a navy blue bandana on it. He was wearing a yellow shirt covered by a navy jacket, and had dark jeans. On his feet were blue socks, and white sneakers with blue marks on them.

"No problem," answered the guy. He picks up her books and hands them to her.

"Thanks," says Mai.

The guy shrugs and walks away. 'Who was that guy?' she thinks. ''Well whoever he was he sure looked cute. No I can't be falling for another guy. He may be cute, but I have to get over it.'

She keeps walking until some posters catch her eye. The first one is says: Join the kendo club! Practice is every day from 3:45-4:30 A second poster says to join a soccer team. The third poster, and most eyecatching says: Become a member of the Kouji Minamoto Fan Club! Contact Arianna Loreen to join.

When Mai finished reading it, she chuckles and thought, 'Who is this Kouji Minamoto?' She shrugs and rushes to the main office, when she hears the bell ring.

"Class, I would like to introduce a new student," announces the teacher,"this is Mai Suzuki."

"Hello," says Mai.

"Miss Suzuki, please sit next to Miss Orimoto." says the teacher.

Mai sat next to a blonde haired girl with light green eyes. "Hi, I'm Zoe." says the girl.

"Hi Zoe."

They kept talking, until the teacher began with her lesson. Kouji, Minamoto, the same guy who ran into Mai, watched them from his seat. The person sitting on his right gave him a nudge.

"Hey, Kouji, are you getting any of this?" asked Takuya Kanbara.

Takuya wore squarish goggles on his brown hat, and brown gloves on his hands. His red jacket covered a dandelion colored shirt which had some symbol on it. On his feet he wore yellow socks and reddish, orange sneakers.

"Hardly," answers Kouji, not paying any attention whatsoever to their teacher, who blabbled on about the history of some place.

"You should," answered another boy on Kouji's left. He looked exactly like Kouji, except his hair was shorter, and he had different clothes on. The boy wore a long sleeved maroon shirt, with a green jacket over it. He had white pants, green socks, and green sneakers with red laces.

"So what is he saying Kouichi?" asked Takuya. While Kouichi explained to Takuya, Kouji turned his head back to where Mai and Zoe where sitting.

Kouji's POV

'I looked over to where Mai and Zoe were sitting when it happened again.

Later that afternoon...

Mai sighed as she put up her stuff in her locker. It had been a tiring morning looking for her classes, but luckily, her new friend, Zoe helped her. Then, she remembered what had happened earlier in her history class.

They had divided into groups of three. Mai was put with Zoe, and another girl. Mai noticed a girl with honey colored hair and hazel eyes, walk towards the table where Takuya, Kouji, and Kouichi were.

"What's that girl doing?" Mai asked Zoe.

"Probably trying to ask Kouji out. She's only the 35th girl this month." replied Zoe.

Mai then hears Takuya say," Sorry, but Kouji does not date."

"But," the girl stutters.

"He -does -not- date." Kouichi repeated slowly. "Do you understand?"

The girl turns around, upset, and walks back to her table.

"That was a little harsh." Mai remarks.

"Maybe, but when you have every girl in the school trying to ask you out, you have to be." replies Zoe.

Mai closed her locker door. She almost jumped when she noticed the person whose locker was next to hers. The guy saw her staring at him and said cheerfully," Hi, I'm Kouichi Kimura. You're the new student from my history class."

"I am." she answered. Then she asked, " That boy who sits next to you, is he your brother?"

"Yes, his name is Kouji Minamoto." replied Kouichi.

"Oh." Mai was about to ask something else, when she stopped herself. 'I can't ask him about his and his brother's last names. That would sound rude.'

Kouich saw her face and asked,"Are you o.k.?"

Mai looked up and said,"Yeah."

"Well, it was nice meeting you Mai." said Kouichi.

Mai replied, "It was nice meeting you too, Kouichi."

They, both walk opposite ways, until they realize they're going in the wrong direction. Smiling innocently, they walk towards the cafeteria together.

Mai's POV

I picked up a lunch tray, and moved along the line, getting my lunch. Then, I saw Zoe wave at me to come sit at her table. I sat next to her and noticed who else was sitting there. It was Kouichi, Kouji, and some guy wearing goggles, who I thought looked like someone I knew before. Zoe introduced me to Kouji, Kouichi, and Takuya;that was his name. Takuya, the gogglehead, and Kouichi said hi, while Kouji just nodded his head.

Zoe and Takuya started talking about something (I forget what) and Kouichi listened, while I ate my lunch. Then, I get this strange feeling of being watched. I pretend to listen to what Zoe's saying, and then see him. Kouji. I don't know why, but for some reason, he kept staring me as if trying to find something. I put up my most unreadable face, and continue eating.

'Why is he staring at me?' I wondered, and kept eating until the bell rang.

Kouichi's POV

At lunch, Zoe introduced us to Mai. I listened to Zoe and Takuya's conversation and then saw Kouji staring at Mai. Mai must have noticed too, because her face turned blank. I thought only Kouji could do that well, but Mai, I couldn't read her face at all! It was as if she was wearing a mask that hid her emotions. Kouji was suprised too, because I read it in his eyes.

Later, at P.E. while running laps, I asked Kouji in a curious way,"So what do you think of Zoe's new friend?'

He shrugged and kept running. Hmm... nothing. Then, I had an idea. I started talking about other things when I suddenly said,"Mai looks very pretty, don't you think?"

As I guessed, Kouji was still thinking about other things and replied,"Yeah." Noticing his mistake, he quickly said," I mean..."

I laughed after seeing his face blush. He never blushes, so I was suprised when I saw him do that.

"You tricked me." he growled at me. I kept laughing and ran on ahead.

Kouji's POV

Stupid Kouichi. I don't know how he did it, but he made me say that Mai was pretty. Then, he laughed when I blushed. Wait, I blushed? That''s not possible. I never blush. Ask Kouichi, my parents, and they'll tell you that I don' t blush. Something else that suprised me, was today at lunch. I was staring at Mai, when she saw me staring at her. Then, she did something I thought impossible. Her face turned so blank, that even I couldn't read it. Kouichi always said that I was the master of hiding my emotions, but this girl, seemed even better than me. However, there was something I noticed before her face changed, she was hiding something. Deep down, inside of her mind, she kept something hidden. Something important.