Disclaimer and Author's Note: Well, I'll be damned. This little story got recommended for a C2 community. I'm both surprised and flattered that a story of mine has gotten this attention. Many thanks go out to whoever recommended it.

As for this chapter, I couldn't think of something compelling enough to fit both Mai and Natsuki in as a follow-up to #21, so I went ahead and added this chapter with just Mai and her friends (romance doesn't exist in a vacuum, you know). #23 will probably be a Natsuki-centric chapter, and the rest will feature the two of them together, for sure.

(Insert standard disclaimer about Mai-HiME not belonging to me and stuff here.)

Day 22 - It's All Junk
Theme #27 - Overflow

After a hard day's work at the cafe, Mai went to the school's computer lab to check her e-mail, expecting a response from her English teacher on a homework assignment she was given earlier in the day. When she went to log in, she noticed that her inbox had reached its capacity.

"That's odd," she said. "I don't remember sending out that many e-mails. Who in the world would want to send all of these messages to me?"

To her disappointment, Mai's inbox was filled with messages. Only a few of them were from people she knew, while the rest were from unknown senders with equally varied and confusing subject headers. She had extreme difficulty wading through the morass to find the response she wanted.

"Ugh...why can't I find the message I need?" she cried. She turned to Yukino, who was sitting in a chair to her right. Yukino was fiddling with her own e-mail account, and at the same time carrying on a chat-room conversation with Shizuru, Haruka, and other members of the executive committee. "Yukino!"

"What is it, Mai-san?" asked Yukino.

"I can't find a message from my teacher," said Mai. "What's going on here?"

Yukino peeked over at Mai's computer screen, seeing for herself the myriad messages advertising get-rich-quick schemes, chain letters, and "guaranteed" one night stands with "hot guys".

"Oh, my!" she said. "Looks like you've become the victim of a spam dump. How often do you clean out your mailbox?"

"I like to hold on to my old messages, in case I need them for something," said Mai. "I clean it out once a week. I always figured that the spam filters would take care of the rest."

"That doesn't always work. I mean, the spam filters are usually reliable, but they don't catch everything."

"But there's so much clicking that I have to do to get rid of all this crap...and my fingers can't move that fast."

"Maybe I can help."

Yukino moved over to Mai's screen again, this time sorting through the majority of useless messages that had infiltrated her inbox. Yukino's hands moved swiftly across the keyboard as she scanned for the most obvious of bad messages, clicking the checkboxes next to them faster than Mai's eyes could follow. Her concentration was unbroken as she moved deeper into the inbox, zapping old junk messages she may have missed on the first go-round. By the time Yukino had finished her job, Mai's mailbox was cleaned to a more manageable 60 capacity.

"Thanks, Yukino," said Mai.

"No problem," said Yukino as she returned to her online conversation.

Mai sat back in her chair and looked through her messages again, but only managed to find old chat logs between her, Chie and Aoi, and still no sign of the message she was looking for.

"Hey, Aoi-chan," she said to the girl sitting on her left side.

Aoi Senou turned to Mai, giggling at a piece of gossip Chie had shown her from a celebrity news website. "Something wrong, Mai?" she asked.

"Did you hear anything from Izumi-sensei about today's English assignment?"

"No, actually," she said. "I didn't get anything from him. What about you, Chie-chan?"

"Hmm...I think I might have something here," said Chie. "He said we had to hand-write a five-hundred-word essay about our personal experience at Fuuka Academy by Thursday."

"Five hundred?" said Mai. "That's a lot of writing."

"It's to be expected for a class like this. Izumi's no different than the rest of the teachers. He just wants us all to work hard. As soon as I finish up here, I'm going back to my room to get started on mine."

"You should let me help," said Aoi. "I'm starting to get pretty good at proofreading."

"Thanks, Aoi," said Chie, "but I don't think Izumi-sensei would let you do that. He wants us to resist the temptation to add our own memories to those of other people."

"Oh...I see."

A small text bubble popped up in the lower-right corner of Mai's monitor. It was a message from Natsuki: "Why, hello there."

Mai typed a response: "Hi, Natsuki. How'd you get to a computer so fast? Weren't you, um...taking a stroll just a few minutes ago?"

Yukino and Aoi peeked over Mai's shoulder to see what she was writing about. Mai covered up the monitor and looked around frantically, attempting to protect herself from prying eyes, even though she hadn't started typing anything juicy yet.

"You guys!" she said. "This is a private conversation!"

"Oh...we're sorry." Aoi and Yukino giggled, and then went back to focus on their own work.

"I was," Natsuki responded, "but I had to return to my room to pick up something."

"What was it?"

"A camera."

"A camera?"

"Yes. I was going to take some pictures while I was out on my walk."

"And what are these pictures going to be used for, Natsuki?"

"Can't tell you now, Mai. That's a surprise."

"Okay, but it had better be a good one."

"Trust me...you'll like it. Anyway, I need to go. I'll see you at dinner time, okay?"

"All right. Be careful out there."

Though she wasn't physically close enough to Natsuki to give her an actual kiss, Mai punctuated her last message with the letters "XO" to let Natsuki know that she was still loved. She logged out of all of the programs she was using and took her book bag with her, preparing to leave.

"Where are you going, Mai-san?" asked Yukino.

"Probably out to the garden to relax," said Mai. "I need a good quiet spot to concentrate if I'll ever get this essay done."

"Can I come with you? I have to meet with Haruka and the others after this anyway."

"Sure."

Yukino shut down her laptop and took it with her as she left the computer lab with Mai, saying goodbye to Chie and Aoi on her way out. They walked toward the student council room side-by side, stopping occasionally to look around as the other students walked toward their dorm rooms.

"This essay you were talking about earlier...what do you plan to write about?"

"I don't know," said Mai. "I guess I could put in something about how Takumi and I got here...but that wouldn't really be enough to fill the page, though."

"You could always write something about Natsuki-san."

"Huh?"

"I mean, the two of you did become close friends pretty quickly, right? I think if I had your assignment, I'd probably write a few lines about myself and Haruka."

At that moment, Mai wondered whether or not Yukino's relationship with Haruka paralleled the one she found herself in with Natsuki. Yukino wasn't fond of talking about personal matters, and Mai didn't want to pry, for fear she'd find herself on the receiving end of another "stealth announcement" campaign.

"Do you think he'd really go for it?" she asked.

"I don't see why not. It was a 'turning point' of sorts for you."

They entered the building and walked past the infirmary and toward the student council room, where Shizuru and the others were waiting for Yukino. Yukino waved to Mai and then sat down next to Haruka.

"Thanks for your help today, Yukino," said Mai.

"You're welcome, Mai-san," said Yukino. "Are you sure you don't want to stay here for a while?"

"No, thanks. I really need to get this essay started."

Mai left the building and walked toward the flower garden by herself. A group of students had already filled up the gazebo for a private club meeting, so she had to take a spot somewhere on the grass where she could begin her writing. Without Natsuki next to her to help channel ideas, Mai had to draw upon her earlier memories, which she admitted to be a bit fuzzy. The initial, abrupt kiss had changed a lot between them. She didn't remember any of the fighting before that, but kept memories of the friendliness and warmth that followed. It wasn't a complete picture, but at least it gave Mai something to work with for her story, and something to write down until Natsuki returned from her trip.