Rebel

I had never seen Hatori as mad as he was when I came home that morning. He knew where I was, Shigure had texted him. Damn mutt couldn't keep a secret to save his life.

"Hina, I know you think you can just run around your problems will solve themselves..." Hatori said, as I came in, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. "But if you fail this year it's really going to hurt your chances of getting into a university. I don't know why you insist on making things harder on yourself."

"Ha'ri, it's not like that. I went over there to talk to Shigure, and Kyo is going to help me with chemistry! Isn't that wonderful?" I said, really hoping to get myself off the hook with sneaking out. Hatori looked up at me in surprise.

"Really? I imagine you will be doing these study sessions at a normal time, right? And sober?" He had a bit of bite in his voice, but he might as well have slapped me in the face.

"I didn't do anything bad, Hatori, I am doing my best! Why can't you just... leave me alone?" I stormed upstairs. I was so angry, I couldn't even think. I came home with a plan to improve my grades, why couldn't he just trust me! I threw myself onto my bed with a heavy sign, closing my eyes. Oh well, at least I didn't have to see him at all tomorrow - I'd be gone for school before he woke up, and he'd be gone by the time I got home.

^

Monday morning, I woke up early to shower before school. I got dressed and walked downstairs, surprised to see Hatori waiting for me by the door. He looked like he wanted to talk, but instead I pushed past him and out the door to walk to school. When I got to school, there was a crowd around the stairs. It seemed everyone was muttering about the school being closed. I spotted Yuki's silver hair in the crowd and pushed up to him, not surprised to see Tohru and her friends with him. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Seems like the school is flooded, a pipe busted and they have to close it for today." Yuki said, and I looked up at the school.

"So, were just allowed to go home?" I asked.

"Yup!" Tohru said cheerfully. "Ou and Hana and I are going to go downtown to shop and enjoy our free day, would you like to join us?"

Honestly, Tohru was kind of annoying - she was always so happy. But I couldn't say I didn't like shopping. "Sure! Oh, but I have plans after school, I have to get my chemistry grade up. How long will we be out?"

Tohru seemed surprised I actually wanted to hang out with her. "Oh, well I have work after school so well probably be done around lunch time."

That worked out for me. As if on cue, Ou and Hana popped up behind her. "Tohru, are you ready to go?" Ou asked.

"Oh, yes, um, I invited Hina to go along with us. If that's okay," Tohru said. Ou nearly smiled.

"Of course. I could imagine that the two of us like some of the same stores." She said, and off we went, leaving Yuki to find his own plans for the day. We probably went into a hundred different stores, and I foudn that I had more in common with Hana than Ou, but we all three had sort of the same style. I spent way more money that I really had, but I got plenty of fun clothes - including a new black halter top that was just the right level of punk rock. I also got a new pair of boots, and I had found the cutest thing that I though Kyo would enjoy - as a thank you for not leaving me to embarrass myself in front of Yuki like the drunk mess that I was. It was back pack charm with little black and white cats that were looped around in a Yin-Yang symbol.

I ended up walking Tohru home, since Hana and Ou didn't want her walking alone but they were going to opposite direction. I could see why everyone in that house liked having Tohru around so much, she was so cheerful and made me feel better about my situation with Hatori. She said if I brought home results, he'd probably forgive me. We got back to Shigure's house, and I was surprised to see Kyo outside.

"Oh, Hina." He said as we walked up. "I thought we were studying at your house?"

"We were. I was just walking Tohru home - Ou and Hana didn't want her to get hurt." I said, "And since were here I guess we might as well study here."

We left Tohru to get ready for work as we went up to Kyo's room. "Ok, Chemistry first? Or English?" I asked. 

"English. I have a test tomorrow."