Last Time on West Eastwood High: "I... I was just wondering..." Aiko nervously spoke. "If you would not mind studying with me for tomorrow's tests?" Ichiiro scratched the back of his head. "Eheheheh... er, I..." "Please?" The three eyes looked up at him pleadingly. "...S-sure..." Ichiiro finally replied. "Great!" Aiko wrapped her arms around Ichiiro's shoulder. "Let's go, Ichiiro-kun." *** Unbeknownst to the two, they were being watched from the other side of the street. "How sweet..." Megumi giggled. Makoto-kun rolled up his eyes. "Yeah, yeah." "Makoto! Don't tell me you're jealous!" Megumi teased. Makoto-kun turned away, blushing. "No, I'm not jealous. Not really..." Megumi smiled. "I'm sure Aiko likes you too, you know." *** Elsewhere, Makoto's female body facefaulted. Indie Madnesse Presents... West Eastwood High Part 7 "It's Like Kodomo no Omocha, but With a Lower Blood Sugar Level" By: Ranma X. It was evening, Ichiiro had gone home already. After the usual preparatory hygiene-related routines before sleep, he lied down on his bed. (Obligatory Shoujo Flashback) Ichiiro sat in Aiko's room. Her mom was home and, as it turned out, she, unsurprisingly, was also a sanjiyan. "Hi mom. I'm gonna study Chemistry." "Is the the new student you've been talking about?" "Yes," Aiko said. Ichiiro slightly paled. Nervously, he bowed and introduced himself. "Pleased to meet you, My name is Hoshino Ichiiro." Aiko mother welcomed him to their home and soon he and Aiko began preparing for Friday's tests. In the room, Ichiiro noted some odd things about her room. It wasn't exactly obvious as to what the difference was. It, at first glance, seemed to be the typical pink teenage girl's room with posters of bishounen idol singers and the usual mountains of shoujo manga and romance novels. However, despite the room's innocent appearance, Ichiiro couldn't help but feel a deep sense of foreboding about the place. Maybe it was Ichiiro's imagination after all, but he was sure that the Pentacle and black candles which decorated the center of the room had something to do with his uneasiness. "Okay," Aiko said sitting at the center of the pentacle opening her book. "L,let's get studying," Ichiiro said,sweatdropping, sitting across from Aiko. The room was a quiet study area for at least half an hour. This was mostly because Aiko was reading and Ichiiro, while trying to concentrate, was becoming rather paranoid. "Molyb...Xeno..Ybbitri..timo...nium..." Aiko said softly. "Ahh!" Ichhiro said, and stood up, looking scared. "What?" Aiko asked, looking confused, "You'd better learn these elements for Kaji's sensei's test on quantum notaion and energy levels of elements." Aiko went back to the book. Ichiiro paled, laughed nervously and sat back down. " Aluminum, 1s2,2s2,2p6,3s2,3p1. Arsenic..." "Um...Aiko? What's with the- I mean, Why the..um?" "Oh the casting circle and the black candles?" "Um, uh...yeah." "My dad insisted on it. I think he protected it in case something happens like...well, you know..." she blushed slightly and nodded so that he would understand the gist of her sentence. "Ah..." Ichiiro nodded and was surprised at himself at how that made sense to him. *** Ichiiro thought for a second. "Why did I freak out like that? It's Aiko, right? I mean she-" He stopped. He thought about it for a second. He admitted that he really didn't know them that well. It wasn't to say he was becoming distrustful, but he was second guessing his notions about them. It would be inconcievable to any of his friends back in his old school what had been happening to him in just one week. He looked outside of his window at the stars. "Looking up at stars. Dots of fire mimicked by The fire of streets." Ichiiro laughed to himself as he remembered about the Literature test Yamano-sensei wanted him to do well in. He looked at the stars a bit more and then fell back to sleep. *** The morning made itself known to the world. The sun shone brightly, nature arose and the world's inhabitants began their day. Ichiiro, however, was sick. He tried getting up. He could, but found it rather diffcult. The fact that he was sneezing every ten seconds didn't help either. He got dressed as fast as he could and walked downstairs sniffling. "Ichiiro! You look awful!" his mother exclaimed upon seeing him. "I'm o,o-ACHOO!-kay," Ichiiro said, sniffling. "You really shouldn't be going to school today," "Have to go mom. I have tests today," Ichiiro protested, unenthusiatically, but resigned to his fate. "Oh...fine. I understand if you need to take tests, but I want you home as soon as school is done, okay?" "Yeah," he said, looking at the clock. He muttered to himself and started walking briskly toward the school. *** Saotome-sensei walked in the room. "As you know, today is your test for the week. You have until the end of the period," he said handing the tests out. Ichiiro looked at the sheet. The first problem read: '1: Find the gradient vector for the function 3xy^2 + 4yx^45z - 3z^3 in the direction of v=35i -521j +786k' He blinked,focused his eyes, tried to remember when the class covered vector calculus, and promptly passed out. Saotome-sensei looked at Ichiiro and frowned. He went to the teacher's desk and pressed a button revealing a monitor which was concealed in the desk itself. He looked at it for a few minutes and then shrugged. *** The rest seemed to do Ichiiro some good, even if it meant failing the math test. When Saotome-sensei left, Aiko and Makoto walked towards Ichiiro, who was still sleeping and shook him slightly. He sniffled a bit. "Hu-huh?" Ichiiro said, blinking and rubbing his eyes. "Ichiiro! You slept through the math test!" Aiko said in shock. "I-I did? Oh, shit..." Ichiiro sighed and sneezed again. "You okay, Ichiiro?" Makoto asked. "I'm not feeling so great," Ichiiro said. "Well, I hope you survive the other tests," Makoto said and walked away. Aiko looked at Ichiiro as he lay his head back down on his desk and sighed. "I hope you feel better Ichiiro," Aiko said. "Th-th-Achoo!- Thanks," Ichiiro said, reaching for another tissue. *** The rest of the morning proceeded somewhat smoothly. Ichiiro was conscious enough for Kaji-sensei's test which was, thankfully, not very difficult. Teashi-sensei saw Ichiiro as he entered the gym and let him go to the library to study for the next class. Ichiiro thankfully used the short repreive for a bit more sleep and even had a bit of time to study for the Literature test. When he returned, he found the class hanging around. A few moments later Yamano sensei-entered. The class sat down and waited for the test. This too Ichiiro was able to pull off with some effort. Kent-sensei said, " All right, y'all. I got your test right here-like." The students collectively groaned as yet another test was on its way. Near the end of the period, Kent-sensei collected the tests and said, "That's all the tests? Good, get on outta here ta lunch! And don't forget your feedbags y'all," he said smiling as everyone went outside to enjoy the sun. *** "Ah, Half of this day is done, and I only bombed one test. Not bad," Ichiiro said, lying on the grass and looking up at the sun. He wasn't too hungry so he walked outside and lied down on the lawn. Makoto walked up to Ichiiro. "Hey," she said to him. "Ah. Hey Makoto," he said, his hand covering his face as he coughed slightly. "You feeling better?" "Not really, but I got some sleep, so I'll live," Ichiiro said and closed his eyes. Makoto looked at him oddly and sat down next to him. She opened her lunch. "Um, Ichiiro?" Makoto asked. "Yeah?" he said opening his eyes. "Here," Makoto said as she gave him a can. "What is it?" "Juice. It should help a bit." "Th,thanks Makoto," he said before he sneezed again. On another part of the campus Aiko, Makoto, and Uta sat. "[I hope Ichiiro is okay.]" "Yeah, he'll be fine," Makoto said. "Think so?" Aiko asked. "Yeah. He's a tough guy." "Let's go see him. He was out near the other side of the school," Aiko suggested. "Nahh, He probably just wants some sleep." "[Yeah. And he probably isn't being taken care of by 'Nurse' Makoto herself, eh?]" Uta said, munching on a piece of shrimp. "What are you talking about Uta?" Makoto said weakly as Aiko fumed slightly. "Really?" she glared at Makoto and stood walking away. Makoto sat there next to Uta, shrugging. He finished eating and said: "Uta?" "[Yeah?]" "You're evil." "[I know.]" Uta laughed out loud as she said it with her mind. Makoto sat next to Ichiiro. She looked at him for a bit as she ate. Ichiiro drank a bit of the juice and had fallen asleep. She looked at him and sighed. "I hope he gets better," She thought. She hadn't really noticed Aiko's apporach and her rather annoyed face. *** Hisahi was walking by talking with some girls. He then stopped. "This should be fun. If I were you Ichiiro, I'd stay asleep. Lucky bastard." *** "So while you were distracting me, you were taking care of Ichiiro?" "Uh...Hi Aiko," Makoto said as she heard Aiko's voice. "Zzzz...," Ichiiro said as Aiko and Makoto looked down at Ichiiro. "Oh forget it," Aiko said as she sat down next to Ichiiro. Makoto blinked and shrugged. She sat down and looked at the crowd when the bell rang. *** After waking Ichiiro, they walked to class. The rest of the afternoon was rather laid back in comaprison to the morning. Takozushi-sensei was lecturing on the aftermath of the Trillika war and the emergence of the Quilnestur alliance, which elicited a smirk and Natsume's yelling. After the argument ended, Satou-sensei entered. She seemed normal, except for the nervous tick she happened to have, which distracted Ichiiro a bit, especially since her neck spun back 180 degrees every time it happened. Miyamoto-sensei had a very simple test which he administered clad in a outfit that made him look like an extra in 1001 Arabian Nights. In the last class, Ichiiro's energy left him and he was rather distracted. Tokugi-sensei looked at him and said, "Hosino-san? Are you allright?" "Um..yeah yeah...I'm fine Sensei." "Okay then. You'll play this piece for the song." Ichiiro looked at the music. He noted two things. First, he had never seen 64th notes and 7/4 time before in his life. Second, he was in for a lot of pain. *** When he finished classes, he was caressing his aching hands. Makoto walked up to him. "Hey, what's up? You okay?" "Yeah, my hands just hurt really bad from music. I'm going home to sleep." "Really? You seem better to me," Makoto noted. "Really?...hmm," he thought as he tried breathing through his nose. He actually did feel a lot better compared to when he did the moirning. "I guess you're right, but I'm still too tired to do kempo." Makoto shurggued and said goodbye as Ichiiro walked home. Ichiiro arrived at his house, walked up to his room, and passed out for a few hours before waking up, bathing, and going back to sleep. *** Saturday was a fairly easy day at school. With Ichiiro feeling a lot better, the day breezed by. He was able to retake the math test he missed since he passed out. Saotome-sensei, after some surveillance, observed him enough to know he actually was sick. He barely noticed Satou-sensei's tick. Takozushi-sensei led an argument-free lecture since since Natsume didn't attend school on Saturdays for religious reasons. Ichiiro found this is when they actually were able to accomplish most of the week's lesson. The half-day finished with Music and Ichiiro was able to comprehend the odd music and actually play well, though his hands still hurt from the day before. When school ended, Makoto walked up to Ichiiro. "Wanna come over to my house to play 'Power Stone'?" Ichiiro thought for a bit and shrugged. "Sure." They walked out of West Estwood high school laughing a bit and talking about video games, anime, and the other normal things teenage guys talk about. Notes: I was a little stuck on what to do. I gave the next author a chance to work with the rest of Saturday and Sunday. Have fun with it. Also, I don't remember any description of Satou-senei, so I just gave her Exorcist-esque qualities. Essentially she has the nervous tick and possibly other weird habits related with possesion or dementia. Sorry to the prereaders which I didn't use. I ran out of time becuase an unforseen incident killed my Saturday, which I was going to finish to send so I'm rushing to finish something. Thanks to Madsman and W4 for pre-reading. As usual,feel free to tell me C&C me at drstupid@geocities.com My next task is to figure out some resonable end to Lungfish Alpha. Girls with Guns is around the corner too. Up ahead, there's FAQing Hostile, H-Flash!, and villany and psychosis on ImproFicRoast. Eslington: forgive me. Aponar: Good luck and have fun with the next episode. Woofer: Ready to be roasted? I'm ready to Roast. Everyone else: YHL YHBT HAND -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ichiiro's Timetable Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Chemistry Mathematics Mathematics Chemistry P.E. P.E. English Ancient Jap. P.E Literature Literature Chemistry Chemistry P.E. P.E. English -LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH-LUNCH- Ancient Jap. English Chemistry English History Composition Literature Composition Literature Ancient Jap. Composition Composition Music History Music History Music Saturday -------------- Mathematics Ancient Jap. History Composition Music Notes: Bösekrieger-sensei Teaches PE on Thursdays. Teachers: Ancient Japanese: Satou-sensei Mathematics: Saotome-sensei PE: Teashi-sensei (Kempo club) Bösekrieger-sensei Chemistry: Kaji-sensei English: Kent-sensei Literature: Yamano-sensei History: Takozushi-sensei Composition: Miyamoto-sensei Music: Tokugi-sensei (band) Woodwork: Moku-sensei Librarian: Masecampo-sensei Ranma X. "Formating errors can be adressed by making your hand into a fist, then moving that hand as far away from you as possible, then, keeping that hand stiil, quickly and forcefully run towards your hand."