A/N: Itazura na Kiss is the creation of the marvelously imaginative late Tada Kaoru.

Present time:

"And this is our son Naoki, who, I believe, goes to the same school as you."

Kotoko ducked behind her father, wishing that he had half the girth of Mr. Irie, to whom she had just been introduced. Not him!

Unfortunately, the lady of the house swooped out crying, "Where is she? Where is Kotoko-chan?" and pulled her into view of her bête noire.

A little over two years earlier:

I have the worst luck, Kotoko thought to herself as she ran through the gates of Tonan High School. The courtyard was empty, as the opening ceremony had begun several minutes earlier. "Stupid alarm clock," she muttered.

Peeking through the double doors of the gymnasium, she caught the end of the introduction for the top student of the incoming first years. Great! she thought. I can sneak in while everyone is switching places on stage.

Irie Naoki brought his attention back to the proceedings when the assistant principal's droning voice finally ceased. He stood and straightened his new uniform jacket before stepping to the podium.

The first thing that his eyes encountered was a girl walking in a squat down the aisle. Does she actually believe no one can see her? He began his speech without hesitation, voice true and strong as he recited the platitudes from memory. When a grim-faced teacher marched the pigtailed student away, stereotypically by the ear, he managed to disguise a bark of laughter as a cough. "Excuse me," he apologized to the audience and, after taking a sip of water, continued on for another two and a half minutes as if no interruption had occurred.

"How dare you disrupt the opening ceremony?"

"But Sensei, my alarm clock—"

"And that was the speech of our star student, Irie Naoki."

"Yeah, I heard he was the tops."

"The 'tops'! He has a reputed IQ of 200. The dishonor of your actions..."

"I missed my train," Kotoko argued. "I don't think honor has anything to do with it."

"I hope he doesn't decide to withdraw after this insult!"

"Aren't you going a little overboat?"

"'Overboat'...? Do you mean 'overboard'? Okay, that does it! You're getting detention!"

"The first day?!" she wailed in protest. "And just for mispronouncing a word?"

"Name and class," the teacher continued unsympathetically.

"Aihara Kotoko," she answered grumpily. "I'm first year and I don't know my class yet."

"Tsk!" The teacher shook her head. "Everyone else came early and checked the rosters. I don't know what some young people think about these days…"

"I told you—" She broke off. If the teacher hadn't listened to her earlier, she wasn't going to now.

"...if they think at all! Let me see." She pulled out a tablet and consulted a list, scrolling down the classes. Scrolling… Scrolling… "Of course," she sniffed. "I might have known. Class F."

"Class F?" Kotoko did not see the connection.

"The bottom of the barrel," the teacher sneered. "Thank goodness I teach classes A through C. I'd never be able to handle those rambunctious losers. You'll fit in quite well, with your poor vocabulary, plus all the commotion you've caused on your first day here."

"Now, I was just trying to get in. You're the one who made such a big deal of it by hauling me out in front of everyone. And are you sure you should be talking about the students like that?"

"Just stating the truth. Even though they passed Tonan's rigorous entry test," Kotoko nodded; it had been difficult, "few of them have ever managed to make it to college."

"Well, I will!" Kotoko had grown tired of being insulted, both individually and as a member of a group. "Just you wait and see!"

"I'm not holding my breath. Now, don't forget to report to detention," she reminded her as she walked back into the gymnasium.

"So she can go in late and I can't?" Kotoko grumbled. "Well, I might as well wait in the classroom."

The detention notice was only the tip of the iceberg for Kotoko's first day of high school. Her entire class was amazed when an eyewitness pointed her out as the one who had interrupted the Class A genius's speech.

"I don't know whether to congratulate you for bravery or condemn you for your gall," said a fashionable young lady who identified herself as Satomi.

"It was a mistake," Kotoko muttered, for neither the first nor last time.

"And what a whopper it was," added Jinko, the girl sitting behind her.

"Mistake or not," Satomi sat down daintily in the desk next to hers, "you just committed social suicide."

"Say what?"

She leaned across the aisle. "Not only are the teachers fawning all over him but so are the students. Especially the female ones." She batted her eyelashes and fanned herself, pantomiming heated emotion.

"But what does that have to do with me?" Kotoko whispered, looking carefully around the classroom. Yep, most people were focused on her.

"They're taking bets on what's gonna happen when you two meet face-to-face," Jinko put in helpfully.

"Not that it's that likely since his classroom is at the opposite end of the building, but what do they expect?" Kotoko had made a few wrong turns trying to find Class F and had learned the floor plan the hard way.

Satomi laid a hand on Kotoko's. "I've been reading translations of some foreign novels. It's called being given the 'cut direct': he looks at you then looks away as if you aren't even there."

"Why are you talking about other languages?" Jinko complained. "We call it treating you as if you were 'air' here."

"What it's called doesn't matter," Satomi shot back with a frown. "The result is that being shunned by someone such as Irie-san means that everyone else will follow suit."

After a moment of deep thought Kotoko proclaimed, "Then I'll just make sure never to be seen by him."

The two girls stared at her. Jinko was the first to find her voice. "How do you propose to do that? Tonan isn't that large of a school. You'll eventually run into him, like it or not."

"Well, I don't like," Kotoko averred stubbornly. "I'll just duck around a corner...or run and hide!"

"Run and hide?" A loud male voice interrupted the conversation. The girls looked up at a boy with rolled-up sleeves and loosened tie. "We'd never do that where I come from." He stabbed his chest with a not-so-clean thumb.

"Yeah, yeah, Ikky," Satomi waved him away, "we heard all about the wonders of Kansai earlier." She rolled her eyes.

"Don't call me Ikky! Call me Kinnosuke, and you, Sweetheart," he bent double to rest an elbow on Kotoko's desk, "can call me 'Lover-boy'!"

She leaned backwards. "Uh, no thanks?"

"Ah!" He recoiled as if wounded. "Shot down with no hesitation!" He quickly recovered and gave her what he thought was a seductive grin. "Don't worry. I'll work my charms on you and you can forget all about that Class A snob. No one will look down on you if you are Kin-chan's lady!"

"Go away!" Jinko gave him a shove.

"And clean up the trail of slime behind you," Satomi added, holding her nose.

Kinnosuke shot her a universal hand sign but finally departed.

"You guys know him?" Kotoko asked.

"I think the whole school knows him," snorted Satomi. "He introduced himself to everyone in our class but so loudly that all could hear."

"He said he was coming to Tokyo to make his fortune," mentioned Jinko. "My best guess is that he got kicked out of Osaka. But never mind him!"

"Right!" Satomi said briskly. "Back to Irie-san!" She exchanged a look with Jinko then told Kotoko, "We'll help you!"