Hey all, I'm back! :) Momentarily… just letting this little shot of my next story out to see what you all think… I can't guarantee my writing will be nearly as fast as it was at the beginning of my other story…

Things to know: Take away all your preconceived notions of Allen, if you would. This is not Allen-bashing (in fact, he's out of character, so you probably might even like him better) and he's not a brainless airhead who only thinks about women. Let yourself at least be open to new opinions.
Would you all be completely offended if I decided to mix family lines around and change relationships and whatnot? ie: Having Folken not be Van's brother. I would like to know this just in case I'll alienate a bunch of people, I might change my mind because much of this is in the planning stage.
Van might be slightly out of character in this, as might Hitomi… I mean, they'll still be similar to their original characters, but older, and therefore there is a chance they might have changed more, right?
All high school fics, I think, are based on the high school the writer goes/went to. Therefore, this fic will be largely based on my high school experience, mainly because I don't know enough about any other high school to accurately write about them. Therefore, if I leave something unexplained in the fic, it's because in my world it's an 'assumed' thing, so be sure to let me know.
LASTLY: This first chapter is very subject to change. I just can't wait any longer to hear what anyone thinks about it.

Well, here is a sneak preview of my next fic… Review and tell me what you think

Disclaimer: don't own Escaflowne or any of its original characters

Counterpoint
The combination of two or more melodic lines played against one another.

Primo – the first part of a duet

            I wish I wasn't here.

            Hitomi stared blankly ahead, her mind still fuzzy from lack of sleep. Hair fell loosely in front of her eyes, but at the moment her vision was so unfocused it didn't make much of a difference.

            How horrible. Only the second week and I already want it to be over and done with.

            "Hitomi?"

            She blinked. "Hm?" Her mind quickly woke itself up. She dutifully raised her hand. "Here."

            The man up front checked something in his book, and continued listing more names. "Yukari?"

            "Here." The pretty auburn-haired girl smiled, somehow awake and cheerful. Hitomi mentally shook her head. How her best friend could be like that at this time in the morning was completely beyond her.

            "Hey, Hitomi," she whispered discreetly. "How long did it take you to do the definitions?"

            "The…" Hitomi's eyes widened. "Oh, shh-" Her hiss trailed off into nothingness as she raked through the book bag beside her. Pulling out the paper, she glanced down the list of words. There were a lot… but then, she knew most of them. She began to fill in the definitions, her writing sloppier than normal, but right now the greatest concern was to have something done. Finish, finish, finish…

            The teacher began the lesson, something about 'our cosmic address', whatever the heck he meant by that. She slouched farther in her chair, half-covering the homework list with her notebook. Her hand began to ache slightly, and she glanced up periodically so that she would at least appear to be paying attention. No need to inspire the teacher's animosity within the first few weeks of class. Hitomi's eyes scanned the definitions still blank, vaguely listening to the lecture. 'The Jovian planets:'… duh, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus… She glanced up at the clock and was shocked to see class was almost over. Shoot, I'm so close… Reaching the end, she scrawled in a rough definition for 'quasar' just as the teacher said, "Pass forward your homework, please."

            A few hissed exclamations in the room were proof that Hitomi hadn't been the only one to forget the homework. With a grin of satisfaction, she tapped the person in front of her with the paper, passing it forward. She leaned back against her chair and sighed. Thank God I finished it. Forgetting stupid homework like that is definitely not the way to start the year.

            "I don't know how you do it, Hitomi…" Yukari said, shaking her head.

            Hitomi grimaced in response. "You don't want to do it like me, trust me." Zipping her book bag up, she said, "So what class do you have next again?"

            "Statistics."

            "Oh. Thrilling." Her tone made sure it was obvious what she thought of it.

            The auburn-haired girl shrugged. "I guess."

            Hitomi frowned. "I have lunch this period. Lunch! Second period!" She grumbled to herself, "Idiots… it might as well be 'breakfast' as far as I'm concerned…"

            "It can't be that bad."

            She rolled her eyes. "I had this lunch for a semester sophomore year. It's at 9:30, Yukari. There is no way you can convince me that that is lunch."

            "Well, if you woke up at four…" she said with an impish smile.

            The bell rang, piercing Hitomi's ears like a piccolo squeal. "See you, Yukari," she said, slugging her bag onto her shoulder.

            "Are you going to the cafeteria again?"

            Hitomi shook her head. "Nah. I'll just go to the band room. There's no band during second period."

*          *          *

            Hitomi tapped her fingertips idly on the desk. Pre-Calculus. What joy. And with the same math teacher she had last year. The eccentric man stood up front rambling about logs… a topic she had had trouble with last year in trigonometry. With a frown, she supposed she should be paying attention. But something about math had this ability to bore her to pieces.

            Not that she was bad at the subject. She just didn't like it. She understood everything fine… Plus, she thought to herself with a smile, he thinks I'm a friggin' genius. I'll get away with murder in this class.

            It was horrible for her to think of it, but she knew it was true. And she knew she'd eventually start taking advantage of her teacher's like for her, once she got the guts.

            I'm such an awful person. She grinned, tracing doodles of characters on the page that was supposed to be reserved for her math notes. Oh well.

            Later tonight she was going to see a movie with Allen. Chewing on her bottom lip, she tried her hardest to shade the nose of the girl on the page. Wrinkling her nose in unhappiness, she attacked the page with her eraser. Shading had never been her strong suit.

            I wonder what we'll see… She couldn't remember any of the movies that were out, but she knew they'd have fun no matter what. Allen was ridiculous like that.

            He had been one of her best friends for… she didn't really know how long. She didn't really care. Just as long as he was always there for her (which he was), she would be fine. She chuckled to herself as she thought of him two years ago. He'd had long blonde hair, and she was never quite sure why he had done that. But now it was cropped short in one of those fashionable styles, and if he weren't like a brother to her, she would have said he was pretty darn cute. But they could never go out – it would be way too weird, they'd both agreed – and so that was that.

            I really need to practice… She hadn't picked up her trombone in ages. Or what felt like ages. Well, maybe it'd been a week, but still, for a brass player that was too long of a break. She grimaced again. Gaddes had said it best… 'Majoring in music is hell… but fun hell.' She sorely wished she played a smaller instrument for one brief moment. It was such a hassle to try to walk through the crowded halls with an instrument at least 2/3 her height in length parallel to the ground. Definitely not an incentive to bring the darn thing home and practice every night. But then, if she played a smaller instrument, it wouldn't be half as fun. In the back row, you could goof off all the time.

            Not that I would ever goof off…

            Throwing curious eyes to the clock above the door, she sighed. Twenty more minutes. As she began to copy down whatever was written on the board around her doodles, she consoled herself with the knowledge that there was only one more class to go…

*          *          *

Secondo – the second part of a duet

            Fifteen minutes left.

            Van drummed carelessly on the desk, leaning back in his chair with a bored look etched into his face. What crap. He really didn't feel like being in this class.

            Rolling his eyes, he looked around the room in a vain effort to entertain himself. The same boring people. He turned his head to watch the doorway, uncaring how obvious it was that he wasn't paying attention. A girl passed by, but so quickly that he couldn't see exactly who it was. She looked familiar, though. Shoulder-length, light brown hair… athletic build…

            That could be any number of girls in the school. He shrugged, dismissing the girl, and tiredly turned his head back to the teacher up front who had drawn a triangle on the board and was talking about… something. Van didn't really care enough to try to figure out what she had been trying to explain. He was pretty certain he would eventually understand… he'd failed the class once already, but some of that information had to have gotten into his head, right?

            Rhythms marched through his head, and he obligingly beat them out on his desk, staring off into space until the mention of his name brought him back to reality. "What?"

            "Van, could you please stop all that noise and pay attention for the last few minutes?" The teacher's voice sounded strained, as if she had been trying to ignore him for a while. She probably had, he reflected. He always lost track of time when he became immersed in the music within his mind.

            "Yes, ma'am," he said easily, leaning back with a mischievous smirk. No problem. He'd just have to drum quieter that's all. You couldn't make Van Fanel stop drumming for anything.

*          *          *

            He swung his book bag over his shoulder, walking out the door with great ceremony. Thank God this infernal class is finally done with. His mind lazily went over his schedule again. Weightlifting next. Joy. He saw a girl with light brown hair exit the classroom next to his, her dark blue shirt and jeans making her easily melt into the blur of the crowd. Was she the one who walked past earlier?

            With a mental shrug, he continued on to his destination. He'd forgotten his gym clothes again… but whatever. It was stupid to have to wear uniforms anyway. He pushed his way through the crowd of people yelling at each other with piercing voices from clear across the hall – The idiots, do they intend to deafen everyone within earshot?! – and dropped his stuff off in the locker he'd been assigned to in the boys' locker room.

            Waiting outside in the small foyer-like space in front of the weight room, he looked at the people around him. There were about 3 or 4 girls in this class, the rest being big beefy guys who would probably intimidate the hell out of them. Van himself wasn't all that massive, he knew, but he was plenty strong and could beat the crap out of anyone who offended him. And had. Maybe his hot temper came from being on the hockey team…

            His grin was cocky this time. Nah. Being hot-tempered only made him more competitive on the ice.

            One of the girls sat cross-legged against the lockers that lined the wall, leaning her head against it with her eyes closed as if she were tired. Ah. Hitomi. I forgot she was in this class, too. Isn't she in my astronomy class? Van shrugged to himself idly. He'd never really known her all that well, just that she played trombone and was pretty damn good at it. He'd like to see her try and play percussion, though. I bet I could totally kick her a-

            "Okay, line up!" The gym teacher's booming voice interrupted his thoughts. Finding his place, he knelt to do the obligatory push-ups and sit-ups they were required to do before going in to lift weights.

            Hitomi was beside him alphabetically, and he couldn't help but watch her go through the motions. She was strong, he'd give her that much.

            "What are you looking at?" she grunted, flicking a dark look at him.

            "You need to put your arms farther apart."

            "Shove it," she grumbled.

            He merely chuckled and finished his push-ups. "Why'd you pick weightlifting for your phys ed credit?"

            "I wanted to be surrounded by a bunch of guys." She threw an impish smile to him as she seated herself on the floor in that complicated cross-legged manner she was in before. "Isn't it obvious?"

            "I'm sure the guys just throw themselves at you."

            She rolled her eyes. "Of course. They all want the chance to be with a girl who plays the trombone like me."

            "Do I hear sarcasm in your voice?"

            "Oh, not at all." She sent him an easy smile with her eyes, just as the teacher began to herd them into the weight room. Van let out a small groan as he followed the crowd, clinging unfailingly to the knowledge that in 40 minutes he would finally be free from this hellhole called 'school.'

*-wink*