Edited – 2009October

Disclaimer: If I say Gakuen Alice is mine, would you believe? :)

Operation: Make Polka-Dot Panties Fall

Time did pass by and you now found yourself as a big cheery girl, beautiful, and thirteen years old. Your bond with your friends was tighter after all the struggles you had had in the academy. But everything was fine now. Everyone was free; you could now relax — relax from stress of being restricted from freedom but not relax from the unappetizing schoolwork.

It was your lunchtime and so you ran along the hallways of the school then downstairs until outside. You were panting really hard, as though all oxygen from your lungs was drained. He had got to be somewhere, you knew that.

"That guy, just when I need him the most!"

The grounds were swarming with many students and you knew Natsume wasn't just the guy to go publicly walking whilst having such intimidating features. He was a renowned guy in Gakuen Alice, after all.

Amidst the many students passing by you, you halted while your chin was held by your hand, and your eyes fastened by concentration.

That's right!, you thought as you spun around and jogged to the opposite direction. He's got to be there.

A smile spread across your lips as the warm summer air hit your skin. You were excited.

"Natsume should be there!"

The tree, yes, he was definitely there. You knew it was his solitary place, the only place he deemed to be best for sleeping and enjoying reading his manga.

Your pace turned faster as eagerness started pinning you to your limit, excited to see him, in a bad way, though. You wanted to reprimand him for being such a bad, bad, friend here in school, leaving you just like that amid the nerve-racking math classes, knowing you are no good in the subject.

"Argh," you moaned as the memory flashed through you.

Even if you were thinking that way, you also knew you could not blame him. Natsume Hyuuga is different anyway. He is not like any other people. More importantly, he is not you.

Alas, you found him, deep in slumber as suggested by his slow and rhythmic breathing. At the sight of him, you knew you could start pestering him about him not going to class.

"Oi, Natsume!" you called, feigning a pout and a frown crumpling your eyebrows. You just wanted to nag him, but you never really knew the reason why.

His body twitched and you realized he was awake yet you could look through his pretense. He was ignoring you.

"Natsume!" you called again, raising your voice by an octave. You wanted to be stubborn not to leave unless he broke through his sham and stare at you with his perilous claret-colored eyes.

You tried to approach him nearer but as you neared, both of you could hear some rasping from above the tree. In an instant, you knew someone was there and your suspicion was affirmed as a girlish yell broke the silence of the isolated place.

"Aah!"

You halted from jogging as you watched in amusement as Natsume jolted upwards with alertness, his whole wrapped with vigor. You simply watched still as he looked up with his menacing eyes to the petite silhouette falling from above the tree.

Your eyes widened. It was a girl — your kohai in Gakuen Alice perhaps. Natsume on the other hand, with less effort yet alertness, caught the falling girl on time. Great, the girl was just gazing at him with fearful eyes that gradually morphed to joviality.

"Kyaah! Natsume-senpai saved me from falling!" the girl squealed and you gave a wince in an immediate action.

You basically watched as Natsume shot the girl a tomblike glare and biting your lower lip, you watched the rest happen no more and left. You now believe that you're a factual idiot for backing away like that. You did not even witness how Natsume snarled angrily at the girl and carelessly let go of her, hurting her in doing so, even frightening her into burning her into ashes if she did not leave immediately.

You were stupid in leaving, really. But, who could blame you anyway? You are a girl and Natsume is your seatmate and he is a boy. You somehow became attached to him then you would simply watch as he went save a random girl from falling off a tree whilst he never did that to you. He would actually just leave you alone entertaining himself as he teases you about how a polka-dot pantie like you became an idiot at the same time.

You did not give him another look the next class when he was sitting beside you behind your assigned desk. Somehow you realized that even if you are his partner in class, he never gave the matter more than a passing thought.

You just stayed still, your head on your hand as you frowned at the teacher who was busy drawling in front of class. You are never really any intelligent student as your best friend yet you never gave your lessons a heed as you felt the menacing sharp eyes of your 'enmity' piercing through you.

Why were you mad anyway? It was not like you were jealous or something.

When the classes ended, you, without more ado, made your way out, excited, that was. You were too keyed up to finally exit the room and break free from the intimidating feeling the looks Natsume grasped you with.

You kept on murmuring to your self, questioning yourself on why you were acting strange.

"Polka-dot panties," a cold voice called from behind you.

"Blabla," you mumbled to yourself as you made your pace swift as possible. You would never want to give his voice a chance in your ears unless you were done investigating with yourself.

"Why are you running?" he asked, irritation clearly framing his cold voice. When he received no reply, he tried to terrorize, "I'll burn those ugly pigtails of yours if you don't halt."

"I know you know it won't work on me," you said, knowing that you could merely nullify his attacks. "I need time alo —" And while you said those, you spun around to speak more to find no one. He probably knew it is not him if he would keep following you.

You felt relieved yet guilty. Relieved because he did not follow you any longer and guilty for not answering his irritated questions. You could be stupid at times, Mikan.

You walked out of the building and out to the grounds to find Tsubasa-senpai by a tree, laughing with his friends. When he noticed you, he gave you a wink that you returned with a smile. Later on you ran into Misaki-senpai who was clearly enraged by the sudden disappearance of Tsubasa-senpai so you gave her no more than an apologetic smile.

As you were striding swifter, you passed by the girl, the one caught by your 'enmity,' who was currently chatting with her friends.

"I thought you do not like Natsume-senpai?" one of the girls asked. You halted and inclined your head to their direction to hear more of their chitchat.

She heard the familiar giggle and a girly sigh. "Yeah, I thought he was such a cold guy but after catching me from falling off the tree, which was, unknown to me, his secret place …," the girl said before pausing, "…I think instead of falling off the tree, I felt like I fell for him!"

You huffed as a grim smile spread across your lips. How clichéd-thinker, that girl. Falling off the tree but then falling for your enmity? That was crazy.

You found Hotaru later on who was busy blackmailing Ruka-pyon into doing something that would mar his image, so you did not dare approach her, afraid she would turn on you. Why were you seeking for people you could rely on anyway? They all seemed busy, including all your other friends. But again, why? It was not like you were drowning in a problem anyway …

Aimlessly you walked until you reached his sakura tree. Great, your greatest animosity as of now — his tree. You glared at it, as fearsome as you could, you reprimanded it about a crime it never did, and you confessed to it.

"I loathe Natsume Hyuuga," you said in between pants.

Your vast imagination might be playing tricks on you that you thought you heard the tree spoke back to you in a monotonous tone. Oh well, here you went, the voice of your enmity making your ears burning through its deathly flames.

"Why?" you heard the tree asked.

You heaved a sigh before staring at the tree blankly. "Because I hate him," you said. "I loathe him because I hate him because I hate him because he saved that girl while he never does that to me."

You covered your mouth, your eyes widening, shocked by your own words. Your mouth could be as stupid as your brain. Baka Mikan. You felt like pulling your hair in pigtails like crazy as you knew you were speaking things against your own consent.

You heard the tree snickered. Between the snickers, the breeze was gently blowing the treetop in a symphony so unique.

"Were you jealous?" the tree asked again.

It was yourself imagining the voice asking, so you knew the answer. You knew the fact that for the first time, you realized that your bond with your partner had gone tighter during the past three years of your stay in Gakuen Alice. And now you were questioning yourself whether you were jealous.

You sighed. "You knew the answer, big tree of that perilous Natsume."

Once again, the breeze sent the treetop dancing gracefully and you heard its voice, again, rang, "Climb the second lowest branch."

You raised your eyebrows, amazed at yourself as how your imagination had gotten to a whole new level. To get on the tree never flashed through your mind and so you gave yourself a chuckle, once again leaking your buoyancy.

My mind surely works peculiar today, you thought as you continued chuckling.

"Climb," ordered the tree again. Really, did you badly want to climb the tree again after so many ages had passed? You giggled, finding yourself really atypical. You were going insane, thinking you just ordered yourself to climb the tree using Natsume Hyuuga's voice.

And you did.

You did not even realize that the second to the lowest branch of the tree could be that high that you were already anxious on how to go down. But you did not want to let your spirits go down.

"Should I jump?" you asked yourself.

"Go jump," said the tree yet again. You rubbed the back of your head as you laughed at yourself who wished you to go jumping off such a height from a tree using your enmity's voice.

"Crazy," you muttered to yourself as you looked down. "Here goes nothing."

You did jump off and expected your self to feel the pain of a sprain, the mixed blend of softness and hardness of the ground, and feel all bruised. But you didn't.

You merely felt yourself as if bouncing down with arms supporting your back. Your nose could smell the intoxicating smell of your enmity's boyish perfume … and you heard your enmity's boyish groan.

You looked up, your chocolate-brown-colored eyes widening.

"Natsume Hyuuga?!"

From his groaning, you watched as his wincing face turned proud and boastful, and he looked down to his arms and smirked all-too-deviously.

"I thought I fell off!"

"And I caught you," the raven-haired lad said with his notorious smirk, his crimson eyes pinning her down. "Now, perhaps you have fallen for me?"

And you just stared at him with widened eyes and burning cheeks as he stared back at you, his smirk victorious treading until his eyes which were glimmering with joviality.

You knew he won by default … because you forfeited the moment you fell and he caught you.

…end

i know this thing sucks but if you won't mind, please review. and by the way, this thing's edited. =)))

© sera-chan