Drop Dead Gorgeous

"I look up to the skies,
And there's stars in my eyes."

Story by Tragic Lullaby

On the fourth level

Pimples.

There were two things in this world that Sumire Shouda could not stand; the first one being people bad mouthing Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi, and the second being girls flirting or practically glued to Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi. She now had a third hate; acne. Waking up that night and going to the bathroom at twelve for god knows what reason, and looking into the mirror and staring at those pus-infested, red and white spots was not the ideal way to start the day.

So, Sumire Shouda, never having pimples before in her life, started to scream. Loudly. It so happens that a certain cafeteria girl is sleeping next door to her room, and being a light sleeper, had been awoken.

She groaned; it was going to be a long night.

No, more precisely, it was morning, as it was already the start of a new day.

Mikan

The jerk was enjoying himself, his smug smile showed it all. Want to know what he was laughing at? The bags under my eyes, well, the bags under all the girl's eyes really. I did not find it the least bit amusing. Did he have to stay up all night trying to tell a hysterical girl that looking after her skin mattered more than a photo shoot? No. That smug smile was giving me a twitchy eye; smirks were one of the most unattractive ways to look in a photo. I knew this from looking at one of my former foster family's little brother's photos. He had looked unbearably smug in almost every single one; and when he wasn't so frigging smart-arse looking, he scowled.

Although; bags underneath the eyes did come under the list of unattractive things as well.

We were standing in Reo's office. Why he had called his lovely cafeteria girl up to his office, I have no idea. Would you like some tea sir? Not. Why he had to drag Hyuuga up with me, I don't know. "So Shouda can't do her photoshoot then," Reo sighed, after hearing my story. I stared at him, incredulously. Surely makeup could fix a couple of pimples? "Tsk, this slows things down, we need photos today," he glanced at me, a smile dawning on his face. "Mikan, would you so kindly take her place in the photoshoot?"

Yeah whatever pedo…wait what?

"Reo," I heard an angered growl from beside me and I glanced at Natsume, his smirk seemed to have dissolved into a frightening glare. What on earth was up with him? Reo ignored Natsume and stared straight at me. His smile was still there, but the eyes, they were so serious, and it scared me. My feet wanted to take me a step back, away from this person, my childhood fear kicking into my veins. For some reason my hand seem to be edging towards Hyuuga.

"No," I answered flatly, barely standing my ground and clenching my hand into a fist. No more kiddy urges. I wasn't going to stay if here if all I was going to hear was this nonsense, and if all I was going to feel was my past fear. I had noticed that Natsume had seemed to have relaxed, slightly. "If you would excuse me, I have to get to school." Without another word, I turned and walked away without another thought of this topic.

It was at this time I loved it how the girls were all so sleepy, because it was so quiet and peaceful, mainly because most of us were sleeping on the desks without getting caught. I kept awake though; I believed education was a good thing, even if you don't appreciate the torture of learning at the time. The other reason of me staying awake was because Natsume would kick me under the desk if I even looked like I was going to doze off. Stupid bastard.

It was a tad unfortunate the Permy and her group were still awake though, during break they came over to bug me again. "Hey Sakura," Permy started and waited until it seemed like I was paying attention, "We were wondering." Oh god, they were thinking now? "You are the only girl who doesn't seem to love Master Natsume and Master Ruka," Not everyone falls heads over heels for jerks and over curious people you know? "So, does that mean," she started to fidget, "That you are a lesbian?"

God save me from stupid people.

I almost fell out of my chair, "Are you stupid?" I asked the fan club, who were on the verge of being doubled over with laughter, "Just because I don't like a stupid jerk or an overly curious animal boy, doesn't mean I'm homosexual. Now, run along with your little club Permy and go play hairdressers somewhere else." She sniffed unpleasantly.

This was strange, it was just like Permy to have me comfort her about her pimples and then rock up and ask if I was homosexual. I guess the attention I had paid her last night paid off though, "Right, just asking. As long as you don't get too close to Natsume and Ruka, Sakura, otherwise, no matter how much you help me, I won't forgive you." As she walked away, I had a strange feeling that Sumire Shouda, in her own way, would make a good friend.

I heard a chuckle beside me, and I scowled at my neighbour, Natsume. Hiro Shun also seemed to be amused by my little speech. "Getting a little defensive, Polka dots," Natsume teased me, "Are you sure you aren't lesbian?" My scowl deepened as I hit his shoulder and stuck my tongue out at him. Grabbing my bags I decided it was time to hurry down to the cafeteria, where the dishes didn't question my sexual preferences.

"So you refused?" Hiro Shun asked me, as I took my break from serving. I now had a group to sit with see, Hiro seemed friendly enough so he had joined me and Hotaru and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, Ruka Nogi had decided to sit with us too. Where was Natsume Hyuuga, you ask? In Reo's office again, that's where. I hoped he was beating Reo up, but that made it seemed like I sided with Natsume, or even liked him!

"Yeah, I refused," we were talking about Reo's offer to me to become a model for a photoshoot, an I was loading my plate with our lunch time special, roast chicken, rice and greens. "So?" I asked through a mouthful of food.

Hotaru sent me a disgusted look while Hiro laughed, "Nobody's ever turned down such an offer before, Reo isn't going to know what's hit him. Oh lord," he wiped away tears of laughter, "I wish I was there, I wanted to see his face."

"Why does Reo keep calling Hyuuga to his office?" I asked. A shadow of doubt flickered across Hiro's face before a fake 'as-if-I-know' look faded into place. Hiro was a good actor, I realised as he shrugged. "Do you act?"

"Yeah," a grin replaced the look on his face, "I really want to act in a movie, loved doing drama at school. Me and my friend," he faltered before going on, "we would do the best double acts, and we were such trouble makers. Graffiti, pretended to be secret spies, managed to steal the test papers so we couldn't do the test."

"Your friend," I asked softly, "Do you know where they are now?"

Hiro shook his head, "You are never able to contact anybody outside this place once you are inside. Have you been able to contact anybody?" I could tell he was worried about his friend, very worried.

"I don't have anyone to contact," I mumbled, pushing around the rice on my plate. I didn't look any of them in the eyes, I was too scared to see what was in them. "I've never had any friends that I remember. I didn't need them." I forced a smile and glanced back up at Hiro, "Your friend, how do you think she is going now?"

Hiro raised an eyebrow, "How'd you know it was a girl?"

"I didn't say it was one,"

"Yes you did," Ruka chimed in, equally suspicious as always, "You said 'she'."

"I just had a feeling that it was one," I said, confused myself about how I knew. "Maybe it was just the way you talked about her, Hiro."

"Anybody else would've guessed it was a guy," Hotaru pointed out. "Does the name Ayumu Fujimoto mean anything to you?"

Slap, the blonde girl had just hit the brown haired girl across the face. "Don't say that!" shouted the blonde girl, "Don't be like that! You know he's worth it, you know you're worth it! Don't go around saying things like that! My friends, my friends are always worth it." The blonde girl burst into tears, and the brown haired boy standing next to her put his arm across her shoulders, comforting her. "Don't say you like him if you are just going to say it's a joke later,"

The brown hair girl stared at her friend in shock, her hand on her cheek against the place where she had been hit, tears started to well up in her eyes, "Ayumu…"

"Leave her alone, Ayumu!" another kid shouted, his hair was black, like another of the girl's. "You don't have to hit her like that. Hiro," he rounded on the boy, "You should learn to control you friend better."

"Don't you dare blame it all on Ayumu," the brown haired boy glared, this was the first time the brown haired girl had seen her friend so angry, he was usually pretty easy going. "It's partly your fault too, it's partly everyone's fault."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the brown haired girl pulled out of the black haired boy's grip and bent down to her blonde haired friend, she put her arms around her and hugged her. "I'm sorry I said that Ayumu."

"No," I lied, "I've never heard it before." I met all of their suspicious stares, I could act too you know. "Why do you think I have, I've never met any of you guys before. You all seem to know each other though."

Ruka laughed and let me off the hook, "Imai here is like my personal black mailer, I've known both Hiro, Hotaru and Natsume ever since I was little, along with Ayumu."

"You've known the jerk for that long," I asked, incredulous, "You poor thing! Does that mean you know the girl that Hiro had told me about that had died?"

"Yeah," he sighed sadly, "She was the most cheerful girl you could ever meet. Natsume went through the most pain though, and Ayumu thinks its all her fault because she never got the chance to say sorry to the girl before she disappeared. But it isn't their fault at all, no matter how much they say it is. She had the nicest smile you could ever imagine, it cheered up everyone's day. Her family was found burnt to death in their old house. They didn't find the girl's body though."

Okay, now I really was on the verge of crying. "That was such a sad story!" I clung to Hotaru's arm, "Happier stories next time please."

"Sorry if we made you sad," Hiro said, giving Ruka a stern look, "We won't speak of her again. It brings back bad memories."

We ate the rest of our meals in a silence not unlike the one a mute shares with another mute.

Natsume hadn't returned from Reo's office, and Hiro and Ruka had managed to disappear as well. Hotaru, on the other hand, seemed to be following me everywhere. Something was going on. When I asked Hotaru why she was following me she replied with a flat, "that's what friends do, isn't it?" So while Natsume and Ruka had disappeared, Hotaru moved to their place to sit beside me, of all things. So I couldn't get away, I suspected.

"Hello everyone~" our teacher greeted us in the usual manner, "Hmm? Where is Natsume, Ruka and Hiro? Hotaru why are you sitting up the back?" I suspected this teacher was the gay one here.

"Hyuuga, Nogi and Shun have business to attend to, teacher," Hotaru said in her monotone, "and I'm sitting next to Mikan so she doesn't get lonely."

Business to attend to? Yeah right.

"Well, they'll have to catch up on knowing the new students later then wouldn't they," Narumi clapped his hands together, "Well, kids, this is our new students. We seem to be getting lots of new students lately. They are two girls this time, come in girls."

The first to walk in was a very pretty girl, she had black hair and ruby red eyes, like…like the jerk! However unlike the jerk, she didn't scowl or anything, she smiled a bright, cheerful smile at the class and even the frostiest of hearts melted. "This is Aoi Hyuuga, Natsume's little sister."

"Nice to meet you all!" chanted Aoi, her voice sounded as clear as bells.

The second girl to walk in was blonde, her hair beautifully wavy and her eyes were a strange hazel. Was she a foreigner? She walked like she could stand up to everyone in the world and win; she walked like she was tough, like a boy. Her eyes scanned the classroom and dropped on Hotaru and me. Those hazel orbs widened, shock and disbelief colouring them. "And this, is Ayumu Fujimoto."

"Nice to meet ya," she grunted, snapping out of her surprise, rubbing her hair like she was embarrassed at all the stares she was getting.

Ayumu Fujimoto and Aoi Hyuuga.

I had a deep gut feeling that suddenly a lot of things were going to change.

And I didn't like it.

I knew a back way out of the toilets, so when I went there and Hotaru came with me, I could get away from her and find out just what was going on. Carefully, I trod down a hallway, making as much noise as a mouse. I began to here voices, arguing softly, male voices and I knew I had found them. "The Reo is persistent, I wish he would just get a clue and stop trying to make Sakura a model," it was Hyuuga's voice, "She already said no this morning!"

"It's lucky for us that she seems to know danger when she sees it," Ruka cut in, "If she had said yes, we wouldn't be able to do much about it but…" I didn't manage to catch the last part.

"Natsume…you've…protective…ever since…that it really is her," I could barely hear Hiro, "If…does say yes…have to hide…murder her." I heard footsteps, and it seemed that Hiro had drawn closer to where Ruka and Natsume were, "What would happen if Mikan found out you really knew her past? She wouldn't forgive you."

"She'll never find out, I won't let her," Natsume snapped.

"What are you protecting her from Natsume? Bad memories? I'm sure she has enough of those already," Hiro argued. "You were the only one who'd known she was run over a by train until she told us. Did you know all this time that it was her?"

"Not until she told us her story of the train," I could barely catch the next part, "I thought she was dead."

I had heard enough; they'd been lying to me, keeping secrets from me this whole time. I thought I was their friend, suddenly a rush of footsteps alerted me. "Imai?" It was Ruka's voice, Hotaru! "What's wrong? Aren't you supposed to be with Sakura?"

"Mikan's gone missing," I heard the note of urgency in Hotaru's voice and the muffled shocked anger in the other's gasps. That was all it took to send me running down the hallway, away from them my 'friends'.

"Mikan Sakura, could you please come to my office," Reo! I knew where I could go now, I slammed open his office door, panting.

"What's up Mikan, why the rush?" asked Reo, he stared at me, concerned, "Where you trying to get away from Natsume? That's good, I can't ask you what I want to ask you with him here." He smiled at me. I can't trust anyone, not even this person, I reminded myself.

"Shoot, Reo," I snapped.

"Would you like to become a model, Mikan?" I hesitated, a no forming on my tongue, but then I stopped. Natsume, Ruka, Hiro, Hotaru, they didn't want me to become this. "Forget Natsume, Mikan, he is just jealous of the attention you would receive if you became a model." Natsume, Ruka, Hiro and Hotaru, they all betrayed me. The taste of betrayal gave me my strength. "Become a model Mikan."

I was so angry at them all, I had thought I was their friend, or were they just using me? I was so angry that when Reo asked me again, I said yes.

Woot, it's starting to get a move on. =)

I'm too excited, tenseness, tenseness!

Please Read and Review

~ Tragic Lullaby.

Ahaha…ha…

I just had my heart broken so you'll have to excuse me if I sound kind of depressing right at the moment. All I kind of want right now is to crawl into a deep dark hole and stay there for a while. :'( -sob-

Okay now my friend and I have come to the realisation that I need to get out of the house before I dig myself into a deeper pit of anti-socialism. He's seen my friends (from an all girls' school) more than I have these days. :( Bother it.

Anyway. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll try and start work on the next one.

x. MFT