I do not own Gakuen Alice. But a girl can dream…

Lessons

By: Claire-ify

"You're failing."

Natsume rose an eyebrow. He already knew that, what was the point of dragging him all the way to Narumi's stupid frilly office to tell him?

He gave his professor a dead-panned look. "…And?"

Narumi chose to make a big deal out of this and flung his hands around. "Natsume, how could you say that!" he exclaimed. "I don't even know why you signed up for Visual Arts in the first place when you clearly don't even care about it."

"Because it's recommended for those who want to pursue architecture. And since I never drew a lot of junk when I was younger, I figured I might as well learn," Natsume explained with narrowed eyes.

"Well, you're not learning, and haven't learned onebit about drawing or painting since you got here. The only reason you're only 2% away from the passing grade is because of your written work." Narumi put a dramatic hand to his forehead. He looked at Natsume. "Honestly, if I hadn't read your essays, I wouldn't have known why you were called a genius."

"Shut the-"

"And I think you need to understand the real concept and expressionism of art more, too."

"All I need, Narumi, is a passing grade. I don't care about any of that crap you waste your time teaching the idiots in your classes. I don't care about the 'expressionism' of art or whatever, " Natsume fumed. He leaned closer to the tall, feminine man. "So why don't you make this easier on both of us and just bump me up 2%, because I'm pretty sure you don't want me in your class again."

His professor sat staring out the window, tapping his fingers on his desk. "Are you done yet?"

Natsume growled.

"Good, because I've found the perfect way for you to pass!" Narumi stood and began flipping through some files in a cabinet.

A small bead of sweat made it's way down Natsume's face. If he had to do another extra-credit assignment on the beauty of the male anatomy, he was going to-

"Here we go!" Narumi flopped a file onto his desk.

Natsume tensed as he watched him flip through the file's contents. Narumi was smiling joyously. Oh God, I'll have to study naked bodies of guys again, I know it, Natsume thought bitterly to himself.

"Mikan Sakura!"

That didn't sound like anything Natsume was expecting, to his delight. It sounded like a name. He looked at Narumi. "Who's she?" inquired Natsume.

"Well," Narumi started, "Mikan Sakura happens to be my best student and one of the best artists I have ever had the pleasure to meet. She really understands the magnificence one good stroke of a paintbrush can have." Stars appeared in his blue eyes. "Oh, she is just brilliant! Mikan can paint or draw anything she wanted if she put her mind to it!" The stars gradually dimmed and faded away. His expression grew grim. "If only…if only things weren't so bad for her…Then maybe…maybe…" Narumi stopped talking.

Natsume's curiosity peaked. "Maybe what? What's wrong with her?"

He wished he hadn't said anything; maybe that way he would have gotten more information about this girl.

Narumi blinked and-slightly startled-spoke in rushed words, "O-oh, don't worry about it. Just don't think about it too much."

"What happened to her?"

Natsume was stubborn and Narumi knew it. Sighing dramatically, Narumi gave in before even more information about Mikan Sakura escaped him. "She's just had a bad past, is all. Quite a bad life overall, actually." Before Natsume could ask anymore questions, Narumi said, "I can't tell you anything else because that would be gossiping, and as much as I love gossip, telling you about Mikan would be to betray her trust in me. And that wouldn't be very fair, would it?"

Narumi batted his eyes at Natsume, who sighed out of frustration. "Fine, I won't ask anymore," Natsume grunted. That professor was a big pain in his ass.

"Excellent. Now, as I was saying, I'm going to arrange for dear, little Mikan to be your tutor in art." Narumi informed.

Natsume's heart sank. A tutor for art? How low could he sink? This was humiliating. Natsume would have to make sure only a few people knew, if any at all.

Narumi continued to blabber on. "I think you two will be the best of friends! If you cooperate, that is."

Natsume glared at him. "I'll do this my own way. As soon as I learn how to draw a straight line, I'm gonna drop that girl so fast she won't even know until her ass hits the ground."

Narumi shook his head. "Tsk tsk, Natsume dear. You'll never get Mikan to like you that way."

"Why would I want that?" came the heated reply. "I don't even know what she looks like."

The girl probably wasn't even hot.

"And you won't know until you meet her," Narumi replied matter-of-factly.

Natsume ground his teeth. That perverted she-man was one of the most infuriating people he has ever met.

"So, because I'm such a great professor, I set up your date for you for the rest of the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until you can pass this class on your own," said Narumi.

"What!"

"I know, I know, you're surprised. But don't be. All you need to do is thank me."

The only thing that followed this was silence.

"That would be now, Natsume."

Still no thanks.

"Fine, be that way. But just know how I would only do this great favor for you. Anyways you need to be in the art room at 8:00 p.m. tonight. Sorry if it's too late for you, dear. That was the only time that would fit in Mikan's schedule."

"You call that late?" Natsume mumbled. He himself normally went to bed at midnight, if not later.

"I'll see you later, I have some work to do now, sweetie." Narumi said, smiling.

Natsume felt something inside of him break at the nickname. Ugh, he was probably going to have nightmares now.

He hurried out of that hellhole and slung his backpack over his shoulder. A few girls winked at him as he passed them in the hallway, but they weren't worth his time. Not only were they not attractive enough, but Natsume bet that they couldn't even keep up a decent conversation. He had high expectations, and though he wasn't a playboy, he had his fair share of girlfriends in the past.

Mikan Sakura, he thought. She was either a boring hag or one of those hippie people who were obsessed with colours and stuff.

That settled it. As soon as he could draw properly, Natsume was getting out of these art lessons.

Natsume woke to someone whispering in his ear.

"You love Koko. You will buy Koko's lunch every day for the rest of the year. You will buy his clothes. You will do his homework. Because you love Koko."

"What the hell?" Natsume exclaimed. He sat up and looked around him. There, beside his pillow, was a tape recorder. It was repeating the same message over and over again. Koko's stupid voice was already ticking Natsume off.

"Koko!" Natsume shouted. A fair-haired boy walked into his room with an irremovable grin on his face.

"What's up?" greeted Koko as he sat on his bed.

"What the fuck is this?" Natsume demanded, gesturing to the tape recorder.

"Oh, that's just some hypnosis I was trying out," Koko answered indifferently. Apparently he didn't have the brains to sense an obvious beating coming his way.

"On me?"

"Yeah, but I don't think it works. I've been doing this for about a month now," said Koko, rubbing the back of his head.

Natsume raised his hand and slapped Koko upside the head.

"Ow!" Koko protested.

"No more testing hypnosis or any of that crap on me or you get ten more of those," Natsume said, referring to the hits on Koko's head. "Now," he started, "what time is it?"

"A little past eight. Why?"

Natsume cursed, "Damn, I'm late. I got to go to this stupid tutoring thing for art. Apparently, I have to learn the 'expressionism of art' or something."

Koko laughed. "Wow, I have never heard of anyone getting a tutor for art. That's hilarious!"

Natsume inwardly groaned. Why did Ruka have to room with his girlfriend this year? At least he didn't try to hypnotize him. Even though Koko wasn't the worst of roommates, he certainly wasn't the best.

Natsume promised himself that he would be rooming by himself next year. It wasn't like he didn't have any money, quite the opposite, actually. Natsume was rich. And he had to say, being rich did have its perks.

After kicking Koko out of his bedroom, Natsume walked out of his apartment and headed to the art room, where he was sure an angry hag/hippie was impatiently waiting for him.

Well, this was certainly unexpected. Not only was there no angry hag, but no angry hippie, as well. In fact, there wasn't even a person here.

Natsume scouted the art room, his footsteps echoing off the brick walls. He searched all around the room, but could find this 'Mikan Sakura' anywhere. He sighed and checked his watch. 8:17, it said. She probably got tired of waiting for him and left. Typical.

Growling at the unfairness of his life, Natsume leaned against a beam near the center of the room.

This was different. It was silent. There was never much silence in Natsume's life and he had come to appreciate it. It wasn't like he disliked spending time with his friends or girls or anything, he just liked to take a break from all the attention every once in a while.

He had only just began to relax when the front doors flew open. Of course. Would anyone let him have just one moment of peace? No, because that would be kind.

Frustrated, Natsume turned to see a slender figure standing in the door. She was out of breath and keeled over as if every breath pained her. He took this chance to look her over, though it wasn't easy with the dim lighting.

She was petite and slender, he'd give her that much, but nothing out of the ordinary. She wore baggy jeans that looked as if they belonged in the 70's, and a baggy sweater that just looked old and wrinkly. This girl would have been easy to lose in a crowd, if not for her ghastly clothes…Well, that and her childish pigtails. God, it was like she was trying to be a nerd.

Giving one last huff, the girl straightened and headed towards him. The girl looked at him and said, "I'm Mikan Sakura. I'll be your new tutor."

Natsume looked at her face and mentally sighed. She certainly wasn't very pretty. He had been hoping that maybe, if he was lucky, Mikan would be one of those rare, shy beauties, but no.

Balancing on her nose was a large pair of glasses that he guessed made her sight worse, and made it even harder to look at her eyes.

Mikan held out her hand, waiting for a shake.

Natsume scoffed at her. "I don't like to touch filthy hands, thanks."

Mikan's eyes narrowed. Natsume still couldn't see her very clearly, but knew that she was glaring at him. "Look, I'm here because Narumi asked me to, not because I have to. So I suggest cleaning up your attitude. Because if I leave, I'm pretty sure you'll fail art, and not only will you have to take it again next semester, but I'm sure everyone will find out about it, too."

Damn it, she was right. Instead of showing his vulnerability, Natsume shrugged it off and walked towards the large tables. "Just tell me what you want me to do, little girl."

Mikan told him to get out a sketchpad, a 2B pencil, and an eraser: standard sketching tools. Natsume did what he was told and waited impatiently for Mikan to turn on the lights. God, she was slow.

He blinked away the bright spots that swirled around his vision when the lights turned on.

Finally. Natsume turned to complain to Mikan about her slowness when she turned to face him. His eyes widened.

She had taken off her glasses and replaced her pigtails with a bun, a few strands of multi-shaded brown hair framing her face. Though she did not have the high cheekbones and narrow face that Natsume usually preferred, her face was still somewhat narrow but plump, as well, which added to her features and seemed to suit her. Mikan's lips were set into an adorable pout; Natsume had to keep himself from jumping her.

But the thing that really captured him were her eyes. They were a molten caramel colour that seemed so naturally beautiful it was stunning. Mikan just seemed so amazingly fresh.

"What are you staring at?" Mikan's voice made Natsume drop back down to earth.

Normally, getting caught checking out a girl would make a guy embarrassed. But Natsume didn't get embarrassed. It just didn't happen to him-not with things like this, anyway.

"Why aren't you wearing your glasses?" He asked instead.

She sighed and answered hesitantly, "I don't wear them when I'm doing art. They tend to get in the way, like my hair." Mikan gestured to her bun. "Now," she said before he could ask anymore questions, "Why don't we start with something simple. Sit down and draw a flower."

Natsume sat down, but that was as far as he would go. "I'm not drawing flowers," he stated.

"Why not?"

"Because they're girly and flimsy and stupid," Natsume replied, leaning back in his chair.

"That's the dumbest reason I ever heard!" exclaimed Mikan. She continued to rant. "I want you to draw a flower because there are many ways to draw them and it's a good way to see how steady your hand is. And besides," she huffed, "flowers are not stupid."

Natsume rolled his eyes. "Can't I just draw something more…masculine? Like a truck or something?"

"No, you're drawing a flower."

"And if I refuse?" inquired Natsume.

Mikan thought about this for a moment. When Natsume thought he finally got her, she said, "Then I'll tell Narumi that you're not cooperating."

Natsume growled, "Stupid cow." He immediately began drawing a flower.

The last time he didn't 'cooperate,' Narumi made him pose in front of the class like a damn model and made everyone sketch him. All the girls squealed like pathetic pigs and immediately began not only drawing, but taking pictures of him as well. Needless to say, it was one of the most humiliating days of Natsume's life.

"Done," said Natsume, pushing his drawing towards Mikan.

Raising an eyebrow, Mikan picked it up and frowned. "Natsume, I said to draw a flower, not a goblin."

"It is a flower, stupid."

Mikan scrunched up her nose. She observed the drawing for a few more moments before asking, "Exactly how much effort did you put into this…'drawing'?"

Natsume replied, "I don't know, you just told me to draw a flower, and I did. So there."

Mikan's eyebrow ticked as she looked at him with barely suppressed fury. "Did you even try?"

Natsume responded with a shrug.

Mikan let out a sigh of frustration. "If you never try, how do you expect to pass? You know, for a genius, you're pretty stupid."

"I am not!" Natsume snarled defensively. This girl had a knack of getting under peoples' nerves. He briefly wondered why Narumi favoured her so. "I just don't see the freaking point of putting so much effort into a stupid drawing."

Mikan's expression softened. She nodded. "Alright, hold out your hand face-down."

Grudgingly, Natsume did as he was told. He looked at Mikan strangely when she crouched down and looked at it. "Creep," he insulted.

She whacked his hand away. A cute blush tinged her cheeks. "I was just seeing if you had steady hands. Don't get all excited about it." Mikan stood up, only to walk over to his desk and sit down. "Your hand's very still, so that's good. I think the only reason why you're doing so bad in art is because…well, basically you just don't care."

"No, really?" Natsume put in sarcastically.

"But I'm hoping that I can change that," Mikan said, looking down. She looked out the window and seemed to stare at the night sky, but Natsume had a feeling that she was thinking about more important matters than the pretty colours of the moon. "I can understand why you don't appreciate art and why you don't care about it at all," said Mikan, finally looking at him.

Natsume snorted.

"No really!" Mikan protested. "I used to think a lot like you, too. You're not the only one who hates art, you know."

It was Natsume's turn to stare out the window.

"Do you know," Mikan started to ask, "what everyone means when they say that art is about expressionism?"

"That they're distracted by the pretty colours?" he answered half-heartedly.

"I'm being serious Natsume."

"I thought we made it clear that I don't know crap about art." Natsume looked at Mikan callously.

Why was she wasting his time? All he needed to know was how to draw and paint.

Mikan gave out a long sigh. "Why did I agree to this?" she muttered under her breath. "That stupid Narumi…Always making me do stupid things," she added resentfully.

Mikan lifted up Natsume's sad excuse for a flower. "Let's skip the whole 'expressionism' thing for now. Another important thing about art is observation. And judging on your obvious criticism of everyone, I think you'll do just fine on that."

She pointed to Natsume's flower. "What do you think about this flower."

Natsume stared at it for a second. Turning his head away, he said in a monotone voice, "It's fine."

"Is that what you really think?" Mikan asked.

Natsume merely nodded.

"Fine, be that way." Mikan threw down the drawing. Biting her lip, she crossed her arms and started to think.

Natsume took his chance to look at her. She wasn't like any girl he met. She got frustrated easily and didn't tear up when she touched him (Natsume decided to count the time Mikan had whacked his hand). She didn't stare at him and she most certainly didn't drool over him. Mikan didn't even look in awe athim.

Was she interested in girls? No, that couldn't be it. Natsume had even made a few girls go straight. Their mothers and fathers were very pleased.

Mikan sat up straight. "Be right back," she said before running off to the backroom.

Natsume couldn't help but notice that she had a nice ass-a very nice ass. Man, would he love to-

"I'm back!"called Mikan, running over to him and interrupting his thoughts once again.

She grinned and showed him a large box containing artwork from students in some of Narumi's classes. "Okay, I'm going to show you a random picture from a random student. All I want you to do is tell me what you think about it." Mikan set down the box on a table. "And maybe some other questions that I ask."

Natsume nodded his head and leaned back. This seemed easy enough, but he kept himself wary for any surprises in case this was just a test to catch him off guard. He sighed. At least he didn't have to draw another freaking flower.

"Let's start with this one," Mikan suggested.

She held up a piece of paper and gestured for Natsume to look at it. He did. What he saw was an elegantly designed Greek-styled robe that hung on the back of a woman. All-in-all, the sketch was pretty good. Natsume voiced his thoughts.

"Good," said Mikan. "Now how about this one?"

It was a painting of a chair facing a plain wall. What the hell it was doing there or why someone would draw something so pointless was beyond Natsume.

"The picture is meaningless and the lines are too wobbly," he stated with a wave of his hand. This was too easy. Criticizing was his specialty.

"Alright," Mikan said, albeit a bit stiffly, "how about this one?"

She held up a picture of a…Was it a gnome? Natsume wasn't sure. It was fat and disgusting and just plain ugly.

"What the hell is that thing?" he asked.

"It says it's a garden fairy," Mikan said, reading the back of the 'drawing.'

Natsume snorted, "As if. That doesn't look remotely like a fairy of any sort."

Mikan looked at him furtively. "What would you change about it?"

Natsume sat straighter, looking at Mikan with narrowed eyes. "First of all," he started, "It's too fat. Fairies are supposed to be skinny and delicate, right?"

"You're right," Mikan commented. "What else?"

Natsume peered at the drawing. "Wings are too stubby. I'd make them longer and looked like they could actually-I don't know-flutter, or something," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Good observation. So you've changed the fairy's body proportions. Now what?" asked Mikan.

Natsume looked intensely. He noticed the small oddities of the drawing and began to name them, all the while Mikan nodded her head at every one of his suggestions. "And I would draw some kind of background so that people could actually classify the type of 'fairy' this thing is," he finished.

Natsume leaned back in his chair proudly, folding his arms behind his head. He looked up and saw Mikan beaming at him. He smirked at her.

"See? You're not totally hopeless," Mikan said, patting his head.

Natsume growled and swatted her hand away.

He half-expected her to immediately apologize for being so 'forward,' as other girls called it (Natsume didn't know why). Instead, she laughed at him and said playfully, "You shouldn't be so up-tight all the time. Otherwise, whatever died when it crawled up your ass will never come out."

Natsume's eyes widened considerably. That idiot girl just laughed at him and insulted him!

He took a breath of heated air and was about to retort when she shoved a piece of paper in his face.

"Show me what a garden fairy should look like," commanded Mikan. She waited for him to take the piece of paper.

"No."

"Why not?" she asked innocently, eyes blinking.

Natsume remained silent and turned away.

"Oh, I get it. You're upset because I was making fun of you." Mikan laughed again and Natsume sat glaring at her, fuming. "You don't have to get so angry. I was only joking." She regained her composure. "But I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you all riled up."

"Whatever." Natsume muttered.

Some apology that was. Mikan didn't even sound sincere. She sounded like she about to burst into laughter again!

Natsume snatched the paper out of Mikan's hands and began drawing.

He carelessly created a thick body of a garden fairy and added wings. He gave it a boxy dress and even drew curly hair.

Natsume looked at it and was more or less satisfied. It wasn't as bad as some of his other ones, so he could accept it. He turned his attention to the drawing of the garden fairy and began to compare the two.

They're the same! Natsume thought, horrified. The two fairies shared the same stout appearance and held not one ounce of 'delicacy,' as he had put it. The wings of both fairies looked like mutant stubs growing out of each chubby back. All-in-all, both drawings were terrible.

Natsume looked at his drawing again. Immediately, he began to notice a million different problems. The wings were too straight and pointy. The fairy was too fat and its legs were too short. Even the arms were too long and made it resemble a retarded-looking monkey, which made Natsume feel even worse.

He tried to erase his failure, but he found that he had pressed too hard with his pencil and couldn't completely obliterate the disgusting fairy.

Deftly, Natsume turned the piece of paper over and started again.

This time, he drew with soft, light lines to make it easier to erase if he made a mistake. Natsume was careful to craft the garden fairy to be pretty and slender, making sure that its dress looked animate, as if blowing in a soft breeze, and that the wings flowed upwards and ended in a proper point.

Natsume observed his picture. Something was missing. The drawing looked empty.

An idea formed in his mind and he filled in the areas around the fairy with a background. Natsume added various flowers he had seen in his mother's greenhouse and included different shade to make them more life-like.

"Done," said Natsume.

He looked at his picture and a smug grin lit his face. It was better than anything he had ever drawn or painted. It looked real. It was everything he said a fairy should be.

Natsume looked over to see Mikan's stunned face.

A small smile graced her expression. "Now that's a garden fairy."

Author's Note: I originally wanted to write this as a one-shot, but it was way too long and I'm pretty sure if I wrote everything as one chapter, the story would look so long that most people would just skim over everything. I'm thinking there will be three parts to this story. REVIEW please!