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"So... how do you like it at Ouran Highschool?"

I jumped at the sudden interruption of silence. After having walked from one class to the next together without any exchange of words, it was unexpected for me to hear Kasanoda speak. It didn't help that his voice was so deep and rough and we were alone in an empty corridor.

Shuffling along beside him with my books held protectively to my chest, I answered, "It's a wonderfully proficient school, and I'm learning from the best in all my subjects. I guess I'm liking it a lot." I felt quite guilty: he seemed like the kind of guy who would normally have a posse to hang with (10ft, cool-looking, and hard as a brick wall [I should know, as I had rammed into him and had a concussion]). Here he was walking me to classes every day. I was keeping him from having fun.

"Good," I heard him say. My feet shuffled along on the sunlit marble floor as we passed doors on either side of us. I had no idea where we were going, but as Kasanoda had promised to be my guide for as long as I needed him, I was going to trust this precarious and casual relationship of symbiosis.

Shoving my glasses up my nose and hitching my books higher, I stumbled over the generously lengthy pants that had been donated to me by the school. The female uniforms had all been much too large for me, and this was the closest to fitting. So it came as no surprise to me or probably to Kasanoda that I tripped, fell forward on my face with a resonating smack, and the contents of my notebooks, workbooks, textbooks, and bagful of personal possessions went flying through the air with a deafening whoosh!

I hoisted myself into a sitting position on the floor, feeling the wound from my previous bump into Kasanoda throbbing. "Ugh..." I groaned, rubbing my forehead and collecting my papers slowly. Man, I'm always making a mess...

"Are you alright?" Kasanoda asked somewhat frantically. The shadow across the floor indicated to me that he was kneeling in front of me. I blushed and scrambled to pick up my books and notes. So first I smack into him because I don't watch where I'm going, then because of my malnutritioned body I start bleeding and he has to CARRY me to the school hospital, THEN because I have the photographic memory of a SLOTH he has to walk me to classes all day every day until FINALLY a sense of direction evolves in me.

And NOW. NOW he has to stand there and wait for me to pick all these things up because I am shorter than the minimum height line required to ride the kid rides without an adult.

"Hey! Look at me!" I suddenly felt a rough hand on my chin turning it to face Kasanoda. His brown eyes searched my face with concern, until it landed on the large scabbed mess on my forehead. "It broke a little, on the edge here..." His sentence faded out as he reached his other hand up to gently wipe away the trickle of blood running down my jawline. I felt my cheeks heating up, and pulled away from him to drag the rest of my books to me. A tearing sound traveled through the hall, and I glanced up to see he'd torn his handkerchief into a long piece of cloth. Now he's ruining his clothes for me. They probably cost him a fortune, and I've wrecked them.

"Hold still," he whispered as he knelt down and held the cloth to my forehead lightly. Dabbing at the wound sent stinging pain to my skull, and I winced, pulling away. "It hurts..." I said, playing with the fabric of my pants to distract me from the pain.

"I-I'm sorry," he said, concern still etched into his face, "but we have to keep it clean." He held the back of my head, but this time I let him continue dabbing although my brain protested with all its might.

He stopped and shoved the now useless handkerchief into his pocket. "There, it's stopped the bleeding," he said, and began gathering my books. "We should get those clothes tailored to fit you better. I'll come pick you up on Saturday to take you to my personal tailor. Where do you live?"

Why am I suddenly his responsibility? But I had to answer. No way was this rich kid with his own personal tailor coming to pick me up at my closet-sized apartment. "Um..." My mind drew a blank. The first thing that came to mind popped out of my mouth before I had time to realize what I was saying. "No, pick me up at the squirrel farm... I mean the park! The... the park ten minutes from here..."

Yes, I did get into this school with a full scholarship. Yes, I have gotten straight A's throughout the entirety of my life. And I apparently have nothing to show for it.

But I heard Kasanoda laughing. Not in a discriminating kind of way, but in a way that made me feel a little better about saying it and not as stupid. "The squirrel farm ten minutes from here then. How does ten sound?"

I looked up to see him smiling widely. Instantly I was comforted, and the intense throbbing in my head eased slightly. The thought crossed my mind that Kasanoda might actually voluntarily WANT to help me out. Maybe he's just a really nice person.

"That sounds great. Thanks so much!"