A/N: It's taken me nine months to finally finish this. It's rather sad. But it's done now. It's done! I thank everybody who has decided to read all the way through to end, especially those people who have alerted and waited so long for my updates, because I update really slowly.

Thank you also to everybody who has sent me an encouraging review. They have inspired me to stop being lazy and finish this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu

~ Chapter Eight – Without Further Ado~

As much as Fakir had yearned to arrive to class early, it turned out the hour he felt he spent glaring hazily at his alarm clock had actually happened. During instances when he was not under the public eye, he sprinted to school, heaving his heavy bag filled with useless textbooks for subjects he detested. However, as soon as someone took notice of him, or more rather, he thought he saw someone take notice of his presence, his sprint would immediately halt into a brisk walk until he had concealed himself behind a building of sorts.

Some might find his behaviour to be slightly strange, but Fakir had his reasons for not running in public. On one occasion the previous summer, he earned a small amount of pocket money looking after two small children living in his street. Normally, the two girls aged six and eight were no problems to look after, but when they thought they saw Hannah Montana in the street, they uttered piercing squeals of joy and ran after her without hesitation. Fakir's only option was to run after them; after all, if they got assaulted, abducted or hit by a car, he would be the one being sued.

Long story short, as he was chasing the children up the main streets of Kinkan a minivan of elderly women in a knitting club slowly drove past. As it did, many of them had their faces pressed up against the windows, staring intently. One woman was even game enough to scream an obscene comment regarding what her intentions would have been if only she were fifty years younger. Fakir was so scarred by this experience he developed his insecurity of public running.

He arrived half an hour late for his first class. Sure, he was a little embarrassed, but that soon turned to hope and/or triumph when he realized Rue wasn't to be seen.

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Rue power-walked home the previous afternoon and had not left the comfort of her room except for meals and bathroom breaks. Upon arrival at home, she immediately began surfing the internet for any photo she could find of Fakir. This was so she could print it out, sticky tape it to her pillow, and beat it senseless. Lillie's MySpace page had a substantial amount, which initially had Rue puzzled. This was until she realized that Lillie's constant spy antics meant she was bound to have photos of everyone.

It was about 4am and Rue had finally grown tired of punching the pillow with all her might. The picture of Fakir's stunned face was already ripped into eight or so pieces therefore satisfaction was already obtained. As her attacks ceased, her mind once again filled with worries concerning the following morning. Her 'mild stumble' the previous afternoon may have cost her the title of cookie selling queen. Were her efforts at all futile? She could only imagine what might happen, and so Rue began to slumber.

Technically, she did not wake up on Friday morning.

She woke up on Friday afternoon. Ten past twelve to be exact. Upon realizing the time, Rue felt an unimaginably large urge to scream. So she did. Thankfully, everyone in her residence was either already awake or better yet, out of the house, so her shrill squeal proved to be of little annoyance to those around her. She quickly dressed, did her hair and make-up, and shoved a banana down her throat before beginning her run to school. Hopefully, considering her reputation at school as the generally wonderful girl with perfect attendance, Mr. Cat would let her lateness slide, possibly even without any marriage threats. Rue paused in her thoughts; no marriage threats? That was highly unlikely.

The time was 12.45pm and the main doors of the ballet studio flew open. In walked Rue, nowhere near as gracefully as she would on a normal school day. She was slouched over with her hands on her knees, puffing and panting, having run the entire distance from her house to school. As soon as she arrived, the atmosphere of the studio spontaneously changed to suit that of a classic Western movie. Rue stumbled through the main doors and locked eyes with Fakir, who was standing confidently at the opposite side of the studio. Immediately, the rest of the class ceased engaging in their ballet-based activities, forming a quiet huddle of nosy spectators.

There was a solid row of students along two of the room's main walls, as they were involved in exercises on the barre at the time of Rue's entrance. The gazes of twenty odd beginner class students, Ahiru included, flew quickly between the two students involved in what seemed to be a standoff.

"Fakir" Rue made her best effort to sound as confident and alert as possible, despite her posture and general appearance which clearly stated otherwise.

"Rue" he replied curtly in turn. It seemed best to keep conversation short, considering their current circumstances.

"It's Friday." Rue also thought this way.

"Well, what do you know? It is too."

Mytho watched nervously from the crowd. He glanced around him and noticed that many other students were anticipating a punch-up, or a vocal screaming match at the very least. He never regarded himself as being one who was greatly opposed to random bouts of violence, but neither of these things were in Mytho's best interest. A fight to the death involving his close friend and the girl he sort of liked meant there was definitely no upside for him. He yearned for a distraction, something to get the two of them away from each other. A fire alarm would be perfect! Then again, looking back at his past experiences involving fire alarms, perhaps that was not the best idea.

He was rather surprised that it was none other than Mr. Cat who stepped in and caused all of his previous worries to dissolve. The teacher strolled towards the entrance doors where Rue had not moved very far forward, and swiftly directed her away to the other side of the room, without one hint of a scolding. As she was considerably late for class, Mr. Cat felt it was necessary to go over what was learned in the previous few hours in which Rue was absent. Not that it really mattered, as she would probably be instructing others on the same set of steps within mere minutes.

Fakir was rather annoyed at Mr. Cats biased act of kindness. Sure, he was only half an hour or so late, but when he thought about how much he had missed in that amount of time… he wouldn't have minded a little 'heads up' about what happened…

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The studio entrance doors flew open at breakneck speed as Fakir bolted through. He didn't think he was that late for class, but as he realized he was half an hour late, he decided the world didn't like him very much. As he entered the studio, all eyes fell on him, including those of Mr. Cat. The sudden rush of attention caused Fakir to slow down to an eventual halt.

He sighed. "Sorry I'm late, Mr. Cat. It's because I-"

"FAKIR!" The teacher was obviously not in his best mood "I will not have anyone arriving late for class! You are supposed to be a role model for the other students! Show up late for class again and I will have you ma-" Mr. Cat immediately brought his hand … paw?... to his face, which was turning a violent shade of burgundy. His eyes widened as he inhaled intensely, realizing what he was about to say.

While the rest of the class was in hysterical laughter, Fakir remained still, squinting at his teacher in moderate disgust. "Excuse me? I believe we've been through this."

Mr. Cat sighed. "Get to the barre, Fakir"

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Yeah, a little catch-up knowledge or even a simple "Hello, Fakir. I acknowledge your presence" would have sufficed. He sighed, glancing to the clock positioned conveniently in his path of sight. There was not long to go until the end of the lesson, which was good yet also bad. The upside of the lesson ending was that he would be free of Mr. Cat, and in turn Rue, for a weekend of pure bliss. However, it being Friday, he would have to endure the waste of time and air that was the presentation of the special class routine.

Oh, and the competition. He was obviously anxious to see how that turned out.

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The next half hour flew by in what seemed like an instant. However, what actually happened was that the reader's wishes for this story to hurry up and end resulted in a glitch in the time space continuum. It was not a thing that could be physically felt by any of the characters; to them it felt as if they had just done one extremely long plie, and after they had risen and realized a whole thirty minutes passed, many were surprised at the strength of their thigh and stomach muscles.

"Oh my gosh! Look! It's three o'clock! "chirped an anonymous student from the back of the class. Many other students, Fakir included were easily able to believe the girl's spontaneous comment as not being true. However, after looking up at the clock they were pleasantly proved otherwise. They then continued their lesson as they would on any other Friday afternoon, by sitting on the floor and preparing to observe the 'special' class prance about and make the others squirm.

Ahiru secured herself a seat towards the back of the group. Being too close to Mr Cat often gave her suspicious vibes, and she had become accustomed to using this time to daydream. She looked around the room, noticing a pair of brightly coloured birds flying around the windows. Not far away from the window was Mr Cat, briskly searching through draws for his remote control, with which he would enable the leader board to de-escalate. It was easy to tell who was the most involved in the competition; most of the students couldn't care less and were talking amongst themselves, whereas both Fakir and Rue viewed the board as if there was nothing more important in the world.

There were rips in the flamingo pink background, and a significant area of pink feather edging missing. As Fakir scanned the board, he could not help but wonder why on earth Mr. Cat chose such an appalling colour for the design. He came to the conclusion that cats were most likely colourblind, although he didn't know for certain. His eyes then rushing to the top name, he was honestly surprised at what he saw.

Pique – 116

After staring at the unexpected name for a few seconds, it was decided that her constant hard work was certainly a contributing factor to her eventual success. Still, Fakir was shocked at the fact that a mere side character was able to beat him, Rue and all of the other main characters in a competition that was essential to the entire plot of the story. After realizing she was only a side character, he dismissed any further thoughts of Pique, scanning the board for his name, and also Rue's. He did not have to look far. Directly under the name of the winner was one of the names for which he was searching.

Fakir – 104

Rue – 101

Fakir let out a gigantic sigh, a mixture of relief and accomplishment, before turning to lock eyes with Rue. He wanted to see her disgruntled facial expression, the steam emit from her ears, and the jealousy evident in her stare. When Rue went to glare at Fakir, she was greeted with a smug, out-of-character look of pride. Rue had finally been knocked from her podium, and so Fakir could not help but smirk; It was enjoyable being there to witness the first moment in the time he had known her that she had not had the rules bent in order to meet her demands. His eyes then fell towards the bottom of the notice board and he could not help but chuckle at the thought of Lillie and Mr. Cat performing bubblegum pop together in front of the entire academy. 'Barbie Girl' began to play in his head, eventually turning into a remix with a rap added in, before he realized he was thinking a little too much.

The mind-draining special class performance was thankfully smaller than normal, due solely to the presentation of results and the chatter afterwards that was somewhat difficult to hush. As the dismissal bell rang, the class left the studio for the weekend and scattered in various directions. Ahiru, Mytho and Fakir began walking in one direction, and Rue and her followers began to journey home in the opposite direction, appearing to have put the entire competition behind them; after all in the end the school had new curtains for their stage. Whilst receiving a number of compliments and congratulations, Fakir could not help but wonder how much time would need to pass before Rue skyrockets to the top of the dance class food chain and anyone else's previous achievements were otherwise ignored. It did not matter too much; he had enough motivation to get through the following days, that was, until the next opportunity for competition arose…

The End