Hey Guys, I know that I kind of broke my promise for my last story about me updating on a regular basis, (Actually all of my stories) and I apologize but I'm not gonna promise that again cause I don't know how this one is going to work out, so yeah. I'm really excited about this one though! This will be from a third-person point of view, unless I say, blah blah blah "Mikoto's point of view", you get the idea. Please note that I do not own School Rumble or any of its characters. Alright, well I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

Beep! Beep! Beep! Karen Ichijou stretched her arm out and pushed the button on her clock. The alarm

stopped and Karen sat up in a sleepy daze. "Oww, my head hurts this morning" She thought to herself.

Karen swung her legs over the side of her bed, and yawned stretching her arms. She looked down at her toes and all of the sudden remembered that the night before she had been up late working out on her weight lifting machine.

She had been really pumped and excited about something."Hmm… What was it?" She thought. As Karen remembered a big smile spread across her face and her eyes lit up. "Oh that's right; Imadori and I have day duty today!" She recalled. "HEY! SIS! TIME FOR BREAKFAST!" Her little brother called up the stairs.

"Coming!" Karen called back. She happily jumped up and ran over to open the door. "Hey Kouske, tell mom that I'm gonna take a shower first!" she yelled, running into the bathroom.

"I'm so excited! It's seldom that I even get to talk to Imadori. We're both always so busy with our lives.

Me with my wrestling, and him with his…dating…" Karen thought. "The last time we formally saw each other was I think that visit to my house. That was fun, but it was unexpected."

Karen stripped down and sat down on the small stool. She turned on the shower and washed her dark green hair. "I hope I'm not going to have to ask Mikoto for help again." Karen said to herself. She scrubbed her hair, and rinsed it. Turning the water off she thought, "Either way, I can't mess this up. I could not talk to him for a while after this for all I know."

She stood up, wrapped a towel around herself, and walked into the hallway. She opened her door and walked over to her window. "It's a nice day…" She said to herself. Karen walked over to her dresser and opened the top drawer getting out underwear and a bra and then opening the second and pulling out her school uniform.

As she got dressed, she imagined how it would go. She grabbed her school bag before pulling open the door, and running downstairs. "Bye mom!" Karen said as she passed her running through the kitchen to the door. "But you haven't even had breakfast yet!" Her mother said, panicked.

"Don't worry about it Mom. I'm not hungry today." Karen said with a sweet smile as she opened the door. "Bye!" She said giving a half-bow, before running out to the road.

While Karen was walking, she looked across the street and saw Sarah and Yakumo walking together. "Hey, Sarah! Yakumo!" She called. They looked over, saw her, and waved. Karen ran over to them happily. "Hey guys!" Karen said, smiling. They started walking and Sarah asked, "What's got you in such a good mood?" "Oh nothing really, Imadori and I just have day duty today is all and I guess you could say I'm excited." Karen replied, blushing slightly. "HUH!" Sarah gasped. "You don't mean you like that perv do you?" She asked. "What? Should…Should I not?" Karen asked, surprised by Sarah's bewildered look.

"Well, it isn't that you shouldn't exactly…" Sarah said, embarrassed that she was explaining this to her. "It's just that…well…There are allot nicer guys in our school you know…HeHeHe" She laughed nervously. Karen smiled sweetly. "Oh, no. Imadori is just…he's just…" Her smile faded a little bit. "I know that…he likes talking to girls and…hanging out with girls and… maybe going on dates with girls but…"

"If you look beyond that, he seems like a really sweet guy." Karen said her smile back again. Sarah bit her lip and attempted to push her blond bangs out of her face. "Well I don't know about that, but if you really like him I could probably help you out. Ya know? Give you some advice maybe?" Sarah said.

"Oh really? Thank you so much!" Karen smiled, bowing deeply. "Uh, I don't know that that's such a good idea, Sarah." Yakumo finally spoke up. "Your ideas just never seem to work is all." She continued.

"Oh have a little faith in your friend Yakumo!" Sarah said smiling. "Here, I bet I have something in my backpack that might help." She said, stopping to open it up.

She rummaged through the front pocket before saying, "Ah ha!" and pulling out a little plastic package and opening it up. She pulled out 2 little ear phones and handed one to Karen. "Um…What is this exactly Sarah?" Karen asked, examining it. "It's a listening chip! My cousin is into technology and he's always trying to get me to sell his shop's stuff to my classmates. My backpack's full of them!" She said smiling.

Karen's face turned red. "But Sarah, isn't that cheating?" Karen asked nervously. "Of course not." She said. "Don't worry about it Karen, I've got it covered. I'll just tell you what to say and you say it, alright?" She continued. "Well…ok…." Karen said.

By then they were at school, and they split up, Sarah and Yakumo going to their class, and Karen to hers, Karen being 1 year older than them. It seemed like lunch couldn't come soon enough for Karen.

Karen went out into the hall to find Imadori, and instead Sarah found her. "Hey, are you ready?" She asked. "Yeah, I just came out to find Imadori." Karen said. "Ok, good." Sarah said looking around her for any site of him.

"Hey, Sarah, are you sure that this is a good idea?" Karen asked nervously. "Of course. Don't worry about it Karen, just say what I say when you guys get to the storage room ok?" She asked. "Yeah, ok." Karen said, walking away to find Imadori.

"Oh I guess I should put the chip in now." Karen said to herself, casually slipping it into her ear pretending that she was scratching it.

"Sarah, can you hear me?" She whispered. It didn't seem like anybody was going to hear her anyway, seeing as how the halls were packed with laughing students. "Yeah I hear you." Sarah's voice came through the chip.

Over all of the heads of course though, Karen saw some messy orange hair. "She ran over and stood behind him. "I can't believe she rejected me though, I mean I'm so charming!" Imadori was saying to his friends.

"Um…Imadori?" Karen said. …no response. "I mean why would she say no? I just don't understand it." He continued. "Uh, maybe it's because you're a playing perv?" One of the boys said.

"You know, I think all of the boys in this school are somewhat perverted. I'm just proud enough to show it." Karen tapped on his shoulder. He turned around and his excited face of maybe turning to a cute girl, suddenly turned to disappointment.

"Oh. hey, what's up Ichi." He sighed. Karen immediately started blushing like crazy. "Hey, Imadori!" Sarah said in a flirty way through the chip. "Say that!" Sarah said. "Umm…Hey…Imadori…" Karen said, allot less confidently and allot less flirtatiously."So what is it?" He asked, yawning.

"Well, we have day duty today again, remember?" Karen said nervously. "Ugh, that's right." He said, annoyed. "Well, let's go." He said, Putting his hands in his pockets and walking down the hall to the storage room. Karen smiled and ran after him happily.

They opened the door and as they walked inside and shut the door Imadori said, "I don't get why they keep putting us together for day duty. It's so annoying." Karen immediately froze.

"What?" She thought. "It's…annoying?" "That was rude!" Sarah said angrily through the chip. Not even thinking about what Sarah had said, Karen copied.

"That was rude." Karen said. Imadori turned around and look at her, his eyebrows raised. Realizing what she had just said, Karen clapped her hand to her mouth not believing what had just come out of it. Through the chip she heard Sarah gasp. There was a moment of silence before…

"I'M SO SORRY!" Karen said loudly. She started bowing spastically over and over. "I don't know what I was thinking! I mean I get that sometimes it gets annoying when you're with the same person all the time I guess! And I'm just really really sorry!"

"Whatever, forget it." Imadori said walking over to the shelves and starting to move the small things to their right places.

Karen stood up straight and watched him. She sighed sadly and started helping. Sarah didn't say anything after that. "So Ichi, any plans for the summer?" Imadori asked boredly. "Well I'm going to my uncle's house for the summer. He has a boat that we go out to the ocean in. He lives on a beach. And it's Ichijou by the way so please stop calling me Ichi"

She said, still very shocked at the last words out of his mouth. Annoying. "A boat, huh? That sounds like fun."

Karen's memory of the boat: A nice small cabin boat.

Imadori's imagination of the boat: A large cruise ship

"Can I come?" He said suddenly. "WHAT!" Karen said, surprised at his question. "Uh, no, I don't think that's possible. No. I'm sorry." Imadori started whining like a puppy.

"Oh come on Ichi, the whole gang can come. Please?" He begged. "Uh, maybe. I'll have to ask my uncle if it's ok though." She said blushing. "YAY!" He yelled. He ran out and down the hall. "Wait Imadori!" We aren't finished yet!" She called after him.

"I guess I'll have to finish it myself." She thought. "Ugh, the nerve of that guy! Inviting himself to go on vacation with you! How rude is that?" Sarah finally spoke, and Karen didn't answer. "Um…Karen?" Sarah asked nervously.

Karen collapsed on a bench. "It's so annoying that they keep paring us up!" The words echoed in Karen's head. "Karen? KAREN? KAREN!" Sarah started saying. Karen pulled the ear phone out of her ear and clicked the switch off.

"Is is really that terrible for him when he spends time with me? I mean, what is it? Am I unattractive?" Karen thought to herself. She started crying as she thought about it. She bent over and covered her face with her hands. She ran out of the room and down the hall as fast as she could. She made a tight turn into the girls' bathroom.

There she had a complete meltdown on the floor. Each new possibility of why he didn't like her conjured a brand new sob. She heard footsteps come up behind her. Her first thought was Sarah. "Sarah, I'm grateful that you tried to help me but I'd really like you to leave me alone right now!" She cried.

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She could also tell it was bigger than Sarah's. She turned and who would be standing there but Imadori. "OH MY GOODNESS! IMADORI WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE GIRLS' BATHROOM!" She yelled standing up. "Uh… I was…Looking for you!" Imadori laughed nervously.

"It's ok that you ran off. I finished by myself, it was fine." Karen said, trying to remove the evidence that she had been crying. "Really, it's all ok, so you can just go now. Good-bye!" She said laughing fakely and waving.

She turned her head away and felt her chin gently pulled back in the other direction by Imadori's warm hand. With his other he put a finger under her eye and caught a tear. She couldn't read the expression on his face. It wasn't really a kind face, but it wasn't a mean face either. More like his everyday bored expression.

"Why are you crying?" He asked casually. Karen didn't know how to respond to that. "Um… nothing." She said nervously. A goofy smile spread across his face. "Ya know, you shouldn't listen to what I say. I just don't know when to shut up is all." He laughed, nervously scratching his head.

Karen was amazed. "Umm…What?" She said not knowing what to make of what he just said. "I'd think that you Ichi, of all people would know that I'm kind of an idiot." He laughed. Right when she started to cheer up, Imadori chose the wrong time to mooch off of her.

His face was suddenly uncomfortably close to hers. "But seriously though, how about we don't tell anybody that I was in here ok?" He said. Karen's smile twitched. Until it was gone completely. "Ok?" He asked.

"Of course" Karen thought to herself. "He was being nice so that I wouldn't tell he was creeping in the girls' bathroom. I feel like such an idiot." She thought. All of a sudden, Karen face was a dark cloud. She grabbed his wrist and violently pried his hand off her face.

She stormed over to the door. "Ichi what is it?" Imadori asked timidly. Karen whipped around and her eyes weren't full of anger. Oh no. It was worse. It was much worse. They were full of pain. And she had already started crying again. To Imadori's surprise, she bowed deeply to him. "I'm sorry, Imadori!" She cried, standing up.

"Uh, why?" He asked. "I'm sorry that I'm not good enough to deserve you. And I'm sorry that all I'm ever going to mean to you is that I'm the girl who you can easily get whatever you want from. You take advantage of my feelings for you knowingly. I'm sorry that you can't see how much that hurts me. That's why I'm sorry." With that, she turned on her heel, stormed out the door and that was that.

And there it is. The first chapter. I hope the rest of it isn't going to be quite as dramatic as this chapter was, but I've liked this pair since they met in the series. Please leave a review and tell me what you think!

-Team Anime