Chapter 2: Bulletproof

Finally I've begun writing again, I've been held back but I've been honing my writing skills so expect a lot better quality chapters. That's why I've deleted them., I've also got a tumblr blog dedicated to Gakuen Alice and this fanfic so once I've bulked it up the link'll be on my profile

Please review! I want to see who's reading! Thank you for waiting xxx

Also any beta readers want to help me? PM me!

Chapter 2:Bulletproof

I won't let you turn around,
and tell me now I'm much too proud,
to walk away from something when it's dead,
do do do your dirty words come out to play when you are hurt?,
there's certain things that should be left unsaid,
tick tick tick on the watch and life's too short for me to stop,
Oh baby, your time is running out,
I won't let you turn around,
and tell me now I'm much too proud,
All you do is fill me up with doubt,

This time baby I'll be bulletproof

La Roux - Bulletproof

We walked in silence into our room. My heart was hammering loudly so I cleared my throat and said,

"So uh, what s'up homie?"

Natsume turned to me. He raised his eyebrow. Slick.

"Nevercall me homie again." He said bending down and breathing in my face, I almost began sweating,

"Sure roomie!" I squeaked. He sighed and gave up. I opened my suitcase and took out my gym stuff, it was three o'clock now… I opened my toiletries bag and began to take out my shampoo and shower gel.

I walked into the bathroom and put my stuff neatly in a cupboard. I closed it and walked out I had left my suitcase open, crap! Natsume was looking in his, thank god.

I ran to it before Natsume turned around slamming the lid. "How long have you been playing basketball then?" He asked turning around with a basket ball in his hands. He threw it at me and I jumped to catch it.

"Since I was two." I dribbled it around him and he picked up the ball and began to dribble it around me.

"Neat stuff dude." I said impressed. I shrugged and turned around to carry on unpacking; I went to the big wardrobe and hung up my hoodies and tops. Was I the only one using the wardrobe?

Well, fine I'll use the whole space then I decided.

Natsume went into the bathroom and opened my cupboard by mistake,

"Dude, what the hell is strawberry shampoo doing in a cupboard? In my room?" I froze and turning around I said kind of angry, it's my room too you know!

"Errr, that's my stuff man! Don't diss strawberries okay? Huh, what you a strawberry-ist discriminator person, huh?"

What the hell was I jabbering about? People who discriminate against strawberries? Oh sweet Jesus I may as well hand myself in now.

"Geez, just don't let me see it again." He muttered in that velvet voice of his.

"Sure thang." I said chirpily, happy I was out of deep water.

I put my iPod on Dizee's Rascal's "Bonkers" on the speakers I had packed and plugged in. Natsume walked in smirking, "That's more like it."

He bopped his head to the beat, so I quickly did the same. Is it a guy thing? I got dizzy very quickly so I stopped and carried on unpacking.

Natsume walked over to me, our room was spacious and clean. It had laminated flooring and we both had white squishy beds. "So really think you can make the team?" He asked eyebrow raised.

I get the feeling he does that a lot. The whole raise-y eyebrow thing, I mean.

"You know it!" I replied, what was this pervert suggesting I couldn't make the team? I had made every one I had tried for, but he wasn't to know. He shrugged and said offhandedly,

"Well just so you know, my friends and I are definitely making the team, so if you don't get on, don't be disappointed."

I gritted my teeth and smiled tightly, "Oh, I'll be joining you."

He looked into my suitcase, "Why are there tampons in your case?"

I gulped, panicking I said shakily,

"Oh these? Well you see I used to play … uh …play streetball with my friends and fights always broke out afterwards, these can stop a nose bleed faster than you can say- "

"Whatever, forget I asked." He backed away and didn't look into my case again, phew! That was too close!

I punched my head, stupid Mikan! Couldn't you think of something better?

"Hey, we better be going now, it's half four."

I grabbed my bag and said, "After you roomie!"

As we walked out into the hallway we met Natsume's friends,

"Yo dude!" called a dirty blonde haired boy with a grin.

"Natsume." Nodded another blonde with longer bangs. Natsume bumped fists with them, they turned to me and asked, "What's his name?"

Natsume stayed mute so I stepped forward, "Wass'up man! I'm Miki Sakura, nice to know you."

"Yo dude, I'm Kokoroyome, call me Koko though." Blondie two nodded, "I'm Ruka man."

"Off for basketball?" Koko asked me, "Hella yeah!" They all stopped.

"Hella … yeah?" Ruka said amused. Err, they don't say that? I shrugged, "I'm a man of many words."

Koko laughed, his laugh bouncing off the hallway. We walked in the sunlight to the sports hall. The guys were talking about tactics and holidays and I was absorbed in listening to their conversation, I felt at ease with them. My mind wandered to my own friends back at home. How were they doing?

"Yo Sakura? Are you listening?" I snapped out of it, Koko was waving his hand in front of my face. "Get changed, we're here."

"Oh! Uh I mean, *cough* yeah man." I choked out. I walked like I always did, into the ladies toilets. Ruka grabbed my hood, "This way dude, seriously. You need to get your eyes checked."

"He he he, yeeeahh…." I weakly laughed, I needed to be more aware of my small mistakes, anything could raise suspicion. I walked into the stuffy, hot, changing room, it was full of half naked guys. My instincts screamed, "Get the hell outta here Mikan!"

They started stripping, so before I had a nosebleed I threw my bag into my saviour. The disabled toilet room.

"Er, dudes, my bag jumped in here, I'm just goin' to get it!"

I slipped into the disabled toilets and got changed, I put on my swimming top and wrapped round a bandage to even it out, and a big black sleeveless vest to over it, along with white baggy shorts and my orange converse with shin length socks. Looking down I realised that I had made a vital mistake a few days before. I had shaved my legs. Hopefully no one would notice.

I snuck out, the changing room was empty, damn. I must be late.

I ran into the sports hall. I went and joined onto the line of boys, pulling my shorts down self conscious in an attempt to cover my hairless limbs. Please let no one see my shaved legs!

"I'm your coach, my name is Reo. I will be known as your master for this years season." Yelled an auburn haired guy who was tall and muscular.

The kind of guy you wouldn't want to bump into in a dark alley, not that he was dodgy looking, in fact the reverse. Dodgy people wouldn't be queuing up to bump into him at any time in the day. He prowled up and down the line, spitting out insults. He looked at the fat kid next to me,

"WE'RE GONNA WORK THE STUFFING OUT OF YOU!"

He walked to me and bent down, "Are you a runt child?" He spat to me.

I wiped the spit away off my face, mildly annoyed.

"There are twenty-nine of you, perfect. Right, this is where your death is decided. This is war, kill or be killed...You understand? NOW GO GRAB A VEST!" He yelled and I almost jumped. He pointed to the various mounds of colour vests. I ran to the mound of white vests and rammed it on.

"Now split evenly into groups of five and we'll have a practice game, LET ME SEE WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" He blew a whistle.

I joined a group of four boys wearing white shirts. One was tall and lanky, another spotty and short, there was the fat kid and a guy smaller than me. I looked at Natsume, he had it all planned out. His team all perfect and experienced.

Thanks roomie.

I sighed, "Come on guys let's show them what we've got!" Coach blew his whistle.

"WHITES VS REDS! COME ON LADIES I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY!" Shouted Reo.

I began to jog to the centre warming up quickly stretching my arms above my head.

Reo stood in the middle of the court, I was playing centre, as was Natsume. I quickly assessed him, about 5"11 and strong, hint of agility and lots of explosive speed. Reo threw the ball up and I jumped up high to get it, Natsume over powered with ease and dribbled around me, he bounced it waist high, too high I thought.

I waited until it was halfway between his hand and the ground when I dove in and dribbled low. He tried to put me off with his height, but I kept my cool. I turned to yell for backup, all my team were useless. One had even sat down. The fat kid had started eating, in the middle of a game.Where on earth was he hiding that Hershey's bar? Actually, no I didn't want to know.

I'll do the scoring then, thank you very much.

I had a hard time getting past Natsume, his feet were big, but nimble. He could see through my feints so I stuck with a fast paced dribble round his legs. I dribbled, spun and feinted round his team. Too easy.

Ruka had other ideas and tried to crowd me while letting Natsume take the ball. Realising this I passed the ball round his head clearing the way to the goal I jumped and did a slam dunk past Koko's surprised face.

"Score!" I yelled, quickly lowering my voice. Everyone stood and stared at me.

"Right, what's your name?" Reo asked coming over with a stormy expression on his face.

"Er, Mika-MIKI! It's Miki." I hastily corrected.

"Miki, sit these games out." He spat while pointing to the rows of benches where usually the audience sat.

"Huh?" What the hell? I had been good!

"I DON'T REPEAT MYSELF MIKI!" He screamed.

I turned and sighed. I walked up the stairs and slumped onto a bench and watched bored as Natsume and his posse obliterated every team. I counted his players… they had four! It should be five in a basketball team!

There was Koko, Natsume, Ruka and silvery blonde-ish haired boy who looked as bored as I felt. I watched them closely, Natsume was their star player who played centre and was their main shooter, and second shooter was silver haired boy who was good at receiving passes without being obviously notified. Ruka was good at jumping high, dribbling fast and passing far across the area. Koko was a mean slam dunker but was best at sticking at the wings to dribble the ball away from a potential shooters hand.

Which was comically aided by a mad dance at one point as he was complaining of boredom so much. But still. There's supposed to be five a side in basketball! Reo sent the teams who failed to sit on the bench with me. I sighed as I looked disgruntled at the people I had been sat with, I hadn't been as bad as them! I tapped my wig into place gently. My chest was tightly bounded up, it was hard to breath. I wondered if I should just go home and call it a day… Soon enough Natsume's team was the only one left over.

"MIKI OVER HERE. NOW!" Yelled Reo. I sighed and walked over, "What s'up coach?" I asked scratching my head, the wig is itchy!

" I have seen, determination, progress, failure and," he turned to my team, "PURE LAZINESS, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" The fat kid had at least the grace to put the chocolate bar down.

"Thank you for coming but can the following step up, Natsume, Ruka, Koko, Youichi and … Miki. You guys were the best players here so you're all on my team."

He turned sympathetically to the rest, "Go home."

Coach Reo waited for the rest to file out before smoothing his hair down and readjusting his zebra print sleeveless hoodie.

" Welcome to the team, my name is Coach Reo. You ladies nearly earned my respect out there and someday I will call you all men." He leaned in and looked down at me, who was considerably smaller than the rest of our newly formed team. "Yes, even you runt. I am a strict and orderly man so I expect punctuality and respect from you. Any lip and you are out on your behind faster than you can say "Quidditch". We practice every day Saturday and Sunday from six till nine." He paused, having now settled into a moderate volume. He smiled, more warmly this time and his violet eyes softened as he said "And once again, welcome to the team."

Whoops went up and Natsume and silver guy high fived each other and me and Koko bumped fists. "Yeeaaahhh baby!" I said happily.

He pointed to his office, "Go get a top from my office." We walked into the office and ripped the plastic coverings from our blue vests with the golden "Alice" crest in the middle. I reached for a medium one and grabbed it tight. To think, I chastised myself, you were going to quit.

"But enough of the celebrations, I have a meeting to go to. So we'll meet here tomorrow for Saturday's practice." Reo smiled at us and left.

"Whooop! We did it Natsume! You da maaan!" Said Koko, "Yeah well done too Miki." Said Ruka, "Let's hit the showers dude 'cos Koko, you stink."

I walked into the changing rooms and grabbed my bag, "Where you going Miki? You gotta shower!"" Laughed Koko whacking my back in a friendly manner. Mistakenly to avoid Koko's eyes my own settled on something a lot worse. A certain red-eyed boy was taking off his top. Sharply inhaling I jabbered,

"Err my phone's ringing, bad signal here so I'll be going now..." And I ran out my heart pounding. I had just seen Natsume Hyuga topless. TOPLESS.

"Ooooooh god." I whispered running to our dorm.

The next day I woke up early, my hair flowed over the pillow. CRAP!

I scrambled for my wig and shoved it on, luckily Natsume woke up when I had finished, my heart was pounding.
"Mornin' roomie!" I chirped in my normal voice, damn that was too high!

He looked at me to say, "Roomie? Seriously?"

"Your voice still breaking?" He asked while sitting up. I nodded quickly looking at him. And I saw it again.

His bare chest. Does he everwear clothes? I self consciously tugged at my top and began to jabber on completely forgetting his question.

"So, uh, I'll go n the shower first okay?" I jumped out of bed and skidded into the bathroom.

He just picked a manga from the floor and began to read it.

Later that day we all trooped to go to practice and Coach had a "fun" exercise in mind for us.

"NATSUME! SET YOU AND YOUR LADY FRIENDS UP WITH THEIR BALL!" Natsume obliged and handed everyone a basketball, we stood in a line. I was ready for what ever came my way.

"Today, we will be focusing on deflecting the ball with our body. Use your chest, limbs anything to deflect it, DON'T DRIBBLE IT. Simply bounce it back. GOT IT? NOW GO!"

We spread out into a circle and Koko threw his ball at Natsume's chest who bounced it back. Natsume picked up his ball and threw it hard at my chest.

Square in the chest. The ball bounced to the ground the sound echoing, tears actual,tears formed in my eyes.

"It burns!" I whispered softly.

"What's the matter Missy Miki? What's burning?" Bellowed Reo watching me. Everyone stopped and looked at me.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Err, well you see I have a … a … I have," Now think up of the best lie of the centaury.

"I have burns."

" … Burns. You have burns Sakura?"

I nodded.

"Yes I have burns on my chest." I confirmed.

"What kind of burns may I ask?" Reo asked coming closer. I gulped, which was the highest again? I crossed my fingers, thinking whatever I'll go for broke.

" Second degree burns sir. They're very nasty, ugly looking burns, er, and I'd prefer to um, not get hit in the chest. For that reason." I could hear "ooohs" and an "owch". Phew, I had picked the right one!

"RIGHT! NO ONE HITS SAKURA IN THE CHEST." He yelled just to make it carried on practicing as if I hadn't said anything but later in our break Koko asked,

"So dude how did you get the burns?"

"Erm, an accident. I got some hot water on my chest when I was younger." "Yowch! How old were you?" Asked Ruka.

"I was… I was five." I stammered back. My "burns" had been dubbed as "The Burns" in our team.

"Is that why you ran out of the showers yesterday?" Asked Youichi looking bored.

"Um, yeah dude. Sorry 'bout that." I said trying not to laugh they actually bought my lame cover story. Damn, they saw me running?

"No prob, "The Burns" must look really bad for a guy on the basketball teamto run away from a shower head."

I smiled weakly, was the gender emphasis necessary?

"Well," I countered reasonably. "Everyone's got a weakness." Little did I know what was about to become my own.