FicWad

Careless Wonder

Chapter Eleven: Popular

A hand, curled into a fist, slammed onto the alarm clock in an attempt to stop the blaring noise it was producing. Luckily for him, it shut up after the first strike. The orange haired teen rolled on his back and yawned loudly, his arms stretching above him and then landing over his head to relax. His groggy eyes blinked up at the ceiling, letting another yawn escape his lips.

"I'M NOT WEARING A SKIRT YOU PERVERT!" Aria screamed in the hallway causing Ichigo to sit up quickly in his bed in alarm.

"If you're going to stay under my roof, YOUR GOING TO SCHOOL AND SCHOOL REQUIRES YOU TO – UMPPPHH," His father yelled, but was stopped short when he heard something slapping against skin and then another hitting the wall with a loud thump.

Ichigo smacked his hand to his face. For the last two days they've been at each other's throats about the whole school business. It had been grating on his nerves. He pulled the blankets off him and swung his legs over the bed, standing up and strolling over to his door. Once open, he stared at the scene laid before him. His father was against the wall a little to his left rubbing the back of his head and had a very prominent foot mark on his cheek. To his right was a fuming Aria who was glaring a hole through the skirt she hand in her hands. She pulled on the slightly elastic band and shifted her eyes back toward his father.

"And how the hell did you know my waist size you pervert!" She accused the old man, her face red with either fury or embarrassment. It was probably both combined.

"Lucky guess!" His father said a little too chirpily for the current situation. In return, he had the skirt thrown on his face.

Ichigo looked back at Aria to see her hand on her forehead, shaking it back and forth. His eyes moved from her face to her attire. She was wearing blue, loose sweat pants that hung loosely around her hips, which made him blush profusely, and a tank top that showed off her curves and her round… he turned sharply on his heel, back into his bedroom, and then slamming the door behind him.

"Will you just get off my back about it?" Aria's annoyed voice carried through the door he was leaning on.

"Never! I will never give up! I'll make you go to school one way or another!" Silence soon followed after his little burst.

"Fine!" Aria groaned out. "I'll go."

"Yes! I knew you would agree eventually!"

He heard the air leave her mouth as she huffed loudly. "Whatever. I'm only doing it because I'm bored. The TV can only sate me for about an hour anyways before I'm bored to death." He heard footsteps and a loud knock on his door. "Ichigo. I know you're by the door. When I attend school," she said in disgust. "I don't want you to acknowledge me… ever. You don't know me, got it! And if you do I'll beat the living daylights out of you."

"Whatever."

"Good." She stomped away and heard her slam her door.

"You'll need your school uniform to go to school!" His father called out.

"Whatever!" he heard her muffled voice.

Ichigo, yet again, slapped his hand to his face. Couldn't there be one normal passing day in this house?

He could only wish.

Throughout breakfast Aria stayed upstairs. When his father called up to her she said she was going to be late. As he ate, he heard footsteps and something opening and closing upstairs as she rummaged through things rather, and annoyingly, loudly.

He had a feeling today was going to be crazy.

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Ichigo slung his book bag over his shoulder and waved goodbye to his sisters as they parted ways to their separate schools. Aria still hadn't come down from her rummaging up stairs, so he just left her to his own father's dismay. He wasn't going to be late for school because of her.

His walk to school was normal, thank God, but on his way he didn't run into Asano anywhere like he normally would. Even when he arrived to his homeroom, all of his friends shared, he wasn't sitting in his seat. Even Mizuiro had no idea where he could have gone. Stranger yet, Tatsuki and Orihime weren't at school, either. He hoped they were sick and nothing bad happened to them.

The school bell rang and the teacher waited for the class to calm down before she made her announcement. She lifted a piece of paper to her face and squinted, her nose wrinkling up like it would help her see the writing more clearly. "Looks like we have a new student from Germany joining us today!" She sounded excited, he wondered who the new kid was… why did she say she was from Germany? Way to draw attention to herself, even though that part may be true other students were bound to ask her to say something in German. He wouldn't save her from her awkward social skills since she didn't want anything to do with him while at school. Whatever. She deserved it.

Before the teacher continue her eyes shot up to the back of the room. "Ah, nice of you three to join us." Ichigo turned around and was relieved to see his friends standing in the door way. Asano had his hand scratching the back of his head from embarrassment, Orihimie had her hands clasped in front of her with a slight blush, and Tatsuki had her hand on her hip.

"Sorry," Tatsuki spoke on the behalf of the three. "We got hung up in… reuniting with old friends."

Ichigo turned back around when he saw them make way to their seats. Next to him, Asano sat down and smiled sheepishly his way. He rolled his eyes.

"I'll let it slide this once but I won't be so lenient next time… Ah, looks like our new student is here!" Everyone turned around to see what the new student looked like, including himself, even though he already knew who he was going to see.

Ichigo fell over in his chair.

Standing in the doorway was a very annoyed Aria… but… she was wearing Ichigo's school uniform - and was sporting a shaggy blonde haired wig that just barely passed her ears and partially covered her eyes. She had a book bag slung over her shoulder as she scanned the room, her eyes instantly landing on him where she gave a silent glare.

The clothes were too big for her, he noticed, but it wasn't too noticeable. She also wore the school uniform jacket which he suspected she kept on to cover up her…

She was cross-dressing as a boy at his school, and she stole his clothes!

Ichigo sat there and gapped at her, his chin hitting the desk below him. "Good morning…" the teacher looked down at her paper and smiled. "Mr. Diederich. Blake Diederich."

She nodded in return, not bothering to speak. Ichigo wondered, somehow through his mass confusion going on through his head, how she was going to cover up her girly voice.

"Well, since I know you'll be asked a lot of question regardless if I force you to introduce yourself in front of the class or not, we'll just pass the little introduction and get on with my lecture." She gestured to the back of the room near the windows. "Please, take a seat, and I hope you have a wonderful time here in Japan." She sounded too happy.

Aria casually walked to her desk while receiving stares from everyone in the class, mostly the girls. "He's cute," someone whispered. "He's from Germany, I wonder if he's fluent in Japanese,", "Look at those eyes, there so blue!", "Oh my gosh! Eye candy!"

Ichigo's eye twitched uncontrollably at the comments. When he turned around in his seat to face forward once more he noticed Asano staring intently at her… was that why the three were late because of something Aria did? He had a gut feeling that that was the case.

He didn't ponder on it too long when the teacher cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. She began to lecture, everyone almost instantly forgetting about the new student. Throughout class he would occasionally sneak a peek in her general direction. Throughout the whole lecture she was staring out the window, not bothering to listen to the material the teacher was spoke of. Her right hand lightly tapped her desk, while her left arm was propped up for her to lie her chin on lazily onto the palm of her hand.

When class was over, Aria quickly gathered up her material and made a beeline for the door, ignoring the questions directed toward her. Ichigo hurriedly put all his material away; he wanted to catch up with her and ask what the hell she was thinking, not caring in the least about her threat from the morning.

"Ichigo!" Asano grabbed his shoulder and shook him uncontrollably as he spoke quickly in a hyperactive tone. "Did you see that new student?!"

"Yeah," he mumbled, looking upon his friend with annoyance as he pulled his hands off his shoulders.

"You'll have no idea what happened this morning! You see, me, Tatsuki, and Orihime were walking to school like normal and looking for you when we got jumped by students from the town over!" Now that got Ichigo's attention.

"What happened? Are you guys all right?" He looked over toward Orihimie and Tatsuki who were making their way over to where Asano and him were standing. They didn't seemed to be hurt. Maybe Tatsuki took care of them. It wouldn't have surprised him, but what did Aria have to do with it?

"No, we were saved! By that new student Blake!"

"It's true," Orihime chimed in, a huge smile on her face. "There were twenty of them and they told us, 'Not so fast, we want to play a game'," Orihime tried her best to mimic the leaders' voice. "And Tatsuke said, 'We're not here to play games. Let us pass so no one gets hurt.' It was so scary! And then he laughed at her! And then he said some other nasty things I rather not repeat, but before they took a step toward us a loud whistling sound made them look away from us. When we turned to see what it was we saw that Blake guy! He had a book in his hand, almost like he was reading it, and looked at the leader with this strange annoyed expression on his face. Then the leader was like, 'What do you want…', he said something I don't want to repeat! And that Blake guy said, 'Your voice is annoying. Do you mind keeping it down so I can read?' The gang leader guy looked confused and started laughing, then Blake said. 'I'll only say this one more time, keep your voice down or else.' Then the gang leader guy said, 'Or else what?' Then that Blake guy shut his book really loudly and put it into his pockets and then began to walk toward us. Then the gang leader said, 'Get 'em boys,' and the gang people lunged for him. Do you want to know what he did?"

Orihime stopped and began to pant wildly. Ichigo couldn't believe she said all that in one breath. He hesitated before asking, "What did sh… he do?"

"He beat them all up with just his feet! He didn't even lift a finger! And when it was just the gang leader left, he ran away. Blake watched him run, shook his head and took his book out of his pocket and began to read again like it was nothing!"

"He didn't even acknowledge us," Tatsuki added, sounding a little ticked. "He just walked past us without saying a word. I called out to him but he didn't stop." Tatsuki had her arms crossed, her head turned to the side with a scowl on her face. Ichigo guessed her pride was hurt from being rescued by a total stranger. "Prick."

"Yeah, can you believe that, Ichigo?" Asano looked gleefully at him. It seemed Aria already had a fan club. He just hoped no one else would hear about her heroic act.

That didn't happen.

By third period everyone was talking about it. As he listened to the nonstop chatter, he hit his forehead over and over again against his desk. He groaned when a girl squealed saying, "There he is!" in a rather loud whisper. He didn't bother looking up to see where she would be seated, but he instinctively looked to his left when he heard someone pull out the seat next to him to sit.

It was Aria.

She acted like she didn't see him, preparing herself for the upcoming class. Ichigo glowered at her the whole time as she rummaged through her handbag. Only once did she sneak a peek at him, and when their eyes meet she smiled smugly at him. He shot his head off his desk and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted when someone stepped in front of him.

"Blake!" An overly happy voice called. When he looked up to see who got in his way he saw a girl with curly blonde hair, and was extremely short... and also on the chubby side of the scale. Even though her back was turned to him he knew all too well who that girl was. Her name was… her name was… he couldn't remember. But he remembered her having a huge crush on him in the beginning of the year. She would not leave him alone. After a while of him ignoring her, she gave up.

"Blake?" her annoying, grating voice called again, trying her best to get Aria's attention.

Aria glanced up toward her, raising her eyebrow in a way of saying she was listening. The girl moved a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled sweetly. "Um… hi!"

Ichigo leaned in closely, wanting to hear the voice she was going to use, his foot tapping eagerly on the ground.

"Hey."

Again, Ichigo feel over in his seat, but this time people were staring. It did sound like Aria's voice, mostly because he knew what her voice sounded like, but she was perfectly disguising it and actually sounded like a guy with a slightly raspy voice! What the hell! How was she doing that?

"What do you want?" Aria asked with annoyance. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a small book.

"Um… well, you see – I, uh… was wondering if you could say something in German for me…?" She gave a nervous giggle. She probably didn't have any idea what she was going to say to Blake when she first came over, so she quickly tried her best to cover up for it.

Aria/Blake looked up toward the girl and then back down at her book. She licked the tip of her fingers to turn the page, then said, "Geh weg, bevor ich dich kicken."

She smiled and giggled, her hand over her mouth just like any girl would do. "Wow! That was so cool. If you don't mind me asking, what did you say?"

"Go away before I kick you." Was Aria/Blake's blunt response.

Her face paled. She giggled nervously while scratching the back of her head sheepishly before scooting away from Aria/Blake to her own seat.

Ichigo had a bead of sweat slide down the side of his face as he watched the poor, petrified girl saunter back into her seat. He turned his eyes to glare at Aria, but only saw her slightly smiling into the book she was reading. She was enjoying all of this too much.

"You know that wasn't nice," Ichigo muttered loud enough for Aria to hear.

"Does it look like I care," she retorted. She glared at Ichigo then went back to reading her book, ignoring his glowering stare.

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Ichigo was more than happy for the school day to end. His forehead was turning red due to hitting his head repeatedly against his desk every time someone talked about Aria. She was already the talk of the school and it was only her first day! Girls were drooling over… her – which he didn't understand because she still looked like a chick to him, and other guys tried to become her friend after seeing her popularity skyrocket. She ignored them all.

She became the mysterious loner everyone was falling in love with. Figuratively and literally speaking. Dammit, even Orihime wouldn't stop talking about… her – during lunch period, even Asano got into it.

Will someone just kill him now?

"What's wrong with you, Ichigo? You look like crap," Karin blunt musing brought Ichigo back to reality. He was already home and found himself sitting at the kitchen table with his head lying face down against it.

"Are you feeling okay, Ichigo?" Yuzu's worried voice made him groan. Both girls were sitting on the couch, but turned around to speak to their brother.

Before he could respond, their front door opened and a certain cross-dresser walked in with a knowing smile on her face. Both of their eyes meet, but her smile only grew wider while his frown turned into his trademark scowl.

"What the hell, Aria!? Why are you dressed like a guy?! And why are you wearing my clothes?" Ichigo ranted. Aria closed her eyes and casually walked over to the table. She set her things down and pulled off her wig. When he was done yelling he watched her pull out her hair pins, waiting for her to give him the explanation he was dying to know since first period. Finally, she looked up at him, her little smirk still present.

"You know it's not nice to swear in front of your sisters," she slyly said. Ichigo crossed his arms and gritted his teeth. He tried to keep his cool mostly because she was right.

"Will you please just answer my questions?"

Aria shrugged and pulled out a seat to sit down and cross her legs in. She leaned back with her hands placed behind her head. "Isn't it obvious? I don't like to wear skirts, and the only way around it was for me to act and play like a guy. I don't see what the big deal is. You're blowing this way out of proportion."

Ichigo slapped his hand to his face, shaking his head back and forth with exasperation. Today was a long and annoying day, he was extremely tired and Aria acting like everything was okay and normal only added to his stress. "Yeah, but what if someone found out you're a girl? You'll probably be sent to jail or something… I dunno…"

"You're right, you don't know."

Ichigo shook his head and turned sharply on his heel not wanting to deal with Aria's way of avoiding the question. He muttered whatever and began to walk away, but before he could go upstairs to bury his head underneath his blanket and pretend none of that day's events ever happened, a hand grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. He looked over and saw Aria looking at him with almost sad and pleading eyes. "Look… I don't like it any more than you do, but your father wouldn't shut up about me going to school. I… didn't want to wear a skirt because – well…" she stopped to scratch the back of her head with the hand previously on his shoulder. Then, she gripped the bridge of her nose and squeezed ever so lightly like she was forcing herself to come out with whatever was on her mind. "I'm… really, really, self-conscious about my scarring." She crossed her arms and looked away from him, she had a light scowl on her face but she didn't say anything more.

Ichigo stayed silent as he studied her over his shoulder. She seemed agitated for telling him. He really didn't have any idea that she was so self-conscious. There, at home, he seen her wear tank tops…

Then he remembered how she stole one of his T-shirts to wear because her hoodie was in the wash. She had a tank top on then but refused to just wear that alone. The only other time he saw her scarring was that morning when she was arguing with his father, of course not counting the one time she was shirtless because… nope, he wasn't going to think about it. Imagining it made him blush profusely. Not like he saw anything… but still, it was the idea of it.

He turned his head to look at the stairs he was aiming for before she stopped him, and sighed. "Is that all? Why couldn't you just wore tights or something underneath?"

"I thought of that too, but they want me to join a gym class, mostly because it's required, and the girls are required to take a… swimming course for a week straight and the guys only have to play American football." Ichigo noticed how defeated she sounded. So, she wasn't doing it to torture him.

He sighed loudly and shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, whatever. Just remember to ask me next time you want to wear my old clothes." He walked to the stairs and up, not looking over to see Aria watch him walk away. Up in his room he sat down at his desk, burying his face into his arms.

Maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. Just knowing he was the only one who knew that Blake was actually a girl just irked him. Especially since all the girls were falling for her. He was pretty positive that it was going to blow over within a week, Aria's social skills would drive anyone away. He noticed that she liked to be alone for most of the day. He guessed it was hard for her to adjust to the change going on around her at a rapid pace. She'd been in almost complete solitude for over five years, and now she had all these people trying to socialize with her, to be her friend.

He realized that he wouldn't know how she was feeling. He had been around friends and family since, well, forever, but she wasn't use to it like he was. He thought about how he would act if he shut himself away for years with no contact with the outside world? … Well, almost no contact. He remembered her saying once that she traveled a lot, never staying long in one spot and occasionally welcomed help when she was desperate. That's all he got out of her. He always wondered how she survived… how she even lived.

He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to ponder over it. He reached over to his book bag and pulled out his homework. He had a test to study for and trying to figure out what was going on in Aria's mind wouldn't get him anywhere.

But…

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A week passed and Ichigo realized quickly he was wrong. He was extremely, absolutely, no doubt about it, wrong of the whole situation. It didn't blow over. In fact, everyone seemed more attracted to "Blake" because of her cold and distant attitude.

Blake had a fan club. A big fan club.

Ichigo watched below him through the metal fencing of the courtyard on the rough. It was lunch time and he was with his usual group of friends. Asano, Mizurio, Chad, Orihime, and even Uryuu and Tatsuki were up on the roof eating and socializing. He was really surprised to see Uryuu, but he wasn't going to complain. The guy could go anywhere he wanted.

Below, Aria… erm, Blake was walking by herself, her nose in another book as she read diligently, like she always did. When she was at school she was always reading something. A couple times in the few classes he had with her the teachers chastised her for it. When she was at home, she never read anything.

As she walked, behind her was a group of girls following her. When she stopped and turned around, the girls acted like they didn't see Blake; socializing, picking their nails, whatever. When she turned back to walk, they began to stalk again.

Ichigo watched with a sweat drop forming on the side of his face. Every few feet she would turn around, but when she turned to walk again, her pace quickened as she tried to flee without being noticed.

"Ichigooooooo…!" His annoying yet best friend, Asano, said as he launched himself toward the un-expecting boy, but Ichigo knew his tactics, he tried it every day.

At the last second, Ichigo turned so his back was pressed against the metal fence and Asano's face plastering itself against it. When the boy pulled away, he had the shape of the fence etched into his skin. As he rubbed his face to ease the pain he looked at Ichigo.

"What you looking at with such intensity, Ichigo?" Asano questioned, but when he looked over and down toward the court yard he knew instantly. "Hey, it's that German guy." He watched the scene below him unfold and frowned. "He's so lucky to have all those girls following him. Why he doesn't give them the time of day is beyond me. If that was me I'll take every opportunity I got and ask out every one of the girls to see a movie!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Itchigo muttered.

Uryuu walked up to the two boys and glanced down toward the courtyard as well, pushing up his glasses like he always did. "Are you two talking about Blake?" He crossed his arms as he too, watched the scene below. "I've always found that to be strange since the first day he arrived. There's something not quite right about him, but I can't figure out what." He had his hand on his chin as he analyzed Blake, his thought wondering.

"What are you talking about, Uryuu," Ichigo tried his best to sound casual. "He's just some stuck up kid who thinks he's all that, I wouldn't look too far into it."

"Hey!" Now Orihime joined the trio of boys. She skipped over to them with a huge grin. "What you guys doing?" When she looked down her eyes sparkled at the supposed boy below. "It's Blake! He's such a nice guy."

"He talks to you?" All three boys exclaimed, looking at her with disbelief.

"Yeah," Orihime gave them all a quizzical look. "Doesn't he talk to you guys, too?"

"Uh, no, he's always rude when I try to speak to him," Asano muttered.

"Oh, that's weird, he's really nice to me. Why, just yesterday I ran into him during lunch and noticed he didn't have any himself so I offered mine!" That got the three's attention, Orihime didn't notice the green faces as they thought about her 'so called' cooking.

"Did he eat it?" Ichigo asked, trying to hide his repulsion.

"He took a bite and said he liked it so I split my lunch with him. You know I always make too much! But it was so strange, as he ate he had a salt shaker with him and put a tone of salt on every spoon full!" She said matter-of-factly. The boys tried their best to hide their appalled faces, but were failing miserably. Orihime opened her mouth to say more but stopped when the door that lead to the stairway slammed closed. Everyone looked over to see Blake with her hands pressed against the door and her shoulders heaving like she just ran a marathon.

"Well, speak of the devil," Uryuu muttered.

Blake looked back and forth, then ran to the left behind the building that held the entrance to the stairs. As soon as she disappeared, the door slammed open and about seven girls came spilling out.

"Where he go?" one asked, looking frantically around.

"I know I saw him running up here!" Another yelled.

"He has to be up here somewhere, we just need to look!"

The girls scattered, going over toward the group and asking where he was, looking around every nook and cranny, and even went around the miniature building that she disappeared behind only to come up empty. They all played dumb, knowing full well she was running away from the obsessed girls when they asked them questions.

"Maybe it was someone else," one pouted. After another thorough search, they finally went back downstairs and out of sight.

They watched them leave with sweat forming on the side of their faces. Ichigo let out an over-exaggerated sigh before shacking his head at the idiotic girls. "Did that just really happen?"

"Where did he…" Uryuu began but stopped short when they all looked up to see Blake emerging from atop of the building and jumping down effortlessly to their level. "How did he get up there?"

"Maybe he climbed on a trash can or something," Ichigo said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.

Uryuu pushed up his glasses but didn't comment.

"Blake!" Orihime yelled happily, waving her hand to get Blake's attention. She looked over and Ichigo could see the sweat drop forming on the side of her face. He just sighed and tried to restrain himself from smacking his head.

"Look, he's actually walking over here!" Asano exclaimed, pointing his finger toward Blake as she walked over. That - surprised Ichigo. She was actually willing to socialize?

What was she up too?

"Did you forget your lunch again, mister?" Orihime shook her finger in front of Blake's face. She blinked and then smiled… she actually smiled!

"Does it look like I'm carrying lunch with me?" Her words were mocking, but the way she said it made it sound teasing; not actually meaning it.

"That's okay," Orihime grabbed Blake's hand and dragged her over to the wall they all ate at, forcing her to sit down. "I made too much again, I don't want it to go to waste. Here," she handed Black a carton full of pink goop. "It's ground salmon with yogurt, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, and strawberries!" She sounded way too happy over the disgusted treat.

"Oh my GOD!" Asano whispered like a fan boy. "It's Blake! And he's eating with us!" He quickly ran over and sat down in front of Blake, a huge grin engulfing his whole face.

"He makes it sound like he's some rock band star, and he's only been here for a week," Ichigo said with apparent irritation.

"He is popular with the ladies, so it's logical to think for someone like Asano that if he was friends with Blake, he would become popular, too."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Uryuu stayed quiet as he studied Blake converse with Orihime and Asano with Chad listening in without saying much and Tatsuki sitting rather close to Orihime and glaring down at Blake. "So you don't think there's anything wrong with him?" Uryuu asked again, eyeing Ichigo from the corner of his eye.

"No, why?"

"Because I sometimes sense a high level of spiritual pressure coming off him, especially in the morning." Ichigo blinked and stared down at his Quincy friend, then he turned a glaring eye toward Blake who was now staring at the two intently. "Actually, I don't have a doubt in my mind that there's something he's hiding, and I will figure it out and exploit it, no matter what." Ichigo saw the fire burning in his eyes, he tried his best not to sweat profusely next to him as he mentally slapped himself over and over again in his mind.

Great. Just great.

The two boys finally decided to join their group of friends. Ichigo sat next to Asano and Uryuu walked over to the wall and leaned against it next to Chad, all the while staring in Blake's direction.

Blake was looking into the carton of goo with a raised eyebrow. "I made that for you too, just in case you forgot your lunch again. I put extra salt in it!" she said cheerfully. She handed Blake a spoon.

Didn't she just say that she made too much, and now she said she made it especially for Blake?

She took it without saying anything and spooned a glob full of the glop. Everyone watched as she brought it close to her mouth, opened, and shoved the whole thing in without hesitation. Ichigo coughed away his gagging, and Asano turned his head with his hand over his mouth, trying to muffle his. Both Chad and Tatsuki simply watched with only mild disgust as she chewed and swallowed.

When it made it down her throat, she sat there unmoving with her eyes closed. When she opened them, she nodded toward Orihime, "Tastes good."

Everyone fell over, even Uryuu managed to slip off to the side but caught himself the last minute before he face planted onto the concrete floor.

When they were situated again, Asano asked a question Ichigo knew he'd been dying to ask. "So does this mean you're going to be eating with us for now on?" He sounded too hopeful.

Aria gave him a pointed stare before closing her eyes and taking another bite of her grotesque food. "I rather not."

"Ohhh, that's too bad," he whined, tears streaming down his face.

Blake raised her eyebrow at him but shrugged, taking yet another bite of her pink sludge.

"You're weird," she muttered.

That made Asano tears fall more rapidly.

When the bell rang everyone went their separate ways. Orihime said she'll see Blake next period, Blake nodded and said thank you for the food. When Asano tried to say something, she turned away from him, ignoring him completely which caused more tears to fall from the teens eyes.

For some odd reason, even though he's dreading over Uryuu's attempt to find out more about her, he found her quite comical, and completely different compared to everyone else he ever met. And that was saying a lot. She – was something else. He hadn't decided if that something was good or bad.