I had just gotten off the campus, when I heard a thump. I looked around and saw nothing. I shrugged; must’ve been a bird or something. I continued walking at my normal, fast pace.

Thump.

There it was again! What in the world was that? I looked around again. Nohting.

Urgh, that was frustrating! Starting to walk again, I pondered my day. For the first time in WAY TOO LONG, I could honestly say that school was fun.

Wow.

Freaky.

Thump.

“OKAY!!!!!!!!” I yelled. “Who the HELL is out here?!?!?!?”

A guy came out of the shadows, looking to be about twenty or so. He had this grin on his face as he looked me up and down.

“Hey, girl,” he said, coming closer to me. I backed away. It was only five P.M.! Why wasn’t there anybody on the street?!?!?!?!

He got closer to me and I could smell the potent stench of alcohol in his breath; who gets drunk this early? Really?

I knew that he would keep following me all the way home, and I didn’t want him knowing where I lived, especially with little Karin and Yuzu there, so I stopped and turned to face him. His grin widened when his eyes met mine again.

“Look,” I said. “I can see that you’re piss drunk.” He just looked at me with a bewildered look on his face, which I thoroughly ignored. “And I just need to get home. I’ve had a long day at school, so I just wanna go home and relax.”

“Well, that’s not what I want,” he slurred.

“And what is it exactly that you want?” I was really starting to get angry.

He grinned. “You.” He roughly grabbed my shoulders and pulled my face towards his, putting his nasty, booze-covered lips on mine.

I froze up. I mean literally. I couldn’t move! I tried to will my muscles to move, but honey, they weren’t going ANYWHERE.

I finally got myself to look around, once I had regained some of my strength. I was in an alley nearby, only about fifty feet from where I was originally. This drunkard had finally removed his face from mine, and his hands were moving towards the buttons of my shirt.

Aw, shit….

I had to wait for my muscles to fall back under my command. By then my shirt was off and on the ground. I’m not even gonna tell you what that guy was doing! But I had my movement back. I heard a yell, obviously male, but it wasn’t the bum.

I ignored it.

My fist connected with his face, and his head slammed into the opposite wall, knocking him out instantly. I shook my hand; it slightly ached at the sudden violent activity. To ease the pain, I cracked my knuckles.

“Adel?!”

I turned, only to see Kurosaki looking at me amazedly. I just kinda stood there, unsure of what to do.

“Yo,” I said, giving a slight wave.

His face turned red in anger. “’Yo?!?!?’ That’s all you have to say? You just punched a guy clear out--in an ALLEY--and that’s all you have to say?!??!?!?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. He wasn’t worth anything, anyway…just trash.”

“How can you say that about someone?!” he yelled. “What makes him scum?! His hair? His clothes? You know, you’re not perfect yourself, Adel! Who’re you to judge? Why don’t you just explain to me exactly what happened here?”

My temper soared. “WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO EXPLAIN MYSELF TO YOU?!?!?!?” I screamed, venom filling my every word. “You’re NOT my dad!”

“Yeah, would that be any better? Didn’t he hit you?!?!?”

I spit on the ground (I almost spit in his face). “Okay, so you’re yelling at me--who did NOTHING but nearly get RAPED! Yet you stick up for the RAPIST?!?!?!?” I sneered. “You’re nothing but scum, just like him.” I grabbed my shirt, realizing my torso was bare, all except for my skimpy red bra, put it on, and grabbed my bag. I stormed off, pushing past Kurosaki roughly. I had not the time nor the patience to deal with him at that moment.

I heard him call my name several times from behind me, but I was freaking pissed. I knew I would’ve hit him several times harder than I had the bum if I didn’t ignore Ichigo. And I would probably feel bad about hurting him later.

Probably.

I looked down at my shirt, my face curling in disgust. It was wet, muddy, just gross. I felt nasty wearing it, but I didn’t have much choice.

I walked the rest of the way back to Kurosaki Clinic. As I closed the door, Yuzu looked at me from the kitchen. Her eyes widened when she saw my disgusting condition.

“Oh my gosh, Adel!” she exclaimed, rushing over to examine me closer. “Are you okay? What happened? You look horrible!”

“Thanks,” I said while pondering exactly what I was going to tell her. I mean, I couldn’t tell and eleven-year-old that I nearly got raped. Especially a kid as innocent as Yuzu; it’d crush her!

“Uh,” was my brilliant answer. Wow…I really was an idiot, wasn’t I? “I…was walking home…and I fell. Yeah, I fell. Into some mud. On the street, so that’s why I’m scraped up a bit. No big deal, just my clumsiness at its best! I’m gonna go take a quick shower before supper, okay?”

She looked at me skeptically; she probably knew I was lying. But she mentioned nothing about it, letting me by her so I could go upstairs to shower.

I quickly shed my clothes, stepping into the shower hastily. I was tense with anger, but the hot water quickly soothed my aching bones. I quickly relaxed, letting the vapored water wash all my problems away, at least for the moment. And that moment was all I needed to calm myself and silently work through my problems, lowering myself to a level where, at least, I wouldn’t punch Ichigo over the dinner table.

I hurriedly lathered my hair, washed my body, and stepped out, quickly covering myself in a towel. I dried my hair relatively fast, which was strange. It usually took me quite a while to get my thick hair dried. So in about fifteen minutes, I was clean and dressed, ready for dinner.

Before heading down, I put my disgusting uniform in the washing machine, since I needed it for tomorrow.

Dry, I walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where I found Yuzu cooking, Babs watching amazedly, and Tara just staring off into space, as usual.

Ichigo was nowhere to be found. I skimmed through the manga in my head, wondering: he should be home, because Sora doesn’t come until tomorrow. So where in hell could that boy be?

Then I pondered some more. Knowing him, he’s probably sulking in his room, the idiot.

“Hey, Adel!” Yuzu called, motioning for me to come over. I smiled--a little fakely--and walked to her. She was frying what appeared to be vegetables, like a zucchini and eggplant. My mouth started watering; fried veggies was one of my favorite foods.

“Okay, Yuzu,” I said. “It’s official: I’LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!” I hugged her tight. (A/N: Please, DON’T hug people while they’re frying food, as it can lead to house fires and other dangers.)

She tensed for a moment, but eventually put her hands around my waist, hugging me back. “Uh,” she said, “why, exactly, are we hugging?”

“Because!” I said, as if it were obvious. “Fried veggies is one of my favorite foods!”

She gave me a strange look that soon evolved into laughter. “Adel,” she said, “you are so strange!” She released me from her grasp and continued to prepare the meal. Babs’ gaze was still transfixed on the stove. I got in front of her; she just kept staring ahead. I waved my hand in front of her face, causing her to shake as if waking from a distant dream.

“Wh-what?” she said, her head shaking.

“What the heck were you fantasizing about? It sure looked nice!”

She blushed deeply. “N-nothing. I wasn’t fantasizing at all!”

Tara finally broke out off from her gaze. Her eyes zoomed in on Babs’ face. “Tucker, huh?”

Babshot her a shocked expression. “H-how….” Her blush deepened. “NO! Not about Tucker! Why would I be thinking about him at a time like this?” She spun dramatically in a show designed to decieve us into thinking she cared, that she was actually thinking about the circumstanses. “In a time of desparate need in this novel-life, with three young girls stuck in an unfarmiliar world, living with a handsome young man! Oh, how--”

“So you think I’m handsome?” a voice asked, revealing Kurosaki walking down the stairs. So that’s where he was.

Not that I cared, or anything.

Babs’ face was suddenly dipped in red paint, and turned hot as the sun. Her embarassed expression soon transformed into an angry one. “No!” she said. “I was NOT talking about you!” But she couldn’t lie for a minute. “Okay.” She hung her head down in shame, “maybe I was, but I was trying to make it sound like a book synopsis! No one would want to read about three girls living with an ugly ginger!”

He scowled. “Hey! You can’t call me a ginger! I don’t have freckles!”

“So? Do you guys not have freedom of freaking speech here?!?!? You can’t control what I say, or what I call you! If I wanna call you a ginger, I’ll call you a damn ginger!”

He growled and his face turned red. He looked like he was about to punch her, but she struck first. Babs’ face connected with Ichigo’s face, and you could just hear the crunch of his jaw. He jolted back.

“Hey!” he cried. “What the freak was that for?”

“For being a major butthole!” she yelled. “I’m not in the mood for your cockiness!”

Before Ichigo could reply, Isshin hit them both over the head.

“Both of you, stop being retards!” he said. “This house is an infirmary! NOT a wrestling ring! Not sit’cher butts down before I hafta make you!”

The room was silent for a moment, everyone in awe that usual happy-go-lucky Isshin was getting angry. But the silence was soon interrupted by Karin noisily bustling down the stairs. We breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“Geez,” Karin said, giving us all a funny look. “What’s up with the intensity? You guys need to chill.”

That (cliché enough) broke the ice. Tara started laughing, which eventually led us all to laughing. It was like some stupid Disney sitcom or something.

“Haha…okay,” Isshin chuckled. “Why don’t I help Yuzu finish up dinner, then we can all eat together.”

There was mutual agreement actoss the room, everywhere but with Yuzu.

Oh, yeah, I remembered. Isshin’s nothing but a nuisance to her, at least in the kitchen.

“It’s okay, Dad,” Yuzu said delicately. “I can--”

“No!” Isshin yelped. “As a father, it’s my duty to help my little girl, expecially with big things like cooking dinner for so many!”

We left in a hurry to quickly avoid the chaos (a.k.a. Isshin cooking) that was about to ensue. Yuzu sent me a desparate look, pleading for help, but I just smiled apologetically and ran.

I went to the living room and plopped down on the couch, scanning to TV channels to see if anything was on. Back home I didn’t watch TV all that much, but today I had nothing else to do. There was a strange show on, featuring a small, gluttonous girl trying to become an idol to get a guy. (A/N: this is a real show, actually an anime. if you know it, put it down in the comments and I’ll give you OVER 9,000 {another geeky reference} awesome points!!!!) The show looked dumb, but my gaze was soon transfixed on the screen. Before I knew it, I had watched over 35 minutes of the stupid show.

“Adel!” I heard a voice, but ignored it.

“Adel!” There was that damn voice again. I still refused to respond; I was too entertained!

“A-CHAN!!!”

I shook and my eyes got wide. “Huh?” I asked, confused. “Who? What? When?”

“Where? Why? How?” a voice said to me, sarcasm absolutely oozing out of the tone. It was really starting to piss me off! I finally came to focus, and there was Ichigo, right in my face.

I took a quick step back. “HOLY CRAP!” I screeched.

“What?” he asked me confusedly, being a dumb boy as always.

“DON’T get in my face like that. Ever.” I was very serious. “If you do that again, I’ll punch you so hard you’ll orbit. Around Jupiter.”

“Um…okay,” he said awkwardly; I guess he wasn’t in the mood to fight. “Are you okay?”

I pushed past him, ignoring his worried look sent to me. He may be trying to be nice, but I was still angry at him. I walked to the dining room where everyone was seated and took a chair of my own, right between Isshin and Tara. Kurosaki soon appeared and sat in the worst possible place he could have.

Right.

Across.

From.

Moi.

Oh, dear LORD, why am I cursed so? Please forgive me for anything wrong I’ve done, I’m now atoning for my sins. Just please, get this horrible demon-thing far away from me.

I blinked, multiple times, actually, but he was still there!

“Damn…atoning for my sins my ass…urgh, why… why to me?” I mumbled angrily.

“Are you okay, Adel?” Karin said. Yuzu also looked concerned.

“Uh…yeah, why?” Why was she asking me if I was okay? All I was doing was sitting here?

“Yeah,” Babs said. “You’re, like, talking to yourself….”

“Is there something you want to tell us?” Tara had a horribly worried expression on her face, one that made me feel bad for causing it to be there. So I snapped out of my pissed-off mode (except on Kurosaki) and put a bright smile on my face.

“No!” I said cheerily. “Everything’s fine, just thinking out loud! Nothing to worry about!”

She looked at me skeptically, but decided to let it slide, at least for now. Dinner wasn’t really an appropriate time to be yelling at Ichigo because he blamed me for almost getting raped.

Yeah, that’ll strike up a good table conversation.

We mostly ate in silence, absorbed in the yummy taste of the stir-fry. Every once in a while we’d produce small-talk or light banter, but nothing worthy of mention.

We all finished quickly and moved on to our next activity. I went into our bedroom to study a bit; I was really gonna need some help with this Japanese History thing.

Five minutes into my study session, I heard a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I called. The door opened, revealing, in all his glory, Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki.

My eyes narrowed dangerously. “What?” I spit acid.

“Can I talk to you?” He looked desparate. “Seriously. Please.”

I eyed him for a moment, but eventually decided to be nice. “If you help me with my History.”

He grinned. “Sure.” He fully entered the room and plopped down in the desk chair set up near the bed like he owned the friggin’ world.

I frowned. “Okay, so what do you want?”

He looked sober, as if my comment had actually upset him or something. “I wanted to apologize.”

I turned away from him and back to my textbook. I didn’t want Ichigo to see my sad expression. “Apologize?” I asked. “Whatever for?”

“For accusing you unfairly. For yelling before totally assessing the situation. I should’ve listened to your story before I blew up at you. So, I’m sorry.”

I tried to act as if it didn’t bother me. “Uh, okay,” I said impassively. “You’re forgiven.”

“Wait,” he said, “will you just shut up for as second? I’m not done.”

I looked at him serioulsy. “This sounds not like an apology.”

He huffed and came, sitting down on the bed.

“Hey!” I said. “What the freak do you think you’re doing?” I sat up to investigate, when my midsection was hauled upright and my body was pulled close to another.

“I’m sorry,” Ichigo said, hugging me tighter. “So sorry that I couldn’t--couldn’t protect you!”

I froze in his embrace. My eyes went wide. What? He couldn’t protect me?

His hands dug into my hair. “I’m so, so, SO sorry,” he said sadly.

I still didn’t know what to say. I mean, what could I say in a situation like this? He was making a really sweet apology….

My arms suddenly gained minds of their own, because they somehow ended up around Ichigo’s neck. He froze as I relaxed.

“It’s okay,” I said softly. “It’s not even your job to protect me--”

“But it is,” he said. “You’re my friend, so it then became my job. So, I’m sorry for not fulfilling my duties.”

I released him and smiled. “It’s okay,” I said. “You shouldn’t feel the need to protect me, but I appreciate it anyways.” There was a pause. “And yeah, we’re still buddies.”

He smiled extremely wide, so much that his cheeks pushed his eyes closed. I burst into extremely loud laughter.

“What?” he said, returning his face back to normal.

“YOU LOOKED LIKE A CHIPMUNK!!!!!!!!!!!” I rolled on the floor in laughter. (A/N: roflmfao :D)

He gave me a strange look, but eventually started to laugh with me. We both laughed for a while, but eventually we grew sober.

“Okay,” I said, “time to help Adel with some History!”

“Yeah, you’re talking in the third person and I’m the one looking stupid.”

I growled. “Duh. That’s why I laughed.”

He didn’t reply. There was a few-second silence until we relaxed and got to work. We didn’t actually end up doing much studying, mainly because it was a Friday, so there wasn’t a HUGE need to work. We just goofed off for a while.

After about an hour, Tara peeked her head in. Her face turned bright red when she saw Ichigo. “Uh,” she mumbled, “a-am I interrupting?”

I grinned wide. “No! Not at all!” What a perfect opportunity to get them together! I thought.

She came in and perched on the edge of our bed.

I clapped my hands. “Okay!” I said a bit too excitedly. “I need to go to the bathroom!” Tara sent me a worried expression. I just winked slyly. “So, I’ll be right back. You two chit-chat and junk!”

“Wait, Adel--” Tara called, reaching her hand out to me as I left. I shut the door behind me in response.

“Phew!” I said dramatically, wiping sweat that wasn’t there off my forehead. I leaned on the wall beside the bedroom for a minute, then decided to explore the house, give them some time alone. I walked around the house for a bit, about twenty minutes, just looking around and chatting with the other house members, when I found myself back at the bedroom door. Okay, I thought. Enough is enough. No more torturing Tara, having to stay in there with the guy she likes. She’s so awkward, I bet nothing’s happened.

BOY, was I wrong.

I opened the door, only to find Ichigo on top of Tara, on the bed, about to kiss her. Both of their faces were deep red, and they were panting heavily.

Woah.

“WOAH!” I said, shielding my eyes. They, just now noticing me, jumped off each other and their faces turned even redder than they previously were (if that’s possible).

“Oh, Adel,” Tara said. “We were…just…ah….”

“JUST MAKING THE FREAK OUT!!!” I yelled, but I had a proud grin on my face. I was so proud of Tara! She finally got her girl-balls and scavenged up enough guts to tell him her feelings! (But it looked like more than