KOF School

Surprise Guests

Mai lit incense sticks at the altar and prayed to her ancestors. The doorbell suddenly rang, gaining her attention. She was surprised to find Andy at her doorstep early in the morning, a wide smile on his face and a bouquet in front of him.
"Thanks," Mai smiled as she took the flowers.
She let him in and placed the bouquet on the coffee table before rushing off to the kitchen to get him a drink. Andy stopped her and put a festively decorated Posiden Coffee paper bag on the table, opening it to reveal two cups.
"Got these on the way," Andy said, handing her a red cup. "I know you like Posiden's Chocomatcha. So I got you some on the way here."
Mai bowed slightly. "Thanks! You had your breakfast yet?"
"Not yet, just paid respects to my ancestors' altar," Mai said, opening the tab of her cup to take a sip. "How about you?"
"I haven't..." Andy shrugged.
"You wanna help me make something?" Mai suggested. "Or do you wanna buy something?"
Andy smirked. "I already got food, it's on the way."
"Oh, then I guess we just wait, then," Mai smiled.
"Yeah," Andy nodded.

"Terry, please be careful with the cake," Rock said, holding a big bag of food containers. "You're swinging it around."
Terry motioned for him to be quiet and rang the doorbell. Andy answered them almost instantly.
"Surprise!" The blonds exclaimed together as soon as they spotted the confused Mai on the couch.
Mai spat her mouthful of Chocomatcha out in shock as soon as she spotted them. She quickly got up and bowed, inviting them into the house.
"Should we cut the cake first or do we eat?" Terry asked. "I'm starving, actually."
"A cake? Aww, you guys shouldn't have," Mai was flattered. "You guys are the best."
She looked around a bit, even looking outside before turning to them. "Didn't Mary come?"
"Mary?" Rock turned to Terry in surprise. "Terry, did you even tell her?"
"I did," Terry nodded. "I think she's on her way." He leaned towards Mai with a smirk. "She's also bringing in some botamochi."
"Oh you guys shouldn't have," Mai said, touched by the nice gesture.
"Come on..." Terry insisted. "You helped us get rid of that Yamada creep."
Mai shook her head. "No, you guys helped me. He was a terrible person. I'm just surprised that our plan worked."
"And whose plan was it?" Andy smirked.
"I know it's mine, but my students unintentionally helped by coming up with a plan to report me," Mai pointed out. "It was the only way to get the attention I needed to expose him. It so happened that he also harassed a student too. I really appreciate her classmate having video footage of it happening."
"Yeah, that was good luck on our side," Terry added. "I didn't expect that boy to actually come to me for help."
Mai laughed awkwardly. "Yeah... I still kinda feel bad for making him barf like that..."
"How does he even?" Andy quipped. "Like... it doesn't make any sense..."
Mai shrugged. "I don't take any offence. That actually helped the plan."
Rock snorted. "I like how they came to ask for Terry's help. It was a good thing they did."
"But getting Heidern involved was a little risky," Andy added. "You could've been suspended... or worse."
"At that point, getting fired seemed to be better than being harassed," Mai grimaced. "Even when Andy confronted him, he didn't budge. The other teachers backed him up as well. I really appreciate you guys helping me."
"Come on, it's your birthday," Andy said as he put an arm around her and kissed her cheek. He smiled. "You're the one who always said that the new year should always begin with a smile."
"Yeah, don't talk about smelly garbage like him," Mary added, stepping in with a large bag.
Terry and Rock burst into laughter, so did Mai.
"You're right, Mary!" Mai laughed as she hugged the blonde.
Mary hugged her back and turned to her boyfriend. "Why did you guys have to remind her of that creep?" She sighed. "Guys, it's her birthday. She needs to be happy."
"Come on, let's celebrate, then," Andy chuckled and brought Mai to the dining hall.

The Kusanagis made their way over to the Yagamis, and so did the Sakazakis. To top it all off, Chizuru arrived with her older sister as well.
"How are you doing?" Kazuhiro politely asked Maki.
Maki bowed slightly. "I'm much better now, thank you." She turned to her sister and smirked, giving her a slight nudge before turning back to Kazuhiro. "Can you tell me where the bathroom is?"
Kazuhiro pointed down the passage. "It's in the dining hall."
Maki nodded and hurried off, joining the youngsters instead, much to their surprise.
"You're Kagura-sensei's sister?" Kyo asked in surprise. "You look so much like her!"
"Yeah, you guys are like twins," Ryo added, sipping some tea.
"We are, actually," Maki smiled. "Identical twins." She peeked to look at her sister still talking with Kazuhiro before turning back to them. "Anyway, you guys do know that she has a crush on Kazuhiro-san, right?"
Iori nodded. "We do. But he doesn't, though."
"Even though she indirectly confessed to him the other day when we were shopping," Masaomi added, suddenly appearing beside her with a tray of teacups. "He doesn't know who's the 'poor sap' that she was referring too."
"Chizuru called him that?" Maki said in surprise.
"Nah, that's what he called the guy in her story," Masaomi sighed, pulling a chair to join them. "And he could happily tell us about it as soon as he rejoined us."
Maki laughed. "Yes, Chizuru was complaining about it when she came home."
The teenagers exchanged glances and tried to slink away to hang around in another place, but the two adults held them down.
"No, you guys are helping us plan," Masaomi said. "We've been planning this for ages, it's time we got some help."
Ryo got up. "Yeah, I'll be in the living room with Yuri."
Kyo watched him leave in surprise but shrugged and turned back to them with a grin. "I know it doesn't exactly concern me, but I'm here in behalf of my father."
"Yeah, Saisyu supports this ship too," Masaomi agreed. "What do we actually do?"
"I have no idea," Maki sighed. "Maybe we can set them up somehow."
Aiko nodded gleefully. "I like that idea. But what do we do?"
"Maybe we can get our friends to help?" Maki suggested, turning back to Masaomi. "What do you think?"
Masaomi frowned thoughtfully. "Saisyu and Shizuka would be a good help, but Takuma..." he sighed. "He might do something stupid. You know about the Mr. Karate story, right?"
"I do," Maki nodded, chuckling.
Shizuka eventually came and sat down beside Maki. "How are you doing now?"
Maki smiled as she turned to her. "I'm a lot better now, Shizuka-san. All thanks to Chizuru's support."
Shizuka eventually joined their conversation in trying to set Kazuhiro up with Chizuru so the three teens ended up leaving.
"Let's go to my room instead," Iori said. "At least we can have a jam session."
Kyo groaned. "I wish I brought my guitar."
"You can borrow mine," Iori smirked. "It's the vintage kind, but I'm sure you can play."
"You have a vintage guitar?!" Kyo gasped. "I wanna see!"
Iori snorted and led Kyo to his room, Aiko at their heels as well.