Some Teacher

(4.2) Sakura time!

"Uh... hello... everyone..." Kiya greeted awkwardly. Almost as soon as she stepped into the room that morning, all chatter had ceased, and all eyes were on her. In the time since the class trip ended, she had dyed her hair from hot pink to plum, and missed only the first day back to class.

She stared at the floor as she walked to her seat. Her tongue flicked apprehensively across her lips. She sat down at her desk, slouching, eyes fixed on the grey surface as she felt the stunned gazes of her classmates bore into her. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears for what felt to her like hours, but was really only a few moments.

"Good morning Kiya," Nagisa smiled at her, "I'm glad you could make it." She nodded silently.

Normally, when she came to class, it was for a test. She showed up first, and did not speak to anyone, or even make eye-contact. Knowing people wasn't important to her. She was there to get her diploma so she could qualify for college, not to make friends. But after the trip to the mountain...

She had realized that maybe people weren't always a liability. Since she was little, she'd been taught to rely on herself, and not others. Because of that, she always ended up alienating people, and didn't develop many of the social skills most kids learn in primary school.

"First semester finals are coming up now," Nagisa-sensei was saying, "and I think you can all bring up those 'C's you got on the midterms. The principal seemed a little upset about those, so the tests will probably be harder," Nagisa smirked, "but let's see if we can change 'a little upset,' to 'angry.'"

"Yeah! Let's wipe that smug look off principal douchebag's face!" Fuyu cheered enthusiastically, and by their reactions, it seemed the rest of the class was in agreement. They didn't love tests, but they did love sticking it to the principal.

"Oh, hey Asui-san," Nagisa said as the girl walked into the classroom looking a bit worse for wear. "What was it today? Windstorm in the hallway?"

"Chased by a large, very scary dog, actually," Asui panted out. "Thanks for asking."

"Why don't you take your seat," Nagisa suggested, "we were just going to start going over the material for finals."

Asui did so, quickly noticing the ever-absent Kiya was in the seat behind hers. "Finally decided to show up, huh Kiya-chan?" Asui smirked.

"I could say the same to you," Kiya responded without thinking to stop herself until it was too late. Damn her sharp tongue and lack of verbal filter. Luckily Asui found it funny, after a moment of stunned silence, and had to stifle giggles.

After that, Nagisa began to review some of the material from the beginning of the semester, adding on new stuff, and incorporating it into the familiar to help their associative memory, as well as increase understandability. Kiya found that, while almost as boring as she'd expected, Nagisa-sensei did help her understand faster than if she had to figure it out on her own with just the textbook and YouTube videos.

Students scribbled down notes, and Nagisa-sensei was sure to pause for questions whenever he thought it might be necessary. This continued until after lunch. At the beginning of fifth period, however, a familiar scraping and squeaking interrupted their studies, and the door to the classroom slid open.

Attention broke, turning to the sound, and in walked a girl in a grey middle-school uniform, with choppy, pink hair, and sharp, irritated eyes. The sound echoed around the room again as she slid the door closed behind her.

"Sakura," Nagisa broke the silence, surprised. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your own school right now?"

"Yeah, but some idiot lit a box of tampons on fire in the boys' locker room, so they sent all the students home for the day," Sakura explained with a sigh. "But I'm not real eager to head home just yet, so do you mind if I hang out here, just until school's over? I promise I won't be a bother. I'll just sit in the back and work on my homework."