Intro

It was just another typical weekend at the Alice Academy. Mikan and Natsume, who have been going out since their first year of junior high school, are going to Central Town for a date. Yuu is over at the Chemistry Lab, helping Nonoko out with her latest experiment which will probably end up in another huge explosion or some weird results. Anna is at the Culinary Arts room, concocting a new recipe with Kokoro tagging along with her, either Koko will end up really happy and stuffed or he’ll end up at the clinic after eating Anna’s creation.

Practically everyone in the group has paired up with each other. A girl with shoulder-length raven hair thought, as she rummaged through the pile of screw drivers and wrenches. I think Sumire and Mochiage are going out now as well. Ruka, that blondie will probably go out with that pretty little freshman who sent him that love letter last week.

“So…that leaves me as the only one single up until now.” She said in a faint voice as closed her eyes for a while and took a deep breath. “This is very weird of me, to be thinking of love-related things….must be an effect of not having the girls bugging me too much lately.” She shrugged off and went back to work.

For about two hours, her whole attention was focused on finishing her latest project. It appears to be about the same size and appearance as the average pumpkin. The metal exterior was covered with a layer of orange synthetic material which was machine-made in order to give the material almost the same texture and feel as a fresh pumpkin’s skin. In the pumpkin’s eyes, one eye had an infrared sensor while the other eye had a camera built into it. The mouth had a built-in projector. “There! Done with the last one!” a small, mischievous smile crept upon her lips as she held the pumpkin in her hands for a few seconds before placing it down carefully with the other fake pumpkins she made.

“Hmm…I guess that’s it for today.” She said to herself as she stood from her seat and instructed one of the robots on standby to tidy up the mess she had created.

After changing from her work clothes back to her casual clothes which consisted of a plain tank top, an oversized red wool sweater, white shorts and a pair of high-cut red sneakers. Lastly, she pulled her hair back into a neat ponytail and combed her bangs before grabbing her black messenger bag and leaving her laboratory.

The sun’s still up? I thought it was already past seven! She took a quick glance at her wristwatch which read just five o’clock. I guess being cooped up in the lab all day made my body so tired that my body clock went wiry. Oh well, I guess I’ll be returning to my room to finish my homework.

“Ah, Hotaru! You’re back early!” a bubbly, petite girl with waist-length hazel-brown hair greeted her with a big hug. She was wearing a cute, white and pink polka-dotted baby doll dress with lots of white lace and ruffles and a pair of white knee-high boots with a tiny pair of angel wings attached to each boot.

“I should be the one saying that Mikan, I thought you and Natsume would be back much later like you guys always do during Saturday nights.” Hotaru replied.

“Yeah well, Natsume said he was gonna help out Ruka with something. So I thought I’d cut him some slack since he took me out shopping today.” Mikan said as she picked up the paper bags that lay beside her feet.

“You gave him a run for his money again.” Hotaru shook her head. “I was right that the unfortunate lad who’ll become your boyfriend needed to be at least a three-star student to be able to fund your irrational shopaholic streak.”

“Humph! I didn’t force him to buy me this stuff!” Mikan pouted. “Anyway, do you have a costume for the upcoming sophomore’s Halloween party?”

“I don’t plan on attending; I have a lot of orders to attend to since it’s only two months before Christmas.” Hotaru answered without a care.

“I knew this was gonna happen.” Mikan slapped her palm to her forehead. “It’s a good thing I’ve made a few extra costumes.”

“Wait, you can sew clothes?” Hotaru asked, looking rather surprised.

“Of course! Who do you think made such cute outfits like these?” Mikan gave a little twirl. “Haha, come on, help me carry these bags to my room and we’ll find you something to wear for the ball and I won’t be taking ‘no’ for an answer!”

“Wai! That dress is perfect on you Hotaru!” Mikan threw her hands happily into the air.

“You’ve said the exact same thing when I wore those other six dresses” Hotaru raised an eyebrow at her best friend. The dress she was wearing now was made of white satin and lace. The neckline was modest and was just a couple of inches below the collar bone. Thin icy blue ribbons were wrapped around the torso of the dress and to make the skirt look puffy and big, a petticoat was needed to be worn underneath.

“Well, everything really did suit you but you’re just too picky!” Mikan stuck her tongue out. “You’ve got some tacky comments like ‘the skirt is too short’ or ‘there’s way to many ruffles’ yada yada. I’ve gone out of my way to help you find something to wear and all you’ve done is complained.”

“I said I won’t be attending the party, you dragged me to your room and forced me to try your creations.”

“Bah, I’m only being a nice best friend! Anyway, you’ll be going to the party whether you like it or not! And that dress you’re wearing like now is best suits you! Wear that okay?”

“I look like an ice princess doll of some sort.”

“Well, technically you’re more of an ice queen and yes you look like a cold, but cute little ice doll when you’re in that dress.” Mikan giggled. “So, it’s settled then, you’ll wear that at the party! Me and the girls will drop by your room next Saturday so we can all go there together okay?”

“I said I won’t be attending idiot.” Hotaru answered.

“Kyaa! You can borrow these stockings and shoes too!” ignoring Hotaru’s reply, Mikan pulled out a pair of stockings with light blue and white stripes and a pair of blue doll shoes. “And oh, this hat will look good with the dress too! Now you really look like a cute doll.” She then plopped an oversized blue hat with lots of white ribbons onto Hotaru’s head.

“You made this yourself too?”

“Yup!”

“I guess you’ve got at least something you’re good at aside from being an annoying girl.”

“You would’ve made a scary doll Hotaru.”

“I’m off to my room now, don’t stay up late or you’ll get dark circles under your eyes.” Hotaru said after changing back into her own clothes.

“I’ll bring these to your room tomorrow once I’m done with the adjustments!” Mikan said happily as she brought out her sewing kit. “Good night then Hotaru.”

“Night.” She mouthed before closing the door behind her. Mikan made that outfit, Anna sent me some chocolate yesterday, Nonoko gave me a stamina drink, even if they don’t say anything, I know they’re trying to cheer me up. But I don’t feel lonely at all! Everything’s fine! “Or are they?” she added with a barely audible whisper before she continued walking along the corridor.

“She hasn’t figured it out yet, even though she’s really smart.” Mikan sighed as she peeked from her bedroom door. “He hasn’t made a move yet either. Good grief, I hope Natsume and the guys would be able to talk some sense into him before the event.”

Yuki’s notes:

To all my readers from Midnight Confessions and Kisses who are now reading this fic, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t come up with any new ideas yet so that story’s been on hiatus for some time now.

But for the mean time, I decided to make a new story focusing on Hotaru and Ruka-pyon. (This new fic will cause me trouble though since I’ve also got five other stories that really REALLY needs to be updated. Lol, but I love writing so it’s okay.)

Intended to only be a one-shot at first, my plan failed so this first chapter is obviously just an intro to my second Gakuen Alice fic. Hehe. I hope you guys like it. Please review and let me know what you think of it. Thanks, later then! (smile smile)