STATISTICS: CLASSIFICATION - Romance / Comedy LENGTH - 6 pages (format A4) MAIN CHARACTER - Usagi LOCATION - Pre-First Season RATING - G SHORT SUMMARY: Her life is so miserable; her brother has poisoned her pet bunny… She decides to take a hostage. FROM AUTHOR: Dear Reader, Don't ask me WHY did I decide upon writing this little work of fiction after I'd read Alicia Blade's 'Hostage Situation', because simply, I have no idea!! I really don't have any comments for this story, but do hope that you enjoy it! -May K. Lunnaya :) DEDICATION: To desperate students. …And My Brother Poisoned My Pet Bunny! Introduction: My name is Usagi Tsukino. I'm fourteen years old and in my second year of junior high. My birthday is June 30th, and my birthstone is pearl. My sign is Cancer, and my blood type is O. My character is a little more careless than other people, and a little bit of a crybaby. I failed the final English exam, and was given a chance to retake it. I flunked it again; my parents are getting divorced. I got into a fight with my best friend Naru, and to top it all off, my brother Shingo poisoned my pet bunny! …I was sitting in the green bushes; morning's light breeze was blowing softly at my face. Layers of mist over the ground were slowly dissolving, giving in to the warm rays of the sun… I ran my fingers over the cold steel in my jacket's pocket, getting used to the feel of it in my hand, and tightly shut my eyes, letting the air slip out between my clenched teeth with a hissing sound. I have to do this. I have no choice. I've got nothing to lose. It has to be done… Drawing in a deep breath, I pulled myself upright and took a good look of the two-meter high private parking lot's fence. Impressive. I pumped my arms in the air, jumped, hauled myself up, and tumbled over to the other side. Scrambling to my feet, I darted my eyes across the lot and almost instantly spotted the car. I slowly crept upon it, furtively peering around. Then I got out a flashlight and shined tentatively at the white rectangle with numbers and letters… Yes, this is it… I reached into a pocket for a small pick and carefully stuck it into the vehicle's lock. As it clicked, I opened the door and crawled to the backseat, remembering to lock the car again. I allowed myself to push out the breath I'd been holding only after I had slid down to the floor and was safely crumpled between the seats. Done. I checked my watch for the glowing green digits. In two seconds he should be here… The chimes of the keys jiggling in a lock sent my heart somersaulting straight down to my soles. I poked my eyes up and saw the black nape of his head as he parked himself down into the driver's seat and started the car. I gripped the steel surface in my pocket… It was almost time. When he'd stopped by the school building and gotten out of his car, I'd had enough time to do as much as stretch my sore arm out just as he returned and plunked down the box precisely on my numb hand. I guess he did it on purpose. I drove my teeth into my poor, defenseless tongue to keep from yelling the heck out. Down to business. Twitching my lips together, I extracted my hand out from beneath the carton box, dragged myself to stand on my pricking knees, and pointed my gun at his head. "Stop the car!" * * * "Stop the car!!!" A slightly muffled high-pitched female voice commanded the above statement, and I felt the barrel of a gun burying into my hair. And I'd thought it was my lucky day… I swallowed, but kept the car sluggishly inching forward. I don't want her to shoot me if I halt suddenly or something. Keeping the pistol at my head, the maniac climbed over the back of the seat, and… a masked woman all in black planted herself next to me. "I said stop the car!" she growled. Her voice was in a serious state of convulsion. Nervous woman. With a gun. At the passenger's seat. In my car. WATCH OUT!!! I gulped and nervously stared in the rearview mirror. The driver in the back was honking furiously. "What for?" I let myself ask in a very tiny voice. "I NEED TO!!" I continued in a casual, inoffensive manner. "That badly?" "YES! I only need that damned exam paper!" she cried out shrilly. Perfect. Desperate student. I mean, come on, she had found out that I had been asked to deliver Juban Junior High's English examinations to Tokyo Schools Center instead of the flu-infected teacher because I'm a friend of the principal; the girl found out my name, my address, and my car number; managed to sneak into a private parking lot and pick the lock of my car; and above all of that, that woman, I mean, girl, managed to buy a pistol and hold it, and all for the sake of a test paper?! The girl started hysterically poking the gun into my face. My eyes popped out of their sockets when I noticed something. No wonder the girl has done so poorly on the exam. How could she possibly get a good grade in English when she couldn't read the kanji characters at the pistol's butt? And they read: 'Splendid water gun'. The aforementioned driver in the back erupted with a long string of colorful words and veered around at a risky angle. I blinked blankly a couple of times. Then I turned to the 'desperate student'. "Water gun?" I squawked. Her eyes darted to the thing in her hand. Then she swore. Pretty dirty, I have to admit. Before I could flap my eyes one more time, the girl had reached for something at the backseat and was attacking me with a baseball bat aimed at my head!! Women… I grabbed her wrist and knocked the bat out by hitting her hand at the roof. She shrieked, dropped the thing on my head, and lost her footing, her behind getting into a hard contact with the switching gears. My car roared in triumph and took off at top speed. I slammed on the breaks and somehow succeeded in wheeling to a halt two inches before a lonely lamppost at the sidewalk. Close enough. Then I snatched up the girl and shook her a few times. "Are you nuts?!" I shouted in her flushed face. "Just what were you - " My tongue froze in my mouth. Over on the other side of the street, I saw a police officer dodging the cars on his way to get to us. I dropped the girl on my lap. "Do you know what will happen right now?" I hissed at her. She gawked at me, her large blue eyes wide and helpless. "Stealing my car, kidnapping, and threat to my life," I informed her gravely, intending to scare her. By now her azure eyes, the only visible feature of her face, were filling up with tears. She was getting smaller and smaller, shrinking into… my lap. I felt even kind of sorry for her… After all, it's just a test, right? She's only a child! She wasn't aware of what she was doing! She couldn't properly comprehend her actions! I whipped the black mask off her head to make her look like a human. I was greeted with a sight of a frightfully twisted beautiful face. I mean, supposedly beautiful. I quickly hugged her, squashing her over myself as a result. At the same instant, I heard a light rapping sound at my car's window. I reached out and rolled it down. "Are you insane driving like this, mister?!" the old man in the police uniform bellowed. His gaze fell on the girl in my arms. "Um…" I pasted a dopey smile on my face. "It's just that… we were too wrapped in each other, and…" The girl started mumbling something into my chest, protesting, but I pressed her closer to garble any sound. The old man smiled, a bit embarrassed. "I hope we didn't hit anybody?" I asked uncertainly. The policeman shook his head. "So… no problem?" he inquired with a quirky grin. "No problem," I agreed, then whispered loudly into the girl's golden hair, "Right, sweetie?" She quite literally choked in her own rage. Before she could downpour me with indignant unprintable stuff, I ducked my head and wrapped her open mouth with my lips, which promptly shut her up. Then I grasped her head with my hand, pushing her closer to prevent from bursting out of my 'loving' embrace. From the farthest corner of my eye, I saw a slightly blushing police officer retreating from the view, murmuring something under his breath. You see, imagine how it'd look (to the policeman, that is) if I had stuck my fist into my girlfriend's mouth? And the only way I could save… HELP her, was to pretend we were lovebirds! * * * I had three thoughts galloping around my mind when he kissed me. First: What the [censored] is he doing!!.. Second: Ooooohh… Third: Don't stop, please, just go on!!!! I felt his possessive fingers sliding through the hair at the nape of my neck, cradling my head in his large hand and pulling me to his tender lips, preventing me from melting into his loving embrace… You see, I HAD been kissed before, but without the… I mean, it was nothing like…!! This moment I acknowledged the fact that I was cut extremely low on oxygen. And he was still at it and going… Is he crazy?! Does he want to suffocate me?!! I broke us apart, tearing away from his clutching lips. Feeling terribly dizzy, I let my head fell to his chest, gasping convulsively. My senses (common one included) were switched off, my heart was throbbing madly in my temples, and my mouth was aching… He gulped. On the second try. His hand was lost somewhere in brushing blindly through my hair. His other one lowered and slipped under my unzipped jacket… All my systems switched on. WHAT IS HE GONNA TO - HE'S GONNA - HE WANTS ME TO - His large, warm hand wrapped my tiny waist and started to stirringly… AAAUUGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I galloped out of his arms and popped out the car, leaving him embracing the vast air. And as I bolted into a flee away from that maniac, I tripped on a boarding stone and came crashing to the concrete, scraping my knees, my forehead, my elbows… I heard footsteps and twisted my head around. There he stood. Towering over me, with the strangest expression in his eyes. And I was there, sprawled helplessly before him. He stretched his hand out toward me… My pupils widened to occupy entire eyeballs. I crawled away from him and tried to scream for help; my voice muscles wouldn't produce any sound at all as in a nightmare… His hand was clasped over my mouth tightly, and he drew his devilishly handsome face closer to mine… Now, all maniacs are handsome, right? And they all have blue eyes? Because this one had blue eyes… bottomless and hauntingly dark… His lips parted to whisper (all maniacs whisper, right??), "I'm not going to hurt or touch you." Oh, yeah? And what are you doing? I stared at his lips. His curved and tasty lips… HEY!! HE'S A *MANIAC*, WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT!!!!! "Now I'll remove my hand," he said huskily, "and you be a quiet little girl, hear me?" He withdrew his hand. Of course I'll be quiet if my voice isn't working! All I could make out was "Mommy," in a hoarse whimper. His piercing gaze was examining my eyes. I drowned. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, THREATENING ME WITH A BASEBALL BAT!!!!" he roared. (I shrunk into the building behind my back.) "What if you got arrested?!" "Why do you care?!" I squeaked. "I don't. But you must understand that there are more important objectives in the world besides that test!!" "It's not a test," I declared, "it's my life!" and sniffed. He sighed exasperatedly. "Meaning?!" I cleared my throat. And here came the entire tale of my tragic, pathetic life. "…and above all of that, my brother poisoned my pet bunny!" He smirked. "So that's why you'd attacked me with a bat and a gun!" "A WATER gun," I squeaked. "Much difference!? And what if that were a real gun?!" "But it ISN'T!!!" "And if it were, you'd still go with it!!" "NO!" "You'd threatened my life!!!!" "Stop shouting at me!!!!!!!!" I screamed and wiped my nose at my sleeve. He stood still for a moment. Then his eyes traveled me from head to toes. "Get up." "What?" I squawked. "Get up." "What for?" I cried out in a panic. "So that I could slap all that craziness out of your head and that you could see the world through different eyes!" "I'm already seeing the world through different eyes!" I retorted. "And besides, don't you dare touch a woman!!" "I don't see any women here," he bit out and sized me up, disdain printed clearly on his face. "Only a child. A crybaby. Crawling around at my feet." I nearly leaped up from the pavement. "I'M USAGI TSUKINO!! AND I'M *NOT* CRAWLING AROUND!!!" "You are absolutely worthless," he threw over his shoulder while climbing into his car. Well, surely I couldn't jump up and dash after him to beat him senseless because then he'd see the beautiful puddle I'd created under my butt… but still… "AND I'M NOT A CRYBABY, HEAR ME!!" I called in a breaking voice after Mamoru Chiba as his car drove out of view. * * * With a prim face, I sat at Juban Junior High's English classroom desk, watching Ms. Haruna announcing the students' grades. Now, brace yourself, Usagi. It's your own fault that you'll have to stay back a grade. You have to approach the situation responsibly, and use the opportunity to catch up and then pass the exams with flying colors. It's okay. No biggie. "Tsukino Usagi!" Ms. Haruna's voice rang out. I let out a martyr's sigh and bravely faced the teacher. Naru reached out and patted my back for support. Ms. Haruna wryly lifted her head from the test in her hands. "How could you possibly score 93% on your paper, may I ask?" There was a long, audible pause. "You may," I whispered. The teacher shook her head, placed the thin folder with my exam on my desk, and continued calling out other students' names. Naru's eyes bounded up over my shoulder to take a better look. I flung open the folder and bit my gaze into the paper… "THAT'S NOT MY TEST!!!!!!!!!!" Haruna's head shot up, and she glanced at me with a gleeful grin. "What did you say?" she prodded me happily. I looked at her. Then at my classmates. They were eagerly leaning in toward me. "Er, don't worry, it's MY test. Honest!" I confirmed hastily, and watched them return to whatever they were doing. Well, okay, this WASN'T my paper. It couldn't FEASIBLY be, and they all knew it. But… I squinted carefully at 'my' paper, chewing on my lower lip. But that ISN'T my handwriting!! And it's not even my signature!!! What the heck is this?! Then my madly working brain got to a simple and obvious conclusion. There is only one person out there who knows about this whole matter. Him. THE END! __________________________________________________________________ By May K. Lunnaya With comments and/or for information, contact May K. Lunnaya at sergek@co.ru. The author would greatly appreciate it if the readers would mention the site where they had read this manuscript. Mainly based on the characters created by Naoko Takeuchi. This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2000-2003 by May K. Lunnaya. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.