Ever After (Shinobu x Giyuu)

Chapter 1: The Meeting

"Tomioka-san! No wonder everyone hates you!"

"... I'm not hated."

"Can you not come up with anything original?"

"Hmmm? What was that Shinobu?"

Shinobu woke up with a jolt as she raised her gaze to the figure next to her. The blinding white lights in the room made her squint and a flash of pain quickly followed. However, what Shinobu felt wasn't the pain. But rather, the warm fluttery feeling in her chest.

"Well?" the nurse asked with her eyebrow raised. The haze of sleep quickly wore off as Shinobu shook her head.

"Sorry," Shinobu started as she slowly sat up in the bed "I was having a weird dream." She puts a hand to her chest as the warm tingly feeling slowly faded away. Weird. She hit her chest a couple of times to make sure that feeling was gone. Perhaps the accident caused her heart to go funny. After all, it was very unexpected.

The nurse gave a tight smile while writing something on the neon yellow slip. "Here," the nurse shoves the paper into Shinobu's hands "take this to your teacher once you're feeling better." After confirming that Shinobu looked ok, the nurse sat back in her office chair and started typing away on her laptop. Probably to play Tetris again until the next student comes in.

Shinobu gingerly placed a hand on her head and felt the large lump that had formed from earlier. She sighed. A very athletic boy with black hair and red tips had somehow catapulted off a car straight into her. Any memory after that was gone. God knows how she gotten into the nurse's office, but there better be reimbursement for this if she gets a concussion from this. She was tempted to stay in bed, but then her sister Kanae might make her go to their hospital. And she really did not want her dad to fuss over her.

Reaching over the side of her bed to get her bag, she slowly gets out of the bed. Her body throbs with pain as she stretches out to her full height which still wasn't very high. Still? Shinobu pauses. What did she mean by still? She shakes the thought out of her head as she gathers her things. She slowly started to walk past the nurse; however, one of the bright blue posters caught her eyes.

"Summer volunteer hours at the local elementary school?" Shinobu reads aloud as she gazed at the cartoon picture of happy children. The elementary school was a branch of her high school and just like her high school, it had a long history. The nurse looked up from her game barely hiding the delight in her eyes. "Interested? They need extra help at the infirmary during the summer programs." The nurse looked at her expectantly. "It's good for college and you'd only need to pass an interview." Though she was a first year student, Shinobu was well known for being one of the top students in her grade. She was already looking into premed programs meaning that any volunteer work would help out with her application. However, she didn't want to spend her summer volunteering when she could just do so at her family's hospital. Also, she wasn't the best with children, especially the injured ones.

"I'll -" Shinobu started as she made a move to leave the office. Her foot was already one step out of the door and freedom was just at her grasp.

"Just take the poster and see. I have plenty and my friend is desperate for an extra hand." The nurse smiles in a way that's difficult to refuse. As Shinobu was potentially concussed and sore all over, she simply returned the smile while tearing out the flyer from the bulletin board. She shoved it into her bag and her head throbs again as her annoyance increased. However, she didn't let it show on her face as she thanked the nurse on the way out. Damn it. She slowly made her way to her class to cool her head. Not only did some wannabe monkey run into her, but the nurse tried to force her into doing work she didn't want to do. Her body hurt like hell and head was killing her.