I drummed my fingers against the wooden desk, deep in thought, far away from the geography lesson I was in. The building Class E was in was nearly visible from this side of the building, but that's not what I was looking at.

"Have you heard? Apparently that demon-redhead is back." the whispers sounded from behind me, two more students obviously not caring about the lesson at hand.

"Yeah, his suspension ran out last week. Being in the E Class serves him right though; you saw what he did to that kid."

I sighed internally. Everyone knew about the story of Karma Akabane and what he had done, including myself. But after meeting him, I was starting to re-think all the bad things Asano had said about him.

Thinking about Asano, I wonder what that prick's up to today. Probably forcing his learning ideals on the oblivious A-class students. He'll be under a lot of pressure, with the school trip being in a few weeks, and the exams upon our return.

"Matsuoka, Morino, Haruka," the teacher snapped, addressing the two students and for some unknown reason, myself. "If you want to pass the upcoming exam, then I suggest paying attention. This will be in the test."

"Hai, hai..." my voice faded out as a stifled a yawn, but the teacher didn't respond and instead went back to teaching us about whatever the hell Biomes did.

Kaori's birthday is this weekend, and I haven't even gotten her anything yet. What a crappy friend I've been. Is she having a party? She never seemed to like big events like that.

Suddenly, an idea struck me like a bolt of lightning and I quickly pulled a pen out of my bag to scribble on my arm.

'Kaori's birthday' was all I wrote, but I knew what I was thinking.

If only I could get someone to help me. How about Erinn? She must be bored silly being off her job for so long.

And with that, I made up my mind.

Now I just had to survive the class before I could put it into action.

The train pulled into the bustling station and a swarm of people flooded toward the train, like ants to a biscuit. I was jostled around between backpacks and teenagers, struggling to keep up with the flow of people.

This is why I never catch public transport.

A hand clasped around my elbow as I was stepping onto the train and swung me around the entrance. I was about to shake it away, but then saw the person it was attached to.

"Nakamura-san, right?" I asked the blond girl. I vaguely remembered seeing her in the E-class, as well as being in my class the previous year, though we hadn't spoken much.

She nodded. "Nice to meet you again Matsuoka-san." she spun me around into a space on the still-filling train of people. I was bumped forward slightly, but managed to grab the pole above my head (and by grab, I mean ever-so-slightly hang from the bar that was almost too tall for me to reach).

I looked back to Nakamura, and noticed for the first time who was with her.

Okuda-san, Touka Yada and Megu Kataoka, I recalled.

"We didn't get to thank you for helping out Okuda-chan, she told us the story." Toka stated. Okuda flushed bright red.

"So, the E-class is recruiting losers now, are they?"

"Shut-up Koyama" I retorted, addressing the boy with the glasses. "I can see you haven't changed since we last talked, you still look like you haven't done anything but study for the past fifteen years. But, being one of the five virtuosos, I wouldn't be surprised."

The black-haired boy pushed up his glasses to rest on the bridge of his brooked nose, his greasy black hair hanging in his face.

"I have an exceptional memory, but I don't seem to remember who you are."

"I wouldn't want it any other way." I snapped.

"Leave us alone, would you?" this time the voice came from Rio, who had pushed her way up to stand by me. "You think A-class brats would have the brains to find someone else to waste their time on, maybe someone who gives a damn what you think?"

"Oh now don't be like that." our little meeting seemed to be attracting attention as yet another member of the five virtuosos, Ren Sakakibara joined the group. "Such a pretty girl like you in the E-class, it's almost sad."

Rio stuck her tongue out at him. "Sorry, I'm not interested in a flirtatious poet, even if you are the most tolerable out of the group."

I felt a small prick of offence at that comment, though I didn't know why.

Was it because of Asano? Do I feel bad about someone putting him down? Why?

The doors to the train slid open at their new stop, and the crowd lessened, though there were still a large number of eyes on the group.

"Two of the big five, talking to those E-class rejects? Are they trying to lose brain cells?"

I glared at the girl who'd made the comment, and she recoiled slightly. Grabbing Rio by the wrist, I pulled her over to another part of the train, gesturing for Okuda, Megu and Touka to join us.

When we were away from the two, even though some stares remained on us, most of the attention went straight to the other two, Sakakibara in particular. I could feel him burning holes in the back of my head with his gaze as we was forced to put on a smile and entertain his new group of fangirls.

"One day, I swear I will kill them." I saw Megu flinch slightly at the word kill, but disregarded it.

The doors of the train slid open once again, and the boy stepped out onto the platform, brushing his hair out of his eyes. Away from the hands of the girls who hadn't left him alone, he flicked on his phone, typing a message to someone he hadn't texted in quite a while.

On the other side or town, a phone buzzed with a new message.

"Sakakibara-kun huh? It's been a while."

'When was the last time you talked to your girlfriend, she seems to be hanging out with the E-class a lot more recently. I thought you were supposed to keep an eye on her after she moved to the D-class, we can't have people from the main building becoming friends with them, it brings down the entire system."

Asano shoved his phone back into his pocket, not bothering to send a reply. So Akiza was friends with the E-class now? In a sudden flash however, he realised a part of the text and hurredly pulled out his phone to send a reply.

Ren Sakakibara chuckled at the reply.

'She is not my girlfriend!'

Even the 'mighty Asano' had some soft points.

I had been taking to the girls from the E-class, it turns out they were headed down to the city for milkshakes.

"I've been craving a milkshake for sooooo long~" Touka said, and Megu nodded.

"She talks about getting milkshakes almost every day, we finally got around to coming down after the sixth complaint today."

"Do you want to join us Matsuoka-san?" Okuda spoke in a small voice, barely loudly enough over the noise of the crowd on the train. I thought about it for a second.

I suppose I could postpone my plans a little bit~

"Sure!" I grinned.

Until the city, we talked. The train eventually lost passengers enough for us to snag a six-seater.

It turns out Okuda was a top chemist in their class, but her grades weren't high enough in any other subjects to be in the main building. Rio had stopped studying after she wanted to know what it was like to be normal, and forgot to keep her grades up. I also found out she was only second to Karma Akabane in academic skills.

When we stepped out of the train, it felt like we were being pushed along by a river. You know, if a river was full of people. But we eventually made it to the clear side of the station where we reassembled and started on our way to get milkshakes. We passed a party store on the way down, and I took a mental note.

We had been walking for about five minutes before I realised where we were. Sure enough, just ahead was the all-too familiar cafe.

"Isogai's cafe has the best milkshakes around here." Rio said. "But you can't tell anyone he works here, okay? He'll get kicked out of school."

I nodded my head and took a deep breath. We entered the cafe, the bell tinkling like it usually did. Some of the waitresses seemed to recognise the group, and waved. I lead the way to the opposite side of the cafe to where I usually sat on the meet-ups with my father. The girls followed me, and we took a seat at a circular booth near the corner. Almost immediately, a waitress was over to take our orders.

"Lime please"

"Chocolate!"

"S-strawberry please"

"Another chocolate thanks"

I thought for a second when the order came around to me.

"Caramel thanks"

There was a scribble on the paper and then the waitress was gone.

"So, hows the main building lately? Still a bunch of over-privileged kids?" Asked Rio, and I nodded my head.

"What class are you in anyway Matsuoka-chan?" Touka asked. "Not A I hope..." she added quietly but quickly shook her hands. "not that there's anything wrong with that of course!"

I laughed. "No, I'm in D."

"So you're almost as fabulous as us then?"

"Ooooh, I don't know if I would go that far Touka-chan, we are the most famous kids in the school after all." Rio joked.

Okuda looked nervous at the thought of potentially offending a class-D student, and Megu looked a little on edge. The slight tension was broken however when our milkshakes arrived, delivered by none other than Isogai himself. He was wearing a different uniform from when I first bumped into him that day outside the bakery.

"Hey Isogai-kun~" Rio grinned. "You want to join us for a milkshake? Just ten minutes!"

Isogai shook his head. "I've got to work, I don't get paid for nothing you realise."

One of the waitresses who had waved to us earlier came past, walking behind Isogai.

"Take a few minutes off Isogai-kun, you work almost every day. I'll cover your shift."

The class rep seemed to be stunned. He opened his mouth to protest, but I took the initiative.

"Sit down Isogai-kun, it would be rude not to accept such a nice offer." I grabbed the sleeve of his white shirt and pulled him down to sit in the booth. The girls, including the waitress and myself laughed at Isogai as he tried to come up with some sort of argument, but then sighed in defeat, his antenna drooping.

"Just a few minutes." he said and we smiled. "But then I'm going back to work!"

I'm still alive I promise!

Hey dudes, here's another chapter of An Unusual Encounter, hope you enjoy! 

(Im about to be killed by mum, (Death by mother for uploading book instead of doing chores xD) so Byeee!)