It was a muggy afternoon, the rain shower finally ending as soon as the school day did. The setting sunlight shined through the windows of the school building, illuminating the hallways. The school was two stories and consisted mostly of old-fashioned brick, though the interior was more modernized. The fields for sports were behind the building while the courtyard was in the front. The grass and concrete were still drenched with puddles from the rain.

Most of the students were either already gone, or in the process of leaving. I, on the other hand, was heading back to the classroom to pick up my things. I had previously went to the restroom after the bell rang, leaving my stuff in class.

On the way, I waved to some friends from a different class who were walking through the hallway, probably about to leave the campus. "Sup guys? How was class?" One of them was taller and gave a smile with a thumbs up while the other was shorter and seemed like he had the soul sucked out of him.

"Please.... kill me...." He said with a groan. "He gave us homework over the weekend... How dare he..." He groaned once more, causing both me and my other friend to laugh.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's only 4 questions." The other peer shrugged to him, trying to lighten the mood.

"But they all have like eight parts! Are you kidding me?! Like who would do such a thing" I could tell he was mentally crying to himself. "So, what's your plan for the afternoon? Homework, too?"

"To be honest, I don't really know. The teacher didn't give our class any homework, so I'm free for the weekend." The moping student rolled his eyes with a sigh, jealous that I had nothing else to do. "I was heading back to my classroom to grab my things and head home."

"Ah, alright. We'll get out of your hair. We should hang over the weekend though if you're up to it." The taller one offered.

I gave it a second of thought before smiling to him. "Course." I nodded. "See you around." I watched as he walked down the stairs with his buddy, who was still saddened by his workload. I made my way down the hallway and turned a left before making it to my classroom on the right. I opened the door and much to my surprise, someone was still in the room.

It was my female friend from class. Well... "Friend", I guess. If you asked her, she would tell you she hated me and had nothing to do with me, though of course I didn't believe that for a second. She was always hatey hatey with me one second, then helping me out and talking with me with an adorable smile the next. I always found it kind of cute. She had some cleaning supplies next to her sitting on a desk. Some wipes, a broom, window cleaner, etc. She was wiping down a desk before speaking up to me.

"What are you just standing there for? You coming in or not?" She questioned me with an annoyed tone, which was fine, given that I spaced out for a second, standing in the doorway.

"Eh?! Oh! Sorry." Walking in, I closed the door behind me, and went to my desk, getting my things together. "So, what are you up to?"

"What does it look like?" I was surprised by her snappy remark, but she quickly sighed and recomposed herself. "...Sorry... Sensei said it was my turn to clean the classroom this week, and I was wanting to go home and relax the rest of the afternoon, but now I'm stuck doing this."

"And here I thought you liked Sensei." I said, putting my messenger bag strap on my shoulder.

"Quiet! And I do like Sensei. I like helping him out, but I'm just really tired today and don't feel like cleaning the class."

"I could help you if you'd like. I have nothing better to do." I gave her a genuine grin. I did want to help her, it felt right, plus I could spend time with her while doing so.

"No! I don't need your help, thank you very much." She stammered, looking at me with angry eyes. "I can do this by myself.."

"Oh, uh, alright, I guess. I'll be heading home then. Have a good weekend, okay?" I started walking to the door when..

"Wait!" I stopped at the sound of her voice. I turned to see her face all flustered with her arm reached out in my direction. "I... I wouldn't mind some help...actually..."

"Hm? Oh, sure, I'd be happy to help." I set my bag down by the door and walked over to the cleaning wipes to help with the desks.

"D-Don't get the wrong idea! I just think we can get the job done faster if you help. Not like I want to be around you or anything." She moved to another desk to wipe it down, averting her gaze from me. I picked up a wipe and started cleaning.

I chuckled. "Alright, alright."

We kept cleaning for a while in silence, letting the sounds of our work fill our ears and leave us in a trance.

...

From time to time, I'd peek at her to see what she was doing, and it made me wonder what she was thinking about.

She was wiping the windows down and had a soft smile upon her face, which to me always gave me a warm feeling in my heart.

...

"So, besides being tiring, how was your day?" I decided to break the silence with a simple question, wondering how she'd respond.

"It was good." She said simply, continuing her cleaning without stopping. It caught me off guard, as I was expecting a completely different response from her.

"Just good?" I moved to Sensei's desk and started cleaning it down, still listening to her.

"Yeah. It was alright. I ended up getting a perfect score on the English test we got back today." She moved on to the next window, spraying it down and wiping. "How did you do on it?"

"I got one mark, but got everything else spot on. Kinda bummed about it, honestly. At least I did good though." I giggled a little, rubbing the back of my head.

"Ha-Ha! Beatcha' this time!" She pumped her fist in the air in victory staring at me with fire in her eyes. "How does it feel to lose to me?" She gave off a smug aura, and the only way I could combat that would be my own smug aura.

"I'm actually proud of you for getting a perfect score. Maybe one day we'll both celebrate getting perfect scores at the same time." I said as falsely politely as I could.

"E-Eh??" She stopped her reign of valiance in its tracks. Her face became flushed as she tried to find the words she wanted to say. "I...I....Sh-Shut up and keep cleaning! I don't want to be in here all evening.. Especially with someone like you!" She turned and went back to work, wiping even faster than normal. "Stupid... Dummy... Dunce..." She muttered under her breath, though I could hear her, barely. I could see the pink tint to her cheeks. I laughed internally after seeing her reaction, continuing my work. I then switched over to using the broom to clean up the floors.

...

After a bit, she had finally finished the windows and was watching me sweep. "Are you done, yet?" She had her arms crossed.

"Almost. Just gotta pan it up and put it in the trash."

"Good, then we can ge-"

*click!*

We both stopped for a moment, hearing a weird click sound coming from the door.

"Uhm... What...was that sound?" She asked me, a bit confused.

"I dunno." I shrugged, going back to sweeping. She walked over to the door, attempting to open it.

"Wha-What??" She pulled and pulled. "What gives?!"

"Hm? What's the problem?" I looked over to her as she continued to try to open the door.

"Hey, come over here and help me! The door won't open!" She called.

I sighed and set the broom against Sensei's desk. "It's probably jammed or something. You need to give it an honest pull."

"What did you think I was doing?" She crossed her arms in frustration. Once I got to the door, she stepped back and I tried opening the door myself, but... it wouldn't open. "See, I told you!" Her eyes then widened in shock to a sudden realization. "Wait.. Don't tell me..."

"Don't tell you what?" I looked over to her.

"They locked us in!!"

"Nonsense... There has to be a way to unlock the door from inside the classroom, right?" There was a pause with no reply from her. "..Right??"

"No... The doors here all have locks on the outside." She had a saddened look to her face.

"What? What type of school has their locks on the outsides of the classrooms? That's stupid. I never knew that."

"The same school that decided to only remodel the inside of the building instead of the entire building." She rolled her eyes. "Now I'm stuck here... with you.." She then looked away.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'll send an email to Sensei and he'll come back to the school to help us out." I pulled out my phone and sent Sensei an email, letting him know that she and I were stuck in the classroom after finishing our cleaning. "He'll probably see it in a couple minutes and be on his way."

"Fine."

...

...

There was another few minute pause of silence between us until it was broken by...

*stomach growl!*

I looked over to her and her cheeks went red. I laughed a little.

"Is someone hungry?"

"N-No! Shut it! You heard nothing!" She held her stomach, anger plastered on her face.

"Your stomach said otherwise."

"I said shut up! I just... I didn't eat enough lunch today.."

"Yeah... I'm a little hungry too, heheh." I then remembered something. "Oh, I still have an unopened muffin from lunch in my blazer pocket, if you want it." I reached in there and pulled out a perfectly pristine blueberry muffin in its plastic packaging. "It may not be much, but it's at least something to snack on."

"Y-You're giving it to me?"

"Yeah, you probably need it more than I do. Here." I tossed it to her. She tried to catch it, but fumbled with it, ultimately catching it in the end. She stared at it and opened it slowly with a shy expression. She took some bites out of it, then decided to snap at me.

"Stop staring at me!"

"Sorry." I turned around and went back to the broom to finish up sweeping. She walked over to the trashcan and started eating over it as not to spill crumbs. She soon finished and threw the wrapper away.

"You're so... Nice to me..." She said quietly, but loud enough for me to hear as if she wanted me to hear it. That was definitely something I didn't expect her to say. She was sitting on a desk, looking down in a small fit of sadness.

"Hm?"

"I've been...so mean to you the past couple years here and you've been so nice to me... Even now I acted like I didn't want you to be here and help me, or give me food... Yet, you've treated me like I was your best friend or something. Why? Why would you be so kind and caring towards me if I've been so harsh."

"Well... Short answer, I don't really know. Long answer, I don't think you really intended to be mean to me, or at least that's not how you really feel, rather."

"Eh?"

"I mean think about it. What would give you the reason to be mean to me?"

"I don't know! Every time I'm around you, my emotions get all screwy and I get confused, and I don't know what to do, so I get mad." She lightly slammed her fist on the desk.

"And you take that anger out on me." I came to the realization about why she was always so angry/friendly with me.

She slowly nodded to me.

"Well... if you're unable to convey your feelings or emotions to me that well, then that's fine." I smiled to her. "At least, let me convey mine to you." I put the broom down and walk over to her.

Her eyes widened as she turned her head to me.

"I really like you. You're cute, smart, really fun to be around. Every insult you've thrown at me felt like a compliment that you just weren't able to say, and I felt it from you, from your heart." Her face got redder and redder as I kept speaking. "I enjoy the time we spend together, whether it's you being super harsh towards me, or super kind those rare times; Whether we're eating lunch together, or studying together, or even now when we're stuck in this classroom."

She hid her face by looking at the floor. I could tell she was trying to find the right words to say, but couldn't, which gave me an idea.

"If you need to berate me to say what you have to say, go ahead."

"I..."

"Hmm?"

"I..I...I think... I like you too... you big.. dumb... stupid... idiot..." She said quietly, but again purposefully loud enough for me to hear it. She lifted her head to look at me, showing a mix between embarrassed and angry, with a hint of shy.

"Well how about that? You can confess." I giggled. "It took you several insults afterwards, but you did it."

"Quiet, you..." I laughed a little more. "I said shut up! You butt. Does this mean we're... together.. or.."

"If you want to, I'm definitely all for it." I stuck a thumbs up. She quickly turned her head away to hide her face again and crossed her arms

"Tch! I-I guess it wouldn't be too awful to have you around me more often. I'll have to keep an eye on you so you don't flunk out of our last year here."

"I guess I'll have to do the same, haha."

Suddenly, the door lock clicked and Sensei opened the door. He was wearing casual clothing, which was a rare sight to see. We grabbed our things and went up to him by the door.

"Sorry about that. The police tend to make sure the doors are closed after school hours so they go by and lock everything."

"But.. The locks are on the outside of the doors..."

"Yeah.. I know, when they were remodeling the interior of the place, the contractors made a little oopsie" He scratched the back of his neck.

"Tell me about it." My newly acquired girlfriend said.

"Anyway, the room looks really nice, thanks for cleaning it." He looked over to her.

"He helped too."

"Thank you as well."

"No worries." I then grinned, thinking up an idea to mess with the class tsundere. "Bout time I head home. I'm starving. Gave her my last piece of food, wouldn't stop begging for it."

"You what?!" Her eyes widened in shock, then they became enraged. "I'm going to beat you!"

"And that's my cue to leave!" I then bolted out the door, with the fiery tiger right behind me.

Today was a great day, and the weekend was likely going to be much better.

...

...

...

Hey guys, just wanted to try my hand at a one shot, a real one this time, and see how it turned out. I'd like for you to give me your thoughts about it. I have several more drafts for chapters of this book including tomboys, robots, catgirls, school nurses, and much more. Also give me some ideas of your own too, and I'll give them some thought. Thank you for reading.