"Not to say that she has a car of course... I have a feeling that she is pretty popular. I say yes she does have a boyfriend, the kind that we would probably all die for." Minako added.
"No she doesn’t have a boyfriend." Ami said. That had immediately caught their attention. Why was Ami so sure that the new student didn’t have a boyfriend? Unless... Ami blushed, and turned away, refusing to answer. As they arrived at Cherry Tree Temple, they found Rei standing by the door pacing.
"Well we are a bit late, aren’t we?"
"It was Usagi’s fault, she was nagging at the teacher about the new student." Minako said quickly.
"Minako!" Usagi protested, it wasn’t only her fault, but Rei wasn’t interested in that, Usagi was always late.
"A new student?"
"Yes, the new student." Ami sighed.
"Yep, and her name is Shunei Hameiji. She is really smart and..." She stopped at Rei’s stare.
Ami looked up at the silence, and smiled "Usagi, go on."
"She’s going to sit next to Ami I think, but I don’t think that it’s for sure yet. Ami, lucky you!"
"Usagi, not like Ami has to cheat to do well in tests! She should sit next to us I think!" Minako giggled.
"Somehow I have a bad feeling about her. Lets go inside first and we have a lot to talk about, especially our new enemy that has been appearing. We have to deal with it first since we don’t know when it will strike again. Afterwards, we can talk about her." Rei turned and walked in quickly.
They followed her slowly, none of them wanting to talk about business. Minako and Usagi only cared about the new girl, she had a car, so.... she could drive them around. Makoto could see something was wrong, if only she knew why... Ami’s eyes looked lost and her mind seemed to wander off as they walked in. Luna and Artemis were worried, something about Ami’s face bothered them. There must be something she was hiding.
Rei was worried, for the past few days she had been getting bad readings, and now there was a new girl. Could it her, that Shunei Hameiji? "That new girl must be evil." That had accidentally slipped out.
"No she isn’t, and the last thing she would want is you guys trying to know about her past. She has been through enough already." Ami suddenly snapped. Everyone turned to her, she blushed. "She is just a normal girl, just, just, stop trying to find out so much about her."
"Ami, this isn’t like you," Luna said, "are you alright?"
"I’m alright, just let Hameiji be."
"Ami, is there something that you aren’t telling us? You seem to know her."
"Nothing, it’s nothing. Let’s go on with the meeting." She mumbled.
The meeting was short, no one wanted to talk. They were worried about Ami, and the new girl. Who was she, and what was between Ami and her?
"Class, this is Shunei Hameiji, please make her feel welcomed." Shunei Hameiji didn’t say anything, only smiled slightly. "Miss Shunei, there is a spare seat beside Miss Mizuno which I thought you would like to sit in. Why don’t you sit next to her, she is a very accommodating person whom I am sure you would like." A queer look passed her face, as Shunei Hameiji quietly nodded and made her way next to Ami. She cocked her head to one side, she didn’t even say who Mizuno Ami was, and there were so many spare seats in the room. As Shunei Hameiji sat down, Ami made no move to say hello to her and only glanced at her.
"Hi Shunei Hameiji, I’m Tsukino Usagi and this is Minako!" Usagi grinned broadly as she leaned over from behind Hameiji, "and that’s Mizuno Ami next to you. She is the smartest person in the whole class, but I hear that you are really smart too! Anyway, Minako and me are kind of on the dumb side, so maybe you can help us with our homework."
"I know she is Ami, but thank you." She said. She turned, and studied Ami’s face as her eyes softened. Her voice had a musical like quality that was soft and pleasant to her ears. Yet her voice had a special ring to it that stood out from the others and it attracted people.
"Oh yeah, you guys would have met each other in competitions. You know, there will be competition here at last. Sorry to say this, but I’m not on your side." Usagi said as she looked at Ami. Ami turned slightly with an amused look on her face. For the first time, Usagi felt that Ami too, had a special air about her like Hameiji. Usagi suddenly felt below them, they had something about them that made them a cut above the rest.
For a split second when Ami looked over, her face was exactly like Hameiji’s, except for Hameiji’s longer, lighter shade of blue hair. Her eyes, and face, the same. Their features showed similarity when they looked around. Hameiji’s hair reached down her back, two small braids in the front, while the rest of her hair dangled loosely at the back. The light blue color was almost like ice, it suited the rest of her cool face, the only time the ice broke was when she smiled, rarely.
Hameiji’s face was immediately alert, as she replied carefully, "Usagi, soon the competition will begin. Then you’ll know who plays the upper-hand in this game. You are no match, because I know everything you do." Usagi’s eyes widened, what did that mean? It sounded so... vicious.
Ami turned to Hameiji in shock, "Hameiji! I thought you would have known, she isn’t any kind of competition to us." Usagi smiled nervously, she was no competition in brains of course, but since when was Ami so blunt about it? Ami had always believed in improvement, but what she had just said sounded like she had given up on helping Usagi.
Hameiji had sounded a little weird too, what upper-hand? The upper part of her hand would be, the back of her hand. Who was the back of her hand? Wasn’t it just herself? What had that got to do with competition? Usagi let a small laugh escape from her lips, and decided to let that joke pass. It probably wasn’t important and definitely not a good one. Her idea of a good joke was ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ or ‘knock knock who’s there’, easy and straight-forward, no thinking involved to understand. No doubt maybe some stupid joke they shared in competitions. She looked at her hand again, then suddenly she remember what was always on the back of her hand. Cheating notes. So after a competition, she would know who had the cheating notes in the game...? So Hameiji cheated?
Hameiji’s cold look vanished as she blushed. "Of course, Usagi, forgive me for the misunderstanding. I wasn’t paying attention to what you said and heard the wrong thing."
Usagi was lost again, what misunderstanding? She understood perfectly. Or did she miss something again?
When class started, it was clear that Hameiji was smart, like Ami. (she certainly didn’t need the cheating notes on her upper-hand...) The two worked hard, writing furiously in their notebooks, and answering questions that the teacher asked. The pair were exactly the same, only Hameiji seemed a little bit cooler. They were like machines, computers. Shooting out answers, crunching all the numbers in maths, and remembering the pile of history notes (that would have taken Usagi years to understand the basic concept, let alone memorize the dates) in seconds.
Usagi smiled, maybe Hameiji could help her with her homework and tests as well... She could take over from Ami when she was too stressed, or was out at her three thousand cram classes and model exams.
During the whole day, Ami had made no attempt to make Hameiji feel comfortable in her new surroundings, or get acquainted with her. They had only exchanged one line, and that had made no sense.
After school, Ami quickly left the class room for cram class, while Usagi ran straight to the Temple, there was so much to tell everybody about Hameiji. As Usagi waited to cross the road, she noticed that Ami and Hameiji had walked off together like good friends, chattering happily. She looked at them in suspicion, they certainly didn’t look as if they had only just met.
When Usagi arrived to the temple, she was even earlier than Rei. By the time all of them (except Ami) got there, Usagi had finally understood what waiting for others felt like, but as if she would change! "Guys, there is so much I have to tell you!" Usagi squealed in excitement.
"Oh no, Usagi gossip again. Usagi, we have work to do you know." But Usagi ignored Rei.
"Well, you see, Hameiji is here at last. And now she sits next to Ami in class...."
"Hmm... two deadly rivals together." Makoto said, as she remembered Ami’s competitiveness for grades.
"Anyway, Ami didn’t even introduce herself to Hameiji when she sat down."
"That’s strange, Ami is usually very nice to people, especially when the person is new." Luna said.
"Are you guys talking or me? Well, and Hameiji just knew who she was, no one even told her!"
"That’s easy, Ami goes to so many competitions. If Hameiji is really so smart, then they should know each other." Rei said smugly.
"Well anyway!" ignoring Rei’s comment, "In class, they didn’t speak to each other once..."
"In case you haven’t noticed, not everyone talks in class Usagi."
"Actually, Hameiji said that we would find something upper-hand, and Ami told her that I wasn’t a competition or something like that. It was really weird, I didn’t really understand her."
"Usagi, it’s easier. You are so stupid that you don’t understand most of anything anyway!"
"Rei! Well and then, when school ended, they walked off together like really good friends. It was just..." The door suddenly opened as Ami entered.
"Usagi, I no idea that you spied on me in class." She said coldly.
"Ami, you had cram class!" Usagi cried.
"I did, but I was worried about you all. Now I know that I don’t need to worry. You have plenty of work to do as I see." She looked at them and walked out. They stared at each other, it wasn’t like Ami to jump at conclusions. Then they turned their heads as they heard a car roar off.
"That must have been Hameiji." Usagi whispered.
"See Usagi, you and your gossip brings us nowhere!" Rei said.
"Rei, you wanted to know too!"
"Oh really? Sure you didn’t force it on me?"
"You two should really stop it. Something is wrong, and obviously, we have to help Ami. It must have something to do with Hameiji. If Ami came by car, then she must have been with Hameiji, and now she knows where we meet. We have to find out what is wrong."
"Umm, I hate to say this, but this seems to coincide with the new monsters we have been having in Tokyo now."
"That’s right Makoto, we must find out something about this Hameiji and Ami’s relationship." Luna said.
"Luna, are you suggesting that the enemy might be using Ami, and that she is the one behind all the monsters?"
"Rei, I’m not sure, but we need to find out soon. Minako, I think you should try and be friends with Hameiji, invite her to volleyball practice or something like that. Usagi, you have to try to..."