"Nurse Karou, meet Mariko Kawai. She teaches English with me," Shiro said. "I heard," Nurse Karou said, extending her hand toward the other teacher. "I know," she added. Mariko stared at Karou, wondering. She stepped forward, reaching for the proffered hand, saying, "aren't you-?" Before she finished, her legs bumped into Shiro's, tipping them both forward into the nurse. They ended up in a three-headed heap of bodies and intertwined appendages on the floor. This was when and how Tonomi found Shiro. Ranma 1/2: Lack of Common Sensei #11 - Rhythm & Business Created by Winston Smith This part by Nathan Housley, with excerpts from Matthew Campbell, Falcon, and Switch. "Five, six, seven, eight..." Tonomi counted before pushing the "play" button of the Walkman at her hip. She had found an empty classroom large enough to practice her dance routine in, and, after moving a few desks, she was now ready to abandon herself to the rhythm of the music. It was about time, too. The Dance Club would host a competition later in the week, and with all the time Tonomi had devoted to chasing Shiro, she had allowed her skills to atrophy. And there was something she was trying to forget as well. Tonomi flowed through the choreography with the seeming effortlessness of an experienced dancer, moving in time to an upbeat rock song she normally enjoyed. "Three, four. Turn, face the crowd and smile," Tonomi recited, smiling weakly. She stopped and sighed, rewinding the tape in her Walkman. She did not feel like smiling. Her routine just was not up to Tonomi's standard, especially with her focus wavering. She jumped when the tape machine clicked as it finished rewinding. "Calm down," she told herself. "Let's try this again." Thirty seconds later, she stopped the tape. Somehow she had fallen a full beat behind the music. Tonomi sighed. This was not like her. The routine was simple compared to some she had danced earlier in the year, yet it was plagued with mistakes. Most were too slight for most spectators to notice, but Tonomi wanted it to be perfect. At least there was something in her life that, if she worked hard enough, would go as it should. "Focus on the steps, Tonomi," the Dance Club captain said to herself before starting the song again. She lay down and closed her eyes. When the music played, she imagined herself dancing flawlessly as she chanted the mnemonic used to choreograph her routine. But the image wavered... "One, two..." ...Shiro and Sakura arrived at the English club meeting hand in hand. Sakura looked somewhat embarrassed, trying to hide herself from view. After a few seconds, Tonomi asked, "Ano, Smith-sensei. It may be none of my business, but.... why are you holding Takahashi-sensei's hand? Are you... are you...."... "...three, four..." ...Tonomi had just asked Shiro for help in English when Mariko tripped and fell. Mariko bawled. "I'm clumsy, I'm stupid, I'm ugly--" Shiro hushed her. "It's okay. Everyone's clumsy sometimes or has accidents. I certainly know *that* well enough. You're not stupid, or you wouldn't be here," Shiro said reassuringly. "In any case, you are not ugly by any means. In fact, you're actually quite attractive." Mariko's eyes turned into stars as she looked up at Shiro. "R-really?" Shiro nodded. Mariko stood up quickly and threw her arms around Shiro's neck, giving him a quick hug. "Thank you! No one's ever complimented me like that before!" she exclaimed... "...and turn..." ...Tonomi ran. Only a short time before, she had been waiting with nervous anticipation, rehearsing what she would say. But as the minutes stretched on, the sounds in the park played on her imagination. The rustle of leaves became Happosai on one of his raids, and the snapping of branches were a dozen dreadful surprises. She could not get over the suspicion that someone had been watching her. If only Smith-sensei had been there, she would have been safe. What if he was there now, waiting? Tonomi stopped, slumping dejectedly into a nearby bench... "...face the crowd and smile..." ...Tonomi had finally tracked down Shiro's whereabouts. One of the freshman girls had seen him take Mariko to the nurse's office after class. Before the girl could finish, Tonomi had dashed away. Once she finally arrived at the nurse's office, Tonomi waited outside long enough to listen to Shiro and Karou talk. She gathered her courage. Shiro would probably come out by himself, and then she could confess her feelings. Mariko shrieked, and then there was a crash. Tonomi peeked around the corner. The aftermath was not pretty. Nurse Karou was lying on her back, with Shiro's head between her breasts. Shiro was scrambling to get off her but was prevented from doing so by Mariko's own clumsy attempts to stand up. Tonomi turned and walked away from the flailing trio. Confessing could wait... Tonomi sat up, tearing her headphones off. Only the fact that she had paid all her money to Nabiki kept her from throwing the headphones at the furthest corner. She was losing her chances with Smith-sensei. She did not want to think about that at all, but it always crept up. Sure, when she found Karou, Mariko, and Shiro together on the floor, she was upset, but she knew that Mariko had caused it. However, the image, combined with her recent setbacks, added to her frustration. Manga, anime, and television, liars all, made love seem so easy. According to the shojo manga Tonomi devoured, she should have effortlessly confessed her love to Shiro, who should have returned her affection. "If only this were a manga," she sighed. Instead, she ran when she should have confessed, and Mariko now had her sights on Shiro. There were even rumors that Mariko was making out with Shiro in the halls. Tonomi decided she did not want to follow that train of thought any more. She absent-mindedly twirled her headphones around her index finger. Even the class schedules conspired against her. Yamada-sensei had taken over Smith-sensei's upper level classes that day, at the Principal's orders. A quick investigation after she dashed out of class revealed that she did not have any of his classes. How would she confess her feelings to him? She did not know his schedule, and, thanks to some overzealous recruiting on her part, the English club was too crowded. Secret admirer letters would not work anymore since she had stood him up with the last one. She sighed again. Tonomi could not afford to have her attention divided. The dance competition was just too close. At the same time, she knew the competition for Smith-sensei was under way, and she was behind. Tonomi shook her head again. She needed a break from everything. After a few deep breaths, she resolved to take a few moments for herself and have fun, before she became an indecisive wreck. She ejected her tape, quickly checking the contents. Listed right after the taiko music she warmed-up to was her relaxation song. Whenever Tonomi was blue, nervous, or upset, she would dance to this song, pouring her emotions into every nuance of her movements. After a couple times through the song, she would usually feel better. She impatiently fast-forwarded the tape, setting her headphones about her neck. When the music started, she mentally noted the need for a new copy of the song. She had just about worn out the tape. That was the last thought for a while as she lost herself amidst the rhythms, melody, and counter-melodies. But even the song did not keep her from seeing Smith-sensei everywhere she turned. Why, she even saw him in the doorway, watching her. Tonomi continued her pirouette, until she faced the doorway again. Wait a minute, Smith-sensei *was* watching. Tonomi stepped back in surprise, her ankle sliding sideways as she landed wrong. The floor rushed towards her... ******************************************************************************** Shiro's mind reeled as he wandered down the halls of Furinkan High. Principal Kuno's schedule change had caught him unawares just when he felt he was making progress with his classes. Thankfully, he still taught his freshman English classes, but some of the upperclassmen he had taught were his best students. Especially Tonomi. Shiro suspected he knew the reason for her sudden interest in English. Or he would have, had Shiro not been sweating the next day's class. That morning, Principal Kuno's announcement of the new schedule had arrived on Shiro's apartment doorstep engraved on a coconut husk. Having learned his lesson about Kunos bearing strange fruit, he had approached the coconut with much fear, trembling, caution, and a three-meter pole. Fortunately, the coconut did not self-destruct five seconds after Shiro read it, but it still dropped a bombshell of its own. Shiro grimaced. "How am I supposed to teach that?" He stopped walking and sighed. A flicker of motion glimpsed from the corner of his eye provided a welcome distraction. It seemed to be coming from a nearby classroom doorway. If he remembered correctly, that classroom was not being used this semester. Although with the Principal's penchant for schedule changes, that could have changed. Shiro figured that one of the clubs had probably moved in there without permission, but it did not hurt to check. Shiro looked inside the classroom. The desks had all been pushed against the far wall, leaving a large clearing in the middle of the room. A faint melody floated in the air, and a young woman seemed to be doing the same. She danced with an elegance and emotion that made Shiro feel as though he was intruding on a personal moment merely by watching her. Pity that her back was turned. He wondered who she was. The young woman turned around. Shiro was surprised see Tonomi, but some part of him remembered she had spoken about dancing when she had given him that apple. He winced, expecting her to see him at any moment. Maybe he should leave before she, or any passersby, thought he was peeping. The rumors about him were bad enough as they were. Tonomi's eyes opened as she pirouetted. Shiro steeled himself, anticipating a harsh scolding. Before she finished her pirouette, she saw Shiro and took a step backwards. She wobbled on her ankle and fell. Tonomi rolled into a sitting position, first clutching, then massaging her ankle. Shiro noticed that she was biting the inside of her lip and a pained expression flashed across her face. At this point, he would have rather dealt with a hundred rumors. "Are you okay?" he asked, upset at himself for causing her fall. "I think so," Tonomi said, flexing her ankle and wincing occasionally. She stood up in slow, cautious motions. "I think Nurse Karou needs to check your ankle," Shiro said. "I'm okay," Tonomi replied. She took a tentative step, then another. She had to steady herself against a nearby wall to remain standing. "Come on, let's get you to Nurse Karou's," Shiro said, draping Tonomi's arm over his shoulder as his other arm went around her waist to support her. He grimaced upon hearing Tonomi's intake of breath, resolving to be gentler. "I'm fine, you don't need to-" Tonomi protested half-heartedly as Shiro scooped her into his arms and made his way down the hall. "I'm fine," she cooed, pulling herself as close to Shiro as possible. ******************************************************************************** "Tonomi? Tonomi?" A hand waved in front of the girl's face. Tonomi started. "What's going on?" she asked dreamily. The last few minutes had blurred together into one euphoric fog. "That's what I'd like to know," a tired and disheveled Nurse Karou yawned. The euphoric fog receded. Tonomi finally was aware that Nurse Karou stood next to her. That, and the cot she was sitting in, meant Tonomi was currently in the infirmary. And, there, on the other side of the cot, stood Shiro. Tonomi blushed. "What do you mean?" Shiro asked Nurse Karou. He tried to control his anxiety. "I meant that I haven't seen Tonomi in this office since before the dance competition with St. Hebereke last year. A couple of their girls took a page out of Kodachi Kuno's book and ambushed Tonomi and a few of the other girls on our team. The point is, Smith-sensei, Tonomi does not get hurt often, and hardly ever when she practices. Which makes me wonder what happened." Nurse Karou yawned. She examined Tonomi's ankle as she spoke. "I lost my concentration for a moment," Tonomi said quickly, not meeting Nurse Karou's eyes. Shiro looked uncomfortable again, but the explanation seemed to convince the tired Karou. Karou poked and prodded Tonomi's leg in seemingly random patterns while Tonomi held her breath in apprehension. Because of the sheer number of students she treated each day, the nurse was forced to rely on shiastu and other alternative techniques in order to treat students as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Unfortunately, she had been known to make a rare mistake when she was exhausted. Problem was, even the slightest mistake on some of her treatments had caused problems that Tofu and Cologne had difficulty fixing. "There, that should do it. Keep the ankle wrapped for the next week and let me know if any problems come up." Nurse Karou shook her head tiredly. She walked over to a nearby cot and lay down to rest. "I'm sorry," Shiro blurted. "I didn't mean to distract you." "That's okay. I tend to get too wrapped up in the music when I dance," Tonomi replied timidly. Shiro and Tonomi both looked at the floor, the awkward silence only broken by Nurse Karou's light snoring. "You're quite a good dancer," Shiro said. "Thank you." Tonomi hoped she was not developing a permanent blush. "I'll be dancing competitively two days from now, if you would like to watch." "What about your ankle? Don't you think it might be too soon to compete?" Tonomi flexed it a couple times before standing up. "It seems okay," she said after taking a few steps. "Please, could you come? You missed the exhibition and I'd like for you to be there," she almost pleaded. "I will," Shiro promised, pulling out his day-timer. "When is it?" "Six o'clock. Um, Smith-sensei, one other thing," Tonomi said quickly. "Yes?" "I-, I-" Tonmi stammered. Mariko burst in. "Shiro, you need to help me. Principal Kuno's changed around my schedule, and I'll have to teach without you. I don't know what to do," she said rapidly. Suddenly Shiro found himself being pulled out of the nurse's office. "I care about you," Tonomi whispered. Her eyes darkened. Mariko again! But not even Mariko could dampen Tonomi's spirits as Tonomi joyfully replayed the last few moments with Smith-sensei in her mind. She still needed to figure out how to see him regularly, but the overwhelming sense of urgency had passed. Tonomi sighed contentedly as she remembered the concern in Smith-sensei's eyes. Her eyes sparkled as she remembered being carried by him. It had felt so wonderful, so natural. To top it all, he wanted to come to the dance competition. He wanted to see her again. Tonomi giggled uncontrollably at the thought. Her giggles crescendoed into a triumphant shout of joy. "Hey, could you keep it down? Some of us are trying to rest," Nurse Karou shouted from her cot. "Sorry." ******************************************************************************** "Bubble, bubble, little tar, how I wonder what you are. I could win a Nobel Prize, if you'd only crystallize," Sakura murmured, watching a beaker of a thick grey syrup boil on a hot plate. She looked at her watch. The Nobel Prize would have to wait. She turned the hot plate off, then, using a pair of tongs, placed the beaker into a nearby ice bath. The beaker and the ice bath were then locked inside a specially designed refrigerator. Sakura shook her head. Just about the time she thought she had seen it all, a new batch of weirdness would hit Furinkan. Today, one of her more romantically minded students had accidentally dropped a handful of enchanted good luck charms into her experiment. The resulting mix of magic and chemistry had created the syrup she had been working on. Sakura spent the last few hours trying to identify the compound so she could dispose of it properly. So far she had determined only that the mixture was not Love Potion Number 9. Most love potions did not eat through concrete. But that was now tomorrow's problem. It was time to go home. Sakura almost made it out the door before she stopped. She had almost forgotten the most important thing. She struggled out of her lab jacket, throwing it onto a nearby chair. Then, just before she stepped outside, she took her hair out of the bun she kept it in while in the lab. Much better. Sakura stepped outside, bumping into someone. "I'm sorry," she apologized. She then saw whom she had collided with and sighed loudly. "Are you okay?" Mariko asked. She would have fallen down if Shiro had not caught her around her waist. "Just having a bad day," Sakura replied quickly, looking away. "I can tell," Shiro said, letting Mariko go. "You're still wearing your safety glasses." Sakura took them off, trying to stop the faint blush creeping along her cheeks. She had recently switched from goggles to safety glasses to avoid the red facial lines that plagued laboratory teachers. "Thanks." "Did you get you class schedule changed too? Is that why you're having a bad day?" Mariko asked curiously. "No. Principal Kuno can't change mine around that much. I teach too many science classes for him to interfere with my schedule." "Then what happened?" "There's an experiment I'm working on," Sakura said quickly. "Can I see?" Mariko pleaded. "No!" Sakura shouted, visions of ruined classrooms and explosions dancing in her head. Letting someone as clumsy as Mariko into a lab would be an invitation to disaster. And if Mariko ever found that strange syrup, who knew what could happen? Sakura knew that particular combination of magic and chemistry was highly unstable. She blocked the doorway to the lab with her arms. "Uh, Mariko, you said your schedule had changed," she changed the subject quickly before Mariko could ask about her behavior. "Everyone did, or at least I thought," Shiro answered. "We lost all of our upper level English classes." "And I'm going to be teaching world history with Yamada. I can't wait. Yamada was one of my favorite teachers in high school," Mariko said excitedly. Shiro and Sakura blinked in surprise. "Is this the same Yamada we know?" Shiro asked Sakura, who shrugged. "I had so much fun helping him in high school. In fact, he's the reason I decided to be a teacher. Look, there he is. Hey, Yamada-sensei, wait," Mariko shouted before she chased after Yamada. Was it Sakura's imagination, or was Yamada running away from Mariko? "I find it hard to believe that he could have been anyone's favorite teacher," Sakura said, shaking her head. "So Shiro, what classes did you get?" Shiro looked nervous. "Well, I still have my freshman English classes with Mariko, but I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's classes." "They can't be that bad," Sakura replied, as both teachers began walking away from the lab. "The subject is. I've spent all day trying to figure out how I can teach it. I mean, I did my best to avoid it at the university." "So what is it?" Shiro mumbled something. "Excuse me?" Sakura asked. She had missed what he said. Shiro repeated himself. "You'll do fine," she reassured him. "I never really did well in any of my algebra classes," he confessed, somewhat embarrassed. "I was lucky to get a C in any of them." "Well, algebra can get tricky at times..." "It's not supposed to for math teachers." Shiro sighed. "Shiro, even I have difficulty with the equations in general chemistry and physics at times. That's why I like organic chemistry. There's very little math to it, although the experiments tend to be messy," Sakura said, remembering today's mishap and the mystery syrup in her chemical refrigerator. "Especially around here. But enough about that, are you prepared for tomorrow's classes?" "I lucked out. Tsukano-sensei scheduled tests for all the algebra classes before the principal changed the class assignments. It's next week's math classes I'm really worried about." Shiro stopped, then laughed nervously. "Um, Sakura, you use a lot of math in your science classes, don't you? Could you help me plan out my lessons? I know you're busy, but it'd be for only the first couple of weeks." "Sure," Sakura stammered. "Could you help me, say, two days from now? I know a quiet spot where we can work with few distractions. Is eight okay?" "That sounds good," Sakura answered. Shiro looked at his watch. "I need to hurry, else I'll miss my train. See you tomorrow." Sakura watched Shiro leave. "I wish..." she began. She was interrupted by a loud explosion, and Mariko's shouts for help. Then Sakura remembered she had not locked the chemistry lab's door. "She didn't sneak into the lab just now," she groaned, running towards the source of the shouts. After hearing one cry of "Sweeto," Sakura was running _away_ from the source of the shouts. ******************************************************************************** Shiro opened his apartment door. He had finally made it home after spending two hours in the library searching for algebra study guides. But because of all the upcoming tests, many of the students in what would now be his classes had similar notions. Shiro had lucked out when he grabbed the last study guide. He tossed his attache case into a nearby chair and sat down at his desk. He pushed the loose pile of old college algebra notes off to one side and cracked open his dusty textbook. He selected a problem at random and attempted to solve it, quitting only after adding two and two together to make five. Shiro made his way into the kitchen, stopping to press play on his answering machine. "Hey, Shiro, this is Kira. You're not going to believe this..." Shiro rolled his eyes at his American cousin's latest commentary on American culture. He would have to save that message. Kira would call back to see whether he had understood the irony in whatever she had brought to his attention. "Mr. Smith, this is Professor Harumi from the university. I'm calling to confirm our teleconference in two days. We will be discussing your progress at Furinkan..." Professor Harumi was Shiro's advisor and the university's liaison to Furinkan High School. He would decide exactly how much credit Shiro would receive for his internship. Shiro suddenly realized he had never asked how long the internship would last. "Shiro, this is Sakura. I just checked my schedule, and eight o'clock's not going to work for me. Can we move it up to six? Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." Sounds reasonable, Shiro thought. He walked over to his attache case and pulled his day-timer free from it. "Let's see, six o'clock," Shiro thought out loud as he opened the day-timer. "Tonomi's competition is then. Maybe we can meet earlier." He checked to see if his afternoon was clear. At four, he and Mariko would be meeting with their "mentor" Yamada. His phone call with Professor Harumi was at five. This did not look good. He needed that lesson plan for the day after, and he had set aside tomorrow for grading all the tests. Plus, he had promised Tonomi he would be at her dance competition. "What am I going to do?" Author's notes- Thanks go out to Falcon for being my sounding board late that night, to both him and Jesse Ellman for prereading, and to Twoflower for the extension. The title, "Rhythm & Business," is taken from the Tower of Power album of the same name. Hope you enjoyed LoCS #11 as much as I enjoyed writing it. Nathan Housley Achariyth@aol.com