Shiro found himself sitting at his desk in his living room, thinking about what he was going to do. The past few days have been more trouble than usual. He wondered how the heck he had found himself in this mess. "I wonder why everybody has been acting strange for the past few days." Shiro said to himself. "Everybody has been acting strange, well strange for this ward." Shiro then started to get out of his chair and started to go to his bedroom in a very slow pace. "At least tomorrow is Sunday, so I can at least sleep in for part of the day." He then walked slowly towards his bedroom door. When he got to the door, he paused for a second. "Hmm," Shiro said to himself. "I wonder how Kira heard about Tonomi anyway." He stood there for a few seconds in reflection. He then felt very tired "I'll ask her about that in the morning." Shiro then went to bed, thinking how this was one strange night. ******** Ranma ½: Lack of Common Sensei Original concept by Winston Smith Chapter Twenty-Four: Late Night Chat By Montae McKinney montae@ameritech.net ******** Sakura found herself unable to sleep in her bed, unable to sleep. The whole night was a total washout. From Shiro not noticing what she was wearing, Mariko being there in the first place, and the potted plant exploding because of a planted microphone just made it the worst date that she has ever been on. "I just can't believe that my date turned out like this!" Sakura growled as she was hugging a pillow. "And Shiro acted like he didn't even care that Nabiki planted a bug!" As she was saying this, Sakura was slowly ripping the pillow in her hands. The poor pillow's life was saved when the telephone rang. "I wonder who could be calling me at this time of night." Sakura said to herself as she picked up the phone. "Sakura, I hoped that I did not wake you up, it's me Kira." "No, I could not sleep anyway." Sakura said weakly. "So, what happened on the date?" Kira said, "Did it go well?" Sakura sighed, "On a scale of one to ten, the date was a negative five." Kira did not say anything for a minute. "What happened, when I left, everything looked ok?" "Well," Sakura started to say. "Mariko's chair slipped while she was holding a glass of water." "Is she ok?" Kira asked, worried that this is the cause of the bad date. "Yeah, we took her to see Doctor Tofu. It turned out that she bruised her lower back." "Oh." Kira said in understanding. "So that is why the date turned out badly." "No," Sakura said tiredly. "What happened after Mariko slipped was what really ruined the date. As she was falling, she dropped the glass in a potted plant." "Well, that doesn't sound bad." Kira said. "The potted plant exploded, Kira." Sakura said after a brief pause. Kira blinked a few times before speaking "Why would a potted plant explode?" "That is the reason why the date turned out to be so bad. The reason why the potted plant exploded was because someone planted a bug there and it must not have been waterproof." Sakura said. "Why would someone bugged a date," Kira started to say but she thought of Tonomi. "Sakura, do you know a girl named Kanzaki Tonomi?" As soon as she said the name, Kira could tell that saying that name to Sakura was a 'bad thing to do'. Because as soon as she said that name, she started to hear a cracking noise. "Sakura," Kira started to say after a few seconds. "Are you ok?" "Yeah, I am alright." Sakura said, trying to calm herself down. "As to answer you questing, yes I do know Kanzaki, why?" Kira was now unsure of herself if she wanted to answer that question. "Well, you see, I bumped into her at the WcDonalds across the street." "I can't believe this!" Sakura said in an outburst. "Didn't Shiro talk to her!?" "Yeah he did, but you know that he is a gentleman. With a love struck girl like her, she just blew off whatever he said." "I can't believe this." Sakura said out of frustration, "What am I suppose to do now?" "Well, I got a plan." Kira said. "Are you busy around 1:00?" "Nope, what do you have in mind?" "I tell you when I get to your place, ok?" "Alright.' Sakura said. "I guess I will see you later then?" "Yep," Kira said cheerfully. "Goodnight." And with that, Kira hung up the phone. Sakura hung up her own phone and decided to actually go to sleep. Tonomi found herself sitting on her bed looking out of her window. She started to think about what had happened just a few hours ago between her and Smith-sensei's cousin. After she confess her undying love of Smith-sensei, that Kira woman looked like she was shocked. It was as if she never heard of her before. As she reflected some more, her telephone rang. "Hello?" Tonomi said as she picked up the phone. "Tonomi, it's me Nabiki. I have some info for you." "You do?" Tonomi said in disbelief. She then started to become depress "But I'm still broke from the last few times I had to pay you." "Don't worry about it." Nabiki said like the shrewd businesswoman that she is. "You can repay me by helping me out during the festival that is coming up." Tonomi stopped to think about this for a few seconds. From what she heard, it's not a good idea to owe Nabiki anything. The horror stories that she has heard around the school made her shiver. However, this is for Smith-sensei. This is for true love! "Ok, deal." Tonomi said, finally. "Good choice." Nabiki said. "First off, the date did not end on a good note. Well to put it bluntly, it blew up in their faces." "*Whew* I was worried about that." Tonomi said, glad that she is getting some good news for once. "So what happened?" "Eheh, well you know how Kawai-sensei tends to have a lot of accidents right?" "Yeah, don't tell me something happen to Smith-sensei!" Tonomi screamed at the telephone. "Nothing of the sort, but she had a accident an they had to take her to see Doctor Tofu." Nabiki said. She was not going to tell her about the hidden mike that she had. "Well, at least something is going my way for once." "However," Nabiki said. "We do have a bigger problem, Smith-sensei's cousin." Tonomi grumbled. "Yeah, I talked to her just a few hours ago." "Anyway," Nabiki said butting in "As I said I have a plan, but it's going to take me a few days to get everything in place." "And this plan is?" Tonomi said trailing off at the end of that sentence. "Sorry, I cannot tell you that now. You will just have to trust me." Tonomi blinked a few times. "Your not going to hurt anybody, are you?" "No, I'm not going to hurt her!" Nabiki said loudly "If this plan works, and I am sure that it will, you will no longer have to worry about Takahashi Sakura." "Ok," Tonomi said after hearing that. "I put my future in your hands." "Don't worry about it, just get some rest and let me work my 'magic'. Goodnight." And with that, Nabiki hung up the phone. Tonomi hung up the phone and for the first time was relax for a change. As see went to sleep, she had a dream that Smith-sensei and herself were together forever. Author Notes Darn it, I wanted to write more than this, but it was not making sense. Sigh, I just hate it when that happens. Well, this chapter was better than my last but not as good as my first one. I'm still learning how to write and I hope you will at least give me some feedback at either the MB or at montae@ameritech.net thanks and good day.