Monday morning, 7.10am

The silence of the peaceful morning was shattered by a high-pitched and ear piercing shriek from the house of the Yuy family.

"Mummmmiieee!!!" Relena screamed out from the bathroom. "Heero swopped the toothpaste with the facial wash!"

"Heero! Stop disturbing your sister!" Mrs Yuy screamed out. It was like a daily routine so she didn't really bother much.

Heero was up in his room clicking away at his personal laptop. He was doing some last minute studying for a test that day. Studying, according to him was hacking into the school computer and obtaining the test questions. Heero's an intelligent Japanese boy. He excels in all sorts of sports but he does extremely well in track. You can say he's an all rounder.

"Ninmu kanryo." He shut his laptop tight and proceeded to his drawer to take his school uniform out. Slipping on the black outfit, he straightened the collar. Heero wasn't used to it yet. The collar felt uncomfortable on his neck and he wished he could just wear his normal tanktop and spandex to school instead. Lifting his hand, he felt his forehead. The bump on his head was beginning to fade. An idea sank into his head. He smiled slyly and crept out of his room, heading to Relena's.
 
While in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the family, Mrs Yuy heard sounds of hurried footsteps travelling from the stairway. Relena was screaming from upstairs. Heero must have done something to her again. "Heero! Take your breakfast first before leaving!" She shouted amidst the screams and squeals of her daughter.

No response. Sounds of footsteps running to the main door.

"Wait, Heero! Close the door..." The door slammed closed, quaking the whole house. Something metallic fell to the floor. "Gently..." She completed her sentence. Not again...

During assembly that morning, Treize has announced that there was an upcoming musical and he required a band and a large number of students to be involved in it. He had combined 3 classes together to form the band. These classes were 1-3, 1-4 and 1-5.

Professor G was conducting a science lesson with class 1-7 in the laboratory. Seated at the back in a corner were Duo and WuFei. Next door was the principal, Treize himself, conducting a practice with the 3 selected classes.
 
 
Music room

Quatre stepped into the music room with his violin in his hand. There were a number of students in the room  who had arrived before him. Treize began to divide the classes into sections.

"Quatre, please come over here." Treize beckoned for Quatre to move to an area and join another group.

"Hai..." Quatre took his violin along with him and walked over to the other side. He was about to seat himself when he spotted  a familiar hairdo.

"Trowa!" Quatre thought, his eyes widening. "It's Trowa, isn't it?" Quatre walked over to the green-eyed latter. Treize was still directing the other students around. Trowa looked up when he noticed a shadow forming over him.

"I'm Quatre Raberba Winner. Do you still remember me? I... I was the one who got you discovered by Lady Une. Sumimasen deshita... (I'm sorry...)" Quatre lowered his head and bowed. "Honto ni... doomo sumimasen. (Really, I'm very sorry.)" Quatre bowed again.

".........."

"I'm really sorry. I wanted to apologize to you earlier but I didn't have the chance to, so when I saw you, I told myself I had to come over and apologize to you no matter what." Quatre remained in a bowing position.

"It's okay... " Trowa finally spoke.

"But... but..."  Quatre started to protest.

"It wasn't your fault..."

"Wha..?"

"Don't blame yourself.... it wasn't your fault...." Trowa repeated.

Quatre stood there surprised for a while, rooted to the floor. He nodded and returned to his seat.

When Treize started singing,  [ Treize can sing! ] Quatre raised the violin to his shoulder and began playing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Trowa slowly lifting the flute to his lips. Quatre smiled and continued on, the music surrounding him.
 

Science laboratory

"After the demonstration, students please proceed to the front to collect the necessary apparatus. Please be sure to check which item you have taken before starting the experiment. We would like to avoid any unnecessary accidents here." Professor G repeated for the 4th time. The students were getting awfully restless especially Duo.

"Mushroom head's getting senile here. He repeated the same sentence over and over again." Duo practically shouted to WuFei who was just sitting next to him.

"...... We would like.." Professor G repeated again.

"To avoid any unnecessary accidents here." Duo sighed and completed  the sentence along with Professor G. "It's useless for him to keep repeating himself... the music next door's drowning out his voice! I can hardly hear him except for that last sentence!" Duo remarked aloud to WuFei.

"WHAT?! WHAT DID YOU SAY?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!" WuFei shouted back to Duo. "THE MUSIC'S TOO LOUD!!"

Duo sighed again. "NEVER MIND!! JUST MOVE TO THE FRONT TO GET THE APPARATUS!!! I'LL GO GET THE REST OF THE STUFF!!!!!" He shouted even louder this time.

"WHAT??!!" came a reply from WuFei.

Duo pointed to the front.

"WHAT?!?!" came the same reply.

Duo grabbed WuFei by the ear and bellowed. "I SAID GET THE APPARATUS!!!!!"

WuFei punched Duo in the face. "I HEAR YOU ALREADY!! IT'S NOT LIKE I'M DEAF OR SOMETHING!!" He stormed off to the front. Duo held on to his nose. It hurts like hell...

Duo walked to the other side to get some items. "What was the thing which Professor G instructed us to take?" Duo pondered. "Was it this white stuff or the other white stuff?" Duo stared at the contents of the bottles. "Oh never mind... I'll just take any. I bet they're all the same after all." Duo grabbed the bottle and trotted happily over to his seat. WuFei was back already. Duo took off the cap of the bottle and poured some of the white stuff into a beaker. He placed the beaker above the fire.

"Duo. WuFei. Come over here." Professor G called out.

The two didn't hear.

"DUO! WUFEI!" Professor G called again.

Duo jumped in his seat. WuFei looked up. [ wow! This guy can hear! ] Duo ran up to the front. WuFei looked at their experiment and turned to look at the other tables. Their experiment seemed to be slower in showing results. Wonder why? Before WuFei left the table, thinking that it'll speed up the reaction, he turned up the fire.

Lady Une made her way to the music room. She wanted to know how things were going. If necessary, she would assist Treize in conducting the practice. She opened the door and stepped in. Everyone's head turned to face her.

"Go on! I just came in to see how all of you were doing, that's all. I see that you're doing well." she commented.

"Thank you for your concern, Lady. If there is any help I need, I will call for you. Please do not worry." Treize turned back to the students. "Ja, hajimemasho. (Let's began.)"

Lady Une smiled. She turned to make her way to the door. Just as she was about to reach for the doorknob...

KA-BOOOM!!!!

Up on the 2nd level, Heero jerked and sat up right. What on earth was that?

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to see the hole in the wall. They could see what was on the other side of the wall. The dust settled and everyone coughed a little.

In the laboratory, everyone's attention focused on the table where the explosion had occurred. It was Duo's and WuFei's table. They turned to look at the two.

WuFei covered his face with a hand. Duo blushed. "Oops?" he softly muttered.

Ms Lucrezia raced to the scene. She glanced at the table and turned to Duo and WuFei.

"This is bad..." Duo said.

"REAL bad..." WuFei added on.

"DUO MAXWELL!!! CHANG WUFEI!!!!! CLEAR UP THE MESS YOU TWO HAVE MADE AND THEN OFF TO DETENTION!!!!!!!!" Ms Lucrezia's voice could be heard throughout the entire school.

Heero thought he heard Ms Lucrezia's voice from somewhere nearby. "Must be my imagination." he thought and went back to doing his test. "This is easy." [ And we wonder why... ]

"Duo Maxwell...." Quatre and Trowa thought at the same time. "Again..."

Treize smiled. "We'll continue another day." He announced and walked off to his office. Lady Une followed behind.

For the rest of the day, the students in the laboratory and music room spent their time helping out to clean up the mess. While cleaning up, Quatre went over to the laboratory [ through the hole ] to look for Duo. He found WuFei with him at their charcoaled table cleaning up the mess.

"Duo, nice job you did there on the wall." Quatre looked back at the hole. "You could have used the door, you know?" Quatre was trying hard not to laugh.

"Haha... very funny." came a dead tone.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Quatre answered meekly. "But seriously, what happened here?"

"I don't know. All I remember was I went to collect the powdery stuff and WuFei went to get the apparatus and then Professor G called us to the front and I went up and WuFei was still.... at the table..." Duo's words trailed off and he turned to look at WuFei. WuFei looked away. "Just look at the mess here!" WuFei attempted to change the subject. Duo glared at the Chinese. "What the hell did you do back then?!" Duo barked.

"I merely turned up the heat."

"MERELY?!?!"

"Matte, Duo. (Wait, Duo)" Quatre sounded out. "The experiment you did can't explode due to high heat. I did this before." Quatre explained logically and searched around for something. He bent down and picked up bits of the broken bottle. Pinching a small amount of the white powder from the bits of broken glass, he brought it to his nose and smelt it. "Duo! The powder you took was not for the experiment! This thing is explosive!"

It was WuFei's turn to glare at Duo. Duo glanced around for backup. He saw someone come through the hole holding a flute and violin in his hand. "OMIGOSH! IT'S...!" Duo backed away. He grabbed Quatre by the shoulders and shook him. "You mean that guy was in there all this while?!"

"Y-Y-Yea." Quatre found that he couldn't speak properly with Duo shaking him like that.

"OH MY GUNDAM!!!!!" Duo slapped his forehead. Trowa, Quatre and WuFei's eyes fell on the American who looked like he was going into a state of insanity again. "I finally get it! That jinx's next door, that's why!" Duo accusingly pointed a finger directly at Trowa. Trowa was puzzled as to why this long-haired boy reacted this way whenever he was with him. He walked over to Quatre, intending to pass the violin over to its owner. Duo pulled Quatre back and whipped out his cross from inside his uniform. He flashed it in front of Trowa's face. "GET BACK!! I'M WARNING YOU! GET BACK!!" [ We could have sworn we saw a HUGE sweatdrop above Trowa's head ]

"Err... Duo. I think you're over-reacting here." Quatre tried to calm the boy down.

"OVER-REACTING?! WHO'S OVER-REACTING?!"

"You." The 3 replied in unison.

"I don't understand you, Duo." WuFei remarked. "You're just like a woman."

Trowa moved over to Quatre and handed him the violin. "Here. You left this over at the other side."

"Thank you."

Duo ran off. Quatre sighed before he proceeded. "Oh well, I was intending to introduce you to Duo over there. Since we're here, Trowa, meet WuFei. WuFei, this is Trowa."

"I know. I met him before." WuFei looked to Trowa and they both recalled the hairgel incident that weekend.

Just then, Ms Lucrezia came along. "Having a conference boys? Get back to work!" she ordered. The three scattered like a pack of mice.
 

1.02pm

Heero walked down the stairs and made his way to the school's exit after the bell went. He went past the laboratory and peered in. A hole. "Where did that come from?" Heero thought. He shrugged and walked out of school.
 
In detention class sat Duo and WuFei waiting anxiously for the 3.00pm bell to go off.

On to Chapter 9...