* Haruko walks along towards the garage, wringing her hands a bit. She mutters 
some to herself as she walks. "Could probably help her more if I wasn't hoping 
he'd stay away..."
<Brett> [There seems to be some hubbub at the garage.]
* Haruko looks a little surprised and jogs over.
* Haruko is slightly cautious, but is assuming for the moment that there's some 
sort of mechanic antics a'foot and not anything worse.
<Haruko> ( She gonna get hit with a pie again? :P )
<Katie> (Mmm, pie!)
<Brett> [Hiroji waves to Haruko as she approaches. "Hey, Haruko! Come'mere and 
watch! This is funny."]
* Haruko grins and jogs over faster, her mood visibly improving. "Cool! What's 
up?"
<Brett> [Haruko notices now that virtually all eyes are on a table in the back, 
where stands Hirokazu Ashikaga and Maki Tomika. Hirokazu has a screwdriver in 
his hand and is grinning at Maki. "Come on, miss Tomika! You've been at this a 
long time. You can show me how to do this properly!" Maki has her arms folded 
and a scowl on her face. "Ask someone else to help you, you lech! Quit following 
me around!"]
* Haruko shoots Hiroji a vaguely exasperated look and steps forward a bit, 
making her way to the front of the crowd.
<Brett> [The rest of the boys are technically working on their own projects, but 
they constantly look over and giggle.]
* Haruko coughs quietly but pointedly, she makes sure Maki sees her but doesn't 
intervene just yet in case Maki'd prefer to handle it on her own.
<Brett> [Maki wanders to another table, but sure enough, Hirokazu follows, 
asking all kinds of questions.]
* Haruko walks up behind Hirokazu and raps him gently on the back of his head 
with the back of her hand. "She said to find help from someone else. There are a 
lot of other good mechanics here." She grins wickedly over at Hiroji for a 
second, "I'm sure Hiroji would love to help you with whatever you need to 
learn."
<Brett> [Hirokazu turns, and his eyes sparkle. "HARUKO-CHAN! You'll help me, 
right!"] (Body roll!)
<Brett> [Hirokazu glomps Haruko.]
* Haruko reels slightly in surprise before falling over altogether. "Ooff..."
* Hirokazu hugs Haruko. "You won't abandon me, right, Haruko? You're nice like 
that. Not like that mean girl." Maki humphs and refolds her arms. The boys 
snicker.
* Haruko tries to pushes Hirokazu off not using much force but being somewhat 
firm about it. "Does Eriko know you've been pestering poor Maki?"
* Hirokazu blinks. "Huh? Eriko? Why would she?" He's pushed off without even 
realizing it.
* Haruko gets up quickly, taking advantage of the opportunity. "I thought she 
looked after you in these sorts of things."
<Hirokazu> Umm... Well, I guess...?
* Hirokazu looks kind of clueless.
* Haruko snickers slightly before stepping back to arms length. She then speaks 
in a patient, you better end up having a kick ass power, tone, "So, what are you 
trying to learn?"
* Hirokazu rubs his head and looks down at the screwdriver, completely lost. 
"Ummm... I don't know where to start. It's not like computers, where I can just 
type in a few things and get what I want."
<Hirokazu> ( I can't figure out how to turn the motor into a cute girl. )
<Haruko> ( Haruko gives Hirokazu a copy of Weird Science.  "I think there are 
instructions on the DVD." )
* Haruko looks bemused and nods. "Right, so what do you want to learn to do?"
<Hirokazu> ( "Woot! This roxzorz!" )
* Hirokazu smiles. "Something."
* Haruko smiles. "That is an excellent start." She walks over and finds a book 
on 'Careers and Specialties in Mechanics and Engineering' (if you'll allow it) 
and then plops it in front of Hirokazu.
* Hirokazu frowns. "A book?" He sounds disappointed.
* Haruko nods. "I will teach you, but you must take the first steps yourself." 
She then adopts a slightly hautier experienced tone, "Return to me once you have 
discovered what it is you wish to learn."
* Hirokazu pouts. "But I hate to read, and I'm HORRIBLE at learning from books. 
Can't you show me? I do so much better when people show me how to do stuff. In 
class I always do bad on the tests that have stuff the teacher didn't go over in 
class."
* Haruko looks thoughtful. "How are you at learning from the internet?"
<Hirokazu> Well, that's different. That's not a book, and I usually have five or 
six web browers open so I can do other stuff.
* Haruko nods and smiles slightly. "Well, you wish to be my student, right?"
<Hirokazu> Of course!
* Hirokazu bows. "Teach me please, sensei!" The other mechanics laugh again. 
Except Maki; she doesn't find this amusing at all.
* Haruko returns the bow slightly. "Alright, I will take you on under two 
conditions, first you must complete any task I assign you. Your first task is to 
go to the internet and discover what general area of mechanics or engineering 
you are most interested in."
* Haruko looks at him expectently, but not showing any room for bargaining or 
yielding on this condition.
* Hirokazu salutes. "<Aye Aye, sir!>"
<Hirokazu> ( English, not that it matters. )
* Haruko blinks and then decides that's probably an affirmative. "Second, you 
will be given an additional task, that must be completed before your next 
lesson, any time Maki." She gestures towards the girl. "Or any other girl 
complains to me about your behavior. Do you understand?"
<Hirokazu> Huh? 
* Hirokazu looks just as clueless as ever. "Um... I guess? Okay."
<Haruko> If Maki tells me you've been bothering her, I'll give you more homework 
and you'll get less lessons.  ::Haruko glances over to Maki for approval::
<Brett> [Maki smiles to herself. She nods to Haruko.]
* Haruko smiles back and then claps her hands. "Now, get to work. I believe 
you'll find the internet easily accessible in the computer lab."
<Haruko> ( I have a feeling Hirokazu is going to be getting a lot of wax-on wax-
off and learning to identify his tools blindfolded type extra assignments before 
this is all through. )
* Hirokazu salutes again. "<Aye Aye, sir!>" He runs off, looking happy. He even 
forgot he was holding the screwdriver.
* Hirokazu is now known as Maki
* Maki comes over to Haruko. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
<Maki> I mean, Hirokazu's got this reputation...
* Haruko bites her lip slightly at him running off. "I hope he doesn't stab 
someone accidentally." She then looks over to Maki. "Well, someone needs to 
socialize him." She then smiles. "And I think Eriko will be more than willing to 
reinforce any lessons if need be."
* Maki makes a face. "Eriko Miyashita? She's dangerous!"
* Haruko nods and smiles gently. "All the better for teaching him." She then 
glances around the room with a commanding grin. "Alright boys, some of his 
'homework' will be pestering you guys for knowledge or the like, so you'd all 
better help keep him in line."
<Brett> [There's some groaning along the lines of "Why should we have to? He's 
YOUR student."]
<Brett> Hiroji: "I'll help him. I think he's funny. Kinda livens things up 
around here."
* Maki shoots Hiroji a glare, which quiets him up in a hurry. The other 
mechanics chuckle.
* Haruko smiles. "Thank you Hiroji. And yeah, consider it the price of 
entertainment. I'll only sic him on you if you aren't doing your part to teach 
him how to treat girls."
<Brett> [There's outright laughter at that.]
<Maki> Really, Haruko, like these barbarians would know anything about how to 
treat girls.
<Brett> Izo: "If we find any, we'll let you know!"
* Maki gives Izo a look. He chuckles a bit and gets back to work.
* Haruko glares down the crowd and harumphs. "At least you goons know when your 
being inappropriate. I want him to that point at least. Because believe me, I 
will have him learn from you if that's what it takes."
<Brett> Masaru Kasai: "Aw, Haruko.  Everyone knows you're the best of us anyhow.  
You should teach him full time."
* Haruko seems slightly sated. "Teaching him the mechanics is the easy part. Get 
him at least to your level of 'maturity' is what's going to take work."
<Brett> Izo Mori: "Masaru is mature? I guess standards are low these days."
<Brett> Ukon Sekigawa: "You're one to talk."
* Haruko shrugs and looks to Maki. "Boys..." She then finds something to get to 
work on.
<Brett> [Kata Matano is the resident bishonen, who finds all of this silly, so 
he just angsts in the corner.]
<Brett> [Done here!]