Purple.

Jeans-blue.

Lilac.

Green.

Green again.

"No, wait…" Kuki Sanban mumbled to herself. She pulled the last green article of clothing out of her suitcase. She eyed it critically. Did she want to keep this? She looked back at her closet, which was still half full. Then back at her suitcase.

"Ah, what the heck, I'll just put it away." The 14 year old sighed. "I can't take everything with me…"

The door creaked open, making Kuki jump. How she hated that door! She was happy to be leaving that behind. Along with, well, most of her life here in Japan.

"Kuki? Who are you talking to?" Mushi, Kuki's little sister, asked innocently.

As if she doesn't know I talk to myself, Kuki thought. "No one. I was just convincing myself to part with this sweater, that's all." She replied out loud.

"Oh." Mushi stepped into the room, and looked down at her big sister's suitcase, open on the floor. "Uhhh… sissy, wouldn't it save more space if you--"

"Folded my clothes? Well, right now I'm just deciding what I'm gonna take with me." Kuki interrupted her sister, sounding extremely cranky. She had just been tossing her favourite clothes into her suitcase, and she didn't need her 9-year-old sister telling her that it was messy.

Mushi was already taken aback. "But sissy, I didn't know that…"

"Yeah, it's ok, I shouldn't have snapped. Any way, what do you think?"

"Whaa'?" Mushi asked, confused. Then she saw the green, bell-sleeved sweater Kuki was holding up. "Ohh, that! I think you should take it with you. You always wore it."

"I always wore it? What do you mean? I can't imagine how bad quality this sweater is! It's practically falling apart!" Kuki frowned at the long, bright green sweater she was holding out in front of her. "I mean, I love the colour, and it just fits me, but it's got holes everywhere!" Mushi snickered. "What? What's so funny?"

"You wore that every day! Don't you remember?"

"No! I did NOT wear it that often! I remember sometimes, but…"

"In your dreams, right?"

"Yeah… HEY! How did you know that?"

"You sleep talk. I hear every detail."

Kuki felt as though she was about to burst. "Mushi! Don't listen in on my dreams! MUSHI!" She hollered when her sister ran from the room.

"Kuki-Chan! Don't shout like that! We live in an apartment building now!" Kuki heard her mom, Genkei, call from the mini kitchen.

"Ok, mom, sorry!" She called back, and then forgetting all about Mushi, thought happily that soon, tomorrow, she wouldn't be living here anymore.

She put her long, black hair up in a high ponytail and started folding the clothes she had been tossing into her suitcase just moments ago.

Then her thoughts strayed again. To her new home. It was going to be a big house, where they had lived before. In Cleveland. When she was twelve, they moved away. She couldn't remember much from that time. She just remembered that she was very scared. And sad. She had had a great life there. And what was the best was that she was coming back to it. She was going to a normal school, where she could wear her own clothes!

No more uniforms. She thought happily. And no more pressure to be like everyone else. Maybe I can see my old friends again. She had never really thought about her friends. She knew that they had been a huge part of her life. She knew that they really cared about her, and really missed her, somehow. But she didn't know who they were.

She didn't really have any friends. Only those stupid girls at school, but she didn't care for them. They were mean. They made fun of her for a lot of reasons. Her accent, for example. She couldn't speak Japanese very well. And she wasn't obsessed with guys.

Kuki sighed and finally closed her suitcase. She thought some more, sitting on her suitcase, thinking about nothing, thinking about everything.

Mushi peeked around the corner. "Time to eat dinner."

"Ok, coming." Kuki said, and followed her sister to the kitchen.

They didn't eat dinner in silence.

"So, Kuki-Chan, Mushi-Chan, how do you like moving?" Their father, Kani, asked in Japanese.

"I love it!" Kuki cried. Her parents just smiled.

"Yes, Kuki-Chan, we know you haven't been having such a wonderful time here. I wonder why?" Genkei said, more to herself than to Kuki.

"I don't fit in, mom." She replied, in English. Her parents looked up from their fried shrimps.

"I just miss my friends a lot! I am soooo happy we're going back!" Mushi sang happily, in that hyperactive way that made Mushi Mushi. Her parents smiled, and Kuki giggled.

"Yes, well, when my old boss e-mailed me saying he needed me back, I knew how happy it would make you two." Their mother was thrilled that her two daughters where so excited. But the rest of the conversation simply continued between Kani and Genkei. Mushi and Kuki amused themselves with poking each other's ribs with the clean ends of their chopsticks.

Then…

Flashback

Hi numbuh four!

What! Numbuh three, what are you doing here?

Well, my mom works here and it's bring your daughter to work- -

…

…Hope your friend likes Pluto!

No! You have to stop! Numbuh four's in there!

"Kuki-Chan? Will you help me do the dishes?" Her mother.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." Kuki shook her head and started clearing the table.