Movin' on Without You
- a Kodomo no Omocha fanfiction
by: hika to pika
Chapter 1 - Nothing's Gonna Stop Me...
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Sana had always been the most popular girl in high school. She had all the friends, all the money, all the cool things. She was the coolest thing to ever walk on the planet. Until they became juniors.
Newer trends led to newer definitions of 'cool'.
'Cool' used to mean that you had lots of money and that you were trendy.
'Cool' now means that you are 'hip' and don't even say 'cool' anymore.
Sana is the old cool.
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"I used to drown in popularity, what happened?" Sana asked her true friend since what seemed like forever, Aya Sugita. Aya had always been lonely since her former and first boyfriend, Tsuyoshi Sasaki moved away to Hokkaido to visit his father, which turned out to be permanent a few months ago. As someone would expect, Aya was a nervous wreck. A few months ago, that is. Sana can't cope with rejection that easily.
"Don't feel too bad about it, Sana-chan." Aya assured her. "It'll all be a passing fad. They'll come running back to you someday." Sana smiled at her long-time friend. "Thanks, Aya." she patted her on the back. "I can always count on you, can't I?" She gave her a warm smile. Aya looked back at her and returned the smile. Aya had been a bit different since Tsuyoshi left.
Sana and Aya walked down the hall without talking. They had different homerooms and only had Science and Math together. And even then, they didn't talk much. They were still great friends, but a bit more distant. Aya turned to her homeroom and waved to Sana, who smiled and waved back at her. "Same old Sana." Aya thought, walking to her seat. "Yet still, she's different."
Sana still had a few more rooms to pass before she got to her own homeroom. She always counted the rooms between her's and Aya's homerooms almost every day unless she was late. And that was very unlikely.
"11-21, 11-23, 11-24, Ah, 11-25." Sana always muttered to herself as she counted the rooms between 11-20 and 11-25. "11-25, Ms. Tsukino Usagi." she read. She pushed open the door that lead to the classroom. "Same as always.." she muttered again as she sat in her seat.
Sana's old days of popularity and being a child star have long since been forgotten. Her last movie, Kitto Ai was a horrible flop. She wasn't asked for any more movies or shows until about two years ago, when she was asked to join the cast of a new weekly music show, Ongaku-Gumi. The show is still running with her as the lead host, but Ongaku-Gumi started two years ago, and she's been left in the dark ever since it started.
She looked over the script of the newest episode, which was going to be filmed after school that day. "Hm, Hisae? Number 5? She sings now?" she asked herself as she read "'Maketakunai' (I Don't Want to Lose) by HISAE has burst into the charts at number 2!" She smiled a little, some feeling happy for her and the rest remembering her past with her. "I'd love to hear her sing.." Sana thought to herself and chuckled a bit. She never thought of Hisae as a singer. She was the one that partly gave Sana her first kiss....
As the teacher walked into the room, Sana quickly put away the script and got out her books. "I have some papers to give out, so take out your folders or whatever you keep your papers in." Ms. Tsukino announced as she pulled some green and orange papers out of her files. As Sana took the paper, she glanced at merely one sentence on the orange paper.
"Win a trip to Los Angeles, California as an exchange student!"
Sana tried not to think about him after passing by the word, "Los Angeles". "It's not like he's gonna come anyway, right?" Sana assured herself. "He's too stupid for that stuff. And he knows Japanese anyway, it wouldn't be fair."
She smiled. "Yeah, it wouldn't be fair at all." She took the next paper, which seemed to be the sign-up sheet for the foreign exchange program. "They're trying to force us, aren't they?" she muttered to herself. Some of the lines on the paper read "Exciting culture!" and "Learn English!". Sana wasn't interested, and instead of putting it in her folder just shoved it into her backpack. That's where anything that didn't matter go.
Ms. Tsukino gave them a bit of free time near the end of the period because she didn't know what else to do with them after giving them papers. She looked over the script again because there weren't any tests that she knew of that day.
She stopped. "'Watashi no Osananajimi' (My Childhood Friend) by Naozumi Kamura has just hit the top spot! This breakthrough artist, a former child star, has broken onto the scene with a number 1 debut!" The bell rang, unfortunately. She couldn't read any further.
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Sana had an hour to do homework and other things before driving off to the filming. There wasn't a lot of homework that day, so she was able to look over the script and read the rest of the article.
"'Watashi no Osananajimi' by Naozumi Kamura has just hit the top spot! This breakthrough artist, a former child star, has broken onto the scene with a number 1 debut! In a recent interview, Kamura told us what the song means to him.
" 'There was always this girl that I liked when I was still an actor and I got to meet her for a movie or two. I still consider her my 'childhood friend.' Kamura won't confirm who this lucky girl is, however, so it still remains an enigma. someone yells 'You, Kurata!' Haha, maybe so."
Sana blushed a bit. "Do I really have to say this?" she asked her mother. "It's degrating." Misako patted her child on the head. "It seems unlike you though. What about instead of saying 'Haha, maybe so.' you could say, 'You really think so? Cool!' Sana looked at her mom. "You're weird, mom." Her mother smiled and said, "I know I am! And I passed it down to you!" She looked at Sana again, who had a serious face. "At least, I thought I did."
Sana went over to the front of the house and sat by the door. Rei came down after a few minutes. "C'mon, we're going now. We're gonna be late." he ushered her out the door. "By Misako-sensei!" he called before closing the door. His voice echoed out the hall a bit and Maro's tiny head peaked out of a dresser drawer.
"GOTCHA!" Misako yelled as she dove torward the little chipmunk.
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Sana and Rei didn't talk at all during the 15-minute car ride to the studio. They usually never did anyway. Sana always looked at her script and Rei always focused on the road. "One more year." Sana muttered. Rei smiled. That was about all they said the entire car ride to the studio.
At the studio, Rei just stood by the side. Sana went on to the set, where she looked over her words one final time and looked to the cameras.
Near the end of the filming (the Kamura part hadn't passed yet) was when her co-host, a 20-something-year-old guy named Makoto Hyouga called someone to the stage. Sana was unaware of what was happening. She elbowed Hyouga and asked what was happening. "You'll see." he answered. "Kamura! C'mon!"
Sana froze. "Kamura?" she thought to herself. "Oh gosh, not Naozumi." She closed her eyes almost unintentionally, though she did want to do it. A boy, about Sana's age with purple hair and blue eyes, stepped onto the stage.
"Everyone, welcome Kamura Naozumi!" called Hyouga. Sana froze and opened her eyes.
"Hello...Na....O...Zu...Mi..." She stuttered. He had 'grown' from the last time she saw him. He was much more handsome. He still had his boyish looks but face seemed a bit more shapely and his hair was a bit untidy, which made him look even cuter. He was smiling at her, and his smile was very striking and nice-looking. Sana nearly froze again, but he had let out his hand to shake and she shook it. Then she left the stage.
"Kurata?" both Hyouga and Kamura said. Sana sat down and waved a hand at them, signaling them to continue. She then put her hands in her face and started to laugh.
Both of them looked a bit confused, but eventually dragged her back to the stage. She just stood there like an idiot while they kept talking, and nodded whenever Makoto elbowed her, gasping and saying, "Yeah, whatever."
The show was mostly a sucesss. Still, the directors seemed a bit happy at Sana's spontaneous reaction to Naozumi's guest appearance. "It's becoming a more teenager-friendly show!" the middle-aged director rejoiced.
"Kurata!" Sana heard someone call. "Kurata Sana!" She saw Naozumi jogging torwards her. Sana, in a fury to avoid him, ran over to the back door and ran to the side of the building as fast as she could. She couldn't, so she just hid behind a bush until she saw Naozumi's face poke out of the door.
"The only one that can catch me is you..." Sana thought to herself. "My past is creeping up on me. Scaaary." When she saw that Naozumi was running the other way and had already rounded the side she ran back over to the door and locked it. "Mwahaha." Sana chuckled.
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A/N: I wanted to make this chapter longer, but I ran out of ideas. I put in some character easter eggs in there, figure 'em out before reading the disclaimer. I plan to make this story three chapters long "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me...", "Only You Can Stop Me...", "I'm Movin' On Without You" and a bonus chapter, "'Watashi no Osananajimi' lyrics". Please R&R to make my dream come true!
Disclaimers: I don't own Kodomo no Omocha, Miho Obana does. I don't own Tsukino Usagi, Naoko Takeuchi does. I don't own Makoto Hyouga, Gainax does. "Movin' On Without You", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me...", "Only You Can Stop Me..." and "I'm Movin' On Without You" are all copyright Utada Hikaru and Toshiba-EMI. "Ongaku-Gumi", "Maketakunai" and "Watashi no Osananajimi" are all my own creations.