LivLiv: Hey! This is a very old story of mine, I think I was 14 or 15 when I started writing it. I'm going to be 19 in April. Time flies, changes and turns, and so have I. I'm going to re-edit this story and complete it for my readers. I'm curious to see how 15 year old me could write. ;)

Amu: 17 – plays guitar, orphan, works at a cafe.

Utau: 17 - rich, Amu's best friend, works at cafe.

Yaya: 17 – cute, fun, not really Amu's best friend, works at cafe.

Ikuto: 17 – bad boy, flirt, playboy, (the normal stuff) lol.

In Little River...

Chapter One: Saturday

"They beat you, and blame you, for all that you've been through.

But hey, it's just another Saturday."

-Hedley.

"I'm going to win!" Yaya shouts as she runs toward the local beach, knocking people down on the way.

"No you aren't, Shorty!" Utau teases, bolting past Yaya with her long legs, her blonde hair blowing in the wind.

"HA!" Yaya grunts as she jumps on top of Utau. They both tumble into the sand, laughing their heads off. They look more like beached whales than a bunch of 17 year old girls. I pull the cheap, disposable camera out of my beach bag and snap a photo of them making fools of each other.

"Hey!" Utau says, struggling out of Yaya's iron grip. The blonde dusts off the sand from her butt as she staggers toward me to grab the camera out of my nimble hands.

"Well, if you didn't want me to take embarrassing pictures of you, you shouldn't have done something embarrassing! Simple as that." I smirk, crossing my arms.

"I assumed you'd have some common courtesy and not document my embarrassing endeavors." Utau tries to defend herself with clever words.

"You know what happens when you assume." I warn.

"What happens?" she asks quizzically.

"You make an ass out of you and me. A-S-S-U-M-E. Assume!" I laugh.

"Oh YOU!" Utau shouts and pulls me to the ground. As we fell, Utau sat on some little kid's sand castle; a flurry of loud tears following our crash.

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"Ok, Yaya... hottest guy and... dumbest girl." Utau declares. The three of us play a game called Pumpkin Seed. We started it in our first year of middle school, around Halloween. We were carving pumpkins together for the class, when Utau asked me, "Who do you think is the smartest student?" Thus, the birth of pumpkin seeds. We pick a stereotype such as, prettiest girl, biggest bitch, most likely to become a stripper, etc.

"Hmm... Ikuto Tsukiyomi... and... Oh, this is a no-brain-er. Saaya Yamabuki. Ha ha! No-brain-er!" Yaya laughs at her own joke.

"Haha! Yeah, she is dumb. And everyone thinks Ikuto is hot." Utau says.

"Too bad he is a delinquent-playboy-flirt with a bad attitude. And he has a weird hair color." I say.

"Don't even talk, Amu. Your hair is pink." Yaya laughs again, pulling lightly at a strand of my damp, long hair.

"IT'S NATURAL!" I shout.

"Ugh. Let's go home. I've got lots of sand up my butt, and I need to take a shower." Utau whines.

"I'd like to see that." A familiar voice says from behind us. We turn around to see none other than Ikuto Tsukiyomi himself, clad in a pair of swim trunks. And nothing else.

"Hey, are you off suspension yet?" Yaya asks curiously in a friendly tone. Too friendly to be speaking with such a jerk!

"Or was it house arrest this time?" I ask coldly.

"Amu, you're so cold! Let me warm you up." he flirts, walking towards me.

"Not a chance." I verbally slap him, waving a hand.

"When are you coming back to school?" Yaya asks in that same, friendly tone. Whose side is she on, anyways?!

"Tomorrow." He answers with disdain.

"You look happy." Utau smirks.

"Ecstatic." he remarks sarcastically.

Utau used to have a huge crush on Ikuto. It was huge. Almost as big as Russia! But she moved on. Now she likes Ikuto's friend, Kukai. He's the soccer captain.

"So... Amu." Ikuto starts. "You look nice today."

"Yep. Go away." I snap at him. So perverted.

"Aww! You're so shy. How cute." he flirts.

"No. I just really don't like you."

"Fine. Later Utau, Yaya." He nods to them, turning around to walk away confidently. Not one dent or scratch in his pride. He stops walking and turns back to face us. "Bye Amu." he smirks. I roll my eyes.

"Oh... my.. GOD!" Utau squeals. "He TOTALLY likes you!"

"Totally!" Yaya squeals in agreement.

"You're SOOO lucky." Utau pinches my sides. I avoid their badgering, getting curious of the time.

"EEEP!" I screech. "Don't do that!" I scold, angry at their teasing. "Shit...What time is it?"

"Uhh. 5pm." Yaya says, looking at her watch.

"MOTHER OF GOD!" I scream.

"Your parents still on about your curfew?" Utau asks. "Jeez! It's Saturday! They're so mean."

"Uhh... yeah... B-bye!" I stutter, picking up all of my clothes and beach stuff. Sprinting to the road from the beach, I ignore Utau shouting back at me.

"Run Forrest, RUN!" I hear the two of them joke.

"Where are you going, Speedy Gonzales?" Ikuto teases as I run by him.

I bolt up the empty highway that ran through our small town, Little River. Which, I must say, is a pretty dumb name for our town since there is no river running through it. There's an ocean at the end of town, instead. Anyway, we have an Inn; the Benjamin Inn, two restaurants; The Red Dragon and Ron's Diner, a grocery store; Souma Grocery, owned by Kukai Souma's family, a doctor/dentist office (Yeah, two in one), one clothing store; Olivia's Closet, a stationary store; Marge's Stationary, owned by Yaya's family, a police station, a town hall, an art gallery, a small cafe that I work at on Sundays, an elementary school, a high school; Little River High, home of the Panthers, a bookstore, a bar, a few houses, a church, a beach, and an orphanage. There's also about 11 houses in town, and about 120 on the subdivisions. There are three streets that complete Little River. There's Main Street, Abbey Road, and Penny Lane. That's it. I know that when I list it off it sounds like a lot, but if you've ever been here, you'd know what I'm talking about when I say we have the smallest town ever.

I continue to run. It was already 10 minutes past my curfew. Why is my curfew so early? Well, I'll tell you. I go to church at 6:00pm. It's either that, or being woken up at 8:00 on Sundays. My parents aren't anal, I don't even have any parents. My mother was 16 when she had me. She dropped me off at the orphanage when I was a baby. I don't remember her, and I don't intend on ever meeting her. The all-girls orphanage I live in is called The Carnation House. It's named that because the land around it is a field of wild-grown carnations. It used to be a flower shop, but around the time of the Great Depression, they turned it into an orphanage. Did I mention the orphanage is run by nuns? Yes. Nuns. Black dresses - or habits, whatever - wooden crosses, the whole ordeal. They pray, they sing, they give to charities, and they drag all of the little girls (and me) to church every Sunday. But instead, I go there on Saturdays. The orphanage is next to the church, so that makes it all the more convenient.

Not.

I have never skipped church in my whole life because it's so close to Carnation House. I've never told anyone about this, all of this. They all think I have really strict parents. But I've lived at the orphanage all my life. It's a lot of work keeping that big of a secret in such a small town.

Because I get average-mediocre grades, taught myself how to play guitar, wear 'revealing' clothing (note the quotations), and work at a cafe, the nuns think I'm a hippie.

I'm the oldest girl at the orphanage. The next oldest is an 11-year old. I try to set a good example to all of the younger girls by going to church, trying hard in school, and smiling even in the worst situations, but sometimes - like many things in my life - it's harder than it looks.

I trudge up the hidden path to the Carnation House. Sister Marie-Claire is sitting in her old rocking chair on the front porch of the big, yellow building.

"You're late." She croaks in her antique voice.

"You're old." I mutter under my breath so she won't hear me.

"Mother Superior will not tolerate this once again. If you want to have any meals, you have to come home on time to help cook them!" She scolds.

"I'm sorry Sister Marie-Claire." I apologize, hopping up the steps.

LivLiv: I'm going to go ahead and publish each chapter after I finish them. Originally, I was going to finish writing the whole story and then post the chapters every few days so y'all wouldn't have to wait on me like last time, but I'm too excited to not share this with you.

Oh, and if you didn't get the memo, Utau and Ikuto are NOT related. There is a chance that Rima will not be present in this story.

Have a good one, as always!

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