Disclaimer: Whoever said I owned Gakuen Alice was lying. XD

I don't own Gakuen Alice, ok? I'm not much of a genius for that.

INTRO

Life is not a fairy tale, nor does it always end in a 'happily ever after'. However, I do know for a fact that love conquers all barriers, no matter how impossible it may seem.

And the best thing about it is...

It doesn't need a fairy tale to make it happen.

C H A P T E R 1- DECISION

As I felt the blistering heat of the sun, I looked at everywhere around me. The swaying trees that looked like it would fall soon, the really tall buildings, the small park near our house- I wanted something new. Something better, for a change.

It was the place I was most sick of, yet at the same time, the last place I wanted to leave. Every inch of it, I would miss. The wonderful feeling of home.

I had to shake off the feeling of sadness. The emotion was stopping me from leaving. Lingering on the past would only make it difficult for me to let go.

Thoughts of the past flickered in my mind- Am I willing to forget everything?

I shook my head, sure that it was not to run away that I agreed to go to Alice Academy. It was just change.

"Natsume," I whispered,"When will you come back?"

I wiped my tears away, for in doing that, I made sure that I was ready to face a different future. A different life.

"Not that it makes any difference," I mumbled to myself.

"He wouldn't show himself anyway..."

It had been three years, and I knew it was time to change. The story of my life was simple one, with no happy endings or magic that turned average people into princesses. Perhaps that was why I sought a change, to turn my ending into something happier. Life was a matter of choice after all. The story of my life was just this:
One night, three years ago, my closest friend and the most important person to me, left. It was the biggest thing that I knew I had to face, the hardest thing I had to accept, and perhaps the one that had really changed the course of my life.

I was going to Alice Academy now. There's no turning back.

"Hotaru!" I said, hugging my best friend tightly. She was here in the academy's gates to guide me.

"You need to hurry up. Today is a weekend, students pretty much play around and do anything," Narumi-sensei said with urgence in his tone.

"Are you excited?" he asked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Sort of. I... I don't know what to expect," I answered truthfully.

"There's not much likeable things in here. Just in case you want to know," Hotaru warned me.

"I know."

"You won't be able to contact your grandfather," Narumi-sensei said.

I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat before answering.

"I know."

"Not to mention the workload," Hotaru added.

I stared at her.

No one told me all about that. To be honest, I wasn't thinking of the homework, exams and all that. I didn't give any thought to it at all. It made my nervous. Maybe I didn't know enough. Did I have to do advanced study?

"This isn't just some 'I want change thing'. You'd have to live in here," Hotaru stressed.

I just nodded, showing that I already knew all that. Knew it before my foot even stepped inside the academy's gates. I had also made my decision. I wasn't just going to study here. I was living here, staying with the people in here. Going to see their faces everyday. Be with the people I like, bear the people I don't. This was going to be my new home. And yet everything was just so foreign.

The academy wasn't anything like home at all. The atmosphere had a different feel. It was a little too public here that it made my feel slight discomfort. I didn't like it much, even though I expected it. It didn't mean that I wasn't ready, though, because in all truth, I was.

"Is it all right if you sleep with Hotaru first tonight? If you don't mind. The bedrooms are still being fixed. You can probably have it by tomorrow," Narumi sensei said.

"Yeah, I suppose."

I didn't really mind whichever bedroom I slept in. Did it really matter now that I was here and there were a million other things to ponder about?

"And before I forget," he added, taking something from his pocket.

"Here," he said, giving me something shiny and small. One by one he placed them in my palm, dropping them slowly.

I gasped in surprise.

"Three star?"

"You possess a valuable alice. Perhaps someday that also has chance of developing into something much more useful than it is now. By the way, I need to check out on the other students... See you around, Mikan-chan," he said, strolling off to the corridor. I waved him a quick good bye, and then sunk back into amazement with the fact that I was a three star.

"Your mouth's open," Hotaru commented after quite some time. I shut it, feeling my face go red.

"Don't you want to go in? I could lock you out if you want," Hotaru said.

"Oh.. Sorry," I said, embarrassed. I just realized that we had stood there for a whole two minutes, which she spent, watching me stare at my 3 golden stars.

"Is it really that great? It's just a rank, you know," Hotaru said, as she continued to watch me when she finished closing the door.

"Hotaru! How can you say that? You're a three star yourself!"

She shrugged.
"It's much more difficult to determine one's worth, you know."

"Well, I think it's really cool," I said, sitting on Hotaru's couch. It was covered in white leather; the really bouncy ones that you liked to jump in. I bounced in my seat, and I did it all over again. It was fun.

"Don't do that," Hotaru said in a tired voice. She looked tired, too.

How much work had she been doing?

"You have a nice room, Hotaru. I wonder what mine would look like," I said, commenting on the room's elegance. It was enormous, kind of like the master bed rooms in the rooms you only thought you'd see in magazines. Very hotel-like.

"Fancy, no doubt," Hotaru replied.

There was so much to learn, so much to talk about, I could just jump from one topic to another.

"Hotaru, you're amazing. You've got the invention alice! I can't believe you never told me this, even before you entered the academy.

"It's nothing much. I just think of it as something like a skill."

"But you are amazing. I still can't get over the fact that my best friend is a genius."

"Whatever you say," Hotaru said, grabbing a carton of milk in the refrigerator. I could tell it wasn't an ordinary refrigerator, though. I smiled.

Hotaru and her inventions.

"Want some?" she asked, as she poured milk carefully into a glass.

"No thanks," I said, pulling my head back and resting it, as I relaxed in the couch.

"So what happened?"

"What?" I asked in confusion.
"When I left."

"Oh... Well, just, just.... lots of stuff."

She raised her eyebrows.

"You have all night to retell, and I've got all night to listen."

The fact made me realize that I really was, and truly with Hotaru now. Now I was here, and we could talk about things together, and I would have someone who would listen to me now that I was here in the academy. I felt comfort, as well as growing relief that I was now here with my best friend. We had been separated ever since she came to the academy. They were long lonely years. Well, not entirely. I had company. But I could not think about it any further.

I told Hotaru everything. Most of it, I told too quickly that I had to repeat myself again. I told her my everyday boredom and loneliness, skipping the parts where he was involved. To talk about him, let alone to think about him was too risky. If I would think about anything in the past, I would probably burst into tears, and leave Hotaru suspicious. No, I could not let her know of the pain. I just hoped she wouldn't ask.

"So... What happened to him?"

She just asked the question I dreaded for her ask.

Him was Natsume. The name was all I could handle as of now. Any more than that would be too much for me to bear.

"Lots... Lots of things happened. You know, this and that... And... Things aren't what they used to..to be anymore, Hotaru."

Hotaru did not press for more questions to my relief. Maybe she heard something in my tone that made her realize it was not something I wanted to talk about. Not right now.

I looked on the round clock that was stuck right on top of Hotaru's study table. It was 11:45 pm now, a little over an hour after I had arrived.
"Oh, it's almost 12pm. Funny how time flew so fast," I said.

"You sleepy?" Hotaru asked.

Although I felt really sleepy, I didn't want to admit it yet. This was the first time in a long time that I had the chance to talk again to Hotaru. Sleeping meant that time was passing fast, and it felt like such a waste to spend it lying down.

"No," I said, but then I yawned 2 seconds later, which then gave the lie away. I wasn't a good actress to begin with, anyway. My 'no' already sounded doubtful the moment I spoke it.

"On the left," Hotaru said, when I went to the right side of the bed. I nodded in understanding.

Once we took our position, I turned all the lights off.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Hotaru asked before I reached the bed.

"What?" I asked in bewilderment. I thought carefully about what I had last done.

Then I remembered.

I groaned. Hotaru liked having the lights open.

"You're sleeping in my room, you'll have to deal with it," Hotaru said. It was dark, but I could already imagine the smirk on her face. I turned the switch on unwillingly.

I remembered that in the past, with Hotaru, that I always used to close the lights, but in the morning I found it open. It turned out that Hotaru turned it on in the middle of the night. I just couldn't understand why. I mean, Hotaru wasn't really scared of the dark. She wasn't really scared of anything, actually. I shook my head, failing to understand why she liked lights left open.

I went back to bed, as I tried to get rid of the thoughts that filled my mind, and then slowly, I sank into unconsciousness.

LOL. I'm like, 'this is the first chapter. Gotta get a good impression", haha…Next chapter won't be so Hotaru focused, btw. It's just like that because it's the first chapter and all that.

So how is it? Don't forget to make a review ,k? Say what you like, say what you dislike, give constructive criticism. Say 'update faster'. It encourages me to update. LOL.

Nah, don't say that. It's going to make me rush. Anyway, I'm looking forward to writing more of this fic. I'll try to update as soon as I can, which probably won't be any time this coming week.

School's just started. ;D