Remember the Past, Remember Me
Author's Note: Sorry if the beginning is a bit boring... It will get more interesting, though! EDIT: This story has been edited and revised! Please review. :3
~Chapter One~
...Familiarity…
It all started with a dream.
It was completely dark outside, save for a crescent moon that was glowing silver. She was standing in the small forest surrounding her house, her hair flying around her in the wind. Somewhere up ahead, she saw a mysterious figure standing with their back towards her. All she could see was a flash of orange around their neck and on one of their arms, and what seemed to be a sword hanging at their waist. The person turned their head to the side, and looked at her from the corner of their eye, which was dark like the hair that was framing a pale face, which seemed so familiar…
Ravyn Jagger woke up with her eyes wide, and sat up in her bed, her mind reeling. It wasn't the first time she had odd dreams, and she was used to it. But just because she was used to having weird dreams didn't necessarily mean that she liked having them, since they were usually confusing, as most dreams are. She couldn't stop thinking about that guy, though…. Why did he seem so familiar, as if she saw him before?
Ravyn sighed, and brushed a hand through her messy black and dyed dark-violet hair. She glanced at the clock, which blinked 5:34 at her in bright blue. And of course, to add on top of everything else, the time just had to be one minute away from 5:35. If the time had to consist of the numbers 5, 3, and 4, why couldn't it have been 5:43 or something? Little things like that ticked her off. Not to mention, it was a Monday, signaling school later on, and homework even later. She sighed and laid back down on her bed, closing her eyes.
Fifteen minutes later, Ravyn sat up again, since her plan to get back to sleep failed. She was lucky that she wasn't up totally late last night, otherwise she'd be too tired to do anything. Yawning, she got out of her bed and walked across her room to turn on her lamp, so that the room was cast in a dark red glow, which didn't hurt her eyes. Her room was small and simple: the floor was dark wood, which had tons of rugs on it so her feet didn't freeze in the winter; the walls painted dark purple, which was her favorite color; her bed was in a corner, next to a huge window with an equally huge window-seat that she could sit on. Or lay on, since she was short enough.… On the opposite side of the room where the lamp was, there was a beanbag chair and a fuzzy moon chair; and along the wall with the door, her desk was sitting in a corner, stacked with books, the occasional manga, papers, pencils, and crayons. Basically, her room was simple, and had a crappy view overlooking the forest by her house (the same forest she was standing in in her dream, Ravyn noticed), but she liked it anyway.
She took a shower, and spent ten minutes attempting to straighten her hair before giving up and returning back to her room, where she sat at her desk. She threw all of her school stuff into her backpack, which she put by the door, and looked at the clock, which said 7. Her dad should be waking up soon, and would hopefully make her pancakes for breakfast. She grabbed her iPod, and spent some time listening to it before putting on some makeup and walking downstairs and into the kitchen. Her dad was up, and was luckily making pancakes for her.
"Morning, Ravyn," he said to her as she sat down at the table.
"Morning. It's early," Ravyn replied as she always did, and yawned. Her house was small, but it was big enough for her and her dad. Her mom had died two years ago, so the house seemed to be emptier on more than one occasion, but they both didn't mind, and the house was perfect for them. It was on the outskirts of a town in Florida, and it made a perfect refuge for when the heat was too much, or when it was too cold. Even Florida, the state that never got snow, could be too cold for Ravyn and her dad, who both despised the winter and loved spring.
"Did you sleep well?" her dad asked. He flipped the pancakes he was making once more before putting them on a plate which he handed her, along with a glass of milk, which she insisted on drinking ever since she heard someone mention that it might make her taller.
"Nope. Weird dreams," she said, and he nodded sympathetically, but smirked as she dug into her pancakes like there was no tomorrow. A few minutes later, she had disappeared into her room to get her stuff, and was back at the kitchen, drinking the last of her milk.
"Maybe this time the milk'll help you grow," he replied, and she glared at him.
"See ya later, dad," Ravyn said, and he laughed as she stormed out of the house. She walked to her high school, which was fifteen minutes away, and arrived on time, for once. School passed by quickly, mainly because it was fueled by chocolate and Cherry Coke. During lunch, she told her friends about her dream, which became the topic of the day. A few hours later, on the way back home, she walked with Ember, one of her friends, and they complained about the teachers and their obsession with homework, and wondered about Ravyn's dream and why the figure had seemed so familiar.
The next day, Ravyn walked to school with a feeling that something was going to happen. As she sat down next to her friend Brayden in her homeroom, which was, the feeling intensified as they waited for their teacher to come in.
"What's up?" Brayden asked, noticing her uncommon fidgeting. He had curly brown hair, and unnaturally bright blue eyes, caused by his contacts.
"Something's gonna happen," she told him, and he nodded. He heard that phrase too many times, and most often then not, something happened as she said. It was odd but cool, as Brayden often said. A few minutes later, they both were drawing in their notebooks, and looked up as the bell rang. The teacher, Mr. P (his last name was long, and people just started calling him that, so the name stuck), walked in, followed by two guys, one of which immediately caught Ravyn's attention. He had jaw-length black hair, purple eyes, and what was even odder was the two feathers coming from his eyebrow and lashes. The other boy who was standing next to him had bright orange hair and brown eyes, the only somewhat unusual thing about him being his hair color.
"These are two exchange students from Japan. Yumichika Ayasegawa and Ichigo Kurosaki," Mr. P said, and the two nodded as their names were called. "I expect everyone to treat them as you would any other student. Now, you two can go to Ravyn and Brayden's table."
"Why us?" Brayden muttered, as he waved to the Japanese students, who walked over to their table. Yumichika sat down across from Ravyn, and Ichigo was next to him. Ravyn knew right away that Yumichika was the guy from her dream, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that she knew him, even before the vision. And it didn't help that she was 100% positive that she had never seen him before in her life. What was also weird, was that she could also see him carrying a sword, and wearing the robes that he did in her dream. She shook her head, and focused on what Mr. P was saying. Apparently they were supposed to have a quiz, but with Yumichika and Ichigo's appearance, it would be put off until tomorrow. For the rest of the class, they could do whatever they wanted, to many cheers and high fives of the students.
"So, you guys are from Japan?" Brayden asked, after he and Ravyn introduced themselves.
"What's it like there?" she asked as she pulled out a candy bar from the pocket of her jacket.
"It's pretty cool," Ichigo replied. "The city where we came from, Karakura Town, is basically like this. Except, you know, more Japanese."
"And it has snow," Yumichika said.
"Well if you wanted snow, you should've picked a state other than Florida," Ravyn told him after swallowing some chocolate.
"And Texas," Brayden added. "I don't think it snows there."
"But didn't Ember mention once that when she went there, it was snowing?" she asked, and then added thoughtfully, "Hey, do you think Mr. P will mind if I drank my Cherry Coke?"
"Yeah, he will," he replied. "Remember, the last time you did, he made you throw out the bottle."
"Oh yeah, that day was total hell. No candy, no caffeine... But he regretted it in the end," Ravyn said, and they both smirked at the memory. She had ended up sleeping through the entire class, which was something Mr. P absolutely hated. "So anyway, Yumichika, Ichigo. Why'd you guys decide to come here to go to school?"
"More education," Ichigo replied, shrugging, after sharing a look with Yumichika. "And just to go to a school in the States."
"And one that doesn't require a uniform," said Yumichika, and they all nodded.
"School would suck even more than it does now if we couldn't wear what we wanted to," Ravyn agreed.
"Imagine going to Karakura High. We all have to wear uniforms there, which, again, is partly why we left for a school here in the States," Ichigo told them.
"Though some people, like me, make the uniforms look good," Yumichika said, making Ichigo roll his eyes and Ravyn and Brayden smirk.
"So, what's it like here in Florida?" Ichigo asked them.
"Well, it's sort of cool, sort of not. As far as weather goes, the summers will kill you, and the winters are gonna freeze you, since apparently they've been getting colder," Ravyn said. "But then, that's coming from a chick who only saw snow a few times, and freaked out yelling about how it was too cold…. But anyway, as for the stores, you've got a lot of places to go to, and there's a few arcades, video game places, and stuff. And there's also a few malls around here. And in every mall lies a candy store..." She trailed off, her eyes lighting up as she mentioned candy.
"One thing you gotta know about Ravyn, is that she's obsessed with anything chocolaty," Brayden said, smirking as she stabbed him with her pencil. They missed the glance that Ichigo sent Yumichika.
"Not anything chocolaty, though," she corrected. "I can't stand Twix, or anything that has caramel in it."
"Loser," said someone from the table next to them.
"Jerk," she retorted.
"Midget."
"What the hell did you just say?" Ravyn asked the kid, glaring daggers at him.
"I said you're a midget, because you're so short."
"I'm not short!" she shouted. "I'm just-"
"Just what?" the kid interrupted, smirking.
"Just unusually not tall! Yeah! And just because I'm unusually not tall doesn't mean that I'm short! You wanna know why? Because I'm NOT short!" Ravyn stood, glaring at the kid for a few seconds longer before defiantly taking a bite out of her chocolate bar and sitting back down. Ichigo and Yumichika looked at each other again, and Yumichika gave a very barely perceptible nod.
"Ravyn, I see you're taking your anger out on the candy as well as James's ears. Good, it seems like those anger management classes have worked out well," Mr. P said, making everyone laugh, as well as Ravyn, who denied ever going to one of those classes. He was one of the reasons why science was interesting, since he usually made jokes in the class, making it somewhat more enjoyable.
The rest of homeroom passed quickly, and when the bell rung, everyone rushed as they always did to get out of the classroom. Ichigo was talking to some girl who apparently had the same second period class as him, and they disappeared, along with Brayden. Yumichika was talking to Mr. P, and he and Ravyn were the last ones in the class. Ravyn was throwing out the wrapper to her candy and was walking towards the door when the teacher stopped her.
"Ravyn, you have history next, right?" he asked, and she nodded.
"Could you show Yumichika the way?"
"Sure," she replied, and they walked out of the classroom and down the hall to the stairs at the end, shoving their way through the small crowds of people (Ravyn shoved, he just followed in the empty space she left behind). All the while, Yumichika kept observing her, and she pretended to be oblivious to it all. They went upstairs, and then into the history class. Yumichika thanked her for showing him the way, and she nodded before going to her seat in the back, next to her friend Rozalin, while he went up to the teacher, Mr. Davis.
"Who's he?" Rozalin asked as she sat down.
"Yumichika Ayasegawa," Ravyn answered. "One of the two Japanese transfers. He's also the guy I saw before."
"Really? Does he still seem familiar to you?"
"Yeah, even more so than before," she said. "I can't seem to shake the feeling that I know him from somewhere, but I know I don't."
"That's odd," Rozalin commented thoughtfully and twisted her dark hair around her finger as the bell rang. Mr. Davis introduced Yumichika, and told him to sit in the empty seat in the middle row, which he was obviously not happy about. Ravyn thought it was mainly because of the football jerk that he had to sit next to, but she wasn't entirely sure.
While the teacher droned on about some war and gave everyone notes to fill out, Ravyn's mind was on Yumichika. There was no doubt about it- he was definitely the guy she saw in her dream. Staring at him from behind had proved that. And she was curious about him, too. The way he holds himself was how all the 'popular' idiots held themselves, but Yumichika was, yes, a bit arrogant, but not as much as the idiots. It was more like he thought himself prettier than everyone else, and thus deemed them all beneath him, and it showed when they were walking through the hall. Though, he did have a reason to be vain, Ravyn thought and she felt her face heat up slightly.
She quickly thought of cherry flavored Pop Tarts (she figured out that thinking of something completely random would get rid of the blush), and felt her face go back to normal, to her relief. She sighed thoughtfully, and continued thinking about the Japanese transfers.
Why did Yumichika and Ichigo decide to come to Florida of all places to go to school? Was it really because they thought that they could get a better education here than in Japan, or were they hiding something? And if they were going to go to another school in another country, why didn't they transfer last month, when school began? Why wait? She wondered when she'd became so suspicious when Rozalin kicked her under the table, bringing her back to reality as notes were shoved in front of her face. Ravyn rolled her eyes at her, and started copying down the notes. When the class ended, she noticed that Yumichika was already out the door.
Ravyn went to her Language Arts class, which was luckily still upstairs, and sat down in her seat in the middle row. A few seconds later, Ichigo walked in, and was told to sit next to her. Everyone stared at him as he walked over to her and sat down. Ravyn, as usual, couldn't care less if he sat there or not, but at least now she had someone to talk to, since she was stuck in a class full of idiots she didn't like.
"Yo," Ichigo greeted her. All of the girls in the room continued staring at them, and were whispering to each other.
"Hey," she replied. "What's up?"
"The boringness of this school," he said, and she smirked.
"Well, you just had to pick Florida, didn't you?" Ravyn asked, but Ichigo couldn't say anything since their teacher walked up to the front of the classroom. She introduced Ichigo, who was really starting to get annoyed at all of the girls staring at him with hearts in their eyes, and then started the lesson. Unfortunately, this class actually required attention, so Ravyn couldn't daydream.
Somehow, though, the class went by, and before she knew it, she was on her way to lunch. On the way there, she found Ember, and filled her in on the Japanese guys (she only had one class with Ichigo), and how she still felt as if she knew Yumichika.
"You'll figure it out sooner or later," Ember told her as she tucked some blonde hair behind her ear. "But since I haven't seen him yet, let's sit near wherever they're sitting."
"Sounds good to me," Ravyn said. They went into the cafeteria and noticed Yumichika and Ichigo sitting outside, so they found Rozalin and Brayden and dragged them outside, too. They sat down at one of the tables, and started talking about the transfers.
"All of the girls are in love with Ichigo. It's annoying, since he's all they talk about," Rozalin said. "He's not even all that hot."
"To you, maybe," Ember muttered, blushing slightly, and they snickered.
"Hey, go after him," Ravyn told her. "No one's stopping you… well, aside from all the other girls in the school, but no one cares about them. And it's not like they ever stopped you before."
"Do you think he'll like me, though?" she asked. They all stared at her, with her long blonde hair that was slightly wavy, her sea-green eyes, and perfectly tan skin.
"Yep," Ravyn, Brayden, and Rozalin all said in unison, and then they all laughed. They spent a few minutes talking as they ate, while also glancing at the Japanese guys, who were sitting at the table by the soda machine. Some annoying kid called Nick was walking up to Ichigo and said something to him, but they couldn't hear what. Ichigo glared at him and replied, and it soon evolved into an argument. It was pretty easy to hear what they were saying now, and it was about Ichigo's hair, of all things. Apparently Nick couldn't get it into his head that his hair was not dyed, which Ichigo found annoying.
"If you want dyed hair, look at her," Ichigo said, exasperated, and pointed at Ravyn, who narrowed her eyes. "Purple's not natural, but orange, believe it or not, is."
"But not your kind of orange," Nick insisted. "And I don't care about Ravyn's hair, since it's-"
"It's what, exactly?" Ravyn interrupted, walking over to them. "Not noticeable?"
"The only thing noticeable about you is your shortness," said Nick, earning himself a glare.
"I'm not freakin' short! And you shouldn't be talking, since you're barely any taller than me!" she shouted, before spinning around and walking away. She muttered, just loud enough for Nick to hear, "Honestly, people these days. No respect for those who are height challenged."
"Whatever," Ichigo said as she sat back down at her table. "My hair's naturally like this, so get over it," he added to Nick, and then went back to eating his lunch, scowling as usual. Nick just glared at them all, and went back to his table. Meanwhile, Ravyn was digging in her backpack, trying to find her Cherry Coke.
"Hey, Ember, can I borrow a dollar? I drank all of my Coke," she explained, rolling her eyes. "I'll pay you back tomorrow."
"Sure," Ember replied, digging around in her purse for a dollar, which she gave to her.
"Thanks," Ravyn said, and walked over to the soda machine. She didn't notice that Rozalin had made Brayden look through her backpack, and show them a half-full Cherry Coke before putting it back away. She looked at the machine, and shoved in her dollar, but it kept rejecting her money.
"Just take the damn money, stupid soda machine. You know you want to," she muttered, not caring if she looked stupid or not talking to an inanimate object, and tried putting in the dollar the opposite way. A few tries later, she sighed, glared at the machine, and turned around to walk away, but was stopped as she heard a familiar voice call out her name.
"Ravyn, why don't you try pressing in your drink, and see if it works?" Yumichika asked as she turned back around.
"But it takes the money first," she said.
"Just try," he insisted.
"If you say so…." Ravyn trailed off, and hit the Cherry Coke button on the side of the machine. Sure enough, she heard the thud the bottle made when hitting the bottom of it, and she grabbed it.
"How'd you know it'd work?" she asked as she turned around, but Yumichika and Ichigo were already walking back inside. She stared at their backs before sighing, and looking down at her drink. She shrugged and opened it, and returned back to her friends.
"He obviously bought you the Coke," Rozalin said after she finished telling them what happened, along with returning the dollar to Ember.
"But didn't want it to be obvious," Brayden added before she could say anything.
"Well, at least I got a free Coke," Ravyn muttered, shrugging. They laughed, and then went back inside the school to go to their next class, which they all had together: Geometry. It was by far the most boring class, since it was math, and it dragged on and on as they all took notes about sine, cosine, and tangents. They never would've guessed that triangles had to be so complicated, and that they would be giving them hell later, since their teacher decided to pile a whole bunch of triangle-related homework on them.
At last, the class ended, and they all rushed out of the room, splitting up as Ember and Brayden went to Spanish class and Ravyn and Rozalin went to Art. Art was a class they both loved, since they were pretty good at drawing. All they had to do for today was start sketching out a design for a poster that they would be painting later on in the week, and the class flew by. Before they knew it, it was time to leave. Rozalin was staying after school so she could finish up part of her design, so Ravyn said bye to her and left the school by herself.
Instead of walking directly home, she went into the town, and headed towards the ice cream shop that she almost always went to. There was only a few people sitting down and eating ice cream when she walked in, which wasn't surprising considering no one really ever went to get ice cream anymore. Ravyn walked up to the counter, and the guy who was one of the few workers there greeted her.
"The usual?" Alex asked, and she nodded. He was only a few years older than her, and was tan with dark brown hair, and was an all-around nice guy. Almost every time Ravyn came there, he was working, and after the first two weeks of her buying the same ice cream, he knew what she wanted. Since she came there a lot, he also gave her discounts on the ice cream, so she only had to pay two dollars instead of the normal four. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
"Thanks," she said, giving him the money and taking the chocolate and cherry flavored ice cream cone from him.
"No problem. Drop by soon, Ravyn," he replied.
"Do you really need to tell me that?"
"Nope."
She laughed and walked out after waving to him, and she went down one of the streets that lead to the road leading up to her house. Her eyes lit up as she saw a familiar someone.
"Hey, Yumichika!" she called, and he turned around, looking at her in surprise as she caught up to him. "I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind."
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
"Have you ever left Japan, before now?" Ravyn asked, watching him as she finished her ice cream cone.
"No, why?" Yumichika answered slowly.
"No reason," she replied, a little too quickly. "Anyway, during lunch, you bought me the Cherry Coke, didn't you?"
"What if I did?" he said, and she rolled her eyes.
"Don't answer a question with another one," she told him. "Though you all but said yes… Next question!"
"Is this twenty questions, or something?" Yumichika asked her, smirking at something he found funny.
"You're asking just as many questions as I am," she retorted. "Anyway, before I forget what I was going to say… um… crap, I forgot what I was going to say." She looked down in mock depression.
"Don't say 'um.' It's unattractive," he said, and Ravyn looked up at him in surprise. "What?"
"That… the whole 'um is unattractive' thing…" she trailed off, and start biting her nail as she thought. She could've sworn she heard someone say that to her before, but she couldn't remember anything more than that. She looked back at Yumichika, who was staring at her thoughtfully. "It's nothing."
"If you're sure…" he replied uncertainly.
"So, where do you live?" Ravyn asked, pretending as if nothing happened.
"Near the end of this road."
"Really? I live… right… there!" she replied, pointing at the house that was coming up on their right. "You know, since no one really lives in this area, we're like, neighbors now."
"Yeah, you're right," he agreed, and they stopped as they reached the front of her house.
"Well, see ya tomorrow, Yumichika," Ravyn said cheerfully as she walked up the driveway.
"Bye," he called, glancing back at her as he continued down the road. She waved once, and then walked inside the house, heading up to her room. She collapsed onto her bed, her mind once again racing.
Don't say 'um.' It's unattractive.
Where did she hear that before? And why did she get the feeling that it was Yumichika who said that to her before, and not just when they were walking home? Also, was he lying when he said that he never left Japan until now, or was he telling the truth? If he wasn't lying, then Ravyn knew that she had never seen him until today, but that just made everything all the more confusing. But if he was lying… why? It made no sense at all, and she was determined to figure out what was up with him. And that made her wonder if Ichigo knew what was going on…
She sighed. Starting tomorrow, she was going to try and get some answers out of either Yumichika or Ichigo, and hopefully by the end of the week she'd be able to know at least something about them.