(Hey all, first I'd like to say thank you for choosing my story. It's the first I've written. I found some great stories that have inspired me to make my own, and I hope you enjoy it. This is just something small I'd like to give a shot. I already have about 3 or 4 chapters, 20,000+ words, worth of material to publish, but I figured I'd start with one chapter to begin with, and see how the public reacts. I'm very open to constructive criticism, and would love to hear from anyone who has either any ideas for my stories or ideas for my writing. If it kicks off, and you'd like to see more, I'll release more chapters and continue writing, but if it doesn't go anywhere, that's okay too. Just to clear up any confusion, this story revolves around the relationship between what would be Sayori and the main character, but with different names. She still has depression, but the Monika character has no influence on it, and the characters in the story must overcome their inner conflicts and problems together. There is no outside force with supernatural powers or anything of the such acting on the characters. This is just something fun I wanted to try out myself. Thanks again, let me know what you think!)

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I rolled over and smacked the top of my alarm clock. 5:30 AM. It was Tuesday morning.

"Ughh, why do I do this to myself?" I groaned as I got out of bed.

I went through my normal routine of getting ready in the morning. I shaved, took a warm shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed, combed out my hair, you get the gist of it. It was what I did every morning before school, no need to be over descriptive of it.

I went downstairs into the kitchen to make breakfast.

There is nothing here whatsoever, I seriously need to go to the store soon, I thought to myself. I settled for a simple bowl of off-brand and bland cereal. I figured that would leave me enough time to get the homework I had neglected to do last night out of the way anyways. School was about a ten-minute walk from my neighborhood, and considering school didn't even start until seven thirty, I had lots of time to myself before I even had to leave.

A few minutes pass, and I finish up the homework I needed to do in record speed. It was 5 classes of homework worth. I didn't care if it was correct or not. I did the bare minimum. As long as its passing, or only due for completion, then at least it'll be completed. They may be advanced classes, but I'm not a genius either.

I checked the time. The clock read 6:47. I still had more than half an hour before I even had to be out the door. I seriously need to start waking up a little later and give myself more time to sleep. I like to plan things out and give myself lots of time to do things in case I got behind, or if I had homework, or really anything. I have a strong belief in Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong in many cases. I guess its just a way to keep myself prepared for the worst. Maybe I should stop thinking like that.

I sat down on the recliner, kicked back, and watch the news like an old dad, waiting for time to go by.

I went upstairs and picked up my bag, took one last look in the mirror, and went out the door. I turned around and locked it behind me before going on my way. I probably got about six or seven houses down the street before I heard a familiar voice, followed by fast footsteps down the road behind me.

"Hey, Nick!"

I turned around.

It was Natalie.

Natalie was my neighbor, and arguably my best friend for as long as we were even able to remember. We used to spend so much time together when we were younger, but ever since high-school we never talked as much as we did. I still walk to school with her almost every day, and we have fifth period study hall together this year, so its not like we don't talk at all, rather we just don't hang out like me used to everyday.

Natalie was a shorter girl, maybe five-two in comparison to my five-ten self. She had shorter hair, coming to rest right at her shoulders, which was normally a little messy, and was a mix of blonde, brown, and weirdly a tinge of pink or red, I don't really know which. Let's just say its dirty blonde. She always wore this little red bow on top of the little mess. It wasn't a bad mess, at least not to me. It was more what made her herself. She was skinny, but not anorexic.

"Oh, hey. Woke up late again, huh?" I asked

"Hehe, yeah… I stayed up too late trying to finish my homework, and when I woke up, I was behind. I didn't want to skip out on breakfast, I could never do that!" She said.

Despite her petite figure, Natalie loves to eat. I'm convinced her favorite thing, other than being happy, is food.

"Believe me, I'm aware." I teased.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

I laughed lightly. "Nothing Nat, I'm just messing with you."

Although its pretty common for girls with the name Natalie to be called Nat, she never really liked it when people call her Nat. She would always yell at people who did so, but she never yelled at me for it, so I just assume she doesn't mind if I do it. She gives me a look like she wants to say something, but stays quiet. We walked for about half a minute before she brings up something I was hoping she wouldn't mention.

"Soo… have you thought about joining any clubs?"

Dammit, here we go.

Clubs at our school were unique. They were after school and sometimes even went into the summer to give students something to keep themselves busy. They have presidents and vice presidents to keep the club running and to give members things to do and come up with ideas. Teachers weren't involved unless the students asked them to be. I had thought about a few, but never actually desired to be in one. Natalie had already advertised to me before that she had become vice president of a club she was in, but I never really payed much attention to it because I wasn't interested, nor did I really care. It was probably a bad thing of me to do as her best friend. I think she said it was… the English Club?

I couldn't lie to her.

"Well, not really. I looked at a few, but clubs aren't really my forte."

"Which ones did you look at?" She looks at me with those blue eyes of hers, giving me her full attention, completely interested in what I had to say. It made me feel guilty.

"I looked at the movie club, the football, club, and heck even the hacky sack clu-"

"There's a hacky sack club?!" She interrupted.

"Heh, yeah, there is. I figured I'd get some sort of reaction out of you after you heard that."

"So, you didn't sign up for any of them?"

"No, why do you ask?" Although I knew exactly why she asked.

"Well-"

The outdoor bell rang, and we suddenly realized we were at the gate of our school. I was so involved in the conversation I hadn't even realized how close we were, let alone where we were. I do that a lot, I get distracted way too easily.

"That's the late bell, if we don't hurry we'll be late for homeroom." I say.

I feel like I could've made a really sappy Saved by the Bell reference there, but I'm not that lame. Or… am I?

I started off, but she stops me. "Wait, I wanted to ask you something!"

"It's alright, just tell me at fifth period." I say, dodging her question. At least for now.

"O-okay." She looks disappointed.

"Don't worry, I'll see you in five periods." I head towards homeroom, she does the same.

My first classes go by as you'd expect any high-schooler's classes to go, extremely boring and terribly slow. But, my study hall was here, fifth period. I walked in, signed in, and went to my seat, where I saw Natalie in the seat next to mine. Seats are arranged in pairs because it's the science lab, but when there's not a class going on in a specific period, its used for study hall. Natalie isn't sitting in the seat she was assigned, but the teacher lets us sit anywhere we want now since she knows all of our names and doesn't need a sheet for attendance. Natalie pats the seat next to her, obviously excited to talk about clubs.

How fun.

I take my seat. "How was your classes?" I asked.

"They were alright I guess, I slept through most of them though, I just can't wait for lunch!"

I knew the question was going to pop up eventually, so I figured id get it over with, like ripping off a band aid or getting a quick shot.

"So… you wanted to ask me something?"

Her eyes widened, and a smile went from ear to ear. "Oh my gosh, thanks for reminding me! So you said you hadn't picked a club yet, right?"

"Mhmm"

"Well… I was thinking," she continued, "you know, if you hadn't decided yet, and maybe if you wanted to, you could… maaayyybe join the club I'm in?"

There it is. The inevitable. "Oh, I remember you saying something about that. You're the vice president of your club, right? What was it… th- "

"The Literature Club!" she chimes in.

"Ah, right…"

"Would you like to join?" she asks again, with big blue puppy eyes.

"I'll have to get back to you on that one. I don't know what clubs I want to join. And literature? I never really considered myself a fan of it, let alone writing. Or even if I'm good at it for that matter."

"Hehe… well, uh… that's the thing…" she presses her two index fingers together, her signature 'I did something I probably shouldn't have' pose, or rather her nervous pose.

"What is it?"

"I kinda, maybe, definitely told the other members I'd bring you the first day we start this year… which is today… and that you're interested…"

"You didn't!"

"I-I did." She gives me a guilty look, but when she meets my gaze she looks away from me.

"Natalie! You shouldn't go speaking for people!" I shake my head with my hand over my face.

"W-well, Naomi said she would bake cookies to celebrate a new member because we haven't had one in a while, and she's a really good cook and-…" she trails off.

She looks back over at me and seems… odd. I mean, she did feel guilty about what she did, but it kind of caught me off guard at the same time.

"… I'm sorry Nick."

I sighed. "It's alright I guess. Look, I'll stop by for today and I'll at least have a cookie, okay?"

"Really? Thank you so much!" She wraps her arms around my chest and squeezes me, which was both unexpected that she hugged me, and was stronger than I thought it would be.

"I didn't say I would join! I just said I would stop by with you, don't get your hopes up too much, I don't want to let you down."

She lets go of me, and I feel like I can breathe again. "It's better than a no!" She gives me a smile from ear to ear. "I'll come find you after eighth period, that way we can go to the club together, okay?" she says.

The bell rings.

"Alright." I tell her, and she's already out the door, waving me goodbye as if she had to leave before I could change my mind. Does she even know what class I have eight period, or where it's even at? I thought to myself. Well, she does have my number, so I guess she could just text me and ask if she needed to know. I decided not to worry about it. It's pretty surprising just how happy one person can be.

The rest of my classes are over before I know it, quicker than expected but faster than I had hoped. I walked out of my home ec. class to see Natalie standing outside the door.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

"Wow, you actually knew what I have 8th period? I underestimated you." She proudly smiles. "But yeah, as ready as I'll ever be." I say sarcastically.

"Aww come onnn, it'll be fun!" She says.

"If you say so."

We go upstairs and walk down the halls to a classroom I'd never been in before. Why did it seem weird that the club was in a classroom? They must've gotten permission to use it from whatever teacher taught in here. It was room 200. We stop in front of the door, and Natalie peers in just to make sure she was at the right room. Did she do this every time? She confidently swings open the door.

"Hey everybody, he's here!"

I looked around the room. To my surprise, there were only three other people in here, excluding Natalie and myself, and they were all girls. I immediately recognized one of the members. Her name was Marissa. She was in my third period class. She was really pretty, smart, and popular. I don't know too much else about her considering I've never really talked to her before. She approaches Natalie and I with her hand out.

"Hello, you must be Nick? I've heard a lot about you."

Heard a lot about me? I exchange the greeting and shake her hand. "That's me. You're Marissa, right? I recognized you from third period."

"Yep, I'm the Literature Club president. I'm so happy you could join us!"

"The feelings mutual, Marissa." I give her a shy smile, she smiles back.

"How about I introduce you to the other members? You obviously already know Natalie," Natalie giggles and gives me a little wave, I wave back with a smile. "these are our other two members, Ada and Naomi."

Ada, the taller one, is reading a book at her seat, she looks up and waves to me. "How do you do?" she asks.

Naomi is in the back of the classroom, rummaging through the closet. She whips around and locks eyes with me, giving me a heinous look, like I'm some sort of criminal.

"Ugh, you brought a boy?" she snarls. That's awful inviting.

"Naomi! Be nice." Marissa says. Naomi looks away and continues whatever she's doing in the closet. "Don't worry about her, she's just not too fond of change. She's actually really sweet once you get to know her. She can even be kind of cute!" She says, looking back at Naomi mockingly.

"I am not cute!" She snarls. I feel like it would kind of fun to mess with her, but ill save that for another time.

"Whatever you say," They probably tease her all the time. "Any ways, go ahead and make yourself at home, we're going to get the preparations ready. Natalie, would you join me?" says Marissa.

"Of course!" Natalie follows her to the back of the room, where they retrieve some things from the closet. I take a seat next to Ada, where I figured I should at least try to start becoming acquainted with the girls.

"Whatchya reading there, Ada?" I ask

She jumps and gasps a little bit.

"Ehe, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Must be getting pretty involved in the story, huh?"

"Oh, no it's okay!" She marks where she was and closes the book. "But yeah, I was at the climax of the story. It's called The Haunting of Hill House. It's really good so far."

"The climax? I'm sorry if I interrupted you. Do you want me to leave you alone, so you can continue it?" I ask

"N-not at all! I'd rather talk to you anyways," she pauses, "that may have come of weird sounding, I-I meant- "

"Relax, it's cool. I didn't misunderstand you."

"Oh, good." "She sighs.

"Haunting of Hill House? Sounds like a scary book. Do you like horror stories?"

"Oh, yes. Very much so. It's my favorite genre. They're so intriguing! I love how one moment, a character can seem like a completely normal person, and then the next the author throws you for a loop and reveals a deep dark secret. Isn't it interesting?" She goes on after that, to which I lose focus. I assume she likes to read based on how she just explains it to me. "I-I'm sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"No, it's okay, you're just passionate about reading, it's cool to hear you talk about what you enjoy doing." I reassure her.

"Really? I'm glad…" She sighs and closes her eyes, holding a hand over her chest, which seemed like a weird gesture, but I didn't think too much of it. "… I actually have a second copy of the book at home, if you'd like to, I could give you this one so you could read it and so we could discuss it?" She holds the closed book out towards me." O-only if you want to! You don't have to if you aren't interested in doing so!"

"Ada, relax, you aren't giving me a bad impression. I'd love to. It's fun to share your interests with other people, I know. But won't you lose your place?" I ask

"It's okay, I'll just remember the page number. Actually, better yet, I'll reread it, so we can talk about it together on the same page!" She's getting really excited over this. It's kind of cute.

"Alright. Sounds like a plan!" I say, "How about tonight we each read a chapter or two, and tomorrow we can discuss it during club time?"

"That's perfect! We could even read the next few chapters together if we have time!" She pauses again. "I-If you'd like…"

"I'd like that, Ada." I smile at her. Did she just blush? She smiles back.

"Alright everybody!" I hear Marissa announce across the room. "Everything is ready! Come take a seat!"

Ada hands me her book, I slip it into my bag, and we go to take our seats. The girls pushed the desks together to make a table, three on one side and two on the other. I'm not too comfortable with everyone yet, so I take a seat on the end, with Natalie to my right.

Naomi marches over with a large dish with tin foil draped over the top of it. That's right, I completely forgot about the cookies! I thought to myself. She pulls the tin foil off to reveal a batch of cookies that look similar to the ones with the colored icing that you'd buy at Walmart, except these ones were obviously homemade, and looked a lot more appetizing. They had pink and yellow icing on top, decorated to look like little colored cats. This is going to be the most girly thing I've ever ate in my life, I thought.

"Wooooaaaahhhh, these look amazing Naomi!" Natalie says. I swear I can see her drooling.

"Thanks, I made them all myself!" She says proudly.

"Don't you mean you made them all for Nick?" Marissa said slyly, with an evil, teasing smirk.

"Ugh, I-I did not!" She snaps back, raising a fist at her, although I'm ninety-nine percent positive she would never hit her.

"Yep, sure you didn't. Any who, lets dig in!"

"I'll go fetch us some tea." Ada says. She gets up and travels to the side of the room, where I only just realize there's a tea kettle, with stuff to make tea. Where do they get all of this stuff?

She comes back, gives us all cups, and takes her seat. Everyone grabs a cookie, but I can't help but notice Naomi staring at me, as if she were waiting for me to take a bite and judge her baking, Iron Chef style. I look for the best spot to take my bite, and then do so. It really wasn't bad at all. Actually, it was really good. I'm no judge when it comes to sweets, since I don't eat them that often (if at all), but let's just say it's the best cookie I've had in a long time.

"Wow Naomi, these are seriously good! The best I've had in a while!"

"Really? Y-You think so?" She pauses "I mean, of course they are! Like I need you to tell me!... but, thanks." Geez, learn to take a compliment.

We eat our cookies and drink our tea. God, that sounds weird. The more I look at this situation, the more I realize this is literally a tea party and I'm the only dude. Although, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Ada looks over to me, "So Nick, what type of things do you like to read?"

Uh oh. I was kind of hoping I wouldn't get that question from anyone. I'm not really the strongest reader. But I don't have to lie about that, do I?

"Um… well I don't really read too much. I guess… comics are pretty cool. If that counts?" Naomi shoots her head up and looks over at us like she wants to say something but stays quiet. I'm the only one who probably notices.

"Eheh, not much of a reader I guess… but that's okay." She says nervously

"Hey, I never said that couldn't change!" I give her an awkward smile.

That's when I realized something that probably should've been brought up.

"And also, I just realized something…" I said

"What is it, Nick?" Responds Marissa.

"Well… I never really said I would join this club yet. I was actually just visiting today to see what it was like."

They all stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I got a small reaction from everyone.

A "O-oh…" From Ada

A "What?..." From Marissa

A "N-Nick…" From Natalie

And a "Hmph." From Naomi

They were all looking at me with sad expressions. I was defenseless against these girls.

"…Alright, it's decided. I'm joining the Literature Club.

Suddenly, they all lit up again. "You had me so worried, I'm so happy!" Natalie stand up, pulls me up, hugs me, and starts jumping up and down.

"Thank goodness…" Ada says

"If you only would've came for the cookies I would've been super pissed about it." Naomi crosses her arms and huffs away from my gaze.

"Well then, it's official. Welcome to the club!" Marissa smiles at me.

You know, this may not be half bad. All these girls are really nice. Well… three of the four are nice. And they all seem pretty fond of this club. Maybe I can learn to enjoy it as much as they do.

The plate of cookies was finished, and Naomi wrapped it up and put it in her bag.

"Hey everyone, I have one more announcement before we pack up. Be prepared to start getting into the literature aspect of the club tomorrow. Now that we have everyone, we need to start preparing for the festival that's coming up in a few weeks." She said

We all start packing up. Ada is the first out the door, I wave her goodbye. Natalie approaches me.

"Hey Nick, since we're both already here, do you want to walk home together?"

"Of course, I don't see why not."

"Okay!" She gives me a cheesy grin.

We walk out, followed by Naomi and Marissa. We said our goodbyes and made our way out the main entrance.

Natalie and I were on our way home. I figured I would start our conversation.

"Well that was pretty fun, don't you think?" Pretty bad conversation starter. If I could roll my eyes at myself I would.

She keeps looking forward, spacing out.

I wave my hand in front of her face.

"Natalie? Are you alright?"

"O-oh, I'm sorry. What did you say?"

"Nothing. I was just saying today was pretty fun, don't you think?" I asked again

"Oh yeah, sure was!"

She was quiet again. Something was off about her. She obviously had something on her mind.

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" I asked

"Oh, no everything's alright."

"Okay, I was just checking on you. You didn't seem yourself, so I thought I'd ask. I'm sorry if I was being nosey."

"It's okay! Thanks for checking. I'm okay. See?" She gives me her signature smile.

"Alright, if you say so." I smile back and playfully punch her arm. "I'm really glad you convinced me to join. Everyone seems nice, and the club seems like it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited to go back tomorrow."

"I'm glad you like it. I'm excited to go back tomorrow too. Hehe…" She says.

We walked for a little longer in silence. I didn't want to pressure her anymore into what was on her mind. Despite what she said, it was obvious something was up. I had to reassure her.

"Hey Nat?"

"What's up?"

"If you ever need anything from me, or if you ever want to talk about something, or if you even need to vent, you can talk to me about it. You know that, right?"

"Heh, yeah, I know. You worry about me too much. But… thanks." She smiles at me.

We were outside her house now. I walked her to her door, which was normal considering we went to each other's houses every day when we were kids. I pretty much could let myself in whenever and it would be okay. Sometimes I actually do, too. Her mom was practically my second mom. She does advise me after all.

Mom and Dad… I thought. I should probably explain that situation.

I'm only eighteen, but I live alone in my house. My parents… aren't with us anymore. They liked to travel, and took a flight out to California two years ago. Well… the plane crashed. Nobody survived. So… that explains that. It's kind of hard to talk about. I don't have a job, but my parents had a very large amount of life insurance, in case something bad would ever happen to them so I would be taken care of. I don't even want to know what they were paying for it. They fully owned our house, it was paid off. So, the life insurance money is what I'm living off of right now, which was surprisingly a gratuitous amount of money. I just live off of the house I've grown up in, and use the money to pay the bills, make payments, and buy things I need, like clothes, groceries, and more. I don't want anyone to think I'm rich, but I'm sitting comfortably. After the funeral arrangements, I had about four-hundred thousand left over. I'm not happy about it at all obviously because no amount of money will bring my parents back, but I'm very thankful at how smart they were to do such a thing… Even though they're gone, they still take care of me.

Their passing contributed to a spiraling depression in my life. Aside from their deaths, I never really had any real friends, besides Natalie. Everyone and anyone I tried to be friends with either used me for my money, my car, or anything else. They'd back stab me or talk crap about me behind my back, it just wasn't worth it to surround myself in people who were going to hurt me. It was the last thing I needed. I had self-harm issues for a while, but nobody knows about it except for the few friends I thought I had. Considering I have to wear a blazer to school every day, my arms are always covered. I don't do it anymore. I'll obviously never be over my parent's deaths, and I'm still going to cry over them, I don't know anybody who would be over it, but I haven't hurt myself in a long time. I wouldn't say I'm one hundred percent okay, but I'm not going to do anything stupid. I'll be alright. I've made it this far, haven't I? Mom and Dad would have wanted me to go on. I do it for them.

Mrs. Patterson, Natalie's mom, is my go to. She advises and looks over me. She was my mom's best friend. Like I said before, I've known her for so long and we've been through so much she's pretty much my second mom. She treated me like the son she never had. She doesn't watch over me as much as she used to anymore now that I'm an adult. Well, at least legally. But I still go to her when I need help or advice.

I made it to my front door. I stepped inside, set my stuff down, and made dinner. I went to bed at a relatively earlier time than other kids so I wouldn't be tired at school, so I ate a little earlier than everyone else as well.

After I cooked and ate, I had a little downtime, so I decided I'd start reading into Ada's book, The Haunting of Hill House. I'm not much into reading anything other than comics, but she seemed pretty passionate about this book, so I'll give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen? Worst case scenario I have to read a book that I'm not interested in, but all of our English classes through the years made us do that all the time anyways. I wanted to do this for her. I need to have a way to connect with these girls, so I can be more comfortable around them. Who knows? I may even turn out liking the book. Not that I'm jumping into this expecting to dislike it.

It probably took me about twenty minutes to get through the first chapter. It actually wasn't bad, so I went ahead and read the second chapter as well.

After reading the two chapters, I slipped the book back into my bag, and just entertained myself until it was time for bed. I meal prepped my lunch for tomorrow so I wouldn't have to wake up as early as I normally do, and I rented a movie I had never seen before. I'm gonna try not to over-describe my boring, eventless evening. It's a bad habit of mine to do that.

Right around ten, I brushed my teeth, changed into some more comfortable clothes, and hit the hay. Our second day of Literature Club was tomorrow and, I can't believe I'm saying this, I was actually excited for it. I'm looking forward to seeing what Marissa has in store for us, although I should probably be worried considering she said we'd be getting into the more literature related aspects of the club. I guess it isn't always going to be eating cookies and drinking tea.

I closed my eyes, and drifted to sleep.