AN:
Hello reader!Thank you for choosing to read this story of mine.I am very appreciative and hope you enjoy it.Please,please PLEASE leave a comment/review on what you think.Thank you!
~I Stole But You Stole My Heart~
•Chapter One•
Starvation.
A word plenty have heard,but what does it actually mean?
Well,it's suffering caused by lack of food,also known as malnourishment,but that's as far as Natsuki cares to think of it.
She knows what comes after,she's not stupid.
As she sat there,in the busy school canteen full of rowdy students that she barely knew,Natsuki was starving.Her stupid dad had been gone all week,leaving her with no food again.Usually she could go for a week without him,but it was Wednesday(he'd left Sunday morning)and Natsuki had eaten the second half of her last energy bar Monday.She'd passed out at home,luckily,after a nasty argument with another girl from school.The fight ,along with the ebbing pain in her stomach all day, left her in an even worse condition than before.
She'd gone home that night infuriated and while scribbling out that anger on a sheet of paper ,she'd passed out just to wake a few hours later.She'd eaten the energy bar like a rabid animal before falling into a deep sleep once more..It was pitiful,really,how weak she was.
The smells from the brightly lit canteen made her stomach fold in on itself.The excruciating pain was unbearable,and yet she had to bare with it.This wasn't the first time she'd suffered ,and it certainly wouldn't be the last,but that didn't mean it was any less painful.
The other students gave her dirty looks as they walked past,she among others sat on the outskirts of the cafeteria.Most were the freak kids,the loners,who had no friends.Everyone knew not to take a table by them self,so they dealt with the bitchy remarks from the floor instead.It really didn't help matters as it just made the bullies feel more powerful.It was a circle.Sit on a table and people hate you,sit on the floor and people bully you because you're on the floor.No way out for the sad little freaks.
Natsuki had fallen into the "freak" category early on.She didn't have friends because she treated everyone like shit.It was true.It was a wall for protection,but that meant she had no friends to help stick up for her.Nobody to listen to her,nobody to care for her.
She had nobody.
Natsuki's stomach growled yet again,there was no point in sitting the canteen,really.Just to be surrounded by delicious smells and rude people.It made a bad combination for Natsuki,the smells made her angrier.At her father,at the bullies,at herself.And,simple as it was,Natsuki was bound to snap at somebody who gave her a weird look,but she was in no state to fight.
To get away from the torturous smells and the other students,Natsuki swung her pink backpack over one shoulder and(headphones sitting dutifully on her head)walked out swiftly.The corridors were quiet mostly and so she was alone,accompanied only by the echo of her light footsteps as the distant chatter of the cafeteria faded away.
Soon,she found a little staircase to the third floor of the sixth form area,she sat at the bottom step and took out her sparkly pink notebook and matching pen.Natsuki had been writing poems for awhile now.She had started a few months earlier,when in English literature they were studying poetry.Something by an old guy called William Wordsworth,it was about daffodils..Or was it clouds?Natsuki couldn't remember.
The teacher,Mrs Dunstan,had asked them to write a poem about almost anything.And since then,Natsuki had been writing.She liked it to be simple,a lot of the other students who read out their poems made them complicated.She couldn't figure out what half of them were about,so she kept it easy,and light.It was a way to get everything out without actually having to say it to anybody.Or even to herself.She just wrote.
Letter after letter.
It was while she was writing that lunchtime that two girls were hanging up large posters.Natsuki felt a peak of interest take ahold and she slyly lowered the volume of her music to listen in.One girl was tall,she had long,light brown hair tied into a ponytail with a blue ribbon and the other was short with a strawberry blond pixie cut.A red bow wobbled atop of her head as she shook it with excitement.
"This is amazing!A new club!Monika,do you think that we'll get new members?"the short one squealed,the other one-who Natsuki presumed was Monika-simply started taping a poster to the wall opposite Natsuki.
"I hope so.We need five members to be an actually club,remember?"
The short one pulled a guilty face and touched her two index fingers together while a shy smile took over her lips."I know...But I'm just excited.Yuri said she'd join,didn't she?And I have a friend that I could convince..."
Monika sighed and turned to her friend once more.
"But we'd still need another member,Sayori.Thats why we're hanging up these posters."To prove her point,she held up the posters and waved them at Sayori.
Sayori giggled and they agreed to move along the block then round to the canteen,Natsuki noticed as they were walking away that Monika had glanced an eye over to her.She couldn't tell if it was a smile that greeted her,but she knew that the name Monika seemed familiar and she just couldn't pinpoint it.
Sayori,meanwhile,was completely oblivious to Natsuki.
Despite listening in to their conversation,Natsuki hadn't figured out what the club was about.So,as her curiosity forced her along,she walked slowly towards the poster.
"Doki Doki Literature Club?"Natsuki read aloud as her eyes scanned the pink and purple poster.
"Everyday after school from three thirty to four thirty.."
At the bottom of the page there was a sign up sheet,there was a little note next to it.
"Love reading?Writing?Poetry?Or maybe you just want to come for a cup of tea and discuss a good book?Well,here's the place to do it!"
Natsuki watched the sheet suspiciously.If she signed up it'd be another hour where she's not at home but...What would her dad do if he found out?Would he ban her from going?
Counting the pro's and con's,Natsuki decided to sign up.Her dad wasn't home till six when he did come home from work and it was an hour walk home.She'd get there at five,he wouldn't find out.
Quickly,she wrote her name on the sign up sheet.The halls started to fill up with other students,lunch was nearing the end, which meant she had to go to lesson.It would take her a while to get to S7 as she had to go through the courtyard and then up a flight of stairs.Maybe there weren't teachers blocking the shortcut this time?
Natsuki put her notebook and pen away,slipped her bag onto her shoulders and then hobbled to her next class,praying that the teachers would let her off and let her use the wrong side of the one-way system.
~I stole~
Diiiiiinnnggggg*
Natsuki practically jumped out of her chair at the sound of the bell that signalled the end of fifth period.Sighing,she stood and put her things into her bag as the students around her cheered with the joys of class ending.
Natsuki did not feel the joy.
She didn't want to do what she did next.She really didn't,it was all on her dipshit dad.Hunger ,worry and anger drove her along as she hobbled out of class to the sea of students in the corridor.Once she was in the quad,it seemed to be far less full and she could finally breathe without boys' cologne making her want to vomit.They always wore so much that instead of pretty girls being drawn to them,they actually tried to step away as the boys desperately tried to get their attention.
Of course,it didn't really bother Natsuki that much.No boys were chasing after her.
Natsuki slowly made her way through the gates,trying to disguise her weak limp by holding her head high and trying to keep her shoulders straight.She didn't need anybody asking her what was wrong-she couldn't tell them.She would never tell anybody.
Rain started to pour and luckily,Natsuki had grabbed her pink hoodie before she had left the house that morning.She put her hood up and continued to walk,her house was a long way away so hopefully the rain stopped before it soaked through her hoodie.She sighed and kicked a puddle of water with her foot,looking to the floor as music from her headphones flooded her ears.
Soon,she arrived.But not at her house,but at the grocery store just down the road from her house.The rain had let up slightly,but it was still drizzling and Natsuki was cold,her hoodie had been partly soaked and she had had to hide her headphones inside her bag a few minutes earlier.Weakly,she made her way inside the store.There was an elderly woman who was getting served and she could hear another employee moving stuff around at the back.
She wandered around the shop quietly,looking around for the section of foods she needed.Natsuki really,really hated this idea but she was desperate.Her dad didn't give a shit and nobody else knew the horror she faced at home.Eventually,she found the section of foods with granola and energy bars.
Natsuki glanced around and saw a camera looking her way,a red light beeping in the corner of the black cube.Damn.Its recording.Natsuki thought to herself,but as fate would have it,a group of 3 boys slightly older than her walked in-the camera turned to watch them instead.
Natsuki's hands shook as she reached out,grabbed three energy bars and stuffed them into her blazer pocket.She glanced around.Nobody saw?Really?
Natsuki was surprised but if she was able to she may aswell take a few more?
This time,she shooted her hand out and grabbed two granola bars.
Natsuki moved her hand back when a hand of long,elegant fingers grabbed her wrist.
Embarrassed,angry and scared,she glanced into the face of the one person she hadn't expected.