BEEP BEEP BEEP,Taigara's alarm blared in her ears.
"Come on, sleepyhead. If you don't get up now, you're gonna late for school!" Her older brother Rei said as he gently shook her shoulder.
"Aww," she whined, " Come on nii-san, can't I sleep in just a little bit more?"
"No. That transfer student is coming today, and you know you don't want him to be all alone on his first day do you?"
More groaning. "Transfer kids always end up as preps or outcasts, even you know that."
"True, but, that doesn't matter 'cause you're getting up anyway." With that, Rei jerked the sheets off the bed, causing Taigara to hit the floor with a THUD.
"REI! I said to get your sister out of bed, not throw her on the floor!" yelled a voice from the first floor.
"Sorry Daddy!" Taigara yelled back "That was my fault, I tripped!"
"Thanks, sis." Rei whispered as they came down the stairs.
"Yeah, whatever" Taigara mumbled back. "G'mornin' Daddy!" said Taigara cheerfully.
"Morning Taigara, you better get your sleepybutt out that door in the next five minutes or you're gonna be late."
"Yes Daddy, see you guys after school!" replied Taigara as she practically bounced out the front gate in her school uniform.
"What are we going to do with her?" Rei and Taigara's overworked father sighed.
"How should I know? She's your daughter." Laughed Rei. Mr. Uzuku just sighed as he finished cleaning up the dishes from breakfast.
Taigara strolled into her classroom as everyone continued to talk and laugh with their friends. She slumped into her chair and laid her head down. As she started to sleep, the bell rang. Everyone took their seats, and their teacher, Mrs. Yasui, removed her earplugs and picked up her attendance book.
"…. And Uzuku Taigara…. Taigara?" Mrs. Yasui repeated with a bit of frustration in her voice.
She walked over to Taigara's desk, just to find her sleeping in class. Again. "MS. UZUKU!" she screeched. This caused Taigara to shoot up from her sleeping position.
A wave of giggles and snickers filled the room.
" H-hai?" Taigara replied nervously.
"Glad to see you are awake Ms. Uzuku, because if you hadn't woken up, then you would have missed meeting our newest student. Will you please come in, Mr. Sohma?"
The door opened and in came Mr. Sohma. He wore the school's traditional black, jacket and pants, along with the blood red tie, neatly around his neck. Just by the way he dressed you would think he was a model student, except there were two thing that separated him from the rest; his hair and his eyes. His hair was a fiery orange, instead of the usual black our brown, and his eyes were a brilliant royal purple.
All of the girls immediately started to swoon over him. Except, little miss Uzuku Taigara, who sat their with her mouth gaping like she just saw bigfoot having a teaparty with a woolymammoth. She couldn't believe the colors of his hair and eyes. Her hair had always stood out; sure most people have black hair but for as long as she could remember she has had bright red bangs that were draped across her face and down to her neck. Then her eyes were a magma red that were rarely shone to people except her father and her older brother.
"Good to see you again, Mr. Sohma. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"
The boy shrugged then wrote his name on the blackboard behind him. Then he finally spoke to the class, "My name is Sohma Kyou, I am sixteen. And yes this is my real hair color, so don't even try to ask where I got it dyed."
No one did either; in fact, everyone avoided him because he looked like he was going to kill the next person that came up to him.
Oddly enough, this didn't stop Taigara from asking him a couple questions after she found out that he takes the same route home as she does.
"Hey you're Kyou-kun, right?"
Taigara cocked her head questioningly as she spoke. She held out her hand "I'm Taigara, nice to meet you."
Kyou gave her a look of disgust and kept walking. This definitely made Taigara mad. She jumped in front of Kyou with her arms spread so he couldn't pass.
"Why are ignoring me?" Taigara asked angrily.
Then, without waiting for and answer, she added "Let me rephrase that: Why are you ignoring everyone? You won't even let someone pat you on the back or something like that! What are you, a germaphobe?"
"N-no it's just-" Kyou started, but Taigara wouldn't let him finish.
"So you're not a germaphobe, eh? Then you won't mind if I hug you." Taigara lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Kyou's neck, knocking him to the ground.
Kyou was completely shocked as he fell to the ground with his classmate.
He was extremely sore when he sat up to find Taigara smiling at him. He looked around to find out if anyone saw what happened, but the street was vacant.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Kyou said in a panicked voice. "I could have turned into a cat and had someone discover my secret, but oddly enough I didn't… and I just said all that out loud didn't I?"
"Um, yeah. You did." Taigara replied. "Which is strange because you don't seem like the kind of person to babble when they're nervous."
"Wait a minute. You're not freaking out or even laughing in my face. Why?"
"I don't know, it's a little strange for someone like you to say something like that, but I guess it's because I'm part cat too."
"Wait. What?" He says.
"Yeah, I'm part cat, and so is my dad and my brother and a whole lot of my family."
"Um, okay? How?"
"Wow your full of questions! Oh well I don't mind, anyway it's true I'm not entirely human the one main thing that separates my from everyone else is this."
Out of nowhere, large cat ears that seemed to grow from her head popped up from Taigara's thick black and red hair. Then a long black tail snaked out of the lowest section of her back, and swished back and forth playfully.
Kyou stared at her for a second, and then smiled saying; "Maybe this place won't be completely boring."