'You're going to bed already, Dawn?' My mother asked looking up from the poker match she was having with the rest of the family.

'Yeah, I'm feeling really tired.' I said, yawning.

'That's unusual. Normally you're the last one to go to bed at family parties.' My cousin said, trying to shield his cards from aunty who wasn't being subtle about peeking at all.

'I know, but I can barely keep my eyes open!'

'Nothing you can do about it then. Good night!' Mom said, glaring at grandma who was trying to take an ace out of her sleeve.

I sighed and shook my head as I went up the stairs. One of the favorite games for my family to play was poker. They had the same rules, except that players were allowed to cheat, as long as you cheated well. Don't ask me how you're supposed to cheat well, all I know is that it's hilarious to see how those games turned out. Normally I'd stay behind and watch, but I was already having trouble resisting the urge to fall asleep on the stairs! I didn't even bother to change into my pajamas when I entered my room. I just lied down on my bed and fell asleep instantly.

'Nnn?' I slowly opened my eyes, no longer feeling as tired as I did before. I had expected for it to be morning already, but the moon was still just rising over the horizon in the distance. Wait a second, horizon? The only view the window in my bedroom gave me was of the street, and my window always faced north, not east. I further opened my eyes to see there were trees standing in front of me. I placed a hand on the ground and I could feel grass.

'… What's going on here?' I certainly wasn't in my room anymore, which was obvious. Could it be I was having a lucid dream? I remembered reading once how to know if you're dreaming. But the only thing I remembered was that your appearance, strength and abilities were often different in a dream. I didn't see any mirrors, which was logical since I appeared to be in a forest, but I did notice I was wearing a kimono and I appeared to be taller. I took a strand of my hair and looked at it. My hair was purple, and so long that it reached my hips.

'… Purple? Why is my hair purple?' Okay, I was pretty sure my hair wasn't purple when I went to bed, but I still decided to check whether my physical ability was still the same.

'Jumping will do.' I jumped as high as I could, which was normally pretty high for a girl, but still nothing supernatural. Instead, I jumped far above the treetops. When I landed on the ground, I tripped and fell.

'Okay, this is definitely a dream!' I yelled as I crawled back on my feet. That was both terrifying and awesome at the same time. A bit like those attractions in an amusement park that were extremely scary, but fun enough to make you go in again. I spent the next few minutes testing out my other abilities.

Turns out I had become some sort of superwoman. I could jump ridiculously high, run ridiculously fast, was ridiculously strong, and those claw-like nails were strong enough to cut through a whole tree. After testing out my dream body, I left in search of a river to see what else of my appearance had changed. I didn't find one, and ended up wandering around that forest for hours. By the time the sun was slowly starting to come up I was almost convinced it was a dream with an endless forest. Once the first rays of the sun started to peek out from behind the horizon, I suddenly felt exhausted. I could barely stand as I slowly started falling asleep. I sat on the ground, leaning against a tree and fell asleep.

'Hmm…' I mumbled as I slowly became more aware of my surroundings. I was lying in a bed. I slowly opened my eyes and sat up, observing the room around me.

'My room…?' I pinched my cheek to check whether I was really awake. I let go when I felt my short nails hurt my cheek. So it had been a dream after all. But it had seemed so real… No, in the end it was just a dream, I had to focus on reality. Speaking of reality, I'd better get ready. Today was my first day in my new high school after all. I slipped out of my bed and entered the bathroom in the hall across of my bedroom. I made sure to check my looks, just in case. My light brown hair that barely reached my shoulders and chocolate colored eyes were the same as ever. The only thing that was different from when I went to bed was that I was now wearing my pajamas. I had fallen asleep dressed, so dad must have changed my clothes. After taking a shower and changing into my new school uniform I walked into my room to check what time it was.

The clock said 07:59.

'…' I took a deep breath as the clock turned to 08:00.

'God Damnit!' I yelled at the top of my lungs. I rushed downstairs where my mom yawned as she sat up from the couch she had undoubtedly fallen asleep in.

'What are you yelling about so early in the morning?'

'No time to explain, I'm going to be late!' I yelled, running into the kitchen where I made myself some toast with butter as breakfast.

'What do you mean you're going to be late? It's only-' Mom fell silent as she gazed upon the clock hanging above the kitchen door.

'…' Soon enough she, too, was hurrying to be in time for work. People always told us that I and my mother didn't look alike at all, because she had curly, shoulder long black hair and light green eyes, but when it came to being late our reactions were the same.

'Haven't you two left yet?' Dad asked as he calmly walked into the room. Dad didn't work, and instead did the household chores, so he didn't need to rush in the morning. Unlike my mother, I was often told I looked a lot like my dad. We both had the same hair color, and his dark brown eyes looked a lot like my chocolate brown ones.

'We were about to! Do you know what time it is now?' I asked, cramming my notebooks, pens and lunch into my backpack. I'd need to put them in order at school later.

'It's 8:08 a.m.'

'Thanks dad!' I yelled, rushing past him and out the front door. I could hear mom do the same as she rushed to her car. I wasn't as lucky as to have a vehicle, since the bus I was supposed to take to school had already left. School starts at 8:15, and it took around ten minutes to get there. Guess I had to rush.

What a great way to start at a new school. Like I wasn't going to be looked at strange enough with transferring schools in the middle of the year! This was all because my mother had gotten a job offer, but it had been far away from our previous house. I didn't mind moving schools, since one of my best friends went to my new school after all. She'd probably make some stupid comment when she heard I was late on my first day.

I couldn't believe I was still on time after all that bad luck. Sure, I was standing in front of the class door, panting, but I probably hadn't missed presence checking. I took one last deep breath before opening the door. I stood in the doorway, a little unsure about what to do.

'You must be the transfer student, come up here and introduce yourself.' The teacher said. I did just that.

'My name is Dawn Smith. I'm part British, part Japanese and I moved here from Tokyo because my mother got a job offer here. My hobbies are reading, running and many other things'

'Very well, you can sit in the empty seat near the window.' I sat down and the teacher begun saying what page we needed to take in our books. Mine had gotten lost in the mail, so I didn't have much to do except for taking notes and looking around the classroom. I noticed the seat next to me was empty, but there were books in it. Was someone sick? Oh well, I could ask Beniko about that later.

'Oh, so you're in that class? You're lucky, that teacher's really nice.' Beniko, probably my best friend since childhood, said as we ate our lunch during break.

'Yeah, I got that impression too. But I wanted to ask you about the empty seat next to mine.'

'Empty?'

'Yes, and I had hoped you could tell me more about it.' It might seem like a strange idea, asking someone from a different class, but Beniko had been the queen of gossip since kindergarten. If anyone knew who this missing person was, it was Beniko.

'Hmm…' Beniko knew pretty much everyone in the school, so if there was anyone who'd know whose seat it was it was her.

'Oh! That seat must've been Souta's!'

'Souta?'

'Yes, Souta Higurashi. He's a student at our school, but he's been absent a lot because of sickness. Why are you so interested anyways? That's unlike you.'

'Well, turns out my class has a group project coming up, and my partner's Souta.'

'Poor you, a group project on your first day here, and your partner's sick too! Think you're up to it?'

'I'll manage, but I'd like to be able to ask Souta if it's alright if I start on it without him.'

'Of course he'll be okay with it! But tell you what; I can give you his address if you really want to. I don't think he'll be at his home, but his family could at least pass him the message.'

'Thanks! I won't tell him you know his address!' Or that you have a habit of stalking boys you like and then write their personal information in a notebook.

'That'd be appreciated.' Beniko jot down Souta's address on a small piece of paper.

'Here you go.' She said as she handed it to me.

'Thanks, I'll go there after school.'

Dawn: I still can't believe I was on time for school.

Nayru9572: Guess you must've run really hard.

Dawn: I suppose so, but still.

Nayru9572: How come you even slept that long? Shouldn't your alarm clock have gone off?

Dawn: I must have slept through it.

Nayru9572: Well, that can happen to anyone I guess. I wonder how that poker match between your family members ended.

Dawn: Most likely uncle tried to steal an ace from mom, who got angry at him and immediately pulled a royal flush out of her sleeve.

Nayru9572: … How is that cheating well?

Dawn: *shrugs* How should I know? I'm not good at the game. I don't have the heart to cheat, even if it's allowed.

Nayru9572: Luckily. Well, that's it for the day, thanks for reading!