-This is my very first Fanfic (and all together story). I'm not gonna lie to you, I know next to nothing about Japanese culture; so bear with me, : I do not own any of the characters of 'Spirited Away'.-

Chapter 1 - The day before

*sigh*

The sixteen year old girl couldn't help but let out. She sat on her bed, with a pale green and white designed blanket, in the corner of her room, right next to the window. Her elbow length, chestnut brown hair let down in a sloppy way. She pulled her knees in close to her chest, as her dark brown eyes were cast at the tree line that was seemingly flowing down the hill to the road.

"I am not looking forward to tomorrow," she whispered to herself.

"Chihiro" her mother called.

"What" Chihiro answered, slightly annoyed.

Being an only child did not mean that she had a shortage of chores, and she just spent her whole day helping her mom do things like grocery shopping, shopping for school supplies, cleaning the windows (outside and in), and, yes, the dreaded dished; by hand, since they didn't have a dishwasher, not since they moved to this neighbourhood.

"Don't use that tone with me, it's Rena, she's on the phone".

Ah yes, Rena. When Chihiro first went to school in this small town, she felt she didn't fit in. Not since she was 'Spirited away'. That time they had trouble moving in because her family arrived four days after the movers showed up. When asked about this, her parents were speechless. They didn't think that side trip to that 'abandoned theme park' took four days. Only their daughter, Chihiro, remembered all that had happened on the other side of the tunnel. She kept this knowledge to herself not only because her parents, or anyone else wouldn't believe a girl just entering junior high, but she herself was feeling a little down, because she had to leave someone very precious to her on the other side. This had to be, because he was the Kohaku River spirit. He was known as Haku to her and basically everyone on the other side.

Chihiro quickly made her way out of her room, down the stairs, and to her mother, who was impatiently waiting for her dawdling daughter to retrieve the phone. Chihiro snatched the cordless phone away from her mother and retreated back to her bedroom.

"Hello", she answered while pulling out a photo album and dropping it and herself back on her bed.

"Hi Chihiro. Are you excited for school tomorrow?" Rena asked excitedly.

"You didn't really phone me just for that did you?" Chihiro asked in return, a little surprised her friend would actually be excited for school. Not that she was.

"Well kinda. It's our second year of High school. You never managed to find a boyfriend last year, and the guy I was dating turned out to be a jerk."

"You dumped another one ... ? You're cruel. If you keep at that rate you're going to run out of guys." Chihiro replied to the talkative Rena.

"We're not supposed to be talking about me right now, we're talking about you. I mean last year you didn't even look interested in finding a boyfriend. If you keep that up, you're not going to find a good one, and end up with a loser." Rena said turning the attention back on Chihiro.

"Did you finish your school shopping, Rena?", Chihiro said, desperately avoiding the topic of 'boyfriend' with Rena.

"...No."

"I'll go shopping with you. I'll meet you at your place in twenty minutes"

"Okay" Rena said gleefully before hanging up the phone.

'Man, that girl can TALK' Chihiro thought to herself.

Chihiro scooted off her bed and opened her dresser. She pulled a dark blue t-shirt, and pair of black shorts. As a final touch to her casual outfit, she took the glittering magenta coloured ponytail, and tied her hair back.

She ran down the stairs and put the phone back on the base.

"Mom, I'm going shopping with Rena"

"Okay. Bring some eggs on your way back, we're running low."

With that, Chihiro took off from her blue house. (AN: Yeah, her house is blue. It was in the movie.) It took her fifteen minutes to get to her friend's house.

When she knocked on the door, Rena was already there by the door waiting for her. They both walked down the street, and down the hill, talking all the way to the mall.

"My mom only gave me enough for the school stuff" Rena said as the finally entered the mall where they would to their shopping.

"Well I have some money for afterwards. So I could do a little shopping"

About an hour after shopping for school supplies, the left that particular store, and entered an accessory store. Chihiro picked up a small statue, about four inches tall, that looked very familiar, except she remembered it life size. She bought it and a carton of eggs, then she and Rena left the mall to go home.

"Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow, Chihiro"

"Yeah, See ya"

Chihiro then walked home alone, eager to get to bed, because she was now exhausted. When she got home she took her shoes off and just left them where she took them off. Not caring if her parents yelled at her for leaving her shoes in front of the door, she trudged up the stairs, after she put the eggs in the fridge.

When she got to her room, she took her treasured ponytail out and put it and the small statue on top of her dresser, then she dropped herself onto her bed letting her dreams take over her mind.

(Enter dream)

Chihiro, who was for some reason out in the dark, was running as fast as she could away from the river, which was growing in size, threatening to swallow everything. Her path was blocked by tables with pigs, of quite a large size, eating at them. Since junior high she has had a small fear of pigs. She couldn't go forward, through the pig blockade, and she couldn't turn back because of the ever growing flood behind her. She was trapped. Suddenly the ground underneath her gave way and she fell, onto a big, dirty, smelly blob in a tub, and the 'flood' followed her and filled the tub. The blob reached out to grab her, when she abruptly woke up.

(End dream (a sentence ago))

"That was Weird. I haven't had a dream like that in four years-ish." She said quietly, still sweating from her dream. "But it's like I've seen all these things and creatures before. Very strange."

Reassuring herself that it was just a nightmare, she coaxed herself back to sleep.

"You actually did it Haku. We made it to the other side." Lynn said surprised they got to the other side of the tunnel.

"Yes" Haku said with a small smile on his face.

They walked down the dirt road and the streets to the town, until they came to a familiar sight: a bath house; though this place also had a new pool. They looked at each other, realizing they had no money.

"I guess we can work here, since we're experienced with this job. At least I am." Haku looked up at Lynn, knowing she was right. When it came to the basics in a bath house, he didn't know much.

It wasn't even a day when Lynn got the job; Haku got hired as a lifeguard. While she was working, Haku set out on a place to stay.

-this is only the first chapter, so it should get better (in my opinion it does). Please review.-