I don't own any of the Gakuen Alice's characters mentioned in this story… This is my first story, so don't expect it to be good…please review if you liked this chapter or you have any suggestions…^^...and so it begins…

Four children could be seen walking through the forest that was otherwise known as the backyard of the Alice Academy. An academy for gifted children who had powers other people could not imagine. The children, who by the way consisted of two girls and two boys, are students of this academy. They were currently searching for their friend Bear, whom is a teddy bear with a soul.

The two girls, Mikan and Hotaru, and the two boys, Ruka and Natsume, searched behind trees and under rocks, in Mikan's case since it was obvious for the others that Bear could not be found under tinny rocks. The children were starting to get tired and irritated since they could not find Bear anywhere in the forest.

"This is stupid," said Natsume with a dead pan voice. A vein could be seen in his forehead. He was starting to get mad because he didn't want to go visit Bear in the first place. He was only there because his best friend Ruka had decided to keep the girls some company while they were in the woods.

"Natsume," said Mikan with a whine "it is not stupid. What if Bear is hurt or was attacked by something" she was starting to get worried, her eyebrows were furrowing "Oh no!! Hotaru, we have to hurry and find Bear. The poor thing is out here alone and in danger. How is he going to protect himself? We already checked his little house" tears were starting to slide down her cheeks and into the ground bellow, forming a small pool of water.

Mikan was suddenly hit by Hotaru's baka gun. "Baka" said Hotaru to Mikan "Bear is probably safer than you, he knows how to take care of himself"

"But Hotaru…" Mikan was going to start complaining again when she saw the baka gun in Hotaru's hand.

"Idiot" said Natsume while he and Ruka started to walk into another direction. To a place closer to the middle of the forest.

"Natsume" said Ruka quietly "don't be so mean" he was going to say, but decided against it since it was Natsume whom he was talking to.

They suddenly heard a familiar voice talking. Natsume was the first to hear it, so he went ahead and took a look. He stopped dead on his tracks when he saw a figure bend down talking to Bear. He did not need to take a closer look to know that the person was his upper classmate Tsubasa, or Shadow as he calls him, the beanie he always wore was more than enough. The others catched up with him and also recognized Tsubasa at once. Mikan was more than excited to have found Tsubasa. She ran up to him and threw herself at him in a hug.

"Tsubasa-sempai!!! What are you doing here?" she said while still on his embrace.

"I'm just paying a visit to Bear since it's been a while" answered Tsubasa. He then released himself from Mikan's hug.

Mikan didn't even notice that she had been moved. She was too happy to have met Tsubasa in the forest that had started to scare her. Bear, in the other hand, got mad at the lack of attention that Mikan was producing.

"Ouch!!" Mikan said when she felt something hard hit her head. She tilted her head to the left to see what had hit her while rubbing her abused head. She saw Bear in her line of vision and suddenly went to him. Abused head forgotten.

"Bear! There you are. We've been looking all over for you" she said while trying to grab Bear whom did not like the idea and was currently pushing her away with his little paws. His wooden stick that he had used to hit Mikan with had fallen out of his paw the moment that he had been picked up by Mikan.

The other children had just waited for the drama to end so that they could get over with their visit. Natsume had noticed the sky darkening and some clouds appearing. He quickly deduced that it was going to rain soon and they needed to either find shelter or go back to the academy's dorms. He voiced his thoughts out loud for the others to hear.

Tsubasa looked at the sky after hearing Natsume and agreed with him. He said "Does clouds do look stormy. We can take shelter at a cabin close to here. I passed it a while back when I was looking for Bear" he pointed to the north of the forest.

The children just looked at each other and then at where Tsubasa was pointing which was a bunch of trees. Natsume even gave him at 'are you stupid?' look.

"What's with those looks?!" exclaimed Tsubasa while moving his arms around in a surrender form "it may not look like it, but there is a cabin in that direction. I'm not stupid"

The children were still staring at him and Tsubasa was starting to become nervous. Sweat drops were appearing in all over his face.

"Look. It's getting late and it looks like it's gonna rain. The cabin its very close to here" tried Tsubasa one more time.

A series of 'Okay's' and 'hmn's' were his answers. It was better than the staring, so he decided to guide the children to the cabin.

The cabin was made of wood and very old. It seemed abandoned. Spider webs were all over the front door while dust and the actual spiders and other insects covered the inside. They just stared at the cabin as if something scary was going to come out or it was going to fall down at any moment.

'It doesn't seem so welcoming now that I look at it' thought Tsubasa with a sweat drop.

Bear didn't seem to mind the appearance of the cabin since he marched right in without the others. Natsume soon followed his example. Ruka was next, he entered along with Hotaru. Mikan didn't want to enter so Tsubasa stayed with her and told her that it was better to enter the cabin than to stay in the outside with the pouring rain.

"But what if there are ghosts there?" said Mikan with an afraid voice. She really didn't liked ghosts or any other scary thing for that matter.

'Sheesh..this is going to be hard' thought Tsubasa.

"There are no ghosts in there" he said with a reassuring smile "and if there are, then I'll get rid of them" he continued after he saw her expression of weariness.

Mikan decided to trust her Tsubasa-sempai since he was not one for lying.

They entered together and met with the other three inside.

It appeared that Natsume had used his fire alice to make a fire using some old wood and pieces of cloth. It also appeared that he had made an effort to do it since beads of sweat were forming in his forehead and his breath was a little irregular. One would not notice if they didn't pay attention very closely. Natsume was very good at faking his feelings.

'This is getting absurd. I don't feel so good. I think I should have gone back to the dorms' thought Natsume while trying to keep his breath at a normal pace. 'I can't have Ruka worrying about me…and it would be embarrassing if that shadow guy saw me this weak. Damn that Persona for giving me a mission and damn that Mikan for making me look for that stupid bear!!' continued Natsume.

The five students decided to call it a night since the rain had already started to pour and the sky had darkened completely. They slept on the hard wooden floor exhausted with today's actions.

'Damn, my side hurts' were Nstsume's final thoughts as he fell asleep beside Ruka and his little bunny.

Please review and give me your opinion about this first chapter. I'll try to upload soon and tell you why Natsume is feeling pain. Until next time…^^