A Life In Fragments
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1.
When Luna was eleven, she accidentally bit someone in a fight (never being one of the popular girls who wore makeup and did their nails, the boys liked to include her in their playground battles) and left a black bruise mark on his arm. She said sorry to him like a good girl - even though she knew he liked having a cool bite-scar to show off - after her parents yelled at her, and thought no more of it.
It was perhaps two weeks later, a day or so after the boy had been taken into hospital, when the men came to her house.
2.
They said that she would fit in here.
It didn't feel much like fitting in. Luna only had to take one step into the room before the pack of noisy girls suddenly went death-quiet, and she only had to sit down at their table before they started eying her with nervous glances and shift to give her a wide berth. Was that fear in their eyes? She fingered her restraining earrings and bracelet and wondered what it was she could do to them.
They said that she had a great power, one that needed to be treated with special care and caution. The attraction of souls, they said. They didn't say how she was to use it or what it really meant.
She let her messy, overlong bangs fall into her eyes only so they could hide her tears.
3.
A few months had passed before the new girl came. The giggling girls now ignored Luna when she entered the room, although they still refused to talk to her and would back away when she walked past. She heard their frightened whispers, how she would suck out their soul if they touched her, how she was so dangerous her own parents had abandoned her.
Luna first noticed the new girl some time after she had come (there were so many new pupils coming in that she hadn't really taken much notice before, and besides, they would all treat her like the others did in the end). She watched her from the doorways, from the back of the class, and noticed pretty her chestnut-brown hair was, how she hadn't yet been sucked into The Group, how she liked to quietly study rather than gossip about Yuki-sensei.
4.
Luna had just managed to work up the courage to approach Yuka when The Group bustled her away, chattering about how exciting Valentine's Day was. As Luna turned to leave, she heard their all-too-loud whispers warning Yuka to stay away from her, and felt the old tears stinging her eyes. She wiped them away, and promised herself that she would find Yuka again, somewhere where The Group couldn't hear her, and Yuka would understand. Wouldn't she?
How strange it was that a simple nod could change her world so utterly and completely!
5.
Luna, for the first time since she had come to this place, was happy. There was nothing, nothing that anyone else could say, do or give her, that she loved more than the pure joy of being near Yuka. She hung on to her every word and every action, and her only thought was how to spend more time with her. For once, she was glad of the fear she inspired in the other pupils - it meant no-one else would come near them.
The Group shook their heads and muttered about how nothing good would ever come of it, but Luna didn't care. She had no emotion left for caring about them; now, every smile and every moment was for Yuka and Yuka alone.
6.
Luna didn't notice that Yuka was hardly as happy to see her as she was to see Yuka. She didn't understand, or want to understand, why Yuka wore heavy scarves and hoods that covered her face and purposely darted away when Luna followed her down the corridors. Nor could she see or understand why Yuka never tried to share her bed, or stick with her every moment of every day, or tell her that she loved her at every possible opportunity. No, she was too deep in her own Yuka-centric world to notice - or maybe she just didn't want to. Instead, she just clung closer as she attempted to avoid losing her.
7.
Principal Kuonji was the first one to ever tell her that her Alice was beautiful. He told her that she didn't deserve to be treated like she was, that The Group were just jealous of the power of her Alice. He promised her that she would now be able to train her Alice and one day, she would be far above those fools who treated her like trash. Luna listened with wide eyes and waited for that day.
Of course she trusted him. Not even Yuka had ever said those things to her, as much as Luna had longed for it. When the other girls turned away from her rather than listen to her, instead of crying or reaching for Yuka's hand, Luna thought of what she could do to them with a fully developed Alice.
8.
Middle School was not what Luna had hoped for.
What had she thought before? A new start, the chance to finally be a "proper" member of Alice Academy. Now that she was allowed to wander the wide halls of Hii-sama's world, Luna had thought she would at last be accepted as part of this school. But in the end, nothing had changed. Yuka didn't understand, but perhaps that was because she wasn't really listening.
It hurt Luna more than anything to know that Yuka didn't really want to be with her. No matter how hard Luna held onto her, she couldn't really overlook it any more.
9.
One day, after completely a particularly gruelling duty, Principal Kuonji came to the Dangerous classroom and told her how proud he was of her Alice. She had now developed full control over a most powerful Alice, he said, and Luna smiled at him. Now those girls would see who had the best Alice!
Later that evening, she sneaked into Yuka's bedroom and told her the good news. Yuka shouted at her to stop trying to sleep with her and Luna felt a little disappointed.
10.
Luna did not often have fights. It was either because the other person was so scared of her Alice they would turn and run at the first possible moment, or because the other person was Yuka and Luna would forgive her for anything. No, Luna would never start a fight with Yuka.
So it was quite surprising, really, when it happened. Luna had thought Yuka might understand - after all, didn't Yuka have that kind of Alice too? Even though they never talked about it, it was common knowledge that the Stealing Alice was almost as hated as the Soul-Sucking one. It was only Yuka's general niceness and friendship with Yukihira-sensei that kept her from being as detested as Luna.
And it wasn't even a proper fight. Luna had just been about to demonstrate how powerful how Alice had become (and who better to try it on than one of those stupid girls that even now, still insisted on treating her like some sort of disgusting bug?) when a blinding flash of something had knocked her onto her stomach. A terrible feeling of nausea, and then nothing. The place inside her where her Alice had been - nothing.
Yes, the Stealing Alice was hated. For good reason, too.
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Will probably be another (longer?) installment of this. I'm really sorry that I haven't been getting on with the challenges, but I feel like I need to write something a bit different, you know? Otherwise the challenges are just going to get boring and stale.
Oh yes, and the wonderful IndigoGrapefuit has drawn a picture of Princessessa Melonbeauty (if you don't know her, read "Gakuen Alice Fanfic"), so please visit her profile to see that.
And I've also drawn two portraits of Melonbeauty! Go to my livejournal or deviantART to view (one anime-style, one realistic-style so you can compare and contrast).