Chapter One:
Girls, Boys, Creatures
"The oddest of ways are usually what they are; odd. The simplest of ways are not as they seem, being harder to recognize." -R
Tapping came from my foot with impatience as Light read to us in English; the only language course (other than one year of Korean) in our school. I sat at the far left corner of the room, my peers (mostly female) drooling over Light as if he were a giant chocolate bar, and with that nice light brown hair, I would say he's more hot chocolate than a chocolate bar. I really need food (specifically chocolate) to satisfy my raging stomach to stop these mental food analogies.
I scrolled through my reading assignment with ease; seeing as my father is English I know the language like the back of my hand. I sat in what my mother called 'Indian Style,' though I called it the meditation pose. It was more comfortable for me, but if I was caught I could easily lie to Sensei about actually meditating, and besides I was odd enough to pull it off.
As my Language Arts class droned on monotonously and thoughts of life had entered and left my brain, I couldn't help but notice that my walking hot chocolate wasn't paying attention to lessons. He sometimes did this because he understood it fully already, and sometimes I wished I could have gotten a seat on the right side by the window as well. The outside must look fascinating. Light looked a bit too distracted though, so it was only my obligation to find out, but really, I just was nosy.
After class was dismissed and we were to head home, I noticed that Light had acquired a new notebook and put it into his bag? Was he seriously trying to steal someone's notebook? Now that is weird, but now noticing the position from down here to the classroom we were just in, it was fairly obvious it was possibly someone else's notebook. Why would Light bother with it though? Tat's the puzzling situation.
I stared up at the room we were just in from the grass, trying to keep my distance from Light as he walked to the gates. I live nowhere near his house so there would be no excuse to following him. I thought this all up in class, trying to be smart and cool.
As I smugly turned the corner, only sure that I would be able to pull it off, I saw Light talking to his friends. His friends knew of my reputation well enough; I'm not sure if Light ever bothered to know, didn't remember, or just simply didn't care of all the gossip. I obviously didn't think it through well enough... Oh well, it's not my problem.
I continued towards the gate, passing Light and his friends, and they all seemed to stop. The two stopped simultaneously while Light's seemed more delayed. "I heard her father murdered those four girls last year," one of them whispered.
"I heard something different about him selling and buying drugs as a mafia leader," the second told them, trying to keep his voice lowered. I wanted to hurt them. Let us all be honest, when someone is talking about one of your parents like that, any normal person would act without impulse and continuously bust open their puny heads. Some of those lies just got so ridiculous that I just stopped snapping at people.
Getting a ways away from them, I ground my teeth. Girls, boys, creatures... no matter what it was, they all knew of my home-life now. Light is probably the only person who hadn't treated me differently once everyone found out last year.
"Hi, hi!" my little sister, who also walked, had bounced over to me. Her face was bright and shining, truly the beautiful sister. Her delicate features made her seem like a fragile doll. I, however, had some muscle on me. Her blue eyes matched that of my father's, while mine could rival black for darker. Her long dark hair was nothing like my almost choppy short hair.
Of course, that description of me is also because I'm comparing myself to Hitomi, my beautiful little sister. My hair is short and black, my eyes are dark, and I at least have some meat on my bones, but I wasn't ugly. I wasn't Misa Misa standards, but I was sufficient enough.
In English, my sister and I talked about how school went, which was always the same; "How did your day go?" I would ask. "Fine, the teacher is giving out so much homework. I hate it," she would pout, and even sometimes carry on about it. I would nod and she would ask me the same. "Eh," was my only response. It usually dragged on to random things until then, but all in all, it went like that everyday.
We got home and walked into our house. It wasn't dirty, but it wasn't immaculate either. My mother loved to clean, sure, but our dogs never allowed us to keep it polished. We've just given up after a week of wanting it to be clean, then the process of wanting it to be so clean it could be holy starts over again every month or so.
Speaking of the little monsters... "Kumiko!" I called out into our home as I slipped off my shoes at the door. A large grey dog with beautiful gold eyes galloped like an overgrown pony towards me. I help out my hands to pet her as Aiko, a smaller and much cuter version of Kumiko, started towards me as well.
Hitomi stumbled to hug Aiko tightly and continuously cooed her to be the "cutest puppy ever" and other cute names. Kumiko and I went away from the two. We both went to the kitchen to find my mom watching the news. Some man had taken a school hostage. The reporter was frantic though and was screaming about the man having fell over due to a heart attack.
"Those people must be very lucky," I commented. My mom nodded her head in agreement, yet changed the channel. She didn't like those types of things very much.
"How was school today?" My mother questioned. I shrugged and put my backpack down on the table, sitting across from her.
My mother and I looked very much alike. She had dark hair, it was also short, and the same eyes. Her's were more old than mine. I'm not calling my mother old though, by 'old' I mean that she has had more experience and her eyes have captured all that experience.
My mother shook her head and asked me, "Did you e-mail your father today?" I shook my head. Hitomi entered the kitchen and went towards the fridge for a snack. "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be doing your homework?" My mother glared at her. I smirked slightly and my mother turned to give me the look of death as well. "Go do your homework... Both of you," my mother snapped at us.
I groaned and Hitomi looked like a wounded pup. I pulled out my textbook labeled 'Mathematics' out on the table, as did Hitomi. She hated mathematics, and I couldn't blame her. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but most of it would be useless once I'm older, but Hitomi just hated mathematics. She was never able to grasp even the concept of true hatred until she started math.
"I hate this," Hitomi grumbled as she grabbed at her pony tail and put her hair in her mouth.
"Don't do that, you'll get a hairball in your stomach," my mother scolded her, taking Hitomi's pony tail away from her mouth.
I was almost done with my homework already, but I began to tarry away from my task of beginning my homework. My mother watched the sports on our small kitchen TV as Hitomi and I did our homework. Hitomi and I put our books away once we were both done; I had gotten done first.
We went to our rooms, mine was downstairs and hers was right by the dining room table. She had a large bag of chips with her that she took with her, yelling behind her shoulder, "I'll be playing video games if you need me!" She loves video games. I heard loud K-pop begin playing a few minutes later.
I sighed and walked downstairs, Kumiko tried to follow, but I shut the door on her. She always wants to tear my room apart with her jaws. I went to my bed my dad had put up so that it could swing from the ceiling. My sky blue laptop stared at me, and I started to read my dad's e-mail over again.:
Hey sweetie! How's your mother? Did you call grandmother to thank her for the new laptop for your birthday last week? You need to!
What is this 'G-DRAGON' your sister keeps messaging me about? She keeps talking about it? Make sure it's not a boy, she doesn't need any boyfriends yet! Ha!
How is everything at school? Better be getting straight-A's! You're so smart, there should be no excuse!
Well, LOVE and MISS you, your mother, your grandmother, and Hitomi! Make sure you call granny! Tell her I said 'HI!'
TSUKINO, KIYOSHI. SENT AT 15 o'clock.
I looked over the letter again, committing it to my temporary memory. I typed him back:
Nothing much happened today. I'll call Gran tomorrow; I hope she still likes it in California. She moved there around last summer, right?
School is a bother and I hate it, still. I'm getting A's and B's, which is just as good. I'll try better though!
That reminds me! You know Light? Yagami? Well, today we had English classes and he read out this really cool thing; I'll try to type it up again in my next e-mail. You'll probably like it.
Other than that, there's nothing to talk about. I hope I get to see you in two weeks (Hitomi's birthday; make sure you don't forget to send her a card. She'll have a fit if you don't!). You never forget anything though, so what point is it to remind you, ha ha.
LOVE YOU.
I didn't have to put the time, like he did, and I didn't have to sign it either. He just liked to sign and put his name so he could remember what time he sent it.
His name is Japanese and he's English-Japanese. He looks a bit more English, seeing as his father is English. My father took more after my grandmother's features though, but he looked English with his blonde hair and blue eyes. Last I saw of him, he was wearing his glasses again, and his eyes looked like two pools; very deep and cloudy blue.
He and Hitomi looked a lot alike, though I would admit I looked like him as well. I had his nose and hands, while Hitomi got his poor vision (which she wore contacts for), beautiful blue eyes, and kindness. My mother and I looked stoic next to the two pranksters.
My father knew how to draw and build just about anything, while Hitomi knew how to do video game graphics; something she cherished more than anything. They were both, in a way, artists of different types. My mother and I could never be able to draw a circle without it becoming an oval.
We both acted like each parent, but it seemed to differ from each other widely as we now could be able to choose everything. We could choose how to act and what our personalities would show on.
Hitomi showed her childishness and her loving and caring side. I showed nothing except for my intelligence, which no one ever saw. I know, for a fact, that when I step into a room, that I was the smartest person there, though I never showed it. My life is one big mess.