A/N: Wow, so this is my first fanfic ever, and I' actually kinda nervous. Short chapter, but I thought this was a good place to end it. Please R&R! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Fruits Basket series or characters or any rights.

prologue

The first time was on my seventh birthday.

I had a small birthday party at the orphanage; I blew out seven candles on top of a double chocolate birthday cake after an anything-but-beautiful arrangement of happy birthday was sung by my "family". I received one present; socks. But that was okay with me. I needed socks. It was freezing here at night, and my only pair had a huge hole in the toe and the heel. And these socks were red, my favorite color. So I thanked everybody and headed up to my room, alone. Wearing my socks. It was past curfew.

After a few minutes, there was a soft knock on my door. "Mizuki?" Another knock. "Mizuki, are you there?"

"Come in."

The door opened to reveal Katsu, a small boy only a few months younger than me. He had large blue eyes that took up most of his face, and tousled black hair that needed to be trimmed.

"Katsu! What are you doing here? Manami-san said it was time for bed."

Katsu sauntered over to me and stood near the end of my bed. "I-I.." he stuttered. "I just wanted to say happy birthday." he looked down at the floor guiltily.

As he turned to go, I stood up next to him, I was a good three or four inches taller than him, and placed my hand on his shoulder. "Thank you Katsu." I blushed then leaned in awkwardly to give him a hug.

A strange sensation tingled up my spine. I shivered, and suddenly, I wasn't hugging Katsu anymore. In fact, he had disappeared altogether. I felt small. I felt...not human. I looked up and found Katsu's huge face in my vision. it was so far up...so far away...

It had all happened so fast.

"Mizuki! What--are you okay? You're--you're--" Katsu face was mostly eyes. He was flustered, looking around, not quite sure what to do. Bending down, he scooped me into his hands and lifted me up so i was eye-to-eye with him.

"You're a bird!"

In his shock, Katsu dropped me and fled the room.

I hated school.

You put thirty kids in a boring classroom behind hard, uncomfortable wooden desks, mix in a short little man with a horribly fake toupee talking in a monotone voice about the reproductive system in plants, and add the sound of screeching chalk and the tick of a very annoying clock and what do you get? Twenty-nine sleeping kids. One of them is awake with glasses and acne, scribbling notes into his big notebook at lightning speed. The one dreaming to get into some big college and become the first man to mars or to invent the hover car or be president of the untied states or you fill in the blank. That kid is not me. I am the girl sitting in the back corner. I am the girl who wears too much eyeliner, who has no friends, and who has no parents. I am the girl who this school needs so every kid can look at me and say "Well at least I'm not her." If I died, if I disappeared, the school would go completely off balance and ruin this perfect little set the teachers and the school board built for us so we could "learn and be successful." Only the nerd believes them.

I think of all of this while Mr. whatshisface voice drones on and on and on and on..........

I need some amazing, life changing experience to shatter this state, this depression. Something big, and grand and different and wonderful. Something so--

The voice on the intercom shatters my thought process.

"Miss Mizuki Sohma please come to the office. Miss Mizuki Sohma please come to the office." *click*

I am Mizuki Sohma and today I will get exactly what i asked for.