||Hey everyone, I am the owner of this story and this is my first one. I hope that everyone can enjoy it as much as I can. ^-^ If I find anyone copy my story or claim that they wrote it, I will report them. I will try my best to update it but for now, here it is!

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited away but I do own this story.||

The cool rush of the water hits my feet, just before pulling away. I don't know where I am, for when I look around, all I can see is water. When I look up, there's only the bright blue sky and some white clouds hovering over. If I try to move, if I try to leave, my feet will be kept in place, as if they are paralyzed. The only thing I can really control, are my thoughts.

Where am I? What kind of place is this? Why am I here? I thought to myself over, and over again. Nothing right now made sense, but everything seemed calm. Or, so I think until the force holding me up from not sinking suddenly vanishes and I'm sent plummeting into the water. My eyes widen, and my immediate instinct is to swim to shore. To swim to the surface at the very least. Again, something prevents my feet from moving, and I feel like I'm being dragged down. I am helpless as I sink further and further down.

I'm going to die, I thought to myself. Before I can do anything else, everything fades to black.

_

I gasp as I open my eyes and sit up from my bed. My heart is pounding tremendously, as I try to sort out my thoughts and adjust to the new setting. I'm in my room, the same grey walled room I've been living in since I moved in a year ago with my roommate, Yuka. What I had just been through a mere moment ago was just another one of my nightmares. Just another one of my fears. Water. The fear developed around when I was twelve, I used to love water for whatever reason, but I remember that my parents had taken me out to swim and the current happened to be very strong that day. I went swimming, to only be dragged off. My dad tried to help me, but ended up giving his away. My mom called for help, and even though I had been saved by holding onto some rocks, my dad had already been taken too far out. Ever since, my fear slowly grew worse over the years.

"Chichi!" I hear a familiar high pitched voice call out. "You're FINALLY awake!"

I look up to see Yuka with her hair in her usual pigtails along with her usual bright smile. She's wearing a bright yellow skirt, and a cute T-shirt. Everything about her read "child" and I didn't mind that. She brightened up any situation. "Yeah," I say in response as I brush back my hair with my fingers. "I'm awake."

"Great," Yuka exclaimed. "Listen, Keita called you and said he had to talk. I told him that you were free, since you are, and he said to meet him at the coffee shop by two. It's twelve right now so you should hurry up and get ready for your date."

I could feel the blood rushing up to my face, and grabbed the nearest pillow to throw at Yuka. "Yuka," I yelled. "Why did you do that?"

"What?" She asked innocently. "You guys are friends right? What's wrong with hanging out with 'friends?'"

"Everything," I yelled. Keita has been my friend since I started college, but he sees me as more than a friend. He's asked me out on multiple occasions and every time, I've turned him down. I have to go with at least someone else whenever I hang out with him. If I don't then it's a constant series of "why not's." "If I have to go than you are coming with me," I speak out.

"WHAT?!" Yuka yells. "Nu-ugh! This is between you and him!"

"You're the one who set me up!"

"But Chichi-"

"Don't 'Chichi' me! You are coming with me whether you want to or not."

Yuka groans one last time. "Fine, but you better be ready in an half hour or else I'm not going!"

Yuka storms out of the room in her usual childish behavior as I let out a deep sigh. I still can't believe she set me up with Keita, she always thought we would be cute together. It's not even that I don't like him, but I just don't like him the way he likes me. I don't think I've ever liked a guy, or even loved one. I have a feeling that I might have, but it's doubtful. I would've remembered, or at least I hope I'd remember. I snap out of my thoughts and I look at my clock, I groan once more before leaving my bed. "Time to start another day," I said to myself.
_

Living can be both exciting and miserable. Right now it's pretty miserable. The sky is very grey and the roads are crowded with other cars, the sidewalks full with people. I'm in my car, trying to drive through the mass of cars with Yuka talking about something that I'm not really paying attention to. I think it's something that happened on television, I don't really know. I look up at my rear view mirror to see how I look. My hair is neatly down and straight, I'm wearing a green sweater that went with my blue jeans, and I had a frown on my face. I try to smile, but it only looks worse. I sigh and focus back on driving.

Yuka finally stops talking after we park in to the parking lot of the coffee shop. "Yay," Yuka exclaimed. "We're here! Oh I wonder what I should get..."

Yuka started to blabber on and on again as I got out of the car, and made sure my car doors are locked. "Come on Yuka," I say. "You can talk all you want once we find Keita."

Yuka doesn't listen and continues talking, I roll my eyes at her and enter the small coffee shop. I immediately spot Keita waving to us. He has his black hair spiked up again, and he's wearing a sports jersey with his jeans. I wave back and drag Yuka over to his table. We both sit across from him and he smiles at us. "Great," Keita says. "I wanted to talk to you two."

I rose one eyebrow. "Yuka told me that you just wanted to talk to me," I replied.

"I knew you would drag her along," Keita says looking at her.

I look at Yuka too who is basically just talking to herself now. I smirk a little and look back at Keita. "So," I say. "What do you need to talk about?"

"Hold on," he says. "I'm going to get something to drink. What do you girls want?"

"Oooo," Yuka said. "I want a double chocolate muffin with a chocolate chip mocha!"

"I'll just take coffee," I say.

"Black?" Keita asked.

I smiled and nodded in reply. One good thing about having a guy who liked you is that he knows a lot about you. Keita leaves to go wait in line to order for us. I look at Yuka who is turned to me and starts talking. "Shh," I hush her. "Let me talk for a second."

"Hm?" Yuka says confused. "What is it?"

"Why do you think Keita needs to talk to us both?" I asked tapping my fingers on the table.

"Beats me," Yuka said. "Maybe it's something about school. Or maybe it's something about you. Or maybe-"

"Or MAYBE, he wants to ask if we want to hang out." I say interrupting her.

"But, isn't he hanging out with us now?" Yuka asked.

I thought for a moment. "Good point, so what could he want?"

Yuka continues guessing and I just look out the window. I watch as the people walk through the streets, I listen to the small sounds like the small chatter or the stepping against the pavement. I don't really know how long I'm looking out the window for, but I kinda resort back to day dreaming. Life would be so much better if everything was less, grey. Everything would be happier, if everything was less boring. To me, everyday seemed the same. Maybe it has a few changes but nothing drastically changed. I started to think about when my next semester at college would be starting, and that would be soon. Just as I started to think about it more, I hear Yuka call out my name.

I turn my attention back to my friends, who are looking at me. "What?" I asked looking at both of them.

"I asked if you wanted to go on a trip with Yuka, Akita, and I," Keita said. "Were you even listening?"

"No," I said and sat normally. "I was kinda just, out of it. Sorry. Uhm, where would we go?"

Yuka is the first one to answer. "We should go to a hot springs! Oo! Or what about an amusement park? Oh, I know! What about-"

"I was kinda thinking we go on a trip to somewhere less public," Keita replied. "What do you think Chihiro? Where do you want to go?"

"Uhm," I said trying to think. "My mom wanted me to visit her before we start the new semester. So we could go visit her and stuff, I'd also like to see my father's grave too if you don't mind."

"Alright," Keita said. "Than that's where we'll go. I heard that there's some cool stuff to do around that area anyway."

"But her parents live six hours away from here," Yuka whined. "I don't wanna spend six hours in some yucky old car."

"Akita said we can use his RV," Keita replied. "That or we can just use your minivan Yuka."

"Fine," Yuka said groaning. "We'll take the rv though. I still think we could do something more fun."

I simply just rolled my eyes at her again. "Such a child," I said in a low voice so that she wouldn't hear. "When should we start packing?"

"Tonight," Keita said. "Since we're leaving tomorrow."

"Eh?!" Yuka and I said at the same time.

"Yep, so you better start finishing up your drinks, or, muffin." Keita said taking one more swig from his drink before throwing it out. "Be at my house by eight in the morning, see you guys than!"

Before Chihiro or Yuka could stop him, Keita left. Chihiro sighed and looked at Yuka. Yuka began complaining so I dragged her out of the coffee shop and back into the car. On the drive back home, I thought to myself about some things. What to pack, what would we do, calling my mom. Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts. The trip back home seemed to last forever, maybe I just thought it was forever.
_

I get out of the shower, finally done with packing after making sure with my mom it was okay for us to visit. She sounded elated that we would want to, since it is rare to make such sudden trips like this. I tried my best to call my mom often and visit her since I know how hard it has been for her since dad passed away. Even though she's moved on, things just haven't been the same with her since.

Yuka is out in the living room watching her game shows and whatever else is on TV. I just go to my bed, feeling relieved. I set my alarm clock to wake Yuka and I up at six, so we'd have enough time to recheck through our things and get ourselves ready. Once that is done, I lay down on my bed, enjoying the comfort. My eyes instantly begin to feel heavy, as I fall asleep. For the first time in a while, I fell asleep without a single thought on my mind. No worries, just dreams.

|| So it seems like Chihiro has had a lot happen to her! Having to deal with boys, deaths, fear, and all. Once she visits her mother, what will happen to Chihiro and her friends? I guess you'll just have to wait!||