This is my first time doing something like this, so the first few stories might be a little awkward...I don't know when this'll be finished, I want it to be something I work on on and off. I got the idea because there seems to be virtually no theories about how they died or what kind of people the Bleach characters were like when they were alive, so I decided to take matters into my own hands! I hope people enjoy this...
I'll add in Hitsugaya's story to this series at some point too.
Yoko is a Japanese girl name meaning 'foreign child'. Hmmm...
#####
Hayley was, to put it very simply, pissed off. If it wasn't for the stupid party her dumb older brother invited her to, she wouldn't be in this position. She should've pitched a fit, screamed, even broke something and gotten grounded-so she could've spent the night at her house. And yet, she went to the party to make her brother happy. Oh, what a mistake that was. Hayley knew no medical crews were coming to save her, no, nobody called for them, and honestly, who could've survived a crash that bad? She caught sight of her face in the broken rear-view mirror, that was only shattered because a majority of the pieces had wedged themselves into her face and were creating slow flows of blood into her nose, mouth and eyes. She didn't have energy anymore to close them. Her face also got slammed into the dashboard, and thus remained there, and her side was badly cut from her seat belt.
As she laid there, slowly but surely dying from all her blood loss, she started thinking back to her short life and the kind of person she was, and she vowed that if she made it to the after-life, whatever it may be, that she'd change her whole personality around, if only to prevent another tragic accident like this from ever happening again.
#######
"What did you do to your hair?" Hayley's older brother, Charlie, asked her a few mornings ago. He was clearly trying to stifle a fit of snickers, and she simply crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"I dyed it." She said matter-of-factly.
"If you call that a good dye job, then yes, you dyed your hair."
"I think it looks nice! What do you think, Mom?" Hayley cried for support from their mother.
"It looks very good on you, Hayley! I was starting to wonder when you were going to do something with that mess on your head anyway. The blonde stands out more now, and really matches your punkish clothes!" She teased, pouring out their breakfast. "Now please sit down and eat."
"Besides, I just streaked it. It's not like my whole head is pink," Hayley elaborated, eating her fried eggs slowly.
"You look like a sick sunset. It's ridiculous." Charlie continued to laugh, finally losing the battle with his snickers. Hayley simply sighed to herself in annoyance, being too shy to properly speak up.
"Oh, stop it, you two. Besides, school starts up in two weeks, so soon you won't see each other as much." Their mother sat down and started drinking her usual coffee with cream on top-whipped. "I can't believe my little Hayley is going into middle school this year!"
"I'm proud of myself too. I feel like I really earned the chance to study in a bigger school." She beamed, finishing her eggs.
"Speaking of which, a group of my friends are going to an end-of-summer party tomorrow night. Want to come?" Charlie offered.
"Why do you want me there?"
"Because you still deserve to have fun! Plus, that hair really shows off your sense of style. Messy!"
"Wait, isn't this a high-school party? Hayley's only twelve! What if someone slips her drugs or alcohol?" Their mother asked sternly, staring Charlie down.
"Calm down, Mom, I'm twelve! I can take care of myself," Hayley reassured her with a smile, eating her crispy bacon.
"It won't be wild, I swear. Half of the people on Josh's invite list are total nerds anyway. Hayley's type of crowd. She'll fit right in." Charlie got a piece of bacon thrown at him, but it missed badly and landed right in the middle of his plate instead. "Thanks for the extra protein!" He smirked.
"I'm going to go visit Yoko. She'll love my hair!" Hayley announced before leaving the table.
She took a quick shower, placing a plastic bag over her hair to protect the color, and quickly threw on her favorite tracksuit. It was red with white stripes on it, and came with matching white high-tops. It even had her last name stitched onto the front breast: Summit. She then pulled on her backpack and filled it with several of her most favorite movies for her and Yoko to watch later.
"Hair up or down?" She asked herself, eyeing herself in the mirror. Her hair had grown very long recently, and she finally decided to tie it up into pigtails so it wouldn't be in her way. The pigtails grazed past her shoulders, though they didn't reach much further.
Afterwards, she ran out the door and headed over to her best friend's house. Her best friend was a foreign exchange student from Japan who moved into her neighborhood just that summer, and Hayley took it upon herself to personally show her around.
She eagerly knocked on the front door, and as usual, Yoko opened it with her usual grin.
"Morning! You want to take more Japanese language lessons?" She asked as Hayley let herself in.
"Not today. I wanted to watch movies with you!" Hiyori kicked off her shoes and sat herself down on Yoko's soft, plushy couch.
"A movie? Which one?"
"Pick one!" Hiyori laughed, overturning her backpack and having four different videos fall out. "Take your pick!"
"How about The Princess Bride? It's so romantic!" Yoko selected, and Hiyori took it out of its box and slid it into the VCR.
"Luckily I rewound this the other night. Otherwise we'd have to wait!" She sat back down on the couch.
"I didn't know you had a VCR at your house! You said you were poor." Yoko asked, sitting beside her.
"We just got it last Christmas, and it was the only thing both I and my brother got. Honestly, we're so poor the fact we have indoor plumbing is a miracle!"
"Also, your hair! I love it!"
"Thanks. Charlie said I looked like a sick sunset."
"Ignore him, he's just trying to tease you. Oh, the movie's starting!" Yoko made herself comfortable by snuggling a pillow, while Hayley sat on her ankles. "I wish we had some popcorn!"
"Yeah, me too."
"They don't have popcorn in Japan, you know. Or peanut butter, if you can believe! When I first tried peanut butter, I was so amazed! It really is like butter made from peanuts! It's so smooth and creamy!" Yoko continued to gush, oblivious to Hayley's whispers telling her to quiet down so they could watch the movie. "I should start a petition to bring peanut butter back to Japan with me. All the teenagers will love it!"
"Uh, yeah, that's great Yoko, but shouldn't we focus on the movie?" Hayley sighed.
"Right! My mistake!" Yoko faced forward and didn't say another word throughout the rest of the film, true to her word. At least she had her honesty, which was what Hayley liked about her. She was so expressive, and Hayley was so...not. She could never speak up when it was needed.
##########
Finally, the movie ended, and Yoko got up and stretched. "I know I've seen that movie ten times already, but it's a good one!" She praised. She popped it out of the VCR and put it back in its box.
"Charlie invited me to an end-of-summer party a group of his friends are having tomorrow night." Hayley said, jumping off the couch.
"And you're going?"
"Might as well. Maybe meet some smart people."
"But it's Charlie's party!"
"I still think it might be fun..." Hayley nervously looked down at her feet.
"Are you wearing anything nice?"
"Probably just that old ensemble I always wear to parties like these. It'd look good with my new hair, for sure!"
"Okay, just don't get drunk."
"I will not get drunk."
"Which dress are you wearing?" Yoko started stacking all the videos up and sliding them back into Hayley's backpack.
"You know the one, I wore it to the 6th grade graduation ceremony!" Hayley giggled a bit.
"Oh, you mean the one with the tutu skirt and blue top?"
"That's the one."
"That would look uber cute with your hair!"
"What do you want to do now?"
Yoko glanced down at Hayley's track suit and a lightbulb popped out of her head. "Wanna go out for a jog? You're dressed for it!"
"This thing?" Hayley posed in it. "You know I always wear this on the weekends. It's actually starting to fall apart, I wear it so much."
"I'll go put mine on, then I'll race you to the mall!" Yoko grinned in a teasing way, then darted from the room.
"But the mall is three miles away!" Hayley shouted at her in shock.
"Better start running then!"
###########
Once they got to the mall, Yoko decided some shopping was in order, namely for a new party dress for Hayley.
"You at least need new shoes!" She finally insisted, and Hayley sighed and allowed herself to be dragged into a girly clothing store. She made a beeline for several mannequins, which were showing off mix-and-match sweaters and jean pockets. "How about these?" She asked eagerly, pulling some bright red ballet flats off a shelf.
"Fine." Hayley balanced the shoes in her hands and disappeared into a changing room, sticking her tongue out at how dreadful ballet flats looked with a track-suit. Not even with her tutu skirt would she consider wearing them.
She came out of the dressing room with them on and posed, making Yoko smile more. "You look great! Red is totally your color!"
"I'm more of a high-top person," Hayley said shyly, looking away. She spotted a pretty pink pair on a shelf and quickly grabbed those.
"You have shoes...what else do you think you'll need?" Yoko thought. "How about leggings?"
"Okay." Hayley cradled the high-tops to her chest and followed her Japanese friend, who had already picked out a pair of black leggings for her.
"You've already got a skirt and a top, right? Then how about a jacket?" She ran over to a rack that sported several types of denim and graffiti jackets, and picked out a heavy denim jacket with golden glitter graffiti on the back.
"What does that say?" Hayley wondered, looking closer.
"Who knows? And more importantly, who cares? You'll be looking outrageous at the party tomorrow night!"
"Are we forgetting anything?" Hayley looked over the leggings, high-tops, and jacket, and realized she was indeed missing something-jewelry.
"Oh, right! Jelly bracelets! And gloves!" Yoko dashed over to a half-priced jewelry rack and pulled out a pack of jelly bracelets in neon colors, and some neon-green fishnet gloves that were fingerless. "How are these?"
"I don't want to attract unwanted attention..." Hayley said softly, blushing. "I'm at a high-school party, you know."
"Nobody will even look at you! Now come on, let's pay for these!" She dragged her blonde-haired friend over to the counter and piled all the clothes on. "How much?"
"$59." The cashier said in a bored tone.
"I can't afford that..." Hayley looked down at her shoes in embarrassment. "How am I to buy a jacket like that when my family doesn't even have a microwave?"
"Ouch." Yoko winced. "Fine, no jacket. It'd probably prevent you from buckling your seat-belt in anyway." She pushed it off the pile and asked for the new total, which was only about twenty bucks less. "I'll pay for it."
She did so, then nearly skipped out of the store, carrying the bag. "What now?"
Hayley shrugged.
"Let's go back to your place and see how this looks with your skirt!" And before Hayley could blink, Yoko had run off again, making Hayley sprint to catch up.
###########
They arrived back at Hayley's place and came home to her brother watching a movie on their black-and-white TV.
"Where did you two go?" He asked in a curious tone.
"Mall!" Yoko answered brightly. "I got Hayley some super cute clothes to wear at the party tomorrow night!"
"Oh, you shouldn't have. Hayley hates people looking at her." Charles said.
"The girl needs a bit of attention! So shy!"
Hayley blushed and looked at her feet again.
"Anyway, how stupid is it that we have to go back to school in the middle of August? My other friends don't go back until September!" Charles carried on, seemingly forgetting that the TV was still on.
"At least it's still warm!" Yoko offered a smile.
"I don't really care when school starts." Hayley put in nervously.
"Yeah, but that's because you're an ace student." Charles teased.
She didn't respond to this and instead retreated into the kitchen.
She leaned against a counter and felt her face, feeling how hot it was. God, why was she so shy all of the time? If she had a chance to go back and do her life over, she'd start by becoming assertive. A lot more assertive.
Not having anything else to do, but not wanting to go back into the living room just yet, she grabbed the carton of orange juice from the fridge and started chugging it-straight from the carton.
As Hayley drank, she checked the date on the calendar to count how many days they had until school started. She started at tomorrow's date, August 1st, and counted.
They would be back in school August 15th, 1988.
"Hayley!" Charles' loud voice shocked her and she spit out her orange juice and choked. "Don't germ up our juice, we need that! Ugh, I'm going to have to disinfect that!" Despite the fact he was teasing, Hayley still felt her blood boil and slammed the carton back onto the counter.
"There." She huffed.
"Hey, I'm just messing with you." He put his hands up defensively.
"How will we get to the party? We don't own a car." She asked.
"Oh, Josh will drive us. He'll have his girlfriend with him, but don't worry, she's cool. You'll like her."
Hayley simply nodded and left the kitchen, then went upstairs into her room with Yoko.
"Hey, you changed your blanket! I like it!" She praised, turning on the lights.
Hayley's bedroom was as girly-pink as you could possibly get, and filled with faux fur. Faux fur rugs, a faux fur pink lamp and telephone, a painted pink dresser and vanity set, and glittery pink wall decorations painted onto her wall, shaped like flowers.
Her bed was the only thing that really stuck out; it had dark purple bedding on with a snake pattern.
"It was Mom's idea. She was sick of an all-pink room." Hayley sat on her bed and bounced on it slightly.
"But why snakes?"
Hayley just shrugged at this, and Yoko turned the bag upside down and dumped its contents onto the white fluffy carpet. "Alright, let's see your party outfit!"
She got off the bed and vanished into her closet, coming back out with a bright pink tutu skirt, a white tank top, and an off-shoulder blue top with a black swirly graphic on it. She quickly threw off her track-suit and pulled on the tank top and blue shirt, letting it hang sloppily off her shoulder. Next came her tutu skirt, which was two separate layers and swished around nicely with her own motions. She tugged on the leggings, and finally tied up her pink high-tops, something Yoko winced at.
"Wait, when did you buy those?"
"At the store earlier. I hate ballet flats." Hayley responded, slipping on her fishnet gloves.
"Whatever."
Next came her jelly bracelets, and she finally spun around for Yoko's verdict.
"Sassy! Do you have any sunglasses, or barrettes?"
"Hm..." Hayley reached for the first pair of barrettes she found on her dresser, which were a matching set of pink and green balls. She quickly clipped them into her bangs.
"Nice barrettes! They look like Japanese dumplings. Delicious!"
Hayley finally put on a pair of chunky white sunglasses and peered at Yoko from under them, trying her best to scowl.
"Perfect! You're going to be a riot at that party! Just don't get drunk! Or high! And watch who you drive home with!" Yoko teased, although there was a clear warning in her voice.
"I won't die." Hayley took off her sunglasses. "Charles says there won't be any alcohol at this party, and I'm smarter than that." She spun around one final time, her skirt twirling with her. "It's going to take a whole lot more than that to kill me off." She grinned a bit.
###############
The next day was pretty uneventful, so Hayley spent the day in her room, reading. She only started getting ready when Charles knocked on her bedroom door with a threat to kick it down if she wasn't dressed in the next fifteen minutes.
Luckily, since she laid her outfit out the night before, it took her only about ten minutes to get dressed, and she slid her sunglasses on and popped a piece of gum in her mouth for the final effect.
"Ready!" She announced, throwing open her bedroom door.
"You look like you're trying too hard." He teased, wearing a simple sweater and jeans. She looked at him from under her sunglasses. "I'm joking! You take everything too seriously! Now let's go!"
They stood outside their house to wait for Josh and his girlfriend, and Hayley found herself shivering from the chilly air. The sun was slightly lower in the sky than it should've been for August, which made Hayley slightly concerned, as well as the sudden drop in temperature.
"What's his girlfriend like?" She found herself asking, just to keep the silence from growing too awkward.
"Her name's Brittany. She's super preppy and always dresses in neon. Just trust me, you'll like her." He answered calmly, staring at the horizon.
Hayley still doubted this, since Charles answered in such a rushed voice, but finally decided to let it go and tared at the street, hoping they'd get there soon.
Sure enough, a bright red car drove up, and out came a teenaged girl in a bright blue leotard decorated in leopard spots.
"Hey Charles! And is this your lil' sis? She's so adorable!" The girl cooed, and Hayley correctly assumed she was Brittany. She was also chewing gum, which comforted the young girl a bit. Perhaps she could slip in undetected, after all.
"Yup, that's her. Her name is Hayley." Charles said in a bored tone, already walking over to the car.
"Hi, Hayley! I'm Brittany, Josh's girlfriend. Your outfit is outrageous! You excited for this party?" She carried on, and Hayley simply blushed and looked down at her shoes. "Don't have to be shy, there's some really cool people there. Maybe you'll meet a friend!"
"Come on, chatterboxes, we don't want to be late! Otherwise all the good food will be gone!" Josh called from the car, honking the horn. Charles was already sitting in the back, leaning out of the window.
"Okay, okay, chill! Chill! We're coming!" Brittany laughed, climbing into the passenger's seat beside Josh. Hayley slipped into the backseat next to Charles, and once everyone is buckled up, they sped off.
"How about I let you sit in the front seat? It's only fair since you're our guest of honor!" Josh asked, adjusting his mirror so he could see Hayley's brown eyes.
"On the way back? Whatever." Hayley crossed her arms in front of her chest to keep herself warm. "You don't mind? What about Brittany?"
"Oh, she's fine with it. Isn't that right?"
"I don't care where I sit." Brittany answered, fixing the blue paint on her nails.
Nobody talked the rest of the way, which Hayley thought odd. Just what kind of party was she being dragged to?
They soon pulled up to a small cottage-style house, which had a street filled with cars. Hayley wondered how many actually belonged to the party guests, and how many belonged to residents nearby.
"Let's get this party started!" Josh cheered, and Brittany cheered with him, unbuckling her seat belt and jumping out of the car.
"Wait, aren't you the host?" Hayley asked, getting out as well.
"Yeah, but this isn't a particularly rowdy crowd. I'm not concerned." Josh answered, going on inside ahead of the rest.
"Let's go! Are you hungry?" Brittany asked, grabbing Hayley's arm and tugging her inside the house as well, which was so full of smoke that she found herself coughing.
"Fog machine! Cool!" Charles yelled from somewhere behind Hayley, making her jump.
Loud music was being played somewhere, but not very many people were actually dancing, much preferring to sit around and talk to each other or eat, and a few people were even reading. Was this really the kind of crowd Charles hung out with? Now she had something to tease him for.
Charles and Josh dispersed, Charles going into the kitchen and Josh to talk to a group of guys in the hallway, but Brittany stayed.
"Want to meet some of my friends?" She asked nicely, and Hayley shrugged. Brittany dragged her over to a small group of girls, who were all seated on stools, and who all had some sort of dye job in their hair.
"Wow, I love your pink streaks!" A girl with short green hair commented. "It's so wicked!"
"Thank you..." Hayley blushed and looked away.
"This is Josh's friend Charles' little sister Hayley. This is her first party, so be nice to her, okay?" Brittany was handed a bottle of hair-spray by one of her friends, and she started spraying her already big curly hair, making Hayley cough some more.
"So, how old are you? What grade are you going into?" A girl with blue, green, and red streaks in her otherwise black hair asked.
"I'm twelve. I'll be going into the seventh grade." Hayley answered, settling into a stool of her own.
"Cool! I'm Hilary. I'll be going into the tenth grade!"
"Your name sorta sounds like mine," Hayley said lamely.
"Yeah." Hilary looked away, and so did Hayley. She begged herself not to become a total social embarrassment at this party, as the last thing she needed was to make Charles make fun of her for something genuine.
"I love your sunglasses!" The green-haired girl carried on. "I have a pair of goggles at home that look just like them! Course I don't wear them everywhere, but whatever!"
"What grade are you going into?" Hayley asked.
"Eleventh! My name's Marie!"
"I'm Hayley."
"I heard. So, Charles is your brother, huh? I'm friends with him. He always insists that he's not hungry when it's time for lunch, but I know he is by his stomach growls! I always buy him lunch!" Marie took a sip of the drink in her cup, which made Hayley nervous.
"Oh, that's nice of you." She looked down. So, Charles can't afford to buy lunch for himself anymore? She felt like throwing up when she realized why she always had money for lunch...
"You thirsty?" Marie thrust her cup into Hayley's face, and she caught a whiff of-soda?
"A little." Hayley admitted, taking Marie's cup and downing the rest. It was incredibly warm Pepsi.
"Don't worry about trying to fit in here, most of these people don't fit in at all." Marie teased, earning her a glare from Hilary.
"Hey! I fit in! I was the president of the ninth-grade class last year!"
"Yeah, all twenty of them." Marie snorted.
Hayley decided to leave while she could and went into the kitchen, where several bottles of soda and long lines of food trays were set up. She had already eaten dinner, but the catered fast food was calling out to her, so she cut off a smaller piece of a giant sub sandwich and bit into it.
"Yuck! Mayo!" She cried in disgust, spitting the offending bite out onto the floor. "Who likes mayo? Ick!" She rubbed her teeth to try and get all of the taste of the horrid condiment out of her mouth when Marie bounced into the kitchen.
"I'm just getting more soda," She explained, and in the brighter light Hayley saw she was wearing tight jean shorts with black tights under them.
"Okay." Hayley leaned against the wall, still clutching her sandwich. She didn't want to throw it away because that was wasteful, but she couldn't very well put it back because she didn't want someone else to eat her own spit. So, held it she did.
Charles came into the kitchen shortly after Marie left and stared Hayley down.
"What?" She finally asked.
"You should be out there, partying it up! I didn't bring you here so you could hang out on the wall in the kitchen."
"I don't socialize well."
"What about Brittany? Or Marie? She told me you were in here."
"...Fine." Hayley tossed him her sandwich and left the kitchen, sitting back on the stool she had before.
"Hey, you're back! Did you eat anything good while you were in there?" Hilary asked.
"Just a sandwich." And I only took a bite out of it, she added in her head.
"I wonder why Josh decided to have this party. His friends aren't exactly the partying type, and there's no way for people to get drunk either." Brittany said, flexing her long legs out on her own stool.
"Who cares? It's a party!" Marie cheered. "We don't need to be drunk to have a good time!"
"Not sloppily drunk. We can get tipsy and have a good time." Brittany corrected her.
"So, what, are you leaving early?" Marie challenged Brittany, seeing her jump off her stool.
"If Charles is okay with it. Josh probably won't drive us home, but Charles can. He's a good driver." Brittany left the room to find her guys, and Hayley leaned back on her seat.
"Well, if you are leaving, then here." Marie scribbled a number on the bottom of her cup and handed it to her. "My phone number. You have a landline, don't you? We can chat about awesome things!"
"Here's mine too." Hilary quickly added hers and labeled it with an 'H' so Hayley wouldn't get confused. "Stay out of trouble in junior high, you hear me?"
"Okay." Hayley slipped her glasses down and peered at them from underneath them and blew a bubble with her gum. "We'll see. I'm a rebel." She tried to tease, but it came out sounding stoic.
"Such a rebel! You drank soda and ate without even pulling out your gum!" Marie teased.
"Is your hair dyed?" Hayley asked.
"Yeah. I actually have brown hair. My mom always wanted to dye her hair green once her daughter hit high school, but...well, she ended up dying before that happened. But I still dyed it in her memory."
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Hayley bit her thumbnail awkwardly.
"Don't worry about it. She died back in the mid-seventies, before I was really able to have much of a memory about her, but Dad told me a lot, including about her hair dye wish. She died of an illness, but Dad won't tell me which one." She looked away.
"Why is your hair dyed, Hayley?" Hilary asked, but Hayley simply shrugged.
"I liked it this way." She tugged on her blonde pigtail, showing off the long pink streaks in it. "Charles told me I look like a sick sunset."
"Hey, we're leaving!" Charles announced loudly, and Hayley jumped off her stool.
"That's my cue. It was nice meeting you two though." She waved nervously, and the two happily waved back.
"Don't be a stranger!" Marie grinned.
"Have a nice day." Hilary said simply, and Hayley was dragged outside by Brittany.
"Josh says he has to keep an eye on the party, but he gave me permission to drive his car back." Charles grinned and showed off his keys.
"Don't wreck his car! He takes pride in it!" Brittany warned, and Hayley spit her gum out into the grass.
"Who is it do you think you're talking to?" Charles unlocked the car and got inside, and Hayley sat beside him in the passenger seat.
"Hey, you got their phone numbers! Cool, they're super nice." Brittany chimed in from the back, buckling in her seat belt.
"Let's get this show on the road!" Charles yelled once Hayley had buckled in her own seatbelt, he slammed down the gas and sped them out of there.
"Hey, don't you think you're going a bit too fast..?" Hayley asked nervously, but Charles turned the radio up to ignore her. Brittany stared out the window, bored. "Watch the speed limit," She finished, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out her own window.
The song ended soon, and a popular one came on,making both Charles and Brittany grin. "This is my song!" Charles exclaimed, dangerously swerving the car to avoid a curb and making Hayley dizzy.
"Yeah! Let's sing it!" Brittany started to sing the song loudly, and Charles joined in, making Hayley scowl.
"You're too loud..." She huffed, looking out the front window and focusing on nothing.
"Come on, Hayley, sing along with us!" Brittany asked, but Hayley shook her head. She barely knew the words, and besides, someone had to watch the road for Charles, didn't they?
She kept looking out in front of her, bored but alert, then nearly doubled-over when she saw another car coming towards them at a rapid speed.
"Charles, Charles! There's another car!" She yelled, but he couldn't hear her over the blaring radio and their singing. "Charles! You have to turn!" She screamed, leaning over and desperately trying to gain control of the steering wheel to swerve the car.
"Hayley, what are you doing?! Stop!" Charles demanded, but the only thing Hayley really had time for was to motion over to the other car, which had tried to turn to avoid them, but ended up colliding right into them.
The last thing she really remembered was the sound of bending metal, Brittany screaming, and her own head being slammed into the window, and the sound of the glass breaking as a result. She tasted blood in her mouth, and finally closed her eyes, the last thing she had energy for.
############
Hayley woke up with a jolt, praying everything that happened to her was a nightmare. She looked over at her figure, and looked around her surroundings and felt her stomach clench when she realized everything that happened to her was absolutely real.
"Charles..." She sighed, trying to grab onto his limp body, only to have her hands go right through him. "Charles? Charles!" She cried, trying to grab him, but every time her hands would just go through him. "No...no...it can't be..." She looked down at her own chest, which was sporting a black hole and a long chain, which was wrapped around the exterior of the car.
"It can't be!" She ran out of the car and saw her own body, still lying in the car, covered in blood with glass shards in its forehead. In horror, she felt her own face and felt the glass shards still embedded in her face, and realized her sunglasses had cracked in the impact. In a sudden fit of anger, she threw them off and crushed them under her high-top, then glared at her brother's body.
"You...you..." She struggled with the words, still feeling her anger boiling. Twelve years of not emoting finally bubbled over, and she felt her blood rising. "You...you MURDERED ME!" She screamed, finally admitting that she was dead. Not just dead, but a murder victim. Of her own brother's.
"You little piece of scum, you horrid piece of shit! How can you just lie there, so calmly? Are you still alive, you little shit? You're going to be treated in some fancy hospital somewhere, while my body is left to rot in the ground! They'll probably give you another sibling, a better one, one you actually want! You'll never think about your sister again! Well I'll tell you what, you little bitch. I'm still alive, and I'll make sure you never, ever, EVER forget about me!" She screamed, finally stopping to catch her breath.
Hayley held her chest, feeling her anger still raging. Instead of taking it out on her brother, however, she leaned against a light-post near the car and sat down, then started angrily sobbing into her hands.
She was dead now, there was no hiding that, and she hadn't even died a merciful death. Her brother was spared, but she was not. And she hated it. She loathed how ugly she was now, with her broken, bruised body and her cracked face, and she hated how the chain limited her movements so she had to constantly be around the crash site.
But most of all, Hayley hated how she had partially died of her own hand. How she refused to be assertive and loud her entire life, and how she paid the price for that. If she was more violent and louder, her brother could've turned in time to save them, or at the very least, not killed them.
As she sat there crying, she became aware of someone staring intently at her.
"Hey, little girl. What's up with your hair? It looks like a sick sunset!"
...Charles?
She looked up, hopeful, tears still in her eyes. Her face fell slightly when she saw it wasn't Charles, yet the strange man had his voice, and his hair, although Charles' was a whole lot shorter than this man's.
"...Fuck off." She spat out, rubbing her eyes .
"That's no way to speak to me! You're such a vulgar little girl! How about I just leave you here and let you be eaten?" The man suddenly spat back, glaring at her. She simply glared back.
"What do you want?" She asked bitterly, not in the mood for this nonsense.
"I'm here to take you to the Soul Society, because last time I checked, you were dead, and if you stay here, you'll be eaten by Hollows." The man flicked his long blonde hair.
"What." Hayley blinked.
"Are you coming or what?"
"Whatever." Hayley slowly stood up. "If it gets you to leave me alone."
"What is your name? It's my job to know the names of all the souls I Reap."
"...Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine." Hayley crossed her arms over her chest.
"Captain Shinji Hirako of Squad 5. Now who are you?" Shinji stated in a professional voice.
"Heh, a captain?" Hayley mocked.
"Just tell me your name or I really will leave you here!"
"Alright." Hayley paused to think about this.
Of course, her most obvious answer was to just say her name, Hayley Summit, but that didn't sound right. After all, Hayley Summit was a dead girl, and while she herself was also dead, she was also way more alive than the girl in that car.
"Well?" Shinji coaxed. Hayley looked back at him.
"...My name is Hiyori Sarugaki. I am twelve years old and was going to enter the seventh grade, but it looks like I won't be doing much schooling where-ever I'm going." She answered.
"Did you just now make that up?" Shinji laughed, and Hiyori raised her hand up to slap him.
"It's rude to insult the death!" She snapped.
"You got me there." Still, he had trouble containing his giggles."Alright, now just stand still and I'll send you to where you need to be." He pulled out a long sword.
"I hope I never see your stupid-looking face ever again." Hiyori stuck her tongue out in a rude way.
"The feeling's mutual." Shinji answered, bringing his sword down on Hiyori's head, splitting it in half.
The last thing Hiyori thought before she vanished was that with her new name would come a new personality. She wouldn't take shit from anyone, she'd be more assertive, and most of all, she would be way, way more loud than ever before. All to prevent herself from falling victim to another accident.
Her figure vanished from the real world and reappeared in one of Soul Society's many slums, her party outfit replaced with a sky-blue kimono. She touched her face again and was astounded to find all the blood and broken glass was gone, leaving only smooth skin.
With a smirk, she took off sprinting through the town she was in, startling some people.
She had been given another chance to live, and this time, she really would start living her life.
And she would start by becoming a captain, just like that annoying Shinji person.
Nobody would stand in her way.