Summary: Watch out Gakuen Alice, and prepare for hell! Hana Shizuka was orphaned by her mother and "adopted" by her father at the ripe age of 17. Unwillingly, she has to attend the prestigious Gakuen Alice at the insistence of her father, Yukihara Kazu. Even so, on the very first day of school, she makes enemies with ESP, gains two reluctant allies and a persistent, not-so-secret admirer. And when the ESP wants to wage a war with Shizuka, what's a girl to do but fight back?

A/N: The setting is in modern day Tokyo, Japan.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice or a funny way to say it.

The Red String of Destiny

My mother has really good intuition. In fact, she has such good intuition that I don't even need to check the weather for the whole week. She always knows what grades I'll get on my report card, and when I'm out of lunch money she has a little note stuck on the refrigerator door. More than once, she's saved us from getting into car accidents when we're on the road. And she's always right about her predictions. Always.

So you could probably sympathize with my skeptics when a policeman knocked on my door and told me that my mother died in a freak car accident. Sarcastically, I smirked in the face of the somber cop. "Sorry mister, but my mom wasn't driving a car today." Now, I knew my mom's intuition powers and right about then I was wondering if April Fool's day had come early. The cop, however, flatly looked me in the eye.

"Sweetheart, you don't need a car to get in a car accident." His eyes were as cold as his words. "But, you'll probably believe me once you see the corpse." And with that, he dragged me out of my two-bedroom townhouse and into his car. It was winter outside and the heat was on full blast. I hadn't even any time to put on my coat. I tried to protest but was quickly cut off. "I have a lot more important things to do than baby-sit a little kid."

I was offended, but not enough to retort a witty insult to the cold government worker; I mean I was only seventeen and my birthday wasn't until the spring. I looked out the window to see soft flakes of snow drifting from the sky. Nervously, I clasped my hands together. What if this cop was actually a serial rapist in disguise? What would I do then? The cop looked at me weirdly.

"Don't worry; I'm not the type to go after little girls." Oops…had I said that out loud? After the words left his mouth, we were stuck in an awkward silence. To break it, the officer turned on the radio. Grave, haunting music tuned out of it.

Great, I'm going to my mom's funeral and the music's already playing. Obviously, you could smell my sarcasm.

When the clock on the dashboard digitally turned 9:13, we arrived at the hospital. So this guy wasn't really a serial rapist.

"Of course, I already told you, didn't I?"

Damn, why do I have a habit of thinking my thoughts out loud?

We walked into the hospital and the police guy asked a nurse at the front desk for my mom, Hana Mizuki, and the she quickly checked the computer and directed us to the 2nd floor, 3rd corridor, and room number 205. My legs were getting leaden as I breathed more and more of the hospital air.

What if she really was dead? I swallowed the unshed tears that sprung suddenly to my eyes. It would not do to cry now. I knew (or fervently hoped) that mom was alive and well but she was just playing a trick on me.

But, I'm going to have to ask her how she managed to get a whole hospital and a cop to play along with her. I noted to myself. A huge calendar in the hallway showed that Christmas was only a month away.

We didn't stop to look at the calendar but continued towards the dreaded, yet inviting door. When we reached the door, the cop stopped at the entrance. I stepped in, dreading every movement of my feet. My heart was cowering by the door, so I was solely controlled by my mind.

The room was dark even though the lights were on. The curtains were drawn to show the flutter of snowflakes against the dark sky. There was a simple bed with a figure on it, bundled in a blanket. My breathing grew rapid and my heart started pounding faster than the [only] time I had run the marathon.

My hands, being controlled by my mind, brought the cover down from the figure's face. I wish that I could say it wasn't my mother. I even wish that I could say it was a dummy. But I couldn't get my wish no matter how much I tried.

Cold and clammy was her skin, against my warmer one. "Mom…" My voice trembled. Tears stung my eyes but I kept them from falling. "This isn't a joke is it?" I knelt by her side and squeezed her hand. She looked so peaceful that if I didn't know any better I would have said that she was asleep.

I stayed there, holding her hand for God knows how long, until a nurse came in. "A-hem." She cleared her throat. I looked up dully.

"Yes?"

"Are you Hana Shizuka?" She inquired softly.

"Yes."

"Oh…sorry for disturbing you, but we have information of how your mother died." The nurse was hesitant, but no news could hurt my already numb mind. "Hana Mizuki died today at 8:30 because of massive internal bleeding. She was hit by a truck at eight and even though the doctor tried everything in his power, she couldn't be saved. We're sorry."

"Hm…"

"Also, there's a man in the lobby who claims to be your father. We'd like you to clarify if it's true or not. If it is true, then you wouldn't have to be put in an orphanage. But…if it isn't…" She trailed off. I nodded, listlessly. The nurse took a hold of my arm, as if to steady me, but I jerked it away from her.

"I'll stay here. You can tell him to come up." I turned my attention back to mom. I could tell that the nurse was offended but she didn't say anything. The pathetic 'sorry' she had offered at the end of her speech had pissed me off. It was like saying that they hadn't tried at all. I heard the door close behind me as the nurse left the room.

A couple minutes later she returned with a man following her. I turned to look at them and then stood up. The nurse's name was printed nicely on a nametag. I didn't look long enough to catch her name; instead I turned to the man who claimed to be my father.

He was tall, with shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes. A prominent nose, full lips and thin eyebrows decorated his face. An exact mirror reflection of me. I thought wryly. Even his eyelashes are as long as mine. No wonder I don't look like my mom, I'm a perfect reproduction of my father. Sarcasm dripped like honey in my mind.

"Who are you?"

"Your father."

"Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus."

"But you don't have a beard or a pot-belly…"

I rolled my eyes. This guy didn't have clue what sarcasm was.

"I don't believe that you're my father." I told him flatly. He raised his eyebrows.

"Then…how do I know that you have a birthmark in shape of a heart on your lower back?" Absentmindedly, I touched my birthmark. "Or the fact that you've loved mango juice ever since you were little? Or maybe that you can't spell anything to save your life?"

"Okay, okay! You've got a lot of trivia about me. But it doesn't mean that I believe you." I smirked in his face. Yet to my surprise, he smiled right back at me. Eh? Then he took out some papers out of a manila folder that was hidden behind his back. It was my birth certificate.

On it was my full name: Yukihira Shizuka and my birth date, May 14th. My blood type, AB, along with the hospital, date and time, and the names of my parents were listed on it. I read it for us to hear. "Yukihira Shizuka was born to Yukihara Mizuki and Yukihara Kazu on May 14th, 1992."

"Your name's kazoo?" I wondered out loud.

"Not 'kazoo' but 'Kazu'." He pronounced for me. I shrugged and turned away to look back at mom. My 'dad' came to my side and took my hand, but I slapped it away from mine. "You may not know this, and I'm guessing that Mizuki didn't tell you, but we got divorced about 2 years after you were born."

"Why?" I asked him. We were both looking sadly at mom's face and it seemed that the nurse was gone.

"Because…" Yukihira paused. "She didn't like my job…to say the least. So she got a divorce and changed her last name back to her maiden name and grew a small family with you." At this sighed and breathed something like. "And now I know that you too…"

"I, what?" I questioned him. "What do you know about me?"

Yukihira looked surprised. "Eh? No…nothing." I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously before I returned my gaze to mom. She looked like she was just asleep. I wondered if I could just shake her awake. I smiled faintly. She would probably yell at me just like when I had to wake her up on work days.

"By the way…since you have no other living relatives, you'll be staying with me." I nodded to this; it was expected. "Demo…you might not like where you'll be going to school." I raised my eyebrows at this.

"Why's that?" I asked him but all I got in return was a 'You'll see when we get there.'

"You're going to have to pack up all your stuff and prepare to move." We were conversing and watching mom at the same time until the nurse came in.

"Excuse me Yukihira-san, Hana-san, you'll have to leave. We made exceptions for you to stay past visiting hours, but we can't let you stay here for longer than ten." Yukihira nodded and turned to go, but I stayed behind and laid a kiss on mom's cheek.

"Guess my Christmas present came early, didn't it?" I whispered to myself. I looked at the nurse. "Excuse me, but did the policeman who dropped me off here already leave?"

The nurse nodded. "Yeah, he left after your father came."

"Oh…" I remembered our conversation in the car. "If you see if again, tell him that I've grown up already. He'll know what I mean." And so I've become an orphan.