Escaping Normal

Disclaimer: I own neither DN Angel nor the amazing, beautiful, wonderful, and talented Emilie Autumn.

…

My hand slammed down on the snooze button on my alarm clock and I practically shot out of bed to unplug my iPod as strains of 'Manic Depression' tumbled and twisted into my ears. Emilie Autumn never failed to make me leap to stop my mom from hearing whatever my alarm was, especially when this song was set as the alarm, seeing as it was one that had once woken up my mom from across the hall, even though she was a heavy sleeper. It was five thirty in the morning, and I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and dragged myself over to my closet, which I opened carefully. It was the first day of school after winter break, and I was eager to see my friends again.

I pondered the clothes in the closet for a few moments, then snagged a pair of dark blue, bootcut jeans and a black and gray striped turtleneck and slipped off down the hallway to get changed.

Ten minutes later, I was still standing in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to put my contacts in. It had taken me less than five minutes to get dressed, and now all that was missing from my outfit were my boots and my contacts. I was wearing brown tinted ones today, though I liked to switch between colors.

Before we go any farther, I suppose I should explain that to you. You see, I'm an albino. For those of you who don't know, that means have virtually no color (or pigment) to my body. My hair is white. My skin is white. My eyes… well, my eyes are sort of pink-hued. I've read that they can be violet too, and I really wish that had been the case with me, because I really did not like wearing contacts. In fact, most days I had trouble just putting them in.

Like today, for instance. Even though these were also for vision problems, I couldn't stand them. I mean, why stick something in your eye? But still, I doggedly kept at it until I seemed to allow myself to place first one disk on my right eye, than the other on my left. By the time I walked back into my room, it was six 'o' clock. My mom would be awake soon, and then I'd eat breakfast, brush my teeth (again) and head off to highschool, hoping that I didn't forget something.

A few minutes later, as I was lazily browsing my email, I heard my mom's alarm clock go off. It would be several more minutes before she was even fully awake, so I didn't worry too much about running downstairs. Besides, we ate breakfast at seven at the earliest. I continued opening old mail at random and rereading it, until, at seven twenty-three (the time would forever be remembered) a new email popped onto my screen. I blinked in surprise when I saw who had sent it. It was our gym slash drama teacher, Mrs. Reiter. The message had no subject, and, with quite a bit of curiosity, I opened it. It read as follows:

Hello students,

As many of you know, my favorite gym unit, our dancing unit, is beginning today. I have sent this email not as a reminder, but to inform you that I intend to do things a bit differently this year. Instead of teaching everyone one dance a day for the four week course, I intend to put all of you in pairs. Oddly enough, we have an even number of boys and girls in the classes this year starting today, so my idea will work perfectly. Each pair will learn a specific style of dance. The styles of dances vary greatly, yet are all similar on some scale. I hope you all will enjoy learning whatever dance is selected for you and your partner, and I can't wait to see all of you in class today!

-Mrs. Reiter

I blinked and reread the letter. "We have a new student?" I asked myself quietly, trying to determine what Mrs. R had meant. Then I re-read the email again; hopelessness falling onto my shoulders like a blanket of lead. I closed the email and went downstairs. My mom (who wasn't much of a cook) was trying to pull a piece of burnt toast from the toaster with a fork. "Unplug it first," I said. It was an old joke between us; she had once forgotten to do just that. It had been the longest three hours I'd ever spent in the emergency room.

"'Course Losi," she replied. I grimaced at her old pet name for me.

"Mom, call me Sira, or Losira, please, but don't call me Losi…" She sighed.

"Alright Sira… I remember when you used to love being called Losi…" She had succeeded in pulling the charred black remains of what might have once been bread out of the toaster, and was putting another slice in.

"Yeah, back when I was five maybe…" We had this argument every morning, and had once, just for the heck of it, put it to song. It had been horrible, since neither of us were particularly gifted singers (especially at six in the morning), and we'd both ended up laughing so hard we could barely stand.

"Well, how's toast sound to you?" I didn't really have an appetite, but I shrugged, indicating that toast would be fine as long as it was recognizable as just that. A few moments later, our old fashioned metal bread cooker made a sort of springing noise. Breakfast (if a single slice of toast and half a glass of orange juice could be called breakfast) was served.

"Mom…" I trailed off, trying to figure out how to say this. "Our dance unit starts today."

"That's wonderful!" She exclaimed. "Mrs. Reiter must be almost ready to pull you out of class to start early!" I sighed. I had been expecting this.

"She's doing it differently this year…" Instantly my mom was all ears. Well, not literally, but I'm sure you know what I mean. "See, she's pairing all the girls with guys, and then we're all learning some specific form of dance… oh God… what if I get paired up with someone like Takeshi? Or Dark?" I closed my eyes, trying not to think about it.

"And what if you get paired up with Satoshi?" My mom asked slyly. My eyes shot open.

"W-why Satoshi?" I asked, trying not to look too shocked.

"C'mon Losira, it's obvious you like him… just hope for the best." Even my mom could tell I liked him? Then why had he never even looked at me? He was supposedly extremely smart for his age; I'd even heard rumors that he was an undercover cop trying to catch Dark, who was supposedly some great thief. They were so absurd it was laughable.

"Right mom," I said, "Hope for the best." But I wasn't. Not really. I had the worst feeling in my stomach; one that normally predicted a bad day. This would not be the greatest first day back I'd ever had. "I'll see you after school, okay?"

"Bye Losi," she said. "I'll see you then. Be safe." She had a smile on her face, and I didn't contradict her when she called me Losi. It was just how our mornings went. I grabbed a coat and my messenger bag from its hook by the door and set off on foot. I loved walking to school, and I did so as often as I could. I'd even walk in the rain, providing I had an umbrella. I'd see Riku and Daisuke when I got to school, Risa too. And I'd get to see Satoshi…

"Forget him," I said. But I knew I wouldn't. Even though that had been my mantra for over a year, it did me no good. I kept walking, my boots crunching in the thin layer of snow that covered the sidewalk. It was only fifteen minutes to school on foot, but it felt like an hour. I kept glancing at my watch, trying to make sure I wasn't late. I had to be there at seven today for a volunteer science project. We were trying to build an air conditioner for our overheated science classroom using a coil of copper pipe, an old fan, and a cooler full of ice (a heating pipe had burst a while earlier, and the floor had literally melted the rubber off of someone's shoes). I'd been trying to come up with a way to continuously circulate the water through the pipe during the break, but so far I'd only been able to advance on the idea of using an old fish tank filter. Either way, I was excited to see Ms. Maes and get the niggling thoughts of the dance unit out of my head.

I slipped into the school with a clatter of the door and the stamping of boots. Thankfully, Ms. Maes' room was on the main floor, so I didn't have to worry about climbing stairs just yet. After depositing my coat in my locker, I walked down the hallway, listening to my footsteps squeak and echo in my ears. I knocked twice on the door, and waited for several seconds. The door opened. "Hey Sira!" It was Cindy, a rather geeky young girl who loved gears and mechanics, just like I did. We weren't close friends, but it was nice seeing her. The fact she'd dyed her hair bright orange had earned her the nickname 'Cinder' (and unfortunately, 'Cinder Block' by some of the crueler people). Darren was also there, focusing on bending a bit of copper pipe to the right shape. I pulled a roll of electrical tape out of my bag and tossed it towards him. He caught it without looking up.

Ms. Maes was sitting at her desk, grading the few papers that she hadn't gotten to during the break. She had told us right away that this would be our project, and though we could feel free to run ideas past her, she was mainly just going to act as our supervisor. "Hey Cindy," I replied, "How was your break?"

"Not bad," she shrugged, "It could've been worse."

"Mine was great," Darren said. "My dad's teaching me more about welding."

"Cool," I replied. "Mine was pretty boring… Hey Darren, where's Devin?" Devin was Darren's twin brother. Thankfully, the two weren't identical. Darren had long, shaggy brown hair that was always hanging in his eyes, tan skin and was one of the most popular guys in the school. Devin kept his hair cut shorter, was almost as pale as me, and was a bit more of a nerd. I'd been friends with both of them since preschool.

"He's sick," was the reply. "Caught a nasty strain of the flu. He should be back soon though." He held up the piece of pipe to a light, allowing me to catch a glimpse of it. It looked like a Celtic knot of some sort. I really hoped he hadn't been doing that all morning.

"C'mon you two," Cindy said, "Let's get this done today, hmm?" She was standing in the back of the room, next to the disassembled fan and the rest of the copper pipe. I happily joined her. Darren followed behind.

"So… do we just need to get the pipe mounted today?" I asked.

"I'd like to check out the circulation too, if we've got time," Darren said. Cindy nodded in agreement. I shrugged and nodded consent. If we had time I didn't care if we did it, but knowing how we worked, we probably wouldn't be finished before the first bell. I began to work setting up the filter system with electrical tape and a small hand drill, putting holes in the top of the Plastic cooler and threading bits of tubing inside. When I felt them touch the bottom, I'd pull them up about an inch and Cindy would hold them while I taped them in place. It was slightly repetitive, but as I only had to do it twice, I enjoyed the work. Darren put the final touches on the spiral of copper pipe as I was doing this, which made it a bit more difficult than I thought, but I didn't say anything.

By seven forty-five, I was laying on my back on the floor, fiddling with a filter Ms. Maes had pulled from somewhere in the depths of a back closet. Cindy was holding the plastic lid above my head so I had both hands free, and Darren was fiddling with the odd chunk of metal he'd been playing with when I arrived. I heard him blow a strand of hair away from his eyes and wondered again what it was he was trying to make.

"What're you doing Darren?" Cindy beat me to the question.

"Nothing," he replied. This was so like him… I heard him blow hair out of his eyes again as I tried to get the filter to connect to the piece of plastic tubing that was hooked to the copper pipe. I wasn't doing too well, seeing as how Cindy kept moving around trying to find out what Darren was doing.

"C'mon," Cindy said, "You can tell me!"

"It's nothing," Darren repeated in a monotone. "I'll show you later." Cindy huffed, but at least she stilled long enough for me to hook one part of the filter to the plastic tubing. Unfortunately, just then the first bell rang, and she shot up. I barely caught the filter as it fell.

"Oh my gosh Sira," she said, "I'm so sorry! I've gotta run to get to my geometry class, or I'd help you… I'll see you in gym!" She dashed off, giving Darren and me a slight wave as she slipped out of the door. I wished she hadn't mentioned gym class.

"I've got history," Darren said calmly, "It's not too far away. Where do you want this stuff?" He directed the question to Ms. Maes, who pointed at the back table.

"Right where it always is Darren," she said. "Thanks." He smiled and nodded, and the two of us slowly put things back. It only took a few minutes.

"I guess I'll see you in the shop," Darren said. I smiled.

"Yup, I'll see you then. Give me a few welding pointers, won't you?"

"'Course Sira. See ya." With that, he too grabbed his backpack and set off towards his history class. We only had woodshop (in which we were welding a bit) and gym together (well, when we were doing co-ed activities at least), but we tried to keep in contact as best we could.

I took a seat in the front row and waited for the rest of the class to arrive. I watched the door with a wary eye, waiting for Riku and Satoshi to come in. Daisuke would probably be late (as usual) Satoshi would be the first one here, and Riku would walk through the door a few minutes later. But to my surprise, the assistant principle came in first, leading a tall boy with extremely long blonde hair and eyes like chips of frozen amber champagne. He wore a loose white turtleneck and dark blue jeans, rather like a reversed version of what I was wearing. I stiffened slightly and made a mental note to not wear anymore turtlenecks over the course of this winter.

"Good morning Ms. Maes," he said. Mr. Whiddekin was a tall man. He had to be at least six foot five, and had some of the brightest red hair I had ever seen. He was quite nice and almost always smiled. "Good morning Losira." I nodded at him; a normal greeting. "Ms. Maes, this is your new student, Krad Hikari." Krad? What kind of freakish name was Krad? I gave him a quick smile and turned to a notebook I had lying open. I loved writing poetry; though I wasn't particularly good at it, and it gave me an excuse to not have to look at him. Krad, that is. He had a sort of 'I don't care much' vibe around him, and I had a feeling he wouldn't be one of the most popular 'new kids' that the school had ever seen. But Hikari… why did it sound so familiar?

But then Satoshi walked through the door with a quiet 'excuse me' directed at the assistant principle and I quickly shut my notebook. I was currently writing a poem about his eyes… which I know was quite sappy and stupid, but he had such handsome eyes… However, I heard something I didn't on most days when (I assume) he saw Krad. I heard books falling to the floor. Satoshi had dropped them in surprise and with just a glance at him I could tell he was in shock. Turning my gaze over to Krad, I saw a smirk on his lips.

"Well," he said, "If it isn't my little brother." His voice was deep with a slight, indeterminable accent, and his eyes glittered smugly to match the smirk still on his lips.

"Yes," Satoshi snapped, gathering the books he had dropped, "It is Krad. I thought you were never coming back."

"Circumstances change," Krad purred. I am not kidding when I say he purred. His voice seemed to vibrate, like he really was a cat. A smug, egotistical, long-furred, creepy, blonde cat. Emphasis on long haired. How could he be related to someone like Satoshi? It didn't seem possible. It couldn't be possible. Satoshi glared at him, then took a seat (right behind me, I might add). I wondered why no one else was here yet. The first bell had rung almost three minutes ago. The warning bell would be ringing soon… I put my head on my desk and sighed, hoping that someone; anyone would come in and get rid of this awkward silence that I was sitting in the middle of.

"I'd better be off," Mr. Whiddekin said abruptly, "I've got to get back to the office for morning announcements." With that, he turned on his heel and walked out.

"Krad," Mrs. Maes said, "Take a seat wherever you want, we haven't got out new seating chart yet." She didn't look up from her computer, where she was probably entering his name into the class list. I, meanwhile, was praying he wouldn't choose to sit anywhere near me.

But of course, he chose the desk to my right.

…

AN: Haha, well this came out quite a bit later than I thought it would. It was originally supposed to be out sometime in the summer! Oh well, I suppose it's better like this. Although Cindy, Darren and Devin aren't based on real people, Ms. Maes is based (slightly) on my own science teacher and Losira's school is based on my own (and yes, I did create an air conditioner almost the same way Losira and her friends did, with help from my science teacher and a couple of guys). I don't have a clue how a school dance unit should go, but… creative liberty is an amazing thing, isn't? Anyway, please review!