The morning of April 1st, 7:30 am.

I woke up in a dimly lit room, my memory fuzzy.

Where am I...?

Then I realized. I was in my dad's new house, in Japan. Since my mind still hadn't quite cleared, I went through what I knew about my life currently.

My name is Rebekah Dybowski; I'm a foreign exchange student living with my dad in Japan. I'm going to transfer to Ouran Academy form my second year of high school. My dad is a wealthy business man who also happens to be a chairman of a large security company. He works with weapons and security systems. Today is Monday, April 1st, 2012. My plane came in late last night. I start school on the 9th. I'm taking a tour today. I miss my family, but I'm happy to be here, and I'm starting a vlog so that they can keep track of me while I'm here...

By now my mind had cleared and I remembered everything. I sat up in bed and put my elbow on my knee. My head was heavy, so I held it while I let my eyes adjust to what little light was filtering through my window. Finally, I stretched until my muscles ached and looked at my clock. The numbers were glowing a soft green in the dim light of my room, reading 9:30 in block numbers. I groaned, the tour was in an hour and I had to get ready and presentable.

Dragging my sorry butt out of bed, I grabbed a shirt and some shorts, not caring what they looked like, and went down the hall to the upstairs bathroom. Though our family was pretty rich, we preferred not to flaunt it, so our house was pretty much a normal sized house for an American family. When I got into the bathroom, I opened the window, lowered the blinds, turned on the fan and took a good look at myself in the mirror.

I've never really thought I was all that pretty, but I'm not ugly or anything. I have brown hair, roughly shoulder length, and it's fairly manageable. It's a nice color, I'll admit I really like it. My eyes are blue, and depending on what I wear and on my makeup they can be anywhere from sky blue to stormy day gray. My complexion is really smooth for a teenager- I've never really gotten that much acne, so my face is fairly smooth. It's peppered with soft freckles too. I smiled to myself as I turned on the shower. I guess I'm pretty average, eh...?

When I was done, about 20 minutes later, I stepped into my random outfit which, to my surprise, matched pretty well. Grabbing my pile of dirty clothes and my sweater, I marched back down the hall with an orange and yellow striped draped over my soaked head. Back in my room I threw my clothes in the hamper and flopped onto my window seat. Rubbing my mane with the towel, I picked up the admissions guide for Ouran. The people there spoke a lot of English, which is great for me because that meant they wrote things in English as well. Though I could speak a good amount of Japanese and understand just as much, I still couldn't read it. Flipping through it, I was filled with that bubbly feeling I got when I first received the guide.

The campus looked gorgeous! I couldn't believe it was a school when I first saw it! For a girl like me, vlogging about my life in a beautiful place like this is pretty much living the pre-career dream! It was a great way for me to start off my life as a photojournalist. The buildings were beautiful, and the grounds are covered in the most amazing landscape I've ever seen! Japan had become my favorite place to be and take pictures. However, I was sure that it was even more spectacular in person...

And I was going to that place today!

Suddenly filled with new inspiration, I sprinted to the bathroom and grabbed my brush. Throwing my hair up in a ponytail, I slapped on some makeup and leapt down the stairs, two at a time.

"Asa no hizashi! Anata wa yoku nemuremashita ka?" My ex-marine of a father was frying hash browns in the pan on the oven for breakfast.

Without thinking, I replied, "Good morning to you as well! I slept very well thank you!"

"That's very good!" He said, "Your Japanese is almost as good as mine! Though I would have preferred if you had replied in the language." He smiled at me and tossed me the keys from the counter. "Go start the car for me? We're taking the hash browns to go, otherwise we'll be late!"

"Late for what? We have another half hour before we have to be at the school!" I replied as I caught the keys and put on my shoes.

"I have to stop to get something from the supermarket for lunch. Otherwise we'll go hungry after the tour!" "Dad," I whined, "why can't we just go to a restaurant or something?"

"Because we have to go get you fitted for a uniform right after that, remember?"

I grimaced. That's right, I thought, the school has uniforms. Pale yellow dresses, with white accents and a red little bow on the neck. They were definitely not my sort of dresses. "Do I have to wear one dad...?"

"Yes you do, unless the manual says otherwise, which it doesn't."

"Aw man… Okay, I'll go. But it's on our way home, you can drop me off and I'll do it. That way you can get to that business tea faster."

The school just so happened to be only 3 miles away from our quaint home by the scenic route. I grabbed my cell phone off of the bookshelf in the living room and also grabbed a couple books that I hadn't read yet. Once I stuffed the books in my bag and my cell in my pocket, I also grabbed my camera off the electronics desk we have and my sketch pad from the table in the dining room as well. After all, what a camera can't capture, a drawing can.

Once I had everything I needed, or what I thought I needed, I ran out to the car and started it. We didn't have a Rolls Royce or anything like that; in fact, when we moved, we brought our 2012 Chevy Malibu with us. Like I said earlier, we weren't into that whole 'we're rich let's get everything that's super expensive' thing. In fact, we sort of despised it. Either way, it left us more money for other things. Like scuba trips!

But that's off topic. Back to how I fell in love.

I started the car and went back inside. Dad had the hash browns on plates already and so I grabbed his bag and went back out to the car. I set down his bag by my feet and switched the radio over to CD. Though I love J-Pop, Maroon5 and Coldplay still hold a special place in my heart! When he got out to the car I was totally ready to go. I was completely prepared for the day ahead.

"Is that really what you're wearing to a school as classy as Ouran? Remember, there are going to be people there that you'll need to impress, perhaps no students today, but adults."

I realized my mistake and went back inside to change into a more formal summer dress; one with cherry blossoms crawling up the side.

I also decided that a regular ponytail was in no way suited for such an occasion, so I quickly did my hair. I needed to look good. Classy. Rich. And still casual in my attire.

Luckily, that didn't mean heels.