Before I Graduate

12 year old Mikan Sakura scribbled into her sparkly pink journal with a furious passion and unwavering resolve. Beside her, a very bored Natsume Hyuuga looked on.

The school held its annual graduation ceremony just the day before. The elementary division had its usual affair of presenting certificates and flowers to each graduating senior, and in exchange, it was customary for the graduating seniors to present the younger ones with an Alice stone of their own. They would then hang the Alice stones on a large, ancient tree growing in the middle of the courtyard. This year, they did something a little different as well. Narumi suggested that the graduating seniors imparted their farewell wisdom to the rest of the school, and they hung the slips of paper together with their Alice stones on the tree. When the wind blew, their words rustled with the leaves.

And Mikan, being the emotionally charged girl she was, felt all sentimental and fascinated at the same time; her excitement boiling over the edge and bringing everyone down with her. That morning, she forced Natsume to accompany her while she visited the tree and tiptoed to read the words in amazement.

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

"You decide what kind of person you want to be and the memories you want to make."

"Hold on to the people around you well. You'll need them."

All the words on the tree have inspired her to make up her own as well. She boldly exclaimed yesterday afternoon that she would come out with a list of all the things she wanted to achieve before she graduated and that everyone else should do the same. Needless to say, her passion was unrequited. But she kept at it on her own and had been writing ever since.

He watched her and her furious ambition leaking across the pages and wondered, just how many things did she want to do? How would she know what she wanted?

"You've been writing non-stop for a day. Be realistic, Polka. You can't possibly achieve everything in your book."

That made her pause and look up at him, a frown across her face.

"You don't know about that." She replied defiantly, her grip on the pencil tightening.

"I know for a fact that the possibility of you establishing friendly relations with Mr. Bear is almost zero. That thing hates anything that moves." Natsume retorted, pointing at #94. Mikan stuck out her tongue.

"You're wrong. I can feel it. Mr Bear and I are on our way to becoming BFFs. A few days ago, we came across each other and he didn't try to attack me! I mean, he was probably thinking about it in his head. But still. That's a huuuge step forward."

Natsume scoffed at her list of silly, childish dreams. "Whatever. You need to get your head back in reality. Are you forgetting that we are supposed to have a test tomorrow, first thing in the morning?"

"I know, I know. Stop trying to remind me! Ugh, you are such a wet blanket."

"Why are you so obsessed about this anyway? You're not graduating till a couple more years. You don't need to have everything listed down as if there's a deadline to come up with this useless stuff."

"But I can start working towards them now. I decided to make at least a hundred points and to start on them as soon as possible." She declared, firm and hopeful.

She threw him a thoughtful glance.

"Natsume, what about you? What's something that you want to do before you graduate?"

"…I just want to graduate."

"That can't be it. Surely you must have something you want to at least try doing."

"I, for one, won't know if I can last till then." His voice was a quiet mutter, and she froze.

Natsume immediately regretted what he had just said, because he knew that his life-shortening Alice was a touchy matter. His situation had gotten a lot better from when he was younger, and there were days that Natsume actually forgot about his condition, and he was happy – just a little, maybe, but lately moments like these had been increasing in number – that he was alive and doing well and may actually live a normal life. But then a day would come along where he would wake up in the morning in such pain and agony that he just had to accept that this part of him was something he could never change. He'd have to live with it.

When Narumi finally decided to tell his closest friends in Class B and had gathered them into a room, everyone had been teary and gloomy and sad. Sumire immediately broke out into a sob with Anna, and the muffled solemn silence hung in the room, suffocating them all. The only people that didn't seem to react much was Ruka, who already knew, and Hotaru, who probably always had her suspicions. Surprisingly, Mikan had stayed calm as well, when he had expected her to burst out in tears immediately. But the hardened look of anguish she gave him was all he needed to know that she, somehow, had known all along.

Sure enough, her face fell, and she began to fidget with her pencil, even though what he said was the truth, and partially why he had always hated the thought of graduating. It was because he might not have the chance to.

Why make a list if you might not be around for graduating anyway?

"That's not true," she tried to protest. "Hotaru told me they found a new drug for people like you and it's working well. You've been taking them, right? Haven't you been feeling a lot better lately?"

"Yeah, but those are just experimental. Never know if they're going to work forever." Natsume shrugged.

"They will work."

"Maybe."

"I know for a fact that they will."

"You can't be so sure."

"I am SURE they will! They must! If not… If not, I'll refuse to graduate." She suddenly dropped her pencil, and with an air of determination around her she shut her journal.

Natsume lifted his eyebrows. "That's not how it works. They'll just kick you out when the time comes. But you know, with the rate you're going with your grades, that may actually come true soon."

"That's getting expelled, not graduating."

Natsume didn't know if should feel slightly touched or be amused at her child-like defiance.

"Okay, suit yourself. Just don't come crying to my grave when you're old and alone and jobless."

But there was no witty comeback. Instead, brown meets red as she stared at him in the same hardened expression she had on the day.

"Why do you keep saying that? You say that one more time, Natsume Hyuuga, and I swear I am going to follow you everywhere for the rest of your life and nullify you every time you try to use your Alice."

Actually, the offer was tempting, but Natsume just gave his usual shrug. She hastily flipped through the pages in her journal again.

"Besides, I won't be old and alone. See here? Point 97. Keep all my friends from Gakuen Alice close by my side for the rest of my life. And I'm sure Hotaru will have a room for me."

"I actually doubt that."

"She's not that cruel. I think? Ok, but plan B here," she pointed at number 3 on her list. Find love. "is that I will find someone who will hopefully be willing to take care of me. There! I won't have to starve." She said this almost matter-of-factly.

This time, Natsume was the one who sat up straight.

"Your plan is to just leech off someone for the rest of your life? Unbelievable."

"If I don't graduate, what choice do I have? Actually, now that you mention, there isn't really a market for the Nullification Alice. I may end up broke even after graduating. Maybe my plan B should become plan A?" She tilted her head to the side, spinning her pencil, and Natsume could not believe she was suddenly so forward-looking. But he was also surprised at how right she was.

"That's it." He declared in a moment of clarity. "You just gave me all the motivation I needed." He turned to look at her, a smirk across his face. "I am going to graduate. I'd better. And you better make sure that I do."

"Really? That's great!" She beamed at him excitedly. "Okay, I promise I'll try my best to make sure that I can graduate with decent grades for a job. We're not going to be homeless and penniless." She paused. "But that shouldn't be a problem for you though. I bet you can be successful even without your Alice." She sighed and took her pencil to paper again.

#98. Get out of math remedial for once.

"You said I am motivational, right? Maybe I'll become a motivational speaker!" She laughed, and Natsume thought that maybe she really could. The rays of the sunset gently painted the back of her hair so that it shone with hints of gold. She lights up his world, he thought.

"I guess that makes number 97 highly achievable, now that you decided you want to stay."

He sneered. "Number 97 was basically a success from the start, if you know the right way." He breathes, his voice low and anticipating.

"Really? What way?" She asked with those innocent eyes of hers.

"We just need to become more than friends."

She blinked twice and he felt the air around him freeze, even with a Fire Alice.

"You mean like family?" She gasped at the realisation.

Natsume almost threw up his hands in frustration. But he realised that in some ways, what she said was true. A little too far ahead, but still true. Amazingly, he didn't know if she was really stupid to not get something so obvious, or actually being accidentally smart.

"I guess you can put it that way." Eventually, at least. She was just highly unpredictable, but in a way that often amazed him. She had already written it down.

#99. Treasure my family.

Just one more point left. But Mikan hesitated, her pencil dangling in mid-air. Then she pushed her journal and pencil towards him. "I'll let you have number 100."

Her eager eyes bored into him, watching and waiting for him to make a move, while Natsume stared at the final line incredulously. "I don't need it." He decided, with the same air of superiority around him that made Mikan roll her eyes.

#100. I want to graduate and make sure that I have a better paying job than Imai. – Natsume

"Woah, that's bold! Are you that competitive?" She held up her journal and inspected his penmanship – neat and evenly spaced, unlike her rounded slightly slanted scrawl.

"Yup. It's my plan C." He grinned.

You can leech on me all you want.

I must be really mad to be able to churn out 2 random stories within 3 days, ignoring 2 assignments along the way. And they're both nostalgia-based stories. Maybe it's because I realised a few days ago that I started writing this when I was just 15 and still a foolish child but suddenly, I'm already in college. Time really flies past, and SO much have changed in the span of a few years, for better or for worse. But I guess I quite liked writing these stories of when N & M were younger and more carefree, because I do miss being a child.