Chapter 1

A girl with no way out meets a boy whose whole life has been turned upside down.

I hate needles. I hate being poked. I hate taking tests. I hate hospitals. I don't like the way the heart monitoring machine beeps when I'm trying to sleep. I always find myself watched the little green line jump every time my heart beats.

I remember wishing that in the next second the line would go completely flat and the machine would give that distinct long beep. I would be gone, so I wouldn't have to be here anymore, hurting. I wouldn't have to take this pain anymore. After I was dead I wouldn't have to do through the pain of dying.

Then I looked over to my mom, the make-up she had put on that morning did nothing to cover the extremely dark circles underneath both of her eyes. It was the first time I had seen her sleeping in the last couple of weeks. The permanent tear streaks never left her face no matter how hard she tried to cover them.

I knew I didn't want to die, but I really had no choice. There wasn't anything I could do to fend off the cancer that was slowly eating its way through my body. I was slowly but surely killing myself and there was nothing I could so about it. The only thing I could do was lay here and watch them run their tests and try new medicines hoping that something would work.

Then I got the good news; I wasn't going to die. At least, not when I thought I was supposed to anyway. Whatever chemical concoction they had pumping into my through my IV had worked. I wouldn't be dying and I wasn't going to have to give up my entire lefts leg like my doctors had originally predicted.

My mother didn't cry that day, and for once I found myself genuinely happy. Happy to be alive.

6 months later

I stood there looking at the pictures my mother had lining the mantle in our living room in utter disgust. I don't know why my mom insists on keeping these pictures here for everyone to see. I hated having to see myself for what I was every time I walk from my room to the kitchen.

"Why do you keep these here?" I asked holding my hand out for the tie my mother was holding in her hand. She handed me the tie then walked around me to the mantle where the pictures were.

"I like these pictures of you," she replied.

"So you like seeing your son in a hospital bed hooked up the dozens of machines that monitored everything that went on in and out of his body." Shinji replied.

"You know that isn't what I mean." She said. Shinji say the twinge of hurt flash through her eyes and he immediately felt guilty. He didn't mean to say things that would hurt his mother but sometimes he couldn't control the side of him that was a sarcastic asshole.

"Yeah, I know." He replied as he secured the tie around his neck and fixed the collar of his uniform shirt. Once his tie was in place he was ready for the day ahead of him. It was his first day back to school in nearly two years, so everything had to be perfect. He couldn't afford one slip up now that he agreed to go along with this crazy idea that his mother had.

She had been wanting Shinji to return back to public school ever since he was released from his indefinite hospital stay with the blessing of his doctors to do so. Shinji placed his favorite hat on his head and turned it into a position that he found both cool and stylish.

"Are you trying to get in trouble on you first day?" my mother asked as she followed me out the door.

"If they ask me to remove my hat I'll just take it off." Shinji said as he slipped into the passenger's seat and closed the door behind me. He watched his mother walk around to the other side and got into the driver's seat.

"I can't drive myself you know." He said to her as she climbed into the driver's seat and pulled on her seat belt.

"I still don't think you should wear the hat Shinji." She said as she started the engine and back out of our driveway. He let out a sigh before sitting back against the seat. Shinji knew that he was very well capable to driving myself to school, but his mother blatantly refused to let him do so.

'My cancer had destroyed my bones not my ability to drive.' Shinji thought to himself leaning against the door and looking out the window.

"I won't get in trouble mom." I said to her finally.

"Alright," She said as she continued in the direction of the school. Shinji readjusted my hat on my head nervously trying to make sure it was perfect before he got out of the car. He pushed my fingers through his hair trying to make sure everything was perfect; everything had to be absolutely perfect.

"If you don't get out of the car you'll never make it through your first day back to school." She said in a soft voice.

"What if they don't like me?" I asked quietly.

"Then I'll put you in a box and ship you off to the North Pole where you don't have to worry about other people and what they think of you." She replied as she leaned over, she pushed the button and released my seat belt from its hold before moving to push me from the car.

"I changed my mind; I don't want to go back to regular school anymore." Shinji said as he leaned back against her trying to prevent her from pushing me out of the car. "Take me home." He demanded.

"After all we went through to get you enrolled in this school. You can't just flake out like that." She replied. She leaned forward even farther and gave one hard push forcing me from the car.

"Come on mom, please. I don't want to go anymore. Just take me back home and homeschool me like you did before." He begged.

"No way, you said you wanted to go back to regular school so that's where you're going." She said.

"I'm begging you to reconsider." He said bending down to get a glimpse of my mother who was still sitting in her car on the curb. She only smiled and shook her head again.

"You can beg all you want but I'm not going to change my mind." she said happily.

Shinji rolled his eyes as he reached into the car and grabbed his school bag that was filled with brand new school supplies he had just gotten the day before. He closed the door, turning on his feels to face the gigantic building that he was going to have to call his new school. He swung the book bag onto his narrow shoulders before pushing his hands into his pockets and heading into the building.

'Never thought I would be back in a place like this' He thought as he walked back and forth through the hallways desperately trying to find the classroom that I had been showed yesterday when he and his mother had visited the school to meet his teachers and principal.

Now the hallways were filled with people it was nearly impossible for him to find his way around in the unfamiliar building. All of the routes he mapped out in his mind the day before where all scrambled in his mind.

"Hirako Shinji, you wouldn't happen to be looking for my class would you?" asked the small brown haired woman that was standing near the door to a classroom, Shinji recognized the woman from the day before when he had been introduced to her while being shown around by the principle. Shinji was never the best with names but at least he could remember what he looked like.

"Uh yes I was." he replied as he walked over to the door that she was standing next to. The hallways were nearly empty so the classroom was nearly filled with students.

Shinji scanned the room quickly from where he was standing near the door. The classroom was nearly filled; the bell had just rang and now all of the students in the hallway were no filling into the classroom and taking their seats. Shinji took note of the fact that he looked a lot older than the rest of the students in his class. That's because he was; he hadn't been to a regular school in two years and instead of starting off at the university level like he was supposed to he had to redo his last two years of high school and pass the end of the year exams.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the rest of the classroom?" asked the teacher as she shut the door and moved to stand next to her desk.

"Uh, my name is Hirako, Shinji." He said with a bow to the rest of the class. There were some laughs from around the room, along with some comments about his hair and how skinny he was. He ducked away from the front of te classroom and took a seat in the first empty seat he could find.

"Excuse me, you're stepping on my bag." Said a loud voice to his left. Shinji looked over to see a small blonde girl standing next to his seat holding her bag in her hands. Sure Shinji looked older than the majority of the class but this girl looked like a preschooler compared to him, and her high pigtails weren't helping her look any more mature than she already did.

The strap of her pink duffle bag was stuck firmly underneath Shinji's foot. Shinji picked up his foot and moved it closer to his other one.

"Uh, sorry." He replied quickly looking away from her.

The girl picked up her bag and moved over to her seat, which wasn't that far from Shinji's. She sat down in the seat and slid the bag under her chair. Shinji couldn't help but stare at the little freckle faced girl sitting two rows away from him. She turned around and caught his eyes for a second before she quickly looked away and seemed to go back to whatever work the teacher was telling them to do.

'hmm, this might not be as bad as I thought it would.' Shinji thought to himself.