Sunlight was pouring into the window, making me rather uncomfortable and warm under my light blanket. I rolled over to glare at the window before throwing off the blanket, burrowing into my sheets in only my underwear. Before I knew it, I was on the floor.
"Get the hell up, or you'll be late for school and mom will kick both of our asses." My brother said, looking down at me with a smirk on his face.
"Ugh! Fuck off." I mumbled, and rolled over and rubbed my face into the nice furry floor rug. I was nearly asleep when…
"You asked for it." He mumbled. Then I suddenly couldn't breathe. I tried to roll over, but found myself trapped with a pair of jeans in my face. I tried to wiggle out from whatever was on top of me, when it started to stink. Then I knew what he had done. He had straddled my waist and sat on my chest.
"Can't … BREATHE!" He shifted his weight on top of me to tease me, or possibly kill me. Let it be noted that my brother was 24 with dark brown hair and hazel blue eyes, 6'4 and 181 pounds. So he was killing me, no joke.
"Get off Kevin!" I choked out, trying to wiggle him off me.
"Oh I'm comfortable, thanks though." He said, sickly sweet although he was crushing my lungs.
"I'm awake!" I screamed, feeling my legs go numb after a minute.
"Good." He chirped, standing up to leave me panting and clutching at my chest. I glared at him.
"You could have killed me!" I screeched at him. He just smirked and ruffled my hair.
"But I didn't! You should be thankful to me." He said, looking serious. I looked at him with a, 'Are you effin' kidding me?' look.
"For nearly killing me, but not going through with it?' I asked incredulously, gaping at my half-brother.
"Exactly. Now get ready." He walked off. I groaned loudly at the ceiling. What a way to wake up, although it's how I woke up sometimes.
I walked to my dresser, snatching my hairbrush then pulling it roughly through my tangled brown hair. I looked at the mirror and pulled it even more roughly. My thin hair was dark brown and was right below my breasts.
My glaring blue eyes glared right back at me, showing just how pissed I was. When I saw that, I sighed to myself and reminded myself that Kevin woke me up in extreme ways every day and there was no reason to make a big deal out of something that would inevitably happen again.
Once I had parted my hair to the right and swept it over my shoulder, I went to my closet to get a tank top and jeans. I reached down to pull a regular black tank over my head, and then I slipped a yellow, halfway see-through, racerback tank top over it.
I then grabbed a pair of dark, size two, Aeropostale skinny jeans and pulled them on. I slipped on a pair of silver rhinestone sandals before grabbing my makeup bag and planting myself in front of my mirror. I was 5'7 and in skinny jeans, so it was a bit hard sitting down on the floor.
I swiped black liquid eyeliner on my eyes, starting thin on the outside then getting thicker towards the inside, so it made my eyes look more slanted, yet bigger and it brought out the blue. I dabbed on some really light foundation to match my super light skin. I then just put on some gloss and mascara.
I grabbed my Vera Bradley pink bookbag and put my phone, kindle, and laptop in it. I then put some food out for my cat Yuki and locked my door behind me. I glared at Kevin who just sat in the living room, watching TV.
I stomped my way into the kitchen and grabbed a banana and a bowl of rice my brother made for me. I grabbed a pair of black chopsticks out of the silverware drawer and walked back out of the living room, seeing him watching Family Guy. I sat down and started to eat.
"Why do you eat rice for breakfast?" He asked, pointing his stare at my bowl.
"It's good and healthy." I muttered, little pieces of food spewing out. He laughed at me.
Kevin was my half-brother by my mother. He had a different father. It was the same with my sister. We all had different fathers.
I pushed my way off of the couch and walked into my mother's room slowly. She was asleep with her machines whirring away. She had sleep apnea, to where she couldn't breathe when she was asleep.
Added onto that, she couldn't walk. She had gotten into a car wreck nine years ago, and has had seven surgeries since. She had also blown her knee out because during all the time that she couldn't walk and burn off calories, she had gained a lot of weight. I think I had seen her carted off to the hospital around five times or so now.
When she's awake, she's fine. It's just that sometimes lack of oxygen or lack of sleep can make her seem like she's drunk or something because her words start slurring and she will fall asleep.
I checked her oxygen machine and her other breathing machine, then made sure she had water. I walked out of my mother's room, and we nodded at each other and he and I went to drop me off at school.
"Hey, do you have any food?" Katrina asked me, poking my arm. I shrugged and pulled out a bag of high-chew that I had stuck in there the night before and handed it to her. She grinned widely and took four pieces and gave the bag back to me.
Before I put it back I offered some to Keanna and Carly, who were two of my friends, but not as that close like Katrina and I were. They took some with a smile and thanked me. I put the bag back and started slowly paying attention in my worst subject. Algebra.
Several times I would ask Katrina or Keanna, who were beside me, for help with problems I couldn't understand. Once Algebra was done, I was heading to my next class, when …
"Kara Yukimura to the front office please, Kara Yukimura to the front office please." The ladies voice came over the loudspeaker.
Katrina laughed in her hand while Keanna and Carly gave me friendly smiles and I made my way down the crowded halls to the front office. When I got there, the lady in the front office gave me a professional smile.
"Your step-father has come to pick you up." She gestured to the man behind me. I looked to see my father there, sitting very elegantly in a high class suit with expensive Italian shoes. His dark tanned skin, dark hair and dark slanted eyes contrasted with the grey colored Armani suit.
"I'm her father actually." He said sweetly, with barely a trace of his Japanese accent. The woman's eyes widened before she composed herself.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that she doesn't really look like you much." She covered, not realizing she was digging herself in a hole.
"Well, I guess that's true. But imagine if I had pale skin and blue eyes. Then we'd look very much alike." He pointed out, without a trace of the annoyance I knew he was feeling. He hated people making any negative comments about him, even indirectly.
The nameless woman's eyes widened again when she realized that she had been a bit racist, and her cheeks flushed.
'I think you need to buy a bigger shovel honey, because you're being buried alive.' I bitterly thought to myself. I'm glad I don't look like that pompous ass who I share my genes with. I knew the only reason he was here, and not in Japan, was he wanted me to do something for him.
"Oh, I'm sure you would. Yes, I see it now. It's only the skin color and the eyes color that throw me off really. She has your shape of eyes, and your nose, mouth, and bone structure are the same, I'm sorry." She babbled, obviously nervous in his foreboding presence.
He simply smiled at her, and then turned away after signing a piece of paper. He turned to me, his eyes cold.
"Grab what you need and then get in the car." He told me in Japanese, confusing the woman at the desk, before walking out the door. I glared at his back as he left.
I huffed, and then went to my English class. I knocked on the door before one of my classmates opened it. I went to my teacher, who was behind her desk and said,
"I'm checking out, so I need my work." She nodded, and gave me a piece of paper. I walked over to Selena, pretending to slowly grab my English book. One of my closest friends, Selena, sat right beside me, so I looked at her and grabbed her attention.
"I'm going with my dad. I don't know why." I whispered. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed a little before she nodded.
"Good luck." She whispered. I nodded and walked out of the classroom.
Selena was the only one I told the truth about my dad. That he owned one of the largest chains of casinos and game parlors in Japan. And that he was the one who sent me and my mother $2500 dollars a month. We would be homeless if he didn't because my mother couldn't work.
And that if I disobeyed him, he would pull the money away, and pull my mother's medical expenses, most likely killing her.
Even my mother never knew. Because he never told her. On my way to my doom awaiting me, I remembered the day he told me.
I had watched my mother blow her knee out. I had gotten so upset I ran out the door and into the woods after yelling to Kevin to go to mom. I sat between the trees, just holding back the tears. Watching my mom on the floor, with her knee bent backwards, her chest barely moving.
It wasn't until my sister came out into the woods and hefted me over her shoulder. She looked at my perfectly together face. I hadn't spilled a tear. But I knew that, on the inside, I was drowning in the tears that I held back.
"We have to go to the hospital." She simply said. I said nothing to her, too focused on keeping the tears back. Kevin drove me and Kaylee, to the hospital. Kaylee was crying, Kevin was trying his best to look tough, and I was emotionless.
"You don't need to hold it in." Kevin had said, minutes before we arrived to the hospital.
"I have to." I whispered.
"Why?" He pressed, looking at me, worried. He knew that the only times I was emotionless was when I felt very strong emotions. Like when I was very sad, or very mad, or very annoyed.
"Because she doesn't care about mom! If she did, then she'd show it!" Kaylee screamed at me. I simply looked at her, and then looked back to Kevin.
"Kaylee, shut up. You're making things worse, and making yourself seem like a bitch." Kevin snapped at her. She gawked at him, before huffing and returning to her crying.
We pulled into the parking lot. On my right, I noticed a sleek black Porsche parked near the front. I nearly screamed when I recognized it.
We were directed to a room where I saw my mother laying down with a thick mask pumping hair in her lungs, and there was a person beside her bed. When he saw us coming in, he turned to me.
"I need to talk to you outside." He said. I nodded and walked outside the room with him.
Once we were out of hearing range of the rest of my family, he turned to face me. I was shorter than him by over half a foot, considering he was 5'11, and I was only 13 years old.
"I've been supporting your family for about six years now. And I've come to the conclusion that I need your help, or I won't be able to help anymore." He told me, his voice deadpanned, not really caring.
"And what would that be?" I asked, my voice half sarcastic and half apprehensive. He smirked.
"I need you to do whatever I tell you. And if you don't, I'll pull my money away, and all of you will be on the street and your mother will die. And you can't tell anybody." He told me, simply uncaring.
I gaped at him. I was trying to comprehend in my head what he had just told me. So if I didn't do whatever he wanted … mom would die? And we'd all be homeless? So, I really had no choice. But why?
"And what's in it for you?" I snapped at him, but you could hear the panic in my voice. He turned his steely black eyes to me, having a barely polite facial expression.
"Because it's becoming more and more obvious that I only have you as the heir to my company. You are my only child. So you are my ticket to becoming more successful and carrying on my company when I die." He ground out, obviously not too pleased with the fact.
"Why can't you have any other children?" I asked, starting to panic. My head was starting to hurt.
"Because of a genetic disorder. It's a miracle I had you. And trust me; I've tried to have a proper Japanese child. It won't happen, so I'm doing with what I've got." He snapped, getting more irritated by the second.
"If you tell anyone about this, you will all be on your ass in the street faster than you can imagine. I'm giving you a phone. If I call, answer. If I text, answer. If you don't, you'll see what happens when I get mad." He threatened, placed a shiny IPhone in my hand, and then stalked off.
I watched him leave, then when he was out of sight, I felt my knees buckle. I slipped to the floor in a heap. My teeth started chattering and my body started shaking. My head felt heavy and I couldn't move.
"Nurse!"
After that, I never missed a call from him, or didn't answer a text from him. I never disobeyed him. He would come here sometimes, and when he was here, he would teach me etiquette. How to each, how to sit, how to stand, how to converse, etc.
I made my way to the school parking lot and slipped into the sleek black Porsche.
He drove without a word. We were halfway back to my house, until-
"You need to pack your bags. You're moving in with me." He stated without looking at me. I whipped my head around to look at him, but his face was emotionless, simply uncaring. It's times like this where I wish he was ugly.
If he was ugly, it'd be easier to hate him I guess. Or it would match his personality and be easier to deal with. His black hair was perfectly cut and glossy. His skin was tanned and flawless. His eyes were dark brown and mysterious. His body was finely built and his height was perfect. I hated that even though he was a monster, he didn't look like it.
"Why? Who's going to take care of mom?" I nearly screeched out of panic. He winced when my voice reached an impossible octave and he glared at me quickly.
"Kevin can take of your mother perfectly fine. I've already told your mother that I've found an opening at a prestigious school for you to go to. She agreed as long as you call her and Skype her once a week." He said, smirking a little.
Another thing is that he misguides my mother. He acts like a perfect, loving father who can't be there for his daughter, because of his work in Japan. But look how he holds her life in his hand, ready to crush it if I don't do what he says.
I feel the tears well up in my eyes. At least when he lived in Japan, could have freedom. If I move to Japan, then I'm screwed. He'll control my every action, and I'll be his damn puppet. But I forced my tears back, and changed the subject.
"Can I bring my cat?" I asked softly. He took a look at my face, and then thought about it before nodding. I breathed out a sigh of relief. At least I would have a piece of home with me.
We then pulled down my driveway. I got out of the car as fast as I could, then ran into my mom's room, to where I saw her talking with Kevin. She looked upset, but not as upset as she would be if she knew the truth.
I threw my arms around her big waist. She had long light brown hair that went down to her waist, and hazel blue eyes. My eyes were bright blue, and they could change in lighting to where they could look almost black. She had skin that was almost as pale as the moon, and she was 5'10 and weighed 280 pounds.
She put her hands on my back and rubbed them. She laughed in my ear. Oh, she wouldn't be laughing if she knew.
"It's okay. I know you've always wanted to go to Japan-"
As if.
"and this will be a great opportunity for you to get an amazing education. I'll miss you a lot, but it's an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity. We'll still talk to each other often, and even see each other on Skype. So don't worry." She comforted.
"Mmkay." I muttered into her shoulder. She held me at arm's length, and smiled at me.
"How about we go through all of your clothes and I'll help you pack." She chirped, excited (or pretending to be).
I leaned back even further into the leather seat in the airplane. He never said anything about leaving today until we had to leave to catch the flight.
Mom had cried and told me that I had better come down every Christmas, or she'd ground me for life and I had better call and Skype her at least once a week, or there'd be the same punishment.
Kevin hadn't gotten too upset, but he pulled me in a hug tight enough to nearly crush me, so I knew he was acting tough. He told me that he'd talk to me every time mom and I talked, and good luck with all those rich snobs, and to kick their ass if they looked at me funny.
Kaylee gave me a hug, and acted like she didn't care, and went on about how she'd finally have peace at home, but she shed a few tears on my way out the door.
Damn him.
Damn him to hell.
It was painful to watch them all hide their sadness just not to worry me. I looked behind me to see my father. Thank God he got us first class, because I had no one beside me, and he was sitting behind me, so he couldn't see my face.
I'm pretty sure he would snap at me if he saw the murderous look on my face. I can't believe that he took me away from my family for his own personal gain.
"Kara." He caught my attention, causing me to look at him, turning around in my seat.
"Yes?" I asked. He looked me in my eyes, not a trace of smugness, or gloating or anything.
"I own a chain of casinos which can get illegal at times. There is a boy at your new school, and he runs a club. I've offered you to be his secretary for the time being so that we can get in better with his family, which owns a police force." He said, completely serious.
I hated the 'we' part, but said nothing about it, and before he could say anything else to me, the light which indicated we could use electronics blinked green. I turned around, not really caring what else he wanted to say.
I pulled out my small Acer laptop and connected to the Wi-Fi on the plane. I then checked into my email account, and saw a new email from my friend.
Four years ago, in our history class, we had a project to where we would randomly choose pen-pals from all over the world. I got assigned to a girl in Japan, whose name was Haruhi Fujioka . She had told me that she took English language, and it was a project for her class so they could practice with real Americans. We had stayed connected throughout the project and became pretty good friends (or as close as one can be from never meeting face to face).
We had even stayed connected afterwards, and we still emailed each other on a weekly basis.
From: FancyFishHaru .jp:
Hello Kara. I'm still getting accustomed to this new club they forced me into. All of them are narcissistic rich bastards. It was only a vase. But three days ago, they decided I would become a host like them to pay off my debt faster, and they made me look like a boy entirely. It's not that I care, it's just weird. And they all figured out I was a girl. So, my problems aside, how are you doing?
I snickered quietly when I saw that. She had been telling me how some blonde idiot was trying to flirt with her (while he thought she was a he), and in her attempt to get away, she had broken an expensive vase, and they had made her into the errand boy.
I had told her everything about everything. She knew about my dad and mom, and everything that had happened in the past. I thought that since she was just a girl overseas, there was no harm. I smiled as I typed, because it was 6PM and a Friday right now, so it would be 8AM and Saturday over there, so she would be up.
From: MixedOokamiChickAY :
Hey Haru. Well, my dad picked me up at school from out of the blue and decided that I would be moving to Tokyo, Japan with him, going to an elite private school, and he signed me up to be a secretary for some rich asshole in some club. All so he can have more connections and have a legitimate heir to his company. Looks like we both are pretty screwed here, ne?
I clicked send. I looked out of the window, seeing us higher in the sky than I would have liked to see. I pulled down the little window cover, and pulled out my earphones. They were huge white Hi-Fi wireless headphones, but they were only $90, so I'll take the bulkiness any day.
I slipped them on, connecting them to my laptop, and clicked on a random playlist. I smiled widely when I heard Bad Apple by Ashe and Rockleetist.
Ashe: Ever on and on, I continue circling,
With nothing but my hate in a carousel of agony,
Till slowly I forget, and my heart starts vanishing,
And suddenly I see that I can't break free, I'm,
Rockleetist: Slipping through the cracks of a dark eternity
With nothing but my pain and the paralyzing agony
To tell me who I am, who I was,
Uncertainty enveloping my mind till I can't break free and,
Ashe: Maybe it's a dream, maybe nothing else is real,
But it wouldn't mean a thing if I told you how I feel,
So I'm tired of all the pain
Of the misery inside, and I wish that I could live
Feeling nothing but the night
Rockleetist: You can tell me what to say
You can tell me where to go
But I doubt that I would care,
And my heart would never know.
If I make another move, there'll be no more turning back,
Because everything will change,
And it all will fade to black.
Ashe: Will tomorrow ever come?
Will I make it through the night?
Will there ever be a place,
For the broken in the light?
Am I hurting, am I sad, should I stay or should I go?
I've forgotten how to tell,
Did I ever even know?
How honest to my feelings and life. I pulled off my headphones when I heard a beep, and I turned off the music, and checked to see an e-mail from Haruhi.
From: FancyFishHaru .jp:
Language. And seriously? That's crazy, because we're expecting an overseas student tomorrow, and Kyoya, (the guy who is basically in charge and is cold and serious) told us that the new student would be helping him with the Host Club activities, so we'd have a new member to the Host Club. I would guess that's you. Ask your dad if you're going to Ouran Academy.
I gaped at the computer screen. I suppose in a way this is good because I would get to see Haruhi every day, and I would already know someone at the school. But the way she describes the Host Club…
I would go mental in a matter of weeks. I turned my body to face the man behind me. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed that I was willing starting a conversation with him.
"Do you know the name of the school I'm going to?" I asked, expecting the worse.
"You're going to Ouran Academy as a first year, class 1-A. Why?" He asked, looking suspicious and confused. I forced my face not to change in the slightest.
"I wanted to look up information on the school." I replied before sitting back in my seat.
From: MixedOokamiChickAY :
Yep. It's confirmed. I'm officially screwed. I love you though.
I sent it, and ran my hands through my hair. So I would be stuck in the moronic club that Haruhi was in, and basically be a servant to the creepiest one?
Fuck my life.