Prologue – Counseling
Iroha opened the door to the guidance counselor's office. The guidance counselor, also known as her older sister and motherly figure, Luka. "Good morning, Iroha." She swiveled around in the dark leather chair and gestured to the fluffy couch on the opposite wall.
Iroha dropped her bag and plopped down onto the seat, smoothing out her black skirt. "I asked you to come up here for a reason, dear. Do you know why?"
The younger sister shrugged and looked out the window. "Please, tell me, Iroha." Luka sighed, picking up her glasses and wiping them with the sleeve of her black jacket. "No." Iroha finally said. "I don't know."
Luka smiled sadly. "That's exactly the problem, Iroha. Ever since we moved here, you haven't done anything. You haven't talked to anybody new, you haven't started any sports. I know that grades are important when moving to a new school, but you have to consider what life will be like without any friends."
Iroha shrugged. "Nobody would want to talk to me. You haven't been in high school for a while, Luka." She sighed. "Everybody meets up with their new friends and they group off, leaving a few extra clusters here and there."
"Okay," Luka sighed, adjusting her glasses on her nose. "Well than what cluster to you belong to?" Iroha looked at her black shoes. "I'm not in a cluster. I'm a free-rider." The guidance counselor tapped her chin. "Have you ever considered trying out for anything? Cheerleading? Volleyball? I know you loved sports when you went to middle school."
"Everything is different. I don't know anybody here. I've got too much on my plate. You don't understand – Meiko came with us. She's your friend. We left all my friends back home." Luka nodded and quickly sketched some things in Iroha's page in the student binder. "I see. Too much on your plate, you say? Well, do you feel like you need to get somethings off your chest?"
Iroha nodded shyly. "Yeah. But there's nobody to talk to here, you know?" Luka smiled and closed the binder.
"Well, sis, I think I have the perfect solution." She opened one of her cabinets to a space full of somewhat-thick black books. They were almost similar to composition notebooks, the kind she used in Science, only they were small in size and thicker in pages. Luka took one out and rolled it over in her hands.
"Iroha, I want you to write in this book everyday. It's a diary, tell it all your secrets." The student took her sister's book and cringed. "Luka, that's not what people do anymore. Nobody writes in diaries anymore."
"Except for you." Luka folded her arms. "I won't make you show me what you've written, as long as you tell me the truth – write in it. It may help you somehow." At that moment, the class bell rang and signaled the end of the day.
"I suppose you can start your entries tomorrow. I'll meet you near the front door in about ten minutes."