LOOK AT ME!

LOOK AT ME!

So I've COMPLETELY redone the first chapter of this story. I wasn't happy with, even after I fixed it the first time. So, hopefully, this one is better then the last one. I've added a little more background story to Allia, so its important that you reread. Well I don't want to take up too much of your time, so get to reading!

Disclaimer:I do not own anything Yu Yu Hakusho related, nor do I own anything by Yellowcard, though I must admit I wouldn't mind having either :)

Broken this fragile thing now, and I can't, I can't pick up the pieces. And I've thrown my words all around. But I can't, I can't give you a reason. (Yellowcard: Only One)

A small ray of sunshine shone through a tear in the flimsy curtains hanging over the tiny bedroom window. Its warm light danced around the room and across the face of a very petite, pretty girl. The girl twitched in her sleep and then rolled over, trying to escape the unwanted disturbance. Her long black hair was splayed across her pillows, a few strands dangling over the edge of the bed.

This girl is actually the protagonist of our story, and her name is Allia Sanders.

A clocked ticked from its place on a table beside her bed, signaling just how late in the morning it was becoming. And still the girl slept.

This was very out of character for Allia. She was the kind of person who craved routine. Her day was always planned out perfectly, and it was always the same. Breakfast, shower, and school during the day. Arcade, dinner, and homework at night. Allia almost never deviated from her schedule, unless her delinquent best friend Yusuke Urameshi forced her to. Allia swore that Fate was out to get her, and she needed her schedule to protect herself.

Ah, Fate. If the young Allia Sanders is the protagonist of our story, then Fate is our sadistic and ever-present antagonist.

Allia thought that she must have done something to Fate in another life, because there was no other reason it would be so against her. Even from the young age of five, Allia was terribly unlucky. Her fist memory was of waking up on the doorstep of a small orphanage. Her clothes were burnt in places and her skin and hair smelled like smoke. When the middle-aged woman who ran the orphanage found her, Fate saw to it that her rescue would not go smoothly. The woman did not speak any English, and Allia didn't understand a word of Japanese. Thankfully, Luck took pity on her that day. A young woman who went by the name Miss Robyn had just started work at the orphanage. Miss Robyn was American, and she was the only worker at the time who could understand what Allia was saying. Upon seeing the state the little girl was in, she gathered her in her arms and rushed Allia to the hospital. Fate did not stop there though. When asked about her parents or any other family in the area, Allia realized she couldn't remember anything besides her own name. Fearing something traumatic may have robbed the young girl of her family and her memories, Miss Robyn took Allia back to the orphanage, and that is where she had stayed until now.

Allia twitched in her sleep again, and burrowed her body deeper into the covers on her bed. By now, Allia should have been dressed and ready to meet her and Yusuke's friend Keiko for school. Instead, she was wrapped tightly in a ball under her covers, blissfully unaware of how late she was.

The reason for Allia's lateness was actually her best friend, Yusuke Urameshi. Allia and Yusuke had met when they were ten years old in a park near the orphanage Allia grew up in. After getting off to a rocky start, the two soon became best friends and had been inseparable since. That is, until a few months ago, when Yusuke took off with no other warning besides a quickly scribbled goodbye on the back of her grocery list. Allia had never been more pissed at Yusuke. She probably would have gone to hunt his ass down if not for the promise to call her when he got the chance written at the bottom of his note.

So Allia kept her faith in Yusuke, hoping Yusuke wouldn't break his promise. And he didn't. After a few months of being MIA, Yusuke called. Unfortunately, Fate saw that as the perfect time to attack. Because the orphanage Allia had lived in was so small, Miss Robyn had found a tiny apartment that Allia could stay in. As long as Allia kept her grades up and went to see Miss Robyn once a week, she was allowed to live on her own in the apartment. So on the night Yusuke called, Allia was no where near her home. She was at Miss Robyn's house, eating dinner with the woman she thought of as family, trying to keep her absent best friend off her mind. Yusuke left a message on Allia's answering machine, apologizing for running off without an explanation and promising her that he would see her soon. When Allia got home and heard the message, she barely resisted yanking the machine out of the wall and hurling it into the street. Since then, Allia had been staying up late each night, hoping that Yusuke would call again so she could finally speak to him. Finally, at almost three in the morning, Allia had crawled, defeated, into bed. And there she still laid, tangled in her covers, ignoring the soft ticking of her clock as the morning dragged on.

YYH*YYH*YYH*YYH

Yusuke Urameshi sighed loudly as he kicked a rock up along the sidewalk in front of him. He was going to be killed. And it wasn't even going to be by some big, ugly, power-hungry demon bent on world domination. No, the person to rid the world of the spirit detective was a short, black-haired girl with a temper that could outmatch Genkai's. Said girl also happened to be Yusuke's best friend.

"Not that I could blame her for wanting to kill me..." he muttered as he kicked the pebble even further up the street. Yusuke was one of the few people Allia really trusted. And he'd practically stomped that trust into the ground when he'd taken off to Genkai's temple, leaving Allia without anymore notice then a half-ass note he'd stuck to her fridge with one of those cheap plastic number magnets.

Yusuke sighed again. He could already tell; Allia was going to be extremely pissed at him.

He crossed the road over to the street that Allia's apartment was on, trying to come up with an excuse to where he'd been the last few months. He knew he couldn't tell Allia about Rando or the Four Saint Beasts. Not that she'd believe me anyway, he thought. Finally, he made it to Allia's apartment building. It was an older building with dirty walls and peeling paint on the doors. He let out one final sigh, and walked in.

Yusuke walked down the hall to Allia's front door. He turned the knob, knowing how often Allia forgot to lock it, and stepped inside. He was expecting to see her in her tiny kitchen with its bright yellow walls and tile floor, washing her dishes from breakfast before leaving for school. So he was very shocked to see her apartment still quiet and dark. Yusuke immediately tensed and crept further into the house, worried something was wrong.

"Al?" he whispered, his voice sounding loud in the silent room. Yusuke glanced into the kitchen and bathroom, trying to find his friend. Finally, heart pounding in his chest from worry, Yusuke swung the door open and walked into the bedroom.

One look into the room and Yusuke nearly passed out. There lay Allia, completely tangled in her covers with her hair fanning out around her in every direction, hugging the stuffing out of the body pillow he'd gotten her for her birthday. Yusuke was sure steam was coming out of his ears he was so mad. He'd thought something bad had happened! He reached forward to shake her awake, but stopped himself as his hand neared her shoulder. Why is she still asleep? He wondered. Allia practically worshiped the schedule she made for herself everyday. It was something Yusuke teased her about constantly. No matter how much he joked though, Allia almost always refused to not follow her routine. She was convinced something bad would happen to her if she didn't. Because of this, Allia was always up for school at the same time everyday. She would never sleep in this late. Shaking his head at his friend, (and also fearing her reaction to being late would mix with her anger towards him and cause an apocalypse) Yusuke walked over to her closet and pulled out her uniform and shoes. He carefully laid her uniform at the edge of her bed and set her shoes down on the floor. Yusuke then grabbed the alarm clock from the bedside table and set it to go off in a few minutes. After one final glance at his sleeping friend, Yusuke tiptoed out of the bedroom and headed towards the kitchen, hoping to find something Allia could eat for breakfast on the way to school.

YYH*YYH*YYH*YYH

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnn ngggg! Allia flew across the bed and slammed her hand down, silencing the maker of that atrocious noise. Grumbling, and rubbing her now sore hand, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"I do not want to go to school today..." she mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Today was going to be a bad day. Allia could just feel it, and her feelings had never been wrong before.

Fate, apparently, had decided that her bad day was going to start sooner then even she could imagine. As Allia slid off the bed, shivering a little as her bare feet touched the cold floor, she glanced at her clock. A tiny yelp escaped her lips as she realized just how late it was. School's starts in half an hour! Allia turned and went running towards her closet. As she ran her foot caught something, causing her to come crashing down on the floor. Swearing, she grabbed her sore toe and looked to see what she could have tripped over. There, laying on the floor beside her bed, was her school shoes. Allia reached over and picked one up. She was sure she hadn't left them there last night. Allia looked up at her bed. Hanging off the edge was the skirt for her school uniform. Allia picked herself up off the floor, grabbed her clothes, and ran into the bathroom to dress as quickly as possible.

Allia stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, trying to ignore her growling stomach. She knew there wouldn't be any time to grab some breakfast before leaving for school. As she made to grab her bag from her bedroom, a voice from the kitchen startled her.

"Damn Al, took you long enough." Allia froze. She knew that voice. She just hadn't heard it in months. Allia stepped into the kitchen, eyes wide, and saw her best friend, Yusuke, putting something back into her refrigerator. He turned around and handed her a small plastic bag.

"I made you breakfast. Come on, Keiko will kill us if were late."

YYH*YYH*YYH*YYH

Allia sighed as she sat down in her final class of the day. She felt so guilty. Yusuke had been kind enough to make sure she got to school on time, and yet she hadn't been even been able to muster up the courage to thank him. She was angry at Yusuke, but she was so happy to see him again. She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to scream at him or hug him. Allia sighed again as she flipped through the pages of her Algebra book. As she studied the page she realized with a small smile that she already knew this. Allia had made it a habit to try and be a lesson or two ahead in all her classes. That way, when Yusuke would drag her away to skip school with him for the day, she wouldn't fall behind. Allia covered a yawn with her hand. She looked up at her teacher. It wouldn't be so bad if I took a nap... she thought. She had stayed awake pretty late last night. She glanced at her teacher again, and then laid her head down onto the open pages of her text book...

Allia could hear giggling beside her ear. Damnit...I hope I'm not drooling.. she thought. Allia tried to sneakily wipe her mouth on the sleeve of her shirt. The laughter grew even louder. Sighing angrily at whoever was disturbing her nap, she slowly lifted her head up from the book she'd been using as a pillow. It was suffocatingly hot in the classroom. Allia looked around to the other students in the room. Those close to her were giggling and whispering to each other. A boy in front of her stood up, pointing towards the front of the room, and shouted "Kill them!" Laughter erupted from almost everyone in the classroom. Allia looked around the boy in bewilderment. What she saw, or more like who she saw, standing at the front of the classroom nearly made her heart stop beating.

Yusuke stood there, hands tied behind his back, his face shrouded in shadows. Three other boys were standing up there with him. One Allia recognized to be the boy Yusuke loved to torment, Kazuma Kuwabara. The other two, one of them tall with long red hair and the other extremely short with tall, spiky black hair, she had never seen before. All four of them just stood there silently as the student's shout of "Kill them! Kill them!" got even louder.

"It's frightening, isn't it?" A deep voice asked from behind her. Allia twisted around in her seat to see who had spoken. A chill ran down her spine as she looked at the man sitting in the desk behind her. His silver hair was covered in ash and Allia could smell smoke drifting off the man's clothes. He stared at her with blood red eyes, a tiny smirk forming on his face. Allia looked at the gruesome scar running from just under his eye to the bottom of his jaw. His smirk grew bigger as he reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Allia nearly yelped in pain as the searing heat from his fingers touched the sensitive skin behind her ear. He laughed at her.

"Sweet Spirit. How I wish I could see what you see," he whispered. He moved his hand over and gently ran his fingers down the side of her face. Allia gasped in pain as a burning sensation spread across her cheek. She made to jump out of her seat away from this man, but her foot caught on the leg of her desk, sending it and her toppling over onto the floor.

The sudden BANG! from the heavy metal desk hitting the floor caused Allia to jerk awake. A few of her classmates sitting around her jumped out of their seats to help lift her desk off the floor and gather her fallen books. Allia sat up and raised a shaking hand to her face. As she ran her fingers along her cheek where the man in her dream had touched her, she felt a burning pain shoot along her face.

"Ms. Sanders, are you alright?" Her teacher asked walking up to her. Allia swallowed the lump in her throat. She looked around the room. Every person in the room was staring at her. Some were trying to conceal their giggles, while others look at her with concern in their eyes. Allia took a deep, shaking breath, before grabbing her books from the student beside her, standing to her feet, and fleeing out the door.

I hope this version is better. Review and tell me what you think! See-ya! :)