me: Hello guys! I've got this thing on my mind for a several weeks now...I just didn't have the time to encode it...So it's tragic story...please don't kill me if you hate it...flames are accepted but good reviews are better...

DISCLAIMER: Don't accuse me of claiming this anime mine 'coz...GAKUEN ALICE is NOT mine..got it?

CHAPTER 1

A Train of Memories

Mikan woke up from a dream she can hardly remember. She glanced at her alarm clock and found out that it's still 6 am. She figured out that she still got 1 hour to prepare for school. Too early, huh?

"(sigh) Maybe I can go for a morning walk today! It's really seldom that I wake up this early. And besides, I still have 1 hour before school..." she said to herself. Which reminds me of the word soliloquy--that means tang to oneself and therefore, the first stage of being crazy.

She undressed her pink pjs and quickly took a shower, and slipped her uniform on her. She walked out of her one-star room and while walking, she tried to recall everything that she had gone through...

She can still remember the very first time that she met her bestfriend, Hotaru. She had the same cold amethyst eyes that day but Mikan knew more than that≈she knew that beneath the inventor's composed face, beneath it is a hidden warmth that only few people can notice. Her journey to follow Hotaru was the one adventure that she couldn't forget, for it led her to a wonderful place: Alice Academy. And then she wondered, What would've happened to my life if I didn't follow Hotaru? She would be a person with no direction in life then┘she answered her own thoughts.

Her mind drifted to a school of alices, as she can still remember the pain and rejection when she first stayed in the academy. The feeling of being an outcast and her triumph to win her friends' sympathies. She had really gone through so much within a short period of time...

Reminiscing her past kept her busy until she came back to reality and realized that she already reached a certain tree-- a tree, which is one of her memorable spots in the academy. Most memorable, actually. It was the Sakura Tree.

Then there she saw a familiar raven-haired lad, sound asleep under the shade of the blossoming Sakura Tree. She remembered her every thought of the sleeping flame caster. The first time they met, the times they had helped each other, the time he had teased her and the time he made her smile.

Suddenly, Natsume stirred and woke up from his deep slumber. His eyes fluttered open as he revealed his fierce crimson orbs. No one can resist that stare, but fortunately, the cheerful nullifier can.

"Oi, what are you doing up this early?" he asked as he tried to put himself in a sitting position. The cheerful nullifier stepped back a little before she replied, "I woke up so early so I decided to have a morning walk," Then she sat down beside the kuro neko while he inched away from the brunette, pretending to be disgusted. "I already told you to stay away from me," he mumbled as he looked away to hide his blush. The tangerine-named girl pouted. "And I told you that I'll remain as your friend," she murmured that didn't escape the ears of Natsume Hyuuga.

But her cute, pouting face rapidly disappeared when a question she just wants to ask to anyone was lurking inside her head. "Natsume?" she said and glanced at the crimson-eyed boy beside her. He didn't respond. "What if..." she started, she was hesitating to ask him this question. He still didn't respond. ⌠What if I forget about my friends, this Academy, my grandpa, Hotaru-chan, my past and...you?" she finally said it. She was relieved to get it out of her mind. Someone can at last answer her. But in Natsume's part, he was rather scared that this is a sign of something┘ something terrible that will happen...SILENCE...

For the first time, the black cat did not know what to do or say. It was just too weird for the dense Mikan to ask a question as serious as that. "What made you ask that?" he quickly gave back a question to avoid answering. "Huh? What made me--Hmm...let's see...this morning I just overlooked at my life and discovered how colorful it was. But then I was curious if I never known or perhaps forgot everything about it, what would be the reactions of the people around me?" she explained. She's really become wiser. The first time he met her she was 10, and now she was 13. Yes, she's been through a lot of things, and rough time, maybe, she matured a little. I have to confess to her today... something must be bugging her. It would be better if she had someone to lean on...me... the ruby-eyed boy thought.

"NO...THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN..." he finally broke the silence. "Even though you're a baka you're not that stupid to easily forget your past and everything..."

Mikan pouted at the fact that Natsume called her a baka or stupid. But before another war will rage, the brunette remembered about the time. She looked at her watch and..."Oh no, I'm gonna be laaaaaaaaaaaate!!" she shouted from the top of her lungs and quickly bid goodbye to the bewildered raven-haired boy. He quickly grabbed her wrist and said, "Meet me here this afternoon...I've got something to tell you..."The auburn-haired girl had no time to think of an answer so she nodded and swiftly escaped Natsume's grasp. And that was the time when the poor kuro neko will ever see the optimistic side of Mikan Sakura...

Okay, I'm done with the first chapter...!! Watch out for the next one..I'm sure this will be exciting..credits to miraclewish68, Pau-chan...!! Yehey..natsumikan383 signing out...