"Tohru, get up. We don't want to be late for school" I poked the sleeping girl awake, smiling when she jumped up.
Hello, my name is Amanda Cho. I'm Japanese American, mom was Japanese, and dad was some hot American just passing through. I just called him my sperm donor. Anyway, I live in a tent with my best friend Tohru Honda. Sound's kinda strange right? Two sixteen year old's living on their own in a tent? But its only temporary, for Tohru at least. Her mom died last May, I had been living with them at the time, so we moved into Grandpa Honda's house. Her dad's dad. But then some of her dad's relative's were moving in, and the house needed renovation's. So we told him we could stay with some friends while we moved into our cool little baccalaureate pad. AKA, the little yellow tent that can barely fit one person let alone two.
I crawled out of the tent, holding my book bag so that no grass got caught on it, and said a quiet goodbye to the little picture of Kyoko, Tohru's mom and an amazing woman. She took me in when I really needed it most, so I had made a promise to always look after Tohru to the best of my abilities. Tohru said her goodbye's and crawled out next to me, shielding her eyes from the bright sun.
"Its still early Mandy, let's look around" She smiled brightly, her brown eyes twinkling. I could never say no to that face. And believe me, I've tried.
So I looped my arm through her's and blew a strand of blue hair out of my face, yes, blue hair. I dyed the strands framing my face the same deep blue as my eyes. The rest of my hair was a pale blonde, those were the only two things that I inherited from my S.D., sperm donor. Tohru lead me down a path that I'd never seen before, there was a huge house a little way threw the tree's.
"What a pretty house." Murmured Tohru, she took a well worn path down to the mansion.
"Yeah" I said, following her. "Whoever lives here must be loaded."
I rested a hand on her arm, leaning around her to look at what caught her attention. They were small figurines, of the twelve zodiac animal's.
"Awe. . . how cute" she smiled
"Mhm, but look. . ." I scanned over them, "No cat, bummer."
"How rare" A mans voice said, "There are two girl's here? And high school student's no less"
I squeaked, jumping back. The man was wearing a nice kimono, one meant for lazing around and relaxing. Which looked like what he meant to do, he had an unfolded newspaper in his hands. And while I was examining the obvious owner of the house, Tohru was apologizing.
"He-Hello! I'm sorry we were looking around without your permission!" She spazzed, blushing crazily.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Down girl, no need to panic."
"Quite right," he said, "You can look if you want, I only put them out for some sunshine"
How. . . strange. But everyone had their own oddities, mine was animals. I wanted to be a vet when I get my diploma.
"Young people like you would think its boring." He smiled down at us.
Young people. . . he couldn't be that old, he was so handsome. I reached out to touch the dog ornament with the tip of my finger, I was born in the year of the dog, just like Tohru.
"Oh no, the twelve animal ornaments are very cute!" Tohru said blushing.
I nodded my agreement," Yup, but you're missing one" I said placing a hand on my hip.
"Oh really?" He seemed genuinely confused, "And which one would that be?"
"You, sir, are missing the cat" I said, tapping the button on my bag with an orange tabby on it. "The cat always seems to be getting left out don't you think?"
He looked surprised that we would know about the cat, "Cat? Ah. . . you have never. . . heard of the story about the cat in the twelve animal zodiac?"
"Yeah. . ." Tohru beamed, "Mom used to tell me the story"
I smiled sadly and put a hand on her head, this was before I had moved in with Tohru and Kyoko.
God told the animal's, "Tomorrow I'll invite you to my banquette. You must not be late" After
hearing the new's the rat, who loved practical joke's, told its neighbor, the cat, that
the date of the banquette was the day after tomorrow.
On that day, the rat jumped off of the ox. He had ridden on his back the whole way.
He went in first, and then came the Ox, and then came
the Tiger and everyone else. The celebration lasted until the next
morning, everyone having fun, accept the deceived cat.
"And so I told her, ' I'm going to be a cat!', that's how much I like cat's" Tohru finished.
"Oh?" He murmured, "If the guy found, out how would her react?" he said the last part so quietly I barely heard him.
"What?" I asked, slightly confused.
"~Nothing~" He sang, "So you're a year of the dog?" He looked at me, "Then what are you?"
I smiled, wiping some blue hair out of my face. "Me? I'm a year of the Dog, which kinda sucks considering how much I like cats"
He grinned at us both, "So you're sign is a dog right?" He leaned in closer, "No wonder I feel so close to you, don't you? Because I am also a dog-"
I was about to pull Tohru closer to me when a book bag whacked him on the back of the head, "Hey. . ."
"You look more like a pedophile like this" Yuki Sohma said, standing there in all his princely glory, "Shame on you, moving closer and closer."
"It hurts!" He whined, like a kicked puppy, "What did you put in your book-bag, a dictionary or a porcelain bowl?"
"Mmm two dictionaries" He murmured, then he smiled down at us,"Miss Honda Miss Cho, are you okay? I hope my cousin didn't do anything weird."
Tohru was ramrod stiff in shock, "Y-Yuki! Good morning!"
I smiled at our school's royalty, "Hey Yuki, good morning"
He smiled at us again, "Good morning"
The man stood up rubbing his head," I'm Shigure Sohma, Yuki's cousin"
Tohru and I bowed,"How are you, I am Tohru Honda"
"And I'm Amanda Cho, I'm happy to meet a member of the Mysterious Yuki's family" I grinned, Yuki ignored this.
"Miss Honda, Miss Cho." Yuki asked, "Why are you here?"
Tohru blushed, not expecting this question. How does one say 'I live in a tent' nicely? Oh yeah, one doesn't. So, I answered for her.
"We live near by" I waved my hand vaguely, catching a look at my watch in the same movement,"Oh, Tohru, we're going to be late if we don't leave now"
I smiled and made polite conversation while we walked, Tohru was too flustered to speak. I caught a glimpse of the Yuki Sohma Fan Club. Uh-oh, we were going to catch shit when we got to school. Damn.
~LINE BREAK~
"Tohru Honda and Amanda Cho! What happened this morning?"
Sure enough, here they were. I stood in front of Tohru with my arms crossed over my chest, "Back off, he saw us walking alone this morning and joined us. It was a coincidence, got it?"
"If you can use the word 'Coincidence' why do we need detective's?" The leader shouted at us, her little lackeys adding in their two cent's,"Don't think just because Yuki was nice to you, you can think highly of yourself. . .WAHT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE?"
Tohru was shaking her head in denial desperately, I was about to tell them to shove it when a low female voice came from behind us.
"Hey. . ." Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima were there, "Didn't they say it was a coincidence? You don't need to keep making a fool out of yourself"
"Why should I?" Leader Girl bristled, "Look who's interrupting this!"
Saki looked darkly, "Let's use the Poisonous Electric Pulse Attack. . ." She's psychic.
The girls sprinted off down the hall way, making me grin at the goth girl, "You're awesome, you know that?"
She smiled at me before turning her attention to Tohru, Arisa had already pulled the girl into her arms. Both girls had a major soft spot for Tohru, I thought of them as her impromptu parent's. Which made sense, they knew her before I did. I had come into the scene not long after Saki. Tohru had sorta. . . adopted us, you could say.
"What a meaningless problem. . ." Arisa sighed, "Hana, don't really use the Electric Pulse."
~LINE BREAK~
All four of us had Home Economics together, so Tohru told them about this morning. The much edited version.
"Yuki is so charming, he makes my heart race and my face red" She sighed.
I chuckled, chopping up some cucumber, "I did most of the talking, he doesn't seem so bad. Really polite, but not in a standoffish way."
"I. . ." Saki put her knife away, "Can feel some mysterious electric signal's coming from him"
"Here come's Hana's electric waves again" Arisa rested her chin on her hand.
"Is it really that intriguing?" Asked Tohru innocently.
"I'm not very sure myself. . ." Said Saki.
"A while ago, there was a second year girl wanting to show him her feeling's. When she went to hug him. . ." Arisa paused, "He pushed her away and scared her"
I put my knife away,"Maybe, he doesn't like to be touched? What would you do, Arisa, if some boy you barely knew went to hug you?"
She'd probably nail him in his soft parts with her lead pipe. Yeah, she has one of them stashed in her room.
Tohru, Arisa, and Saki spoke for a bit more before the teacher came over to check on us
"You four, don't use your mouth and not your hands. . ." She saw the clearly set out food, "Wha. . . how. . ."
"Stupid! It's already cooked, the octopus too" Arisa said in a 'duh!' voice.
"How can you feel so good? Miss Honda and Miss Cho made everything!"She ranted
"The rice is also done" Saki said.
Arisa waited until the teacher walked away before asking us about shopping with her and Saki, I shook my head as Tohru spoke. I had to work, I worked at a small bakery/cafe making sweet's and the like.
"You still living with your father's relative's?" Arisa asked us.
I let Tohru deal with that one, I suck at telling lies.
School went by quickly, I worried about Tohru all through work, and was exhausted by the time I stumbled through the tent flap. Tohru arrived not long after.
"I'm home Mandy, mom. I really want to sleep, but I have so much homework to do. I'll just go wash my face to wake up" She grabbed a rag.
"Oh, Tohru, please be careful-" She froze mid way through the tent entrance, "Tohru-?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
I peeked my head out, Yuki and his cousin Shigure were standing outside the tent gawking at us. Well. . . Yuki looked politely confused, and Shigure started laughing even harder when I came into view.
"Oh dear," I sighed, "Look's like we've been outed, huh, Tohru?"