Chapter 1

Tears streaming down her cheeks Gumi screamed out for her father.

"Daddy! Daddy! Where are you going?" Chasing after him, following the teal brief case he had been holding. Running as fast as her legs could take her with each step. Finally reaching her dad she clung onto his leg holding on tightly, if she let go the loss would be unbearable.

"Can someone get this little girl off him!" Bellowed a tall lean man that she did not recognize, infact she did not know any of the men her father was going off with.

"Don't touch her! Dont touch her...please she's my daughter." Her father pleaded crouching down to hold her. "At least let me talk to her before I go." He begged. Scowling down at him the man nodded.

"You have two minutes." He agreed to before walking off.

"Daddy what is the meaning of this? Whats going on?" She asked begging for an answer. Patting her on the head he gave her a reassuring hug and smiled. Then in his usual soothing tone he calmly murmured to her as to not allow the other men on patrol to hear him.

"Its all right, I'll be back soon so stay here and be a good girl for mommy okay?" Staring down at the ground she balled her hands up into fists.

"Dad, it's not good to lie." Immediately her dad was silent and the atmosphere around them darkened, further than it already had.

"Why?" She asked eyes pleading and full of concern. "Why are you going with them? Why are you telling me it's going to be all right?"

"Gumi..." Her dad breathed with a gloomy sigh.

"Aren't you supposed to be with us!" She screamed abruptly shooting her fists out at him, slamming them against his chest.

"I'm not lying, I will be back and when I come back we'll have fun again okay?" He promised taking her hand in his, being able to just sputter out the words with a pained expression, but she couldn't hear the last bit of what he said because it was replaced by an obnoxious tapping sound.

"Hey...where'd you go? Snap out of it!" Returning from her dazed state Gumi looked up from her latte. She regained awareness of her surroundings as they unblurred.

"Were you even listening?" Her mother complained setting a frying pan down in the sink.

"Uhh...sure" She replied obviously still dazed. Narrowing her eyebrows her mother shot her a look of concern.

"You know, you've been a little out of it lately...is everything all right? Honestly spacing out left and right it's a real problem for me."

Picking at her eggs and giving her latte a sideways glance, she shrugged off her moms question.

"Sorry I stayed up late last night."

"Really?"

"Yeah really." Flashing a warm smile at her mother. "Don't worry nothing to trouble yourself about."

"Okay." Her mother cheerfully stated, obviously satisfied with her answer. "Eat all your food quickly else you'll be late."

Suddenly her cell began to ring, blaring a nonchalantly familiar ringtone. Mikuo she thought, he was always calling her whenever she was late. However she didn't bother to answer shoving the rest of her breakfast into her mouth, tugging on her nearby backpack and heading out the door. When she arrived at school, she rushed into a building.

Silently, she crouched and snuck into class thinking she could just slip into her desk.

"How nice of you to join us Miss Megpoid, so whats your excuse this morning?"

Almost every morning of school she was late. Which was just about everyday, and if not everyday, every other day. Which is why Mikuo got into the routine of being her morning wake up call and attendance enforcer.

It's not that she was lazy and slept in often. She just hated school, the thought of being in a place where she had to sit all day and take notes appalled her. Though there were tons of good reasons to go to school she always found herself uninterested, and along the road gave up trying to get interested. So naturally she was late.

Caught red handed, she felt the gaze of all her classmates on her, their looks similar to daggers. Tired of her constant lateness and interruptance of lessons. Slowly she stood up but dared not to take a step towards her teacher or her desk. Clearing her throat, she spoke.

"Well," she began voice only slightly trembling "I slept in." Mentally she screamed at herself for the weak excuse hoping the punishment wouldn't be too severe.

"Sleeping in? Well, aren't you a star! Having such a wonderful privilege as sleeping in while the rest of us have to come in and get an education." Walking over to his desk Mr. Walker grabbed a pail and tossed it to her.

"Well, Miss i'm too important to be in class on time, why don't you go fetch some water and bring it back." Trying not to shoot a death glare, she picked up the pail.

"Of course sir, with pleasure." She stated maybe a bit too sarcastically which he picked up.

"In fact get three." He added smiling sweetly.

"Yes, sir." On her way out of the classroom, it took all her willpower not to slam the door.

"Damn geezer." She mumbled "He's lucky I even showed up for his crappy lessons." Definitely failing at not slamming the classroom door on her way out.