Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
A voice murmured from beneath the blue bed covers. The covers fidgeted and a slender feminine hand emerged, then continued to extended over towards the still beeping Samsung mobile on the bed side table. It tapped around and finally found the phone, picking it up and pulling it under the covers. The alarm stopped beeping.
"Ahh! Shit!" A voice suddenly called.
The covers suddenly slung back to reveal the young girl. She quickly jumped up and out of the double bed entangling herself in the bedding and falling face first onto the cream carpet with an almighty thud!
"Kairi? Kairi are you okay?" was shouted from downstairs.
"Yeah Mum, just fell over!" She replied whilst freeing herself.
Kairi stumbled back to her feet and staggered to her wardrobe. She began grabbing clothes from hangers and throwing them over her shoulders, she quickly struggled into her blue and white sailor styled uniform with knee high socks.
Once dressed, she rushed and crashed into her vanity unit, knocking several of the neatly lined nail polishes onto the floor. Looking in the mirror the cat ears from the night before were non-existent, instead human ears replaced them but the chained ear cuff remained. She briskly brushed her hair into a neat style covering the earring and checked her face complexion. As satisfied as possible she grabs her school satchel and phone then fleetingly leaves the now untidy room.
She rushes down the staircase almost missing them completely and heads straight towards the front door.
"Breakfast is on the table dear" Her mother called from the kitchen.
She pauses and changes direction, speed walking into the dining room. A plate with two slices of buttered toast and a glass of milk sat waiting at one of the dining places. She guzzled down the milk and grabbed a slice of toast.
"Thank-you for the breakfast Mum" she called through.
Returning to the entrance hall with the toast in her mouth, she proceeded to put on her black outdoor shoes. Finally she double checks her bag for everything she'll need for the day ahead.
"I'm leaving!" She shouts throughout the house and rushes out the door.
A small classroom with desks for 25 students was crammed full before the homeroom period. The bell rung and a third of the students left to return to their own classrooms and the rest moved and settled into the once empty seats. And short middle-aged woman entered through the sliding doors carrying several folders and books. Her sleek brown hair was tied into a scruffy high pony tail. She wore a black pencil skirt with a purple ruffled blouse and black high heels as a futile effort to look taller.
"Okay, good morning class, first I'll take attendance" She stated as she moved behind the teacher's desk at the front of the room.
Placing the folders down she scanned the classroom counting the number of students currently seated.
"Two students not accounted for. Rika Taiyo has been signed in as absent for the day, which means..."
Before she could even finish her sentence the door flung open and an exhausted Kairi stood supporting herself against the door frame. Taking long deep breaths she could barely string a sentence together. The teacher stood looking at this familiar sight.
"Nice of you to join us today Sakamoto-san, catch your breath and retire to your seat, and next time please try to be on time"
The class giggled amongst themselves, whilst Kairi sluggishly pulled herself to her seat. She dropped into her chair and laid her head on the desk, luckily her embarrassment was hidden by her already flushed cheeks.
The bell rang for the afternoon break, Kairi remained asleep at her desk with her Mathematics textbook strategically balanced upright and open hiding her from view.
"Kairi-chan, you don't want to sleep through lunch too, do you?" The young girl shook Kairi's shoulder in an attempt to wake her.
Kairi stirred and stretched across her desk, her outstretched arms knocked the book and her pencil case onto the floor with a clatter. She leisurely sat up and wiped her tired eyes, then peered at the girl who was kneeling to pick the stuff up. She was a little shorter then Kairi with a brown bob cut, and wore the same sailor uniform.
"Sorry Ami-chan, I didn't sleep well at all last night and am so tired" she said with a yawn.
"That's okay, it's not your fault." She replied returning the things to their place on the desk. "What've you got for lunch today?"
Kairi's eyes suddenly widened, she was fully awake now, she grasped her bag and began rifling through. She finally stopped and pulled out a small black leather purse which was bulging.
"Left in a rush so it's bread for me!" she replied with a large grin across her face.
"Better hurry or all the good stuff will be gone!" Ami exclaimed as Kairi tottered onto her feet and rushed out the door and into the corridor.
The final bell of the day rang and each student packed away their class items then filed out of the classroom in a hurry. Ami walked over to Kairi who was lazily packing her stuff away.
"Are you taking the train home today?" She enquired.
Kairi closed her satchel and swivelled on her chair to face Ami.
"Sorry Ami-chan, I know I promised to study around yours but I'm the classroom moniter, and I've got to go to the bookstore" she replied apologetically.
"Oh… Okay… I'll go ahead then, see you Monday. Oh and don't be late, Miss Yamashita will snap one day" Ami sounded down heartened, and then walked out of the classroom.
Kairi watched as Ami left, and sighed. She stood up and collected all the textbooks which were left on the desks, counting them on the way and then placed them onto the teacher desk. She then turned her attention to the chalkboard which was covered in quotes from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet for English Literature studies. She took the chalk duster and began vigorously wiping all the chalked on quotes from the board. She stopped and read;
"Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- it's everything except what it is!" (Act 1, scene 1)
"I wonder if love is even worth it if, it just throws you around and confuses your mind...?" She unconsciously questioned out loud.
There was a clatter in the hall way which suddenly drew her away from the board, and she sensed a niggling feeling that someone or something was watching her. She sneaked over to the door chalk duster in hand, silently grasped the indented handle, paused, then flung the door open and jumped into the corridor raising the chalk duster ready to throw. It was empty. After checking both directions she rushed back inside quickly finished cleaning and swiftly left for the bookstore as the niggling feeling remained.
"Okay, Thank-you" The automatic doors from the bookstore opened and Kairi emerged carrying a brown paper bag which contained 2 cookbooks, a rather large heavy revision book, and 3 manga books.
Now early evening the sun had begun it's decent behind the taller buildings of inner city creating a warm glow with an increasingly chilling breeze.
Walking down the main street Kairi found herself constantly readjusting the bag in her arms as they got weary. With the ever moving crowds she weaved through the intervals of people quickly, occasionally miss judging the gap and bumping into people.
The crowds began to thin as she got further from the city centre, she got to the largest park and took a short cut through attempting to cut her journey by at least 15 minutes.
She was walking behind a couple who were going slowly due their two young children, losing the feeling in her arms she wanted to quicken her pace. She dodged blindly around the edge of the family and walked head first into a group of delinquents and fell back into mud, the paper bag ripped causing the books to sprawl over the floor.
"Aww, the nerd fell over" the apparent leader of the group mocked, the rest laughed along. They had an obvious disregard to other people and their belongings.
Kairi decided to not talk back and began to pick up the books; her actions were obviously to their disliking as one stood on the heavy revision book as she reached for it. In disbelief of their actions she snapped. Grabbing his ankle she squeezed, he yelped in pain and lurched backwards from reach and hovered the foot above the floor.
The others laughed at him. She rested all the books upon each other, then placed her bag next to them and stood up, she then began trying to wipe the mud from her clothing. The leader walked towards her and slowly circled, she followed his every step. He captured and clasped the back of her hair in one hand and pulled backwards, she grimaced and reached her hands to the back of her head.
"Oh, she's actually quite good looking!" another member exclaimed as her face was pulled up into the light of dusk.
They all moved to get a look, the guy holding her hair moved around the front, causing him to be extremely close. Her face changed to a look of total discomfort as he breathed in her face. He reeked of alcohol. Perfectly positioned in front of her with his guard down, she took advantage and thrust her knee upwards straight into his groin. His feet left the floor by 5 inches, releasing her he landed in a ball on the floor.
His gang members suddenly realised she meant business. One charged at her from behind, she simply hopped sideways and he stumbled over his own feet and landed on top of the leader. The next one came at her, she did a handstand and wrapped her legs around his neck pulling him to the floor and thrusting his face into the concrete. K.O. The others had got back to their feet cradling their injured ankles, faces and balls with watering terrified eyes.
"Boo!" she taunted.
They all flinched, fell over each other and fled into the distance. She walked over to her stuff and knelt down, crammed the manga books into her satchel and hugged the others in her arms. Standing straight again she peered over to the knocked out guy who they left behind in a hurry. Seeing what she'd done caused uneasiness in her heart.
"If you're going to worry don't fight in the first place." A deep masculine voice muttered behind her.
She swivelled around and scowled at him. To her he appeared to be an oddly tall man with long silver hair tied roughly into a pony tail and long bangs covering the sides of his face. The first thing she noticed was his bright sky blue eyes which even stood out in the dim light of dusk, they drew her in. She turned her head slightly to break the eye contact and noticed he was wearing a uniform, with a shoulder bag slung across his body.
"You're a high school student!?" Kairi asked in disbeleif.
"No. I wear the uniform for fun." he replied sarcastically. She continued to scowl.
"If the wind changes your face will stick like that" He said jokingly. Placing his hands behind his head he walked past Kairi and continued his journey down the path. He stopped and turned back to her "And trust me, that isn't an attractive look Kairi-chan"
"How do you know my name!?" she blurted out in shock. He smirked at her, turned and walked away. Stunned she just stood there and watched him, before she realised it he was gone. Regaining her senses she staggered home.
"And what time do you call this?" her father enquired as soon as her feet entered the doorway. He looked quite average, jet black hair and dark eyes. She looked up at the clock; it was 10:27PM.
She removed her shoes and walked into the dining room where her mother and little sister sat at the table eating pudding, she was closely followed by her dad. Her mum was shorter than average with curly auburn hair and round glasses with quite a pretty face. Her little sister was cute with their mums curly auburn hair plaited loosely and the same green eyes as Kairi. They both turned and looked at Kairi.
She handed her sister the revision book and her mum the cookbooks, all had mud on them and no longer looked new.
"I asked for a new book..." Her sister moaned whilst inspecting the book.
"What happened? Is this why you're late? Are you being bullied? Who did it? Kairi?" Her mum didn't seem to take a breath between each question, and seemed worried.
Kairi looked up at her mum and smiled, took a deep breath and replied.
"Nothing like that mum. I had monitoring duties and had to clean up, then was late getting to the bookstore because of the busy streets. Because I knew I was late enough I took a short cut through the park and slipped then the bag from the store broke. I'll replace the books if you want?"
"And so you should, I don't want..." Her sister was interrupted by their father.
"Don't worry, it's just not been your day. I'll replace anything for you." She looked over to her dad and smiled "Thank-you dad."
Kairi sighed and walked toward the staircase then began to ascend them.
"Food is in the kitchen dear!" her mum shouted after her.
She ignored her mums call and continued to ascend the staircase. Returning to her messed up room she discarded her satchel against the bottom of the vanity unit causing yet more nail varnish bottles to topple onto the floor. She stripped from her muddy clothing and stood naked, catching a glimpse of her body in the mirror angered her and she launched her dirty clothing at it, defacing the perfect reflection with mud.
She grabbed a oversized nightdress which she'd thrown over her shoulder that morning and pulled it over her head.
Exhausted physically and emotionally she collapsed face first onto her bed. She was completely confused by the day's events, the people who attacked her for no reason and the guy who stood and watched and didn't even flinch. Little did she know this meeting would change her fate forever.
She rolled over onto her front and dragged her tangled cover from the floor. It took her a long time to fall asleep that night.