Her eyes flew open as she heard the screeching of the alarm. It always instantly woke her up and she hated it. She was used to American alarm clocks that allowed you to set the radio to come on at the scheduled time or had a chime. This one however seemed to screetch in the most annoying manner possible and her father made sure it was placed far enough away from her bed that she couldn't just reach over and hit the snooze button. Reluctantly she slipped out of bed straightening her nightgown as she did. Walking over to the dresser she turned the infernal alarm clock off. Fleetingly she thought about just going back to bed but knew her father would never let her.
Sure enough she heard her fathers voice call out from the other room. "Lyssa time to get up for school". That was another thing she had to get used to. The walls were alot thinner here then they were back home. Yes despite being here in Japan for a little over a year she still considered Toms River her home. She walked out of her room heading to the bathroom. That was another downside about this place. It only had one bathroom forcing her and her father to share a bathroom though she suspected it was worse for him then it was for her. Thankfully he had already showered and was pretty much done giving her control of it.
She wasn't like most girls at least not in America. It didn't take her two or three hours to get ready. Within an hour she was done. Having showered, dressed and applied her makeup. Walking into the kitchen she smiled seeing her father. He was already at the table with a bowl of hot cereal:: "You know dad you could try something different once in a while" She took the toast out of the toaster and placed them on a plate spreading butter on them. When she was finished preparing her food she moved to the table sitting beside her dad and began to eat.
"Now why would I do that. It tastes good and gives me the energy to stay awake for the day. I'm not going to go and change things now. Lyssa listen. I heard about the recent violence in school. I'm sure I don't have to tell you not to be a part of it" He looked at her sternly as he spoke. She frowned. "Dad seriously. Yes there has been violence in school but you know me. You know that I'm not going to be a part of it that I don't want to hurt anyone. You raised me better then that.". She reached out gently patting his hand. He couldn't help but smile. "I know Lyssa I know I just.......peer pressure and all" He sighed. "Dad. nobody in america could force me to do something I didn't want to do and nobody here will be able to do it either I promise. I may have hacked the school computers back home but nobody got hurt from it." She squeezed his hand. "Lyssa Japan is your home now. I need to get to work I'll see you tonight" He kissed her cheek before moving off. "Bye dad" She called after him never imagining that it might be the last time she'd ever see him.
The bus ride like usual was uneventful. It wasn't that she wasn't liked and acceped by other students it was simply that she chose to keep to herself on the bus. For one it was her time to wake up fully before she actually had to go to class. It generally took about fourty five minutes for the bus to complete it's route and bring them to school. She usually just sat and read or something. Though lately with most teachers being unable to control their students she ignored the rule of no radios and brought a small CD player and headphones, and was currently listening to Rhianna. When the bus pulled into the school parking lot she turned the CD off packing the player in her backpack where hopefully it wouldn't be discovered.
Stepping off the bus her best friend Yumiko walked up. She had been the first to be friendly to her when she moved here and they'd been best friends ever since. Yumiko like Alyssa was fifteen though she was shorter standing at only five feet while Alyssa was five foot six. She had shoulder length brown hair in contrast to Alyssa's dark red. "Hey Alyssa have you asked your dad if you can come to my party yet? . "No I didn't get the chance to. He practically fell asleep standing up when he got home last night" She sighed afterall he seemed to work alot harder here then he ever had back in the United States and that didn't leave much time for him to send with her. "Ok I do hope he says yes. It's going to be real fun". Alyssa couldn't help but grin. "Don't worry I'm sure I can convince him to let me go if I ever get a chance to talk to him for more then two minutes" Yumiko nodded "I'll see you in class. I wonder what teacher they are going to give us today" With that she walked off leaving Alyssa standing alone.
Smiling she walked into the building. True the teachers nowdays had very little control but she didn't really wish to tempt fate by being late to class. Besides she wasn't a ovrerly bad student ,she didn't act out just to act out. She humed to herself as she walked down the hallway heading for her first class though she frowned at the sight in front of her. There was a girl pressed against the wall, she recognized her as Megumi. The girl was nice enough just a bit timid and shy. Which explained the situation now. Each class had it's bullies and in this one one of them was Fumiyo. She had tried to bully Alyssa a bit but well she just didn't put up with it very well.
"Your lunch money now" Fumiyo was demanding of Megumi her hand grabbing the girls collar. If there was one thing that Alyssa hated it was seeing people who couldn't defend themselves get picked on. She walked right up alongside Fumiyo:: "Leave her alone. Don't you have anythng better to do?" She said in an annoyed tone. Fumiyo turned torwards her glaring. "Stay out of it. This isn't any of your concern forigner" Fumiyo snarled. Unlike most of the others she hadn't quite come to accept Alyssa and still saw her as an outsider who had no business getting involved with anything. Alyssa sighed. She knew she'd promised her father no violence but she wanted to just deck Fumiyo in the face That girl got under her skin so badly. Instead though she stepped away. Fumiyo grinned looking back to Megumi convinced that Alyssa was leaving. But instead of leaving she pulled out her own wallet taking out a few Yen and holding them out to her. "You want money so bad here take this. Just leave her alone" Megumi looked at her wide eyed in suprise that she'd do such a thing. She knew Alyssa didn't like Fumiyo but to offer her own money to her..
Fumiyo turned to her grinning. "Why are you doing this? Is she your girlfriend or something?" With that she laughed. "Just go" Alyssa replied still fighting back the urge to punch her. Fumiyo took the money letting Megumi go. Maybe she could sucker the foreigner into giving her money for lunch everyday. That would certainly make things easier. Laughing she walked off. "I hate her" Alyssa mumured mostly to herself. Megumi refused to say a word until Fumiyo was out of sight. "Why did you do that for me? She asked softly. "I hate to see people get picked on. You've done nothing to her to deserve that" She smiled to her. "But.....you used your own money what are you going to do for lunch? "Don't worry about it I have enough to still get something" She leaned forward picking up Megumi's backpack. "We should get to class now. I don't want to spend another day with teachers screaming at me" Smiling she handed her the bookbag. "Yeah" she said as she took the backpack from Alyssa. "Thank you" She smiled walking off.
Stepping into the classroom she noticed that the teacher whoever it might be today hadn't yet shown up. Odd but at least she wouldn't hear any complaining for being late. She walked up to her usual seat in the front next to Yumiko and sat down, pulling at her skirt to make sure that it covered as much of her legs as she could get it to. She still found the uniforms annoying it was something that she'd probably never get used to. Another thing she struggled to get used to was the size of the classes. Back in Toms River she had fifteen, maybe twenty people in her class at the most, but sat in the room with thirty nine other people. Lessons were a bit less hands on and were mostly lectures. Personal attention from the teachers was rare.
They didn't have long to wait before the teacher did arrive. He was a middle aged man thin with brown hair and glasses. The man was someone that she'd never seen before. He made his way to his desk placing his bag down, picking up a piece of chalk he wrote his name across the blackboard KITANO. As soon as he was sure everyone saw his name he started the lesson. Every so often he would call on some of the students to answer a question or repeat what he'd said earlier, belittling them if they answered wrong. He was paticuarly mean to one of the boys in the class Yoshitoko. Alyssa knew him. He was friends with another of her friends Noriko, in fact it had been Noriko who convinced him to return to school after he had quit. Thankfully he had a shorter nickname "Nobu" that everybody called him by. She often found that japanese names were long and difficult to pronounce.
She hoped that with the number of others in the room he wouldn't notice her,that he wouldn't call upon her for she wasn't quite confident she learned the material. However today wasn't her day as after a paticuarly long lecture he called on her to state what she had learned from his lesson. She spoke up doing her best to answer the question. Whether she answered right or wrong didn't seem to matter. As she spoke to him she made a few pronounciation mistakes that seemed to engrage him. "Stupid Gaijen if you are going to live among us at least get the language right" He yelled at her causing her to turn red. If ever she wanted to hit a teacher it was now. She was doing her best to learn afterall but she wasn't perfect. He turned to another student calling on them to provide the correct answer. Thankfully the rest of the morning went by without any major issues and soon it was time for lunch.
She had started the day out in a good mood but the incident with the teacher had soured it. It just pressed home the fact that she was a foreigner. That no matter how hard she tried, no matter how many people accept her she'll always be an outsider. That was certainly a sobering thought and not one she liked to linger on. As she had told Megumi even with the yen that she'd given Fumiyo she did have enough to get a little something for lunch. After buying her food she moved to an empty table not really feeling like socializing at the moment. Besides she didn't want her friends to know just how much the teachers comment had gotten to her.
She couldn't escape her friends however. Just as she started eating Yumiko stepped up her twin sister Yukiko in tow:: "Are these seats taken?" Yumiko asked her offering a smile She was depressed but she certainly didn't want to be rude to her friends so she managed to offer a brief smile in return. "Have a seat". At that moment another girl in their class Mitsuka walked by rolling her eyes at them. It wasn't that Alyssa disliked Mitsuka or vice versa she just didn't talk to her. Mitsuka wasn't well liked by her friends and they had warned her over and over again to stay away from the girl. That she was bad news and so far she had heeded the warnings, the girl did seem a bit creepy. Before long they were joined by Nobu, Noriko and her best friend Shuya. They made up the clique that she normally hung with at school.
Seeing that she wasn't in her usual cheery mood Nobu spoke up. "Hey Lyss what's wrong? You didn't take what that idiot teacher said personally did you?" She couldn't help but smile. She didn't quite understand why he chose to call her that but since she called him by his nickname she let him have one for her, besides she found it kind of cute. She'd never tell him that though. "It's nothing" she tried to wave it off as if it really were but everyone seemed to see through it. "Alyssa he has a bad attitude all around. It's not you he seems to lash out at everyone. I bet he has a miserable life" Shuya piped in trying to make her feel better. "Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if his wife left him or something like that. I can't imagine anyone wanting to be around a jerk like that" Noriko added. Alyssa smiled her mood improving as her friends tried to make her feel better. "Really I'm fine. I mean you're right he's just some bitter loser. I hope we have a new teacher tommorow" "So do I" Yumiko said smiling to Alyssa. "Me too" Yukiko added saying the first thing since they had all sat down. Whether or not they all believed that she was fine with it they chose to drop the subject.
"My party is this weekend is going to be awesome. My parents are going to Kyoto so I'll have the place all to myself" Yumiko began speaking about their plans for the weekend. "Don't worry girls I'll bring the booze" Nobu added which earned him a playful smack from Shuya. "Maybe we should invite Mitsuka?"Alyssa suggested. "NO I don't want that girl anywhere near my house, honestly I don't even want her to know where I live" Yumiko said shuddering. "She can't be that bad..." Noriko countered. "You haven't heard the things about her that I heard. Trust me you don't want her anywhere near you" Yumiko said looking directly at Alyssa. "Ok ok so we don't invite Mitsuka" Alyssa said waving her hands in front of her.
Nobu remained quiet through the rest of lunch. Nobody realized it but the way the teacher had treated him coupled with how he had treated Alyssa struck some kind of chord within him. When lunch ended they all got up leaving the cafateria. Though while Alyssa, Yumiko and the others headed directly for the classroom Nobu turned off heading torwards his locker. Seeing that Kitano had not yet arrived they stood outside the classroom for a bit talking. It wouldn't be long before he did arrive. He seemed like one of those people that was always on time and never a minute late. Yet as he entered the classroom something startling happened. Quickly Nobu came up from behind. He had something in his hand. Was that a knife? He stabbed Kitano in the ass before letting go of the knife and running off down the hall. In a panic not wanting to see her friend get in trouble Noriko picked up the knife and hid it.
Alyssa was horrified. Sure she'd heard about teachers getting stabbed before. In fact it had happened in this very school before but it had never been one of her classmates who did it and it certainly never happened in front of her. She just stood there wide eyed. Thankfully the wound wasn't all that bad though it did bleed soaking into he fabric of his suit pants. Kitano turned around looking at Alyssa:: "Did you see who did that?" He asked with venom in his words. She found herself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her father would want her to do the right thing yet Nobu was her friend and she could't throw him to the wolves. She shook her head sending some of that fiery red hair flying everywhere:: "No. It was a boy but whoever it was came up too fast for me to see his face" she answered. Disgusted Kitano turned moving off to get his wound seen to. Without knowing who it was who did it he couldn't make much of it. Yet little did any of them know but that action sealed the fate of her class.
As expected the schools security guards shepharded them into the classroom making sure nobody left as all fourty of her classmates were questioned. When they got to her she told them the same thing she had told Kitano himself. Of course leaving out the fact that the offender was Nobu or that she'd seen Noriko hide the knife for him. After the questioning the rest of the day went without anymore drama. She was thankful for that she'd had enough excitement for one day. Kitano didn't return at all that day. He was replaced by an older european looking woman. Perhaps she was a substitute or something. Unlike Kitano however she didn't insult or belittle any of the sudents and their reaction to her was much more docile.
When the bell rang ending the school day Alyssa was thankful. She just wanted to go home and watch TV. That way she could drown out what she had seen her friend do. Peronsally she hoped that her father didn't hear about the incident. She knew she had nothing to worry about after all she wasn't the one that had done it and nobody else knew that she was covering for her friend. Still if her dad found out it might add complications. For all she knew he might keep her home from school worrying about her safety or something like that.
Waving to Yumiko and Noriko she headed torwards her bus. Yet as she reached the steps moving to get on she found her path blocked by a woman in a purple suit:: "Alyssa Carter?" The woman asked her. "Umm yeah..." She replied not really sure what was going on and beginning to worry. The woman smiled at her. "Due to certain administrative issues we've had to change your bus its only for today though. You'll be riding on 102" She pointed to one of the buses across the parking lot. "Ok thank you" Alyssa said as she moved off torwards the bus. She was getting a little worried. She doubted it was just an administrative issue. Maybe they were taking all of the suspects and witnesses of the attack somewhere. She hoped not she didn't want her father to even know that she had been around when such a thing happened. She didn't want to worry him. He had enough to deal with, with his job. When she got on board she was surprised to see that most of her class was there. Were they taking her whole class to be questioned or something? She was definately suspicious. Not saying a word she found an empty seat and sat. After the last of her class boarded the bus pulled away.
Normally she didn't talk to anyone on the bus rides but then again normally her friends weren't on the same bus with her. Yumiko and her sister moved to sit beside Alyssa. "So you're here too. I wonder what this is all about" Alyssa shook her head. "I don't know but I've got a bad feeling about it. I doubt that any kind of administrative issue would put an entire class that's usually on many different buses on the same one. I think somethings up" Yukiko nodded her head looking quite disturbed by the whole thing. "Look whatever happens. You, me, Yukiko, Nobu, Noriko, Shuya we stick together alright" Yumiko said as she held her hand out to them. Yukiko was the first to take her sisters hand and soon Alyssa followed. "Yes whatever happens we stick together, we watch out for each other" Alyssa said offering a nervous smile. Soon Noriko and Shuya's hands joined theirs:: "We stick together" They both said and Nobu reached out from behind ruffling her hair. Soon the bus entered a tunnel. That was odd she didn't recall any tunnels on the way back to her house normally but she didn't get much time to think about it for she suddenly felt very sleepy. She tried to stay awake but she just couldn't and soon her eyes closed and she was fast asleep her head laying on Yumiko's shoulder.
Confusion... That's what Alyssa felt as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Slowly she sat up looking around. It seemed that everyone had fallen asleep and so far she was the only one awake. It didn't seem possible that it was coincidence. She nudged Yumiko's shoulder trying to wake her:: "Yumi.....Yumi wake up somethings up something isn't right" Yet no matter what she did she couldn't seem to wake her friend up. She was alive, she saw the rise and fall of her chest but she wouldn't wake up. Panic began to fill her mind. She had to do something, to at least find out what was going on. So she slowly stood and eased her way out of the seat making sure not to cause her friends to fall.
Slowly moving down the aisle towards the front of the bus she realized that everyone, her entire class was asleep. It must have been some kind of fluke that she had woken up when she did. As she neared the front she saw another woman in a purple suit. Yet this woman was wearing....... A gas mask! So they had gassed them. But why? Why would they do such a thing? What was going to happen to them? She opened her mouth to ask but before she could get a word out the woman shot her with a stun gun. As the electricity coursed through her body Alyssa fell to the floor once again unconcious.