When Life Is Normal
That's your key
So you can see
That it will all flee

-X-X-Momo-X-X-

The eighteen year old girl felt around for her alarm clock while her face was pressed into the pillow.

Eighteen, senior in high school and she still couldn't get up in the morning for school. Especially not today. Today was the day her childhood friend was sold off.

She knew people at school who voted for whatever the government was planning but Momo was dead against it.

Toshiro Hitsugaya, sold at ten, probably doesn't get to go to school if he's even alive. Momo felt a tug in the pit of her stomach at the thought. Eight years later and she could still bawl her eyes out about it if she thought about it for to long.

He had loved school, unlike her.

She rolled out of her bed and turned the alarm off trudging over to the bathroom to get ready for school.

Five minutes until the bell for everyone to go to their homerooms is supposed to ring, Momo is flying out the door and jumping on her bike and somehow managing to ditch her bike, lock it up sloppily and get through the school doors just as the bell went off.

When she plopped down in her seat, panting and heart pounding like every morning her friends all clapped and asked how long it took for her to get here.

"Five minutes flat." She panted.

Kira smiled, "That's your record for longest time to get to school."

Ichigo snorted, "Your record for shortest was, what? Four minutes and thirty seconds?"

Orihime shook her head, "Nope! It was four minutes and twenty-seven seconds! On most days she had four minutes and thirty seconds."

Yeah, she was that bad. It was such a good thing that she didn't live that far from school. Plus if she looked on the bright side, at least it made her a great athletic person and gave her a 100 in gym!

A few more minutes went by as the students chattered about what happened yesterday, homework (that many didn't do), and what classes they weren't looking forwards too.

A completely normal morning; everyone woke up, came to school, went to homeroom, and talked about nothing of any value.

Then the teacher walked in and went to the front of the room. She didn't look happy when she called for the students' attention.

"I have a very important announcement. Listen and listen carefully." She took a deep breath, "Some of you may not like this, some of you may feel apprehension, some of you won't care, and many of you will feel a combination of the first two."

Her face was serious and she was looking shaky and paler than usual. Whatever it was it was clear she didn't like it one bit.

She had everyone's full attention. Not one pair of eyes strayed ever so slightly from her face.

-X-X-One month before with Toshiro-X-X-

The small, slim frame leaned heavily against the dirty cell wall, hunching forwards slightly causing white hair to cover most his face.

He listened to the echoing footsteps in the silence. They were coming closer at a steady, quick-set pace.

And he was more than positive that they were going to come for him. Why? Because they (the scientists) had been talking together (never good) and had come up with some amazing plan.

And they'd decided that they'd try it on him; one of their favorite experiments. Why was he their favorite? He'd yet to figure that one out. Maybe he was strong. Maybe he was one of those special experiments. Maybe he'd just been there too long. Maybe he just didn't know.

By now he saw the legs of the owner of the footsteps. Long legs, the guy had to be pretty tall. His shoes were black and spotless, he either loved his shoes and took great care of them or he didn't like to touch the experiments.

"You've been summoned." The guard stated as he unlocked the cell door and beckoning him forwards with a riffle.

The small boy complained and walked as strait as he could out, his slight stumble noticed by the guard who snorted in disgust and muttered under his breath, "Drugged probably."

The thin boy mentally kicked himself for not thinking of that himself. He really had been drugged probably at breakfast….

They walked all the way down to the first floor all the while the poor boy having the riffle poked into his back and nearly knocking him all the way down the stairs. If he had fallen the trip probably wouldn't have taken so long.

Once there he was forced into a metal chair (everything here seemed to be made out of metal) and one hand cuffed to the arm.

He felt the effects right away. You see, these hand cuffs weren't normal, nothing here was normal. This whole place was designed by top scientists and everything was made to keep anything they created at bay.

These cuffs ate your energy to the point where you were either as good as drugged, subdue, past out, or (if they weren't careful) dead.

"Floor 15, cell 10, Hyourinmaru, Toshiro." the white haired boys escort stated.

By this point he was too tired to open his eyes as the scientist (which he hadn't noticed before) stated, "Good. Then we can let the experiment commence. If everything goes according to plan, we should have one of the strongest teams ever created."

-X-X-Present with Momo-X-X-

The teacher took a deep breath and scanned the faces in the class. "The government has informed us that there is a group of rebels on the outskirts of town and they are sending their top… people…" she said it as if it disgusted her, "to make sure the town is safe. They also have decided that there should be some in the school to make sure the school is safe because of all the people who attend and work here." the teacher stared at all of her students.

One boy was brave enough to actually raise his hand, "Then why don't they close the school down or soothing? You know, like, have them on the outskirts of town or something…." The boy shifted nervously.

"I don't know." Was the simple response. Everyone sat in silence. It seemed like an eternity had gone by but at the same time it felt like they'd all just sat down and homeroom had started when the bell finally rang.

It took the students a few moments to realize they were supposed to head off to class.

Momo slowly got up out of her chair and made her way to the door, her friends long forgotten, replaced by the thoughts running through her mind.

Top people of the government, she had definitely meant the GA, government army, but who was considered top?

Generals and commanders? The best fighters? Who were the best fighters? The people that they bought? The people who'd volunteered? Both?

Momo sunk down into her seat as she tried to decipher all her jumbled emotions. Pain, sadness, worry, anger… maybe even a little excited?

She placed her head down on the cool surface of the black marred science table dully noting the feel of scratches dug in by pencils against her cheek.

The hard work of a bored student. Was the government bored when they got the idea for the GA, needed something new and exciting to happen? Using the cover of more dangerous times for their own entertainment?

Momo sucked in a deep breath; she was starting to feel queasy.

She heard her teacher's voice call the classes attention as the late bell rang. She slowly lifted her head off the table and sat up.

"When are they supposed to come?" a random kid called out.

The teacher sighed, "Monday. Enjoy your weekends, I know Monday is going to be a very chaotic day." he sighed wearily.

Momo could almost hear the teachers thoughts, Screw up my schedule why don't you? I had been planning a pop quiz!

She almost wished he was going to give one of his infamous pop quizzes too. Hard and almost impossible to work your way through but seemingly so much easier compared to everything else.

Critiques welcome! I know my chapters aren't the longest ever, but they are still good right?