Chapter 1: Early Days

Shizuru and Aoi were playmates in Kindergarten, best friends by the first grade and inseparable like sisters. They were often mistaken as sisters actually, since both were promising beauties, always seen together and had almost the same hair colour.

In grade 5, Aoi and Shizuru, without trying, became some of the most popular kids at St. Mary's.

Some of the little kids would stalk them, it was rather creepy.

Their days consisted of shopping for the latest fashions, gossiping to each other and having sleepovers.

There was one time where their parents thought their kids liked each other, but it was soon seen that they were simply like sisters. They had a special friendhsip that not many people were lucky enough to have.

One afternoon in the fifth grade, Shizuru and Aoi were calmly walking in the park and enjoying the wunny day. They sat in their favourite spot under the big oak tree they affectionately called 'Bogo' since Grade 1.

"Watch out!" there was a cry from near them and Aoi turned her head just in time to see a football coming their way.

She squealed and put her hands to her face to block the oncoming hit, but it never came.

She looked up in relief, to see Shizuru had caught it, relaxing since she was out of danger.

They both prepared to tell off the culprit, but they caught their retorts when a girl of their age, with dark long blue hair in a hat tilted to the side, ran up to them.

"Sorry." She said the words so beautifully.

Natsuki Kruger, Aoi's third crush.

"Nice catch though," The girl with emerald eyes smiled at the pair.

Shizuru for her part threw the ball back, "you should be more careful." Ah, Shizuru and her wit.

The blunette frowned at her somewhat rude remark and flushed a little from embarassment.

"Oi Kruger, you flirt! Pass the ball." 'Kruger' walked away, grumbling about how 'rude' and something else about how she wanted a taco.

"She's one to talk about being rude." Shizuru frowned and turned to face Aoi.

"Well, Shizu-chan, she was polite about it..."

Shizuru gave Aoi an amused look.

"Someone's got a crush." Shizuru poked her cheek.

Aoi flared red and pouted, "Well she was really nice..."

"Nicer than Mikoto-san?" Shizuru teased Aoi with her last crush, Mikoto Minagi.

Aoi stuck her tongue out.

"Ara, Aoi-chu must have a thing for dark haired sporty people?" Aoi gave Shizuru a half-hearted glare, and turned her head to watch Natsuki playing football with some other kids they didn't recognize.

They were in Grade 5, they were only 10 year olds, and Aoi was already thinking about who she would marry.

Shizuru for her part didn't care that much, she preferred to be more carefree of her future and her method of dealing with things was with whatever comes her way. She was too young to think about getting married.

"Ne, Aoi," Shizuru leaned on the grass and stretched her limbs.

"Hmm?" Aoi replied while lying on her stomach, continuing to watch the blue haired girl from the distance and opening a can of coke for herself.

"You would be perfect with my sister."

This comment caused Aoi to forget about her new crush (and her lovely hair in the sun), to turn to Shizuru and choke on some of her coke.

Shizuru giggled as Aoi turned red, thinking of Shizuru's sister. Coincidentally, her first crush EVER.

"Well," Shizuru giggled, and reasoned with her friend, "She has dark hair and is athletic..."

Aoi pinched Shizuru's side as she continued giggling.

Chie Viola, the older sister of Shizuru Viola.

You see...

In grade 1, Aoi had gone to Shizuru's home one day and was acquainted with the sister of Shizuru for the first time.

Chie, unlike Shizuru, went to boarding school in another city that gave her a scholarship (even though she didn't need it since she was really wealthy) for her basketball skills. The school went from grades 6 to 12, and Chie had been going since grade 6. She was now in Grade 7, two years older than Shizuru and Aoi.

Back to the now...

They spent the next 30 minutes comfortable in each other's company, occasional conversation about school and such.

"Hey, Shizuru, let's get something to eat soon, I'm starving."

"Hmm, I think my tummy's getting there..."

Aoi sat up, "let's go to my house, and then we can get ready and go for a nice night out!"

Aoi was in the mood for a little fun. Well, as fifth graders, they always wanted fun.

That's right; they are fifth graders going for a nice night out. Oh the beauty of being a rich child with privileges.

"Okay, can I borrow your purple sundress?" Shizuru asked with hope. She loved that dress!

"Yes yes, but I want to wear your white and pink one!"

"Which white and pink one?" Shizuru had lots of dresses after all...

"The one your mom got you for that dinner last week, but you never wore it."

Shizuru and Aoi went to Aoi's house, considering they treated each other's houses like their own.

"Hey mom, Shizuru and I were planning on going out tonight."

Aoi saw her mother doing some work in her office.

"Oh, actually I was waiting for you girls, I was hoping you could wait an hour and accompany me to dinner tonight?"

Aoi and Shizuru made eye contact and shrugged. As long as they could dress up for fun and eat something substantial. They were rather hungry, but they would wait an hour considering Aoi wanted to spend some time with her mother, and Shizuru knew that.

Shizuru grinned and looked at Aoi's mother, "Mrs. Senoh, Aoi saw someone she liked today."

Aoi blushed and smacked Shizuru on the side, while Mrs. Senoh laughed at her daughter and practically other daughter.

Aoi chased Shizuru up the stairs of her mansion to the room, intent on getting some revenge for that.

Mrs. Senoh smiled, she was happy for her daughter to have such a good friend. She would try to find out about her 'crush' later tonight. In the meantime, she had more paperwork.

"A-aoi! Stop it! I'm sorry" Shizuru spoke between laughter as Aoi tickled her mercilessly.

"Mou, Shizuru," Aoi stopped the tickling and got off her large bed with pink sheets. "Now mom's going to inquire about it later."

Shizuru slowly stopped giggling before going to use Aoi's personal bathroom.

Aoi sometimes was just simply grateful for Shizuru; the only reason (even if Shizuru wouldn't admit it) she had said that to Aoi's mom was because of the laughter she got after. Aoi's mom was too stressed sometimes, especially about work, considering she was a single mother working hard.

Shizuru herself had two moms, and they were also hard workers to provide for their children, but they were much more relaxed compared to Mrs. Senoh.

"Thanks Shizuru." Aoi whispered to bathroom door, she didn't know what she would do without her best friend sometimes.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Natsuki groaned in annoyance as she sat at the table reserved for 'kids' to sit at.

She had been dragged to this business dinner event of some sort by her fathers, and it was troublesome.

Her spirits lifted when a couple of other familiar faces came to view.

"Yo Kruger." Nao waved to her buddy and sat next to her.

"How lame is this?" whined Takeda, another buddy.

"Pretty lame." Natsuki gave him a nod and they both sat at the table.

Natsuki looked over to her fathers to see her real father start his second beer, and they had only been here for 20 minutes. Her step father looked at his husband in annoyance, which Natsuki found amusing.

"I think we'll be the only ones here tonight." Takeda sighed and placed his chin on the table in boredom.

"Yeah, I want to ditch this stupid place." Nao frowned and Natsuki chuckled at her friends.

"Me too, though I don't know about you guys, but my dad threatened no X-box." Natsuki said, shuddering at the thought of her beloved X-box leaving her side.

Nao and Takeda looked at her with disbelief and horror evident on their faces.

"Yeah, that's harsh." Nao really felt sympathy for her friend.

"I got threatened about no slumber party on Friday." Takeda sighed.

"No way!" Natsuki exclaimed, "I'm looking forward to it! That's it, no ditching for us, Takeda needs to have his slumber party."

Nao nodded with Natsuki and Takeda blushed a little from his friends enthusiasm of his monthly slumber party where they played video games and watched movies and ate junk food.

"Yeah, I wasn't threatened about losing anything, I knew you guys were coming and assumed we'd ditch, but NO WAY are we ditching if Takeda's slumber party is in question."

Takeda sheepishly smiled and rubbed his neck.

At that moment, four new faces approached the table.

Natsuki, Nao and Takeda looked at the new arrivals; there was a redhead girl, a boy younger than her, a black haired boy and a younger black haired girl.

They greeted Mai Tokiha and Reito Minagi; both were one year their seniors at their private school St. Jude's, a co-ed school that had many rich kids.

The younger boy with Mai, who also went to their school, was Mai's little brother Takumi: a year younger than them.

"Hey, I don't think you guys have met my little sister, Mikoto?" Reito's sister was a new face to them.

"Hey" Mikoto took a seat next to Takumi and sat down.

"Hey" the three friends greeted her back.

"Mikoto goes to St. Mary's" Reito explained as he pulled out a chair in a gentlemanly fashion for Mai who blushed and took the seat offered.

After a couple more minutes of friendly chatter, and a little interesting gossip, two more individuals greeted the table.

Natsuki gaped; it was the two girls from the park earlier that day. The nice one, and the rude one.

"Ara, if it isn't little Miss 'I can't throw a ball without endangering innocent bystanders'." Shizuru exclaimed at Natsuki as she took a seat on the other side of Mai, Aoi joined sitting in the last seat, coincidentally in between Natsuki and Shizuru.

Natsuki blushed while Nao and Takeda snickered, remembering their day at the park earlier. And the awesome tacos they had after.

She gave the girl a glare and earned a cheeky smile in return.

"Aoi-san, Shizuru-san" Mikoto greeted them with a smile.

Aoi blushed, very cutely, thought Natsuki. Unlike some RUDE people.

"Nice to see you here, Mikoto-san." Shizuru gave her a smile.

"Yeah, this is my brother Reito, and our good friends Takumi and Mai Tokiha." She gestured to them, all who waved and smiled in return.

Mikoto continued, "This is Aoi Senoh and Shizuru Viola, both are in my grade at school."

"Nice to meet you all." Aoi gave a smile.

Her new crush happened to show up at the dinner! And her other crush, but the new one was currently more interesting. She gave a sideways glance at Natsuki.

"I-I'm N-Natsuki." Natsuki mumbled out, introducing herself to Aoi.

Nao snickered, "I'm Nao Zhang, that's Takeda Suzushiro and that dimwit is Natsuki Kruger."

Natsuki gave her a glare and blushed, turning to Aoi and only blushing more.

"Suzushiro? You're related to Haruka Suzushiro?" Shizuru asked Takeda, who blushed from the attention.

"Y-yeah, she's my older sister." Shizuru stared in wonder. Haruka was loud, completely opposite of her brother. Not to mention they had very different hair colours.

Then again, she and Chie also had different hair colours; they were sometimes mistaken as not being sisters, unlike her and Aoi who were always mistaken as sisters.

"Yeah, Natsuki's my cousin." Takeda pointed to her.

"Ara Ara, I feel sorry for you." Shizuru said it in a mocking tone that caused some snickers and Natsuki to blush.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She demanded the brunette, to defend her pride.

"Why, it means exactly what I said." Shizuru explained patiently, causing more laughs on Natsuki's behalf.

Soon the kids were served their appetizers.

"Excuse me," Natsuki gave the waitress a really cute smile, "may I please have some mayonnaise?"

The waitress swooned and got the mayo for the unbelievably cute kid, disregarding the fact that she was sent to get a bowl of unhealthy condiment.

Everyone at the table except for Mikoto, Aoi and Shizuru, were used to Natsuki's unusual taste so they didn't care.

It actually wasn't a weird thing if she liked a little flavour to her food, they thought. Of course that changed as soon as they saw how much of the white condiment Natsuki put on her food, throughout the next few courses. Even on her DESSERT!

"One wonders how Natsuki is so slim." Shizuru mused, gaining more snickers on the table.

"Shizuru-" Natsuki was about to yell, this Viola was pissing her off.

"I'm sorry Natsuki-san," Aoi tried to suppress a giggle since Shizuru was a good teaser, but felt bad for the blue-haired girl.

Natsuki softened her tone, Aoi was so nice.

"I-it's okay," she mumbled. 'You can uh... call me Natsuki... no need for 'san,'" she flushed slightly, and anyone at the table (even Shizuru) had to admit that was cute.

Aoi blushed as well, and nodded her head, while returning Natsuki's smile.

After the dinner, the kids parted ways respectively to their own homes.

Aoi's mother found out that Aoi had the cutest little crush on Natsuki Kruger, she knew of Natsuki's parents very well and was pleased since they were respectable men. But then Shizuru had also let slip that Aoi liked Mikoto Minagi as well, another respectable family, Mrs. Senoh wondered what her daughter's love life would be like.

She chuckled to herself as Aoi and Shizuru had another sleep over at the house, regardless that it was a school night. Her daughter was growing up, and would soon discover the romantic side of it.

That was how the kids met, and as the years went by they would all become an exclusive group.

The group that was gossiped the most about, the group that everyone wanted to be a part of, or at least know everything about.

Who ends up with who? But more importantly, how do they get there?