I Don't Date Vampires
Chapter 1
"I Was Distracted by Your Face"

Zero Kiriyuu was bored out of his mind. He sat at one of the wooden desks his cheek resting in his palm his eyes staring at those around him. To anyone else it looked like a look of distain or a death glare, but it wasn't he was just bored.

"Hey I heard there was a new transfer student coming today," someone said.

"Really?"

"Yeah I heard she's a foreigner," a girl commented.

Zero rolled his eyes tuning out the typical gossip of the other students. His gaze focused on Yuuki sitting in front of him. She had her back turned to him and was furiously writing trying to finish her homework before the teacher showed up. Yori was sitting next to her quite as always reading a book.

"Hey Yuuki you met this transfer student right?" Yori asked. Her amber eyes not leaving the page.

"Yeah," Yuuki answered continuing to scribble messily onto the paper, her shoulder length hair sliding forward and revealing her neck. Zero stared at her neck before shaking his head hoping to dispel any and all thoughts about the blood flowing through her arteries. 'I cannot be thinking about this right now. No! Stop it," he argued with himself fighting an internal battle.

"What's she like?"

Yuuki paused in her writing thinking; the tip of the eraser of her mechanical pencil just brushing her bottom lip. "She's nice. She's a little different, but I'm guessing that just a cultural thing," she concluded, "I don't really know that much about her actually."

Yori nodded returning to her book. "I wonder where she is," she muttered absent mindedly to no one in particular.

'I can't believe I'm late. Stupid jetlag. Stupid time change. Stupid me for not even setting my alarm clock. What the hell is wrong with me?' Katherine was running down the halls trying to find the classroom, mentally bashing herself for being such an idiot. She was late, simple as that. 'Damn it all," she screamed internally cursing everything and everyone around her.

She rounded the corner seeing the door to the classroom as she slowed to a stop. Out of breath, her heart beating rapidly she tried composing herself waiting for her breath to even out. "Oh I hate running," she huffed bending over clutching her side where a pain was starting to form. She inhaled deeply holding her breath for a few seconds before standing up. Her elbow-length golden brown hair was in disarray and she quickly pulled it back into a ponytail.

When Katherine entered the classroom there were several pair of eyes staring at her. She had gotten there just before class started, but everyone was already there. The teacher was a thin tall man in his late thirties and he, like the rest of the class, was staring at her in question.

"Ohiyou Gozaimasu," Katherine bowed politely. The teacher looked at her curiously for a second not knowing who she was. Then it clicked in his mind. He remembers the Headmaster telling him about a new student this apparently was her.

"Class this is our new transfer student Katherine Taylor," he said matter-of-factly. Katherine fought the urge to cringe as everyone stared at her making her feel incredibly self-conscious. From an outside perspective however, she was relaxed and confident, there wasn't a hint of nervousness at all in her demeanor. Inside though was a different story. Katherine was fighting a minor panic attack at the moment. She didn't necessarily enjoy being on display, though she didn't cower away from being the center of attention, this was a bit much for her.

"Miss Taylor do you have anything you want to say?"

Katherine shook her head, "No, not really."

"Okay, well take a seat next to Kiriyuu," he told her pointing to Zero. It was the only open space left. In fact only Zero was sitting at a desk that would typically sit six people. Katherine figured it was the intimidating air he gave off that made people not want to sit there, 'like the night class dormitory.' She wasn't sure why she compared the two like that, but it seemed to fit.

Zero glanced at Katherine as she sat down placing enough room between them to allow him to breathe but not so much that it would seem rude. She slipped a colorful knit backpack from her shoulder placing it next to her on the bench and took out a notebook and a mechanical pencil. He studied her for second taking in the golden hair and olive eyes as she stared ahead listening intently.

Katherine turned her head and regarded her seatmate. He was staring at her, "Something wrong?" She whispered. Zero blinked and shook his head before facing forward. She faced forward again actively taking notes.

Zero and Katherine didn't talk at all during class, mostly because Zero fell asleep about 15 minutes in as did Yuuki. Also Katherine was particularly interested in the lecture; Shakespeare was one of her favorite playwrights. The language and way he could make a person feel with just dialogue was impressive. Though she wasn't typically fond of Romeo and Juliet and didn't see it as a love story, like most did, she did still like to read it every once in a while on a whim.

"Remember that the test on Shakespeare is Friday and don't be fooled by my kind face and charming personality this test will be hard. Those of you who are just studying now I'll be able to tell," the teacher told the student concluding the class. Katherine stretched her arms above her head before sliding her notebook in her bag; it was the one empty notebook she was able to find in her stuff that morning.

"Hi," said two girls that had come up to where Katherine was sitting. One girl had strawberry-blonde hair and the other a dark brown almost black. They were both smiling at Katherine, 'probably heads of the school gossip,' she thought.

Katherine looked at them wearily, "Hello."

The blonde's smile grew wider, "I'm Natsume Abe and this is Hiyoki Kimura," she introduced herself and the other girl.

"Katherine, but you probably knew that already," she replied then looked at the brunette, "Baby chick?"

The brunette laughed, "Everyone always says that."

"So what's your next class Katherine?" Natsume asked turning the attention back to her.

Katherine looked down at her schedule, "World History," she read.

"That's my next class too," Hiyoki said enthusiastically, "I can show you the way if you'd like."

"That'd be great actually, "she responded standing up stretching her legs. She slung her bag over her shoulder and looked at Zero who was still fast asleep, "Hold on a sec," she told the girls walking over to the sleeping boy. His silver hair was mused slighting and covered his face. Zero's eyes were closed seeing as he was asleep, but Katherine new that opened they would be a pale liquid gray matching his hair.

"Umm… I wouldn't do that if I were you," Natsume warned fear seeping into her voice. Katherine looked back at her and disregarded her comment with a shrug. She placed her hand on Zero's shoulder and calmly shook him back and forth. The boy groaned but he didn't wake up, 'Stubborn huh?'

Katherine had a moment of sudden inspiration and grabbed his textbook. The two girls watched in horror as she slammed it down on the desk with a loud smack. 'Oh she's going to die! Zero's definitely going to kill her,' they both screamed internally, jumping at the sound of the book hitting the wood. They trembled slightly as Zero slowly sat up glaring at the person who dared to wake him. If only looks could kill Natsume and Hiyoki both knew that Katherine would be turned to ashes in an instant.

Zero stared at the girl standing above him, 'What was her name Kristen, Katie?' She was staring him down with her doe-like olive green eyes the corners of her mouth quirking up into a half smile half smirk. "Class is over," she informed him simply, gesturing to the room around them. He glanced around seeing that she was right, in fact most of the students had already exited the classroom.

"Katherine," hissed Hiyoki trying to get the other girl away from the bad-tempered perfect. Natsume's brown eyes were darting to her and the door trying to convey solely with her pupils and irises that they needed to leave now, preferably before Zero ripped her head off, however Katherine just smiled pleasantly at them then refocused back on the silver haired boy.

"It was nice meeting you. Tell Yuuki I said hi," she told him then slipping away to join the two girls who were waiting for her. Zero watched her as she walked down the steps to the classroom door. His eyes scanned the classroom again and notice Yuuki drooling on her textbook.

"Osihii deus. Omarisu ga daisuki desu," Yuuki mumbled talking in her sleep. Zero stood over her and almost smiled when she let out a small snore. 'Even when dreaming she's still thinking of food,' he noted brushing a strand of her hair from her face. Zero pulled his hand back.

"Oy. Wake up," he nudged Yuuki in the ribs. She rolled over her face mashing into the desk. Yuuki was ten times more stubborn than he was. He pushed, probed, and nudged even flicking her ear a couple of times, but she was resilient. Zero sighed before resorting to the same method that Katherine had used to wake him up.

SLAM!

The teacher looked up startled at the loud noise that emanated from the back of the classroom. He noted that Zero had just scared Yuuki awake and she was now yelling at him for being a jerk. Katherine was just making her way down the stairs when he noticed her, "Miss Taylor." The girl in question turned around and made her way back to the teacher when he motioned for her.

"Yes Sensei?"

"Here is everything you've missed," he said handing her a binder full of papers, "This is all the information that will be on the Shakespeare test, but since you're new you can take a makeup on Monday. It's more of an overview you might want to get one of the students more personal notes, they tend to more detailed."

Katherine weighed the binder in her hands; guessing it could weigh as much as a small dog. "More detailed than this?" She was incredulous studying the binder.

The teacher sighed, "I know it seems daunting."

She shook her head, "No it's okay. It's just so heavy; I feel like I could beat someone to death with it." The teacher didn't smile at her attempt at humor.

Katherine thanked him for the notes as she made her way back to where Hiyoki was waiting for her. Shouldering the binder under her arm, Katherine strolled out of the room with the girl. "Do you want to borrow my notes?" Hiyoki offered as they ambled down the corridor.

"Oh that'd be great," Katherine thanked her.

"It's no trouble. I have them back in my room, but we can go get them after classes let out if you want. I can even help you study too, if you want it," she stated as if it was just a drifting thought.

"Oh I have to go get some things after classes end. I'll probably be gone for about two hours, but you can stop by my room and drop them off with Yuuki or Yori even," Katherine explained.

"Yori and Yuuki?"

Katherine nodded, "Yeah they're in the room across from mine. I can just stop by when I get back and pick it up."

"Gomien."

Katherine gaped confused, "What are you apologizing for?"

"Your room is across from Yuuki. As in Yuuki Kurosu, the headmaster's daughter," she clarified calmly.

"I know who she is."

"Of course you do, everyone does. It just… well Yuuki isn't a bad person, but—" Hiyoki tried explaining the hostility that most people had toward Yuuki Kurosu. She wasn't really doing a good job though, yet Katherine still figured out what she meant.

"The night class."

The other girl nodded solemnly. Katherine glanced at her, but didn't really feel like pressing the matter of the night class. She was sure that sooner or later she was going to find out why everyone was so obsessed with them. 'They do sound like a bunch of stuck up bastards though,' she concluded internally. Katherine though would be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit curious about them; she was, but she didn't really like lowering herself to that standard of 'CRAZY FANGIRL'.

The rest of the day continued as normal, or as normal as everything seemed to her. She had only just gotten their yesterday, remember? After classes let out Katherine made a stop by her dorm to change out of her atrocious uniform. It wasn't that it wasn't cute it was, but she had a certain detest for skirts and dresses and that is what made it atrocious.

When the door of her room shut and locked with click and a turn, Katherine quickly slipped out of her uniform. She took off the black jacket and skirt and hung them in the closet. Her red neck tie was placed on the dresser and the long black socks were traded in for warmer winter socks. Katherine kept on the white button down shirt, but added a pair of light blue skinnies. She threw a black knit sweater over the white shirt and refolded the collar. Grabbing her converse prior to shutting the closet door, she sat on the desk chair to tie the laces; then took out her ponytail and brushed out her hair.

Katherine had changed out of her uniform in about 30 seconds flat. She was now walking through the town that surrounded the school after hiking a quarter mile down the boarding school's driveway. The little shops and cobble stone streets reminded her of Rothenberg. She had been there about six months ago in the summer everything was vivid and green. This town was not much different from that, except that it was winter of course. 'I wouldn't think that Japan would have towns like this. It isn't really traditional Japanese,' she pondered scanning the area around her.

There was a little café on the corner and a bunch of little boutiques with way over prices clothes. She was standing in front of a Jewelry store window and she also noticed a shoe repair man store further down. Katherine had yet to see any office supply stores and decided to stop inside the café to ask one someone on the wait staff there.

A tiny bell rung as she stepped into the Café, it was a sweet sound that echo through the tiny room and alerted people to her presence. She looked around her taking in the booths and tables; it appeared to be an ice cream shop. Katherine was making a mental note that this place was here when a waitress walked past her, " Sumimasen ga doko ni ofisu takuwae desuka?"

The waitress stopped and regarded the girl asking the question. She looked her up and down thinking about the question, "Third street down take a right it's by the post office."

"Arigatou," Katherine thanked the waitress before stepping outside and following her instructions. Just like the waitress said there was the post office and to the left of it across the street was the office supply store. She picked up several notebooks; some reams of college ruled paper, two binders, and packages of mechanical pencils, pens, and highlighters. All the supplies she was carrying in two white shopping bags one in each hand, when she saw it.

Katherine came to an immediate stop her mouth opened in a 'o'. She almost didn't see it which would have been a damn shame, but there it was. Tucked between two apartment buildings was a store, the sign broken but Katherine could tell that it had once spelt out the two words 'Ongaku and Hon'. Even if Katherine hadn't paid attention at all when Lucian was teaching her Japanese, she knew those two words were Music and books.

She rejoiced internally when she saw a sign in the store window with the word, 'aiteimasu,' printed in beautiful red kanji. Okay maybe it wasn't exactly beautiful; it was the same sign that was hanging in the window of every other shop Katherine had passed, but to her it was a beautiful sign.

When Katherine walked in she was immediately accosted with music blaring through the speakers. There were shelves everywhere piled to the brim with CD's and a table with milk creates stacked on top and under full of records. The second floor was more of a loft with a wooden banister looking out to the front of the store. Up there were the bookshelves filled with books.

(Operator, operator, dial her back. Operator put me through. Satellite gave up a ghost to soon.)

A woman in her early twenties walked out of the back and stopped when she saw Katherine. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know you were here. You want me to turn down the music?" She asked politely.

Katherine shook her head, "No it's okay. I actually love this song."

The woman smiled, "Yeah it's one of my favorites too. You need help finding anything?"

Katherine shook her head, "No I was just going to look around." The woman nodded going back to what she had previously been doing.

Katherine browsed the shelves of the CD racks humming the lyrics of the song. "I loved her too long. Don't take her too," she sang quietly picking up a CD and reading the back.

(Oh, how he crossed us on that fate, your path in my own satellite. What a mess a little time makes to us when time and space collide.)

"Operator, operator, dial her back. Operator, operator, don't take her too," she put down the CD and picked up another one. Her eyes scanned over the title not finding it interesting putting it back another one catching her eye, "Modest Mouse." Katherine had already had one of their albums, 'Sad Sappy Sucker' and loved it. Lucian had given it to her on her birthday last year. 'Good news for people who love bad news,' she read then flipped it over looking at the songs.

Katherine wondered towards the back of the store picking up several albums here and there. There was a set of metal spiral stairs in the corner going upstairs. When she got up there were shelves of books and began scanning the titles. She picked up a collection of essays of Camus and added it to the stack in her hands.

Upstairs was very comfortable it reminded her of an old study. The mahogany bookshelves and intricate woodcarvings made everything seem more mysterious there was a deep red love seat with its back to the banister. It was a nice place to just sit and read all day. Katherine would love to come here and read all day.

"Wow you got a lot of stuff," the woman said going through the CD's and books that Katherine placed on the counter. The woman looked over the familiar bands of White Stripes, Beetles, Muse, Modest Mouse, and The Black Keys. She scanned them and typed a few keys on the register, "3050 yen."

Katherine handed her a debit card. Lucian had opened a bank account for her that he put and allowance in every two weeks. When she was younger she hardly ever used it, even now she didn't really use it much except for things that she need or her Hobbies. She took the bag from the woman and thanked her, exiting the store.

The streets were a great deal more crowded than when she had walked on them before. Katherine stopped and sat down on a wooden bench. Her olive eyes watched the people around her absent mindedly. They landed on the face of a little boy. He had jet black hair a green hat on his head falling over his eyes.

Katherine let out an involuntary shiver. Something about that boy didn't seem right. He was holding a red balloon, bobbing up and down. It seemed like he was lost, maybe looking for his mother, but Katherine didn't want to go help him. She watched studying him trying to figure out why she felt frightened all the sudden. He had starting running disappearing into the crowd. 'What is that? That thing that made that boy different,' she wasn't able to place her finger on it continuing to stare at the place where he had been standing.

She had decided it would be best to head back to the school picking up her bags. Someone knocked into her and she dropped one of her bags. CD's and books spilled out on to the cobblestone. Katherine sighed crouching down to pick them up making sure they weren't damaged.

"Here," someone said handing her some of the CD's.

Katherine took them from his hands, "Ariga—"She paused looking at his face. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen and messy blonde hair. He looked like one of those Calvin Klein models. She was a lost at words, her brain seemed to lose all thinking capacity. 'Wow he's gorgeous,' Katherine concluded, and then she noticed his mouth moving, 'Oh shit is he saying something! I'm not even listening. This is bad. He's still talking pay attention! Okay, Katherine pull yourself together.'

Aidou stared at the girl in front of him. It was obvious that she wasn't hearing a word he was saying. He recognized that look from his fan club when he talked to them. They'd give him that dead zombie expression and he knew they weren't hearing anything, however suddenly she seemed to snap too. "I'm sorry," the girl spoke calmly coming out of her trance, "I didn't hear a word you just said I was distracted by your face."

Her honesty surprised him. It was certainly something no girl has ever said to him before vampire or otherwise. The way she said it though was interesting like she was simply stating a fact, 'The sky is blue. The grass is green.' Aidou blinked, "I was saying that you should probably be more careful. Also you kind of looked a little piss when I knocked into—"

Katherine picked up the rest of her stuff slipping back into to the bag before standing. "I should be more careful? Isn't that a little hypocritical considering you're the one that knocked into me? You should watch were you're going," she retorted passive aggressively. Now normally she wouldn't react this way, but something about the combination of Jetlag, the massive amount of reading she had to do, and the way he was talking down to her just pissed her off.

Aidou put up his hands in surrender, "Okay, fine it's my fault." The girl was silent for a moment her doe-like olive eyes narrowed in thought, her luscious pink lips pressed together in a hard line. Aidou took this opportunity of silence for his eyes to scan over her face.

He didn't think her to be necessarily pretty, he had seen much prettier people than her, but she was decent to look at. Her olive eyes had this impression of innocence with just a touch of mischievousness to them. The only thing that could be considered pretty about her would be her golden brown hair that flowed down to her elbows in soft waves.

"Would you stop talking to me like that?" Katherine requested annoyed.

Aidou quirked an eyebrow in question, "Like what?"

"Like your Emily Post."

Aidou opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted. "Aidou! Aidou," another blonde haired guy came running up to them, just as gorgeous as the one she was currently talking to. 'What is it with this town is everyone unbelievably pretty,' Katherine asked. Unlike the one she was currently talking to this guy had these deep clover green eyes and his blonde hair was neat and orderly.

The green eyed person seemed to have just noticed her, "Oh, who is this?"

"I was just leaving," she remarked jadedly to him. Katherine got the sudden urge to bolt from the two people standing before her. It was strange she never had this happen to her before, but her subconscious was screaming at her to leave. She figured boredom was the way to get away from them without offending them too terribly, except for that other guy, 'What did green eyes call him Aidou?', he could be offended for all she cared.

Ichijo watched as the girl turned on her heals and disappeared into the crowd. He made a puzzled expression before turning to Aidou, "So I'm guessing that you didn't catch him?"

Aidou shook his head, "No the stupid human girl got in the way. He ran the second he sensed me."

Ichijo sighed running his fingers through his hair, " Kaname-sama isn't going to be happy."

Katherine knocked on the door lightly. She was picking up the notes that Hiyoki was supposed to leave her. There was some shuffling behind the door before it opens revealing a girl. Yori-chan as Katherine remembered. She vaguely recalled seeing her sitting next to Yuuki when she got to class that morning.

"Hi Yori," Katherine greeted the other girl with a smile, "I was wondering if anyone dropped off notes for me?"

Yori regarded Katherine tiredly her amber eyes boring into her. "Hold on a minute," she closed the door than reappeared with a large black binder. Katherine took it from the girl's hands.

"Arigatou." Yori just nodded politely before closing the door. Katherine walked into her room and plopped the office supplies on the floor by the desk and the CD's and books on the bed. She placed the binder on the desk with other white one. The alarm clock that she forgot to set told her it was 5:30 p.m.

She threw herself on the bed face first with an aggravated sigh. 'I just want to go to sleep,' she complained to herself. Flipping over she stared at the ceiling feeling incredibly comfortable at the moment not wanting to move. Her eyes glanced at the clock again, "I should probably set that stupid thing."

Katherine sat up and grabbed the clock pressing the buttons until the alarm was set for 5:30 a.m. Then she placed it back on the tiny nightstand with the small lamp. She dumped the contents of the white shopping bag on to the bed sorting through the CD's.

Picking up the Modest Mouse album she turned and on her laptop placing the CD in the CD drive. A window popped up with different options and she clicked the 'open with Window's Media Player'. It took a couple second for it to load and she ripped the music on to her laptop as the playlist started to play.

(Ice age, heat wave, can't complain. If the world's a large, why should I remain? Walked away to another plan. Going to find another place, maybe one I can stand. )

Katherine picked up the books that she bought and arranged them on the shelves. She then placed the rest of the CD's on the desk so she could rip them later. She decided to start on her math homework, and took out one of the empty notebooks and rewrote her notes in it dubbing it as her math notes.

(You don't know where and you don't know when. But you still got your words and you still got your friends. Walk along to another day. Work a little harder, work another way.)

It only took her about 30 minutes to finish her math homework. She was now focused on the ionic bonds of chemicals in her science class. All she really had to do what read the chapter for this. Katherine paused in her reading listening to the current song.

(Now the blow's been softened, since the air we breathe's our coffin. Well now the blow's been softened, since the ocean is our coffin. Often times you know our laughter is your coffin ever after.)

She grabbed the CD and her eye scanned through the song list, "Satin in a coffin," she read to herself.

(Well now the blows been softened, since we are our own damn coffins. Everybody's talkin about their short list. Everybody's talkin about death.)

The song was completely morbid, but Katherine found that she liked it. Also there was some truth behind the words. 'Everyone will die eventually. No one lives forever.' It was a depressing truth nonetheless it was still true. The idea sobered her a little, as her thoughts went to her parents.

'It's almost the ten year anniversary,' she mused to herself. In truth the anniversary was that Sunday. The anniversary of the last time she ever saw them. Katherine closed her eyes as she recalled the memory.

A five year old Katherine sat at a sturdy wooden table with a box of Crayola Crayons. She was doodling little flowers humming to herself. Her feet were swinging back and forth with her legs being too short to touch the floor. "Mommy! Mommy look it," she called holding up her latest artistic masterpiece.

Jessica Taylor stopped what she was doing and looked at her daughter's picture, "It's beautiful honey. But it's look not look it."

"Look," Katherine said, but it sounded more like Loo-ke. Her mother smiled at her love in her eyes. "Where is mommy going?" She asked her child like curiosity coming to the surface.

Jessica sighed coming closer to her daughter. Had Katherine been older she would have noticed the look of sadness that flickered past her mother's features. "Mommy and Daddy are going to work. We are going to leave you with Annie. You like Annie don't you?"

Annie was the nanny that often watched Katherine while her parents were at work. Katherine was quiet seeming to consider the question seriously then nodded, "I like Annie she got me a doll last week." Jessica smiled at her daughter.

"There's my little girl," Evan Taylor said coming into the kitchen and picking up little Katherine. Katherine giggled as he flipped her upside down. Her mother just watched the two with a disapproving expression shaking her head.

"Don't drop her on her head again," she joked, though her voice had a serious edge to it. Evan flipped the girl right-side up and stared at his wife in mock shock.

"I thought we weren't going to talk about that in front of her," he whispered covering the little girl's ears though he was only joking too. Katherine watched her parents, confusion forming on her face.

"Talk about what Daddy?" She inquired tilting her head to the side.

"Daddy was just making a joke," her mother said taking her from her father's arms. She set Katherine down at the table again.

DING. DONG.

The doorbell rang, the musical chimes filling the room. "That'll be Annie," stated Evan matter-of-factly. Katherine's mother walked out of the kitchen to answer the door. While Evan crouched down to see was his daughter was doing.

Katherine looked at her father, "Do you want to see Daddy?" Her dad smiled and nodded. Katherine put down the green crayon she was using and slid the paper to him. "That's me," she pointed to a little stick figure with brown hair and green eyes, "and that's Mommy," her tiny finger traveled to a larger stick figure with brown hair and green eyes, "and that's you," she finished tapping a stick figure with blonde hair and brown eyes.

Evan studied the picture, "Who's that," his finger tapping the page were another stick figure was? This one was placed farther away from them and had black hair and gray eyes. Katherine glanced at where he was pointing and smiled.

"That's uncle Luke!"

Her father stared at her puzzled, "Why would you draw him?"

"Because he's Mommy's and Daddy's best friend and even though he isn't here now I know that he is still my family. But since he's so far away I drew him over there," she explained like it should be obvious. Evan stared at the picture for a little longer then sighed.

"Hi Kat," Annie said coming into the kitchen. Her short red hair pulled up into a ponytail. Katherine looked up and smiled at the nanny.

"I want to build a snowman today," she told her plainly. Annie laughed then looked at the father for permission. Evan nodded saying it was okay. He left her in the kitchen with the nanny and took some bags from the closet putting them in the trunk of the car.

"Okay we can do that after lunch," Annie told her messing up the girl's hair.

"Katherine, honey come say goodbye," her mother called from the entry way. Little Katherine slipped from the chair and ran out into the living room. She ran up to her mother and jumped into her arms.

"Goodbye Mommy," she said before planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Don't I get one of those?" Her father asked coming back into the house. Katherine smiled at him making grabby motions with her hands. Evan took the small girl in his arms as she hugged him lovingly before kissing him on the cheek.

"There you go," she remarked smiling.

"Now be a good girl while were gone. Don't cause Annie any trouble," he told her kissing her forehead. Katherine nodded furiously before her father set her on the hardwood floor.

"Katherine," her mother said kneeling down to the young girl, "I want you to know that we both love you very much. You're a strong person and no matter whatever comes you will get through it." The girl stared at her mother confused at this. She had never said something like this before.

Jessica brushed a strand of her hair from her eyes, "We should be back by tonight. Be a good while we're gone and listen to Annie." She kissed her daughter on her nose causing the child to giggle. Then Katherine watched as her two parents shut the front door behind them; catching a fleeting glimpse of her mother's golden brown locks and her father's warm caramel eyes.

Katherine was pulled from her memories when a ringing started emanating from her computer. She moved the mouse and answered the skype call. "Hi Lucian."

Lucain smiled and greeted her, "Hey Kit. Happy first day! How was it?"

She sighed placing her hand under her chin. "It was okay I guess. You know how much I hate first days," she told him disinterested, "I'm pretty tired. Kind of want to stick my finger in an electrical socket, but I've got a lot of reading to do for my English class."

Lucian nodded, "Yeah but you can't skip them. What kind of reading?" Katherine picked up the two binders, "Good Lord, what the hell is that?"

"My notes. I don't think Shakespeare knew himself this well," she said setting them down.

"You could beat someone to death with those," he commented.

Katherine laughed, "That's what I said. But the teacher didn't find it so amusing. On a brighter note, I found this great used music and book store today."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah it was amazing. It's tucked between these two apartment buildings and the sign is broken. I don't think many people even know it's there. But I walked in and Satellite by The Kills was playing."

"I love that song."

"I know me too. There were CD's everywhere and there didn't looked like there was really any organized system. But I found some great stuff," She picked up the Modest Mouse album she was listening to," Two dollars and fifty cents. Also I found a collection of Essays from Camus in their original French, five bucks."

Lucian was highly impressed, "Wow. So your first day wasn't exactly a bust was it?"

Katherine shook her head, "No, it wasn't that bad. But a guy did bump into to me and make it seem like it was my fault," His eyebrows quirked up at that but he didn't interrupted her, "I kind of snapped at him though; I mean we were kinda both at fault, but he was talking to me like it was a huge inconvenience for him to stop and help me pick my stuff up."

"What did you say to him?" Lucian asked curiously.

She kind of cracked a smile at that question. "I more or less called him Emily Post," Lucian laughed, his dimples coming out as his mouth spread into a smile. Katherine had grown up with that smile, but it took a couple years for her to see it. When she first lived with Lucian he hardly ever smiled and more often than not it was a front so the little girl didn't get sad. "So how was your day? Anything exciting happen?" Katherine probed.

Lucian shrugged, "I've just been writing. One of the guys did get pantsed today though." Katherine laughed. "Well I should probably let you get back to your homework. Have you eaten yet?" Lucian said like a concerned parent.

Katherine shook her head. "Well go eat," he ordered she was about to protest, "No buts, Kit. Get your ass up walk down to the dining hall and eat some food."

"I haven't really been hungry," Lucian gave her a look, the same one he used to give her when she disregarded what he said and she was in trouble. "Okay fine I'll go eat," she said holding up her hands in surrender.

"I'll call you tomorrow. And Kit it'll get easier," he told her then ended the call. Katherine was exactly sure of what he was referring to, but she didn't know exactly why he said it. She chose not to dwell on it however and got up and went down to the dining hall. She had some beef stew and white dinner rolls with butter and Raspberry jelly (she ate about 10 of them) then went back to her room.

Katherine stayed up for another two hours and read the rest of the science chapter and got about one quarter of the way through the white binder before turning of the lights and going to sleep. The second her head hit that pillow she was out like a lite, but something in her subconscious was nagging her about that little boy with the red balloon.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading Chapter one. I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. Your support means so much. Unfortunately I had a little snafu with this chapter as I was going back through this story and fixing all those pesky question marks along with a few typos. (To those who have read this before you know what I am referring to.) As I was updating one of my chapters with the edited chapter I accidentally messed up and ended up updating chapter one instead of the prologue... So now there's two prologues (Of course I'm going to fix that as well. So by the time you read this that won't be a problem.) And by doing this I had erased my original author's note. I can't for the life of me remember what was in the first one, but I'll still try to put the important stuff back in.

Baby chick is a play on words to Hiyoki's name. Baby chick in Japanese is Hiyoko so the two words can be easily confused.

Japanese Translations:

Sumimasen ga doko ni ofisu takuwae desuka. = Where is the office supply store?
Osihii deus. Omarisu ga daisuki desu. = Delicious. I love omelet rice.
Sensei = Teacher
Ongaku = Music
Hon= Book
Aiteimasu. = We're Open

Songs:

The Kills- Satellite
Modest Mouse- World's at Large
Modest Mouse- Satin in a Coffin