-- Still Monday –

"Ryo, may I talk to you before the teacher comes?"

"Yeah, sure, I got lotsa free time. Now, what is so important that you have to talk to the almighty ME for?" Ryo grinned smugly, but the look fell when he got no reaction from Shino.

"It's Hanasu." His tone was so grave that even Ryo began to worry.

"Is something wrong?" The boy's chair, which had been leaning on the desk behind him, fell to the ground, signalling that he was paying attention.

"Not yet. However, Gaara and I have formed a plan…" And without explaining why they were doing this, he told Ryo of their plan. Shino knew that Ryo could make almost anyone smile, and he even got the other three stoic members of his group with jokes and pranks now and then. If anyone could make Hanasu happy, it was most likely Ryo, the joker of the group, or Gaara, who she seemed most comfortable with.

"SWEET!" Ryo punched an enthusiastic fist into the air, which was ignored by the majority of his classmates. "We're going to make this the happiest year of her life!"

Of course, to keep Ryo's mood up, Shino had told him that they had a year, instead of the two months Gaara had guessed at. (This guess was confirmed later in the day by a reluctant Tsunade.)

"…Thank you." Shino said before slipping into his seat unnoticed.

Class began.

Right after school, Ryo told us that he had to go shopping with his sister, elaborating on how boring the mall will be, and how much his feet will hurt afterwards from carrying her bags. He also exaggerated that he'd be 'thrown into a similar torture pit on Thursday', that time with his mom.

Shino had to go grocery shopping, and so Gaara and I walked home in a steady silence.

I noticed that Gaara would often sing under his breath when he was doing a quiet activity, such as art, or walking. It took me a while to figure it out, because it was so quiet. I strained my ears to catch the tune, the words inaudible. I relaxed at the tune; mixed with Gaara's deep singing voice, it was calming and would probably make anyone fall into a state of meditation.

I should ask him to chant some sort of Buddha monk thing for me. I'm sure it'd put me right to sleep.

When we reached my house, he watched me; no, more like observed me as I unlocked the door and stepped inside, waving as the door shut behind me.

I then kneeled on the carpet of the living room, dizzy and hacking up a storm. I managed to find my puffer, which subdued the coughing, and I staggered upstairs to collapse in my bed.

Ugh. One more side effect I had to be aware of. Dizziness. How would I be able to hide that from Gaara and the rest without having to sit completely still?

… My life is screwy.

I think I fell asleep.

The rest of the week passed similarly. Gaara always walked me home, and Ryo and Shino thought of so many excuses to avoid me after school I began to get suspicious. What were they planning? Something good, I hope. I'll just wait it out.

I only got dizzy once during Wednesday, in the middle of class. It was art, and I had to put my pencil down for a moment, but other than that I was fine. No one even looked in my direction. Ryo left with his mom right after the bell, confirming the story he told on Monday about the 'torture pit', which most adolescents call the mall.

On Friday, Shino walked home with us, saying briefly that he was going to hang out at Gaara's for a short period of time, and we made plans to get together to practice the next day. Gaara apparently knew when I wasn't working, yet he still doesn't know where I work—if he did, Ryo would be heading there every day just to chat with me.

Thank god that doesn't happen.

Anyways...

I pulled out my calender as soon as the boys dropped me off. It took a bit, but I also found a sharpie. I marked one day with a circle, and crossed out all the days from then up 'til today.

I also circled what was meant to be my death date.

Just living until then will be enough.

"You'll never survive on your own! You're too weak for that!"

"I'll prove you wrong! By tomorrow, I won't live in this despicable house! I won't be in this horrible town! And I'll NEVER see you again!"

"You're gonna die... you'll either starve yourself, or die from your shameful weak lungs! HA!"

The sound of a slamming door... footsteps... a man's chortling humourless laughter getting quieter...

"I'll prove you wrong..."

"I'll prove you wrong..."

"Hanasu!!" A familiar voice proclaimed loudly. A hand was on my shoulder, shaking me awake.

I looked up from the desk where I had unknowingly fallen asleep, rubbing the sore patch on my cheek (which had been pressed into my arm, leaving a red mark no doubt).

Gaara was standing above me. I gave him a questioning look, wondering what he was so frantic about.

"You... you spoke!"

I was about to say, 'well of course I spoke! It's how humans communicate!'

But then I remembered that I hadn't spoken in too long. My throat was scratchy anyways. I coughed, pulled out a piece of paper and picked up my sharpie.

'You must have been hearing things. I don't speak.' Blue ink almost went through the page.

"I have excellent hearing, Hana. I'm a musician, remember? You said, 'I'll prove you wrong'."

My eyes widened.

"Your voice was rough, though."

Randomly, I began hacking. In a flash, my red-headed friend had a cup of water to my lips-- where did that come from?-- and I was gulping down the cooling liquid.

"It's gotten worse, hasn't it?"

I simply nodded.

A/N: Whew! I finally finished a chapter! Sorry it's so short. Do you know how difficult it was to actually move this story along to a part where I could finally write something!? Bit by bit, I had written a sentence or two, or corrected a mistake every time I opened the document in May. But no more than a few sentences. I had no motivation.

Reviews motivate people. I'm going to try to update this story every week in June, and if I don't get much encouragement (two reviews would be GREAT) than it'll be every other week.

Deal?

Ooh, it's raining. I love rain. Where I live, we have some of the best thunderstorms.

According to my teacher. And he's been all over Canada, with kayaking and white-water rafting.

Well, I'm back from the AnimeNorth convention, and it was a blast! I took so many pictures! On youtube, mine and my friend's profile is RandomShedProduction. We have two videos of our time in Toronto.

Try and guess which person is me!

Sarii

P.S. Ooh, strong winds...