Chapter 26

My first day at Miyabigaoka was long and…dreadful, to say the least.

The sky was overcast as I begun my day, a thick layer of ominous clouds draped it like a blanket. A thunderstorm was forming no doubt, matching perfectly with my inner turmoil and relentless confusion on everything. I didn't mind the rain, but the thunder…I could only pray that the thunder would hold off until I reached the school. Hopefully the thick school walls would be thick enough for me to not hear the loud crackle. Of course, things hadn't been in my favor as of late.

I was reluctant to get out of bed. I even considered going back to sleep when I heard the soft drizzle of rain hitting against my large window on the west side of my room. It was calming yet unnerving but I shrugged it off regardless. Sleep would've been in the best of my interest but now it hardly seemed possible.

The dim light streaming through the slight opening in my pale yellow curtains landed directly on my eyes. I watched – tiredly – as the rain drizzled down, all too quickly turning to downpour. I stifled a sigh and brought my blanket up to my nose, slowly inhaling the familiar scent. It smelled of home and I was home, at least that's what I told myself.

Who was I kidding though? I certainly wasn't convincing myself. I was homesick and miserable, but even more than that – what mattered to me more than my own feelings –I missed everyone. I had created a new life in Choshi. I would possibly feel better if I was going to the same school as before, but I wasn't. My old friends and I had lost contact with each other and we grew apart. It was my fault of course. I was so wrapped up in my new life at Choshi to even care. If only I kept communication between us…

I tucked the blankets closer to my body, trying to keep my sadness in. I didn't want to cry but I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. One went astray from the little pool and splashed onto the bed sheets. I quickly rubbed it into the sheets with my hand, slowly wiping any traces of tears on my face. This was my choice, I thought to myself. I want this.

I calmed myself in time to watch a deadly yet beautiful display of lightening flash through the sky – just in time too because I barely had enough time to cover my ears. The crashing of rain hitting my window helped to muffle out the sound of the thunder but it shook the house causing several objects in my room to shake. My wallet – which was situated on my nightstand – fell down, opening as it hit the floor. I didn't dare to look because I knew his face would smile at me, taunting me once again. I couldn't stop myself from wondering what he thought of all of this; my leaving. Did he miss me? A small part of me hoped he didn't but the rest of my being hoped greatly that he was as miserable as I; that he missed me so much that he couldn't bear the sadness.

I quickly shook off the selfish thought. No need to form any bad habits or thoughts now.

The light knock barely registered in my ears as I moved my hair out of my eyes. I almost wasn't sure if I had heard it or not until another knock followed.

Quickly yet carefully – as to not make any noise, I pulled the blankets over my head, trying to look as if I were asleep. My mother wasn't one to barge in without consent from the person whose room it belonged to, but she probably had had just about enough of my days of skipping going to school.

It had been a little over a week since I had arrived back to Tokyo. My mother brushed off the first three days as recovery days due to the fact that I came with little notice and not to mention in the bleak hours of the morning. She had already filled out the papers for Miyabigaoka days before. The reason behind it was a mystery to me but I assumed it to be mother's intuition; either that or she had been planning on making me return home sometime soon. The following days leading to now had been marked off from my mother as my being lazy. If only she knew…

Another set of knocks came from the door as I pulled the pillow over my head to repress the sound. More knocks followed resulting in my adding another pillow.

"Amu, honey, you can't fool me. I heard your alarm clock go off ten minutes ago. Come on." I wasn't really planning on going to school today. My setting the alarm clock was me just humoring her to quell her attempts at making me go to school.

She knocked again. "Don't make me go in there."

I curled up into the fetal position, trying to make myself as small as possible. Maybe I could shrivel up and disappear or even fake death. Making myself sick was a possibility as well. As I considered hiding under the bed, the door swung open, hitting the doorstop loudly as it rebounded off of it.

I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut as a last attempted to pretend to be dead or at the very least asleep, but I could hear the soft pitter-patter of feet come from the direction of the door and getting closer. The steps stopped near the end of the bed where my feet should have been, followed by a creak of floorboards and then I feared for my life. My pathetic life flashed before my eyes making long pauses on faces of those I cared about, more frequently than not stopping on Ikuto.

"BANZAI!"

And then, all of a sudden, great weight fell on me knocking the breath out of my lungs.

I choked, gasping for air as I shoved the blankets away from me. I coughed twice as I took in little, disjointed breaths.

"Oh please Amu-chan. I'm not that heavy." My mother said as she repositioned herself on top of me. Her elbows painfully jabbed themselves into my ribcage. I opted out on telling her how painful it was and hoped a bruise would form. I could tell her I wasn't feeling well and show her the bruises as evidence. I restrained a smile and welcomed the pain, faltering only when I thought of my masochistic behavior.

I wondered what he would think of my behavior. Surely he was laughing. He probably even held a grudge at me for refusing his proposal and was with a more willing female.

I mentally shoot my head. I was making myself angry and sad, and by my own delusions at that! Surely Ikuto wouldn't have forgotten about me that soon!

This is for the best, I reassured myself. …for the both of us.

"So how do you like your room?" My mother asked, breaking through my sorrow-filled ravine.

I cleared my throat, my breathing already back to normal. "The new furniture is nice…" I said, thoughtfully looking around the room for her benefit. My mom had good taste, I'd give her that.

My bed was situated against the wall opposite from the door; centered right on the middle of the wall. All four walls of the room were painted a creamy white except for a small rectangular portion above the headboard which was painted a fair pink. A white wall shelf centered right in the middle of the fair pink portion of the wall holding a small picture of my mother, father and I. It was an old photo of when I was five, a year before my mother and father had gotten a divorce. We were happy back then, at least that was what I had thought…but I digress.

To the right of the bed was my nightstand which doubled as a small drawer, an expensive looking lamp on top. Next to the left side of the bed and on the other side of the nightstand stood a tall bookcase reaching the top of the pale pink portion of the wall. I had already put away the many books I owned onto the shelves. The bottom portion of the bookcase doubled as a cabinet on both sides, holding various little knickknacks I hadn't bothered to throw away which held some sentimental value. The window on the west side of the room (which might I add was the only window in the room) took the majority of the wall, covering at least ninety percent of it.

My mother had bought a good sized desk and placed it to the left side of the west wall, right in front of the overbearingly large window. Another lamp similar to that on the nightstand took some of the space on the desk as well as some school textbooks my mother had thought to pick up beforehand. An ornate chair was tucked into the desk which looked uncomfortable yet plush. A matching ornate sofa leaned against the east side of the room, some of my mother's photography hanging above it. A lush white carpet lay in front of the ornate chair which almost looked even more comfortable than the sofa itself. And lastly, a couple feet to the right of the door was a vintage looking vanity. It held the few make-up items I owned as well as perfume and lotions.

I picked up where I had left off "but I can't find my old stuff."

My mother shrugged. "Well I wanted to move into a slightly larger house so I had all of your things packed up. They're in storage now."

Midori – my mother – had a stroke of good luck after I had left. She had won the lottery, gotten a promotion, won double bingo and had accumulated quite the fortune. Maybe my mother had grown materialistic after she had accumulated all that money but there really was no reason into moving to a larger house than the one we lived in before…unless of course, she was planning on letting people rent or something of the like. I mentally noted on giving my mother a lecture later today.

"Oh, I was thinking about investing some money in some stock in the stock market just to see how it turns out." She said as if already knowing that I was thinking about her new acquired wealth. "You know, I've always wanted to put you in an expensive school. It was always hard to compete with your father though…" She trailed off, looking at the floor in thought.

I wanted to tell her how my father's fortune had actually come from Ikuto but I held my tongue, not wanting to bring on a conversation about him.

Another bolt of lightening flashed through the window, this time the light was dimmer causing only a low rumble of thunder which didn't frighten me as much.

"Did you become good friends with your step-brother?" Midori asked. I froze, unable to answer. "It's just that you have a picture of him in your wallet." She added as she leaned down to scoop up my wallet. I winced from the pain as her elbow dug even more into my ribcage.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "Something like that."

Her elbows dug harder in my ribcage (unintentionally) as she sat up. "Alrighty, I think it's about time for you to get ready for school. We can talk about Ikuto-kun and your friends during dinner. I heard they're great kids."

"Mom," I said, my voice bordering on whine.

"Don't give me that Amu, you promised me last night over dinner that you'd go to school today.

I scoffed. "I did no such thing."

"Regardless, you're going to school today." She quickly kissed me on the forehead and stood up, walking towards the door. She paused on the doorway, her hand on the door handle. "And brush your teeth, your breath smells horrible."

I flushed in embarrassment as I sat up, my ribs protesting at the movement. "Mom," I said loud so she could hear, this time unleashing the full force of my whine.

"Not listening!" She yelled back, her steps already fading down the hallway.

I sighed in defeat. "Time to get ready…" I muttered to myself.

For hell.

My daily routine for getting ready was the same as usual for any day with only minor changes due to the weather. I was glad I had taken a shower the evening before because there was no way I was going to risk getting electrocuted through taking a shower.

Lazily, I brushed my teeth, taking three minutes on each section. I didn't stop until I felt a small prang of pain on my gum and could taste the metallic flavor of blood enter my mouth.

"Owush." I garbled as I touched my gum with my tongue, quickly finding the gash. I spit and rinsed my mouth, smiling into the mirror above the sink. The gash wasn't too big nor was it too deep but there was blood alright. I sighed again as I rinsed my mouth, wincing in pain as the water stung the gash.

The pain wasn't major and I quickly disregarded it.

After doing my business, I trudged my way back to my room and plopped myself onto my bed.

"It's autumn already huh…" I whispered to myself. I stared at my school uniform hanging on the wall. It was my winter uniform which consisted of a light grey button down shirt, a mid-thigh white plaid skirt, light grey socks that matched with the button down shirt my mother had picked out. The socks were just long enough to cover my legs up to the hem of the skirt. And lastly, a pale aquamarine blue cardigan that promised warmth.

Silently, I got up off the bed and walked across the large room to retrieve my school uniform, making a stop at my drawers to grab a clean pair on undergarments. I changed into the clean pair and into my clothes without much thought. I didn't even glance at the picture in my wallet as I scooped it off the floor when I was done.

"Amu!" My mom yelled from down the stairs. "Breakfast!"

"I'll be there in a second!" I half yelled back. I power walked to my vanity and took a look into the mirror. I deemed myself to be too bland and could already feel the scrutinizing glare of my soon-to-be new classmates. Not only that, but my hair was an utter mess.

I quickly combed through the tangles in my hair and pulled it back, putting my hair in a ponytail. There was not much else I could do for my hair other than put a white X clip near the tie. Even though I had gotten more than enough sleep, my face seemed pale and lifeless.

I pulled open the drawer on the vanity and pulled out blush, clear waterproof mascara and chapstick but then opted out on the last one entirely. Grabbing the brush, I lightly brushed it on my cheekbones which helped my face to seem brighter and put that away.

"Amu!" My mother called again as I gently applied the mascara. I cleaned up the vanity, putting everything away and grabbed my wallet and bag.

I ran down the stairs and looked at a clock that hung nearby. If I didn't hurry, I was going to be late.

"I'll give you a ride to school." Midori said as she watched me scarf down my plate of eggs and pancakes.

I carefully shook my head as I drank some milk. "I'll take an umbrella and I can get there in time if I pace myself."

It wasn't that I didn't want her to give me a ride; it was just that I didn't want to be alone with her in a quiet environment…like a car ride for example. Something like that would flare up a conversation about one thing that could lead to another which in turn could lead to a very unpleasant conversation.

"Nonsense, you'll look like a drowned rat by the time you get there, umbrella or not. Plus, I don't even think you know how to get to the school."

"I do." I corrected. "You showed me."

"Hurry up and finish. I'll be in the car. Don't forget an umbrella just incase it's raining on your way home."

I grimaced as she walked out the door. I got up and put my dishes in the sink. Walking to the living room, I put on my shoes and grabbed my things, and umbrella included. Taking one last look at the glorious living room, I turned around and walked out the front door, locking it behind me along with all my memories of Choshi.

Not all, I thought as I walked towards the car. Lulu would be there and I truly hoped that both of us would be in the same class.
I stepped out into the rain, my wallet burning against my hand.

Not all, resonated in my thoughts. No, not all of the memories…

Because I still had a piece of Ikuto with me.