A/N – Yes I know it has been awhile since I have written anything, and I am working on the other fics that I am currently in the middle of. But this fic has a personal interest for me, and right now … at this time … it has to be written. I promise that I will have a new chapter to Looking Back out soon. DON'T WORRY! Until then, sit back, relax, and read the intro to this. Sora is the speaker, of course, and this is just to bring you up to where the story starts. So don't worry if it seems a little rushed. READ AND REVIEW! Love to you all, Sora.
The Soap Opera we call 'Life'
Prologue
If anyone had tried to tell me when I graduated from high school that I would be where I am now I would have said – no way, your crazy. A lot of people say that about themselves – but I am finally realizing what they meant.
I am a pretty predictable person. Just the other day, in fact, I went into the Chevron down the street and I was getting gas. As I was walked to get some chocolate milk and then to the desk to order my food, the lady already had my food, that I apparently always got, packed into the bag ready for me to go. I asked if I was that predictable and she replied, "Yes". Now if you ask me, that's pathetic. But as predictable as I am – you would never have thought looking at me awhile back, that I would end up where I am now.
I went to a small, private school in the city of Tokyo. Tokyo, as you know is a pretty large town. I am a tenth generation Tokyo lifer. We don't get out much. Anyway, I went to that school from kindergarten until my senior year in high school. I spent thirteen years with the same small group of people. I was really quiet and by the time I was in ninth grade, still at that same school, I still had no friends.
I know what you're thinking - I was quiet? Yeah right! But really, there was a time when I lacked the self-confidence to talk to people. But that was a lifetime ago, it seems.
One day, I got the urge to join the band. So I did, and I made a lot of friends and started gaining confidence. I jumped into it full force and the last three years of high school flew by. I even dated a band member for about a year and a half before graduation.
At time to choose a school, I wanted to be near my boyfriend, Darien. So I went to a small private college and it was just like my high school – small and reserved. As much as I thought I had changed, I hadn't. I had to stay in Tokyo, with my old friends, to feel comfortable. I wanted nothing more than to just stay in high school itself.
It was the summer before my freshman year of college that I knew I was in love with Darien and that we were going to be married, and so I had sex with him. It was a mistake, but I was in love, and things were never the same with him again.
I was almost through the first semester of my freshman year when I got a call that he was cheating on me. Sure enough, I tracked him down and he was screwing Nicole, this other girl. He acted like it was no big deal, but it devastated me. I sat in my closet of my dorm room that night for hours because I was so upset and there was no where for me to be alone.
I finished out the year but I was a shell of a person. I lived at home the fall of my sophomore year – but I was miserable. I talked to Darien because I kept running into him, so we had remained somewhat of friends, but nothing more. He was dating Nicole then.
Then one day in the fall of my sophomore year, I got a call. It was from Darien and he told me that he and Nicole had broken up. He wanted to see me, and of course go out. That was it. I was already miserable with my school, home; life and this phone call pushed me over the edge. I decided, then and there, that I was going to start over. So I chose a school that was where no one had ever going form my high school – The University of Odaiba.
It was far enough away for me to start over. I was so ready for a new start. I was burnt out with working thirty hours a week, taking nineteen hours of school, and being the socialite in certain clubs that my parents required of me. I wanted to go somewhere where I knew no one and no one knew me. People still to this day ask me why I choose to go here. I still don't know exactly why. But it was gut feeling that I reacted on. I follow my gut feelings.
I didn't tell Darien that I was leaving, but two weeks before I was to leave, he called me. My mom had told his mom and he was upset I was leaving. I told him it was something I had to do. He didn't understand, but I didn't expect him to.
When I got to Odaiba, I lived alone and I met no one. I was once again miserable and during the spring semester I hated the decision I had made. In May of that year I went home for a friend's wedding and I never wanted to go back again. But I had already transferred once and I wasn't going to do it again.
I spent the summer in Tokyo at home and dreaded the time when I would go back to Odaiba University. But I joined the band in the fall and met some girls in the color guard. We formed a group of friends out of desperation for not wanting to be alone at the beginning of the year. I had no guy friends though, which I missed having.
Then, in the middle of October, through a friend named Keiko, I met a guy she knew in high school, by the name of Matt Ishida. I immediately thought he was so cute, with his height and blue eyes and blonde hair. He was really nice too. We met going to a party and I was smitten. But the problem, as I was telling my friend Faye that week, was that he had a serious girlfriend, which was in another city. I told her that I couldn't like a guy that had a girlfriend. It just wasn't in me. The day after I told Faye that, I found out that his girlfriend had dumped him. I, in my usual fashion, left some candy and a note of encouragement on his car.
When he found out I had left it, he hugged me and I looked into his eyes and knew I liked this guy as more than a friend. I had only known him a week. But, I felt like fate was telling me this was the one. I didn't know where it would lead and I figured that as soon as marching season was over, it would be a year before I saw or talked to him ever again.
My group of friends was becoming further and further apart, and the only girls that stayed together were Faye, another girl named Sakura, and me. I talked to some other people that were in the band with me, but we weren't the best of friends. I talked to Keiko some, as well as Matt - online, but not as much as I would have liked.
The end of the semester came, and I found out that I had failed most of my course work, because of lack of interest. I didn't know where I was going with my life. It seemed as if I kept going in a pattern of unhappiness and I couldn't find where I belonged.
I didn't want my parents to find out that I had failed, so something drastic had to happen. I was kicked out of the University for a semester, and I have to put a plan into action in order to survive. I was going to lie, cheat, and steal if necessary to finally change my life for the better.
And so, 2002 rolled in. And that is where my story really begins…