DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE CONAN!

Chapter One: Sherry's childhood

panting sound

'Number 10th Beika…'

Panting sound

'… just hold on, I'm almost there…'

'12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th….'

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Meanwhile, approaching from the other side of the street, two kids barely 1st grade, a boy and a girl walked back from school together, casually arguing about matters that sounded too big for their sizes.

'Jeez Kudo, you just don't accept others' opinion at all do you'

'There's only one truth, no alternatives'

'You know it doesn't work that way all the time'

'Ha! That is such nonsense'

'Oh gosh! Maybe I should just give up on you, you are so hopeless'

Conan opened his mouth; about to argue back when he spotted a girl, looking visibly exhausted standing a few feet away from them. Something about this girl caught his attention. She seemed to be around their age but unlike the other six year-old kids she has 'their' kind of eyes. The eyes that screamed out 'I don't belong here'. The girl was a complete mess. When Haibara noticed that Conan was ignoring her, she followed his eyes.

The mysterious girl suddenly looked up, and caught sight of Haibara. With traces of joy in her croaky voice she cried out;

'Sherry! … Ain't I glad to see you' the girl hardly finished her sentence when she collapsed to the ground.

'Cider' muttered Haibara. Surprised, but immediately coming to the conclusion that they knew each other, Conan glanced at the girl standing next to him, and for the second time in his life, he saw her tears.

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Ten years ago….

A red haired Japanese girl who seemed too mature for her age of seven walked around in a building that seems to be a dormitory. On her left hand, she was carrying a small handbag with hardly anything in it, while her right hand clinged on to a piece of paper.

'Room number 471' she quietly read from the piece of paper, confirming the room number to herself.

'Must be this way' she muttered to herself and turned right, taking another ten steps before stopping in front of a black painted door with the shiny metal numbers '471' on it. Pulling out an envelope from her bag, the girl took out a keycard and swiped it on the card-reader next to the door.

click

Having unlocked the door, she gently opened it to find her first surprise.

A brown haired girl of around the same height jumped out of the room, intending to hug the Japanese girl but accidentally knocked both herself and the newcomer to the floor.

Instead of apologizing, the assailant, who seemed overwhelmed with joy, laughed cheerfully before starting her verbal attack.

'Oh my gosh you must be my new roommate I'm so excited they told me my roommate is Japanese I love Japan I'd love to go there one day your name is Sherry right? Mine's Cider it's so awesome to meet you finally you know we'll be rooming together for a year' the girl said that really fast in one breath, her voice was full of excitement.

'Oh wow, how wonderful.' The girl underneath breathed coldly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. 'Now that we're introduced, can you get off me?'

As Sherry started to push Cider off of her, she took a glance at her assailant, examining this cheerful, brown haired girl with large brown eyes, tanned skin and sharp figure. This girl seemed to be quite cute. 'Latin of some sort' Sherry told herself, then took no more interest of the girl.

'Which one is my bed?' She said to the air.

'Oh c'mon, is this how you greet someone who's going to be your best friend? Don't they teach you any manners in Japan?' Cider asked disappointedly, having started to fume up after finding out how her new roommate is like.

'Best Friend?, You want to be my best friend? Look. I'm going to do you a favour by pointing out that I want NO friends, I need NO friends and I will therefore be having NO friends, let alone a best friend, get it?!!' she shrieked.

'Problem child, huh?' Cider raised her left eyebrow and continued.

'Let see… what could it be… forced to come here? Maybe not, seemed too determined. Love life? Nah... probably still too young …. now I got it! Sudden death of parents, am I right?'

That seemed to strike Sherry really hard. Her eyes shining with madness, she suddenly turned around, grabbed Cider's neck and squeezed with all her might, furiously trying to strangle her, ignoring all thoughts of possible consequences.

'Making friends?' A new, harsh voice interrupted.

Sherry let go of Cider's neck out of surprise, and quickly turned around to the owner of the voice. Cider gasped for air, gagging loudly.

A tall, strict looking old lady dressed in complete black stepped into the room, her cold eyes staring down at Cider, who was still lying on the floor, then swiftly shifted her gaze onto Sherry.

'What is going on?' The old lady demanded, her voice betraying no emotions but was backed up by years and years of experience. There was no doubt that she would ger her answers.

'I- I just…' Sherry's voice shook as she felt the woman's cold eyes slowly glide down her shaking figure, and as slowly come back up to stare deep into her shifting eyes.

The thought that she would now get out of this struck her, and she could not quench it.

'We're just, er…. sharing our martial-arts skills, ma'am. Sherry was showing me this really cool move.' Cider interrupted, after finally having straightened herself up.

The lady stared at them both in apparent disbelief, but decided to ignore the situation.

'Very well then. I am in charge of all new students. I want you all to be at the assembly hall in your uniform at 6 o'clock sharp. Understood?'

The woman didn't wait for an answer as she walked out and firmly shut the door.

The girls shared one deep glance at each other. Then they both started to smile.

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AN : Since I'm always been a huge Conan fan, I spend a lot of time daydreaming about being in the story myself. Cider 'was' suppose to be me… well.. kinda… then half way through the first chapter I decided to change around Cider a bit coz… I just don't see how 'I' can be intelligent enough to be in that black organization…. Then I made Cider an attractive Hispanic girl instead of a funny looking Asian girl T.T…. just to make it interesting.

This is my first time writing a story so… comments are very welcome.. Hope you guys enjoy it. The following chapters might take some times to come coz… I haven't thought of the ending yet .…

Lots of thanks to DeadMeat, a fellow fanfiction author, for editing the whole thing for me… sorry for my lousy English and also thank you for introducing FFN to me.. It's such an awesome site J.