Disclaimer: C:KND does not belong to me.

A/N: This is chapter 1, actually. This is kind of like where the story begins.

The life after

Chapter 1

4 years later:

"Wally... Wally..." A sweet voice called my name.

I ran slowly through the forest trying to find whomever it was that called my name like that. I was surrounded by gigantic trees on every side. Surrounded by a huge dark forest with fog on the ground. Surrounded by that sweet girls voice, calling my name over and over. I got closer to the voice. Where did it actually come from? I looked around.

"Wally... I'm over here, Wally." From the shadows of a big tree stepped a little Asian girl, around the age of 10, with long black hair and an oversized green sweater. She smiled at me.

I starred at her.

"Wally... I so glad you're here," she said with her sweet little girls voice.

"Who are you?" I asked with a lighter voice than I was used to. I seemed to be around 10 as well. My blond bowl-cut hair was hanging down in my eyes.

She laughed. Her laughter got slung between the trees that created a fading echo. "You know who I am, Wally."

"No, I don't!" I said confused. "And how do you know my name?"

"You're so funny, Wally!" she said and grabbed my arms. She held me tight and hugged me. I was just standing there. It was as if I couldn't do anything. As if I didn't want to do anything. I felt like I enjoyed standing there, letting this strange girl hug me. It all seemed so familiar to me, as if I knew this girl and what hugging her was all about. And I liked it! In a scary way, that is.

All the sudden something tore me out of her arms so I tripped backwards. And I saw myself falling. Falling... into a bottomless pit...

I got up with a tiny shriek. Drops of sweat were rolling down my forehead. I was safe in my bed. The covers had almost fallen on the floor of the sudden move I'd made. My breath was heaving. I ran my fingers through my blond hair. It wasn't bowl-cut anymore. It was a little shorter now. I usually put some gel in it to make it look like I'd just got out of bed.

I was calming myself down. "What's up with that dream?" I muttered. I'd had that same dream many times now. The exact same dream! And I couldn't figure it out!

"Wally, honey - time to get up for school!" Mum's voice called through my bedroom door.

I cleared my throat. "OK, Mum!" I got out of bed and walked over to my dresser. I pulled out a pair of baggy jeans and a loose fitting blue shirt and some clean underwear. Then I headed for the bathroom. I starred at myself in the mirror, starring into my green eyes, at my white boxer, at my teenage body, at my teenage six-pack. I work out a lot. Not that I'm really big and strong or anything. I'm a rather skinny looking guy. I've always been. And I'm shorter than most of my friends. I wonder why that is. My dad isn't that short. My mum is about my size, though.

I took a quick shower. Then I got dressed and went downstairs to eat some cereal for breakfast. Mum knows how much I love eating my chocolate cereal in the morning.

"Morning, Son!" Dad exclaimed over the morning paper. "Had a nice night?"

"Eh, sure, Dad," I replied and sat down by the table.

"Need a ride to school, Sport?" he asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"No, I'll just take the bus," I said and scratched my neck.

"Sure thing, Sport!" He smiled at me, then he got back to reading his paper.

I finished my breakfast, said goodbye to my parents and left the house. It was a beautiful morning in May. The sun was shining and it was getting warmer every day. I was looking forward to summer. Things were going to be so cool. I could party every single night!

I headed for the bus stop. My best friend Luke smiled at me as I came closer and yawned. "Morning, dude!" he said. His brown hair was reflecting the sunlight. He wore about the same clothes as me. Baggy jeans and a red shirt.

"Yeah, morning," I replied.

"So how did your piano lesson go last night, Mommas boy?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"Very funny, Lukey boy!" I replied sarcastically. "You know how much I hate that crud!"

"Why don't you just not play?" he asked.

"Mum'll be so disappointed," I muttered. "I just don't want to start anything."

"I see..." Luke wrinkled his forehead.

"Listen, Luke," I begun, leaning my weight on one leg. "I had that dream again last night."

"What? That one about you and that little girl?" he asked with a suspicious look on his face.

I nodded. "I just don't get it."

He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe it's a girl you wish you knew or something." Then he looked at me with a tricky smile. "Is she hot?"

"Dude - she's like 10 years old!" I cried out irritated.

"Wow, really?" He looked with an eyebrow lowered, wrinkling his nose. "Start dreaming about girls your own age, you pervert!" Then he laughed. He always cracks himself up. I shook my head.

Then the bus came along. We found us a seat in the back. Luke started talking about this wild party that would be arranged soon. Some other kids joined the conversation. I wasn't really focusing on what they said. I couldn't think of anything but that girl. Who was she? Where did she come from? How could she know who I was?

When the bus arrived at school we all got off and headed for the school building. Luke and I found our lockers in the hall and took out our English books. "Man, English sucks!" Luke groaned.

"It's better than Spanish," I muttered. The bell rang and we went to our classroom down the hall.

It seemed like it took forever as we went through some rules on how to write a novel. I didn't pay attention at all. Not that I cared anyways. I knew how to write a cruddy novel!

The girl from my dream was constantly on my mind as we switched classes. I started to think normally again when the lunch break started. Luke and I went to the cafeteria to eat. We got ourselves some food trays and got in the lunch line. Luke and I was joking and laughing while getting our food. We found ourselves a table and sat down.

There were kids at our age everywhere, as usual. But then this girl caught my attention. There was something familiar about her... About her long black hair, about her face. I stared at her.

She was standing near by talking to this other girl with short brown hair. The girl laughed at something her friend had said. And I seemed to know that laughter.

As I starred at her she looked over at me, noticing me. My heart started to beat faster. The girl smiled at me. I knew that smile!

"Wally?" Luke's voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked over at him. "Dude - what's up with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." He lowered his eyebrows.

I looked back at the girl, but she was now gone. I lowered my eyes. "I think I just did...

Later that day I had football practice. Luke did, too. We usually do everything together. That's why we're such good friends. We're pretty much the same.

As we were out there playing, I caught the ball and started to run to do the touchdown. Then something up on the tribunes caught my eye. The girl! It was really her! She was watching me playing football. Who was she? She seemed so much like a girl I knew - or had known once.

And that's when it hit me. It was the girl from my dream! I recognized her hair, her smile, everything about her.

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't run any longer. I stopped - and got hit from behind by one of the other players. "Ooff!" I fell down on my face. I must have had hit my head. It felt like I couldn't get back up. The other player took the ball from me and ran in the opposite direction.

"Beatles - what the hell was that?" coach Mitchell yelled out from the sideline. I looked up at him and got back up on my feet.

Luke grabbed my arm. "Are you OK, Wally?"

"Huh?" I looked for the girl. She was gone again.

"Beatles!" Coach Mitchell didn't sound happy with me.

"Sorry, coach!" I replied. "My bad."

Coach Mitchell walked up to me. "What happened?"

"Uh, I-"

"Don't you realize that you're one of my best players?" he asked. "With the homecoming game coming up soon I can't afford to lose you."

"Yeah... Sorry about that, coach..."

We finished playing and headed for the locker room. When Luke and I were finished in there we started to walk home. We don't live that far away from our school. We're just too lazy to walk back and forth every day.

We were talking about home works and stuff when all the sudden something hit me from behind. I turned around angrily. Two little boys looked up at me. They'd obviously been playing with a baseball, when one of them threw it at me by accident. I picked up the ball. "Cruddy kids!"

"Sorry, man," one of them said. "Can we like have our ball back now?"

"Don't you have some noses to pick, you cruddy brats?" I yelled at them.

"Hey! You don't want to mess with us!" the other one said tough. "Nobody messes with the Kids Next Door!"

I starred at them with a surprised look on my face. "What did you say?"

"Nobody messes with the Kids Next Door, pal!" the first one repeated irritated.

Kids Next Door! Where have I heard that before? I thought.

Luke grabbed the ball out of my hand. "And nobody messes with us!" he said and threw the ball far away. "Now beat it, Kids Next Dork!"

The two little boys looked at us with anger before they ran off to get their ball.

"Kids Next Door?" I repeated for myself.

"Yeah, you've never heard of them?" Luke asked.

"Uh, I don't-..." I stopped talking. "I mean yeah, but I just can't remember from where."

"Eh, they're like this organization for kids that fight adults and stuff, and they hate teenagers," Luke said.

A voice rung in my head. "Cruddy teenagers!" It sounded like my voice, only younger! I starred at Luke, my left eye twitching.

"What, man?" he asked, frowning and shrugging his shoulders.

I shook my head as if I was trying to get rid of the voice. "Nothing..."

About a week later I had that dream again. And the same day I saw the girl from the dream at school. She looked much older now than in the dream of course. She seemed to be as old as me. This time she was sitting on a bench outside by the fountain.

"Luke?" I pulled his arm. "You see that girl over there?"

"Huh?" He looked over by the fountain. We were standing near by. "The girl with the black hair?"

"Yeah, her," I muttered. "Who is she?"

"I don't know, dude," he said. "Why don't you ask her? She looks kinda hot!"

"Dude - she's the girl from my dream!" I said without taking my eyes off her. "Only now she's older!"

"Are you sure, Wally?" Luke asked suspicious. "Or are you just going nuts? Maybe you need a day off?"

"No!" I shouted. "I'm not nuts! I'm telling you, it's her!"

"Then go over to her," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's time for you to do something cool with your life," he laughed. "Meet some new people before you let this dream of yours goes way out of hand."

I took a deep breath before I carefully walked over to the girl on the bench. The girl was busy reading a book. I cleared my throat. "Hey." The girl looked up at me with the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.

"Hi!" she replied and smiled.

"Err, is this seat taken?" I asked pointing down next to her.

"Go ahead," she said and laughed. Her laughter made me smile as I sat down.

"Look - I've noticed you lately," I said carefully.

"Really?" she asked and smiled at me again. She put her book down and gave me her full attention.

"Yeah, and I got curious," I admitted, avoiding eye contact. Then I looked at her with a frown. "What's you're name?"

She grinned at me. "My name is Kuki Sanban. And you?"

"Wallabee, err, Wally Beatles." I was trying not to sound very nervous, but it was quite hard to hide it. I somehow just wanted to ask if I'd know her once or something, but I kept my mouth shut. It would have made me sound like a complete dork!

"You have a cute name, Wally."

"Ehehe, thanks," I said. Was I blushing?

"Hey - you're an Australian!" she exclaimed, surprised to notice my accent.

"Yeah," I said smiling. "I am." I didn't really want to talk about Australia now, so I was quick to change the subject. "So... how old are you?"

"I'm almost 17," she said. "And you?"

"17." I was fumbling with my hoodie.

She laughed again. "Cool!" It was her. I knew it! I recognized everything about her. It was as if I already knew her. She started to tell me about her younger sister Mushi and how much she loved her family. I told her about me family too. We talked about things we liked to do. Not that we had so much in common, but I felt a certain connection with her. Everything she said sounded so familiar and it was of course very interesting. We didn't get to talk that before the bell rung.

"It was really nice talking to you, Wally," Kuki said grinning.

"Likewise," I said and smiled. "I hope to see you again soon."

"Sure, you'll find me right here," she said. "This is my spot. I'm usually here if I'm not with my friends. I tend to like some time alone from time to time. But you're always welcome to interrupt me." She laughed. I laughed, too. A nervous laughter.

"See ya!" she said and headed for the stairs. I just starred at her till she disappeared into the crowd.

I felt like I could float. Or fly. Ah, hell! It didn't matter! I'd talked to her! And I knew her name. Kuki. Kuki was from Japan. Kuki was pretty! I shook my head and smiled for myself as started to run to my classroom. I was late.

The day after, I ran into Kuki by the bathrooms. She was on her way out of the girls' room. "Hi, Kuki!" I said trying to catch her attention.

She looked up - and smiled when she saw me. "Hello, Wally! How's everything?"

"Err, fine," I replied. "And you?"

"Everything's just great!" she exclaimed. I loved the way she showed such enthusiasm over the smallest things.

I smiled. "Look - I was thinking... if you're not busy to night, maybe you'd like to do... something?"

"Are you asking me out on a date, Wallabee?" she asked suspiciously, hiding her smile. I didn't know what to say. Why was I so cruddy nervous?

"Ehe, yeah - I guess I am..." I noticed how my cheeks got warm and knew that I was blushing.

"I'd love to do something with you," she said and smiled at me.

I couldn't help but smile. "Cool! So do you want me to call you later or something?"

"Sure, I'll give you my number," she answered and picked up a little note and pencil from her pocket. Then she scribbled down her phone number on it and gave it to me. "Hope to hear from you," she said and laughed. "I've got to go now, my friends are waiting for me."

"OK, bye," I said and grinned nervously. She waved her hand at me as she started to skip away. I looked down at the note in my hand. Her handwriting was perfect. She had written her name at the top with a little heart over the "i" in "Kuki". And then she had written her number below it, ending it with a cute smiley. It made me smile.

What was that strange feeling?