Authoress here.

When writer's block leaves, I love starting new stories! In this one, I'm rather comma-happy. I apologize for any unnecessary commas that I place in this story in my hyperactive typing.

All you rabid Fruits Basket Fans: I also apologize if I seem to distort any of the characters in any way, shape, or form in my efforts to create a story that makes sense.

START CHAPTER

"Class, we have a new student today."

Yuki Sohma, the prince of his high school who came complete with an obsessed fan club, looked up from the paper he had been proofreading.

"This is Rika Kiratani. She just moved here from Osaka."

Rika kept her hazel eyes focused on the ground, and murmured a polite greeting.

"You can sit over there, Rika." The teacher pointed to a vacant seat in the back of the room, and didn't wait until the girl had taken a seat before she began lecturing the class.

Rika, who was surveying the other students, paid no attention whatsoever to the teacher's endless droning. It wasn't until she was asked a question that she couldn't answer, that she was reprimanded by her instructor and decided to pay attention. The rest of the day went rather smoothly, and once it was over, Rika was glad.

On her way out the door, Rika quite literally bumped into Kyo Sohma, who jumped as if he'd been burned. "Sorry," she apologized quickly, crouching carefully so she could pick up her books and no one could see up her skirt.

"Uh...yeah," he replied hesitantly.

When she straightened up again, she shifted her books to her left arm so she could extend a hand to the boy before her. He took it awkwardly after just staring for a second.

"Not really the best way to start off the school year. I'm Rika Kiratani, like the teacher said." Upon listening to her speak, it was apparent that she carried no trace of the Osaka accent.

"Kyo Sohma," he replied shortly, and dropped her hand.

Unperturbed by his hesitance to talk to her, she gave him a warm smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

He gave her a brisk nod, and walked out the door.

Leaning against the wall beside the door, Rika was thinking. The name Sohma had sounded vaguely familiar for some reason that she couldn't quite place her finger on. She had moved to Osaka 7 years ago, and only recently returned to her birthplace, but was nonetheless positive that she had heard of a Sohma besides Kyo that was in this area. Since her teacher had offered no introductions, she had no way of knowing if her suspicions of another 16-year-old Sohma in this area were correct.

Back at her own home, Rika called out to signal her arrival, then rushed upstairs to her bedroom. After booting up her ancient but ever faithful computer, Rika logged on to the internet. While waiting for her computer to load her email, which took a considerable amount of time, she leaned back in her chair to think.

Seven years ago, she had lived here with her mother and father. They had moved to Osaka because her father had been offered a good job there. He had died a few months ago, so Rika and her mother had moved back to their hometown.

Looking back at the forgotten screen, she saw that her email was all from people she didn't know, and deleted all the messages except one. This one had her full name in the subject line, so she hesitantly opened it. Inside was a short message in red lettering that said, "A friendly warning to our newest student- Stay away from Prince Yuki Sohma. We're the Prince Yuki fan club, so we have first dibs. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away."

She stared at the message, wondering briefly how they had gotten her email address. Her eyes scanned the red letters again until they fell upon the words she was searching for. Yuki Sohma? Her mother's voice caught her in the middle of her thoughts, and she stumbled down the stairs to make dinner. Her mother was devoted and tried her best, but that didn't disguise the fact that she was a horrible cook, so Rika handled all the meals.

They ate dinner silently, not wanting to start a conversation at the dinner table without her father present. He had always started off the meal by asking how everyone's days went, and they had gradually shifted to other topics off of that. The laughter had left the room since her father had died.

After the meal was done, Rika washed the dishes and walked upstairs without a word. Considering how many dishes had been broken by her mother's shaky hands since she had lost her spouse, Rika had also taken over washing dishes. A lot of the housework was now her job, since her mother was acting sort of like a dust bunny: always there, always silent, always unhelpful.

Ignoring the homework she had been assigned, Rika got ready for bed but didn't close her eyes. She stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought. Kyo and Yuki Sohma. It must have been Yuki, then, that she had met when she was a child.

Suddenly, she had a flash of a memory. She was behind a large house, running around in the garden with a group of small children.

The memory faded, and Rika forced her eyes to close. It took nearly two hours for her to fall asleep, her dreams plagued by random snippets of her childhood.

Tomorrow, she would figure out which person was Yuki. Maybe then she would remember how she knew him.

END CHAPTER

Okay, so this wasn't as impressive in length as the first chapter of other people's stories (glances at PenPusherM's 7 page chapters), but I did my best.

Read and review so I know if I should continue writing this.