Okay. This fan fic deserves a lot of explanation. I had originally written this as a creative writing assignment for my English class. We were supposed to start with a line that had already been written in a book or play (there was a list of them) and we could take it in any direction we wanted. So I used the Shaman King characters. The only problem was I had to make it seem like I had come up with the characters on my own, so I used their dubbed names (and, in Ren's case, voices) so my teacher wouldn't get suspicious. And I threw in my OC (Nicole) for good measure. By the way, I am completely aware that Len's hair is purple, not black. Please don't kill me for re-naming Yoh and Pirka. I had to! I couldn't come up with any decent names for them so they had to be "Chris" and "Sarah". I haven't seen Pirka in the anime and so if her dubbed name is any better, I'm sorry. If Anna seems out of character, oh well. I made up her family history out of my head, so it's probably wrong. I've also made Anna, Yoh, and Ren all 7th graders, Horohoro an 8th grader, and Nicole a 9th grader. I have no clue in hell how old they really are, so I just aged them how they seemed to me. As for Ryu, I made him a full grown man and his own resteraunt :D!Once again I am very sorry for how effed up this "fan fic" is, but I really like the story and I got an A on it, so I want to know what you guys think

She was quite still, except for her long fingered hands. Anna was only twelve, with shoulder-length blonde hair, and gold-colored eyes. Her fingers drummed her desktop, her eyes were cast upward towards the clock. Tick... Tick... Tick... it was the last period of the day, and she wanted out. Tick... Tick... RING! Anna grabbed her backpack and made her way through the crowds. The eighth graders were the only students who didn't fear hear, so when she went through a crowd, it mostly parted. It wasn't that she was violent, there was just an air about her that warned people not to anger her. She sighed at the people's fear of her as she made her way outside.

Meanwhile, down the hall, Anna's boyfriend, Chris, was coming out of his class, followed by his friend, Len. Chris had brown hair that hovered a few inches above his shoulders, dark brown eyes, and wore a pair of orange head phones that he wasn't listening to at the moment. Len had black hair, golden eyes, and his usual frown across his face. These two however, did not possess the intimidation Anna had, so they had to fight their way through the crowd.

"Urg, I hate going through crowds..." Chris complained.

"It only gets worse in high school. There's a whole extra grade of people." Len told his friend, pushing someone out of his way. Once they had finally made it outside, the two saw Anna and Trey, an eighth grade boy with blue-dyed spiky hair and dark eyes.

"Hey Anna, Trey." Chris greeted.

"Hello." Len said.

"Hey!" Trey greeted the two back. Anna said nothing, but scowled at Chris.

"What did I do?" Chris asked his girlfriend.

"Nothing." Anna said simply. Something told the others that she was truthful. They all just stood there for a few seconds, doing nothing when they heard a faint cry. Suddenly, Trey was grabbed around the neck and almost fell down because a relatively tall girl with wavy, dark, shoulder length hair and blue-dyed bangs had jumped onto his back.

"Ack!" he cried as the girl got off him and ran to Len to cling to his arm.

"Hello Nicole." Len said, shaking his arm in a futile attempt to get her off.

"'ello Lenny Len!" Nicole said happily, clinging tighter to his arm. Trey saw this and something in his face showed he was somewhat upset. Anna noticed and turned to him.

"Something wrong?" she asked him. By now, Len and Nicole were fighting and Chris was entertaining himself by listening to his headphones, so they weren't paying attention to the two.

"Hm? Oh, no, it's nothing." Trey answered.

"Jealous of Len?" Anna asked, her face emotionless.

"W-what? Of course not! Why would I be jealous of him?" Trey stuttered, even though she had hit the nail on the head.

"Oh, come off it Trey. It's all over your face." Anna said, examining the dirt under her finger nails. Before Trey could respond, Anna opened her mouth again. "You know, Len's got a lot of girls chasing after him, even, evidently, high schoolers. It's his british accent and his eyes." Trey looked at the ground.

"I guess that's true." He muttered. Anna smirked to herself. If there was one thing she loved to do it was make other people admit things they didn't want to.

"Well, I'm gonna go now guys." She said to the whole group. Nicole and Len looked up from their fight (Len had a hold of Nicole's hair and Nicole was about to bite his arm) Chris waved, his head bobbing slightly to the music, and Trey muttered "bye" without looking up. Anna faked a smile at her friends as she walked off. The others watched her in amazement, seeing as she never smiled.

The day was beautiful. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and there was a slight breeze blowing. Her black knee-length dress ruffled in the wind.

"It's such a nice day." Anna said to herself. "Too bad." She walked along the street witheyes cast towards the sky, taking in the vastness of it. Her senses were incredibly alert, she was smelling, seeing and hearing everything that she usually did, but she actually seemed to notice it for the first time. Once she approached her home, however, her peace seemed shattered. Her home wasn't really bad looking. In fact, it was one of the nicer ones on her street. But to Anna, however, it was a portrait of hell. She walked across her lawn and let herself in with her spare key. As usual, there was no one there. Her father died before she was born and her mother was always busy with work and rarely came home before she was asleep for the night, if at all. Anna dropped her backpack by the couch and started digging through it. Not for homework, but for a piece of paper and a pen. When she got hold of the two things, she started writing.

Dear Mom, Chris, and everyone else,

I am sad to say that I cannot take living here any longer. I do not enjoy the life I was delt, so I am going to end it and try again. Please do not cry, as this is no one's fault. I am doing this entirely on my own decision, and I'm not leaving you. I will see you all again and I can assure you that compared to this life, my next one will be much better and I may even meet my father.

Goodbye,

Anna

She put down the pen and set the paper on the couch's arm so her mother could easily see it. She went into the kitchen and grabbed a sharp knife and sat down in a kitchen chair. She held the knife's smooth handle in her hand and she rotated it, taking in its texture. Slowly, she held her other arm out in front of her, palm facing up. Anna turned the knife and brought it closer to the crook of her arm. She started taking deep breaths, determined to do it. The sharp tip touched her arm, but hadn't cut it yet.

"Calm down and just do it." Anna said to herself as she pulled the knife up. She then thrust the knife through the air but just before it reached her arm and the veins of precious blood inside, she heard someone open the door.

"Anna? You home?" it was Chris. Anna immediately dropped the knife, ran to her boyfriend and grabbed him in a loving embrace.

"Hello to you too." Chris said, slightly startled by her sudden affection.

"Chris... Thank you... for saving me..." was all Anna could mutter before she started sobbing. Chris was incredibly taken aback. Anna never acted this way. This might even had been the first time she ever willingly hugged him.

"Anna, what's wrong?" Chris asked her. She pointed a shaking finger to the arm of the couch where her note still laid. Chris walked over, picked it up, and read it. When he finished, he was shaking and his eyes were wide.

"You wrote this?" he gasped, completely shocked. Anna nodded, but did not look at him. She hated crying and even more so if anyone saw her doing it.

"Come on," Chris said, taking Anna's hand and leading her towards the door, "I wanna show you something." He took Anna outside and down the street. Anna didn't want to look up, she still had tears coming down her cheeks. It wasn't until Chris came to a stop that she stopped crying so she could look up.

"Rio's?" she wondered aloud as she saw the restaurant her boyfriend had dragged her to, "What are we doing here?" Chris didn't answer, but pushed her through the doors. As soon as she was inside, she covered her ears from the deafening "SURPRISE!" that greeted her. She looked around to see everyone she knew crammed into the tiny building. Nichole, Trey, Trey's little sister Sarah, Len, Len's big sister June, and even Rio himself, a tall man with black hair who enjoyed dressing like Elvis Presley.

"Happy Birthday." Chris said from behind her. Anna folded her arms and closed her eyes.

"You know that I hate surprises Chris," She said to him, "but thanks." And before she could say anything else, June had grabbed her and sat her down while Sarah and Rio started shoving cake down her throat. Trey and Nicole had their arms over each other's shoulders and were singing "Happy Birthday" a little off key. Len watched all this with a hint of a smile across his face.

As soon as she could catch her breath and swallow the bit of cake left in her mouth, Anna looked at all her happy friends and saw that even if her home life was horrible, she still had many people that cared for her. She no longer wanted to end her life, seeing how much disappointment it would cause. And as she realized this, Anna smiled for the second time in her life.