For Sanity's Sake
Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. I do own Hannah, Ingrid, Meredith, Megan, Christine, Erynn, Marquis, Kylea, Raksha, and Mimi. Eva owns herself.
Chapter One: New Years Bang
"Sugar high baby!" Ingrid shouted above the music. It was New Years eve of the year to become 2005 and a group of friends from Spring Harbor Middle School were gathered at Megan's. Megan came back down to her basement with more pizza and soda and was quickly helped to carry it by Meredith and Hannah. All the people at this party (with the exception of a few) were completely obsessed with the manga Fruits Basket, and they each had a character from the manga. The characters were mostly "assigned" judging on who was most like which character, but not everyone was exactly like their characters. For example, Ingrid, whose character is Kisa, is usually not quiet, shy and polite. Nor was Kylea quiet, reserved, and constantly insecure.
"Ti-hee-hee-hee!" came the brunette's response to Erynn throwing pretzels at Eva. Yeah, Kylea definitely made an interesting Yuki. Eva on the other hand,
"Oh my God! Ahhhhh!" Was just like Ritsu. So you all know who is who, here's a little rundown of people at (and coming to) the party:
Guest list:
Ingrid: Kisa Sohma
Megan: Arisa Uotani
Meredith: Kyo Sohma
Hannah: Hatori Sohma
Eva: Ritsu Sohma
Kylea: Yuki Sohma
Raksha: Tohru Honda
Mimi: Shigure Sohma
Christine: came for fun (more like was forced to come but whatever,)
Erynn: came for fun
Marquis: Just kind of (will) showed up…
Unfortunately Madeleine, Kristen, and Lauren (Kagura, Haru, and Momiji) were not able to come. The group was also lacking some Fruits Basket characters, like Ayame Sohma, Saki Hanajima, Hiro Sohma, Kureno Sohma, and Rin Sohma to name a few. But none the less they were having a great time dancing, eating, and just plain partying.
"This is awesome Megan!" Raksha exclaimed, grabbing a handful of chips from the bowl next to her. Megan smiled, her short blonde hair falling out of its bun.
"Thanks!" The sound of the doorbell rang over the music and Hannah ran upstairs, Erynn and Megan coming up behind her. Opening the door the girl saw their friend Marquis from school, standing on Megan's porch clutching his sleeping bag and teddy bear.
"Umm, hi Marquis," Hannah tilted her head to the side curiously. Erynn stepped forward, letting him in.
"Yo Marquis my homie!"
"Hey Erynn! Hey, hey, you guys, do you think I could hang with you guys at your party? Thayer, Colin and Alan won't let me in theirs!" he said pouting, pointing across the backyards at Thayer's house.
"Those tards!" Megan exclaimed coming up the last step. Colin, Alan, and Megan were triplets and their family had known Thayer since they were very young.
"So I can stay!" Marquis clapped his hands hopefully. Megan nodded.
"Oh course!"
"Wow thanks Megan!" the large boy ran up and hugged the life out of poor little Megan. "Hey do you have any watermelon?"
"Yeah, would you like some?" the blonde asked, walking towards her fridge. He nodded and Megan showed him downstairs, bringing a large bowl of watermelon with her.
"Hey guys, it's almost midnight! Megan turn on the countdown!" Mimi shouted, causing all the party goers to stop screaming, turn off the music, and look towards the television. The New Years Ball appeared on the screen and the countdown could be heard, chanted by all the people viewing it at the base of the ball. The room began counting with them, anticipating the year to come. With a sweet sadness they would miss this year but enough is enough.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
BANG
"Ahh! Where are we!" Marquis screeched as everyone opened their eyes to a light landscape of trees and a large house both covered in snow.
"Oh no! It's all my fault! I'm sorry! Why do bad things always happen to me!" Eva screamed, sinking to her knees in the shallow snow.
"Maybe you deserve it," Meredith smirked, egging her on. Eva wailed in despair.
"Eva chill, Meredith stop antagonizing her, Marquis breath, and Kylea stop making faces behind Meredith's back." Hannah instructed. Meredith whipped around, glaring at Kylea who grinned sheepishly.
"You damn rat!" Meredith scowled.
"Stupid cat!" Kylea retorted.
"At least I don't look like a girl!"
"Yeah well at least I don't look like, like, a, uh, like a butt!" Kylea stammered. Meredith snorted.
"Meredith, Kylea is a girl, and so are you." Christine pointed out flatly.
"I know that Chris, I was saying that in terms of Kyo yelling at Yuki, hence the damn rat statement." The girls short brown/blonde hair was tucked behind her ears.
"Ahh," Christine nodded, her pale blue eyes scanning their surroundings. "There's something about this place that makes me think we're not in Wisconsin anymore," she sighed suspiciously. Mimi looked up from her spot in the snow.
"What makes you think that?" the short girl asked nervously. Christine shrugged.
"I don't know just a feeling."
"Oh, well…if we're not in Wisconsin then where are we?" Mimi's eyes grew wide. Again Christine just shrugged.
"Who knows?"
"Maybe this is like the Twilight Zone and we all got sucked into a parallel universe!" Megan gasped in fake anguish while Eva started humming the Twilight Zone theme song.
"Would you guys give is a rest?" Hannah shrieked over their paranoid chatter.
"Okay Mom," Meredith teased with false annoyance. Hannah growled at her,
"We're not in a parallel universe, but we're also not in Madison, there is a considerably less amount of snow. Although we may still be in Wisconsin, Christine," Christine grinned and shook her head. "We're most likely south rather than north."
"How do you know?" Erynn asked in a know-it-all voice. "For all you know we could be in Canada!"
"I don't know, it was just an assumption based solely on the fact that there usually is more snow north than there is south." Hannah retorted, her chocolate brown eyes blazing. Although she knew her friend was kidding, her defensive nature caused the comment to anger her. Thankfully she was good at holding her temper, unfortunately Meredith was not.
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" Meredith's scream was followed by a loud smack and a whimper.
"Owwww! Ha'ri she's hitting me!" Ingrid called to Hannah, using her Furuba nickname.
"Yeah well she was doing that tongue thing, and touching my ear!" Meredith replied. Hannah sighed.
"Come on Ingrid, I'll return you affections, unlike Meredith," she smiled, playing along.
"I knew you would," turning to Meredith the brown haired blue eyed girl scowled. "Sorry Meredith, I can't be with you anymore." She stated and with an artificial tear ran to Hannah who returned her hug.
"Ewwww!" Meredith gaped in disgust. Ingrid and Hannah laughed in success.
"Alright!" they high fived.
"Sometimes I wonder why you two aren't Ayame and Shigure. Especially since Ingrid's more perverted than Mimi." She crossed her arms, motioning towards Mimi who was arguing with Marquis about her height. Hearing her name and the comment associated with it she ceased her bickering and grinned.
"No don't worry I'm much more perverted."
"Yeah she is." Ingrid agreed.
"Whatever!" Meredith threw her arms in the air and stalked a little ways off from the group. Off in the distance Eva was screaming about being cold. Thankfully all the partiers had decided to wear their Spring Harbor sweatshirts to the party. Even Marquis had his, he almost always wore it. God they make me so mad sometimes! Why can't they just shut up for once! Okay Meredith calm down, what would Kyo think of you? Well he'd probably be too busy screaming at someone to notice me…unless I smacked Shigure for him. Or better yet, Yuki. God if I we ever met them I'd have to make sure to be around when Yuki met Kylea…just to see the look on that rat's face when he heard her laugh.
"Ta-ha! Ta-ha!" Kylea could be heard over all the other commotion among the friends, laughing at Eva who was frantically trying to save a patch of grass she's accidentally ripped up from under the snow in one of her crazed rants.
Huh, Meredith snorted, speaking of…Well I'm a bit calmer now, I'd better go back over there…she sighed walking back towards the group.
"Ta-ha, ta-ha! Ahee-hee-hee! Hee!"
Note to self, Meredith cringed at the high pitched laughter. Smack Kylea. When she returned (and after she smacked Kylea) Meredith went to stand by Hannah and Christine, the only sane ones (Sometimes, or until you mentioned mushrooms) who were desperately trying to figure out where they were, and how they got there.
"Let's ignore the how for the moment and try and figure out the where," Christine suggested, pushing her short chocolate brown hair from her face.
"We should ask whoever lives in that house," the blonde told her, and Christine shook her head.
"We can figure this out on our own, we don't need to bother them, goodness knows what time it is here, wherever here is. We don't want to interrupt something…like their sleep cycle. Or no one could be home. We don't even know if they speak English!" she argued.
"You really think we got that far?" Meredith gasped.
"Well not necessarily, if we are in Canada, we could be in a region where they speak French." Hannah explained, and Christine agreed.
"Well Marquis speaks some French," Meredith shrugged at the girls.
"Right, I doubt they're sleeping, its daylight!" Hannah exclaimed pointing towards the sun. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind a least pointing us in the direction of the nearest town. Or telling us where we are. We could say that we're a tour group who merely lost our guide and wandered too far the wrong way. If there's no one home we'll walk until we find something else of substantial value." Hannah noted, conjuring an answer to all of Christine's concerns. The brunette sighed.
"Why can't we jut do that now and skip the confrontation?" she whined.
"Because the confrontation could save us miles and hours of walking time!" Hannah exclaimed, raising her voice slightly.
"But walking is fun!" Christine protested, smiling and waving her hands cheerfully. Hannah nodded her agreement.
"Yes, but how far do you think we'd get them to walk?" she raised an eyebrow, motioning at their friends that weren't so fond of walking; Mimi, Megan, Marquis, Erynn, Raksha, and Kylea. (A/N: Eva and Ingrid like to walk too)
"True, fine you win, we'll ask for help…" Christine said discouraged. She really didn't want to ask these strangers for help but she really didn't want to have to carry Megan, or worse Marquis.
"Wow you guys that was like watching a presidential debate!" Meredith giggled, pretending to be ditzy. Hannah and Christine both turned to her and yelled in unison,
"Quiet beast!"
Yes the only "sane" ones indeed. Meredith smiled inwardly at her friends.
"Okay guys, we're going to ask the people in this house," Hannah pointed at the large home behind them. "For help and possibly directions, come on!" Mimi yawned.
"Yeah sure, go ahead…" the short, black haired girl waved her blonde friend on towards the house before closing her eyes and laying back, hard, onto Erynn's stomach.
"Ah, Mimi, can't breathe! Air!" the brunette gasped and Mimi sat up, grinning sheepishly.
"You hogs! Get up!" Christine growled angrily, waking up several passed out partiers. Eventually all eight guests were up and groggily making their way behind Christine, Hannah, and Meredith. Ingrid quickly caught up to the trio, her energy level at it's maximum high. She skipped ahead and eagerly knocked on the house's front door as the rest of the group stepped up onto the spacey porch. A man with shaggy black hair opened the door and smiled in surprise at the ten girls and one boy standing on his doorstep.
"Why hello! I'm Shigure Sohma!" he piped cheerfully.