"I'm here, I'm here!" Chie shouted as she opened the door to her class. Panting, she started to run into the classroom and tripped.

The entire class looked up at the sudden sound of Chie's falling and began laughing. Even her sister, Sasaya, was struggling not to laugh.

Chie stood up and walked over to her desk. She sat down and her head made a loud thump when it fell on the desk.

"I'm . . . beat," she mumbled, trying to catch her breath. She looked up. "Where's . . . the teacher . . . Ku-chan?"

"Not here yet," Sasaya said in her soft, whispery voice.

"Oh . . ." Chie banged her head on the table again. "I can believe I ran all the way up here and the teacher's not even here yet."

"Well, I'm here now, Ryoyu-imoto," the teacher said and placed a test on Chie's head.

Chie looked up and the test sheet fell of her head. "We have a test today!"

The teacher rolled his eyes. "I've been saying we were going to have a test today for a month now."

"Oh . . ."

After killing off a few more brain cells, Chie read the instructions in her head.

Let's see. Blah, blah, blah, time to play the guessing game.

As Chie read a paragraph, another voice disrupted her thinking.

"I'm sorry."

Chie looked up, startled. The students were busy with their tests and the teacher was playing a video game. No one had said anything.

Weird.

Chie want back to her assignment.

"Kaikatsu, tell Sana I'm sorry."

This time, Chie gasped out loud. The class turned to her, a little annoyed and surprised.

"Is something the matter, Chie-san?" Daisuke asked. "You look pale."

"It's nothing, Dai-kun. Sorry for the scare."

"All right."

Chie pretended to concentrate on her test, but she was really talking inside her head.

Who are you? Are you a chemical malfunction or something that's causing me to think I'm hearing people?

Chie waited for a response. When nothing spoke to her, she continued to finish her test. When the bell rung, Sasaya was waiting for her outside the classroom.

"What happened, Chie?" she asked. "Why did you gasp like that? It was almost like you'd seen a ghost."

"Uh, I was thinking about the movie I saw last night," Chie answered sheepishly. "It was so cool and it had all these weird ghosts running around."

"I thought you were doing your homework last night."

"I was doing both things at the same time."

Sasaya stared at her skeptically. "I see."

Chie's face flushed and she smiled sheepishly. "Really, it's nothing," she said and shook her head rapidly. "Let's go to our next class."

As the girls were leaving, Daisuke approached them.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked.

Chie nodded earnestly. "Yup, yup! Totally, totally fine. Thank you for your concern, Dai-kun."

Daisuke smiled. "Okay," he said and left.

"Do you think he might like you?" Sasaya asked.

Chie felt a blush crawl up her face. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, he seemed awfully concerned about you."

"Oh, that's just his personality. Dai-kun is very kind. He'd help even a cockroach with a broken leg. And besides, I know he likes Giku-chan."

Sasaya frowned. She had seen the wistfulness in her sister's eyes.

The next class started. The teacher paired everyone up in groups of four. Sasaya and Chie were with Daisuke and Satoshi Hiwatari. As Satoshi read, Chie heard it again.

"Let me out to apologize."

Chie's eyes widened. "What?"

Sasaya turned to Chie. "Did you say something?"

"I need to apologize to Sana. Let me out. I just need to apologize."

"Chie? Chie?" Sasaya asked. "Are you sick? You're very pale. Chie!"

Satoshi stopped reading as soon as he heard Sasaya's voice rise above the normal whisper. Sasaya never raised her voice.

"Is she all right?" Daisuke asked.

Chie couldn't hear everyone. She couldn't see anything. She didn't even feel the pain as she fell out of her chair and crashed onto the floor.

"Who are you?"

A mental image of a girl in her late teens materialized in her head. She was stunningly beautiful with wavy golden red hair, emerald green eyes, and a light dusting of freckles on her nose.

"I'm Anas. Let me apologize to Sana."

Chie closed her eyes and lost consciousness.

Ah, I wanted to make this chapter better, but I couldn't figure out how. I'm so, so stupid. Let's see. Sasaya means "whisper". Kaikatsu means "cheerful, lively, and merry". Anas makes a habit of calling Chie that. The word Sana calls her tamer (Shikatsu) means "life or death" and you'll figure out why in a few other chapters. Ku is either another way to read the character for Sasaya's name or an actual part of her name that I dropped because I felt like it. Oh, an imoto means "little sister". When people call Chie by her last name, they usually add that word at the end to decrease confusion. I hope to end this fanfic soon. No doubt that whoever read Kesenai Tsumi wants this to be over soon so they could see what happens to Ed and Al.