Key to a Forgotten Past

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Fruits Basket's plot, characters, etc. However, I do own this story's plot and any of my original characters.

Chapter 2: First Impressions

Tohru gazed at her watch in panic, as it struck eight o' clock right before her eyes. She strode forward onto the steps of the bus hurriedly, in a desperate effort to make it to her class on time. However, as she did this, the clumsy young woman slipped in a puddle and fell backwards onto the wet floor. It seemed as though the teacher was to be arriving to school long after the final class bell rang.

In a hurry to get to school in reasonable time, Tohru struggled to regain her balance, and again, stood up. Brushing off the little bit of mud splattered across the surface of her skirt, she hurried to catch up to the bus, which passed by nevertheless, without a single bit of notice to the girl running after it.

Oh no! Tohru thought, watching the bus go by with tears beginning to stream down her flushed cheeks. The next bus won't be until 8:35… what am I to do? Class starts at 8:30, and if I'm not there… I'm sure to be fired! With a look of worry and alarm expressed in her usually angelically cheerful appearance, the onigiri collapsed onto the rain-drenched sidewalk in sadness.

It's all over now… I may as well pack my bags and return back to Auntie's home…

The rain poured down heavily upon Tohru, making her freshly ironed clothes stick to her fair skin and water trickle down her once dry hair. Spring showers seemed to creep up on people when they least expected it… and this occurrence was absolutely no exception.

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind her. Its quality was rather husky and belonging to a woman. It cried out, "Tohru! Are you okay? What the heck are you doing here?"

Tohru turned to look up from her kneeling position on the floor, in an effort to see the owner of the voice. Its owner was a tall woman, with long blonde hair, and sharp dark brown eyes. Although normally her appearance would intimidate rather than comfort, she gazed at Tohru with gentle sympathy and concern in her eyes, to which Tohru replied between sobs to her good friend, "Uo-chan! I am so very happy to see you! Umm…. I—I m-missed the bus…. And I am going to be late for work! So… I… that is…"

"Tohru! You shouldn't push yourself like that! Here, I'll offer you a lift to wherever you need to go…" Uo replied with a pitying look on her face. She, herself, would be late to work by extending this bit of kindness towards her friend. However, she dare not mention it towards Tohru, who would likely feel guilty because of it and insist she go ahead to work and leave her to her own devices. She led a flushed and rain-drenched Tohru towards her car, and said, "Here, now, where you need to go?"

Tohru replied, apparently taking a sudden interest with the clothing folds of her skirt, "The elementary wing at Tsurumaki Academy… I hope this isn't too out of your way to be doing… If not, then I suppose I could just walk…"

Uo assured her, "Tsurumaki Academy? No problem… it's not out of my way. Besides, that's what friends are for, eh? Now, don't feel so down, or I'll have to beat you up because of it!" She chuckled softly at her joke (as she would never beat her best friend up like she did to others during her all-girl-gang days in junior high), as Tohru gazed wearily at the stormy atmosphere outside, still convinced that she was being horrible by imposing upon her friend's generosity in this way.

Tohru responded, with a feeble smile, graciously thankful for her friend's kindness, "Thank you so very much! I am so grateful!"

"No worries!" Uo answered, her eyes gazing towards the road ahead, as she sped through the road at the speed equivalent to what one would drive on a freeway. "But… why are you going to work at that prep school… Tsurumaki Academy? I thought you were working at some preschool across town… Or at least, that was what Hana said… Unless she was lying… and trying to keep you all to herself…" Hana was known to be overly protective of Tohru, so Uo didn't put it past her to do some such thing.

Tohru answered with a sweet smile on her face, "Oh, heavens no! I just decided to switch teaching jobs. Teaching elementary school students sounds so fun, so I can't wait to get started…"

Uo laughed nervously. She could hardly imagine what the fate of her ditzy friend might be once she got through teaching maybe even one week of elementary school. Nevertheless, she wished her good luck, "Well, have fun then, and good luck… You'll be needing it, with all the little rich brats you're going to be teaching from now on." She pulled up at the driveway of the school, as Tohru took in her first glimpse at its majesty and glory. Having gone to public schools for all of her life, Tohru had seldom come across a school as well kempt and cared for as this. Her eyes were blown away, at the beauty of its architecture, and the myriad of brilliant white columns marking the entrance of the school. She felt so intimidated by its grace and magnificence, and suddenly very conscious of the fact that her plaid skirt was stained with mud, marking her appearance as a veritable pauper among virtual royalty.

Bidding Uo farewell, Tohru disembarked herself from the car. Stepping out into the cool air, she observed her surroundings once more and became lost in a world of splendor. She walked forward, through the courtyard of the school, gazing at the young children running past. Their carefree laughter and smiling faces marked the atmosphere with a cheerful mood, overriding the gray, despondent pall that the weather had earlier cast upon the area. Everything seemed so perfect, as if Tohru was suspended in a dream world of happiness and smiles… until the first bell rang, making her mind plummet back to into brutal reality once more.

Oh no! I completely forgot! I have to hurry and get to class on time… the students must already be there! This is horrible… She dashed through the front entrance and down the hallway. It must have been such an odd sight to see, a teacher hustling down the hallway a minute after the first bell rang, in a desperate attempt to make it to the class she was supposed to be teaching before the final bell tolled. She grasped her book bag tightly, to be sure that it didn't slide out of her hands in her run (although, she needn't worry… because she had never been that quick a runner anyway). Panting heavily, she came to an immediate stop when she saw the sign saying Class 3-A. With a triumphant smile on her face, she took a deep breath, straitened up her skirt and blouse, in an attempt to freshen up her appearance for a reasonably good first impression on the students, and reached out for the doorknob of the room, excited to see the smiling and eager faces of her students for the very first time…

…Or so she thought, anyway. However, as she entered the room, Tohru was immediately greeted by a small wave of stifled snickers coming from a few small children in the back of the room. Mischievous grins spread across their faces, the three young girls exchanged smirks. Tohru was bewildered. What was so funny? Was it her appearance? The fact that she had made her introduction several minutes after the bell had rung? Once again, she began to feel strangely self-conscious of the fact that dried mud was smeared all across her front. Of course… they must be laughing at this. But, okay, Mom, I can do this! I just need to make the best impression I can. She cast a warm, yet slightly nervous smile upon the students, and crossed the classroom floor over to the desk that had been set up for her, placing her bag hastily upon its surface.

She straitened herself to full height once more. Her heart beating at a slightly higher rate than usual, she tried to relax herself once more. Once she had somewhat gathered her composure, she finally greeted the students, beaming sweetly in response to their inquisitive expressions, "Good morning, everybody! My name is Tohru Honda and I will be your teacher this year… Um…." However, she soon realized that the students seemed rather taken by something… their eyes seemed to be fixated on not their new teacher, but something directly to her right. She looked over to her right, after seeing the panicked looks of her students, wondering what it could be that they were so taken with. As she glanced at the state of her desk, she immediately saw what this was. Apparently, in her hurry to introduce herself and get everything set up, she had accidentally placed her heavy handbag on the very edge of the desk and in the process pushed over a two heavy paper-filled portfolios. The two were slowly beginning to slip off of the surface. Before Tohru could go move both towards the center of the desk so they would not fall on the floor, the portfolios slid off of the desk and on to the floor with a loud "plop!" signaling their landing.

She could hear a wave of stifled laughter emit from the back of the room once more, as she hurried to salvage the disheveled papers scattered across the floor. When she went to examine what the problem could be, Tohru discovered that a dictionary had somehow been placed underneath one corner of the desk, forming a wedge that caused it to tilt to the side and throwing all of the items that lay there slowly out of balance so that they slid on its surface.

Yet, due to the poor girl's naivety and ever-present trustfulness, the thought never once crossed her mind that perhaps a student of hers had been the one to place it there.

After recovering the dictionary from below the desk and restoring the surface to its original flat state, Tohru stood up once more and began her introduction again. "Well, now that that disturbance has been settled, where were we? Oh, yes! So, my name is Tohru Honda – although you will be calling me Honda-sensei, I suppose – and I will be your teacher this year." She wrote the kanji forming "Honda-sensei" neatly on the white board, and continued, "I am so honored to be able to get to know you all, and I hope we will all become good friends!" She smiled once more, glossing over all of the unfortunate events that came before and concentrating on the fact that she was the teacher, and not the student.

Moving on, Tohru decided to take role. "Now then, I suppose I should be taking role now, shouldn't I?" She walked over to her desk, and pulled out a bright blue clip-board, on which the attendance sheet lay. "Now, when I call your name, I just want you to say 'here!' nice and loud… and if you aren't here… well… then obviously you wouldn't say anything at all, right?" She giggled nervously, along with several of her young pupils, in response to the joke. "So… here goes!"

She went through the list of names steadily. It seemed as if almost every student was present at the time – all, except one. The missing student was supposedly a girl by the name of "Sohma, Hinata". She wondered what could have caused the girl to miss the very important first day of school. Perhaps, illness? Yes, that was probably it… the child must be sick. However, Tohru was forced set this thought aside, in attempt to move on to more pressing matters and make up for all of the time they had lost in the fiasco that was the beginning of class. "Great! So… attendance is done! Now, onto those name-tags…!"

Tohru pulled out a set of colored pencils from her bag, as her students, in turn, did the same with theirs. With an atmosphere of excitement and amusement restored once more, the morning flew by without incident and with mutual enjoyment and mirth along the way… students and teacher alike, knowing that first impressions were not necessarily as impacting as they seemed at first.

Neko's Rambling Corner Part 3: A great day for updates! As for this chapter… Haha! Poor Tohru! She was so mortified when she walked in to class… Could you imagine? Being the teacher, walking into class on the first day, with clothes splattered with mud and several minutes late? Poor thing… I feel so sorry for her. However, at least, in the end everything worked out okay.

In case you were thinking about how unusual it is that Tohru had arrived to school that day not having ever been there previously, what happened is… in truth, she originally was not going to be teaching at this school. There was supposed to be another teacher teaching this class, but she came down with a terrible ailment and had to give up the post. So, it turned out that Tohru was asked to accept the job about two weeks before school started, just barely enough time to find a small apartment for her to inhabit. In effect, Tohru really didn't have much of a chance to visit the school and get settled before classes began. That's why she's so clearly unprepared for the job! Well, again, reviews are appreciated, and I hope to see you again next chapter!