Chapter One: Meet the New Us

Ryo Tetsuda

The last five years had been kind to Ryo. He had a steady job, steady enough to get his younger sister into college and there always seemed to be a way for more money to make it into his hands. Not to make it sound easy, it was a hussle, but if you weren't fighting for something, you were living for nothing.

Tonight, he was about to make a few hundred dollars off of a few lonely women. It almost made him feel guilty about it in the beginning, but when he saw how happy they looked afterwards, and how many women he'd made smile … well that made it seemed less like taking advantage of those poor, unfortunate souls and more like payment for his awesomeness.

He'd learned over the years to be less shy and closed off and more open and fun. It make it easier for everyone. And since both of their parents were dead, Portia needed someone to rely on.

Ryo heard his music start, the Usher tune blaring from the speakers, the adrenaline pumping. As the song progressed, he moved from artistic yet seductive moves to being more scantily clothed.

Portia Lin

Portia ran after her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend giving him a shove from behind. She knew the saying that a woman should never hit a man unless she was willing to be hit back by him, but he deserved it. All this time when she was giving it her all, he was toying with her. Again.

Another stupid asshole.

"Portia just stop." He kept walking. She knew that this was just an act. They'd fought before. Many times, but this time she wanted blood.

"What's wrong. Afraid to get physical now?"

"Will you quit it? I don't have time for this shit. I'm going to be a father." She stopped in her tracks. The cheating on her was one thing but the getting someone else pregnant.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Her tone didn't betray her true feelings which quickly went from fury to hurt.

Jiyo stopped and looked her. And he almost looked sincere. "Look, she's my fiancee now-"

"Your what?" There went the rage again and there went Portia Lin's fists hammering down Jiyo until he couldn't take anymore and had fallen to the ground. So then she started up again, until he tripped her and ran off to his car while she was caught off guard.

The concrete felt hard on her palms, which were now scraped up and bleeding. Her knee had made contact with the pavement too, hard. Too hard. But most of all, it was the tears welling up in her eyes that bothered her the most. Again. She'd lost another one.

Nyx

"So let me see if I understand you correctly. You're telling me that being a member of the Engineering Society, volunteering twenty hours a week and being the president of Toastmasters isn't enough to get me into a medical school of my choice?"

"Well, as with anything there are no guarantees. Nadia, your resume lacks uniqueness. An interesting identity… Do you do anything less …"

"Brainy?" She sighed.

"For a lack of a better term, yes." Mr. Coleman agreed, his curly black hair almost covering his eyes. She almost wrote him off right there for his own failure to properly attend to his own personal hygiene and outward appearance, except he had been right so far with everything else.

"Will you at least do me the favor of elaborating? Maybe list out a few things that I could try?" Nadia asked, her British accent contrasting against his very plain, American one.

"Of course. Something creative like fine art or interactive like drama or dance-"

"And how long do I need to do this for?" She wondered, taking down vigorous notes in her composition book which held her latest daily thoughts, plans, goals and actions.

"Anything under one year will look like you lacked dedication. I would say at least two."

Nadia was on her feet within a few seconds, a plan formulating in her brain. She had always loved dancing. Maybe it was ballet but still … that was the foundation for any dance that mattered.

"May I ask which avenue you're going to pursue?" Mr. Coleman wondered but by then Nyx was already off in a hurry.

Portia Lin

This weekend was a bad dream, a terrible nightmare that seemed to be on repeat and worst of all was that she no longer had Jiyo's number even though Portia desperately wanted to talk to him.

That was also made impossible because she didn't have a phone. She remembered getting way too drunk, burning anything that reminded her of him, deleting his number from her phone and then smashing the phone with a hammer until the SIM card had successfully been destroyed.

There were far too many pictures of them looking happy and together. For months they'd been together. Eight months of being lied to. Either her radar was off or Portia was quickly becoming one of those pathetic women that was desperate to have someone that she was willing to sink her claws into whoever was closest to her.

She was looking at her knuckles which were rubbed raw after she'd taken to that punching bag without anything but tape on her hands. It was crazy insane and painful but it was better than crying over it.

Oh no. She wouldn't do that.

Looking down at her hands still Portia didn't notice that Nadia was hurriedly walking in her path but in the opposite direction. The two of them clashed with Portia resorting to anger.

"Watch out bitch." She muttered, looking her up and down and wondering if Jiyo's new woman looked like her. She was beautiful if you liked brown skin, long hair and a slim figure.

"What did I do to you?"

"If you keep talking back, I'm going to kick your ass…" She threatened, Nadia now noticeably scared. She didn't like confrontation. The daughter of a diplomat, she was skilled in how to accept other people and be welcoming not how to grapple?

"I'm not trying to be rude, but I really don't under-" Her words were cut off by the feeling of the other woman's fist across her face.

Nadia stumbled back, dropping her books and took off in the other direction.

Ryo

"WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME THAT YOU'RE FAILING?!" Ryo's voice bellowed low and strong. His Little sister was looking up at him, as defiant as ever, her hands wrapped in that stupid boxing tape again.

"I didn't think it mattered."

"What?"

"No one else in our family has gone. You have-"

He cut her off. "Everyone else in our family is dead. DEAD! Don't you get it? They lived on the streets. They wanted the fast life. They didn't have the money or the education. These are all things that I'm slaving to give to you…" He tried to calm down a little. Yelling didn't work with her and he knew it. "Portia, don't you think I'd be in school if I could? What do you think the lifespan is for a male stripper? Thirty, forty, fifty?"

"If you don't want to do it, then don't." She crossed her arms over her chest like a child. But she wasn't a child. She was twenty-two years old. Old enough to know better.

"Why are you wasting this opportunity? You're brilliant. All those tests said that you were a genius. You can solve all these crazy equations in your head. You understand technology. Your mind is an amazing machine and you want to slum it down here with the rest of us…." He shook his head. "Hell no. You either finish this degree or I stop paying for boxing and kick you out."

"So what?" She challenged. "I can always just strip like you for a living." Portia saw her brother's face and knew that she'd gone too far.

"You know what … fuck you. Decide what the hell you want to do and tell me by tomorrow. If you want to leave, good luck. Just make sure to take all your shit with you." Ryo walked back to his room, closing the door. Portia was too proud to apologize, but she instantly felt worse than when she walked to their house.

Ryo, in his room tried to push what had happened out of his mind. He knew he was a failure, not living up to what he could be so how could he preach to Portia? He needed a distraction. There was too much going on to add this to his plate. His fingers dialed Misaki's number.

"Hey baby girl, can you come over…" In twenty minutes give or take, this would be a bad memory.

(A/N: The correct Pre-Chapter and Chapter One are up now ... This is very AU now and I know part of the cast are college students, but they might remember who they really are, maybe … one day? And yes I know that Nyx's name isn't Nadia. I'm getting to that. Review/comment please. -NL)