She rolled out of bed and plopped onto the floor, her emerald eyes glazed over from sleep.

"Ugh..." She mumbled while struggling to get up. She pulled the hair elastic out of her hair causing her light dirty blonde hair to cascade into her face. She stood in front of her mirror and brushed her knee length hair. She grabbed her white school shirt and green skirt off the dresser on her way out her bedroom door and headed downstairs.

No one was home, as usual. Both her parents were lawyers who worked long hours. She was starting to forget what they looked like at this point. She ate the cold toast her mother had left for her and she pulled her clothes on. She grabbed her green beret off the table, pulled the sticky note off of it and ran out the door.

As she slowed to a walk, she read the neat writing the note had presented:

Hi hunny,
I'm sorry, you're father and I will be home late again.
Have fun at the party and don't stay out too late!
Left overs are in the fridge if you're hungry.
xoxo, Mum

She crumpled the note in annoyance and threw it into the nearest garbage can. Was this what their family turned into? She barely ever saw them. She was starting to become lonely.

"Akemi! Wait up!" Akemi stopped walking as she turned around. A girl with long ebony hair chased after her. Soon she slid to a halt, attempting to catch her breath. It was her best friend.

"Kagome! You're better! Have you gotten over that sickness? What was it again…" Akemi pondered. Kagome was the first person she met at her new school and they have been close ever since. Kagome was always so sickly. She always tried to bring her friend soup to make her feel better, but her grandfather didn't want to risk her own health.

"Oh! Uh… Y-yea! I'm fine. Let's get going before we're late for school." Kagome laughed as she dragged Akemi along the side of the road.

It was the last day of school before exams. Everyone was excited because Kagome was holding a party at her shrine. They were even more excited knowing that she was no longer sick. Akemi walked alongside Kagome as they went to their lockers. Akemi turned the knob on her lock multiple ways before it had opened; mouthing the combination silently.

"Hey, Akemi. Are you going to the party tonight?" A cool voice asked. Akemi closed her locker door to see a boy a couple inches taller than her. His hair was dyed light green to match his eyes. His tie was undone as well as his jacket, exposing a white t-shirt. Akemi silently sighed to herself.

"Yes, Ichiro. I'm going to the party. Alone." Akemi mumbled the last part. Ichiro had been on her case since she first moved to the school. His personal goal was to sleep with anything that moved.

"Aw, come on! Don't act that way! I can show you a good time…" He begged while biting his bottom lip. Kagome shut her locker, rather loudly.

"Well, that's too bad because she's my date for the night." Kagome retorted as she grabbed Akemi's arm and dragged her off to class.

"I'll meet you at my place!" Kagome shouted as she ran toward her house. Akemi turned to open her house door. As she put her key toward the lock, the door swung open revealing her parents causing Akemi to jump in fright.

"Oh! I wasn't expecting you here." Akemi questioned as she held her chest in terror. She realized she hadn't physically seen her parents in a week, and they looked tired. Her mother's chestnut hair was starting to grey, and wrinkles had appeared on parts of her face where they never were. Her father's glasses seemed to be thicker. His face looked tired and needed a shave; his pepper hair a mess.

"Sorry to scare you sweetheart, but we have something very important to talk about." Her mother explained. "Come inside."

Akemi started to twirl her hair as she sat at the kitchen table. Her parents never came home early; much less spend time with her. Now they wanted to tell her something important? Her father wrapped his arm around her mother as he cleared his throat.

"Your mother and I have been back and forth about this, but we think it's time you knew." He struggled to say. After a couple of minutes of him struggling to find the words, her mother took over.

"It's not easy to tell you… but we adopted you…" She mumbled. Akemi wasn't sure if she heard her correctly. She had to let it sink in.

"Adopted…? Me…?" Akemi responded weakly. She watched as her mother picked up a small box that was sitting on the table and held it out.

"Open it." Her mother smiled. Akemi hesitantly took the box and slowly opened it. Inside was a silver bracelet that had the inscription 'Kimiko' on the inside. Akemi slowly traced the letters on the bracelet unsure how to feel.

"We found you wandering the streets three years ago. You reminded us of our… our daughter. So we took you in," Her father explained as he rubbed his wife's back. "You didn't remember anything, so we renamed you Akemi; after our daughter…" Her mother left her father's side and gently took the bracelet from Akemi's hand.

"We're assuming your name is Kimiko from the bracelet. We're sorry Kimiko…" Her mother said as she clasped the bracelet around Kimiko's left wrist. She didn't know what to think. She didn't know who she was anymore. She abruptly stood up and ran to her room, ignoring the stranger's cries.

She pulled out a large bag out of her closet and pushed as many of her belongings into it. She didn't want to face the stranger's below her. She wiped her tears away as she wrote a note, thanking them for taking care of her for those three years.

She carefully stared out her window. It wasn't too high, she convinced herself. She pulled the bag over her shoulders and quietly pushed the window open. She propped herself on the window's ledge and bit her lip. She wasn't afraid of heights, but there was nothing to hold onto. She was beginning to question her plan. She attempted to go back into her room, but slipped and lost her footing.

"Ah!" She yelled as she fell backwards to ground. She curled herself into a ball and flipped around, so her back wasn't facing the ground. She landed on her feet with a thud. She didn't waste any time getting up and running in the direction of Kagome's house.

Hope you enjoyed.
Let me know what you thought!
R&R~
Snowy B