Kiteria: Here's the second chapter, I hope those reading this enjoy it. I know its a bit of a slow starter, but it will get better just like all my stories, bu this one will be even better because Tee is helping and she is amazing! Leave us a review so we know you guys are reading! Enjoy!
P.S. Just so you guys know the lines are small time gaps (hours, days, etc...) We'll tell you when the P.o.v's change.
"Today was fun!"
Star yipped happily as she twirled through the front door of our two-story house. The lack of cars in the drive made it clear to me our parents weren't home yet, not that it mattered, they'd drill us about our first day during dinner. I watched as my insanely hypergetic younger sister bounced around the house, dropping her bag on the couch before hopping into the kitchen, then running off to do who knows what.
Sheera slowly walked into the kitchen, her white pigtails swaying as she confidently walked to the fridge, grabbed a water bottle, then turned to lean against the island in the kitchen. The look she sent me as I shut the front door made my frown deepen, she wanted to talk, ugh.
I trudged my way further into the house, before finally heading to the kitchen since I knew it was unavoidable anyways. Even if I tried locking myself in my room, the witch (quite literally) would simply unlock my door and just stroll in. Privacy was practically non-existent when my sister wanted something from me.
"Staaar!" I hollered at the pinkette who had disappeared into the house earlier and the odd sound of her footsteps told me the Pixie was skipping, literally skipping, back our way until she joined us in the kitchen, a ring pop on her finger from her stash of candy.
"What's up?" She asked with a cock of her head after taking the candy out of her mouth. I couldn't help but roll my eyes before taking a seat on one of the stools at the island and motioning to our older sister.
"Sheera wants us to share our feelings," I said with fake enthusiasm that earned me a quick smack to the back of the head by said older sister. Sending a glare her way as I held my head, I saw Star had taken up the stool one down from me. Should she really be eating that candy? Probably not.
Being forced to sit in the kitchen of our house talking about our day at an academy I didn't even agree to attend wasn't really my idea of a fun way to spend time. Star, of course, had no issue making friends. She said she'd met a girl named Sakura with the same color hair as her and that's why she liked her before she got to know her, then she listed off other names too quickly for me to catch of other people she had met and gotten numbers to text.
Her classes were ones she liked and the boys were all so nice to her, no wonder with the adorable way she looked. She seemed so innocent and naive that boys always flocked to ask her out, though she was never interested for whatever reason.
"Star…" Sheera interjected disapprovingly and I rolled my eyes, she never liked when guys showed interest in us-by us I mean her or Star. Guys never looked at me the way they looked at them.
"They were just being friendly because I'm new," Star argued, but we all knew their motives weren't as pure as Star thought they were. That girl would be eaten alive if left alone too long.
Sheera's day wasn't much different from Star's, made friends, classes were ones she liked, people-both guys and girls-were so nice to her, it all made me wanna gag. What was the point of uprooting us from the school we had been in, moving halfway across the map, and enrolling us in an academy that puts us all in a building with people who glare at us, hate our guts, and will never like us?
Father swore it was to help mend the bonds between our kinds, I say he was full of shit.
"What about your day, sis?" Star suddenly asked, pulling me from my thoughts and I sighed before answering. They knew how my day went. It went like all the other days.
"Same as it was any other day. Befriended no one, hate the classes, everyone stays away from me," I said, summing up my day in less than twenty words and could feel the look Sheera was giving me without even looking.
"You didn't speak with anyone, at all?" Sheera asked curiously, trying to get me to elaborate more on what my day was like and I mentally groaned. Then I remembered seeing that purple haired girl being harassed by a couple of demons and guessed that counted.
"I did talk to this one girl, rude ass moron and ungrateful to boot. She was being harassed, I helped her, she bitched me out, I left. Then we wound up sharing more than a couple classes together, she laughed at me almost all day and I was close to wringing her fuckin' neck before the day ended," I explained, remembering the rude little midget and didn't miss the looks my sisters were giving me.
One curious and probably hopeful I could make a friend as she ate her lollipop candy-ring, the other disapproving of my day and language. Not like I cared, she either put up with my vulgarity and temper or me fighting and she had already made me promise not to get into any trouble so she could suck it up.
Seeing no reason to sit around with my two personal therapists, I stood up and headed for the stairs to go to my room, stopping only when Sheera called my name.
"Saya, don't forget mom and dad want us to tell them about our day at dinner." She said and I turned to look at her, silently asking why the hell she was bothering to remind me of something I already knew. "Please try to seem like you enjoyed yourself. It's hard on all of us to suddenly move, don't add to their problems."
I grimaced at the way she said that, like I was their problem.
"Whatever," I said over my shoulder before running up the steps before my sister could stop me again to remind of what a bad daughter I was and how much of a trouble-maker I could be.
Staring up at my crimson-painted ceiling from my back I sighed, why did everyone have to think I was such a bad kid? My sisters, teachers, classmates...all of them and what was sad was they weren't exactly wrong.
My temper and foul-mouth often put me in a bad light with adults, the way I couldn't care less about popularity or what people thought of me made other people my age dislike me, my lack of interest in school made teachers hate me, and the fact I had a rather bad tendency to get into fights made it so my own parents didn't want to deal with me half the time.
Maybe I was a bad kid, but it was never without reason.
"Gah! Enough already Saya, what is this Days of Our Sad Sad Lives?" I snapped at myself before flipping off my bed and walking across my room to my desk. I cut my lamp on since the bulb in my room was a black-light. I sat down at my desk, pulled my sketchbook from my bag before flipping it open to an empty page. I let my mind wander into the recesses of my mind as my hand moved, sketching out lines, adding shading, depth, detail, and life to what I was drawing.
The one thing I will admit that I liked about the school we had been in before moving was the school's art teacher Sai. The man was never very expressive about anything, but he had a way with art and he was the one who suggested I try my hand at a different outlet when he had seen me punching a tree behind the school after a confrontation with the bitch, Sandy.
That fucking Genie had no right to say what she did about Star, but Sheera had pulled me away before I could do anything and while she hadn't seen it because she was focused on dealing with me, I had seen the tears brimming in Star's eyes. Who would have thought I had a knack for art?
"Saya!"
I sighed as I was dragged back to the present by the sound of my oldest sister calling me down for dinner. Glancing up from my drawing, I blinked in surprise at how dark it had gotten, then looked at the clock the wall across from my bed to see it was already past nine.
Huh, guess I'm a time-traveler.
"SAYA!"
Sheera yelled up the stairs and I rolled my eyes at my sister's impatience before closing my sketchbook, cutting off my desk lamp, then heading downstairs before my sister decided to come up after me.
"Ever heard of the saying patience is a virtue?" I asked as I passed her on the stairs, she was halfway to my room and I smirked at how well I knew my sister.
"Saya…." Sheera said, her tone warning me not to push my luck and I just shrugged before heading into the kitchen to help Star with dinner. Our parents would be home around ten-thirty and let me just tell you, I was so looking forward to my second therapist session of the day. Not.
Dinner was to be as expected, our parents came home, thanked us for being such good children and making dinner, we sat down to eat, and then we were all suddenly explaining why we had recurring dreams of dying, why we thought everyone hated us, and where we saw ourselves in five years.
Therapy was fun, even more so when you went through it with your family.
"And how about your day, Saya?" Our father asked and I tried to ignore the way my heart hurt at how he had added my name on at the end, way to really make me feel like part of the family, Dad.
It wasn't bad enough people kept reminding me I wasn't really Mr. and Mrs. Tsukiyomi's daughter and I felt like a stranger as it was, but he had to treat me specially too.
"Same as always. Went by as slow as school does, I talked to one person today, then I came home," I said, hoping that if I kept it short they would just leave it, but of course our mom had to pick up on the one new part of what was usually always the same.
"Oh, who did you talk to, dear?" She asked and I felt like seeing how successfully one could drown themselves in gravy and mashed potatoes.
"A purple-haired midget with a bad attitude," I said under my breath and jumped when someone suddenly kicked me from under the table. I sent a glare towards my white-haired sister, knowing it had been her before turning with a smile towards our mom.
"Just a girl I have a few classes with, she was being harassed by some students and I stepped in."
"That's great, maybe you'll actually make a friend this time." Dad suggested and again my heart felt like someone had stabbed it.
"Yeah….maybe."
Talk after that was of what our parents did at work, plans for the weekend, and Star planning a shopping day with our mom her next day off. I stood up when I finished eating, took my plate to the sink and headed for the stairs.
"Going to bed already Saya?" Dad asked as I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stopped for a few seconds, nodded without looking at him before running up the stairs to my room.
I still couldn't look him in the eyes, how could I? He had taken me into his home, his family when he didn't even know me. I was just a random six year old with nowhere to go and no ties to him, yet he had welcomed me into his life. How was I supposed to repay him for that? Again I felt a pain in my chest as I lay on my bed and close my eyes. I doubt I ever could.
Xin's P.O.V
Our first priority when we arrived home on our first day was to bathe in our Sacred Hot Springs. Something about washing all the bad spiritual energy we might have picked up from the others. We had to bathe in the springs first thing in the morning and now as soon as we got home.
It was annoying but it was something we had to do. Sighing heavily, I dumped a large bucket of burning water over my head and spat the water out with a huff. Hinata was already climbing out and I was quick to follow.
We dressed in the ceremonial miko robes and slowly made our way into the Hyuga manor. We had to train for three hours until six o'clock. From there, we would do our homework and then we'd have dinner at seven o'clock.
"Time for dinner!" I heard our Mother call, causing my grip on my bow to falter. Next to me, Hinata blinked owlishly and looked around. In our training, we'd completely forgotten about our homework and worked right through until dinner time.
"Huh," I mumbled, placing my bow and quiver of arrows back. Hinata followed my lead with a weak smile. Now we'd have to wait until after dinner to work on our homework. Luckily there was only math and literature homework tonight.
Our Mother, Manami greeted us as we slipped our sandals off to step onto the veranda. In her youth, Manami had been a powerful miko but had greatly weakened due to having Hinata and I. Her body just wasn't strong enough to have children. Somehow she survived it and recovered but then a couple of years later, she had our younger sister, Hanabi.
Manami smiled at us before sending us off to get out of our sweaty robes. We came back, dressed in more casual yukatas to find our family waiting in the dining room. Hinata sweetly patted Hanabi on the shoulder as she settled to her left while I plucked the side of her head and settled to her right. She swatted at my hand until our Father, Hiashi, cleared his throat.
The banter stopped and we bowed our heads in order to say a prayer to the Gods and Goddesses about being thankful and promising to do our part as mikos to make the world a better place. I wasn't sure how we were supposed to accomplish this when it was barely any mikos left in the world but it wasn't like I was going to question anything.
We ate in silence for some time before Manami broke the silence. "How was your first day, girls?" She asked with a small smile. Ah, the million dollar question. How did the first day of the academy go? Did we like it? Did we make friends?
"Good," I mumbled around a mouthful of rice. Hanabi scowled at me and Hinata smacked the living hell out of me with Hiashi's approval. Hinata rolled her eyes at my horrible table manners. Swallowing the rice, I pouted. "Sorry."
"We had a good day, I think. I made three friends today. An Ogress, a Banshee and a Mogwai. They seemed like really nice girls but that's it for now. The teachers seem really nice and the classes are nice as well," Hinata stated pleasently. I pursed my lips and stabbed at my grilled fish.
"Answer your Mother, Xin."
I resisted the urge to violently pout and squeezed around my chopsticks. "I'm friends with the Ogress, Banshee and Mogwai. I kept getting lost today."
"So you were late to your classes."
Ah, of course that's the only thing that occurred to him. I only shrugged, not really interested in his annoyance. "I'm bad with directions," I stated simply. "But the teachers excused my tardiness because I'm still trying to get around."
"Your sister didn't seem to have a problem getting around."
I resisted the urge to sigh and instead shoved a piece of fish into my mouth. See, the funny thing about that was I'm not my sister. Yes, we were identical and everything but we still were two different people. Of course, I kept that thought to myself instead of pointing it out like I wanted.
"I met this one girl who was helpful. Well, kind of. She was actually pretty horrible, now that I think about it. But she did help me with these two demons who might have broken my nose. Or sprained it. I dunno. Is my nose bruised, Mama? It felt like it was earlier. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah! The girl. We have a lot of classes together."
My family wasn't even put off by my useless rambling. It's a bad habit I had. Mom softly pointed out that my nose was fine, I continued rambling for another two minutes before Hanabi spoke up. "Maybe you should leave that girl alone. She doesn't sound like she wants to be bothered with you. Besides, she's probably offended that you kept laughing every time you came near her."
"I wasn't laughing at her," I explained with a huff. "I was just laughing because she clearly hates me and yet we kept ending up stuck with each other. I thought it was funny and ironic," I paused long enough to eat more of the fish.
"Xin," Manami sighed heavily. "That's not exactly...normal. If you want to be her friend, why don't you try having a civil conversation with her instead of laughing?" She suggested carefully. They had the tendency to talk to me like that. Real carefully. I never knew why, they just did. Like I was stupid or something.
"I did have a civil conversation with her, Mama."
"I honestly doubt that, honey."
Squaring my shoulders. I suddenly had a new goal and it involved that foul-mouthed wretch of a girl.
I'm such a good person.