-.:Twilight of Escaflowne:.-

Chapter 4

Introductions

I sat up in bed, covered in a cold sweat. My breathing was heavy and ragged, and I couldn't seem to catch my breath. I closed my eyes tightly and counted backwards from 10. When I had calmed down some, I opened my eyes and looked out the window. It was still cloudy, but I could see the first rays of dawn breaking through the clouds and lighting up the forest. I looked at my alarm clock to see that it was a quarter till six; 'time to get up and ready for school.'

Oh how I dreaded that last thought. But I guess there's no way to avoid it. I just had to make it through this day, and then the next, and so on. Life seemed so simple from my point of view, but in reality, it's everything but simple.

I got out of bed, grabbed my bag of toiletries and headed for the bathroom. As I showered, I thought of the dream and the incident from yesterday. Was it just a dream too? No, I'm pretty sure it really happened…

"TOMI! YOUR GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" I jumped.

"OK!"

I thought Shoji went to work already…

I got out of the shower, dried off and got dressed, and I brushed my teeth as quick as I could. I grabbed my backpack and flew down the stairs.

"I'm sorry dad," I panted. "What are you doing here? I thought you left already?"

"I did, but I had to come back 'cause I left some paper work behind. Well, I'll be going now. You be sure to make it to school on time," he chided.

"Ok, don't worry, I'll be right out the door behind you," I said.

"Ok. Bye, I'll see you after work."

"Bye…"

I watched as he walked out the door. I grabbed some toast and followed him out. I closed the door and locked it and crossed the lawn to my car. Before I opened the door, I glanced at the woods.

It was a typical day in Fanelia: cloudy with a 100 percent chance of rain. And the fact that the sun wasn't out made the forest even darker than the other day. I unlocked and opened my car door. As I got into the driver's seat, I felt a chill go through me and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I took one last look at the woods next to the house before I started the car and headed to school.

I pulled into the school parking lot to find that it was almost empty. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 7:40. I had 20 minutes to kill before school started. I killed the engine and just sat back in my seat. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I felt another chill go through me and the hairs on the back of my neck once again stand up.

'What is up with me today?' I thought as I rubbed my arms to get rid of the chill. I glanced around the schoolyard and parking lot. To the right of me, a few parking spaces down, was a very impressive looking car that simply didn't fit in this town. Leaning against it was a boy with unruly black hair and eyes the color of red wine, and he was staring at me. As I stared back, the only coherent thought that went through my mind was 'beautiful.'

I couldn't study his face or any other feature as my gaze was glued to those mahogany red eyes. 'What a strange eye color,' I thought. The sound of other vehicles approaching brought me out of my trance. I looked away from his burning gaze. As soon as I turned my head away, I felt myself inhale and relax for I was quite tense. I took the keys out of the ignition, got out of my car and locked it. I headed for the front entrance of the school. I could feel the gaze of those red eyes burning into me as I stiffly walked to the front door. I didn't even chance another look back at him as I opened the door and nearly slammed it shut.

As soon as the door closed, I sighed and leaned against it.

"Are you ok?" I looked up to see a pretty girl with reddish hair and brown eyes looking at me with interest and curiosity.

"Yes, I'm alright. Thanks." I said.

She smiled and held out her hand, "you must be Hitomi Kanzaki. I'm Yukari Uchida."

I blinked. "How do you know my name?"

"Welcome to Fanelia; a town where everyone knows everyone unless you're new, and then it doesn't take long for the whole town to learn who you are."

I sighed and took her hand. "Just call me Tomi.

Shoji must have called me Hitomi behind my back.

"Can you show me where the office is?"

"No prob. How 'bout I wait for you and that way I can show you around the school and your classes?" She asked.

"Uh…sure…ok," I said.

I entered the office and walked up to the receptionist's desk.

"Good morning," she said as I walked up. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Hitomi Kanzaki," I informed her.

I saw understanding light her eyes, and I watched her dig through a file of folders.

"Here is your schedule, and here is a map of the school," she said as she took a highlighter and marked my classes and the quickest routes to each one of them on the map.

"Thanks," I said as she handed it to me. I turned around and exited the small room to see Yukari leaning against the wall by the doorway. She stood straight up as soon as she saw me and walked up to me.

"What are your classes?" She asked.

"My first class is Japanese. Second period is English. Next I have Pre-Calculus and then Biology. After lunch I have Government and Gym."

"Cool. We have English, Pre-Cal, and Government together!" She said. "I'll show you to Japanese and then I'll see you in English ok?"

"Alright," I said as we walked to my first period. When we arrived at the classroom entrance, I turned around and said, "Thanks."

"See ya next period," she said as she turned to leave.

So far, my day hadn't been as crappy as I thought it would be. I went to the teacher's desk and had her sign my slip. She assigned me to a seat behind a boy with short brown hair and plain brown eyes. He was actually not that bad looking; he was very handsome, but compared to the boy from this morning, his looks were quite blunt.

I sat down in the desk behind him and waited for the class to begin. I looked at my watch and it read 7:56; class would start in four minutes. The boy in front of me turned around in his seat and smiled at me.

"Hi, my name is Amano. You must be Hitomi," he said.

I smiled as pleasantly as I could, "Just call me Tomi."

"So you're a big city girl huh?" He tried to strike up conversation.

"Yah," was my reply.

"What was your old school like?" he asked.

"Big," was all I said.

He began to ask another question but the bell rang and everyone who waited till the last minute rushed to their seats. The teacher walked in and began to take roll. I was hoping she wouldn't call attention to me, but after she was finished she announced my presence, "As you all may have noticed, we have a new student named Hitomi Kanzaki."

"Tomi," Amano corrected.

The teacher looked at him pointedly before continuing, "Let's all welcome her."

Finally the lesson started to my relief. All the material was stuff I learned back in Basram. So I just relaxed as the lesson drawled on.

Before I knew it, the class had ended. I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the exit.

"Hey Tomi!" Amano called, "What class do you have next?"

"English," I answered.

"Really? That's my next class too. How 'bout we walk there together?"

"Sure," I said.

He fell into step beside me as we walked to our next class together. I looked straight ahead of me. As we turned the corner, I saw the boy from this morning. Our gazes immediately locked and I stopped walking altogether. However, he snapped his gaze away and continued on. I watched as he disappeared in the crowd.

"Hey, are you alright?" I turned to see Amano looking at me with a confused look.

"Yes, I'm fine."

We continued walking, and Amano kept giving me funny looks. He was about to ask me something until we heard someone calling to him.

"Yo Amano!" We turned around to see a boy with short black hair and brown eyes running up to us.

"Hey Tyler, what's up man?" he asked

"Who's the girl?" he asked, "Oh wait, let me guess. Hitomi Kanzaki?"

I guess everyone really does know who I am.

I smiled, "Just call me Tomi." That phrase was becoming mechanical.

He smiled back at me, "It's a pleasure. Hey Amano, the football team is meeting today immediately after school in the locker room. Don't be late."

"Alright, I'll be there. Catch ya later."

"Later," and with that we saw Tyler rush to his next class.

I went to the teacher's desk to get my slip signed, and Amano went and found his seat. As soon as the teacher handed me back my slip, I heard Yukari call me name. I looked in her direction and saw her waving at me. I went and sat in a seat that was behind her. Amano sat in the seat to the left of Yukari, adjacent to mine. As soon as I sat down, the bell rang. I was relieved when the teacher didn't introduce me, so I just sat through the lesson. This time I had to pay attention because we hadn't covered this yet at my old high school.

The lesson seemed to drag on for hours on end. Each time I glanced up at the clock, only one or two minutes had passed. Finally to my extreme relief, the bell rang. I quickly gathered my belongings and headed out the door with Yukari.

We stopped by Yukari's locker so she could get her Pre-Cal book and then we headed straight to class. Once again, I gave my slip to my teacher to sign, and found a seat next to Yukari. This lesson wasn't so boring since I enjoyed math.

At my old school, I had been taking Trigonometry, but they didn't offer that here, so I took Pre-Calculus. I paid extremely close attention to the lesson and found that a lot of it had been covered in either Trigonometry, or past math classes I had had back in Basram, so I didn't have to study all that much to my relief.

Class ended and Yukari and I headed out the door together. We walked down the hall until we reached my next class.

"Well, here's your next stop. I've got Gym next so I'll see you at lunch ok? You'll sit with me won't you, and that way I can introduce you to my other friends," she explained.

"Alright," I said.

"See ya later!" she called as she rushed down the hall.

I watched her until she disappeared around the corner. Then I turned into the classroom. When the teacher signed my slip I looked around the room to find an empty seat. I saw Amano again and he smiled at me. There was only one empty seat in the back. I went to go sit down but when I saw whom my lab partner would be, I met the red wine eyes from this morning and froze…

VvvV

AN: If there are any mistakes, please don't crack down too harshly on me as I don't have a beta reader. I tried my best to find all the mistakes, but I think I may have missed some.

You all may have noticed that I didn't make very many changes at all to this chapter…the most significant changes are that I changed the character substitute for Mike Newton from Allen Shezar to Amano. & I decided not to have an Escaflowne substitute for Tyler Crowley since I'm going to need Gaddess later in the story to make the merge with Everlast work. Therefore, Tyler Crowley is just the original Tyler Crowley from Twilight now.

Alas, four more chapters to revise before the fun stuff really begins with merging Everlast and all….I'M SO EXCITED!!

Ja Ne

TEE