yay! i got ch 7 up!! im so happy!! im so glad my sister typed this

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Disclaimer:um…..no.

The Cercomstances of Life

Chapter 7

"…I don't like him," Natsume said with a serious expression as he sat up and changed back into his human form.

I giggled. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

He glared at me. So he was jealous. That was a happy thought. "Aww…don't worry. He'll never replace you," I said.

"Hn." He hugged back. Yay.

The door opened to reveal the owner of the house. We all stood there frozen for a moment. Then, without warning, Hotaru swiped out a camera and snapped a picture. We all stood there for a moment again.

Hotaru placed the camera back into one of her pockets again. "Now then, enough fun. We have things to do. If you'll please follow me." She turned around and walked out. I stumbled after her, Natsume close behind. Surprisingly, we only walked past a couple doors before she stopped. The door wasn't locked. Another surprise. What was in that place?

It didn't take long before my question was answered. Inside the room, there were rows and rows of clothes. Across from where we were, there was another door.

Hotaru grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the other door. "You. Stay here. We'll be right back," she said to Natsume. He stood there and stared as the door shut behind us. In this other room was a huge bathtub. "Take a bath while I get things ready. You're really dirty." I blushed. It was true. I hadn't bathed in days. I stripped down and slid into the warm bathwater. It was really relaxing.

"Dunk your head. I want to wash your hair." I turned toward Hotaru. She had changed into a pair of shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt. I did as I was told, wetting my hair. As soon as I came back up, a pair of hands began rubbing shampoo into my scalp. It was somewhat soothing. "So…what was life like where you were before this?"

"Um…peaceful, I guess. Not much happened. I was never allowed to leave the house," I said drowsily. A stream of hot water hit the back of my head, rinsing out the shampoo.

"Here." Hotaru gave me a bar of soap. I rubbed my body down, cleaning it.

"Thank you for letting me take a bath," I said. It made me feel a lot better. "Are you going to give Natsume one, too?"

"He can lick himself."

I laughed. Well, he was a cat, I guess. "Now, out." She handed me a towel. I expected to change back into what I had on before and go back to Natsume, but instead I was handed a thin white polka dot summer dress and lead to a chair. I sat down.

Hotaru rubbed my hair with a towel until it was only damp and then placed the towel around my neck. "What are you doing?" I asked when I saw the other girl open a small box and mix together some liquids from inside the box.

"Dying your hair. It'll make things more convenient." Huh. Well, I'd have to trust her, I supposed. She knew what she was doing, right?

After a while of dye being rubbed into my hair and waiting for it to set, my hair was washed again with a different shampoo that conditioned this time. Hotaru combed and blow-dried my hair, then used a straightening iron on my slight curls. She then placed colored contacts over my eyes.

After Hotaru was finished, she lead me over to a large mirror so I could look at myself. I gasped. Was that really me? I looked like a different person. My hair was now a silky smooth black, any curl gone and my eyes were matching pools of the same color. I twirled. It was amazing.

"You're amazing, Hotaru! It's like magic! Thank you!" I hugged her.

She pushed me off saying, "Don't touch me."

"Heheh. Sorry." I rubbed the back of my head.

"Now it's time to work on your friend. Come."

She opened the door and we went back to where Natsume was. He seemed surprised when he first saw me, but quickly hid it.

His transformation wasn't much of a transformation. He also received black contacts and had a pair of black-rimmed glasses placed over them. Afterwards, Natsume and I were both handed new clothing. I changed into the navy blue pleated skirt and matching suit jacket. Under the jacket, I had a white blouse and tied a red ribbon around my neck. Natsume's outfit was the same as mine, only with dress pants instead of a skirt and a tie instead of a ribbon.

There was a flash. There was another flash. Natsume and I turned toward the origin of the two flashes. There was Hotaru, standing with the same camera she had taken the picture earlier with in her hands.

She then pushed a button by the door. Right afterward a robot similar to the one from breakfast came in. Hotaru handed the camera to the robot. "You know what to do." It then turned and exited the room. "Now then," Hotaru turned toward us, "how about lunch?"

My stomach growled. "I'll take that as a yes."

We went to the room we had breakfast in. I hadn't realized it was already that late.

Toward the end of lunch, the robot Hotaru had given the camera to earlier came in with two envelopes. She took one of the envelopes and put it in her pocket and handed the other one to us. Inside it there were two cards.

"What are these?"

"What do you think they are? They're student ID's."

I flipped them over to reveal a card with Natsume's face on it and one with mine. I handed Natsume his and quickly scanned over mine. "Um… my name is wrong on this…as well as the rest of the information."

Hotaru took a sip of iced tea. "No, it's not. If you go to school without a fake name, you'll be easy to find."

"Oh…" I suddenly felt really slow. "So, where will we be going?"

"Starting tomorrow, you will be attending Alice Academy under the false name Aoi Hyuuga. There's a file on the bed in the room you stayed in last night. Read it and memorize as much of it as you can. Good luck."

"Ah. Um, thank you." I got up and went off to read the file.

The file didn't have too much in it. It was mostly the background and important facts regarding mine and Natsume's false lives. For example, Nastume and I were twins; Natsume was born first, and our parents died in a fire when we were eight. Our biography went on for pages. When I finished reading it, I handed it to Natsume and went off to wander the hall.

I hadn't seen Tsubasa or Ruka around so I assumed they were still at school until I heard Hotaru announce dinnertime over an intercom. I wondered where they were, but decided not to ask Hotaru because she didn't seem to be in a good mood.

When the two finally did come back, I discovered they had both gotten detention. "Idiots. I warned you guys not to do this," Hotaru said after shooting them both with what I discovered was called her "baka gun" during lunch talk earlier.

She handed Tsubasa a box of cleaning devices and Ruka a list of some kind. "Hurry up and get to work. You don't have much time left in the day."

I decided to go to my room and reread the file again before Natsume and I changed into something more sleep appropriate and snuggled into bed. Tomorrow would probably be a long day.

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well? how was it? please let me know. itd make me ever so happy. well, bai-bai! see you later!