Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice! I'm just an innocent fan like you...

Dedication: I started writing this story a month ago but there is a reason why I'm publishing it today. It's the birthday of my friend bienenstich. She was also the one who introduced the world of fanfiction to me and I really appreciate it. Hence, this story is for you, Bine-sempai - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)

Chapter 1: The Truth behind Her Eyes

It had been eleven years since Mikan Sakura got to see her childhood friend. Eleven long, desolate years. Because eleven years ago, not only had she lost her best, but also her one and only friend. The other kids had always ignored the naïve brunette and strangely enough, they had shivered and retreated each time when she had tried to talk to them. But she had never cared much about it because he had always been by her side. In addition, Mikan had preferred one true and reliable friend to much half-hearted amities. Thus, that single friend had become her most important person day-to-day.

And then, that important person had mysteriously disappeared from her life all of a sudden. Neither had she known the reason why he left, nor his whereabouts after that day. The only thing she had remembered was that she had cried very hard back then…

Mikan was 16 years old now and had a normal and cheerful life like most high school students. Meanwhile, she made many trustworthy friends and was on good terms with them. However, she had never been given him up.

She had always been in search of her childhood friend. Even though so many years passed, she couldn't forget him. Even though she had so many friends around her and wasn't so lonely anymore, there was always a strange feeling that something was missing: a very important part of herself, which she had lost eleven years ago. That important part, she gad to find now, no matter what.

Therefore, she even signed on different social networking websites although she had never been interested in online chatting. From Mikan's point of view, it was more pleasant to talk to each other face-to-face so that you could transmit your thoughts and feelings to your counterpart in a comprehensible way instead of illustrating your current mood with a smiley. On top of that, you were never fully secured against hackers or viruses so anybody could hear about your conversations.

But in order to find the tiniest track that could lead her to him, she was ready to abandon her prejudices on the internet. The problem was that she had no clue for whom she was looking for. She couldn't even remember the name of her friend or how he looks like right now as if all her memories had been taken from her. Anyway, she couldn't resist the urge to see him again and she was intent on finding him.

It was lunchtime at Alice High School but Mikan couldn't handle her growling stomach right now. Her life depended on more important things to do.

"Hey Mikan, why are you in a hurry? Aren't you going to eat with us?" asked Nonoko, Mikan's blue-haired chemist friend.

"Can't talk now, see you later." yelled Mikan and left like a hurricane as fast as never before.

"What's up with her? She looked so pale and worried." wondered Nonoko.

Her companion Anna looked as confused as the latter. "That's really weird. She has never skipped having lunch with us for the last two years. I hope that everything is alright."

"Let's keep some of your delicious cookies for her. For the case that she'll join us later." proposed Nonoko, eating one of the cookies herself.

Mikan slammed the door of the last classroom on the top floor. Nevertheless, her searching was in vain.

"No, no, no! How could I lose it? I've never taken it off once during PE, so how could this happen?"

Panting heavily, she leaned against the wall and tried to reconstruct her routine of the day.

"Calm down, Mikan. Calm down and think about your actions from earlier. The only place left, where I haven't searched yet, is the laboratory. Otherwise, I've sift through everywhere. But what if it's not there either?"

Powerlessly, she dropped to her knees and could feel tears rolling down her cheeks. Then, she heard a child's voice in her head calling for her but the voice was very low coming from far away. Though, she knew only too well to whom it belonged. It was the voice of her childhood friend, whom she longed to see. In desperation, she replied softly.

"What are you still waiting for? Why aren't you coming to me? Do you even remember me? Or are you laughing at a stupid girl who is looking for a ghost in her memories?"

The next moment, she felt a strong hand resting on her shoulder. It was as strong as an iron grip but still holding back at the same time in order to not hurt her. When Mikan turned around, she noticed that there was no one far and wide. But she could still feel the gentle warmth of that hand on her shoulder. Immediately, she stood up and wiped her tears away.

"What a fool I am. Am I still going to cry like a little girl when I find you? It doesn't matter whether you have forgotten me or not. I'll just have to remind you of me." Filled with hope and encouraged anew, she left the spot and ran towards the laboratory.

She reached the lab within a few seconds. Fortunately, nobody seemed to be there at the moment since she was not allowed to enter the lab beyond her chemistry classes. Only people with a special permission like her friend Nonoko could but it'd take too long to pick her up to get access to the lab now. Furthermore, Mikan didn't want to disturb her during lunchtime.

Therefore, Mikan had to depend on herself for now and finish her job quickly. Even at the cost of being caught and ruining her good student image, she needed to get her talisman back.

As she was creeping under the desks, Mikan heard an angered and monotonous voice coming from the door. "What the hell are you doing here?"

It was a simple question but sounded like a low threat coming out of her mouth. Mikan recognized the intruder at once and tried to get on her feet, only to fail and clumsily hit her head against the desk. She cursed quietly under her breath and stood up straight on her second attempt. Rubbing smoothly the back of her head, her eyes met the violet ones of Hotaru, who looked anything but happy about the intruder.

"Ouch, thanks for the lump!" hissed Mikan in pain.

"Wrong answer." said Hotaru coolly with her eyes darted on Mikan after closing the door behind her.

Ignoring Hotaru's pissed mood, Mikan went on with her search. "I've lost something very important to me and I have to find it before the bell rings."

Something was wrong with that idiot. Hotaru could sense that even without looking at her. She knew Mikan for only three years now but she became acquainted with her really fast. Well, she didn't know anything about her past or her family but she was able to see the kind hearted, cheerful and optimistic personality of that girl. They had met on their first day of middle school, when Hotaru had been sitting lonely on a bench and working on her mini camera in the size of a pen. She had moved with her parents to Tokyo currently and had been ignored by other students. But she had preferred the loneliness to work better on her inventions rather than having a bunch of clingy and curious people around her. That aside, her current dull mood and grim face had also accounted for her isolation in school.

Then, all of a sudden, a girl with brown hair and brown eyes, not taller than herself, had come to her. She had had an interested look in her eyes and had given Hotaru a natural smile, as bright as if she could brighten up the darkest place in world and let every ice turn into clear and clean water. "Is it also your first day here? I guess everyone is treated the same when you're the newbie in school." the girl had stated. At that moment, she had known that Mikan was a special person who'd play an important role in her life. They had started to talk about her inventions, books they had already read, about hobbies and other stuff. However, they had never talked about their past before they had met since Mikan seemed to be unsettled by that topic. Besides, Hotaru hadn't cared about Mikan's past or family. Of course, everybody had a right to have secrets. Moreover, as long as she got along with Mikan, who fined her day, the present counted.

But at present, Mikan wasn't like her usual self. She was behaving like a tortoise, which was desperately looking for its shell, as if her life depended on it.

Hotaru reached her pocket and fetched its content. "Is it this what you're looking for?" Mikan didn't believe what she just heard and turned quickly to see Hotaru holding a small silver necklace in her hand.

The moment she saw the familiar pendant, she ran to Hotaru's side and examined it carefully to obviate a mistake. But it was really hers, the small silver necklace with the cute red pendant. "Yes, it really is mine." she said in relief.

Hotaru couldn't understand it. What was so special about a piece of jewellery, which didn't even seem to be of great value? You could only get one or two dollars at the best for selling it. And it wasn't even pretty, rather a childish accessory from an absurd toy box. However, for Mikan, it seemed to have gold value. Hotaru couldn't believe that a high school student was still playing with toys, even if it was Mikan we were talking about. Sure, she sometimes put her hair in those ridiculous pigtails, but she wasn't really on that level to play with toys, right?

She tried to erase a crazy thought of Mikan holding a lolly and riding a tricycle, and went to the door. "So if you settled your matter here, could we just leave? I won't forgive you if you even break the smallest test glass here."

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks a lot, Hotaru. You saved my day. Thank you sooo much."

As Hotaru turned around to face Mikan, she only planned to show her one of her brief and rare smiles. Mikan was the only one she smiled to because she was also the one who brightened up her day and made Hotaru smile. Not that Hotaru had a complete heart of flint, but she didn't want to show her soft side to others so that she wouldn't lose her stern face in front of them.

She expected Mikan to give her one of those bone-crushing hugs, which were annoying but somehow enjoyable at the same time. Instead, Mikan's face was red and tears began to build up in front of her eyes. She was really trying hard to hold them back but she could burst into tears each moment. In spite of that, she gave one of her emollient smiles again and seemed to be the happiest person on earth. That was the Mikan who Hotaru had met three years ago. And she was glad that Mikan transformed back to her usual self.

Hotaru didn't know what to say. She slowly walked back to Mikan, grabbed her shoulders and gave her a kind and warm hug. She didn't know the meaning of that necklace but she didn't ask for now. However, she knew that Mikan was really happy right now and the only thing Hotaru could do was to share Mikan's happiness with her. Nevertheless, she felt the urge to say Mikan one thing:

"The more you keep it inside your heart, the more it'll hurt. Mikan, let it out. "She could tell that her next words caught Mikan off guard. Mikan's pulse was speeding up and her body began trembling.

Mikan loosened from the embrace and looked deep in her violet eyes. She wiped the falling tears off of her eyes and avoided further eye contact. "W-what do you m-mean?"

"When I've first met you, I was impressed by your tender smile which warmed each person's heart you've ever met. Anyway, this cheerful side of you is only one thing. No matter how skilled a person is at acting or hiding their true feelings, there is still one part of your body, which will always sell you out. You're smiling and laughing with your lips and mouth, but not with your eyes. Your eyes always have dark clouds in them and show a kind of mysterious sadness which can't be hidden by yourself or interpreted by another person."

Hotaru's curiosity on that necklace was only one thing. More importantly, she really wanted to help her friend Mikan, who seemed to suffer from something. If she only knew what it was, she'd try to find a way to support Mikan.

Again, Hotaru took her by her shoulders and made her look into her eyes. "You won't be happy unless you also smile with your eyes. One day, that gentle smile of yours will be your strongest weapon to defeat your opponents. But you can only do that and smile sincerely if you defeat your sadness. Just let it out, I might help you with your problems."

With a whiny voice and a quiet sob, Mikan asked uncertainly. "Then, what do you propose? How can I defeat it and achieve my goal?"

"How about you stop holding back and have a good cry?" Hotaru whispered touching her face.

At that, Mikan threw herself in her arms and started crying. It was as if all the sadness, all the sorrow and her solitude, which she had to bear for so many years, flowed like poison out of her body. From that day forth, Mikan found her second important friend in her life.

First of all, thanks for reading this story, dear reader. I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter even if it doesn't contain much tension or action yet. It rather provides an insight into Mikan's life. I promise you all that the next chapter will be more interesting, particularly introducing new (male) characters.

Next chapter: The Truth behind Her Necklace