Chapter 3: Invite

Kaiyo looked to her friends, "How did you get here? Why are you here?"

"Hatori drove us here, we're picking up the paperwork to transfer," Kyo explained.

Yuki noticed Kaiyo's confused look. "We're living over here now, us and almost everyone else."

"Wow every…one," her heart skipped a beat as fear flooded her body. She was afraid, but had to know, "who isn't here?"

"Ayame, Ritsu, and Akito."

Kaiyo sighed in relief as her pace returned back to normal. She could feel her body still trembling in fear. "Then where is everyone?

Kyo gave the girl a strange look, "back at the house, unpacking."

"I don't want to keep you here or anything."

"Ah, it's not that bad here," Kyo said, off-handedly.

Yuki spoke up again, "for once he's right; you're not keeping us from anything important. They can unpack some things without us."

She was curious now, "where do you guys live?"

"By…" Kyo started.

Yuki interrupted him, "we'll leave it a secret."

A six-foot-tall man with short black hair approached the teens. He looked to be in his middle to high twenties. His long bangs covered his left eye. You could clearly see his right green eye, it was full of love and concern. "Yuki, Kyo, we should go."

"Hatori!" She greeted him excitedly, "it's good to see you again!"

"You to Kaiyo, we'll contact you soon. Stay well."

"We'll call you," Yuki was getting up to leave, "goodbye."

Kyo turned to leave, "yea, see ya."

Kaiyo stood quickly and waved to her friends, "bye!" For the first time in a long while, she was feeling hopeful again. She watched their retreating backs as they left the commons and headed out of the school building. She knew she'd seem them again, soon.

Savanna walked over to the girl, "come on, let's go already!" She was impatient, it was bad enough that she had to carpool with the girl.

"Sorry…" Kaiyo packed her things up quickly and followed Savanna to her car.

The two teens were quite throughout the ride home. Savanna dropped Kaiyo off at her house before going down and around the corner to her own home.

Kaiyo greeted her foster mom before running up into her room. She dropped her school bag onto her desk; her drawing pencils rolling out onto the hard surface. Without turning on the light, she effortlessly walked over to her bed as she plopped onto it.

She reached instinctively to her bedside table. A single picture frame had been resting, face down. After picking it up, she inspected it for any cracks or tears to the precious photo inside the plain black frame. Nothing was damaged, thank goodness. Sometimes she loved the old photograph to death; other times she wanted nothing to do with it. Right now, she couldn't get enough of the happy faces that shone out to her.

It was her, before she left Japan; before she left her friends. She was surrounded by a handful of Sohma family members. She studied their faces closely. She would be able to see them again. The emptiness that usually filled her was being replaced with the warm happy feeling that she once had.

Kaiyo went down at six for dinner, just as she did every school day. Her foster mother and the other two foster children ate in quiet and went off to do their own things. She returned to her room.

She worked on her drawings for a while. The light outside her window had faded fast as night quickly approached. She didn't even go to turn on the light; she sat in darkness on her bed.

"Kaiyo, phone." Her foster mother called up the steps.

"Alright," she called down. After bounding down the steps, she took the cordless phone back up to her room. She sat on her bed as she took a deep breath. No one ever called her before; so this could only be one family. "Hello?"

"Miss Kaiyo?" It was Yuki's voice on the other end.

"Yuki, that was fast." Indeed, she wasn't expecting to get a phone call later that day from them.

"We just got our phone set up. It needed a test, so I thought I'd call you."

"Wait," she was confused, they just got there. "How did you get."

Yuki cut her off before she could finish her question, "what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Saturday?" Kaiyo didn't even bother looking at her calendar on her nearby wall. She never had anything to do, other than school. "I'm completely free."

"Would you like to come over and see everyone then?"

He didn't even finish his question before the words left her mouth, "yes I'd love to!"

"How does 11am sound?"

"Sure, but…"

Yuki answered her question before she finished, "we'll pick you up."

"Oh," she was caught off guard, how did he know where she lived already?

"I'm sorry to make this short, but it seems that Kyo needs my help."

"No problem, sorry to keep you from unpacking," Kaiyo apologized quickly. Her thumb moved to the off button, but she couldn't push the button.

"Then, until tomorrow Miss Kaiyo," Yuki said before the unfamiliar click of the phone echoed in her ear.

She listened to the dial tone of the phone for a few seconds before turning it off. She returned the phone downstairs, alerting her foster mother that she would be going out with friends the following day. She seemed unconcerned.

Kaiyo returned to her room, excited and nervous about the next day. She went through her small wardrobe looking for just the right outfit. She wanted to impress her friends. The best things he could find were a pair of light blue jeans, a plain dark blue t-shirt with a white sweater. She took a shower before getting ready for bed.

She found it hard to sleep, excited for the next day.