BEEPBEEP! BEEPBEEEP! BEEPBEEP!

The first thing I was aware of upon waking up was the annoying beeping of my alarm. I absolutely hate that beeping, but it gets me up. As soon as that thing starts up, I'm wide awake. I quickly reached up and hit the snooze button, but once the beeping was off, I sat in bed for a minute, thinking. I always try and remember what dreams I have at night, but if I'm woken up by an alarm, I'm normally too awake to remember anything. It usually makes me a bit sad on days like today when I can't remember, but this time was different. Something was... out of place. Wrong. It took me a minute to figure it out. But eventually, I had it: the feeling of something warm and solid next to my face. I turned my head to look at it and opened my eyes. My room was almost completely dark, but there was just enough light for me to make out the general shape of it.

An egg.

I was confused for a moment. But only a short moment. Then I nearly shrieked with glee, but realized that wouldn't be appropriate in this situation. Finally, something is happening. I thought. An egg. Isn't that what dragons hatch from? What if it is a dragon egg? Overjoyed, I sat up and took the egg firmly but gently into my hands. It definitely had an inner warmth - it hadn't just been warmed by my own body heat or something like that. Still clutching my treasure, I rose and walked carefully to the other side of my room, where the light switch is. I turned on, and I looked at the egg more intently. The coloration, which I hadn't been able to pick out in the dark, was now as clear as day. The egg was black, and equally spaced around the middle of the egg were eight identical red tongues of flame. I frowned a bit at this - it looked more like something from a cartoon than something from any good fantasy story. But, I guess beggars can't be choosers. I was still ecstatic.

After rummaging through a pile of junk in my closet, I managed to find a large coin purse. One big enough to hold the egg. I stuffed some extra-fluffy socks into it first, then gently put the egg in. With all that padding, I couldn't close the zipper on the pouch, but I figured that as long as I was careful, it hopefully wouldn't matter. I changed for school quickly. Surprisingly enough, the uniform wasn't too bad. The skirt was a bit short for my liking, but I could live with it. I gently laid the coin purse on top of the multiple school books in my duffel-like school bag, closing the top so that my egg wouldn't fall out. After eating a quick bowl of cereal (thinking that scrambled eggs would be offensive), I was off for school. Thankfully, my mother had been sleeping still, and my father was already off for work, so I didn't have to worry about another 'be good' lecture.

It took a bit to make it to the school, being that my house was about ten blocks away. I was kinda surprised that this wasn't the first school I was sent to; I mean, it was within walking distance, unlike some of my old schools. I guess, up til now, my parents hadn't wanted the other moms and dads in the area to know how I acted. But now, they had no other choice. Being the early riser that I was, there was still about ten minutes before the start of the school day when I arrived at the gates. I braced myself for the oncoming stares and comments. Already, there had been others walking to school along the same way I had, whispering the rumors they had heard, as well as their freshly baked ideas on the odd-looking newcomer.

No matter how much I like to tell myself that I don't care what others think, the fact is that I do. My only difference from a lot of people is that I don't let that stop me from going on with my eccentric stunts. Like my short, purple-streaked hair style. I loved how I looked, but with dozens of people are staring and talking about me all at once, even I get a little embarrassed. I started walking forward, through the gate, into the front area of the school. I kept my head down, hoping I could make an unobtrusive entry. No luck. Immediately, the loud conversations of before stopped as all the students talking before school turned their attention to me. I kept my head down. I heard their whispered conversations start, as they always do at a new school. I put my hand over where the egg was in my bag, for strength. And nearly stopped walking when I felt the egg actually move. What if it hatched now? How would I hide a baby dragon from an entire school?

I sped up imperceptably. I had to find somewhere private - a bathroom, perhaps. I'm not gonna say it seemed like an eternity to make it to the door, because it didn't. However, every moment it took to make it there I could feel the eyes bearing down on me, the conversations focusing on me. What happened to not caring about what other people thought? That thought surprised me, considering I hadn't remembered my wish from the previous night before now. But of course, now that I was actually at the school, it was totally different. There is no way I could just ignore so many pairs of eyes on me. I thought to myself. My hand was still on the egg, and I felt it wiggle again. With the help of a map of the school my parents had obtained for me, I easily found the bathroom and grabbed myself a stall. I quickly opened my backpack and looked at the egg. But nothing had changed. It looked just the same as it had before, and it wasn't even moving now. Wouldn't you know it? How much do I wanna bet that this dragon is teasing me. Wiggling when it would be bad for it to hatch, yet staying still when it's perfectly fine. If it had been someone else's story, I would've found it rather funny. But me? I've gotta say being teased by an egg didn't exactly float my boat.

I closed my bag with the egg still in it, then made my way to my classroom. I made sure to keep my hand over the egg at all times. Though there was a layer of cloth where the top of the bag covered it, I could still feel its unique shape clearly. By the time I walked in, there were still about five more minutes till school would start. What fun those five minutes would be. Once again, everybody that was already in the classroom stopped their regular conversations to either stare, whisper, or do both at once. I walked to the front of the room, where a teacher with messy hair sat shuffling through some papers.

"Umm... are you Nikaido-sensei?" I asked. I was pretty sure I'd gotten the right room, but it was always best to check.

"Huh?" The teacher looked up from his work, then smiled. "Ah, you must be the new student! Mizuki-san, right?"

I blushed a bit, embarrased. The egg rocked beneath my fingers, but I ignored it. "Uh... actually, it's Miyuki."

"Ahh, sorry. Well, Mizuki, if you would just take a seat... there." he pointed to a seat, second column from the window, four seats back. I wondered if he had just called me 'Mizuki' instead of 'Miyuki' again on accident, or if he just got some sort of enjoyment out of mispronouncing my name. "I'll have you introduce yourself to the class once school has started." Nikaido finished, before going back to his messy stack of papers.

I went and sat myself down in the seat he had pointed out. Though I was glad for a nice teacher, he didn't seem like the kind of teacher I would like. He seemed like another one of those people who think nobleness is everything in the world. For him, it would prpobably be the kind of nobleness that involved helping little kids to grow and become grown-ups with hopes and dreams. Boring. Maybe I would try and get expelled on the first day. I took out a pencil and doodled on the desktop as everyone else continued to stare at me. I wanted to move the egg from my bookbag to the pocked of my uniform jacket, but realized that that would be impossible with everyone watching. In the end, I decided to keep my bag in my lap, with my hand remaining on top of the egg.

After what seemed like longer than a couple minutes, the bell rang. Everyone went obediently to their seats and got out their pencils and paper. Just as I thought. A bunch of academy pansies that do exactly as their supposed to. A couple desks remained empty, including the desk in the row in front me in the column to the left of me. I thought that it would've been a nicer seat. Right next to a window, able to properly daydream about other things...

"Yamada-san, won't you introduce yourself? I've said your name three times already." I snapped back to attention and felt my cheeks turn red as Nikaido-sensei called me up to introduce myself. Apparently, I'd been too busy thinking about which seat would be best to sit in while he'd called me the first few times. The rest of the class laughed, and I blushed even harder. I walked up to the front of the classroom, face looking intently at the floor. I reluctantly left my bag at the desk, afraid it would make me look stupid to walk up in front of the class with it.

As soon as I was in front of the teacher's desk, facing the class, Nikaido said, "Everyone, this is Yamada Mizuki-san"

"It's Miyuki." I said before I could stop myself. Nikaido blinked, and a couple people giggled in the back of the class.

Then the teacher smiled, and continued, "Well, everyone, make sure-" Nikaido broke off as someone barged into the room, out of breath. "Ahh, Himamori-san. How nice of you to join us. I was just introducing Mizuki-san here."

"Miyuki." I corrected again. At this, the whole class laughed, though this Himamori person looked a bit embarassed herself. At first glance, the first thought that popped into my head was, Wow. Someone has hair just as wild as mine. Bubblegum pink - gotta give her credit for not being shy about having that loud of hair. Then I took a look at the rest of her outfit. She wore her uniform in an insanely cool way. I wondered if this was the kinda person I could like: she looked like she might be a trouble maker. Then something moved in the air above her. I looked at the spot above her head and, to my surprise, saw three tiny people floating above her head. I blinked, and rubbed my eyes a bit. They were still there. One of them - wearing a blue outfit - seemed to notice my gaze and looked like it was saying something. The three ducked down behind the pink-haired girl's head. I mentally shook myself, trying to make myself ignore them for now. Surely, this was something else magical! I'd have to talk to this girl later. Not right now, in front of the class.

"Mizuki-san!" I turned to see Nikaido waving his arms, trying to comically get my attention. Just the kinda image I want to give my class. Someone who can't pay attention for more than a few moments. "As I was saying, as a reward for being late, Himamori-san here can show you around the school after class is dismissed. She is a guardian, after all."

"Nikaido-sensei, my name is Hinamori Amu! Not Himamori." So I'm not the only one whose name he mispronounces. But what did he mean by guardian?

Nikaido waved his hand, apparently not paying attention. "All right, get back to your desks, Himamori-san, Mizuki-san." He said. As we went back to their desks together - apparently, Amu-san sat in the window desk that I had noticed earlier - I saw the little floating people again. They seemed to be looking at me curiously. As I sat down and Nikaido-sensei started teaching, one of them (a green one with a very girly-looking outfit) floated over.

"Hello! Nice to meet you desu~!" It was quickly dragged back over to Hinamori Amu by the other two floaty people, the blue one and a pink one. Both of them laughed uneasily as they did so. I was surprised that no one else noticed them. Was I just seeing things? Despite my doubts, I watched them, finding them quite a bit more interesting than the current lesson. The blue one - who looked a bit like an artist - whispered something in Amu-san's ear.

"HUH!" Hinamori Amu shouted out, standing up. Everyone turned to stare at her, including me. She laughed uneasily (it surprised me how similar that sounded to the awkward laugh of the blue and pink little people), and sat down again, blushing furiously.

"Well, if Himamori-san is okay with it, we will continue with the lesson." Nikaido said, smiling in a seemingly good-natured way at the interruption.

That plan of getting the record for being expelled is totally gone now. I thought to myself. This school has some interesting people. I just wonder what those little people are? I'm pretty sure I'm not insane just yet, so they hopefully exist. Well, I've just gotta live through the rest of the school day. Then Amu is stuck showing me around. I'll figure out what's going on, if my name isn't Yamada Miyuki!

Beneath her hand, the egg jiggled with delight.

Please review! I want to make this as good a fanfic as I can, and I can't do that without input! Sorry if this is really Amu-esque (with he whole making a wish than waking up with the egg.) - it'll hopefully get better as I go on. Anyway, hope you're liking it so far!