...You keep me imprisoned with your lies

Stuck in a state of total submission

Vulnerability

Every time I gather up the courage to leave

You turn those brilliant brown eyes towards me

And I immediately find myself stuck once again

It'd be kinder of you would just leave

Turn around and just walk away from me

But you won't, you refuse

You-

Keiko frustratedly set down her pencil and leaned her head into her hands, massaging her temples. Keiko had a literature assignment to complete by next Friday and Keiko wasn't exactly an expert in the art of dark poetry. Keiko sighed and spent a little more time massaging her temples before picking her pencil back up.

Keiko removed her paper from her desk and crumpled it up and tossed it into the bin beside her desk. The tiny can was beginning to overflow, some of the crumpled papers littered the ground. Keiko took comfort in the fact that the can was not completely filled with just the papers from her discarded poems. Keiko replaced the last paper with a new, fresh piece and just sat there, thinking about what to write.

Keiko must have been sitting for a while because just as she had started writing, her mother called her, summoning her for dinner. Keiko sighed before replying, then turned back to her work to try and scribble down a few more lines before going to eat.

"Keiko dear, your dinner will get cold!"

"Coming mom!"

Keiko dropped her pencil as soon as she was done scribbling the last few words of her sentence and left her room, turning off the light before she left and shutting her door. Keiko was never usually so enthusiastic to be done with school work, but since she had spent most of her after school free time working on that damned poem, Keiko was relieved.

After spending the last few hours of her day eating and spending time with her parents, Keiko prepared for bed. She had just finished her shower and brushed her teeth when she realized that she has left her desk a gruesome mess. Leaving her bathroom, Keiko hurriedly cleaned her desk of her homework and other papers and neatly placed hem in her bag. Keiko threw away all of the papers consisting of her bad poetry before going to bed, deciding that she will deal with her trash can issue when she wakes in the morning.

Settling comfortable beneath the covers, Keiko pressed her head to her pillow and closed her eyes, laying down for a few moments before she opened them again and turn over. Once Keiko was comfortable, she closed her eyes and waited, letting sleep fall over her in slow, easy waves until she was able to thrust herself into the darkness of her mind and her dreams.

Keiko awoke to the incessant ringing of her alarm clock and quickly shot up, hurrying to quiet the intrusive noise. Keiko found herself just sitting in her bed after placing the clock back onto her dresser, staring at the sun shielded beneath the curtains standing before her window. When Keiko finally mustered the courage to to get up, she instantly fell, her foot was wrapped in the sheet she had been sleeping with.

Keiko groaned as she pulled herself up from the floor. Quickly unwrapping her foot from her sheet, Keiko started on her morning routine of dressing and obsessing over unfinished assignments and student council work. Keiko has been attending Daichi School for Girls ever since Yusuke left for demon world. Now Keiko was a in her last year of high school and Yusuke was back, for once everything was normal, and she could not be more happy. Although, it did take a while to get used to Yusuke always being around and the proposal he had made before leaving had been put on hold.

Keiko started her venture downstairs and into the restaurant where she was greeted by her parents who were preparing for service. Keiko ate and bid goodbye to her parents before starting on her walk to school. Keiko had been happy when she was at home, but as she neared the school gate, her mood soured. Just thinking about all of the responsibilities that she has makes her belly churn and twist. Just because she enjoyed schooling and club activities does not mean that she always enjoyed the burden that came with all of them.

Keiko made it to the school gate by time the school's starting bell began, as usual and hurriedly made her way to class before the second bell rung. Keiko just barely made it to her seat when the teacher had walked in and every girl was silenced. Attendance was taken then the first lecture of the day began and Keiko, as usual, became very attentive, something that was cut short when a note had landed on her desk. Picking up the strange piece of paper, Keiko began to read it and nearly groaned.

The student council meeting was cancelled and rescheduled for Friday, the day of her friends volleyball tournament. Unfortunately the student council meeting would be a late running one do to the festival planning required for the upcoming festivities the towns in Japan engaged in during seasonal changes. Keiko would not be able to make it to her friends game.

Looking up, Keiko looked around the room to see who had passed the note when she came eye to eye with Azuka, class representative. The kind girl muttered a small sorry. Keiko just nodded her head in understanding. Azuka had known that Friday was her friends match and, hopefully, did everything in her power to try to stop it, but Keiko refused to let this bother her. Hopefully her friend would understand.

Keiko stuck the note in her jacket pocket and turned back towards the teacher, proceeding to listen to the rather uneventful lecture until the clock struck and the next teacher would come in. The horribly dreaded physics teacher, Miako sensei.

I know this chapter is really short and I apologize, but I had a really hard time starting the chapter off and when I finally did, in the middle of writing this I came up with another idea and so I had to go back and rewrite this. I have had this idea for a story for a very long time, I just never got around to writing it. For those of you who are reading my other story 'Stranger', I have sent the next few chapters (3, 4, 5, 6 & 7) off to my cousin, who is currently beta-reading for me so it should be a while longer but as soon as I get them back, I will edit and post them and in the mean time, I would like to thank all of those who are waiting for the next few chapters of Stranger to be posted. I have suffered some serious writer's block with the series and, sadly, lost interest in it for a while, but now I'm back to writing. I have yet to decide a pairing for this story. If any of you have any ideas, tell them in review and I will take them into consideration. Any and all reviews are appreciated as well as advice and critiques so please tell me what you think. ^^

~Biko-Biko