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Just the first chapter of the novel I'm writing. Please leave a comment so I know how you liked it.


Chapter One

First Day


Miyabe could be seen walking out of her house and to her friends waiting at her front gate. Her friends consisted of Ichigo, a bubbly dark red hair, pig-tailed girl and Yahi, a male attractive, long haired boy. Miyabe herself has short bleached blond
hair, with black tips, tied in low pig-tails with her bangs loose. Her personality is kind of split. At school she is known to be a punk and a tough girl. Her friends know her true side. She is a kind person who loves animals and all creatures.

She and her friends attend a private high school in Japan, Fujisawa Private High for boys and girls. Their uniforms change for the different seasons they are in school. For the late summer when they start school to the late fall before winter, they wear white button up, short sleeved polo shirts with a dark blue vest. The girls wear mid thigh dark blue skirts and the guys wear dark blue pants. For the winter, they have longed sleeved polo shirts and a long sleeved vest. The girls change to knee length skirts. For spring the have short sleeved vest with long sleeved polo’s and the girls go back to their shorter length skirts. The early summer is the same as the late summer and fall. Today was their first day of their first year.

"Miyabe-chan! Hurry up or we we’ll be late!” Ichigo called out, jumping up and down. Yahi watched as she jumped and Miyabe just sighed at her energetic friend. Miyabe never intended to be friends with either of them. It just kind of happened.

~*~*~*~

It was the first day of Fujisawa Junior High and Miyabe was late. She was going down the hall when she ran, quite literally, into Ichigo who was turning a corner and carrying a stack of papers.

“Ouch! That really hurt.” Ichigo whined as she rubbed the side of her hip. Ichigo’s hair was still poofy, but tied up in a single pony tail in the back of her head.

“Well, maybe you should watch where you are going,” Miyabe yelled. Her hair was her natural color, black, and was actually longer then it is now.

“Sumimasen! You’re right! I wasn’t paying any attention.” Ichigo said standing up and bowing ‘sorry’ to Miyabe. Miyabe didn’t know how to react so she just stood there. She was so used to people yelling back at her saying that it was her fault for running.

“No, no. It was my fault. I was the running when I shouldn’t have.” Miyabe sighed before she realized what she was saying. She never apologized to anyone but her family. Ichigo straightened out and smiled.

“Here let me help you with those.” A voice interrupted them. They turned to see Yahi, who had short dark brown hair then, picking up the papers that Ichigo had dropped. Yahi wasn’t sure about his sexual preferences at this point.

“Supashi-bo, but I can get that myself.” Ichigo said picking up the rest of the papers as she said ‘thank you.’ Miyabe just hung back as they argued with each other about carrying paper.

That is how they met each other and the friendship just blossomed. Ichigo and Yahi just hung around Miyabe and she didn’t push them away like she did to others. Maybe it was Ichigo’s bubbly personality that made it so hard to hate her. And maybe it was Yahi’s ‘unique’ personality towards guys that made it so easy for her to be a tom boy. Maybe it was both of them that made it easier to express her true self and not having to put up her mask around them.

~*~*~*~

As Miyabe, Ichigo, and Yahi reached the front gates, kids of all high grades were milling around them. They took a deep breath and walked through the gates, Miyabe with her ‘mask’ up and Ichigo waving to everyone. Yahi was looking around at everyone…well…just the male population at least. As they neared the front doors to enter, the same group of rich prissy girls, who were all about shopping and gossip, were standing on the stairs. They always criticize how they acted and how they hung out with each other.

“Well, well, well. I didn’t know they just let anyone here. Guess what my daddy said that only smart and rich students come here was a lie if they let you three come here,” the lead girl, otherwise known as Suzuki, said sneering at them while laughing with her friends. Miyabe just scoffed them off and tried to get around them.

“Look at their uniforms. They’re not even wearing them properly.” Another named Aida said. Miyabe and Ichigo’s white polo’s were not tucked in at the bottom like they’re supposed to.

“And look at Miyabe’s hair. It’s totally bleached. They’re not going to let you keep that you know.” A third, Mana.

Miyabe was about to turn around and punch them all, but Ichigo and Yahi pulled on her arms to tug her inside. Suzuki and her friends all think that Miyabe, Ichigo, and Yahi are bad students, but they all got really high scores on the schools entrance exams. Miyabe ended up being in class 1-B along with Yahi and Ichigo.

They searched the halls for their classroom and all the while Miyabe was getting stares and whispers about her hair. Every time she caught someone’s eyes, she cocked her head to the head to the side and smiled sweetly at them. Though this smile was a fake one, the boys who received it turned red and looked away. The girls however…well lets just say the ones like Suzuki glared and turned away while the quiet ones blushed and waved.

When they walked into their classroom, the conversation in the room died as they looked at Miyabe. Miyabe was used to this. Everywhere she went people stared. Mainly because of her confident posture and her hair color. It doesn’t exactly help that her eyes were blue and not brown. Or the fact that she wears a black spiked collar with a cross hanging from it. She even wears wrist bands on both arms and fishnet on her right arm.

“Take a picture. It lasts longer.” Miyabe said bitterly to the class, but smiling all the same. Everyone turned backed to what they were doing as Miyabe spotted seats.

She spotted three seats on the other side of the room by the windows. Miyabe grabbed one next to a window as Yahi grabbed the one behind her and Ichigo next to her. Ichigo never liked to sit next to windows. She always thought she would fall out of them. Miyabe on the other hand liked to stare out of them when she day dreamed.

As she stared out the window, she thought she saw something strange in the tree
next to her window. It was about the size of a cat but it wasn’t close to a cat at all. It had wings and was pure black. She tried to get a better look but whatever it was had disappeared when she blinked. She wondered if she should tell her friends but decided against it because they wouldn’t believe her.

What brought her out of her tree search was the desk chair in front of her scraping against the floor. She looked ahead to see a boy with messy short brown hair sitting down in it. She couldn’t stop herself from staring at him. The only thing that wakened her from that trance was the class door opening very loudly.

“Hello mine-chan! It is I Suzuki-chan! I hope that this year is filled with praise for the one and only me!” Suzuki cried out with a grin. Miyabe shook her head and looked around the classroom. Everyone was staring at her like she was a chicken with her head cut off.

Miyabe saw her spot the guy in front of her and ran over to him. She put her stuff in the seat next to him and leaned towards him, smiling seductively.

“Uh, may I help you?” the boy asked uncertainly. Miyabe smirked at his tone. He obviously wanted nothing to do with Suzuki. If Suzuki caught that, she didn’t show it.

“Why no. I was just admiring your beautiful blue eyes. I think blue eyes are wonderful on Japanese,” She replied blinking at him. The boy backed away slightly as she inched closer to him.

“Well I didn’t know you loved blue eyes. You could have just stared at mine all you want.” Miyabe piped in sarcastically. She sneered as Suzuki turned to her and looked at her disgust. The boy turned around, startled by Miyabe’s remark.

“Ha, ha. Very funny Miyabe. But blue eyes look horrid on you, especially with that hair. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were American.” Suzuki remarked. Ichigo was about to pipe in when Miyabe put her hand up to stop her.

“I’d rather be American than be a prissy rich girl that only thinks about clothes and boys.” Miyabe growled back. Miyabe may have seemed like she was getting mad but she personally didn’t care about what other people think about her. It was just part of her plan to make Suzuki think like she won.

“First of all, that’s not all I think about. I think about other things too.” Suzuki said grinning. The boy didn’t know what to do so he just sat there watching. Miyabe noticed that his eyes were a deep blue, almost teal color.

“What else do you think about then?” Ichigo piped in cheerfully, though Miyabe knew she was as aggravated as she was. Miyabe looked at her friend and she winked back at her, unnoticed by the others.

“I think about…well…” As Suzuki pondered this, the homeroom teacher came in. He was a man in about his thirties and he looked like he didn’t take shower. He was unshaven and his hair was all greasy and dirty looking. His clothes didn’t look very clean either. They were all wrinkly and had stains on them.

“Good morning students. I, uh, am Tsukumo-sensei. I hope, uh, your time here is a fun filled one.” He called out to the class as he pushed up his glasses. Everyone in the class laughed silently as the teacher continued to talk.

Miyabe turned her attention back to the window, not noticing the boy staring at her curiously. It was probably because of her hair, collar, and wristbands but she noticed earlier that he had a wristband as well. She laid her head down on her desk and looked out the window, the wind blowing gently through it. She could hear Yahi and Ichigo whispering but didn’t really care about what they were saying. She just caught the words ‘Suzuki’ ‘stupid’ and ‘boy.’ Not in that order though.

“Tsukumo-sensei! Miyabe’s hair is blonde and she’s wearing a spiked collar!” Suzuki called out, raising her hand. Everyone turned to stare at Miyabe as she slowly lifted her head from the desk.

“And what does that do to you? How I look isn’t harmful in anyway.” Miyabe growled back at her. Suzuki just sneered and turned back to the teacher.

“Now you’re, uh, Shiyume Miyabe? Why is your, uh, hair like that? It’s, uh, against the school rules.” The teacher said looking Miyabe over. Miyabe sighed and stood up.

“With all due respect, sensei, I will not change how I look just because some stupid rule says so,” Miyabe stated. This received gasps from the students and a curious look from the teacher, “I believe in individuality and how am I supposed to express that if some rule says I can’t. Go ahead and give me detentions if you want, but it’s not going to change how I look,” she finished. Everyone stared at her in shock. They just didn’t expect Miyabe to calmly go off on the teacher like that. They all expected her to start yelling that she wouldn’t change how she looked.

“Hear that sensei? She said give her detentions. I think that is the best, you know.” Suzuki chimed in as she put up a fake smile to the teacher.

"Actually I, uh, have a better idea for her,” he said to Suzuki before he turned to Miyabe, “I, uh, liked how you calmly faced the argument at hand. You didn’t, uh, explode like most students would have. You showed confidence and, uh, authority. I would like you to be, uh, class representative,” the teacher explained to Miyabe. The other students looked at each other before erupting into cheers. Ichigo stood up and hugged her, along with Yahi, as Miyabe stared at the teacher dumbfounded.

“What!? Her as class rep.? You have got to be kidding me. Doesn’t anyone think that I would be much better for the position? I mean, just look at me,” Suzuki said standing up and flipping her light brown, shoulder length hair. Miyabe hated her hair. It was constantly tied half up with a couple strips of bangs hanging loose. Miyabe would never have her hair like that.

The class sure didn’t think she was a better candidate than Miyabe. They all booed Suzuki before she sat down, glaring at her desk. Clearly she isn’t popular in this class. Miyabe shook her head to clear it before looking around her classmates.

“I’m not sure I’m best suited for this job…”Miyabe mumbled before looking at the teacher. The teacher nodded and the chorus erupted into a chorus of yes.

“Of course you are. You have the perfect personality for the job,” Yahi said sitting back down in his seat. Miyabe looked at him before sighing in defeat.

“All right, I’ll take the position,” Miyabe said staring into the teacher’s eyes, her own eyes shining in new determination to do this job well. The teacher smiled at her decision and nodded as the bell rang. She looked around the room again and stopped at the boy sitting in front of her. He stood up and faced her and reached out his hand.

“Hi, my name is Shinobu,” the boy said smiling at her. She froze for a second as her heart started racing, but she didn’t know why.

“Uh, hi. I’m Miyabe, but I guess you already knew that,” Miyabe said taking his hand, her eyes never leaving him. He smiled as he let go and grabbed his bag. She watched him and didn’t even notice Suzuki in front of her.

“Don’t get too friendly with him. He’s mine.” Suzuki snarled as she too turned and left. Miyabe glared at her and grabbed her stuff as well. She looked at Ichigo and Yahi and they left the class together to their next class. As they passed her classmates that were still in the room, Miyabe received cheers. She nodded to them and walked through the doors with her two best friends.

~*~*~*~

It was the last class of the day and they were surrounded by kids who were talking about the upcoming production in the drama club. Miyabe was about to ring their necks, but then she started to hear about a tech crew who worked to build props, do the lighting, and do the sound for productions by the drama club and other clubs. She kind of thought it was stupid to do manual labor like that, but it was better than listening to people talk about plays.

“That crew stuff sounds pretty stupid. Who wants to do manual labor like that anyway?” Miyabe whispered to her friends. Ichigo tilted her up and put her fingers to her lips as if she were actually thinking about it, while Yahi just shrugged and looked at all the guys in the room.

“Well I hear this so called tech crew has a lot of hot, buffed, guys.” Suzuki piped in. Unfortunately she had overheard the conversation. Miyabe sighed and turned to face her as Ichigo stared curiously and Yahi was interested by the words ‘hot’ and ‘guys.’

“Then why don’t you join so you can do some boy watching,” Miyabe said, faking a smile. Suzuki grinned before answering.

“I would, but that means I have to actually work. I just don’t do well in the working world.” Suzuki sighed with a smile. Miyabe just scoffed at her and turned away.

“Well that’s too bad for you. Now you can’t be around all those guys.” Miyabe said staring to ignore her. Suzuki was just too stupid to deal with, especially now they are in the same class.

“I dare you three to join the tech crew. Your boyish attitude will fit in just perfectly. Yahi loves guys so he’ll fit in as well. And Ichigo is…well…she’s just Ichigo,” Suzuki challenged. Miyabe was not one to back down from a challenge unless it affected the safety of her self or others.

“Oh I just love that idea! We should totally do it,” Yahi exclaimed. He was obviously thinking about the guys on the crew.

“I think it would be really fun! Plus we get to make more friends in not only the crew but the drama club as well.” Ichigo put in. Miyabe looked at both of them and they nodded at once as if in a silent agreement.

“All right. We accept your challenge. We’ll join the tech crew.” Miyabe said with a fire burning in her eyes. Suzuki just smirked like she had something very evil planned for the three of them. But just as Miyabe was wondering what she was thinking, the last bell rang, signaling the end of the day.

Everyone paraded out of the door to go to after school activities or to home. Miyabe went up to their teacher and asked where the tech crew meets and as soon as they got the answer, they took off in that direction.

They found the crew, they were sitting out on the auditorium stage and Miyabe and Ichigo found they were not the only girls. There were three boys and two other girls and adding them would make a total of eight members. There was a teacher there, obviously the instructor, and a couple of people who looked like they already graduated. As they got closer, all eyes were on them. Miyabe noticed that the boy in her class, Shinobu, was part of the crew as well.

“Is this the tech crew?” Miyabe asked confidently.