Denki Ashiamoto is moving to a new town and is making new friends along with new enemies. Her new life is so different from her old life, but she's hanging in there. However, will certain discoveries and certain events cross the line between sane and mental?

Chapter One

I sat in my seat in the train car, leaning against the window and watching as the trees flew by.

My mother and little brother sat across from my bench, both sound asleep.

The train we were traveling on had private rooms, like the ones in the first Harry Potter movie I had seen just a month or so ago. I was beautifully fluent in English so I understood everything in that movie perfectly.

I watched as the sun peeked up over the grassy hills. Sunrise and sunset were really the only times you could stare at the sun without being blinded for life.

I hadn’t slept much the night before. How could I be expected to? And how my family could I cannot imagine.

We would be arriving in our new home in Tokyo in a couple of hours, just in time to send me off to school. How rough is that? Going to school the first minute you arrive sounds horrible.

I was up all night thinking about my new life.

It was near the end of November. Winter would start in a little less than a month. Winter in Tokyo was bound to be different from winter at my old home. There the winters were freezing and perfect for doing activities in the snow. They were always fun.

I looked up above my head to the shelf above my bench that held luggage on it. There was one above my mother and brother’s bench as well.

Our furniture and boxes should have already arrived by now at the house. My mom gave the movers our address and a spare key. The man in charge was told to lock the door when the movers were done and leave the key underneath the doormat. The man in charge of the moving was an old family friend so we didn’t need to worry about whether or not we could trust him.

The luggage in our train room was just suitcases and backpacks. The suitcases were for our clothes, hygiene utensils, and other miscellaneous things. The backpacks held stuff for my brother and me to do so we wouldn’t get bored. There was also another book bag above my head that was for school when I went later this morning. It was already filled with the things I would need.

My brother was still in elementary school so I would have to walk him to his new school on the way to mine. His school book bag was above his head as well.

The schools in Tokyo all made the students wear uniforms. I felt neutral about uniforms. They had both their pros and cons. A pro was that you didn’t have to worry about what to wear or how your clothes looked. Another pro was that everyone was wearing the same thing, so people didn’t get the chance to show off and brag about expensive clothing. A con was that no one was allowed to express their individuality, uniqueness, and creativity. I guess the pros outweighed the cons in this situation.

My uniform was a white, button-up, short sleeve shirt with an ocean blue skirt that I thought was way too short. The skirt length was in the middle between my thighs and knees. The uniform had white stockings and black dress shoes. The choices available to me for bad weather were a jacket with long sleeves, a jacket with short sleeves, and a sweatshirt that were all the same shade of blue as my skirt.

My brother’s uniform was a long sleeved, white button-up shirt with cuffs at the end of the sleeves. He had long ocean blue pants with white socks and black dress shoes.

I imagined that the high school boys’ uniforms would be like my brother’s, with slight differences, and that my uniform would be like the elementary school girls’ uniforms, with major differences. I imagined that their skirts would be much longer, like down to their ankles, or close enough to them.

My brother had the same choice of jackets and sweatshirts that I had, except I don’t think the short sleeved jacket was available for boys.

I was already dressed in my uniform. I had gotten dressed in it somewhere around twenty-five minutes ago. My brother was going to change when he woke up from his sleep.

Two hours later and my family and I were walking toward a taxi.

After we had put our luggage in the trunk and had gotten in the taxi took off.

We arrived at our new home, which didn’t look half bad from the outside, paid the taxi driver, and opened the front door.

I went straight to the bathroom to fix my hair and apply light make-up. My mother retrieved the spare key from underneath the door mat and my brother took a quick swig of his chocolate milk that was in his backpack.

When my brother and I were ready we walked out of the house with our school book bags on our backs, they were ocean blue if I might add, but not before saying good-bye to our mother.

My mother had already given my brother and me the directions to both of our schools so I knew exactly where to take my brother and where to go myself.

After I had walked my brother to the elementary school, I continued along the path to my own school.

When I got to my high school I went straight to the front office. There I got my class schedule. I read over it to see what I had.

First period was Language Arts, second period was Math, third period was History, fourth period was Geography, fifth period was Physical Education, and sixth period was Science.

My first challenge of my new life would be finding room 125 for Language Arts.

When I got to the room and went inside the open door, I found that the classroom was 3/4ths full. Everyone was either doing homework, talking with their friends, reading, listening to music, doodling, or had their head on their desk and trying to get in a quick snooze.

I walked up to the teacher, Mr. Momohito.

He noticed me walk up to him from his position writing on the chalkboard. He turned toward me and smiled. “Ah, you must be Denki Ashiamoto.” A nod was his reply. “Welcome to Tokyo. Please wait up front here until the bell has rang and everyone is here. Then I will introduce you and show you where to sit. We have assigned seating in this class, I hope that will be alright with you.”

I gave a small smile and nodded shyly. “Yes, thank you Mr. Momohito.” I said politely and quietly.

I was very well mannered. People always praised my mother and I. They told my mother what a good girl I was and asked for tips on how to train their children. Old ladies and men always told me how kind and polite I was. I liked the praise and being recognized for just being kind. I felt that it was necessary to be kind. I didn’t do it just for the praise, but it was a bonus.

I waited in front of the classroom, with my hands together in front of me and my eyes gazing at the floor. The bell rang shortly after I had arrived and I could hear people coming in from the doorway and the people already in the class get ready.

I looked up as the teacher started speaking. I could tell he was going to be a good teacher, he had already showed kindness to me already.

“Class, this is our new student. Now, I want you to all behave and listen to her.” Mr. Momohito told the class. He then turned to me and said, “Please state your name, your age, where you come from, and anything else you might like to add.”

“My name is Denki Ashiamoto. I turned sixteen over the summer. I came to Tokyo early this morning from Hokkaido. I have a younger brother in elementary school named Waya and we live with my mother.” I said. My tone this time was louder so the students in the classroom could hear me.

The teacher nodded and stated, “You’ve certainly come quite a ways Denki. Class, I would like you to be kind to Denki and give help to her if she is in need of any. This is her first day in a new school and it is your job to make her feel welcome.”

Mr. Momohito looked across the room in search of an empty desk for me and finally decided on one I guess, since he turned back to me.

“Denki, you are going to sit behind Daichi.” He said. He turned back to the class and said, “Daichi, please raise your hand so Denki knows who you are.”

A boy’s hand went up. I started walking toward the hand and found the seat behind the boy to be indeed empty. I set my book bag on the desk of the empty seat and sat in the chair.

The boy’s hand went down as I found my seat.

I put my book bag on the ground and got out a notebook, mechanical pencil, and an eraser.

“Class, today we are going to work some more on speaking in one of the most popular languages around the world, English. I have written a sentence in English up on the board. Would anybody like to give it a try?” Mr. Momohito asked.

I saw five hands go up, one belonging to the boy in front of me.

Mr. Momohito called on a girl two seats to my right. I found out her name was Riza. She had short bright red hair, obviously dyed, and big almond colored eyes.

“I could not play in the park because it was raining.” Riza said.

“That’s correct. Good job Riza.” Mr. Momohito said, causing Riza to smile.

Mr. Momohito wrote two sentences this time on the board and asked for someone to read it. The boy in front of me, Daichi, had his hand raised again.

“Daichi, give it a go.” Mr. Momohito said.

“I went to the grocery store last Tuesday. I could not find any bread, but I did find milk and eggs.” Daichi read.

“Well done Daichi.” Mr. Momohito said.

At the end of class, before the bell rang, Mr. Momohito passed out worksheets to the class.

“I want you to attempt your best at this worksheet. It is homework and due tomorrow.” He got in before the bell rang which signaled that class was over. Now I had to find my Math room, room 217.

I got up and gathered my things together. With a sigh I left the classroom into the crowded hallways. I stopped off to the side to look at my schedule when I caught side of fire red hair. I looked up and called out, “Hey, Riza!”

She turned to me and asked, “Yeah?”

“Um…I was wondering if you could tell me where room 217 was.” I said.

“Hmm.” She seemed to be in deep thought. She then smiled apologetically and said,

“Sorry, I’m afraid I’m not very good with directions. But you see that boy there, with the same hair color as me?” She said as she pointed to a red headed boy in the hallway who had the same fiery red color of hair as Riza.

I nodded.

“Well, he’s going to room 217 too. So if you just follow him than you’ll be able to find it.” She said.

I smiled and replied, “Thank you.”

She looked at me and smiled. I then noticed she was about an inch or so taller than me. “No problem. I hope you find the rest of your classes all right. The first day is always the hardest. I was the new kid last year so I know how you feel. Good luck.” Riza said as she walked away.

I smiled, she was nice. I think I might have just made a new friend already.

Anyways, back to work. I looked through the crowd and spotted the red headed boy, who was very tall if I might say so. His head was a good five inches above the other people’s heads. Well, I might have exaggerated a tiny bit there.

I followed him and eventually it led me to my destination, room 217. This school had three floors and I doubted that the second floor was as high as I would be going.

The introduction in the math class was the same as in the previous class with a few minor differences. I sat in an empty seat in the back next to a window. I was on the whole other side of the room from the red headed boy who was conversing with some boys around him.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. I still felt insecure about the length of my skirt but nobody seemed to notice and none of the girls acted the same way I did. I guess I’d get used to it sooner or later. None of the guys in any of my classes looked at me in a certain way, which relieved me. I hated when guys looked at me in that creepy way that made chills run down my spine. The guys had much prettier girls to look at anyways.

The last bell rang and I walked out of my Science classroom. I walked through the crowded hallways and outside.

It was sunnier and warmer now than it was this morning. It seemed that half of the students stayed around and talked with their friends in the courtyard which was filled with green grass and cement walkways. There were a few trees here and there; I didn’t pay too much attention to them.

As I walked through the courtyard someone called my name, drawing my attention.

“Denki! Hey, Denki!” Someone called.

I looked around and finally spotted Riza. She was waving her right arm up in the air to me and was walking my way.

I walked toward her and smiled. “Hi Riza.”

“Hey, so, how’d your first day go?” Riza asked.

I shrugged and said, “It went okay, once I found my classrooms and got through the many introductions.”

She smiled and said, “Yeah. Don’t worry; the second day is much easier.” She then noticed me tugging at the hem of my skirt. “Something wrong?” Riza asked me.

I nodded and said quietly, “These skirts are so short. I feel practically naked in them.”

It was quiet enough that now one around us could hear but loud enough to cause Riza to laugh. “Don’t worry. That feeling wears away. I’m guessing that you had longer skirts back home, right?”

I nodded. “Yes, they came down to just past the knees.”

“Well, the principle’s a guy so I’m sure that he was just looking out for all the guys in this school. After all, shorter skirts give guys more to look at and more eye candy.” Riza laughed.

I blushed and gave a slight and forced, might I add, laugh.

A hand that appeared out of no where on Riza’s head caused both of us to look up only to find the red headed boy in my Math class.

“Riza, I hope you’re not terrorizing the new girl.” A boy said as he came up beside the red headed boy.

“Oh shut up Daichi.” Riza snapped at the boy with a frown. I recognized him from my first period, the boy who sits in front of me. “For your information, I was being nice to her. I know how hard it is to come to a new school and thought she could use a friend.”

Now that I got a good look at Daichi, I noticed that his black hair had a green tint to it. His hair came just below his ears and was a bit curly at the tips. He also had bangs that fell into his dark brown eyes.

I looked at the red headed boy to notice that his crimson locks were spiky, sticking up in almost every direction. He had gold eyes, which I never knew anyone could have.

Both the boys were very cute in my opinion, but that was only for me to know and for no one to ever find out!

“Riza, mom wants us to stop at the store to get some stuff for dinner. Let’s go.” The red headed boy said impatiently as he took his hand off of Riza’s head. So they were siblings, go figure.

Riza rolled her eyes and said, “Just wait a minute.” She then smiled and said politely, “Guys, this is my new friend Denki. Denki, this is my twin brother Kasai and his friend Daichi.”

Both boys looked at me. Daichi smiled while Kasai had a bored and impatient expression.

“Nice to meet you. Sorry, but we—” He stopped suddenly.

I gulped. This cute boy was staring at me with a serious face. Maybe he could hear my fast and loudly beating heart. Oh my gosh, I hope not!

Since it didn’t seem like Daishi was going to finish his sentence any time soon, Riza decided to take up the responsibility and started a new conversation.

“So Denki, why’d you move all the way to Tokyo from Hokkaido?” She asked.

I snapped back into reality and my heartbeat slowed as I looked to her. “My brother’s so smart that he got a scholarship to the elementary school. My mother jumped at the idea and decided that we should move so that he could go to school here.”

“Oh yeah, the elementary school and the high school here cost quite a bit of money to attend. My parents would walk through fire if it meant that both Kasai and I got scholarships and they didn’t have to worry about paying for a while.” Riza said. Both she and I laughed, the boys however stared daggers at Riza. Only I noticed.

“Well, the day that I get a scholarship is the day that I walk on water.” I said. We both laughed again. This little sentence from me though got both Kasai and Daichi to look at me. Their expressions were unreadable. I quickly looked away. I hated it when guys, or anybody for that matter, stared at me.

“There they are! Daichi! Kasai!” A group of high pitched girls squealed from behind the two boys.

We all looked toward the group. I looked at the other three to see one cringe, one grimace, and one flinch. I looked back to the two groups of girls and asked, “Who are they?”

“Those are Kasai’s and Daichi’s fan clubs.” Riza answered.

“Fan clubs?” I asked, confused.

Riza nodded and said, “Yeah. All the hot guys in this school have fan clubs. I feel bad for them.”

I nodded in understanding. “Do girls have fan clubs too?” I asked.

“No. They’re too busy forming and joining fan clubs. And the guys who don’t have fan clubs are too busy wishing that they did, while most of the guys who do have fan clubs would do anything to get rid of them. Some of the guys like it though, egotistical jerks.” Riza said.

I nodded again.

Riza turned to me as the fan clubs were getting closer, running to get to the two boys. “You better get out of here. It is not pretty to be caught up in one of these kind of things. Trust me.” She said.

“Okay. See you tomorrow Riza.” I said to her. Then I turned to the two boys and said, “Good-bye and good luck.”

After that I walked off of the campus and in the direction of the middle school. I looked behind me to see the three of them running away from the fan girls. I smiled. Perhaps this place wasn’t so bad after all, just perhaps.