salut et quoi de neuf (hi and what's new)! yeah, another short-ish chapter. be warned: i said the series would be short, so the length of chapters may vary. i'll probably be forced to make them longer towards the end, though, to fit in more stuff. oh, and i hope you enjoy the odd sense of humor. i really don't want the "narrator" sense to scare people away! read, review, and enjoy, s'il vous plaît!

▫O▫N▫E▫

Some days feel like a dream

Some dreams seem to last for days

How do I catch both

And keep them in my grasp?

- ▫ -

Her eyelids were heavy. They didn’t simply feel that way this morning; they were, and noticeably too. That was part of the reason why she didn’t want to wake up. The other reason? Simple - because she couldn’t.

The alarm clock blared shrilly for the fourth time, finally breaking the girl, who was sprawled in an awkward position over her bean bag chair, out of her light state of rest. It seemed as if she had been hovering in between a deep sleep and consciousness for a few hours, but only now did she have the energy to move. That alarm was just too loud.

Running a hand through her tangled, short espresso hair, she trudged over to the alarm clock seated just beneath the LCD television. Rather than using her precise fingers to turn off the shutter-inducing sound, she slammed down on the poor electronic necessity with her fist, and then shuffled out of her room and across her room to the bathroom.

A minute later, she emerged from the restroom, only slightly more awake than before. She made her way into the kitchen, taking a banana from the counter as she spared the answering machine from her wrath, and delicately pressed the button to play whatever message her mother had left for her. There were two:

BEEP! “Maemi? Are you awake? Um…I suppose that’s okay - if you wake up directly after this message, you won’t be late. Anyways, make sure to invite Komori-kun over after school and give him some of those desserts I made for him. Call me back within a few minutes, or I’ll know that you’re late. Love you lots , tootles!”

The lazy teenager merely rolled her eyes in response. Time for the next message.

BEEP! “…Maemi? Maemi? Hello..? Oh dear. You’re sleeping in again, aren’t you? My goodness… Oh, what am I going to do about you, Maemi? If you happen to wake up at all today, still go to school. Please, Maemi - I feel bad enough that you’re causing Komori-kun to do so much extra work. Just…wake up. Love you lots , tootles!”

“What…a puzzling woman.” Was all that Maemi said in response. She began peeling the banana at a leisurely pace, thinking over her mother’s threats - and the sickening expression of love afterwards. Once it was peeled half way, she bit into the mushy fruit, walking off to her room.

With one hand, she shoved incomplete and crumpled homework back into the bookbag, while continuing on with her breakfast. Next, she pulled out of the closet her neatly ironed fall school uniform - a navy skirt, white dress shirt, and a gray sweater. She left the closet open as she stepped out of the room, stuffing the rest of the banana into her mouth and dropping the peel in the garbage can before disappearing into the bathroom again to change her clothes.

Now any rational young student would follow these procedures under the threat of lateness:

A - Panic and run around the house, pulling on their uniform in ways that make no sense at all while accidentally ripping their homework into shreds, trying to helplessly cram it all into their book bag. B - Frantically think up an excuse for their tardiness. Bad traffic or a faulty bus usually works well. C - The last and final step; trip over the doorstep in their haste, and knock themselves unconscious, totally reducing any chance they had of attending school at all that day.

Hino Maemi was unconventional. No matter how late she was, or how much pressure was upon her, she functioned as she normally did. Now this time, she had no idea that she was three-and-a-half hours late, but that would have made little difference. If she were to show up to school, her philosophy was to fade in…as if she had been there all along.

Once done with her uniform, she returned to the kitchen, taking a can of iced coffee from the fridge and settling down at the table. She wasn’t quite at a functioning level to “fit in” yet.

Resuming our little “biography” of Hino Maemi’s life, there isn’t much to tell - if there ever be, will be unlikely. Her parents were always work-a-holics that absolutely adored travel. Really, the couple never wanted children, but when they came back from their third imaginary honeymoon at the San Diego beaches, they had no choice. Thus, Maemi was raised as an only child, being dragged around the world with her eccentric and prone-to-spending-money parents.

Prior to the age of six, she had no interests. No hobbies, no preferences - in short, no way to make friends. The school teachers tried everything to make the bland girl develop a liking, since she didn’t even have a favourite colour. To this day, those teachers still shudder when they hear Hino Maemi’s name - and she developed a favourite colour, which is white, at the age of fourteen.

Yet one Christmas Eve, as little Maemi strolled along a bustling shopping district with her mother, she saw it. Something so bright, so intriguing…she developed an actual want for something. That was a video game console. And the first game? Pac-man, of course.

Back to the present - where Hino Maemi happened to finish an iced coffee in the time it takes to tell her life story - the groggy teenage girl set the can in the kitchen recycling basket and picked up her book bag from her room, closing the closet door. Almost ready to head out into the world, she pulled her dress shoes out of the entry way closet, fitting one on at a time, single-handedly, while the other hand finished running through the leftover tangles in her hair.

At last, almost a half-hour after she woke up, Hino Maemi exited the front door, taking out her keys to lock up the apartment. Yet as she did, she glanced down to find something peculiar on her doorstep mat.

It was an envelope labelled “From Admissions at IIU, to Hino Maemi”. One moderately sized, plainly addressed envelope. But it evoked so much interest, that she wanted to read it right there, at that moment.

“Restraint,” Maemi sighed to herself, tucking the envelope into her book bag. She knew that if she didn’t show up at school, she could kiss the homework from Komori Yasuo good-bye. And probably a fair amount of her video game collection, stashed conveniently in her closet. So she recommenced her departure, straightening out the edge of her skirt before leaving. “Restraint.”

random babble...i got like three reviews that said "hey, this character reminds me of me". wow, funny story there...it's a combination of myself and my sister, actually. reading over what i've written, i wonder if i've exaggerated my video game addiction - probably, because now i'm addicted to the internet. eh, dommage (too bad). merci et à plus (thanks and later)!