Ever thine.

Ever thine. (Part one, chapter one)

Golden rays of sunlight bled through the dusty windows, leaking onto her pale face. Her eyes fluttered open as she lifted her arm over her head to shield herself from the light. Rising slowly, she rubbed her brown orbs with a lazily closed fist, then searched the room for a reason why she had been woken from her slumber, a reason she knew wasn't only the sun beating down on her face so early in the morning.

A light knock.

"Manami?" A voice that reminded of her of honey, sweet and smooth, sounded from the other side of the closed bedroom door. "Are you awake? Today's your first day and I don't want you being late."

"Yes, mom."

Right. School.

Another new school and another year of avoiding anyone who wanted to be too close.

She brushed back her short auburn hair, her slender fingers finding their way to massage the nape of her neck. Grumbling softly, the girl wobbled out of bed and lifted her arms into the air, reaching for the ceiling as her chest moved forward, making the most her stretch. A noise escaped from her mouth, a noise somewhere between a yawn and a quiet squeal. Satisfied with how she felt afterward, she staggered toward the bathroom and stripped herself of her clothing, stepping into an already prepared shower.

Her body shivered against the newly found and very comfortable warmth that helped her forget about having to start over and over nearly every year of her school life, even if the amnesia lasted less than 15 minutes.

'Thank god, this is my last year.'

"Good luck, my Manami," her mother waved goodbye as she walked past the small wooden gate that guarded their home.

"We'll be waiting to hear about your day at dinner," her father, a very serious, but gentle business man smiled as he stood next to his wife.

Simply nodding with a smile, in response to their kindness was her own way of reassuring them that she would be okay.

And she was, she made it through the day with only a few whispers, a minimum of five people bumping into her and on top of that, only once did she trip on her own feet.

Now she stood in the center of an empty hallway, staring at a map given to her by a teacher. Following the trail she traced on the paper with her finger, she attempted to find the place she would retreat to when school life became too much to bare- the art room. To her surprise, she found it easily and what shocked her even more, was how dusty and empty the room seemed to be. It looked like no one had been in there for way too long and she couldn't understand why.

Who wouldn't want to be in the art room that looked as beautiful as the one she was standing in at that very moment. Prints of famous paintings from Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Georgia O'Keeffe, were aligned perfectly on the walls throughout the room. Bookshelves were lined with various "How-To's" and books on both artists and important periods of time where many forms of beauty was once created in new and traditional ways. Other bookshelves stored paint brushed, oil pastels, water colors, and more supplies that any artist would gladly drool over- she was doing exactly that, even blushing at the thought of being able to break open a brand new tub of acrylic.

Shaking her head, she rubbed her cheeks to rid herself of the warmth that seemed to worsen.

Another day, she decided, she would come back and treat herself to the pleasures the room carried and the wonders she could make with them. For now, she had to get used to how things worked in this new school of hers.

Stepping out of her dreamland, she found the hallway had been flooded with boys sweating in their t-shirts, erupting into laughter. Basketball players doing laps around the school's hallways after school? Wasn't that what the gym was for?

Slightly annoyed, but not truly caring, she shook her head and walked in the opposite direction, going against the current that the boys seemed to be following. The same yawn from that morning had returned as she repeated her stretch, her sketchbook lazily hung in the air above her head. She continued on as the team finally passed her, clueless that the small noise she had released, had caught the ear of a certain Captian of Tōō Academy's basketball team.

She could feel eyes following her to the end of the hall and all she wanted to do was get away. Like every new school she went to, she would receive odd, questioning stares and it would only make her want to run away and hide so no one could find her. She usually did so.