♦ CHAPTER 1 (KASAI)
One month ago, I was so not the same girl I am now. Just ask Taiga (my butler). One month ago, you would say I was an unsociable, self-centered little twit. I guess I still am unsociable (you’ll know why) but now, I've learned the meaning of two words. ‘Friends’ and ‘love’. I’d forgotten what ‘friend’ meant but I never ever knew what ‘love’ was. One month ago, that is. And other than my mother’s shocking death and getting kidnapped every so often, my life was pretty normal. One month ago, that is.
It was a normal night; I think it was close to midnight, until I noticed a group of hooded sweaters following me on my walk across the park to my ‘rich’ neighbourhood. Yes, I’m rich; my father is CEO of this world-wide corperation and also mayor (that’s right). When I caught a glimpse of them I knew there’d be trouble. Usually I’d land a few kicks here and there and they’d be lying on the ground, gasping. But, today, I was coming back from taekwondo class and, man, my shoulder was killing me. I blame Aisu. The kid flipped me before I could even get my hands on him. And his high kick was 0.02 cm higher than mine, making me the second best taekwondo student in class.
I plopped down on a bench, picked up an abandoned newspaper and pretended to be absorbed in reading from it, hoping that the hooded sweaters would walk by. Instead, they huddled in a circle behind my bench, murmuring in voices too low for me to hear or understand. I smirked. Probably planning their attack. This is where I made my mistake. I should have taken advantage of their distracted discussion but I didn't. I wanted to know what they would do. That was a mega bad idea because the next thing I knew, they were surrounding me. In a circle. With a gun. Yeah, you read that right. A gun.
“Okay, we’ll be quick. Hand over your money,” the guy with the gun snarled. Was that all? The money? I tried to hide my smile as I reached into my side bag and pulled out a mass of bills that added up to a total of one thousand dollars.
“Here,” I flapped the bills in his face. He nodded at the guy beside him, and he grabbed my money. I tried to slide away on my bench, but that hooligan caught me. “We’re not done with you, yet.” That was when I became aware of footsteps. Someone was coming. Closer. Good. And just as I’d wished, the Footstep person walked over to my circle of surrender. The person, who seemed to be a guy from the way he fought, grabbed the collars of two guys and crashed their heads together. Something about the way he fought reminded me of Aisu. Maybe it was Aisu. Eh. Soon enough, the guys were all passed out on the floor. Duh? I thought, if you can do it, he can, too.
“Who are you?” I asked him. A ray of moonlight shone on his face. His jet-black hair and the hazel eyes told me that it was not Aisu. He smirked at me.
“I’m just another thief,” he reached down and took the money – my money – from the thief’s pocket and walked off. I didn't bother stopping him.
♦♦♦
I ran back home, ignoring Taiga and Maria (my maid). They were pestering me with questions on why I was late. I personally, wanted to lie down on my bed and massage my pounding temples but they were too much. I opened my bedroom door and let Maria inside. I sat carefully back on my bed.
“What’s wrong? You seem so out of it, lately,” Maria looked down at me. I pushed my non-prescription glasses further up my nose. I wore them to hide my strange eye color. My hair was already a flaming, bright red color and the next thing I wanted was for people to stare at me for my amber-yellow eyes. Weird combination of colors, huh?
“Tired,” I lied, thankful for the thick framed glasses around that my eyes made almost impossible to see.
“Alright, well, do you want to put your martial arts class aside for a bit?” Maria peered into my eyes as she asked.
“No!” I shouted. Maria raised an eyebrow. Yikes. I cleared my throat and tried once more. “Nah, it’s alright; I’ll live, I guess.” I gave her a tired smile.
“Can I skip dinner?” I batted my eyelashes, innocently.
“Not a chance. Fine, I’ll bring it up to your room; fair enough?”
I made a face and nodded. Then I slid back into my orange-and-turquoise paint-splattered room and fell back onto my mega king-sized bed. I thought about that weirdo that kind-of-but-not-really saved my life. And stole my money. Money was nothing to me. I lived on money. All I had to do was steal one of my father’s pens and sell it on e-bay and there you had it. An extra one thousand, right there. Actually, what I really did was go downstairs to the money machine and ask for one thousand dollars. I could do either one. But, since the second one was the right thing to do, I stuck with that.
I pulled myself out of bed and to my desk. I had a few chapters of a book to read in English, ten questions in Math, some research to be done in History, and lab report to write up. I groaned. As I worked my way through my pile of deadly homework, my mind wandered off to Aisu. I still couldn't believe that we were once inseparable best friends. And back then, his twin sister, Mizu had been just an interruption, interference, in our friendship. Now, she was the only thing that kept us aware of each other. And I hated him.
Maria came in with my dinner a while after. I finished it in less than five minutes, none the less. I loved eating. And then I went to sleep. Well, ever since one week ago, I’d been having trouble sleeping. Major trouble sleeping. When I closed my eyes and opened them at night I was super dizzy. And that lasted for a long time. At dawn, I would finally drift off to sleep and I would get a few hours of sleep. My glasses hid the purple bags under my eyes at school so no one ever saw how tired I really was. Gladly.
♦♦♦
I sat in Calculus class finishing off my ten questions. I decided to do it later thinking that I could try to get some sleep. Not. It obviously did not work because my eyes were threatening to close and my mind was shutting down.
“Hey Kasai,” My head snapped up at the relaxed voice. Aisu had come in; his hands slung casually around two girls.
“It’s Casi,” I informed him as I tossed a few red locks over my shoulder. Actually, my name is Kasai (my mother named me that for my shocking complexion. It means 'fire'), but since it isn't a commonly used name, I go by Casi. It’s better to be called a fake name that you sort-of accept than to hear your real name get messed up in other people’s mouths. Even though Aisu had say it perfectly, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of being the only person who says my name right. Obviously.
The jerk just grinned at me disdainfully and walked off toward a bunch of guys. I swear I’d told him to call me ‘Casi’ at least five-million times. He never listened. And at that very moment, our teacher came around and collected the homework that I’d somehow managed to do. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Aisu, who was still flirting with some girls. Aisu drove his attention away from the ‘female dogs’ and met my gaze. And smirked. I averted my eyes just as the door flew open and Mizu rushed in. Her strangled sea-weed like hair was tangled together in a transparent-blond mess. I had the pleasure of seeing Aisu’s smile dissolve into a frown.
"Sorry, I’m late!” She plopped all her stuff onto the desk next to mine as she sat down. “Hey, Cas,” she smiled at me, her sea-water eyes shining. No one made fun of me for being friends with Mizu. I guess it’s because I’m Mayor’s daughter. They made fun of Mizu, though, for her looks. I thought her turquoise eyes were beautiful. Others didn't. I gave her a distracted smile. She turned around to look at Aisu, who had (unfortunately) pulled himself back together. He was texting. I wondered who. Probably a thirty-year-old rich miser that lived in a shack. That was a joke between us, six years ago, before he – we stopped being friends. That was when the door creaked opened in a quiet manner. A black-haired boy stepped in.
“Is this Calculus 11A?” His voice was really smooth, like oil flowing around in a glass jar. I felt like I’d heard it somewhere, before. My eyes widened. I gasped. His hazel tinted eyes flickered toward me and he flashed me a light grin.
No. Freaking. Way.
