1. A Regular Day~

"There!" said Kinou triumphantly. She laid down her pencil on the sketch of Kaiba she had just completed, nearly her fiftieth drawing of characters from her favorite anime cartoon, Yu-Gi-Oh. Looking down at the drawing, she swelled with pride at how well she had improved since she first began drawing these types of sketches. The sketchbook in which she had been drawing had been dedicated to Kaiba, and she would always flip through all of her drawings of him whenever she added a new one. She began to laugh as she turned to a particularly interesting drawing she had done, which she had captioned "I wonder what the cartoonists were thinking?". While watching a taped show, she had happened to pause it when Kaiba was facing the television with a metal bar in his hands, and he was pointing it straight out in front of him, holding it at quite an interesting place. This stance had flashed by so quickly that she had not caught it the first time she saw it.  Assuming the animators had a slightly sick sense of humour, she had sketched it down as well.

                She turned off the TV and stopped the tape that was paused in mid-scene, from which she had been drawing. Sitting back on the couch, she glanced at the DVD burner clock beneath the 20-year-old VCR; it told her it was a quarter past nine. Surprised, she got up and looked at the microwave clock in her kitchen. Yes, it was 9:15. She had only taken twenty minutes to do her last sketch, whereas it usually took her nearly forty-five minutes when she was paying close attention to minor details, like how a portion of hair was hanging and shadows.

                The windows need to be closed, said a small annoying voice in her head.

Kinou groaned. I really hate doing that.

                But, said the voice, if you don't the house will heat up. You know this house doesn't have air conditioning. Then Dad will come home and get mad because it's warm and you won't be able to blame it on anyone because you're the only one here during the day---

                "All right..." she moaned. She really hated when she got into fights with herself and the do-right side won. Still in her pajamas, which were the only things she owned that were pink, she went around and began to close all of the windows except the one in her bathroom, for she still needed to take a shower. Pausing at the last window in the living room, she gazed outside before shutting it.

                It was a typical day in July: warm, cloudless, and noisy with the sound of chirping birds and little children running around with their parents on the way to the neighborhood park. Kinou sighed, wishing she could get out more. Then she reminded herself: that was her fault; she had way too many indoor activities to keep her busy. Plus she never had any extra energy to waste walking outside or riding a bike. Her parents, especially her mother, would always try to get her to leave the house whenever they could, but she had established that inside was where she liked it and they could hardly ever sway her. Every once in a while she might go outside and just sit; that required no energy on her part and it felt really nice to have a soft breeze play across her face while she stared up at the clouds.

                She walked into her bedroom, undressed, and put her robe on, all the while staring around her room. Her eyes wandered onto the mirror on her wall and then came to rest upon an enlarged photo on the wall of herself at age six with her aunt's favorite iguana on her shoulder. A smirk formed on her lips as her mind began to compare the Kinou in the picture with the Kinou now, at age 15. Her mind usually started analyzing stupid things when it was devoid of thought.

                Let's see now... number one: I don't have those beaver teeth anymore after years of braces... two: My ears are pierced in five places... heh, that rhymes… three: I never wear my hair down like that, pretty much in a ponytail and that's all I do with it... four: my skin is a little scarred from a few years of acne and a little acne has decided to stay for good... five: my fingernails are painted black... and... She chuckled as the last difference popped into her head: I have to wear a C-cup if I don't want my chest to die when I'm up and about.  Oh stop bragging! The bigger they are, the more guys will want you for only that.

                She stopped thinking about the picture.

                She walked into the bathroom and surveyed herself in the mirror. Leaning forward to get a better view of her face, she tried to boost her confidence.

                "Hey, your skin isn't that bad; in fact, it's clearing up a lot!" she told herself, and she laughed. "Then my period will come and I'll break out all over again... I'm in marching band and that's really great! But, people who have never experienced it for themselves think that's the weirdest, most embarrassing thing to do in high school... face it. You're a dork. And just look! You're talking to yourself!"

                She stared at the mirror for a moment with her mouth open, casting around for some comforting thought. "But, I'm not that much of a dork. I have enough friends to keep me happy; people like me a lot for my personality...and a few for my looks come to think of it... I've heard from boys and girls that I have a nice butt...plus, this year I'll make more friends in my new classes. And I play the sax pretty well in band, as well as the piano. Two instruments! And talking to myself is perfectly normal considering there's no one else to talk to!" she added, and, her spirits a little higher, she turned on the shower and stepped in. She yelled and jumped out instantly; she had forgotten that it took a while for the shower to heat up, and the water was ice-cold. Stupid shower, she thought miserably.

                After her shower, Kinou looked into the mirror again and wondered why her hair looked dark brown when it was wet and entertained herself by trying to figure out what colour her eyes would be for the day. They were hazel, but some days they were brown, others green, and even gold in the right light.  Surprisingly, they were gold today. She looked at the bags under her eyes and sighed heavily. Kinou had always had a problem with sleeping, but the previous night had been particularly bad. And with her early bird habit, she was always out of bed by 8:30 no matter how little sleep she had gotten.

                She decided to blow dry her hair today, something she rarely had any patience for. Not that her hair was long, (it was shoulder-length,) she just had a lot of it and it took forever to dry completely. But, she was bored, so she fumbled around and found a hair dryer she had received as a birthday gift two years before. She opened up the box and tore off the plastic covering the brand new hair dryer. After drying her hair, she put it carelessly into a loose ponytail and went into her room.

Her outfit today would be some comfortable jeans and her favourite black t-shirt. She added the usual things to her wrists: a band with safety pins that she had taken off of one of her stuffed animals went on her left wrist below several strings that she never took off; a black snap band that had a silver skull on it went on her right wrist. Reaching up to feel her ears, she felt two small hoops at the top of her left ear and one small hoop at the top of her right. Touching her neck, she felt her necklace with a gold Egyptian bird on it. Good, nothing came off overnight. She then picked up some ribbons from her dresser and tied them onto her ponytail in a bow. She walked into the kitchen, putting her faerie earrings on as she went, and started cutting a bagel in half to cook. Popping it into the toaster, she started to debate about whether she should have butter or cream cheese on it.

                Cream cheese.... cream cheese tastes better so I'll go with that.

                But, the bossy voice cut in again, it's really, really fattening.

                Screw you, I'm doing cream cheese, she thought forcibly. Kinou really couldn't be proud of this win: she had this battle pretty much every day and the cream cheese side always won.

                While she waited for her bagel, she went back to her room to get her anklet on. It clinked loudly as she picked it up; she had started a collection of soda can tops on it. She had many of them so when it was on, it sounded like she had a stirrup attached to her ankle. For some odd reason, she felt really energetic today, so she put on her favourite pair of shoes in case she decided to walk to her friend's house to go to a convenience store or something with her. Her shoes looked like black, worn-in bowling shoes, but that was what she liked most about them. She pulled back the covers of her bed looking for her rag doll cat, Emily. She had seen something like her in a store the year before and decided to make her own instead of buying one. She found Emily and put her in the front left pocket of her jeans, which is where she always kept her.

                Something gave a muffled meow and she started. Looking around, she saw a small lump under her covers. 

                "Aw, Mairst, you scared me you cutest little cat that ever was!" she cooed, pulling back the covers to reveal her cat. She was crazy about cats and would always talk to them like this. "Oh, you're so fuzzy! Yes you are!" She spent a few minutes scratching her cat behind the ears before she realised that she had forgotten her bagel.

                "Oh crap!" she shouted, and she ran to the kitchen. The smell of burning reached her nostrils and she knew then that there was no hope. 

                "Damnit..." she muttered as she pulled her now black bagel out of the toaster and tossed it in the trash.  "That was the last one. Well, I guess I'll go with cereal then," and she pulled out a box of Crispix and a bowl and spoon.  She went into the family room and turned on the TV and began to flip through channels. Whenever she got bored, she found it very entertaining to listen to about 10 seconds of one channel, make an opinion about it, then flip to the next.

The first channel to show up was a Spanish soccer game: Do those commentators ever stop getting orgasms over every little thing that happens? CLICK. A documentary about Custer's last stand: Do we honestly need to waste our good archaeologists on things that don't matter? Why don't they study more about ancient Egypt? At least people care about that. CLICK. A news report about a missing teenager: Oh, he's really cute, poor guy. Terry? That's a little girly for a guy name. CLICK. Barney. CLICK. An old Western movie: Oh, please, he just fell off his horse, there's no blood or anything. CLICK. Another documentary, this time about great American presidents: Ha, I wish Bush were at least somewhat like these guys; first he needs to learn how to speak……….

When she had finished her cereal, she put the bowl in the sink, intending to wash it later on in the day. In the living room, she lay down on the couch to take a nap, wondering why everything was so comfortable during the day and her bed was so uncomfortable at night. Closing her eyes, she imagined what her life would be like if she were in the Yu-Gi-Oh world. What role would she play? She tried to think of this every time she fell asleep because it usually gave her very interesting dreams. I would be a duelist and I'd hang around with Yugi and Joey... and Tea.... and Tristan...

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