Hey, how's it going? I've been so busy with Flowers that I haven't even really looked at this story.

The good news is… the plot has kinda begun, but at least we're in school in the present time. It was very difficult to write them as children… D:

Also: this chapter is quite short, and I apologize! Next chapter has a lot of stuff planned, so this chapter is kind of a bridge-chapter, okay?

~The show goes on~

Flashback:

That day, Evelyn was known as Evelyn Sawada, and from that moment on, she was officially a person, not a patient.

Chapter 4: Just the Beginning

She was sure this year would be different.

Evelyn pulled her Namimori-Middle uniform over her head and straightened her uniform in her sea-blue room. The last ten years with her family, the Sawada's, made it easy for her to call their house a safe haven.

Every year at school, she had been ridiculed not just for being 'not normal' but for bringing her 'stupid stuffed animal' to class.

What those kids didn't understand was that she had to bring him to class. After being diagnosed with multiple cognitive disorders, Kuma was her lifeline. Besides her older brother, Kuma was the only one who truly understood her.

"Evie! Hurry up; I don't want to be late!"

Speak of the devil. Evelyn sighed and picked up her small bag full of books and headed out into the hallway, where she met her older brother standing at the base of the stairs with some toast in his mouth.

Evelyn fixed her hair, which had originally been thought to be a white-ish hue but later grew out to be a very light blonde, and made her way carefully down the stairs.

Nana stood in the kitchen, cleaning up after making breakfast, and Tsuna yelled a goodbye to her as he and Evelyn walked out of the door and on their way to school.

"How do you think school will be this year, Evie?"

She smiled a small smile as she brought the dark fur of Kuma over her mouth.

"Don't know."

Tsuna had started to laugh but that laugh turned into a muffled scream as the two passed a neighbor's house who housed a small dog. Evelyn herself did not mind the pet much, as it never bothered her, but Tsuna always yelped at the sight of that dog.

After pulling her brother past the animal, he continued the conversation whilst rubbing the back of his head.

"I hope this year will be better than last year…"

Evelyn nodded in agreement. Last year was nowhere near bearable as Tsuna had moved to his first year in Namimori-Middle and she had to attend Namimori-Elementary for her final year. Of course, without Tsuna around, the bullying had reached a peak.

One day, Evelyn had been ripped away from Kuma and had had a panic attack as the mean children smooshed him into the mud and thrown him into the grass. It was a horrible experience and the children involved were not given any kind of punishment for putting her into such a traumatizing state.

"Evie, this year will be great!" Tsuna marveled, looking up into the sky like he normally did when they were on their way to school.

The duo had taken a turn left into the school courtyard and the heads of many older children appeared. All different hues of brown and black, even blonde swarmed the two. Tsuna took a big gulp and proceeded, but… Evelyn stood in shock.

People.

All of those people were standing in clusters around the entrance to the school. As much as it sounded like a cop-out, it bothered her. At least in elementary school, there was a place where she could hide-out and avoid being stared at.

"Going to the bathroom." Evelyn shrugged off the awkwardness and scrambled to find a restroom in the sea of other people. She held Kuma tighter than usual to cope with the stress as Tsuna shouted after her: "Don't you want me to show you around?"

When Evelyn arrived in the restroom, climbing past people doing their make-up and hair, she found an empty stall and she leaned against the wall. Someone had taken a pencil to it and wrote in girly handwriting:

Keep your head up; you're beautiful!

Evelyn bit Kuma's ear again, sucking on it with all of her might as she muffled the need to cry it all out.

She wasn't beautiful and she sure as hell couldn't keep her head up. If anything, her motto was 'keep your head down, you don't exist'.

Why is it so difficult to even go to school?

She couldn't remember the last time she had gone out in a public place without feeling weighed down by the amount of people that could be staring at her. The poor girl couldn't even step foot out of her own house without feeling judged, and it had taken its toll since the beginning of her life at the Sawada residence.

Tsuna doesn't understand.

While he has never been the most popular boy at school by any means, he never seemed to be embarrassed about existing. He never worried about the amount of people that could be potentially staring at him.

The bell chimed for school to begin, and Evelyn hung back from the restroom door.

If she went out there, she would be subject to the same kind of treatment that she had received last year from her peers. The jeers, the stares, the rumors… all because of the way she looked and her trustworthy friend, Kuma.

"I wanna go home…" Evelyn whimpered already, wiping her tears away on Kuma's soft fur.

No one else understood how she felt, and she thought about going to the nurse for 'symptoms' and hopefully faking her way out of it.

"You're fine, dear," the large, burly nurse spoke to her as if she had seen the entire case before. "You don't have a fever or anything. You're welcome to come back and take some medication if you feel any worse later today."

So far, Evelyn had made it out of her classroom for twenty minutes because of all the faking that she was doing. Kuma sat on her lap as she bowed politely to the nurse who had reluctantly treated her and she set off down the hall, carrying a pass.

What will my classroom be like?

She looked down at her schedule that she had put into her backpack's most accessible pocket.

Class 2-A.

Will people from my grade school be here?

The thought was worrisome; if so, it would only be a repeat of last year with even worse repercussions.

This chapter was unexpectedly short, and I apologize for the length, really… q-q I wanted to update because I saw how long ago it was that I hadn't. Plus, next chapter has a lot of really intense stuff, so… I'm sorry for this disappointment.

Feel free to favorite, follow, and review!

I'm going to start answering all reviews via PM because it's getting tedious to put them on the actual chapters… yeah. My bad guise. Thanks in advance for leaving me a review! :D

~Teafully~