Guess what class I had the idea for this story in! You guessed it! Creative Writing class!! Yah!! I grant 1 million nothings to the person who guessed that. Congrats.

Oh, BTW, you read poetry according to punctuation. Read her poem just like you would read a story, pausing and commas and stopping at periods. In the rhyming poems, only pause at the end of the line if there is a comma or a period.

Disclaimer: I don't own Furuba, princesscupcakes, OR Ms. Johnson (my creative writing teacher…)

Oo0oO

Tohru sighed and leaned back in her seat. Finally the short story assignment that she had been given was complete. She smiled down at the finished work which was lying innocently on the top of her desk. But it was anything but innocent. It was the cause of so many sleepless nights, and so much worry. All that paid off for a full four pages of Tohru's sweat and blood.

Tohru loved her Creative Writing class, don't get me wrong. But she was very glad it was almost over. She was tired of waiting for others to finish their work. She had typed it last night on Shigure's computer. And now it was complete, a day early. She had forgotten that the due date had been changed.

The school bell belched out its tones to signify the end of Creative Writing. She stood up and gathered her bag and writing utensils. She was the only one. As she looked around the room everyone else was continuing to write on their stories, scratching out a paragraph here, adding a sentence there. Commas, periods, and apostrophes scattered their pages in different colored ink.

Their teacher, Ms. Johnson, looked up from her newspaper at the sound of Tohru's backpack falling off her desk.

"Miss Honda?" Ms. Johnson asked, cocking her head to the side. "Where do you think you're headed too?"

Tohru looked around the classroom. All heads where turned to her, pencils still in hand. Tohru was confused.

"Um, Ms. Johnson," Tohru wrinkled her eyebrows. "The bell just rang. Don't we have to go to…" her voice petered out as she looked at the glances she was getting from her fellow Creative Write-ies.

Ms. Johnson smiled and asked Tohru a simple question. "Tohru, what were you doing during the announcements?"

Tohru thought back on that morning. She had been doing, what else, reading over her short story. She hadn't even noticed the announcements beep on and thus, didn't hear the announcements. She cringed then gave Ms. Johnson an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry Ma'am. I wasn't listening. I was, um, reading my story. Spell checking it if you would. I didn't hear the announcements… what did they say?"

Ms. Johnson smiled and gestured for Tohru to sit down. She did so.

"Class! Every one!! Put your stuff away!! You can do that later! And while you're at it take out a sheet of paper and a pencil."

The class groaned. Tohru looked around confused. Here she was, sitting in her seat in her creative writing class when she should be skipping down the hall to her next class, Literature.

Ms. Johnson walked up to the front of the classroom, her desk being in the back, with a black plastic, Halloween cauldron. She shook it and they heard a rustle of paper.

"miss Honda, to answer your question, the announcements, aside from their usual chattering, stated that today, during first hour, there was going to be play practice. Thus, Miss Honda, this hour will be an extra period long. (A/N: we are going by my school schedule…) So, instead of an hour and a half of my class, you will have three hours. (A/N: Urg. This happened to me on Monday. Only I was stuck in Gym for three hours. crinkles nose)"

The class stared up at her, giving the "Duh!" looks to anyone around them. They also all wondered why she had the plastic cauldron. For all they remembered, Halloween was ages away.

"So. Since you aren't really supposed to be in this class right now, I am going to have you do a different assignment, rather than the one that you were just doing. Ya'll understand?"

The class bobbed their heads in unison. Although they all wanted to work on their short stories, Ms. Johnson's "different" assignments were always changeling but in a good way.

"Good." Ms. Johnson smiled. "So, your assignment. I will come around the room and you will stick your hand into my plastic-y pumpkin of death and choose your poison."

She must have noticed that Tohru looked worried. "Don't worry Miss Honda, all you are doing is choosing a subject for you to write about. They're all emotions." She turned from Tohru and addressed the class as a whole.

"So. As I walk around you take a slip of paper. You can write anything, a rant, a poem, a short story" –class groans- "a long story, a song, anything. Only there are two catches, number one, you have to finish it in forty-five minutes. That gives us forty-five minutes to present and discuss. The second catch is this: you can't name your work the name of your subject. You have to use the name of your emotion in your piece. For example. If I got, um, let's say, happiness. Well you would write a piece about it, give it a name that isn't happiness, then you have to use the word 'happiness' in your piece of writing. Everyone got that?"

When the class nodded their heads, Ms. Johnson held out the cauldron to Tohru. Tohru took a slip of paper, feeling slightly disappointed. Usually Ms. Johnson's "different" assignments were much harder than this. Then she looked at her paper.

"Loneliness?" Tohru thought. "How am I supposed to do loneliness? How do you write anything about loneliness?"

She looked around the room. Ms. Johnson was on the second row. No one had started. It was a classroom rule not to start until all papers were passed out.

Tohru tracked Ms. Johnson's progress with her eyes. She watched the reactions of her classmates as they read their paper. Some smiled while others frowned. By far the best reaction was Kyo's. He took one look at his paper and let out a loud "WHA!!" accompanied with his paper being ripped and then thrown up in the air. Ms. Johnson gave him "the look" and he shut up.

When Ms. Johnson was done she went to the front of the classroom and set the timer.

"Forty-five minutes starting…now." On "now" she pressed the square button on the front to start the timer. Then she slowly made her way to Kyo.

Tohru watched Ms. Johnson talk with Kyo. It seemed that he was having as hard of a time with his emotion as she was with hers. Ms. Johnson and Kyo bantered back and forth for about ten minutes in quiet voices, Tohru watching on the whole while.

When Ms. Johnson stood up and walked back to her desk, it brought Tohru back into reality. She looked at the timer and silently shrieked. She only had twenty minutes. TWENTY!!!

"Oh no. Oh no. I can't do it," Tohru hyperventilated. "I can't write a poem in twenty minutes. It's impossible. Especially when you don't know what to write!! Oh no!!"

Tohru looked around the classroom at her classmates. Kyo was chewing on the tip of his pencil, his eyebrows pushed into his hairline. Hana was furiously scribbling on her sheet of paper. Arisa's head was down. She appeared to be asleep. Next to her was her paper covered in small dark squiggles that was her piece of writing. Her pencil was in her hand. Yuki was staring off into space apparently counting the ceiling tiles. Kyo's friend, Sana was biting her thumb, her usual smile gone. (A/N: Sana is one of my many characters that I made up. For information on her, go to my profile or read my story "Kyo's new obsession.")

Tohru glanced at the clock. She almost choked. Fifteen minutes.

"Ok. I have to calm down. I just need some inspiration." Tohru took a deep breath then exhaled. "What was it mom always used to say? 'Inspiration comes from unexpected places. Pay attention. It'll surprise you were you'll get an idea.' Now all I need is inspiration."

Tohru tapped her pencil on her desk. "Come on! Let mom's words come true! I need inspiration. Loneliness… Wait. Mom."

In her mind Tohru saw a flash of lightning and, for a single second, a lone swing flapping in the wind. Tohru sniffed and took a deep breath. She had her inspiration.

As she wrote Tohru beat herself up for being so dumb. How could she have not realized it? Only this morning she had woken up in a cold sweat, tears running down her face at the mere memory of it.

She finished in the nick of time. She was panicking about proof reading her poem when the timer rang and Ms. Johnson called on her to read first.

Tohru walked over to the stool and perched herself on the edge. Ms. Johnson nodded at her to tell her to begin.

Tohru took a deep breath and began.

"Okay. First of all, I'm sorry if I make any mistakes. This one was hard for me. And um." She sniffed. "I didn't have time to make any changes cuz the timer rang right when I finished. So, um, here goes."

Tohru took a deep breath and unfolded the paper she had torn out of her notebook. She began. (A/N: the poem is in italics. So that means that most of Tohru's little speech is in italics.)

"This is a free verse poem by the way. Sorry. Here we go.

"Looking out the window

No one would believe it was May.

Looking out the window was a task in its self.

The window was fogged from the warm hospital but

Outside streaks of rain crowded themselves on the surface.

It was a day for blankets and a cozy fire.

"But a solitary figure was alone in the storm.

Her tears mixed with the rain as she ran through the grime,

Mud splashing on her bare legs and skirt.

Up ahead was her destination:

A metal swing set.

A single swing flapping in the storms rage,

All that was left of the playground of her childhood."

Tohru shivered and her cheeks turned pale.

"Somehow the sight made her cry even harder.

But not for the same reason.

Loneliness.

The loss of a loved one was nothing.

Nothing to the feeling she felt now.

Loneliness.

"She sat down on the wet swing.

The water that pooled in the bottom of the swing

Rose as she sat and ran down her leg,

Mixing in with the already streaming rain.

"Loneliness.

She was experiencing her first pains of loneliness.

The sobs racked her small figure,

Her only support being her arm intertwined around the cold, wet chain."

Tohru sniffed and blinked. Her eyes were stinging and she felt hot. She took a deep breath and went on.

"It was strange really,

The cause of her loneliness.

An inanimate object, a swing.

"As she sobbed, her hand slipped off

The metal chain and she fell to the ground.

She was in on physical or mental state to care.

"As she curled up

Into as small, vulnerable ball

She remembered the words of her dear,

That day departed mother.

"'Tohru.

Don't worry about loneliness.

If you're ever lonely,

Come to me.

We'll talk about it and forget it.'

A single tear made it's way down her pale cheek. Her voice was shaking.

'A clap of thunder split the sky and a rumble of thunder shook the earth.

An even greater tremor

Ran up the girl's spine as she thought and cried.

"Mud filled her mouth

As she let out and anguished cry."

Tohru's small body rocked back and forth. She could remember the moment very clearly. Tears were falling fast down her face.

"During her first feelings of loneliness she was alone.

And the one person who could help,

Was gone.

Dead."

Ms. Johnson walked over to Tohru and helped her back to her seat, patting her on the back. Tohru was crying silent tears into her hands.

As she sat she whispered the last line of her poem to herself.

"And she would never forget it."

Oo0oO

A/N: So, you like-y? I think I am going to do all of the other Fruits Basket character people too… Tell me if you would read those…

I hope it wasn't too cheesy. I'm not very good at the "sad, emotional" thing. I am a happy person in general so I don't usually feel those kinds of emotions. The troubles of the world kinda fly over my head while I skip along in my happy life.

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