Okay, guys; this story's going to be a little more twisted than usual. I won't reveal the inspiration for this story yet, but I would like to thank Poet on the Run right here and now for giving me the villain for this piece.

Thanks again, Poet. You rock!

Chapter One: Depression

"And be sure to drink plenty of water while you're up there," a redheaded woman admonished as a younger girl, nearly identical in appearance and height, nodded numbly as her dark brown ponytail whipped slightly in the soft early March wind.

"Sure, Mom," she mumbled, her dark caramel eyes glancing at the long white bus that the school had rented for the class trip. She pulled her long blue jacket a little tighter over her body, hoping for the ache in her heart to stop.

Leaning against the side of the bus confidently was a slim boy slightly older than herself, with black hair that fell over his eyes roguishly as he threw his head back and laughed at one of his friend's jokes. They were loading their luggage into the compartment on the side of the vehicle.

The redheaded woman sighed as she pulled her pale teenage daughter close for a warm embrace. "I can't believe that this is going to be the last trip you're ever going to go on. It seems like only yesterday that I first dropped you off for kindergarten, and now here you are, merely weeks from graduating from high school."

"Mm hmm," the daughter agreed dutifully as a sigh escaped her throat.

"Honey? Is something wrong?" the mother asked, suddenly noticing the brunette's mood. "Do you feel sick?"

The girl sighed again. "No, not really. It's… just…"

"Do you want to stay home? Do you have a bad feeling about going?" The woman suddenly asked in alarm. "I can take you home right now if-"

"No, Mom," the brunette quickly assured her with a soft laugh. "I… I guess I'm having a few denial issues myself. Don't worry, I just need some time to adjust to how things are going to be from now on."

The redhead breathed a huge sigh of relief, and stole another hug from her only child. "Oh, good. Now, have fun, take a lot of notes, and don't forget to take your medicine, all right?"

"All right," the young girl replied, faking another smile as she hurriedly kissed her mother's cheek and ran for the bus's door, which all the other students had begun climbing through at the insistence of the teachers that would be serving as chaperones.

As she waited for her turn at the end of the line, she inwardly cursed herself as she faked another smile and wave for her mother, who had begun walking back home with one of her friends' mothers.

'Why am I such a coward?!' she snapped at herself as she stepped up into the bus, and immediately began looking for a friendly face as the kids in front of her chose seats, one of which had been the boy she had been staring at earlier. She couldn't stop herself from sneaking another look at him as she nearly marched past his seat.

Their eyes met briefly as he looked up, and an irritated smirk crossed his lips as he sneered at her.

Flushing slightly as she struggled not to cry in front of the other students, she forced herself to look away, and look for a friendly face again.

This time, her search was successful, as a cheeky lighter brunette waved at her, and gestured to the seat she was in. Feeling a little better, the darker one kept her steady march as she approached the bus seat, and slid in next to her best friend who put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"You really shouldn't bother with Machida, Haru," the lighter brunette consoled her almost fiercely in a soft voice, so that the other teenagers wouldn't hear. "He's a jerk, and you deserve so much better than him."

Haru shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but returned her friend's hug. "I tried to tell Mom again," she said miserably. "The words wouldn't come out."

The other girl sighed tiredly, and shook her head as the few kids still in the aisle managed to find seats, and the few teachers began filing in at the front of the bus. "Haru, it won't be the end of the world if you just tell her the truth. You've got the grades, you've got the heart, and you've got the determination. You'd make a great doctor, if you can ever get up the guts to just tell your mom that you want a different major than what she wants you to take."

"Hiromi," the brunette moaned as she buried her face in her hands. "She's been talking about this since we were ten, you know that. I don't want to hurt her, but-"

"Hey, Haru," a deep voice said from the seat behind them, one beefy arm draped over the back of the darker brunette's chair. "Excited about the trip?"

"Sure," she replied as she turned in order to look at the guy speaking to her, grateful for the distraction he provided from her little problem. "How about you, Tsuge?"

He shrugged a little, a wide smile on his chiseled face as he ran a hand through his short brown hair. "I've been looking forward to this trip for the past month! I heard that the place we're going to be staying in is actually a mansion that was built in the time of the-"

"Students," Mrs. Nashima said over the bus's intercom. "All the names have been accounted for, and we are ready to go, so those of you who are still standing need to find your seats so that we can get the show on the road."

After a bit of grumbling, the remaining standers found seats, and the bus roared to life before slowly making its way out of in front of the school, and down the busy street.

"As you were saying, Tsuge?" Hiromi asked flirtatiously as Haru leaned back in her seat tiredly, although the slightest trace of a smirk played upon her slim lips.

Tsuge resumed his lecture on the retreat that the senior class was going to be spending the night at, allowing Haru's mind to wander as the bus driver turned on the radio, and the chatter of the other students rose to a dull roar.

It was just a simple problem. Well, several problems, to be exact.

As far back as Haru could remember, her mother had talked about the day when they would become a mother-daughter team in her quilting business, which included several published books and a few TV specials. Haru sighed, thinking about all the times she had been excited as a child to be taken out of school so that she could go with her mother to yet another convention where countless fans would wait for the chance to see the famous Yoshioka Naoko, face to face.

Her heart twittered uncertainly, thinking about all those strangers that would look at her whenever her mother would proudly announce that Haru would one day follow in her footsteps.

Now, don't get her wrong. She loved to quilt, especially with her mother while they discussed their lives and troubles.

But the slim brunette had spent enough time in hospitals, thanks to her exhausting childhood illness and general clumsiness, to grow to admire those brave heroes in the long white coats, who struggled to save lives every day, or at least improve them. She knew that it was a thankless job most of the time, and that the shifts were long and grueling, but if she could just save one life, make at least one difference that would leave someone else better off, than the extra years of schooling and trials would be completely worth it.

If only she could gain the courage to tell her mother that she didn't want the future that had been planned out for her… She sighed slowly, so that Hiromi and Tsuge wouldn't notice her melancholy as the bulky boy's fingers unconsciously played with the long brown strands of her ponytail.

Her large brown eyes once again strayed a couple seats in front of her, to a certain boy with jet-black hair.

Machida was sneaking a glance back, but she wasn't the one he was looking at, Haru could tell immediately.

He only wore that soft, adoring look when he was staring at Hiromi. She knew that from experience.

The darker brunette forced her eyes downward, before she could lock them with the boy's again. Her heart gave another lonely heave, having known since the moment she fell for Machida that she didn't stand a chance with him.

He was the coolest guy on campus while she was just… Haru. The girl anyone could call to find out what they had missed in class, or when a pet-sitter was needed on short notice.

She was the girl next door, nothing more. Guys like Machida were the ones that had the prettier, more talented girls throwing themselves at their uncaring feet. He loved her best friend almost as much as her best friend despised him.

That was probably why he was always so rude to her, Haru concluded as she shifted her gaze to the window on the other side of Hiromi, which was quickly fogging up thanks to the lighter brunette's breath and body warmth. Machida was probably hoping that if he got her to fall out of love with him, he might have a chance with her best friend.

Despite the fact that Hiromi hated him with an unholy passion. The hazel-eyed girl was actually a little happy when her darker friend fell for her stalker, to temporarily get him off her back if nothing else, but even that joy waned with the boy's obnoxious behavior to one of her favorite people.

On a whim, Haru reached across her distracted best friend, and used one finger to draw a circle and tap two dots inside it onto the fogged-up glass, completing the look with a silly looking 'u' for a smiley face.

'That's going to be me, one day,' she promised herself as Hiromi and Tsuge broke off their conversation in order to look at her handiwork. 'One day, I will be living a life of my choosing, and I will be happy.'

"I think you need to take a few more art classes, Haru," Hiromi giggled as the moisture collected a little too much in one of the eyes, and a single drop of clear liquid dripped from it until it looked like the smiley face was crying. "I thought for sure that you could do something a little better than that."

"You know she got straight 'A's in art," Tsuge quickly defended, but Haru held up her hand to keep him from getting worked up again.

"Why don't you tell us about that college you want to attend, Tsuge? How's the plan coming for your master's degree in law?"

Tsuge beamed at her, and immediately launched into another speech about his plans for the future. He had always been fond of talking, so having him around was useful for when Haru didn't feel like talking at all.

Hiromi listened to her crush's oratory breathlessly as Haru slowly lost interest, sighed, and laid her head on the lighter brunette's shoulder for a nap.

If she had to listen to Tsuge talk about the obscure points of being a lawyer the whole three hours it would take to travel up the mountain for the science trip, she would doubtlessly lose her sanity.