My first Fruits Basket fanfiction! Well... my first complete one, anyway. :P In case you were wondering, the lyric pieces at the beginning of each chapter is Ayumu's 'theme song,' technically speaking, and I wrote it myself, it's unpublished, so it is allowed. I think. *sheepish grin* Thank you to my beta-reader Symphony17 and, of course, to you, a reader. I hope you enjoy it, and please leave a review, as I would love to know how I did after all those Naruto and Bleach fanfictions!

Brighter Day: Chapter One

These tears I cry,

Are only half the tears I cry inside.

This time maybe I'm

Luckier than the last dozen times.

Ayumu Ibaraki.

She was nobody. People bumped into her in the halls without apologizing, people walked by her without so much as a hello, and nobody noticed her. That was fine with her. She didn't especially care about anyone at her school, and, since she was a freak, no one bothered to care about her in turn. She was fine with that. Of course, no one bothered to remember her name even after asking for it. But she was fine with that, too.

Ayumu walked silently down the hall, her hands swinging freely by her sides. It was days like this when she preferred being alone, because she was in a good mood and talking to people generally ruined it. They tended to say some rather rude things around her.

Ayumu paused, turning very slightly. She was staring fixedly at some spot just above the school bell. She shook her head and kept walking. It was not a good idea to talk to poltergeists today, she could sense that much.

Poltergeists. If she had mentioned it to anyone but herself, she was sure to be ridiculed. Who wanted a girl who could see ghosts hanging around? Even she admitted it was a bit creepy. She never said much about it though. Who would she talk to?

"Ayumu!" someone called. Ayumu turned around.

Okay. She did have one friend. Her name was Moriko, and she was… well, a ghost. At least, Ayumu was 97.86 percent sure she was a ghost, seeing as no one but she could apparently see Moriko.

"Good morning," Ayumu said, tucking her hair behind her ear with a smile as she shifted her weight. "How are you today?"

"Deader than ever," Moriko said cheerfully, folding her hands behind her back. "Guess what I did today?"

"What did you do?" Ayumu asked with a sigh, rolling her eyes. Moriko burst into giggles.

"Ready? Okay, here goes. I… put frogs in Prince Yuki's locker!" Moriko guffawed, putting a hand to her mouth and doubling over in laughter. Ayumu's eyes widened.

"You didn't!" Ayumu exclaimed, putting her hands to her mouth. She had an idea of who Prince Yuki was – the most popular boy in school. She had never talked to him or cared much, but she had seen him occasionally, and she knew he had backup (think… every girl in the school). He'd be the last person Ayumu would want to slime by frogging up his locker.

"Drat it. Now I have to go and stop him from opening his locker," Ayumu grumbled, spinning away from Moriko and heading down the hall. She heard Moriko's footsteps behind her.

"Why? That'll ruin all my hard work," Moriko said woefully.

"Well, you're already dead," Ayumu pointed out, turning the corner and heading down another hall. She wasn't sure where his locker was, now that she thought about it. She skidded to a stop, whirling on Moriko.

"Where is his locker?" Ayumu asked.

"Over there," Moriko said, pointing with a scowl on her face. Ayumu faced the locked door. Drat it, she thought. How the heck am I supposed to open it?

She fiddled around in her hair and came up with a bobby pin.

Drat it. It's a combination lock, she reminded herself, dropping the hairpin in exasperation.

"How did you open the locker?" Ayumu demanded. Moriko sighed and reached for the lock. Of course, her hand went straight through the metal. It came out again holding an unattractive handful of soppy amphibian. "Right," Ayumu said sheepishly.

Moriko tossed the frog at her. Ayumu yelped, juggling the frog in the air before being able to get a good grip on its slimy body. She frowned. "And the others?"

"Nope," Moriko said, leaning against the locker. It was a mystery to Ayumu how she could touch some things and not touch others, but Ayumu thought it might be rude to ask.

"Then just unlock it for me, and I'll get the rest out," Ayumu said. The bell rang. "And hurry it up, because he'll be here any minute!"

"Fine," Moriko stuck out her tongue and reached leisurely for the lock as the classroom doors began opening and people began filing out.

The locker door burst open. Frogs tumbled out, their cold, wet little bodies tumbling into Ayumu and completely smothering her. Ayumu tried to collect them all, but by the time she had snatched every dratted frog, she was covered in swamp goo.

"Uh…" said a soft voice behind her. Ayumu whipped around. Sure enough, it was the prince, looking at her like she had three heads, his gorgeous violet eyes wide with surprise. His eyes traveled down to her armful of frogs.

"I am the school locker inspector. Congratulations," Ayumu said with disgust as the people around her began laughing at her worse-for-wear appearance. "You have a completely frog free locker," Ayumu finished, gathering what dignity she had left and marching back down the hall, her armful of frogs still squirming uncomfortably.

"I will kill you," Ayumu hissed as she got out of earshot, heading towards the exit so that she could dump the frogs.

"Too late, someone beat you to it," Moriko said with a little laugh, dancing around Ayumu.

"Right, sorry," Ayumu said, sighing as she headed outside backwards to push open the door while her hands were busy. She walked outside into the sunlight and looked around for a good place to dump them.

"Where did you even get frogs?" Ayumu cried, nearly throwing up her hands in frustration but stopping herself just in time.

"Well, I have a lot of free time," Moriko said evasively, digging her toe in the ground and not meeting her eyes. "I went down to this river near the school, and caught them all. It was pretty fun, because I didn't even get wet."

"So now I have to go all the way down to the river," Ayumu closed her eyes for a moment. "I hate you," she said frostily. Then she opened them and began heading down the road at a quick pace.

"You think you can get back in time for the next class?" Moriko asked wonderingly, falling into step beside her.

"You better hope so," Ayumu growled, speeding up until she was almost jogging. "I only got out of last class early because you were screaming in my ear and I couldn't concentrate."

"No, it's because by the time you finally yelled 'shut up', the teacher – who, by the way, was in the middle of a lecture – decided to send you to the principal's office."

"And whose fault was that?" Ayumu spat, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly.

"No comment," Moriko said smugly. "You know I also unscrewed the drinking fountain spout?"

"You didn't!" Ayumu exclaimed, stopping abruptly and swaying on the spot, debating whether or not to save her amphibians or save the next thirsty unsuspecting victim.

"Oh, yeah," Moriko nodded enthusiastically. "That's an old-time favorite. They lean over and bam! Drenched. I laugh every time." Moriko sighed dreamily just thinking about it.

"You know it's not a good day to talk to poltergeists, right?"

"However did you guess?"

"Well, I talked to you and look what happened."

"Good point."

For the next few minutes, they jogged silently down the road.

"I'm going to be late for school," Ayumu whined breathlessly.

"We're almost there. Look, just around there."

"Good. Now I can get rid of these—"

"Look out!" Moriko cried, but it was too late. Ayumu tripped over whatever was lying on the ground at the river's edge and was sent flying. She twisted in midair just in time so that she landed hard on her back instead of crushing her frogs. The frogs all happily hopped away in a matter of seconds, leaving Ayumu dazed on the grass.

"Watch it, will you?" An angry voice said from above her. Ayumu focused. It seemed to be the item she had tripped on – a boy about her age with white and black hair and multiple piercings.

"Sorry," Ayumu apologized. The boy sighed and offered her a hand. She took it gratefully, but as she began to get up he let go suddenly and she dropped back to the ground, letting out a grunt of displeasure that sounded like 'oof'.

"You may want to wash your hand first," the boy said, making a face as he made a show of wiping his hand off on his school uniform.

"Gee, thanks," Ayumu muttered, getting up and heading to the river. She examined the front of her uniform and sighed.

"It's not that bad," Moriko said, appearing behind her. "Plus, you tripped over the very personification of cuteness. That's lucky,"

"Shut up," Ayumu grumbled, washing her hands in the fast-flowing current.

"Excuse me?" The boy exclaimed, aghast.

"Not you," Ayumu said hurriedly. The boy narrowed his eyes at her.

"I'm Hatsuharu," he said finally, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Ayumu," Ayumu said. "Sorry, I was just talking to myself. I can be so very loud sometimes." Ayumu shot a meaningful look at Moriko, who was still watching Hatsuharu dreamily.

"I see," Hatsuharu said in a tone that clearly meant he didn't.

"Oh, but I really have to get back to school," Ayumu said quickly, suddenly remembering. "I am really late."

"You can't go back looking like that," Hatsuharu said indignantly, pointing to her ooey gooey front. Ayumu looked down and blushed.

"True," she said woefully, kneeling back down at the river's edge and trying to scoop water onto the fabric to wipe off the frog slime.

"You're going to have to," Moriko said. She didn't sound distraught in the least.

"Heck, I'm already laughed at enough, it won't make much of a difference," Ayumu muttered under her breath, getting back up. She headed past Hatsuharu.

"Well, seeing as I oughta be heading back as well, we can go together," he said cheerfully.

"Whatever you'd like," Ayumu sighed, climbing the hill back up to the road.

"So it's Ayumu, right?" Hatsuharu asked, matching her pace.

"Did you tell him my name? Tell him mine," Moriko whispered excitedly from beside Ayumu. Ayumu sighed and simply nodded.

"And Hatsuharu, correct?"

"Just Haru," Hatsuharu said indifferently. "My full name is so long."

"It's a pretty name," Ayumu said without thinking. Hatsuharu gave her a wry grin.

"I mean, you know, as far as names go…" Ayumu trailed off miserably.

"I know what you mean. Yours is pretty, too. You know, I haven't asked you why you were returning a bunch of frogs to the river yet."

"Thanks," Ayumu said, a pale pink tinge rising in her cheeks.

"He's mine! I called him! Dibs, you hear? Dibs!" Moriko whispered furiously in Ayumu's ear. Ayumu tried to ignore her.

"It's a long story, but a friend of mine thought it would be a good idea to play a prank, so I had to save the frogs before our little high school 'prince' got the scare of his life," Ayumu explained.

"You mean Yuki?" Hatsuharu asked in surprise. Ayumu nodded.

"You know him?"

"He's my cousin," Hatsuharu said. "I'm sure he'd appreciate what you did."

"Please don't tell him," Ayumu said. "I don't want any more trouble. Besides, he saw me pulling the frogs out of his locker, so he knows already."

"What kind of trouble?" Hatsuharu asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Um… well… it's not a good idea for me to get noticed by the populars, good or bad. I'm kind of bad for anyone's image," Ayumu said reluctantly.

"How? I'm sure most popular boys would enjoy having a pretty girl around. Keeps up appearances," Hatsuharu said mildly. Ayumu laughed.

"Well, I'm kind of a freak, so… yeah." Ayumu stared off into space for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Hatsuharu asked, eyebrows furrowing.

"I'm a mental patient," Ayumu said matter-of-factly.

"So what, you kill anyone recently?" Hatsuharu asked in a tone of mild surprise.

"No, I see people who were killed. I'm schizophrenic."

"Cool," Hatsuharu said.

"You think it's cool?" Ayumu asked, stopping abruptly.

"Hey, as long as you don't say anything about my hair, we're even," Hatsuharu said, laughing.

"Are you kidding? Your hair is so cool! I wish I had hair like that," Ayumu said excitedly.

"It's natural," Hatsuharu said proudly.

"Some people just have all the luck in the world," Ayumu said admiringly, shaking her head in disbelief. "What I wouldn't give for hair like that."

"You're lucky to be normal."

"Yeah, remember you're talking to a crazy person," Ayumu corrected.

"You don't seem that bad," Hatsuharu said.

"Yeah? Well, what if I told you my ghost best friend was drooling all over you right now?" Ayumu asked, eyebrow raised. "Because she most certainly is."

"Creepy," Hatsuharu admitted.

"I am not creepy," Moriko spat, folding her arms in a sulky manner.

"She's offended," Ayumu reported.

"Is she?"

"Tell him all the admiration I had for him he just shattered," Moriko said with a 'humph.'

"You're dead to her," Ayumu translated with a sigh.

"I'm dead to her?" Hatsuharu exclaimed. "I find that hard to believe."

"Well, you're out of luck, buster," Moriko growled, waving a fist. "I'm gonna give you such an intangible willy that your ear will—"

"Well, then," Ayumu said quickly in a loud voice. Hatsuharu looked at her strangely.

"She said something rude," Ayumu explained. "I didn't want to hear the end of that sentence." Hatsuharu nodded agreeably as they reached the front gates to the school.

"Well, I've got history and it's probably already started, so I've got to get over there. Thanks, Haru!" Ayumu called back with a smile, waving. He waved back as she rushed into the school building and raced down the hall.