Lonely First Day

'Beep Beep! Beep Beep!' The alarm rung loudly, sitting on the ground by the side of the bed. It was put there so that the girl would properly wake up in order to turn it off, since she had quite a heavy sleep.

With a loud 'thud' she sat on the bed and turned off the alarm clock with one of her feet, too lazy to be bothered by doing it properly. She stretched her arms to the sides of her body and stood up, walking out of her room and towards the bathroom that was placed just on the hallway and to the right.

Entering, she looked at herself in the mirror for a couple of seconds, wiping off a few tears that she had shed the night before. Then she washed her face clean with the tap water and dried herself with a towel before brushing her teeth and taking a hair comb to untangle and straighten her bed hair.

Once it was done, she was able to look at herself properly again. The slightly purpleish tones of her hair contrasted nicely with the deep green of her eyes, one could consider her a beauty in disguise, specially because her bangs covered the right side of her face and she was careful not to stand out too much anywhere she went.

Without much thought she walked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom again, doing her bed and changing into the uniform of her school. It was her final year of Middle School and she would fail the year if she didn't attend her classes so she was pushed to return.

Being a natural introvert and a loner, Ryou didn't like the idea, but she would hate to be held back a year if it meant to continue living under the tight leash of her grandmother for an extra single year. She hated that woman from the bottom of her heart, after all, she was adamant that Ryou had caused the accident were grandma's daughter died, so they had a really bad relationship with each other.

Unluckily, due to her age, Ryou wasn't allowed to work part-time just yet so she was living off of that woman's money. With a shake of her head, Ryou threw her inner negative emotions out of her head, thinking they would only serve to make her stay even worse than it already was.

Instead, she went downstairs to prepare herself breakfast. Some simple slices of bread with cheap jam and a cup of tea with two spoons of sugar. It was certainly a sweet meal, just how she liked it. The memory of her father preparing breakfast on a weekend came to her mind and Ryou decided to just stop eating since she lost her apetite.

With a gloomy expression on her face, she picked up her bag and approached the front door. Putting on her shoes and looking back at her terribly empty and dark home. Faking a smile, she waved her hand at the darkness and spoke.

"I'm off. See you later, Mom, Dad!"

Even though she was sure no one would respond her, she still kept doing the same thing she was used to do when they were still alive. It had only been half a year since the incident so there was no way she could forget the deep needles of nostalgia and sadness poking into her chest as she bid farewell to her parents.

Checking for the keys, she took them out of her pocket and walked outside, locking the door behind her. Next, she started her way to school by going through the fence that separated her house from the street, again locking it behind her.

Since she lived relatively close to school she could just walk over there, but that would change next year since she would need to change to a proper High School and there were none close to home. Without a word being spoken to another person or towards herself Ryou walked and walked through the streets of her hometown.

It wasn't specially big, yet it wasn't small enough to not be considered a city. It had a mall, a few schools and a university was being built on the outskirts so it was certainly a nice and relaxed place to live at.

Filling her head with nice thoughts, the girl reached her school and entered through the front gate. Even though there were many others doing the same walk to school, Ryou felt as if she was only one that wasn't going inside accompanied by others. She didn't had much opportunity to talk to her classmates before the incident, and since she couldn't assist much at school anyways due to her poor physical condition it was clear that Ryou had no friends to talk to.

Changing from her shoes to clean indoor footwear, that was probably a bit dusty since it was sitting there from six months ago, she put the shoes into her locker and closed it, continuing to walk the slightly unfamiliar way towards her classroom and entering.

She was greeted with many curious glares and judging eyes. She hated being the center of attention, so she just lowered her head and approached her seat. It was the second to last one by the wall that lead towards the hallway. The complete opposite to that of a protagonist in the many manga and light novels she was used to read.

Remembering that, she decided to waste the time until class started by taking out a small book from her bag. It was a novel she had recently gotten into that talked about the usual fantasy trope of someone being transported into another world.

She enjoyed those stories because they sort of reminded her that she could find something to do even if she was to ever find herself in such a weird and bizarre environment. Though, going to school for the first time in six months was a pretty similar feeling to that.

Luckily she didn't stood out and her teachers didn't even notice her there until they called out her name for attendance. Ryou was quite proud of her ability to being so unnoticeable that others would actually bump directly into her without realizing she was there to begin with.

She called it her "Superpower" since it allowed her to escape social interactions if needed. Specially when those interactions were mainly bullying due to her poor health, otaku preferences and all that usual stuff. After all, she started actively avoiding people since she started Middle School for the same reason: People don't find anime interesting enough to be mainstream.

At least that's how it was two years ago, but she wasn't about to out herself as a disgusting otaku that likes to watch anime like a maniac the moment she gets the opportunity to do so. Instead, she made sure to eat alone in isolated places while reading manga or just hanging out in the roof listening to music when she had the opportunity and the day was nice.

With her head being filled with good memories of her alone times, the day passed by nice and steady. She didn't talk to anyone, didn't got bullied and managed to even get herself a rare sweet bread from the store that others would find difficult to get without perfect timing.

All in all, she called it a good day and returned home once it was over.

Though, on the way back she found herself in front of a stray cat. Despite not having an owner it seemed pretty clean and it just stared at her for some reason. She knelt down in front of it and pet the cat, which seemed to appreciate the bit of warm touch upon his fur.

She enjoyed herself petting the cat for several minutes, until a single negative thought passed through her mind and she stood up, letting out a heavy sigh.

"It was a bit lonely huh?..."

She thought. Ryou was, after all, a regular human girl. And though she was used to being isolated at home, actively searching for alone time at school wasn't as fun as she remembered it to be.

And thus, entering her home once again, Ryou finished her day with barely any food for dinner and a long time staring at her own face in the mirror of the bathroom, not saying a word, just looking straight into her own eyes as if expecting something to happen.

Obviously, nothing did, and she just went to bed early with an empty belly and a tired mind. Maybe she would try talking to people the next day.

Unluckily, that night she had a dream about her mother and father, and she couldn't catch much sleep at all either.