Himitsu Yume ch.4

Everything appeared as normal. The cafeteria was in the same organized disorder it had been in before the spell. The students were all exactly as they had been, no visible difference at all.

“See Mia, you worried for nothing. I guess the spell just doesn’t work if you don’t whisper it,” Quin reassured her sister.

“I guess you’re right. It looks like nothing happened. You should be more careful next time though; you were lucky with this spell, you might not be so lucky with another.”

They began walking back towards Rika and Sho, when a crowd began to gather around a table they passed. They stopped in their tracks, afraid to turn around and see what was going on.

“That’s so cool! How are you doing that?” one student asked.

“I don’t know, I just waved my hand and it flew up, its like I have telekinetic powers or something,” the student at the center of the crowd answered.

“Don’t be stupid, it’s probably electrostatic energy or magnetism. Telekinesis doesn’t exist. It’s like magic, it belongs in fairy tales and children’s books,” another student remarked.

The whole cafeteria was now centered on this student, when the skeptical student waved his arm to knock down the bento that the other student was currently spinning in the air. She missed, and instead moved a backpack off of the table, leaving it suspended in the air. She gazed at her hands in shock. After this moment, successively, more and more students tested out their new abilities. Mia and Quin slowly turned to each other.

“You didn’t just hear all that, did you? It was just me, right? Please tell me I’m losing my mind and hearing things.”

Quin looked at her sister uneasily, and slowly turned to face the rest of the cafeteria, “I’m so sorry Mia.”

Quin broke into tears, knelt down to Mia’s feet, and held on for dear life because she knew how big a mistake she had just made, and to her there was no way out.

“Get a grip on yourself. It’s not irreversible. We can fix this,” Quin continued to sob through Mia’s words. Mia knelt down, hugged Quin, and led her to the corner of the cafeteria where they had spoken. “Stay here, ok?”

Mia began to walk towards the group, trying not to let Quin know how hard it really is to reverse a spell on such a large number of people.

“Well at least they’re all still in the cafeteria. It’ll make it a little easier this way,” Mia rationalized.

As she was about to do her first attempt of a reversal spell, the student council president walked into the cafeteria.

“Hey, what’s going on here? This is no time for games, everyone who’s done eating lunch needs to return to the academic ring this instant. Anyone who doesn’t head to their next class now, will be reported to the headmaster. Furthermore…”

“Oh no! What am I gonna do now? If everyone leaves I’ll have to track down every single person who was in here individually,” Mia exclaimed in a hushed tone, as the president continued his speech.

She looked back at Quin, who was calming down a little now.

“Quin, can you—”

“I’m on it,” cutting Mia off, Quin walked over to the door and whispered to the handle. She made it to three out of the four doors before anyone walked out; however, two students slipped by her as she was working on the other doors. A stampede of students, all worried they’d be expelled for what appeared like a food-fight to the student council president, and would be reported as worse to the headmaster, ran for the door. Quin barely evaded them, as a frantic uproar arose once they realized: all the doors were locked.

Mia nodded to Quin and they returned to the corner where they had argued. Meanwhile the president noticed the problem and headed over towards the door. He grabbed the handle and began pushing force into the door.

“Why hasn’t anyone left yet?”

“It’s locked,” a student replied as the president put his entire body weight into the door.

“This is impossible, the doors were open just a minute ago. These doors can’t lock. It’s a school rule that the cafeteria should always be open, no matter the time. They didn’t even put locks on these doors.”

In the corner, Mia and Quin began discussing the situation.

“What kind of lock did you use on the doors, quin?”

“Just the basic lock-me spell, the one we learned in elementary school. Is that ok?”

“I guess. That one is easy to break, so we just have to hope no one realizes they can say spells to do magic as well. If they figure out a poem in any language will do some form or magic, we’re toast.”

“So what do we do now? You said you knew how to solve this.”

“I lied,” Quin stared at Mia in disbelief, almost began to cry again, but instead began to laugh nervously. “So what do we do now?”

Mia thought for a moment, then took out a notebook and pencil, “What’s the reversal spell for the similarity one?”

“ummm… I think it’s—”

“Stop. Write it down so nothing else happens,” Quin scribbled some words onto a blank page of the notebook.

Mia looked at the spell for a few minutes, and then began crossing words out and rewriting it, “Ok, so if we change this and this, it might work. But I think we’re going to have to say it to every single person.”

“How do we go up to every one here and say the spell to their face without revealing ourselves or letting them on to the spells?”

“Well… if I change the words around to inanimatey, I could bless an object and the first person to touch the object would lose their powers. There’s more, though: either way we do it, for the spell to work, they have to want to give up their powers. Can you help me convince everyone to want this?”

“Ok, sure. What are you going to bless though?” Quin and Mia thought for a moment.
“The food,” they said simultaneously.

“I’ll go bless the food. I need you to convince people to not want their powers anymore, and then instigate a food fight. Can you do that?”

Quin nodded, and walked away, heading to the center of the cafeteria. She waved her hand and spun some food from a nearby table in the air, until several students noticed her.

“Hey, this is fun,” she continued to spin the food, and whispered a spell. Her hand began to turn green. “AHH! It’s turning me green! I don’t want to have these powers anymore.”

“Why aren’t any of us turning green? You probably did it wrong,” remarked a student.

Quin looked for help from Mia, who was closer to the front of the cafeteria, by the food. Mia recognized Quin’s method, as one that has been played on her before to prompt punishment from her parents. She said another spell, waved her arm to the entire cafeteria, and turned back to the other task at hand.

“You’re not? Maybe something is wrong with me,” Quin began to fake tears, and then looked up. “What’s on your arm?”

The other student noticed his arm was now also turning green. A panic rose from the students, when from an obscure, seemingly deserted end of the cafeteria, flew a bowl of natto. The natto hit a target student, a yankee, who for some reason was in school that day, and would no doubt want a fight. She picked up some cold soba noodles and tossed them across the room. Before the student council president could even blink, nonetheless stop the fight, the blessed food was flying through the air. Quin sneaked away, to a hidden Mia on the other side of the cafeteria.

“As long as we stay out of the way, everything should work out now. I just have to reverse the green skin and then no one will be able to connect magic to either of us, but best yet, no one will have any more magic,” Mia watched intently as the fight continued.

“What about the green? Don’t we have to get rid of that too?”

“As soon as the fight is over and everyone has lost their magic, I’ll reverse the spell.”

“What about me though? I don’t want to stay green, I was already a weird color today! Everyone will think I’m an alien,” Quin said sullenly.

Mia gave her sister a strange look, “You are an alien.”

Mia smiled, and then whispered a reversal spell onto Quin, “You know, you really should learn some of these simpler spells. It was a little sad that you couldn’t reverse the spots this morning on your own.” Mia paused for a moment, and then took back her statement, “Then again, the less you know, the better.”

Quin scowled and crossed her arms, and Mia, relating that her statement was a joke, hugged her sister and laughed. As they sat together, whispering their plans and jokes, a looming figure appeared behind them.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that it was you who started the food fight!” Mia and Quin both jumped at the student council president’s voice. “The principal is going to hear about this, and you’re going to be in big trouble.”

As Mia noticed the speech was directed towards Quin, she snuck away to avoid punishment. As Quin watched in fear, the president’s speech, a specialty onigiri hit the side of his head.

“Who threw that?!” The president turned and a bombardment of onigiri his entire front.

Quin took advantage of this moment and snuck off with Mia. The president’s attention was turned, and he ran off after the food flinging students, attempting yet again to stop the fight. As the fight raged on, the bell rang loud through the cafeteria. Everyone stopped their fight and stood still upon the realization that they’d all be late for class, and would actually get in horrendous trouble. Mia noticed this, the perfect moment, to dispel the green coloring from all the students, while they were too distracted to notice. With a whispered spell and another wave of the hand, all the green was gone. Yet another dilemma built up, as a frantic crowd ran towards the still locked doors.

Mia thought for a moment, and then walked over to Sho and Rika, who were now standing on the outskirts of the frantic crowd.

“So Sho, what exactly happened? Quin and I were just talking and missed the whole thing. Does this usually happen? What did they do last time?”

Sho stared suspiciously at Mia, “The doors are locked. Everyone turned green from the weird powers and then there was a food fight. It’s never happened before, actually, and according to the president it’s impossible. Well, the food fight, powers, and locked doors. Food fights are perfectly possible, just not accepted.”

Mia walked through the crowd, pushed on the handle, and the door opened. For a moment people stared at her, but as the second warning bell rang, they ran out the door, too worried to wonder. After the rush was gone, Mia and Quin subtly walked out the door, as if nothing peculiar had happened.

“Well, at least that’s over with,” Mia said as she and Quin walked down the hall to their next class.

Quin stopped and turned to Mia, “I’m sorry. I really messed up there.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mia kept walking.

In the hallway behind them, another student was walking briskly. The student dropped some books and they floated up before him, “thanks.”

“No problem,” the student took the floating books and walked away. The other, who raised the books, stared at his hands. A smile curled upon his lips.

Himitsu Yume ch.3

Mia’s wishes were answered, as she had no unfortunate run-ins with her sister for the first half of the day. She followed Sho from class to class, uncovering that their schedules miraculously matched period for period. This was not news to her, though. In the middle of her first class, she realized how advanced all her fellow classmates were, and remembered the dreadful experience in the cafeteria earlier that morning. Fearing the prospect of knowing nobody in any of her classes, she disobeyed her own rules once again. Mia cast a spell on her schedule, matching it to Sho‘s perfectly.

“Nothing can possibly go wrong with this kind of spell,” Mia thought, as she was not nearly as clumsy with magic as her sister.

Mia and Sho followed the same arrangement for the next few classes: he’d take his usual seat at the front, and while she spent time talking to the teacher, no seats would be left except ones in the very back. She even fell into the trap of no seats at all being available when she entered Advanced English. What she hadn’t realized as she cast her spell was that some classes were already full, and changing her schedule would not make room. Mia could not use magic in plain view of everyone after this discovery was made. Until another desk was added, a chair was pulled up to the teacher’s desk, leaving her vulnerable to the glares and sneers of her classmates. She could not even find oasis from this new level of humiliation in Sho. Every time she glanced at him, it was obvious he averted his eyes and acted as if he didn’t even know her.

“I was right telling Quin not to use magic in this world, it’s done nothing but make my life miserable so far. I just hope she’s recovered from my vengeful plots this morning and her first few classes were better than mine,” Mia thought as she tried to hide herself from the embarrassment she was meant to endure, while taking notes furiously to catch up to the levels of all her classmates.

English was their last class before lunch. Mia continued to follow Sho closely, as they made their way to the cafeteria. Walking in to this large familiar room, Sho stopped and turned to Mia.

“Mia, you’ve been to the cafeteria before, you don’t need me to show you around anymore,” Mia looked blankly at Sho. “You can go meet up with some other people now. You don’t have to stay with me during lunch.” Mia would not desist staring, rather she changed her expression from empty to sad. Sho hesitated for a moment, looking from a table of boys he seemed to know to Mia and then back to the boys. “Fine, I’ll eat lunch with you today. I guess my friends can survive a day without me.”

“You’re so nice, Sho. Thank you!” Mia exclaimed as the two of them proceeded to the lunch line.
She could feel the angry stares of Sho’s friends beating down on her back as she looked through the lunch options, but there was nothing she could do now. Keeping a friend meant making many enemies at this school. This was the one thing she learned in her first morning, although she didn’t realize how closely this theory depended on her personality.

“So is this like breakfast, do I just take whatever food I want and go?” Mia wondered.

Sho looked at her oddly for a moment, “You didn’t pay for breakfast?”

Pausing before answering him, “Was I supposed to? How do I pay? Am I supposed to carry tons of money around with me everywhere or do they want me to go back to the dorms before every meal?”

“Nooo…” Sho said slowly, “Do you still have your student ID on you?” Mia nodded, “You use that like a credit card. At the end of the line there are card readers. They take money out of your account and your parents are supposed to put more money in.”

Glancing at the point indicated, Mia remarked, “I don’t think they were there this morning. The cafeteria was full, but there was no one over here by the food. Everyone was just sitting around, eating their breakfasts.”

Sho and Mia walked through the food lines slowly. It seemed to Mia that Sho was making all his choices fairly easily; it was obvious he was used to this. Mia walked over to the end of the line without picking anything.

“Do you see anything you like?”

“Ummm… ya, I do,” Mia, too embarrassed to admit she knew nothing of the traditional Japanese food they served at lunch, grabbed the closest foods she saw: takoyaki and the ‘specialty’ onigiri.
Sho stared at her food choices for a moment before asking about them, “Are you sure you want to eat that?”

“Why wouldn’t I? Is there something wrong with my choices?”

“No, if you like it, by all means, go ahead. I’ve just never seen a foreigner who wanted to eat octopus and leek-strawberry jelly onigiri the first time they came here. Especially not in the same meal.”

Mia gazed at her newly discovered grotesque food choices, but she couldn’t change her mind now.

“Nope, this is what I want. I’m sure of it.”

As they paid for lunch, an unusually happy life force was noticed approaching them at a rapid pace. Mia was stopped dead in her tracks as she realized Quin had found her.

“Sho, I think we should go sit down somewhere. Now.”

“Ok, hold on just a minute. I’m almost done paying,” he said as he argued with the card reader over the price of miso soup, “I hate those stupid card readers. They never get the prices right, and keep making me overpay.” The matter was settled, but it was too late; Quin was already embracing Mia in a tight grasp, causing her to drop her lunch, which she wasn‘t too excited to eat in the first place.

“I missed you so much Mia. This morning was so fun. I met so many new people, and I even made new friends. Thank you so much! If you hadn’t put that spell on me this morning I would never have wandered around and then I wouldn’t have met Rika she’s awesome! She’s in my class, and she’s been showing me around, and we’ve had a great time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Quin exclaimed, as she dragged Mia through the cafeteria to a table where a beautiful girl with long light brown hair sat, “This is Rika.”

Mia attempted to shake hands and talk to her, but lost her chance as Quin continued to drag her to yet another table. Rika, being curious since she was with Quin all day and didn’t notice her have a strong attraction to any other students, followed, along with Sho who was all but forgotten followed even further behind. Quin walked past many tables, before reaching one. It wasn’t until they were a few feet away that Rika realized who Quin was so eager to introduce Mia to. They were standing before a table with several boys sitting around.

“This is Kiley,” as Quin remarked this, Kiley spat out a glob of ramen that he was snarfing down as they approached.

Mia approached him, arm outstretched, while everyone else stared at the two of them, “Hi, I’m Mia, Quin’s tw- I’m her sister,” Mia said as she took Kiley’s hand and shook it, while he stood there staring at her dumbly.

Quickly coming to a realization, Kiley turned to Quin, “So you finally got over your cold feet, changed your mind a bit? You wanna ditch these… people and be alone for a while? We could do a lot in the last half hour of lunch.”

Now Mia’s expression too changed, but after a short moment she got over her shock, and turned to rage. Still holding on to Kiley’s hand, she reached back and punched his face to the side.
“Jerk,” Mia remarked, replacing Kiley’s hand with Quin’s, “You shouldn’t be associating with creeps like this Quin. Let’s go.”

Mia, leading Quin by the arm, and followed by Rika and Sho made her way to the table where Rika was sitting originally. As they sat down, Quin looked back at the direction they came from. “I know Kiley seems like a creep and a player on the outside, but I think deep down he’s really nice and a good person. I really want to get to know him better,” Quin thought as she turned back to the table where her sister and real friends were sitting.

“So, it’s Rika, right? How did you meet my sister?”

Rika glanced at Quin for confirmation, “Most of our morning classes were the same. She seems nice, I hope to be her friend.”

Sho looked inquiringly at Rika. He and Quin both knew she had just lied, but he was awaiting Quin to correct Rika’s version of the story, and Quin was too preoccupied with her thoughts of the previous moment to say anything at all.

“Ah, so Mia how was your morning?” Quin finally broke the silence.

“It was ok. I was a little behind in all my classes, but Sho helped me catch up.”

“Yep, it was a little strange actually, Mia was in nearly all my morning classes too.”

Mia and Quin, both just then realizing the similarity between what Rika and Sho said turned to each other wide-eyed. Simultaneously they tried to speak, then each stopped as she saw the other was also beginning.

“Did you…?” Quin began.

“You didn’t…” Mia answered.

Mia, noticing Sho and Rika were both solely focused on the two of them, took Quin by the arm and led her to the corner of the cafeteria, where she had partook of a breakfast earlier that morning. As the two sisters wandered off, they left Rika and Sho behind at the table, pondering even further the strange behaviors or the sisters.

“Hmm. Those girls are so weird. So how’d you meet them, Sho?”

“Oh, well believe it or not, my room is next to theirs.”

“Don’t they always separate the dorms so that girls are on one side of the hall and boys are on the other, though?”

“I thought they did. I guess they ran out of rooms on the girls’ side.”

“Well, no. I’m in the girls’ undecided dorms, and we actually still have 3 more open rooms. That is very strange. Oh! You know what else is odd? This morning, my first class with Quin was normal, but in every class after that they had to add an extra desk for her. Almost like there was no room left and the class and they just kinda stuck her in there.”

“You’re kidding! The exact same thing happened with Mia this morning. There’s definitely something strange going on with those two. Do you think they’re secretly connected with the Japanese government and were sent here as spies? Rika, you should ask your dad, he knows everything about all the students.”

Meanwhile, as Rika and Sho thought up other theories about Mia and Quin, the latter were still in the corner of the cafeteria.

“What happened Quin? I told you not to use any more magic while we were here!”

“What about you? Huh? Why are you exempt from the rules?”

“I-”

“You not only used magic to change your schedule, you also used it to unpack your things last night, while I did everything by hand, and you cast a spell on me this morning. If you’re so scared about being discovered, why’d you take a huge risk like that? You knew I’d have to go through the entire school to get the reversal spell from Sho, and you still did it!”

“Ok, fine, so I let my anger get the best of me. It all worked out in the end though. No harm, no foul. You still shouldn’t be using magic to change your schedule, though.”

“I had a good reason. You see, this morning, after I got the reversal spell, Rika and I had Japanese comp. together,” Quin began as she and Mia entered a flashback of Quin’s morning.

“After I got rid of your spots, I took my things and went to the language department, and there I saw Rika. She was talking to some girls and they were being really mean to her and telling her not to sit with them, that she can’t get any real friends, that she’s just a over achiever, and a boy stealer, and that no one would ever want to sit with her. So I walked up to them and asked Rika if she wanted to sit together, and when we sat down, she said she wished I was in all her classes. So I cast a spell on my schedule. After that all my classes were the same as Rika’s, so it worked perfectly,” Quin shined a big smile at Mia.

“The classes were a little hard, but I managed. And don’t worry, I definitely didn’t mess up this spell. I said every word right: ‘make this be the same as me so we should share a similarity.”

“No, Quin!” Mia was too late in stopping Quin from saying the spell. They both gazed around them, watching the damage Quin had done by repeating her spell

Himitsu Yume ch.2

Awaking in a daze, Quin arose and began her morning routine. Not being much of a morning person, Quin looked past the peculiarities on her clothes and skin. She sleepily walked over to the dresser, and the moment she looked into the mirror, she awoke to a sudden surprise: she was covered in blue polka dots. Emerging into a frantic panic, she almost missed the small note in the corner of the dresser mirror.

You’ve had your fun, and now so have I, but to achieve your spot free skin and clothes, you must now take a journey. Follow the map I have drawn, and you will find a reversal spell, but getting to your treasured spot will be no easy task, for it lies within a public meeting place, where you are sure to be noticed. Remember, though, no one may discover our secret. Love, your dear sister, Mia

“Are you kidding me?” Quin asked to herself as she finished reading her sister’s note, “She’s really gone too far this time! How does she expect me to get by without anyone noticing my spots?!”

As Quin pondered this, she noticed Mia had left her makeup out, which she brought from home.

Although their skin tones didn’t match, they didn’t have to for this type of cover up. It was a magic type that matched your skin tone perfectly, no matter how different you were, and it was the perfect trick for getting rid of the polka dots, at least temporarily.

“I guess I can use this disgusting goop, even though it is Mia’s. But you know what, she wouldn’t have left it here if she didn’t want me to use it, and she was the one to get me into this mess, so I think it’ll be ok, except for the part where I have to put this disgusting goop on my face,” making the most repulsed face you can imagine, Quin applied the cover up to her face, and taking the map Mia drew up, she left the room.

Following the map very closely, Quin made it through the entire building without even looking up. She turned when the map said to turn, and walked where the map said to walk. THUD, tap, tap. Eventually she made it to a large room where a thumping sound, accompanied by some fast paced footsteps, filled the air. There was another sound, that of muffled conversation, not too far off. This sound was growing stronger as Quin continued to walk, and stronger yet as she opened the door to another room.

As she entered the room, Quin finally looked up. She had entered a forbidden zone for all girls: the boys locker room. Returning to her prior panicky state, Quin tried to escape, but losing all sense of direction, she turned every which way before finding the door. By the time she did find the door, a boy who had been whispering something when she entered approached her.

Blocking the entrance with his arm, he remarked, “you know you’ve got a lot of nerve to come in here right after first period gym class. A lot of guts too. I like that in a girl,” Quin, turning red, began to shiver and get nervous. Smiling coyly, he continued, “you wanna go somewhere we could be alone after class? Maybe you and I could have a little fun today. I can get rid of that shyness of yours, show you what it’s like to be with a real man…”

At this point, Sho, who Quin had barely met the previous day and who happened to be in this gym class too, noticed what was going on and began making his way over to Quin. However, before he had the chance to interfere, the origin of the “thud, tap, tap” noise made her way into the locker room.

“You know, girls typically aren’t allowed to go in here. Why don’t I help her out, Kiley,” the girl said through gritted teeth to the boy, as she pulled Quin out of the locker room and back into the gym, “You should watch yourself around here, not everyone is so nice in this school. Are you new? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. I’m Rika Aizawa, class 1-B.”

Smiling innocently, while stretching out her arm, Quin replied, “Quin Hitachi, class… ummm,” Quin glanced at her ID card quickly, “1-B.”

They smiled at each other, acknowledging the coincidence of being in the same class, and then continued.

“Pleased to meet you Quin,” Rika answered, shaking her hand, “So, don’t worry about going into the boys locker room too much. It was probably an accident, but now I’ll stay with you, so you’ll be fine.”

“Oh, but it wasn’t an accident. You see, my sister left me a map, and I had to find the…” stopping herself just short of spilling everything to her new friend, Quin continued, “class schedule. Yep, my class schedule. She took it this morning to make a copy and said she left it here, so I have to get it now.”

“Class schedule? That’s strange, why would she lea- ”

“Quin? That’s your name, right? Remember me, I’m Sho Tanaka, we met yesterday,” with Quin’s nod of confirmation, Sho continued, “I ran into your sister this morning, and she asked me to pass this along to you. She seemed a little strange actually, she had this dark aura around her and she kept laughing vindictively,” Sho drifted off in his anecdote, as he handed Quin a folded piece of paper.

“My schedule! Yes thank you Sho, this is so important to me,” she quickly hugged Sho and ran off back to her room, fearing the effects of the makeup would run out soon, since it was the teenage version of it, and only meant to last one and a half hours.

Back in the safety of her room, Quin read her sister’s note,
You’ve found the reversal spell, congratulations. Now all you have to do is use mom’s special powder, which is in the secret compartment of our dresser, behind the mirror, and say the following words ‘yane bodu galuba yabol shi’. Oh, and don’t forget, your first class is at 8:35, so you better hurry. Love, your dear sister, Mia

* * *

We return now to a time earlier this morning, and a location of the school cafeteria. This is where Mia would be found simultaneous to Quin’s moment of awakening.

As she made her way past the tables and to the breakfast bar, Mia double checked her ID card and schedule to make sure she wouldn’t have an unfortunate run-in with her sister later in the morning.

“Yep, class 2-A, and I have an early tour and introduction to my advanced chemistry class,” as she looked through her schedule further yet, she let out a sigh of relief, “This is great, at this rate, I won’t see Quin at all until lunch, and after that, the only class we’ll have together is gym. I couldn’t be happier with this class arrangement.”

After looking carefully through all the breakfast choices, Mia took some plain yogurt and walked off. Since many students at this school were very studious and serious about their futures, Mia wasn’t the only one eating an early breakfast. She grew stiff as she realized that every table had people sitting at it, and being too shy to sit down with complete strangers, she began to worry, until she found salvation in an empty, somewhat broken table in the back of the cafeteria. She made her way through the entire cafeteria and sat down at the shabby little table. There she ate her yogurt in peace, while studying her old chemistry notes from the magic kingdom.

“I wonder if they still use liquid rhodium to create the spectrum effect in the archegonia of plants to create rainbow fruit,” Mia wondered this while browsing through her notes, until she looked up and realized the cafeteria was completely empty and that first period breakfast was over. She gathered her things and began to run out of the cafeteria, as she collided with another student, and all her papers and notes went flying.

“I’m so sorry! I’m new here, someone was supposed to help me catch up in my first class, and I’m already late; I should’ve watched where I was going; it’s completely my fault, I’m just so sorry!”

“It’s fine, I usually wouldn’t be coming here right now anyways, I was just supposed to show an exchange student around, but my first period gym class ran late, so I ran all the way down here,” the other student explained, while helping Mia pick up all her papers.

As the other student handed Mia her notes, and they finally met face to face, they both realized that this was not the first time they had met. The student with whom Mia collided was none other than Sho Tanaka. Mia’s face turned beet red as she saw him. Then they both comprehended that it was each other that they were running to meet.

“So, you’re in Chemistry 4?” they both asked.

“Umm, yea. But I thought you and your sister were in lower classes,” Sho remarked, as they began to walk to the chemistry lab.

“My sister is in class 1-B. I’m in class 2-A. I’m a year older than her.”

“But chemistry 4 is primarily a senior class. I know I got in because they’ve always been putting me into higher classes, but how did you get in?”

“You’re not a senior? What is your class then?”

“Oh, 2-A, same as you. They typically divide the classes by intellectual, jocks, creative, and undecided.”

“Undecided?”

“Yea, like people who fit into more than one category, or new students who they don’t know much about yet. 2-A is undecided, so it makes sense that you‘re in this class. It wasn‘t likely for the school to know much about you, what with being from Djibouti and all,” Mia laughed nervously as Sho said this, thinking it might lead to a question about what things were like back there, so she decided to change the history that Quin created for them to something more convenient.

“Yes, well we’re actually not from Djibouti. Quin was just making a joke. We’re actually from… America. Yep. America.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool, which state?”

“Ummm…” Mia blurted out the first state she could remember, “New York. Oh, but while we’re on the subject of Quin, did you give her the spe- I mean schedule?”

“Oh, yea, I did. That’s why I was running late. It was very strange actually, she- ”

“Did she look strange in any way?!” Mia exclaimed, and then muttered to herself, “Oh no, now I’ve exposed both of us, just because of my stupid drive for revenge, and we’ll have to stay together and be exiled and studied and then the authorities will punish us for letting the secret out and…”

“Well, no she looked fine, except she was wearing a lot of make up. You might want to tell her that she’s going to get in a lot of trouble if she continues wearing so much make up. But the strange part was that she walked right into the boys locker room. No girl has ever done that before.”

“Oh, hmmm. That is strange,” Mia said as they walked into the Chemistry lab, “Oh, hey, it looks like we’re here.”

In the remainder of the break before their class began, Sho showed Mia all the equipment, and how to use it. He also gave her a copy of their book, and his notes from the first month of school.
Mia began to look through them and, curious about how far through the subject they had already learned, she asked, “So, have you done any experiments with Mikaleav’s newer elements, such as Calimidium? It looks so awesome when you mix it with powdered O2 and it creates the purple and red feathered explosion!”

“What…?” Sho asked with a blank face.

Immediately following this he burst out in laughter, “Wow Mia, how do you come up with these things?”

Mia laughed nervously, yet before she could reply, Sho took back Mia‘s book and opened it to a page close to the beginning. “This is the last thing we learned. The only lab we‘ve done so far is the first,” As he said this the bell rang, and students began to enter the classroom, “If you want, I’ll explain it to you later.”“Ah, thanks!” Sho took a seat in the front of the classroom, and Mia, handing a slip to the teacher, sat down at the only remaining desk, in the very back of the classroom. After gazing for a few moments at the front of the classroom, Mia began to hurriedly take notes, and proceeded this way for the rest of the class.

Himitsu Yume ch.1

CRASH, BANG, BOOM!! Footsteps could be heard at the door, and the next moment an elderly woman entered the room. Two small creatures could be seen wrestling on the floor; all the furniture thrown apart, the room was a wreck. One of the two creatures slightly resembled a girl, except she was 1 foot tall, and had green skin. The other creature was a blue and pink bunny. The woman took a small pouch, seemingly out of thin air, and took a handful of something out of it. She opened her hand and revealed shimmering gold-colored dust, which she proceeded to pour over the two creatures, transforming them into teenage girls. In their new shape, the former bunny immediately jumped on the other and began to strangle her.

“Enough!” cried the woman.

The former bunny released her victim and moved away. She waved her hand, and a piece of furniture turned over, appearing to be a bed. With another wave, the covers flew over it, and the bed was made.

The other girl began to do the same, as the woman began to lecture them, “you two fight too often. Why can’t you get along? You are sisters after all, is it really so hard? Maybe some distance would do you well; maybe a new environment. That’s why I’ve decided: I’m sending both of you away from home. Your father and I can’t live like this anymore. You’ve broken our house so much already, and we can only fix it with a spell so many times before the tax charges grow too large. After doing a little research, I’ve found a school that I think will suit you both. I warn you, though, it’s not in our kingdom. It’s in the land of the humans,” she placed a brochure on the already made bed, and left the room.

“Do you think she’ll really send us, Mia?” asked the girl who was formerly green.

“Doesn’t matter, I just hope I wont have to share a room with you, or be in any of your classes if we do go,” Mia replied.

The formerly green girl looked glumly at her shoes and began to walk towards the door. As she approached the door, she was stopped short, “wait Quin…” Mia paused, as Quin turned around, “mom’s sending us away because we don’t get along, so I guess we could try staying together there.”

Quin’s face lit up, and the two sisters sat down on Mia’s bed and looked at the brochure together.

As dawn came, three silhouettes were seen in the dim light. One came closer to the others, hugged both and slowly walked away. The other two stood in their places and watched her leave. When she could not be seen anymore, they both picked up a small suitcase. They clapped their hands, and muttered something under their breath, simultaneously, and then disappeared.

“Name?” said a man behind a desk in a monotonic voice.

“She’s Mia, and I’m Quin,” said Quin, “We sent a letter a few weeks ago; we’re the new students.”

“Room 713,” said the man in the same indifferent voice, as he gave them a small key.

They began to walk down the long hallway, Quin gazing at the massive building before them, and Mia trying to make sense of the map they received upon entrance. Suddenly, the hallways emptied.

“Mia, leave the map; there’s no one around; we can find our room without it.”

“No Quin, mom said we can’t use magic here. If anyone finds out we’re witches, we won’t be able to stay, and our lives will be completely ruined. Just imagine, we’ll have no friends, we’ll be excluded and exiled from everything, and in the end, we’ll be forced to spend the rest of our lives together… just the two of us!!”

“That sounds great to me, but if you insist then fine, I won’t use any magic,” she looked at the map for the first time, and drew a path with her finger, showing the way to their new room.

Ignoring how easily Quin found the room, Mia led the way down the hallway. At last, after 15 minutes of walking around winding hallways, Mia stopped. Quin, not realizing this, bumped into her, and they both fell down, like dominoes.
“What are you doing?!” Mia exclaimed.

“Why’d you stop?” Quin answered.

“We’re here… smart one,” Mia replied, sarcastically.

They quickly got up and Mia began to open the door, immediately stopped by Quin’s hand.

“Don’t go in! We have to savor this moment. It’s our first experience in our new house,” Quin opened her hand, palm up, and in an instant a camera appeared; “now we can send pictures to mom and dad!”

“Quin, I told you: we’re not allowed to use magic here!” Mia said as she opened the door.

They both walked in, Quin with camera ready in hand, and Mia looking back at her, still angry. Neither of them noticed the clutter at their feet. Again, they tripped and fell, thus Quin’s first record of her new home was a picture of the ceiling.

In this awkward position, a third party entered the room. A young man, looking at a packet, folded over, came in without noticing the two girls on the floor. He tripped over them, and the three just lied there, staring at each other.

Finally, Mia asked, “Who are you?”

“Sho Tanaka. Why are you two in my room?”

“We’re not. This is our room, 713; just like we were assigned,” said Quin, smiling as she got up.

“Hmmm… that’s odd, I could have sworn I was walking into 715. That’s my room. Are you new to this school?” Sho asked.

“New to the school, new to the world—” Quin was cut off by Mia’s Hand.

Mia, laughing nervously, tried to cover up Quin’s slip up, “She means new to the country. We’re umm, from…”

“Djibouti!” Quin answered before Mia had a chance.

“Interesting. Is that in…” Sho wondered for a moment, “Africa?”

“Umm… sure,” answered Mia before Quin took another opportunity to add to their new history.

“Alright, well since you’re new, would you like me to give you guys a tour of the school?” Sho offered.

“Sounds like fun! I’m in,” Quin exclaimed.

“Yes, that’s very nice of you, I’ll come too,” Mia added, then turning to Quin, she said through gritted teeth, “don’t you want to get started on unpacking?”

“Hmm? Oh, I get it! I changed my mind. I have a ton to do today, so you two can go on your own.”

“Alright, if you insist,” Sho said indifferently.

As the two of them left, Quin looked out the door and whispered a few words. She slowly turned away and with a sigh, closed the door and began to unpack.

“Now, what should I unpack first?” she wondered, “Oh, I know!”

With a wave of here hand, a whirlwind of books flew out of her small suitcase and raced across the ceiling. Another wave brought out an entire bookcase, landing in the corner of the room. The books followed it and set themselves neatly on the shelves. This continued for another half hour, when all of the sudden Mia burst into the room, dragging Sho with her.

“Quin!! What did you do to—” she stopped short as soon as she saw all of their clothes flying through the room. Mia and Sho stood speechless. Upon Quin’s notice of them, everything fell to the floor. Sho followed suit, and fainted.

Overcoming the shock of Quin’s magic use, Mia regained her ability to speak, “Are you insane?!”

She tried to move closer, but remebered her original problem when Sho’s unconscious body was dragged with her at the motion, “I can’t believe this, first you put a spell on me to ruin any chance I had with Sho, and now you expose us as witches by using magic!”

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to help. I don’t see how a closeness spell could have turned out bad though.”

“I hate you! Now, not only am I attached to him at the elbow, but now he thinks I’m a freak of nature too!”

“Attached?” she paused to wonder what this could mean, and then exclaimed, “Oh! I get it. When I said he should find an instant attachment to you, it probably was taken literally. Oops. I’ll be more careful next time, I promise.”

“There isn’t going to be a next time! It’s over, I’m leaving, and I’m going to go somewhere where you can never embarrass me again!”

Quin turned around to Sho, clapped her hands, and whispered a spell. An hour passed, and he awoke, lying on the floor of Mia and Quin’s room.

“What happened? The last thing I remember, I was about to show you around campus,” Sho asked.

“Well, you see, when you turned to open the door, the man bringing the rest of our things beat you to the punch, and the door slammed against your head, so you lost consciousness.” Quin explained.

“Oh. Well, would you like me to show you around now then?”

“That’s alright, it’s getting a bit late, and we should probably unpack before it gets too late.” Mia answered.

Quin looked at her in disbelief, wondering if this meant she’d stay after all.

“Maybe another day then?” Sho suggested.

“Sure,” Mia said.

Just like that, the first risk the sisters ran of exposure subsided. Quin sat down on the floor by her suitcase, and began to unpack her things by hand. Mia, however, began to unpack her own things taking every short cut available.

With Mia’s things flying across the room, Quin couldn’t help but wonder why Mia was allowed to use magic, but she was not. However, they finished unpacking without a word said, and upon nightfall went to sleep. So their first day in this new world, full of excitement and surprises, ended, as only a prediction of what was to come.

A look into the next morning, though, would find Quin awaking with blue polka dots over everything she owned, including her own body, and Mia nowhere to be found. Thus Mia’s revenge was fulfilled, and their lives together in this unique place continued, with a constantly active two-sided quarrel.