𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙆𝙞𝙩𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙚 -𝘼𝙣 𝙄𝙨𝙚𝙠𝙖𝙞 𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘-

Remembering

Why did my first class, of my first day of school have to be home economics? Couldn't they have given me something like math? Or PE? Or really anything?

I try to stop my hands from shaking while holding the needle as I sew, but it's impossible. And the more I try, the more they shake.

'Stop shaking.' I whisper, doing another horrible stitch. Why did it have to be sewing? I hate sewing, I stink at sewing, I....

Just stabbed myself and am now bleeding over my white cloth.

The blood runs down my finger, and like a train, I am hit with these weird visions. Visions of a crying baby surrounded by people. A child running around in the mud. A teenage girl sobbing in a bathroom. Someone moving through a library, pulling out a manga. And the same girl from earlier walking onto a railroad. And then pain. Stinging pain.

I choke, on nothing. I was that child, I was that girl? I'm dead? Alive? Is this the afterlife? Or, was I sent into another world? What is all of this?

'Um, you're bleeding.' A girl next to me points out.

'I know.' I look up from my finger. A weird wave of blankness moves over me.

'Ms. Abe! Tan..... Hashi isbleeding...... I takeher to..... it up?' The girl's voice runs in and out of my ears. This feels all weird.

I look around the class room, at all of the other girls. Plenty of them are still focused on their work.Others are looking at me and the girl. Or, really me. Have these girls died too? Are they in their afterlife? Or.... whatever this is?

Wait, have I been isakaied? Like in some mangas I've read, in what I think, was my before life.....?

'Sure. Be quick though. And Ms. Hashi, you'll need to redo you stitching when you get back.' Ms. Abe says, my hearing returning.

'Yes... yes ma'am.' I gulp, my mouth turning into weird sandpaper.

'Come on.' The girl grabs my arm, and pulls me out of the room.

The walk down the hall to wherever she's taking me, is quiet. We enter a room with a sign for Student Council. 'There should be some first aid in here. Take a seat.'

'Oh. Okay.' I keep my some of my fingers wrapped around the bleeding one. Which is bleeding a lot more than I thought a needle would make a person bleed so much, as well as make a person remember their past life. Or whatever that is, since I'm not sure.

'You okay, kid? You look out of the zone.' The girl removes my fingers and starts putting disinfectant on it.

'Uh, sorta. I ah, was....' Come up witha lie. Come up with a lie. 'I ah, am not very good with lying... I mean with blood!'

'That's kinda ironic, since, you know...' She doesn't say what it is. But I can figure it out.

'I know.' I try to laugh it off.

She places a bandage around the finger. 'Um.... oh gosh, I just realized. I haven't told you my name.' She laughs.

'Yeah, you uh, you haven't.' I try to laugh along, but it sounds odd in my own ears.

'I'm Koharu Sohma.' She says.

Sohma.... Sohma.... I know that name. And then it comes to me. Memories of me reading a manga called Fruits Basket runs through my brain. Holding a volume and crying over something. Oh yes, crying over the fact that I could never be depressed and still manage to end up with a hot dude, like Kyo. 

'Oh. Really.' I chuckle nervously. Surely, you didn't die and respond or reappear or whatever into the Fruits Basket world. I think..... right? Right?

'Yeah.'

'You.... you don't happen to be a member of some big clan. Right?' I ask, as casually as I possibly can. Which isn't that possible.

'Actually I am. Who told you about the Sohmas?' Koharu asks.

'Someone.' I lie.

Please believe the lie. Please don't question the fact that I'm sweating.

'Oh, well. Quite a lot of people do know us.'

'So.... your famous then?'

'No. It's just, big family, clan, whatever you want to call it. And certain people in the clan own large companies in the area. And of course there's the Sohma General Hospital...' She goes on and on.

I think about Momji in Fruits Basket, how his dad owned a business. And I know Sohma General Hospital because of Rin being in there for so long. That's also where Tooru was after she fell from the cliff.

'Oh, wow. That's a lot.' I stand up.

'Class!' Koharu's eyes widen with realization.

'Ohmygoodness. I totally forgot, too!' I bite my lower lip.

And then, the bell rings.

'I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT!' She shouts as we sprint down the hall back to class. Where certainly, Ms. Abe is going to give it to us.

'Did you two forget about class? Or didyou simply choose not to come back because you felt like it wasunimportant?' Ms. Abe huffs when we enter the room.

'We really did forget!' The two of us sob.

'That's what they all say.' She glares down on us, her dark eyes are very startling. 'After your final class today, come back here, as you'llbe cleaning the class up. On your own.'

It could be worse.... right? I mean....I could have died all over again, and the been brought back to life in another world. Or, would this time have been game over? Or do I have nine lives, like a cat? That'd be cool.