A tree stands alone in a vast, vast expanse.
Its only companion in that lonely, lonely place is a trickling, turning, ever-changing stream.
A sole gust of wind blows through the branches, rustling the leaves.
One leaf, green and pure, falls into the stream.
That pure, green and innocent leaf traveled all alone down the clear stream for a long, long time.
Over time, the edges of that leaf became bruised and brown, curling in on itself.
Soon after, the clear stream became a murky river, and the leaf was helplessly swept along in the strong, swift currents.
Sticks, stones and mud also came with the river, growing so fast in number that they built up a tall, tall wall that prevented the leaf from progressing.
And so, the leaf struggled alone, crushed against the barrier and almost drowning.
That delicate leaf grew stronger and tougher to withstand the force of the river, so that it wouldn't sink below the surface.
•••
Brrriinnnggggg...
Brrriinnnggggg...
A sharp sound broke through the darkness.
A lazy hand patted the bedside table, searching for the source of the noise. Fumbling fingers closed around a battered red alarm clock, bringing it towards a sleepy face with its eyes still firmly shut.
"Uuuggghhhh..."
The eyes opened slowly, squinting in anticipation of the annoyingly bright daylight, but instead, and admittedly rather worryingly, they could only see black. Hard, dense black.
The owner of the groggy face began to panic, a number of thoughts going through their head:
Oh no. Oohhh no. No no no no no. No way in hell. This can't be happening. Wait, haven't I heard of something like this before...? Didn't a girl just wake up one day completely blind? Wait, what if I have detached retinas?... Oh, butts. But, hang on, if I'm blind, then why does my face feel kind of fluffy?
...Ah.
The thought process finally ended, and the originally panicked sleeper reached up to their face, pulling off a disgruntled black cat that glared at them with reproachful yellow eyes.
"You really scared me for a second there, Guchi-chan! Seriously, I know I'm comfortably squishy, but I think you should have learned by now that my face is actually quite bony, and therefore not very comfy, am I right?"
"Meow"
"Don't give me that..." they said with a sigh, "You know, I could go back to calling you Buttock-chan again!"
Silence from the cat.
"Ah, what am I doing with my life? I'm talking to a cat. Seriously, I need to just get up and socialise. With people." Oh, but I hate that as much as I hate Twilight, they thought.
The sleepy figure threw off the covers dramatically, rolled over to get up, and...
Thud.
They had been sleeping on the edge of the bed. Great. They picked themselves up off the floor and stood on shaky feet. Walking over to the wardrobe, they pulled on a shirt and skirt, then putting on a cream jumper and black jacket. The label just inside the collar read Karasuno.
She headed downstairs for breakfast.
•••
"Ok class, some of you may already know, but today we have a new transfer student who is joining us all the way from England! Now, would you like to come and introduce yourself to everyone?"
There was the scraping of chair legs as a girl with short, jaw-length brown hair stood up and came towards the teacher's desk. The teacher positioned her in a place just next to it, so that everyone in the class could see her.
"Say, why don't you look up at the class while you tell them about yourself?" The teacher hinted at the girl who had been staring intently at the floor for a while now, standing perfectly still.
"Um, Koizumi-san?" The teacher seemed to notice that she was looking at something, so they looked to the floor only to see a massive cockroach crawling towards the girl's shoe, meanwhile the girl seemed completely incapable of motion.
The class could hear some mumbling coming from her direction, and some of them strained their ears to listen.
"Oh butts. OOOOHHHH butts. Oh my word oh my word oh my word. Ah ah ah hate bugs hate bugs hate bugs HATE BUGS."
Suddenly the abnormally large insect chose that moment to climb onto her shoe. It was then that the student spoke properly, and the whole class heard her this time.
...
"Oh bother."