A few years back a woman named Jade had just gotten out of the hospital. She had a beautiful daughter only a day before, and was in the garden near the hospital when a wild white lily caught her attention. She slowly walked over to the lily and noticed a weird design in the very center of it. Jade suddenly became very attached to the flower and decided that while she was at the hospital she would come water and take care of it every day. From then on for about two weeks she cared for the odd flower and made sure nothing happened. Suddenly, she had to leave the hospital. She couldn’t leave the flower and decided to try to pick it for her newly born daughter. She believed her baby girl would love the flower as much as she did. She reached for the flower and tenderly tried to pick it. It wouldn’t come out. She tried harder and then harder until she tried what she thought was her hardest to pull it out, but it just wouldn’t budge. She used all her strength and gave her final and strongest pull. That one wild lily finally came out. At that exact moment Jade coughed up blood onto the wild lily and died. The lily vanished and a scar of it appeared on Jade's forehead. A funny thing happened to her baby girl. A similar scar appeared on her forehead too.

That baby daughter, whose scar has caused so much trouble, is me... Jade. I was given my mother’s name. Right now I’m in high school and I’m 15 years old. I live in Tokyo, Japan, and I work full-time at a cafe that pays me $15 an hour. That is actually a perfect amount for me personally. I live all alone in a fancy apartment that was passed down to me from my mother, but I still wanna try and contribute to father. It may seem that I’m mature and cool because I am all alone in an apartment, but it’s not all fun and games. The rule I live by is, ‘work hard to play hard.’

Now, everyone at school calls me a ‘tomboy’ because I’m different from everyone else. Isn’t that sweet? Well, I hate wearing skirts and frilly stuff so I usually wear sweats and a baggy jacket with a nice shirt underneath. Also, I’m not your typical lovey-dovey main character who falls in love with a popular guy and ends up perfectly... well, you know. The thing is, I absolutely despise the most popular person at school. Everyone calls him ‘King Logan’ because he always seems to have the atmosphere of a king around him. I don't call him that because it boosts his ego. I think he’s just some rich jerk who mooches off all the girls for entertainment. Oh well, both boys and girls can be so idiotic at times and I can never understand what goes through their heads. Well that's enough for the self-introduction... Why don't we go to what's happening now...

“Who cares about this feeling called ‘love’ anyway?” I think to myself. While paying attention to the ground, I get pushed into someone and fall on the cement. “Hey watch where you’re going!” The guy yells while turning around. Of course it is just my luck that it’s King Logan. He is the one person I didn’t want to see. “Oh, it’s you Jade,” He says with his annoying smile. “Yo Logan. It's wonderful to see you,” I say with sarcasm dripping on every word. He puts his hand in front of my face as if he wants to help me up. “Dude do you need any help getting up? 'Cause you know I'm here... and I'm so awesome that I'm willing to help ya,”

“I don't need your help when you put it like that 'King'. Just leave me alone,” I push my arms under and give myself a lift up. He still had his hand out so I gave it a little shove away from me. I continue walking forward and see Logan jog up right next to me. “Hey, hey, sorry for doing that… must’ve been embarrassing for ya,” He says with a cocky grin. “This is why I don’t like talking to people I don’t know. Go away,” I grumble. He glares at me and tries to punch me thinking that he could take advantage of this situation. I block his punch the moment he lifts his arm up and stare at him. “More practice,” I instruct him. I walk on and let go of his fist with a smirk on my face. “Aw man… You looked so spaced out. I was hoping that I would be able to hit my sensei just once this year,” Logan whines like a two year old who just lost his candy. I roll my eyes and see that we have gotten onto the school grounds.

“We’re here now... Will you just go away already? I mean we don't even have our first class together so what is the point of following me?” I turn around stopping completely causing Logan to head-butt into me. “Ow! Man could you warn me when you're suddenly going to stop?” He rubs his head and looks completely idiotic in my opinion. “Well, if you would answer my question I might think about answering yours,”

“What was your question? I couldn't hear it since I bumped into you!” He put emphasis on the 'bumping into me' part. “Wow and I thought you couldn't get any stupider... I asked why you keep following me,”

“Oh, because my first period is this way. Didn't you already know that? Ha and you said I was stupid,”

“Just forget about it, and maybe next time I will warn you about suddenly stopping,” I stick my tongue out and hear the first bell ring. Yeah, it's time to get to class. I wave good-bye to idiotic Logan and abandon him and run down the hall to my next class.

I made it to my first period class, homeroom 101. I walk to the front and greet the teacher while heading to my seat. I place all my stuff down silently and wait until the teacher begins to start class. “Today we will be changing seats. If you have anyone you want to sit next to please write that person’s name on this note card,” The teacher holds up a small 3 by 5 card. I smile feeling a little more optimistic know that we are about to change seats. I get up and follow the rest of the students to go grab the card from the teacher. Out of nowhere I feel someone bump into me and I fall down looking like a complete klutz.

“Sorry,” I mumble as I sit up from the ground. “Y-You don’t have to b-b-be s-s-sorry. I was the one who b-bumped into you,” The boy says trying to find his glasses. “Nah, its fine,” I put my hand out and give him the glasses that fell next to me. The kid grabs them from my hand and I latch onto his hand trying to pull him up. Magically this kid trips over something that isn’t even there, right when I was about to turn causing us both to fall. I feel the floor and look up to see the blushing boy on top of me holding both hands on my back. I blink once and pick his arms up while moving out from under him. A slight giggle escapes my lips.

I hear many whispers coming from classmates all around us and I chuckle as I notice the kids eyes are filled with fear. I stand up fully and smile at the kid trying not to scare him. “Nice meeting ya! I think this is the funniest way I’ve ever met someone, ha-ha,” I declare with a wide grin on my face. I hold one hand out to help him up again and use another to hold onto his back making sure he doesn't trip again. I smirk and see he's staring at my hand hesitantly. He pushes his hand close to mine and only holds the edge. “Kid, that's not gonna help you to get up... just hold my hand… it won’t bite,” I wrap my hand around his and pull him up sharply. “I’m soo s-s-sorry I um…. You know… you're a girl… so it s-sh-should matter to you... I-I'm so sorry!” He stutters sounding apologetic. “My name is Jade. Also, for your information, I'm fine. It's not like I'm going to die from that event” I state. The kid’s eyes suddenly relax and so does the atmosphere around him. He stares at his hands like he caused some sort of sin and should cut them off. Before I forget, “Oh yea, what’s your name kid?”

“It’s R-R-Ru… I’m so sorry Jade! I’m sorry! ” Ru says with tears running down his cheeks. I turn my head around and my brain screams ‘What a cute kid’ But, my face shows a smile and emptiness. I turn my head back to facing him and wipe a tear off his face with my finger and say, “Wanna-” Just as I was finishing my sentence the bell just had to interrupt.

“What’d you say?” Ru questions me with what seemed like a curiosity that was killing him. “Oh nothing” I answer and then turn my attention to the teacher “I have a question teacher?”

“Yes?” The teacher answers lifting her head from the desk. “Can I choose to sit next to Ru?”

“Oh sure,” She says with a smile.
“Guess we’ll be good friends from now on!” I look at him with my spirit full of happiness. I follow Ru to the assigned seat and notice I'm in the back of the room again.“Sorry about that f-f-first impression y-you must have on m-me…” Ru says awkwardly. “Nah, you seem like a clumsy guy. They always keep me alert,” I say jokingly and watch him turn a bright red color. I tease him about that the entire class and finally the bell rings. “Bye Ru! Sit with me at lunch kay?” I scream at him while running off to my next class, English 104, waving behind me. “Well, at least this class isn’t far away... But now I just have to survive it,” I think to myself with a sigh

I shove through all the people yet again and finally make it to room 104. I sit in my assigned seat and notice that Logan is yet to be seen. I look around the classroom trying to find that idiot. He just was not there to be teased. With a sigh, I give up on finding him. Suddenly, as the teacher speaks, I hear the door slam open and a person comes walking in looking like a delinquent. For some odd reason that guy comes running toward me and slams his fists on my desk. “Hey you! I missed you and we really need to talk right now!” He says with his face inches from mine. “Um... I don't know who you are... or where you're from so… no,” I respond calmly and notice the teacher from across the room is panicking. “Hm... I don't want this person to cause trouble so why don't I just talk to him?” I think as I slap his back and drag him out the door. The person rubs his back and starts whining in pain as I drag him out of the classroom. I tilt my head in confusion, “Who is this guy? He seems vaguely familiar…” I think to myself and look closely at him. “Jade! Yo!” The person yells at me with a idiot grin on his face. I could hear people running towards the door and putting their ear against it so I just stayed quiet. “Just who do you think are walking in on class and slamming your fists onto my desk! I mean breaking down the door would've been quieter! I wouldn’t care as much! Who are you?!”

“You don’t remember?” He responds with pain coming across his face. “Nope. I don't remember anything about having a delinquent friend,”

“Seriously!”

“Serious,” I try to think as hard as I can and something then clicks in my brain. “Are you that childhood friend…? Who hated me?”

“Yes! You finally remembe- wait? Hate you? How’d you get that?” He asks with a sad expression. “I don’t know. I just thought you did because you always teased me about being so me! But, I remember you. Isn’t that good enough?”

“Yes! You remembered me, finally! I'm 100 percent sure that you're Jade because you have that odd scar on your forehead.” He comes up to my face and stares. “This is most definitely the same person…” I think to myself. “Please don't talk about my scar... You know I don't like to talk about it. Now please leave,” I shove him towards the exit of the school and point at the door until he leaves for good. I walk back to class thinking about everything that just happened and go through the doors. “Very sorry about that ‘minor’ interruption...” I say smiling innocently. I walk back to my seat feeling everyone’s eyes on me looking me up and down. I put my headphones in and luckily we were just watching a movie for the rest of class.

The period went by very slowly and nothing happened that was super exciting. Thankfully the period ends and the bell rings. I grab my stuff and walk slowly out the classroom heading towards the lunch room. I see Ru sitting at a table full of people… people that I would call 'fakes'. “Oh god… If I sit there they will automatically hate me and kick me and him out… I better turn around before I start a bad fight with them. Who needs Ru anyway?” I smirk and start walking away from him. I hear his voice screaming my name over and over again nervously. I laugh to myself and feel his hand on my shoulder. “You told me that you would sit with me today? Why’d you walk away when you saw m-m-my table?” Ru says with a tear forming on his cheek. “Well, to be blunt. I hate the people at your table. But, since you proved to me you actually want me to sit with you, I will go over there today, and not just cause you asked me. There’s someone who needs some conversation with me over there,” I say the last part a little quietly. Ru drags me over to his table. I see that every spot is filled except the one next to Ru. “Awww. He saved a seat for me! How childish,” I think while I can’t help but smile at his sweetness.

“Here! Sit next to me!!!” Ru says while I see all the other people making room for me next to them. “No sit next to me!” I hear. Suddenly I see that idiot over at the end of table. I place my stuff next to Ru and sit down. I am trying my hardest not to run and give the idiot a kick in the face. “Hey, what are you doing sitting here? Aren't you supposed to be sitting with the cross-dressing freaks in the corner of the room?” I hear him say to me. I push my hands into a fist and squeeze them.“I made a friend. You got a problem with that Mr. Queen?” I ask as I am gritting my teeth. Ru stares at both of us with a frightened look in his eyes. “Hey, hey, hey be nice. I didn’t call you a name now did I? I just said what you really are. I can’t believe I even dated you! Ha! Poor you, having your heart broken by me personally... That other girl I was cheating on was much better than you and she didn't have that odd scar you have on your forehead. She didn’t last long though ha-ha,”

“You have a scar on your forehead Jade?” Ru interrupts. “Yes...” I say, “I don't like people bring it up though,” I send poison words at Queen. Ru continues… “Um... I don't mean to be rude but may I see it...?”

“Why would you want to see such an ugly thing?”

“It's not ugly. I bet it's really pretty since it's on someone like you,” Ru says shyly. I hesitate... but since I wanted to be friends with Ru, I move my hair from my forehead and he moves his face close to mine. “Wow I've never seen something so beautiful! That's a scar? I can't believe it... I would have thought it was a tattoo for sure,”

“Yea... but thanks for admiring it...” I smile shyly and then turn my body around towards Mr. Queen, “And you!” I point my fingers at Queen, “You didn’t tell me personally and I had to hear from the girl you were cheating on me with! She called me a tramp! She thought I knew! It was your fault entirely! Now, if you learned a lesson from being in the hospital for a week and making me transfer schools then I would shut that trap of yours you call a mouth!” I yell at him. The entire table stares at me and Ru puts his head down in shame. Queen shouts, “Now… that’s not true! I swear she didn’t put me in the hospital! I bet I could beat her if I fought her!” He reassures his group on the side of the table. I look at him and give him a death glare.

“You really want to start a fight now do you? I will accept your challenge! Tomorrow, at midnight, in the park across the street. If you bring more people than you, make sure you warn them that I'm not paying for their hospital bill ‘kay?” I dare him. He gives me the look as if I'm a wolf and he's the bunny I'm stalking. I laugh and stare at Ru, I had totally forgotten he was there. “Um… Should I be sorry?? ‘Cause I'm this type of person Ru. Get used to it buddy! I won’t hurt you unless you hurt me. Are you gonna become scared of me now?” He just looks up at me and opens his mouth when the lunch bell suddenly rings.

The bell rings and the rest of the day goes by slowly. Nothing really happens that is of any interest. At the end of the day, I walk down the hallway looking around noticing that it is completely empty. As I reach a corner, I turn into the office, “Hello. I'm here to use the medicine,” The lady looks up from her desk and says, “Ohh? Ohh! It’s you Jade! I'll give it to you right away. Has it gotten any better?”

“Um... well it's not as bad as it was, I believe, but it's still there,” I say self-consciously. The office lady hands me the medicine and I thank her politely. Walking over to the bathroom mirror I shove the hair away from my forehead. I study the retched thing on my forehead and see that the scar hasn't gotten better and probably never will. Except I quickly notice that in the corner of the rose there is some new blackish-red coloring. I drink the medicine trying to ignore the fact that… slowly.. the blackish-red is spreading away from the corner of the rose. Handing the medicine to the office lady after I finish, I decide to leave the school. The hallways at the school are always weird but right now they seem to be itching with mystery. But that air of mystery is starting to get me. I begin to feel weak-kneed, can't see straight, and am sure I walked into something. “Hello...? What's going on...” I try to say but no words come out. My body begins to move on its own like something has possessed me. For some reason, I have full control of my body. I want to stop moving but something is dragging me toward something. My forehead begins to burn, at first lightly and then beginning to feel like I'm on fire. “Help me! Help me please...!” I scream in my head but no one can hear me. Ru appears from around the corner and bumps into me and I get all feeling back as the burning sensation disappears. “Jade? What are you still d-doing here? Oh and look what I-I've done yet again making you fall like that! I-I'm so sorry!” Ru keeps apologizing as he helps me up from the ground. But while he keeps trying to apologize I am trying to think about what just happened a few seconds ago, “If Ru hadn't come where would I have gone? What would've happened when I made it to the place where my body was being pulled towards?” So many questions are being raised as I start thinking deeper and deeper about this, “Um... J-Jade did you hear me?”

“Oh um … I'm sorry I wasn't listening for part of it. What'd you say?” Well, it seems like reality has just returned to me. “I was wondering if you wanted to go eat somewhere since it's late,” Ru asks nervously.
“Oh, I would love to go out to eat with you... but I didn't bring my money is that okay?”


“That's perfectly fine with me! L-Let's go before it gets too dark. It's bad for ladies to walk home in the dark. T-That is what I heard...” Ru was trying so hard to be polite. He reached for my hand and began to drag me outside. After a while of walking aimlessly, I decided to ask him where we were going. “Oh, w-well we’re going to somewhere I-I-I always love to eat after school. I hope you don't mind that,” Ru smiles back at me. “Oh no it's fine with me,” Ru suddenly stops and walks into his back, “Oof! Oh are we he-” I stop in mid-sentence when I notice the place. It is where I work. This is where he wants to bring me, “Yes we are here! I'm a regular so we can go in,” He grabs onto my hand and pulls me in.

“Hello welcome to – Oh why hello Jade!” My co-worker notices me and tries to get my attention but I signal no to her over and over. “Are you a regular here too Jade?” Ru asks a little confused. “Um... Yea, I come here sometimes, but I associate with the waiters and waitresses a lot,” What a lie I just spit out of my mouth! “Oh that's wonderful! A table for two please,” I could see my workers and boss stare at each movement I make until I sit down, “Are you guys ready to order or would you like more time?” The waiter asks us sweetly. “I am ready if you are,” Ru nods his head at me. “I am ready... Um I would just like a strawberry-mango smoothie and a slice of strawberry shortcake please,”

“I will take a caramel latte with a slice of strawberry shortcake too please Xavier,” Ru answers smiling widely at the waiter. The waiter takes our menu and tells us that our food will be here shortly. “I decide I should try something new since you were here!” Ru exclaims. “Well it's always good to try something -” The burning sensation interrupts my sentence and I grab my head tightly leaning down on the table groaning. Ru's voice suddenly becomes only a whisper that I can barely hear and the surroundings become blurry. “Not again... Please Ru help me...” I think to myself as I hear a crash around me and feel something cold and hard on my body. I believe I must've hit the floor and my body begins to slowly lose control as the pulling sensation begins again. “Why... Why must this thing pull me?”
As I slowly continue walking into the outside world, and having no clue where I am going, I begin to notice a foggy figure in the distance. The figure stays foggy but it seems as though it is trying to walk towards me. “Get away! Please don't come near me!” I scream because as the figure walks closer, my scar began searing. I feel as though I want to claw my forehead to stop the burning but I have lost all control. I have to suffer through the pain. As the figure gets closer, I can tell my knees are buckling and I am now on the ground screaming. “Please... Please stop this!!”

“I cannot stop this...” A voice responds. “But the pain burns! I cannot handle it... Please end this!”

“I cannot stop this...” The voice repeats the same thing. “Please... I feel as though I'm on fire... Please,”

“I cannot stop this...” The voice just repeats again. I just give up and let my body give away as the fiery sensation begins to engulf my entire body.

“I'm so sorry Jade...”