CIRCLES TWISTING DOWNWARD SPIRALS
Chapter 1
By Silent Stalker---- Warnings: I'm not very nice to Usagi here. And this story is a bit clichιd. I can't help it. I'll try not to make it too clichιd though. Also, that prologue? Nightmare: Yes it was. Really happen: Yes it did. I'll explain, I promise.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon doesn't belong to me. Lucas, Isaac, Alexander, Chris, and the town of Chynnee Colorado, which I'm pretty sure doesn't really exist (all of which appears later) does belong to me. Please don't steal them. If you do, there's not a lot I can do to stop you, but I am asking nicely here, (which is a first for me).
---- I never conquered, rarely came
16 just held such better days
days when I still felt alive
we couldn't wait to get outside~Adam's Song, Blink 182
---- de·pres·sion n. 4. Psychology. A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death.
Usagi sat on the bed, staring blankly at the wall. She hadn't moved in over 2 hours, and that was only to brush some hair out of her eyes. Then she had resumed her position. Ellen Graham looked in at the girl from her vantage point in the doorway, then sighed and shut the door. He husband, Jacob Graham, looked up as his wife came down the stairs."She still hasn't moved?" He asked. Ellen shook her head, her chocolate colored hair coming out of its braid.
"I'm so worried, Jake. If she doesn't come out of this soon, the state's gonna take her away from us and she's gonna end up in some god forsaken hospital being poked and prodded for the rest of her life!" She threw up her hands in frustration.
Jake smiled though he wouldn't let her see it. It was easy to see where his son's melodrama came from. Instead, he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "She's not gonna get taken away from us. We won't let that happen. She's Kenji and Ikuko's daughter, remember? We were there when she was born. She's not going anywhere. We're going to take care of her, and help her through this."
"Yeah," Ellen said softly. She leaned into her husband's embrace. "But this was a bit sudden. I wonder what Bailey thinks about all this?"
---- "Ghodz, you look like shit, Bail." The brunette boy watched as his friend dropped his lunch tray on the table with a clank, dropped his backpack on to a spare chair, then collapsed into another one, dropping his head on the table.
"Thanks, Morgan, for stating the obvious. Did you happen to know I feel just like I look?" Bailey Graham replied caustically. He sat up and brushed his short blond hair out of bluish-purple eyes.
"Then you must simply feel like dying," a soft tenor voice spoke up. The two looked over to see the last of their group show up.
It was an ongoing debate at the school, whether Rebby's voice was a slightly femine boy's voice, or a slightly masculine girls one. It didn't help that the blond boy was completely androgynous, and that he went by 'Rebby', a shortening of his first name, Rebithan.
Bailey growled at his friends. "Of course I look like crap. Thank you to everyone who decided today to tell me so. Would you like to get a shot in, Trevi? After all, none of you had to duck girls and deal with home crap over break. You all left."
Morgan Reeves, Trevi Davis, and Rebby Briers looked away guiltily. The four, dubbed 'The Fearsome Four' by the rest of the school, had just gotten back to school after midwinter break. Morgan and Rebby had both gone west, to Denver, Morgan to visit grandparents and Rebby to stay with his dad and stepmom. Trevi had been 'kidnapped' by an aunt he hadn't seen in forever, and she had taken him north, to a small town in Wyoming, called Rawlins.
Bailey, on the other hand, had been stuck in their small home town of Chynee, Colorado, during the week long break. Stuck dodging the various persistent high school girls and dealing with his family. The Fearsome Four were easily the most popular people guys at their high school. First of the Four was Trevi Davis. He was one of the more reserved of the four, and hands down, the leader of their small group. He was the tallest, at 6'2, with long silver/white hair and grey eyes. Trevi was a cold, calculating boy, whom for some reason, the girls just flocked to. He had lived in Chynee since he was born, and had gone to school with the same people, over and over and over. The only respite came when Rebby had moved there at the age of 10. The two had immediately bonded, and became best friends.
Rebithan Briers, Rebby to just about everyone, was the smallest of the group, at only 5'7". He had dark blond hair, usually pulled back into a low ponytail, and vibrant green eyes, often covered by silver rimmed glasses. He was also extremely bookish, and by far the smartest in the group, though none were of the dumb jock sort.
The other two were the rambunctious ones. Morgan Reeves had moved there from Denver when he was 12. The other kids at the elementary school were startled by the intensity of the brown haired, brown-eyed boy, and had kept their distance. But Rebby and Trevi had reached out and all three had become inseparable. The fourth and last member of their group, was Bailey. He was neither the shortest, nor the tallest, and when he had first come to Chynee when he was 13, he was introverted and suspicious of everything. His parents, Ellen and Jake, were not his real parents, but foster parents, who cared for troubled kids. They had opted to adopt the blond boy after he had been with them for a year, longer then any other kid they had cared for.
Starting over was never nice, and it had been Trevi who reached out to the cerulean-eyed boy, after he had been in Chynee after 2 months and had failed to make any other friends. When he had come to their group, it was as if something had clicked, and the four were complete. And after pulling him out of his shell, Bailey and Morgan seemed to be joined at the hips, and often were so hyper and rowdy they ran circles around the other two.
"Even if you stayed in Chynee all break, you shouldn't be this tired, Bail. What's up?" Trevi sat down across from Bailey.
"Unless you were doing something at night that you shouldn't have," Morgan leered. Bailey punched his friend in the shoulder lightly.
"Nothing like that, jerk! You know how my mom and dad are temp foster parents, right?" At the others' nods, he continued. "Well, we've got this chick staying with us. Real weird girl. Her name's Usagi. It means 'Rabbit' in Japanese."
"Well," Trevi said, eating his lunch. "What's so weird about her?"
"Well, she's ½ Japanese. Her mother was born over here or something. Her mom and dad were friends with my mom and dad. Then after she was born here, in Denver, they moved to Japan. But about 2 months ago, she like, watched her parents and little brother get killed or something, and so now she's like super-traumatized. She was sent to her aunt's house, in Massachusetts, but the aunt didn't want her. So she was sent into foster care, my parents heard about her, and now she's here."
"Whoa. Deep. But don't things like that happen a lot in the foster care program?" Rebby spoke up from behind his chemistry book.
"Yeah. But I heard Mom and Dad talking. They said something about the aunt not wanting Usagi because she thinks the girl is cursed. Stupid superstitious bitch. But I think Mom and Dad want to keep her. They were really tight with her parents."
"But what does having another kid in the house have to do with you not sleeping? And how old is she?"
"She's 15. And I can't sleep because she can't sleep."
The other three just stared at him. "Huh?"
"She has these nightmares. I'm not sure what they're of. But every night at about midnight to 1 am, she just wakes up shrieking. Wakes the entire house up. I think she even startles Gaea. But it wakes me up every night and so I don't get much sleep."
"So, if she's 15, why isn't she here?" Morgan said, reaching over and stealing some of Rebby's cheesecake, who was seemingly oblivious to the theft.
"She's kinda spastic. Doesn't move or say anything all day. Just sits on her bed. I can take you go meet her after school if you want."
"Cool."
---- Usagi didn't look up as a knock sounded through her room. It had been the only noise all day, with the exception of the ticking of bunny clock on the wall, and the low but steady electronic hum being emitted by her clock. She thought she should unplug it, but it didn't bother her that bad, and she really didn't want to get up. The knock came again, and with it the sound of the door opening. Usagi turned to look.
Ellen poked her head in the room and smiled at Usagi. "Bailey's home, and he's brought some friends with him. We thought you might want to meet them."
Usagi lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. Why not, Ellen just said meet, not be friends with and form semi-lasting relationships that will ultimately be destroyed in the cosmic joke that was Fate and Destiny. Sure, why not? Ellen grinned and motioned at someone standing down the hall.
Four people trouped into the room, one Usagi blearily remembered to be her foster brother, Bailey. This was the first time she'd had a good look at him. Then she looked at the others, then back at Bailey. She couldn't suppress the hysterical giggled bubbling up from her despair. Fate couldn't be crueler then this. To be ripped from home and friends and everything she knew and loved, to be placed here: with Them.
---- End Notes: Yeah, Bailey, Morgan, Rebby and Trevi are probably exactly who you guess they are. I told you this fic was really cliched. But I'm working on fixing it.