Chapter One: Imagination or Reality?

“Neko, are you a ghost?”

The half-moon illuminated the small garden behind a small white house. Bushes grew along the walkway from the back door of the house, brilliant red flowers scattered between their leaves. The flowerbeds were littered with weeds and the mounds of ant hills. A small cherry tree sat in the corner of the yard; it had long since shed its powder-pink petals; they were, however, still present in the dirt below the tree.

On the stone bench under the tree sat a little girl with a short mane of messy white hair. She was dressed in a pale pink night gown that would have once matched with the angelic color of the cherry blossoms. Next to her was a boy of a much older age with equally white hair. His eyes were beautiful amber, true to his cat-like nickname.

Neko looked down into her eyes as he answered and she could see a reflection of her face in his pupils. “What a strange question,” he chuckled quietly, “no, I’m not a ghost, why do you ask?”

She stared quickly down at her lap and scrunched the fabric of her nightgown in her small fists. “Well…” she looked up at him, “you never seem get any older.”

“I’m not a ghost Noa,” he reassured her, “but why does it matter? Would that bother you?”

“No!” Noa protested loudly before lowering her voice, her mother wouldn’t like that she had snuck out of her room at night.  “No, it would be fine. It’s just…” She trailed off and dug her toes into the soft soil below, “it’s just…”

“Just what?”

“If you were a ghost then I wouldn’t be able to marry you.” Noa admitted quietly, turning away. She could tell he was smiling because he always made a quiet ‘mmm...’ noise whenever he did. She could feel her cheeks warming, she hated when he thought of her as cute. “How old are you anyway?” she huffed, partially annoyed with him.

“Older than you would think.” He sighed, his yellow eyes closing for a moment. She looked at his face while his eyelids flickered as his eyes moved beneath them. She hated that he only thought of her as a little kid, if only she was older!

“I’m eight today.” She reminded him quietly and he opened an eye with a smile. Neko only ever visited on her birthday, and even though a year had passed the only thing that ever changed was his clothes. She loved to talk to him and share the events of her year, he never spoke about his.

“I know Noa.” He poked her nose, “I got you a present.” This was one of the best parts of the evening; Neko always got her really awesome gifts. The year before he’d given her a wooden music box with a tiny glass ballerina that would dance and dance when the music played; before that he’d given her a beautiful plush cat with yellow eyes and white fur; and if she thought really hard she could remember him giving her a doll with white hair, blue eyes and the prettiest green dress she had ever seen.

Noa bit her lip and bounced eagerly as she waited to receive her present. Neko dug his hand into his pocket and produced a small red bag with a silver floral pattern on the sides. “This is for you.” He placed it in her open hands.

Noa couldn’t help but feel disappointed when she opened the pouch; it was just a stupid seed! “It’s just a seed…” she mumbled, her eyes brimming with tears, why would he give her an awful gift?

“Oh don’t cry Noa,” Neko laughed gently, “this is a special seed, and it took me quite a while to track down. If you plant this seed and water it carefully it will grow into a beautiful flower.”

“All seeds do that.” Noa argued.

“But do all flowers grant wishes?”

“No…”

Neko smiled and continued, “If you look after this seed really well it will grow into a beautiful flower and once the flower blooms you can make a wish with it. A real wish.” He wiped the tears off her face. “I have to go now,” Neko got to his feet and petted her head gently, “make a good wish Noa; I’ll see you next year.”

“Promise Neko?” Noa whispered.

“Promise.”

 

“Miss Costello? Miss Costello!” a hand slammed down on the table next to Noa’s face and she bolted up in her seat. Her English teacher stood over her and the whole class was staring at her. Gosh, she felt like dying right there.

“Yes Mr. Reed?” She tensed slightly, waiting for him to yell, instead he was eerily calm.

“This is the ninth time you’ve fallen asleep in my class Noa.” He was a tall man with a balding head of grey hair and a long pointed nose that made him look like a bird. “If I catch you sleeping in my class again I’ll bring it up with your parents. You’re in grade 10; you need to think about your future.” He spun and stalked back to the front of the room.

Noa wished she could disappear, the hateful eyes of her classmates burned into the back of her head. She knew they didn’t like her, she wasn’t the typical person to go to this private school; she didn’t really care about grades. Most of the students were kids who had studied their way into Knox High School “For Educationally Gifted Youths”: her rich mother had bought her in. Thing was, Noa didn’t want to attend a school for stuck up, super smart, cynical teens with no sense of humor.

“Sorry.” She muttered under her breath and flattened down the side of her hair. Class slowly fell back into order but Noa couldn’t focus on the notes she was supposed to copy down. She’d been rather distracted recently.

When she was younger she had an imaginary friend that she had called Neko because of his yellow-gold eyes. Neko had visited her every year on her birthday to sit and talk with her in the garden at night. Her mother had found her sleeping on the stone bench out there under their cherry tree several times.

Ever since she’d turned eight the visits had stopped and she hadn’t seen him since. By now she’d passed it off as the imagination of a child, and yet… A few weeks earlier she’d been digging through her old toys when she found a small wooden music box with a tiny glass ballerina inside. Then there was the pale blue flower that grew in the pot on her window sill, which had to have come from somewhere and yet her mother had no clue.

But it was impossible right? There was no way that Neko had been a real person. In her whole life the only other people who had white hair were old. This wasn’t some cartoon or a story book where and weird girl meets her perfect match.

***

“I don’t understand…” Noa huffed, resting her forehead on the wooden surface of the table.

“Don’t understand what?” Reagan, her best friend, was opposite to her, reading one of her countless manga graphic novels; Noa had tried to read some a while ago but the concept of reading in reverse baffled her and she couldn’t quite grasp the story. The two girls were sitting at one of the picnic tables in Willow Park, the park directly adjacent to Willow & District High School, where Reagan went to school.

Noa raised her head and sighed, pushing her hair out of her face. “Do you remember when I told you about the imaginary friend I had when I was little?”

“The one who only visited on your birthday, yeah,” Reagan raised her eyes from her book for a second but quickly returned to whatever gripping thing was going on within the pages, “You were a weird kid, what kind of imaginary friend only shows up on your birthday?”

Noa scowled, “Yeah, yeah, weird, I know. I’m starting to think I might not have been imagining him though.” She glanced over at Reagan and waited for her friend to utter some rude remark or question her sanity. Instead she offered a puzzled expression.

“What? Sorry, I was reading,” she chuckled lightly, “Ichigo’s got himself into a real pickle and it’s quite entertaining.” She tucked a lock of earth brown hair behind her ear and tilted her head to the side; pinching her lips together, “so what were you saying?”

“I…” Noa started to explain again but stopped and put her head down on the table again, “never mind, it’s dumb anyway.”

“Please…” Reagan huffed, "we’re friends, and nothing you say to me will be dumb.” Noa raised her head for a moment and caught Reagan’s eye. The other girl winked and Noa’s head went back down with a thump.

“Just tell me Noa, what’s the that could happen? I could laugh, but I promise I won’t.” Reagan tucked a bookmark neatly into her book and set it on the table, “there, now you have my full attention, what were you saying?”

Noa sighed loudly and sat up, “I was talking about Neko, my imaginary friend from childhood. I… I think he may not have been imaginary.” She stared at the table for a while, waiting for her friend’s response.

When she looked up, Reagan was studying her face with a confused expression. “I’m serious Rea! I founds present that I got from him for my seventh birthday and I have that blue flower on my windowsill.”

“Noa, slow down, you were eight when “neko” stopped visiting. Chances are you’ve forgotten where the flower came from and just stuck them together to make your life more interesting, to hold onto something that makes you seem less like an anomaly. You have albinism, that’s why your hair is white.” She offered a rational explanation.

“What about the music box?”

“Someone else probably gave it to you and you imagined that your pal gave it to you when you were younger.” This was one thing Noa didn’t like about Reagan; she could go from carefree to logical in a split second.

“Rea, I know that I’m not delusional or crazy. I’m serious.” Even without seeing her own face Noa knew her eyes were serious orbs of blue and that Reagan could tell she meant what she said.

“Well alright then,” Reagan giggled, her eyes softening, “if you’re serious than I can’t doubt you. We’re friends so I know you wouldn’t lie to me.” The girl leaned across the table, her fingers drumming on the cover of her book, “So how do we prove your theory? Your birthday is in a few weeks so we can hope kitty-cat boy shows up then. I know you haven’t seen him for what? Eight years? Wow, quite a gap… how old would that make him? You might just have a weirdo stalker. If he was a teen when you were little he’d be in his twenties now. Noa! That’s way too only for you!”

“Rea!” Noa grabbed Reagan’s shoulders, “Be quite!”  Some other bothersome traits Reagan had was her incessant babbling and getting off topic in a matter of seconds. “We can worry about that tomorrow, I have homework to do and Mum gets a bit sniffy when Mr. Reed calls to let her know I failed to pass in yet another assignment. I’ll try to call you later.”

“But…” Reagan started to protest but sighed, “I wish you could just go to my school, it’s closer to your house and the people are waaaay nicer.”

“I know, I've asked my mum but she said no every time.” She got up from the table and swung her bag over her shoulder. It was heavy; several textbooks and notebooks filled the majority of the space and a pencil case and calculator added to the cumbersome load.

“See you later Rea.”

“Bye!”

Author's Note

I swear this will get better!!

Reviews

[Amaya Sullivan]

I feel like I am reading a Manga! I love it! I'm sold, Keep up the writing! I am loving where this story is heading.

[GorgEOus NiGhtMarE]

Update it soon and finish it!!! Please?? It's really good :)

[Atta]

Thank you very much!

[Navara-Desen]

I do like it very much and i am very interested in seeing where it goes later on. I'm going to keep reading for sure. Keep up the good work.

[Atta]

Yay! Thank you!

[Navara-Desen]

you're welcome