[Currently Untitled] - Chapter One

I was totally bored one day and I decided to write a fic. XDDD This is the product of my efforts.
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"MAAAIAAAAAA!!!!" That's my name, I thought. Don't wear it out. I snuggled back under the covers. "It's Saturday today! I'm allowed to sleep in!" I called out, half-asleep. I smiled contentedly "Sleep...". My happy thoughts were interrupted by my bed sheets being torn off and by the curtains being flung open. "Did you forget dearest sister that today is your turn to do the laundry????!" Oh no, I totally forgot! I rolled over and tried to shield my eyes from the burning sunlight. "I'm sorry Tash...five more minutes..." I mumbled as best I could through the mattress that I had pressed my face to. A small determined hand grabbed my shoulder and rolled me the right side up. Why must you be so strong even though you're so short??! I thought while I kept my eyes tightly shut and my face scrunched up against the barrage of offending light. I experimentally peeled open one eye to look at my sister. She stood there, her petite form bending over me her with short hair held back with a white headband and her hands on her hips. There was a disgruntled look on her face and her eyebrows were scrunched up in annoyance. I opened both eyes and looked at her again. "Umm, sister dearest why are you wearing your school uniform?" Tash rolled her eyes and walked around to the other side of my bed. She pulled my right arm up and forced me to sit up. "Because it's Friday oh revered elder sister. Friday and the time is now 8:14, you have to leave the house by 9 A.M. and I know how long it takes you to get ready. It takes five minutes to walk down to the dry cleaners, an additional 30 minutes to get all of the laundry done another five minutes to walk back home and that will give you enough time to pack your stuff and get to your class at 10:30 A.M. but don't for--" A deep chuckle interrupted her from my bedroom door behind her. Not that I was listening anyway. I looked behind her with my sleepy eyes. "Wow Tash, you really know how to run your sister's life." Sho walked in, his usual handsome self, dressed in form fitting slacks that hung low on his waist and an impeccably crisp white shirt tucked into his pants. He hung an arm around Tash and bent down to whisper in her ear, "Daijoubu Tashii-chan, I'll be driving your sister around today so I'll make sure she gets everything done on time." There you go again Sho, flirting with my sister. I tried not to smile to myself and succeeded in screwing up my facial expression. Don't you know that she gets into a panic when you do that? Tash was blushing like mad right now. "O-ok Sho-san." She managed to squeak out. "Um, you guys take care today." And she rushed out, before either me or Sho could say another word. "Ingat!" I called out behind her. Take care, little sister. I smiled crookedly at Sho while he laughed at me and sat down at my desk. "Sugoi Mai-chan! Your face is amazingly ugly right now! hahahahaha--oomph!" 'Serves you right for closing your eyes while you laugh!' I thought to myself marveling at my awesome pillow-throwing skills. "Who let you in anyway?" Sho peered intently at the row of books on my desk, looking for books he wanted to borrow. "Reiji let me in as she was on her way out." Sho tossed the pillow back on my bed. I sighed. So much for sleeping in. "It's time for you to go wait in the living room while I go through my de-uglifying process." I stood up and stretched and opened my closet to start picking out clothes. Sho also stood up and headed out, but not before offering to cook me his breakfast specialty: buttered toast. I accepted. 'Sho toast is better than no toast I guess. Saves me from cooking breakfast myself.' After taking a much needed wake-up shower, I went downstairs refreshed and dressed up for another day at school. I found Sho sitting at the kitchen counter desolately staring at two black squares on a plate. I froze. "Sho...please tell me that you broke off two pieces of asphalt off the street to feed to our pet troll..." He looked at me with a worried expression. "Gomen ne Mai-chan..." We just stared at each other. And then I started laughing.
"What did you use to toast these?? Because honestly toasters are pretty smart when it comes to not burning toast..."
"I used the grill."
"...they have this mechan--the grill??!?!?"
"Hai." He shifted uneasily on his feet as I stared at him.
"It is clear to me now that you don't have to be smart to be a genius."
A long silence ensued.
"Gomen..."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I can't wait to tell Tash about this! hahahaha!!! No don't throw the toast out I want to show them when they get back!"
"OI! That's mean! Stop making fun of me!"
"Then don't make it so easy!! Come on let's just grab something to eat on our way to the dry cleaners." I kept laughing at him while we put on our coats and he picked up his umbrella at the front door and I picked up my basket of laundry and stuffed my keys in my jacket pocket.
"You're still laughing at me??"
"YES. What're you gonna do?? Attack me with your umbrella?? Don't you know they're actually used to stop the rain from falling off you?? I bet you use it to gather water--"
"URUSAI YO!!"
I kept laughing at him as I swung the door shut. How lucky I am, I thought as I locked the door, how infinitely lucky I am to have people around me that can make me laugh like that everyday.
"Ikimashou ka Sho-chan?"
"Ikimashou."

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So at this time, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself to you. I'm pretty sure you don't need to know about how me and Sho went to the dry cleaners and how he tried to help me sort through the laundry until he realized that he'd look like a pervert holding two handfuls of ladies underwear. I made him fold t-shirts fresh from the dryer instead.
Anyway, my name is Maia Maralit. I am 21 yrs old and the product of a non-existent marriage. My parents had me while they were young and though they loved each other neither of them wanted to get married at the time. My father is a Filipino seaman though so he spends 10 months of the year out at sea. My mother is an American born Chinese-Malaysian seamstress (That's a mouthful!). They just never got married. It's weird, but I'm just thankful that I have a mother and father at all.

My little sister is Natasha Maralit, 16 yrs old and resident scholar and genius of Thorndon Academy. We call her Tash for short, but Sho calls her Tashii. "It's much more kawaii." he says. She is also head over heels in love (?) or maybe just crushing on Sho. She hasn't told anyone but it's pretty obvious. She can't stop blushing when he's around. And she tries to find legitimate excuses to follow him around when he's over at our place. I just play-along, even pretending to be annoyed and angry sometimes when really I like seeing her trying not to flail in happiness. She is sooo kawaii my little sister is. And I don't mind that she hasn't told me. I'm sure she has her reasons. But I know anyway.

My bff though is Kaye Montalban, 23 years old. I like to call her KaMo. Her actual name is Kaye Montalban Tsuruga, but she doesn't like that Japanese part of her name because she's never really liked her father and tries to keep his presence in her life at a minimum. I met her when we were both in high school. My mom never had time to make us lunch so we received a meager allowance to buy lunch at school. I never bought lunch at school, it was overpriced and overrated which totally disappointed me seeing as Thorndon Academy is such a posh school. So everyday, I'd stop by a deli near my school and buy a cheap but good sandwich there. Kaye worked there in the mornings before school. We soon became fast friends and I'd go there to buy food and we'd leave for school together.

Reiji Zobel Tsuruga, 16 years old, is Kamo's little sister and Tash's best friend. Reiji and Kamo share the same father but have different mothers. This hasn't stopped them from being really close. Reiji is Tash's best friend and they go to the same school. While Tash is the resident genius, Reiji is the star of the track and field team. She's one of the most hyper and cheerful people I know and once she gets excited about something it takes a miracle to get her to calm down. Despite how cheerful she is though, there are times when her parents get her down with the pressure to be good at everything she does. She gets through their restrictions though by living with her sister during the week and going back home to the Hamptons on the weekend. Oh and did I mention that she has a bodyguard-slash-driver? Gilbert's pretty nice for a guy who's nearly 7-feet tall and is an ex-Marine. He's the reason why Reiji has been allowed to stay with her sister. And here I thought it was just because it would be more convenient for her to walk to school everyday than to have to be dropped off by helicopter. Yes, her father owns a helicopter. Which to me is kinda farfetched because Manhattan and the Hamptons aren't that far away from each other. Whatever happened to just driving a car?

Sho Sakurai is one of my closest friends. I've only known him for two years but I love him like the brother I never had. It all started in my first year in World History 101, I was sitting in the third row of seats in the auditorium, while everyone else was trying to be cool and were trying to sit as near to the back as possible. ''Bunch of idiots' I thought, 'How are they ever gonna learn anything when they're miles away from the professor???' The only other person sitting in my row was an Asian guy, nervously looking around as if someone was gonna pounce on him. I nodded to him when he looked up at me as I sat down a few seats away. 'Must be an exchange student'  Forgive me for assuming but his electronic Japanese-English dictionary kinda gave him away. After class, he quietly approached me while I was packing my bag, "Sumimasen, ano, excuse me, where is the school bookstore?" I grinned at him and said, "I'm going there now too. Isshoni ikimasen ka?" We were pretty much inseparable since then.

Anyhoooo, so the four of us girls all live together in a Manhattan loft near Thorndon Academy, our own little family just trying to get through life in the Big Apple. We're totally happy and everything is awesome. But this story is about how life can get even better.
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Translations:

Japanese -
Gomen - sorry
Daijoubu - It's ok
Urusai yo! - You're annoying/ Shut up
kawaii - cute
Ikimashou ka? - Shall we go?
Ikimashou - Let's go.
Isshoni ikimasen ka? - Shall we go together?

Filipino -
Ingat - take care