• “MAIL TIME!” The matron called. Kira walked in after everyone, slow as normal. “AYA!” Called the matron. A small slender girl went up to get her mail. “KIRA!” Shouted the matron again. Kira looked up from her sketch pad.
    “A letter?” she asked “For me?”
    “Yes, you!” she said. Kira never got letters, she was and orphan, why would she get a letter. She walked up and got her letter. There was no return address, simply:

    KIRA YOSHIDA
    JAPAN’S ORPHANED AND NEGLECTED YOUTH

    Kira opened the letter and pulled out a tiny piece of paper, it read,

    Kira,
    You are my granddaughter. I do not wish for you to ever contact me, but I am sending you to “Yellow Ridge” boarding school. I will send you all the supplies you need.
    Your Grandmother

    She read and reread the paper many times over, it just didn’t make any sense, her grandmother had disowned her father when he had married her mother, why would her grandmother contact her now, after 16 years of no contact, and why would she want her to go to some prestigious boarding school.
    Over the next few weeks Kira packed for her trip to the boarding school. Kira was an average sized girl, she had long black hair that almost went to her waist. She usually had headphones on blasting some sort of music.Kira was a quiet girl, not a depressed one like some in the orphanage, but just quiet, she normally stayed to herself, unless she was with Sake or one on his friends. Sake was her best friend since the day he had arrived at the orphanage 9 years ago. Sake walked into the room and kissed the top of her head and.
    He sat at the foot of her bed, “So you really have to leave?” he asked. “I have to.” She said. “My grandmother already sent me everything. The uniform, a new computer. All sorts of things.” She came and sat next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I don’t want to leave, you know that right?” He nodded. He kissed her gently, Kira savored this kiss, she knew it would be one of the last.
    Kira woke up to an unfamiliar person shaking her “Wake up foolish girl it’s time to go.” This must be the chauffeur her grandmother had told her about. She grabbed her trunk and her book bag. Sake was standing by the door. The chauffeur took her bags to the taxi. Kira walked up to and gave him a hug. “I promise I’ll write,” she said. He nodded then leaned down and kissed her, tears fell down her face and he kissed them away, “I’ll always be here for you” he said, his voice faltering as if he were about to cry. He hugged her and kissed the top of her head and then let go. . . She waved to him and got in the taxi, she never looked back. If she had, well lets just say she’d be heartbroken.
    Kira looked out the window, the trees streaked by. People stood by the road, there thumbs pointed upward in a hope, that they might get a ride somewere. A dog ran beside a little boys, bike gleeful and happy. Kira thought to her self, what am I doing, I just got a letter in the mail from someone I don’t even know, and I just went along with it?? I just left Sake, the love of my life for some boarding school I have no idea about? “WHAT THE HELL!!” shouted Kira, the taxi driver was startled and asked what was wrong. Kira explained to him her situation.
    “Well, I think you made the right choice, I would hate being shipped around from foster home to foster home, I mean I would have chosen the same thing you did, so don’t feel so bad.” Kira agreed and rested her head against the window, It seemed like many hours had passed when a huge looming building seemed to be growing on the horizon. “s**t,” she said. “It’s huge!” exclaimed Kira.
    As she grew closer, she could see the detail of the building. It seemed to be an old mansion of some sort, red bricks were covered in creeping ivy, some of it hanging off the building and wrapping itself around the cherry trees near the school.
    The car drove up on the gravel driveway, there was someone standing at the main entrance, Kira could see faces peering out the windows. She stepped out of the car and got her luggage from the trunk of the taxi.
    “Welcome.” An old woman with a tight bun on the top of her head, half moon spectacles and a smart, clean pinstripe suit.
    “Welcome to Yellow Ridge.” Said the old woman. “I am the principal here, you must be Kira. Your grandmother wrote to me about you coming.”
    “Um. . .yeah, I am Kira, thanks.”
    Kiki will take your bags up to your dorm for you.” She said.
    “Thank you so much, miss. . .”
    “I am Miss Nakamura.”
    “Thank you Miss Nakamura.”
    Kira walked into her dorm, beds lined two of the walls, a simple desk, dresser, and bedside table, had all been added.
    “You'll be sleepin’ in ‘ere miss.” Said Kiki “We haven’t gotten’ ya’ a roommate yet, but we will.”
    “Thanks, Kiki.” Said Kira as she took her trunk and set it at the foot of her bed
    “Well, bye then miss.”
    “Oh, goodbye.” Said Kira absentmindedly
    Kira plopped down on the dull grey sheets and looked around. She got up and started unpacking. She pulled out the laptop her grandmother had sent her and set it on the desk. She pulled out her two most prized possessions, the picture of her parents, and the picture of Sake. She placed them carefully on the bedside table along with her sketch book. she unpacked all her clothes and placed them into her dresser.
    Kira stood back to admire her work.
    “Looks nice.” Said a voice from behind her. Kira whipped around to see a girl about the same age as her.
    “Hi, I’m Yumi, I saw you drive up and I thought that you might need a friend here.” She said smiling.
    “Yeah, that would be great, I have no idea where any of my classes are.” She said laughing and looking at her schedule.
    “Here, lemme see.” Yumi took Kira’s schedule to look it over. “Hmm you have environmental science first, all you do is walk down the stairs one flight and it’s the first door on your left.
    “Thanks said Kira as she grabbed her sketch book, stuffed it in her book bag with all the school required books and ran off down the stairs.