Nine Lives

Chapter One

        The door to the art room was open, as it always was, and I let myself in. The room was empty, save for a few chairs, tables, miscelaneous projects, and Mrs. Granger. She glanced up as me as I enter, and smile.

        "Well, well, Tatsuya Seiei returns! I trust that you still have all nine hearts."

        "Ha ha, very funny." I pull off my hood and sigh with relief as the cat-like ears on the top of my head straighten upward. "Just because I'm part cat doesn't mean that I have nine hearts. Actual real cats don't even have nine hearts."

        "Still, what were you being blamed for that I had to bail you out of?" Her hands carefully sculpted a pile of clay into the starts of a statue of some kind. She was always doing something with clay, I had come to realize.

        I sit down next to her and resume drawing, "Mr. Scott's fish went missing. And of course, me being part cat, I had to have done it."

        She clicks her tongue and shrugs, "Well, 'dems the brakes."

        "Yeah, no joke." I sigh and put my pencil down.

        Mrs. Granger looks up at me, then walks over and sits next to me, "Tatsuya, what's wrong?"

        I look at her, then down at the table, "I'm just tired of being blamed for everything that goes wrong. And the only reason why I'm blamed is because I'm... I'm..."

        "Different."

        I nod, then close my eyes and sigh again.

        She opens her mouth to speak, hesitates, then nods, "Tats, I want you to stick around next block. There's someone I'd like you to meet."

        I look at her with a somewhat confused look on my face, "Why? Is there someone else thats finally taking an art class?"

        She gives a small laugh, "No, not exactly. This person comes from another school, since the one they attend doesn't have their own art teacher or room."
        "And why should I stay? What's more important than rotting my brain in math?" Truth be told, I didn't mind missing math. I hated it anyways.

        "Trust me, you'll want to stay." She looked at me with a glint of amusement in her eyes, "You two have more in common than you know."
        I look at her, a faint smile creeping onto my face, "You really think so?"

        She nods, "I know so."

        For the remainder of the period, we both keep glancing at the clock, counting down the time till the bell rang. After what seemed like an eternity, it finally rang, and Mrs. Granger went to stand by the door in her room that led to the outside world. I didn't pay attention and kept drawing, even when I heard the door open, followed by an exchange of whispers.

        Mrs. Granger puts a hand on my shoulder, and I sniff the air, smelling the new person from where I sat. It was definitely a girl, but there was something else. Something... furry.

        "Tatsuya," the sound of Mrs. Granger's voice pulls me out of my thoughts, and I nod in acknowledgement, "I'd like you to meet Yuki."

        I finally look up at the new person, then freeze. It wasn't her blonde hair, or her green eyes, or the way she dressed that shocked me. It was the pair of cat-like ears sticking out of her hair, and the tail swaying behind her.