Chapter 1
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I sat up in my seat, exited that the song I was looking for was loaded and ready to play. The cello intro to "Still Doll" by Kanon Wakeshima poured out of the speakers of my laptop. I loved this song even though it was in Japanese. I could still sing the whole song. Thing is, I have no idea how I first found it. Oh, well. Just then, my mom came into my room with a metal object in her hand.
"I found the pimple popper!" aw hell. is this becoming a weekly routine just like the masque I have to put on every Saturday? She just is never gonna give up trying to get rid of my already bad acne.
I sighed and leaned back in my comfy computer chair to let her work on my face with the 'pimple popper' as she calls it.
"Your acne is getting really bad, Artemis." mom says after few seconds of pimple popping. "Are you using the masque I gave you?"
"Yes I do, mom. You see me with my masque on every Saturday night, don't you?" I grumbled. My song had ended, so I replayed it again.
"Okay... so whats this song you listen to all the time? Is it in Korean?" she stopped the pimple popping and stood to my right, about to leave my room.
"It's in Japanese, and it's called 'Still Doll'" I said. I turned up the volume a bit.
"Okay.." mom replied as she walked to the door, "just don't stay up too late, girl. You have school tomorrow." she said then closed the door.
I sighed. Why did I have to be the one with the bad acne? Of all the people in the world, why me? And, why did so many guys like me? I have acne, for crying out loud.
I brushed my teeth in my bathroom, changed to my usual jammies that consisted of just a big shirt and my undies. I took my hair down from the high ponytail it was in earlier, brushed it out-twice, and went to bed.
~NEXT MORNING~
Walking to school, I felt as if I was being watched. "Artemis!" I sighed. It was just Tyler. I turned around.
"Hey Tyler." I said as he walked up to me.
"What's crack-a-lackin?" he said as he smacked my butt. Oh by the way, he likes me, and he's my best guy friend's cousin. ugh.
"Hey, no touchy!" I yelled in his face. I backed up a step, and brought my foot up and kicked his crotch. I turned around and headed towards my school. Ugh. Boys...
"Hey, wait up! I'm sorry!" he ran up to me, trying to catch up.
I continued walking, "Then, why did you do it?" I stopped for a second to look at him. He was still bent over grunting in pain.
I walked over to him. "Just...... please. Don't. Now get up and lets go to class before I have to drag you with me, and you know that wouldn't be fun for either of us." I said. I grabbed him by his arm and tugged him until he complied and started walking upright with me.
"Sorry, Arty. It won't happen again." he said glumly.
"No it won't, because you know what happens when you do, don't you?" I gave him a side-glance and chuckled to punctuate what I meant.
"Haii, Artemis-sama," he replied. I always hated it when he flaunted that. His mom got this language-learning stuff to make him learn Japanese because they were going to Japan once school was out.
I sighed, totally jealous. He could understand most of 'Still Doll' while I only knew the first half of it. "Hey, when are you gonna teach me Japanese?" I pouted, "You promised."
