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It was the night before her first day of high school, her father had sat her down to give her a speech on behaving like he always did. Today was a little bit different though...

"Now Ami-chan..." he began. "This school is very prestigious. I saw to it that your grandfather paid them a heavy donation to see that you get in, despite your just over the line entrance exam score. The students here are all the children of some very important people, you must behave and try to get on their good side okay?"

"But why dad? Aren't they just normal kids like me?"

"Well I guess so but they are children of CEO's, of old nobility sweetheart. Make plenty of friends and who knows, we might be able to get you a good husband out of that bunch."

"Okay dad."

Midori left the kitchen holding a pot of tea and laughed.

"Oh Keisuke, stop pressuring her so much. She'll be fine, Ami-chan's a good girl."

"Your right." he shuffled her hair with a smile and they all sat for dinner.

The next day, Ami was all dressed up and ready to leave. The uniform for this school was a normal sailor outfit with a red and white color scheme. Ami even had her mother do her blonde hair in long curls. At the entrance ceremony, her mother cried. She was always such a drama queen.

She was assigned to star group, class B. Ami nervously stood outside the front door and tried to control her nerves.

'Dad said these people were important, maybe I should be very friendly from the start. Just calm down and go in with a big greeting.' she thought nervously.

Ami opened the door carefully and made sure she was smiling when everyone looked up.

"G-Good morning everyone!" she managed to say.

No one acknowledged her so she sat down where there wasn't a huge cluster of students.

'Everyone seems so familiar towards one another...'

She sighed, staring out the window. Her first day of high school wasn't going so great. The teacher entered soon after, a young man about 27 she guessed.

"Good morning first years! I'm your homeroom teacher."

He turned and began scribbling his name on the board.

"I'm Nanashi Daiki, I hope we all have a great year. Now, how about we have each person come up and introduce themselves?"

He called name by name off the roster and soon it was Ami's turn.

"Sato Ami?"

She jumped out of her seat.

"Yes!"

"Please come and introduce yourself."

She walked nervously to the front of the class. She heard whispering as she approached the front.

"That's the girl...the grand daughter of the financial mogul..."

"She looks like a foreigner..."

"I hear she paid to get in...what a loser..."

'Oh no, please be all in my head...'

She reached the front of the class and sighed.

"H-Hello everyone...I'm Sato Ami! Um let's see...I love to do calligraphy and I love to read manga. I hope we can have a..."

"Just be quiet and leave you stupid American!" the boy that introduced himself as Naru Hiroshi.

"Naru-kun, that's rude." said Nanashi-Sensei.

"Well it's hard to respect Americans sensei!" a girl named Kizu Sakura.

"Especially someone who paid to be here!" someone in the back yelled.

Ami tried to keep a straight face but her lip began to quiver. She just stared at her shoes, clenching her fist so she wouldn't cry.

"Class, that's enough! Calm down! Sato-chan, that will suffice. Please return to your seat."

Ami walked toward her desk and the class continued their whispering. A boy sitting close to her put his foot out just as Ami was just going to pass him. She fell, ramming her chin into the desk on the way down as she attempted to grab the desk and right herself. The whole class roared in laughter. Nanashi-Sensei's attempts to subdue the class were being blocked out by the class' laughter. All Ami could here was laughing...

Just laughing...

The day progressed in basically the same fashion. Staples in her P.E clothes, getting tripped, whispers in the hallway, girl's talking in the bathroom. Most of the day, Ami cowered in the bathroom stall with her hands over her ears.

She took the train home. Her ears still ringing with the insults of her classmates. She ran home and straight to her room, slamming the door loudly. Her father was still at work but her mother went upstairs.

"Ami-chan? Ami-chan, are you alright?"

"NO!" she screamed from inside the room.

"Ami-chan, please let me in...tell Mama what's wrong?"

Midori put her ear to the door, she heard sobbing. After a brief pause, the door opened and Ami collasped into her mother's embrace.

"T-Those people Mama...they're horrible. I'm never going back Mama, that place is horrible."

Her mother carressed her hair.

"Sweetheart, your father has really been looking forward to you doing well in this school. Can't you try for him?"

Ami began quivering, she felt her legs might give out.

"They called me a stupid American...they called me a loser Mama..."

"Ami-chan, you got your American blood from me. I had long blonde hair just like you, just like my mother did."

"Why do they hate me for looking like an American Mama?"

"It was a long time ago Ami-chan. Please, just try for your father. I'm sure once you get comfortable, you'll feel much better. Spring is the time for new beginnings Ami-chan. So please just be strong okay?"

Ami looked up into her mother's eyes, her own eyes tear-streaked. She whimpered a bit and nodded.

But things didn't get better. Her mother called her homeroom teacher to try and fix the problem, no help. Soon, a month had past and Ami had made a habit of returning home bruised and silent. Little by little, she refused to go to school. Her homeroom teacher, her mother, even her father who threatened to break her door down...

They all tried but no success. Keisuke was a laughing stock among his family back home, his father looked at him in disgust. To dull the shame, he took up drinking and made a game of beating his wife and yes, sometimes his daughter to vent the anger. Every time her mother went shopping, the other house wives would whisper.

"There goes Sato-san, the woman with the hikikomori daughter."

It took alot for Midori to convinve Keisuke to even allow Ami to stay, eventually, he just didn't care. She was dead to him. And so five years dwindled itself away, like a drip of molasses on a frozen plate.

[A/N]: Hey everyone! Just to say, I know the Japanese truly accept foreigners and stuff. But after watching Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (Great movie! You all should watch) I got curious of this angle! Please don't flame me! I was bullied in school, first grade to about 10th. It's not fun but I can look back and laugh now. The events here are a bit melodramatic I know but they're just to inject drama into the story kay? Please comment via PM or profile comment if you've got an idea for the story, comments, complaints, or just want to say hi!