Harue Ito

One of these days, they might set a date for this school trip. I mean, mum and dad have already paid for me to go - I feel a bit guilty for taking the money back in... November, was it? - if the trip isn't on for a few monhs yet.

Oh well. They have to tell us eventuallt, I suppose.

I'm thinking of quitting drama and tech. All I seem to want to do nowadays is sit inside and read or watch TV. I honestly don't want to go to either of those clubs anymore and its not like you have to go to any of the after-school stuff, right?

Tamiko left. (Finally.) I think one of her exes took her back in.

I can't stop listening to Ayumi Hamasaki at the moment - no, really. I can't. Someone next door is playing her new album at top volume and one song in particular is driving me mad... It sounds like video game music and I think she was breathing in that squeaky-voice gas before she started recording. And half of it's in english or jibberish or something. Why couldn't they listen to something good at least?

... I think I made a bit of a fool of myself today.

Well, I didn't get to see the news last night - Tamiko watchin some english-subbed movie about a sinking boat - and when I got into class, someone had taken my seat, off I go to another one...

Me - "Does anyone sit here?"
One of the sparkly girls (don't ask why I call them that, I just do) - "Well, Eri..."
Me - "Is she in today?"

Don't you just hate those long, awkward silences? I do. I really do. I don't think that girl's talking to me. Well. I mean she didn't talk to me before, but the silence is kinda ominous now.

I really can't believe she's dead - Eri Fujimoto, that is. It's like I still expect her to come in late one morning, and then I realise she won't and it feels weird. Sad.

As you might be able to guess, I'l be going in early to nab my old desk back tomorrow.

God, I've abandoned this thing. Oops.
Anyway, I think I just need something to vent to (and look! All the homework I've been doing word processed has gone and helped my typing skills! OK, I'm not that good, I still use two fingers only.) at the moment. I'd usually go to mum and bawl at her, but she's got other things to deal with. So's dad, really.

There's Yoshi and Akira, as usual. (Yoshi gave me a really awful kick to the shin the other day, by the way, and I guess I could talk about the pretty colours on my leg, but no. It just hurts.) Yoshi's like a toddler, he really is, and Akira.... Oh, I can't say anything bad about Akira - and even that annoys me and I feel so guilty for that.

And Tamiko is - and I feel really guilty for saying this too, I hate feeling guilty all the time - a bitch. She's back home again, her boyfriend Shotaro something having dumped her and thrown her out, and she's spending all her time sitting on the couch, crying, throwing used tissues everywhere and eating ("I'm over 100 pounds I'm too heavy! *munch*"). Mum's really been bending over backwards for her (and ignoring the rest of us, hmph) and she's just throwing it back in her face. I just want her to go away at this point.

And I wish dad would stop expecting me to do everything around here while mum tends to her. I'm already sick of babysitting, and I have Maths homework due. Come on, I got my first A in that last week and I really want to keep it up.

At least I've got tech club and such, although I'm already getting sick of drama. I always just end up sitting and watching other people doing things. I don't think anyone's even looked at me since I joined, not that that's really unusual. Same with tech. So sick of feeling like I have no friends in my class. There's a chat room thing for people from school on right now and I'm in there, but I don't even feel like I can talk to them. It's not their problem, it's mine, I know that much. Shiori's about the only person I can really talk to and... Oh, I'm not getting into that.
There was a fight at some point and I didn't even recognise one of the people in it. One was Han, I know that. The other... Couldn't tell you. I think I'd know her if someone told me her name, but nothing comes to mind. Is that bad? It's bad, isn't it...

I think I'll phone Kitashi, if I can get away from bratface for another five or ten minutes.

I... don't really where the word meme came from, but this quiz thing here looks like fun. Good way of killing time.

( Meme thing )

You know, I told mum that I was using her computer to do some accounting homework, but I finished ages ago and started exploring the internet. It's really intresting - especialy when its not you're computer you're on!
I remember someone in my school class mentioning LiveJournal, so a quick search and up it comes, and it looks like a lot of fun! I'll only be able to update from mum's computer (and she only lets us on for half a hour a day each so she can surf her Yahoo personals or whatever), but still - a journal I know won't get read, as Hiroshi hates computers and Akira's 'not big enough'. Like private, and thats nice.

Anyway, I think my grade's are coming up - the work isn't getting any easier and I don't think I'm working any harder, but my grade's up. Either I'm randomly getting smarter or Kitashi's phone-in-homework-help service is finally paying off. I'd like to think the first one, but who the heck am I kidding - thanks Kitashi!

Oh, darn. Must be off. Yoshi just tripped over a potted plant and he's got soil in his... oh, for pete's sake.

Name: Harue Ito

Age: 16

Birthday: July 16th (Cancer)

Report Card: B

History: Harue is almost always defined by her four siblings. She is not as clever as Kitashi or as obedient as Akira, but at least she has more common sense than Tamiko and isn’t as wild as Yoshi. Or at least that’s how it sometimes seems to her. She often feels that the combined mix of her constantly being compared with them, her babysitting duties and the fact that until a year ago, she shared a room with her sister means that she can simply never get away from them.
Her family don’t live in a small house, and aren’t particularly poor, but Harue and her siblings constantly complain of the lack of space and their parents constantly have to tell them to shut up and live with it.
She has had a fairly uneventful life, although Tamiko, her sister, often makes things a bit more interesting - usually by getting into trouble. Their parents despair of her, but Harue just gets annoyed that Tamiko's getting all the attention for being a bitch when well-behaved Harue's sitting there with an inferiority complex (not that she would put it that way).

Appearance: Harue gave up on dying her hair and wearing makeup a long time ago after it became obvious that her younger siblings were intent on playing vampires and zombies with the stuff – so she sticks with her shoulder-length, black hair and the general ‘natural’ look. She is around 5’4’’, but as the little
height chart stuck to one of the bedroom door frames stops at 4’5’’, she has to guess on that. Harue doesn’t like to check her weight, but according to her weight-obsessed sister, she looks about 126lb. Roughly. As far as Harue’s concerned, her stomach isn’t bulging over her jeans, so she doesn’t need to be
worrying about it. As for her usual clothes style, she wears things she feels the most comfortable in. Usually that means jeans and a T-Shirt, but she gets a lot of hand-me-down clothes, so also whatever her sister liked to wear three years ago. Likes to dress up, but only does so rarely out of feeling self-conscious.

Personality: Having grown up competing for it, Harue can be quite an attention seeker, but doesn't like negative attention – so she often simply tries her hardest to please everyone and can act quite clingy. Wanting to be different from her siblings, she made a conscious decision to only take subjects they weren't interested in. She actually likes Business Studies as she is very analytical and enjoys working with money, and enjoys drama for the excuse to be the centre of attention - or at least that was the idea before she lost her nerve and took off to work backstage, but her main motivation for starting them was that no one else in her family is interested in either. This was probably the only easy decision Harue has ever made in her life, as she is generally very indecisive.
She can’t stand the thought of anyone not liking her, even if she hates them, and goes to great lengths to make herself look likeable. It isn’t often that she’ll say a bad word about anyone. At times, this makes her have - or pretend to have - different opinions when with different people.
Pays a lot of attention to other people - what they think of her, what they like, what they're doing. Hates being left out, but is too afraid of making herself look stupid to talk to people much; her only contact tends to be with people she's already friends with from their efforts. As her relationship with Shiori has begun to destroy what self-esteem she had, she has been a more introverted and even less talkative lately.
In the past few months, she has had little or nothing to do with any of her classmates, including what friends she had.
Vaguely suspects herself of being a lesbian, which doesn't help her self-esteem at all. She is painfully aware that she's never even had a crush on a guy and has only ever been involved with Shiori. And now that the idea's been put into her mind, she can't stop herself looking at some of the prettier girls in the class... which admittedly gives her a lot of choice, and thinking, 'I don't, do I...?'

Strengths:

Analytical: Very capable of using logic to figure out problems or courses of action. However, it doesn't always help her to come to any decisions.

Kind: Although this is often just as much because being kind is a likeable trait than because she genuinely cares. Either way, she is nice to just about everyone, and is often willing to put herself out for other people.

Good actress: A natural talent made slightly better by [mainly watching] Drama Club. Harue can keep a straight face in any situation, can act a role well and is very good at lying convincingly - not that she ever does.

Adaptable: Reacts to change very well - sudden changes in a situation don't worry Harue very much; she simply reacts in kind. In fact, she would rather the sudden changes came and forced her hand rather than her having to make difficult choices herself.

Weaknesses:

Weak-minded: Can be convinced into near enough anything, far too eager to agree with her peers and has little will power.

Indecisive: Takes ages to decide over everything - often needs someone's approval just to make a choice.

Shy: Paranoid about making a fool of herself in front of others, Harue can take ages to ever talk to people - it usually has to be other people who approach her.

Physically weak: Harue enjoys walking the family dog, so has developed some stamina from these regular strolls, but is, apart from that, weak at sports, although too scared of being caught to skive PE.

Overnight Bag: Change of clothes (plus the hat - *points to icon*), a CD player and three or four CDs, a set of house keys on a novelty keychain, a nightbag containing toothbrush/paste, a hair brush, flannel and soap, a couple of paperback crime novels she just grabbed off her shelf.

Family:
Mother - Kaori Ito
Housewife. A rather lazy woman who, from a very young age, wanted nothing more than to have a large number of children, Kaori has managed to successfully delude herself into believing that children are more about games and cute little faces than work, discipline and bad smells. Her kids love her to pieces, but Taichi despairs that she lets them get away with murder.
Father - Taichi Ito
The complete opposite of his wife in that he actually knows what rules are. He certainly isn’t too hard on his children, but compared to Kaori, he’s the Nazi Fuhrer and his children are quite thankful that he works full time as a salesman.
Older Sister - Tamiko Ito
At 19, Tamiko and her twin, Kitashi, are the oldest. She failed the university exams and now lives with her fourth boyfriend in the past year. Her parents suspect her of ‘compensated dating’, but Harue doesn't think she is - she just tends to pick rich boyfriends, is all. Is obsessed with her image and weight, and often tries to get Harue to think in the same way.
Older Brother - Kitashi Ito
Tamiko’s twin brother, although has trouble convincing people that he’s even related to her. Got into Tokyo university and is going into his second year reading law.
Younger Brother – Yoshi Ito
Eleven years old. Is on his school’s basketball team, but this is more because he gets the excuse to ‘accidentally’ hit people over the head with balls than anything else. Is a bit of a bully, but his parents have no idea, so Harue is usually the one who gets into trouble for their scrapes.
Younger Brother – Akira Ito
Eight years old. Quite possibly the Loveliest Boy in the Universe Ever. He’s well-behaved, polite, sweet enough to give people cavities and, although he certainly isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, he tries hard in school and has a talent for music. Harue is, quite frankly, sick of hearing about him, but she loves him as much as anyone else.

Extra-Curricular Activities: Drama club (usually working behind the scenes), tech club

Classroom Behaviour: Harue is an enthusiastic student – she usually has something constructive to add to a lesson and is always attentive. She has a few problems with punctuality and deadlines, but she has a good attendance rate and the work that is handed in is completed to a high standard, although more effort could be put in with certain subjects.

Classroom Relationships:
If someone isn't mentioned on this list, Harue doesn't know them, so she treats them in the same way - shy, polite, eager to please. (Translation: I can't be bothered writing the same thing for twenty odd people)

Ayama Hikari
Talks to her around school simply because Ayama talks to her. Harue doesn't know her very well and doesn't think that Ayama knows her too well either, but will still get on with anone who gets on with her.

Han Hakuba
Barely knows him - has only seen him being a bit of a prat around school. Has no real idea why he's as unpopular as he is, but doesn't like him anyway - there must be something really bad about him that makes him so disliked, right?

Shiori Nagashima
The two met through the tech club and have been casual friends since then, although Harue has been worried of late that she might have a crush on her (it isn't a case of 'might' to anyone else, it's quite obvious that she does) - and not too long ago, the two started having casual sex (if you can call groping sessions in abandoned school rooms/supply closets sex), mainly at Shiori's insistence.
Harue went along with it out of curiosity and out of wanting to please Shiori at first, and now wants it to stop for fear of someone finding out (and because she's pretty sure that when she tells herself Shiori's doing it because she loves her, it's just wishful thinking), but doesn't want it to at the same time - she's worried that Shiori would be angry, plus... she likes it, and knowing the general opinon on homosexuals, that worries the hell out of her.

Aki Zenshima
Another person Harue keeps away from. Doesn't like his elitism or the rumours about Yuzuru and is slightly scared of him, and doesn't know enough else about him to make another opinion.

Shinichi Mutou
Harue likes Shinichi and the calming influence he seems to have on people in general. She doesn't feel as though she needs to impress him as much as with others in the class, hence she is often not as tense when with him - which, granted, isn't all that often.

Reika Takami
On the one hand, Harue is wildly jealous of Reika for Shiori's crush on her, but on the other, realises that she doesn't feel the same way - so in a way, Harue has Reika to be 'grateful' to that Shiori goes to Harue to let off tension. There are times when this makes her quite amiable to Reika, and others when it just makes her dislike her more.

Tatsuya Shirai
Harue likes Tatsuya... sort of. Like with Reika, her relationship with Tatsuya completely changes depending on Shiori, in that when Shiori mentions him - which is rarely in a favourable light - Harue is more likely to be unfailingly polite almost to the point of being cold toward Tatsuya (her way of saying 'I don't like you too much, so please go away'). However, Harue's self-esteem is low enough that when Tatsuya talks to her, she listens, especially when she's helplessly angry with Shiori - and as he's very charming and a flirt, when they talk, she starts to wonder what exactly it was she didn't like about him.

Takahashi Hikaru
Knows him through drama club, but since Harue spends her time doing the behind-the-scenes work instead of being on-stage, where he is, they rarely talk. When they do talk, she sees him as a really nice guy, if a little of a motormouth - but then, the more he talks, the less she has to.