The trumpet sounded again. Sheeta lazily woke up as the familiar golden sunlight shone on her hair. Sheeta took a quick shower. She used some spare cash to buy new soap for both doing the laundry and for taking showers. It smelled like the flowers back in her hometown. She felt mildly homesick, but ignored it. It took her less time since her hair was only now around shoulder-length. After drying herself in a new fluffy pink towel Pazu bought for her, she put on her new school uniform and a small blue flower hair clip to match. She looked out the window, where Pazu, looking fresh and quite handsome in his new uniform, was busy feeding his birds.

She smiled a little, and ate a sandwich from the table. She packed a new book she chose called "Howl's Moving Castle" in her backpack along with her new notebook and pencil case with a Totoro design. A pink lunchbox lay on the table with a note.

"'Lunch today is meatballs and spaghetti, enjoy! -Pazu <3 P.S. Did you see the new flower hairpin I got you? I thought it would fit your new school uniform.' Aww, that's so sweet!"

Sheeta giggled as she packed her lunch and a water bottle into her bag and slipped on her new shoes. They felt comfortable and fit her perfectly. Sheeta ran outside.

"Morning Sheeta! You look adorable today. I was right, that hairpin did match you. Anyways, let's go to school!" Pazu said after sending his birds back to their cage and tossed them a few bread crumbs from his sandwich.

After walking for around 15 minutes, they arrived at a pretty big school building. Ghibli Academy. It had a foyer like the town hall, and the rest like any normal building, but like 10x bigger! In front of the front door, stood a very familiar figure indeed. Miss Lily.

"Hello there! You're Sheeta, a customer of my hairdresser shop, and that must be Pazu. The 8th grade class is on the 2nd floor to the left. Next to your classrooms are the lockers. Enjoy your school experience here!"

After climbing a staircase. they arrived at the lockers. They were immediately greeted by a girl of similar age with short, black hair and a broomstick. She is wearing the same uniform as Sheeta and has a red bow that ties up her hair.

"HI! I heard you're the new students. OMG! We have matching hairstyles! Your backpack is so cute! Where did you get that hairpin? Can we be friends? I'm Kiki, and this is my cat Jiji. Because I'm a witch, I fly my broom to school. You're in 8th grade too! I hope we sit together."

Surprised by Kiki's cheerful personality, Sheeta sheepishly smiled.

"Hi Kiki, I'm Sheeta and I would love to be friends with you! This is my friend Pazu, and we're both new. Your cat is so cute! Thanks for your compliments, and flying on a broom sounds FUN!"

"I'm Pazu, like previously mentioned. Sure, let's sit together if you want."

The bell abruptly rang. Students started piling into the classroom, which is a small, simple classroom with 8 desks arranged in a 2x4 order. Sheeta found her name tag on a chair in the center of the 2nd row, next to Kiki and Pazu. She set her bag down on the floor and waited for something to happen. Soon more students came piling in.

Then the teacher arrived. She is dressed in a pale yellow dress and a hat. She has beautiful, silver, shoulder-length hair that caught the eye of all the students. She looks to be in her 20's judging by her facial features. She walked towards to the front of the classroom and smiled at everyone.

"Good morning students of the 8th grade class, and welcome to your first day of Ghibli academy. I'm Sophie Hatter-Pendragon, but you can call me Mrs. Hatter, and I'm your homeroom teacher for the year. Now I will take register. Chihiro!"

"Here!"

"Kiki!"

"Here!"

"Satsuki!"

"Here!"

"Haru!"

"Here!"

"Haku!"

"Here!"

"Sheeta!"

"Here!"

"Pazu!"

"Here!"

"Last but not least, our feline friend Jiji!"

"Meow!"

"Okay, everyone's here on their first day. We'll start off by introducing ourselves. State your name and some things you like doing or are good at. We'll start off with Chihiro."

"Hi! My name is Chihiro and I am a straight-A student, but I'm open to new friends."

"Hello everyone! I'm Kiki and I'm good at delivering things and I enjoy flying around my broomstick."

"Um... hi. I'm Haru and I like playing with cats. I do tend to be always late to school..."

"Hi, I'm Haku. Don't get me confused with Haru, and no I am not a girl despite this hairstyle. I like Chihiro."

Chihiro immediately blushed profusely and smacked Haku, who is sitting next to her. Haku winced. Chihiro proceeded to tie her long, brown hair into a ponytail.

"I'm Sheeta, and I'm a new student here. I enjoy and am good at cooking things with my friend Pazu."

"I'm Pazu, and I used to work in a coal mine, but now I only work on the weekends. I'm good with those things, but I like spending time with friends more."

Mrs. Hatter seemed impressed by those introductions. She tucked a loose strand of her shoulder-length hair behind her ear and informed everyone the next class will be starting soon, so they should take out their notebooks.

"MATH WAS SO EXHAUSTING! Algebra sounds so hard..." Complained Kiki as she munched on a sandwich.

"Oh really, was it that hard? I can tutor you if you want!" That was Chihiro, the straight-A student.

"Really? Thanks! Chihiro, right?" Kiki visibly perked up.

"Yep! Oh, hi new students Sheeta and Pazu! Mind if Haku and I eat lunch with you?"

"Of course! I'm so happy I'm making new friends already at this school. You're so smart Chihiro! You're the only student who got 10/10 at the quiz today." Sheeta explained.

"What did you guys get?" Chihiro asked out of the ordinary.

"8/10... I don't think I did well." Sheeta said, slightly disappointed.

"Come on! Don't be like that! I got a 6/10!" Pazu exclaimed, sounding annoyed that Sheeta felt dissapointed.

"Why are you guys sad about actually passing? 6/10 is the pass mark. I got 5/10." Haku sighed.

"Dude, I got a 3/10! That's how terrible I literally did, and people are still depressed about getting a mark 3 times better than mine! Great, now I have to do an extra page of math today." Kiki complained.

"Chihiro, how long have you been in this school?" Sheeta asked as she ate the last of her spaghetti Pazu made for her.

"I've been in this school since 5th grade, when my parents moved and sent me on an adventure where I got Spirited Away!" Chihiro announced.

"Wow, you're really good with words. No wonder you're a straight-A student." Pazu replied.

"And the only thing I'm good at is flying." Kiki remarked.

"I'm sure that's not true! Everyone has their own talents, you just haven't discovered them yet!" Sheeta encouraged her.

"You're right, Sheeta. You're a good motivational speaker, like a walking book of motivational quotes!" Kiki added.

(flashback)

"This is no longer a throne room. This is a tomb for the both of us. You see, a king without compassion does not deserve a kingdom. You will never possess the crystal. You and I will die here, together. Now I understand why the people of Laputa vanished. This is a song from my home in the valley of Gondoa that explains everything. It says, "Take root in the ground, live in harmony with the wind, plant your seeds in the winter, and rejoice with the birds in the coming of spring." No matter how many weapons you have, no matter how great your technology might be, the world cannot live without love."

BAM! Two bullets shot from Muska's gun missed Sheeta, but it ended up cutting through her braids as they came falling down. Sheeta did not flinch, and looked Muska square in the eye. He was going to meet his demise today, even if it means that Sheeta will die too.

(reality)

Sheeta remembered what happened days ago. She refused to collaborate with Muska for such matter. But to be fair, Muska did have terrible aim. At first, all she wanted was to kill Muska for this, but looking back, she sorta regretted dragging both herself and Pazu into this, and getting her beautiful braids destroyed. What would the school think of her haircut? Kiki had the same hairstyle and she looked good, but Sheeta looked out of place in her own opinion. But she didn't mind. As long as Pazu was there to tell her that she was beautiful, she felt beautiful. She felt lucky for such wonderful friends like how Kiki would always cheer everyone up with her optimistic mood, how Chihiro would always be there to help people with their assignments, how Haku would constantly tell jokes to make everyone laugh even about the slightest things. But most importantly, Pazu will always be there for Sheeta, no matter what happened.

Sheeta had a feeling Pazu and her had something special.

"Hey... Kiki, I think I like Pazu."

"Of course you like him! You guys are best friends!"

"No, like... more than friends."

"Oooooooooh! Someone has a crush!"

"Oh don't say that so loud. I'm sure he doesn't like me back looking like this! Even how I dragged him onto an adventure and nearly killed him! How will he like me if I did that to him?" Sheeta told Kiki, about to cry.

"He will like you! You're smart, pretty and good at a lot of things and a nice friend! Unlike me... Look. I have a small crush on Haku, but it is clear that he likes Chihiro more. I mean, it's obvious! She's smart, she's pretty and she helps a lot of people! But I'm so dumb, I look ugly and I am no help to anyone. But I still stay positive and tell myself there's always a chance. Once, I somehow lost my powers so I couldn't fly, but one day when I was saving a boy, I knew I had to refresh my mindset and focus. And at the end I did it and I felt so good."

"I guess you're right. Also, thanks for making me feel better. Pazu will be coming late as he needs to fix a machine in the coal mine."

"Okay. Man, that machine really is trippy! It's taking him forever to fix it." Kiki groaned as she ate another spoonful of rice.

"I know. He just works really hard. But he still does nice things for me. He used his money to buy things for me yesterday. He bought me new outfits, new school supplies, and even insisted to get my hair fixed! He even got me this hair charm I'm wearing! He's so nice, but I never did anything for him... except for nearly killing him."

"If you want, we can surprise him. When I was working in the bakery, I learned how to bake a cake! It's in my bag. Want a slice? We're saving one slice for Pazu."

"Sure!" The cake was smooth, creamy and delicious. Pazu will like this for sure, Sheeta thought.

By the end of the school day, Pazu rushed to their little home. His uniform was all messy with splotches of grease all over the plain, white blouse.

"Care to explain where you went? Spending 6 hours trying to fix a machine? I was worried sick! I wanted to give you this cake-"

"THANK YOU SO MUCH SHEETA!" Pazu said as he snarfed down the piece of cake.

"Pazu, what took you so long fixing that machine?" Sheeta said, changing back into her navy blue dress as she combed her short, fluffy hair.

Pazu seemed emotionless. He looked a bit nervous, almost apolegetic.

"Um..."

Sheeta sighed, as if to say "What are you hiding?", then returned to combing her hair.