I woke up with this stinging pinch on my cheek. Out of instinct, I slapped my cheek, and when my vision cleared up, I could see the squished orange insides of the perpetrator. "Gross..." I groaned. My first morning in a new page of my life and I was kissed awake by a pesky mosquito. Good morning to you too.

I was forced to get up from bed and tried my best to stay conscious as I dragged my feet to the bathroom. When I entered the bathroom, I was greeted with a colony sea shells. The shower curtains were shell patterned, the window sill and toilet had shells sitting on them, and a few shell portraits hung on the walls. A shelly shelled world.

It wasn't that I was too tired, but would rather quickly wash big guts off my hand than to care about my uncle's house decorating taste. I let the cold water run as I scrubbed my hand with a shell-shaped soap.

***

After sleeping the second time, I finally got up, brushed my teeth and hair, and went into my wardrobe. There were still large gaps between hanged clothes since I could only bring so much with me, but at least they were the outfits I needed. Maybe I could find a part time job here so that I'll be able to afford my own clothes.

I pulled out a nice, knee-high white sundress with flowered frills at the hem. I took it off the hanger and let the dress fall down on me with my arms up. Once I was fully wearing it, I tied a blue ribbon belt around my waist. I put on my sun hat, grabbed my satchel, then headed down stairs.

When I came down, Uncle Ansem appeared to be in a hurry. He was panicking as he savaged through his cabinets and piles of files, picking out different papers from different spots. "Good morning, Naminé," my uncle greeted while still on his egg hunt. "I'm terribly sorry. I wanted to show you around town myself today, but something urgent happened at the lab, so I need to get there as soon as possible." He straightens his stack of papers by tapping them on a desk, then he lifted up a brown brief case. "Will you be all right?"

"Oh yeah, I'll be totally fine, Uncle. You can go ahead," I encouraged. "I can go exploring myself."

"Okay. Most of the townspeople are nice, but watch out for shady characters. And keep an eye out for gangs," he said as he was trudging toward the door."

"Don't worry, I will." This was the first I ever heard of Destiny Islands having street gangs. I always thought it was a peaceful place.

"There are bagels in the kitchen," and with that last note, he shut the door behind him. The house became silent with nothing but the bubbling of the fish tanks.

When I walked outside of the house, I could see the town from where I stood. The breeze softly blew my golden locks behind my shoulders. The air smelled fresh with a hint of seasalt. I set out with my head high and a positive attitude. It felt like a really nice day today.

Out in the market streets, vendors were singing the products they were selling at their carts and under their tents. There were many giftshops filled with Destiny Island knick-knacks, beach wear, ti di  shirts, flowers, and of course, sea shells. There was this one custom made shell charm that caught my attention. It hung on twine on a nail at the wooden corridor of a shell shop, over a basket of its kind. Five Thalassa shells were sowed together, forming a shape of a star. When I observed it in my hand, the merchant noticed my interest.

"That's a Wayfinder you got there," he informed in a raggedy voice while pointing at the merchandise. He was tanned to almost brown, wearing a white cap with an apron to match. "Ever heard of one of these before?"

I shook my head in response. It was my first time seeing one. He continued, "These are good luck charms. Authentic ones like these are really genuine. If you an' a friend hold one a' these each, you'll be bound together forever. Buy two for five dollars."

I waved him off. "Thanks, but I'm not interested.

As I walked around spectating, I caught a glimpse of someone painting in front of a fountain. I couldn't resist. I approached the old woman with the grey hair bun in the lavender dress, who held the paint brush in her hand. I peeked at her painting curiously.

She was painting a portrait of the fountain with water colors, even capturing the pigeons in the image. Each stroke of the blue liquid pigment was like actually watching the two-dimensional fountain flowing out water.

The woman noticed my presence and glanced over with a smile. "Like what you see?" she asked.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you."

"It's not bother at all, deary. What do you think of it so far?"

I looked at the painting again. "It looks very lovely. A true talent."

"Why thank you. You're too sweet." She smiled that it made her wrinkle lines stretch.

I wished the nice senior good luck on finishing her painting and headed my way. I decided to return to that beach I came across yesterday, where I saw that island.

I left the town and entered the suburbs near the coast. As I walked down a different path to the beach on a pavement road, there was someone heading my direction on a skateboard.

I stayed far to the right so that he would have enough space to pass me. Out of nowhere, a strong gust pushed the flap of my sun hat over my eyes. At that moment, I was surprised and confused, and that was all that moment needed for someone to smash into my body. He came in with such speed and force that it threw the both of us down to the ground. I fell on my back, my hat being knocked right off. I groaned in pain, rubbing my left shoulder. I heard a second groan. Right next to me was a boy with blonde, spiky hair. His skate board was rolling away as he got up.

"Idiot. Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"Me?!" I snapped back. "You should watch out for pedestrians!"

"If you see a guy on a skate board you should get out of the way. Besides, the wind blew sand in my eyes."

"Well I couldn't see because the wind blew... you know what? Why am I even wasting my time with you." I got up patting the sand off my dress. It was a miracle that he didn't damage me with cuts or bruises. "I can be doing be doing better things at somewhere else."

"Same here." The boy picked up his skateboard, did a short head start and hopped on, rolling away.

"Ugh! He didn't even apologized." I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Jerk!" I hoped he heard me, because he really was. I was having a wonderful day and he just had to sour my mood. He was lucky that my sketchbook was still intact, or I would've broken his skateboard in half.

***

My mood finally simmered down after my walk along the coast. It amazed me how the oceans could sooth me so easily. I returned to the beach to see that mysterious island again. Just as I expected, the island stayed there, waiting for me. For some reason, there was something I liked about that island. It looked like another world over there, like it was straight out of a fairy tail. The beach was totally empty, which was favorable for me. I wouldn't want a lot of noisy, crazy people running around and kicking sand, and most of all, getting in the way of my view.

I spread out my blanket and sat on the soft foundation, avoiding the sand. I pulled out my sketchbook and opened it to a new page. Picking a 2P pencil from my pencil case, I took a good glance at the geography, then started running the graphite across the white space. I started outlining the the large tree in the middle then worked my way down to the construction sites.

I lost track of the time in the real world while I was in my own world. I reviewed what I wholly sketched so far, and it was looking good. I still needed to draw the smaller island, docks and waterfall before going into detail.

I suddenly heard a slap in the water that wasn't the waves. I looked up to see a boy with blue eyes and spiky brown hair. Halfway in the water was a wooden dingy. He appeared be be my age and his attention seemed to be fully focused on me. It felt weird.

"Um... Can I help you?" I asked awkwardly, pulling my feet closer.

"Sorry." The boy seemed to have snapped out of his haze and responded sheepishly. "Uh, no! Don't mind me. I'm just going to that island over there." He pointed at the landscape and started fixing his boat.

"Okay," I simply replied. I guessed that island was not completely forsaken after all.

He had on the strangest outfit. He wore really baggy, black pants with two yellow belts hanging across from each other with red pockets. At his feet were black shoes that were the size for a clown. He wore black gloves with more bands strapped around them, and a silver crown neckless sitting above his chest. Was this the style of all youth in this town?

The boy peered at my sketchbook. "Are you drawing the islan?"

"Yes."

He smiled. "Cool! Can I see it?"

"No! You don't just come up to a complete stranger and ask to see their drawings," I barked, squeezing my precious treasure inside my chest as I shifted it away.

His smile turned into a frown, which somehow didn't suit him. He scratched the back of his head. "Well, if you think about it, artists display their work to strangers all the time." He did had a point there. People who don't know the artist always see their work in art museums. However, I was uncomfortable to show my drawings to anyone. The only people I ever showed my drawings to were my art teachers. "Never mind. Im sorry. I shouldn't have asked something personal like that."

My feelings suddenly transformed from hostile to pity. It has already been day two at my stay in this new town and I've already made someone sad. This boy was only asking an honest question, and a simple no with the proper attitude would've sufficed. I lowered my knees and defenses. "It's okay, you don't have to apologize. Um... My name is Naminé." After I said that, I questioned myself, why did I just give away my name? It's not like I'm going to see home again.

The boy raised his head with a wide smile. "I'm Sora," he said as he jabbed his thumb toward his chest. He seemed to have recovered quickly. "You're new around here, aren't you?"

"You can tell?"

"Yeah. This town of erris a small world, so I pretty much know everyone here. I hope you have a nice stay."

"Thanks."

He began pushing his boat further into the water and hopped on once it was afloat. He pulled out the paddle and used it to turn himself sideways. "Don't worry about me getting in the way of your inspiration. You'll hardly notice me."

"Don't worry, I won't mind. Just do what you need to do."

He turned his boat around with a smirk and started padding farther and farther until his boat safely made it to the docks. I watched as that little person got off and ran toward one of the sheds leaning against a wall of the island. A few seconds later, he came out of the shed that was on the higher ground of the island, ran across the bridge, then sat on the trunk of a horizontally crooked tree.

"Hmmm..." While he was still there, motionless, I returned to my previous page of my sketchbook and moved toward the fragmented island area. I drew the tree and a shadowy figure with large shoes casually sitting on it. For some reason, it was fun drawing out his spiky hair.