Sketching Tommorow a Clannad fanfiction.

Prologue: The start of change

James Walker was 17 years old. He was of average hight with blue eyes brown hair sideburns a grey flat-cap and a brown trench-coat.

He was on a plane on his way to Japan. He and his mother were moving there from England. He was moving to a small town called Hikarizaka. He had spent 18 months learning how to speak Japanese and had become allmost fluent at it.

But he felt nervous.
"What if i say somthing wrong and offend somone?!" James thought to himself. James didnt have much confidence and had no social skills. He had hung out with only two friends at his school in england for the last 3 years since he had moved from another more rough school before that.

All his friends and memories would all be in the past within a few hours. But he didnt want that to happen. He didnt want to just move on and forget. He wanted things to stay as they were...

This was too big a change. His mother was moving to escape family issues that she had been dealing with for the past year. She had been looking increasingly ill latly and would lay in bed for most of the day. When James would ask what was wrong however she would always change the subject.

James looked out into the sky and the ground far below. It really made him realise how small and insucnificant he was to the rest of the world. Just a tiny speck on an overgrown planet...

"Wish i had a sketchpad with me..." James thought as he looked at the flat ground below...

He put his head against the window and thought about the past. For some reason only bad memories would ever come to mind. He had very few happy memories of his short life.

He slowly began to drift asleep...

He seemed to be in his old bedroom. It was quite small one bed a wardrobe and a couple bookshelves filled the room. The TV lay on one of the bookshelves showing nothing but static. Suddenly the door slammed open. A shadowy man began to mess up the room throwing clothes on the floor and smashing the tv.

The shadowy man began to shout at James in a devilish voice. He couldnt make out what he was saying.

"No dad no!" shouted James

James woke up. He was breathing heavily and sweating all over. James looked around and sighed. "It was just a dream!" he thought.

His mother sat in the seat next to him fast asleep.

His mother "Victoria" was a short woman with black greying hair and rather large glasses. she had started to look older than she actully was due to all the stress.

"I wonder what she's dreaming about?..." James thought to himself.

Hours later they arrived in Japan at last. It was a rush to get all their bags and themselves off the plane and outside of the airport as quickly as possible. Japan was known for its tight schedules.

They took a Taxi into the town although James was unhappy and nervous about all the changes and the fact that he might never see England or his friends again he deeply enjoyed the sights. Lots of buildings trees and feilds covered the area.

It took them several minuets to pay the driver as they were still getting use to the currency. They eventully were able to pay him although the driver seemed pretty annoyed that it had taken this long to recive his pay. After the taxi drove off they began to walk through the town.

Hikarizaka was a pretty busy town full of people and James began to get nervous and started whimpering. Victoria simply patted James on the head "you'll get use to it!" she said to him kindly.

James had to ask people for directions since his mother was still having trouble with speaking Japanese. They were trying to find their flat but had no idea where anything was in the town.

Eventully they stopped by what a appeared to be a small shop James saw the sign which merely read "Furukawa Bakery"

"Let's see if theres anyone in this shop!" James said to his mother. "Maybe they will know the directions..."

They entered the shop. It felt quite cramped due to the small amount of space there was to move around in. So much bread was on display. James took a deep breath as he smelled the scent of fresh bread and then he began to look at what was on display.

Most of it looked fairly were rolls subs loafs and...bread rolls with crabs inside?

James grabbed the grabbed bread to see if it actually was a crab inside. "What the heck?" james said to himself as he inspected it."What kind of people run this place? Very weird!"

James hadnt noticed but a women had come into the shop through the backdoor. She had long brown hair yellow eyes and a large blue bow in her hair.

"Oh hello there!" Jamese's mother said as she waved to the women "pherhaps you could.." but before she could say anything else the woman started sobbing heavily

"M-my bread is weird?" the woman ran out of the shop sobbing "It's no wonder it never sells!"

"Uh oh!" James said to himself

"My!" said Victoria "What a strange woman!"

Suddnely a man came out from the back of the shop carrying a baseball bat. He was a lot taller than the woman. He had redish pink hair and yellow eyes which had a look of firey hatred too them

"I dont know who you think you are kid but knowone criticizes Sane's bread and gets away with it but me!"

The next thing James knew the man had grabbed him by the shirt and dangled him from the ground. "Kid your coming with me!"

James started screaming in panic "PUT MY SON DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Victoria shouted to the man. "ALL WE WANT IS DIRECTIONS TO OUR FLAT!"

Akio gave James an angry stare and put him down "Ah i see...sorry. I'll help you if i know where your flat is"

Victoria gave Akio a piece of paper that she'd written the address down on.

"Hmm...i think i know where that is!"

Victoria patted Akio on the back "Oh thank you mr?"

"Just call me Akio" he replied. "By the way.." Akio said as he grabbed some bread from one of the shelves and put them in a plastic bag. "You can have these for free!"

"Oh how kind!" exclaimed Victoria as she took the bag.

"Oh its no problem" Sanae's bread rarly sells so it will go to waste anyway!"

"Argh!" shouted Akio

James and Victoria looked behing them. Senae was back and had started crying again.

"M-my breads just worthless to you?!" Sanae ran out crying again.

"Oh god!" Akio shouted as he began to grab several pieces of bread and shove them all down his mouth as he ran out of the shop.

"I LUV YOUR BREAD!" they heared Akio shout as he ran outside.

James felt that this whole experience was insane "Um..i think we should ask somone else for directions!" James said as he rubbed his head feeling embaressed.

Victoria merely shook her head "No that man said he knew the way so we'll just wait! You just need to learn to be pacient!"

James sighed and started thinking. Suddenly though he was interupted by what sounded like singing upstairs. He began to listen more closly.

"Dango dango dango dango dango dango family!"

"What a strange tune!" James thought to himself "Ah well who cares!"

They waited for about 15 minuets before Akio and Senae returned to the shop.

Sanae gave them an embaressed laughed "I'm very sorry about that!" she said. "Victoria began to laugh "Dont worry its fine!"

"So anyway" said Akio "I'd better help you find your way to your flat!"

"Thank you so much!" Victoria exclaimed"

"So are you new in town?" Senae asked them

Victoria smiled "Yes we've moved here from England!"

"England ha?" Akio asked "I hear its's a nice country!"

James laughed "Haha! It is! But we've moved because of personal reasons"

"Well its been nice to meet you" exclaimed Sanae. "Oh my goodness! We havent been properly introduced!" I'm Senae Furukawa and this is my husband Akio!"

Victoria put her arm around James "I'm Victoria Walker and this is my son James!"

James smiled feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Nice to meet you!" they both said.

"These two sure are different..." James thought to himself

It took about twenty minuets for Akio to be able to find their flat.

The flat wasnt as tall as those in england and there were a lot of stairs to climb and there was also no lift for some reason. Akio helped with the bags which where quite heavy there were many corridors that they passed and everything looked quite old. They eventully found the door to their area of the flat "Number 66" Victoria opened the door with the key and they moved all their bags into the front room.

It was avarage size for a front room. A radiator was on the wall which needed to be turned on since the room was pretty cold. The carpet had some tears in it but wasnt too bad the wall also looked like it could do with a lick of paint though he would check out the other rooms after everything was unpacked one small window stood towards the edge of the room which had a small crack in the middle.

Akio put the bags in the center of the room and brushed off his trousers. "Say do you need help unpacking?" He asked.

"No no its fine!" Laughed Victoria.

"Um" James started "I probably should have asked this back in the shop but do you have a daughter or somthing? It's just i heared somone singing some tune while you and your wife were gone"

"Oh that'd be our daughter Nagisa!" He showed James a photo of his daughter. He couldnt make out her height but she looked around the same age as him. She had short brown hair and yellow eyes. "She looks a lot like Akio's wife!" James thought to himself "If i didnt know any better i would think they were sisters or somthing..."

He suddenly noticed the uniform "Does your daughter attend Hikarizaka private high school?"

"Yeah" Akio replied "what about it?"

"W-well" James stuttered "I will be starting at that school this monday actually!"

"Ah i see!" Akio began to turn around when he suddenly turned his head "Nagisa's been having trouble making friends for the past year. Watch out for her. Try and be friends with her if your able to!"

James tried his best to hide the fact that he was blushing "I-i will try sir!"

Akio opened the door and stepped outside into the hallway "one more thing!"

"Yes?" asked James.

"You any good at baseball? I'd like to have a game with you somtime."

James began to think about it. He'd never been particually good at sports but he thought he may give it a go "I dont really play any sports but i will give it a go somtime i guess.."

"I look forward to it!" Akio smiled as he walked through the hallway.

"bye Akio!" waved Victoria. She turned to james and put her hands on his shoulders. "Well we'd best start unpacking!"

James gave a deep breath and rubbed his forehead "man this is gonna take a while!"

It took several hours to sort everything out. By the time they were done it was late at night. He'd had to set up all the electrics like the TV and stereo's he put the various pots and pans in the kitchens. The kitchen was far too small and it looked like if too much were to be done in there at once an accident would most likly happen.

The front room now had a sofa a televsion and some pictures on the walls. The bathroom was basically a hallway. Bath-tub on one side toilet on the other with a small mirror looking towards the bath-tub with a sink underneath.

His mum had wanted to sort out her bedroom herself so the only thing he'd had left to do was his room. It took two and a half hours too set everything up.

His bed lay on the left side of the room. A small table with a lamp stood next to it. A shelf with books VHS tapes and DVD's stood on the right side and a stack of canveses sketch pads pens papers and inks stood near the window. A small grey bag lay on the bed. He began to put his sketch pad and pencils into to "This should give me somthing to do in my spare time at school!" James said to himself as he packed all of it in.

He threw the bag onto the floor jumped onto the bed and began to rest.

James was in a classroom tied to a chair. He had been gagged with a piece of duck tape. Three tall buffed up students stood in front of him laughing. One of them opened a window and gestured to the other to boys to come over to the window.

The two boys grabbed the chair.

They were going to throw him out the window!

The two boys brought him closer and began to rock the chair back and fourth.

1...

2...

3...

SMASH!

The glass had smashed and Jameses face had broken glass and blood all over it. He went to the ground faster and faster when he finally hit the ground!

James woke up in a sweat. He'd fallen off the bed and his head felt sore.

"Argh crap!" James groaned as he rubbed his head.

He slowly got up opened the bed covers and crept back into bed. But he began to think about the dream. "What if that actually happens to me? What if I'm bullied by everyone..."

James didnt sleep again that night. He kept thinking of all the bad things that had happened in his last school.

The people who'd bullied him the girl who had used him...

These thoughts continued to haunt James throughout the day. He stayed in his room all day as he felt too tired to do anything else. He wanted to draw sketch and paint but he didnt feel up to it.

The Monday finally came...

" Wake up!" shouted Victoria "ugh" grumbled James

"James get up! Your gonna be late for school!"

"James suddenly jumped straight out of bed.

"Shit!" James quickly washed got changed and brushed his teeth. He then rushed out of the flat "I'll eat when i get home!" He shouted as he ran down the stairs and out of the building

He suddenly realised that he didnt know the way to the school! He decided to go to the Bakery to see if Akio or Senae could give directions.

"It's down that way!" Akio pointed "T-thanks!" gasped James who was out of breath from running to the bakery. James took a deep breath and began to run to the school. "Remember to speak to Nagisa" Akio shouted as James ran.

As he got further and further he noticed more and more people in the same school uniform that he'd seen in the photo of Nagisa that Akio had shown him.

He got a lot of odd stares from passing students due to the fact he wasnt wearing a uniform. He wore a grey hoodie red shirt and blue trousers. He hoped that the school could supply him with a uniform.

He began to get panicky. The amount of people in the school was too much. far more than the amount of people in both his last schools combined!

He stopped by some cherry tree's and began to breath heavily. "Ok calm down! Just calm down!" James said to himself He took one final breath and slowly began to walk up the hill to school.

It was quite windy and the leaves from the cherry tree's were blowing everywhere. kind of like snow in a way. James felt like he had to sketch these cherry tree's somtime...

He Suddenly noticed a girl standing in the middle of the hill. He immedietly recognized her.

"So thats Nagisa!" He thought as he was walking up. He thought about what Akio had said about Nagisa not behing good at making friends. He knew how that felt. Even when he had made friends in his last school he would be alone a lot of the time. He was about to walk up to Nagisa and introduce himself but stopped and hesitated.

"I cant do it!" he though "I just cant do it!" He began to get that feeling whenver he got into a nervous situation. He felt a horrible tingeling feeling in his stomach his legs felt like stone and he began shaking a little.

He took a deep breath and began to continue his journey up the hill.

"Do you like this school?" He heared a quite female voice ask.

He turned around and saw Nagisa but she wasnt talking to him. She was stood next to some guy. He was a bit taller than Nagisa he had blue hair blue eyes and was of average build.

He began to walk further up the hill and towards the school.

"And so this is where my new life begins..."