Summary: "Akamatsu, Sadako is the ghost of Iwatobi High School. She haunts classroom 2-C and if you look into her eyes for more than three seconds you'll be cursed with misfortune…" I wasn't sure how that rumor got started, but I'm just a normal girl. And my name isn't Sadako –it's Sawako.

The Ghost of Iwatobi High
Chapter 1
Kappa in the Pool

Four girls walked down one of the many corridors of Iwatobi High School on their way to class. It was the first week of a new school year, so this group of first-years was still adjusting to high school life and the ways of Iwatobi. They were in the middle of a very heated discussion.

"The Ghost of Itwatobi High? What's that?" One girl asked, the question carrying down the hall to my ears. I didn't know her personally, so her name was a mystery to me. But she was cute, at least that's the word I thought best described her, with a petite and slender frame and her hair, dyed a pale blonde, and layered into a chin-length bob.

Her friend, a tall broad-shouldered girl with long brown hair, replied. "It's a legend here on campus. Akamatsu, Sadako is the ghost of Iwatobi High School. She haunts the classroom of 2-C and it's said that if you look into her eyes for more than three seconds, you'll be cursed with misfortune..."

"Yeah, I heard some stories about it," a third girl with short black hair and red glasses added. "It was during the entrance ceremony last year that a student from class 3-A saw her and he immediately had to be hospitalized."

The blonde looked horrified as she looked between her two friends. "Kowai. That's so scary!"

"–And there's been a dozen or so reported sightings since!" The second girl said excitedly. "You know Yuki-chan, well, she saw the ghost on the way to the cafeteria and came down with a cold three days later. They say she's the spirit of a girl from class 2-C that hung herself twenty years ago and now is stuck wandering the halls; forced to live out her school days over and over again. How cool is that?"

"No way that can be real," The last girl, a brunette with a ponytail, interrupted. "If it were, we'd be hearing these stories for more than just a year. And I'm pretty sure that Akamatsu, Sadako is just a second-year in class C. I saw her name on the class lists when they were first up. If she were a ghost, then why would the teachers put her name on the list?" She asked.

I agreed wholeheartedly with the last girl. Nothing about that ghost story made any lick of sense. And I should know, considering that I am Akamatsu, Sadako. Well, actually my name isn't Sadako; it's Sawako. There was a misprint during my first-year and the name just sort of stuck before it could be corrected. I wasn't sure how the whole ghost rumor got started. But if I had to take a guess, it probably started on the first day of my first year with that misprinted name.

From that day on, I was labeled the ghost girl –Sadako –the girl from the Ring trilogy. That thought made me sigh. I used to love those books, but I haven't been able to enjoy them since I got stuck with that nickname. The four girls continued to discuss the possibility of the school being haunted, totally unaware of my presence. One of them, the burnet with the ponytail, started fiddling with her bag and in the process dropping her red mechanical pencil on the floor. It rolled a couple of times toward my feet and I stopped walking to retrieve it.

"Umm... excuse me," I said my voice wavering as I called out to the girl. The girls stopped and turned to look at me. I tried to shape my face into what I felt was a friendly expression and held out the pencil, "I think you dropped this."

Apparently, my expression wasn't as friendly as I thought it was because no sooner were those words out of my mouth and the girls in question were hightailing it away from me. The owner of the pencil calling out over her shoulder, "Sumimasen! You can keep it!" Then all four of them disappeared down the hall, leaving me to stand there like an idiot watching them go.

Well, that just happened. Again.

I looked down at the pencil in my hand. "But I guess, I got a free pencil now." So there's a bright side.

...

For some reason, people are always afraid of me. I don't want them to be. I just want to make one friend at this school. Nevertheless, I'm in my second year and so far the only person I can get to talk to me for more than three seconds is my homeroom teacher; Amakata, Miho. So I need to start being realistic. Me finding a friend was impossible.

It didn't matter how much I tried to be friendly or tried to talk to the other students, not if they kept running away before I could get a word in edgewise. So I just decided that I was going to focus on my studies and not worry about a social life. It was easier that way too; way less drama. And to be honest, I didn't mind the solitude. As long as I had a decent book and my MP3 player, I was good.

Since the weather was warming up, I decided to take my bento outside to eat. I really like early spring in Japan. The sakura trees were so pretty to look at and the campus had a group of them planted near the in-ground swimming pool. They provided the perfect amount of sun and shade and it was the place that I liked most to each my lunch. Today I also decided to work on my Geometry homework while I ate, figuring that multitasking would save me some time when I got home.

I worked through the problems carefully. Using my graphing calculator to double-check each problem before I proceeded to the next. And it was no time at all before I had finished the first page and had to move on to the back. I popped open my binder and slipped the sheet out so I could flip it over to write on the back.

Suddenly, the gentle breeze that I had been enjoying picked up and blew the paper out of my hand along with several pages of my Geometry notes. I quickly tried to reach from them, though I wasn't fast enough, and the wind carried these pages high up into the air, over the tall chain-link fence, dropping them limply into the pool. "Oh, no!" I wailed quickly closing up my binder and bento box and quickly sprinting around the fence to the gate that led inside.

I stopped by the pool's edge, looking on in despair at my ruined homework and math notes floating on the surface of the water. Turning around to search for something to fish them out, I spotted a pool skimmer propped up by the fence and quickly snatched it. If I moved fast enough I might be able to salvage them before they sink to the bottom.

I skimmed as out as many pages as I could and laid them out to dry on the cement. I was in the process of reaching for the last page when I lost my footing and fell, head first, into the water. My first thought was how cold the water was. There was a reason why the swim club wasn't currently using the pool. My second thought was 'Crap I forgot to hold my breath!' and was by far the loudest.

Luckily, I was in the shallow end of the pool and was immediately able to stand up; coughing all the while. My uniform was soaked, my long black hair covering my face, and the sheet of paper sitting atop my head. I was still holding onto the pool skimmer, so I guess that's something. But sometime between me falling into the pool and me popping back out, a group of people had arrived at the scene to see me in this incredibly embarrassing situation.

The Iwatobi swim club had become something of a hot topic since it was established last year. Being such a new club, no one had expected the members to make it as far as regionals. Their unusual member recruiting tactics –anything from manga-style flyers, to Iwatobi mascot keychains, and the latest stunt at the entrance ceremony where each of the members displayed their charm-points –had become somewhat of a running joke. What I found surprising, though, was that no one had joined since they'd gone to regionals. I thought for sure that someone would've, but so far nothing.

I peered up at them through the wet strands of my hair. Four boys and one girl stared back with equal looks of confusion and downright terror. Did I really look all that scary? It was something that I'd been wondering for a while.

"It's a kappa!" One of them exclaimed taking a step back and pointing at me. "A kappa's in the pool."

Kappa? That's a new one. Still, not sure if it's a step up or down from ghost, however. I pushed my hair out of my eyes, which only seemed to make matters worse.

"What are you saying, Makoto-sempai?" Asked one of the other boys nervously. "That's not a kappa. Water spirits don't wear school uniforms..." He didn't look like he believed what he was saying as he trailed off and looked at me. I stared back unsure of what to do. "–at least I don't think they do."

My eyes flickered over to Makoto-sempai, a tall boy with sandy brown hair and bright green eyes, and opened my mouth to speak. "Umm... I'm not a – Achoo! –kappa," I said around a sneeze.

That seemed to break them out of their trance. I guess, the sneeze humanized me or something because the girl stepped forward and offered me her hand. "Here, you should get out of there before you catch a cold," she grabbed my hand and helped me out of the water.

...

As it turned out, the swim club wasn't so bad. Not that I was expecting them to be or anything like that. But I didn't think they would go out of their way to get me a change of clothes –supplied by Matsuoka, Kou "–Kou! Not Gou," she had said –and help me try to salvage my homework with hanging the pages up to dry and turning on a portable fan. Kou's gym clothes were several sizes too big on me, and I had to roll up the pants a couple times so they'd fit. I wasn't tall or even average height like she was. I was short 152 centimeters; meaning that everyone else towered over me.

And this was especially true with the swim club's president, Tachibana, Makoto, whose height of about 183 centimeters made me look like a small child. Despite his height, the older boy was hardly imposing as he looked down at me. I could tell that he was more of a gentle-giant type; what with his soft green eyes and a smile that radiated friendliness.

"So your math homework fell into the pool and you fell in trying to retrieve it?" He summarized after I explained how I ended up in the pool.

"Yes. I'm kind of a klutz," I admitted embarrassed. "Sorry if I startled you."

Makoto shook his head, "No. I should be apologizing for thinking you were some kind of water demon. That was rude of me."

He was so nice. I don't think I'd ever had someone apologizing for assuming things and I honestly didn't expect them too. I knew that, at least on some level, that I bared a striking resemblance to the ghost, Sadako. My short stature made me look at a lot younger than I was and combined with my long black hair and pale skin; it was no wonder people avoided me. "It's alright," I said.

"Wait! I know who you are," one of the other boys blurted out. "You're the ghost, right? Akamatsu, Sadako –we're both in the same class." He did look familiar. There weren't many blonds in my class. But I wasn't good at remembering names.

Makoto froze and turned toward the other boy. "Ghost?"

He nodded. "Yeah. It's this story that started last year at the entrance ceremony. Apparently, Okimoto Tadashi had to go to the hospital because he got a concussion. When he got back he claimed he was attacked by a ghost. After that, stories started to become more frequent and now it's practically an urban legend!"

"–It's a misunderstanding!" I blurted out, not liking where this conversation was headed, "I didn't attack anyone. I was only trying to ask him for directions. But I guess I startled him when he saw me and he slipped on the floor, that had been mopped, knocking himself out cold. I'm not a ghost nor can I see them or talk to them or anything like that."

It was the first time I was ever able to clear up that misunderstanding. No one had ever stayed this long for me to correct them and I was grateful that I finally got the opportunity. Everyone was quiet for a few seconds, then the air shifted and whatever tension arose evaporated instantly when Makoto started to laugh.

"I'm sorry, Akamatsu-san," he chuckled. "It's just that story –pft... how can such reputation be derived from that?" His eye sparkled with mirth, while he looked down on me.

Meanwhile, the blond boy pouted. "Aww...really? I was hoping the school was hunted, but I guess it's just a normal high school."

He looked so disappointed. I couldn't deny that going to a hunted high school would be kind of fun; if you were into that sort of thing. Then to find out it wasn't being similar to finding out that Santa Clause was just your fat uncle Charlie wearing a beard. "Sorry," I said.

"That's not something you need to apologize for," said another boy, with blue hair and glasses. He looked familiar too and I thought his name was Ryu-something-or-other.

"Hey, Sadako-chan!" The blond called out causing my eyes to flicker over to him. "Are you in any clubs?"

"No, I'm not," I replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Then would you like to join the swim club?" He asked. "If you join, you'll get this Iwatobi mascot keychain!" He held up a wooden keychain that looked like a baby chicken crossed with a penguin and talons like an eagle. The tiny figurine was painted a bright yellow with a tiny blue Speedo. It was cute, in an offbeat sort of way.

"Nagisa-chan! No one wants that thing," Kou yelled.

The blond, Nagisa, turned to wave the keychain around in her face. "Why not? It's cute! And Haru-chan spent a lot of time making these. The least we can do is give them out."

From the corner of the room, the boy that had been strangely quiet throughout this whole incident finally spoke up. His deep blue eyes sparked resolutely as he looked over to Nagisa. "I told you not to call me Haru-chan," he said.

I didn't know what to say to anything going on in front of me. How did my day turn out like this? I just wanted to do my homework during lunch. It wasn't that I was opposed to joining the swim club or anything like that. I could swim just a well as the next person, however, I didn't know the first thing about competitive swimming. Also, I wasn't very athletic as most of my time was spent hold up in my room reading, playing video games, or sketching on my drawing tablet. But these people were the first friendly faces I had met since I'd moved to Japan a year ago. It'd be pretty stupid for me to throw away this opportunity to make friends.

"I-I'll do it. I'll join," I said nervously twisting my hands in my lap.

"Really? You will?" Makoto looked at me in disbelief. I guess, they really didn't get many people interested in the club.

"Yes." Then releasing an uneasy breath of air, I continued, "Although I'm not athletic and I don't know anything about competitive swimming."

Haru fixed me with a level stare. "But can you swim?"

I nodded.

"Then that all you need to know!" Nagisa responded loudly, "We can teach you the rest." He walked over to me and placed the Iwatobi keychain in my hand. "As promised, one mini Iwatobi-chan for you," he winked. The little bird stared up at me from my hands and for a second I thought it was almost smiling. So now I've joined the swimming club and something told me that my life was about to get a lot more exciting, but I couldn't find it in myself to care. And I didn't even look up when Kou yelled.

"No one wants that stupid keychain!"

I did though. I wanted it.

A/N: Thank you for reading this first chapter. I got this idea in my head because I was watching Free! and Kimi ni Todoke at the same time. And I thought to myself what if someone like Kuronuma Sawako was in Free! and one thing leads to another and this story idea was born. In a way, it's kind of a crossover as my Sawako is based on that character, although they're not exactly alike.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this. I'm thinking about making it a possible Rin/OC story, but it could also turn into a Makoto/OC or a Nagisa/OC too. Until I decide what pairing I want to do, I'm just not going to put pairings. Nonetheless, I am open to suggestions so if you guys want a particular pairing you can put it in the reviews.

Please leave any thoughts, comment, or critiques in the reviews. Constructive criticism is always encouraged and sought after by me.