Youcihi woke up as soon as his alarm clock rang and groaned. Was it seven o'clock already? Maybe he would dose off just a little bit...

"You-chan!"

Youchi glared at the auburn-heard girl who had just ruined his chance of going back to sleep. He never liked the girl. She was too clingy, in his opinion. And she was too old for ponytails. She looked very childish, even though she was already sixteen years of age. But since she has become his onii-chan's girlfriend, he must be nice to her.

"You-chan, do you want me to walk you to your class?"

But sometimes she was okay.

Youichi struggled to keep the smile from his face and said, "Only if you give me a lollipop."

Mikan cooed, "Aww... That's just so cute~ Okay!"

"You're spoiling him, Baka." The familiar voice of his onee-chan rang in his ears.

"Hotaru-onee-chan!" He called.

"If you get up this instant and take a bath, I'll give you a pack of lollipops," She said.

Youichi's face lit up and he immediately went inside the bathroom. A pack of lollipops! repeated inside his head. Ruka and Natsume went inside the room and went beside their girlfriends.

"You're good." Ruka commented.

"I know," Hotaru said.

Mikan said, "You-chan's so cute."

Hotaru rolled her eyes. Sometimes, her bestfriend was too gullible. If a cute puppy would tell her to do so, she would feed him grapes and sharen their pencils. Hotaru stopped her thoughts. That isn't logical. And where the heck did I get that idea?

After a few minutes, Youichi went outside, fully dressed in his middle school uniform, ectastic to receive the ack of lollipops his onee-chan promised. Even though he was already in second grade, he never let go of his adoreness for lollipops. How could he? It was delicious!

"Do I get the lollipops now?" Youichi asked, nearing his onee-chan.

"After you eat breakfast," Then Hotaru added, "And give me some too."

Youchi pouted, but nonetheless obliged. He ate his breakfast and gave Hotaru some.

Hotaru fished something out of her bag and gave the deserving boy his pack of lollipops.

"He's going to have diabetes if you continue that," Natsume said.

Hotaru replied, soft enough for Youichi not to hear, "It's sugar-free, Hyuuga. Do you think I would want to make my little brother diabetic?"

As Youichi ate his pack of lollipops, everyone gathered around him, chatting. It was still 07:17 anyway. Along the way, they learned Youichi's history.

Youichi had trusted his mother with all his heart, even though she wasn't home most of the time. He was a smart kid and he read books and he read about kids who had the same problem as his. He learned that his mother was just working really hard to send him to school and feed him.

Or that's what he thought.

WHat his mother was really doing was gambling and talking about what a pain in the butt his son was. Then she would drink all night to forget about her 'annoying' son. SHe never talked to Youichi until she found out he had an ALice. She wanted to get rid of him, and she couldn't kill him in fear of going to jail [again], so she sent him to Gakuen Alice, being really nice all the way.

She was happy her son was out of the way.

Youichi found out about this through a kid in his class who told him about his mother telling his dad that her son was horrible. And he was greatly teased about this. That is, until Natsume and Hotaru appeared. They were his older siblings in the Academy. They treated him nicely and gave him lollipops.

He didn't think of Gakuen ALice as a prison anymore.

He thought of it as his fantasy.

He had a caring family.

And he loved that.