Technically speaking, Mari's world had always been more on the boring side. Every day was routine. In the morning she would blink back the haze that was sleep and shuffle into her kitchen. There, she would pour herself a bowl of cereal and a cup of milk. She would sit silently, staring at the leaves on the tree just outside of the small window above her sink. It was the only patch of color in the otherwise dark kitchen-- she preferred to sit in the dark-- it allowed her to think better. Most days she would sit and wish that her breakfast moment with the bright window and dark kitchen could last forever and that she could sit in the dark forever. But such was never the case. There was always school. Already the family would be stirring upstairs. Peace and quiet never lasted. But while it did, she would enjoy it.

After her cereal was gone and the only thing left was a memory of the cold milk trickling down her throat, Mari would trod gently up the stairs and change quickly. Grabbing her backpack and stuffing on her shoes, she would finally be on her way to another boring day at school. Later, she would return home, do her homework, and go back to sleep. Another boring day accomplished.

But today-- today, something wasn't quite right. Mari sat, eating her requisite bowl of cereal - it was Special K today - and cup of milk - two percent - when a robin landed on the window sill. It looked at her for a moment as if to ask why she was sitting in the dark so quietly and alone. Mari stared back, spoon halfway to her mouth. They both blinked, and with a flutter, the robin soared off. Mari let the spoon drop back into her bowl with a soft clatter. She realized that she wasn't hungry anymore. Leaving the cereal, she gulped down her milk and grabbed her stuff and headed off to school with her mind preoccupied with thoughts of why a robin had appeared on her windowsill in the middle of December.

Sitting on the big block of yellow metal that some people enjoy calling a school bus, Mari began to forget about the robin as the students around her crowded and shoved. The big yellow hunk of metal that traveled at high speeds down highways and roads was filled with something more dangerous-- adolescent children with no manners nor patience. Mari usually curled up by herself in the middle of the bus by a window. If she was lucky, no one would so much as look her way until they reached the schoolyard. Then the young futures of the world would pour out of that gigantic hunk of yellow and black and wander into a building where "minds are being sculpted and shaped."

Most days, Mari would just sit stone-faced and silent through all of this, silently wishing she could return to her quiet kitchen. She would file quietly out of the bus, obediently following what millions of students had done before her. She was already sinking into the oblivious stupor that students all over the world had succumbed to. It was only a matter of time before her brain began to rot and dissipate as well. At least, that would have been the case were it not for Jareun.

That day- the day the robin landed upon Mari's windowsill-- a new student arrived at Mari's high school. Jareun, a transfer from a place no one knew, and a student unlike anyone else Mari had met. With the arrival of Jareun, the colors of Mari's life, which were slowly greying, being leeched out by the monotony of her slightly boring and routine life, suddenly bloomed and burst back out into vibrancy.