Chapter 22
Mrs. Kondo drops Naoyuki and Ikuo off at the school and waves goodbye as she turns to walk back to her car. “Where are we..supposed to go?” Naoyuki asks softly.
Ikuo ignores him and hurries off to a group of boys standing nearby. Naoyuki frowns and follows the crowd up the walkway. The school is huge – broken up into two sections, from the look of it. I’ve never seen a school like this before, Naoyuki thinks nervously. Once inside, he opens his backpack and pulls out the schedule that his father had procured for him the day before. Where is my locker? Naoyuki looks around at the numbers, searching for his locker, number P548. This is...M126? What does that even mean?
All the kids around him are older than him, and bigger, too. Apprehensively, Naoyuki starts down the bustling hallway when someone bumps him and knocks him over. “Ah! I’m so sorry!” a girl cries. She holds out her hand and pulls him to his feet. “My bad,” the girl laughs in embarrassment, ruffling her short brown hair. “Are you okay?” Naoyuki nods shyly.
“Taki, try to control yourself in the hallway, please,” the girl beside her sighs. “I’m Hitomi Isogai,” she introduces herself. “Taki Soejima and I are first-years in middle school.”
Naoyuki glances around, fidgeting nervously. Middle school? Am I in the wrong place? he wonders.
“What’s your name?” Hitomi asks.
Make a good impression, Naoyuki reminds himself. I don’t want this school to wind up just like my last one. Just say something. “N-Naoyuki..Kondo,” he replies shakily.
“Are you lost?” Taki inquires, picking up on his movements.
“What grade are you in?” Hitomi questions him. “If you’re in K-6, your building is down in the east wing. This school is split up into two buildings – one for primary school and one for middle school,” she explains. “The lockers are also arranged by grade – ”
Taki takes Naoyuki by the hand and leads him away. “I’ll take you to your locker to make up for knocking you down. Will that do?” She takes him down to the east wing and leads him through the grades. “What’s yours?” she asks, peeking down at his schedule. “Fifth grade?” She turns left and takes him all the way down to the end. “Here we are.”
Naoyuki pulls away from her and glances around at the lockers. “Got your bearings?” Taki asks. “The classrooms are down there,” she says, pointing down the hall. “If you want, I can take you to your first class, too.” Taki smiles at him and asks, “You don’t talk much, do you? That’s okay; it’s kind of cute.”
Naoyuki blushes a little and bows slightly out of habit. “Um..thank you...”
“No need, it wasn’t a problem,” Taki says.
Naoyuki opens his locker and shoves his coat and lunch box inside it, then turns and starts out in the direction that Taki had pointed out. “See you later, then?” Taki asks, smiling. “I hope we can be friends!” She turns and starts the other way. Naoyuki hears her cry, “Gah, I’m gonna be late!” then her footsteps tapping quickly as she runs down the hall. Naoyuki grins a little and walks to his first class.
“Ah, are you the new student? Come over here,” a woman, the teacher, calls to Naoyuki. As soon as the bell rings, she stands up and announces, “Class, we have a new student joining us today. This is Naoyuki Kondo. Welcome to our class.”
“Welcome,” the class chants in unison. Naoyuki bows in return. Once his teacher hands him his textbook, he takes the empty seat in the back of the room.
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All the morning classes after that proceeded the same way: an introduction, then opening a textbook and discussing the lesson, then doing some paperwork ‘til the end of class. Naoyuki would then receive a pile of work with page numbers on each one, which he had to complete to catch up to the rest of the class. Very few of the teachers actually took the time to sit down with him and explain how to do it.
As Naoyuki takes a seat in the lunchroom, he peruses the assignments. Some were rehash from his previous school; some, completely new. Naoyuki heaves a deep sigh. I’m up to my neck in make-up work, he thinks, and this is only for my three morning classes. He flips through the worksheets and settles on a set of math papers. I guess I’ll start with what I already know.
“Oh, is that the new kid?” he hears someone behind him ask.
“I hear he’s a brainiac,” another boy says. “He’s so stuck-up, too. He doesn’t greet the class when he’s introduced or talk to any of the other kids.”
Naoyuki grimaces. Aw, man...Have I screwed up already?
“Maybe he’s mute?” asks the first voice.
Naoyuki cringes at the word, but is too embarrassed to turn around and face the kids.
“Wouldn’t he be in special ed, then?”
“You said yourself he’s a brainiac. He’s not stupid; he just doesn’t talk.”
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The long first day finally ends, and the bell dismisses the students from the large school. Naoyuki stops at his locker to pack his backpack when he sees the two girls from the middle school grades that he’d met that morning. He waves timidly and joins them in the hallway.
“Hi again – Naoyuki was your name, right?”
“Taki!” cries Hitomi.
Naoyuki can’t help a small laugh, then nods in reply.
“Hey, Naoyuki, your backpack looks awfully heavy,” Taki observes. “Let me take it for you.” Without waiting for his reply, Taki whisks the backpack from over his shoulder and carries it in the crook of her arm. Naoyuki reaches out for it, but Taki refuses to give it back. “You’ll hurt yourself carrying this thing!” she exclaims. “Just how many books have you got in here, anyway? Too many for your tiny self, that’s for sure!”
“For someone with no siblings, you’re sure a nag,” Hitomi comments. “Is that how you think of your mom?”
Taki blushes. “No way, my mom doesn’t nag!”
His backpack held hostage, Naoyuki follows the two girls out the front door onto the sidewalk. He spots his stepbrother nearby heading for his mom’s car and reaches for the backpack again.
“Oh, is that your parents’ car over there?” Taki gestures over to the car that Ikuo had just climbed into. She strides over and knocks on the window until Ikuo opens the back door. Taki lets the backpack slide down her arm and into the seat. “There you go. See you tomorrow, Naoyuki?” She smiles at him and strides back down the sidewalk toward Hitomi as she waves goodbye.
Naoyuki climbs into his mom’s car and buckles up in the seat next to his stepbrother. “Looks like your new school is working out well,” his mother comments. “Is she a friend of yours, Naoyuki?”
Naoyuki notices Ikuo shoot a glare in his direction. Naoyuki silently sits still as the car pulls away, and his stomach lurches. A friend, he thinks, memories of when he first met Haruko flashing through his mind. My friend is...I want to see her. “Mama,” Naoyuki speaks up, “can I see Haruko?”
“Haruko?” his mother asks.
“My friend...in the hospital,” Naoyuki explains quietly.
“Oh,” his mother says softly. “Of course we can go visit her.”
Mrs. Kondo alters her course and makes a right turn at the corner. “Can you tell me about Haruko?” she asks Naoyuki. “Are you two close?” She briefly looks in the rearview mirror and sees Naoyuki nod his head as he mutters a small “Uh-huh.”
“So she’s a very nice girl?”
“Uh-huh.”
Naoyuki’s mother falls silent as she drives on. A long while later, she finally pulls up in the hospital parking lot and finds a space. Naoyuki and Ikuo jump out of the car and follow Mrs. Kondo up to the hospital doors. Mrs. Kondo stops by the window up front and tells the receptionist, “We’re here to see a Haruko...” She turns and looks questioningly at Naoyuki.
“Miyai,” Naoyuki replies softly.
“Haruko Miyai,” Mrs. Kondo finishes.
“I’m sorry,” says the older woman behind the window, “but the doctors aren’t allowing visitors outside of her immediate family right now.” Naoyuki frowns. “You can bring a card if you like,” the receptionist tells him.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Kondo says politely. “Let’s go, boys.” She takes Naoyuki’s hand in her left and Ikuo’s in her right hand and leads them back outside to the car.
“I’m sorry,” Naoyuki’s mother says. “It sounds like your friend must not be feeling too well. I hope she gets better soon.” She looks back at Naoyuki and gives him a little smile, then starts the car and pulls off. “We’ll have to get her a card after school tomorrow, okay? We’ve kept your father waiting for a while, now...”
Naoyuki curls up and puts his head in his arms. Haruko...
