Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I didn’t get much sleep that night. I mean, that’s not really a surprise. My thoughts kept running through my head the entire night. What would happen if they found me out? Would I be kicked out? Immediately sent back to America? I shuddered at the thought of being sent home in disgrace after only a day. I slapped my face and strengthened my resolve. No. I cheated to get this far, I have to push forward. If I gave up now that would just mitigate everything I took to get here. Maybe I was just really bad at learning languages from a book. Perhaps some total immersion would jump start my brain language juices.

Needless to say, the next morning, I didn’t feel nor look my best. Stressing over the idea of being shipped out on the first flight back to your home country as well as sleeping on a three inch thick sleeping bag equivalent will do that to you. Well, regardless of how I felt, it was my first day. And I didn’t have a choice. I had to go to school. According to the letter I received, I was told to visit the principal first thing this morning before class started to get the introductions out of the way. Begrudgingly, I got up, and began getting ready.

After brushing my teeth, I began to put on my tie. You know, before I learned I was going to live in Japan, I had never once tied a tie in my life? I actually had to ask my dad how to do this about a week before I came here when I realized I’d have to wear one every single day. Thankfully I picked up tying ties much better than learning Japanese.

Unable to put it off any longer, I picked up my bag and headed to school. As I stepped out the door and made my way there, I found myself just taking in the sights around me. One thing I will say is that, at this time of the year, it really does match what you see on TV. The cherry blossoms were everywhere, almost as if they were coming directly from the sky themselves. I mean, i’m not normally one for plants, but these things were mesmerizing. So much so, that, just for a moment, I forgot about what was waiting for me at my destination.

As for finding my way there, thankfully, once I got on the main road, there were already several students wearing my school uniform heading in the same direction. So, I kind of just followed them. Truthfully, I could have used my phone for directions, but I didn’t want to look like a loser trying to GPS my way to school on the first day. First impressions are everything. Also, being able to look at the cherry blossoms in bloom rather than staring at a phone was a nice bonus.

Unfortunately for me, there’s a downside to walking while staring at the trees and buildings. And that downside bumped into me right as I entered the school grounds with an audible ‘BOOMF’. I managed to compose myself without falling over, as did the other party involved, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Before I could even collect myself and say anything, I heard an exasperated stream of Japanese, all of which I had no idea what she said.

Turning towards the noise and the source of the collision I looked over and saw a short girl, seemingly about my age. She was wearing the same uniform as me, but of course the girl variant, with long black socks, and a red skirt. She had past neck length blonde hair that was put up in pigtails that came down and almost looked like little drills. As pretty much every person my age i’ve met so far in this country, she was definitely built more dainty than the girls i was used to.

Without even looking at me, she continued on her tirade dusting off her skirt as if I left some kind of dirt on it just from bumping into her. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of what sounded to me like gibberish, she turned to me and looked up. As she did, her face froze as she was clearly not expecting to look up into the eyes of a Caucasian foreigner. But to her credit, she composed herself quickly and coughed into her hand.

She then crossed her arms and stared at me without speaking a word, as if she were waiting on me to say or do something. Standing there with really no idea what she wanted, it was obvious she was getting more and more irritated, it almost seeming like vein was appearing on her forehead. Then, in one fluid gesture, she unfurled her arms and pointed at me dramatically, and with all the gravitas of a theater major, a beam of light dancing off her fingertip in the sunlight, said loudly... “Sorry!”

“Eh?” I froze the moment she said this. T..that was what the big dramatics was for? Her saying sorry? Oh. Well, that was good. She was apologizing. I simply nodded back to her and responded with “Mm. Yeah. Okay.” Well, apparently this was the wrong answer as, her finger still pointed at me, but slowly wavering as her face adopted its own ‘Eh?’.

We both stood there for a moment, a passing breeze audibly blowing between us. Finally, the girl broke the silence as she pointed at me again, this time, a louder, less refined voice speaking. “S-Sorry!” She spoke again, an visible blush appearing on her face, a bit of anger starting to eke through a squeaking voice.

Once again I looked at her like she had two heads. What on Earth was she trying to say? “Um.. It’s okay.” I say again, this time trying to put more earnest feeling into it. However, I suppose this was again the wrong answer as she petulantly stamped her foot and harshly pointed at me again and said almost as if screaming “SORRY!”

“Oh! Wait.” I thought to myself in that moment. Was she trying to tell me “I” should say sorry? Was that it? I racked my brain for how to say ‘sorry’ in Japanese. Um... What was it... Ah! “Go..gomen nasai.” I say, managing to string two words together. Hearing me say this, the girl froze, her finger in mid-air before pulling it back, blushing in an embarrassed way, as if realizing the scene she just put on, and crossed her arms again, mumbling something in Japanese.

However, before our interaction could go on any longer, we heard the ominous ring of the school bell. As if breaking out of a trance, the girl looked up, and quickly headed towards the school, ignoring me.

I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh. “Wow. Great first impression there Charlie. You’re going to make all the friends if you keep this up.” I hitched my bag over my shoulder, and I headed into the school, switching my shoes (Something I learned i’d have to do and made sure to bring an extra pair) and walked to the front desk.

The lady at the front desk was a nice looking middle aged woman. A real mom kinda vibe. She gingerly smiled at me. I assumed she was already informed a foreigner would be joining the school. I gave her a congenial wave and merely said “C-Charlie Miller?” And showed my ID card. She nodded with a smile and held up a finger and said something in Japanese as she stood up and went into the back room.

As I stood there in the entryway of the school, I have to say, I felt a little awkward. I could definitely feel eyes bearing into the back of my skull, other students passing me by, whispering things that I had no idea what they were saying. But, I did my best to ignore them. No reason to bring more attention to myself before my school life even started.

Eventually, after what felt like forever, the woman returned and lead me to the principal’s office. I took a quiet sharp inhale. ‘Welp, showtime’ I thought to myself as I stepped into the office, where a middle aged man awaited me. He gave me a smile which I returned along with a bow. Before I could even say anything, or even stand up, he launched himself into a huge long string of Japanese that I couldn’t even tell you if the guy even had my name somewhere in there. I merely stayed there, bowed, head down, a larger and larger amount of sweat drops congregating on my head.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he stopped. I stood up from the bow and looked at him. He stared at me as if he were expecting me to say something. That’s when I opened my mouth and repeated the few words I had studied last night “H-hai. Wakarimasu... Arigatou” Which literally just meant yes, i understand, and thank you. I cringed inwardly, hoping that was A. Enough, and B, even remotely in line to anything he asked or said.

A few, long, painfully long moments went by before a smile finally broke on his face, and looked over to me, as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He then did something I didn’t expect. He walked over and patted me on the shoulder, saying even more Japanese. I kept any more words to myself as I let him continue. He said a few more things, but nothing that I apparently had to respond verbally to. I simply nodded a few times and he seemed to take that as I understood anything he was talking about. Which I didn’t.

Soon enough though, my torment was over and I was ushered out to go to my classroom. As soon as the door closed, I let out a shuddering breath after making sure nobody else was in the area. I assumed at this point everyone was already in their classroom, so I was going to make a big deal when I first came in either way as the teacher would have to introduce me.

I honestly wanted to get to the classroom as fast as possible. Not because I was in the mood to learn, but I didn’t want other students staring at me through the window and whispering, thinking that the new weird foreign student was late. As it was, my class was on the second floor, so after taking the stairs two at a time, I finally arrived. 2-2. Here’s where I was going to spend the next year of my high school life. With that, I inhaled sharply, and reached for the door.