Kaori Tachibana's Explosive High School Debut!

“Tachibana-san! Are you free this afternoon?” asked a girl with a black bob haircut.

Kaori Tachibana looked up from her lunchbox in surprise. She and the three other girls had all pushed their desks together to enjoy lunch in the classroom.

“Um, well, I was thinking about checking out some of the clubs today but…”

“That’s lame! Come hang with us today!” A second girl with braids patted Kaori on the shoulders.

“We’ll do some karaoke,” chimed in a third girl with glasses.

“Is it really okay if I come with y’all?” Kaori asked, pushing her brown hair behind her ears.

“Of course! You bought us all lunch today, didn’t you?” the girl with the black bob replied. All three girls had forgotten to bring lunch and had already spent their allowance for the month, so Kaori had bought them snacks from the school store.

It had been one month since Kaori started high school, and she was starting to finally get settled into this friend group. Those three girls had been friends since elementary school, but on the first day of school, they’d invited Kaori to join their friend group.

It had been such a struggle for Kaori to make friends during middle school that she vowed to be more outgoing and open-minded when she started high school. Buying them lunch for the third time that week was just a small way Kaori knew to repay their kindness.

“Sure! I’d love to go!” Kaori smiled. This was the first time they’d invited her out after school, and she wasn’t going to pass up this important opportunity to get closer to them! Wasn’t it better for her to just go along with what they wanted to do?

For the rest of the day, Kaori could hardly pay attention. All she could think about was what songs she was going to sing at karaoke.

“That’s all for today!” the homeroom teacher called out. Before she knew it, the school day had ended.

Chairs creaked against the floor as students stood up. Voices gradually filled the classroom and hallways as students discussed their afternoon plans.

“Ya ready?” asked the girl with the black bob, flanked by the girl in braids and the one with glasses.

“Almost!” As Kaori hurried to put things in her bag, she lost her grip on it. All of her textbooks and notebooks spilled out onto the floor.

A small, flimsy notebook with a pink cover that was plastered with stickers slid across the floor. It landed at the feet of the girl with the black bob.

“Geeze, you’re such a klutz,” the girl with the braids said as she crouched down to help Kaori pick up her belongings.

“My bad,” Kaori chuckled.

The girl with the black bob picked up the notebook at her feet. She eyed it with curiosity as she turned it over in her hands. She glanced over to Kaori, who was seemingly too engrossed in picking up everything to even notice what she’d lost.

“Tachibana! A teacher is asking for you!” a boy called from the hallway, poking his head into the classroom.

“I’ll be right there!” Kaori put the pile of stuff she picked up on her desk and started to trot out of the room. She stopped at the doorway and gave her friends a slight bow. “Sorry! I’ll only be a minute if y’all can just wait.”

She still hasn’t noticed, thought the girl with the bob.

Kaori left the room and slipped out of sight from the other girls. The three of them looked from the doorway to the stickered notebook.

“What’s that?” asked the girl with glasses.

The girl with the bob flipped through the notebook. “I think it’s her diary…”

“...”

“...Should we read it?” the girl with braids asked with a wicked smile.

The girl with the black bob glanced at a page she had open in the notebook. The corners of her lips curled up into a smirk. “Sure. Let’s go find an empty room.”

***

Kaori left the teachers’ office and walked briskly back to the classroom. She didn’t want to keep her friends waiting any longer than she already had.

The classroom was empty. Weren’t they going to wait for her? Maybe they were waiting for her at the shoe cabinets or the school gate? Kaori packed up her backpack with the books she’d left on the desk and picked up a couple loose pencils that were still on the floor.

As she was about to close the backpack, Kaori realized that her very important notebook was missing. A flimsy, paper notebook with a pink cover that she’d plastered in stickers. The notebook that she’d been writing in every day since the year began.

She searched her desk–it wasn’t there. She searched the backpack once more, thinking maybe she’d just overlooked it.

Nothing. It was completely gone.

Kaori’s heart started to thump in her chest. She definitely remembered bringing it to school with her. Did she drop it somewhere? She had put her contact info in the front of the notebook just in case that ever happened. Maybe if someone picked it up, they would contact her…

No. Today was an important day, and Kaori had to share it. She had to write it down in that notebook.

She picked up her bag and left the classroom. Maybe if her friends hadn’t seen it, she could check the lost and found for it before they head to karaoke. Kaori’s heart wouldn’t calm down, and her head felt like it was spinning. She tried to take deep breaths.

As Kaori rushed through the empty hallway, she heard a group of girls cackling as she passed the home economics classroom.

“Wait, wait! Y’all, listen to this one!” a girl in the room laughed. “Dear Mom and Dad…”

Kaori froze.

“Today was my high school debut! I’m going to do my best to make lots of friends and try new things this year…” the girl continued as the laughter was stifled.

Kaori whipped her head around towards the classroom door. No way…

“I miss you both every day…Are you watching me? I hope I can make you proud of me…”

They’re reading my diary…!

Kaori couldn’t see who was in the classroom through the crack in the door–she’d have to open it to find out. But her hand just hovered in the air in front of the door, trembling.

“Wow, I had no idea she was so pitiful…” a different girl scoffed.

“To be honest, I kinda had a feeling. She’s a little bit…y’know,” a third girl said in a hushed voice.

She wanted so badly to just yank the door open and give them a piece of her mind, but instead, tears just welled up in her eyes. These voices sound so familiar…

“They’re all like this,” said the girl who had been reading the diary out loud. Kaori could hear the sound of pages turning.

“Eww! Creepy!” giggled one of the other girls.

“What should we do? Throw it away?”

No…! Not that notebook! If it were any of her class notes or textbooks that they were going to trash, Kaori could bear it. Anything but that notebook…!

CLICK CLICK CLICK

Was that the stove turning on?

“Let’s burn it.”

BA-DUM

Kaori’s heart pounded.

***

The girl with the black bob haircut held the notebook into the open flame of the stove.

“Whoa! It’s really on fire!” exclaimed the girl with the braids as the paper started to ignite.

The girl with the glasses hopped up from where she was sitting. “That doesn’t seem saf–”

SHH-CLACK! The door to the classroom burst open, startling the girls. They froze where they were and looked toward the doorway.

Kaori stood there, watching the blue flames lick an outer corner of the notebook. Her whole body was trembling. She forced herself to take a step into the room.

“T-Tachibana-san!?”

“Th-that’s…mine…” Kaori stammered. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she took another step into the room. The corner of the notebook had already burnt to ash as the flames continued to eat away at the paper.

BA-DUM

The girls were caught red-handed committing their cruelty. There was absolutely no chance of them talking their way out of this.

“Ah!?” The girl with the braids grabbed the notebook and started fanning it out to stop the flames before throwing it into a sink. Glasses girl poured a bottle of tea on it to douse the flames.

BA-DUM

Kaori rushed to the sink and grabbed the notebook. She tried to shake off the dripping liquid before pulling out a handkerchief to try dabbing it off. Kaori held it to her chest, sobbing as she collapsed to the floor.

BA-DUM

“Um…Tachibana…we…” the girl with the black bob stammered as she moved away from the still-lit stove.

Kaori looked up. She was so laser-focused on the notebook that she hadn’t even realized who was in the room.

Why? Why was it them? Weren’t they supposed to be her friends!?

BA-DUM

The girls were trying to say something to her, but Kaori couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in her ears. A painful feeling crept up in her chest and gut. Her head throbbed like it was about to crack in half. Kaori clapped a hand to her forehead–it felt like something was building up inside her.

BA-DUM

Kaori sat frozen on the floor, breathing heavily, eyes unfocused like she was in a trance. The three girls eyed each other nervously and picked up their bags. They slowly moved past Kaori to make their way to the door when the girl with the glasses stopped.

“Ah! Um…We left the stove on…”

The girls turned back to look at the gas burner that was still lit up. Its blue flames started to flicker violently like they were being fanned.

Kaori was still kneeling on the floor, now doubled over and wheezing like she was trying to catch her breath. Her shoulder-length hair and clothes seemed to billow like a strong gust of wind was ripping through the room.

BA-DUM

A lid placed on a pot will make it boil faster, but if you ignore it for too long, it is guaranteed to boil over.

BOOM—

KAORI’S DIARY ENTRY:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I think I caused an accident at school. I don’t exactly know how it happened, and I feel really bad about it. I’m really sorry that things turned out this way. Please don’t be mad or disappointed with me. I promise I will do whatever I need to do in order to take responsibility for this incident!