Chapter 3 - The First Day of Classes Part 1

“Look out!” she screamed.

That’s when I woke up. Frightened, I screamed too. I dreamt about that day again, as if it hadn’t replayed in my mind a thousand times already. My alarm blared through my AirPods as I looked over to see if Toma was awake. Thankfully, he was still passed out on his bed. Man, that guy sleeps like a rock, I thought to myself.

I put my AirPods back into their case and got out of bed to change clothes. I opened my drawers and grabbed a pair of shorts, some Under Armour, and a lightweight T-shirt. I grabbed my running phone sleeve along with my key card and headed for the door.

I didn’t really think about how well today was going to go—whether I’d embarrass myself or actually keep up with the rest of the team. As much as I’d love to run for the cross-country team, I wouldn’t have minded running just for fun if I didn’t make it.

I stepped outside the building and saw the sun beginning to rise over the trees in the distance. It was definitely fall. The sun rose later every day, and it seemed like things were getting darker and darker as the season went on. But that also meant I’d probably be able to ski sometime soon, which I was excited for. I wasn’t amazing at skiing, but I could do some of the harder courses, which made it fun.

After a short walk, I made it to the auditorium, where five other guys were already at the entrance getting ready to run. One of them was Ita.

“Hey, Yamamoto,” I said as I walked toward the group.

“Hey, Joshua,” he said, waving. The others turned toward me. Their eyes weren’t judging—more like they were just curious who showed up, not caring if I was good or not.

I stepped up to them, and Ita said, “This is Joshua, the guy I was talking about. He wants to try to join the team and at least join in on this run. Oh, and I guess, Joshua, let me introduce you to the guys. This is Haruto Nishimiya. He’s the team captain, and he’ll be leading our run. Ren Takahashi—he’s our ace runner, but he usually keeps to himself. This one’s Kaito Fujimori.”

“Hello,” Kaito said.

“Hello,” I replied.

“And finally, Shun Odagiri,” Ita finished.

“Well, it’s really nice to meet you all,” I said. “I hope I’m able to join the team and run with you guys more.”

“All right,” Haruto said, “so I’m guessing Ita already told you how we do our runs here?”

“Yeah, I guess so. He just said we were gonna do an easy 4-mile run today.”

“Well then, I guess not,” Haruto said, shooting Ita a glare. “Almost all of our runs are done in groups of two, so we’re able to bond together as both a team and individually.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” I said. “But that sounds all right. So I’ll go with Ita since I know him.”

“No, I don’t think that’d be a very good idea,” Haruto said. “How about you go with Shun? I’ll go with Kaito. And Ita, you go with Ren.”

“Sounds good,” Shun said.

“Same here,” Ren added.

“And same here,” Kaito said.

“You guys can decide where to go—either a pre-planned route or an out-and-back for two miles,” Haruto said. “All I’m gonna say is that this should be about medium effort for everyone. Don’t push yourselves. Annnnnd break.”

Everyone went toward their partners, including me. Shun seemed pretty nice, but I couldn’t really figure him out yet. He wasn’t energetic, but he wasn’t nervous or timid either. He was pretty short, 5 feet maybe a little taller, with a buzz cut.

“So, where do you want to go?” I asked him.

“I have a good idea,” he said. “How about we do two laps around campus? Each lap is about two miles.”

“Really? Wow, I didn’t know the campus was that large. Though I guess since there’s so many students and everyone has their own dorm, it makes sense why campus is this big. Yeah, that sounds good.”

“All right. I’m ready when you are,” he said.

“Well, I’m ready. So let’s get right to it.”

I started my watch as we took off heading towards the gate. For a moment, I was worried about how fast we were going to be able to go. He seemed at least a second-year, maybe even a third-year. Who knows how much faster he was than me? If he was too much faster than me, then I might be kicked out after the first practice. But I can't just let that happen. So I decided that I should stick with him no matter what, no matter how hard it felt. Even if I felt like I couldn't move my legs anymore after this run.

“So, why do you want to join the cross-country team?” Shun asked.

“Well, I ran cross-country in middle school, and I was half-decent. I just enjoy running overall.”

“How do you like school here? I mean, we haven't even started our first day yet, but you're a foreigner, so I guess… what do you think of the country so far?”

“I mean, it's all very different. I guess that's the only way I can really talk about it. Everything isn't the same as it was at home, and… I mean, that's kind of what I expected. But I guess it's a lot more than I thought it was going to be.”

“Yeah, I've always wanted to visit America. Just never really had the chance to.”

“Trust me, man, with everything that's going on right now, maybe you should take a hiatus on that,” I said. “Anyways, why do you run?”

“I'm not really sure. I mean, my family are all runners. I guess that just really meant that I had to be…” he said almost shyly.

“Makes sense. How fast do you usually run in races?”

“In the 5K, my PR is currently sitting right around 18 minutes. For being a second year, that's pretty good, but still I'm nowhere near as good as some of the best people.”

“I mean, that's better than me. The best I was able to put up was 21. But… I mean, still, that was pretty good for middle school and as a first year. I mean, it's not horrible, but I just need to improve quite a bit.”

“Yeah, I think if you're able to run about under 20 minutes, you'll be on the team.”

“Sweet, so then I'll try to shoot for that. I've been thinking about doing runs on my own to try to get a certain goal time so I could join the team.”

“Yeah, just don't push yourself too much. Injury is very common in this sport.”

“I mean, I know. Everybody got injured on my team last year—shin splints, cramps, even a broken leg.”

“A broken leg? How does that even happen? Was it during practice?”

“That's the funny thing, it wasn't even during practice. At one of our team dinners, he jumped trying to get on top of the trampoline, but then he slammed his leg straight into the metal bar on the side.”

“Hahahaha,” he laughed. “There's absolutely no way that's real.”

“There’s no way, man.”

“That’s exactly what happened. I was there. We had to call an ambulance and everything.”

We both continued to laugh as we made it to the first mile in our run.

“8:40 pace. How do you feel? Because I'm feeling completely fine to go even faster if you want.”

“I mean, I feel completely fine as well. If you want to go a little faster, maybe like 8 flat.”

“Sounds good,” he said as he picked up the pace.

The rest of the run went really smoothly. I had no issues when running, except for a little bit of discomfort in my ankle—but that was almost normal for me. We ended our run with an average pace of 8:15 per mile. When I made it back to the rest of the guys, I could tell I was a little more exhausted than everyone else, but that was almost to be expected.

“So, how do you feel after that, Oakley?” Haruto asked.

“I feel pretty good,” I said. “And please just call me Joshua. It's really weird whenever somebody calls me by my given name.”

“No problem, Joshua. What time do you guys want to meet up tomorrow, and then what do you guys want to do?”

“I mean, I'd really like to do a super long run tomorrow, possibly as a group, if you guys are open to it,” Ita said.

“Oh, can we do hills?” Kaito asked.

“Are you insane, or are you just stupid?” Shun asked. “Who in their right mind actually likes hills, Kaito?”

“What? I actually kind of like them,” Kaito said.

“Honestly, I don't care what we do,” Ren said.

“So then, how about a speed workout?” Haruto said. “I mean, I think it would probably be best since it'll be the second day of the week, and then that'll be one of our hard workouts this week.”

“Uhhhhh…” Everyone groaned simultaneously except for Ren.

“So do you guys want me to come tomorrow?” I asked.

“I mean, if you want to, you can,” Haruto said, “but I'd suggest not, since the speed workout can get really hard.”

“Okay, I think I might run on my own. I'll do a hard workout, but not a speed workout since you guys will be on the track.”

“Sounds good,” Shun said.

We all started to walk back to our dorms, including me. I was excited. The first day of cross-country practice went well for me, and I had a long day ahead of me of both classes and then homework.

I made it back to my room, and Tomo was awake. “Hey man, how did you sleep?” I asked.

“I slept pretty well. I guess you already went out and ran?”

“Yep. Could you remind me how long it is until school starts?”

“Classes start at 8:00, and it's currently 7:15, so we have 45 minutes.”

“Sweet. That's the perfect amount of time I need to take a shower.”

“Alright, I just think I'm gonna get a head start. I'm gonna head out here in a minute.”

“Sounds good,” I said as I bent down in my dresser to grab some clothes. “I guess I'll see you at school.”

“Yeah, and if not, I'll see you tonight then.”

“Make sure not to bomb any classes or something on day one.” I closed my dresser and started to head towards the bathroom.

“Haha,” he said. “I'll try not to, but there's no promises.”

—

The bell rang for the first period/homeroom and a tall woman with long black hair and glasses walked in.

“Good morning, class. My name is Dr. Aizawa, and you will refer to me as such for as long as you are in my class. I will be your homeroom teacher as well as your geography teacher.”
Well that’s just awesome only five seconds into class, and she was already scolding us.

“You are all here for a reason, and now you have to prove it with your classes. All of you are taking extremely hard classes taught by the best teachers in Japan,” she said. “So act like it.”

As I looked around, I saw probably 20 other kids in class. I was seated off to the left towards the windows, about midway through the desks. Not too far back, but not in the front. There were 10 other classes just like this for the first years alone. That meant that there were about 600 kids in the entire school.

If you put 600 kids in dorms, 2 stories tall with about 10 dorms per building on top of a track, tennis courts, etc., yeah I guess it does make sense why the campus is that big.

“For our first lesson today, we are going to talk about just some basic geography in North America. Starting with Canada.”

As much as I love geography, I don’t think Dr. Aizawa will be the greatest teacher. Sure, she is an incredible teacher, but she teaches in colleges, and high school is going to be a huge change of pace.

“As you can see, Canada is pretty mountainous when excluding the extension of the Great Plains that stretches through the Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces. Now, the majority of the Great Plains is in the United States. Now can anyone name the two large mountain ranges that are in the United States?”

Immediately, you could see a million hands shoot up all wanting to say the answer. Wow, this really was a prestigious high school. Everyone wants to participate. Although this could be just a Japan thing.

“Yes, you in the back,” Dr. Aizawa pointed toward the person behind me. I looked back. She had short blonde hair. I thought that I recognized her.

“The Appalachians in the East and the Rockies in the West,” she said proudly.

That’s when I realized she was at the restaurant the day before. She was in the booth right next to us. Wait—does that mean she might’ve heard us then?

“Correct. Now what is your name?” Dr. Aizawa asked.

She quickly replied, “My name is Ohka Suzuki.”

“That was correct, Suzuki. Now can anyone tell me about two smaller mountain ranges that also are included in the Rocky Mountain Range?”

Again, almost everyone in class raised their hands, including me this time.

“Mmm… how about you. You’re that foreign boy from America, right?”

“Yes, I am. The two ranges you are referring to are the Sierra Nevada range in California and the Cascade range in the Northwest.”

“Yes, that is correct. Now what is your name as well?”

“I’m Joshua. Joshua Oakley.”

“Now, can anyone tell me anything about the disparity in population in the Americas?” she asked.

Everyone’s hands went up again. I felt sort of weird. I had answered the question flawlessly, but it still felt like there could have been more that I had done. Overall, though, it seemed like this school year I wouldn’t be as much of a loner as I was in middle school.

—

I looked up to the menu to see what I could possibly order. Nothing was what I had recognized. I didn’t really like Japanese food. Really, at all. I never really loved noodles all that much. I hadn’t had ramen all that often, and rice was my worst enemy. Though I did need to eat something, as I had run that morning. I decided that a chicken teriyaki bowl was probably the best way to go. I had seen it served at my middle school. I heard that it was above average, but it was American cafeteria food, so it was never any good.

I ordered my food and took a seat in an empty booth that could probably seat at least six people. I tried to see if I could find anyone that was on the cross-country team or Toma, but my search was fruitless. Considering there were 600 people in the room, I wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t find anyone that I knew.

People started flooding into all the booths. As I looked around, it seemed like almost every single booth was now taken.

“Hey, is it okay if I sit here?” a girl asked.

I looked up, and it was Ohka from my class, and behind her was a girl with red hair, who I recognized to be Rin looking away.

“Uh, sure. Why not?” I said as I made a gesture for her to take a seat.

“Oh, hey Joshua,” Rin said to me.

“Nice to see you again, Subaru,” I said.

“Isn't it crazy that all three of us are in the same homeroom?” Rin said.

“Wait, we’re in the same homeroom?” I said.

“Are you that oblivious?” Ohka said, shooting me a glare.

“I guess so. The only real reason I knew that you were in my homeroom is because of the fact that you sat right behind me and you answered that question in geography today,” I said, looking away.

“Hey, what are you doing spacing out?” Ohka said.

“No, sorry. I just don’t really talk to girls all that much…” I said, trailing off.

“HAHAHA,” Ohka laughed at me.

“Hey, stop that,” Rin said, scolding her. “Can’t you tell he’s being serious?”

“Yeah, I know. That’s what makes it funny.”

I started to scoot my way out of the booth only when I started to stand up did I get a response

Rin extended her arm out to grab mine and said, “Wait, please. I did want to talk to you about something.”

“All right, I’m listening.”

“I think I have a lead on who the robot is…”