I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day
Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
Brrrring.
First day of school.
My eyes popped open and the very next second, I was throwing off the covers and leaping out of bed.
I'm in middle school! I thought smugly as I grabbed my new school uniform and buttoned it on. I caught a glance of myself in the mirror—red hair sticking in all directions, eyes wide and excited, and my new Seigaku uniform, its black fabric stiff and the gold buttons winking from my bedroom lights.
After washing (meticulously brushing my teeth and dumping water on my hair to try and keep it flat), I trooped into the kitchen.
"There's my big middle school-er!" my mom beamed as she stood over the stove. "How do you want your eggs, Eiji?"
"What? Oh, uh, scrambled. Please," I said absently. The anticipation, the nervousness, seemed to swell up inside me until it clogged up my throat and had squeezed my insides into a tight ball.
There's nothing to freak out about! I scoffed at myself. It's just middle school, it's not like I'm getting shipped off to go to college or something…
Thinking that made me feel a little better, and I began shoveling toast and eggs into my mouth. My mom poured me a glass of milk and asked,
"What's the hurry?"
I swallowed a big mouthful.
"There's a meeting for the tennis team before school today." I downed the glass of milk. "They said not to be late."
My mom smiled a little, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Sounds important," she mused. I shrugged, trying to act casual. Really, my insides would start jumping all over the place whenever I thought about the Seigaku tennis team, or tryouts, or what it would feel like to play a match against a senpai—
"Do you love tennis, Eiji?" I froze mid-chew to look at my mom. She was rarely this mellow, staring off into space as if caught up in a faraway memory. My mind whirled as I slowly chewed, biding for more time.
"What's your definition of 'love'?" I asked warily, preparing myself for one of my mom's long rants.
Her eyes slowly focused back to the present, and she smiled at me.
"Like…if from now on, you lost every single tennis match you played, would you still continue?"
I pushed my eyebrows together into a frown. Even though this was hypothetical, imagining that type of scenario was painful. The worst thing about it, I thought, was that you knew you were going to lose—so what was the point of trying?
"I…" I grimaced.
"Your expression tells me everything." My mom leaned forward and crossed her arms on the table. "You play tennis to win."
"Tennis is about winning," I heard myself say. To the extent of my knowledge, that was true; but my mom sighed in an Alright, we'll see about that kind of way, and there was an odd twinkle in her eyes. She stood up and took my empty plate and glass to the sink, and I took it that the conversation was over.
When I happened to take a glance at the clock, I automatically jumped up.
"I'm going to be late!" I cried frantically, snatching my backpack from the ground and running to the front door. Stuffing my feet hastily into a random pair of shoes, I was about to call a goodbye to my mom when she followed me out of the kitchen.
"Hold out your hand," she told me, her voice soft. As I did, she raised her arm and dropped something into my palm.
At first I thought it was a coin, but then remembered that coins aren't gold. On closer inspection, I found a maneki neko* delicately engraved on each side.
"What is this?" I asked curiously, forgetting that I was in a hurry.
"This belonged to my grandmother. It was sort of her lucky token before she gave it to my mother, and so on. I don't know if you believe in this sort of thing, but I wanted you to have it." She patted my hair affectionately. "You're supposed to carry it around with you, and it brings you good fortune."
"But…I'll lose it," I admitted meekly. "I think you should hold on to it." I had given up completely on the idea of getting to the tennis meeting on time. My mom chuckled.
"That's another strange thing about this token—it never gets lost. Well, it does, but it always gets found or just mysteriously shows up somewhere after a few days. Strange, isn't it?"
"Does this really give you good luck?" I asked, flipping the coin thoughtfully between my fingers. My mom shrugged, but smiled warmly.
"Why don't you find out for yourself? At the end of middle school, you can come tell me if it worked or not." I gave her an incredulous look.
"Like we'll be able to remember! There's kinda three years in between, oka-san." My mom's topaz eyes grew soft, and a knowing, bittersweet smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
"You'll be surprised at how fast three years pass, Eiji. It'll just fly by you." She spoke in a sad, hushed tone, adjusting the collar of my uniform. Then she seemed to snap out of it and looked me over one more time. "Well, you better get going! Don't you have that tennis meeting?"
I scowled as I threw the maneki neko token into the air and caught it again.
"It's probably already almost over by now." Surprisingly, my mom laughed and gave me a little push towards the door.
"You'll make it! The clock in the kitchen is ten minutes early this morning!"
"Oh!" A wave of relief, mingled with the annoyance that she hadn't told me this earlier washed through me, as I dropped the maneki neko safely into my pocket. "I gotta go then! Bye, oka-san!"
"Enjoy yourself!" she laughed, and then I was out the door and under the open blue sky.
I started jogging towards Seishun Gakuen, my whole body so light I felt I could just sprout wings and fly. As I ran, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my newest possession.
"This belonged to my grandmother…" I wondered how an heirloom passed down four generations could still look so new and perfect. I held up the little coin so that it caught a ray of sunlight and flashed a vivid gold. It was surprisingly heavy for such a small, thin piece of metal. The tiny cat smiled down at me.
"You're supposed to carry it around with you, and it brings you good—"
CRASH.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" As my head was raised to look at the maneki neko, I had crashed into a boy walking in front of me. Now we both lay sprawled on the ground, and he had dropped his book. I quickly jumped up and helped him to his feet.
"I'm fine, it's alright." He smiled at me, and stooped to pick up his book, which was open and facing down. I caught a glance at the cover, and it made me start:
How to Improve in Doubles, it printed in big black letters, and there was an illustration of two tennis rackets.
"You play tennis?" I blurted, staring into the boy's dark green eyes. He looked a little taken aback at first, but nodded.
"I'm in the tennis club. Oh yeah—" he smiled as he extended a hand, "I'm Oishi Shuichiro, first year. Glad to meet you!"
"I'm Kikumaru Eiji," I replied, shaking his hand. "I'm a first year, too! And I play tennis!"
Oishi's eyes widened with surprise.
"What a coincidence! Well, at least I'll know one person now," he chuckled. I grinned, too; it really was lucky that—
"Wait!" I suddenly gasped, my stomach dropping. I looked down at the ground all around me. "Where's my maneki neko?"
"Huh?" Oishi asked, looking very worried. "Did you lose something?" I nodded frantically, eyes glued to the ground, searching for a glint of gold against the gray cement.
"It's-a-little-gold-coin-with-a-maneki-neko-on-it," I said without pause. Now I was really going to be late for the meeting, I had held up Oishi, and I had managed to lose a four-generation family heirloom after holding it for five minutes.
Looks like I didn't need the next three years to know if this lucky token worked or not.
"I'll help you," Oishi said, stooping down to search the ground. "Is it—"
Clink. We both froze at the sound.
"It fell out of my doubles book!" Oishi cried, and bent down to pick it up. "Is this it?"
And there it was, gleaming and golden in the center of Oishi's palm. Relief swept through me as I took it and stowed it away carefully, deep into my pocket.
"Thank you so much!" I gave a little bow to Oishi, immensely grateful that he had been so friendly.
"No problem!" he grinned. "What are teammates for?" Then he smiled ear-to-ear and waved around his tennis book. "Come on, I think we're late!"
"Oh yeah, right!"
So Oishi and I ran towards Seigaku, between us the small but comforting reassurance of something golden.
I'm glad I met Oishi, I thought to myself.
。。。。。
And three years later, I'm thinking the same.
*mankei neko is Japanese for "fortune cat"
Beginning lyrics of "Friends Forever" by Vitamin C
Review please? :]