"Welcome to Hakone Academy Miss Akiyama, Miss Murakami, Shall I show you to your homerooms?" A lady from the office asked me and my cousin. We stand side by side in our new school uniforms, inside our new school for our last year of school. My stomach flutters with excitement and my heart beat races.
"Yes thank you" We say in an odd unison like identical twins that you see on TV. While we are cousins, we do look quite alike in a strange way, genetics can be crazy sometimes.
"Alright then, follow me" The lady says holding an arm out to a glass door. We follow her out and walk through the empty corridors with our school bags in hand. We climb up stairs onto the higher floors of the academy where our new classrooms would be. The lady walks over to the first classroom in the corridor which has a sign saying '3D' and opens the door.
"Miss Murakami, this will be your classroom" She says to my cousin with a smile. Please don't go and leave me here alone! I want to shout out to her but keep it inside. I can do this, just stay calm and don't make a fool of yourself on the first day.
"Good luck Kumiko" I whisper to her as she walks over to the parted door with the office lady standing next to it. I give her a broad and reassuring smile and she smile back just as big, if not bigger.
"You too, I'll meet you after school" she replies, turning and walking into the classroom with her bag clutched in both hands. The lady that showed us in closes the door and I can hear the teacher introducing Kumiko to the class.
"Let's head to your class then" The lady says as she walks down the hallway past another classroom, some students turned their heads as we walk outside their classroom. The lady opens the door to the next classroom which has a sign saying '3A' and invites me in. This is it, there's no turning back now. I thought it wasn't possible but my stomach almost seems like it could fly away with amount of butterflies inside. The homeroom teacher invites me in with a kind and sweet smile; she looks really smart and kind. Hopefully this assumption turns out to be right.
"This is Akiyama Yuu, she has just transferred here, please make her feel welcome in this class", the teacher announces. Everyone just stares at me silently, possibly judging me as I just stand here at the very front of the class. It's quite daunting and yet exciting to be starting somewhere new.
"Here is your assigned seat", the teacher says pointing to a desk in the second row by the window, it was the only empty seat in the classroom. I walk over, each step sounding loud and feeling like an eternity while the heads of students turn to watch my every move as I go to my seat. At least once class starts I slowly become less and less obvious.
I made no comment unless called on in the classes that followed; I want to try and get my image right on the first day and not stand out too much, just not now at least. Although the classes were long, it still seemed like no time had passed as lunchtime rolled around. While I was thinking that I would be eating lunch alone on the first day and read over my timetable or read a book, a girl approaches my desk.
"Hi Akiyama-san was it? I'm Hamasaki Chinatsu, nice to meet you" The girl says. She looks fairly average in height and has a fairly slender and athletic body. Her hair is short and black with a fringe that sweeps across her forehead.
"Yes my name is Akiyama, nice to meet you, Hamasaki-san" I say smiling. Hamasaki pulls up one of the now vacated seats from the desk next to mine and sits down on it.
"So how have you found your day so far?" She asks and starts to open her lunch.
"Yeah it's going fine, it still feels a bit weird being in a new school but I'll get used to it soon enough" I say with a slight laugh which she joins in with.
"You know what club you're going to join yet?" She asks
"Well… the cycling club I hope" I reply albeit a little hesitantly
"Really?! That's awesome! I knew you would be joining an athletic club with muscular legs like those! It's just a shame that it isn't the athletic club!" She replies in a light tone and starts eating some of her lunch, I'm actually quite shocked by her energetic answer.
"Yeah, my cousin who also moved here is joining too. We've been riding together for a number of years."
"Oh wow! That's so cool!" She replies after swallowing a mouthful of food, I glance around the room in-between talking and eating, only to find someone looking at me. I continue my line of sight around the room to pretend like I didn't notice him looking at me
"Hey, Hamasaki-san, who the guy directly over to my left?" I asked and tried not to look suspicious and seem like I was talking about him. She secretly glances to my left without anyone being able to see.
"That's Fukutomi Juichi, he's the captain of the cycling team, he must have overheard our conversation" She replied in hushed tones so he couldn't overhear.
"Ah okay, this is a bit awkward now, I kinda feel like he may be judging me now"
We talk for the rest of lunch and she also introduced me to her friend Takada Rika who was in the athletic team along with Hamasaki. They are very cheerful, funny and very friendly towards me which is quite a relief. At least now I have friends who seem really awesome to hang out with. The bell for the rest of our classes interrupts our conversation so we all move back to our seats to start the lessons for the rest of the day
