'It's all a game,' I thought as I walked down the halls of a Japanese high school, stares following my every move. If it had been a normal situation, I would have shouted at the people for staring, then started swearing in my native language. But these stares were orchestrated to be directed at me, a clever plan to break the mold of the strict high school system. Yes, my emerald green hair was meant to stick out like a sore thumb on the black and white canvas, its shorten length spiked at odd angles to look like I haven't brushed my hair this morning at all. Call me a rebel if you want, but this is the only way I could show how displeased I was at moving to Japan. Don't get me wrong, I like Japan and wanted to move here when I graduated, but when I have to leave my friends in the middle of Grade 11, I think not. As a further display of tantrum throwing-mayhem, I made my hazel eyes two different colors; gold and blue. Colour contacts work wonders, and thanks to this beautiful pair, I don't have to wear glasses anymore.
Anyways, off topic. Walking to my homeroom class, wearing the boy's uniform, I was feeling confident that I wouldn't fail to annoy the teachers and my parents. Just as expected, all eyes fell on me as I entered the classroom and the teacher, whose name I forgot, introduced me to the class in a way that can only scream 'I want this b*tch out of me class right now'. He cleared his throat.
"Everyone, I would like you to met our new transfer student from the US, Winona O'Neil would you please tell the class about yourself." Mr. Sensei, as I had now dubbed him, said. A smirk graced my blush pink lips. Messing with their minds was going to be so much fun.
"I'm pretty sure you are smart enough to see the uniqueness of my name and frankly I don't give a damn. Call me sarcastic, call me a rebel. Just don't call me a delinquent. Violence really isn't my thing you know. Neither is stealing. Though... On my spare time I do look up serial killers and cat videos on the internet. Of course, all you losers need to know about me is that I really like my space. You might want to remember that." No one looked at me as I took a seat next to a girl with flowing raven hair and brown eyes, like the fact that if they looked at me, they would spontaneously combust. Like that was ever going to happen. The teacher deemed that it was a good time to carry on with morning announcements and then go straight into calculus math, joy...
Next to me, scribbling notes down like her life depended on it, the girl tried to soak in every word the teacher said. As for me, I was lucky that I was placed in Math 11 IN a semester system. I had already covered the topic that the teacher was talking about. So I took to scribbling on my note book I had used for math back at my old school. Decorations of giraffes, candy and witches created a border around my notes as the minutes ticked by. As soon as the bell signaled the end of class, it was clear that the teacher had noticed that I wasn't paying attention because he called the girl next to me and I to talk to us.
"O'Neil, it seems to me that you already know all about math, so I am assigning you to be Higurashi's tutor. Your grade will reflect on whether or not she is improving. So if her mark goes down, so does yours." My hands clenched at the injustice that was the teacher's judgement. 'What right did he have to deliver such a judgement?' I thought as Higurashi looked between the two of us, eyes flitting back and forth. Her face was desperate, either to try and sort out the conflict or say that she didn't need help, I don't know. I was too focused on controlling the urge to punch the teacher into oblivion to care what the Higurashi girl had to say.
"On what grounds do you have the authority to assign such a thing to a student? Do teachers not have the common decency treat their students fairly and not make it so it might be impossible to ever pass?" I tried to keep my voice as even as possible, but when your new worst enemy number three was standing right in front of you, gloating about his success over you, it was difficult.
"Most teachers would not go as far as I am, I'll give you that. But they don't realize that a student that cannot complete a simple task like tutoring another student, does not deserve the right to go into the senior year." 'Playing the pride card I see...' I thought as I attempted a witty come back.
"Most teachers are better at explaining math than you are. It doesn't have to last the whole school year. In the US, I went to a school where math could be taught in half the time it takes you to teach it and everyone was able to pass with a average grade of approximately eighty percent. Can you even promise those results? And to answer your 'pride card', I have tutored other students. They all passed their classes thanks to their hard work and I." There was no way I was going to lose this argument, Mr. Evil-Sensei-from-Hell was going down! Then the stupid girl had to open her mouth...
"Um, I would really appreciate it if you could help me with my classes. If you can make other people pass their classes, then you can make me pass mine?" She asked as she clasped both of my hands in hers. Never had I seen as desperate as her face was on any of my previous students, they at least had a basic understanding of the subject they needed help with. Higurashi... Higurashi looked like any subject she went into was a maze of endless possibilities and she didn't know which way to go first. I sighed. In that on dead-on look, I was doomed to tutor until the end of the year, where I would move on and she would too. With fatal finality, I said,
"I'll do it."
I was beat by a tag team of teacher and student, two against my lonely one. In parts of my mind, I denied what happened, I was the self proclaimed 'Winner of Arguments, Keeper of Pride'. But now I was defeated. Title gone, infallible not. I was broken from my train of thought by an excited squeal coming from Higurashi, her arms wrapping around my neck in a hug.
"You better impress me, I'm not going to let my grade fall Higurashi." I said, thoroughly embarrassed by the embrace and the smug look on the teacher's face. Damn, I could not keep up my rebellious and sarcastic facade for the life of me.
"Thank you and you can call me Kagome!" Higurashi said before adding, " You should come over to my house to study tonight... That is if it is okay with your parents." It probably wasn't, but then again, I wasn't on the best terms with them right now so I really didn't care what they thought.
"Yeah it will be okay Higu- Kagome." She smiled at me before giving me directions to her house. Little did I know that going there would change my life forever...
Okay, so you are probably wondering why Winona can speak Japanese so well, but live in the US. You will have to wait until later chapters to find that out because I really don't feel like explaining it so soon. hoped you enjoyed~!