I WAS ALMOST FUCKING DONE WITH THE CHAPTER AND FANFICTION . NET FUCKED UP AND DID SOMETHING AND I LOST OVER HALF OF IT, FUCKONEISGNJISINGPOIEWSGSRGLKJGRDNOJDSF
i'm just a big fan of picking cliché subjects/plots and turning them into good stories. i might not even continue this at all, actually.
this damn site doesn't allow reader insert nor second person POV for whatever reason (the bastards) so if you want to read the reader insert version instead of the OC version, head on to GOTVG.
they also don't allow CYOAs, so if you want to vote on what happens next, again: GOTVG. or AO3
i'll post uniform refs on my sketch blog. link on profile.
the school here is based on my host school from when i went to Japan my junior year in high school.
every dialouge here is in japanese unless italicized. then it's in english.
This chapter is brought to you by the song, Who's Theme - Nujabes & MINIMI
The hype over having an exchange student died down after about a week. The people who had flocked me with questions had satisfied their curiosity, and those who hadn't were either too shy and polite to do so, or legitimately had no interest. This being said, whenever I greeted the Girl's Soccer Club or the Boys Tennis Club, they always greeted me back happily. Say what you want about this country, but the people were always so polite. Just when I think I got used to the atmosphere, something else happens to completely blow my mind. You know there's no graffiti here? Not even on the vending machines; a welcome change from the city I'm from. Sure it's not as bad as say, New York or Mexico City, but you'd think the largest city in the world would have some form of vandalism beyond...Well, beyond children scribbling on the sidewalk with chalk, which, by the way, I did not see. When I voiced my shock and awe to my schoolmates and host family, they gawked at me, as if the mere thought of someone painting over a wall or vending machine didn't register in their minds. They asked me why a person would do such a thing, and to their credit, I didn't have an answer for them. Anger? Just to have something to do? I understood street artists, not asshole teenagers with spray paint.
Speaking of teenagers, here's my spot...
The lady on the speakers announces our arrival in Wako-shi, and I gather my school bag and small tote along with my host sister, Yuna, to prepare to get off the train. Luckily we took our umbrellas with us, because it's raining on this side of Tokyo. Nothing too bad, it's barely the beginning of July, so I don't complain; not to mention the cool rain helps out with the terrible humidity in the air. How did I not know that Japan was so damn humid in the summer? Yuna doesn't seem too concerned with it, big surprise there, she's been living here all her life...
We step off the train and make our way towards the high school calmly. Is it odd that for the first time in my life, I'm actually excited to head onto school? Even though we're here way early? I completely lucked out on that one, considering my sleeping schedule back home was just unhealthy. Being sixteen hours ahead really helps even that out. I've been going to sleep around eight o' clock every night! No wonder my host family thinks so well of me, they probably think I'm the furthest thing from a delinquent...Which I am, but you know what I mean!
Soon enough, the familiar row of trees appears in our vision, and the school is in sight: a white building, a bit run down by American standards, but the sight of it impressed me all the same when I first set my eyes on it. I see familiar groups of people lined up outside talking whilst others I see through the open windows on the upper floors. Walking inside, we close our umbrellas and stick them in one of the hundreds of umbrella holders in front of the lockers (it still amazes me that none of them are ever stolen) before slipping off our outside shoes. My locker's in an area over to the left next to the other exchange and visiting students. A few of them greet me and I do the same, asking one of the French exchange students how he was doing in his classes.
"Well," The boy pauses, thinking over his words, "I have good grades, but I wish I had taken the French foreign language course instead!"
I laugh, nodding along with him, "I wish I had taken Spanish or German. It would have been a lot easier than learning a whole new language."
He nods along, before sighing, "You promise to help me with Spanish?"
"As long as you help me with French." I give him a smile, and he laughs, agreeing to it.
"See you at lunch!"
x
My class is on the second floor, thanks to my status as a senior. Above us were the second years, and then the freshmen. Apparently the school had a philosophy about having the younger generation work harder. Not that I mind, of course, I hate those damn stairs.
The classroom is mostly empty save for a few select students. My host sister takes her seat in the second row whilst I head on further back. The boy who sits in front of me turns around and smiles at me as I sit down.
"How's it going Malena-chan?" and here I thought the Japanese were too polite to add that suffix to strangers. Still, I hadn't really made any friends since coming here, so rather than question the nickname, I return the salutations.
"I'm feeling pretty calm at the moment." I shrug, "How about you, Uzumaki-san?" I refrain from cringing at the suffix...I don't think I'll ever get used to adding them on; makes me feel like I'm trying too hard.
The boy smiles wider, "Today's the day I beat that damn bastard in kendo!" Ah, so he just wants to brag about his future victory.
"...Bastard?" There were a number of people Naruto didn't get along with, but I tended to stay out of it. If I could avoid four years of unnecessary teenage drama back home, I could last my whole time here doing the same.
Naruto scowls and crosses his arms, "That damn Uchiha! How could you not notice him with his big damn ego taking up all the space in the room?"
To be sure, I don't pay any mind to my classmates...Probably a bad thing, considering I was supposed to be making ties and friends on this trip. "I just try to focus on my studies whilst I'm in school." This sounds considerably less mean than the truth, so I went with it.
A grunt alerts me to a presence behind Naruto, and we both move our heads to spot a grumpy looking boy with an odd hairstyle. Naruto jumps up and turns his whole body around, planting his foot on his desk, "Sasuke! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
He doesn't react, and I get the feeling that these two are more friends than enemies. I'm inclined to agree with Naruto on the sneaking part though...Usually I take notice when a person walks into a room.
His yelling caught the attention of the other students in the room; Sasuke's looking like he doesn't like the attention, and he makes like he's going to hurt Naruto for it.
"Hey guys! Don't fight in here again! The school can't afford anymore broken desks!" Yuna pipes up, more than annoyed at these silly boys' antics. The other kids in the class agree with her, and Sasuke decides to merely grunt and back off down to his seat by the window. Apparently this meant that this was over, not that I understand his weird form of communication, but Naruto seems to understand just fine, and he steps off of his desk.
"Heh, I could have taken him down right here, right now." Naruto mumbles to himself before turning back to me, "But I'll do it after school!" He pumps a fist in the air, and I can't help but feel his enthusiasm. "You'll be there to support me, right Malena-chan?"
Before I know it, I'm nodding along, Yuna has after school work to do anyways, "Yeah, I'll be there."
x
The day happens slowly, like a migraine. The history teacher comes in earlier than he has before this whole year and straight up drills us for the whole period, including the ten minute intervals between classes. He may try to act fucking tough, but he's still not ballsy enough to scold kids who use their cell phones and electronics in class. But then again, none of the teachers seem to mind it. I'll never understand this country's education system.
In the period before lunch, Yuna falls ill, something about her stomach, the nurse thinks, and she asks me if I'll be okay going home by myself today. I tell her I'll be more than fine, and not to worry. Despite this, she apologises profusely until I assure her that it's not a problem, that it'll even make me feel like a real native.
My host mom drives up to the school to pick her up, and I wave at them both as they drive off from the gates. It's stopped raining. By the time I get back, it is already lunch, and I decide to switch it up a bit: I eat in the classroom instead of the cafeteria next to Yuna's friends. It's not that I don't like them, but it's more that I feel they'd be obligated to talk to me. I may be able to communicate well in Japansese, but I sure can't socialise well. Not even in English. Sure, there's the other exchange students, some of whom feel even more out of place than me, but that's different. None of them are from the United States. Only Europe and China.
I get to my seat and decide to document this shit in my sketch diary. I'm not the type to keep diaries (I tried once or twice in my youth), but I was told by most everyone that I should keep one during my stay here. I've only manage to successfully keep a journal during trips, but so far I'm doing good. The only problem is that I'm fucking more than halfway through it. I can't help it, everything is new and foreign here. This city is filled with odd and new characters, and I have to record everything I can. At least that's what my dad always tells me. If not, he says I'll forget for sure. I think he's wrong, since there's so many really weird, but wonderfully weird, stuff I've seen, but then again, it's all been domestic. The only tourist place I've been to has been Ueno Park, and I had a cold on that day, so I napped through most of it. It was probably for the best, since it meant I could avoid people's stares. That's another thing I haven't gotten used to yet: being stared at as if I was in the zoo.
I'm so lost in thought, that I don't even notice someone's walked up to my desk until I hear their voice. It's Naruto. I look up from my small notebook to see him smiling down at me.
"Wanna come sit with us?" he gestures to the other side of the room where Sasuke (I knew they were friends) and three other people I don't recognise are eating. Well, were eating. Now they're looking at me.
I shrink into my seat.
"Is that...Is that okay?" I glance nervously over and see the girl in the group smile and wave at me.
"Of course it is!" He all but picks me up from my seat, "Come on!"
Before I know it, I'm sitting beside new people. They introduce themselves to me, most in English, of course, I've barely spoken any real Japanese here with others my age, they're all so damn good at English.
I take my lunch (curry with white rice and apples for dessert) from out of my small tote and try to make myself as small as possible whilst eating it. My attempt to try and go through this ordeal silently fails, and soon they are asking me various questions, all of which I try to answer to the best of my ability.
"Hey, Malena-san," the girl, whose name is Sakura, prompts, "what was the name of those candies you gave out on your first day here?"
I pause in my eating, "Uhh, the cactus candies?"
"Those were so gooood!" Kiba, sitting to my left, practically moans, "Can you get anymore of those? The sweet ones, not the sweet and sour ones. Like order them online or something?"
I laugh and shake my head, "I don't think you can. Even if you could, the sweet ones that you like have food dye in it, so it's illegal." I sip my juice from my tumbler, "Sorry Inuzuka-san."
He looks upset, and the other guy in the group, Sai, pats his back and tells him it's for the best.
When it's time for me to head back to my seat, Sakura asks me a question, "What are you doing after school? I mean, after Naruto's fight?"
Am I in an anime? Why are these people being so friendly with me?
I hesitate, "I'm probably going to go straight home...I don't usually go out by myself since I don't know anywhere I can go for fun besides the karaoke place next to the train station. I'm also afraid I'll get lost and end up somewhere in Shibuya."
Sakura's laughter rings clear, and I hope she's laughing with me rather than at me, "A few friends and I are going for coffee after school. You know, just us girls talking and chilling."
I search through my desk for my cell phone, "I'll text Yuna to see if I can, I don't want to inconvenience her mom, you know?"
Sakura nods heading back to her seat, "Let me know what she says!"
When I find my phone, I pale...How the hell do I text on this thing? I've only used it twice (once to make a call to Yuna because I got lost in a mall, and once to call my host mama to try and find her phone), but I've never used it to text. And how would I text in the Latin alphabet instead of the Hirangana or Katakana ones? I speak better Japanese than I read it, and I know the phone does the thing where it automatically reads the Hirangana and changes it to fit the most common kanji. I don't know a lot of kanji though! Fuck!
An outstretched hand comes into my view, "I'll do it."
Apparently my distress is obvious, and when I look up, I am more than surprised to spot Sasuke's the one to offer me help. I don't ask questions, though I want to, and I hand him the phone. In a few seconds he's done, and he hands it back to me before going back to his seat without a word. He must be some kind of mind reader or something! Either that, or he was listening in to my conversation with Sakura, and inducted that I might be having trouble with this.
"Thank you, Uchiha-san!" I call after him, more than grateful.
x
School's out, and I'm half way through the front grounds of the school before I remember my engagement (well two engagements), and the text I got from Yuna telling me it was fine and that I should go off and have fun. In a hurry, I run back into the school (much to the confusion of some of the students outside), and am halfway up the first flight of stairs when—
Wait where even does the Kendo Club meet?
Fuck.
I try to think back, back to my first week here, when I was given a tour through the whole school...Okay, the club rooms are on the ground floor, near the auditorium and the gym. I scoot my butt over to the area as fast as I can, and am lucky enough to barge into only three wrong clubs: the Girls Volleyball Club, the English Club (who had tried to get me to stay), and the Spanish Club, (who had also tried to get me to stay). On the fourth door, I enter quietly, not wanting to cause too much of a disturbance. The match had just begun, and it was most definitely Naruto and Sasuke, if their hair is any indication; the protective masks they wore are not unlike the ones used in fencing, and the only way I can tell it's them is by their unusual hairstyles.
I slip in through the small crowd of people and stand myself next to a girl I don't know and Sakura. Everyone's eyes are on them, and their mouths stay silent, even when Naruto is the first to move and strike.
They continue fighting for a while, evenly matched, but it all goes to hell as Naruto opens his mouth to brag about his close victory, and Sasuke hits him in his side, knocking him over.
The crowd cheers, and the girl next to me runs over to Naruto, probably to see if he's still alive, and Sakura hops on over to Sasuke. I decide to do the same, since it was Naruto who invited me here, and since I did come late and all.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura says, "You were great!"
"Hey, what about me?" Naruto grunts out, holding his side as the girl helps him up.
I decide to take his other arm to lighten up the burden on the girl, and Sakura smiles at Naruto, "You were great too, Naruto." She turns back to Sasuke, "Did you have to strike him so hard?"
Sasuke only grunts in responce, and Sakura sighs. Did she know his language too? Maybe she had known him for a long time...That would explain it.
"Naruto, are you hurt badly?" Sakura inquires, and the blonde responds with a smile and a thumbs up before stumbling back a little. The girl saves him, though, and keeps him steady.
"Thanks 'Nata." He says before turning to me, "Heh, I guess I got cocky. I'll beat him next time, though! Just watch!"
I nod at him, "That was amazing though! I've never seen a kendo fight before!"
"If you think that's impressive, you should see Neji." Sakura comments to me, and once again, I feel out of the loop.
"Neji?"
"Oh come on, Malena-chan!" Naruto all but yells, "First you don't know who this bastard was," he points to Sasuke behind him, who only grunts again, "and now you're telling me you don't know who Neji is?"
"Well if you tell me instead of whining about it, I would know."
"He's 'Nata's cousin," he points to the girl with the long hair who had come to his rescue after his match, and she smiles timidly at me before bowing and introducing herself as Hinata Hyuuga, "and he's also captain of the Kendo Club!"
"There he is now," Sakura says, and I turn around to see a beautiful boy with long, flowing hair and pale eyes get into a solid stance against his opponent on the mat opposite the one we currently stand on.
"He's not wearing any protection!" I blurt out in English, and Sakura nods.
"Neji doesn't need it. He's never been struck." Hinata comments.
"Damn Bastard." Naruto grumbles as we all watch the new match begin.
It's over in five seconds.
"Amazing." I breathe out.
The crowd cheers again for Neji, who looks just as cool and unaffected by it as Sasuke was.
"I'm bored!" Naruto complains, clearly bothered by how much attention the boy was getting, "Bastard, let's go, you promised to help me with our Home Ecc. project."
As the two change out of their gear to leave, Sakura turns to me, "Ready to go?" She then addresses Hinata, "You can come too! We're getting coffee in Shiki."
The cute girl looks happy at the prospect and invitation, but shys away before she can say yes, "I have important things to attend to after school." she's looking towards her cousin, and I see that he's already walking over here.
"Next time, then." Sakura grins and waves good bye, taking me along with her.
I turn my head to tell her goodbye verbally, but end up wondering if she even heard me, since by then she seemed to be in a conversation with Neji.
x
Shiki is, as it turns out, the same place where Yuna took me for coffee with her friends my first week here. I'm even sitting at the same damn Starbucks in the same damn place outside. Sakura's friends are all relatively friendly, though in different ways. Ino is just as nice as Sakura, right after Tenten, and Temari seems the type of girl to refer to herself as 'boku'. Karin is quiet, and only speaks up when the subject is interesting to her.
"So Malena," Ino talks to me in English, no doubt because she thinks it's super cool, "how are you liking Japan?"
I sip my green tea in thought, "I think I'm in love with it."
The girls laugh at my blatant honestly. I tell myself they're not making fun of me.
"But don't you miss America? I mean it must get boring here." Ino follows up, and I shake my head.
"Of course I'm homesick, but the thing is...I could never get tired of this country." I lean back in my chair, "Everyday I experience something new, something weird, something wonderful. Even if I haven't gone anywhere, and I'm just living the life of the average Japanese high schooler, everyday is an adventure."
I realised that they were all intently staring at me, as if I was a fish in an aquarium, and they were five year olds who had come to see me on a school trip. I refrain from blushing when all they do is smile gently, maybe at pride because of the affection I've shown for their country, or maybe because I'm amusing in some way.
The rest of the conversation centers around exams and which boys they thought were gross or really cute (Karin is especially loud on that last subject), and we end with what we want to do for the upcoming Summer Festival. Sakura mentions that, as her class president, she was thinking of either doing a haunted house, which was a classic and staple in school festivals, or an American style café. She looks to me for input.
Ah, is this why I'm here?
"Well, the idea of an American style café doesn't really make sense." I scratch my head, "They're not so different from the ones here. You come in, order coffee, sit down and read or work on a laptop..." I shrug, "They're not nearly as interesting as some of the ones here."
Sakura looks a little upset, "Then we'll do the haunted house!"
I smile, "Now that's something I can definitely help with. Though just so you know, I do plan on actually scaring anyone that walks in."
Temari bursts out laughing and announces that she officially approves of me. I try not to take it to heart and fail. I crave affection. I crave approval. I am weak.
When it's time to leave, I call my host mama and tell her I'm on my way home, and should be there at the normal time. Sakura writes down how to get on the right trains to get to Kuki, and goes over the directions with me twice to make sure I have them memorised. When we part, I thank her and she smiles, telling me she's looking forward to the school summer festival this year.
I am back in Kuki an hour later.
It's raining again as I step outside the train station, and spot my host mom's car. Yuna and her little sister are with her, and when I enter the car, I am greeted warmly.
Today was a good day.