Naoki pressed his hat so it sat snugly on his head, standing on his tippy-toes so he could look at himself in the mirror that his mom put by the genkan so she could apply lipstick before she went out. His hat was bright yellow and when it reflected the sun on clear mornings, it hurt his eyes, but his mom told him that he had to wear it or he wouldn't be allowed to go to kindergarten.

And that's all he wanted was to go to kindergarten.

He would wait with his mom when they would go out in the morning and watch all the older children walk to school with their yellow hats. He wanted one so bad. It meant that he could actually go to school and learn stuff. He wanted more stuff to learn. He had already memorized every book in his house. Even the manuals for the rice cooker and the refrigerator. He could close his eyes and see the yellowed-pages and read the words like he was staring right at them.

He tried to read the newspaper that his dad subscribed too and he liked flipping to the parts where the words changed form and turned very long and looked swirlier than his native Japanese. His mom called it 'English.' Those were the funnest. It was like a code to crack.

School had English. And math. And it had writing. Colors. And stories.

He tried to explain it to his mom all the wonders of school and all the stuff he was excied to learn as he held her hand, his backpack slapping against his tailbone as it slipped from his shoulders. She didn't really answer him, except for a "That's nice," every once in awhile.

They made it to the gate and Naoki could see the name of the school in large print above the door. "Sakura Primary School." He read.

"Naoki." He felt himself being spun around by the shoulders and came nose-to-nose with his mom. She had a worry line in the middle of her forehead and looked at him intensely, like she did when she explained that little boys are not allowed to touch bleach, even during 'science experiments.' "You are going to meet a lot of kids in there, okay?" She started. "They have different personalities and some of them can be cruel when they don't mean to be."

Naoki felt his eyebrows pull together in confusion. "But, if they don't mean it, then why do they do it?"

"Because, they don't see the world as you do and it frustrates them. You just be patient and kind, even if they don't give it back in return. And if anyone tries to give you trouble, you tell your teacher immediately."

Naoki nodded and looked at the school, a sinking feeling of knots in his stomach. The colors on the walls seemed too bright and they hurt his eyes. He played with the zipper on his coat, trying to calm himself down.

"You'll be fine, okay?" His mother said and planted a kiss on top of his yellow hat. "Go have fun."

Naoki was not having fun. There were a lot of kids that were running around and yelling and shrieking. He did not expect this many kids. He gripped the brim of his yellow hat and played with the zipper on his jacket and took in the chaos. Anxiety spiked in his chest and he heaved hard, like after he ran up and down his apartment stairs. Tears prickled his eyes.

"What's your name?" An adult with a shirt that had flowers on it approached him. Sakura Primary School. The flowers were too bright. Everything was too bright and he couldn't find words to speak. He continued to move his zipper up and down. This wasn't school. This wasn't learning. This was madness. "Are you Irie Naoki?"

He nodded and tried to look into the adult's eyes, but couldn't, but he couldn't look at her shirt because it was too bright and he couldn't look at the room because it was too chaotic, so he resorted to looking at his shoes.

"My name is Miss Kari, I'm your teacher." She said gently and squatted down. "Is everything alright?"

You can't see the zoo behind you? The monkeys throwing stuff around and shrieking like hyenas? He remembered a documentary he watched about African plain animals. The classroom was no different. He inhaled a sharp breath. "It's too loud."

"What's too loud?"

Everything. He pushed his zipper up and down faster and harder and fought the urge to cry.

"Let's get you settled, then." She pulled off his hat and picked up his backpack and hung it one of the many pegs behind him. "Do you want to take off your jacket?"

He shook his head no.

"It's okay." She said, her short hair waving around her chin. "You'll make friends in no time. Why don't we introduce you?" She led him over to a group of boys that were building up blocks out of a large bucket in the corner. "Ohba-chan." The boy with short, shaved hair looked up at the teacher. "This is Naoki-chan. He's new and needs a friend."

Ohba-chan smiled, showing the blank space where his two front teeth were supposed to go. "Do you like blocks?"

Naoki shrugged and sat down on his knees. I guess this isn't too bad.

"See? Friends in no time." Miss Kari said and walked away to tend to another group of kids.

"Here," Ohba-chan threw a block at Naoki's knees. "The rest are for us."

"But-,"

"What are you, retarded or something?" Ohba-chan spun around on his butt so that his back was facing Naoki.

"But-," Naoki looked at the bucket of blocks and gripped the one at his knees. "There are at least 232 blocks in that bucket, according to the measurements of the blocks and divided by the volume of the bucket himself. That is 52 blocks per person. That's plenty to even build a semi-decent suspension bridge across the rug with the purple polka-dots on it."

All three boys looked at him like he had grown a horn out of his forehead. Naoki gripped the zipper of his jacket fought the knot in his stomach that told him that he probably should have just kept his mouth closed.

"You think you're better than us?" Ohba-chan wheeled around. "You think you're smarter than us?"

"I am, technically, smarter that you." Naoki said without realizing it. "My IQ is 200, which is almost 80-90 points above even smart average people."

Ohba-chan leaned forward so that Naoki could see that he was also missing his two front lower teeth. He wondered for a second how he bit into apples. "You're a freak."

"Freak?" Naoki's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. "But, I do not have physical abnormalities."

"What did he say?"

"I think he was calling you retarded, Ohba."

Naoki ran his zipper up and down in time with his growing heartbeats. "No, no. I was not-,"

Ohba-chan's hand flashed out and grabbed Naoki's zipper of his jacket, pulled it all the way down and then twisted it, so the zipper part broke into pieces. He dropped it on the floor and stood up. "If tell anyone I did that, I will break your face the next time. Come on guys, let's get out of here so we don't catch any freak."

They boys stood up and walked off, leaving Naoki in the corner as he watched the broken zipper on the floor grow blurry with his tears.