Episode II
May's alarm clock buzzed to life at 4:00am. She awoke instantly, turned it off and sat up. Her pink nightgown unbunched itself as she stretched with a yawn. She began to undress as she went to her bathroom. She began her day just like any other; with a shower. She brushed her teeth in there as well. This gave her the extra time she needed to quadruple check her homework and go over her schedule for the day so she could check for in discrepancies and memorize it. With her body washed and her priorities rechecked for the fourth time she quickly dressed herself and headed down for breakfast.
Always up before her parents she was use to eating by herself. Even if she did wake up at the same time they did she still wouldn't be able to eat breakfast with them as for they did not eat breakfast. With her mother a neurosurgeon, and her father the head of San Francisco's human resources department they had very little time for her; something that she had grown quite accustom to. The only way she ever received their acknowledgement and appreciation was through her hard work and accomplishments. She thought that this was all that she needed, all that she desired. However as she sat there, eating her cereal, a feeling of emptiness crept inside of her. She had felt this feeling a few times before. She could never determine why she felt this unusual feeling though so she would answer it by shaking it off as nothing. Her parent were now up, just as she was finishing her meal, scrambling for their things and their morning cup of coffee. Good mornings were exchanged, always in Japanese. After the pleasantries were said the rest of the meaningless morning banters of school, homework and other things commenced. These conversations were hollow, she longed to talk to them about other things, anything else besides work. She couldn't through, because she knew they wouldn't. They never had time. At times she wished she had someone to talk to; someone to share her hopes and dreams, fears and frustrations with, but all the boys at the school only wanted one thing from her and everyone else seemed too stupid for a real meaningful conversation. She hoped this would change one day, but for right now all she had were her studies.
May arrived at the school just as the sun crested over the horizon. She gathered her things and stepped out of the silver 2012 Mercedes-Benz.
"Have a good day." Her mother said to her as she exited the car.
"You too." May responded automatically.
There was a momentary pause and May thought she'd try her luck.
"I…"
Her mother sped off, not knowing that May had started a sentence.
"love you…" She finished with a painful sigh.
May walked through the halls of the school, each step creating an echo throughout the hallways. She loved being the first one at school, gave her time to get her mind right on her studies. As she was about to enter the library to get her things ready for her student council briefing a voice called out from behind her. She turned to find that it was the principle, his body sticking half way out of his office.
"May I speak to you in my office for a minute?" He asked before stepping back into it.
(Speak to me in his office?) She thought to herself.
She began to slowly walk towards it, giving herself time to contemplate what she could have possibly done wrong. She entered his office, without being able to come up with an answer as to why she was being called in there, and sat down nervously.
"You wanted to see me sir?" She asked, her voice on the verge of trembling.
"Yes. I wanted to talk to you about Jimmy." He stated.
A wave of relief washed over her, quickly followed by a wave of disgust. Jimmy Bean, her least favorite topic.
"What about him sir?" She asked, the tone of her voice going from that of fear to one of hatred.
"I and the rest of the faculty are worried about him. Here, take a look at these." He said as he passed her copies of Bean's homework, tests and a copy of his attendance record.
May began to look them over and what she saw shocked her. All of the answers on his homework and tests were correct. He even got the answers right to the questions she herself had failed. His attendance record however spoke more to the Bean that she knew. There wasn't a week or month where Bean wasn't absent. Sometimes there would be a week where Bean would have been to school only one out of the five days.
"This isn't logical." She said as she gave the documents back to him.
"He must have cheated somehow."
"We've suspected that as well. However every time we retested him with a different version of the test he would still pass with flying colors."
"I don't understand this. If he's this smart then why are his grades so low?"
"Neither do we. He has the potential to become this school's greatest scholar, but yet he seems to be squandering it away."
(Greatest scholar?) She thought.
That was her title. However she was in student president mode now, and her duty was to help every student she could to the best of her ability; no matter who it was or what they were capable of.
"Have you tried talking to him about this?" She asked.
"Yes. Several times on numerous occasions. Each time though he was unresponsive and wouldn't talk to us."
She could see where this was going.
"And you want me to talk to him about it for you?" She asked reluctantly.
"Yes. We feel that if a member of the student body were to talk to him about these matters that he just might listen."
"I've tried talking to him several times about a many of things. I still always get that same blank stare that I'm sure you guys must've have probably gotten."
"You've never talked to him about this before though. This is his future."
"He won't listen to me." May said, getting frustrated.
The principle stood up.
"I look forward to your report."
May now knew that this wasn't open for debate. She bit her bottom lip to hold in her anger.
"Yes sir." She said annoyed as she got up and left.
It was lunchtime and the cafeteria bustled with activity. Students sat in their groups and talked about things that made up their lives; video games, TV, boyfriends and girlfriends and studies. Just like every other day Bean sat at the last table there was, eating by himself. However there was at times one person who would eat with him.
"Hey Bean!" A cheerful voice called out to him.
He looked up from his meal to a girl with brilliant red curly hair and thick red framed glasses to match. It was Robin Coben, a freshman new to the school and part of the school's newspaper. Just like Bean she also had no friends; her Dyslexia and ADD made her too annoying for people to deal with, even Bean. But for some reason he tolerated and put up with her. A reason that was his and hers only to share.
"Hey Red." He responded in acknowledgement.
She took a seat next to him at the table.
"I heard that your name was brought up at the student council meeting today." Red said as she began to start her daily rants.
"That's nice." Bean responded as he continued eating.
"I don't know about what exactly they were talking about but I think it may be over your attendance record as usual."
"Uh-huh."
"If you want I could…"
"No." Bean said, cutting her off.
"But…"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"So yes you want me to?"
"Red…" He said, getting annoyed.
"Alright alright." She said as she changed the subject.
"Did you watch that one show I've been telling you about?" She asked.
"No." He answered.
"What? Why not?" She pouted.
"I don't watch dramas."
She crossed her arms.
"All you watch is the news Bean. You're so boring." She said, still pouting.
"I like what I like."
"Well I'm going to tell you what happened anyways. So, last night, Amber got told by Justin that Sean was cheating on her with some mystery girl who was actually just a friend from a long time ago but he still has feelings for her. So Amber…"
Bean began to tune her out as she continued to ramble about her favorite TV drama, with the occasional sidetracked story every now and again.
Off in the distance May ate her lunch with some of her other classmates. She would come in and out of conversations on topics she could talk about before her mind would drift off to the forced assignment that the Principle had given her. As she broke her gaze from her table her eyes quickly settled on Bean's table, he always sat at the same one. She wanted to go talk to him about it, get it over and done with, during lunch but had to change her plans when she saw Robin sitting with him. To everyone's knowledge Robin was the only person that Bean ever talked to; and to the rest of the school this made it look like they were dating. Neither of them ever confirmed or denied it but to May it was obvious that they weren't. They just didn't have that vibe that other couples gave off. To her they just seemed like two people making the best out of what they had. In any case she began to wonder why the Principle chose her instead of Robin; she was clearly the better choice in a situation such as this. In any case it didn't matter. She was class president. The educational and moral well-being of the students was her responsibility. And with that she put her thoughts back on her group and continued on with her lunch.
English was the next class to be had right after lunch, followed by Japanese and electorates at the end. As the teacher lectured on proper sentence and paragraph structuring Bean slept, quite noticeably. Several times the teacher would yell at him and tell him to wake up and he would. However each and every time a few minutes passed and he was once again right back to sleep. After the fourth time the teacher demanded that he either stand up in the back of the class or leave all together, his choice. He didn't want to be confrontational today, so as ordered he went to the back of the class and stood there. It wasn't too long before he fell asleep on his feet. Now even May was getting annoyed. She couldn't even begin to comprehend how someone could care so little about something that had the biggest impact on their future. She decided that even though it was the middle of class that it was time to have that talk with him. Right as she was about to get up a cell phone rang. It was Bean's. The whole class turned to look at him as he reached into his pocket and pulled it out.
"Bean! Is that a cell phone?!" She yelled rhetorically.
Bean didn't answer. Instead he just walked out of the classroom, quickly and quietly, as he checked the number. Furiously, May gave chase after him. As she exited the classroom she saw Bean turning the corner. She ran after him and turned the corner just as he entered a cleaning gear locker. As she approached the locker she could him talking over the phone.
"Go…how many? What time? Where at? Yea I can do that…"
After a minute of silence Bean hung up and opened the door with May standing on the other side of it. She was waiting for a bye and not hearing one before the door was opened startled her. Bean stood there, staring at her with the same blank stare he always gave her.
"What the hell is wrong with you Bean?! She yelled, regaining her composure.
"You know that cell phone usage is only permitted after school."
Bean said nothing. It was at this point that she had had enough. She got real close to him, her mouth directly on his ear. He could feel her breath against his ear.
"Look." She said in a low voice. "The Principle wanted me to talk to you about your grades and attendance. But honestly I could give two shits less about that and even less about you. I've seen your work and all you are is a waste of talent. I'm actually glad you're like this because being at the top is my job. I work too damn hard for all of this and I'll be damned if I help some lazy delinquent take my spot. Go ahead and waste your life away, because I refuse to try and help you anymore. And when you're homeless and begging for change on a street corner, I'll look down upon you and laugh."
Bean gave her no acknowledgement, just stepped to the side and walked past her.
(How can he not care?) She thought to herself.
(How could one not care about their life so much? There has to be something to this!)
"What is it you're hiding?!" She blurted out without thinking.
"What is it that bring you back here every morning if you don't even care?!"
Bean stopped and looked back at her from over his shoulder.
"You could never understand." He said before he started to walk off again.
These were the first words that he had ever spoken to her. Her curiosity was now peaked. She now had to learn that in which she could never understand.
