Chapter 2

We reached my school, Astoria Secondary School, a few minutes later. When I checked my watch again, it was only 8:15 and, sure enough, there were no cars in the student parking lot. Even most of the teachers' parking spaces were empty. I sighed.

"Miss?" Our driver spoke again from the front seat. Sun Chou was the youngest daughter of Ming-sama, my father's boss. She was young, only 20 years old, and very pretty. Already she was happily married and expecting her first child in a few months time.

"Would you like me to come inside with you?" she asked. "Or wait until more students arrive?" That mothering instinct was really starting to kick in.

"No thank you Sun, I'll be ok" I said as I opened the car door and stepped out.

"I will be here for you after school once I pick up your brothers and sister"

"Ok Sun, I'll see you later." I closed the door behind me and watched the car drive out of the parking lot. I suddenly felt very alone. I was the new girl at a new school in a new country, not sure what to expect or what's expected of me. I took a deep breath and turned to walk into the school.

...

As soon as I walked in, I noticed how different everything was here compared to my school in Kyoto. Here, the school had 3 floors, walls decorated with huge murals painted by students and multiple outbuildings. Back in Kyoto I went to a very traditional school, where everything was on one level, classically decorated and everyone wore the same uniform: white dress shirt, red skirts or pants and a black blazer and tie. No one wore uniforms here and I felt a little odd today in jeans and a flowy blue shirt, my hair pulled back into a high ponytail.

I found the school office after only a couple wrong turns through the hallways. The secretary was a middle aged woman with kind eyes and brown hair. Her name plate read "Mrs. Darien".

"Good morning," she said, "can I help you?"

"Yes, thank you. My name is Amaya Kazuhiko." I replied. "I'm a new student here." I bowed as I spoke and mentally kicked myself as I stood straight again. America! No bowing! The secretary just smiled at me as she spoke:

"Oh yes, of course. Just give me moment…" she trailed off as she shuffled through the papers on her desk. "Ah! Here we are," she exclaimed, pulling a couple sheets from the mass on the desk top. "Here's your class schedule and a map of the school for you." She handed me the papers. "Do you know how to read them?" I nodded. "Good. And I need this form signed by your teachers and a parent and brought back to me tomorrow morning. Got all that?" I nodded. "Excellent. Then I'll see you tomorrow and welcome to Astoria."

"Thank you," I said as I turned to leave the office.

...

By now it was 8:30 or so and some other students were starting to show up. I wanted to avoid the socialising for awhile longer, so I decided to go find somewhere outside to sit and read. Thankfully, it wasn't raining and I found a nice picnic table to sit at by the front of the school.

A group of kids walked past me as I read.

"Who's the Jap?" one guy asked, a sneer in his voice. A girl, his girlfriend I assumed, giggled loudly. I sighed inwardly, not showing any reaction to their comments. I knew they'd leave me alone sooner or later as long as I didn't react. Sure enough, they left after a minute more.

Class time was getting closer and more and more students started showing up, greeting their friends and gossiping together. I could feel the stared directed at me. I ignored them. Checking my watch, it said I had 5 minutes to find my first class. I pulled my schedule out of my bag:

Day 1

9:00am – History 11 – Mrs. Marshall – rm. 301

10:05am – Sciences humaines 11 – Mlle. Félix – rm. 113

11:05am – Break

11:20am – Math 11- Mr. Lucas – rm. 225

12:20pm – Lunch

1:05pm – Biology 11- Ms. Taavi – rm. 121

2:10pm – English 11 – Mr. Nabu – rm. 312

3:15pm – Dismissal

Day 2

9:00am – Music – Ms. Keaton – rm. 126

10:05am – Physical education – Mr. Janez –gymnasium

11:05am – Break

11:20am – Foreign cultures and languages – Ms. Zaccai – rm. 321

12:20pm – Lunch

1:05pm – Study block

2:10pm – Chemistry 11 – Mrs. Jacobson – rm. 105

3:15pm – Dismissal

By the time I actually made it to History, the bell had gone and I was running late. Great, I thought, first day and I'm late.

When I walked into class, everyone stopped and turned to stare and me. Hurray. I walked up to the teacher's desk and introduced myself, giving Mrs. Marshall the form to sign. She returned it to me with a smile.

"Welcome to our school Amaya" she said.

"Thank you." I replied.

"Why don't you sit over there by Mr. Cullen." She pointed to an empty desk near the back, between a blond haired boy and a brunette girl with her nose in a book. I walked to the desk and sat, pulling my books from my bag as I did. While I flipped through my textbook, I noticed the blond boy turn to look at me, before turning to stare vacantly out the window. Being the first class of the school year, all it really was was talking about the curriculum, course outline and class expectations. Who'd have guessed that the "welcome back to the first day of school" talks were universal?