Chapter Four!
The next few weeks were as calm as it got around 3-D and Yankumi. Reita was fairly sure he was the only student aware of her pregnancy, since her baggy tracksuit and unique personality masked any differences that having a baby might produce in a normal person.
There was one incident, most likely caused by the influx of hormones, that Reita found both funny and terrifying. Yankumi had returned to teaching, although there were days that Shin covered homeroom and Yankumi just came in for math.
"Good morning, everyone!" She declared as she entered the classroom. Reita slowly looked up from his nap, but the boys, however, didn't pay much mind to the fact that this was the first homeroom with Yankumi in a while. Instead, everyone was much more preoccupied with the newest edition of a magazine that interviewed local young girls about what kind of guys they liked.
Yankumi blinked a few times. "Ahem," she coughed pointedly. "Good morning, everyone!"
But the boys had gotten careless. Everyone had seen Shin as the frightening one, and Yankumi's lower than normal energy had lulled them into a false sense of security. So, Tawara turned and shouted, "What's so good about it?"
Taken aback, Yankumi took a moment, then responded, "Well, lots of things. For one, you get to spend time with your precious number one teacher, and you get to learn about math, and-"
"Math is stupid." Koji mumbled around his sticky bun.
Itsuo agreed loudly. "Yeah, it's not like we'll ever use it in real life."
As Reita looked up to hear whatever passionate speech Yankumi was preparing about the value of learning, he was surprised to see her fists clench and her eyes fill with rage. Apparently, this insult, which all math teachers heard multiple times throughout their careers, had come at exactly the wrong time.
"Of course you'll use it in real life!" Yankumi bellowed, shocking the class into dropping the magazine. "What if you become a carpenter, or building contractor? How will you make measurements? What if you become a teacher? How will you grade tests? How will you shop in the grocery store? Do your taxes? Pay your bills? Math is everywhere in real life!" And with this last fervent declaration, she brought her fist down on a nearby desk, causing the legs to buckle under and the desk to come crashing onto the floor.
Unaware of her act of vandalism, Yankumi regarded the gaping class with a look of satisfaction.
"Ah, good. You've finally learned that when teachers speak, you pay attention. Now, onto the lesson."
Turning to the board, she finally noticed Reita staring at her.
"Yankumi," he whispered.
"Yes, Saiga?"
He glanced pointedly at the destroyed desk. She followed his gaze, then looked back to him, uncomprehending. Reita waited. After a few moments, she finally realized what she had done.
"Oh! Um… hehe." She laughed nervously as she looked at her gawking students. "They, uh, don't make these things like they used to."
The boys, unconvinced and more than a little frightened, exchanged confused glances with each other.
"Um, Koji, you can use one of the spare desks in the back. Alright everyone! Let's learn some math!"
And with this clever ruse, Yankumi proceeded to explain the value of x as Reita covered his eyes and shook his head.
On the way home, Reita couldn't help but smile as he thought about the events of the day. As strange as she was, he had to admit that she was entertaining. He was so preoccupied with wondering if she had been that strong all along, or if pregnancy gave her superpowers, that it took him a moment to realize he wasn't alone in his house.
As he heard noises coming from the back of the house, he grabbed a broom, then walked quietly down the hall. His mother's work started an hour ago, and none of his friends knew where he lived, so the only logical assumption was that he was being robbed. Though he had no idea why someone would rob a tiny two bedroom place, or what they expected to find there.
He swung into the room with the broom held high. "Ai-yah!"
"Reita!"
He stopped. "Mom?"
"What are you doing with a broom?"
"What are you doing home?"
His mother glanced at the suitcase on her bed guiltily. "I, uh, didn't expect you to be home from school already." She moved over to her dresser and grabbed some more clothes.
Lowering the broom, Reita looked around. Her closet was halfway empty, and all her dresser drawers were open, with clothes spread about the room.
"Why aren't you at work?" He asked slowly.
"Oh, well, you know, that job it… it didn't really suit me. It was stifling, and repetitive, and very, um, restrictive, and-"
"Mom." Reita made himself take a deep breath. "Sasaki-san had to pull a lot of favors to get you that job."
"I know, but still, it just... it wasn't a good fit. I just got a really bad feeling from it, and I talked to your aunt and she said that there's lots of better jobs in Osaka, and she and uncle have an extra room, and-"
"Wait, what are you talking about?" He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.
"You'll be alright on your own, won't you? I mean, I'll be just a phone call away, and you can take care of yourself, and you have the card to the account, and I'll just stay with your aunt for a few weeks, and find a job where I can be myself."
"Mom…"
A car honked outside. "Oh, there's my taxi." She zipped up her suitcase. "I'll see you in a few weeks. Maybe a bit longer. Love you!"
She gave him a careless kiss on the cheek, and without waiting for his required response, headed for the door. She only waved at him four times as she drove away. He counted. He wasn't sure why.
As he watched her drive away, he tried not to feel like he was eight years old again, when another car had disappeared down the road with no instructions on what he was supposed to do now.
.
.
"Saiga…"
He hated school. Well, not school so much as everything, including school.
"Saiga."
But being here was better than being at home, alone. Again.
"Saiga!"
"Hmm?" He glanced up to see Yankumi looking at him pointedly.
"Can you tell me the answer?"
He shifted his gaze to the chalkboard. "4x/y." He said aloud, then put his head back in his arm, unaware that the entire class was staring at him now. Reita never answered questions from teachers – not even from Yankumi. His friends exchanged worried glances.
"Hey, you alright?" Istuo asked him at the break.
"You can tell us what's wrong." Koji offered.
Reita, however, was not in the mood for talking. Or sympathy.
"You're what's wrong with me. Now leave me alone." He snapped, then walked away.
Tawara was the first to notice that not only were they watching Reita slump away, but Yankumi was frowning at his back as well.
The following Saturday, Reita reluctantly awoke to a very persistent doorbell. He tried to ignore it, but then it became a duet between loud knocks and annoying chimes. Finally, he could stand it no more and marched to the entrance.
"What?" He bellowed as he opened the door – right into Yankumi's face.
"Oh! Um, Saiga. I thought you'd be asleep, still."
He glared at her. "That's what I was trying to do until some crazy person started knocking on my door! Now what do you want?"
"Well, I was hoping to speak to your mother. Is she here?"
His mood visibly darkened.
"No."
"Oh." Yankumi thought about this. "Well, when will she be back? A few minutes? Hours?"
Reita was too angry and tired to lie. "Try weeks. Or months."
His teacher blinked at him in confusion. "What?"
"She's in Osaka, because she quit her job and went to go find a better one."
Her eyes widened. "But who's looking after you?"
"I'm an adult! I don't need a babysitter!"
"But everyone needs someone to look after them." She told him in a tone of perfect sincerity and innocence.
Before he could even fully comprehend that, she gasped in excitement as an idea struck her.
"I know!" And with no further explanation, she swept past him into his house. After glancing around, she spotted a bag that he had packed yesterday with the half-idea to go to Osaka, or Tokyo, or anywhere else but here.
"Going somewhere?" She asked curiously, gesturing at the bag.
"No." He answered, wondering when she would get tired of bothering him and would leave to annoy someone else. Like Shin.
"Well, you are now, because you're coming home with me!" Yankumi announced proudly, grinning from ear to ear.
Reita blinked in shock. "What?"
"C'mon! Let's go!" With that, she grabbed his bag and headed towards the door. "Is there anything else you need?"
"What? No! I mean, I'm not-"
"Alrighty then! We're on the road again, can't wait to get on the road again…" Humming happily to herself, she grabbed his arm and started down the road.
She briefly paused to let him lock his door, then held his arm firmly as they boarded a bus and made their way to her neighborhood. He tried to argue with her at first, but soon gave up. Once they got to her house, cooler heads would prevail, he was sure of it. After all, letting a random kid stay overnight after a brawl was fine, but no one in their right minds would take him in for an indefinite period of time.
Little did he know that the members of the Odeo household had never really been in their right minds.
"Everyone! I'm home!" She shouted next to his ear, probably causing some permanent damage. As heads poked out of rooms down the hall, Yankumi held up Reita by his arm like a caught fish.
"Guess who's staying with us for a while!" As her minions cheered like they had just won the lottery, rather than gaining a freeloader, Reita noticed that she phrased it like an announcement, rather than an actual question.
Shin entered the hallway, took in Reita's expression of frustrated chagrin and Yankumi's victorious pose, and decided to rescue her hapless student.
"I'll take his bag." He offered, and did a neat grab around Yankumi's wrist that forced it to pop open, releasing Reita's bruised arm. Reita was annoyed to see that Yankumi didn't even notice. Damn, she's strong, he thought as he rotated his shoulder experimentally.
Shin pointed the way to the spare room he had slept in before. As they walked, Shin gave Reita a measuring look.
"So," he asked casually. "Staying long?"
As he thought, one question was all it took to send Reita into a full on rage.
"Does she always do that? Just walk into people's houses and poke her nose into business that doesn't concern her in the slightest, and then decide that she needs to be the one to solve it? I mean, it's not like I asked her for a place to stay, and absolutely no one asked her to come bang on my door at seven am on a Saturday."
Reita paused. "Why did she come to my house at seven in the morning anyway?"
"She's worried about you."
Turning sharply, Reita stared at the taller man. "What?"
"She said that you've been out of sorts recently, and was worried that something happened. And yes, she does always do that."
Reita stared at the floor. "She doesn't need to worry," he mumbled.
"Doesn't matter. She worries about all of you. Every single student in every single class." Glancing at him from the corner of his eye, Shin added. "Some people think it's nice."
"Well, it's not so nice when she comes barging into your house at some ungodly hour and tries to fix your entire life." Reita muttered sullenly.
For some reason this caused Shin to burst into laughter, which both startled and mildly offended Reita.
"It's not funny when it happens to you." He grumbled.
Shin gave him a particular look.
"Wait… did that happen to you?"
The man smiled in memory. "I was her student once, too," he replied as he put down Reita's bag and went to set up the futon.
Reita hesitantly asked, "What happened?"
Shin turned to him with an assessing look. "You really want to know?"
Reita nodded slowly.
Finding whatever he was looking for with that piercing stare, Shin began to speak in a thoughtful tone. "I was a senior in high school, and had been kicked out by my parents years before. Then Parent Teacher Conferences rolled around. None of my other teachers had really cared if my parents came or not, so I showed up alone, told Yankumi that my parents weren't going to attend, my future was undecided, and that was the end of the discussion. I walked out before she had a chance to say anything, and thought that was that."
Shin chuckled. "Man, was I wrong. Next thing I know, she shows up at my apartment that night, and says that she's going to cook me dinner." He shook his head with a smile. "She burned whatever it was to a crisp." Thinking back, he added, "I think it was supposed to be mac and cheese or something.
"Anyway, while I was cooking the instant noodles she brought as back-up, she asked me about my family." Shin paused. "And for some reason, I told her. I told her about what my family was like, why I had left…"
He glanced down. "I had never told anyone about that before. But she was… different. In my experience, adults made up their minds about what you should do, never mind what you say. They were always right. But Yankumi listened to me. She listened because she wanted to help."
There was a breath of a laugh. "She always wants to help." Looking back up at Reita, he continued. "That night I realized something. It's nice to have people who want to help you. And it's okay to let them."
Reita looked away and concentrated on folding his blanket.
"So, that's my story. What's yours?"
Still looking at the blanket, Reita took a moment, then said. "My mom left."
He saw Shin's eyebrows shoot up.
"Not like that," he amended. "She left to stay with my aunt and uncle." Even thinking about it brought up the anger and frustration from when she drove off and left him alone.
"She quit her job, because those are so easy to come by," he explained bitterly, "and went to Osaka to find a job that let her 'find herself'. What the hell does that even mean?"
Shin stayed quiet a moment. "Some people need a change of pace," he offered.
"Oh no, this isn't about the job. She's been doing this for ages. She'd finally find a job, stay there a while, get kind of good at it, and then as soon as she was comfortable, she'd freak out." Agitated, he started pacing. "She tried to explain it to me once. She gets scared that something bad will happen, that she's get fired, or do something wrong, or the job will just disappear." He waved his arms around, mocking the phrase. "And I try to tell her, every time, that it's a job, not-"
Reita stopped, then changed was he was going to say. "Not a person."
Shin, who Reita felt was picking up on all the things he wasn't saying, remained in thoughtful silence.
Changing the subject, Reita sighed and asked, "So, is there any way you can distract Yankumi while I get out of here?"
Shin blinked, then laughed. "Reita, you're her new cause. Japan falling into the ocean wouldn't distract her."
Reita swore softly under his breath while Shin got down a pillow.
"Everyone! Lunch's ready!" Minoru's voice boomed from the kitchen.
As the two started to leave the room, Shin stopped. "Take it from me," he said finally. "Being her new cause… it's not so bad." He grinned, then walked past Reita out into the hall.
Waiting until Shin was a good ways ahead, Reita rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, right."
