Chapter 7…… First Grade

"Another school year.." Kim said quietly to herself.

She had grown a little over the summer. Her dad had been promoted and now she had a housekeeper that took care of her. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a platter of pancakes in front of her. She smiled widely as she poured the rich maple syrup over them. She scarfed them down and walked down to the end of her driveway. Rai was waiting at the end of his to and she walked over by him. She still had the ring on her finger. Rai smiled as she walked over to her. Clay had moved to a different part of the neighborhood and no longer rode their bus. Omi was still in the same development he just lived farther down the road.

"Hey.." Kimiko said biting her bottom lip and looking down at her shoes.

"Hey what's up?" Rai asked.

"Oh nothing I guess since the bus just passed my house I'll get on it here," she said looking at the big yellow school bus.

They got on the bus and Kieko was sitting across an empty spot. Rai sat on the inside so Kim could talk to Kieko. Omi got on and sat next to Kieko. Kieko huffed but Omi smiled and nodded his head. Kimiko rolled her eyes and faced forward for the rest of the bus ride.

"Kim wait up!" Omi called.

Kimiko stopped and turned around to see Omi calling out to her.

"Hey Omi what's wrong?"

"Kim I like this girl I mean my friend likes this girl but she doesn't like him back what should I- mean what should he do?"

"Oh Omi has a crush who is it?"

"Oh actually wait it's my friend!"

Kimiko laughed and said, "Well Omi, as a married girl, I would say become friends with her."

She started walking away and Omi sat their rubbing his chin trying to look more perfessional. Some of the older girls were laughing and smiling at him. Kieko was in Kim's class and Rai, Omi, and Clay were in a different one.

Kim and Kieko's classroom.

"Good morning class and welcome to another school year!" Mrs. Johnson said.

The class repeated her and then formed a line for desk assignment. Their desks were in a square u shape. Their was still a checkered rug in the middle of it just like in kindergarten. In the front of the classroom their were two chalkboards, an alphabet scroll, and some motivational words.

"Kimiko, Martha, Stuart, Benji, Kieko, Sophia.." the teacher said going on and on.

Luckily in this seating arrangement Kim could see into the other classroom where Rai was and lucky for them Rai was at that lucky spot to.

Mrs. Johnson was a small lady with curly black hair about shoulder length. She smiled a friendly smile and seemed extremely sweet.

Rai, Omi, and Clay's Classroom

"Hello class." Ms. Kinklebottom said to her class.

The class didn't repeat but sat their scared half to death. Ms. Kinklebottom was nothing like Mrs. Johnson. Ms. Krinklebottoms was the type that had 50 cats running around her apartment filled with smoke and tuna smell. She was quite over weight and her hair was completely gray. It was lifeless with no volume in it what so ever. It went half way down her back and she wore it in a ponytail. She hardly ever smiled and if she did it was because she was forced not because she wanted to.

"Okay seating arrangements you are their then umm you next to him and just put yourself in formation!" she said annoyed and grunted something under her breath.

They were going to have a great year.

-

"Hi I'm Kimiko," Kim said holding out her hand to Martha.

"Whatever…" Martha said rolling her eyes and looking at her nails.

Kimiko leaned back and so did Kieko. They gave each other the look like can't wait till new seating arrangements.

"Okay class I don't have to many rules in this classroom because I want you to be open and responsible individuals." Mrs. Johnson said with a big smile plastered across her face, "My only rule is to respect yourself and each other, now I have an art project for us to do. Kim and Martha would you pass all this stuff out?"

"Of course we would Mrs. Johnson!" Martha said looping her arm in Kims and rolling her eyes.

"Teachers pet.." Kieko coughed.

"Oh Kieko are you alright?" Mrs. Johnson asked worried.

"Yeah I'm fine just a little something in my throat." Kieko said rubbing her neck.

Mrs. Johnson nodded and smiled some more. They had to pass out instruction sheets on how to make apples. Their were specific instructions like black steam if your left handed or brown if your right handed.

"Kieko which hand is your left?" Sophia asked.

"This one…" Kieko said pointing to Sophia's.

"But then which one is your right?" Sophia asked confused.

Kieko just rolled her eyes. Kimiko was one of the first one's done in the class and Martha had jealusy brewing up in her.

"Great job Kim it looks wonderful here I'll go put it on the back table so it can dry!" Mrs. Johnson said.

Kim looked over at Martha who was giving her a death glare and her nose was twitching.

-

"Class I don't do art projects… instead will be doing time tests today so I can see how advanced you are.." Ms. Krinklebottom said.

Omi and Clay looked at each other and Rai was looking over at Mrs. Johnson's class. Kimiko was socializing with Kieko and they were laughing. Mrs. Krinklebottoms slammed a green sheet of paper on Rai's desk. Omi purposely got up to sharpen his pencil so he could watch Kieko. He loved the sound of her voice. She flipped her hair and Omi only had half an inch of pencil left.

Kimiko got on the bus with Kieko right behind her. Their class had been let out early because they were being good. Omi sat behind Kimiko so he could watch Kieko and her chatter. Raimundo sat next to Kim and Clay sat in the seat behind Kieko. Kimiko was expecting her dad to be waiting at the end of the bus stop but instead it was her housekeeper Inga. Her dad called her while she was watching something on t.v.

"Hey Kimi how was your first day back to school?" he asked.

"It was pretty good my teacher's nice and we made apples and stuff," Kim said shrugging even though he couldn't see.

"Oh well I guess that's good then so umm anyways I was calling to say that I'm going to be gone a lot but was wondering if you'd like to take a karate class or something?"

"Yeah that would be soo funn!" Kim said clapping her hands.

"Great I can sign you up and then you can start next week?" he asked in a questioning mode.

"Yeah that's so awesome!" she shrieked.

"Okay good but I have to go I'll be home soon. Bye." He said and hung up.

Kimiko jumped up and shouted, "Yes!"

She fell asleep about an hour after he called.

She woke up the next morning late and had to hurry to get ready. Martha got more and more jealus as the week went on. Omi tried harder and harder to get Kieko to like him and all Kim could think about was her new class. Her dad picked her up the first day from school and they drove to a big place. They handed her a white outfit with a white belt on top. She went and put it on and then went into a big room filled with mats and kids around her age. She sat down and her dad stood in the lobby where their was a glass wall where he could see through.

"Welcome kids. Your all here to learn karate and I'm here to show you, someday you'll be able to do this and this." The instructer said demonstrating some moves.

Kimiko was amazed. She followed all the rules and did everything almost perfect. The instructer was impressed. After about her 6th class she took the test and past the fastest in her class. Since no one else her age in that belt she had to be bumped up to a more advance class and she did better then some of them. The fat kid that she met in kindergarten had come back to this school. He was back it pushing kids, hitting them, etc. Kieko and Kim were playing a hand game at recess when he pused Kieko over. Kimiko didn't do it on purpose but she used some of her karate moves on him and kind of knocked out one of his teeth and chipped another one. A whole bunch of the boys that were playing football came over and were just as shocked as she was. She bit her bottom lip as she was sent to the principal.

"Kimiko sit down." The principal said pointing to a chair but not looking up from his paperwork.

"Okay.." she said breathing deeply.

"I just called your dad and umm yeah so what you did was wrong and your going to have to be punished." he said finally looking up.

"Okay.." she said again.

"No recess for a month." The words shot out of his mouth fast and hard.

It felt like she had been hit by a brick in the nose. To a first grader recess was the best time of the day and to have it taken away was like being stretched on a taffy stretcher.

She walked back into the classroom and handed her teacher a pass. She sat at her desk and Martha sneered at her. She didn't ride the bus home like she was supposed to she walked home. It took her over and hour but she made it their. Her dad scooped her up in a hug when she arrived.

"Why?" he asked.

"I want to drop out of karate.." Kimiko said tears wellling up her eyes.

"What Kimi you love karate and the instructor said that you could become a black belt by 4th grade with your skills."

"I know but so far it's only brought me trouble in my life and so before you ground me or whatever I'll just go up to my room anyways and won't come down unless I have to go school." Kimiko said walking up the stairs.

She sat on her back looking at her pictures and trophies from her class. Then she found herself pathetic for not even keeping it up for a year. She just lied down their for a long time until she dozed off to sleep. The next day was Saturday and she was supposed to be going to a big tournament for her age group. She was the only thing that would make her age group win but she didn't want to go and guessed people really wouldn't understand. Their was a knock on her door and her dad walked in and sat next to her. He handed her a box and looked at her.

"Kim are you sure you don't want to go to the tournament.. their counting on you?" he asked her.

"I'm sure." She said.

He left the room closing the door gentely behind him. She heard him trot down the stairs then out the front door to go to work. She pulled off the ribbon and opened the lid and inside was a locket. It was gold and it had a picture of her, her mom, and her dad. She smiled and leaped down the stairs. She called her aunt and she came to pick her up.

"Welcome to the 29th junior karate compition." The announcer said.

Kimiko was up first and her instructer was thrilled to see she came. She was up against a tall boy with dark brown hair that fell a little past his ears. His was slim but had a lot of muscles. Kimiko had the locket on and started to fight him when she noticed someone out of the corner of her eye. Her dad was up in the stands watching her and smiling. She stepped it up a notch and won the match. She played a couple other people and out of all she took first for her age group. Photographers were taking photos of her right and left. Her dad approached her and then the room started to spin.

Authors Note:

Okay sorry it took so long to post but I wanted to make it better then the last few. I know I promised more Clay/Omi but it's hard to find spots to put Clay in but promise when I get to third grade Clay's turn and the next chapter will be focusing on Omi…. I'm figuring this will be about 13 chapters long when finished.. I'm planning to do two on preschool if not more but umm I think I might do a sequel but then again maybe not.. will see when we come to that so please review! And I'll update again soon!