Chapter 9: Children's March: "Over the Hills and Far Away"
After a morning like that, class is such a relative and unequivocal bore that it's all I can do to not sleep through all of the lessons. I was hoping that the excitement Kyouko had infected me with would help inspire me to pay better attention in class, but alas it seems I'm stuck being a naturally bad student.
Class introductions are the closest thing to exciting that the period has to offer. Our homeroom teacher is Mrs. Nakahara, teaching History and apparently serving as one of the track coaches.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure the two of us will get along too terribly well. Nakahara has singled me out to start classroom introductions, probably because I'm sitting by myself in a back corner of the room. At the very least she doesn't ask me to move closer to the rest of the class, but she could at least be sensitive enough to understand I'm sitting here exactly because I don't want to be picked first.
Standing is easier than it normally was in middle school when chair and desk were the same object, but even still I manage to make a bit of a mess of it. Are these first day nerves?
"I'm Sora Akiyama… Um," I bite my lip, my voice coming out before I can measure or appropriate its purpose. Thankfully, it's behaving itself. "It's a pleasure to meet you all… I-I hope we can get along…" Darn, I completely forgot to so much as think about my class introduction. I thought I didn't care before, but this bumbling is kind of embarrassing.
Thankfully, it's sufficient and I can sit down. While my mind is still occupied, I can at least pay a bit of attention to all of the other students. To my surprise, most of the students in the room look very normal, more so than my impression of Yamaku yesterday. The most notable feature of anybody in the room seems to be a girl proudly wearing a nearly bald head just in front of me.
Of course, this is failing to mention the three students confined to wheelchairs, one of them a boy forced to speak through a computer. It's a morbid thought that I could be in that situation myself instead of the one I'm currently in, but the sobering thought won't exactly dispel all the lingering gloom in my current state of consciousness. It would be nice if it were that simple…
I can barely register all the names of my classmates when introductions have ended and class starts its course. I'm tempted to slam against the desk and lull myself into a comfortable sleep, probably to make up for the fitful rest I had last night, but instead I opt to looking about the room again.
I really am on an island over here, I realize. The class isn't quite filled with students, but I'm definitely the only one without a neighbor to my side. My isolation is eased a bit by students in front of me, but maybe it wouldn't be bad to scoot over a desk after all?
I'm too lazy to consider becoming a disruption though, so I at least decide to focus in on the subjects being written about on the board. History is actually probably one of my preferred subjects, but it's hard to get much into the mood of school today despite all the excitement from it being the first day.
There aren't too many notes to be taking as most of the important subjects are already covered on the papers that Nakahara has already passed out. I settle the majority of my attention on reading these thoroughly rather than pay much mind to what she's saying, but I imagine I'll get the same information regardless of where I focus.
I don't really expect to feel a tap on my shoulder from in front of me. It's the girl whose hair is still recovering from being shaved off.
"Hey, Akiyama right?" She grins, turning to face me. There's a curious clamor in the rest of the classroom starting from her tapping, but it seems to be only chronologically related.
"R-right…" I blink, realizing I'd kind of been zoning out with my head buried in the handout.
"Wanna group up for this? There's an uneven number of us in this class so we can be the group of three." The boy next to her speaks up and I have to start wracking my brain for their names before I can even offer a verbal response. He's one of the three in a wheelchair I'd noticed, his hair a nice, muted blue.
Thankfully, my gentle nod is sufficient to finish the group agreement.
"Everything alright? Isn't it a bit early in the school year to be spacing out?" The girl speaks up again before I've finished fishing around in my head for their names.
"Well, yeah I guess?" I murmur, as my head floods with even more thoughts. When had we decided to break into group work? Why did I forget to eat breakfast on the only day that it would bother me?
"Nothing's wrong, right?" The boy cuts in next, as if they're taking carefully constructed turns to talk to me.
"No, I'm just hungry," I murmur, sighing and leaning back to look at the ceiling with a pencil lodged in my functioning hand. "I guess we went from syllabus to group work right when my brain shut off."
I don't know why this elicits giggles from the two of them, but at the very least it sets the atmosphere at ease when it had been threatening to grow tense. We settle into the work, which is included in the packet we were handed at the start of class.
The assignment is plenty easy enough since all of the material was covered for me last year. I can't help but feel like there's no reason a multiple choice questionnaire should involve group work though. Wouldn't the purpose of an assignment like this be to diagnose any holes in the students' foundations of knowledge?
Given Nakahara is sitting idly away at her desk I imagine it's just her way of getting class out of her hair until the next bell. That thought doesn't sit too well with me, but at least a multiple choice questionnaire is easy enough to fill out with my weak left arm. Having to take minutes to write simple sentences on the first day would be even more embarrassing than my introduction to the class earlier.
Class is over before I've even noticed, and the parts of our packets containing the group quiz are sent up the front. Nakahara stuffs them into her desk before rushing off to her next class with a wink and a spot for the track team. I don't know if it's possible for a classroom to be any less excited about a club endorsement than after that one, but a choice few seem energized by the announcement.
Right behind her is a young, portly man wearing glasses and looking more than a bit unwashed. This one is Onitsuka, and he teaches Japanese, second only to English as my most hated subject. That said, at least English isn't taught every day like this class…
I don't know how it's possible, but he seems even less prepared to teach than Nakahara had been. Like before we get a handout and have to introduce ourselves. In contrast to Nakahara, he asks for the introductions during roll-call, rather than make them an event fitting to start a manga with.
I'm pretty thankful for that, but it's going to be difficult to appreciate him as a teacher when he's teaching a subject I've come to abhor so deeply. The situation would be less dire if I actually enjoyed reading true novels, but even those don't give me something to look forward to here.
Still, it won't pay to completely tune things out. The second round of introductions is enough to tell me who my partners from last period are. The girl is Anja Fujimoto and the boy is Seto Tsukino.
I hadn't noticed until her name, but Anja actually seems to be part foreign. It's very subtle on her face, and she's considerably shorter than I am, so up until that point it had simply been a strange feeling rather than something I picked up on immediately.
It's hard for me to really comment much of anything about names, especially when I think of mine, but at the very least nobody seems to have a particularly difficult one to pronounce. Tsurugimine is probably the worst in the class to get right, and her given name is Aoi, which simplifies the matter.
As expected, Onitsuka's class is even more boring than Nakahara's as he spends the entire time reading from the syllabus and from a book of poetry. I'm sure he's affiliated with a club, but I can't imagine which one it might be. Given his figure, I doubt it's anything athletic.
Still, it seems I'm not alone in being bored. Notes are practically flying around the room every time he isn't looking, and he ignores them on the occasions when he looks up from his glasses.
Not a single one of the passed notes heads my way, which is fine. It does mean I yawn a few more times than necessary throughout the instruction before the lunch bell finally rings.
Honestly, I'm all too thrilled to get to eat. I usually don't mind skipping meals, but today is different for whatever reason. Now that I think about it, it actually has been almost 24 hours since I stuffed anything into my mouth.
"Hey, do you have a lunch Akiyama?" As if on cue, Anja turns to face me, standing up from her desk. Seto is watching our interaction intently.
"No. I was going to go to the cafeteria." I stand up slowly, my legs a bit shaky since I've been sitting for about two hours straight now. Something is bothering me right now but I can't put a finger on it.
"Wanna go together then?" In an unexpected twist, another girl from across the room walks over towards us with a wide grin on her face, her hair tied up into a ponytail. I can't remember her name from the double round of introductions, but amazingly enough she's taller than I am by at least a couple centimeters. That's a first for Yamaku, then.
"Ah, Junko! Glad you could make it." Anja winks while I offer a bare-minimum acknowledgement.
"Of course! You've already met Anja then, huh?" She turns to me as I start to struggle out of my seat. Hunger is starting to be my only driving instinct at this point.
"Yeah… You two know each other?" I stare at them blankly, ignoring the protests of my stomach.
"We've been friends since elementary school." Junko gives a tomboyish wink and grin, and I instantly remember what seemed familiar about her; she was one of the few visibly excited by Nakahara's spot for the track club. Actually, she'd even said something directly to her back then, hadn't she?
"I see. Well, I guess I don't mind company." I nod along, sighing as it seems our quaint group has suddenly gained a much more boisterous member.
"Alright! Onward we go," Junko chuckles, suddenly gathering Anja by her arm, much to the shorter girl's surprise. "Is there anything we shouldn't get while we're down there, Akiyama?"
It takes a moment to register what she's asking, and I simply shake my head as the four of us exit the room.
"Well, I'm allergic to corn, but none of you need to worry about that." I shrug as we mingle into the lunch-time bustle. I chance a look around for my hallmate when I think about it, but she's nowhere to be found right now.
"Oh, please call me Sora." I tack on, finally remembering what had been bothering me throughout this entire set of exchanges. Formality is not a terribly comfortable place for me to be.
"Right." Anja giggles as the two other girls start a conversation among themselves.
I half-expect Seto to start one with me, but it seems he's happy enough being quiet. He doesn't seem all that shy to me, but that might be a biased thing for me to say.
The cafeteria isn't a terribly long commute anyway. I stop straining to hear the conversation as the din of the lunch rush drowns it out entirely. I don't think anybody has much important to say anyway, so I instead focus on the looming Yamaku menu…
"Holy Christ that's a lot to choose from…" I think to myself, eyes going wide and jaw going a little slack. Several boards listing the options dominate the serving area, and each has its own array of allergens listed. Thankfully enough, there doesn't seem to be much with corn here. I'd normally worry they simply aren't listing it, but a quick once-over dissuades this worry. In any case, it's not like eating a little bit will kill me, though I'm hesitant to test this again considering how little I've eaten in the past day.
I decide the tonkatsu is the best thing to build a meal around as the group all goes their separate ways for a few moments to get food. I look around, but almost surprisingly there's absolutely no canned coffee to choose from, so I settle for green tea.
By what I can only assume is a miracle given how unbelievably crowded the cafeteria is, we all manage to rematerialize over the same table with our foodstuffs and take seats. Seto of course simply moves one aside before rolling up to the table on his own power.
To my surprise, the food is better than expected. It's not the best I've ever had of course, but the way the tension in my stomach disappears instantly tells me the food could actually be pretty bad and still do its job of feeding me quite well.
Thanks to my condition, chopsticks are a fleeting dream. Forks and spoons are far more efficient for the plate-to-mouth journey, but there's an elegance to chopsticks that I miss pretty severely.
I must have been eating quickly because the group of friends is looking at me with wide eyes the next time I can chance a look.
"Hungry?" Junko grins, restoring faith in all those who believe in the stereotypical jock girl before taking a bite from her curry.
"Y-yeah," I feel some heat rising in my cheeks and look down at the table when everybody starts to laugh at my expense. "I haven't had anything to eat in almost a day…" Not only that, but just about everything I ate yesterday ended up in the toilet before it was done digesting.
Come to think of it, how have I managed to be as energetic this morning as I have been? It's not as if I've been very energetic, but I should have been absolutely dead leading up to now.
"Well, I'm impressed," Anja giggles playfully, her own food barely touched. "I didn't guess you'd be able to out-eat Junko here."
"Hey! Just for that I'm taking your eggs!" Junko frowns at her friend, and this time everybody gets a laugh out of it. Strangely, I get the feeling she prides herself on being a big and fast eater.
"Oh fine." Anja sighs, prompting an instant, precise strike from the tall jock that robs her bowl of some of the aforementioned egg.
"I really don't normally eat this fast…" I sigh, conceding defeat for fear that I'll be forced into some kind of competition with an athlete over who can eat the most the fastest. There's absolutely no way in Hell I'm going to compete in the same league in that contest.
"Well, it's good you're eating." Seto chimes in with a fairly innocent smile, more focused on his soup than his words.
I simply nod to him, letting my eyes wander around the cafeteria. I remember Kyouko hadn't packed a lunch, so it's surprising that I still can't find her in the crowd. Then again, with so many green jackets to sort, it's hardly surprising I can't make out her petite form.
At some point the issue of clubs comes up again. Seto is interested in the Book Club, while Anja would be interested in something with home applications. Junko is obviously interested in track, but then she also mentions baseball without any sort of hesitation.
"You can join more than one club?" I cut in, only a few bites of pork left over on my plate by this point.
"Yeah! Clubs aren't really officially joined here anyway," Junko says in between stealing more egg from Anja's bowl. "What are you thinking about doing, Sora?"
Ah, I should have guessed it would get to me here.
"Um… Well, I doubt there's anything I want to join, actually." I frown, but to my surprise I just get nods of acknowledgement and understanding from my classmates.
"Clubs aren't mandatory either, but you can always change your mind later." Anja nods, finishing her drink and standing up to discard it, leaving her meal to be taken apart by her childhood friend.
We'll have to see about that, I suppose. I chance another look around while she's gone to see if I can find Kyouko, but it seems that she made other lunch plans today after all.
It's not too disappointing, though. These three seem just as likely as her to be good friends in the coming year.
