It has been a while. So sorry about that. A few errors have been brought to my attention and they will get corrected... at some point. On the 10th I start back at University. This may sound like a bad thing for the story but it is actually a good thing- I will be allowed more time at the computer without having to deal with crap. Thank you to all of my reviewers, you guys give me the warm fuzzies.

6/28/15: Dude, this is like the 3rd one I have revised today. .

For Michelle the next week passed fairly normally, everything as it should be. Her neck healed in fairly quick time. As classes came and go however, she can't shake the nagging feeling that something is off. She doesn't run into Shuuichi and after the first few nights tries to put the red headed rescuer out of her mind. It works sometimes and she has a great feeling of gratitude to him. Other times however, she feels mistrustful of the thought of him- almost as if he had lied to her and she knew. At no point in her memory does she remember him telling her a lie, or at least him being caught in one, though she hasn't really had too much interaction with him.

Sara spends a lot of time out with some guy. Often the only time Michelle sees her is in the mornings before classes. Sara often asks for advice about this new man and proper actions. Michelle once joked that he was just chasing Sara for the exotic idea of being with an American girl. Sara didn't speak to her for the rest of the day- a mean feat considering how much Sara talks.

After that, Michelle knew Sara was falling fast and hard for this guy. That really wasn't any different than normal; Sara always falls fast and hard, though she has the same effect on men. Both tend to get bored after a few months and Sara moves on to her new "true love" or "soul mate".

Michelle marches into her high school class, holding a large box in her hands. She gives them a relatively informal greeting in Japanese and the return with echoes of "hi" and "hello". Most of her students can read and write decently so Michelle has decided to focus her class on Vocabulary and Conversational English. She takes a very informal approach to the class- when everyone behaves themselves, that is.

Takanashi sensei is never anywhere to be found when his English class is in session so Michelle has taken that as an all clear to do as she wishes. She moves around the room, placing a large array of cheap plastic foods in random locations while humming 'twinkle twinkle little star' to herself. It was stuck in her head from teaching it to her youngest students that morning.

"Etoo..." Keiko mumbles when a plastic bunch of purple grapes thumps lightly on her desk. "arigatou?"

Michelle just smiles at her and all the other confused teenagers in the room as she heads to the front of the class. She conducts most of her class in English, as she had promised to do on her first day. She enjoys forcing the students to actually vocally use their English however she always explains the lesson in both Japanese and English to be sure her students know what is expected of them.

Before she begins she eyes the empty desk by Keiko. That damned delinquent is out again today and has been every day this week. It saddens her as she sees a lot of herself in him. Maybe she will have to corner him and have a heart to heart. God, Michelle hated to have such talks. None the less, class must go on.

"Today we will build vocabulary relating to food items. We are going to talk about the items in this room, what they are, what colors they are, their textures, their flavors, if you like or dislike them and so on." Her eyes roam the room, making contact with each of her students. They are watching her closely. This is the type of lesson they enjoy, practical uses rather than reading classical books that most American students can't or don't want to read and comprehend. "I expect that if you don't know the word you wish to use, you will ask me or a classmate what it is, in English."

As her English directions finish and before she begins again in Japanese, she hears the class door open and turns. Speak of the devil and he shall come (or think of him at least). Yusuke walks into the room, slinks over to his desk and sits down. Michelle offers him a smile rather than the lecture that most teachers would give considering he both interrupted her class and missed over half the school day. He was moving a little slower than normal, perhaps like he was in pain. She wonders for a moment if he could be sick then settles that he probably is recovering from some street brawl.

After delivering her instructions again in Japanese she has her students talk to the class mates around themselves for a bit about items near them. Michelle moves over to the devil's desk and sits on the window seal.

"Yo." Yusuke says, eyeing her with dread. He is fully expecting a lecture but is confused by her posture, relaxed, comfortable and calm; not at all angry.

"Yo." she answers back. Keiko watches on, surprised to see what may be a calm exchange between Yusuke and a teacher. The two eye each other for a few moments before Michelle casually picks up the plastic apple she sat next to. "Listen closely, this is your one chance." She calmly states before looking up at the girl.

Keiko quickly tries to busy herself to make it appear as if she wasn't listening in. She knows she failed though. Busted.

"What is this?" Michelle asks the simple question fairly slowly in English while pointing at the apple. The girl answers correctly, confused. "Yoku dekimashita" Michelle brings her attention back to the boy who is glaring at her to mask his confusion. Again, she points to the apple. "What is this?"

"Ringo" He spits. While being technically correct, he knows that is not the language she wants his answer in. Michelle sighs; he uses the same tactic she used way back in high school. She will not be defeated.

"In English." She orders in English.

"Hell if I know." He retorts, in Japanese. He is giving himself away a little at a time without realizing it. She doubts that he even fully realizes how much he actually understands. She knows it is largely due to lack of confidence that resulted from a lack of practice as well as from teaches telling him he can't learn anything. Michelle knows the place he is currently in in his education all too well.

"Do it."

"No"

"Yes" This continues for a few minutes, getting louder as the two shout at each other. He is frustrated as he is sure he doesn't know the word and Michelle is frustrated because she wants him to try- to say something, even if it is wrong. She ignored that it was improper to shout at a student.

Finally he spits out, "Apple". The word is dripping with poison and he is sure it is wrong, just as sure as he is that he can't learn this stupid language. He should have listened to Keiko's answer a few minutes before. What he doesn't realize is he is just as sure about "apple" being the wrong word as Michelle's Japanese teacher was about her ability to learn Japanese back in her freshman year of high school. Both that teacher and Yusuke are wrong. Michelle learned Japanese and "apple" is the correct English word for the object in her hand.

Keiko's eyes are wide with surprise. Students are staring. Michelle is grinning from ear to ear. The room is quite.

"Are you happy? Look how stu-" Michelle's voice cut's off his indignant rant.

"Yoku dekimashita" She states. "Very good" she repeats, patting him on the back. His face is a picture of pure shock. He got it right. He hadn't even attended most of the classes where she went over this vocabulary but he got it right. Holy shit, he got it right.

The class passes time practicing. Yusuke participates though only in the small group. Anyone else daring to try to include him in their practice is given a glare. Soon enough the class is set free by the bell.

Michelle gathers her fake fruit as Keiko walks up to her. A few students linger behind talking while others set to work on cleaning the class room. Michelle will always be thankful that American high schools have staff to clean and that she didn't have to stay late occasionally to do the cleaning herself. She was forced to admit however that the required cleaning by students resulted in the classroom staying cleaner throughout the day. If they made a mess, they had to clean it up.

"We are getting pizza later with some friends." Keiko says, conversing in Japanese. She appears to be shy often times but is such a warm girl. Michelle bites back to urge to congratulate the girl as she knows Keiko is trying to lead up to something.

"Lucky you." Michelle offers, instead of her first smart ass remark and cringes for a moment. Her comment didn't come out much better than the first one that came to her mind. She smiles as she stands with her box, eager to get home but knowing she will probably be eating alone again tonight.

"Well, would you like to come? If you don't have other plans, I mean." The girl spits out. From the door, Yusuke shouts for her to hurry up or he will leave her behind.

Michelle agrees and they make arrangements for Keiko and Yusuke to pick Michelle up and walk with her so as she doesn't get lost. Michelle doesn't argue too much knowing that the young girl is offering a kindness. It appears after she gets home she will have to get ready to leave again.

Dude, I'm so sorry this took forever. I plan to pick back up with this again to at least provide regular updates. I'm going to shoot for once a week at least.

6/28/2015: I don't think I ever returned to a once a week update. Oh well. You know, my Japanese teacher in freshman year of high school told me he would die of old age before I mastered basic Japanese. For the record- he's still alive :P If you want to learn something, learn it! Don't ever let someone tell you that you are too dumb or too far behind to learn something. Great joy exists in learning, I feel that the American school system just does a great job of beating that joy out of students early on. This concludes my public service announcement.

(by the way, no real changes were made to this chapter!)