Chapter XI: Home alone

The school day went by pretty quickly for Sara. She glanced at her watch. Ryosuke was going to be done 30 minutes later. She decided to go to their rendezvous point: the library. It's the only place where I can actually pass time without getting too bored… She sat down at one of the first decks and then she took out her car scrapbook. Sara smiled thinking about when she first bought the car. It doesn't look anything like that anymore. It used to be white with very little rust. In Canada, they didn't sell the 2-door imprezza WRX sti. They only had the base model: the 2.5 RS. Once she bought it, she ordered the WRX sti engine from Japan and basically changed every single component to make it a WRX sti. The only things that I've kept were the stock mags. It was her ex-boyfriends best friend that fixed up her car. He was a very good mechanic and he worked for Mitsubishi. The double irony of my car: it's the only Subaru that ever was allowed to go to a Mitsubishi dealership and it's the only Japanese car in Japan to have the steering on the left. She remembered all the trouble she had to go through to modify her car without her boyfriend finding out. She had once speculated about the modifications in front of him and he got upset. According to him, it was too dangerous for his precious girl to have that much horsepower. She still did as she wished; only she did it behind his back. Once her car's mechanical features were to her liking, she bought the high spoiler and the skirt, installed them, debagged all the writing on the car and got her gunmetal colour. Finally, the only change still remaining to be done was the installation of racing seats. It won't be necessary anymore. I'm done racing.

She released a sad sigh and thought about her day at school. It was all right. The highlight of the day was when Ryosuke-Chan parked his car. Sara didn't know that he had groupies following him. It was so hilarious when Sara got out of the car and all the groupies were starring her down and giving her dirty looks. Haters are everywhere. She smirked. She should have expected a man like Ryosuke to have groupies. He was quite handsome and charming, well when he wanted to of course. He dressed well and was on his way to become a brilliant physician. He reminds me of Alex. As a matter a fact, Ryosuke did slightly resemble her ex-boyfriend and on top of it, he dressed like him too. She felt a presence behind herself and turned around. Some weird guy with a bandana was there looking over her shoulder onto her scrapbook.

Sara: Who are you and what do you want from me.

The guy smirked.

Kyouichi: My name is Kyouichi Sudou. It's very rare to find such a lovely young lady sitting by herself. I must add that the car in your book is really nice, but mine is nicer and probably faster.

Sara: And I would care because…?

Kyouichi: My, my… You have quite an attitude. I love girls with an attitude. Anyhow, my car is a lan evo 3. It may just be my imagination, but I've seen a car like that on my mountain. I was practicing on the downhill a week ago or so and some foul in that very same car passed me. Who drives it? Your boyfriend I presume.

What's wrong with this nosy bastard? Sara figured it was the foul that she passed on Irohasaka that night. He was pretty slow on top of it. She smiled and looked at Kyouichi straight in the eyes.

Sara: How come you let it pass you? Isn't your car supposed to be faster?

Kyouichi: Listen, and listen carefully, I want a name. Now!

Sara was officially scared of what that psychopath might do. He was looking at her with rage in his eyes. If he wanted to intimidate her, he succeeded. She quickly glanced at her watch. Ryosuke should be here by now. Where are you? She then realised he was stepping into the library and was looking towards her. Thank God!

Kyouichi: So? Who drives that bloody WRX?

Ryosuke: She does. You shouldn't intimidate young ladies like that. It's not a gentlemen's thing to do.

Kyouichi turned around and looked at Ryosuke who was crossing his arms. Kyouichi looked surprised to see him.

Kyouichi: Takahashi? You know her? She races?

Ryosuke: I know her, I can tell you that much only though. The rest, I'm not sure myself. I can only presume. She did pass my double aces after all.

Kyouichi: She did that?

Sara: Wait a second. You guys know each other?

Ryosuke: We did race each other twice. Tell me Sudou, what are you doing here?

Kyouichi: I just delivered something to the school.

Ryosuke: I see. Farewell and take care of yourself.

Sara grabbed her stuff as fast as she could and followed Ryosuke who was walking towards the library's exit.

Sara: Goodbye. It was nice meeting you.

Kyouichi just stood there completely speechless. Once they were far enough, Sara looked at Ryosuke.

Sara: Thank you so much Ryosuke-Chan. He scared me a lot.

Ryosuke: Don't mention it. If you ever meet him again, watch out. I don't believe he's dangerous, but I know how intimidating he can be.

Once they reached the parking lot, they walked to Ryosuke's car and climbed aboard it. Ryosuke put his keys in the ignition, but instead of turning his car on he looked at Sara.

Ryosuke: You really passed him. Where?

Sara: It was on Irohasaka, going downhill.

Ryosuke: Then you expect me to believe you don't race? How many other cars have you passed?

Sara: I told you yesterday. You can believe whatever you want to believe. I'm here to study and to get over something that happened to me in Canada. I'm not here to challenge anyone or humiliate anyone.

Ryosuke: If you aren't a racer, you should start racing. You have great skills and great potential. I hate to say this, but you could probably dominate the whole Gunma region. I don't know what possibly happened to you before you came here, but if you told somebody, it would help you. I see the sorrow in your eyes whenever your past is brought up.

Sara: That's a personal issue. I don't want to talk about it.

Ryosuke: That's fine.

Ryosuke finally turned on his car and they left the parking lot. They were halfway home and not another word was spoken between them. He turned to look at her for a short moment. She was sleeping. Ryosuke waked Sara up once they finally got home. They walked inside the house and were greeted by Mrs. Takahashi.

Mrs. Takahashi: Hello Ryosuke, good evening Sara-Chan. How was school today?

Ryosuke: Very instructive.

Dr. Takahashi: That's my son! What about yours Sara-Chan?

Sara: Long and boring, but very instructive as well.

Dr. Takahashi: Your uncle told me you hated school. It's great to see you still have the willpower to do it anyways, unlike my youngest son.

Keisuke: That's not fair fath…

Dr. Takahashi: See, he even speaks when he's not allowed.

Sara felt really bad for Keisuke. She noticed that the two times she saw him in the same room as his father, he's always get put down.

Mrs. Takahashi: Anyways, we'll eat right away.

Ryosuke: Why so early?

Dr. Takahashi: Go was your hands and you'll find out at the table.

The three young adults did what Dr. Takahashi asked and then sat down at the table. Dr. Takahashi and his wife were already sitting down at the table. The second the three younger adults sat down, Dr. Takahashi cleared his throat and straightened his body.

Dr. Takahashi: Kids, your mother and I will be gone for a little more than a month. The reason why we are eating early is because we have to catch the plane at nine thirty tonight. We will be attending various medical conventions all around the world.

Mrs. Takahashi: So I'll leave you kids with a list of chores and some money for groceries. You should be fine with that.

Ryosuke: Why didn't you tell us earlier?

Mrs. Takahashi: It's because we only took the decision last night and we weren't here to announce it. It was Dr. Rinaldi who invited us as guest speakers for the conventions.

Sara remembered his uncle mention these conventions a few weeks before. He never mentioned inviting the Takahashis though… unless it was to make her adapt better to her new life. Thanks a lot zio! The other good thing is that she won't even need to ask the Takahashis if Joyce could stay over. All she'd have to do is have her over. Sara was flying high.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kyouichi fans, don't kill me please. I don't think he's a freak like that. I just made him act like that for the sake of the story.

Thanks for review. and stay tunned