My mommy talked loudly into the phone, as she threw me an orange shirt

My mommy talked loudly into the phone, as she threw me an orange shirt. I put it on and sat on the bed, waiting patiently for her to hang up.

Finally, she got off the phone. She looked at me. "Aw, you look so cute!" I just stared at her blankly. "Well, come on." She said. "Time to go to school." She took my hand and we walked out the door.

We were walking to the bus stop. On the way, we ran into Mommy's friend, Tika, and her kids, Tai and Kari. Tai's a year older then me, and Kari is three.

Mommy and Tika began to talk non-stop. Tai walked over to me and started talking. "Hi Koushiro!"

"Hi Tai." I said.

"I hope you don't get Miss Hihato. She's mean."
"Who are the other teachers?"

"Mr. Bét, Ms. Schuyler, and Mrs. Tachini."

"Are they nice?"

"Think so."

"'Kay."

We got to the bus stop. We got there late, so the bus was already there, and about to leave. Mommy kissed me goodbye, and I got on the bus. Some gum stuck to my shoes as I walked up the stairs. Yuck!

I sat in the first available seat, next to a guy with blue hair and huge glasses. He didn't talk, and I wasn't much of a talker either, so I left him alone. When Tai got on the bus, he stared at me for a long time. "Koushiro, come sit with me, okay?"

"'Kay." I got up and went to sit with Tai.

"Koushiro?" Tai said, pushing aside the seatbelts that nobody used. "Don't sit with that kid. No one likes him. If you hang out with him, no one will like you either."

"Why not?"

"If you're with someone bad, then people think your bad to. You know how I like to play with Sora? She and me are a lot alike. But Yamato hangs out with us to, and so people think he's like us, but he's not. For Yamato, that was good. People didn't like the real him, but they like me and Sora, so they like him."

"People will think I'm like that boy if I sit with him? And that's bad?"

"Yeah."

"That's not very fair."

"Well, that's the way things are. And if you want to survive, you have to make people like you. You have to have a lot of friends. If you don't, if people don't like you, it's dangerous. Yamato got beaten up because he cried too much. He didn't cry when they hit him though. He never cried again after that. And that kid you were sitting with gets beaten up all the time."

"That's scary…"

"Well, I'm sorry to scare you, but you have to be careful."

The bus pulled up to the school. We were all let off and given a slip of paper with a teachers name on it. Mine said, 'Ms. Tachini.'

I ran into the building and I went up to the third floor. I really can't read very well, so I had to guess which class. I was the first one to walk in the door. "Hi." I said to the middle-aged lady sitting on the big desk. "Am I s'posta be in this class?"

"Whats your name?" She asked.

"Izumi Koushiro."

"Let me check." She picked up a list and looked through it. "Yes, your in my class."

"'Kay. Where's everyone else?"

"This class and Ms. Schuyler's class have computer lab for the next two periods. You should go on now, you're late."
"'Kay." I wandered around for a while, but I found my way to the computer lab.
A tall, shadowy, scary-looking man walked up to the doorway. "Your late."
"S-sorry." I said nervously.
"It's alright. I know when I see it, and I can see that you are going to be a star student in my class. Unless you prove me wrong, then I can certainly overlook a little thing like lateness."

"Thanks…I think."
"Take that computer over there." He pointed to a big gray box.

I guess that was what he said was a computer. It had a screen that glowed, and a gray thing to click with buttons coming out on a string. I didn't know what to do with it, but I walked over to it anyway, and grabbed the clicky-thing. Nothing happened. I moved it around. The arrow on the screen moved to. I clicked the buttons.

A box popped up on the screen. "Crreeaattee…sccrreeen….n-nnn-naaamme…" I read slowly. I clicked the button that said, 'OK.' It came to another box. I clicked 'OK' again, but it wouldn't work. I typed some random keys, and it looked like this. 'Ts/aO2fWs//!u:;^.tw!' I clicked on the next box. I typed, 'VvvVa/*AupIcz,IZZZ78.'

But this time it came out all *'s. I clicked 'OK' again.

The computer started beeping and making whirring sounds. After a few minutes it said, "Welcome, Ts/aO2fWs//!u:;^.tw!"

I was confused. I thought I had broke the computer. I thought I would be kicked out of kindergarten. "Um…" I said. "Could someone help me fix the computer?"

The girl on the computer next to me, turned around. "It's not broken. You just went on the In-ter-net." She pronounced the word in separate syllables.

"Whats the Internet?"

"It's where you go to…uh…stuff. I don't know much. I only know how to look at this website, and I don't like it very much anymore." I looked at her computer. It was a Barbie website. The girl herself looked like a baby cowgirl.

"Whats your name?" I asked.

"Mimi. Yours?"

"Koushiro."

"Okay." She took out a container of liquid and started putting it on her nails. I turned back to the computer. It was amazing. I didn't know how to work it, but I loved it. Tai was wrong. I didn't need friends. This was all I needed.

It was lunchtime. I was eating the icky school lunch. A girl who was in Tai's class was sitting with me. "You look like a drunk." She said.

"Whats a drunk?"

"Someone who drinks a lot of alcohol."

"Whats alcohol?"
"Something bad." I didn't know it then, but that was Jun Motamiya, whose mother was an alcoholic. That was why someone so young knew about it.

"Why do I look like that?"

"I dunno. You just do. Your eyes are glazed over. You could've just watched to much TV though." She went back to her lunch and I went back to mine.

I finished and went outside. I didn't want to be outside. I wanted to use the computer. I wanted to feel the power of it. I really felt powerful, being able to control what programs were on…I felt real power. I was in total control.

So I just sat there, through the whole yard time, even though Tai asked me to play with him and his friends, Sora and Yamato. I said no.

The rest of the day went by quickly. No one spoke to me, and I didn't speak to anyone. I kept seeing the computer screen in my mind. I guess I acted pretty lifeless, because Ms. Tachini asked if I was feeling sick. I said no.

We had free time most of the time, and a little math. I learned how to do easy addition.

The day finally ended, and I couldn't wait to tell my mommy about the wonders of the computer. I ran out in the yard to meet her. She hugged me tightly, and asked how my day was. I told her all about the computer. "What else happened?" She asked. "Did you make friends?"
I said no, I didn't.

"Did you play with Tai."
"He asked me to, but I said no."

"Well what did you do all day?"

Strangely, I couldn't remember. All I could think of was the computer.