"Are we there yet

"Are we there yet?" I asked the bus driver. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

"Will you just shut up?" This bus driver said.

"Well, are we?"
"No! Does it look like we're there?"

"Are we there yet?"

Jun stared at me. "Daisuke, shut up. Leave the poor bus driver alone. We're not there yet."

I couldn't help it. I was exited. I couldn't wait to get to school. I was so bored in the first five years of my life. Jun told me, that even though school is scary, it's exiting. "Sorry. Are we there yet?"

"No!" The bus driver and Jun exploded at me.

I went to sit somewhere else. I figured these two were getting annoyed with me. I sat next to a girl with blond stringy hair. "Hi!" She said. "I like your googles!"

"Googles?" I didn't know what googles were.

"Oh, I mean goggles. Sorry."

"Oh. Well, arigato! I like your shirt." It was white with a picture of a bomb on it.

"Thanks. I just got it. What's your name?"

"Motamiya Daisuke. Yours?"

"Cha Sioberi."
"Do you like tea?"
"It's okay. Why?"

"Your last name means tea."

"I know." Sioberi smiled, showing really white teeth. I looked closer at her, and I saw we weren't the only ones in the seat. A girl who looked a little older then us was here to.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Oh, that's just my sister, Kwan."

"Oh. Hi Kwan-san."

She waved at me, and went back to the book she was reading.

"I can't wait to get to school!" Sioberi exploded.

"Me to! I heard you can play soccer out in the yard."

"You can? Cool! I love soccer. Kwan said the best part of school is reading, but she told me about recess, and it sounds great to me."

"Yeah. My sister Jun said that school was kinda scary, but it was exiting, 'cause you got to meet so many peoples.

"Did you meet any peoples yet?"

"Well, I meeted you and Kwan. Are you peoples?"

"I think so."

The bus pulled up to the school. Woah! The building was gigantamus! I mean gigantic. Jun said I havta use the right words now that I'm going to school and everything. We all got off the bus. The lady who drove the bus gave me a piece of paper. It said…"Sioberi?" I asked her. "D'ya know what this says?"

She took my piece of paper. "Mirsis…Tah…chee-chee…nee. Mine says Mirsis Tah-chee-nee to." Kwan looked at our papers.

"That says Mrs. Tachini."

"Oh. Okay Hanabanashi."

"Don't call me brilliant!"

"You're a'smarter then me."

"Well that's only because you're a baka!" She yelled as we got off the bus.
"Ma said your not aloud ta call me that no more!" Sioberi yelled, pounding her fist against her sister's chest.
"Stop that!" Kwan shoved her sister away. We all marched off the bus.

Sioberi and me walked up to Mrs. Tachini's class. There were a lot of grown-ups in the doorway, saying goodbye to their kids, so we had to shove through to get in. We sat in plastic chairs next to each other.

"Welcome to kindergarten." Mrs. Tachini said.

"Konichiwa!" Everyone shouted. Mrs. Tachini smiled.

"Since this is the first day, when I call your name, say something about yourself, okay?"

"Okay!" Everyone shouted.

"Ichijouji Ken?"
A little boy with blue hair stood up. He didn't say anything.

"Ken?" Mrs. Tachini said. "Why don't you tell us something about yourself?"

"I…" He trailed off. "I li-"

Mrs. Tachini smiled. "It's okay Ken, you don't have to. Sit down." He sat down, smiling gratefully. "Okay, Cha Sioberi?"

Sioberi stood up. She smiled her biggest smile and said. "I love to play outside!" She cartwheeled back to her seat.

"Sioberi, next time, lets try walking." Mrs. Tachini said smiling. "Fujisan Ashley?" A little girl with pink hair stood up.

"I like to draw…" She said.

"That's lovely." Mrs. Tachini said. She sounds like my grandma. Ashley walked back to her seat. "Motamiya Daisuke?" I jumped out of my seat.

"I like to run around really fast for no good reason!" I shouted, and jumped back into my seat.

Mrs. Tachini had everyone else come up and talk. Afterwards, she gave us a piece of paper, and a crayon. My crayon was pink. I hate pink. Sioberi had pink to, and she ate hers. "Why'dja eat your crayon Sioberi?" I asked.

"I don't know!" She said in a squeaky voice. She grabbed my crayon and ate it to. Mrs. Tachini came over. "What happened to your crayons?"

"I ate them!" Sioberi squealed.

"Okay…" She gave us new crayons. I got a blue on, and Sioberi got a yellow one. We both cheered

Everyone at the table looked like they were going to start making fun of her, but she looked so happy, and was laughing so hard, they couldn't. Ashley went over to all the other tables, and said,

"If you don't like the color of your crayon, give it to Sioberi. She'll eat it, and you'll get a new one." Lots of kids didn't like the color they got, so they went over to Sioberi, carrying their crayons.

"Know what?" Sioberi said. "I'm only gonna eat your cray-lons if you give me a quarter!"

All the kids gathered around her dug quarters out of their pockets, except for a couple who didn't have quarters. They went to there desks and started drawing with the colors they didn't like. The ones, who did, gave them the quarters, and the crayons, and Sioberi pocketed the quarters and ate the crayons. "Thank you come again!" She said.

Mrs. Tachini stormed over. "Just what is going on here?"
"I started a busy-ness!" Sioberi said, her mouth full of crayons. She smiled.

"A business eating crayons?"

"Yup! These guys don't like the cray-lons you gave 'em, and Little Miss Gossip here," She pointed to Ashley. "Told all of 'em I would eat there cray-lons, so I did, for an eeny-weeny price of a quarter!"

"You can't do that dear. I'm sorry, but your going to have to give these kids back their money."

"No!" Sioberi jumped up. "They paid to get their cray-lons eaten, and I eated them!"

"Sioberi, your not aloud-"

I jumped out of my seat to. "She did what they paid her to do. She should keep the money."

"Daisuke, sit down, this is none of your concern."
Sioberi was looking at me pleadingly. Don't do what she says.

I won't.

Somehow we understood each other. We knew we couldn't give into her. "You can't make me!" I yelled. "And you can't make Sioberi give back the money!" I looked at Sioberi. "C'mon!" We ran out of the classroom.

We hid in the janitor's closet. "Arigato." Sioberi said. "I can't believe you stood up for me like that."

"Well, I did. Mrs. Tachini was bein' no-fair, so I didn't want to let her get away with it."
"You're a cool guy."
"Tanks. You're a cool girl."

We sat in the closet for a while, and eventually, fell asleep.

"Daisuke!" Daddy yelled.

"Daddy? What'cha doing here?" I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Your teacher called and said you were hiding out in the closet with a girl!" He looked at Sioberi, asleep on the floor. Her mother was rushing over.
"Sioberi!" Our parents started yelling at us. I didn't really hear what they said, but in a minute or two, they were dragging us home, since we were suspended for the day.

"Bye Daisuke!" Sioberi yelled. "Friends forever, okay?"
"Forever's not long enough!" I whined.

"Okay, forever and elevendy-ten minutes!"

"Forever and elevendy-ten minutes!"

Our parents dragged us away and into cars, but we kept screaming conversation, and our vows of friendship for forever and elevendy-ten minutes.