"So,
there's no bus?" My mom said into the hello-phone. "How am I supposed to get
Sora to school?…call a cab?…I'm broke!…I asked my friend Mei already!…She can't
drive her, her daughter Mimi's sick, she has to look after her…listen, you
better provide some way for my daughter to get to school. I live five miles
away!…you'll get a cab to bring her?…and you'll pay him before he gets
here?…this is what I call a good public school system!"
She hung up the hello-phone.
"Sora, you're going to school in a cab. It'll be here in half an hour. Why
don't you go watch TV until it comes?"
"Okee!"
"It's o-kay darling."
"Oh. Okee!"
"Whatever."
I went into the living room, and put on the TV. I watched a re-run of Survivor,
and shortly after it was over, the cab came. "Sweetie! Time to go!"
I
ran out of the house, and plopped into the cab. "Bye Mommy!" I waved good-bye
excitedly.
"Have
a good day sweetie!" Mommy blew me a kiss.
The
taxi driver drove for a while. "You tell your mama to calm down." He said.
"She's calmed."
I said.
"Yeah…right."
He drove for a long time, and then we got to a really big shiny building.
"Wow…wowie
wow!" I yelled, running out of the taxi. A lady walked up to me when I got out,
and handed me a sheet of paper that said, 'Miss Hihato.' I ran into the
building, laughing excitedly, I went to the third floor. I saw a door that said
the same thing as my paper. I went inside.
"Hello.
And what are you supposed to be?" Mrs. Hihato asked.
"A person." I laughed. He lips
looked like froggy-lips!
"I mean, what's your name?"
"Takanouchi Sora!"
"Take off
that ridiculous hat."
"It's
mine!" I stuck my tongue out at her, and ran to the first table. I sat down
next to two no-ones. All the other seats at the table were all filled up.
A few minutes later, a little boy
with blond hair, came and sat next to me. All the kids looked all scared of the
froggy-lips lady, but she was funny to me! She looked like a pointy frog! I
laughed some more.
Everyone
stared at me. But I didn't care. I kept laughing and smiling. I guess that was
good, because soon everyone else started smiling to. Except the little blond
boy.
He
started crying, and we tried to make him feel better. But it didn't work. We
got tired of him. We laughed at him, and he cried more.
Froggy-lips
screamed at him. "Yamato! Stop crying and pay attention!" He didn't stop crying
though. "Well, we're going to learn some math now. Class, pay attention. Can
anyone count up to ten?"
Everyone
nodded their heads. Yes-huh, we can. "Can you count to one thousand?" No-huh,
we can't. "Well, I'm going to teach you." Okee-dokee with me. "One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…" She wrote the numbers on the board.
It took
until lunchtime for her to tell us how to count to one thousand. I don't think
I remember how to count up that high though. I got bored and fell asleep when
she got up to five hundred. Finally, Mrs. Hihato announced that it was
lunchtime.
We lined
up and went downstairs. I was on my way to get out my lunch. I had rice balls,
and my favorite tea, which Mommy barely ever buys, but did, special for me. I
saw that blond kid on the lunch line, still crying!
This was
getting 'noying. I walked up to him, and shoved him. That'd shock him enough to
stop crying!
"Whad'ja
do that for?" He yelled. He was mad, but I'd succeeded. He stopped crying.
"To
get you to stop crying." I took his hand and led him to my table. I unpacked my
lunch, and took out the tea bag, my thermos of hot water, and the paper cup.
"You can have my tea. I hate it, but Mommy packs it anyway." Why did I say
that? I love the tea! I was lookin' foreword to drinking it! It's not 'cause I
like him, but he needed someone to be nice to him.
"Don't you need to eat?" He
said.
"Uh
course. I got's rice balls anyway. I don't need icky tea." I took out my rice
balls and started eating. He poured the hot water into the cup and put the tea
bag in.
"Arigato." He said.
"No
problem. You look like you need someone to be nice to you anyway. Why did you
cry so much?"
"I-…" He trailed off and
didn't finish his words.
"Well?"
I kept saying 'well?' until my voice cracked. "Ow…"
"I
was…I was crying because I'm scared of kindergarten. Someone told me it was
awful, and so far he's right." He said quickly.
"Do
you miss your mom?" He nodded vigorously.
"Maybe
that's all it is. But whatever it is, cry in the boys bathroom from now on.
It's better for people to think you have a bladder infection then to think
you're a crybaby!" I laughed at my own joke.
We didn't
really talk after that. He didn't seem to want to. I asked him to play soccer
with me, but he said no. I went outside and played on my own. It was hard, but
I managed to, by running back and forth a lot.
After a
while, we went back inside. We had art. I drew all kinds of balls. Soccer balls,
baseballs, basketballs, everything! I was having a lot of fun. Then one kid
said, "Just draw real balls."
"These
are real you dumnick." I said.
"Guess
you're to stupid to know what I mean. Well, you'll find out."
"Your weird. Go away." I
shooed him away, and finished my drawing.
Then Mrs.
Hihato told us to put away our drawings, and said she was going to read us a
story. "Okay, I'm going to read you a story called "Goodnight Moon."
"I hate
that book!" I yelled. "Mommy read it to me a bazillion trillion and allota
times a'fore! It's boring!"
"Does
anyone else share Sora's view?" Mrs. Hihato said meanly.
Everyone
nodded their heads. Well, except for Yamato. He was still crying. But Mrs.
Hihato took that as a sign that he didn't agree. Really, I don't think he even
heard.
"Well,
it looks as if Yamato likes the story." She looked at him. He didn't object.
"So we're reading it."
"That's not fair!" A girl with spiky green hair said. She started yelling a lot. Near the end of the day she was torturing Yamato. That wasn't very nice of her.
Soon,
school was over. Someone drove up to the school building, got out, and walked
over to me. It was Mr. Tachinawa. "'Lo Mr. Tachinawa. Mimi isn't here now, so
you can go 'way."
"Sora,
I'm supposed to pick you up. Your mom doesn't have a car, and it's to far to
walk and get here on time. So I'm picking you up."
"Oh.
Okee."
So I got
in Mr. Tachinawa's car. And he drove me home. We passed by Mimi's neighborhood,
big mansions all over the place. Then we got to my house, and he let me out. I
went into my house. "Hi Mommy!" I yelled.
"Hey sweetie!" She hugged me. She looked at Mr. Tachinawa. "Thanks for bringing her home."
"Yeah, tanks Mr. Tachinawa!" I said. He left, after saying goodbye.
"So darling." Mom said. "How was school?"
"It was good. Mommy, do we
have any of that tea left?"