Subaru in America
Chapter 3
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am not racist. At all. I believe in equality for all races, genders, intellectual levels, etc. Got it?
WARNING: Bad body part word said, if you know what I mean. Anyway, enjoy!
"I'd like everyone to meet our new student," Miss Winters informed her class gleefully. "His name is Subaru Sumeragi. He's from Japan. Everyone say, 'Konnichi-wa!'."
The class gave a half-hearted hello. Miss Winters smiled proudly at her students. She then turned to Subaru and said loudly and slowly, "You can sit in the seat next to Maria." She pointed to the desk next to a large, Hispanic girl.
It was the first day of school and his first class was English as a second language. It was already halfway through the semester, so most of the students knew a lot of English. Subaru had gotten lost in the school; it was ten times bigger than his school in Japan and ten times as confusing. Plus, he didn't have one class with Hokuto because she was in all the high academics classes: Shakespeare, calculus, advanced human biology, and advanced global studies. Subaru was a good student, but because he couldn't speak English as well as Hokuto, he was a little behind for classes.
Subaru sat down next to Maria, who was the largest girl he had ever seen. Her stomach barely fit in the desk and her arms and legs stuck out of her body like pillows. Next to her, Subaru seemed like a stick.
"Kuhnchi-wa," Maria said, giving a snort of a laugh as her friends stared at Subaru. They went into all out giggles when Subaru rolled his eyes at them.
"Girls!" Miss Winters said, calmly. "Be nice."
Miss Winters was quite pretty. She had long, slightly curly blonde hair; round, very aware, sapphire eyes; and a rosy, merry complexion. Her smile warmed Subaru's heart. It was soft and not forced, which made him feel better about being in the English as a second language class.
"Oh!" she cried. "I almost forgot!"
She grabbed a book off her desk. She seemed to waltz towards Subaru, her hair bouncing up and down like petite springs. The book was passed from her hands to Subaru's quickly, but to Subaru, it seemed as if it was in slow motion.
"Here's your text book, Subaru," she stated, smiling.
Subaru blushed. "Thank you."
She strolled back over to her desk. As she passed students, they would give her funny looks or stick up their middle fingers. Subaru wondered why these people were giving this wonderful, kind woman such rude gestures. The answer revealed itself shortly.
"I finished grading all your tests from last week," she said, "and I'm quite pleased with how you all did." She took a stack of papers off her desk and began passing them out. All the students' faces showed expressions of true disgust. There were statements of "Not again" and "My mom's going to kill me!" When she handed Maria's test back to her, Subaru took a little peek. There were numerous red X's and on the top, on the right hand side, was a gigantic, red "F".
She grimaced. "Mama won't like this." She folded the paper in half and stuffed it into her notebook. When she caught Subaru staring at her grade, she made a short hissing sound and turned away in shame.
Subaru's glance turned to Miss Winters. She was writing busily on the board, humming softly to herself. By her manner, she seemed like a kind, fair grader, so why was everyone displeased with his or her marks? Could it be that everyone was a poor student and test taker? Subaru assumed this was probably the case. He smiled with content. Maybe he wouldn't be the stupidest kid in his class after all.
The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. Subaru did have some trouble understanding and following what people were saying, but, luckily, most of the students didn't use big, complex words that Subaru wouldn't understand. For the most part, no one really talked to him. They'd ask, "Do you speak Japanese?" or "Where's Japan?"
It wasn't until right before the last period, which was biology, that the day became especially eventful. Subaru overheard a conversation:
"Have you seen the new biology teacher?" asked a petite young woman to a large, burly boy.
"No," he answered. "They finally got a new biology teacher?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah. He's from Japan."
"Japan?" the boy questioned. "There are two new students from Japan."
"Really?" the girl replied, slightly annoyed that the boy wouldn't allow her to continue. "Well, the biology teacher's name is Mr. Sakurazuka and he's a dreamboat!"
Subaru perked up and moved closer to the two conversing.
The boy put his arm around the girl. "I thought I was your dreamboat!"
She blushed. "I never said Mr. Sakurazuka was my dreamboat. I just said he was a dreamboat."
Subaru rolled his eyes just as the bell rang. The cluster of students moved towards their classrooms. He found his and entered it with butterflies in his stomach. He didn't know how he would react to seeing Seishiro after the night before. (Seishiro had left for the school before Subaru even got up that morning.) He also didn't know how Seishiro would react to him. Subaru really didn't want Seishiro to embarrass him.
Surprisingly, he was the first one in the classroom. Facing the chalkboard stood Seishiro, erasing something. In the upper, right-hand corner of the board, "Mr. Sakurazuka" was written in both English letters and Japanese characters. Subaru couldn't help but smile, his cheeks flushing as he did so. He walked slowly towards the man, reaching in his pocket to grab a note that told the teachers he was a new student. It was a crinkled mess from being continually stuffed and taken out of his pocket, so he made a feckless attempt to smooth it out.
Subaru cleared his throat.
Seishiro turned around. He was wearing his eyeglasses and looked extremely intellectual and pretentious. With a nervous expression, Subaru handed him the small note and took a step back, not wanting to get too close. A few students filed in, rupturing the slight tension that was permeating from Subaru and Seishiro.
"You may sit front row center," he said, then glanced at the note, "Subaru." With a smile he motioned towards the desk directly in front of him.
As Subaru seated himself, he thought, So this is the way Seishiro wants it: we'll just pretend not the know each other. He folded his arms over his chest and looked down at the top of the desk. Fine. We'll just forget everything that we've ever done together.
By then, the bell had rung and most of the students were present in their seats, chatting quietly to each other. The majority of the girls were whispering and giggling, pointing at Seishiro. The boys appeared huffy, as if insulted by their new teacher's good looks. Though Seishiro appear inconspicuous to these proceedings, Subaru sensed that he knew it and was flattered.
"Good afternoon, class. My name is Mr. Sakurazuka," he announced. "I will be your biology teacher for the remainder of the school year and hope you will show the same respect for me as you did for your previous teacher," he glanced at a notebook on his desk, "Mr. Weany."
The class exploded in excessive laughter. Subaru didn't understand why.
Seishiro smiled. "Well, scratch that thought. I expect that you will show me a great deal more respect than you did to your previous teacher." He glanced at his notebook again. "Junior class, right? Looks like you were starting to study the human circulatory system." Several students nodded. "Hm," Seishiro continued, looking at the class, "It appears that there's been a change in the curriculum." He gave a devilish grin. "The first unit I will be teaching you is," he paused, "the human reproductive system."
All the boys gave each other high-fives and the girls giggled profusely. Subaru sat, confused. He had never really heard that weird before, let alone knew its meaning. Reproduce means multiply, he thought, or something like that. Multiply system? What the hell does…oh. He suddenly understood, blushing. He stared at Seishiro, thinking about how perverted and deviating he was. The unit change was not to better the education of the students, but to satisfy Seishiro's own sick mind.
"Now," the teacher said, "everyone take out your notebooks and write down a few things that are associated with the reproductive system."
Again, most of the class snickered. Subaru opened up his notebook noisily and whipped out a pencil. What a disgusting thing to do: ask the students to write down things about the reproductive system. He knew what they were all going to write down.
"Hey, new kid," a rough looking youth whispered, leaning over towards Subaru, "how do you say 'penis' in Japanese?"
Anyone within earshot broke out into sniggers and giggles. The person who asked kept an absolute straight face. Subaru's face turned red and he mumbled how he didn't know.
"What?" another kid inquired. "Don't Japanese people have a word for that?"
Subaru shrugged and turned so his back faced that student. Staring at his blank paper, he felt absolutely humiliated. He wondered in Seishiro did this to any of the other classes.
"Okay," Seishiro broke the silence, "who wants to start? How about our new student? Subaru, will you come to the front of the room, please?"
All eyes were fixed on Subaru, who had gone from bright red to pure white. He shook he head slightly, trying to indicate how he didn't want to say anything. Seishiro only smiled a wicked, mischievous smile. Subaru had no choice but to stand and go to the front of the classroom. He had no clue on how he would possibly respond to this little assignment.
When he finally reached the front, he cleared his throat and began, "Well, one thing is, uh, how do you say? Oh, yeah, sex." (The class giggled.) "And love."
"Anything else?" Seishiro questioned.
Subaru faced Seishiro, his eyes drilling into him. In Japanese, he said, "What do you think you're doing? Why are you asking me to respond to your sick question?"
Seishiro only smiled and said, in English, "Subaru doesn't know penis in English yet. That's what he's trying to say."
Like a laugh track, the class exploded, guffawing like there was no tomorrow.
"Seishiro!" Subaru cried.
"What did he say?" the class inquired.
"He said penis," Seishiro explained, smiling, "in Japanese."
Chapter 3
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am not racist. At all. I believe in equality for all races, genders, intellectual levels, etc. Got it?
WARNING: Bad body part word said, if you know what I mean. Anyway, enjoy!
"I'd like everyone to meet our new student," Miss Winters informed her class gleefully. "His name is Subaru Sumeragi. He's from Japan. Everyone say, 'Konnichi-wa!'."
The class gave a half-hearted hello. Miss Winters smiled proudly at her students. She then turned to Subaru and said loudly and slowly, "You can sit in the seat next to Maria." She pointed to the desk next to a large, Hispanic girl.
It was the first day of school and his first class was English as a second language. It was already halfway through the semester, so most of the students knew a lot of English. Subaru had gotten lost in the school; it was ten times bigger than his school in Japan and ten times as confusing. Plus, he didn't have one class with Hokuto because she was in all the high academics classes: Shakespeare, calculus, advanced human biology, and advanced global studies. Subaru was a good student, but because he couldn't speak English as well as Hokuto, he was a little behind for classes.
Subaru sat down next to Maria, who was the largest girl he had ever seen. Her stomach barely fit in the desk and her arms and legs stuck out of her body like pillows. Next to her, Subaru seemed like a stick.
"Kuhnchi-wa," Maria said, giving a snort of a laugh as her friends stared at Subaru. They went into all out giggles when Subaru rolled his eyes at them.
"Girls!" Miss Winters said, calmly. "Be nice."
Miss Winters was quite pretty. She had long, slightly curly blonde hair; round, very aware, sapphire eyes; and a rosy, merry complexion. Her smile warmed Subaru's heart. It was soft and not forced, which made him feel better about being in the English as a second language class.
"Oh!" she cried. "I almost forgot!"
She grabbed a book off her desk. She seemed to waltz towards Subaru, her hair bouncing up and down like petite springs. The book was passed from her hands to Subaru's quickly, but to Subaru, it seemed as if it was in slow motion.
"Here's your text book, Subaru," she stated, smiling.
Subaru blushed. "Thank you."
She strolled back over to her desk. As she passed students, they would give her funny looks or stick up their middle fingers. Subaru wondered why these people were giving this wonderful, kind woman such rude gestures. The answer revealed itself shortly.
"I finished grading all your tests from last week," she said, "and I'm quite pleased with how you all did." She took a stack of papers off her desk and began passing them out. All the students' faces showed expressions of true disgust. There were statements of "Not again" and "My mom's going to kill me!" When she handed Maria's test back to her, Subaru took a little peek. There were numerous red X's and on the top, on the right hand side, was a gigantic, red "F".
She grimaced. "Mama won't like this." She folded the paper in half and stuffed it into her notebook. When she caught Subaru staring at her grade, she made a short hissing sound and turned away in shame.
Subaru's glance turned to Miss Winters. She was writing busily on the board, humming softly to herself. By her manner, she seemed like a kind, fair grader, so why was everyone displeased with his or her marks? Could it be that everyone was a poor student and test taker? Subaru assumed this was probably the case. He smiled with content. Maybe he wouldn't be the stupidest kid in his class after all.
The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. Subaru did have some trouble understanding and following what people were saying, but, luckily, most of the students didn't use big, complex words that Subaru wouldn't understand. For the most part, no one really talked to him. They'd ask, "Do you speak Japanese?" or "Where's Japan?"
It wasn't until right before the last period, which was biology, that the day became especially eventful. Subaru overheard a conversation:
"Have you seen the new biology teacher?" asked a petite young woman to a large, burly boy.
"No," he answered. "They finally got a new biology teacher?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah. He's from Japan."
"Japan?" the boy questioned. "There are two new students from Japan."
"Really?" the girl replied, slightly annoyed that the boy wouldn't allow her to continue. "Well, the biology teacher's name is Mr. Sakurazuka and he's a dreamboat!"
Subaru perked up and moved closer to the two conversing.
The boy put his arm around the girl. "I thought I was your dreamboat!"
She blushed. "I never said Mr. Sakurazuka was my dreamboat. I just said he was a dreamboat."
Subaru rolled his eyes just as the bell rang. The cluster of students moved towards their classrooms. He found his and entered it with butterflies in his stomach. He didn't know how he would react to seeing Seishiro after the night before. (Seishiro had left for the school before Subaru even got up that morning.) He also didn't know how Seishiro would react to him. Subaru really didn't want Seishiro to embarrass him.
Surprisingly, he was the first one in the classroom. Facing the chalkboard stood Seishiro, erasing something. In the upper, right-hand corner of the board, "Mr. Sakurazuka" was written in both English letters and Japanese characters. Subaru couldn't help but smile, his cheeks flushing as he did so. He walked slowly towards the man, reaching in his pocket to grab a note that told the teachers he was a new student. It was a crinkled mess from being continually stuffed and taken out of his pocket, so he made a feckless attempt to smooth it out.
Subaru cleared his throat.
Seishiro turned around. He was wearing his eyeglasses and looked extremely intellectual and pretentious. With a nervous expression, Subaru handed him the small note and took a step back, not wanting to get too close. A few students filed in, rupturing the slight tension that was permeating from Subaru and Seishiro.
"You may sit front row center," he said, then glanced at the note, "Subaru." With a smile he motioned towards the desk directly in front of him.
As Subaru seated himself, he thought, So this is the way Seishiro wants it: we'll just pretend not the know each other. He folded his arms over his chest and looked down at the top of the desk. Fine. We'll just forget everything that we've ever done together.
By then, the bell had rung and most of the students were present in their seats, chatting quietly to each other. The majority of the girls were whispering and giggling, pointing at Seishiro. The boys appeared huffy, as if insulted by their new teacher's good looks. Though Seishiro appear inconspicuous to these proceedings, Subaru sensed that he knew it and was flattered.
"Good afternoon, class. My name is Mr. Sakurazuka," he announced. "I will be your biology teacher for the remainder of the school year and hope you will show the same respect for me as you did for your previous teacher," he glanced at a notebook on his desk, "Mr. Weany."
The class exploded in excessive laughter. Subaru didn't understand why.
Seishiro smiled. "Well, scratch that thought. I expect that you will show me a great deal more respect than you did to your previous teacher." He glanced at his notebook again. "Junior class, right? Looks like you were starting to study the human circulatory system." Several students nodded. "Hm," Seishiro continued, looking at the class, "It appears that there's been a change in the curriculum." He gave a devilish grin. "The first unit I will be teaching you is," he paused, "the human reproductive system."
All the boys gave each other high-fives and the girls giggled profusely. Subaru sat, confused. He had never really heard that weird before, let alone knew its meaning. Reproduce means multiply, he thought, or something like that. Multiply system? What the hell does…oh. He suddenly understood, blushing. He stared at Seishiro, thinking about how perverted and deviating he was. The unit change was not to better the education of the students, but to satisfy Seishiro's own sick mind.
"Now," the teacher said, "everyone take out your notebooks and write down a few things that are associated with the reproductive system."
Again, most of the class snickered. Subaru opened up his notebook noisily and whipped out a pencil. What a disgusting thing to do: ask the students to write down things about the reproductive system. He knew what they were all going to write down.
"Hey, new kid," a rough looking youth whispered, leaning over towards Subaru, "how do you say 'penis' in Japanese?"
Anyone within earshot broke out into sniggers and giggles. The person who asked kept an absolute straight face. Subaru's face turned red and he mumbled how he didn't know.
"What?" another kid inquired. "Don't Japanese people have a word for that?"
Subaru shrugged and turned so his back faced that student. Staring at his blank paper, he felt absolutely humiliated. He wondered in Seishiro did this to any of the other classes.
"Okay," Seishiro broke the silence, "who wants to start? How about our new student? Subaru, will you come to the front of the room, please?"
All eyes were fixed on Subaru, who had gone from bright red to pure white. He shook he head slightly, trying to indicate how he didn't want to say anything. Seishiro only smiled a wicked, mischievous smile. Subaru had no choice but to stand and go to the front of the classroom. He had no clue on how he would possibly respond to this little assignment.
When he finally reached the front, he cleared his throat and began, "Well, one thing is, uh, how do you say? Oh, yeah, sex." (The class giggled.) "And love."
"Anything else?" Seishiro questioned.
Subaru faced Seishiro, his eyes drilling into him. In Japanese, he said, "What do you think you're doing? Why are you asking me to respond to your sick question?"
Seishiro only smiled and said, in English, "Subaru doesn't know penis in English yet. That's what he's trying to say."
Like a laugh track, the class exploded, guffawing like there was no tomorrow.
"Seishiro!" Subaru cried.
"What did he say?" the class inquired.
"He said penis," Seishiro explained, smiling, "in Japanese."