chapter six: Back to School
"g'way, mom, five more minutes"
"Kagome, you'll be late for school"
Kagome formed a cocoon of blankets around herself and curled up into a little ball, her mom started poking her.
"mom..."
Kagome heard a click of the lightswitch, her eyelids turned red and she felt headache-esque.
"'kay, I'm waking up..."
Kagome slipped out of the bed onto the ground, and lay there, completely still.
"I'm tired..."
Her mom nudged her body with her foot, she attempted to crawl under the bed, next to her guitar, her mom grabbed her ankles and dragged her out the room, through the hallway, down the stairs, into the kitchen, and onto a chair, she pushed a bowl of miso at her.
"eat."
Kagome stared into her bowl, inside was nori and tofu, and of course, the obligatory room-tempature gallon of watered-down miso.
"umm... I better get to school..."
Kagome poured her 'soup' down the garbage disposal and walked onto her porch, she mounted her bike and began riding to school. It was raining, a blackbird fluttered out of the gravel driveway and into the birdhouse Kagome had spray-painted blue in fourth grade, a plastic bag fluttered next to it, she mistakenly ran through her next-door neighbor's strawberry patch, 'I hope she doesn't notice', she thought.
Down the path was three girls, Yoko, Seiko, and Tori, they were waiting with thier bicycles at the crosswalk for the light to turn green.
"oh, hi, Kagome"
The light changed and they walked single-file along the crosswalk, never speaking, along another block, and into the school, Kagome walked to her locker, she opened it on the third try, spilling seemingly random binders and documents along the front of herself, she sighed, 'back to school', she thought, she pressed on to first period, Mr. McCartney, a horrible man with a cane, with a strangley elongated head, a small Hitler-style moustache, and spectacles that shone like two headlights, his eyes were kalidoscope-esque and glowed like twin prisms.
"hello class, please turn to page ninety-nine in your textbooks."
Kagome flipped through her book, 'The piper at the gates of dawn on the dark side of the moon welcomed three creatures, the pig, the wolf, and the sheep...' the story simply drifted into pure tedium and she closed her eyes, the desk felt suprisingly soft.
"Mrs. Hiragashi!"
She jolted up.
"huh, what?"
"I'm afraid I'll have to give you detention, Hiragashi."
He smiled and handed her a pink slip, 'DETENTION' was stamped upon it.
"I'll be expecting you..."
The principal, Mr. Pepper, surveyed the class with practiced accuracy, he was a vietnam veteran, a sniper, his stare was almost as cold as his blows, he had an armband with a red and white background, in the foreground were two crossed hammers, the symbol of his squadron, silence permeated the atmosphere, a girl next to Kagome coughed.
"Fujii, please stand up, Mr. McCartney, your cane please."
Mr. Pepper snached the cane from Mr. McCartney's hand, he struck her repeatedly on the back, her scarf fell to the ground, she was crying.
"pick up your scarf, sit down, silence."
'We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasam in the classroom, teacher leave those kids alone...'
Kagome stood up and pushed her desk sideways, it fell over with a clatter, she pointed at Mr. Pepper and Mr. McCartney.
"Hey, Teacher! Leave those kids alone!"
A slight smile crept across his face.
"Mr. McCartney, your cane please, I'll be enjoying this, you know, I'll make the bugger's eyes water."
Kagome smothered her face into her pillow, it was soaked with tears. Her parents were downstairs, fighting over something or other, and Souta was playing a computer game. She stood up and walked across the hallway to her bathroom, her eyes were red from crying. Her father's shaving razor sat beside her hairbrush, she had contemplated suicide before, but no, not now. She grabbed a towel and wiped her face. She left the bathroom and began plodding downstairs to watch the television. Her parents were fighting.
"put that knife down!"
"I've been wanting too do this since the day we were married, Yukio..."
"Kimi! No!"
Her parents were fighting over a nine-inch long chef's knife, her mother was winning, then, in one swift movement, the knife dissapeared into her father's body and was replaced by blood, her father collapsed, dead, onto the ground. Kagome stood there, stunned, at the top of the stairs.
"Kagome, you must tell noone..."
Kagome could feel her vision fading to white, she was becombing numb, deaf, dumb, and blind, the world around her no longer mattered, she surrounded herself with a wall to keep out the pain, she fainted.
To be continued...
"g'way, mom, five more minutes"
"Kagome, you'll be late for school"
Kagome formed a cocoon of blankets around herself and curled up into a little ball, her mom started poking her.
"mom..."
Kagome heard a click of the lightswitch, her eyelids turned red and she felt headache-esque.
"'kay, I'm waking up..."
Kagome slipped out of the bed onto the ground, and lay there, completely still.
"I'm tired..."
Her mom nudged her body with her foot, she attempted to crawl under the bed, next to her guitar, her mom grabbed her ankles and dragged her out the room, through the hallway, down the stairs, into the kitchen, and onto a chair, she pushed a bowl of miso at her.
"eat."
Kagome stared into her bowl, inside was nori and tofu, and of course, the obligatory room-tempature gallon of watered-down miso.
"umm... I better get to school..."
Kagome poured her 'soup' down the garbage disposal and walked onto her porch, she mounted her bike and began riding to school. It was raining, a blackbird fluttered out of the gravel driveway and into the birdhouse Kagome had spray-painted blue in fourth grade, a plastic bag fluttered next to it, she mistakenly ran through her next-door neighbor's strawberry patch, 'I hope she doesn't notice', she thought.
Down the path was three girls, Yoko, Seiko, and Tori, they were waiting with thier bicycles at the crosswalk for the light to turn green.
"oh, hi, Kagome"
The light changed and they walked single-file along the crosswalk, never speaking, along another block, and into the school, Kagome walked to her locker, she opened it on the third try, spilling seemingly random binders and documents along the front of herself, she sighed, 'back to school', she thought, she pressed on to first period, Mr. McCartney, a horrible man with a cane, with a strangley elongated head, a small Hitler-style moustache, and spectacles that shone like two headlights, his eyes were kalidoscope-esque and glowed like twin prisms.
"hello class, please turn to page ninety-nine in your textbooks."
Kagome flipped through her book, 'The piper at the gates of dawn on the dark side of the moon welcomed three creatures, the pig, the wolf, and the sheep...' the story simply drifted into pure tedium and she closed her eyes, the desk felt suprisingly soft.
"Mrs. Hiragashi!"
She jolted up.
"huh, what?"
"I'm afraid I'll have to give you detention, Hiragashi."
He smiled and handed her a pink slip, 'DETENTION' was stamped upon it.
"I'll be expecting you..."
The principal, Mr. Pepper, surveyed the class with practiced accuracy, he was a vietnam veteran, a sniper, his stare was almost as cold as his blows, he had an armband with a red and white background, in the foreground were two crossed hammers, the symbol of his squadron, silence permeated the atmosphere, a girl next to Kagome coughed.
"Fujii, please stand up, Mr. McCartney, your cane please."
Mr. Pepper snached the cane from Mr. McCartney's hand, he struck her repeatedly on the back, her scarf fell to the ground, she was crying.
"pick up your scarf, sit down, silence."
'We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasam in the classroom, teacher leave those kids alone...'
Kagome stood up and pushed her desk sideways, it fell over with a clatter, she pointed at Mr. Pepper and Mr. McCartney.
"Hey, Teacher! Leave those kids alone!"
A slight smile crept across his face.
"Mr. McCartney, your cane please, I'll be enjoying this, you know, I'll make the bugger's eyes water."
Kagome smothered her face into her pillow, it was soaked with tears. Her parents were downstairs, fighting over something or other, and Souta was playing a computer game. She stood up and walked across the hallway to her bathroom, her eyes were red from crying. Her father's shaving razor sat beside her hairbrush, she had contemplated suicide before, but no, not now. She grabbed a towel and wiped her face. She left the bathroom and began plodding downstairs to watch the television. Her parents were fighting.
"put that knife down!"
"I've been wanting too do this since the day we were married, Yukio..."
"Kimi! No!"
Her parents were fighting over a nine-inch long chef's knife, her mother was winning, then, in one swift movement, the knife dissapeared into her father's body and was replaced by blood, her father collapsed, dead, onto the ground. Kagome stood there, stunned, at the top of the stairs.
"Kagome, you must tell noone..."
Kagome could feel her vision fading to white, she was becombing numb, deaf, dumb, and blind, the world around her no longer mattered, she surrounded herself with a wall to keep out the pain, she fainted.
To be continued...