Chapter 5
My new school, grades K-12, had been made co-educational in the eighties, and had, much to my relief, recently dropped its strict uniform policy. The uniforms had been royal blue and white, not my best colors. Fortunately, the uniforms had been so unpopular that they, like the boys-only rule, had been abandoned, and though the pupils still couldn't wear jeans, they could wear just about anything else they wanted. Since all I wanted was to wear my extensive collection of designer clothing- purchased at various outlet stores back home with Eri as my fashion coordinator- this suited me fine.
The Buddhist thing, though, was going to be a problem. Not really a problem so much as an inconvenience. You see, my mother never really bothered to raise me in any particular religion. My father was a non- practicing Buddhist, my mother Christian. Religion had never played an important part in either of my parents' lives, and, needless to say, it had only served to confuse me. I mean, you would think I'd have a better grasp on religion than anybody, but the truth is, I haven't the slightest idea what happens to the demons I send off to wherever it is they're supposed to go. All I know is, once I send them there, they do not come back. Not ever. The end.
So when my mother and I showed up at the administrative office the Monday after my arrival in Tokyo, I was more than a little taken aback to be confronted with a six foot Buddha hanging behind the secretary's desk.
I shouldn't have been surprised though. My mom had pointed out the school from my room on Sunday morning as she helped me to unpack. "See that big red dome?" she'd said. "That's your school. The dome covers the chapel."
Now, standing in the cool office of the ancient building, I wondered how many demons I was going to encounter.
And yet, when my mom and I walked through the school's wide front archway into the courtyard around which the school had been constructed, I didn't see a single person who looked as if he or she didn't belong there. There were a few tourists, a gardener working diligently at the base of a tree, a priest walking in silent contemplation down the airy breezeway. It was a beautiful, restful place- especially for a building that was so old, and had to have seen the years go by.
I couldn't understand it. Where were all the demons?
Maybe they were afraid to hang around the place. I was a little afraid, looking up at that giant Buddha. I mean, I've got nothing against religious art, but was it really necessary to portray a Buddha so realistically?
Apparently I was not alone in thinking so, since a boy who was slumped on a couch across from the one where my mom and I had been instructed to wait noticed the direction of my gaze and said, "he's supposed to weep tears of blood if any girl ever graduates from here a virgin."
I couldn't help letting out a little bark of laughter. My mother glared at me. The secretary, a plump middle-aged woman who looked as if something like that ought to have offended her deeply only rolled her eyes, and said, tiredly, "Oh, Miroku."
Miroku, a good-looking boy about my age, looked at me with a perfectly serious face. "It's true," he said gravely. "It happened last year. My sister." He dropped his voice conspiratorially. "She's adopted."
I laughed again, and my mother frowned at me. She had spent most of yesterday explaining to me that it had been really, really hard to convince the school to take me, especially since she couldn't produce any proof that I'd ever been baptized. In the end, they'd only let me in because of Nobunaga, since all three of his boys went there. I imagine a sizeable donation had also played a part in my admittance, but my mother wouldn't tell me that. All she said was that I had better behave myself, and not hurl anything out of any windows- even though I reminded her that that particular incident hadn't been my fault. I'd been fighting with a particularly violent young demon who'd refused to quit haunting the girls locker room at my old school. Throwing him through that window had certainly gotten his attention, and convinced him to tread the path of righteousness ever after.
Of course, I'd told my mother that I'd been practicing my tennis swing indoors, and the racket had slipped from my hands- an especially unbelievable story, since a racket was never found.
It was as I was reliving this painful memory that a heavy wooden door opened, and a priestess came out and said, "Mrs. Higurashi, what a pleasure to see you again. And this must be Kagome. Come in, wont you?" he ushered us into his office, then paused, and said to the boy on the couch, "oh, no, Mr. Houshi. Not on the first day of a brand new semester."
Miroku shrugged. "What can I say? The broad hates me."
"Kindly do not refer to Sister Setsuko as a broad, Mr. Hoshi. I will see to you in a moment, after I have spoken with these ladies.
We went in, and the principal, Mother Kaede- that was her name- sat and chatted with us for a while, asking me how I like Tokyo so far. I said I liked it fine. We had spent most of the day before in Tokyo Square, shopping, after I'd finished unpacking.
Mother Kaede expressed her sincere hope that I'd be happy at this school, and went on to explain that even though I wasn't a Buddhist, I shouldn't feel unwelcome.
I thought this was kind of funny, for some reason, but I managed to keep from laughing. Sister Kaede was old, but what'd you probably call spry, and she struck me as sort of queer in her traditional priestess clothing.
After Mother Kaede had described the various offenses I could get expelled for- skipping class too many times, dealing drugs on campus, the usual stuff- she asked me if I had any questions. I didn't. Then she asked my mother if she had any questions. She didn't. So then Mother Kaede stood up and said, 'fine then. I'll say goodbye to you, Mrs. Higurashi, and walk Kagome to her first class. All right, Kagome?"
I thought it was kind of weird that the principal, who probably had a lot to do, was taking time out to walk e to my first class, but I didn't say anything about it. I just picked up my coat- a black wool trench by esprit, and waited while she and my mother shook hands. My mom kissed me good-bye, and reminded me to find Dumber at three; since he was in charge of driving me home-only she didn't call him Dumber. Once again, a woeful lack of public transportation meant that I had to bum rides to and from school with my stepbrothers.
Then she was gone, and Mother Kaede was walking me across the courtyard after having instructed Miroku to wait for her.
No prob, senorita," was Miroku's response. He leered at me behind the mother's back. It isn't often I get leered at by boys my own age. I hoped he was in my class. My mother's wished for my social life just might be realized at last.
As we walked, mother Kaede explained a little about the building- or buildings, I should say, walled adobe structures were connected by low ceilinged breezeways, in the middle of which existed the beautiful courtyard. On the other side of the breeze way were stone benches for people to sit on while they enjoyed solitary contemplation of the courtyard's splendor, the doors to the classrooms and steel lockers were built right into the adobe wall. One of those lockers, Mother Kaede explained to me, was mine. She had the combination with her. Did I want to put away my coat?
I had been surprised when I'd awakened Sunday mornings to find myself shivering in my bed. I'd had to stumble out from beneath the sheets and slam my windows shut. A thick fog, I saw with dismay, had enshrouded the valley, obscuring my view of the bay. I thought for sure some horrible tropical storm had rolled in, but Dumb had explained to me, quite patiently, that morning fog was typical here, and that the passive was named because of its relative lack of storms. The fog, Dumb assured me, would burn off by noon, and it would then be just as hot as it had been they day before.
And he'd been right. By the time I returned home from shopping, my room had become an oven again, and I'd pried the windows opened again- only to find that they'd been gently shut again when I woke up this morning, which I thought was sweet of my mom, looking out for me like that.
At least, I hope it was my mom. Now that I think about it... but no, I hadn't seen Inuyasha since that first day I'd moved in. It had definitely been my mom who'd shut my windows.
Anyway when I'd walked outside to get into Mom's car, I'd found that it was freezing out again, and that was why I was wearing the wool coat.
Mother Kaede told me that my locker was number 273, and she seemed content to let me find it myself, strolling behind me with her eyes on the breezeway's rafters, in which, much to her professed delight, families of swallows nested every year. She was apparently quite fond of birds- of all animals, actually, since one of the questions she'd asked me was how I was getting along with Buyo, the Higurashi cat- and openly scoffed at Nobunaga's repeated assurances that the timber in the breezeways was going to have to be replaced thanks to the swallows and their refuse.
268, 269, 270. I strolled down the open corridor watching the numbers on the beige locker doors. Unlike the ones in my school back home, these lockers were not graffities, or dented, or plastered with stickers from heavy metal bands. I guess students here took more pride on their school's appearance than us.
271, 272. I stumbled to a halt.
In front of locker 273 stood a demon.
It wasn't Inuyasha, either. It was a girl, dressed very much like I was, only with long red hair, instead of black, like mine. She also had an extremely unpleasant look on her face.
"What," she said to me, "are you looking at?"
Then, speaking to someone behind me, she demanded, "this is whom they let in to take my place? I am so sure."
Okay I admit it. I freaked out. I spun around, and found myself gaping up at mother Kaede, who was squinting down at me curiously.
"Ah," she said, when she saw my face. "I thought so."
A/N:
Next chapter is the 1st confrontation with Ayame and Kagome!
Please REVIEW!
My new school, grades K-12, had been made co-educational in the eighties, and had, much to my relief, recently dropped its strict uniform policy. The uniforms had been royal blue and white, not my best colors. Fortunately, the uniforms had been so unpopular that they, like the boys-only rule, had been abandoned, and though the pupils still couldn't wear jeans, they could wear just about anything else they wanted. Since all I wanted was to wear my extensive collection of designer clothing- purchased at various outlet stores back home with Eri as my fashion coordinator- this suited me fine.
The Buddhist thing, though, was going to be a problem. Not really a problem so much as an inconvenience. You see, my mother never really bothered to raise me in any particular religion. My father was a non- practicing Buddhist, my mother Christian. Religion had never played an important part in either of my parents' lives, and, needless to say, it had only served to confuse me. I mean, you would think I'd have a better grasp on religion than anybody, but the truth is, I haven't the slightest idea what happens to the demons I send off to wherever it is they're supposed to go. All I know is, once I send them there, they do not come back. Not ever. The end.
So when my mother and I showed up at the administrative office the Monday after my arrival in Tokyo, I was more than a little taken aback to be confronted with a six foot Buddha hanging behind the secretary's desk.
I shouldn't have been surprised though. My mom had pointed out the school from my room on Sunday morning as she helped me to unpack. "See that big red dome?" she'd said. "That's your school. The dome covers the chapel."
Now, standing in the cool office of the ancient building, I wondered how many demons I was going to encounter.
And yet, when my mom and I walked through the school's wide front archway into the courtyard around which the school had been constructed, I didn't see a single person who looked as if he or she didn't belong there. There were a few tourists, a gardener working diligently at the base of a tree, a priest walking in silent contemplation down the airy breezeway. It was a beautiful, restful place- especially for a building that was so old, and had to have seen the years go by.
I couldn't understand it. Where were all the demons?
Maybe they were afraid to hang around the place. I was a little afraid, looking up at that giant Buddha. I mean, I've got nothing against religious art, but was it really necessary to portray a Buddha so realistically?
Apparently I was not alone in thinking so, since a boy who was slumped on a couch across from the one where my mom and I had been instructed to wait noticed the direction of my gaze and said, "he's supposed to weep tears of blood if any girl ever graduates from here a virgin."
I couldn't help letting out a little bark of laughter. My mother glared at me. The secretary, a plump middle-aged woman who looked as if something like that ought to have offended her deeply only rolled her eyes, and said, tiredly, "Oh, Miroku."
Miroku, a good-looking boy about my age, looked at me with a perfectly serious face. "It's true," he said gravely. "It happened last year. My sister." He dropped his voice conspiratorially. "She's adopted."
I laughed again, and my mother frowned at me. She had spent most of yesterday explaining to me that it had been really, really hard to convince the school to take me, especially since she couldn't produce any proof that I'd ever been baptized. In the end, they'd only let me in because of Nobunaga, since all three of his boys went there. I imagine a sizeable donation had also played a part in my admittance, but my mother wouldn't tell me that. All she said was that I had better behave myself, and not hurl anything out of any windows- even though I reminded her that that particular incident hadn't been my fault. I'd been fighting with a particularly violent young demon who'd refused to quit haunting the girls locker room at my old school. Throwing him through that window had certainly gotten his attention, and convinced him to tread the path of righteousness ever after.
Of course, I'd told my mother that I'd been practicing my tennis swing indoors, and the racket had slipped from my hands- an especially unbelievable story, since a racket was never found.
It was as I was reliving this painful memory that a heavy wooden door opened, and a priestess came out and said, "Mrs. Higurashi, what a pleasure to see you again. And this must be Kagome. Come in, wont you?" he ushered us into his office, then paused, and said to the boy on the couch, "oh, no, Mr. Houshi. Not on the first day of a brand new semester."
Miroku shrugged. "What can I say? The broad hates me."
"Kindly do not refer to Sister Setsuko as a broad, Mr. Hoshi. I will see to you in a moment, after I have spoken with these ladies.
We went in, and the principal, Mother Kaede- that was her name- sat and chatted with us for a while, asking me how I like Tokyo so far. I said I liked it fine. We had spent most of the day before in Tokyo Square, shopping, after I'd finished unpacking.
Mother Kaede expressed her sincere hope that I'd be happy at this school, and went on to explain that even though I wasn't a Buddhist, I shouldn't feel unwelcome.
I thought this was kind of funny, for some reason, but I managed to keep from laughing. Sister Kaede was old, but what'd you probably call spry, and she struck me as sort of queer in her traditional priestess clothing.
After Mother Kaede had described the various offenses I could get expelled for- skipping class too many times, dealing drugs on campus, the usual stuff- she asked me if I had any questions. I didn't. Then she asked my mother if she had any questions. She didn't. So then Mother Kaede stood up and said, 'fine then. I'll say goodbye to you, Mrs. Higurashi, and walk Kagome to her first class. All right, Kagome?"
I thought it was kind of weird that the principal, who probably had a lot to do, was taking time out to walk e to my first class, but I didn't say anything about it. I just picked up my coat- a black wool trench by esprit, and waited while she and my mother shook hands. My mom kissed me good-bye, and reminded me to find Dumber at three; since he was in charge of driving me home-only she didn't call him Dumber. Once again, a woeful lack of public transportation meant that I had to bum rides to and from school with my stepbrothers.
Then she was gone, and Mother Kaede was walking me across the courtyard after having instructed Miroku to wait for her.
No prob, senorita," was Miroku's response. He leered at me behind the mother's back. It isn't often I get leered at by boys my own age. I hoped he was in my class. My mother's wished for my social life just might be realized at last.
As we walked, mother Kaede explained a little about the building- or buildings, I should say, walled adobe structures were connected by low ceilinged breezeways, in the middle of which existed the beautiful courtyard. On the other side of the breeze way were stone benches for people to sit on while they enjoyed solitary contemplation of the courtyard's splendor, the doors to the classrooms and steel lockers were built right into the adobe wall. One of those lockers, Mother Kaede explained to me, was mine. She had the combination with her. Did I want to put away my coat?
I had been surprised when I'd awakened Sunday mornings to find myself shivering in my bed. I'd had to stumble out from beneath the sheets and slam my windows shut. A thick fog, I saw with dismay, had enshrouded the valley, obscuring my view of the bay. I thought for sure some horrible tropical storm had rolled in, but Dumb had explained to me, quite patiently, that morning fog was typical here, and that the passive was named because of its relative lack of storms. The fog, Dumb assured me, would burn off by noon, and it would then be just as hot as it had been they day before.
And he'd been right. By the time I returned home from shopping, my room had become an oven again, and I'd pried the windows opened again- only to find that they'd been gently shut again when I woke up this morning, which I thought was sweet of my mom, looking out for me like that.
At least, I hope it was my mom. Now that I think about it... but no, I hadn't seen Inuyasha since that first day I'd moved in. It had definitely been my mom who'd shut my windows.
Anyway when I'd walked outside to get into Mom's car, I'd found that it was freezing out again, and that was why I was wearing the wool coat.
Mother Kaede told me that my locker was number 273, and she seemed content to let me find it myself, strolling behind me with her eyes on the breezeway's rafters, in which, much to her professed delight, families of swallows nested every year. She was apparently quite fond of birds- of all animals, actually, since one of the questions she'd asked me was how I was getting along with Buyo, the Higurashi cat- and openly scoffed at Nobunaga's repeated assurances that the timber in the breezeways was going to have to be replaced thanks to the swallows and their refuse.
268, 269, 270. I strolled down the open corridor watching the numbers on the beige locker doors. Unlike the ones in my school back home, these lockers were not graffities, or dented, or plastered with stickers from heavy metal bands. I guess students here took more pride on their school's appearance than us.
271, 272. I stumbled to a halt.
In front of locker 273 stood a demon.
It wasn't Inuyasha, either. It was a girl, dressed very much like I was, only with long red hair, instead of black, like mine. She also had an extremely unpleasant look on her face.
"What," she said to me, "are you looking at?"
Then, speaking to someone behind me, she demanded, "this is whom they let in to take my place? I am so sure."
Okay I admit it. I freaked out. I spun around, and found myself gaping up at mother Kaede, who was squinting down at me curiously.
"Ah," she said, when she saw my face. "I thought so."
A/N:
Next chapter is the 1st confrontation with Ayame and Kagome!
Please REVIEW!