. Chapter 5:
. Girls
It does not surprise me that God ended up making man and woman on different days. He had to find time to figure out a way to put man's worst enemy and greatest puzzle into a package that ironically, man would also be attracted to. It is my assumption that God is probably secretly evil.
Boys smell.
They giggle under their breath as they huddle around each other and say that and a number of other offensive things. I think they hate us. What have we ever done to them? They hate us because we are different. Because our hair is not long and does not shine like theirs. And because our voices aren't as high and our eyes aren't as pretty when we smile.
"But don't you think Kenichi is cute?"
Or maybe they just hate some of us. I guess girls aren't always all bad..
"Kenichi?! Eww!!"
No...they hate all of us. Nevermind.
Ai dances on Fridays. Other than that, she hardly ever goes outside or does anything normal girls her age do. Her family is strict and eat with chopsticks made of shiny new metal or ones made from only the best wood. Some of them are connected at the top with a little chain, so one never loses the other. I know this because Ai uses them to eat her boxed lunches sometimes.
"Do you like my chopsticks?" she asks me, when I am caught looking at them.
"Well, you can have them," she says, "You can have all of them."
Ai dances on Fridays, goes to her family's temple on Sundays. What she does on Saturdays is a mystery.
She is different from the other girls. She never gossips or giggles or talks about which boy is cute and which one smells like old leather. Though that is probably because all the other girls don't like her. They all think she is rich and snobby and doesn't belong. But I know she's not like that. I'm positive she's not like that.
"Well, you can have them," she says, "You can have all of them." She offers me the used pair she held in her hands and I back away. She looks at me with sad, brown eyes and I say nothing to her. I'm both embarrassed and afraid. Afraid of her. Afraid to be hated.
Ai is still a girl. And girls hate boys.
