H o s h i - g a - H o s h i i - d e s u

"I want the stars"

by Lucathia

chapter 14: exam results

Hoshi stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom with his head turned to the side to check whether or not his pony tail was straight. Smoothing his shirt and pants, Hoshi gave himself one last look before finally deciding he was satisfied with his reflection. With that, Hoshi left the house.

"I'm off now!"

Sora came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Have a safe trip."

Hoshi nodded and waved goodbye.

Meanwhile, Tsuki wondered why he couldn't go out with Hoshi-niichan. Hoshi-niichan went to cram school by himself. Hoshi-niichan helped them buy groceries by himself. When Tsuki went to buy groceries, he had to buy them with his 'kaachan. Why couldn't he go by himself? Tsuki sulked as he watched the door close behind Hoshi-niichan.

When his 'kaachan went back into the kitchen, Tsuki gave a furtive glance between the kitchen and the door. Assured that his 'kaachan couldn't see him, Tsuki inched towards the door, slowly opening it and tiptoeing out the door.

Well, he wasn't going to stay home when Hoshi-niichan went out and had all the fun!

Hoshi yawned. It was evening right now. He should still be wide awake, but just the thought of school could make anyone sleepy. Hoshi stretched as he waited for the light to turn green.

When the light finally changed, Hoshi started walking across the street.

A flash of blue walked past him at the middle of the street. The blue somewhat registered in Hoshi's mind, but it was of no importance to him. Hoshi continued walking without a pause.

The flash of blue, however, noticed Hoshi and turned around.

"Yoh!"

The shout was lost among the noise of the traffic. Hoshi barely heard it as he reached the other side of the street, since "Yoh" could have been a regular greeting between two friends.

The flash of blue, more commonly known as Horo Horo, watched glumly as the figure disappeared amidst the crowd. He had only seen a glance of the figure, but he had thought it was Yoh. But then why hadn't Yoh turned around? Horo Horo shrugged. He most likely mistook someone else for him.

A large honk woke Horo Horo from his thoughts. Horo Horo blinked, finally noticing that the light had already turned red. He was still standing in the middle of the streets.

The cars kept honking as Horo Horo rubbed the back of his head.

"EH?? SORRY! SORRY!"

He quickly dashed to the other side of the sidewalk, heaving a sigh of relief when the annoying honking finally stopped.

When Hoshi entered the classroom, he immediately heard dreamy sighs.

"He's back..." whispered one girl.

"I almost thought he wouldn't come back..." whispered the next girl.

"But he's back!" squealed the first girl. The two girls clasped each other's hands as the boys around them rolled their eyes.

Hoshi ignored the whispers from the girls, the exasperated looks from the boys, as well as the pointed stare from Manta. The short boy had his eyes glued on him the moment he stepped into the room.

Ichi-sensei looked up from his position in the front of the room. He straightened his current work and put them away. He took out a fat stack of papers and put them on the desk in front of him.

"Well, those are your exam results."

The teacher just had to put his exams in the front of the classroom for EVERYONE to see. Hoshi shook his head slightly. Oh well. There was nothing he was ashamed of.

Hoshi walked over and picked up the exams, quickly sifting through them and glancing at his score. He smirked, and if possible, the smirk became wider as he saw each test score.

Ichi-sensei sighed. Here, standing in front of him, was a child genius who had appeared out of nowhere. Okay, maybe not nowhere, but from America. Here, standing in front of him was a child genius who had appeared from America. Ichi-sensei knew that he should expect great things from the boy...whatever "great" meant.

The teacher cleared his voice.

"I don't have much to say...but congratulations on acing all of the tests."

The girls gave a unison sigh while the boys' jaws dropped. Manta's eyes, especially, were wide open.

Manta thought that Hoshi would sort of be like Yoh and Yoh, as a student, rarely listened to any lectures. He spent the time sleeping, dozing, drifting off, daydreaming...the list went on. Whatever he did, he certainly did not listen to the teachers' lectures. Manta was absolutely sure that Yoh didn't learn much in school. The only thing Yoh learned during school hours were probably the lyrics to the songs he listened to, since Yoh always had his headphones on.

So when Hoshi appeared in front of Manta, Manta immediately compared him with Yoh, the extremely lazy student. He thought that Hoshi would be like Yoh. He thought that Hoshi would most likely fall under the category of "lazy student," no matter the reason.

Well, if Hoshi were a lazy student and never listened in class, he would be nothing short of a genius. Even if he were a studious student, he could never have learned all the material that was on those exams. It wasn't possible to learn all that in school, unless Hoshi had already attended college and beyond. So where did Hoshi get all that knowledge?

Then it all clicked.

If Hoshi were Hao, which Manta now believed was the highest possibility, then Hoshi would have had 1000 years to absorb all the knowledge in the world. One could accomplish and learn so much in 1000 years. If Manta had 1000 years, he could learn every language in the world, study every single culture, and learn everything that could be learned about the world.

It all made sense.

And now Manta was absolutely sure that Hoshi must be Hao, for no one else could be able to have that much knowledge.

Ichi-sensei continued talking after the brief interruption from the class.

"Well, I don't know where to place you because based on your test results, your skill is beyond any college student." He paused and continued. "Basically, you don't even have to attend any school at all. Of course, you can attend college if you want to get a degree."

Hoshi raised his eyebrow. Interesting...he didn't have to go to school if he didn't want to.

Manta's arm shot up, but he began talking without the teacher's permission. "Sensei! I believe that Hoshi should go to middle school."

The teacher turned towards Manta, a look of pure exasperation. "Why would a genius want to attend middle school? If he wanted, he could attend the most elite graduate school in the whole world! Imagine that! And you want him to go to middle school?"

Manta shook his head. "It's not what I want. It's what I believe will be best for him."

"How do you know what is best for him?"

Manta continued. "Well, he's the same age as me. I think that if he goes straight to graduate school, he wouldn't be able to experience a..." Manta paused at the word.

"A childhood."

Silence.

One of the girls giggled. "You're so silly."

Another boy echoed the girl's thoughts, despite his envy of Hoshi's intellect.

"He doesn't need a childhood when he's so smart!"

Manta shook his head venomously. "You're all wrong! Everyone deserves this chance!"

Words flew between the short boy and the rest of the class. He was a tiny little existence fighting against the main current, a tiny individual against the whole world. No one backed him up. Manta tried to fight against the other students' opinions, along with the dominating opinion of the teacher. It was a losing battle, until the very person in the center of the dispute cut into the verbal fight.

"I'll take Manta's suggestion."

The girls looked up in horror, the boys in bewilderment, the teacher in confusion, and Manta in gratitude.

All Hoshi did was smile at their reactions.

to be continued

Next chapter: Lost

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