(School with Shuiichi - 3)
"Shuiichi! Shut up!" Erica cried out smacking him with her book. She was trying to take test with that old crone bearing down on her. Miss Strauss hadn't liked that Shuiichi was going to be sitting in on the lesson, and she didn't like that Shuiichi had a lot of energy, having trouble getting him to sit still. He had been softly murmuring the lyrics to one of his songs, but by the end of it, he was so bored that he was singing it at the top of his lungs before Erica hit him. "Sorry Miss. Strauss. He is a little hyper, and probably bored."
"If he can't keep it down he is going to be hyper and bored in the hall way." She growled at them. Shuiichi had slid under his desk, eyes the size of saucers, blinking them rapidly. Taylor hated this woman, and she knew that Miss Strauss wouldn't like Shuiichi, but she didn't think he was going to break out in song in the middle of class. She went back to her math test, Shuiichi remained under the desk, listening to himself on her CD player, not singing anymore.
The next block was Gym after Math. Erica would bring Shuiichi with her and give Mrs. Collins, the coach, the note.
"You want to play?" She asked looking at Shuiichi. "I think I have some extra gym clothes that should fit you. Wait here."
Shuiichi nodded emphatically. Something to do with all of this energy. Erica went into the changing room deciding that she wasn't giving him sugary cereal in the morning anymore. She would run over to Amy, who really wasn't going to care and grab her, dragging her off to the side.
"Ohmigawd!" Erica said jumping up and down. "You don't even understand! I went to bed last night reading my Gravitation manga and I woke up and Shuiichi was in my bed!"
"What?" Amy said looking at her. Amy might have been odd, but that sounded a little far out even for her.
Meanwhile out in the hall Mrs. Collins gave Shuiichi a pair of gray gym shorts and a pink tank top, and a pair of white leather sneakers with black stripes on them. She would turn him towards the girl's locker room and then walk away. She must've thought that he was a girl. He didn't know any better though, so in he waltzed.
Erica turned around to see the pink-haired youth enter the locker room, all of the girls just stood there staring at him for a moment, as if in shock.
"Shuiichi!" Erica yelled. "Get out!"
With that the rest of them broke into hysterics, like a pack of hyena's where one had to make a noise before anyone else would react. They all started throwing things at him and he would go running out of the locker room, slamming the door and putting his back against it.
"Eww! Erica! You're cousin's a perv!" Amanda said, she would toss her brown hair and storm away, as if it were completely Erica's fault.
"Ohmigawd!" Amy said. She didn't like Gravitation, because the whole boy/boy thing weirded her out some, but she couldn't believe that was him. She had seen pictures of him on the Internet before. "You really did wake up with Shuiichi in your bed… could you… go to sleep with you're InuYasha Manga tonight?"
Erica didn't gratify that with an answer.
Out in the hall Shuiichi slowly moved away from the locker room doors, he would see the sign all the way on the other side of the gym to the boys locker room and start across it.
"Where are you going?" Mrs. Collins said to him.
"Um… I am… a boy." He said bashfully.
"Oh! I'm sorry, go over there, that is the boy's locker room." Mrs. Collins would blush and Shuiichi scampered off away from her. He would walk into the boy's locker room, only to be greeted by more jeering, the boys there also thinking that he was a girl. He didn't understand it! He didn't look like a girl! He was just pretty that was all. They wouldn't listen to him as he tried to explane that he was a boy. He would run out into the hall next to the boy's room, that led to an emergency exit. He sighed, no one would see him there, so he changed there, once changed he would lean against the door, sliding down to his butt. This place was so strange, he just wanted to go… home now.
"Shuiichi?" He looked up as Erica opened the door to the room; he was sitting there with his arms wrapped around his legs. He had that same sad look in his eyes that she had seen when he was in the living room. "Did you get changed in here?"
"They were mean to me." He said sniffling some.
"You went into the girls room." Erica said.
"But then the boys were mean to me too…" He said. "They thought I was a girl."
Erica clung to him as he sat there looking sad, he was supposed to be happy and bubbly, she couldn't stand him being sad!
"Alright let's get ready for laps!" Mrs. Collins called out.
"Oh boy! Lets run!" Shuiichi yelled jumping up and running out of the side hall. Erica blinked, seemed he couldn't make up his mind about emotions, but then again that was one of the things that she loved about his character anyway.
Erica was exhausted by the end of gym, trying to keep up with Shuiichi had proven near fatal as her asthma had kicked up and she had to rest. Shuiichi had stayed with her though until she was all right, apologizing, even though he hadn't done anything wrong.
Erica sat there dumbfounded as Shuiichi sat next to her zooming away at the computer. He was setting up a web site, HTML and all, like off the top of his head. Erica only had a couple of the Manga's and didn't know that Shuiichi was a computer geek, let alone knew how to turn one on. He was making a website for Nittle Grasper out of bordome, the teacher, Mr. McNiff was drawling on about something. Shuiichi couldn't help but think that he sounded stoned.
"Hey Erica." One of the boys that she didn't like said. "In Japan don't they finish school early, like when they are fifteen."
"Sixteen actually." Shuiichi answered for her, turning to look at the boy, who couldn't seem to keep eye contact with Shuiichi. It was like just making eye contact with someone that flamey might make him gay. He would then turn back to the computer. "And I graduated, so that is why I know all of this stuff already."
By the end of class he had some really nice work done. Satisfied with his work he would lean over, putting his head on Erica's shoulder. "I'm Hungry."
"Don't worry, Lunch is next block." Erica said as she blushed some from the fact that he was leaning on her. She tried not to let anyone else see; after all, he was supposed to be her cousin, not some rabid obsession.
"Don't touch the Chicken Quesidilla's or the Pizza." Erica warned him as they entered the cafeteria. Amy, who was trying not to stare at him, and Kaylie and Hayley, who thought he was adorable but nothing more, because they had not yet been entrusted with the truth, were with them. "What are we having today anyway Kaylie."
"Cheeseburgers and fries." She answered. Shuiichi's eyes got big, his mouth agape as he gasped in for air. He would turn and run off, as if running on air toward the lunch line.
"Cheesy burgers… and frenchy fries…" He sang doing the infamous Shuiichi happy dance that had Taylor in instant peels of laughter. The other's thought he was a riot too as they stood in line behind the dancing Shuiichi.
"It is funny that you are so obsessed with that Manga, and find out you have a cousin named Shuiichi too." Kaylie said laughing, Erica glanced over at Shuiichi, glad that he was too busy staring at the food all starry eyed to hear what she said.
"Yeah, I guess it is." Erica answered. They would get their food and find their table, Shuiichi eating his cheeseburger and fries as though he hadn't eaten in weeks.
"So… how's Bad Luck doing?" Hayley asked, she was sardonic, and unfortunately she had heard of Gravitation. Shuiichi blinked, he was about to answer when she started talking again. "Do you like Manga, I know Erica does, she has a lot of them."
"Hayley shut up!" Erica said kicking her numerous times under the table. He didn't understand why Taylor what getting so upset for.
"Um, Bad Luck is doing just fine… and… yes, almost all people in Japan like and read manga." He said softly. Now he didn't understand why this girl was looking at him like he was insane. He didn't realize that he looked like a crazed Gravitation fan that had just come home from Anime-Con, but that was because he didn't know anything about Gravitation.
"Your cousin is weird." Hayley said rolling her eyes. She just thought he was going along with the joke.
"Yeah, you're not so normal yourself." Erica hissed at her. Shuiichi would scoot over to Erica.
"Eh, it isn't home, but I guess I like this place." Shuiichi said resting his head on her shoulder again. She would again get a little wide eyed and blush. "Hey Erica."
"Yeah." She asked him.
"You gonna eat that?"
"In feudal Japan the head of the armies were known as the Shogun. He was the head of the Samurai, who were like the police of the Japanese and the only one that was above a shogun was the emperor." Mr. Macone said. He was just drawling on. Shuiichi blinked, they really didn't know anything around here did they?
"That's not true." Shuiichi said. He tossed the origami crane that he had made out of his work sheet down on his desk.
"Excuse me Mr…?"
"Shindo. Shindo Shuiichi." He said, not flipping his name to the Americanized way of putting your sirname last and your given name first. He would stand up.
"What isn't true?" Mr Macone would say. Erica looked over at Shuiichi.
"There were other Shoguns above shoguns." He said, he stood straight up with his hands flat at his sides, it was normal for Japanese schools, but everyone looked at him like he was a freak. "There was an honor system amongst the shogun in several area's, and if a higher ranking Shogun were to come into the lands of a shogun with less honor than the higher ranking shogun would stand above him."
"Sit down Mr. Shindo." Mr. Macone would say almost crossly. Erica was sitting there blinking at Shuiichi before she turned her eyes back to he sketchbook wondering what type of grave Shuiichi was digging himself this time.
"But… but sir… what you are teaching is wrong!" Shuiichi exclaimed. "I should know! I came from Japan."
"Sit down Mr. Shindo." The teacher repeated. Some of the meaner kids in class here now mocking Shuiichi, I should know, I came from Japan they laughed, throwing a paper ball at him, he turned to look at the one that had thrown it.
"Shut up and sit down you gook!" The kids laughed. Shuiichi's eyes went wide and instantly the tears brimmed in them. It might have been a commonly used insult in America, but in Japan that was only said in the direst of insults.
"Mr. Terrio, to the office now." Mr. Macone said sternly. "Shuiichi… sit down!"
Shuiichi this time did sit down, he would pull the book up in front of him as the others jeered at him for crying.
"Leave him alone!" Erica yelled. "Just because he is different doesn't mean you get to pick on him!"
A few of the kids through a few insults at Erica before the bell rang and Shuiichi ran out of the room. Erica ran out after him but he was gone by the time she got out there.
"Shit!" She yelled. "Where did he go?"
Rather than going to Science she would go and try to find Shuiichi. Unfortunately, aside from being ancient, the school was also huge! She was running around everywhere. Math, the Café, the Gym, everywhere he had been. But she just couldn't find him. Short of standing in the main foyer and screaming his name she was running out of idea's to find him. Finally she would be running blindly down one of the halls, out of breath from running for the second time today when she slammed headlong into her friend Bruce. He was a big guy, six feet.
"Hey Erica." He said. He was her local source on Anime information, if there was anyone she could explain this too, it was him. She would pull him aside and explained it to him, at first he didn't really believe her, but he could tell that she believed it anyway.
"Listen." Erica said. "If you find him with me, you will see that it is him… and please… don't tell him about Gravitation."
Bruce reluctantly agreed.
"I need you to check the boys rooms." Erica said. Bruce agreed, finally finding him in the one by the gym. He was shocked to say the least to see him; there was no way that he thought that Erica was lying now.
"Konichiwa." Bruce said. It was some of the few words that were not x-rated that he knew how to say in Japanese. He would walk toward him.
"K… Kon…ichiwa." Shuiichi said bowing his head some to the other. Tears still streaming from his eyes, he had been sobbing when the other came in.
"Erica is looking for you. What happened?" Bruce said.
"The people in America are mean. And the teachers." He cried, burying his face in his knees again.
"Yeah, they can be." Bruce agreed, seeing as he wasn't model matriel he had seen how mean the kids could be.
"The teacher was telling them the wrong information and wouldn't listen when I corrected him, and then one of the kids called me… a… a…gook." He said the last word very softly because he didn't want to offend anyone.
"That's not right, but everyone isn't like that." Bruce said. Shuiichi looked up at the other and grinned soflty.
"Really?" Shuiichi asked.
"Well yeah, Erica isn't like that right? She's your friend right? And then me, I'm not like that." Bruce said.
"Thank you." Shuiichi said, he would stand up and hug the other, who took his finger and placed it against Shuiichi's forehead pushing him back.
"Right. Erica is looking for you." He said. Right, homosexuality wasn't as popular around America huh? He forgot. "You can hug her later, I think she would like that."
He would turn and walk out of the bathroom. Shuiichi just stood there blinking at him before finally, starting after him, meeting up with Erica in the hall.
"SHUIICHI!" She shrieked. "don'tdothat!IthoughtIlostyou! Wherewereyou!Don'tdothatagain!Youdon'tknowtheschool!Youcould'vegottenlost!"
She just kept going and going without breathing it all seeming like one word. She would run over and cling to him. She had been honestly afraid that she had lost him.
"Gomen." Shuiichi said softly hugging her back, sniffling some. "Can we go home yet?"
"Yeah, English is almost over, so we will leave when the bell rings." She said petting his head some, trying to console him.
