Chapter 6: Hinode High

"What's wrong?" Yusuke asked when he realized Ema no longer walked beside him. They'd reached the front lawn of the school, though Ema had stopped a few steps back, barely within the gates of the school.

"I don't know," Ema said, one arm tucking her bag closer as though it might protect her somehow. Her eyes were wide as she gazed beyond Yusuke to the school behind him. "I guess I just didn't expect it to be so big."

"You've seen high schools before, haven't you?" Yusuke asked, teasing her a little. It was adorable to see her looking nervous. He wouldn't have expected it from her. While he hadn't emailed her while she was gone, he'd secretly read plenty of his brothers' emails from her and always listened carefully when she was mentioned. She seemed like such a confident young woman. She'd traveled all over the world and had experiences most people could only dream of. Who would have imagined she would get nervous over something like high school?

"Of course I have, I've just never been in them before." She gave Yusuke a shy smile. "I never thought I'd get to go in."

"Well, now you do," Yusuke said. He held his hand out to Ema. "Here. If you're so nervous, why don't we walk in together? I promise I won't leave your side, okay?"

"Okay," Ema agreed, her smiling brightening as she reached for his hand.

"Dude!" A voice yelled, accompanied by pounding.

Yusuke jerked awake, sitting up in bed as he realized someone was pounding on his door.

"What?" He demanded, throwing his pillow at the door. If only he could have thrown it at the person responsible for waking him up from such a good dream.

"It's time for you to get up," Tsubaki said. "Ukyo sent me to come wake you up so you wouldn't be late for your first day of school. Personally, I don't care if you're late every day, but Ema doesn't know where Hinode High is, so you at least have to make it on time today for her sake, you got that? After today, I don't care what you do."

Yusuke heard the sound of Tsubaki walking away and he groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face. He'd been so anxious about going to school with Ema last night that it'd taken him forever to fall asleep.

If only he could be as smooth in real life with Ema as he was in his dream. Of course, dreams were just dreams. Ema would never be nervous like that in real life. She was too confident and experienced to be intimidated by something as stupid as high school. She wasn't like other girls.

~.~

"What do you think?" Louis asked. "Do you like it?"

"I love it," Ema said, examining her hair in the mirror. Louis had done her hair in a simple side ponytail and curled it, letting a few curled strands escape the ponytail so her hair didn't look perfect. "It's cute!"

"Good," Louis said, looking satisfied. "I've waited a long time to be able to do your hair. I'd be disappointed if you didn't like it."

"I can't imagine I wouldn't love anything you did, Louie." There was no denying how talented Louis was, but beyond that, the only people to ever do Ema's hair were make-up artists when she occasionally appeared on her dad's show. No one had ever done her hair because they wanted to. Because they cared about Ema and wanted to help her look cute. Her mother had died when she was a baby, leaving her to figure out all the girly stuff on her own. And her best friend Arisa was not a hair-styling kind of girl. Arisa barely did her own hair, let alone anyone else's.

"Now I can go to school with confidence on my first day knowing I look cute thanks to you." Also, thanks to the new uniform she was wearing. She'd heard that a lot of students resented having to wear a uniform, but she was excited. Plus, she thought it was cute.

"Ah, that's not true," Louis argued, gently touching Ema's curls. "You're cute no matter what hairstyle you have. It's just fun to mix things up every now and again. A new look can help you feel different, though. Are you excited about your first day?"

Ema grinned.

"I guess that answers that question," Louis said, laughing a little. "You'll have to tell me all about your day the next time you see me. It might not be until later this week, though. I have to work late tonight and I'm not sure what my schedule is like the rest of the week. You can always text me, though."

"That's right!" Ema said, excited at the thought. Not that attending high school was exciting enough to text Louis over. Well, for most girls, it wouldn't be. But Ema was excited at the thought because she was still getting used to the idea that she could text and call the Asahina brothers again.

Moving from country to country, it would have been too complicated to try to arrange to have a phone and call Japan. These days a lot of people talked to friends or family overseas with some form of video chat, but you had to have internet for that to work. Most of her dad's filming locations were not the kind of places that had internet. Which was one of the reasons Ema was grateful she was more into video games than MMORPGs. Though Fantasia Dawning sometimes came close.

"All right, Chi. Good luck at school today, okay? I want you to have a great day, and you'll have Yusuke with you to help show you around."

"Right," Ema said, nodding once. She hoped Yusuke didn't think it was a pain to have to go to and from school with Ema and show her around. He had offered back at the airport to help her around school, but he hadn't really spoken to her in the week since then. She wondered if Masaomi or Ukyo had made him promise to help Ema find her way around their high school.

Ema was grateful for the thought behind Yusuke helping her, but didn't want him to be forced into anything. She had plenty of experience with navigating her way around new places. At least in Japan she spoke the native language.

"I'll see you soon, Louis." It was fun to say that. For years the only people she'd said that to was her father and Arisa. And, for a while, Erik. It was funny that something so small as being able to tell someone you would see them again could mean so much to her.

~.~

"Well, this is it, Hinode High School," Yusuke said, his voice lacking excitement. He'd said hi to her that morning and asked her if she was ready to go after breakfast, but that had been the extent of their communication. He'd been completely silent on the train and hadn't even looked at her. His actions had her leaning toward believing Ukyo and Masaomi had made Yusuke help her.

She'd had more than enough of people around her not really wanting to be around her during the past six years. Those people usually fell into two categories. Those who wanted to be around Ema in the hopes of meeting her famous dad or ending up on his TV show, and big supporters and fans of her dad who felt Ema was nothing more than an anchor pulling her father back from his true potential.

Of course, Yusuke wasn't like any of the people in either of those groups. He was being polite and helping her, but the idea that he might not really want to do it still left a bad taste in her mouth. Plus, since they were going to be living together it seemed like a bad idea to force him to help her. It would be difficult enough having to welcome someone you didn't much like into your home without being forced to spend time with them.

"Thanks for showing me the way to school and riding on the train with me, Yusuke," Ema said. "I can find our class from here."

"What?" Yusuke asked, looking confused. Then panic seemed to flash through his eyes and she wondered if one of his brothers had threatened to punish him if he didn't stay by her side and help her. "Are you sure? We're in the same class, so it's not like it's any extra trouble for me or anything. And I can introduce you to some of our classmates. I know you're probably used to making your way around new places, but a high school isn't like a city or forest."

Ema bit her lip. Yusuke might be right, but she wasn't overly concerned with her ability to find her way. However, she was enticed by the offer to introduce her to their classmates. She was so tired of being new everywhere she went and only rarely having friends.

"Okay," she agreed. "But only if you accept the lunch I made for you as payment."

"You what?" Yusuke asked, blinking at Ema. "You…made lunch for me?"

"To say thank you for bringing me to school and showing me around. I really appreciate it. I didn't know what else I could do for you, so I made extra lunch. Is that okay?"

Yusuke's face flushed as red as his hair. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground as he started walking toward the school again. "Yeah, whatever. That's fine."

Ema joined him and he peeked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "You didn't have to do that, you know. Make me lunch."

"I wanted to," Ema said with a shrug. With her dad's hours filming hours, every night they were either eating meals prepared by the crew, or, when they managed to be wherever they currently lived at night, by Ema. Or they went out to eat with the crew. That happened a lot since it's not exactly easy to make meals when you get back from a mountain or leave a forest at eight p.m. It had been fun to finally cook with ingredients she'd grown up with rather than whatever was local. She'd enjoyed the different food, of course, but always eating something new got old after about a year or so.

"Thanks," Yusuke muttered. "I usually just eat whatever's at the cafeteria. I bet whatever you made is better." He hunched his shoulders and was quiet again after that as they walked into the school.

Ema didn't understand Yusuke at all. His body language seemed to say he wished he was anywhere but there, but his words sounded sincere. He truly seemed more excited to eat what Ema had made than what the cafeteria offered. Ema smiled. Maybe Yusuke was motivated by food. She could work with that. If food was the way into Yusuke's good graces and would help him be more okay with Ema living with the Asahinas, she would happily make him lunch every day for the next two years.