Sylvia Sanchez (Suzume) Thursday, March 31st
I watched the smoke fly through the air. My mother's shouting didn't deter me from my sitting. "Oh for fuck's sake Suzume," my mother howled. "Would you please look at me at least!?"
"You're giving me a god damn headache," I growled.
"I'm fed up with all your crap," she hissed. "If you don't want me to punish you, you'd better be here tomorrow at 6 pm sharp."
"Punish me?" I laughed haughtily. "And how exactly are you going to do that? It's not like I care if you try and take anything away."
"All the junk you stole is going in the trash," she informed me. I shrugged my shoulders and started laughing again. She had another thing coming if she thought I gave a shit. "And…," she began.
"And I'm gonna go ahead and leave now," I interrupted. I threw my cigarette on the ground and stomped on it. My mother kept shouting at me in English but I kept my back to her as I walked down the steps of our apartment. It wasn't like she was going to be home soon anyways. She spent all of her time cleaning and practically never came home.
I made my way over to the shop. No one was there besides Big G. "You're here rather early Scar. Everything ok?" he asked me.
"Yeah I'm good," I lied. "I just wanted to help get some of these cars done." He nodded his head and continued to work on the Blue Mustang. I grabbed my tools and started working on a green Honda.
Doing mechanic work had a way of relaxing me when I was upset. I was grateful to be able to have somewhere to retreat to at a time like this. Big G let me work beside him that whole morning. I enjoyed it when it was just me and him working on the cars. We worked quietly and everything seemed to flow perfectly.
The peace I was feeling didn't last for very long as Silver arrived along with Knuckles. "Scar," Silver greeted me with a false smile.
"Silver," I repeated in kind. He chuckled and eyed the car I was working on.
"Shouldn't you be in school with Hiro right now?" he questioned loudly.
"School doesn't start until next week," I answered evenly. Our conversation was cut short thanks to Big G who walked over to us.
"Did y'all finish the job?" Big G asked them.
"It's all taken care of," Silver answered. I wished I could wipe his smirk off his face.
"Good," Big G answered. "Scar, why don't you work on those guns that need repairing and make some more grenades. You and Hiro will be doing an important job tomorrow."
"Yes, boss," I answered obediently. I moved over to the workstation that I had set up in the back of the shop. It was essentially my own private office. I pulled out Silver's gun from the safe and examined it carefully. I bit my lip before placing it back in the safe. There was lots of work to be done.
Marianna Lorena - Ouran Academy Thursday, March 31st
I sat down at the end of a table and watched as there was a projector being set up. Chairman Suoh was nowhere to be found. I swallowed nervously as I watched some of the other people whispering to each other about something or other.
The door opened with a huge bang and I nearly jumped from my seat. "Good morning everybody!" boomed a great voice in English. I blinked as the smiley Chairman entered the room. He was something else, to say the least. I had wondered quite frequently whether Chairman Suoh was actually an alien living amongst us. His care-free attitude was unfitting for someone in a position of leadership.
I shook away my thoughts as I realized that the meeting had already begun. The assistant of the chairman, Ms. Nakamura, welcomed us all and she was announcing the names of the new faculty members. I saw different men and women stand and bow to her when she called their names. "Lorena, Marianna," she announced at last. I stood up rather quickly and bowed at her. She gave me a small smile as she again welcomed me to the team. I nervously realized that I was the youngest person here. All the other teachers looked to be in their thirties or forties.
I plopped back into my seat as she finished introductions. When she finished Chairman Suoh took over by saying, "There have been some changes made in terms of what classes some of you will teach. Mishi-san and Lorena-san, you will be teaching an additional class at the high school level." I looked over to Mishi-san who seemed calm about the news and simply nodded. I followed her lead but I felt terrified at the notion.
"Are we required to also attend the faculty meetings at the high school level?" Mishi-san questioned.
"Yes, you both will be required. The staff meetings for elementary school teachers will be on Mondays, the meetings for middle schoolers will be on Thursdays, and the meetings for the high school will be on Wednesdays," Chairman Suoh explained. I started to drum my fingers against the table.
"And we will have all-staff faculty meetings on the third Tuesday of the month," Nakamura-san added.
"Now we'll split into groups. Elementary school teachers will be with Nakamura-san. Middle school teachers will follow Genji-san to the next room in one hour. High school teachers will be meeting in an hour and a half with me. If you teach multiple grade levels you must attend the meetings for all grades that you will be teaching. If you finish your meetings you can take a break until we all meet back here for lunch," Chairman Suoh announced. I got up from my chair and followed Nakamura-san and the other teachers to the other side of the room.
Nakamura-san began to set up the projector in the room. I sat down as I watched her set up her powerpoint presentation. Mishi-san was to my left and another teacher whose name I didn't know yet, was also there. I gulped and pulled out my stress ball from my purse. I began to squeeze it tightly and rapidly released. I repeated the motion about ten times before Nakamura began to speak. I stared at the screen blankly as she asked us to go around and introduce ourselves again. There were about ten of us in total which made sense to me as there were 6 teachers who taught K-5 plus three assistant teachers for the lower grades and then there was me who taught English.
I tried my hardest to remember everyone's names but it honestly flew past my head. After the introductions, Nakamura-san began to give us more information about what the next few days had in store for us. "On Monday morning we will be having a half-day to welcome the new kindergarten families. The other grades will start school on Tuesday. Lorena-san, Mishi-san, and Saito-san will be running mini-classes for the parents and students. Each of you will have a one-hour block with all the families. Tomorrow you will run your station with me as a practice. The rest of the teachers will be docents, guiding the families through the entire school and giving tours. The families can decide whether they want to tour or take a class."
"Tomorrow will we be able to enter our offices?" one of the male teachers asked her.
"The janitor will give us the keys around noon when they finish the cleanup of the school," she answered. "I expect all of you to be ready by Saturday evening. I will be coming around to do a final inspection on Sunday morning." I pursed my lips and sighed to myself. It seemed that I wasn't going to be getting any sleep with the amount of work I would have to do.
Nakamura-san went on to explain rules whenever we went out for yard duty. She also explained changes to the buildings that occurred over the summer. Through her speech, I found myself a bit lost considering I had yet to tour the entire school itself. I imagined that they'd take the time to give me a tour after the faculty meeting was over.
Once Nakamura-san ended the meeting I slumped in my chair slightly before Kagame-san came over to me and stopped right in front of my chair. "Hello Lorena-san," he greeted me.
"Hello Kagame-san," I returned in a polite voice. He gave me a large smile before opening his mouth.
"I'd like to introduce you to our colleague Mishi-san. She is a fellow elementary level teacher," he introduced.
"It's very nice to meet you Mishi-san, my name is Lorena Marianna," I shook her hand.
"Would you like a tour of the elementary building and high school building?" she inquired.
I smiled and said, "Yes, that would be lovely." She gestured for me to follow her. We walked out of the faculty building together and I was amazed when we got outside.
"I believe Kagame-san took you through the back entrance," she told me.
"Yeah, he did," I replied quietly. All around us were cherry blossom trees. The sweet light petals danced and dropped in the wind. I felt like I was swimming through an ocean of pink. The pink paint of the building matched perfectly with the scene. I had to hand it to Chairman Suoh, he certainly did a good job of designing the school.
"The elementary school is the smallest building on the campus. It's to the far right," Mishi-san explained. "The middle school building is in the middle and the high school building is to the far left."
"I see," I replied hurriedly. Mishi-san began to pick up the pace as she turned right at the fork in the road ahead of us. "What exactly do you teach Mishi-san?"
"I help students with special needs," she answered. "There aren't enough teachers to help with the high school students which is why I'll be teaching an additional class. The class will be towards helping the high school students have the skills necessary to navigate college and eventually have a job by the time they graduate. I believe Chairman Suoh wants me to have a cohort of students at the freshman level and I will follow them until they graduate."
"That sounds amazing," I gushed in awe.
"Thank you Lorena-san," she grinned. "You will be the new English teacher correct?"
"That's right," I confirmed.
"Chairman Suoh must have high hopes for you Lorena-san."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you're so young and from overseas," she reasoned. "Chairman Suoh sometimes seems rather unserious and flamboyant, but that's not really the case. He always seems to know what is best for the school. Ouran Academy is one of the best schools in Japan."
"I'm really nervous about teaching here for that reason. I know that Ouran is a very prestigious school and I'm worried that my classes won't be up to par," I confessed.
"Don't worry Lorena-san," Mishi-san encouraged. "You were chosen because Chairman Suoh knows that you're the best person for the job." She then paused in front of a large dome-shaped building.
"This is the elementary building." I looked at the structure in complete awe. For an elementary school, it was quite extravagant. "The whole school was remodeled about two years ago."
"Wow," I commented as she led me towards the school. I took in all of the rose bushes that we passed in amazement. Once inside the building, Mishi-san began to go through all the homeroom classes with me. The students were split by grade and academic level. She informed me that all grade levels at Ouran were split that way. Since the elementary school had the lowest number of students, there were only two homerooms per grade. It meant that each day of the week I would teach two sets of English classes for elementary students.
I glanced at the empty desks and quietly imagined them being filled with students. I swallowed and continued to follow Mishi-san. She gave me a thorough tour of the building before pulling me back outside again. She was now going to show me the high school building.
The high school was much larger than the elementary school. I tried not to gape at the campus. The school was at least twice as big as any regular high school in the U.S. It came equipped with its own botanical garden, swimming pool, dojo, and golf course. Mishi-san and I were walking through the garden when she checked her phone. "It seems we only have fifteen more minutes before the highschool meeting begins," she announced.
"That felt quick," I commented. "We'd better head back." Mishi-san agreed and led me back to where our faculty meeting was being held.
We hurried into our seats as Chairman Suoh entered the room. "Welcome high school staff," he greeted joyously. I blinked at the corniness of his tone. Just as Nakamura-san had, Chairman Suoh had us go around and introduce ourselves. I was relieved after I had finished my introduction. He then moved on to explain various procedures including the standard tsunami and fire drills. I took careful note of his words, knowing I may need to remember everything at a later date.
"The high school students will be starting on Monday. Elective classes will take place in the afternoon," Chairman Suoh informed us.
He then gave specific instructions to various teachers. When he got to Mishi-san, he told her she'd be in charge of a cohort of special needs students just as she had told me. I quietly wondered how she knew of her assignment before Suoh-san told her in the meeting.
"Lorena-san," Chairman Suoh addressed me.
"Yes?" I answered quickly.
"You will have only one homeroom per grade to teach as English is only offered to students in Homeroom A."
"I see," I responded. "But, why aren't the other students allowed to take English as an elective?" I noticed that the other teachers seemed to tense at my words and shot me incredulous looks. I nearly withered in my seat. Perhaps it was a really stupid idea to ask Chairman Suoh such a question.
He gave me a small smile. "We want the students who take the IELT or the TOEFL exam to be serious and committed about their work. Students in Homeroom A have proven since elementary school to have those qualities we look for when sending our students overseas. I'm entrusting those students with you." I nodded at his words.
Chairman Suoh moved on and I briefly glanced out of the window. I could see the entire high school building. I took a deep breath. I had to stop doubting myself and trust that I was supposed to be here.
