Great Expectations
There was silent discontent surrounding him as Sensei stopped speaking. Every member of the class looked around at each other, the same dreading look upon their faces. Satoshi Hiwatari gritted his teeth with a closed mouth, and opened the book to the first couple of pages. He had tried to read this book once, in order to challenge himself to do what no one else really did. He failed miserably.
Chapter 1, the book read, and he read the words silently in his head. My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
Must he really repeat himself? Satoshi thought bitterly to himself. He went on.
I give Pirrip as my father's family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister - Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, "Also Georgiana Wife of the Above," I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine - who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle - I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.
Satoshi blinked a few times, trying to concentrate. It was a bit strange and intimidating to find himself falling asleep a mere paragraph into the 59-chapter novel.
Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond, was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.
He inhaled deeply, adjusting his glasses. What had he just read again?
"Hold your noise!" cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. "Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!"
"O! Don't cut my throat, sir," I pleaded in terror. "Pray don't do it, sir."
"Tell us your name!" said the man. "Quick!"
"Pip, sir."
"Once more," said the man, staring at me. "Give it mouth!"
He looked around, stretching his neck, and found that others were having trouble staying on task as well. Daisuke and Riku were sending notes to each other while Sensei wasn't looking, Ritsuko was doing homework for another class, and Takeshi's head was bobbing up and down, hitting himself from time to time. It was amusing to see him struggle.
It was odd to him that he saw Risa Harada furiously scribbling down notes. She already had an entire piece of paper full. He couldn't help but ask about it.
"I can't read a book this boring with this kind of text," she explained. "I can hardly understand it as it is. So I'm rewriting it in my own words."
"That's a lot of work, Harada-san," Satoshi said evenly. "Are you sure you care that much about this book?"
"No, but I sort of have to pass this class." She smiled at him. "Not all of us are super-intelligent robots like you."