"So what do you mean you don't believe in the afterlife?"
It was another fight between the priest's son and the son of a long line of atheists. I sighed as they babbled on, debating weather or not God was real. It was break time in school, so I was forced to stay in the room with them as they argued on. I watched as the priest's son pointed at a bible in his hand, they watched as the atheist pointed at the book; scolding it for it's false nature. To be honest, I couldn't tell what they were saying, at all.
My name is Felix Smith. I'm a foreign exchange student from London; I currently reside in Japan. Of course 18 and I'm 5'10". I was sent to Japan due to an exchange program, but I wasn't the brightest student in the school. My parents signed me up and made me learn Japanese about a month before I arrived. I thought the trip would be fun or at least enjoyable, but listening to these other exchange students was killer. The priest's son was an American boy named Tucker Daily who grew up in Georgia. The atheist he was arguing with was another American who went by Alexander. He claimed he grew up in Germany, but nothing about him is German, and his southern accent doesn't help either. We were placed in a class together because the teachers believed that we needed to communicate and share each others different cultures and beliefs, but as you can see, that is going swimmingly;
"As it reads in the Bible, God told Noah tha-"
"He was high off of something an-"
"He was not!"
"Was too!"
'Yeah,' I thought to myself, 'swimmingly.'
Eventually, the teacher walked in and told everyone to take their seats. The small crowds of people began to disperse and sat down in their seats. I sat on the far right side of the classroom; next to the windows. I sat 3 seats from the front and, predictably, in-between Tucker and Alexander. The teacher told us to open our history books to page 325. Doing so, I pulled out a notebook and pencil and was about to write down the title of the notes when Tucker turned around and rested his arm on the desk; "Can I borrow a pencil, if that is okay? I seem to have misplaced mine."
"Sure," I said, handing him my spare pencil, "keep it if you want."
"Oh, thanks, Felix."
"Welcome." I sighed as I wrote 'HISTORY NOTES' at the top of my page.
As the teacher began to ramble on about the importance of boarders, I watched the baseball team practice. I spotted Hinata, a good friend of mine, at the home plate with a bat over his shoulder. In a hitting stance, he waited for the pitcher to throw the ball. As the ball flew towards him, Hinata smacked the ball with the bat, sending high into the air and out of the fence; landing feet away. As he ran the bases, a girl in a wheelchair watched happily as he passed her. She chuckled as he slowly passed by her; he had told her a joke, I presumed. I watched as he ran over to her after touching home plate. She turned her head to see him with her hands in her lap. 'I've never seen her before,' I thought nearly aloud, 'who is she?'
"Mr. Smith, would you mind answering the question now?" The teacher's voice snapped me back to reality as I looked at the question he had wrote on the board;
"The answer to 'Why should boarders exist' is because they help divide land up for different countries...?"
"That is true, yes. Please try to pay attention Mr. Smith. A test is coming soon, you know."
"Sorry," I sighed, "won't happen again."
The rest of class was boring and dull as the bell rang, marking the end of school for the day. Walking out of the front doors I saw Hinata and the girl sitting down on a bench under a shady oak tree. Walking over, Hinata greeted me with a wave as he waited for me to get closer. "Hey Felix," he said, "what's up?"
"Nothin really." I replied. "Who's this?"
"This, Felix, is Yui. Yui, this is a friend of mine; Felix."
"Nice to meet you." She smiled.
"Nice to meet you as well." I smiled back. Hinata told me about how he hit a home-run during practice today.
"Oh yeah, I saw that from the window." I said.
After a few minutes, Hinata stood and threw his backpack onto his shoulders. Yui smiled at him as he walked behind her wheelchair and placed his hands on the handlebars for it. "Well," he began, "I'll see you later, Felix. I've got to take Yui home now. Hey, want to hang at my place?"
With a quick and polite "Sure", I waved them off as they disappeared around a corner. I sighed as I began to walk in the opposite direction as them towards the apartment the school was renting for me. Walking up the small set of stairs to the second floor, I opened the third door down; my room. It was an arguably large area of space with one bathroom. Within the room was a fridge that sat directly next to the door and a small coffee table in front of a T.V. I turned the T.V. on to a news channel and watched the weeks weather report. I had opened the fridge door when I got a call on my phone. Pulling it out of my right pocket and answering it, Hinata was on the other line;
"Hey Felix. So you're coming to my place, right?"
"Sure, I'm cool with that. Just give me time to eat a snack though; I'm starving."
"True, true." He laughed.
"Okay," I chuckled, "I'll be over at like 7. Cool?"
"Yeah, that's fine. Besides, I need some help with some things."
"Yeah, yeah, homework, I got you man."
"Well," he sighed, "its more advice."
"Advice, huh? Yeah, I can help you with that. I'll call when I'm on my way."
"Cool, talk to you then."
I hung up the phone, putting it into my pocket and pulling out leftovers from the night before. Putting it into the microwave, I wondered about what he meant by advice. "Hmm..."