Chapter 5- Fragile
Kari stepped outside the front door, her backpack slung over her shoulder, letters to both T.K. and Yolei clutched in her hand. Her grandmother had given her a few stamps for them so she slipped them inside the mailbox and met her grandmother in the car.
On the way to school, Grandma Kate broke the silence by saying, "I'm sorry."
When she didn't say anything else, Kari asked, "About what?"
"I can't imagine that you wanted to come here. I know how much you must miss your friends. Your mother's going through a hard time, but I don't want you to worry about it. At this time in your life, you should be focused on your schoolwork and your relationship with your friends. I truly hope this works out for you."
It was then that Kari realized that the two of them might have more in common than she thought, and that she was glad that to have finally met her.
"Thank you," Kari told her, struggling to hold back tears. She wondered if her overemotional state had anything to do with the jetlag as well. "That means a lot to me."
She hugged her grandmother and climbed out of the car. Grandma Kate waved to her as she drove away, leaving Kari standing on the curb, surrounded by teenagers rushing into the enormous building behind her.
She hitched her backpack up higher on her shoulders and headed towards the front entrance of the school. Once inside there was a large sign reading 'Main Office' with an arrow to the right. After that, it wasn't difficult to meet with her guidance counselor who had already been working on her schedule.
Most of her classes from Japan had coincided with the American coursework, so she ended up with World History, Photography, Chemistry, Pre-Calculus, American Literature, and Computers, in that order. By the time they were finished sorting things out, she had already missed first hour, and part of second. Then she had to wait even longer while he called down another student that could show her around until third hour started.
So, Kari was waiting patiently in an overly fluffy chair in the front office, when a girl with pale blonde hair, clear skin, and intense green eyes emerged from one of the offices behind the front desk. Kari immediately recognized her as one of the twins she had seen at the Coffee Beanery the night before.
"Are you Kari?" she asked.
Kari nodded, standing up and pulling her backpack onto her shoulder once more.
"I'm Hannah," the girl continued, extending her hand.
Kari shook Hannah's hand. "Nice to meet you," she said.
"Well, I'm supposed to show you around," Hannah said, "so let's start by stopping off at your locker."
Hannah looked at Kari's schedule and led her out of the office. Kari took note of which hallway they were in and which way they were going as Hannah showed her where all of her classes were, and also led her to places like the cafeteria, the gym, swimming pool, and the locker rooms.
"I have third hour chemistry too," Hannah said, trying to make conversation.
"That's great, I'll know one person," Kari replied, accidentally revealing her insecurity about being in a new place.
Hannah stopped talking, afraid that she might have offended Kari. So Kari broke the silence asking, "What do you have second hour and how did you get out of it to give me the tour?"
Hanna smiled, "I don't really have a second hour. I'm taking mostly advanced classes, so I wanted at least one hour that wasn't stressful so I'm an aide for the front office. I run errands, deliver messages, and give tours to people who don't know their way around."
Kari was about to say more when the ball rang, signaling the end of second hour. The two girls then headed to Hannah's locker and then on to chemistry.
In chemistry, Kari was extremely thankful to learn that she wasn't behind in the curriculum at all. In fact, with the science classes she had had in Japan, she was actually pretty far ahead of most of the kids in her class. Most, meaning everyone except Hannah. Hannah was obviously the brightest girl in the class, and the teacher's pet, something that Kari could easily relate to.
Before long, an hour had passed and Kari and Hannah were off to lunch.
"You can sit with me," Hannah said, grabbing Kari's arm as she left the chemistry room. They stopped off at their lockers for their lunches and then headed to the cafeteria, Kari surprisingly, remembering the way.
Kari had expected a girl like Hannah to sit at the lunch table with the most beautiful, popular girls and guys, so she was once again surprised when Hannah led them to a secluded table in the corner with only one occupant.
Kari instantly recognized the tall boy at the table as the one who had been with Hannah at the Coffee Beanery the night before. When Hannah and Kari approached the table, he looked up from the book he was reading to give Kari a quizzical look.
"Kari this is my boyfriend, Tom. Tom, this is Kari, she's new, " Hannah said.
Tom nodded, and the girls sat down across from him. "Where are you from Kari?" he asked.
"Japan," she sad, rather unemotionally.
"That's cool," he responded before immersing himself back in his book.
Meanwhile, Kari and Hannah chatted easily, Kari telling Hannah about the differences between Japan and California, and Hannah telling Kari about her classes, more about the teachers, and about some of the kids.
Hannah was listing the names of some of the other students that Hannah was friends with, when Kari met the eyes of Hannah's sister. Unlike Hannah's friendly gaze however, the other set of intense green eyes was glaring at Kari.
Hannah's sister stood up and crossed the distance to the table where Kari, Hannah and Tom were sitting, eating (and reading) peacefully. She came over to the table, smiling a truly fake and cheesy smile. After greeting Tom and Hannah warmly, she turned to Kari.
"Hi, I'm Lynn, are you new?"
Kari suddenly felt self-conscious, once again pining for her friends in Odaiba. "Yeah," Kari replied, but by then Lynn had already turned away from Kari.
Lynn continued her conversation with Hannah and Tom, purposely ignoring Kari's presence except for the occasional rude and unfriendly glance.
After she left, Hannah immediately apologized for her sister's behavior. "She's just not usually comfortable around people she doesn't know really well."
"Yeah, you know those extremely shy, popular cheerleader types," Tom commented sarcastically. Hannah rolled her eyes, but before she could defend her sister once again, the bell rang for them to head off to fourth hour.
Next, Kari had pre-calculus, another class where Kari found that she was ahead of the game. So, she spent a relaxing hour zoning out, planning out her next letter to T.K., and trying to figure out how long it would take for him to receive the one she sent that morning.
American Literature, however, Kari found that she was clueless. Her teacher handed her a torn up copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and gave her a week to read it. So, during the class hour, Kari tried her best to pay attention to every word the teacher said, copying all of the notes exactly.
She didn't even notice that the guy sitting next to her was staring at her the whole time. The rest of the class was on the last two chapters of the novel, so they were given the last fifteen minutes of class time to read silently.
However, as soon as the teacher sat down at her desk, the kid sitting next to her said, "Hi, I'm Drew. You must be the new girl."
"Is it that obvious?" Kari whispered back.
"Only because you were the only one actually listening to the lesson." Kari felt herself blush a little. She hadn't realized that nobody else had been interested.
"I've never even heard of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Kari whispered, as she opened up her copy of the book to the first page.
Drew smiled at her, "It's not that great. Well, I've only read a few chapters, but the parts I read were pretty boring."
Kari laughed, he reminded her a lot of Davis. Kari copied his notes from the previous chapters, and then it was time for the students to switch classes once again.
It turns out that Drew, Hannah, and Tom were all in her computers class. However, she didn't get another chance to talk to Drew because as soon as he entered the room, Lynn pulled him over to the computer next to hers, and they spent the whole hour flirting with each other.
Kari didn't really mind, she wasn't interested in him that way at all, but Hannah made sure that she knew all about him and Lynn.
"Have you met Drew yet? He's a nice guy. I think he's going out with my sister, but I'm not really sure. I can't keep track of their relationship," Hannah informed her, and that was all that she said on the topic.
When their teacher fell asleep at his desk, and all of the kids continued surfing the internet and instant messaging each other, Kari decided that it would be a good time to check her e-mail.
As soon as she signed in to her account, the screen began blinking at her, she had twelve new e-mails. Seven were from T.K., two were from Yolei, and one from both Tai and Davis. Kari smiled to herself, clicked open the first letter and began to read.