The Messy Emotions

#5 - First Day of Highschool

A few weeks before the school began, Takayuki's parents left the US to continue working after their summer holidays which made Takayuki a little depressed. Still, he got on a call with his mom ever so often, although it was the timezone that was the problem. See, being on the west coast meant being 17 hours behind the time in Japan which made communications a little harder. Anyway, Takayuki was still looking more forward to studying in his new school.

Just last week, Takayuki had just bought around 5 to 6 sets of school uniform, and each set includes a blue blazer, a white shirt, a blue tie ,and either gray or light brown pants. Of course, belts and a pair of black shoes are needed, so he bought only one of each. When he first tried them on, he was quite happy of how it looked on him, and it also fit him snuggly as well. The only thing left to do was getting his stationeries sorted, and he should be good to go. Later that day, Takayuki and his uncle went to a local stationery store, and got his blue and red pens, a correction pen, a ruler, pencils, an eraser, a highlighter, color pencils, and markers. He also chose around 5 or 6 notebooks for class as he had just known that the school would be providing just the text books. Now, Takayuki was well sorted out.

Finally, it was the day Takayuki had been dreaming to come. It was the last Monday of August, and it was time for his first day at his new school. Last night, he packed all of his clothes and belongings into his blue backpack, ready to be carried to school. After a quick breakfast with his uncle, he quickly get to school. At around 7:45, he arrived at the school, and quickly went to the locker. He then put his blue backpack into the locker before grabbing a smaller green backpack with all of the essentials for school. Another thing that he learned from the guidebook was there was morning assembly in Fridays, unlike in Japan where it was pretty much his daily routine. After that, he took a walk around his school to explore it, and to find his first class of the day; biology.

As Takayuki was walking to school, he saw a group of intimidating guys around the a year older than him walking towards him, so he hung his head down to avoid the encounter. They were taller than him, and walked in a group of 4 which easily made him terrified. Suddenly, when he thought he was clear, he felt like something was holding him back, and when he looked, he saw one of the guys holding his backpack tightly while looking into his eyes. "Where are you from, boy? I don't seem to see much people like you around here.", the guy asked. "Um, I'm from Japan. Guess that's why.", Takayuki answered nervously. "Alright.", he replied. "We're going to have a lot of fun, boy.", the guy said in a devilish voice as he was ruining Takayuki's hair. The guys then walked away while laughing devilishly along the way. Then, Takayuki was becoming scared and paranoid everywhere he went, and he was very much convinced that they were the bullies which he was being their first target.

After the first encounter with the bullies, Takayuki walked to his class room, and sat down at one of the lab tables. After he didn't see the bullies in the class with him, he sighed with relief. Of course, in the first day of the new school, the students seemed to be weirdly quiet. No one were having such conversations which was normal because they all were being a little shy among the other students they hadn't met before. After 3 periods of studying later, the students had finally reached their lunch break.

As lunch time arrived, Takayuki was very hungry, and therefore, needed food. It was another new thing that he did which was to walk to the cafeteria to get food because in Japan, they'd normally bring it up to their classrooms. When Takayuki had arrived at the cafeteria, he saw what other students did, and repeated after them to not look weird. Firstly, he grabbed the blue tray that the school gave them. As he saw that the school serves salad and spaghetti that day, he grabbed 2 plates for each before getting behind the line. After that, he followed the other students as he scooped up as much salad and spaghetti as he was craving for. At the end, he grabbed a glass which he filled it with orange juice before finding a seat to sit, and eat his food from.

When Takayuki was peacefully eating, a slim boy with blonde hair and blue eyes and was in the same grade sat right opposite of him. As he was sitting down, he said, "Takayuki san, konichiwa. Bennetsuto desu. (Hello, I'm Bennett in Japanese)" Then, Takayuki was surprised for someone to say hello to him in Japanese. "Hajimemashite (Nice to meet you in Japanese)", Takayuki replied. The boys then sat down, and ate their lunch.

"I heard you're from Japan, right?", Ben asked. Takayuki replied, "Yeah, and you?" "I'm originally British, but moved here when I was really young.", he replied. "Ah, cool.", Takayuki responded. "Also, your English is very good. I kind of like your accent, to be honest. It's kawaii (cute)", Ben told Takayuki before giggling adorably. "Awww, thanks. You're Japanese is also really good. Where did you learn it?", Takayuki asked in return. Bennett then answered, "In middle school. In the US, you must choose one foreign language other than English, so I chose Japanese." That was the third culture shock for Takayuki so far because in Japan, the only mandatory foreign language he learned was English. Therefore, seeing American students picking another language to learn was surprising for him.

After the boys had finished their lunch, they stood up, and got ready to separate. Before walking away, Ben stopped Takayuki to ask a question. "Before we leave, I wanna know what class you're in.", Ben asked calmly. "Oh, class 3 for me. What about you?", Takayuki replied before returning with his question. To his surprise, Ben was also in class 3 as well, so they changed from separating to walking to their next class together.

For their next class, art, the boys chose to sit near each other. While they were waiting for the teacher, Takayuki spotted a petite and cute girl walking into the classroom. She had got her long blonde hair, along with her pinkish-coral colored eyes. She was slim, but of medium height, and was around an inch or two shorter than Takayuki. She looked really shy, and doesn't seem to have much friends, except another petite girl who was walking beside her. Since she was both really cute and adorable, Takayuki immediately had a crush on her, and now his whole head was filled with specifically thoughts around her.

As he kept staring at her, Ben asked, "Hey, is it just me, or does it seem like you're really into Izumi, the Izumi Hattori?" In which Takayuki replied, "Um, no. No." "Hmmm, suspicious", Ben teased him which made him silently blushing. When he saw that, he told him, "Thought so." A little giggle from him was then followed. Takayuki sighed before he finally confessed. "Wait, is she also Japanese?", Takayuki asked. "Um, not really. She's half American half Japanese, and she can speak both languages, from what I heard.", Ben replied. "I know she'd be perfect for ya, only if she'd choose you, instead of the bullies.", Ben added. Suddenly, he remembered about when a group of guys from the same grade messed up his hair that very morning. Takayuki immediately knew that they were a hundred percent, the bullies. Takayuki then gulped down really hard before saying, "Seems like, it's going to be a tough one."

After their last class at about half past 3, both Ben and Takayuki went to their locker to get all of their stuff for the night. As it turned out, their lockers were right beside each other which was surprisingly perfect for them. When they had already gather their stuff, Ben took Takayuki to meet his old friends which were in class 7. As they were walking closer to the class, Takayuki saw 2 boys standing there chilling, and joking around to pass the time. When he saw Ben waved at them, he knew it was his friends. Ben then introduced his friends to him, "Takayuki, this is Alex, and this is Tom." "Takayuki san, konichiwa. Arekkusu desu. (Hello, Takayuki. I'm Alex.)", Alex greeted him. Trying to be polite, Tom greeted him with, "Douzoyoroshiku, Tomii desu. (Nice to meet you, I'm Tommy.)" Takayuki was stunned by Tom as his attempt of trying to be polite towards him was perhaps, too polite. "Why don't you use Hajimemashite? You've startled a Japanese.", Alex said to him before laughing. "Oh, no problem. It's fine," Takayuki said. "Yeah, and just like your friend said, use that only if it's for friends.", Takayuki added. "Well, why don't we go up to the dorm first? The stuff's getting heavy.", Ben said. The boys all nodded before heading to the dorm together.

After they had reached the dorm entry hall which was next to the cafeteria, they met a lady sitting at the desk. "Hey, we're here to get our room.", Alex asked the lady. "Right, you're pretty early, so how many of you are staying? There're room for 3 and 4.", she asked. "Well, 4 of us are staying together.", Ben replied. The woman then said, "Oh, then write your names and student number here. Your room number is 317, so the third floor." After everyone had signed their names, they were handed the keys before taking the elevator up to their room.

When they had arrived, they found it to be a little more spacious than they had thought. They had got a living room with a couch, a TV, and a table with 3 chairs for studying, and a bookshelf beside it, conveniently with 4 levels and a drawer at the bottom. Behind the couch was a small dining table with 2 seats as well. A small kitchen was also attached to the living room as well with some essential utilities, such as stoves, a fridge, a microwave, and a set of plates and silverware. The boys were hyped that they had a kitchen, but doubt they'd be using it often. A hall then connected their living room to their bedroom which consisted of 2 bunk beds, and a wardrobe. The room's only bathroom was beside the hall connecting the living room and the bedroom.

After the boys walked around for a bit, first thing they did was placing their bags beside the wardrobe, and choosing whether they like the top or bottom bunk. Takayuki chose the bottom since he was kind of afraid that he'd roll off it if he were on the top because he hadn't slept in a bunk bed before. Ben chose the top bunk above Takayuki since Alex and Tom decided to sleep with each other.

It was around 6:30pm, after the guys had taken a shower. They were in casual clothes, and were acting very casual in their dorm room. They were feeling hungry, so they headed down to the cafeteria. As they were walking right down to it, they discovered it to be closed with only the convenient store opened. The boys weren't in a mood to cook, so they grabbed some sandwiches from the convenient store instead.

While they were eating, the boys chatted with each other to know more of others. "Hey Takayuki, why did you move here?", Alex asked him. "Oh, I got the opportunity to come here.", he answered. "Right, you sure have a ton of thing you need to learn, but I'll guide you through it.", Ben told him. "One thing, can we just call you Yuki?", Tom asked. "Um, yeah. I don't mind...", Takayuki answered before he continued eating. The boys then further chatted along the meal, and really got to know each other more. Although Takayuki was the only Japanese person there, the 3 native boys didn't make him feel alienated, so he was happy. continuing to eat his sandwich. After that, they hung out for a bit before going to bed, and that was the end of Takayuki's first day of school.


End of Chapter 5