Youth Unsupervised

Chapter 7-The Price of Diction

Tuesday passed about the same way Monday did. I managed to convince Saki to come hang out with me and Hiromasa again, instead of terrorizing the neighborhood, or whatever it is she normally did.

I spent most of my school days copying notes off the board and watching Saki doodle. It was interesting to watch her work. She would start drawing patterns and shapes in a seemingly random destination on the page. More and more of them would pop up, until things started circling and intersecting with each other. In the end, she would end up with a page so full of ink it would curl in on the corners. She would always start the day drawing slowly, periodically gazing out the window for long periods of time. Then, as the day stretched on, she would get more frantic and start to draw quicker. She scribbled away while her leg twitched under her desk, like she couldn't wait to get out of there. I almost felt bad for the guy in front of her.

We were sitting in our last class on Wednesday, when Saki's luck finally ran out. A middle aged woman stood at the front of the room, choosing people at random to read out passages from the book.

"Higoshi, can you read the next one?" the teacher asked.

Saki's pen stopped moving. Not good. She hadn't been on the correct page the entire class. I should know. I'd been watching her like some super stalker the whole time.

Saki glanced up at her. "No, I can't."

"I see," the teacher said.

Saki waited a few minutes, and then started drawing again. She didn't really seem embarrassed that she was totally lost. Still, I doubted this was going to end well. Mrs. Okano can't have been the only one to notice Saki's lack of attentiveness in class.

In our final homeroom of the day, Mr. Nagashima asked that Saki stay seated. When we were dismissed, the rest of the students shuffled out of the classroom, including Hiromasa, who gave me a really confused look when I stayed put. Pretty soon, only Mr. Nagashima, Saki, and I remained in the room. Saki got up and went towards the front of the class where Mr. Nagashima stood.

"Nagase, can you wait outside?" Mr. Nagashima said.

"I don't mind if he stays," Saki said before I could reply.

He nodded. "Very well. Higoshi, I've been hearing some troubling things from the other teachers. They say you aren't paying attention in class."

"They're right," Saki said.

Would a little tact kill her?

Mr. Nagashima sighed and leaned against the podium. "Are you having some sort of issue? Surely, you must know how important your education is. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"No," Saki said. "Nothing."

He was going to lose his patience pretty soon.

"I can tutor her." I stood up and went to the stand next to her. "I'm not the top of the class or anything, but I can keep you from failing."

Mr. Nagashima smiled. "I think that's a good idea. In fact, I like that idea a lot. Nagase, she's in your hands now." He gave us a wave.

"Thanks for bailing me out," Saki said, as we left the classroom.

"I get the feeling you wouldn't be saying that if you knew I was serious about it," I said.

"Hey," Hiromasa said, propping himself up from his leaning position on the wall. "Are you in trouble?"

"What the hell do you mean 'serious'?" Saki said, ignoring him.

"Just what it sounds like," I said. "How did you make it this far by skipping school and slacking off in class anyway? Didn't teachers ever question you before?"