More than Best Friends?

Chapter 22 - When They First Met

The maple trees were just beginning to turn green, signaling the start of the spring season at the East Horizon Middle School.  The juveniles casually chatted amongst themselves while waiting for the homeroom class to start.  It was a particularly exciting day for the second-years because the teacher had informed them that a new student would be joining their grade.

"Good morning everyone!" the teacher greeted them, and the students responded by bowing briefly before taking their respective seats.  "As you know, we have a new student joining us today!  Would you like to introduce yourself?"  A slim boy poked his head through the doorway, clearly unnerved.  He slowly walked next to the teacher, fiddling with the end of his school jacket.

"Uhm... hi..." he mumbled.  As he looked up to his new classmates, he was met with warm smiles and excited glances, but he couldn't help being nervous.  He swallowed the lump in his throat and could feel drops of sweat dripping down the back of his pale neck.

"Would you like to write your name on the board?" the teacher asked, handing him a piece of white chalk.  He nodded slowly and adjusted his thick glasses before taking the chalk.  A few scratches and squeaks could be heard as he slowly scrawled his name on the blackboard.  Though they were not rude words, the other students' whispers were audible to him.  Most of what he did understand were questions about his kanji name or where he was from.

"My name is... Henry..." the skinny lad stammered, "and I'm from... the United Kingdom... uhh... yeah."  The students marveled at this, suddenly bombarding him with questions about his homeland.  The teacher quieted the class down and ushered Henry to an empty desk next to Pe.

"Pe-chan, will you show our new friend around the school during lunchtime?" the teacher asked her.  Pe nodded graciously and the teacher went back to the podium at the front of the classroom.  "Please open your Japanese textbook to the next chapter."

"Uhm... gomen... Which part are we on?" Henry asked quietly, turning to the girl beside him. He flipped through the book, but he had never seen many of these characters before!

"Oh, it's this page," Pe said, pointing to the top right corner, "You were reading the book backward."

"Right," he acknowledged, "I... don't know how to read this.  I haven't studied much Japanese..."

"It's okay," she said, "there are still lots of English and Japanese words we're learning too!  I'm Pei-Ling, but you can call me Pe."  She held out her right hand for him to shake.  His right hand trembled as he took hers, and used the index finger of his left hand to push the reading glasses up his nose.  "You shake hands in Europe, right?" Pe asked, "I have always wanted to try!"  Henry felt the heat rise to his face; her hand was slightly smaller than his, and her fingernails were neatly glossed with a clear polish.  He gulped, as he'd never really shaken hands with a girl before.  "I hope we can be great friends," Pe added, smiling sweetly at him.  He looked up at her and silently nodded, a pinkish blush present on his face.  After their handshake, he held his still curved right hand in his left, looking down at it.  A girl shook my hand, he thought, the moment replaying in his head.  Back in Britain, girls thought he was weird, and stayed away from him most of the time.  Things seemed different here, and his face continued to flush as he stared at his hand. There are a lot of things I still don't know about this place, he thought to himself.

~*~

"Do you want to see the rest of the school?" Pe asked Henry after the lunch bell rang.

"Um... okay," he answered.

"Yay, let's go!" she grabbed his hand, leading him around the hallways.  As she talked about this room and that room and the trees and the water fountains and even the trash cans, all he could focus on was the fact that she was holding his hand.  It was soft and gentle as she pulled him along, showing him all sorts of things around the school.