Love/Hate - Chapter 1 (New)

I looked around, scared. I was new and I could speak English pretty well after spending various holidays with my auntie, uncle, cousin, Lily, and their dog, Fimble. The times that I spent there were all horrendous but it felt nice to get away from Japan for a while, to clear my head. The worst part was, Lily would force me to go outside and stand with her foolish friends while they argued, disagreed and hugged. I was an outcast. Even at my old school I was the left out leftover. Nobody wanted me. If they did, I wouldn’t be here. Before I came to England, my mother disappeared and no-one knew what had happened to her. At first we considered her running away from my father. He had had an abusive record before I was born but hadn’t hit her since I was born so we could rule that one out pretty much straight away. Then there was the possibility of abduction. That was most likely because that happened a lot in Japan. I was worried sick and I had no friend to confide in and all of my thoughts were warping my mind. I was very warped. I tried my best to understand – things weren’t piecing together and it got very confusing. So my father shipped me off to England not because he was worried for me, but because he couldn’t handle me on his own. Point proven – reject.
Now, my cousin had her arm wrapped around mine, reassuring me that there was nothing to worry about and that everyone was just starting today. How could she not understand how different it was for me? I wasn't just starting a new year at secondary school. I was starting a new school year at an English school and I wasn't familiar with any surroundings whatsoever. I was starting in Y10 which I suppose would be okay.
As I was walking round the daunting, grey school, I was slowly picking some things up - desperately trying to memorise the room numbers and noticeable things in the walls or doors. There were several cracks on the room door 23. Easy to remember, the numbers 23 are just going up numerically. And on the main IT lab someone had graffiti-ed in permanent marker 'I hate this school!!’ It was very worn out, as though the cleaners had tried to scrub it many times but still with no success. It was awful. It smelt like bleach and other cleaning products. We were early, too early. It was all plain, the same but then I very nearly stopped dead when we got to the end of the English corridor. There was a huge painting on the back wall. It made me melt inside and I felt happy, warm and fantastic – that must have been a first. It may have been an interpretation of Romeo and Juliet or another play but it was amazing. A couple’s silhouettes were visible in a tree, embracing in a way that looked very warm, loving and comfortable. The girl silhouette had shoulder length, feathered hair that mingled in with the boy silhouette’s shoulder. The boy was taller and it was so detailed that I could almost make out his features. The painting was so perfect that it sent several shivers down my spine at once. Maybe my brain wasn't processing with the drone of Lily, the sound of the cleaner getting an early start to making things look nice on the students first day back, the odd clicking of the radiators warming up, the slight chat from the teachers setting up for first period and I couldn't think straight. Still, I thought it was fantastic. I started to shiver.
"Oh! Riiko. I'm sorry I forgot about the temperature change. Are you cold?" Lily said turning to look me in the eye with a very concerned expression on her heavily foundation-ed face.
"Lily. I'm OK. Please don't worry about me. I'll be fine, I promise." And I flashed what I imagined to be a little sweet grin.
"Well OK. But I need to go and see Aimee and Hayley 'cos we really need to catch up, OK?" she asked in a long line, barely pausing for breath. I didn't have any friends, I didn't know who were the right people to make friends with, who were most likely to back-stab, who were bullies, who were awful, who were loving, who were kind, who were annoying, who were too nice, I just didn't know and to be honest, I didn't like Lily's friends and I certainly didn't want to stay with Lily. Is that bad? I mean, if I didn't have her then I wouldn't have arrived at the right location, never mind my classroom.

"Oh my days! Babe!! You look gorge!" Exclaimed Hayley, the most annoying of her moronic 'mates'. She was the loud, obnoxious type. The kind of person who if you see in the street, you want to kill them. Obviously not actually kill them but they get on your nerves like crazy. For some reason that I have never found out or questioned aloud, she always seemed to affect Lily as soon as she was in her presence and it got very frustrating. Aimee was quieter but you were glad because anytime she opened her mouth it would be something foul, vicious, offensive, rude or vulgar. Lily and Hayley found her extremely hilarious and would toss their fake hair back and cackle. Well, laugh but they laughed so loud that they sounded like they were witches. It is quite frightening from a distance. They were - and this will sound awful anyway that I say it - false. Everything about them; their hair, their face (make-up), their nails, their clothes, their accessories and even the non physical features like their smile, their laugh, their tears basically just their personalities. The only thing they seemed to be able to do was strut along the corridors, being loud, thinking that they are 'it'. At my old school, I always hated the girls like that. But they weren't so obvious. They were sly and crafty. They would hitch their skirt up so high that if they leaned forward an inch you could see up it. I found them disgusting and annoying the boys on the other hand, loved it. They stood in groups admiring the 'view'. Ugh.
I shied away behind my cousin, only praying not to be spotted. I failed. Why was the science corridor so impossible to hide in?
“Umm… Hi. Again. It’s nice. To see you,” said Hayley spacing out all of her words and making huge hand movements in an extremely patronising way.
“Erm. I can speak English fine. It’s a pleasure to see you,” I said, being shy still and embarrassed for her though she looked fine.
“Oh. You look a little-,” she trailed off gesturing to my face and clothes. “Interesting.”
“Umm. Thanks.” I didn’t even try to make any more conversation with them and they finally took that in after about 10 minutes of me going ‘Mmm’ and ‘Uh’. It seemed like 5,000 hours before my teacher let me in. I thought I was going to pass out from anticipation. That would be likely for me. I stepped in the science room and glided to the back, thankful that everyone was new to this teacher. His name was Mr. Kiln and he seemed nice enough. I was extremely pleased that I wasn’t in the same class as Lily, Hayley or Aimee. I sat in a corner, alone. That was fine I didn’t mind a bit. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. I would be able to get on with my work without being disturbed by people – if I could do it - and I was fairly pleased. I had barely glanced around the room and so, I had no idea what anyone in my class looked like. Then Mr. Kiln called us to the front of his desk and he was talking about experiments and safety rules. I was listening, I was looking at him, I had all of my attention on him and he still called on me.
“Erm, you” he said pointing to me “sorry I don’t know names. Your name is..?”
“R-Riiko Harrison,” I said, annoyed because I stammered – surprised by his question.
“Can you tell me a safety rule that we haven’t mentioned yet?” I said the first thing that came into my head – unsure if the rules were the same in England as Japan.
“Don’t run around the lab,” I answered - my Japanese accent suddenly stronger than usual. Everyone looked at me then. I immediately thought that was wrong so I flushed and hid behind my hair.
“Very good,” he exclaimed after a short pause. I was relieved so I sighed quietly – still hiding behind my fringe – and continued to listen to Mr. Kiln.
After a whole, long explanation on safety we were allowed to go back to our seats and copy them down from the whiteboard. Now I was worried. I may have been able to speak English fine but writing was another thing altogether. I didn’t know what to do. I was too nervous to ask Mr. Kiln but I couldn’t play invisible forever. I might just remain befuddled whilst trying to pluck up my courage. Could I just copy them out not understanding them? I could try at least.
I was about to pick up my pen when a hand on my shoulder startled me. My confused expression must have been giving it all away.
“You look stuck. It appears that you’re having trouble. May I help?” came an unfamiliar voice. I was startled because I was expecting the gruff voice of Mr. Kiln but instead it was an American accent accompanied by a soft, gentle voice. It took me a while to register what he said and then I replied quickly;
“Hai. I mean y-yes. Please.” He sat down next to me and then I couldn’t remember how to breathe. How could he be so handsome? Was that possible? His eyes warmed into a smile that made me almost gasp. Finally, I blinked and found my breath. He showed me an easy way to remember things and it was like having an English lesson in Science. I enjoyed it though. He was called Kris Western.
“So where are you from somewhere in Asia? Your eyes look Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Tai. Am I right?” He asked staying focused on his work.
“Japanese.”
“Ah. So you would be Riiko-San. To you would I be Kris-Kun? Or not?”
“Yes. Speaking English is so much easier than writing it. I feel like breaking out in a sweat because of it,” I explained. He chuckled a little bit at that and I let a little giggle slip. “Are you American originally?”
“Yeah. We moved because my mom and dad were made redundant. I didn’t really mind I wasn’t exactly ‘popular’ in my last school. I was considered weird. I then found out that it was my height and I had just moved house. I know what you’re thinking. Jeez, he moves a lot.” That was definitely not what I was thinking. I was thinking why he was considered weird. He was perfect. I managed to laugh without sounding like a maniac and nodded sheepishly. It was extremely enjoyable that science lesson. Great to say it was my first lesson ever. About 5 minutes before we left he asked to see my rota. We had science, English, French and History together. I was pleased with that. On the way to my next lesson, I didn’t bother to wait for Lily and I nearly skipped there. I couldn’t wait to see Kris Western yet again in English tomorrow.