To avoid confusion, all dialogue that's meant to be in Japanese will be depicted in green text.

“Wow you do look like you got into a fight,” Mrs. Kim commented as she attempted to break the tense air filling the room. A few chuckles could be heard throughout the room as I shot her a menacing glare.

“Ahem. Sorry about that I shouldn’t interfere with students’ private matters,” she continued, “But, I think you’d get right along with Momo.” Her gaze shifted over to the back-left corner of the room where a mess of blonde hair lay sprawled out over a desk. “Isn’t that right Hirai Momo-ssi?”

The blonde-haired girl didn’t even bother to look up as she just pulled out a phone from her pocket and cranked the volume up to max. I could hear the loud drum and guitar noises in her headphones all the way from the front of the room.

“She used to be so bright too…” Mrs. Kim muttered under her breath. “Anyways you can just make your way over to her. She won’t bite.”

Every pair of eyes in the room followed me as I took massive steps attempting to get away from the front of the room as fast as possible. And I almost made it to my seat without a blunder too. But in my haste, I failed to notice the foot that was stuck out in the middle of my path until I tripped over it. As I fell, a delicate pair of hands attempted to grab me to stop my fall, but it backfired as the girl ended up as my cushion instead.

When I regained my composure, and pushed myself off the hard floor, I found myself face to face with Sailor Moon chick in a very compromising position. The classroom roared with laughter. My face started to heat up with anger. I had no idea what she was blushing so furiously about. I quickly leaped up and pulled out my chair in the seat behind her as she readjusted herself.

For an instant, my eyes met briefly with the girl who would be my seat partner for the semester, Hirai Momo. But in the very next moment, she had already turned her cheek and stuck her face right in front of the bland white wall to our left.

As if that’s more interesting than me… .

“Alright everyone, now pay attention.” Everyone in the room straightened up in their seats and the laughing ceased in an instant. Not one soul in the room even had a thought of disrespecting their superior.

“Night study begins starting next week so I hope you guys start becoming more considerate of one another. And don’t forget to meet back here at the end of the day.” she ended with an enthusiastic smile as she began to pack up her belongings from her desk.

“Oh, and Sana, please go to the nurse with Mina. You guys both need to be checked up,” she chimed with a chuckle. “Have a pleasant day back at school everyone!”

Everyone in the room got up and in unison replied, “Yes, teacher” as she waved goodbye. But as she walked out of the room, I caught her giving me a worried glance. Her lips mouthed some parting words clearly directed at me as she held her thumb up. Good luck.

As soon as her feet stepped out the door, the room lit up with tension – mostly directed at me. I attempted to pay no mind to it as I started getting ready for the first lesson of the day.

“Time to go to the nurse!” a sing-song voice cried out from the seat in front of me. I didn’t bother to look up as I continued unpacking my belongings.

“Yeah why don’t you go to the nurse to go heal your little boo-boos, rich girl?” one kid taunted from the other side of the room.

Don’t pay attention Mina, you’re better than this.

“Just don’t any of them, they’re stupid” the girl apparently named Sana protested.

“Yeah, why don’t you listen to your girlfriend?” another girl goaded.

I got out of my seat as my chair made a loud scraping noise against the floor. I wanted to leave. I needed to be anywhere but here.

“Wait, where are you going? You don’t even know where the nurse’s office is,” Sana wondered in confusion.

I gave no answer as I started making my way to the door hoping no one would try to stop me.

Sana slammed a textbook on her desk as I passed by.

“Hey! I know you heard me!”

What I did hear was the shuffle of shoes on the floor and the clang of metal as two hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me forcibly to the ground. I had to brace myself for yet another fall which didn’t help my previous injuries very much.

“What the hell was that?” I screamed at the clumsy girl who now lay on the floor alongside me.

The other students in the room just scoffed and made little kissy noises in further attempts to provoke us.

“Sorry. I didn’t know how else to stop you. And I didn’t mean to trip…”

“Hold on, are you speaking Japanese?” I thought aloud.

“Well yeah, duh. We saw each other in Japan, remember?” The apologetic tone in her voice had completely dissipated.

“Yes. I do remember, you lying toilet stealer.”

“Hey, for your information, I actually do have a younger sister… She just didn’t want to go to the bathroom with me,” she insisted. “Anyways, Teacher Kim told me to take you to the nurse so that’s what I’m gonna do.”

“But I don’t ne-“ A sharp pain shot through my hand as I attempted to push myself up.

“Rule number one of surviving this school, always listen to Teacher Kim.” Sana interjected proudly as she offered me a hand.

At first I scowled at the truce that she had suddenly offered, but then my glare shifted over to the other students who were now minding their own business clearly lost in translation. I gazed back at the hand in front of my face.

Just this once.

“… Fine. Lead the way.”

As she hoisted me up into a standing position, my eyes shifted over to a sleeping Momo who was still lying on the desk with no indication of moving anytime soon.

“Hey, what’s her deal anyways?” I asked Sana.

“Don’t mind her. She just has some… extra baggage to carry. Don’t worry about it.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine. It felt as if she could’ve been describing me.

*****

After making our way out of the nurse’s office, where I spent some alone time with my much needed “Stress Relief ;)” playlist and received way more bandaging than necessary, we made our way back to Room 220, where the first few lessons progressed quite smoothly. Different teachers specializing in different subjects came in at the start of each new period to continually confuse us (especially me) with big words that I wrote down in order to translate to Japanese later. But of course, I would still attempt to answer every single question despite my lack of understanding and the glaring eyes of my classmates. Occasionally, Sana would turn around to translate some hard words for me which I was thankful for, but I was surprised she was even listening, seeing as she was pretty occupied applying makeup and admiring herself in her hand mirror. Momo, on the other hand, was a lost cause as she continued to lay passed out on the desk next to mine. Although she had lowered the volume of her screamo music a tiny bit, the sharp yelling that radiated from her headphones could still drive someone completely insane. I wasn’t going to confront her about it though. But seriously, how can you fall asleep listening to that stuff?

Eventually, the bell rang dismissing all the students to lunch and I found myself being hastily pulled by Sana out the door before we even had a chance to pack up our stuff.

“Whoa slow down, why are we running so fast?” I asked in bewilderment feeling like a dog being dragged around on a leash.

“We have to reserve our table before all the big meanie seniors take it away from us!” Sana complained as we basically tumbled down an entire flight of stairs.

“Hold on, our table? Reserve? How many people are we expecting?” I wondered, a little worried.

“Oh just maybe about… 9 of us? You’ll see.” Sana mentions casually as we continue running as fast as our little legs can carry us. It wasn’t very fast however, as many students from the classes farther than us were already passing us up.

9 PEOPLE?! Meeting two people would have been more than enough for today…

After what felt like an hour of running, we finally approached Sana’s beloved table which was overcast by the giant shadow of a nearby tree. In the comfort of the shade, we clearly spotted three individuals who had already claimed the territory before us. Each of them circled the large round table glaring in every direction like starving predators protecting their freshly-caught meal. They seriously care a lot about this table…

“NO! We’ve been robbed!” Sana whined as our pace starts to slow down.

My inner introvert was absolutely elated.

But when the students’ faces finally came into view, Sana’s expression cleared up drastically as she started to cry tears of… joy?

“Oh, it’s just you guys. Thank the heavens!” Sana cheered as her hands exhausted