Life Behind the Scenes - Lev H.

01

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"I already told you, father: I don't want to go back to our house just yet. I still haven't explored life!"

"But honey, I-" The girl didn't even let her dad finish his sentence and hung up.

She sighed in annoyance and could feel her blood rushing through her head in anger. She already knew why her dad would call her from time to time but would still answer their calls just to ease them that she's okay in living on her own.

Already irritated and feeling that her day is already ruined, Yumi quickly got out of the house and headed to school.

As she arrived, Yumi quickly inhaled at the sight of the school entrance. The girl couldn't contain her excitement and smiled widely while a small blush crept on her happy face. Completely forgetting about the morning incident with her father.

It was the first time she decided on something big without her parents. She was happy that her parents weren't around to limit her choices.

Looking at the side, a huge banner welcomed the new first-years; Yumi felt accomplished.

The welcome banner to her felt nice. As if to say 'Welcome to your world of freedom'.

The whole entrance was covered with students. From seniors trying to recruit members to old friends reuniting. Yumi couldn't deny that she felt out of place. Of course, she would— This was a random school in a random place that she randomly picked.

On the way to the main hall, there were a couple of people that recruited her into their clubs.

Searching through the list of names on the board of announcements. She had to squeeze in with other first-years before she could see her name.

Yumi Aiko - Class 1-C

She nodded to herself as she began walking away from the crowd. "Yumi!"

Turning around, she saw a red-haired girl about four inches smaller than her. It confused Yumi on how she knew her name or who even is she.

Once the girl caught up to her she offered her hand and began introducing herself. "Miriko Aoi" With no reason to ignore her, she grabbed her hand and said her name. "We're in the same class!"

Miriko beamed at the tall girl who had her mouth opened. Yumi offered the girl to walk with her to class since they're now acquaintances ( and mainly because Yumi had zero knowledge about where the classroom is).

Luckily for Yumi, Miriko had been in Nekoma High countless times due to her mother being the principal; so the halls were already familiar to her.

When they entered the classroom, the first thing she thought was that it was a pretty normal one.

The desks were wooden, the board was a blackboard instead of a white one or glass. The lockers stood at the back of the classroom where many students were chatting.

Yumi felt Miriko tugging her sleeves and holding her hand; then guided her to the third-row.

So far in this school, so good. Miriko tried to talk to some of their classmates while Yumi was following closely behind her.

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"CLASS DISMISSED." THE teacher announced to the class and Yumi smiled proudly.

She walked towards Miriko who was talking to their classmates and casually slipped into their conversation.

"We're talking about what middle school we went to!" Inuoka exclaimed and Yumi gaped in realization.

"I went to MITA Junior High." Covering her ears when the group suddenly screamed in shock. "Wow! Your parents must be really rich, Yumi-san?"

"I guess..." Yumi should have been proud that her parents were indeed rich. But she didn't want to smother her image with 'rich-brat' on their first day of school.

"Wait- but why did you come here at Nekoma?" Miriko pointed out. "Eh- well, it's because I don't want my parents to pick my school." She rubbed her neck in giddy. "And they didn't say anything?"

"I think so? They can't do anything since they're not here right now."

Once again shouts of disbelief covered the group that even people outside the classroom peeked over thinking it was a commotion.

Miriko even slammed her hands on the desk in disbelief. "Job reasons."

Her parents were out 40% of the time. Granted, they were sometimes present in a parent-teacher conference. But Miriko never really minded whether or not they weren't there.

She liked having her parents not around. It made her feel in control, that she's the one to decide her choices for herself.

Yes, there are times that it ended up with her in bed or a hospital bed because of how lightly she thought of the consequences. But she didn't regret it one bit.

That was what she wanted. Instead of feeling remorse and shame, she felt rather satisfied that results bore from her actions without her parents, even if it was bad ones.

Miriko's parents tried grounding her multiple times and even got comments from relatives and other people that maybe it was because they were too loose on her.

It made her feel sorry for smothering their parents' image because they did raise her right.

But her selfishness prevailed and ended up in the hospital bed once more.

Sighing at the thought, she shooked her head and followed the group who was now waiting for her in the door.

Reaching at the school stalls located in the second floor.

There were surprisingly no seniors around except for some rough-looking thugs that were scattered.

Yumi wasn't supposed to buy anything but noticed everyone buying similar things like bread and sodas so she bought a can of soda for herself.

"Hey, I heard the field was upgraded last year. Wanna take a look?" Miriko suggested and all let out an energetic yes.

Everyone agreed to sit on the grass to eat what they bought. Yumi looked around spotting a group in football uniforms in one side of the field and a couple of students, including them, on the other side.

"Does anyone have any clubs in mind?" Kotoko asked.

Inuoka bounced in his seat. "Volleyball!" He proudly exclaimed. Yumi mentally nodded.

"I heard you've been a player since middle school, Inuoka?" Miriko asked to which the boy agreed, nodding his head.

Other classmates started mentioning clubs they want and started giving opinions. Yumi just sat there and listened to them.

Yumi still didn't know what to join and just thought she'd take ideas from her classmates. "Do you have a club in mind?"

"No."

Everyone then tried recruiting her mentioning the pros of joining their chosen club. "I'll probably check out the clubs."

"Want me to join, Yumi? I already picked one but I wanna see my options!" Yumi agreed to Miriko's request and went along with their day.

Y'know, this highschool life doesn't seem so bad.

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:)