Kemuri

Chapter 14: Homeschool

It had been two weeks now since Huitzi moved with Centello, Hannah, and little Hugo. During that time, he had to accommodate himself to the use of a bathroom, a microwave, remote control, and a toilet bowl. He used his time to explore the rooms, there were two more rooms with furniture but nobody inside. He looked over every shelf in the apartment, scanning every book he found, judging them by their cover due to his lack of understanding of the language. There were a lot of children's books for Hugo, their covers were colorful and the writing on them was in big, bold, letters. On the other hand, the magazines and small novels that Hannah read had very small writing and their cover was often blank other than for their title and the author's name. Huitzi was able to read the words but unable to understand the meaning behind most.

Reading was never his favorite activity, he preferred going outside and seeing for himself than having somebody say it to him, but in the apartment, there wasn't much else to do. Hannah was warm and welcoming to the newcomer but the language barrier made communication complicated, Hugo was clearly curious about Huitzi but was often tied to his mother and Centello was missing most of the time, only coming back at random intervals to rest and then leave shortly after. The daytime was the easy part though.

Sleep hardly came, the noise of traffic, the foreign smell to the place, and his own mental turmoil didn't help. And when it did, it was to make way for strange dreams. He often thought of back home, his family, and his village, Honoka and Pyro appeared from time to time but they were always silent or had their back turned on him. He could sometimes hear his parents' voices but he could never see them. As he started moving, something would always wake him up, either he fell down a hole, or something seemed to crush him or he would simply blink and be back in the bedroom, the ceiling fan spinning over him.

He walked out of his room and into the hallway, he could hear the TV playing in the living room so he went to investigate. A movie was playing, but there was something deeply wrong with it. The screen displayed a hallway with white walls and a red-and-black carpet, and at the end of it stood two girls. The imagery was disturbing for a reason Huitzi couldn't describe but also hypnotizing, he couldn't turn his gaze. But a small tapping sound turned his attention.

"Sit down," a female voice called, she was wrapped in a blanket and sitting cross-legged on the couch, long black hair draped over the back and onto her yellow hoodie. Her left hand was peeking from under the blanket, nails painted red, tapping next to her, an invitation to sit. He didn't recognize her but she seemed like the least threatening thing so he sat and watched the movie with her.

They started a few inches from each other but a few minutes later, their shoulders were touching and they both had their legs to their chin. The movie was terrifying, not scary like coming face to face with a jaguar but awfully disturbing. Huitzi didn't understand a word but it shook him to his core. She, on the other hand, had a satisfied smile on her face, her brown eyes were shining. When the movie ended, the sky was starting to light up. 

"The Shining is such an amazing movie! I could watch it any day!" She stood up and stretched. Huitzi could see a tattoo of a butterfly on her left calf. "Oh, by the way, what's your name?" she asked, sitting back down, bouncing up and down slightly.

"Huh... Huitzi."

"You're Spark's brother?! He told me he had siblings, I never thought I'd ever meet you, I thought I'd have to go to the Amazonia myself. I'm Yldere, nice to mee you!" She extended her arm and shook his hand, she had a surprisingly strong grip.

"Nice to...meet you." He repeated robotically, he didn't understand everything she said.

"Oh yeah, Hannah told me you had difficulty with the language, well let me be your teacher." She stood up to fetch a small notebook, a pen and handed them to Huitzi. "Welcome to homeschool with Yldere. Your first assignment: watch another movie with me." She sat back down, grabbed her blanket, and, thankfully, put on a less disturbing movie. Once this one was finished, she turned to him.

"Ok, so what did you think of this one? Give me your review." Huitzi sat silent, puzzled. "Was it good?" she did a thumbs up. "Or bad?" she did a thumbs down. Huitzi was about to answer but she pointed at the notebook. "No, write." He opened it and wrote.

Good. "And you completed the first lesson! Down for an-", she got cut midsentence. Hugo peeked his head around the corner, his short brown scruffy hair a mess, he was rubbing his eyes with his right hand and holding his bunny teddy bear with his left. "Oh, c'mere buddy," said Yldere, her tone softened for the toddler. He eagerly climbed in her arms and curled up in a ball under her blanket, sucking his thumb and looking at Huitzi with bright brown eyes. "Ready for the second lesson?"

Huitzi nodded, eager to learn.