What a Life This Is - A Collection of Short Stories

She's Not So Bad

Kadence and Aiza work on a history project together.
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"AUUUUGH, this is TERRIBLE!" Kadence exclaimed one afternoon as she stomped into the kitchen, sitting beside Kaoru on one of the bar stools as her parents looked at each other, and sighed deeply. Here came their daily dose of teenage drama.

"What happened, dolcezza?" Kojiro asked, continuing to prep for dinner, and Kaoru took a sip of his tea as Kadence replied, "I have to do a history project with AIZA, that's what happened."

Kaoru put his mug of tea down, resting his arms on the counter, "Isn't that Ainosuke and Tadashi's daughter? The social media influencer?"

"That's her." Kadence grumped, and Kojiro made a face (Kaoru knew why he made a face, but this wasn't about them), "What kinda project is this, anyway?"

"We have to pick a country to research and make a PowerPoint presentation about."

"Oh! I remember we had to do that in high school," Kojiro replied thoughtfully, "What country did you girls pick?"

"Please don't say you two went for the easy A and picked America." Kaoru interjected flatly, and Kadence shook her head and replied sourly, "No. Stoopid Macy Anderson and Lewis Garrison got America."

"OH-Kaaaay," Kojiro replied slowly, "What did you pick?"

"Aiza and I chose Japan." Kadence replied nonchalantly, and Kojiro's face broke out into a large grin, "Hey! That's amazing, Kookie!"

"It'll be nice for you to do some research on where we're from," Kaoru added with a satisfied smile, and Kadence shrugged, "Yeah, I guess, plus Aiza lived there, so this project should be pretty easy."

"Hey, be less excited about that," Kaoru replied with a pointed look, "Put some work into it, who knows? Maybe you'll read about something interesting, and wanna learn more about it."

Kadence sighed, "I dunno, I guess?" She said flatly, pushing a lock of hair out of her face, "I'm mostly just focused on figuring out how to make this as bearable as possible."

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[normal font is English, bold is Japanese]

"I think we should do our project on traditional Japanese festivals and ceremonies, like Asakua Sanja."

"Well, I think it would be better to do our project on the differences and similarities between modern life in Japan and life in America."

"That doesn't make aNY SENSE!"

"YOU DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE."

"SHHHHHHH!"

"oops.. sorry!"

It was lunchtime, Kadence and Aiza were sitting across from each other at a table in the library, and both girls felt like ripping their hair out. They had just started this project a few minutes ago and were already disagreeing.

Aiza wanted to do the project on Japanese traditions, meanwhile, Kadence wanted to compare everyday life in America to life in Japan. The project was due in four weeks, and while Kadence had seen other pairs already getting a good start, she and Aiza were still sitting here, staring at the blank cardboard tri-fold sitting in the middle of the table.

"I don't understand why you don't like my idea," Kadence sighed in exasperation, making sure to keep her voice down so as to not get shushed by the librarian again, and Aiza simply glared at her, ruby-red eyes narrowed, "What I don't understand is why you're thinking so small, anyone can go on the internet and Google the differences between life here and in Japan."