High School in the Big Apple!

Chapter 1

What is America like? It can't be too different from home, right? Not that life in Japan was all that easy to begin with. I'm probably worrying too much. Hell, I'm even worrying in my dreams. I wish I could wake up, but then I'd probably just go on worrying in the real world. How pathetic.

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"Nii-san, hurry and get up already! I'm not gonna be late on my first day because of you!"

I sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I glanced out my window at the road four stories below. Tiny people scurried up and down the street and between the cars parked on both sides. Trees planted at neat intervals along the sidewalks were starting to turn shades of orange and yellow, adding a splash of color to the scene. From way up here I could almost forget I was in an entirely different country than I was used to. Almost.

Suddenly I felt a jerking motion as my covers were yanked away from me, the force of which sent me rolling off the bed and onto the stiff carpeted floor.

I landed directly on my nose.

"Ow! What the hell was that for, Rika?"

"Tch," was the only answer I got. I rolled over and looked up to see my little sister rolling her eyes at me.

Rika was wearing a short jacket over a light blue, knee-length dress, along with her signature red ribbon she always wore in her hair, which I could only assume she had tied herself since I hadn't been awake to do it for her like usual. It was a very girlish getup, which combined with her cute face typically had the effect of making people think she was a few years younger than she really was.

She looked especially youthful today, or at least she was bursting with childlike energy. It made sense-she was just starting ninth grade, after all.

Back in Japan she would be just another junior high student, but here in America the system was a bit different, so this was the year she was making her high school debut. Of course she'd want to look her best. Which for her meant looking like a twelve-year-old, apparently.

Using my bedside table as a brace, I lifted myself to my knees, then stood up unsteadily. I grabbed my new phone from the table, turned on the screen and squinted to make out the blurry image that appeared.

"Crap, it's 7:00 already?"

"That's what I was trying to- hey!" Rika exclaimed as I pushed her out of the room.

"I have to get dressed!"

I slammed the door before she had a chance to complain. Then, being a perfectly reasonable teenager who always kept his composure in trying times, I did the only thing I could be expected to do in my situation.

I started to panic.

Crap, crap, crap, crap. This was bad. If I remembered correctly school was supposed to start at 8:00, and it'd take about forty minutes to get there, so that meant I had... basically no time at all. Great. So much for making a good first impression. Now I was going to be too late to get to know anyone and I'd never have any friends and I'd probably get suspended for being late before school even starts and-

Hold on, doesn't that seem a bit extreme? I seriously need to calm down. Take a deep breath. Okay Haruto, you've got this.

That's me, by the way. Higasaki Haruto, or Haruto Higasaki as you'd say it here in America. Age seventeen, third-wait no-fourth year high schooler in New York City as of today. Which was going to be a very new experience for me.

Until just under a month ago I had never even been outside of Japan. I had lived a peaceful life in Tokyo for as long as I could remember. Maybe not a particularly happy one, but it was undeniably peaceful.