Me x You

Chapter 2

Kusuo's Point of View

       Kusuo opened the door slowly and quietly in an attempt to avoid his parents. Of course, that didn't work.

       "Ku! How was your first day of school?" His mother asked as she clung onto his arm. Before answering that question, though, he waited to hear something from his father. When nothing came out, he used his telepathy.

       Hellooo... How aruh yoo... Muy nameu ees Kuniharu Saiki...

       Kusuo looked over at his father on the couch. His nose was stuck in an English learning book. Honestly... If he wants to learn English, he should get a tutor. Kusuo looks back to his mother's cheerful face.

       "It was quiet," he tells her, which was not a lie. For the first time in a long time, school was peaceful. Kusuo was quite satisfied with this, but his mother looked a little disappointed. In fact, she started to tear up a little.

       "Oh, Ku... I'm so sorry!" the tears started falling down her cheeks, and Kusuo's dad came running up to hug her, "I'm sorry we had to move here and leave behind your friends!" At this point, his mother ran into the other room and collapsed on the couch, her husband following suit.

       Kusuo wasn't in the least bit disappointed about his silent day. Of course, it was different, but it gave him some time to relax. The only upsetting thing was all of the thoughts flooding into his head. He couldn't understand hardly any of it when the day started, but as it continued, he pretty much mastered English. This upset him because he would have much rather preferred to not know what people were thinking. Then, at least he could pretend that he couldn't read thoughts at all.

       Kusuo gave a small sigh and slowly climbed the skinny stairs to the upper floor. They groaned and creaked along with his footfalls. Upstairs was dark, and Kusuo didn't bother to turn on any lights as he got ready for bed.

       About two months ago (or the start of the American summer break) Kusuo's father got a promotion. It was an amazing opportunity with an amazing pay raise. In fact, Kusuo knew that taking the promotion was one of the smartest decisions his father had ever made. They even had to move to the location in America! That was good news to Kusuo because he could finally get away from all of his weird schoolmates, but his parents had a hard time leaving. They cried for hours on end, and said bye to everyone several times over. Heck, even Kusuo's schoolmates cried when they heard he was leaving. That made him feel something he couldn't really describe, but soon after they left, it turned to relief.

       So far, the only thing Kusuo disliked about this move was about how much he felt like he stood out. The school had no uniform, so depending on what he wore determined how noticeable he was. Also, Asians only made up about 4-5% of the American population. Line up a hundred people, and Kusuo would be one of five at most. That drove him crazy. Moments like this made him even more grateful that he made unnatural hair seem normal.

       Well, even if Kusuo did a fairly good job at staying unnoticed, there was this one girl. She was walking behind him with these two twins that he could assume were her brothers. Because of his telepathy, Kusuo was able to pick apart the English in her head and find out that she lived somewhere nearby. There was something else, too, but he didn't know this one word that sounded like this: 茎. That is the Japanese word for stem, and it is pronounced kuki. The word in that girl's head sounded very similar to that, and they might be bringing whatever it is over.

       Kusuo wanted nothing to do with that. The last thing he wanted was to get acquainted with people.

       After Kusuo finished brushing his teeth, he sat down in front of his television and started surfing through the local stations. He stopped at this one with American football playing. He wasn't usually one for sports, but there wasn't much English that he needed to know to watch, even if he did know most of the language. The game was all show, even with the commentators. Also, it was kind of amusing to watch people get thrown around a field all in attempts to score a few points.

       After a few minutes of watching the game, Kusuo's door opened and his father stepped into the room. They looked at each other for a little, then his father started speaking.

       "Hey, Kusuo," he started, "Listen, I know you had some good friends back home, but I want you to make some new ones, okay?"

       "They weren't my friends," Kusuo responded, "They just followed me around. I also don't plan on making any here."

       Kusuo's father looked at the ground and sighed, but before he continued, he noticed the game on the television.

       "Hey! That's American football!" he yelled, "That's really popular here! Mind if I watch with you?"

       "Go watch it downstairs," Kusuo responded bluntly. Unfortunately, his father didn't listen and sat himself happily next to his son. They finished the game with loud yells and fits from his father, then the Saiki family turned in for the night.