咲く心 | [ Blooming Hearts ]

始まり ( 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 )

"AHHH!" I shriek. "What do I wear? What do I wear?" I moved to California for about a week now. Things are different here, much more different than Kyoto that is. We moved due to my father having some business to deal with here, so I had to leave my previous school and pack up. To be honest, I don't really miss Kyoto. Sure I was born and raised there, but I wasn't the outgoing type of person and didn't really have any friends growing up. But now that I moved here, I want to change that.

"Nozomi! You are going to be late!" Mother shouts from the living room. I glance at the clock.

Shit.

I grab a random white shirt from the pile and grabbed my bag, dashing out from my room.

"Good morning Nozomi. Do you want some breakfast before you leav-"

"No thanks Okasan, gotta run!" I say as I shut the front door.

°

The good thing about where I'm staying now is that the school is just a 20-minute walk away so there's no need for a school bus or public transport to get there. All I had to do was walk through a park and soon enough,

'Hofstadter High School'

"Well, that's a mouthful huh?" A voice utters from behind me. I turn around and see a girl about my age. Long dark blue hair, Hazel coloured irises and slightly taller than me.

"Hey! you must be the new girl! Teach told me about you." She says outstretching her arm. "I'm Abigail." I shake her hand. "Hello, I'm Nozomi." She takes a few steps in front of me and turns around. "Come on! We're gonna be late!"

°

"So, you're from Kyoto huh? My family went for a vacay there last year. Everything was so beautiful!" She says as we walked in between the rows of lockers. "Don't take this as an offence, but honestly, I thought you'd have one of those accents. But turns out that you sound exactly like us. How?" She asks.

"Back in Kyoto, I didn't really have many friends, so every day after school, I would just head home and watch English TV shows. I also probably picked up the accent too." I answer as we stop in between two lockers with a wave of stickers on one of them.

"Let's start off small! This is your locker," She says, pointing at the one in the middle with scrape marks on it. "And this is mine!" She exclaims. Of course, pointing to the one with the truckload of stickers pasted on it. I open the locker and change the unlock code from the default '0-0-0-0' and close it. "You done? Homeroom's starting soon."

°

We walk into class and immediately, everyone's attention was on me. A woman with short black hair and spectacles walks over to me with a smile.

"Hi! You must be Nozomi! It's great to see you! I'm Miss White but feel free to call me Janet." She says.

"Good morning teach." Abigail waves from behind.

"Good morning Abigail. You'd better take good care of her. Make her feel at home. Why don't you bring her to sit beside your desk?"

"Sure." Abigail smiles.

"Settle down! Settle down!" Miss White claps. "As I'm sure all of you noticed, we have a new student joining our class today. Nozomi, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

My heart starts to race. I haven't done this in forever. The last time I did any sort of public speaking, I panicked and my mind went blank. I stood up. The entire room was so silent, you could hear all 40 of us breathing. Except that mine was at a faster rate.

"M-my name is N-Nozomi Kato. I came from Kyoto, Japan and moved here due to my father having business here. I, uh, like video games and watching movies. Uh, I hope to have a good four years with all of you." I say and bow a little due to a habit of doing so.

Majority of the people applauded. The others didn't really care at all. From all the movies I've watched about High School, what was I honestly expecting?

°

Lunch crept around the corner faster than I expected. Abigail and I stay behind the counter and wait for the lunch lady to fill our trays up.

"You should have been here yesterday," Abigail says. "It was Meatball Monday and Bertha's Meatballs are to die for."

We took our trays and looked for a table.

"Yooo! Abbyy!" The voice of a girl hollers through the Cafeteria. Abigail waves at her and made her way over. She looks at me and grabs my hand, dragging me along, "It'll be fine."

°

"Heya! You're Nozomi, right? You're as cute as we imagined! Allow me to introduce ourselves. I'm Sophie, She's Autumn," Pointing at a girl with golden-brown skin, "And she's Jessica."

"You can just call me Jess." Jessica interrupts.

"So," Sophie speaks up. "I heard you guys got Janet for Homeroom and Math. I'm jealous. She's such a laid back teacher. Unlike Joseph. I mean WOOPSIE ME, MR MARSHALL." She grumbles with sarcasm and we all laugh.

Maybe this isn't so bad after all.

°

I open the washroom door with Abigail behind me. She's been busy fiddling with her phone for the past 15 minutes. Suddenly, her phone starts ringing.

"Uh, I have to go Nozomi. Sorry." She says.

"No, it's fine. I can head to class myself."

She nods and speeds off. I place my hands under the tap and allow the water to flow in between my fingers. The bathroom door opens and two girls step in.

"Well, well, if it isn't Nozomi Kato. The new girl. You're already pretty popular with the boys I hear." One of the girls says, muffling the sound of running water. The other girl speaks up, "Do we really have to build another wall to keep people like you out?"

I try to walk past them but they held a hand out to block my only exit.

"Going somewhere?" Both of them laugh, one of them shoving me to the floor. Then, one of the cubical doors swings open.

"What are the two of you doing?" The girl says in a menacing tone.

"Sam! We were just, uh, trying to teach who's boss around these areas. Clearly you right?" They chuckle.

'Sam's' expression remains the same.

"Get out. The both of you." 'Sam' growls. They look at each other and surrender, walking out the door. She turns to look at me with her grey eyes I feel that I could just fall into them. "You alright?" She asks, holding out her right arm towards me. I took it and helped pull myself up. "If they ever come to find trouble with you again, just tell me." She smiles and walks out the door. Leaving me alone in the room.

"Sam?" I whisper.