Road to Recognition

Three

"Hey, Hide! Where are you going?" My eyes stayed glued to the piece of paper I was given yesterday. Even though Kade was so kind as to show me how to read the schedule, I have no clue where any of these classes are. I started school apparently during the third period. I have not even an idea as to where my first two classes are and it's become increasingly obvious.

The girl who called out to me jogged to catch up and pulled at my bag strap. I finally looked up with a troubled expression. "You have all of Carla's classes, right?"

I nodded. "I believe so. I don't know why I wouldn't."

"And it's clear you don't remember me," she continued. I took a long look at the girl about my height and tried to think. Where have I seen a brown braid, eyes and clear skin from before? "I hit Chris during English yesterday for talking badly about Carla." My eyes suddenly reflected familiarity and I let out an 'ah'.

"Gomen, Daisy-chan," I let out a nervous laugh. She gave me a peculiar look but then shook her head.

"Anyways, right now she's supposed to have band with me. And you are on the complete opposite side of where the band hall is," Daisy carried on. My eyes widened.

"Are you serious??" I glanced down at my schedule and read 'BNDHLL' for the room number. For the past ten minutes, I was wondering what the heck that was supposed to mean. Slapping a hand on my forehead, I contemplated all of my life choices. I'm the top of my class and I couldn't figure this out myself. I bet Zen-chan has more common sense than me.

"Yeah. Now let's go!" She started leading the way and I suddenly became curious.

"If the band hall is on the other side, then why are you here if the class starts in less than a minute?" I asked. Daisy simply shook her head with a smile.

"Me and a few others betted on who could find you first and lead you there, so we all scattered. As you can see, I won." I laughed. They all knew I would be lost and decided to make a profit out of it? Something my friends and I would do at a gathering to Aki-chan. I giggled fondly at the memory. Aki-chan is always so clueless about everything. I wonder how he's doing without me now.

Soon enough we heard the warning bell ring and Daisy led us to a hall with three sets of doors. The one in the middle is a single door. Daisy opened it and it was an office much like at the main entrance. The lady sitting behind the desk looked up and offered a warm smile like every other teacher in this school. After meeting with the head director, it was decided I would take after school lessons with the beginner flute instructor every Wednesday and Thursday for an hour seeing as I refused to just sit and take notes of the band itself. For today I will do just that, sadly, but at least I can finally learn to play an instrument just like Zen-chan!

Once band ended Daisy found me and told me she would show me to the next class despite not having it as well. Honestly, the people here are a lot nicer than I thought them to be. Back in Japan we always had this mental image of Americans until it was decided I would switch with Zen-chan. A month before the exchange, my perception of Americans changed. Now it has changed even more.

"Nice to have you in my second period, Mr. Hideki," the stern mathematics teacher said upon my arrival. I gulped down my nerves and offered my signature smile.

"Thank you! I'll be in your care!" I bowed down in respect. I figured since the students here don't do that before classes I should pay my respects instead even if I'm the only one to do it.

Simple Algebra II formulas and equations. Stuff I already know how to do. However, even though this is an advanced course it seems there are some struggling. As soon as Clark-sensei passed out the assignment, I sped through it without a calculator and gave it back to him with a smile. He raised a brow in question and looked at his watch. I finished twenty-five problems in five minutes.

"Are you sure you want to turn this in? I won't go easy on you." I nodded.

"I want to be able to help my classmates since I can see they are struggling." I could feel everyone's stares on my back. Clark-sensei gave a reluctant 'alright' and pulled out his red pen. I didn't stay to see him grade my paper and headed back to my desk to pull out my-- I mean Carla's notebook.

"There's no way you can get a good grade. He just taught us this today!" The girl closest to me said. I scratched the back of my neck out of habit.

"Well, Mikazuki-sensei taught us this a few weeks ago, so..."

"Aohki," I heard the teacher call. He motioned for me to go to his desk which I did. He gave me an amazed face and returned the paper... blank? My smile fell.

"Did I not do this correctly?" I could already hear the class snickering. Blood started flooding my face out of embarrassment.

"What?" Clark-sensei said confused. "You did excellently! The grade is at the top." He pointed to the top right corner of the page where a red 100 was scribbled. It wasn't really small but the blank page threw me off.

"Oh," I said though the red wasn't leaving my face. Now I am embarrassed for not seeing the grade. I'm so used to seeing red marks covering my page that I guess I forgot in American schools they grade differently. The teacher then picked up where I was confused and started typing something on his computer.

"Your school grades much different than I do, huh?" he stated. I could only nod. My voice was momentarily gone. Finally, I looked at his screen and saw he was looking up how Japanese schools grade papers. "I'll be sure to grade your papers the way you're used to. To save confusion."

"Th-thank you very much," I started, "but you don't have to do that. I'll get used to this way."

"It's no problem," he finished. Suddenly we both became aware of the noisy class. "If you don't finish this assignment by the end of the period it will be counted late." This shut most up.

"But Mr. Clark," a guy whined. "We aren't speedy machines like him!"

"Then I suggest you stop talking."

The noise level went down significantly though there were still some people whispering. I was about to find my seat when I noticed a guy keep looking up to me and down to his paper. His pencil was thumping against the desk and the guy sitting next to him seemed to be trying to explain the problem to him. Finally, the guy talking to him raised his head to catch me staring. He waved me over with a serious expression. How can I say no?

"Jake still can't understand this no matter how much I explain it to him. Could you help him out?"

"I'd be happy to!" I said rather loudly.

"I'd seriously love the help, man," Jake said with a sigh of relief. I beamed and started explaining from step one as best as possible. Lucas continued working on his paper and asked me questions now and then. I stayed with the two until I was sure both knew perfectly well how to use the equations. By the time the class ended, Jake and Lucas had finished and thanked me for the huge help. Seeing others happy because of me made me happy.

That is until I realized it is time for lunch. Kuso.