Stormy Summer

A Refreshing Shower

edited

After what felt like five minutes to me, I was woken up by Rose, who had opened the door on my side of the car. It had stopped raining in the meantime. I looked over at her as she still had her hand on my shoulder, as she gently shook me awake just mere seconds ago.

"Come on, Summer, we're here," that seemed to pull me out of my apparent stupor, as I now quickly unbuckled my seatbelt before getting out of the car. At least as quickly as my current state would allow. I was still extremely tired. I felt as though now, after napping during the car ride, I felt even more tired than before...

I walked to the trunk of the car to take out my luggage just as Rose took hers as well. I turned to see Charlie smoking a cigarette, now more calm than she was before, and Anna standing beside her, trying to dodge the smoke, their luggage at their feet in front of them. "Sorry..." Charlie mumbled apologetically as Anna squealed silently, the wind had turned and the smoke hit her directly in her face. Anna just smiled and shook her head.

Now with our luggage in hand, we walked over to them just before Charlie finished smoking her cigarette, throwing her cigarette into the only trashcan around after putting it out.

She took a deep breath before picking up her luggage, Anna reluctantly doing the same, as we made our way to the front door.

"Shitsurei shimasu," I called almost silently as we closed the door behind us and proceeded to take off our shoes. A woman came around the corner to greet us "Oh, you must be the girls! Here let me show you to your rooms!" she said, as we walked further into the house. I'm kind of relieved that the family seems nice, so far. This year would've been hell for us if they weren't.

We were told that there are two spare bedrooms here, each with two futons in the closets. So we already decided who is going to share a room with who. I'd be sharing a room with Rose, as I'd be the only one able to wake her up to make sure she takes her medicine if her alarm didn't wake her - Charlie couldn't because of her phobia of skinship, and Anna wouldn't because it'll most likely be hard enough to wake her in the morning. So she wouldn't be able to wake Rose either.

Charlie and Anna would share the other room. Charlie would wake up with her alarm and Anna would probably be our problem to wake up. Don't get me wrong - Annabelle is sweet, but she is extremely grumpy in the mornings. Especially if someone wakes her up.

We followed the female Akaashi upstairs as she showed us to the rooms. The two rooms were right next to each other and while Rose and I took the first room, Charlie and Anna took the second. Akaashi told us that dinner won't be ready until a few hours and that we should unpack and rest until then. She also showed us where the guest bathroom is, for it had a western-style shower, and told us that we can shower before dinner if we want to.

"I'll come to get you once it's ready," she said before walking downstairs again.

I first turned to look at Rose, before looking at the other two, seeing as they were all looking at me, expectantly. Well... Minus Anna. She just looked at me because I glanced over in their direction.

I realized that they probably didn't understand what exactly Akaashi-san was saying, so I repeated her words in English. We had a language course for Japanese to learn the basics so that we'd have it easier, however, the course only went on for a month. And a month isn't nearly enough to learn a language, especially since we only had these classes two times a week.