Tsubaki

Chapter 5

 The school was huge. It looked like a private school for the rich. I stood there staring at it. I already felt like I didn't belong here. Rei took my hand and started walking. "Come on." He told me with a smile. We walked into the school and put on indoor shoes. Rei led me to the teacher room first. There was only a few teacher in there. We walked over to a young looking teacher. He was about the same height as Rei but he had wavy light brown hair. He also had two earrings in each ear.

"Izumi." Rei tap on his shoulder. Izumi turned around and pulled out his earbuds.

"Rei I told you not to call me by my first name in school." He looked at Rei with a threatening look. Rei put his free hand up in surrender. "It's Sunday. School isn't even session. Chill."

"Whatever. What are you doing here anyway and why do you have Mei with you?" He asked. I was starting to get confused. Did he know about Mei?

"My oh so caring of a father left her in the park close to here. He even had the decency to call me at work and tell me he lost her and nobody couldn't find her so I rushed over and found her with this lovely and that brings me to why I'm here. This lovely is Mokoto Tsubaki the new student in our class." He stepped aside exposing me to the teacher. Yes, I was kinda hiding behind Rei.

"Why hello Motoko. Nice to meet you. I'm Tachibani Izumi. I'll be your homeroom teacher." I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too. You can call me Tsubaki. It might get confusing with my brothers and sister."

"Ok. Now we need to get you your school things. Follow me." We walked to a closet which was filled with booklets. Izumi pulled out the ones I needed. Then we went to a storage room for my uniform.

"What are your sizes?" He asked.

"Um I typically wear a small and I'm like a six and a half in shoes."

"I'll see what I can find." He went inside leaving Rei, Mei, and I in the hallway. Mei was starting to wake up.

"Hello there sleeping beauty." Mei looked at him then buried her face back into his neck to go back to sleep. He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "Uncle Izumi is gonna be upset if he doesn't get to see you." Her head instantly popped back up with an excited look in her eyes.

"I don't want to make Uncle Izumi sad," Mei replied. I smiled at them. They were cute together. You would never have guessed they weren't actually father and daughter. Izumi, I guess it would be Tachibani-sensei now, came out and handed me a stack of clothes. "A long sleeve button-up and a short sleeve button-up, a sweater and a sweater vest, two skirts, a blazer, two pairs of knee-highs, two ties, a school bag, and a pair of indoor and outdoor shoes." The skirt and ties were red plaid, the shirts were white, and everything else was black. It doesn't look bad.

"Uncle Izumi!" Mei kinda shouted. Rei put her down and she ran over to him. He picked her up and they hugged. "Hello Mei. How have been?" He asked. "Good. I made a new friend today. Hey, let's go play in the garden. You, me Daddy, and Tsubaki. She's my new friend."

"Ok. Let's race there." He put her down and she started running; laughing because he was chasing after her. Rei walked over and took everything out of my hands. "Sorry, he gets distracted when it comes to Mei."

"It's ok," I said putting my booklets in my school bag. We both figured out a way to put my uniform in the bag too. We settled on rolling it up and I would carry my shoes. "How about we start the school tour at the shoe lockers?" Rei suggested. "Ok," I said picking up my bag and shoes. Rei takes them from me.

"You don't hav-"

"I don't but I want to." He cut me off and smiled. He turned around and started walking towards the stairs. I followed.

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Every hallway looks alike no matter what floor I'm on. I don't know how I'm supposed to remember everything. I feel like we are going in circles. I've never been in a school before so I don't know if they are all like this. It's true I've never been in a school. I've been homeschooled my whole life. My grandfather taught me until he died then I taught myself. I already completed a year and a half of college. I'm not calling myself a genius or an overachiever, I'm just really good at retaining information. That's how I know many so languages.

"I've never heard an accent like yours before, where are you from?" Rei asked breaking the silence. We went down yet another hallway that looked like the others.

"America," I said.

"You don't look like you're from America."

"That's because I took after my dad."

"If you don't mind me asking, what is your real name? Is Tsubaki the name you just got when you came to Japan?" Rei asked me.

"Tsubaki is actually my name. It's my middle name. My first name is August. August Tsubaki Walker is my birth name."

"Oh. I see. When did you get to Japan?"

"Yesterday evening."

"When did you learn Japanese? You sound like you've been speaking it your whole life."

"Japanese is my second language. I also know German, Korean, French, Spanish, and a little bit of Italian."

"That's a lot. I only know Japanese. I can barely remember the English we learn in school. English is really hard."

"Yeah, it's hard."

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We found Mei and Izumi. After saying goodbye, we started to head to my house. It was quite. Someone needs to say something.

"What does your shirt say?" Mei asked. Finally a conversation.

"Black Veil Brides," I answered in English then quickly in Japanese.

"What's that?"

"There a band in America."

"You're from America." Her eyes widen in amazement. "My friend say that they speak a different language over there. Is that true?"

"Yup. They speak English."

"Really! I want to go to America. Daddy, can we go?"

Rei smiled and picked her up. " Maybe one day." I realized we were in front of my house. "Now we have to say goodbye to Tsubaki."

"Why?"

"Because this is her house and she has to go home to her mom and dad. They miss her." She looked sad. Rei kissed the top of her head and put her down. She ran to me and hugged my legs. She nearly knocks me down. I only weigh like ninety pounds. I'm basically skin and bone.

"Bye bye Tsubaki." She unraveled her arms and went back to Rei. We said our goodbyes and they went down the street while I turned towards the gate and discovered it was locked. Great. I ring the doorbell. No answer. I ring it again. Still no answer. Ugh. What am I supposed to do? I kick the gate. Now I think about it, it's more like a door. I slide my back down it, closed my eyes, and sighed.

"What are you doing? You're in the way. If you moved I can open it." My eyes flew open. I didn't recognize the voice. I saw it was Mitsu. So he can talk. I stood up and apologized. He unlocked the gate, walked to the front door, and unlocked. He never said another word after that.

I gather my things for a bath. I went to the bathroom and got into the bath. I was crying before I realized it. My thighs were begging to be cut. My scars stung in the hot water. The depression was setting in. Before I knew it I was sitting on the edge if the tub watching the crimson liquid running down into the water.