The Exchange Student

“Good luck on your first day of school, sweetie!” called my mother from the front porch, wrapped in a thick, ugly quilt that flapped behind her in the cold winter air.
I gave a small wave behind me before flipping up the hood of my jacket. It was a short downhill walk to the bus stop, where ten or so other students stood, huddled up amongst each other. As I walked past them, I could feel their piercings eyes burning into the back of my neck, which quickly went away once I was a good six feet away from them all.
After an awkward bus ride to school, I was greeted by the soothing warmth of the main building. I shed my jacket and headed towards the main office. A few grumpy old ladies sat around their corner desks, grunting amongst each other as if communicating. It wasn’t until the office door had slammed behind me that they all looked up in unison, obviously not too pleased to see a visitor. I stood there for a moment, frozen in place by their glares, then shuffled over to the nearest desk. The lady let out a huge sigh and drudgingly lifted up her head, “Yes?”
“A-Ah, hello. I’m new here and-”
“Name?” she interrupted, clacking away on her keyboard.
“M-My name? Anata Mado.”
More silence followed as she continued to click away at her keyboard. The printer behind her roared to life and she practically tossed the pieces of paper at me. “Here’s your schedule and a map. Good luck.”
Not wanting to bother them any more, I slid out of the office and cushioned the office door closed. A loud ringing sound echoed throughout the hallway and waves of colors and backpacks and hats flooded towards the three main halls, equally dividing themselves up. I had already memorized my schedule and the map over the weekend, but I kept both just in case.
First class: Science Fiction and Fiction Literature.
By the time the final bell rang, the class had only filled up less than a third of the open desks, about 13 students. Who all stared at me like I had killed a man. They immediately stopped staring once a thin girl with a boyish-cut hairstyle approached my desk and sat down at the desk beside me. “I’m Sapphire.”
I nodded in her direction and offered my hand, but she didn’t take it. Instead, she yanked my schedule off my desk and read it over.
“Hmm, so we have quite a few classes together. That’s good to know, a new friend. I’ll help you to your next class.” she suddenly stuck her arm out and a tall boy with an army haircut tossed a large tote bag and a backpack to her. Once she got situated, she rested her head on her fist, “So, you’re kind of cute. Where did you move here from?”
“A-Ah... Thank you. I am from Tokyo, Jap-”
“Oh my god, I love Japan! I’ve always wanted to go there, I’m the biggest fan of anime and manga! My favorite one is Black Butler and Hetalia an-”
“I think I remember those from TV...” I chimed in, breaking off her list of anime names I didn’t recognize. “Did you mean Kiroshitsuji?”
“Yes! We call it Black Butler here.”
“Ah...”
“I’ve seen it like three times, both seasons. I cannot wait for the third season, I hear it’s just like the manga. Though I’ve only read a little bit of the manga and-”
She continued speaking in a rapid tone of voice that made me wonder if she was lying or bragging. After a little while, she paused and we awkwardly stared at each other. I glanced at my watch and opened my mouth to ask where the teacher was, but as soon as my lips parted she began to talk again about all the merchandise she had.
“Oh, by the way. I hope to be a manga artist later on in life, but a writer also sounds fun. But also a chef. There’s just so much to chose from! No matter what I chose, though, I hope to go to some prestigious school like Harvard or Oxford. Do you want to see some of my drawings?” Sapphire reached into her tote bag and pulled out a mini sketch book and slammed it in front of me, quickly flipping to the first page. She gave a brief explanation on what the picture was, then flipped to the next, and the next, and the next...
Her drawings made me cringe, but I couldn’t bring myself to make any facial expression or say anything about her anorexic drawings that were all in the same position. During one of her explanations on a character with wings and why it symbolized her, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my drawing journal. I flipped to a random page and showed her a drawing that I found was clearly much better than hers. However, she only glanced it over and said,
“It could be better, good job though. Keep trying and you may be as good as me someday.” then continued on with her drawings. Her thought process them quickly changed to, “I also really enjoy writing and I’m currently working on three novels at the moment. I’m pretty sure I’ll become famous in all of them.”
After fifteen minutes, the teacher finally hobbled in with a steaming cup in her hand. Her hair was not brushed in the slightest and she wore a tight pencil skirt, showing off her perfect legs and ass. I tried not to stare as she dropped off her stuff, then bent over in front of me to pick up some papers that had fallen. “Sorry I’m late, class.” she continued, her voice much peppier than what I would have expected from someone who looked so tired. “You know how Mondays are, I just get so caught up grading and playing video games.” she stretched a little bit and looked at me. “Oh, are you new here?”
I nodded a little bit and she went to her notebook and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“A... Anata?” she asked, stuffing the paper back into the notebook. “Welcome, we’re so glad to have you here. I’m Ms. Kuroi, teacher of Science Fiction Literature and a few other language arts classes.”
Sapphire leaned over to me and whispered, “You also have her planning period, she’d be a good person to come to.”
I appeared to have come on a good day for this class, as this was the day there were to check out new books for the class. Today was the Hobbit, which made Sapphire talk even more about about how she’s a giant nerd for the Lord of the Rings series and her desire to write based off the books. The rest of the class went on for what seemed like forever. For a little while we were given time to read the first chapter of the book, as it was homework, and I finished it with fifteen minutes before Ms. Kuroi started talking again. I was thankful that the bell had rung for the next class, but I was also miserable having to walk across the school with Sage. “I’ve been mistaken for a boy before, can you tell?” I tilted my head towards her. She obviously had C-cup breasts and she wore seashell earrings, and the rest of her clothes clearly pointed out her being feminine. “I can help you with your boy look, if you want.” she said, motioning towards my jeans and button-up shirt. I didn’t wear earrings, but I had a similar haircut that was styled to be more male, plus, my hair was also died white. “If you really wanted to be convincing, perhaps bind your breasts.” I rolled my eyes and continued to follow her, weaving ourselves between the varied sizes and smells of high school students and up the crowded stairs.