“Hideumi! Hideumi, are you awake?” There’s a growing sound of someone calling my name as my eyes slowly open up. The sun’s angled in the window just right so that it’s rays cast over my face. My alarm clock hasn’t gone off yet, but it will if I don’t deactivate it in the next few minutes.

As much as I’d like to get five more minutes, I do make the decision to turn it off and get out of bed slightly earlier. Today’s a special day after all and there’s too much energy flowing in me to sleep anyway.

You see, today’s the first day of high school for me. A joyous occasion for many people my age to experience. For me personally, I’ve been waiting impatiently for an entire year to reach this point of my life.

“Okay mom, I’m going next door to grab some breakfast.” My mother gives me a kiss goodbye as I head out the door all dressed up in my new uniform. One might think it’s odd for someone to have breakfast next door, but I have my reasons.

“Hideumi! You finally made it.” A girl greets me upon opening the door. Not just any girl, but it’s Juria Kase. Mostly known as by best friend’s older sister. “Come in, we just finished making breakfast.”

“Thanks.” I say and enter. There at the counter is said friend right now. “Hey, are you looking forward to today, Taisei?”

“Geez, you’re more energetic than anyone should be in the morning.” He doesn’t have as much anticipation as I do about today. Truthfully, he doesn’t share the same reason as I do for being this happy.

“Now come on.” Juria sits down between us and pulls up some toast. “Let’s eat so we’re not late for school.”

That girl sitting next to me is why I’m so excited to finally be going into high school. Even though Taisei’s my best friend since elementary school. She’s a close second. But Juria happens to be a year older than us, so she’s been in high school for a year now. I missed being able to walk to and from school with her, but I can imagine that Taisei didn’t feel the impact of her not going to the same school as us.

“Did you make breakfast this time?” I ask, taking a bite of some toast with strawberry jam. It’s lovely to feel that perfect crunch of the bread, while the sweet berry flavor runs over my tongue.

“Of course.” She giggles. “But, you already knew that, didn’t you?” Of course, I’ve developed some good taste buds growing up. So I’m able to tell who in this household were the ones to take care of cooking. If it’s Taisei’s turn, then those are the times when I question if I should be eating here.

But none of that matters when it’s her turn. Juria’s an amazing cook who’s already better than her own mother. She’ll turn out to be a wonderful housewife with those skills. Not to mention her warm and kind heart makes even a teenager like me brighten up. So she’ll definitely be great with children as a parent.

I think the only trouble I worry about her is if other boys feel the same way. It’s hard to say it, but there’s an elephant in the room when it comes to her. “I hope you like it” She turns her head towards me, asking the same question she always does when she’s the one cooking.

“Of course.” I answer. Every time I look at her face, I’m reminded of what she looks like. Her appearance is what most would say is a far cry from how she acts on the inside. There’s a scar that covers most of the left half of her face, and when she’s not wearing that long sleeved blouse, there’s also noticeable scars all over her left arm.

The truth of the matter is… That her body has been tainted and damaged from a cruel twist of fate. It happened before I met her, when she was real young. Taisei was too young to even remember the events that transpired that day.

When she was barely five years old, there was a fire that ravaged their old house. During the attempt to escape, she ended up getting caught under falling debris. Her father used his bare hands to lift up the burning beam to save her life. The scars on his hands are proof of that. Yet sadly, he wasn’t the only one to be badly injuries that day.

They didn’t give me many details on it, so that’s all I know. which is fair enough. If that happened to myself or anyone in my family. I wouldn’t want to relive that traumatic experience. What they already told me I’m sure wasn’t easy to do. It made me awful for asking in the first place.

“Oh! We should hurry. We’re going to be late.” Juria takes a look at the clock and immediately wolfs down the rest of her toast. “You wouldn’t want that on your first day.”

“Okay…” Taisei and I both reply in unison. Thinking about all that has dampened my mood a bit. So I try to shake it off and cheer back up. The past is in the past and we need to enjoy today. It’s not something one has often in their life.

We all walk to school together. The first time we’ve done this since she graduated from junior high. I missed this time we shared back then, so it’s nice to have that feeling once more. Honestly, it’s hard to believe I could even miss an experience such as this. When I brought it up to Taisei some months into our final year in junior high, he made fun of me.

First thing we have to do upon getting to school is going through the entrance example. There’s a good speech by the principle, followed by multiple clubs making their pitch to gaining more members. They’re pretty convincing and it makes me wonder if I should join a club. My mom’s always telling me to apply myself and have fun in high school.

“You thinking of joining any clubs?” I ask Taisei, who sitting next to me as we’re surrounding by the rest of our classmates. “I might join if you come with.”

“I thought you’d want to be a part of the go-home club so you could walk with Juria.” Of course his response is teasing me about it. I swear this guy won’t let anything go.

“So I’m taking that as a no?” I give him a light punch in the arm to retaliate on his joke.

“I’ll think about it.” He replies. “Maybe I might join a sports club.” That boy has been the more athletic between the two of. As much as I wish I was the brain to his brawn, that’s not the case. It’s less that I’m an idiot, but more that he’s a real talented guy. It doesn’t hurt that he has someone like Juria who’s practically a second teacher to him. “Then you can get her all to yourself after school.” Then he gives me that dumb smug look on his face.

“Whatever!” In kind, I respond the same way I always do. That being to lock my arm around his neck and give him a good jostling. As I do so, we hear the last speech made and everyone stands up to give a respectful applause. That prompts me to let him go.

...For now.