Bring Me Up

A student was transferred to us.

I barely noticed how it was already May of the second year of highschool.

After the daily morning scandal, cla.s.s was pa.s.sing as usual. When the cla.s.s supervisor, Bizon-sensei, said, "Today, we will greet a new comrade", even those guys that didn't care about the cla.s.s hour woke up suddenly.

The door opened and in came the mentioned person. Not a speck on the jacket, not a single attrition on the green tie. Unlike ours, the new girl's uniform shone with novelty, and her long hair fell freely to her shoulders, with strands falling out of her ponytails. The stranger's height was about one fifty, with a pretty face.

The newcomer, tapping with her heels, walked up onto the platform at the board and laconically said: "Minato… Rica. Nice to meet you."

Bizon told her to write her name on the board, and the girl took the chalk. Her index, middle, and ring fingers were thin and equally long. They would be great for cleaning pockets, I thought.

The girl wrote three hieroglyphs of her name on the board.

Minato Rica

Whether for comfort, or for simplicity, she curved the corners of the kanji. Having finished with her name, Minato descended from the platform, and Bizon pointed to a vacant spot in the last row by the window. The girl sat there, and at this, the cla.s.s hour came to an end.

She, just like me, got a place on the outskirts of the cla.s.s. This place for the new girl, just like in a manga, was vacant because we became one less last year. I remembered how half a year ago, a student urinated there because he was forbidden to go to the washroom.

The newcomer, ignoring the curious glances, sat there and looked around.

And the look that she bestowed upon the cla.s.smates, with whom she was going to spend almost every day, was as cold as mine, but only I noticed this.

***

"Do you listen to music?"

"Did you see the movie yesterday?"

"Have you done sports?"

"What do you do?"

"Many things. But mostly sit at home."

When the standard questions were finished, the interest in the newcomer faded rather quickly, quicker than I expected. After all, the composition of the cla.s.ses in our school didn't change and we got used to each other. The new girl, who suddenly invaded us, seemed like an alien and raised a general interest. They wanted to understand what kind of character she was: whether she was vicious or kind, whether she was vindictive, whether she had any talents?

However, when it stopped worrying them, the interest was also lost. As a result, the girls began to call Minato Rica a swellhead. It's not like Minato ignored the other students or looked down on them, she wasn't interested in them at all. When she was asked a question, she answered, and when someone started a conversation, she didn't leave. But she never started communicating first.

Shortly speaking, Minato was of those who didn't care about their interlocutors. The girls wanted to get some living emotions out of her, they wanted her to pay more attention to them, but Minato's careless behaviour infuriated them, which led to the reputation of "swellhead".

Approximately two weeks after her transfer, Minato began to come to cla.s.ses in sportswear, and often in street shoes. There was never a textbook on her desk. Minato's completely new school uniform was worn out in the blink of an eye. After a while, the girls began talk about her behind her back. Whether Minato understood this or not, but all of this would lead to her being bullied.

All forcer, all forcer, the goal — Minato Rica, the goal — Minato Rica.

As if by agreement, the girls began to discuss Minato with each other in high voices. While the guys under Fus.h.i.+mi's leaders.h.i.+p bullied Hara, the girls, led by Tanabe Kyoko decided to have fun with the new one.

The clapping of hands, which were heard in the cla.s.sroom once more, exploded like bombs in my head.

Edited by: Akshaythedon