Beauty in the Breakdown
Chapter 2/?
By Baine
Email: lady_baine (at) yahoo (dot) com
Written: April 26th, 2007
Posted: July 8th, 2007
*—(number) Implies that there is a Japanese cultural note regarding the topic at the end of the story.
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Beauty in the Breakdown
Chapter Two: Smeared Black Ink
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The sun sat high in the sky, not a cloud in sight, yet Usagi found herself unable to enjoy the nice weather. She would rather it be dark and somber to match her mood. Thankfully, autumn lurked in the distance, biding its time as summer made the most of its final weeks.
Pushing her bangs out of her eyes, she stared forlornly at her Japanese textbook. She didn’t mind when the teacher assigned novels to read, but she hated studying for kanji vocabulary quizzes. It had been so much easier when she was in primary school and the words weren’t so complex. Of course, it wasn’t as bad as her English homework, which was in another language altogether and had an alphabet of its own to go with it. *—1
If that wasn’t enough to handle, math was harder than ever, mixing not only numbers and letters, but symbols as well. Numbers and math had even made their way into her chemistry class. Was it any surprise that history was the sole class she was able to pass without too much of a struggle?
She absently bit on her pen cap. Her frown deepened as two girls walked past her, their skirts hitched higher than was allowed. Usagi gave an inward smirk. Her old school uniform had a skirt the perfect length because the people in charge wanted everyone to be comfortable. Well, that and they probably didn’t want rebellious students. Either way, it was better than a dowdy skirt that went down past the knees.
Usagi sighed forlornly, missing her old school more than ever. She didn’t have any friends here yet, even though it had been a month since they had moved. She was cooler than these inaka hillbillies, which meant that she was shunned entirely. *--2
Adjusting her sailor collar, she gave a mental word of thanks for the fact that her new school didn’t force the girls to wear suspenders. Granted, it wasn’t the best uniform in the world, but it wasn’t the ugliest, either. Usagi was lucky because she still hadn’t gotten her new uniform yet, so she was able to continue wearing her old one. *--3
She saw one of the girls with a hitched skirt look her way and scowl, then loudly whisper to her friend, “Mariko-chan, do you see what she’s wearing?”
Her friend looked over and grimaced. “Geez, isn’t she ashamed to be wearing a skirt that short? She must have been a total slut at her old school!”
The two girls giggled and continued to whisper back and forth as they disappeared from view. Usagi scowled after them and brushed her hands against her skirt. To her, it was a decent length. It probably showed less skin than their makeshift short skirts did. They were only jealous because it was naturally shorter than their own, so it didn’t have weird bumps and creases in it. Besides, her uniform was cuter than anything they could dream of being allowed to wear. Having the most fashionable uniform was the reason to choose a school in Tokyo, so why wouldn’t the same thought-process apply in a backwater farming town? Even knowing this, it still hurt to hear. People at this school were going out of their way to be cruel to her.
Feeling a shadow pass over her as the sun disappeared from sight, she looked up with a frown. A girl with short ebony hair stood before her, hands at her waist.
“You’re in my spot.”
Usagi raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware you could own free land.”
The girl glared at her and tossed her hair, cracking her gum in the process. “I always sit under this tree. Everyone knows that.”
“Apparently not everyone.”
“Well, now you know, so move.”
“Sorry, no. I was here first.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed. “Listen, New Girl, you may think you’re tough stuff, but in reality, you’re nobody.”
“That’s nice.” Usagi flipped a page in her notebook, ignoring her classmate and making the girl even angrier.
“Move right now or when my boyfriend gets here—”
“I’m studying. Go find someplace else to make out. This area really isn’t as secluded as you think it is.”
Uncapping a bottle of water, the girl tipped it so that the contents spilled onto Usagi’s textbook and notes, causing the ink to bleed. “Oops, sorry about that. Guess you can’t do any more homework until you go home and get some new supplies.” She smiled sweetly before flouncing over to an approaching classmate, then looked backward and smirked before wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him toward her.
The male, who Usagi presumed to be her boyfriend, loosely returned her embrace, looking over her shoulder as though to pinpoint what had caused her to look away from him. His eyes fell on Usagi, and he stared at the blonde girl for a long moment, his raven hair falling sloppily into his eyes and glistening beneath the sunlight. Unable to discern the expression on his face, Usagi shifted uncomfortably and busied herself with packing her belongings as the school bell rang in the distance.
Frowning at her now-soggy notes, she cursed under her breath as she shoved everything back into her schoolbag, wincing at the sucking sounds as her books clung to one another. Her face darkened angrily. That girl never would have gotten away with doing such a thing at Usagi’s old school. Too many people would have ostracized her. Usagi herself probably would have lured the girl’s boyfriend away as revenge. Of course, she wouldn’t have kept him. She did have Motoki, after all. No, the fun would have come from adding him to her harem of admirers and taking him away from her opponent.
Sensing that the guy was still looking in her direction, she remained hunched over her bag a moment longer than necessary, allowing him the chance to admire her backside. Straightening slowly, she furrowed her brow in thought. Perhaps it was only the girls who were shunning her. Was it nothing more than a case of jealousy? So far, none of the guys had come near her either, but it could very well be that they were afraid to. After all, if they made all the other girls pissy, they’d never get laid. She sure wouldn’t put out for them—not that they knew that.
Trudging back into the building, she chucked the remains of her bento box into a nearby trash receptacle and headed for fifth period. Thankfully, it was gym, so she didn’t have to worry about soggy books. Entering the girls’ locker room, she sighed in relief. She didn’t know what she would have done if the school had been too poor to build one. Shingo had told her that at his new school, the boys had to change into their gym uniforms out in the hallway while the girls changed in the classroom. Being a guy, he loved the set-up because he could easily peep, but if Usagi had been in the same situation, she would have been so embarrassed. Suspenders and no changing rooms? Talk about hell on earth. Why had her mother forced them to move to such a primitive part of Japan? *--4
Tucking her gym shirt into her shorts, she quickly braided her twin pigtails together and slipped them up with a hair claw so she wouldn’t trip. Shoving her lace handkerchief into her pocket, she quickly scurried outside with the rest of her class.
Today, they were playing volleyball. Frowning on the sidelines as the captains chose their teammates, Usagi glanced at the people who had yet to be picked. As usual, it was down to her and a girl with a short blue bob, her glasses resting precariously atop her nose. She had a feeling the smaller girl hated gym almost as much as she herself did. Granted, Usagi was a bit of a klutz. Her brother liked to tease her and proclaim that she had been sent here from outer space, so she’d never quite gotten the hang of gravity. She scoffed at the thought. If anything, he was the alien. She was sure there was a planet out there brimming with annoying brothers waiting for a girl-child to be born so they could launch an invasion.
Usagi’s eyes narrowed as the girl who had dumped water on her belongings earlier smiled smugly and chose the bluenette, leaving her alone on the sidelines. Seeing the remaining captain grimace before calling Usagi over, she managed to withhold a smirk. It was true that she was bad at sports, but for some reason, she had always been good at volleyball. She’d show them not to mess with her.
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Slouching in the passenger’s seat after school, she tuned out her mother and stared out the window, watching as ricefield after ricefield flickered past. It wasn’t her fault she had hit the ball too hard. Takako should have been able to either get to it or move out of the way. If she’d gotten a bloody nose because she just stood there like a moron, well, that wasn’t Usagi’s fault, now was it? Of course, the stupid girl had tried to get her in trouble by saying that Usagi had thrown the ball at her as revenge because she’d accidentally spilled her drink all over Usagi’s stuff at lunch time.
It really had been an accident because she hadn’t been trying to hurt anyone when she spiked the ball, but now Usagi had to deal with her irate mother. Luckily, the gym teacher had vouched for her because she’d been impressed by Usagi’s skills on the court that day. Due to this, she’d been able to get out of detention because it “couldn’t be proven” that Usagi was at fault when she had been playing so well up until that point. Hearing her mother inhale sharply, Usagi glanced to her right, watching her mother’s palms whiten as she gripped the wheel. *--5
Looking over to make sure her daughter wasn’t being ornery and tuning her out the way she normally did, Ikuko signed wearily. “Usa, I’m worried about you. Can’t you at least try to make friends? We’ve been here a month now and you’re not even trying.”
“Maybe I don’t want to make new friends. I liked my old ones just fine.”
“Usa...”
“No, Momma. You can’t force me to make friends.”
“I’ve never had the need to. You were always able to make friends easily. I always admired that quality in you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not a little girl anymore. It gets harder as you grow older.”
“Even Shingo is settling in and making new friends.”
Usagi folded her arms across her chest and turned her back on her mother, sullenly staring out the window once more. The last thing she wanted was to be compared to her stupid brother. She shuddered at the thought.
Feeling warmth on her shoulder as the car came to a stop, she shrugged away from her mother’s touch and rapidly exited the vehicle, slamming the passenger door behind her. Hurrying into the house, she stormed up the steps toward her bedroom and flounced onto her bed. Grabbing her pillow with both hands, she beat it with her fist, then brought it to her face and screamed. Furiously pressing it closer to her skin as she felt heat build at the corner of her eyes, she sniffed and drew in a shaky breath. The woody aroma of smoke filled her nostrils. Forgetting her anger, she breathed in again, furrowing her eyebrows. Had someone been in her room?
Opening her bedroom door, she poked out her head and bellowed into the stairwell, “Mom, can you come up here a sec?”
When her mom arrived a moment later, cheeks flushed and a trace of flour on her cheek, Usagi handed her the pillow. “Does this smell like smoke to you?”
Eying her daughter suspiciously, Ikuko brought the fluffy object to her face and inhaled. “Have you been smoking, Usagi?”
“What? No! I just got home. I wouldn’t have had time to—”
“If I had time to start dinner, you had time for a smoke break, Usagi.”
“Well, I wasn’t. You should know me well enough by now to know that I don’t smoke.”
“That boyfriend of yours does, though. I can only imagine all of the things he’s introduced you to while my back’s been turned.”
Usagi drew back as though her mother had slapped her. “You don’t know me at all, do you? Maybe I should start indulging in everything you accuse me of doing so I can prove you right.” Stepping backwards and away from her mother, she hissed, “Maybe you should be more concerned about your precious son and what he gets up to with his new friends. If this is how you want me to make new friends, I have nothing left to say to you.”
She grasped her doorknob and slammed the door in her mother’s face, latching the lock firmly and striding back to her bed. Ignoring her mother as she pounded on the door, Usagi reached for one of her decorative pillows and sniffed at it before using it to shield her head as she burrowed under the covers.
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He leaned against the wall with a scowl, listening to the muffled sobs coming from the other side.
The stupid girl who had infiltrated his house was such a prima donna. He could understand her wigging out over the smoke, but to cry over it? Inconceivable. His Pa would have slapped him and his sister ‘til they bled if they’d ever tried such a stunt with him.
Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out a slightly squashed package of cigarettes. He was surprised she had smelled the smoke to begin with. He hadn’t even been smoking in her room. He had only gone in there to rumple up her bed so that she’d get into another argument with her brother. Their fights were his only source of amusement these days since his pranks never seemed to faze them out or make them want to run back to the city.
He pulled the fabric of his shirt to his nose and inhaled. Maybe he’d start smoking outside on the terrace so the wind could cleanse him of the smell.
Not that he was trying to make amends or anything, because he absolutely wasn’t. His main goal was still to get them out of his house. He preferred to be by himself. He didn’t want to listen to the pampered princess’ wheezing anymore because it annoyed him. That was all.
Pulling a cigarette from the deformed package, he headed toward the window. It was time to move onto the next stage of his plan, since the others obviously hadn’t been working. It was time to make the Tsukino family more...aware of his presence.
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Cultural Note #1: When referring to Usagi’s classes here, Japanese is her literature/grammar class and English is a foreign language. In the manga, Usagi wasn’t very good at kanji, so I’ve carried that over here. There is a list of 1,006 kanji (the Kyoiku Kanji List) that elementary school students are required to learn over the course of the six years that they are there. This is what Usagi is referring to when she talks about simpler kanji.
Cultural Note #2: Inaka means that you live out in the country or in a (very) rural area. It’s not quite the suburbs or a city.
Cultural Note #3: When a student in Japan transfers schools, they are allowed to wear their old school uniform until they can get a new one. {This is most likely why Mako-chan always had on her old school uniform in the anime. Sometimes, if you can’t afford a new uniform, you don’t have to get the new one at all. It all depends on the school that you’re at. Every situation is different and all...}
Cultural Note #4: The schools in my town are a bit on the poor side, so there are no changing rooms. The boys really do change in the hallway while the girls change in the classroom. Embarrassing, no?
Cultural Note #5: In Japan, the driver’s seat is on the right side of the car, not the left.
As always, I’d like to thank my fabulous editor Kel for helping me tidy this piece up. This chapter title also came from a song, "The District Sleeps Tonight" by The Postal Service (one of my favorite music groups!). It's the first line in the song, and I've always loved it. You'll see why the name came to me soon... Future chapters won't have song titles, though. It's just worked out this way for the first couple.
Like it? Hate it? I’m the one to talk to! Hit the little review button or Email lady_baine (at) yahoo (dot) com today!
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