As We Stumble Along
Chapter 5/?
By Baine
Email: ladybaine at gmail dot com
Finished: July 19th, 2007
Posted: October 6th, 2007
*—(number) Implies that there is a Japanese cultural note regarding the topic at the end of the story.
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As We Stumble Along
Chapter Five
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He had once been a chicken in a former life. Glancing at his scrawny, hairless legs in the mirror, it was the only conclusion he could come to. Tilting his head, he turned to the side. They sure looked different from the way they normally did, that was for sure. How did girls manage to make their legs look so appealing? Maybe the magic was in the skirt. Speaking of which...
He grudgingly turned toward the article in question. He had haphazardly tossed his uniform over the shower rod while he brushed his teeth and disrobed. Grabbing the checkered garment, he pushed his legs through the opening and pulled it up over his hips. Zippering the side, he grimaced at his reflection. It was strange to see a skirt clinging to a body so obviously male. He frowned down at his legs once more. The skirt had done nothing to help them look less awkward. Sighing in resignation, he donned his knee-length socks and felt thankful for small favors. It was hard to see how gangly they looked when they were hidden beneath yards of fabric. For now, he didn’t have to worry about them.
Buttoning his shirt, he tucked it into his skirt, tying on his sailor collar and quickly adjusting the tie. He debated tying his hair up into two small pigtails before deciding it would be overkill. Besides, his hair wasn’t quite long enough to hold the shape yet.
It was long enough to frame his face, though, so his true gender was less obvious than it had been a month ago.
“You almost done in there, Umi? We’re going to be late for Morning Assembly.”
“Yeah, hold on.” He quickly washed his hands and left the bathroom, suddenly feeling shy and nervous. Would someone figure out he really wasn’t a girl? If they did, what would happen to him? He didn’t want to get kicked out of school before he’d even begun. Besides, if that were to occur, what would happen to his reputation? Would any decent school still be willing to give him a chance, or was he committing academic suicide?
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The first week of school went off without a hitch. After the obligatory ceremony on the first day back, the students spent the rest of the week testing the knowledge they were supposed to have retained over the summer holiday.*—1
Luckily, Sakura Kita still had to follow mandated courses that outlined what students would learn throughout the year. Umino had always made a habit out of going to the library after school to research the topics they learned about in class. For him, it was much more effective than cram school—and cheaper, too. Without all the extra research, he doubted he would have gotten into Sakura Kita due to the many obscure questions on the school’s entrance exam. *—2
Umino was much surer of himself when it came to his schoolwork than he was while masquerading as a female. Girls remained a mystery to him despite his new behind-the-scenes look. He was constantly worried about being exposed in front of the entire student body. He even dreamed about such an occurrence, which was much worse than dreaming about giving a speech naked. Actually, the two ideas had merged the night before, causing him to wake up in a cold sweat. Not having slept well, he was cranky and irritable upon waking. Luckily, the girls didn’t think anything was amiss, assuming him to be out of sorts due to it being “that time of the month.” He had never been happier to have such a lame excuse handed to him on a silver platter. All in all, he didn’t understand why girls griped so much when they had a ready made excuse for a shift in mood each month.
Loudly stacking his empty breakfast tray against the others waiting to be cleaned, he wearily trudged from the cafeteria, a headache already forming between his eyes. As much as he’d love to claim cramps in order to catch up on shut-eye in the nurse’s office, he wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to see his exam scores the moment they were revealed. The administration said they’d post the results at quarter past eight so that students would still have time to get to first period on time. Heading toward the board outside the office, Umino was surprised to see a huge crowd already lying in wait.
“Wow,” he muttered to Naru, “it’s really crowded.”
“Well, of course.” Naru blinked at him, a surprised look darting across her face. “What did you expect?”
Umino shrugged. “I dunno, just...no one lined up like this at my old school.”
“But that was public school, wasn’t it, Umi?” A fellow classmate named Hukuda Kokoro stood next to him, nervously twirling the end of her ponytail around her finger. “Obviously, most kids wouldn’t take grades too seriously there. Our school is ranked number one in the country, so of course we all care about our grades.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully, about to say more, but was cut off as she was jostled from behind. “What were—Oh, hey Rina.” *—2
A petite girl with pale ivory skin pushed her ebony bangs off her forehead, revealing large, forest-green eyes. Curly tendrils of hair framed her face, having escaped the bouncy ponytail she’d tied up with a lilac bow. Her nose reminded Umino of a button and her lips resembled a perfectly-formed rosebud. When she blinked, her sooty eyelashes fluttered against her smooth skin.
Finding himself entranced by her appearance, Umino decided that the girl reminded him of a fragile porcelain doll. Why had he never noticed her before? She wasn’t in his class, that was for sure. Then again, she may not even be a second year student. He glanced inconspicuously at her chest. She was too developed to be a first-year student. Was she in her final year? The thought of not seeing her again put him in a bad mood, making him even crankier than he already was.
Watching in breathless anticipation as she smiled sweetly, her voice fell upon his ears like the bubbling of a cascading waterfall. “Sorry I’m late, Kokoro.”
Umino’s classmate shrugged nonchalantly, shoving a runaway strand of black hair behind her ear. “Eh, it’s no big deal. I got us a good spot.”
“Is it out yet?”
“Nah, we’re still waiting.” Kokoro turned and, with a wave of her hand, stated, “Rina, this is my new classmate Umi, and you already know Naru and Usagi, right? And I think you’ve met—”
“Rei, yes. She’s in my class.”
“Right, right.” Kokoro pressed a hand to her stomach. “Gosh, I’m so nervous. Nakagawa-sensei’s been hinting that I didn’t do too well on the history portion.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. Nakagawa-sensei’s been acting like that around everyone.”
“If he said that to you, then there’s hope for us all! I mean, of course you did well, Rina. You always get the best grades.”
Rina shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, we’ll see.” She glanced over at Umino and his friends. “What about you four? How do you think you did?”
“Okay, I guess,” Usagi mused, tapping a perfectly-manicured finger against her cheek. “I think I mixed the emperors up, though.”
“Oh, Usagi,” Rei groaned. She rolled her eyes and grimaced. “We studied them over and over and charted—”
“Well, yeah, but I still forget, you know?”
“I swear, all that blonde has gone to your head. One of these days—”
Hoping to diffuse the brewing argument, Naru raised her voice to declare, “Well, I think I did all right. What about you, Umi?”
“Er, I don’t know, I—”
“It’s okay if you didn’t do too well, Umi.” Kokoro shot Umino a gentle smile. “We all know you just transferred in and haven’t been studying the same curriculum as us.”
“We still learned the basics.”
“Well, yes, but...” Kokoro dropped her voice, “surely lessons at your old school weren’t nearly as advanced as they are here.”
Rina looked on inquisitively, her eyes lightening with curiosity. “What school did you transfer here from?”
“Azabu High.”
“Over near the Juuban District?”
“Yeah.”
She furrowed her brow. “That’s a private school, isn’t it? Not as good as this one, of course.” She crinkled her nose. “Co-ed, too, isn’t it? Gosh, how did you manage to survive?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you know.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It couldn’t have been easy sharing a classroom with a bunch of disruptive boys.”
“Er, well—They’re not so bad.”
Kokoro sighed dreamily. “I’ve seen that boyfriend of yours. If they’re all that tall, dark, and handsome, I wouldn’t mind if they were loud and rude.”
Rina frowned sternly. “Staring at them and daydreaming is another form of disturbance, Kokoro. No, we’re much better off here.”
About to retort, Kokoro’s eyes darted to the office door, which was slowly sliding open. “It’s time,” she breathed.
Rina’s rosy lips trembled and she brought a shaky hand up to smooth away the loose strands clinging to her face. She reached out and took Kokoro’s hand, entwining their fingers.
Umino stared at them askance. He had never seen someone so concerned about a score before. Hadn’t Kokoro said she was a good student? If it was true, she was in no danger of flunking.
Squeals of delight, howls of despair, and spurts of relieved laughter sounded up ahead. Slowly, the dense mass of students thinned out until, finally, Umino and his friends were standing in front of the tall notice board.
Glad “U” came at the beginning of the alphabet and he wouldn’t have to search long for his own name, Umino ran his finger down the first column of names. Finding the kanji for his name, he looked across at his marks. *—3
“How did you do?” Naru’s head appeared beneath his arm; her name wasn’t too far from his own on the list*—3
“Passed everything, you?”
“Yeah, same.” A small bubble of laughter burst from her lips. “I got a mean score of 89%. Wish it could have been a smidge higher, but I went to the beach instead of cram school a couple of times over summer break. What about you?”
“Er...” Umino flushed and placed a hand over his scores, not wanting her to see.
“Baka,” she teased, pushing his hand away. “They’re on display for the whole school, I can just—oh.” Her mouth dropped. “Your score—How did you—”
Umino shrugged, uncomfortable with the way she was staring at him. Her attention was diverted from his score as students jostled the duo from behind, urging them out of the way. Momentarily split by the crowd, Naru and Umino met up again by the stairwell, where the other girls were already comparing scores.
“A mean of 90%, Usagi? Seriously? I’m not sure I believe you.” Rei narrowed her eyes at her roommate.
“So go double-check. It’s not like I have ash for brains, you know.”
“Well, you sure act like it.”
“Hey,” Naru cut in, her face flushed pink. “You scored higher than me, Usa. I’d kill to be in the Top Ten Percent. I just missed it, too.”
Usagi began to jump up and down as she waved to Kokoro and Rina, who had begun walking toward the stairwell. “How did you two do?” she asked, leaning against the wall.
Kokoro shrugged casually. “I only wound up with a 95%. I really didn’t do well in history. Rina’s at the top of the class again, of course.”
“Wow,” Usagi breathed, “You made another hundred? I really need to start joining your study group before tests.”
A dainty smile appeared across Rina’s face. “It’s not all fun and games. I studied very hard this summer, Usagi.”
“What about you, Umi?” Kokoro smiled, a kind look upon her face. “Did you manage to pass?”
“I—Yeah.” He glanced over at Rina’s shining face, her eyes twinkling merrily. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“Barely, huh?” Kokoro sighed in commiseration. “Well, don’t worry about it. These tests aren’t worth much, though they’re a good way to judge how we’ll do on midterms in November. You’ll do much better after you’ve started attending class. Especially in history; no one can get a perfect on one of Nakagawa-sensei’s tests. Well, no one but Rina, that is.”
“Umi did just fine, Kokoro.” Naru bristled, an undistinguishable look on her face. “Better than—”
“—we expected? Well, of course, she managed to pass, after all.”
“She got a mean score of 101%.” Naru’s voice was flat, her mouth a thin line. “I would say she more than passed.”
“A 101%? But that’s not—that’s impossible.” Kokoro’s mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ that was reminiscent of Naru’s earlier expression. Umino watched her exchange a look with Rina, whose eyebrows were furrowed in surprise.
“How’d you manage that, Umi?” Rina inquired, her nose crinkled as though she were puzzled.
Glaring at Naru for not keeping the score to herself, Umino muttered, “I-I’m really not sure.”
“You didn’t look at your individual scores to see which classes—”
“Well, sure I did.”
“And?”
He shot a sideways glance at Kokoro, who was still looking at him in something akin to shock. He wiped his palms against his school skirt and gulped. “Er, it was in history.”
“Nakagawa-sensei never gives extra credit, especially on an exam!”
Umino shrugged. “I don’t know what happened. It was probably a mistake or something.”
Rina tilted her head, causing her glossy ponytail to slide to her shoulder, loose curls falling haphazardly against her crisp white blouse. “You did very well for someone who hasn’t had a single class here yet. Azabu must be a really good school. Why did you decide to transfer?”
“Azabu isn’t a bad school, of course. They have an escalator system in place and all. Sakura Kita is the very best, though. Also,” Umino’s cheeks flushed as he divulged his secret, “I spent a lot of time at the library doing research outside of class whenever the teacher didn’t give us enough information.” *—4
“You study a lot, then?”
“Yeah, I guess so. It wasn’t so much for the sake of good study habits as it was a quest for knowledge, though. There are so many things in this world that we know nothing about; I want to discover as many of its secrets as I can before I die.”
Rina absently pulled on a tendril of hair, repeatedly lowering it and allowing it to spring back up again. “Is that what you want to do for a living, study the truth? A journalist, perhaps?”
Umino laughed and shook his head. “I may be nosy, but there’s way too much back-stabbing going on behind the scenes if you’re a journalist. I want to do something more important and make a difference in the world.”
From her perch on a lower step, Kokoro shot him a languid look from behind sooty eyelashes. “Like what?”
“I’ve always been interested in the medical field. I might be a doctor, or do cure research the way Mizuno Ami does, or—”
“You know Mizuno Ami?” Rina’s hand fell to her side.
“Well, know of her. I’ve never met her or anything.”
“Did you know she’s an alumni of this school?”
“Yeah, actually, it’s one of the reasons I applied here.”
“To follow in her footsteps?”
“To get the best education in Japan.”
“Well, we do have that.” Rina nodded in appreciation as she confirmed Umino’s words and offered him a brilliant smile that sent a zing of warmth to his chest. “It’ll certainly be delightful to finally have a worthy opponent at this school. I look forward to the ensuing battle, Umi.”
“Battle?”
“For grades, of course. It sounds as though we both put a lot of time and effort into making top marks. No one usually gets straight 100s, not even the third-year students. If you can do it consistently, I’ve finally met my match.” She smiled again and glanced at the delicate silver watch adorning her wrist. “We have five minutes to get to class. Rei and I have science in the labs now, so we’ll have to sprint. It was nice meeting you, though.”
With that, Rina and Rei hurried down the hallway while Umino, Naru, Usagi, and Kokoro trekked up the steps to their classroom.
First period was history, which meant Umino was able to question Nakagawa-sensei after class over whether or not his grade had been a mistake. He sighed in relief when he heard it hadn’t; the teacher had been so impressed with his essay that he’d awarded Umino extra points. Apparently, he’d written about things that even the Sakura Kita students hadn’t learned in class.
It had been amusing to see the faces of the other girls at lunchtime when he revealed that tidbit. It was as though he’d said the Earth no longer spun on its axis. The thought that there were things the teachers didn’t tell them—or know themselves—at such an advanced school staggered everyone.
He had to hold in his grin as he watched awe creep across Kokoro’s face as the dark-haired girl gazed over at him in admiration.
“Wow, Umi,” Kokoro breathed, tapping a perfectly-manicured fingernail against the rim of her glass, “I totally need to join your study group from now on.”
“As do Naru and I,” Usagi added with a grin.
“It’s not so much a matter of study as it is—”
“Researching and paying attention in class, yeah, I know.” Usagi let out a despondent sigh. “Is it my fault our teachers like to drone?” she grinned cheekily. “Besides, you can teach us whatever study techniques you’re using since they obviously work really well and all.”
“I don’t really—” How could he teach when he didn’t quite know himself? It was as though his mind were a sponge, eager to suck up and retain any liquid that crossed its path. He’d always had a really good memory; he’d never had to train it, so how could he possibly instruct others? He smiled weakly and assured Usagi he’d try his best, refusing to promise something he wasn’t sure he could deliver.
Watching the clock tick closer to the end of lunch, Umino made up an excuse about needing to return to his room for something and quickly headed back to the dorms. They had a free recreation period next, and after that, he’d experience his first gym class as a girl. He had yet to see the locker room; not knowing the layout left him at a severe disadvantage. He didn’t know what precautions he’d need to take while changing into his uniform, so he decided to do so in private. In fact, he might take advantage of the fact he had gym at this time of day and make changing in his room a habit. He’d be wearing the uniform for the rest of the afternoon, so he didn’t have to worry about changing back again after class. The timing of everything was impeccable.
He changed quickly near the closet and was just pulling his gym shirt over his torso when Naru entered the room.
She grinned over at him and plopped her school bag onto her bed. “You came to get ready, too?”
“Too?”
“Sure,” Naru replied, quickly grabbing her gym uniform and unbuttoning her blouse.
Umino turned back to the closet and began to hang his uniform, fighting the urge to watch his roommate as she changed.
“I mean, we have free time, so why not? It’s better to hang our uniforms, anyway. Keeps them wrinkle-free and all. Gym’s at a great time this year. We can work off our lunch.” Her voice faded out as it became muffled, leading Umino to assume she was probably pulling on her gym shirt at the moment.
He was relieved to hear that changing in the dorms wouldn’t seem strange or raise suspicion. Listening as Naru’s bed let out a low sigh as she sank her weight upon it, he figured it was safe to turn around.
“What did you forget up here, anyway?”
“Oh, uh—my math book. I forgot we had Ichise-sensei this afternoon.”
Naru shot him a skeptical look. Are you sure you didn’t just make up an excuse so you could come up here and change alone?”
“No, of course not. Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. It’s a little weird how you always change in the bathroom, though.”
Umino chuckled nervously. “I got injured a few years ago and the scars are pretty nasty, so I don’t like people seeing me naked.”
“What happened?” A concerned look flitted across her face and she stopped fiddling with the contents of her bag.
“I fell out of a tree at an odd angle. I was lucky I didn’t break my neck.”
“Wow, that sounds serious. What were you doing up there?”
“Er, well, Mamoru and his friends were playing a game and, uh—they wouldn’t let me play because I’m a girl, so, um, we got into a fight and they said that if I climbed this one huge tree, I’d be allowed to join them.”
“Boys play such dangerous games, don’t they? They can be cruel, too, making a girl climb a big tree like that.”
Umino smiled in relief as Naru continued to prattle, glad she’d taken him at face value. It was true he had a scar on his shoulder blade from falling out of a tall tree Mamoru had dared him to climb, but the accident hadn’t been too bad. He’d dislocated his shoulder, broken his arm, and had a small concussion, but he hadn’t suffered any permanent damage. It made for a good excuse when questioned on his dressing habits, though.
“We won’t laugh at you, y’know. Think of the scars as proof you’re still alive and among us.”
“I know, but...it makes me uncomfortable.”
“I understand.” She shot him a comforting smile and began playing with her bag again. “What do you do when you go swimming? Your hair isn’t long enough to hide your back, so we’ll still see everything on Friday.”
“Friday?” He turned toward her with a start.
“Yeah, every Friday our gym lessons are at the pool.”
“You’re joking, right?”
Sorry, no.” She shot him a sympathetic smile. “I do promise no one will laugh, though.”
“It’s not that, it’s just—I don’t swim.”
“You don’t know how? Didn’t you ever learn at school?”
“Of course, but, um,” Umino bit his lip, trying to remain calm while racking his brains for something to say that sounded plausible. “Well, for one, I almost drowned when I was little, so I’m afraid of water—”
“Tsuji-sensei will still make you swim, though.”
Continuing on as though Naru hadn’t interrupted him, he added, “After my big fall, the doctor said I shouldn’t swim anymore.”
“Really? That’s strange, I mean, isn’t swimming supposed to be therapeutic?”
“Yeah, but when I fell, I messed up my shoulder really badly. It never completely healed, so it’s dangerous to swim because the workout would be too strenuous on it.”
“That’s horrible. So you can’t ever exercise?” She glanced at his corded legs, muscles still obvious despite the knee-high socks.
“Well, some things are easier than others. Upper-body sports such as, uh, volleyball, are harder than, say, track. Different muscles and all. Luckily, it wasn’t my writing hand I hurt or I’d have a harder time of it.”
Naru opened her mouth to reply, then quickly shut it, reminding Umino of a gaping fish. Finally, a wary smile crossed her face. “I’d have thought you’d be lucky in the water with a surname like yours.” *—5
Umino gave a rueful shrug. “Guess it jinxed me instead.”
A knock on the door ended their conversation as Usagi arrived to walk with them to gym.
While he was grateful to change the topic due to the fact he hated telling so many lies and half-truths, he couldn’t deny being happy it had occurred in the first place. If Naru hadn’t tipped him off, he’d be walking into Friday’s gym class blind. Why hadn’t he ever thought about the swimming aspect before? He’d have to talk to the gym teacher beforehand to see if he could arrange to do something else on Fridays. Luckily, his shoulder injury had been mentioned in his physical report, so he had a better chance at getting out of the one class designed to betray his real identity.
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Cultural Note #1: In Japan, the school year starts in April and ends in March. Because of this, summer break doesn’t fall between school years. Instead, it is a break during the hottest time of the year, etc, and students are expected to continue studying, going to clubs, etc. during this timeframe. Often, students return to school and have to take a bunch of tests.
Cultural Note #2: Many students go to special cram schools on top of regular school in order to maintain top grades and get into a good school in the future. Even elementary school students go to these schools, especially if they want to get into a good junior high that has an escalator system into high school (so they’d automatically be admitted and not need to take HS entrance exams. See Note #4). JHS students will go to get into a good high school, HS students will go to get into a good college, etc. It gets very expensive, especially if you’ve been going to cram school since the very beginning!
[Also, if you remember, Ami became Sailor Mercury for the first time while attending a cram school session.]
Cultural Note #3: In the Japanese alphabet, “u” is the third letter. The five Western ‘vowels’ come first in Japanese, followed by the “two-letter syllables,” which follow the same order as the five ‘vowels.’ For example, the first ten letters are: a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. All letters will follow this same patter of a, i, u, e, o paired with a consonant. :-)
Cultural Note #4: An escalator system is when you don’t have to take an entrance exam to get into the next school. For example, if you’re in a junior high, you wouldn’t have to take an entrance exam to go to the same high school. Schools with escalator systems are usually much more academically-oriented and for more serious students. A lot of students start attending cram school in order to get into a school with an escalator system (See Note #2).
Cultural Note #5: Umino is our MC’s surname (family name/last name). “Umi” is the Japanese word for “ocean,” hence Naru’s comment about him being good at water sports.
Author’s Note: I love the name Hukuda Kokoro, don’t you? In a family name, Hukuda means lucky or fortunate. Kokoro means heart. So her name is something like lucky/fortunate heart. As for Rina, I have an image of her in my mind. She’s got a beauty envied by many of her peers. Also, she’s mixed and only part-Japanese, so she has a sense of the exotic to her, which makes her even more appealing to other people in Japan, especially her pale skin and colorful eyes!
Thank yous go out to my beloved Squishy (Nephthys) and my cherished Kelkatan, as well as to my two testosterone-charged males, Loki and The Lone Pig, for all of their help!
Like it? Hate it? I’m the one to talk to! Hit the little review button or Email ladybaine at gmail dot com today!
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