High school

[sweetsalome]

  Salome's school is pretty much like every other school in the country, it has classes, groups of kids that hang out together, lunch and various school functions that everyone goes to in order to fit in.  The name of the game is blending in when it comes to high school.  Something she's learned the hard way and is never easy for her, because if she isn't getting in trouble, she's standing out because someone thinks they can inspire something inside her.  Must be the eyes.

By week two all the teachers know her name, except for the biology teacher who can not, for the life of him say it correctly.  She's tried over, and over, Sa-low-may.  It doesn't stick, so finally, friday afternoon she tells him:  "Just call me Sal."  Which seems to work for anyone who talks to her, or asks her a question.  Truth be told it's odd for anyone to call her by her first name anyway.  Life is tedious, homework dull, she falls asleep in math class pretending to focus on a problem.  It's not that math class is dull it's just that there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day, and who needs math anyway?

 

She has a serious fear of falling asleep in class, and waking up screaming.  That's what keeps her awake in almost every other class, the last thing she needs is to be sent down to the principles office because she can't stop screaming in her sleep. 

The German teacher likes her.  Sought her out after the second day of school, because he wanted to see what she would look like.  Apparently he's an opera fan.  She's seen the opera, many, many times, hell, she's seen the movie, and she never understood why making out with a severed head seemed like good entertainment.  Perhaps some types of romance are just lost on her.  He gives a great big, German Santa Clause laugh when she tells him about John Baptiste.  He says, "your father must have a twisted sense of humor."  He has no idea.

She's made friends, they sit quietly at lunch, sometimes talking, mostly pouring over various books, or in her case paintings.  They are nice girls, naive, but sweet, awkward and clumsy, who can talk about current pop culture as long as it's a book turned into a movie, or came from Japan.  They would flip if they knew about Hiro.  She is cautiously accepted, they think she's to upper class for them, and the upper class girls think she's too much of a freak.  In the end she sides with the ones who probably spend more time on their grades then on their roots.

Life is normal.  It's tiring, and stressful, especially with Jonba getting sick or coming up wound up from playing with the other kids.  Sometimes she wishes she could just keep him at home, locked up, sweet and safe forever, but she knows that's not right.  Still, if it kept him from jumping and screaming, she might just do it.  Oh, and the next time he "styles" her hair, he's not going to use real scissors.  She needs a vacation.

Comments

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro is sitting on her bed when she comes home. "How was your day?"

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Salome pauses for a moment, looks at him, and then at her watch, then at him again. Trying to comprehend if she missed something, she is so very thrilled to see him though, that she's lost all method of speech. Shrugging, she drops her bag on the floor with a hard thud, text books. Running her fingers through her shaggy blond hair she finally smiles.

"Long, but we get to dissect a frog next week. Also I got a ride home which shaved, swear to God thirty minutes off my trip. How are you?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"It is not Friday. I just wanted to see how you were." He pats the bed next to him. She looks a bit tired and harried. "Dissecting a frog? I did that, too. And the worm, the starfish, the fish, the shark, the pig, but that was in college." He remembers his lab partner kept getting sick. "Do you take the bus to school?"

Hiro falls back on the bed with a groan. "I swear that my sister has gone insane with the idea of spending money. She wants to buy all these properties because they are cheap, but I keep pointing out that we are not going to use them. The only good property is the one in New Mexico. Is it wrong of me to want to punch my own sister?"

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Sitting down next to him, she sighs and gives him a grin as she turns her body to look over at him. "You cut open a lot of dead animals, very sexy, Hiro. No, I walk, I got a ride home from one of my friends, Chris."

When he falls back she starts rubbing his stomach, leaning down to kiss the top of his head. "No, it's not wrong, it's normal. Maybe she thinks that if she buys them all up now she can sell them when the market is strong. That's not unreasonable, a lot of big names are saying that it will just be another year or two before the housing market bounces back. Buying up foreclosures is really big for people who can do it."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Not that my lab partner considered it sexy. He kept throwing up. I got to the point that I told him to get lost because he was causing me problems. Chris? Do I get to meet your new friends?"

"But she wants to supposedly use them. She is not thinking along speculation lines. If she was, I would not be so alarmed. I think she is trying to stretch the company a little far." He groans. "She is just insane."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"That does not sound sexy, the throwing up I mean, it would be a bother after awhile." Yawning, she puts her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes. "You can if you want, they are all made up, why?"

"Perhaps all that power has gone to her head, you can put your foot down and tell her that you are worried about the spending, that's not such a bad thing."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"We will have a tea party with the invisible friends?" Hiro laughs. "What you need them to do is sneak up to the math teacher and get the answers to all his quizzes."

"I have. She just waves me off. I am going to have to talk to a couple of other people she might listen to."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"Mmm a tea party on the ceiling with invisible friends, sounds just about right." Grinning, she stops her hand on his chest and pauses in contemplation. "Do you want me to sleep with him so he'll give me the answers?" She smirks and then moves her lips up to his ear to nibble and caress his earlobe. Truth be told she wasn't trying to put any real moves on him, but just to see if he likes it.

"Maybe she's a pod person, someone took over your sister and turned her into a crazy person."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"We are having tea on the ceiling?" Hiro looks at her hand and smiles as she leans down and nuzzles his ear. "Mmmm...You do not need to sleep with him. I will tutor you, if you would like."

He chuckles a bit. "I will have to check out the house for the pod."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"Yes, because that's where you have tea with imaginary people." She kisses the shell of his ear, and then pauses before laying back up on the bed and staring at the ceiling. "I would like that, well I don't know, I'm not sure how I would feel with you knowing how stupid I am."

"It will probably be in the basement, that's where I would put it."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"You are not stupid," he says firmly. "Not everyone can do well in every subject. And you have an artist's brain, so math is something that does not work as well for you. I have a math brain, so art sometimes eludes me. Some people have both, but I am not one of them."

"Japanese houses do not have basements."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"Mmmmm. . ." She makes the soft noise in the back of her throat before she starts to play with his hair. Running it through her fingers, she twirls it slowly around the tip of her index finger. That was never something her father considered, it was simply that she was dumb and lazy and she should work harder. "I guess it's one of those things where it's easier to see the bad more so then the good."

"Nani?! Where do you hide all the pods, incriminating evidence, and bodies?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Only if that is what you look for. Too many people choose not to see the positive because they feel that should they see the good in others, they will not see the good in themselves. It is too easy to tear down to make themselves feel better."

"We burn a lot of things in Japan. The pods, however, probably get buried somewhere, since you have to keep them."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"I think you are very right, Mr. Nakamura, very right indeed. Its scary to wake up one morning and to find yourself miserable, evil, and alone. I have a remedy." Leaning over she presses her lips to his neck and blows a raspberry.

"Take me to your pod grave yard!"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

He giggles when she blows the raspberry, ducking his head to try and escape. "I promise I will be good!"

He tilts his head. "You wish to see a graveyard?"

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Growling playfully, she wraps her arms around him and hugs him close before climbing over him and snuggling up into his chest to cuddle. "Mine."

"I was kidding, though that would be interesting. Your grave yards are a little different from the ones in America, right?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"All yours." His arms go easily around her, hugging her close.

"I could take you to where my parents are buried."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

One long, bare leg wraps around him easily, and she presses her ear to his chest, listening to his heart beating - which reminds her of biology, and her homework. That can wait, she wants to spend time with him.

"Really? I wouldn't want to intrude or assume. . . I mean that's a very sacred place."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"You will not do anything to disturb it. People visit their loved ones all the time."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

"I know . . ." her voice trails off and she chews on her bottom lip for a minute. "This might sound silly, but I guess I am nervous about meeting your parents."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"My mother only ever wanted me to be happy. Otosan would understand that I love you and much as he might at first give me a look. He did the same thing to Kimiko when she started bringing her boyfriends home."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

Nodding, she reaches up and lightly brushes his hair away from his forehead before giving him a soft kiss. "Okay, moon bunny, I would be honored to meet your parents. Since you've met mine."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

He takes her hand and they're standing in the morning sun at Aoyama Cemetery. She can hear the droning voices of monks in the distance at a funeral in progress as the wind gently blows the scent of incense in their direction. They are standing in front of a white monument. The side they're facing is covered with kanji. Hiro folds his hands and performs a deep gassho towards the stone.

"Otosan, okasan, are wa watashi no fiancee deshyo. Salome deshyo.."

A bell rings from the funeral.

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She feels completely unprepared, her hair is tangled and her clothes rumpled from school. At least her top is black and long sleeved, and she tugs on the hem of it to make sure she is completely covered up. The graveyard is peaceful, and she can smell the incense in the morning sun, and for a moment she thinks that it's going to be okay. She watches Hiro, her hands folded in front of her as she swallows hard before stepping forward.

Salome opens her mouth, but nothing comes out, and so she waits to make sure it's okay with Hiro to actually speak.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro bows his head to her. It is not unusual to speak to the dead. After all, the whole point of obon is to bring the dead home for the week so they can talk to them at their convenience.