And so the weeks went by as I worked in my new training regimen with Kohta with my regular schedule.
I hate to admit it, but it was a bit on the embarrassing side to watch the poor kid struggle. I'd been lifting weights since I was in middle school and had been lifting weights in the several hundred pound range for years. Watching some Kohta's age dying with only 50 lbs was like watching a three legged puppy trying to chase a ball.
However I reminded myself that when I'd started lifting weights properly I was dying trying to bench press a pair of 20 lbs dumbells. So I held my tongue and told myself that he'd improve. And amazingly he did. It took a few weeks but one evening instead of looking like a man facing his execution he instead had one of grim determination.
"Well you seem to be in a better mood today kid. Something good happen?" I asked good naturedly.
"No Brody-san, today just seemed better today. I can't really put my finger on it." He shrugged his shoulders that were looking a hair broader or maybe it was the slightly smaller gut pulling on his P.E. shirt less that was causing the effect.
I grinned, then clapped him on the back, "That's good, means the endorphins are kicking in finally I was wondering when they would." It probably helped as well that someone seemed to give a damn and was interested in his well-being. His parents, from what I recalled travelled often and while they did care were on the distant side and so weren't always aware of what was going on with their kid.
Add in the fact that he's kinda short, overweight, wore glasses and wasn't the most socially adept he was almost a perfect storm of high school drama and ostracization. Well hopefully I'd make a difference on that front.
As the two of us went through our routine I noticed he'd at least doubled his original weights, impressive, very impressive.
The next morning I was interrupted on my walk down to my office by the principal's secretary a small young woman, 5' nothing and she couldn't have weighed a 100 pounds soaking wet. Cute as well in that pixie or kitten sort of way plenty of guys seemed to lose their minds over here in Japan.
Something of a rarity as well if one were bluntly honest I wasn't sure how but it seemed women on average seemed more….healthy here that back home and that seemed to be a world-wide trait….a Playboy mag I'd found once while bagging the trash was...eye opening, to say the least.
But back to little miss secretary, yes she was cute, but to be perfectly honest that sort hadn't ever really been my type and it didn't help that the woman PLAINLY didn't like me. I wasn't sure WHAT I'd done to offend her but I had and she would make it blatantly clear in her dislike. It was astounding sometimes how someone that tiny could make a guy over half a foot taller than her feel intimidated but she was pulling it off with one of her ice-cold stares.
"Yes Yamazaki-san? How can I help you?" I asked in my most polite voice, in a likely vain attempt to appease her with manners. It failed.
She all but glared at me and said in a clipped and icy tone. "The Principal would like to meet with you Brody-san." And with that she turned around and began striding back to the office.
I stood there staring for a moment, unsure what to do, but before I could react she turned around and glared again. "Well aren't you coming?" Then she snapped back around and continued her power walking...how she did that in heels and a skirt that tight I'll never know…
Anyway I gathered my senses and trotted after her before catching up and slowing down my stride to keep apace with her, taking one stride for every two of hers. My feet flapping a bit compared to the ordered and quick stacatto her heels made.
She made no sign that she'd noticed me catching up and continued staring ahead and clacking along the hallway. The silence and my imagination began to gnaw at me as I wondered what the principal wanted with me. I'd never actually met the man though apparently I'd done my interview with the man before starting my job as part of my cover story when I arrived here and I was slightly concerned as to what he wanted with me.
In an attempt to break the ice as well as sniff out what might have been in store for me I turned my head to look at Miss Yamazaki and cleared my throat to get her attention.
"So...would you happen to know what Principal Yamada wants with me?" I asked in a slightly nervous voice.
Yamazaki never turned her head and didn't seem to have heard what I said, I was about to repeat when she suddenly responded. "I don't know. He didn't see fit to tell me and it wasn't my place to ask. You'll have to find out yourself Brody-san." She didn't elaborate beyond that and her tone brooked no further questions so I kept my mouth shut and sweated as the two of us continued on our way.
Finally we entered the principal's office area, a small waiting room with a desk that I assumed was Yamazaki's was pushed alongside one wall while some chairs were lined up against the other side. Yamazaki promptly sat down and began to type away on her desk-top computer. "He'll see you now." She said in a quick tone, never looking away from her computer screen.
Rude, I thought to myself, then bowed my head and headed towards the door, as I closed the door behind me, I noticed that in a small picture frame was a rather candid photograph of Koichi Shido. Ah so that's how it was, my dislike of the snake was well known though I'd never said so to anyone. If she was sweet on that bastard then that explained things so much.
That line of thought was chased out of my head with an older male voice broke the silence in good though slightly accented English, the first I'd heard in a while. "Ah, Mr. Brody, glad to see you, come sit down."
Turning around I got my first close look at the school principal. He was around 50 years old with short cropped hair and a salt and pepper moustache over his lips. His dark eyes were intelligent and he seemed to be a pleasant man. I'd certainly never heard anyone complain about him before.
I bowed and then sat down. "Good day Principal Yamada. Good to see you as well. What was it you wanted to see me about?"
"Ah cutting to the chase then? Good, this will make things quicker."
He shuffled some papers and my stomach began doing back-flips.
"It says here that you applied to the Custodial Job, even though you're a native English speaker. You could have gotten a job as an English teaching assistant. Why is that?"
Swallowing and praying that ROB wouldn't screw me over before the apocalypse actually happened I answered as calmly as I could. "Well to be honest it was two reasons. First I wasn't confident enough of my Japanese language skills that I wouldn't make an idiot of myself. The other reason was that I didn't feel that I had the teaching experience for that sort of job. That and I'm not the public speaker, it wouldn't look good if the students saw their teacher stuttering while trying to teach them, they're not oblivious and they'd pick up on that very quickly."
He nodded. "Yes that's what you told me when you applied for the custodial job and to be honest we didn't need an English teacher assistant or otherwise at the time. That's changed however since then." He looked over his papers and continued, "I'm sure you heard about this already but one of our foreign assistant teachers had to leave suddenly because of a death in her family.
I winced at that, yeah I'd heard about it. Young lady from Cali had been here as a teaching assistant for a few months then got the tragic news that both her parents as well as a younger sibling had died in a tragic car accident. I hadn't talked with her but from what Shizuka had told me it had all but broken the young woman and she'd listed for a few days before declaring she was leaving to go home.
"Oh yes I heard. Shame what happened to her, no one deserves losing so much so quickly." I said in a sympathetic tone.
Yamada looked down for a moment then looked back up. "Indeed but with Miss Clara heading home that leaves an opening that needs to be filled and I'd rather not go through the madness and paper work needed to get another fluent English speaker. Not if there's one already here.
I stared for a moment. "Me? But I'm not registered with JET, I'm not even a teacher!"
"I don't HAVE to get my english instructors from the Program and you'd be a teaching assistant, much looser standards and requirements for the job. It'd also be an increase in your pay and easier hours than the ones you keep already. As for your worries about your Japanese, I really don't hear any problems considering we've been speaking it since you sat down." Clever old man. Very clever.
"So Mr. Brody what are your thoughts?"
I sat there for a moment then shrugged, "Alright, though I hope you know I might not be the best man for the job." I said.
He extended his hand for a shake to my surprise and I grabbed it and gave it a firm shake. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Besides I'd hate to tell Inoue-san that the Janitor job I'd told was his was no longer available."
I froze for a moment, stunned at the old man's confidence. He only smiled at my surprise. "I'll handle the paperwork and I'll have someone give you a crash-course on what you'll need to know. Just make sure you have some presentable clothes for when you start classes."
I grinned again. "Thank-you but I have to ask. Why? I mean why me?"
The smile on Yamada's face faded a bit. "Simple. You don't like Shido-Sensei, and the feeling is mutual. I can't fire the man for certain reasons, but if I can aggravate him in other ways then I'll take it. Besides your English and Japanese are impeccable, some of the best I've heard from a non-native speaker and you seem to work well with the students. I've heard how Hirano-san's been improving in his classes and he seems to be in better shape. You seem to have helped him and I hope you can share that with some of the other students." The smile on his face returning.
"Well in that case I'll do my best and thank-you for the opportunity sir."
With that I got up and left the room with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I wasn't being fired heck it was actually a bit of a step UP! Miss Yamazaki stared a bit at the good mood I seemed to be in and I ignored her in return. As I headed out of the office I paused then turned and changed the direction I was originally heading. "I need to tell Shizuka about this."
Last edited: Jun 3, 2015