After I arrived at my home, I slid my shoes in the corner of the entryway and headed to my father's office. Sure enough, he wasn't there since it's weekdays, and weekdays meant work for them.
I slipped the test paper from earlier and the piece of paper that the boy gave me into the cabinet of his table. After I'd done putting my backpack in my room on the second floor, I walked down the hallway and the stairs with an 'I badly want to hop on the bath' in my mind.
I could say our house was large enough for us. It was a two-story house with four people living in it, or should I say that since most of the time my parents weren't home. Every weekday afternoon, there was a housekeeper who cleaned the house for us. They hired her since they knew we barely moved from our room except we need to get some food.
I'd never seen her face but, I must praise her for her fine work. Someday... maybe.
Every time I walked down the hallway, I felt like I'd worn out myself first before I arrived at the front of the bathroom. I don't know but, there's something in the hallway that made it too long.
I entered the bath, leaving my dirty clothes in the basket on the corner of the room. Though, I couldn't confidently say that it was dirty since I just sat on a chair and read my book, I mean, my sister's, all day.
As I turned the shower on, scorching water streamed from the showerhead and fell over my body. I was taken aback but eventually, the water turned warm and gentle as though it was embracing my whole body.
While I was on it, my mind began to wander.
Do water streamed on the showerhead again after they fell in this hole? I wondered as the hole on the ground caught my attention. I started to imagine the illustration of recycling. Is that how it works?
I ended up chuckling because of my stupid thoughts. Later that day, I found out that all my thoughts about the water from the shower were wrong, and once again, my memory failed to remind me to search for the meaning of Fe2O3.
❀
"Oh, side ponytail!"
"Sakura, you're so cute!"
"Yeah, your hair looks good on you."
"Is that so?" I asked as I pinched a strand of my hair hanging on my side and took a good look at it. "But there's nothing special about it..." I mumbled.
As the strong wind blew, I didn't bother to stop my hair from flying around my face since it was tightly tied on the right side of my head. It was Wednesday, which means physical education for us, and eleven days left before the class trip. I was quietly sitting on the side of the field, arms around my knees, and feeling the prickly grass on my back when my classmates came around and surrounded me as though I was caged by them.
All of us were wearing our P.E uniform and jogging pants, the difference was the whiteness of their uniforms was no longer there. Compared to them, mine's as clean as white milk. Though, milk only has one color, or hasn't?
As I was thinking about these surreal things, a ball gradually rolled onto my feet and stopped right in front of me. I looked around where the ball came from and saw the spiky boy running towards us.
"Oh, it's here," he said as he spotted the ball. Though he sounded like he knew it was here but lied for some reason. He turned his gaze to me and examined my features with his eyes narrowed.
For some reason, the other kids around me moved at my back. And eventually, and gladly, the others went to the field to play.
"Wait, why is your uniform still clean, Sakura?" he asked, pointing his finger at me. I shrunk back and felt uncomfortable. Isn't it quite rude to point your finger at the other person? I pondered and ended the conclusion of it was rude to point one's fingers at others.
I watched him as he took the ball and cradled it with his arm."Why... you asked but I suppose there's no right answer for th—"
"Whua! did you just sat there all time? That's why you are still a loner."
"..."
I'd lost for words. I knew that kids would bluntly state what's inside their minds without putting much thought into it, and for some reason, it felt like it rang in my ears.
I heaved a breath, paying no attention to him, and stood up. This might be a childish way of thinking but, I want to snatch the ball from him and threw it over the fences. I just want to tease him a bit because of what he said.
Scratching this thought, I realized that I may be the one who would fetch it if I'd throw it, so I got back to sitting on the grass. The spiky boy and our classmates gave me dubious looks but I just lightly smiled at them. Probably they would think of me as weird.
"Uom..."
"Well, I'm already here so..." the spiky boy scratched his chin and shifted his gaze away. "I'll invite you... to play dodgeball, I mean," he added, his voice as though he whispered but I precisely heard them.
Just as I was about to say 'no, thank you it's weird for a girl to play dodgeball and it was clear that the boys would win' my other classmates urged me as they gently pushed my back. I thought of dodgeball as a good game but I wasn't confident that I would last after a few rounds.
Eventually, I accepted his invitation and headed to the field along with the spiky boy and our classmates. We divided our class in half. Expectedly, the game started with girls versus boys. And because of this team-up, I'd anticipated what team the winner would be.
The sun hadn't struck its full heat when I went to my assigned position inside the rectangle, thanks to the clear weather and the cold season. As I readied myself, my teammates threw the ball into the opposing team as though she was just passing it without the intent of hitting our enemies.
The ball was easily struck back to us, I barely dodged it but the ball landed on one of my teammates and made her out. I picked up the ball and swiftly hurled it back to the boys, I'd hit one and it amazingly bounced to the boy on his side. I have no idea if I should be proud of myself or not since playing this game wouldn't affect my future unlike studying. But this sort of thing was quite fun, I thought.
As the game goes on, we ended up in two versus one. Surprisingly, I was the only one left on our team, I suppose luck is on my side. In contrast, the boys had two... the spiky boy and one who hadn't left an impression on me. The ball was on their side thus I told myself I needed to be careful.
"Go, Sakura!"
"You can do it!"
"We're cheering on you!"
I heard my teammate's acclamations, but it doesn't sound and felt right that I was the one who left inside the rectangle. As the ball flew towards me, It luckily fell into my arms. I glanced at the one who threw the ball, it was the spiky boy, he laughed as though he made a mistake. I aimlessly threw the ball towards them, it grazed the impressionless one and rolled back to my side.
Now, the two of us left in the game. My mind kept wondering why I had too much luck today but I decided to put it, in the meantime, on the corner and focused on the game. I picked up the ball and toss it to him.
"Argh!"
With that, it was clear that I won the battle without giving too much effort. I felt a little dissatisfied with how the game ended but 'a win is a win'. My teammates jogged towards me and celebrated our victory. Meanwhile, the boys looked dejected but eventually accepted their loss and congratulated us.
There was no reward in our game but honestly, I had fun and if they'd invited me again, I undoubtedly accepted it. I supposed this was a part of youth.