A School Situation (Private- Exam)

It was surprising, really, how easy it was to sneak into a high school. Well, not sneak, really. Sayuri hadn't tried to avoid the adults, or break in over night, or dig any tunnels into the building with a plastic spoon. None of those classic break-out-of-jail tropes. But she wasn't exactly supposed to be here. Nor was it a setting she was very comfortable in. She'd never been in a public school before- she'd been home-schooled. Well, her parents had hired private tutors for her, which was pretty much the same thing. But despite her actual age she looked young enough to be in school. She'd just filled a backpack, grabbed a few notebooks, and walked straight in the doors with all the other kids arriving for class. She'd forsaken her usual kimono, instead finding herself a school-girl type outfit, very similar to what all the students were wearing. All the teachers had just looked over her as she'd become just a part of the crowd. They didn't recognize her, obviously, but they had probably just assumed she was a new student.

Not that Sayuri made a habit of breaking into schools, of course. But this was a special circumstance. She'd been at home minding her own business when she'd received a letter. It was a barely marked envelope written in a hand she didn't recognize, and when she read it she received quite a shock. It was a heart-wrenching letter from a young teenager telling someone, clearly a close friend, about her experiences at school. It was painfully obvious that the letter hadn't been intended for Sayuri, but when she checked the outside of the letter, it clearly had her address on it. Most likely either the girl had written the wrong address, or her friend had been the previous tenant here, before Sayuri moved in. She'd have asked her new landlord, but he wasn't around at the moment. The letter only had a first name, so she had no way of tracking down the intended recipient. She'd even gone door-to-door down the whole street, harassing her new neighbors asking if they recognized the name. No one had offered any answers. But she couldn't just ignore the desperate plea for help that the letter contained, so she had decided that she would just have to answer it herself. And give the young woman her letter back as well, so she could make sure it got to her friend.

And Sayuri had come prepared. After all, one should always do their homework before coming to school. She didn't have the address of Emma, the girl who'd sent the letter, but she did have her full name, and a bit of digging had led her to a picture of her. She now knew exactly who she was looking for. And the letter had mentioned the specific room she would be in in the morning, so Sayuri even knew where in the building she would be headed. And now, she was embarking on her special ops mission.

She settled for loitering in the hallway near the classroom's door, trying not to look suspicious. The students took little to no interest in her, which was good. She was used to that, even. She was someone who tended to fade into the background, and she liked it that way, thank you very much. However, when the time for class to begin came and she still hadn't seen a trace of Emma, she started to second guess herself. She risked a quick look through the small window in the door and confirmed that she hadn't missed the girl going in. Emma was nowhere to be found.

Doubts started to form, along with all of the what-ifs. What if Sayuri had picked the wrong classroom? What if Emma was out for the day- or even the week? What if she'd changed schools altogether? Most people may think that that last possibility was a long stretch, but after the letter she'd read Sayuri felt it was a definite possibility. She forced herself to calm down. Okay, she knew the girl was upset. Where would she go if she was upset?

The logical answer popped into her head immediately. The restrooms. That was where people often went if they were upset. It gave some small measure of privacy, and it seemed as good a place as any to start. She wanted to leave no stone unturned. She may eventually end up having to give up on her quest, but it wouldn't be for a lack of trying.

And so Sayuri began her systematic hunt. It wasn't nearly as easy as getting into the school had been. Now the halls were mostly empty, which meant she had to avoid being spotted by teachers, or they would question her as to why she was here. And she was unfamiliar with the school's layout. But when she reached her third restroom she knew she'd hit the jackpot before she even went in.

As she opened the door, the sound of crying, which had been audible even through the door, became suddenly hushed, as though whoever was in here was trying to keep the new arrival from hearing them. A little late for that. As she scanned the room, she saw that one stall was occupied. The rest of the room was empty. Well, it was worth a shot.

"Hello? Who is in here? Are you Emma?"

There was a sudden fit of sniffling, then a brief response.

"Just go away! Why can't you ever leave me alone?"

Sayuri sighed quietly. It seemed like her guess had been correct.

"Emma, I'm not here to be mean to you. I don't even know you. I just want to talk. Will you please come out and talk to me?"

She fully expected not to get a response, or perhaps an angry one. And for a long moment, it seemed as though that was exactly what was going to happen. Then she heard the lock slide, and then the door slowly opened.

She recognized Emma immediately from the picture. The same pale skin, same glossy black hair, same lustrous blue eyes. But while the girl in the photo had been playful, laughing with her friends, this girl seemed... Broken. Her eyes dull and filled with water, the streaks down her cheeks from her tears visible. She looked miserable, which unfortunately was exactly what Sayuri had expected to find.

What surprised her, though, was that the girl was not alone. There was another girl there too. And although her skin was a hair rosier than Emma's, her eyes a shade lighter, she immediately pinned the girls as siblings. And the second girl, clearly the younger of the two, had the same downtrodden look.

Emma studied Sayuri for a minute through her red-rimmed eyes before finally speaking.

"You... You're not from this school. Who are you?"

How perceptive. Sayuri took a moment to lock the outside door so that they could speak uninterrupted, then sat on the low bathroom counter before pulling folded up, worn letter from her pocket and handing it to the girl she'd come here to see, watching as a look of recognition crossed her face before explaining.

"My name is Sayuri. And you're right, I'm not from around here. But I got this letter. I think you wrote the wrong address on it. I couldn't track down your friend Maddie, so I brought it back to you."

Emma stared at her in amazement.

"You came all this way just to give me my letter?"

Sayuri nodded her confirmation, and the girl's eyes began to fill with tears again.

"The address wasn't wrong. Maddie moved... But she never sent me the new address. I only found out from talking to one of her other friends after several of my letters went unanswered, but she didn't tell me the new address either, so I have no way of reaching her."

The heartbroken tone almost made Sayuri wince. She knew how badly that must have hurt, especially considering what she already knew from the letter.

"Well, I'm sorry you can't talk to her. But I'm here, and you can talk to me. I promise I won't tell anyone, and I might be able to help."

Emma shook her head slightly.

"What could you even do? You aren't from here, and no one knows you. I don't even know you. There's nothing you can do!"

Sayuri held the younger girl's gaze for a long minute.

"Well, for starters, I can listen. It may not be much, but talking about it can help, sometimes. You have to know that, or you wouldn't have written Maddie about it. Come on, get it off your chest. You'll feel a lot better."

A long, awkward silence filled the room. Then, suddenly, Emma began talking.

"It all started when we moved. Our family, we left Oshibana several months ago because my dad got a new job up here. Government work, you know. But no one here likes us! They say we're country hicks, that we're uneducated. Unrefined. They made fun of us because our shoes are worn, or because our clothes aren't designer brand. We all have to dress the same, but they still pick out even the minor differences! The girls tell me how I should start wearing make-up to 'fix' my face, the boys say I'm ugly because I don't have a big enough chest. They make fun of me because I don't like to play sports. I was on the cheer-leading team at my old school, but when I tried to join here they said I 'wasn't pretty enough' for it. I could take all that, even, but they do it to my sister too! And that's what I can't stand- that they try to hurt my little sister. What gives them the right to be so mean? It's not fair!"

She broke off in tears, and Sayuri reached out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I know it's hard," she said quietly, "but that's just the way people are. I wish I could say everything would get better, but I can't. What I can tell you, though, is that they say things like that because they're jealous. People can be... Petty like that. They want everyone to be like them, but not quite as good, so that they can feel superior. They don't like it if you don't fit in to that perfect view because it makes them look like they're less... Great. But that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you. Quite the opposite- there's something wrong with them."

She slid off the counter and wrapped her arms around the girls, pulling them into a hug. She couldn't help it. She just wanted to comfort them in any way she could.

"Thank you," Emma mumbled quietly. "I didn't think that would make it feel any better, but it did."

Sayuri smiled. At least she'd made some little bit of difference. But she meant to do a lot more than that.

"That's good. Now, I want you to do something for me. I want you two to go to your classes, and hold your head high, okay? Oh, and one more thing. Whatever people are the meanest to you- tell me what they look like..."



A few hours later it was finally lunch time, and Sayuri dared to venture out of the bathroom, now that the halls were full of students again. Well, she had made one other trip out earlier, a reconnaissance mission of sorts, but that one had been much more covert. She made her way to the cafeteria, making sure to note her... Targets. It was a good thing that Sayuri was very observant. And devious.

Vivian was a cheerleader. Not just any cheerleader- the team captain. And one of Emma's most frequent tormentors. It didn't take Sayuri hardly any time to spot her. Long blonde hair, obviously dyed, spray-on suntan, obviously enhanced chest. She looked exactly like a queen bee, and Sayuri was about to upset the hive. She surreptitiously sidled up to the table she was sitting at, then bent down as though to tie her shoelace. Instead, she spotted a hair clip one of the other girls had set on the table and carefully swiped it. Then she wrapped the queen bee's skirt around one of the legs of the table and clipped it in place with the hair clip. As she was standing, she stealthily slipped a photo in the bag of the girl sitting next to the cheer captain, sticking out of one of the books just enough to be noticeable. Then, knowing that the empty chair on the other side of the girl would soon be occupied, she slipped the handle of the bag under the chair leg. Satisfied that phase one of her plan was complete, she drifted off. Time for phase two...

Her next stop was the table where the football players hung out, led, of course, the cheer captain's boyfriend. And the other main group that tormented the two poor girls. This time she'd need more time than just tying a shoe lace, so she needed a bigger distraction. She "accidentally' dropped her folder, letting the papers inside scatter across the floor. As expected, no one offered to help, or even really noticed her. Nor did they get suspicious when she started scrambling around on the floor gathering them up. She also used that time to "adjust" the boys' shoelaces.

And finally, phase three. The easiest by far. She casually passed the table that Emma and her sister were sitting at, by themselves. Neither girl had noticed her in the cafeteria, and that didn't change now. She left a small note on the table by Emma's elbow before quietly heading off. It was time for this 'fairy godmother' to disappear...

She reached the cafeteria door just late enough to catch the very beginning of the chaotic chain of events that she had set in motion. The last girl of the cheer squad finally arrived, pulling out her chair to sit at the table. As she did so, the bag whose strap was tangled in the chair's legs was pulled off the table, it's contents spilling everywhere. And very obvious on top was the photo Sayuri had planted inside- of the bag's owner kissing the cheer captain's boyfriend during a passing period earlier in the day. Sayuri had been very lucky to catch that moment- and with a camera in hand too.

The cheer captain screeched in outrage, quickly rising from her seat to confront her 'friend.' Then the room was filled with shocked gasps as the cheer captain turned as red as a lobster. After all, Sayuri had connected the girl's skirt to the table leg... And it had stayed with the table leg. As the horrified girl went to fix her wardrobe malfunction- and notice the cause of it- the football team tried to rush to see what exactly was going on at the girls's table.

And that ended in its own chaos. Because Sayuri had tied all of their shoelaces together, connecting each boy's feet to the two people next to him. They were all tripping over each other, eventually ending up in a massive, squirming pile on the floor. Quite undignified, one would say. All while all the other students in the room stared with the same horrified look of someone who just couldn't look away from a train wreck.

And in the back corner of the room, Emma smiled as she read the slip of paper she'd found on the table next to her.