The Chikamori Selfacy (A Reboot)
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-451kWfI6hzI/X8bPPtEyeVI/AAAAAAAAk54/KB3_SyRJ73IFG8EkSAmOkYAyCBOz1giwgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/ChikamoriSelfacyReboot_banner.png Prologue: June 12, 1970; Sacred Spleen Hospital...
Forum Discussion
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-451kWfI6hzI/X8bPPtEyeVI/AAAAAAAAk54/KB3_SyRJ73IFG8EkSAmOkYAyCBOz1giwgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/ChikamoriSelfacyReboot_banner.png
Generation One
Chapter Three - "Seeing in A New Light"
Part One
Senior year was going by at a frantic pace. There were plenty of things to keep River and Haruo occupied. Yearbook club, debate club, martial arts club all combined to make things interesting often resulting in a late afternoon before leaving the school to walk home together.
River made other friends as did Haruo as they strove to make the best of the year that was to be their final year in high-school.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AGPBLGgedRE/WiOKsRbcDvI/AAAAAAAAGwo/W0xKVg5UrGUwBc1Yb585qvzk8Fxjvx7cACLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot-14.jpg
Christmas and New Year went by considering the mind-numbing amount of time they'd had to study before the midterms that culminated in the tests being written just before they broke for winter break but now the holidays had long been over - February had gone by just as quickly; in fact March was nearly three weeks in; there were buds on the trees and thee was a flowery scent in the air as they walk to school in the morning and from school in the afternoon.
The transition from December's winter solstice to spring equinox had gone by without them realizing it River knew she had done well; Haruo was less certain. Some of the questions involved had clearly stumped him. He knew that he wasn't going to get out of school on the honour roll, that was for certain.
And of course his inability to make honour roll was all the incentive that Mayumi needed to keep up her relentless persecution of her son resorting to dire pronouncements of skepticism in his ability to even function in the world; no unconditional love for that no-good for nothing spawn of hers. Mayumi intended to make absolutely certain that the scion of her flesh made certain to know just what she was sacrificing for his ungrateful rear-end. If he wasn't going to perform to her expectations, she would have preferred to have replaced him but that would have raised eyes from the Ministry minions and brought undue attention where it wasn't needed.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_NYr7qpAHPA/X8oTo86_O7I/AAAAAAAAk-A/enhWm5OZPZMlx6iNUgC5zVM5IE0lbGzMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-108.jpg
River realized with some horrified surprise that it was possible for herself to have such a capacity to hate someone, but she absolutely loathed Mayumi with every fibre of her being for what Mayumi was doing to Haruo. River wished that Haruo would just move into her third of the triplex to get away from Mayumi after all they had a spare bedroom. But Mayumi would have a fit and she would impugn River's reputation all over town as the deflowering wanton harlot who took the innocence of her son or some other bullshit like that. River snorted in disdain at the thought of that witch taking a shot at her reputation then smiled a devilish smile at a delicious thought. If she would deflower his innocence , it would be within the sanctified bonds of marriage. And they both would be at the same time as River wasn't the kind of wanton woman that Mayumi considered her to be.
Of course the thought of her and Haruo being an item startled River even though the implication of that thought was that she'd considered Haruo as a potential life-partner. And the longer that thought percolated in her mind the more enticing it got.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nvczV4x0Rt4/X8oT7wKHErI/AAAAAAAAk-I/v8q8Kpe4Zxg7JGVk3hdyuH1jcErSgeOIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-114.jpg
During the classes they had together, they sat side-by-side. River paid attention to the teacher's instruction but it seemed as though her attention would stray to her friend sitting beside her diligently trying to understand his lessons unaware of what his closeness was doing to her.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W0K3nZRK9IQ/X8oX18uIHCI/AAAAAAAAk-c/FRbhxVcI0xYw3BruVlKY1Mki4EFiU3FRwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-113.jpg
River sighed, elbow on her desk right cheek cradled in the palm of her hand trying to listen to the teacher but a little imp that resided in her head kept dragging her attention away from today's lesson plan and towards the student sitting beside her now that the genie was out of the bottle it wasn't going back in again. At least not without a crowbar and a pitchfork. It also didn't help that the next class was biology 12. She rolled her eyes.
But right now it was maths and she had to pay attention to that or her grade point average would slip and that wouldn't do well for her chances at obtaining a scholarship to the UBC Baccalaureate of Fine Arts (BFA). Even if math and sciences were not needed in a fine arts degree, making sure her marks were in the top tenth percentile would do wonders for application to the University of British Columbia and quite possibly obtain a scholarship to continue her studies further with a Master's degree. The potential was there at least.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LyxI8S6X_gs/X8oYWXfDy1I/AAAAAAAAk-k/iSX0z6KCSvE-ue_2pvq_x0GOsZ5eNlVuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-118.jpg
She couldn't help but look over at Haruo again who was intently staring at the blackboard trying to make heads or tails out of the curriculum that was being presented to him. At least he wasn't banging his head off the desk. That action might kill brain-cells. River couldn't help but smile as she saw Haruo shoot a look of frustration at the wall clock as if willing the minutes to go by faster and heard him mutter softly under his breath, "I can't make heads or tails of this damned calculation!" She knew that she was going to have to help him with homework again when they got home. At least today was Friday and Fridays meant Yasunobu, Molly, Mom, Haruo and she would go to Hogan's for dinner. Mayumi wouldn't be there, thank goodness, they could eat in peace.
River figured that Mayumi, on the other hand, preferred to stay home, cook her own meals and presumably inflict psychological torture on poor unassuming Sandi French. River was absolutely certain that Mayumi was enjoying the full-on psychological torment of an infant. It fed her soul and replenished her evil-ness and frankly she didn't give two hoots about whether or not Molly would have to spend thousands of simoleons on therapy bills for poor little oft-neglected Sandi - especially with puting her in the hands of *gasp - horror* Mayumi. That was an unspeakable crime.
Within the Bowels of the Sunset Valley Combined School.
Mayumi Chikamori was more than happy. Giving the ne'er-do-wells in her class six pages of lines single spaced in neat cursive should shut the little pint sized urchins quiet for another six hours.
While the scratching of pencils diligently doing lines were audible, nothing else was, no speaking, no whispering, not a single uttered sound, hell, her pupils were afraid to breathe lest they incur her wrath.
In the meantime even though Mayumi had the quiet she wanted; the terrified souls who were trapped in the classroom hoping against hope that they would be released from their personal hell come day-end. For them there was no reprieve. They were in elementary school and they had no class schedule. Mayumi was their teacher for the whole year. And who knew what horrors would be perpetrated on the students come day-end when detentions were handed out?
In fact it was spoken about in hushed tones that Mrs. Chikamori, their teacher, boiled the students who were unlucky enough to get detention.
"You know why little Ricky Sparks isn't here any more? Mrs. Chikamori chopped him up into little tiny pieces, cooked him and fed him to her dogs..."
"James, she doesn't have dogs..."
Horrified looks all around, "That's even worse...man, don't ever get detention or you may not survive."
It often got back to Haruo about what was being said about his mother but after the abuse from his mother, he just tuned it out. Let his mother have to deal with the repercussions of her foul personality by herself.
Mayumi wasn't paying attention to the students; she already knew who she was going to single out for detention. Now to bring their hopes for dismissal at the bell crashing to esrth. "Miraj Alvi! Bella Bachelor! Mortimer Goth, Harry Stanton, Malanie Elles, Kevin Fortin. You all have detention."
A pity that miserable McIrish tart wasn't in my class or she'd be getting detention too. Mayumi thought to herself realizing that River had long since aged out of the grades that she was assigned by the school administration to teach. Then I'd have had that young twit in my hands and I would have been able to get that woman whats-her-name; oh, Fiona McIrish, all worried about her daughter's academic prospects. Now that's another useless woman if I ever saw one. She cackled under her breath.
She also knew that staying late for detention would also mess up the plans for her husband, her son, Fiona, Molly and River to go eat dinner out tonight. Even though never in her wildest nightmares would she ever deign to consider joining the group for dinner; she still relished the thought of throwing a monkey wrench into their plans.
Mayumi never showed up for those occasions. Hobnobbing with the likes of the Mcirish family was beneath her, according to Mayumi. Having to trade how-do-you-do's with some plebeian news reporter who was one step up from a paparazzi and a fast food restaurant cook. Mayumi held her nose in the air regardless of the fact that she usually ended up burning water and wouldn't be able to cook an exceedingly good meal; most of her meals came out scorched and blackened. Oh, no exceedingly wonderful specimen of human intelligence like her would consider stooping down to associate with people she would much rather wipe her dirty shoes on.
After all; that irresponsible excuse for a useless maternal cow would drop her little screamin’ demon in Mayumi's lap and ask her to look after the thing. Well even if the spawn was an irritant, at least she would get some amusement at the very least. And just so long as she was able to make it so that Molly would always regret having handed the little rug chewer to her. No coddling for Sandi. Maybe put her in the living-room in the playpen and put on Night of the Living Dead as a soother. Sandi could throw temper tantrums till Molly fetched her then Mayumi would shrug helplessly and say in saccharinely sweet tones, "I really don't know, she just wouldn't settle down for me today, whatever can you do." Oh yes, Mayumi was going to love psychologically twisting that little ankle-biter into a nightmare for Molly to parent.
Math Class 0200
The bell rang to signal end of class as Ms. Amberley announced, "Go over Chapters 15, 17, 22 to 26 and complete all even numbered problems. See you all on Monday!"
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hb_Ehqd_HnY/X8oj0zmJ60I/AAAAAAAAlAM/2v_Eb3u4KJYW2noST4qadfjz3dsgOpDjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-117.jpg
Haruo groaned audibly as he gathered up his work and stuffed his textbook and binder into his backpack. River hung back and said, "I'll help you with it at home." She received a thankful smile from him as they headed out the door. "I've got biology so I'll meet you afterwards."
Haruo had a study block which he used to try to study in the library. At least the corner of the library where he'd try to study was quiet with relatively little interruption. That way he would be able to at least attempt some of the calculations required from the assigned homework. Whether he could understand the work was another story.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZcLkjXGfDjM/X8obGabGqkI/AAAAAAAAk-4/iXbo9JrVwCg2vTE_jacxXjVfeeqQlhIpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-119.jpg
Maybe a job in a bookstore like Divisadero was more in the cards: a simple time for money exchange and then writing books on his time off. He looked up at the library ceiling rolling his eyes again in barely restrained frustration. Math did not come easily to him and every calculation was a struggle. How did students manage trigonometric functions in the past with no calculators to assist them with the calculations. Graphing sine and cosine waves with a graphing calculator was pain enough. It would be even more so with only a pad of paper a compass and slide-rule. Despite his heuristic attempts Haruo was not finding any satisfaction in the head-wracking required to complete any of the problems and despite watching the clock's minute-hand make its way around the circumference of the minute indicators, the eventual result was that he was no further ahead than he was when he started.
When the bell rang he made his way to the front entrance of the school where he would meet River to begin their walk home. If they could get their homework done by five they would be able to be ready in time to go out to the diner by the time Fiona and Yasunobu got home from work.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-asZzG0DWz6I/X8obkEjRcXI/AAAAAAAAk_E/07i52u8I4zwwHVajLa6mJUvtPgkyOWm5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-121.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AQpABrR3Gfk/X8obkCQy0bI/AAAAAAAAk_A/F0FKdFV6uTMhiExSu0DjgzzhSlx7K-ncACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-124.jpg
"Hey..." Haruo felt a light touch of fingers on his arm and it wasn't River's voice or hand. "River has to clean up the frog dissection that we had to do today in class. So she told me to let you know that she'll be out in a few." Haruo turned to see Bebe Hart, River's biology class partner, standing by his side, a smile playing on her lips as she gave him a frank stare that did nothing to disguise her interest.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XQWP8r-3z7E/X8ob-j1s_9I/AAAAAAAAk_Q/oNF_Ooj4FxEbFTYlzDg0wtZIbfzMw4-3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-139.jpg
VJ passed by giving him a nasty look but didn't dare to start anything. The pounding he took in Grade Eight from Haruo's fists, elbows, knees and feet certainly stayed with that juvenile delinquent and well, VJ didn't want another brutal lesson in what Haruo would do to him if he ever got up the nerve to try to hassle Haruo ever again.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-olOqmPanUPY/X8oclpiKoYI/AAAAAAAAk_Y/NiTNjOYMuKcc5LUqBQRMRgiSzqMJtndowCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-147.jpg
Michael Bachelor grinned as he walked by, "See ya, Monday, Bruce Lee!" Evidently anyone with a modicum of martial arts talent was monikered with the nickname of the late great martial artist of the Game of Death fame.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0bxiUkpsesk/X8odLcf4rSI/AAAAAAAAk_k/5EfAWo5-naYRg-79N-h-T5ihJTwkvndmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-127.jpg
"So are you planning to go to prom with River?" Bebe asked him curiously giving him the once over; a rather admiring look on her face hinting at some level of interest beyond mere school-yard acquaintances.
The Hart family were well-known as her father, Gus, was known as the town mooch; always borrowing but never making good on his debts. It was reputed that Varg's had suspended his bar-tab due to overdue charges.
Her poor mother, Dorie was working a minimum wage job that barely made ends meet. It also didn't help that Gus, being off his gourd, made things even more difficult by racking up charges for things bought when the whim hit him.
Luckily for Bebe, she hadn't inherited that mendacious characteristic and was honest, hard-working and she planned on majoring in fine art and writing but with a journalism bent. It was fine to consider working for either the Vancouver Sun or Province.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-APzUXSuulCE/X8od1FLd24I/AAAAAAAAk_w/8XXu13cW1Fs6PZIuYUR6a2yTWqh96A9bgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-152.jpg
"That had better be a yes..." River's exaggeratedly saccharine tone of voice right behind him made Haruo wince. When an overly sugary sweet voice was used, it was a warning signal. Well guess that choice was made up for him. No there was no-one else but his best friend who would be the one to go with him to the prom.
(end Part One)
Generation One
Chapter Three - "Seeing in A New Light"
Part One
Senior year was going by at a frantic pace. There were plenty of things to keep River and Haruo occupied. Yearbook club, debate club, martial arts club all combined to make things interesting often resulting in a late afternoon before leaving the school to walk home together.
River made other friends as did Haruo as they strove to make the best of the year that was to be their final year in high-school.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AGPBLGgedRE/WiOKsRbcDvI/AAAAAAAAGwo/W0xKVg5UrGUwBc1Yb585qvzk8Fxjvx7cACLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot-14.jpg
Christmas and New Year went by considering the mind-numbing amount of time they'd had to study before the midterms that culminated in the tests being written just before they broke for winter break but now the holidays had long been over - February had gone by just as quickly; in fact March was nearly three weeks in; there were buds on the trees and thee was a flowery scent in the air as they walk to school in the morning and from school in the afternoon.
The transition from December's winter solstice to spring equinox had gone by without them realizing it River knew she had done well; Haruo was less certain. Some of the questions involved had clearly stumped him. He knew that he wasn't going to get out of school on the honour roll, that was for certain.
And of course his inability to make honour roll was all the incentive that Mayumi needed to keep up her relentless persecution of her son resorting to dire pronouncements of skepticism in his ability to even function in the world; no unconditional love for that no-good for nothing spawn of hers. Mayumi intended to make absolutely certain that the scion of her flesh made certain to know just what she was sacrificing for his ungrateful rear-end. If he wasn't going to perform to her expectations, she would have preferred to have replaced him but that would have raised eyes from the Ministry minions and brought undue attention where it wasn't needed.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_NYr7qpAHPA/X8oTo86_O7I/AAAAAAAAk-A/enhWm5OZPZMlx6iNUgC5zVM5IE0lbGzMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-108.jpg
River realized with some horrified surprise that it was possible for herself to have such a capacity to hate someone, but she absolutely loathed Mayumi with every fibre of her being for what Mayumi was doing to Haruo. River wished that Haruo would just move into her third of the triplex to get away from Mayumi after all they had a spare bedroom. But Mayumi would have a fit and she would impugn River's reputation all over town as the deflowering wanton harlot who took the innocence of her son or some other bullshit like that. River snorted in disdain at the thought of that witch taking a shot at her reputation then smiled a devilish smile at a delicious thought. If she would deflower his innocence , it would be within the sanctified bonds of marriage. And they both would be at the same time as River wasn't the kind of wanton woman that Mayumi considered her to be.
Of course the thought of her and Haruo being an item startled River even though the implication of that thought was that she'd considered Haruo as a potential life-partner. And the longer that thought percolated in her mind the more enticing it got.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nvczV4x0Rt4/X8oT7wKHErI/AAAAAAAAk-I/v8q8Kpe4Zxg7JGVk3hdyuH1jcErSgeOIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-114.jpg
During the classes they had together, they sat side-by-side. River paid attention to the teacher's instruction but it seemed as though her attention would stray to her friend sitting beside her diligently trying to understand his lessons unaware of what his closeness was doing to her.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W0K3nZRK9IQ/X8oX18uIHCI/AAAAAAAAk-c/FRbhxVcI0xYw3BruVlKY1Mki4EFiU3FRwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-113.jpg
River sighed, elbow on her desk right cheek cradled in the palm of her hand trying to listen to the teacher but a little imp that resided in her head kept dragging her attention away from today's lesson plan and towards the student sitting beside her now that the genie was out of the bottle it wasn't going back in again. At least not without a crowbar and a pitchfork. It also didn't help that the next class was biology 12. She rolled her eyes.
But right now it was maths and she had to pay attention to that or her grade point average would slip and that wouldn't do well for her chances at obtaining a scholarship to the UBC Baccalaureate of Fine Arts (BFA). Even if math and sciences were not needed in a fine arts degree, making sure her marks were in the top tenth percentile would do wonders for application to the University of British Columbia and quite possibly obtain a scholarship to continue her studies further with a Master's degree. The potential was there at least.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LyxI8S6X_gs/X8oYWXfDy1I/AAAAAAAAk-k/iSX0z6KCSvE-ue_2pvq_x0GOsZ5eNlVuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-118.jpg
She couldn't help but look over at Haruo again who was intently staring at the blackboard trying to make heads or tails out of the curriculum that was being presented to him. At least he wasn't banging his head off the desk. That action might kill brain-cells. River couldn't help but smile as she saw Haruo shoot a look of frustration at the wall clock as if willing the minutes to go by faster and heard him mutter softly under his breath, "I can't make heads or tails of this damned calculation!" She knew that she was going to have to help him with homework again when they got home. At least today was Friday and Fridays meant Yasunobu, Molly, Mom, Haruo and she would go to Hogan's for dinner. Mayumi wouldn't be there, thank goodness, they could eat in peace.
River figured that Mayumi, on the other hand, preferred to stay home, cook her own meals and presumably inflict psychological torture on poor unassuming Sandi French. River was absolutely certain that Mayumi was enjoying the full-on psychological torment of an infant. It fed her soul and replenished her evil-ness and frankly she didn't give two hoots about whether or not Molly would have to spend thousands of simoleons on therapy bills for poor little oft-neglected Sandi - especially with puting her in the hands of *gasp - horror* Mayumi. That was an unspeakable crime.
Within the Bowels of the Sunset Valley Combined School.
Mayumi Chikamori was more than happy. Giving the ne'er-do-wells in her class six pages of lines single spaced in neat cursive should shut the little pint sized urchins quiet for another six hours.
While the scratching of pencils diligently doing lines were audible, nothing else was, no speaking, no whispering, not a single uttered sound, hell, her pupils were afraid to breathe lest they incur her wrath.
In the meantime even though Mayumi had the quiet she wanted; the terrified souls who were trapped in the classroom hoping against hope that they would be released from their personal hell come day-end. For them there was no reprieve. They were in elementary school and they had no class schedule. Mayumi was their teacher for the whole year. And who knew what horrors would be perpetrated on the students come day-end when detentions were handed out?
In fact it was spoken about in hushed tones that Mrs. Chikamori, their teacher, boiled the students who were unlucky enough to get detention.
"You know why little Ricky Sparks isn't here any more? Mrs. Chikamori chopped him up into little tiny pieces, cooked him and fed him to her dogs..."
"James, she doesn't have dogs..."
Horrified looks all around, "That's even worse...man, don't ever get detention or you may not survive."
It often got back to Haruo about what was being said about his mother but after the abuse from his mother, he just tuned it out. Let his mother have to deal with the repercussions of her foul personality by herself.
Mayumi wasn't paying attention to the students; she already knew who she was going to single out for detention. Now to bring their hopes for dismissal at the bell crashing to esrth. "Miraj Alvi! Bella Bachelor! Mortimer Goth, Harry Stanton, Malanie Elles, Kevin Fortin. You all have detention."
A pity that miserable McIrish tart wasn't in my class or she'd be getting detention too. Mayumi thought to herself realizing that River had long since aged out of the grades that she was assigned by the school administration to teach. Then I'd have had that young twit in my hands and I would have been able to get that woman whats-her-name; oh, Fiona McIrish, all worried about her daughter's academic prospects. Now that's another useless woman if I ever saw one. She cackled under her breath.
She also knew that staying late for detention would also mess up the plans for her husband, her son, Fiona, Molly and River to go eat dinner out tonight. Even though never in her wildest nightmares would she ever deign to consider joining the group for dinner; she still relished the thought of throwing a monkey wrench into their plans.
Mayumi never showed up for those occasions. Hobnobbing with the likes of the Mcirish family was beneath her, according to Mayumi. Having to trade how-do-you-do's with some plebeian news reporter who was one step up from a paparazzi and a fast food restaurant cook. Mayumi held her nose in the air regardless of the fact that she usually ended up burning water and wouldn't be able to cook an exceedingly good meal; most of her meals came out scorched and blackened. Oh, no exceedingly wonderful specimen of human intelligence like her would consider stooping down to associate with people she would much rather wipe her dirty shoes on.
After all; that irresponsible excuse for a useless maternal cow would drop her little screamin’ demon in Mayumi's lap and ask her to look after the thing. Well even if the spawn was an irritant, at least she would get some amusement at the very least. And just so long as she was able to make it so that Molly would always regret having handed the little rug chewer to her. No coddling for Sandi. Maybe put her in the living-room in the playpen and put on Night of the Living Dead as a soother. Sandi could throw temper tantrums till Molly fetched her then Mayumi would shrug helplessly and say in saccharinely sweet tones, "I really don't know, she just wouldn't settle down for me today, whatever can you do." Oh yes, Mayumi was going to love psychologically twisting that little ankle-biter into a nightmare for Molly to parent.
Math Class 0200
The bell rang to signal end of class as Ms. Amberley announced, "Go over Chapters 15, 17, 22 to 26 and complete all even numbered problems. See you all on Monday!"
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hb_Ehqd_HnY/X8oj0zmJ60I/AAAAAAAAlAM/2v_Eb3u4KJYW2noST4qadfjz3dsgOpDjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-117.jpg
Haruo groaned audibly as he gathered up his work and stuffed his textbook and binder into his backpack. River hung back and said, "I'll help you with it at home." She received a thankful smile from him as they headed out the door. "I've got biology so I'll meet you afterwards."
Haruo had a study block which he used to try to study in the library. At least the corner of the library where he'd try to study was quiet with relatively little interruption. That way he would be able to at least attempt some of the calculations required from the assigned homework. Whether he could understand the work was another story.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZcLkjXGfDjM/X8obGabGqkI/AAAAAAAAk-4/iXbo9JrVwCg2vTE_jacxXjVfeeqQlhIpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-119.jpg
Maybe a job in a bookstore like Divisadero was more in the cards: a simple time for money exchange and then writing books on his time off. He looked up at the library ceiling rolling his eyes again in barely restrained frustration. Math did not come easily to him and every calculation was a struggle. How did students manage trigonometric functions in the past with no calculators to assist them with the calculations. Graphing sine and cosine waves with a graphing calculator was pain enough. It would be even more so with only a pad of paper a compass and slide-rule. Despite his heuristic attempts Haruo was not finding any satisfaction in the head-wracking required to complete any of the problems and despite watching the clock's minute-hand make its way around the circumference of the minute indicators, the eventual result was that he was no further ahead than he was when he started.
When the bell rang he made his way to the front entrance of the school where he would meet River to begin their walk home. If they could get their homework done by five they would be able to be ready in time to go out to the diner by the time Fiona and Yasunobu got home from work.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-asZzG0DWz6I/X8obkEjRcXI/AAAAAAAAk_E/07i52u8I4zwwHVajLa6mJUvtPgkyOWm5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-121.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AQpABrR3Gfk/X8obkCQy0bI/AAAAAAAAk_A/F0FKdFV6uTMhiExSu0DjgzzhSlx7K-ncACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-124.jpg
"Hey..." Haruo felt a light touch of fingers on his arm and it wasn't River's voice or hand. "River has to clean up the frog dissection that we had to do today in class. So she told me to let you know that she'll be out in a few." Haruo turned to see Bebe Hart, River's biology class partner, standing by his side, a smile playing on her lips as she gave him a frank stare that did nothing to disguise her interest.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XQWP8r-3z7E/X8ob-j1s_9I/AAAAAAAAk_Q/oNF_Ooj4FxEbFTYlzDg0wtZIbfzMw4-3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-139.jpg
VJ passed by giving him a nasty look but didn't dare to start anything. The pounding he took in Grade Eight from Haruo's fists, elbows, knees and feet certainly stayed with that juvenile delinquent and well, VJ didn't want another brutal lesson in what Haruo would do to him if he ever got up the nerve to try to hassle Haruo ever again.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-olOqmPanUPY/X8oclpiKoYI/AAAAAAAAk_Y/NiTNjOYMuKcc5LUqBQRMRgiSzqMJtndowCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-147.jpg
Michael Bachelor grinned as he walked by, "See ya, Monday, Bruce Lee!" Evidently anyone with a modicum of martial arts talent was monikered with the nickname of the late great martial artist of the Game of Death fame.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0bxiUkpsesk/X8odLcf4rSI/AAAAAAAAk_k/5EfAWo5-naYRg-79N-h-T5ihJTwkvndmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-127.jpg
"So are you planning to go to prom with River?" Bebe asked him curiously giving him the once over; a rather admiring look on her face hinting at some level of interest beyond mere school-yard acquaintances.
The Hart family were well-known as her father, Gus, was known as the town mooch; always borrowing but never making good on his debts. It was reputed that Varg's had suspended his bar-tab due to overdue charges.
Her poor mother, Dorie was working a minimum wage job that barely made ends meet. It also didn't help that Gus, being off his gourd, made things even more difficult by racking up charges for things bought when the whim hit him.
Luckily for Bebe, she hadn't inherited that mendacious characteristic and was honest, hard-working and she planned on majoring in fine art and writing but with a journalism bent. It was fine to consider working for either the Vancouver Sun or Province.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-APzUXSuulCE/X8od1FLd24I/AAAAAAAAk_w/8XXu13cW1Fs6PZIuYUR6a2yTWqh96A9bgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot-152.jpg
"That had better be a yes..." River's exaggeratedly saccharine tone of voice right behind him made Haruo wince. When an overly sugary sweet voice was used, it was a warning signal. Well guess that choice was made up for him. No there was no-one else but his best friend who would be the one to go with him to the prom.
(end Part One)
