Pop Flies, Robo-Pets, and Other Disasters by Suzanne Kamata

Author:Suzanne Kamata [Kamata, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781947159402
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Published: 2020-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

18

The big freeze continues throughout afternoon practice and on into the next day. At lunchtime, Junji pushes his desk next to Shintaro’s. I move my desk over by theirs, but they ignore me. Shintaro has a lacquer box stuffed with rice balls, fish, and boiled vegetables. He doesn’t offer anything to Junji, who’s dining on a bag of rolls. He probably bought them at the convenience store on the way to school. I eat my bento without saying a word.

Junji and Shintaro are laughing about something, and I’m not in on the joke. I don’t know why they’re being such jerks. Maybe they think I’m getting special treatment from the coach because my grandfather founded the school. Or maybe they think it’s because I went to America. What they don’t understand is that if we don’t win, there will be no more baseball. I can help us win. I know I can.

I glance over at Misa’s empty desk. Might as well go check out English lunch.

“Excuse me,” I mutter.

I pack up my half-eaten lunch and move my desk away from theirs. Other students look up at the screech of dragging furniture.

Junji and Shintaro continue ignoring me at first. But then they go silent and I feel their eyes on my back as I walk out the door.

Third floor, next to the Art room, she said. I climb the stairs and find the room. The door’s closed. With my ear against the wood, I can make out voices. Laughter. English. I knock lightly. Wait.

The voices stop. I hear footsteps, then the door slides open wide enough for one eye to peer through.

“Oh, it’s you!” Misa says. She slides the door open wider.

“Hey.” I try to sound all casual, even though my heart is knocking around my rib cage. If I held out my hands, they’d probably be shaking.

“Hi.” She slides the door open wider.

“Hey, there, Satoshi,” Jerry says. He’s sitting at a table with a pile of sandwiches. “Come on in. You know Misa already, right? This is Masaki and Shina.”

Next to him is a boy with a weight problem from another class, and a girl with an eye patch—bully magnets all. “English Lunch” is clearly code name for “losers.”

I nod at everyone, drop into an empty chair, and gobble the rest of my bento’s contents in silence.

The others seem super self-conscious at first, sliding their eyes at me, as if afraid I’ll attack. When they figure out that I’m not there to hurt them, they seem to forget about me. Pretty soon they start talking again. “Hey, can we play Trivial Pursuit again next week?” Shina asks. “That was really fun.”

“Yes,” Masaki adds. “I like that game. I’ve been studying so that I can win next time.”

Wow. They all speak English really well. And Trivial Pursuit? I played that at Jamal’s house, back in Atlanta. It was fun.

“Sure,” Jerry says. He turns to me. “Do you want to play, too?”

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