Date and search
came to an end faster than Ulf had hoped for. The bell rang for
class, and he had to postpone his search to the next day.
Full of
apprehension he made the rounds the following lunch break. This time
without the company of Noriko. Ulf worried about having to look
through the freshman classrooms without Noriko to create a diversion,
but in the end searching for Jennifer Cooper took shorter than he had
expected. He felt her presence before he even peered inside the
classroom. Inside a full three dozen students sat mesmerized by a
petite brunette in what was mostly a regulation school uniform.
Funny, I
thought he said she was dark blond. Well, it's been a year, and she's
the only one here with looks that scream: foreigner.
But that
presence! It was almost overwhelming. It would look like he was going
to confess, during their second
week. Not worth it. I'll
ask Christina. Better if they think she's sizing up the newly arrived
freshman competition.
Because the
brunette definitely represented competition. Not because of her
looks. Nothing living in Tokyo could compete with Christina, and she
wasn't even fully grown. But that presence! It transformed an already
very pretty girl into something totally different. This girl could
walk into a dark room and have everyone inside crushing on her
without ever having seen her.
She's an
arrival, so we want her in the club. But she's trouble walking on two
legs. Damn, the guys are going to develop whiplash unless we keep a
very, very short distance between her and Christina.
“Jennifer
Cooper?” he asked.
She looked up and
smiled. “Yes?”
You’re cute,
but you’re still no match for my Ina. Every time he thought of
Christina something hurt in his chest. Ulf wondered when that pain
would go away. Seeing her all over Ryu certainly didn’t help. Or
did it? Do I miss her more than I’m angry at her? Is this why
she’s doing it?
“I have your
friend in the other wing. Want to meet him?”
“My friend?”
For a moment Jennifer looked as if she was at a total loss, but then
she grinned and nodded. “Sure,” she said and rose.
“Superb.” Ulf
took the lead. “Which middle school did they send you to?”
He heard her
steps falter behind him and turned.
“I went to
school in Nagoya before moving here.”
Nagoya? Well,
I guess they wanted them separated for a year. The more Ulf
thought of the system the more sense it made. Spend one year alone to
get used to being a teenager, without any connections to the past to
act as crutches. “So, what did you do before you arrived?” Ulf
asked.
They were midway
though the corridor that connected the wings, and through the windows
Ulf saw how the freshmen tried to make themselves comfortable in the
outdoor area behind the cafeteria. By now they should have started to
understand that sitting indoors was a privilege of the seniors’ and
some lucky juniors.
“Jennifer?”
Ulf asked when she stayed silent.
“You mean in
Nagoya?”
“No, you know
what I mean. In Sweden. Your previous life.”
When she stayed
silent Ulf turned once again, only to find her several steps behind
him. What now? Bad memories?
“Jennifer, if
you have bad memories from your last life I’m not going to pry. But
could you at least tell me how old you were before you arrived in
Japan?”
The girl didn’t
react, and she didn’t say anything. Two eyes looked back at Ulf
with a strangely calculating glint in them. Then finally her mouth
opened. “You’re not trying to pull my leg, are you?”
Huh?
“Sorry, I didn’t quite follow you there.”
Just as she was
about to answer Ulf heard Noriko’s voice calling out to him.
“Here,” he
said and tried to find her.
She came walking
down the corridor from the wing Ulf was trying to lead Jennifer to.
“Urufu, you found the other arrival?”
A year does
wonders, Ulf thought. Noriko, do you even understand how
fantastic it is that you take us for granted? “Yeah, Jennifer,
meet Noriko.”
“I’m Coperu
Jeniferu, pleased to meet you,” Jennifer said.
Ulf shook his
head. Jennifer couldn’t know Noriko was used to the western naming
conventions by now.
“Wakayama
Noriko, pleased to meet you.” Then Noriko turned to Ulf.
“Tomasu-kun agreed to join the club. He’s waiting to meet her,”
Noriko nodded at Jennifer, “in his classroom. Reunite he called
it.”
“Jennifer, then
follow me. As for the club, you have a standing invitation as well,”
Ulf said and led the three of them on.
“Age, your
age?” Jennifer asked from behind his back.
“Sixteen here.
Fifty two in total,” he answered. “Noriko’s born here, so she’s
the sixteen she looks.” Better not give the new arrivals the
impression we’re crawling all over the place.
“Fifty two.
And… no it doesn’t matter.”
“Wondering how
many we are? At this school, apart from Thomas and you, it’s just
Christina and me. She’s part of the club as well.”
“Christina?”
“Yes, that
Christina. The model. She’s a year younger than me, well, same age
here, but, you know.”
Jennifer ran up
to him and tugged at his sleeve. “Are we talking Kuritina?”
Bloody hell,
the Japanese name sticks even to another Swede. “Yeah, but she
was born Christina Agerman, so the Kuritina part is just a way to
make her name possible to pronounce here.”
They had arrived
in the shorter corridor feeding the classrooms in the left wing.
Christina’s corridor just a few weeks earlier. It felt strange to
walk up to 3:1 when it was no longer her classroom, or Noriko’s for
that matter. Ulf glanced down at his other side where she flanked
him.
“Urufu?”
“Nothing,” he
said. “Jennifer, he’s waiting for you.”
She didn’t
move.
“Look,” Ulf
said, “he’ll be looking a lot younger than you’re used to, and
it’s been a year since you saw each other the last time. You just
need to get used to it.”
She just shook
her head.
“Urufu, I’ll
fetch him instead,” Noriko said and went inside.
Moments later she
returned with Thomas.
“Thomas, meet
Jennifer. We’ll leave the two of you alone,” she said, and Ulf
felt her pulling at him to give the two freshmen some privacy.
“Stay!”
What?
“Who are you?”
Thomas said. “You’re not Jennifer. I’ve never seen you before
in my life.”
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