• Chapter 2: Memories

    "Reh.. hey Reh! Wake up! Who do think you are! sleeping in my class, slacker!". Reh's eyes slowly opened to a face staring back at him, yelling at him to wake up. Reh lifted his head off his wet desk, which had a puddle of drool on it where Reh had slept. The face, which was a man wearing glasses and had a balding head, rose up, showing the body of Mr. Tenshamondy, though everyone just called him "Mr.Tushy". Reh who had just woken up, yawned a bit and rubbed his head, knowing the teacher would call him to read what they just did; he opened his book, which was wet on one corner due to his drool.

    Reh recited a few random things, which made everyone laugh, because the book had nothing to do with that class, or rather, school. "Knock, knock, what’s that? it's -" Reh stopped reading and closed his book "Jokes from popsicles" and put his head down in embarrassment. "This world where students don't listen has left me in Despair!" (Note: This is a parody of "Zetsubo Sensei and I do not claim any rights to it.) The bell rang, and Reh was sent to the principal’s office, to discuss why he was sleeping.

    The school was pretty odd for a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons, or rather; number 42 was the teacher/principal, none other than Mr. Tushy. Reh walked in, and to his surprise, Mr.Tushy had changed clothes, and now had a suit, tie, and shades on, and for some reason a long bearded and mustache. He acted completely different as well, when he's a teacher, he's uptight and boring, but when he's principal, he's laid back, and uses old slang. "Yo, Reh, how ya doin' dizzawg?” Reh laughed and they did some idle chit-chat, and Reh left, but not without bursting out laughing as soon as he stepped out of the principal’s office.

    He laughed for a good 10 minutes, but stopped when he saw Mr.Tushy walking down the hall as a teacher, so Reh opened the door to the principal’s office to find it empty, then he looked back at Mr. Tushy, who now had his back turned to Reh. Reh took another look into the office, and saw principal Tushy. Reh slowly closed the door, knowing it was better not to ask, for that was one of the schools 7 mysteries. The other one Reh had seen was the "Mystery of the Talking dumpster" which was just a guy who lived in there who yelled at kids when they through trash out.

    Reh walked home after that, it was dusk, so Reh still wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, to not go home. He walked as slowly as possible, to make time pass slower, as he was walking however, he heard a loud yell, a women’s yell. Reh ran to the direction he heard the voice, and came by young women, being cornered by a group of what looked like gangsters. "Hey baby, how about you come with us for a while, I promise we'll be real nice darling, don't be like that". The women backed into a corner, swung a bag around, but it did nothing.

    "Hey! Don’t swing things around you little b***h!” a man raised his hand, making the women close her eyes and whimper, for that is all she could do. The man's hand came crashing down, hitting the girl in the side of the face; Reh could only sit and watch, he knew he was no match for them, so he hid behind a nearby building corner and watched in shame. "b***h! ...Okay, if you don't wanna accompany us, then how about we take a souvenir, how about... Ah! This!” The man grabbed at the girls neck, taking a chain, which broke off, splintering and shimmering in the dusk light, like a dying fire. Reh's looked down in shame, his eyes growing bitter, he ran off, trying to forget what had just happened. In his shame, Reh had forgotten he lived in the other direction, but he didn't really mind, he didn't want to go home anyway, so this was better.

    Reh walked around on the empty street with his head down, he knew he acted like a coward, but there was nothing he could've done. He walked until his feet hurt; it was night time now, so he decided it was time to head home, so he began walking back. The moon sky was cloudy, so it was very dark, and the street lights were dim. Reh walked with his hands in his pockets, wondering what time it was, until he passed a park, which was slightly lit up by the street lights. Reh walked to the park, and sat on a nearby swing, slightly moving his feet, making the swing follow.

    Reh moved back and forth, with his head down, until he heard footsteps. Reh looked up, and saw a women walking on the road, but the women looked strange, like she was waiting for something. Reh looked at her puzzled, until finally he got why she was standing there he saw two bright lights heading to her ...Suicide. Reh ran out without thinking, and pushed the women, right before the bright lights passed, but he became embarrassed when he saw two bikes with lights attached to the fronts pass by. Reh looked at the women, who was had her back turned to him, getting up. "You okay? Sorry about that, I though you were trying to commi-". Reh stopped speaking when the women showed he face, covered in dried tears, it was the women he saw earlier, she had snow white eyes, and black raven hair.

    Reh and she sat on the swings, and Reh explained why he pushed her, which made her laugh. Reh didn't want to bring up what happened earlier, not because of her feelings, but because it would be troublesome for him, and it made him feel ashamed every time he thought of it. They talked about things for a while, but it ended, creating an awkward silence. Reh sat with his head down, this time not swinging. The women looked up at the cloudy sky, slowly swaying with the swing, until finally a small sliver of light passed through the clouds, illuminating the women. Reh looked at her, his attention drawn to the light, and saw her more; her eyes were welded up with tears, which shimmered, when he saw her face, in his mind he pictured a velvet rose, basking in the moonlight. He blushed, and the women looked, Reh quickly put his face down, hiding it in shadow. The women stood up, which made Reh look up, she was smiling finally, and she said "Thanks, you might just think this was a talk with some person, but it helped me a lot". With that the women left, vanishing into the darkness, and with her, the moonlight slowly faded as well. "Don't thank me.... I’ve let you down... I hope you forgive me...” He whispered that to himself, and left, seeing as the moonlight had disappeared.

    When Reh got home, there was trash littered about the floor, and the T.V was on in the next room. Reh took off his shoes, and side stepped heaps of instant cup noodles, sake bottles, and other junk to the living room. Reh looked at an old man, stained shirt, circles around his eyes, and sleeping on the lazy chair. Reh turned the T.V off, and headed to his room, and rolled out a futon, which was ripped and town, and went to sleep.