Youth Unsupervised

Chapter 2-Anomaly

I awoke to my phone alarm and reached over to grab it off the night stand and turn it off. It was finally here, opening ceremony for my second year of high school. Maybe I should just stay in bed? I let my head fall back onto the pillow and lay there for a minute, then got up with a sigh, heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth and start my morning routine. 

It would be the same thing, day after day, week after week, just as it was last year and the year before that. Get ready, go to school, pretend to care, smile, come home, do homework, sit around, go to bed, get up and do it again.

I didn't go to school because I wanted to. I went because I knew it's what I was supposed to do. I tried just hard enough to keep from failing, and because of that, I ended up landing in the middle of the road in everything I did, academics, sports, even stuff like home economics and art. I didn't join any of the clubs, either. I wasn't looking to compete for colleges. The vocational track was fine with me. That was already going to be more headaches then I wanted to deal with.

I combed my hair and put on the standard black school uniform. I guess some students might kill for a little color, especially the girls, but I couldn't care less. My standard breakfast was two simple slices of toast. I actually can cook a little, nothing too fancy, but there hardly seems a point since I'm the only one here.

When I got into junior high, my parents started staying away more and more. They were both traveling business consultants. They actually only met because they were called in to work for the same company. They don't work together all the time anymore, but they are almost always away. Locally in Japan or abroad, it doesn't matter.

It's not that I think they don't love me, not exactly. I just think I didn't really fit into their plans. When I was born, they had to put their careers on hold, now they are free to do as they want.

I spread some butter on my toast and scarfed it down, then headed to the door, put on my shoes and grabbed my bag. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I took it out to look at the message. It was from my girlfriend, Kaho. She said she was waiting outside, but I didn't bother to answer since I was about to head out the door anyway. When I got outside, she was leaning against the wall just outside the front gate. She gave me a wave and a smile when she saw me. Her short auburn hair was done up in pigtails with red ribbon.

"Hey," I said to her.

"Morning." She grabbed my hand.

We started walking hand and hand down the neighborhood sidewalk. I'm sure for normal people this would have produced some sort of excitement or joy, but I didn't feel a damn thing. I never do. Kaho is sweet and cute. My girlfriends usually are, but they've never made my heart skip a beat or given me that butterflies in the stomach feeling. I don't think it's their fault, either. I always say 'yes' when girls ask me out. It's not that I particularly like them or dislike them, but I just can't bring myself to turn them down. I think of the rejection in their faces after they worked up the courage to ask and I just can't say no. I keep hoping that at some point I'll develop feelings for them, but this never seems to happen. I don't expect to get flustered or anything, just something subtle.

I'm not sure why people continue to ask me out. I'm not particularly attractive, nor do I have any skills that might stand out. Maybe some people just have a drive to try and fix things that are broken, even if they don't realize it themselves.

Girls might be the only category in which I don't hit dead average. I did manage to pull a little ahead of the race there, all thanks to Izumo Yokota. She was in her last year of high school when I was in my first. Her specialty was finding lonely first years like me and, "break them in", as she so lovingly called it, not that I ever complained. After a while, she would get bored and cast her toy aside for a new one.