Every Little Detail

Five

"Konichiwa," Yua bows and greets me softly. There are kids all around us in the hallway.

"Konichiwa," I say bowing back and smile. She normally doesn't talk to a lot of people. So I am glad that she's talking to me; to anybody. I walk on and see Kaito, he seems distracted while he bows and asks me, "Did you see Yua anywhere?"

"Hai, she just passed by me."

"Thank you," he says bowing.

I look at the English assignment I had already finished. I pull out the new letter I got from Aya this morning and put it in the pages of my English textbook and I start reading.

Hi, Sakura,

So I went out today with my brother. Sammy. That's what his name is. My brother's name. It's Sammy. My parents don't do a thing to take care of him. So it's up to me. That's pretty much the only reason I'm still here. I don't have any friends. Well, real friends anyway. There are a lot of people who are nice to me though. I don't like a lot of people. I barely like anybody. Anyways I went out today with my brother Sammy. We walked all around Sydney. It was fun or what most people would call fun anyway. I dont like going out a whole bunch. I haven't done a lot of schoolwork except with V that one boy I told you about. He's trying to help me with my schoolwork. I don't think it's helping that much. But V insists on helping me. This boy is so annoying. He shouldn't care about me but he does. Anyways bye bye I'd better go.

Aya

I scan the letter. What's the matter with Aya? She seems sad. And what did she mean when she said the only reason she's still here is because of her brother Sammy? Did that mean she would have killed herself if she didn't have her younger brother Sammy? I wish I could meet her. It isn't the same knowing someone like this in comparison to knowing them in real life. I want to meet her and see what she looked like. What kind of energy does she give off? What kind of person is she really like?

I could also probably become friends with her easier if I actually knew her. I don't really have any good friends either not with Setsuko like she is. But I am also not depressed about that. I'm not downing in the feeling that I am alone. Maybe I can meet her someday, but not now. I don't have any money to spend on a trip to Australia. My family is poor so how was I ever going to be able to do that? I can try to find another way to earn money. But I don't have enough time to work anyway. I have to study and get good grades in school so when I get older I can go to university and get a good job so I can have more money than this. So my daughter won't have to worry about money like I have to.

Even if I did get the money to go to Australia I can't go now. I have to stay in Japan and study. But I feel like I need to meet Aya now. She doesn't have any friends now. She needs a friend now. She is in the deep end now. I need to see her now. If I met her I wouldn't be able to solve all of her problems but maybe I could help. I know that you can help someone with their problems and even being there can help but nobody can just solve another person's problems. But you can always help. Maybe I could ask Aya to come here. But I know that's not that respectful to ask someone to come here. Epically a girl I've never met before to just come to a foreign country that she has never been to and likely doesn't know another person in.

I look up and notice Isabel looking at me. Of course, she has probably already finished her English assignment as she is a native speaker. She is looking at me like she's staring into the depths of me. Isabel is pretty nice as far as I can tell but she scares me and I'm not sure why. I feel like it might be that something scary happened to her once not that she is scary but whatever it is I can't fissure it out. And I am not about to ask her. I am Japanese and Japanese mind their own business. Isabels' light brown hair falls over her shoulder as she turns back to her textbook which she is no doubt just looking at for the looks of it. She always finishes her English first. She still has that scary dazed look that also looks very studious on her face.