July 6, 2017

I had failed both my Chinese and Japanese language exams that I had taken in the same week. Such was a natural result of not having taken classes for either in years nor studying prior to the exams. Everyone else claimed that the exams were easy and only required a quick review of some vocabulary.

I had stopped setting alarms for my classes. I had gotten a habit of sitting at a table in the middle of the field before my last class of the day. I liked to sit on the side facing the field, instead of the one that faced the buildings. With no conception of how much time I had left, I stood up to pick up a bush in the shape of a ring. I had fun swinging it around until I got tired and went to class.

On the next day, the bush was stuck in a tree. It was hooked on one of its branches and a crowd of middle-schoolers had gathered around it. I unhooked the bush as the children cheered on. However in my carelessness the bush had broken apart. I looked back at the table to see that all of my classmates had gone to class; no one had bothered to call for me. I quickly started to run in an attempt to catch up to them.

–

A movie which I had no intention of watching was projected onto the classroom whiteboard. Meanwhile, the teacher was handing out notices of suspension for poor grades to certain students. As I occupied three seats to myself in order to to my homework without a proper desk, one such note landed in front of me. I was relieved to see that it wasn’t for me and promptly handed the note to its proper recipient at the back of the room before getting back to work.

I felt like I needed to take a walk so I stood up and left the room. Along my short hike up the hill, I spotted a chicken eating some wild berries. I fumbled to get my phone and didn’t manage to grab a photo. When I came upon an intersection, an old man walked up to me and asked if I should go left or right. I told him that I would be taking the long way (left), as I could guess that the right would lead right back to the school. “I got a GPS on my phone as backup” in case I got lost, I said.

“Don’t you read the manual?” he asked before going on to say that I shouldn’t be too reliant on technology. I reassured him by telling him I could see the map behind him showing that the path on the left did in fact loop back to the main entrance.

I scrolled through my phone, looking for new messages on Discord before arriving at a gender neutral restroom at the top of the hill. It was empty when I entered but the moment I got into a stall, I could hear a crowd of people coming in. The top of the doors and the barriers between stalls were low enough that one could easily look over them if you stood up.

The person in the neighboring stall handed a blue and purple bra to me. “What’s the meaning of this?”, I asked. This was the third time today that I had been given this identical looking bra from different people, only for me to return it each time.