Kenchi slowly walked to the school bus stop for another year of school. New classes, new friends, new teachers were among the many jitters he had. There were already two sisters standing at the stop. They giggled to each other as he approached from across the dusty gravel road.
New Tokyo was different after the massive remodels it went through. The city had a larger school, a more advanced military and a brand new space program. In fact in Kenchi’s eyes he could see himself joining galactic patrol after this year. After the civil wars that Tokyo had endured, it was a wonder that the city was able to be rebuilt at all. Due to new government funding and a new Mayor of the city things seemed to be looking up. After twelve long years the city seemed completely new. A Tokyo tower had even been rebuilt.
Kenchi tried to straighten his shirt and keep his thoughts off the changes in the city. He braced himself for conversation, he didn’t feel he was very good at conversation with girls, but being a senior in school he needed to show he had grown out of his shyness. One of the girls walked up to him.
“Hi, I’m Tena Oinyado. This is my sister May. We just transferred from the Ormoc Bay District. New Tokyo should be an interesting place. We’ve been used to country life. What’s your name?” Tena chattered.
“That is still part of the old Philippines. I’m surprised that anyone still lives in that district after the war. By the way, I’m Kenchi Ottonaga; I’m going to New Tokyo High. Are you going there as well?” Kenchi thought the conversation could help him be less nervous with a new year. Sure, there would be some of his old friends, but meeting new ones helped him develop his social skills.
“Oh yes, this is our last year also, we’re twins you see and we try to look out for one another. We’re probably in the same class as you. It’s a coed school so we’ll see you all the time. I saw that you came from that dusty road. Do you live very far from here?” Tena continued, smiling as she talked. She had very cute features with her long bleach blonde hair and traditional Japanese school uniform. The two girls looked nothing alike considering they were twins. They must be fraternal twins then.
“I live just down the road with my grandfather. He doesn’t have anyone else to care for things so I do it. Do you have a large family?” Kenchi wanted to draw attention away from his situation.
“Oh it’s just my mother and us two, so it’s kind of small.” Tena replied.
“What happened to your father?”
“He died suddenly last year in a traffic accident. Mother doesn’t talk about it.” May said briefly. After she spoke, Kenchi noticed how incredibly beautiful she was. She had brown highlights to her black gleaming hair and her skin was toned just right, almost as if she exercised daily, and her lips were the color of red roses. When she caught him staring at her she flashed her green eyes in his direction.
“I’m sorry, I understand about losing a loved one. Both my parents died on a space flight to Neptune.” Kenchi replied.
“I think I heard about that accident on the news. If you ever get tired of hanging out at your grandfather’s house, you can come over to ours we even have a spare bedroom. Oh look the bus is coming.” Tena’s eyes widened and then she smiled again.
