We went to the PE department office and indeed it was the same as in Hana’s last school, the tryout was going to be held late January next year. I decided to accept Hana’s offer and visit her house so she could start teaching me cheerleading tricks. I could simply leave the bus at the same stop as Hana’s and follow her to her house, but failing to return to my house the first day of school may scare and upset my parents, so I decided to return to my house first to ask for permission.
After I returned to my house. I explained that I made a friend at school and that she invited me to her house.
“Dahlia, I am so proud that you could make a friend so quickly, of course you can go to her house, just give me the address and make sure to carry your cellphone with you just in case something happens” My mother said
With that taken care of, I changed my clothes with something that was more fit for doing exercise and walked to Hana’s home. I thought about taking a shower first, but considering that I was going to sweat right now, I decided not to. As I thought before, her house was just 15 minutes from mine when walking; when I was near her house, since we exchanged cell phone numbers at school I decided to give her a call
“hey, I am outside” I said
“alright, I am coming”
Hana opened the door and I went inside.
I thought that she was going to teach me how to do jumps and flips from the beginning, but she actually made me go through her exercising routine with her in her backyard to see if my strength and flexibility was up to the challenge. It may not have been as exciting as I thought, but I respected how mature and thoughtful she was. If I was not fit enough and started to immediately jump and try to do flips, I could have hurt myself; luckily Hana was satisfied with my physical prowess.
After finishing her routine, I showed her my jogging route and we scheduled times for us to jog together. After finishing jogging and returning to her house, I was feeling tired and preparing to return to my house, but she invited me to play Monster Reaper with her and I accepted.
During our conversations, I have come to understand that Hana lives with her father and mother and does not have any siblings. Right now we have the house just for ourselves because her parents return late from working; I suspect that she feels lonely and that is the reason that she wants to keep me in her house as much as possible, not that I mind, as I am enjoying my time with her.
Her house is quite big for a family of three so I guess her family is relatively well off, but what really catches my attention are the Japanese decorations scattered here and there around the house, so I ask her about it.
“My grandfather was from japan, he came to study abroad, but met my grandmother and ended up marrying and staying here, so you could say that I am a quarter japanese. My mother put those decorations to remember our heritage or something, actually my name is Japanese as well. It is H-A-N-A you know, not H-A-N-N-A-H. My mom wanted a Japanese name that didn’t sound too out of place.”
Now that she points it out, I can see some faint Asian features in her face, but if she didn’t tell me about it, it would be difficult to notice. Her western and eastern heritage blend very well and gives her a cute and delicate appearance.
I sat in her bed beside her and we played Monster Reaper together. At first I was worried that she would be put off by the smell of my sweat. My clothes were feeling a bit damp, especially my bra and that was making me self conscious, but after a moment I noticed that she was sweating quite a bit as well and she sure didn’t smell like flowers; it was fine thought, we just exercised together, a bit of sweat weren’t going to put anyone off. Soon we were giggling and joking while playing the game until about an hour later, her parents came home.
The first to arrive was her mom at around seven o’clock and a few minutes later her dad arrived. Hana already informed them that she invited a friend to the house and when they returned they asked me to have dinner with them. Apparently her mom bought take out food after leaving work.
“thank you, but I wouldn't want to impose” I responded
“nonsense” her mother replied “there is no problem at all, besides I already bought food for everyone, if you refuse it would only go to waste”
I thought about it and decided to accept. I also called my family to tell them that I was going to eat dinner here.
The dinner went well, I talked a little about myself and I came to know a little more about Hana’s family. Her mom did look much more Japanese than Hana with black hair and brown eyes, her dad on the other hand was blonde with green eyes.
Since they worked until so late, I thought that Hana and her parents' relationship was distant, but that wasn’t the case. They laughed and joked together and seemed close, It was just that they had an annoying work schedule
After dinner, It was getting late so Hana’s mom gave me a ride. From her house to mine it was less than 5 minutes by car, after she dropped me off she also chatted a little with my mom. I didn’t pay too much attention, It was just two moms meeting the family of their daughter's friend and making sure that everything was ok. I just went to take a bath and changed into my pajamas.