One School Day by Zoe Zhang (drm ebook reader .TXT) 📕

side of me.
I explained that Amber was going to host a party tonight, and she said I could bring friends. Knowing that they couldn’t refuse, I did the following, which was making an appointment to stay in the library for about an hour to finish (or at least finishing most of it) the homework that was given. So we had enough time to do our homework, ask our parents (they just seem so eager to get rid of us), and get ready for the party. We had planned it all out, since Kerry and Abby whipped out their cell phones without hesitation and called their folks. They each promised they would be home before 9:00 PM, not bothering to tell them that the party was 5 to 8. We had wanted to spend some quality time together after the party was done.

“Akira, can you help meee?” Kerry whined loudly, after about 20 minutes of being in the library. That attracted a lot of stares, and “shhhs” around him. He smiled sheepishly and ducked his head in embarrassment, a blush streaked across his face.
“Ah, I mean, can you help me… please?” Kerry repeated, except more quietly, moving his chair over so I could help him. I nodded, happy to be able to do something. Since I had accidentally left my Time Cat book in class, I had found another book called The Outsiders, though I wasn’t too hyped about it, and I was about losing my mind when the book was looking more boring every second.
I checked over Kerry’s math homework, identical to the math sheet I had just finished. I shook my head and pointed at question #73.
“Well, you got the first part right, but you have to remember that they’re asking you to round 6 to 10, making the decimal…” I blabbered off, explaining simple details about our homework to Kerry. Meanwhile, Abby, having been the homework slacker in our group, was still working on her 2nd assignment. She actually was the smartest out of all of us, though she always finished last. She liked taking her time, I guess.
I was about to just chuck the book I was reading back into its basket, when the tune of Itazurana Kiss started playing from the outside pocket of my backpack. I drew the zipper open to take out my cell phone and ran outside the second exit door of the library, because people were already sending glares.
“Hai?” Yes? I said into the phone, playing with the dangling Chococat key chain hanging from my cell phone.
“Moshi-moshi, Akira-chan?” Hello, Otou-san answered, his voice crackling into the speaker.
“Ah, Otou-san? Nande?” What’s up? I asked.
“Michiko,” (my mom’s name) “told me that you wanted me to pick you guys up, since she has a conference today in San Francisco. So where do you guys want to go?” Otou-san asked. Otou-san never likes to beat around the bush; he usually just wants things done quickly his way… or at least fast. I’m guessing that Jasmine got his genes: I sure don’t.
“Oh, arigato Otou! Can you pick us up in half an hour, you know, right before 4?” I asked politely, glad that we could go to the party.
“Hai.” He answered shortly.
“Okay then, Ja, ne!” I said good-bye to him before hanging up, and I walked back inside the building to tell Abby and Kerry the good news.
“Okay guys!” I whispered to them as soon as I sat down. “We’re gonna party tonight!” We all high-fived before finishing up our homework.

“Thank you so much, Seji-san.” Kerry and Abby said in unison, both bowing before Otou in respect. I thought it was weird how accustomed they had become to calling my dad Seji-san (his name) and actually bow to him, too!
“Shot gun!” Kerry suddenly cried, throwing his backpack in the back and running to the front seat. Abby rolled her eyes and I groaned. He always calls shotgun first. It’s no fair, really. And it irritates us even further because he KNOWS that it’s annoying us.
Abby and I climbed in the car and quickly sat down and buckled up. Before we were picked up, I had reminded my friends that he had to go somewhere soon, so he wanted to drop us off quickly. They were hesitant at first, thinking of how this was going to work. We figured that if Kerry was dropped off first, then he could ask Mr. Brooke if he could spare some time and pick us up for the party over at Abby’s, so that way there would be less trips. We had all agreed on this idea, and Kerry promised he would call us as soon as he got an answer. Abby said that her sister, Karli, who was 17 and had a driver’s license, could pick us up after the party.
“Thank you, Seji-san. Right here should be fine.” Kerry said, making Otou stop the car and let Kerry out. Abby and I looked around the car, watching Kerry get his backpack and head toward his house. When he saw us watching him, he made a motion with his hand that said, “I’ll call you”. We smiled, and waved as Otou started the car again, and we sat down as soon as Kerry’s house was out of sight.

“Bye, Otou-san! Arigato! Expect me around 9, okay?” I said to my Otou, waving good bye to him from Abby’s front lawn. Abby started waving, too, for awhile, and then dragged me inside her house… or, as I prefer to call it, mansion. Abby’s house wasn’t actually a mansion. That would be saying too much.
Her house was a pretty old house, and was cheaper back then. But Abby’s family had only moved in about 4 years ago, and it wasn’t as cheap, seeing that this was a REALLY nice house. It was a plain, three-story house, not looking much from the outside, but in the inside, it was gorgeous.
They had some old furniture placed the in living room and dining room, both very separated on the first floor. The kitchen was in the room right next to the dining room, leading two doors out to the dining room, and one out to the front door.
On the second floor was where Karli and Abby’s parents slept. There was also a small play room (or gossip room, Karli and Abby had dubbed it) between Karli and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s rooms. I’ve never really seen Karli’s room, but Abby says it’s really nice. Two purple walls, one with a round window, and the third wall was baby blue, making a nice background for Karli’s new IMac and stable desk. Abby said that there was usually junk on her sister’s floor, though I didn’t fully believe that, because Karli was the neat freak in the family next to their dad.
Abby was really jealous of Karli, not only of her nice room, but also of her own private bathroom, with the ability to do anything in there for as long as she wanted. Abby, on the other hand, had to share her bathroom with her brother. Paul wasn’t that bad when sharing the bathroom, because Abby and Paul had set times when they had to use the restroom in the morning, and before bed. Otherwise, they got to use the bathroom during the daytime after school as often as they need too.
The problem was, I never saw this timed bathroom thing go around. During my last sleepover at Abby’s house, Paul kept having to use the bathroom right before we went to sleep, and when we actually got in the bathroom, he would start banging like mad on the door, waking up the entire household. Paul got a timeout from his mom, who had come up to see what was happening. And whenever I saw Paul, I mean, just walking by after school, passing him in Abby’s house, he would start getting this negative attitude towards me, and last time he told me to tell my sister that she was a creep. I mean, it’s not as if I’ve never said it to her, it just bugged me that Paul had something against Jasmine or me. Now that I think about it, Jasmine doesn’t really talk to me about Paul or school at all. How weird…

We had reached Abby’s room, and after saying hi to her parents, reminding them that she would be gone soon, and calling her sister (Karli was out at the moment) to pick her up at so-and-so’s house (“Come on, Karli, you know… Amber’s house…? Well, no, I forgot her address… yeah, but— oh fine, here Akira, you talk to her.”), we got settled down in Abby’s room. And we waited… and waited… and waited… and waited…
After a half-hour had passed, Abby and I started getting really irritated. What was taking him so long?! We were just about to give up and call him, when Abby’s cell rang. She flipped up the cover and yelled, “Kerry, what took you so long?” But when Kerry answered, Abby figured out it wasn’t Kerry. It was Karli, asking what time she should pick us up and saying that it was very rude to yell at someone when not knowing whom she was yelling at. With a few apologies and explanations, Abby hung up we started moping again. Until Abby’s phone rang, again.
“Yeah, Karli…? Ack! K-Kerry! Oh, it’s you… what the hell took you so long just to call?!” Abby hissed at the phone, venom dripping from her voice after getting over her embarrassment. I glared pointedly at the phone, too, and Abby added, “Akira’s mad at you, too, buster… well, get your butt over here then! …Five minutes?!… Of course not… whatever, see ya. And Akira says hurry up.” Abby said at the last moment as she hung up. I smiled hopefully at her.
“When’s he gonna be here?” I asked standing up, ready to leave for the party. Abby giggled.
“Well, in ten minutes… and you don’t want to waste a second.” She said, pointing at my body. My face stayed blank and anxious.
“Why not? We should be outside, waiting!” I cried impatiently, wanting to charge out. Abby rolled her eyes while I glanced helplessly at Abby, not getting her point.
“You’re still wearing your school clothes, and I know that I don’t care about stuff like this, but shouldn’t you change…?” Abby pointed out.
By just looking at my face (probably scared stiff) and without any comment from me, she shoved some of her sister’s old middle school clothes in my arms. “Here… just pick, and now. You have five minutes. Now, get!” and with that she pushed me into her bathroom with the small pile of clothes to pick from.
I couldn’t help but squeal with happiness. This is why I love Abby. She’s always prepared for something whenever I’m not, and Karli has the most stylish clothes ever… but I don’t want to bore you with my “girly fashion sense”. (That’s what Abby has dubbed it whenever I start talking exclusively about “girl stuff”, or Abby calls it “babbling about nonsense and girl stuff”.) That would take too long. So I just picked a pair of faded purple pants and picked a blue and red tie dye shirt. I took out my emergency-red-with-blue-and-white-flowers-hair-band (and yes, if you hadn’t noticed, we like dubbing things) and tied up my hair in a low ponytail. I applied no makeup, because I know Abby would end up washing it off anywise (she says she’s allergic to the stuff… yeah right). I checked my appearance: nice and simple. Perfect for a kind of party hosted by Amber.
I ran out and grabbed Abby, who had