Too Lazy to Go to School
"Waaah!"
Bora's hand hauled me straight out of the room, and just like that my grand plan to get my hands on a drill went up in smoke. I wasn't ready to let it go that easily, though, so I kept sneaking peeks back at my room, shuffling between the office and the doorway so many times I lost count.
Then the drilling and the clatter of machinery finally died down. Sensing that the work was finished, I slipped inside. The room looked nearly done: the wallpaper had been replaced with something new, and the window frames and the windows themselves had been swapped out entirely.
The moment I stepped in, that distinctive new-house smell rose up around me, and I couldn't help letting out a gasp of admiration. A room that had been looking pretty shabby was now nicer than the average unit in a brand-new apartment building.
The workers had even squared all the furniture and set it back in place. I kicked off my shoes and hopped inside, then launched myself into a dive onto the bed. A soft bed really is the best! I was still sinking into that plushness when Bora came over.
"Hana, you've got to put all your toys away."
"Oh!"
Right. The toys sitting out in the hallway still had to come back in. The workers had offered to help, but I'd turned them down, because every toy had its own assigned spot. At Bora's reminder I went back out, and there they all were, lined up along the corridor.
Maybe because I'd told everyone the room was being renovated, there weren't all that many of them. I scooped up the biggest teddy bear first. He was the most important one of all, practically a guardian spirit who watched over me while I slept—the kind doll who had sat quietly beside me and gazed down at me after that ghost movie left me too scared to close my eyes.
If a ghost had actually shown up, that bear would have saved me. Because he was my guardian!
Once I'd set him somewhere easy to see, I started stacking Rumi's things in neat piles. Luckily the room was big enough that there was plenty of space.
When the tidying was done, I looked around my room and broke into a satisfied smile. The workers had done such a thorough job that there wasn't much left for me to do. All I'd had to do was carry the toys back in.
"Hana, the room came out nice and clean, didn't it?"
Bora, Haru, and Maru had come by to see it, taking the chance to look now that the construction was finished. Maru stood off to the side with some kind of tablet, jotting down every point Bora and Haru flagged.
"There's a scratch here..."
"I think a screw needs to go in right here..."
Bora and Haru were hunting through my room with their eyes practically on fire. It had looked perfectly fine to me, but apparently it was riddled with defects. Still, it wasn't about to collapse, so none of it seemed like my problem.
I trailed along at Bora's heels, peeking over her shoulder to see what she was doing. That part, at least, was pretty fun.
"Hana, time to get up!"
"Mmm... five more minutes..."
I lay sprawled on the bed, nowhere near conscious. Maru took one look at me and scooped me up. Eyes still shut, I was carried into the bathroom and set, with practiced ease, in front of the sink.
Shaaaa—
She turned on the water and washed my face, and I automatically surrendered it to her hands.
"Puff! You've gotta go puff!"
"Puff!"
Under Maru's hands my face came out perfectly clean. The cold water chased off a fair amount of the sleep, too. Back in the room I flopped facedown on the bed, and the moment she saw that, she scooped me up again.
"Hana, we've got to go eat."
"Food!"
At the word food I pushed myself upright. Meals were a matter of critical importance. Still in my dinosaur pajamas, I took Maru's hand. It was early enough that no one was wandering the office—early enough that people hadn't even come in yet. We rode the elevator down to the first floor and headed for the cafeteria.
A long line stretched through the dining hall. I'd heard recently that the food at our Starlight Institute was so good that more and more employees had started coming in early just for breakfast, and that long, snaking line was all the proof anyone needed. The sight put a pleased smile on my face.
Wasn't this line my doing, after all? Hand in hand with Maru, I walked right past it—the so-called Hana-only pass. Since I had school, the institute had arranged for me to eat quickly, and I made generous use of the privilege even on days off. Being able to get through a meal fast made me happy.
The employees didn't complain, let alone protest. Without me they'd be out of a job. Everyone said that if I weren't here, the Starlight Institute would go right back to what it used to be: the old days, with no performance bonuses and no money.
I offered the people in line a good-morning greeting, and they looked at me and smiled as they returned it. I hadn't known it myself, but apparently a lot of them came hoping to catch the sight of me walking into the cafeteria every morning in my dinosaur pajamas. A local attraction, or something like that.
Thanks to me, Maru got to skip the line as well. I picked up a tray the way I always did and wandered around deciding what to eat. Delicious food was piled high, and even though it was morning my mouth started watering.
Normally sleep kills your appetite at breakfast. I went over to the station where they made my personal meals, the table lowered to match my height, and started heaping on whatever looked good—mostly meat.
Since I was the only one who used that section, nobody else came by, so I could take my time and think it over. If something tasty wasn't there, I'd slip over to the tables the employees used and quietly scoop some up.
Once I'd more or less loaded everything I wanted, I climbed up onto my personal table. The moment I sat, Maru settled neatly beside me. Spoon and chopsticks in hand, I started in on the food on my tray, and every so often Maru wiped around my mouth with a wet tissue when eating made me warm.
"I don't wanna go..."
I was lying on the bed again. Going to school really was a hassle. Once I actually got there it was fine, but the process of getting there took so long that, in the end, I just didn't feel like going.
Maru was holding the uniform I was supposed to wear. The second I saw it, I fled to the far end of the bed. Dinosaur pajamas were not clothes you took off lightly! My wishes, however, counted for nothing. There was no escaping Maru's grip.
Months of sending a child who wouldn't listen off to school had turned her into a master of the art, and she had me changed before I even registered what was happening. From where I stood, it felt like magic. I blinked, and the clothes I was wearing had changed! Maru knew how to cast spells—very mysterious ones, at that.
She set the newly dressed me on the bed and pulled out my bag. Inside were the textbooks for today's test, along with all sorts of writing supplies.
"Hana, you didn't forget anything?"
"Nope. I put all the supplies and books in yesterday!"
Maru, however, was not looking at me with anything like trust. Her eyes said she was certain I'd forgotten something. Just because I forgot things now and then didn't mean I was an idiot who couldn't get textbooks into a backpack! Apparently I was right, because she checked the books in the bag and only then gave a nod.
"Pens and books are all in there."
"I'm not a little kid. It's not like I'd fail to pack my books!"
"Shall we go, then?"
She pulled me, still sitting on the bed, into her arms, and I stayed perfectly still against her. When walking was too much trouble, using Maru was convenient—a very comfortable ride that delivered you all the way to the parking garage on its own. From the circle of her arms I greeted the people in the office and left the floor. It was commute time now, and I saw plenty of familiar faces.
I was only on my way to school, and it was already this exhausting! Having your face known everywhere was not a good thing. There wasn't an employee anywhere in the institute building who didn't recognize me. Most of them knew my face and greeted me on sight.
That made games like hide-and-seek and tag extremely inconvenient. The moment I turned up on another floor, the staff there recognized me and sent me straight back to the tenth. I was playing, but they kept assuming I was lost. I wasn't lost at all. I was just playing hide-and-seek!
You didn't have to be a celebrity for it to wear you out.