I wish I could say that I liked Juuban, but I’d be lying if I said I did. Juuban is like any other city that I’ve been studying at, they’ve been staring at me like a freak-show; I should be glad that we’ve grown out of pranks by now.
One hour before cram class, I navigate the streets of Juuban with a clear sense of direction. I might not know the street names, but at least I know which direction I am heading towards to get home and I will recognize the area around my house. I was reading the map yesterday; I think I’ve memorized the city in my head so I can get to my cram class. Well, there’s nowhere else to go, so I might as well go home, eat some sandwiches and do some reading until I have to go out for class.
Something hits me right in the shoulder and I shriek. Yes, this fourteen year old genius shrieked at the sight of… a black cat. Westerners say that having a black cat cross your path is bad luck, you’re too late kitty if you want to bring me a premonition of my day. I already know that my day is bad. But when it purrs against my neck I can’t help but scratch it just underneath the chin. I’ve always wanted a cat, but I just don’t have the time to take care of one. This one actually looks smart, something in its eyes – I don’t know if the cat is male or female – maybe I can take it home with me, it’s not like she has a collar.
Someone taps me on the shoulder and I whirl around. It’s that girl, the one with the weird hair, she says it’s her cat. People who can’t be bothered to get their cats a collar and lets them run around as moving targets for cars don’t deserve to own a cat, but who I am to judge?
She introduces herself and claims her cat, Luna. Then she very quickly points out that I am the girl that got full marks on the National Exam. Thank you, it’s not like I could have forgotten anyway, everyone has been reminding me about it. I can almost see her holding a pitchfork and growing horns, is that a tail I see growing from behind her? She tells me that she got placed 5049 in the nation, I gasp… how many teenagers are there studying our year? 6000? I don’t need to ask her because she tells me, there are only 5070 students and she readily tells me that her mother will kill her, might I say I am not surprised? I don’t catch the name of her mother; she talks so quickly I barely caught her name. Tsukino Usagi – moon bunny, cute. I’m sure that if this conversation goes any further she will ask me to tutor her, is there no end to my misery? Can she stop talking for a while please?
She can, once we walk towards the Crown Arcade she turns to me like the National Exams never happened and invite me to join her play in the arcade. As she plays, she stops talking, at me that is, she seems to be having a full on meaningful conversation with the machine though. Either she is a genuinely nice girl, or she’s waiting to pounce for me to give her exam tips. So, I join her for a game, not like it’ll kill me, I’ve got time anyway.
She shows me how to play her favorite Sailor Venus game; it’s hard to play she tells me. Not really, it you aim at the correct trajectory, recognize the power levels of the enemy that are shown at the corner of the screen, then remember what the minimum attack needed to kill the enemy… it’s quite simple. Don’t overspend your powers, just as you don’t overspend your allowance as I hand her some money to play it again when she loses.
I’m being cynical – it has been a long day. I look at my watch and realize that an hour has already passed. I admit that I was having fun. What’s the saying? Time flies when you’re having fun, that’s it. Time does fly. I hastily apologize and tell her that I have to leave for cram, she seems surprised that I am going to class again. There’s a part of me that wants to ask her where she thought my grades came from if I didn’t work hard, but I let it go. Tsukino Usagi is a sweet girl, and seeing that she hasn’t asked me for exam tips yet, I think I can conclude that she’s a fairly nice girl even if she is friends with a guy who is obsessed with my vital statistics and a girl who has just figured out that life is better than death.
*****
Can my day improve? Maybe it’s that black cat’s fault. I somehow forgot or dropped my diskette for the cram class. No, I didn’t forget it, I still had it when I opened my satchel before my first class in the morning; I must have dropped it some time during the course of the day. The fact that the sensei claps me on the back and tells me that she has great hopes for me doesn’t release the pressure. I work from my printouts instead and happily lead the class when she leaves me in charge so she can ‘step out for a minute’.
If my day was going to improve, it’s not showing signs of it. A nurse suddenly bursts through the door saying that I’m evil? Evil? The only thing evil about me is I’m thinking of a thousand ways to dispose of you – I’ve had enough name calling, but to call me evil because I’m studying? What planet are you from?
That is obviously not a good question, because I later find out that she is from the Moon – it’s not even a planet but a satellite. Well, she transforms into Sailor Moon and I am sure that she would have tried to Moon-Chain Me. Fine, so I don’t know what her attacks are, but I guess that they are pretty much the same as the Venus attack in the game. Well I’m wrong, because it seems like her weapon is her crying. I swear that my eardrums are going to burst any minute now. And to cap off my day, my sensei becomes a monster and shoves me into a computer, and a cat tells me to ‘henshin-yo’, yes, a cat.
As history would say, we blasted that youma. We de-transform I find myself standing next to, of all people to save the world with, Tsukino Usagi, I suppose that’s why she’s a moon bunny. She immediately grabs me and tells me she is glad that I am going to be working with her as a team and invites me to the Crown Arcade once more. I smile at her, it’s been so long since I’ve really smiled that I’m afraid that it will be crooked like Frankenstein. I take up her invite and go to the Crown Arcade with her.
A note of warning, never, and I mean never ever, volunteer to treat this girl to an afternoon tea, she will empty your pockets. But as I sit with her, I find myself smiling and laughing with her. She’s seemingly just forgotten about the exam that her mother was going to kill her over, because at this point in time, her focus is how to fit in her third milkshake since we’ve come here. She grins like a toothy little girl with chocolate around her mouth and plunges her fork into her snack – I have lost count of the number of dishes. Yes, I have a good handle of mathematics, but I will need a calculator to add up how much I have to pay. Maybe I should ask Andrew the shopkeeper to total up everything on the menu and multiply it by ten. Despite my knowing that she has probably eaten three quarters of my allowance, I don’t care, because here I am, sitting with a genuinely nice girl that I can call my friend.
Until next time folks! Home
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Okay, this is a bit of a new style for me - the outspoken rambling Ami saying all the things that we've never heard her say. Don't we all wonder what it was like for her to meet all the senshi, and her life at Juuban? Well, tell me what you guys think! miss_mizuno@hotmail.com