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Teresa’s stare took in the cafeteria of Whitehaven Academy, and she contemplated on how she had never felt so out of place in all her life.
It's not that she didn't appreciate why her mama had entered her into the lottery that granted free tuition into this prestigious private school, but the moment she had gotten a good look at all of her classmates, she understood what that lottery had been really about on the school’s side of things.
She was, literally, really, truly literally, the only black student in this entire school.
She was the token black.
She'd have to go do a little research, later, but something told her that the school had gotten exposed on being completely white, top to bottom, and they had started gettin a bit of pressure .
No doubt, Teresa was the “I'm not racist, I've got a black friend.”
She was next to certain that that was what the two Asian students were all about, too.
Everyone she had interacted with so far, including one of the Asians, had been either ‘I totally hate you, but I'm gonna pretend that I don't,’ or ‘Oh my gosh, a black, how exciting! I have always wanted to meet one of you, I'm a big fan of Martin Luther King Jr.!”
She wasn't sure which one was worse.
She couldn't sit with any of these people.
Fortunately for her, there was one small, empty table, in the corner. So that's where she sat.
For a long moment, she only stared at the, admittedly very nice looking, school provided lunch. Sure, this chicken breast was likely near flavorless, but there was no turning down a free meal. She took a bite. Well. It did have some good flavor, actually, lemon and something. She still missed her mama’s spices, anyway.
Before she had taken the second bite, she felt the presence of someone who stood at the opposite side of the table from where she sat. She looked up, and saw the Asian that hadn't silently glared at her earlier, the one that she couldn't figure whether they were male or female. They wouldn't look Teresa in the eye, for some reason.
Then they spoke.
“Hello!” they said brightly. “My name is Minori Yamane. I do not wish to sit with anyone else, because all of the white people here are racist, though some of them do not believe themselves to be, and the Korean boy said that his grandfather would not want him to so much as speak to someone who is Japanese. May I consume my meal in your company?”
Teresa blinked. Her day had been weird already, but this was a different sort of weird. “Uh, sure,” she managed.
They sat down, but the moment they did so, their cheerful smile fell right off, and they stood back up again. “Many apologies!” they cried, “I neglected to inquire as to your own name.”
Teresa blinked again. “Teresa Messina.”
The person in front of her frowned. “That is incorrect.”
She raised an eyebrow at this clear weirdo. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
They explained, with confidence, “A Teresa is calm, serene, and not someone who would deliver a solid punch to someone who very much deserved it, such as a bully. That is what I mean when I say your name is incorrect.”
Teresa then smiled, for the first time that day. “Then, what am I, if not a Teresa.”
There was a very brief pause. Then, decisively, they replied, “Reece. With a ‘C’.” They then sat down.
‘Huh. ‘Reece’. ...I like it.’
Reece shifted in her seat, and leaned back slightly. “Alright,” she drawled, “I can go with that. But, if I'm Reece…” she raised an eyebrow, and smirked. “...then what are you?”
A tilt of the head. “I do not understand the question.”
“Well, you're not really a ‘Minori’, are you?” Reece squinted. “I'd say...you're a Mino.”
Their grin in response to that dazzled. “Like the fish?”
‘Yeah, that’s even better.’ She nodded. “Like the fish.”
Their eyes nearly sparkled. “I accept!” With an authoritative nod, Minnow turned their focus to their strange box, that unsurprisingly, when one considered where they were, turned out to contain their lunch, full of foods Reece had never seen before. “I know it is customary to make exchanges during luncheon,” said Minnow, as they removed the one thing Reece recognized from its own little compartment, chopsticks, “but I am afraid I shall be unable to comply with this tradition until a future date, when this currently very unfamiliar room has begun to feel familiar.”
“Oh,” said Reece, who had just then returned to her own lunch, “that's okay, I'm a little nervous to try any of that. I have no idea what any of that is. I've never even seen a lunchbox that looked like that.”
Minnow looked oddly excited to hear that. “It is called a bento box, bento being the word for this style of lunch. I like this bento box very much, because it features stars in its design. I love everything to do with the sky very much. Though my mother finds my devoted interest to be very silly, my father, who gifted me with this bento box, does not, at least where it concerns astronomy, because he believes that to be a real, serious science. He would rather I be an astronomer than a meteorologist. I remain undecided. This,” they said as they pointed to some sort of ball of rice, shaped into a triangle, with a rectangle of a weird flat dark green thing wrapped around the bottom, “is onigiri-”
And they proceeded to educate Reece on every item in their ‘bento box’, clearly delighted to do so.
Reece couldn't lose her smile. This person she'd met certainly seemed bizarre, but...she liked them. Maybe it was only because she kinda hated everyone else she'd encountered in this school so far, but she liked them.
After the lesson on Japanese lunch items, Reece asked if they had gotten in through a lottery, like she had, and Minnow told her no. Their father, against their mother’s wishes, who wanted them to go to the same Japanese school Minnow’s older brother's went to, wanted them to go to Whitehaven Academy, because he believed it to be the best school in New York City. In fact, he had tried to get Kojiro and Ryota into Whitehaven Academy, but they had each been rejected, no reason given. Minnow’s mother insisted that there was no way that Minnow would be accepted if their brothers had not been, when Kojiro and Ryota both had exceptional grades, and Minnow was a terrible student. But he attempted regardless. They have no idea why Minnow had been accepted.
Reece chose not to offer her theory as to the reason why, and instead asked what sort of grades Minnow got, because she could help them study.
They told her they usually got Bs, A- at best, though one time they had managed an A. They have never gotten an A+, they said, with what may have been shame.
Reece had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully, lunch was over, so she hadn't needed to think of a response.
But not thankfully, since that meant it was back to interaction with people that either pretended to not hate her, or ‘liked’ her for the wrong reason.
Finally, the end of the day came. As Reece left the building at about 3:15 PM, Minnow walked up alongside her.
“Oh, hey, Minnow,” asked Reece, “how’re you getting home?”
“I am to walk to the nearby library, and wait there until my father arrives a little after 5:30 PM. I cannot walk home as my brothers do, because we live quite a long distance from Whitehaven Academy.”
“You gotta wait at the library?” Reece asked with a grin, “so do I! The bus right by there doesn't show up until about 5 o'clock.”
“So we can walk there together!”
“Yeah!”
“Would you like to walk with me to the library?” Minnow asked, and it sounded like a sincere question. Like they expected to hear ‘no’.
“I would, and I will,” she answered.
What Reece saw then was quite possibly the happiest expression she had ever seen on the face of anybody.
In fact, Minnow actually burst into song, with their arms at their sides as they flapped their hands energetically.
~Sun is shining in the sky!
There ain’t a cloud in sight!
It’s stopped rainin’
Everybody’s in the play
And don’t you know?
It’s a beautiful new day!
Hey-ey!~
Reece had heard this song once before, and, at that time, she had thought it was way too catchy-stupid-silly-happy to be enjoyable. But, in that moment, as she observed the enthusiastic joy the likes of which was new to Reece, she changed her mind.
It was probably the best song ever.
~ Mr. Blue Sky
Please tell us why
You had to hide away
For so long?
Where did we go wrong?~
Reece sighed thoughtfully as they waited at the crosswalk, as she watched the delighted creature next to her, and joined in when the chorus repeated, now that she knew the words, but fell silent again at the unfamiliar verse.
~A celebration!
Mr. Blue Sky’s up there waitin’
And today is the day we’ve waited for!
Aa-ah!~
As they crossed the street, and walked the few blocks to the library, something told Reece that today had been a very important day.