Free Flying the Dragon by Natalie Dias Lorenzi Page A

take deep breaths. Too bad there wouldn’t be a test on that.
    Kumamoto Sensei announced the break, then left the room. The other kids all pulled out their
o-bento
containers. Skye took hers out of her desk. Her dad had bought this one for her online. He’d said it was like the ones the kids had in Japan. Maybe it was, but Japanese school was the only place where she’d dare show her face with this
o-bento
box. She’d been hoping for one with soccer balls on it or something. But no. It was pink. With Hello Kitty grinning at her.
    She wasn’t the only one with Hello Kitty—half the girls had
o-bento
boxes like hers, or with some other equally cutesy designs. The boys had boxes with superheroes—always Japanese, and always looking like they’d just stepped out of some manga comic book.
    But there was one difference between Skye’s
o-bento
box and the others’—the contents. She lifted the lid, revealing four inner compartments just like the others. Not like the others, hers were filled with pretzels, chunks of pineapple, and a Fruit Roll-Up. The other kids had things like sushi rolls, rice rolls, hard-boiled eggs, and some unidentifiable stuff.
    It wasn’t like Skye hated Japanese food. Not all of it, anyway. She used to eat it all the time when she was little. Back then her dad cooked a lot more often. But that was when he’d worked from home as a consultant. Now he didn’t consult the recipe books anymore—he worked in an office. So her mom did most of the cooking, and it wasn’t Japanese food. Mom’s specialties were the regular stuff—American food.
    Skye watched the other kids with their chopsticks and listened to their chatter—all of it in Japanese, of course. Most of them spoke pretty good English, but if Kumamoto Sensei overheard them speaking it, they’d get marked down for their daily participation grade.
    “Sorano?” It was Maya, the one-braid wonder who could talk circles around her any day.
    “Mmm?” Skye was thankful that her mouth was full. She couldn’t make any grammar blunders while she was chewing, could she?
    “Do you want to join our study group? We meet at my house this afternoon, then we rotate so each week we will be at a different person’s house.”
    A study group? Skye and Lucy used to do homework together sometimes. They’d usually end up doing more talking than studying. But sitting around speaking in Japanese with Maya and the others was not Skye’s idea of a good time.
    Skye forced a bite of pineapple down her throat. “Um,
arigato,
Maya.” Skye was about to shake her head before remembering that was a no-no. So she nodded like she was about to say, “Why, yes. A study group would be just lovely.” Nodding felt unnatural, like she was lying or something. Actually, she was about to lie; nodding was the least of it. “You see, my cousin just moved here, from Japan.”
    Maya looked at Skye blankly.
    Skye kept going. “So we’re going to be studying together. I mean, he’ll be helping me out, you know. I won’t be helping him, since he already knows Japanese. Being that he is Japanese.” She laughed at her own lame joke, but Maya apparently didn’t see the humor.
    “We are Japanese, too.” Maya looked confused.
    “Right, I know that. But he just came from Japan. And we live in the same neighborhood and everything.”
Couldn’t this girl just take no for an answer?
    “Yes, okay.” With that Maya turned to another kid. They started chatting, and Maya scratched something off a list she had on her desk. It was official, then—Skye was off the A-list. Not that she cared.
    As she finished the rest of her snack, Skye wished Amber were there. Or one of her other teammates. Then she could laugh and joke about the mere idea of having a Japanese study group right after class. They could talk soccer instead of
kanji.
    Skye thought of Hiroshi.
This must be how he feels at school.
At least Skye understood most of the conversation around her, even if she couldn’t