"-me up! Before you go go. Cause I'm not planning on going solo! Wake me Up!"
Song lyrics to a classic 80's song can be heard coming from and alarm clock in a teens bedroom. Said teen ignored the alarm clock opting to turn back over before a sudden outburst came from him.
"Shit! I'm gonna be late!"
Scrambling out from under his sheets, Bodhi Hamada, still jet lagged from an international flight the previous day, stumbled out of bed, entangling himself in the process and landed face first on his bedroom floor.
"Ya stupid fuckwit!" Bodhi yelled into his floor. The reason? Frustration obviously. Shrugging it off, he stood up and made his way out of his fairly dusty room, seeing as how nobody had lived in the room for the past couple of years. Making his way down the hallway, tugging off clothes as he went, he stopped in front of the bathroom door and entered, walking into the shower, and turning on the water. However, since he was still groggy and pissed at the floor for forcefully kissing him, he forgot to wait a little bit for the water to warm up and was promptly blast with ice cold water. The talk of the neighbourhood walking group that morning would be of how they all heard a loud high-pitched shriek coming from the old Hamada house.
But with that shot of ice-cold water, Bodhi became wide awake and proceeded to wash himself in a prompt fashion, wasting no time. But during this, his thoughts drifted to how he ended up in his old childhood house.
6 years ago, when Bodhi was 10 years old, he had lived in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, his whole life and was looking forward to continuing doing so. But a new job opportunity had come for his father in his home country of Australia. So, in usual fashion, the Hamada Family packed up all their belongings and moved to Brisbane. At the time, Bodhi thought it was the end of the world, having to leave all his friends behind, as well as his childhood crush, Bodhi can honestly say he hated his father with a passion for ruining his childhood. But all was not lost for Bodhi, being in a place that was warm all the time may have been a hard change, but it welcomed with it a breath of new opportunity! It was here where Bodhi discovered his true passion in life…
Volleyball
His parents had seen how depressed their son was so in an attempt to cheer him up they took him to a beach that was close to their high-rise condo, in downtown Brisbane. A place Bodhi would call his second home for the coming years, Streets Beach. Despite it being manmade and on a river rather than an ocean, Bodhi became entranced with the place, people idly sitting with content smiles on their face soaking up the sun, or those running along the beach and boardwalks. But by far the most alluring thing for young Bodhi was the women! *cough* volleyball, yes volleyball. It was here he discovered his passion for volleyball, watching a beach volleyball game of 3v3. He became entranced with how high the 'slappers' he called them before he knew the proper term of spiker, jumped, soaring across the sky. And Bodhi wanted to do the same. So, seeing their son finally find joy in their new home, his mother and father only encouraged him to play. And play he did. During his middle school years, or years 6, 7, and 8, he became known as the rising Maverick for his relentless and powerful play as an outside hitter. But to those who actually now the sport, you would see his near perfect technique and form, no doubt from countless hours of practice and study. He truly could be touted as a 'prodigy', but when you ride high for so long, the lows hurt all the more.
His father had been caught having an affair with a secretary at his company by his mother and it quickly delved into divorce. With this came another bout of depression for Bodhi, seeing as how his father did not want to take care of him. Since his father worked all the time and his mother was a stay-at-home housewife. Meaning he would fall under her custody. When everything had been finalized Bodhi thought it couldn't get worse, sure he would have to move out of the admittedly sweet high-rise he had called home the past 6 years, but Bodhi didn't expect the second shoe to drop. His mother had told him they were moving back to Japan, seeing as how his childhood home was still in her side of the family's name. But that was only the surface problems, seeing as how he was moving to a new but familiar country, Bodhi had to fast track his education to match up with the Japanese Education system, seeing he did not want to repeat a year of school, so like a madman Bodhi studied the rest of the year 9 curriculum and once he had finished it, he found himself learning some more of the 'first year' or year 10 curriculum seeing as he was three month late to the new school year in Japan.
With those final thoughts Bodhi turned off the water and stepped out to dry himself. He was now back in Miyagi. The place of his childhood. A place he once knew. Not so much anymore. Many things had changed, his friends from back then had all moved on or forgotten about him entirely, so he might as well of been starting from scratch.
"Bodhi-bear! Breakfast is ready!" his mother, Sayaka Hamada yelled up to him. This took him out of his negative train of thoughts and prompted him to put on his new school uniform. With a pale lilac shirt, dark red tie, white blazer, and light brown pants with some dark lined details he was ready to go to his new school. Aoba Johsai. A place he had chosen due to one factor, and one factor only. It claimed to have the best setter in Miyagi. Something he would surely need if he wanted to further his volleyball career. So despite living closer to Karasuno Highschool, he decided to make the longer commute to Aoba Johsai. Making his way down stairs in his new uniform he greeted his mother.
"G'day Mum," he said with a kiss on her cheek before sitting across from her at the kitchen table and diving into his omurice. But before he could shovel in the fist bite, he heard a camera shutter sound and looked up to find his mother holding her Nikon D800 Digital-SLR pointed right at him.
"Kya! My baby Bodhi-bear! So handsome in his uniform!" she said proudly dashing from spot to spot to capture all the angles of Bodhi in his new uniform, something Bodhi can freely admit he was used to. Before he was born his mother was a professional photographer and was quite successful in her field, but his father decided it best for her to become a stay at home housewife and mother, all for the good of their child he said. She was fine with it, as it meant she could spend all day with her, 'Bodhi-boo'.
"Okay, okay. Enough Mum! Your gonna make me late, can't be havin' that mums," Bodhi pleaded, causing his mother to put on a teary-eyed expression. This caused something to crack inside Bodhi. Ever since he could remember, whenever his mother cried or looked sad he did his damn best to cheer her up, one could say it was a fatal flaw of his. Something his father learned the hard way, walking into the office the next day with a blackeye was the talk of the workplace that day. But it remains to be said, Bodhi was a Mumma's boy though and through. So, when his mum started to cry a little more, he quickly enveloped her in a hug and apologized before grabbing the camera from her.
"Sorry sorry okay! Come here mums," he lifted the camera he reposed before turning on them and taking a selfie with his now tearless mother. Handing back the camera he left her embrace and bid her goodbye.
"I'll see you tonight mum! Love you!" he said pulling on his shoes and leaving the house for school.
"Love you too Bodhi-bear!" Sayaka yelled back, before looking through her new additions to add to the 'Bodhi-boo Baby album' which held photos from when Bodhi was actually a baby till now. I mean what son isn't their mother's baby boy for life? All of this was unknown to Bodhi obviously, he was in the process of starting up his recent 16th birthday present. A Suzuki gsx400 Impulse. A purchase his mother made for him to be able to get to school on time. Anything for her Bodhi-boo obviously, it also helped that her ex was paying particularly good child support. A simple and no-brainer purchase.
The bike in question was black in colour with the only other colour being silver to highlight the name of the bike. The wheel rims were both black and silver, tying the whole bike together, and obviously the chrome work was exceptionally done Bodhi's mom didn't waste any expense. Only the best for her Bodhi-boo. Hearing the roar of the engine, Bodhi hopped on, helmet included safety first and sped off towards the place he would call school for the next three years of his life.
20 minutes later
The roar of an engine can be heard coming towards Aoba Johsai High School, a place of excellence and learning. So, it would be safe to say some students were shocked when somebody wearing their uniform showed up riding it and pulling into a parking spot which normally saw a car in it. Countless people brought it up, giving their two cents.
"How'd the school allow a gang member to come here" "I know right! I'm scared" two girls walking side by side said as Bodhi rode past them looking to park his bike.
Others had different remarks.
"Damn! Lucky bastard, I want a motorbike. Maybe Hasegawa would go out with me if I did?" One boy remarked, while picturing him, riding a bike with a girl hanging off him, but was promptly torn from that reality as his friends, reminded him he could not balance to save his life.
"Just made it!" Bodhi said to himself, drawing some more onlookers. "This is Aoba Johsai, eh? Not to shabby mate." Getting off his bike Bodhi made his way over to the school in front of him and took it in. Aoba Johsai was a school on the bigger side, spanning four floors and a roof that people could access. Typically, each floor housed a year, first, second, and third years. All of which have 5 classes with classes 4 and 5 being reserved for college prep. The school was bigger than Bodhi was used to, that is for sure and stood a little starstruck for a bit. This was a private school something he was not all to familiar with as he was a public-school attendee until his year. The only way him and his mother could comfortably afford this tuition was that it was stipulated in the divorce agreement that Arthur would provide tuition for high school, while the both of them would contribute to a college fund or whatever he chose to do with it. There was a condition though, that Bodhi would have to maintain a B+ average, something he could for sure do, seeing as how he was an A student, but with moving back to Japan brings back Modern Japanese Literature. Something Bodhi has not thought of in years. He would have to get a tutor for that.
Shaking those stray thoughts from his mind once again, he looked at the piece of paper detailing the locker he was given, to change into his indoor shoes. Second entrance, locker B-11. When he entered the school, he found his assigned locker where he placed his outdoor shoes before he took his indoor ones out of his bag and put them on. Locking his shoe locker with the key that had placed inside, Bodhi looked down at the paper again and proceeded to find the teachers lounge where he would be given his schedule and class number. The only problem was Bodhi had no clue where to go. So he just stood by his locker blocking them for some other students, but they were afraid to say something as some of them had seen what he rode in on and to top it off, Bodhi was very tall for his age standing at 6'4" and with his blonde hair he stood out like a sore thumb.
"…me" a low voice said towards Bodhi, but he didn't hear them as he was looking at the signs to see if he could find his way but remembered he didn't quite remember how to read kanji, something he might have to get a tutor for too.
"EXCUSE ME!" the voice said much louder this time, bringing Bodhi's attention to them.
"Yes? No need to yell," Bodhi replied, staring down at a girl, that barely came up to the bottom of his chest.
"You're in front of my locker and I need to get to class." She said with a light blush dusting her cheeks at being caught out for yelling to loud, but he did not hear her the first two times.
"Oh! My bad, but could I ask you one question?" Bodhi replied, moving out of the way with a hopeful look on his face. "I need to find the teacher's lounge to get my schedule and class number and I have no clue where that is." He finished scratching at the back of his neck, looking a little nervous the girl thought.
"…sure" she said making Bodhi smile in relief.
"My names Bodhi, Bodhi Hamada by the way. Just moved to Japan. Well, moved back actually." He said following the girl as she started to lead him to the teacher's lounge.
"I'm Hana Nakano" She said quietly, Bodhi hadn't quite heard her so he leaned in bringing his head down toward her causing her blush to rise once again. "I-I-I'm H-hana N-N-Nakano" she stuttered out louder this time and Bodhi heard her this time round.
"Well, nice to meet you Hana!" he said which caused the girl to stop on her tracks her short ash-blonde hair whirling around to face the boy following her, and she stuttered out once again a "H-h-h-h-huh!?"
Bodhi to innocent to Japanese customs and he was quite forgetful about it too, asked her what was wrong. "Something wrong Hana? We'll both be late if we don't start moving!"
In a daze she continued walking but was much slower as Bodhi hadn't figured out what he had done wrong, calling somebody by their first name was considered to be very intimate in Japanese Society. So to use it so casually, short circuited little Nakano's brain. A minute later they made it to the teacher's lounge, Bodhi was relieved while Nakano was just about fully recovered.
"Excuse me! I was told to come here on my first day to get my schedule and classroom?" Bodhi announced causing some of the teachers to look at him and then all of them went back to packing up their classroom tools and study packets and making their way to their classrooms. All except one, his name Sadayuki Mizoguchi the Japanese Modern Literature teacher for the first years as well as a Coach for the Volleyball team at Aoba Johsai. Seeing the person he was told he had to show to his class, Mizoguchi stood up and walked over, where he actually got a good look at the new student.
"I'm Mr. Mizoguchi, I teach Japanese Modern Literature to the first years, I'll be seeing you in class then. But right now I'm to take you to your homeroom. Oh, this is your schedule as well." Mizoguchi handed Bodhi a piece of paper detailing his classes. "Follow me transfer student, you'll be in class 1-2. Just like miss Nakano here actually, thank you for showing where the lounge was." Mizoguchi waved a thanks and Nakano bowed before following along with Bodhi to get to class.
Coming up to the door, Mizoguchi bid farewell before he left to his homeroom class 1-4. Nakano also bid a short farewell as she entered the classroom, his homeroom teacher noticed his appearance and walked over.
"Hello, are you the new transfer student?" she asked, prompting Bodhi to nod. "Wonderful! My name is Mrs. Sato. I will have you wait here while I tell the class about you when I say come on in and just say your name and some of your hobbies." Bodhi nodded once more and waited for the signal.
"Come in!" Mrs. Sato said.
At those words Bodhi opened the sliding door, right here, right now, his new life began!