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Chapter 3 - CHAPTER THREE: THE SUPRISE

By the end of the day I had grown a headache the size of fist from trying to turn my eyeballs all the way to the back of my head. Grasshoppers didn't realize how easy they had life for that 360 vision. I mean why could anyone wear gloves and cover his face? It wasn't even the wet and cold season yet.

My question was answered during the last lesson of the day when the school nurse peeked his head through the door and summoned Sagiri.

"Dear madam Taraku can I borrow one of your new students?" She didn't wait for her reply before calling out Sagiri.

"Mister Sagiri if you'll be kind enough to follow me."

After some shuffling behind me, his lean figure glided between the rows to the front of the class, slowly and graceful as if his legs were made of wheels. He was tall standing at 5.11 feet which was tall for a seventeen year old. Mrs Taraku the Biology teacher pozed in his teaching allowing the new boy to move outside. The whole class followed his movements with their eyes and for a moment there was pindrop silence until his back was completely out of the doorway following behind miss Sayaku the school nurse. She stood a foot shorter that him as he followed behind her steadly.

'Maybe he suffers some condition that doesn't allow him to be exposed to the wind' I thought as I watched the now empty doorway.

"Do you think he has a condition that requires him to dress like that?" Tale echoed my thoughts. " I mean principal Ragira is pretty strict but be is allowed to wear that black jacket and gloves to school" she said looking at me with expectation. For a lazy adorable girl she was quite observant.

"Perhaps" was all I could master. The new boy didn't return even as the Biology class comes to an end. The class had soon started speculating that he could be suffering some condition to be called in by the school nurse. Nurse Sayaka apparently never came personally to pick anyone unless they were about to die or were dragged to her quarters at the jaws of death. And even then she could just offer painkillers before sending you back to class.

I turned around and realized that he had even cleared out his desk and he was gone for good or gone for the day. I strugged my shoulders trying to rid myself of the nagging feeling and not to be as nosy as Tale who even jumped from her desk to see if he left even a piece of himself on his seat as soon as the teacher had left. I can't deny I have the urge to do the same but I have pretty high selfcontrol as compared to Tale. She wasn't alone in her endeavor and even the class's queen bee had rushed to his desk acting as if she already owned him. If she was a wild cat she could have peed on his desk to mark her territory. But as silently as he had been during the day so was his departure.

"Let's get going" I hooked my hand around tales collar and drugged her squirming figure out of the class. "You look like a pervert sniffing his desk" I scolded while drugging the shorter girl away.

Tales dad was waiting for him outside the gate as he always dis and I knew so because she told me. He has never missed a day since she began her highschool and ever since she started school no matter how much she protested. They offered to drive me home just like the day before and even offered to a take a detour because I lived on the other side of town from them but I refuse politely before hurrying off. My parents had always been busy with work and I'd be lucky if they made it home to join me for dinner.

On the brighter side walking in the evenings had always been easier without the glaring sun. The evening sun was tender and calming and I rather enjoyed it. I stopped at the restaurant at the corner of our estate breathing in the sweet aroma of baked wheat and fried meat before walking inside.

"Ooh dear you look so skinny" Mrs Nikato glided over to me. We hadn't been living in the neighborhood more than a week but I was quite conversant with her. Her and her husband owned the the Takkon hotel and I my parents had paid in advance for me to eat my dinner and carry take away for breakfast.

"You said so yesterday" I whined as she dragged me to one of the corner tables and odered my special which was the fried rice with chicken barami and sakuti buns for take away.

I didn't have to wait long before my meal arrived. I wolfed down and carried some for takeaway before bidding her goodbye. Eating alone had been lonely at first but as I grew I had quite gotten used to it. I slid the key card at the door of our three bedroom apartment before walking in.

Much to my surprise my parents were already home when I arrive and they looked like like they were sitting on needles.

"Mom, Dad?" I greeted them but it sounded more like a question. They were never home this early unless they have a day off and even so they didn't share a similar off day.

"Lua please seat" My mom smiled nervously at me and my heart started beating fast in my ribcage. I knew with modernization many tribes had stopped some traditions but yet I couldn't help but think that my parents had arranged a betrothal for me. I wasn't planning on marrying a person I didn't know and my hands became all sweaty.

"Sanka are you planning to marry me off?"

(Sanka- a respectable name for parents in the Taraku clan in Taraku mother tongue)

"What?" My parents regard me as if I have grown another head before the burst out laughing until they are out of air"

"Whoever gave you that idea sintere" My mother held my hand with one of hers pulling me to seat beside her while she wiped her tears with the other. I breathed a sign or relieve regarding my parents with curiosity. As long as I didn't have to be married I was okay.

(Sintere- daughters endearing term in Taraku dialect)

It's not the betrothal that I was scared of but I was scared of disregarding the will of my parents. Although as the world became modernized Tagayia had also become modernized but some traditions in some tribes were deep rooted.

First, marriage. Especially the northern tribes still enjoyed betrothals with their neibouring tribes and it wasn't frowned upon. Some tribes in the far noth west were even opposed to modernization that they still practiced traditions like bride stealing where they could steal brides and marry them in the middle of the night. And again it wasn't frowned upon. The brides secretly knew about it and the seasons so those who didn't want to get married could move away to other regions then return when the grooms had finished the hunt.

Even as civilization grew daily there was one thing that was frowned upon among all tribes. Denying the will of the parents. In some cases one could be disowned by their families and in severe cases one could be banished from their tribes and even branded on their faces. Defying parents was akin to defying God. I had never witnessed it myself but it always left me cold being stripped off my tribes lineage and forced to be an outcast. In a land where belonging to a tribe contributed to a person's pride? I couldn't imagine how painful not belonging could be.

"Sintere you will only marry who you want and when you want, I don't think anyone is Worthy of my sintere" My father said looking at me like I was his whole world and for I moment I felt stupid for even thinking a man like my father from the eastern tribes who treasured their daughters could force me to marriage.

In my panic I had forgotten a common phrase among Eastern tribes.

'To marry a daughter from the east you have to wed her father'

"What is it then sanka?" I said still nervous. I was still waiting to turn seventeen the next month before I could get my tribal mark and I didn't think that was enough reason to get them off work.

"Well sintere...." My mother hesitated touching her stomach tenderly. " You are going to have a Yuya"

(Yuya- younger sibling)

That was the last thing I expected to come out of my mother's mouth and my jaw detached from my mouth hanging agape with both surprise and joy and a feeling I couldn't quite put a finger on.

"I am going to have a Yuya" I thought.

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