I was completely caught off guard. A bit of panic overcame me upon hearing it was a girls voice speaking to me, and more so once I see who was speaking. It was none other than booth girl. Of course it was.

Not only was I wrong in my assumption that she wouldn’t be in this class with me, but we actually ended up as desk-mates! This isn’t good. I already feel my heart beating faster after only looking in her eyes.

"Oh, hi." I respond in a dull tone. Another one of my methods to prevent people from talking to me. Responding with only really short, boring answers in a flat tone. People usually get pretty sick of it and stop talking to me after a few attempts.

She had not been persuaded though "It's so nice to see that you stayed signed up! A lot of people put their name on the paper, then find some other class they want to do and drop this one."

Once again with a boring tone "Yeah, I don't do that."

Which still doesn’t work "Not so talkative eh? That's okay though, because I can talk enough for the both of us! Maybe it will entertain you a bit so you don't get bored!" her attitude is still so bright and cheery "We have to get used to talking to each other anyways, since there's a lot of that in this class; with it being a foreign language class and all."

Incredible... my defense mechanisms aren't working at all. I don't think they've ever been this unsuccessful. I'm just silently looking at her in shock right now, not knowing what to do or say.

The look on my face makes her giggle "You'll warm up to me in no time! After all the talking we’re going to do with each other, I’m sure we’ll be real close by the time this class is over! My name is Yukio by the way, I'll be in your care!"

I'm finally able to shake myself out of my temporary mind freeze "Oh, it's nice to meet you Yukio. Um you seem to know a lot about this class... have you maybe taken it before?"

Saying a full sentence got her even more excited “Yay, you spoke to me! And no, I haven't taken it before. I was a TA for this class last semester, and I liked it so much I decided to sign up this semester! I guess you can say I've sort of taken the class though. I learned a lot from being an assistant, so I'll be able to help you if you ever struggle."

At this point I'm starting to feel a little nervous. Talking to her like this is a bad idea, but she’s just so nice I find it hard to resist her. But I can't have my parents knowing I'll be talking to a girl for the whole semester. Should I ask the teacher to move seats?

Maybe if I act a little conceded, she will lose interest "Thank you. I'm usually a pretty good student though, so I don't think I'll be asking for help to much."

Without missing a beat, she responds "Ah that makes me so sad!" then makes an over exaggerated, sarcastic, sad face "But that won't stop us from being friends right?"

I feel backed into a corner right now "Uh no of course not... we can still be friends." wait, why did I say that? That's like, the last thing that I should be saying! But I can’t help it. She’s feels so easy to talk to, almost like we were already friends.

"Yay!" Yukio squeaks, then unexpectedly hugs me. What the hell is going on? Did I wake up in some sort of parallel world? Did someone spike my juice with something this morning?

It’s not like I hate the hug or anything. I’m actually kind of loving it. This is the first time someone has hugged in years, and it feels incredible. I know I shouldn’t, but I put my arms around her to hug her back. And while it should be making me scared to do this, it’s not. I’m actually happy.

Then, the hug gets interrupted as soon as the teacher speaks "Okay looks like everyone is here, so we can finally get started!"

Yukio lets go of me, lets out a quick giggle and a smile, then begins paying attention to the teacher. But I can’t get my eyes of her just yet. She so incredibly captivating that I can’t pay attention to anything else. I really wish I could hug her again.

My not paying attention doesn’t stop the teacher though "Remember everyone, this is a Japanese class so I'm going to need you to all to stop referring to me as “teacher” and begin calling me Sensei.”

Maybe it's for the best that Sensei decided to interrupt us. I still can’t let myself get too close to Yukio, even though I would love for that to happen. It’s just too dangerous for me to get involved with someone like her.

Once I finally take my eyes off of her and begin paying attention to the lesson, the class feels longer than the rest of my day combined. It’s just the same boring stuff that I was probably learning in my other classes, but this time I remember hearing it.

And after a quick glance around the class, I notice there are a lot of kids in here. That’s pretty normal though. A lot of them are probably wait-listed students, and the class is bound to lighten up after a few people drop it after the first day. So there’s still a chance that either Yukio will drop it, or we end up moving seats. Which would honestly be for the best.

"Hey, did you hear me?" Yukio says while waving her hands in front of my face.

I must have been dazing off again, because the rest of the students are getting up from their desks "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I was deep in thought. What did you say?"

"I was asking if you wanted to hang out right now since class just ended?" she asked with a big smile and hope in her eyes. But she’s doing something else that I only just noticed right now… she’s holding my hand!

Out of fear, I quickly pull my hand back and see her smile fade. It’s making me feel really guilty "I-I'm sorry but I can't today. M-my mom is probably already waiting for me in the parking lot."

I could tell I disappointed her, but that didn’t cause her to loose hope "Well that's okay! It's really last minute anyways. Ah! How about you give me your phone number? We can totally meet up another day!"

She brings out her phone and looks to me in anticipation of me giving her my number. Something I could never do "Um I kinda can't do that either... sorry."

The sad look she gives me is too cute, that it causes me to panic "It's not because I don't like you though! My parents are just really strict and usually don't let me leave the house! I can't even save any numbers in my phone! I'm really sorry, I would love to meet up with you outside of school, but my parents would never allow it!"

"I understand.” a little smile cracks on her face once more “I guess that means we'll only be friends in school then! That still makes me happy, since I'll still get to see you at school almost every day!”

Her bright personality is already becoming too much for me to handle. It made me completely forget that my mom was out in the parking lot waiting for me right now. My heart drops when I realize how long we have been talking. It may only be 2 minutes, but even being a second late is enough to anger my parents. I need to apologize to Yukio and get out of here.

I look to her with panic in my eyes, and she says to me "It's okay, no need to apologize. You go do your thing!"

Not wanting to waste another moment, I say "Okay I'll see you tomorrow!" then run out of the classroom.

My nerves are extremely high as I run, hoping she wont be too mad at me. Luckily with the parking lot not being too far away from my class, I’m able to get there and spot my parents car in no time. Only as I approach it, I notice something strange.

Where I was expecting my mom to be the one driving, instead, my dad was sitting in the drivers seat. It’s very strange. The two of them usually schedule their day around driving me to and from school. It causes me to slow my approach a bit while walking up to the door.

As soon as I open the door, my dad displays his normal, cheery attitude "Took you long enough." which I didn’t respond to. I was waiting to see what else he was going to say. And as it turns out was nothing.

After I get in and buckle my seat belt, he drives away without a word. It’s usual for him to be completely silent on the drives back. But I don’t like the silence this time. Why is it him picking me up? I’m really curious, but it’s not like I can ask him.

When we pull onto the main road, he surprisingly begins talking to me "How did you do in your classes today? Didn't do anything that would upset me and your mother did you?"

Wait… did he somehow hear something about my class? Is that why he’s driving me? So he can confront me about hugging Yukio?

No, I can’t jump to conclusions like that. I need to play it cool "Of course not. I know better than to upset you."

His face is completely void of any emotion, so I have a hard time guessing what he's thinking. All I can hope for is that this isn’t one of his tests.

But the thing that’s making me anxious is that he isn’t saying anything at all. He’s just staring forward at the road and driving. And the longer he doesn’t say anything, the more nervous it makes me. I keep telling myself there’s no way he could have possibly heard anything about class. I didn’t even do anything that would warrant a call home.

Our house is getting closer and closer by the minute, and still no reply. Each second of silence feels like it's lasting an eternity. Then just before we pulled down the street to our house, he finally spoke "That's good. You've been so well behaved these last few years that I think I can start trusting you more."

Huh? So he did believe me, and is actually giving me slight praise? Then what was that long pause about? I swear, continuing to live like this is going to give me a panic attack one of these days. Mind games like that drive me crazy.

With what he said though, maybe things might actually start to get a little better at home. There’s no telling what him trusting me more will entail, but maybe that means I can get some of my freedoms back.

Honestly, I think everything will be okay as long as I keep all of my interactions with Yukio in school. He’s never contacted school about what I do there in the past, and with him possibly trusting me more, I don’t think he would do it now.

It’s beginning to feel like this year may be better than I was anticipating.

For the first time in a while, I’m not upset as we pull into our driveway. Usually I’m looking down at the ground for the entirety of the ride. But today, I’m actually looking around as we park. And out of the corner of my eye, I see a black car parked in our neighbors driveway. A car I’ve never noticed before.

A random car at my neighbors house isn’t the weirdest thing in the world, but there was something about this particular car that caused me to stare. It looked to be dropping someone off. So I decided to wait until the car backed out of the driveway to see what they looked like.

And once the car pulled away, I was able to see the person walking into the house.

It was Yukio.

My heart began beating rapidly. This is going to be really bad if she turns around and notices me. I slide down in my seat to prevent that from happening, then watch her walk into the house as if she owned it. Is it possible, that she was actually my neighbor this entire time?