One Year in America Mari & Mason 1

I'm currently Skypeing with my best friend Tanja.'That there was even such a thing as an exchange at school.' 'We live in such a big city, and yet I feel like we're a village.' I had to laugh. 'Maybe it would be helpful to come to school more often.'  Tanja never really liked school. She was also two years older than me. She was only in my class because she had repeated a year. 'No,' she said. 'My little sugar fairy, you know very well that I prefer to work.' I had to laugh again. 'That sounds damn wrong,' I said. 'Oh. Mari, that always sounds wrong in the ears of a virgin.'Here it started again; I was rolling my eyes when the doorbell rang. I jumped up from my chair, knocking it over in the process. Tanja looked up from her freshly painted nails. 'What’s going on now?' I heard her say.  I ran to the door and opened it for the postman. Since I generally have a bit of a phobia about people, I waited until he was gone.  I ripped the door open, sprinted to the elevator across the hall, and pressed the button for the ground floor.  It took forever for it to come down from the seventh floor.  I pulled the door open and immediately checked the mailbox.  And indeed, there was a letter from my school. Whether it was an acceptance or rejection was still up in the air.  I dashed back to the elevator, which was still there, and went up.  When I slammed my room door shut, Tanja looked up again, her light blue eyes meeting mine, looking skeptical. 'So? Lottery jackpot?'  'We'll see in a moment.' I opened the letter and skimmed through the usual blah blah. I looked up. 'I’m flying to the States.' I said, shocked. Tanja looked as if she had fallen from the sky. 'Seriously?' She had tried to talk me out of the whole thing. Others would call that selfish, but I knew she was just worried; I wasn't the type of person who radiated confidence or was particularly skilled. I was more of the kind who blended into the crowd and knocked over every doorframe while passing by.  I had to be careful not to scream. I wasn’t a typical girl. I was a kind of young woman who preferred having guys as buddies. Instead of spending hours shopping, I’d rather spend nights in front of a console gaming. But at that moment, I realized that the girl inside me was awakening.  She was practically screaming: MARI, SHOW THE WORLD!  I felt my cheeks getting flushed. I looked at my laptop, and my best friend raised her eyebrows. 'You know what that means.' I internally groaned.  Tanja changed her men like her underwear and was convinced that one needed to gain experiences. Meanwhile, I just wanted my peace. I wasn’t Tanja. She was the perfect beach girl or model. She had everything in the right place and wore high heels all the time.  I was a little chubby bundle with too much of everything, and I had broken my foot in high heels just last year. 'Yeah. I know.' I neatly packed the letter away. 'Study, get good grades, and improve my report card for my dream job.' Tanja sighed and waved her hand at me. 'You should snag a guy.' One of her fingers went down. 'You should screw his brains out and yours, too.' Another finger went down. 'You should finally go out and party.' Another finger gone. 'Did I mention that you damn well should get laid?'  'I’ll turn you off in a second.'  'I mean it, Curly.'  'So do I. I have no intention of throwing myself at any guy in America.'Really not; I don’t want to fall in love, I don’t want any orgies, I just want some air and change. Something new after being stuck.  'Your vagina will thank you for it!'  And with that, I had closed my laptop.Late in the evening around 10 PM, I was sitting at the dining table with my mother. She was a nurse and had impossible working hours, as the profession goes. We hardly saw each other; whenever she came home late, I always cooked something. She was sitting there eating the spaghetti I made. The sauce had been simmering for two hours. I could cook, and that became a burden for my body. I poked at my noodles and didn’t know how to bring up the topic. I looked at my mother’s face; everyone said I looked like her, but my mother was stunningly beautiful while I was often overlooked. She was drinking from her beer bottle, and I had to grin. I guess I inherited the buddy type status from her. While other women would be downing wine, she was here after work, chugging her beer. I remembered when we moved in here; the apartment was a mess. But my mother laid the laminate and tiles all by herself. Since I was a baby, we hadn’t had any male support. I had great respect for this woman.  I cleaned my mouth and looked at her again. 'You’re amazing, you know that?'  She was about to take another sip when her eyebrow raised, and she looked at me. 'Okay, what’s going on? Are you pregnant?'  It was meant as a joke, but I knew that her biggest worry was exactly that. She had me when she was sixteen and never wanted the same for me: pregnant and left alone by some guy. I rolled my eyes. 'Do I look like someone who wants to get me pregnant?' I handed her the letter. She took it skeptically. She probably thought I was going to jail.  'Oh shit,' she commented, folding the letter. 'I was hoping your report card would speak for itself.' She had to stifle a laugh. 'Mom!'  'Alright. I’ll bring home a biology book tomorrow. Not that we’re expecting an American gift.'  'MOMMMM!'  She leaned back.  'Phew, I need to digest this first. You probably need new stuff, right? We can take money from the account. The money you get for your meals is a joke.' She looked disdainfully at the letter. 'It’s probably due to my report card,' I replied, and we both laughed.  The past few weeks had been chaotic. I couldn’t decide which clothes to take, which pictures, or anything else. My mother took me from store to store in her free time to buy clothes, a new bag, and school supplies.  All just so I wouldn’t get into unnecessary financial trouble, but I was sure I definitely needed to start a side job.  And now I stood dressed in the kitchen. My mother was working; she had been called to the hospital for an emergency at night. She had apologized hundreds of times, and it was written multiple times on the note on the table.  That was tough.  I was about to fly and wouldn’t see my mother for a year. I knew she felt incredibly sorry, but it was okay, even though it was hard.  She loved her job, and she did it great, and I was grown up. The doorbell rang, and I packed my suitcase.  When I got downstairs, Tanja was leaning against the door of her pink Golf, waiting. When she saw me, she flicked her cigarette away. 'Ready?' she asked without moving. I just nodded hesitantly. She took my suitcase and loaded it into the trunk while I got in and buckled up. I heard her heels clicking, and then she sat next to me.  The drive was quite silent, which was unusual for us; we usually talked about everything. We laughed, we goofed around. It was clear that we were both feeling down.  Since kindergarten, there hadn’t been a day when we were without each other, even if it was just for a few minutes. We went to the same school and then to the same class. Tanja helped me make everything more bearable. I looked out the window, and my blonde friend kept her eyes on the road. After a long drive, we finally arrived.We stood for a long time in the airport, not saying a word. There was a lot of hustle and bustle. I felt uncomfortable.  We stared at the large screens, and finally, we spotted my flight.  Tanja looked at me and adjusted my backpack with care. 'You have your ticket, right?' she asked. 'Yes, Mom!' I laughed.  We hugged. 'I'm going to miss you terribly. Without you, this is going to be damn hard.' That was the soft side of my best and outspoken friend. 'It'll be fine. No one else to worry about now.' She looked at me again. 'I’m not sure who looked after whom more.' We hugged again. 'And don’t forget, get wasted!' I sighed. Of course, she had to bury her emotional side right away. 'Of course, I won’t go to school at all; I’ll just focus on the act of love.' She grinned. 'Take care of yourself. I love you.'  I sighed and had to be careful not to burst into tears. 'I love you too!'  And so, I made my way to the airplane immediately. I knew I looked awful.  I had long brown curls with a thickness that was hard to manage, so I either had them in a bun or down; today they were down. I wore my long, loose sweater, leggings, and a large red backpack, one of those that hikers have, real professional walkers. I had already checked in my suitcase. New life for a while, fresh wind, here I come!My confidence quickly faded as the fat businessman next to me spread out and began to snore. I had never flown before; I had never left Germany. Is flying always like this? Sitting next to a man who snores?  I really had no space left. It was already dark, and I noticed I was getting tired. I looked out the window; at least I had a window seat and saw the lights sparkling below. But I had no idea how long we had been flying. I kept trying to focus on the book in front of me until I eventually decided to get some sleep.  When I woke up, it was bright, and we were about to land. I hadn’t slept well, but I had slept continuously. I should fly more often.  When I got off and entered the large hall, I first noticed how heavy my eyes were. I was dead tired!  And here in the airport, the noise was incredible. My stomach growled, and my gaze automatically fell on men in suits who were fortunate enough to be sitting at one of the overpriced snack bars, eating.  I looked for a clock; it was 5 PM. Okay, hopefully, I’d memorize the times quickly.  I continued to look around and felt increasingly lost. I probably faded here faster than in Frankfurt.  'Hello! You there!' I turned around when I heard something other than English. It wasn’t unlikely to hear German here, but still. I saw a girl who was a bit taller than I was, which wasn’t much of an achievement, by the way, bouncing up and down. She wore glasses and had almost hydrogen blonde hair, which was braided into two pigtails resting on her shoulders. 'Are you Mari? Oh, please tell me you’re Mari! I’ve been busy with the party preparations the whole time, and it just occurred to me at the last minute that I need to pick you up. I haven’t been the boarding school spokesperson for long, so it often overwhelms me. Oh right, I’m Emily.' She talked incredibly fast. 'Yes, so I’m Mari.' I was completely taken aback. 'Oh, thank God!' She took my suitcase. 'Come on, I’ll carry it.' That was nice, but my backpack was much heavier. 'Come, follow me. A taxi is waiting outside.' She walked ahead, and I noticed her upright posture; she was incredibly thin and marched almost like a soldier. I sighed.  It started to rain, and I watched the raindrops slide down the taxi window while Emily kept chattering on. I eventually stopped listening. She was really nice and downright lovable, but I had never been good at small talk. My thoughts wandered back home. Now that I was infinitely far away, I realized how much I missed my old place. My heart felt heavy. But luckily, the car stopped right then. I could shake my thoughts off and run to the trunk to grab my suitcase.  Then Emily and I walked together under an awning. 'Here are a few classrooms starting right away. But we’re going directly to the dorm where you’ll be living. You’ll stay in room 34, fourth floor.' She handed me a key while we walked. At least it wasn’t the seventh floor. She pointed ahead to a concrete block with windows, some of which had lights on. 'That’s where you’ll live. I’m in room 78 on the fifth floor.' We had to stop as some boys carrying chairs and long tables crossed our path. 'What’s going on here?' I asked. 'Oh, there’s a party in the auditorium today. We always do that on the first day of school. You can come by later. Then I won’t be so lonely.' A party. Well, great, this is starting off wonderfully. 'Hey Emily!' We looked ahead to see a young man, a good two heads taller than me, coming towards us. As he got closer, you could see that his roots were more in the Asian region. He had a small beard on his chin, and green streaks were hidden in his black hair. 'Oh, who’s this?' he looked at me. 'This is Mari, the exchange student I told you about.' He shook my hand. 'Oh cool.' He beamed at me. He was really friendly; his positive aura was contagious. 'I’m Lion. But call me Strike.' - 'Hi... Strike? Why Strike?' He started grinning. 'Because I definitely always make a hole!' I had to start laughing, but Emily looked visibly annoyed. 'Yeah, yeah. Stop bothering us and move on.' She shooed him away, and he laughed as we continued walking.  We climbed the stairs and opened a door that led to a long balcony. Here was room number 34.  This was my new home for a long time. I opened the door and prayed for an uncomplicated time.