I’ll study hard!
When I wake up the next morning, I decide that it’s going to be a good day. I won’t let my rude brother get me down. I won’t let the fact that I’m in another country get me down. And I definitely won’t let the fact that my dad has basically ignored me since I got here get me down.
Nope.
I’m going to smile. And laugh. And make friends. And start a life here. After all, this is the country I was born in. I spent most of my life here. Thirteen years of it, to be exactly. Four years in Korea has changed me a lot, but not completely. I am still American.
I get up, take a shower, and get ready for the day. I look through all the pretty new dresses in my closet and choose one. I get dressed, and even put on a new pair of shoes. After I’m dressed, I grab my handphone off the nightstand, and head out the door.
When I walk out, Alfie’s door opens at the exact same time. My heart sinks, because I know I’m probably going to get yelled at some more. But when I look up, I see that it’s not Alfie. It’s his friend, Jace.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hi,” I say, remembering not to bow.
“I… um… was just leaving,” he tells me. “Alfie is in a bad mood.”
“Sorry,” I say. “It’s my fault he’s cranky. He hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you. He loves you,” Jace says. “Actually, he’s missed you a lot. I’ve known him about four years now, since he started at my school. We became friends immediately. He always talks about you, like, all the time. He was so excited you were coming. I don’t understand why he’s acting like he is.”
“We kind of stopped talking when I lived there. Over the past couple years especially. At first, we texted each other nonstop. Then the talking got less and less until it completely stopped,” I say. “When my handphone went off, I knew it was never him.”
“Handphone?”
“Mobile phone,” I correct.
“Cellphone,” he says, then leans closer. He whispers, “Maybe you should try to act more American. For his sake.”
“I can’t take back the past four years,” I say. “Pretending I never liked in Korea isn’t an option. It changed me.”
I start to walk towards the staircase and Jace follows me.
“So, did you dress like a bum last night on purpose?” he asks me.
“A bum?” I ask. “I was hardly dressed like a bum.”
“You know what I mean,” he says.
“I didn’t get the memo that it was a formal dinner,” I say. “I didn’t do it on purpose, though I do find it odd that everybody dressed up last night. Was it a special occasion?”
“Well, Mr. James invited everybody over to meet you,” Jace says. “He was excited to show you off. But dinner here is always formal. Everybody knows that.”
“Do you eat dinner over here a lot?”
“Yeah,” he answers. “We don’t really have family dinners at my house, so I come over here. It beats eating alone.”
“My mom and I hardly ate together either,” I say. “I had school from nine to four. Then I had night school. I was getting tutored for a few hours each night in different subjects, and I was taking a Japanese class two nights a week, an advanced piano class two nights a week, and taekwondo one night. It’s actually weird being here. You guys are on break, so I won’t go back to school for a few weeks, and when I do it’ll be different. I remember school in America being very easy.”
“Easy?” Jace asks. “Then you can tutor me, cause I think it’s hard.”
I laugh as we walk down the stairs.
“So you can speak Japenese?” he asks.
“Not fluently,” I answer. “But me and my mom went to Tokyo a few months ago on a vacation. I was able to get us around. We never got lost or ordered anything weird on the menu, and nobody had problems understanding me. I think if I lived in Japan for a year, I could be fluent. The food there is good. I would stay there a whole year, just to eat their sushi everyday.”
We stop at the bottom of the stairs.
“You’re kind of awesome,” Jace says, smiling at me.
He has a nice smile. His teeth are really white and straight, like you would expect a Hollywood actor’s to be. He has dimples on both sides of his cheeks. His hair is light brown and sticks up in random directions over his head. His eyes are dark blue, which isn’t something I’m used to seeing in Korea. Everybody there has brown eyes.
“I better get going,” he says. “It was nice to talk to you, though. See you at the ball tomorrow.”
With that, he turns and walks out the front door.
“Gracie? Is that you?” I hear Claire calling. Her heels clank against the floor and she walks towards the foyer where I’m standing. When she sees me, she stops in her tracks, putting her hand over her heart. “Oh, Gracie. You look so pretty in that dress.”
“Thanks,” I say, lowing my head a little. It feels weird to accept her compliment.
“Your dad had to go to work today, but he did want me to give you the homecoming gift he picked out for you,” Claire says. “He was going to give it to you after dinner, but you ran away so quickly. I’m sorry about Alfie.”
“It’s not your fault,” I quickly say, hoping she drops the subject. I want today to be a good day, and if she keeps talking about Alfie, it won’t be. My heart is broken because of the way he’s acted towards me lately, and I don’t know what to do to mend our relationship.
She smiles. “Come with me.”
I follow her as she walks out the front door. In the front of our circle drive, there is a shiny, white car sitting in the driveway. There is a huge pink bow on it, and it’s sparkling in the sunlight. I don’t know what kind of car it is, but the logo says Porsche. The top is down on the convertible and the leather seats are black.
“This is a nice car,” I say.
“Very nice,” she says, agreeing.
“I don’t even have my driver’s license,” I tell her. “I always took the subway in Korea.”
“Then we will take you to get your license,” she says. “You study the book this weekend and I’ll take you Monday to get your permit.”
“Okay,” I say, then look at the car. “Are you sure you want me to drive something so nice?”
She nods.
I smile. “As long as you don’t mind.”
“You can probably find the book online to study for your permit,” she says.
I pull my handphone out of my purse. “I’ll study hard!” I yell, then take off towards the house.
Today, I will spend my day studying.