CHAPTER 2 PART 3
“Tadaima!” Leo yells front door of his house.
“Okaeri!” Ojiichan’s welcome echoes down the hallway. “Hungry?” Leo says after we leave our shoes and skateboards at
the door.
“Always.”
I follow Leo into the kitchen and park myself on a barstool at the counter my dad installed for the Matsudas, back when Leo and I were babies. We’ve always been Matsuda’s best customers, but this low-level “weekend project” build turned our parents into friends too. Soon after, Leo and I became Toddler Time buddies. We were not instant pals though. Leo’s skull probably still has the dent from when my toy backhoe collided with it. On purpose even.
While Leo goes upstairs to drop off his school stuff, I pull my drawing supplies out and spread them all over the island. I have to come up with something today. Anything. I flip through pages upon pages of abandoned ideas. I knead my gum eraser while I rack my brain. Leo’s fluffy, gray cat Maru strolls into the kitchen for a snack. When she sees me, Maru drops her tail, flattens her ears, and takes off in the opposite direction.
“You will love me”—I yell after her—“one day.” “What?” Leo says, appearing from around the corner.
“Your cat is still salty about the Great Painting Disaster.” “Yeah, if I had to be shaved to get all the paint out of my fur, I’d
be salty too.”
“You looked fierce, Maru,” I say when the cat peeks her head around the corner. “Like a lion.”
“One day, she’ll forgive you.” Leo moves Maru’s food bowl closer to her. “What’s your assignment?”
“For the first part, we have to do a two-dimensional drawing. That’s due tomorrow. The second part is building that 2D drawing into a 3D piece of art. We don’t even have to stay in the appropriate medium. Like I could draw a pirate ship and then make it out of cake instead of wood.”
Leo pulls a bag of rice crackers wrapped in seaweed out of their cupboard and pours it into a decorative glass bowl. “Too bad Sasha isn’t here. She could probably help you create anything out of sugar.”
Five years older than Leo, Sasha has been more of a babysitter than a friend to me. She’s always been kind to me, even when Leo and Aurora were on her very last nerve. Honestly, I think she likes me better than Aurora. Then again, maybe I would feel the same if I had to share a room with my sister.
“Is Sasha coming home for a visit soon? Maybe I could talk her into helping me make some kind of sugary masterpiece.”
“She’s supposed to be here Homecoming weekend. Not for the game, but so Mom and Dad can sign over the car and a couple of other things now that Sasha is twenty-one.”
“I thought it was Aurora’s car and then yours next year?”
“Not anymore. Sasha talked Mom and Dad into giving it to her. Warning: There may be a WWE-worthy smackdown between my sisters when Sasha gets here.”
“At least get it on video.” I pop some rice crackers in my mouth. “Don’t forget, we have to ask Ojiichan about the wholesale Pocky and Ramune.”
“Right. I will.” Leo opens the refrigerator and pulls out a liter bottle of Mitsuya Cider. He pours the ginger-ale-Sprite-ish kind of soda into two small glasses and slides one across the counter to me.
“I was thinking on our way over here. Since I have a food handler’s certificate and everything, what if I tried cooking something super simple at the Homecoming Carnival? Like, on my own so I can make some extra money? What do you think?”
“I think it’s a great idea. What would you make?”
Leo sits on the barstool next to me and bites his lower lip in thought.
“What about ramen?” Leo’s deep brown eyes light up as the cogs in his brain start turning. “We still have all the equipment in the storage shed left over from the restaurant’s kitchen rebuild three years ago. Dad wants to put it in a food truck one day.”
“What if you made a small, free-standing booth instead? Like what I saw the last time I was in Japan.”
“Leo-kun, kochi kitte,” Ojiichan yells from his bedroom off the kitchen. As always, Ojiichan pronounces his name so that it sounds like something between Leo and Rio.
“Hai!” Leo yells back, both of us understanding that Ojiichan wants him to come to his room.
While Leo helps his grandfather with whatever, I sip my soda and gnaw on my 2B pencil.
Copyright © 2021 by Sara Fujimura
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