Hanami

April showers bring May flowers; it was the beginning of Spring. A light shower started trickling down. Jack reached out his hand at the bus stop to confirm if it started raining. Drip… Drop… the raindrops landed on the palm of his hand. He then wiped his hand dry on the side of his pants.

'Good thing I packed my umbrella today,' Jack thought.

He quickly took it out from his school bag and continued to wait for the bus. It was the beginning of the spring semester, and Jack was on his way to make it to freshmen orientation. Since this was his first time going to public school, he wanted to make a good impression by going there earlier than anyone else. 5 AM in the morning, the streets were empty, and Jack was the only one at the bus stop. The school's bus service hasn't started their route, so he waited for quite a while. 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, and then 20 minutes passed, he was getting agitated.

'Why hasn't the bus come yet?! Time is money, you stupid bus!' he cursed in his heart.

For Jack, time was money indeed. He lived alone and always spent his extra time trying to make money. Whether it was part-timing at the local restaurant as a delivery boy and dishwasher, babysitting for his landlord, or cleaning the local's residents as a temporary housemaid, he was willing to do it all. He needed to, no he must. Jack was raised by his grandparents after a horrible accident his father had caused when he was still just a baby. Thus, he had no recollection of either of his parents.

At the time, his father was a single parent trying to raise him on his own after his mother passed during childbirth. She was a kind and fragile woman, who was always sick. She loved her husband so much that she wanted to leave a child behind for him because she knew that her time was up. Afterall, having a child was the ultimate symbol of love, right?

Although his father vowed to raise him properly, he was soon swindled. Swindled by his best friend of 30 years. A business proposal was presented to him by this best friend, and he was convinced that it would succeed. A man down on his luck, his wife had just passed, and he was a single father. Anyone would jump at the chance to make large sums of money. The best friend promised him a convincing 35% profit within just a few months. It seemed too good to be true, but the proposal was well thought out. It had accurate data on the market for increasing demand for this type of technology and projected staggering numbers of increased profits for this new product. So wholly convinced, that Jack's father invested all of his savings and even taking out a second mortgage on their home. The best friend assured Jack's father that he would be the one to take care of everything and that he would oversee the production. All Jack's father had to do was sit at home and wait for the money to come rolling in. He had to reluctantly agree because he still had to take care of baby Jack, and this was his best friend of 30 years; if he couldn't trust this loyal friend, who else could he trust? Soon, everything crumbled during the day of the release. That's the thing: nothing was released. There was no actual product, and the best friend had disappeared. You would think that after investing so much money into any business that you would be keeping your eyes on it as if it were your own baby, but he did not. He fully trusted his best friend of 30 years. His father was ashamed and committed suicide after leaving him at the grandparent's home in the countryside.

Jack has since been in the countryside. They lived a rather simple life as farmers. His grandparents tended the fields and sold produce at the market. Jack helped out as soon as he could stand on his own. He was a diligent young fellow, who was hard at work.

Tragically, when he turned 14, his grandparents had passed away of old age. Good thing he had such caring and dutiful grandparents looking out for him. Before they passed, they hired someone to liquidate all of their assets, including their old home. Leaving the inheritance solely to him and also a letter of goodbye. In the message, his grandparents wished for him to go to school in the city. They wanted him to assimilate into the real world instead of wasting away in the countryside like an elderly. There was nothing left in the countryside for him anyway; thus he packed up his bags and moved to the city.

With the money his grandparents left behind, he was able to put a down-payment and one year's rent for a small apartment at the heart of the city and near his new school. It wasn't too big, and it wasn't too small, but it was comfortable. At least it had a kitchen with a working refrigerator and a bathroom with running hot water included with the living space. He didn't care about such things; he was more worried about whether or not he could keep up with the curriculum. His grandmother only homeschooled him, so he wasn't sure if the education he received from her would be at all useful at his new school. However, his grandmother has always praised him for his intuitive learning skills. That must count for something, after all, she was a scholar with a Ph.D. in philosophy. But, Jack didn't know that. He only knew that his grandparents were simple countryside farm folk. He was, however, grateful to them for raising him to be such a fine young man.

The first bus didn't show up until 30 minutes later with more and more students arriving at the same bus stop, all lining up to get on. Jack's plan to be the first to arrive at school was thus foiled. He wasn't the only eager student to start their new life at a new school with new classmates.

Jack finally got on the bus, sat down on a single-seater in the middle of the bus and opened up his newspaper to look through the employment section. After a short while, the bus filled with students and set off.

A small girl carrying a huge backpack stood next to him, but he did not notice. He was completely engrossed in his job search. He had to earn some money to pay for future expenses quickly.

'Hmm, this one's no good… too far. Oooh, this one's not bad. Better circle it,' he circled as he pondered at the many choices.

The bus abruptly stopped at the green light, and many of the passengers almost fell over. It stopped because a family's dog ran out into the street. The driver noticed it at the last second and slammed onto the breaks to avoid running the dog over. One person did fall over though, and it was the girl carrying the oversized backpack. Jack had his head down staring at his newspaper, and his head slammed into the back of the seat in front of him.

"Ouch!" he said aloud, rubbing his head in pain. At the same time, there was an even louder 'ouch' than his, causing him to turn his head as he rubbed his head. He saw that a little girl had fallen over and carefully put away his newspaper before quickly getting up from his seat to help her. Jack lifted her backpack with one arm and the tiny girl in the other.

"Are you okay? Here, take my seat," said Jack. He pointed at his seat only to find that someone else was already sitting in it. This person had his earphones on and pretended to sleep.

"Hey, you! Get off my seat!" Jack screamed.

The little girl stopped him, "Th-thank you, I'll be fine," the girl timidly answered.

Jack sighed and gave up. But, he still helped the little girl with her bag. It was twice her size, and he couldn't help but hold on to the backpack for the little girl who had just fallen over.

"Don't worry about it, I'll hold it for you until we get to the school," he said.

She was a little timid and so grateful for his help. "Th-thank you. My name is Julie, Julie Symphony, " she introduced.

"Ah, you can call me Jack," he introduced himself as well.

Jack was excited that this little girl could potentially be his very first friend at a new school in a new city and his new life.

'Darn it, all this time wasted… I could've found a job, sigh, at least I found a new friend.'