<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: palatino;">As she made her way half way out of the school yard, Midori heard the doors open behind her, and so glanced back. The new boy, Kitsu, spoke with his guardian for a moment, and then the man left. It sort of reminded her of how Otousan had left, in that it seemed that Kitsu was being left behind. Though, it did not seem as though the boy was very effected by the abandonment. Midori could not help but correlate her situation to his, even without having heard their exchange. Maybe leaving children behind was just something adults did. After a moment of hovering near the edge of the playground, hoping maybe she would make another friend today, Midori turned and continued home, leaving the boy and the still painfully raw memories he had brought up behind.<br/><br/>The walk to Kanetaro-oji's home did not take long, and was not as confusing as Jinmi seemed to think it was. As she wandered through the door, Sunako jumped down from her shoulder and tore off through the house, straight for their room. "Jinmi-sama, I am back from school." it seemed right to announce herself, so the woman would not think she had become lost or something.<br/><br/>Jinmi hurried out of the kitchen, her expression odd, perhaps worried. "Midori-chan! I was about to go out looking for you! Did you get lost? I knew I should have gone to pick you up, even though you insisted you were fine!"<br/><br/>Kanetaro-oji sure married an excitable woman. "I had a few questions for Iruka-sensei, so I stayed after. I did not mean to upset you Jinmi-sama. He suggested that I should inform you I will be staying after tomorrow as well, to try to catch up on subjects I do not yet understand fully. Also, Otousan told me it is unwise for me to cause you distress in your current condition: please do not worry about me, Jinmi-sama. I am good at remembering how I got to where I am, and how to get back to where I have come from. I will not get lost."<br/><br/>"Muuurah!" Sunako exclaimed from the doorway to her room, causing Midori to turn from her worried, and somewhat put-out guardian, to isolate herself in the room with her cat and school work, reading it over carefully until dinner. And then again after dinner, even though Kanetaro-oji tried to lure her outside to play. Normally, she would have gone: playing with her Ojisama was one of Midori's favorite activities. But not now that she needed to worry about being behind in school. When she was caught up she would worry about playing, not before...<br/><br/>____ ___ __ _<br/><br/>The next morning started out like the one previous: Midori woke, ate breakfast, got dressed, met Jinmi in the kitchen, picked up her bento and her kitten. Today, though, Jinmi did not insist on walking her to school, and only wished her a good morning, if somewhat softly. It made the young girl regret having been so insistent on doing it herself. Maybe after school she would try to do something to make the woman happier; she had been taking care of her, and been being very nice. Just because she did not know what to do, or how to act, did not mean she should inadvertently hurt Kanetaro-oji's wife's feelings.<br/><br/>"Goodbye Midori-chan, have a good day in class. Please try to be home before dinner." It seemed the woman was still trying, and Midori was certain she had a way to make her happier.<br/><br/>"Goodbye Jinmi-oba..." it still felt weird, but the pleased look of surprise on the woman's face seemed to make it worth the strangeness of it. Perhaps it would grow on her. Midori hurried away to class, before Jinmi could say anything else.<br/><br/>The bento felt heavy again today, as it had yesterday. Maybe Choji would like to have some of her lunch again today...<br/><br/>____ ___ __ _<br/><br/>Arriving at school, Midori looked around, hoping to see Shikamaru and Choji, though there were so many students around it was a little hard to tell. After a few moments she determined that they had not arrived yet, as the school doors were not open and thus they could not be inside the building either. The new boy was there, though, reading near the doors by himself.<br/><br/>She had been by herself yesterday, and it had been lonely. Maybe she could be friendly as her new friends had been the day before and greet him. Make him feel better about being alone too? Quietly and shyly, she moved closer to the boy, and hovered a moment near him before speaking, "Um.. hi. My name is Yuhara Midori. I sort of saw you yesterday after class, talking with Iruka-sensei? You're new? I'm new too, and I thought maybe you would want a friend? I did not have any friends before yesterday, but they are really nice, and.. and I just sort of thought maybe I could be your friend too..." <br/><br/>Maybe she should have thought out what she was going to say, first, before just going up and opening her mouth. But, what was done was done, and maybe he would like having an offer of friendship, as she had...</span>