"Ay... an..."
A single familiar and soft voice rang in Ayami's ears... however, she wasn't really in the mood to hear it. The sunlight was streaming in from the window and hitting her in the face as she lay tiredly in bed. She had been up all night playing video games... a foolish decision really, but she was so dang close to beating that one level that she couldn't resist playing until she finished it!... and the one after it... and the one after that... gah, she had really messed up.
"Aya-chan... come on honey it's time for school. For both of us. Now get up, you're already terrible in terms of grades so sleeping in won't exactly help you."
Her father was sitting on her bedside then. She grimaced, cheeky old man... who did he think he was? She hated sleeping in anyway, so she hardly ever did it, not to mention the fact that she was very well aware of her falling grade point average... but it's not like she hadn't been trying to improve it at all during the Summer! Sure, she had taken her time to relax like any good, normal high school student would... but it's not like she hadn't opened a book to do some equations... you know, once or twice, or maybe just once... eh she couldn't remember.
"Neh, neh Otōsan... five more minutes. I need my beauty sleep." Ayami replied to her father dismissively as she snuggled into her pillows and began to flutter her eyes shut once again, however as she did so she swore she saw the glint of a devilish smile on her fathers face.
"Oh Aya-chan... I wouldn't worry, you're plenty beautiful already! Not then... up you get!"
In a cruel move on her fathers part, Ayami felt a pair of warm hands shunt her half-sleeping back. Just like that she was knocked forward, rolling haphazardly out of the bed to hit her wooden bedroom floor with a thud. She lay there for a few moments before smashing the ground with her fist and groaning loudly.
Seemed like it was time to start her first full year as a perfectly normal high school student. To be honest, she would have been lying if she said that the didn't at least excite her a little bit.
***
Sitting at the breakfast table, Ayami and her father, Kosetsu, were both dressed for the day ahead... she in her school uniform and he in his smartest shirt and lab coat... a text book tucked firmly under his arm. Between bites of toast the older man spoke to his daughter.
"Remember that this weekend you're joining my extra classes... I know you didn't have long in school the first time around... I know we've only been here for six months, but you need to get your grades up."
Ayami sighed at her fathers words. She just nodded, she wasn't happy about having her father tutor her, but she knew it was necessary. As the two finished breakfast they rose from the table proceeded to the door and exited outwards to stand on the front porch.
"Ayami... one more thing." In response to her fathers voice, Ayami stopped moving and listened. "I know you've been finding it hard adjusting... we both have, but I want you to make a serious effort to make some friends this year alright? Maybe with the neighbor kids? They have a son and daughter around your age... and I'm almost certain that I'm teaching their youngest son this year. I mean we've been here six months, I'm surprised you aren't already close friends with all of them."
Ayami frowned. "I just haven't ended up in a situation where I've really gotten to talk to them... that's all..." Kosetsu looked away for a moment as if thinking, before grinning and sprinting to his car, taking Ayami by surprise as he got in and started the engine.
"W...wait! Otōsan! You've always driven me to school! I don't know my way there walking!"
Kosetsu didn't say anything, instead he pointed with a bored expression to the Minami household and drove off, leaving his daughter in the dust.
Ayami's eyes widened as she realized that her father was using this abandonment as a method of forced interaction between the neighbor kids and herself. He had literally left her with no choice but to either rely on them, or be VERY late for her first day of school. With a desperate expression she looked around helplessly before sighing and flopping down to sit and wait for the Minami's on her porch step.
It would seem that no matter where she lived or what happened, her father was always her father. That was comforting in a way... but as she had just realized it could also be incredibly awkward.