Summer - Miho - July [Part 2 of 6] "Thanks for the ride, Komemoto-san! Safe trip on your way back!"
From the floating pier, I waved to the ferry, and it replied with three blows of its steam whistle.
The time is 19:05. I saw off the perfectly on-schedule ferry, then made my way down the twilight-dyed country road.
I got back a lot later than I had planned. This island, what with its lack of illumination from shops and street lights, would go dark instantly after sundown. Sure, everyone on the island is friendly, and the bugs and animals are not hostile. Even so, I could not help but be scared of just being in the dark.
...And my stomach just growled. Let's just hurry home. The sultry sea breeze is making me sweat after only ten steps of walking. My blouse hasn't even dried yet, and now it's getting soaked again.
"Sorry for running late."
"Oh, finally back eh, Miho? Here, over here. C'mere. Dahahahhaha!"
Immediately as I opened the front door, I was welcomed by Dead's voice in good humor.
I knew this would be happening since he's off-duty for the day, but judging from his tone, he's totally drunk. I'm glad and all that I won't be in for a scolding, but I don't really want to deal with him like this either... Should I skip the living room and just go upstairs? I thought about it while taking off my shoes. Oh, right, today's when the Z-Kai materials are supposed to arrive... Well, let's just snatch the envelope and go up to my room.
With that decision in mind, I put on a smile and slid the door open.
"I'm home~~"
"Oh, there you are. How's it goin', mah genius girl? Guhahahaha!"
Dad was totally drunk, as expected, with his face all red as he placed various pickled snacks on the dining table. A whole lot of red there, too. Dad's red face and red shirt, red ginger, red plums, red shiso-pickled garlic, red answer sheet. Red all the way to the dining table's surface.
"--Wha... wait a sec. What're you looking at there, Dad?"
I almost missed that. One member among the red snacks on the dining table was...
"Isn't that my Z-Kai answer sheet? Why're you even looking at it?"
"What? Of course a father's gotta look at his daughter's answer sheets. I can see that you've been givin' your best, Miho. Your handwriting's not so clean though... Reminds me of someone 'round here, eh?"
”My handwriting doesn't look like anyone's! Just give it back already, jeez...”
"Hey, don't pull. You'll spill the garlic."
"And why'd you spread it under a plate in the first place?"
I made a fuss while pulling back my answer sheets. When I exerted some extra strength, my stomach growled again.
"Well, wanna take some garlic with you?"
"Dad, you idiot!"
I rushed up the stairs and took refuge in my room.
Ugh, I can't take this anymore. Why does everyone in my family like to look at my mail stuff? And my handwriting... I don't want to hear that, especially from Dad.
I put down my bag on the writing desk, hung up my uniform, and got a change of clothes. A sleeveless shirt and comfy, easy-to-wear shorts. Mom had scolded me for being improper, but I had always ween wearing this set for most of the summer. Now, I wonder what face she will make if I told her that I take off my shorts when I sleep.
"Let's see here..."
While chewing a bulb of garlic to sate my stomach, I spread the answer sheets on the desk.
Even if it doesn't concern my grades at school, or even if there's no teacher in front of me, I would still feel nervous when looking at graded answer sheets. Before reviewing them thoroughly, I'll look at the score percentages for every subject first. Japanese, Maths, Science, Geography, History, Social Studies, English--
Not bad... I guess?
I mean, yup, this is fine. Not bad at all. Japanese, good; Science and Maths, close enough; Japanese History, OK; World History, OK; and English... My best out of the bunch. I'm especially happy with that.
For the University that I had finally decided on as my first choice, I needed English-- Or rather, I had to be good at it, lest I be turned down at their doorsteps. So, frankly, doing great with exercises of this difficulty level isn't exactly something to celebrate...
"Whoa, I got all of the vocab problems! Way to go!"
But how could I resist being happy when seeing high score numbers? After all, it's July; I had planned to devote the month to brush up my vocabulary. I had done my best to not give in to Chihiro's influences, and it was well worth it, I'd say.
I turned to look at the clock on the wall. There's still a little more time until dinner. Not enough time to take a full shower though...
"Alright-y..."
I pulled out the English answer sheet and started reviewing it from the beginning. It really is fun, reviewing a test that I did well in. I can do this as a hobby, even. Vocab, idioms, fill-in-the-blank, conversation sentences, Japanese translation-- The gratifying circles just keep coming.
"Passage reading, huh..."
Reaching this point, I stopped my humming and tapped my mechanical pencil on the sheet.
The scores are still good. But that was because I had taken the time to answer everything carefully. For the real thing, I'll probably need to read them at least one-point-five times faster. For the standardized English exams, the passage reading parts make up three-fourths of the total grade, so reading speed is a skill that directly influences one's results. I'll need te vocab, reading comprehension, understanding of grammar-- Yeah, more like the entirety of the language...
[Looking deep into it, your grasp on English also depends on your intuition.]
An English teacher of mine once said that back in my Middle School years. What a blunt way to go about saying it, I had thought, but...
[Anyhow, for those without intuition, you need to read all you can. It will make all the difference, at least for standardized examinations.]
That was what came after. From the looks of it, I'm probably the kind of person who doesn't have the intuition for English. So I've got to win with quantity, huh...
"...Huh?"
One particular answer column caught my eye, prompting me to take another look at the answer sheet.
A question from the last passage. A Japanese translation. The latter half of the sentence that supposedly summarizes the author's thoughts had been underlined.
[My life is at a crossroads.]
The assigned sentence was [watashi no jinsei wa docchitsukazu no mayoi michi da].
The marking was a cross. But that doesn't matter. What's important is the grader's explanation, written in red pen to the side...
[A beautiful translation, but incorrect. From the front and rear context of what was translated to 'crossroads'...]
I switched to the assigned sentence again, reading the underlined part word-by-word and analyzing it, then switched back to where the explanation was.
...A beautiful translation.
I tried it again, reading the assigned sentence and then switching back.
......A beautiful translation.
I gave it another attempt, and then another -- And the Chiho came to call me to go downstairs for dinner. She barged in without knocking again, but strangely, I did not complain.
.........A beautiful translation, they said.
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