Chapter 34“No way! I’m late again!”
Her feet hammered the stairs as she stumbled downwards, slipped into her shoes, and fumbled with the lock of the door.
“Jeez, Mom, why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” she cried over her shoulder, glancing backwards at her parents as they smiled at her from the kitchen table.
With a shake of her head, her mother sighed, smiling at her.
“Oh, Shizuka!”
“See ya!” the girl cried, racing out of the house, the door slamming shut behind her, her school bag swinging as the warmth of the spring sun touched the nape of her neck, the space between her hair and the navy-blue collar of her white sailor’s blouse.
In the branches of trees alive now with cherry blossom, ravens looked down as she passed, startled by the swiftness of her movement, the joy in her step
