Chapter 2 There was Light…..

For myself, I had been trying to figure out where I stood with my new companions. Although I was dressed like a typical American student, I clearly did not fit with them because I looked, and spoke, more like the Japanese boys.

Over the course of the next week I was able to get on top of my studies and work out the curriculum for the future. I sat a few informal exams which proved that I was good with their first term work and would not be behind. Aiko buckled down and also was able to show that she did not need to miss a year, much to her relief. As a reward, she was taken to the shops by my mother and was able to pick out a couple of new outfits. Her new friends had told her where she should go and I think my mother learnt some very new things about dressing that day.

My father offered to give me the money for some new clothes but I told him that I was undecided about any changes to my outfits and that I would get back to him later. I was totally unsure of where I should place myself in my new persona. I followed part of the kawaii fashion by wearing loose tops and my longest tee’s. I had made friends with a few of the guys in my classes but had not yet been drawn to any as a close friend. I had, however, become very chatty with the girls, something I had never been famous for back home. There was a group of them who dominated my biology class and it was difficult not to be drawn into their conversation.

These particular girls did not go the whole kawaii route at school, but were more conservatively dressed with the odd kawaii accessory. I became friendly with five of them. Akari, Hanami, Okemia, Masuko and Tamura were all classically doll-like and ‘bouncy’. They told me that I had a great body for dancing and I told them I had done some back home. I didn’t tell them that I was a break-dancer. Okemia was the natural leader of the group and took me under her wing, so to speak.

In my third week, I was with Hikaru and Akito, two guys who seemed to be as isolated as I had felt back home. Maybe I was drawn to them because of this. We were not exactly the Three Musketeers but were spending more time together. At the lunch time, the five girls called us over to sit with them and so began the events that formed who I would become. My pals were delighted to be accepted by the girls as they had thought of themselves as outcasts and that first day taught me something that I had never known. Akari made the comment that all three of us must have been beautiful babies to be named as we were. Akito asked why she said it and we found out that all three of us had unisex names that could be given to both boys and girls. My name literally meant ‘beautiful child’.

I have said that the five girls were ‘bouncy’ and when I looked at my two pals I realised that we all shared similar characteristics. I knew that Hikaru and Akito were as good as me in the fitness department because we had all excelled in our gym classes and were unbeatable when we were together in a volleyball team. There were no mixed gym classes which was, I thought, a shame. The three of us were woeful at soccer or baseball so never got picked for any teams so we often were sent off to do laps of the school sportsground or to do weight lifting to fill up our time.

At lunch, Masako told us that the girls were all enroled in an after-hours gymnastics course and that we should sign on. She said that uniforms were provided and that they were looking to put together a team to compete in the inter-school competitions. She had some forms for us to sign up and we did so with pleasure. She then told us that our first training session would be that day, after school. Before I went to my first afternoon class I found my sister and asked her to tell our mother that I would be late home tonight and would be taking an after-school subject.

When I got to the gym that afternoon I was greeted by the girls and their teacher, Machiko Ryoji. She sized up the three of us lads and made the comment “I see what you mean, Okemia, these could work.” We found out their devilish plan when we went to change into the supplied uniforms. We had been given leotards for girls and I think that the three of us looked stupid when we went back to the floor. If I was blushing as much as my pals we could put the lights out and the girls could work in our glow. However, we were told that we looked the part and to show what we could do. Hikaru said that he had trained on uneven bars before and showed us a simple routine that he could do. I looked on in wonder as he actually looked like a girl as he went through the routine. Akito was warming up and then showed us that he was a good vaulter. When it came to my turn I showed them that I was good at beam work.

The girls were also working out on the various bits of apparatus but the one thing that captured my attention was Tamura and Hanami working on a floor routine. Much of what they were doing was so close to break-dancing moves I knew that I just had to try it. Miss Ryoji saw my interest and asked me if I wanted to try a few of the moves. Before I went home I had almost mastered a forward summersault and Tamura had shown me some moves that you use at the end of each run to make it appear more dance-like. Miss Ryoji said that she would have some more outfits for us by the next week and that she thought that there may be the makings of a team so she would put together a curriculum of training. This would, she said, include Rhythmic Gymnastics as a five girl team. What I didn’t realise, at the time, was that Akito and I were part of her thinking.

Aiko asked me what I had done after school and I told her, and my mother, that it was a special gymnastic class that was geared towards inter-school competition, not saying that it was to be an all-girl team. I was sure that I would not be allowed to compete against other girls and that our team would be outlawed as having three guys in it. What I didn’t reckon with was the power of our first names. When we did get listed with the competition administration there was no question that Miyoko, Hikaru and Akito were anything but girls.

But that was all in the future. After our second training session we were given specific tasks to practise on. I spent time with the beam and started to get some specific training in rhythmic floor work, getting introduced to the ribbon, hoops, rope and ball. When I was shown video of these from past Olympics I was staggered at the grace and beauty of it, but also by the absolute skills of the girls in their movements. It is one thing to throw a ball or a hoop into the air but it’s something else altogether to do a summersault and be in place to catch it when it comes back down, sometimes behind your back! The sheer precision of it got under my skin and I knew I just had to do it myself.

As we progressed we melded into a team unit, staying together at the meal breaks and starting to speak of our dreams and aspirations. I had not thought about what I wanted to do when I graduated and had not even looked at the streams that we would nominate for in our third year. I gathered that there would be plenty of time to think about that and I was sure there would be people on hand to give us guidance. In the meantime I studied hard and made sure that I developed my gymnastic skills to a level way beyond what I had been before we came here.

Getting towards the end of the term we were starting to work on a rhythmic gymnastics routine, just a little at a time. Miss Ryoji told us that it would be into the New Year before we would be good enough to show the world what we could do and to not push our young bodies too far. Our last full session of the term saw us putting on the full display and doing pretty well with it. We had chosen to do it with the ribbons which had small weights on one end and I was sure it looked spectacular. What I didn’t know was that Aiko and her friends had snuck into the gym and were peeking through the gaps in the bleachers. When I got home that evening she hugged me close and told me that I was fantastic but I really needed to let the family know what I was doing.

I had told my parents that all I needed for Christmas was a phone. Actually, the whole team had done the same with their parents and, when we got back together on our first day of the new term, we exchanged numbers and programmed them in. A our first lunch break I told the rest of the team that I had finally told my parents about us and that I was surprised that they took it so calmly. Well, I had not quite told them that I was participating as a girl. Hikaru had already let his parents know what was going on and they had been a little upset but bowed to the inevitable. We were, after all, only pretending to be girls for the sake of the team.

Marianne G 2021