Gloria blocked that odd Sarah incident from her mind as she entered the classroom that doubled as the student council meeting room.
Today they were discussing the budget and how much they could spend for an upcoming pep rally. Unfortunately, that meant she would have to interact with the student body treasurer, Orii.
Orii was a nice enough guy, but he had come from Japan five years ago and had maintained his firm ideas of a woman's role in society. He always believed women were the eye candy that made life sweeter, but that intellectually they were inferior to men. Gloria imagined that he was the type of guy who it would never cross his mind to help do household chores. His girlfriend would have to cook and clean and serve him in any way he wanted.
"Gloria, so kind of you to join us," Orii said. "We were just doing the budget, and we figured you wouldn't be interested in all this math, so we started without you."
Gloria knew that 'we' meant he had pushed the other members to begin without her. God, he was so infuriating! Gloria couldn't stand him.
"Orii, it is adding and subtracting! It isn't like that math would be too hard for me. Further, I am getting an A in AP Calculus, so I think I'm just as good "
Gloria stopped her sentence in mid-diatribe. Her head was feeling funny, and there was tingling throughout her body. After clearing her throat, she began her speech again.
"You are too kind, Orii-san. You are so smart, too! Just tell me what you decide," and Gloria smiled at him.
She never noticed how cute he was. So confident. So assertive. He would be the perfect boyfriend for her, although she wondered what her parents would say if she brought home a Japanese boyfriend.
Wait, wouldn't her parents be excited? Her parents were always talking about their days back in Japan, and had made her speak Japanese at home and prefer Japanese culture to American. In fact, they were always telling her how important it was to bring home a nice Japanese boy. "Yuri," her mom would tell her, "someday you'll meet a nice boy who will take care of you as well as your dad takes care of me." Yuri thought maybe Orii was that guy.
Yuri took out a compact from her now stylish purse and began re-applying her makeup, while the other members of the student council made decisions and talked about big important concepts too complicated for a silly girl like herself.
She was now quite a looker. Long, jet black hair that flowed down to the middle of her back like a waterfall of black licorice. Almond-shaped eyes that looked exotic, although she just thought about how to add more curl to her eye lashes.
After re-applying some mascara, she looked up and saw Orii staring at her.
"Yuri," he said in Japanese, "after the meeting let's go to that sushi place a few blocks from here."
"Of course, Orii-san," she replied in Japanese, and then giggled, excited about her upcoming date with such a perfect guy.
