‘I’m in ninth grade. Nice to meet you.’

‘Very nice to meet you,’ Kokoro said, keeping it polite because she was slightly in awe of the older girl.

Kokoro had never experienced this before – a group of kids introducing themselves so formally.

Usually, when introductions were made there was a homeroom teacher or other adult present. This April, just after she’d started junior high, when students were introducing themselves and one of the boys near the beginning of the register announced his name before sitting back down in a hurry, their teacher, Mr Ida, had teased him. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You can give us more than that, can’t you? Tell us your name, the elementary school you’ve come from. And a few words about what you like to do in your spare time.’ After that the other kids mentioned baseball, basketball and other things they enjoyed. When Kokoro’s turn came, she said, Karaoke. She thought if she’d said she liked reading, the others would label her an introvert, so when several girls ahead of her said they liked karaoke, she copied them.

Now with their so-called caretaker, the Wolf Queen, absent, no one urged anyone to add any extra detail. The only one who looked like she might do so was Aki, the girl who had already introduced herself, but since she merely said her first name and grade and nothing else, the others followed suit. It was enough.

‘I’m Kokoro,’ Kokoro said boldly. She might not be able to remember everybody’s name immediately, she thought. Even introducing herself to such an intimate group was enough to get her stomach churning. ‘I’m in seventh grade. Nice to meet you all.’

‘I’m Rion,’ the handsome boy said next. ‘People tell me it sounds like a foreign name, but I’m Japanese. It’s written with the ri in rika, science, and the on that means sound. I’m into football. And I’m in seventh grade. Nice to meet you.’

Seventh grade. Like Kokoro.

Kokoro heard a smattering of nice to meet yous, and she could tell the situation felt awkward. Would they all have to explain which characters their names were written in, and their hobbies and things?

But Aki didn’t seem to want to add anything to her introduction, and Kokoro wasn’t about to take the lead either. Casually mentioning at this point that she was into karaoke would no doubt backfire.

‘Hi, I’m Fuka. I’m in eighth grade.’

This from the girl in glasses. Once you got used to her high voice, it wasn’t so bad. Each word sounded bright and crisp. A couple of seconds of silence followed as she seemed to consider things, but then she broke it with a straightforward nice to meet you all.

‘I’m Masamune. I’m in eighth grade.’