The hours pass and Benjamin's day in school comes to an end soon. He sits in the chemistry laboratory, not paying attention to Mr. Frank's lecture and repeatedly glancing at the clock. Students sit in their chairs bored out of their minds and doing anything but paying attention. Mr. Frank often cracks some jokes in between lectures. However, they seem to blow past most of the students as some either don't understand them or are simply too exhausted. The reason is that Mr. Frank often has Benjamin's class at the end of the day, making it very hard to focus when the opportunity to go home is only mere minutes away.

Benjamin looks into his book as if he would see something remotely interesting. He tries to entertain himself by making stories up in his head. However, even that seems to fail as he remembers the words spoken by Mrs. Schulz earlier:

"I believe the perfect opportunity for you to get that certain perspective might even come later this day."

What does she mean by that? He asks himself a thousand different questions, and he can't answer a single one of them. Mr. Frank is still lecturing the bored students, but Benjamin only needs to hold on for a few more minutes before the bell rings. He takes another glance at the clock. He's focusing on it so much, that he completely ignores the lesson again. Only the sounds emitting from the clock are what Benjamin is concentrating on.

Tick...tock...tick...tock, again and again. Then it happens. The bell rings.

He quickly stands up and heads towards the door.

Huh, nothing happened after all. I guess it was just another of Mrs. Schulz's quirky sentences that come out of her mouth every now and then. Hopefully, Frederic is ready to pick me up from this hell...

Benjamin walks down the corridor. Students from all the classrooms walk out the doors left and right. He picks up the pace a bit. The school's exit is already visible through the crowd of Rheingard students. As he heads towards it, he notices quite a few students gathering around the school's news pinboard. Benjamin often stays up to date with what's happening inside the high school.

Maybe having a quick look at the recent news can't be bad. It's only going to take a few minutes. Besides, Frederic can wait that long.

Benjamin tries to push through the crowd of students gathering around the board. He didn't expect it to be this crowded. It must be exciting or important news. Finally, he manages to get through all of the people standing around and takes a look at the board.

Let's see, the upcoming festival, that's boring...I'll probably stand on the side again, same as last time. "Writing contest winners," not interesting. Wow, I'm amazed at how these trash romantic essays get the first place. Seems that these kids are not only spoiled but also absolutely dense about what it means to write a good story...Oh, what do we have here..." Yearly student exchange program participants," that's interesting...I didn't even know our school had something like this. And the participants are Emily Braun is going to the U.S, Finn Lehrberg is heading towards South Africa, Robert Henrich is traveling to India, Jonas Bernhard in Vietnam,...

and Benjamin J. Herrmann is flying over to Japan.

Huh, that's my name. Wait-

"THAT'S MY NAME!" he yells out loud.

"Yes that is your name, Benjamin," says Mrs. Schulz as she puts her arm on his shoulder.

His entire face goes red out of anger.

"Why is my name on there!? I never signed up for this! Why am I going to Japan? What. Did. You. Do?" questions Benjamin.

"Actually, it was your mother that signed you up for this. So if you're looking to change this, you gotta talk to her," states Mrs. Schulz while holding a cup of coffee. Her smirking expression makes Benjamin furious.

"Is this what you've meant by 'I believe the perfect opportunity for you to get that certain perspective might even come later this day?' If so, I hope you realize that it's never going to happen!" he says while pointing his finger to Mrs. Schulz's face.

"Yeah, good luck with that kiddo. The school prepares this program for months. The plane ticket, information, and exchange schools have all already been informed. You're going to Japan, and then you'll finally broaden your horizons with experience and new opportunities! -Oh, and before I forget it, here is a checklist you need to complete while over there. There will be a student assigned to you that will check your progress and help you if you need it."

She hands him the checklist, which makes Benjamin even more furious. His right-hand holds the paper like any other. However, his left-hand curls up into a fist. He is red with anger, and his face is all scrunched up.

"Great..." says Benjamin with absolutely no excitement. He rolls his eyes and reluctantly places the checklist inside his bag.

"Good, I guess this means goodbye for now. I'll see you the following year, however keep me updated. Hope you have fun in Japan but don't forget the list, okay?" she expresses and pats him on the back.

Benjamin solely waves his hand and already treads towards the exit.

"Benjamin!" yells Mrs. Schulz after him.

"What now?"

"Live a little."

He stares at her with a half-scrunched-up face and only says: "Yeah yeah..."

Benjamin strolls toward the school gate, where Frederic, his chauffeur is already waiting for him. He is completely devastated about the news he just read. With his head down and even more dead facial expression he stands before the car door.

Frederic has been a friend of the Herrmann family for a long time. His first time working with the family was back when he was 18 years old. He got assigned to drive Mr. Herrmann to his next business meeting. Benjamin's father was quite shocked after finding out about his age. When asked about how the two became friends, his father always says: "He was certainly very well-mannered, had a sense of humor, and was just overall a great guy. After my business meeting, I asked him about becoming a chauffeur for me - to which he happily agreed." Benjamin has numerous times overheard the conversation about how Frederic insisted on driving them for no charge. Mr. Herrmann always agrees to this, only for him to give Frederic a raise the following day...

"Good afternoon, Mr. Herrmann. How was your day?"

"How often do I need to tell you this? Just call me Benjamin. My day started terribly, and it just got even worse."

"Is this about the student exchange program?"

"YOU KNEW?"

"Of course. But I was strictly prohibited from informing you. These were Mrs. Herrmann's instructions."

"And people wonder why I have trust issues..."

"Shall we head home?"

"Yeah, I gotta have a talk with someone..."

Frederic opens the car door for Benjamin and he drives them to the Herrmann residence. Benjamin looks out the window onto the many houses that pass him. His thoughts are entirely focused on Japan. Although he is half-Japanese, he barely knows anything about the country. His Japanese linguistics skills should be good enough to get him through. But an entire year? He thinks about different ways to speed up the process.

Mrs. Schulz mentioned that each exchange student would have a student assigned to them. Benjamin is skeptical about that since he thinks it would only complicate things by having a second person involved. Maybe he can persuade them to not bother helping him. That way, Benjamin can focus on finishing the checklist on his own.

I wonder what type of person I got assigned...