“Thank you for flying with us and welcome to Beijing,” the flight attendant’s chipper voice echoed throughout the cabin, waking Emily from her doze. She stretched and attempted to stifle a yawn. It took a moment for her to remember, but then it dawned on her where she was. She hurriedly opened to the window shade and peeked out. All around her, planes were landing, taking off, or taxiing to their designated gates. Nothing seemed different compared to America, but she knew once she stepped out of the airport, that would change.

Nervously waiting for the plane’s door to open, she her cell phone and quickly texted her friend:

Made it to Beijing! Waiting to get off the plane

Almost immediately she texted back:

YAY. Let me know when you’re at your dorm so we can skype

Emily replied saying she would and started the trek to the luggage belt. After getting her bags and hailing a taxi, Emily’s nerves started to settle in. She was finally in China and would start attending Beijing Language and Culture University in two weeks.

After a long drive that probably would’ve been shorter had the traffic been better, Emily arrived at the University. She paid the driver, and he helped her unload her luggage. She dragged her luggage behind her and joined the multitudes of other students flocking to the dorms. She pulled out a piece of paper with her dormitory name and room number on it. As an international student, she got a room to herself with two other suite mates. The paper said she was on the fourth floor in room 407B. She consulted a campus map and found her dorm building. Fortunately it was close, so she started the walk over there. A million thoughts started running through her head as she weaved in and out of students. She hoped her roommates were nice and that she would be able to make friends. She also worried whether her Chinese was good enough to understand all her lessons.

All around her, upperclassmen were greeting old friends catching up on summer gossip, and freshman (as well as a couple fellow foreigners) were stiffly walking around, eyes wide, as they tried to take in everything around them. Finally, her dorm building came into view. It was bustling with activity as students said goodbye to parents or ran around trying to find their lost luggage. She found an elevator and stood in line with several other people. When the doors opened to reveal a rather large elevator, they all piled in with their suitcases and bags. Emily dropped one of her bags, but before she could reach down and pick it up, someone beat her to it. She met eyes with a short girl with long, pink hair.

“You’ve got a lot of stuff,” she said with slightly accented English.

Shyly. Emily nodded and took her bag back. “Thanks,” she said.

“No problem. What floor are you going to?”

“Fourth.”

“Me too! Here, give me some of that. I don’t have much ‘cause my brother already carried most of it up for me.” Without waiting for Emily’s response, she grabbed a couple bags Emily had precariously stacked on top of each other.

Emily smiled, face red from realizing they were the only ones talking in the elevator. Everyone was either watching their conversation with blank faces or completely ignoring them.

The doors opened on the fourth floor and Emily practically toppled out, her suitcase and new friend not far behind.

“By the way, my name is May,” the girl said.

“I’m Emily.”

They stopped in front of Emily’s dorm room so she could fish out a key. Once inside, Emily went to room B and dumped her stuff on the small bed. May placed the rest of her stuff on the floor next to it. “I’m gonna unpack my stuff and all that too, so why don’t we meet at the cafeteria around 6:15 for dinner?”

Emily nodded and said, “Sure. That sounds good.”

May grinned. “Cool. Nice meeting you, Emily!”

“Same! Thanks for helping me,” Emily replied.

May waved back at her as she skipped out of the room and down the hallway.

Making a mental note to ask her what her room number is, Emily started unpacking her belongings. She rearranged the furniture in the room to make it a bit more spacious, then set about making up the bed and hanging things on the wall.

She had just finished put her bedsheets on when the dorm room door opened, followed by a loud bump and a curse. Emily peeked out to see a thin black girl struggling to get a rather large suitcase through the door without dropping all her other things.

Immediately Emily ran to the girl’s aid. Once the two heaved all the suitcases and bags into the girl’s room, she turned to face Emily.

“Phew! That was harder than it should’ve been. Thanks, girl. Glad you were in here or my stuff would be all over the floor. I’m Sydney, by the way,” she said.

Emily nodded and said, “You’re welcome. I’m Emily.”

“Cool. Where ya from?”

    “The U.S.”

“Nice. I’m from Canada.”

The two girls chatted until it was time for dinner. Sydney was all for meeting May, so she and Emily walked over to the cafeteria together.

Since today was move-in day, Emily expected there to be tons of students everywhere, but there seemed to be a huge crowd forming near their dorm. It was comprised of mostly girls whose eyes were all focused on the main gate to the campus. Curious, Emily followed their gazes and saw a shiny, black, expensive-looking car parked there. A tall man in sunglasses got out and started walking towards the main building.

Emily was hardly listening as Sydney babbled away next to her. She stared at the man who looked strangely like Wu Yifan. But that would be impossible. Why would he be at her university? They were heading in similar directions and just as the Yifan look-a-like turned his head her way, Emily ran straight into a brick wall.

    She stumbled back because of the force and started rubbing her now sore forehead. Her entire face was a bright red, and she waved off Sydney’s concern with embarrassment.

    However, this wasn’t the worst of it. The Yifan look-a-like was about twenty feet away from her, and he was cracking up. The thing that made Emily’s face go an even darker shade was red was that she realized he was not, in fact, a look-a-like. The man in front of her was the real Wu Yifan.

And he was laughing at her.

Wow what a turd bucket. Not much happening yet, but hey. Set-up is important too! Probably...