Squeeeak.

The classroom door creaked open to reveal a young, brown-haired, bespectacled lady in jeans and a furry sweater and leather boots. She was smiling and gently shaking a DVD case in her hands.

“Alright, class 6-C, today Science will be in the T.V room.” She chirped. “We’re going to be watching an educational video. Won’t that be awesome?”

The whole class groaned and began shouting out sarcastically quiet “yay”s at the teacher’s boring and unexciting idea of “awesome”. Kevin rolled his eyes and scoffed. Why do teachers always think they can be cool or make their stupid classes “exciting”, just by adding the word “awesome” in front of everything they say?, Kevin thought. It’s bullcrap.

“Okay, then!” The teacher said, clapping her hands once. “Single file line up here in front of the door, and keep your mouths zipped on the way out.” She made a gesture of zipping and locking it, as if she were explaining to first graders, which made Kevin snort distastefully.

The whole class got up from their seats, and lined up in front of the door, except for Kevin and Tao, who just remained sitting in their seats. The girl named Agatha from earlier glanced over and saw Tao and gasped, raising her hand excitedly in front of the teacher. “Ms. Bell! Excuse me, Ms. Bell!” she yelled.

The teacher turned her head, and slightly frowned at her. “Agatha, I said to keep your mouths zipped. What is it?”

Agatha beamed and pointed in the direction of Tao. “We have a new student in our class, Ms. Bell!”

The teacher leaned her head quickly in the classroom, and looked over at Tao, who began to shuffle uneasily in his seat when he saw that everyone’s attention was on him. Ms. Bell smiled and waved at Tao. “Oh, yes, Mrs. Lambarte and the principal informed me earlier that there was going to be a boy joining our class today.” She said happily. “How are you doing-”

“His name’s Huang Zitao.” Agatha cut, lifting her finger and closing her eyes, as if she was declaring a presidential statement. “But he likes to be called Tao. He’s from Qingdao-that’s in China, by the way-and he’s actually a real-life genius.”

Kevin scoffed and narrowed his eyes in irritation at the girl. What, he thought. Does she think she’s the freaking evening newscaster for CBC, or something? And is Tao, like, a breaking news story? Why doesn’t she keep her trap shut? God.

The girl proceeded to say something else, after seeing the class and the teacher all nod in agreement.

“Yeah, and he’s-”

“We get it.”

The whole class looked at Kevin, including Tao, all surprised by his sudden interruption. He was grimacing at Agatha, who in turn, shot him a glare of her own. “Why do you care what I say, Kevin?” she said, a look of disgust on her face.

“That’s ‘cause no one likes a know-it-all, Agatha.” he replied mockingly, flinging his arms down either side of the desk.

She grunted. “Well, Tao is a know-it-all too, and you don’t seem to mind him.” She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, which made Kevin jump a bit inside, as if she knew what was going on in his mind regarding Tao.

“Yeah, well, unlike you, Tao is a know-it-all that is not a show-off.” he shot back. “And also unlike you, Tao’s nice to look at.”

Kevin froze and gasped, his eyes widening when he’d realized what he had just said. His cheeks began to go a bright red. The whole class just stared back at him in silence with gaping mouths and eyes about to fall from their sockets. His eyes began to look around wildly, and he felt the air around him begin to thin. He wished that a black hole would open beneath him and just him in.

“...Kevin LOVES TAO!!”

And with that, the whole class erupted into a series of burning laughter and flying whoops, all pointing their fingers at Kevin and making sure he kept feeling like he was burning in hell. Kevin’s head was hung down, his face was glowing red. He could feel his ears begin to burn every time he heard a different comment.

“I guess he’s not 'Shrek' anymore.” a boy called. “I say he’s a ' willow'.”

“You know what they say,” a girl giggled. “Opposites attract.”

“Oh, my God, I knew I saw Kevin looking at the squirt in that way.” another girl added. “Who knew giants dug dwarves?”

“KEV-IN AND TA-O, SITTING IN A TREE!” a boy sang loudly. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

Another boy snickered and proceeded to finish his song. “FIRST COMES MA-RRIAGE, THEN COMES A BAB-”

Everyone stopped instantly when they heard a piercing whistle echo throughout the room. All the students turned their heads to the sight of an irritated Ms. Bell, who was taking her finger and thumb out of after she was finished sounding her alarm.

“That’s more than enough, 6-C.” She pressed, frowning. “You’re all way too old for these kind of hijinks.” She looked over at Kevin, who was still drowning in the hot lava of embarrassment he’d created for himself. “Kevin, get your head and your off that seat, and come line up with the rest of your classmates.”

Throughout all this, Tao had just sat still with his face down. But it wasn’t from embarrassment. He had a small grin on his face, and he was fluttering inside. Kevin liked him! He didn’t really understand what the other kids were saying when they were mocking them, and he didn’t understand why everyone was laughing, and why Kevin seemed to be so irked from it all. He didn’t see anything improper about what Kevin had said.

Mr. Dragon likes me, too, he thought. What’s wrong with that?

Tao also wondered why Kevin was so annoyed by Agatha when she was introducing him to the teacher. He could tell by the tone of the voice he’d used to snap at her, that he was really bothered by her.

Could it be...Mr. Dragon didn’t like it when she talked about me?

...Was Mr. Dragon...jealous?

These were the thoughts that were running around in Tao’s head, as he got up from his desk to follow Kevin and the rest of the class to the T.V. room, and even until he’d gone home later that evening. Kevin’s face was still down the whole way as they were walking down the hallway, still having to listen to small snickers and whispers along the way, so Tao couldn’t tell exactly what the matter was. But he was determined to know.

Just you wait, Mr. Dragon, he thought. I’ll get everything out of your big, gooey heart.

***

“Oh, God, look where he’s sitting! How the heck am I supposed to see anything?”

“Well, tell him to move! We don’t have to suffer just because he’s so freaking tall.”

“Me? You want me to tell him to move? That’s like mass suicide, man, no way!”

“Yeah, especially after what just happened to him in the class. He’d kill us all without even breaking a sweat.”

Kevin gritted his teeth as he overheard the hissing behind him. He was sitting in the fore, right in front of the T.V. He knew that he would get criticized if he sat there, but he decided to try his luck anyways. With a large grunt, he abruptly pushed his long body off the ground, startling the whispering kids behind him, as they thought he was going to attack them. He snorted at their reaction without even glancing at them, stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked for somewhere else to sit. He then spotted Tao, who was tucked under a table in the back. He sighed, and began walking to the back. But then he saw something that made his blood boil.

“Hi, Tao! I think I’m going to sit beside you, today.”

Agatha plopped herself down next to the boy, scooting closer to him, which made Tao a bit tense, and he