“You’re Kalyn? Welcome.” The teacher smiled at me, as she led me through the room. The breeze coming in through the window ruffled her orange streaked raven hair. “Here, you can use this easel if you need it. Feel free to use whatever you need.”

“Thanks Ms. Han.” I looked around. Yinna was working on an easel nearby. She winked at me as she smeared some oil pastel onto her work. I gave a small smile and focused on the canvas in front of me.

The moment a brush was in my hand, my brain went on fire again. I squeezed out colors from the paint tubes onto my palette and put them where I saw them in my image. Dots, curves, all appeared as they did in my mind.

Too soon the bell rang before I could finish. When I finally looked up from work, I saw that I had gained an audience, including the teacher. The students scrambled back to their own work and grabbed their things. I looked at Ms. Han. “Do I just leave my artwork here?”

She nodded, still gazing at my easel. Then as if she was coming out of her trance, she shook her head and focused on me. “Do you have anything afterschool today?”

“Um, well my parents want me to go directly home,” I lied. I told Kris I would let him know in advance when I would stay afterschool. “Since it’s my first day here and everything.”

“Well we have Art Club on Mondays and Wednesdays. I was wondering if you could join. You can get more time to work on that,” she gestured to my easel, “and you’ll have fewer limits on what you’ll be able to do. You have the talent, now we just need to give you what you need for you to make a great effort.”

“I’ll talk to my parents about that.” I shouldered my bag. “I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

Ms. Han smiled. “I’ve heard about you, Kalyn. I know you have done great things. Here in Beijing, you can reach even greater heights.”

Greater heights. Her words kept echoing in my head, distracting me for the rest of the day. What did she mean? Did that mean there would be more contests? I looked at the pieces I was just working on. For some reason, it didn’t look the same as it did the second ago. Now it looked ugly, trying too hard to be something it wasn’t.

My whole life was in disarray, yet for some reason I didn’t want to go back to the past even if it meant there was something familiar. I wanted to keep walking. Why did I even go back to art? My hands didn’t feel the same. Images in my mind didn’t make sense.

I took in a deep breath. I had to stop before I went crazy. It had been a while since I lapsed into this madness, but here I was again. “Thanks so much, Ms. Han. I have to go.” Before she could say another word, I was out of the room, a leaf swept away by the wind.

I made it to my history classroom seconds before the bell rang. Sighing with relief, I spotted empty seats in back. I started to make my way there when the image of Tao made me freeze. Turns out one of the seats was occupied.

He looked at with a disinterested look, yet something else flashed through his eyes just for a split second. I quickly looked back down, away from him and purposely chose a seat on the other side of the room. My cheeks burned as an unfamiliar feeling tingled throughout my body. Yet was it unfamiliar? It felt old, something I hadn’t felt in a long time, yet I knew it existence. For some reason I couldn’t put a finger on it. Did it even have a name?

“Okay guys, please take out your textbooks and take notes from Chapters 27 to 30.” A man with wired-framed glasses stood up from his desk, his white roots contrasting with his obviously black dyed hair. “If you finish early, you can work on homework, but please keep quiet.” The teacher sat back down and resumed reading his book he had set down.

I swallowed with a dry throat. I didn’t have a textbook, but making my way to the teacher’s desk with many eyes on my back seemed daunting. I slowly rose, my legs shaking. As I walked to the front of the room, the sound of my footsteps were quickly replaced by whispering.

“Excuse me?” I heard my timid voice ask.

The teacher looked up. “Who are you?”

“I’m the new student, teacher. My name is Wu Kai Lian.”

“Well, hello Wu Kai Lian. I am Mr. Zhu. What seems to be the problem?

I breathed in. “Well, since I’m new, I need a textbook.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Your old school didn’t give out textbooks?”

Snickering rose up in the back of the room, making my cheeks flush again. “I just came from Shen Ling, Mr. Zhu.” I cast my eyes on his desk, not wanting to see the pity on his face once he realized my situation.

“Oh.” His voice had softened. “Well, in that case, we’ll have to get you one.” He looked around the room. “However, we seem to be out of extras. I will go get one from the office.” He left his seat and left the room, the door clicking behind him.

The moment left, the room’s whispers crescendoed. “Look at her, all decked in black…” “…until Tao stepped in! Man, they were like two cats…” “...doesn’t certainly act like it, but she still has some strange aura around her.”

I stood there, my back to all of them, left in front of the teacher’s desk. Just then, I felt something hit my neck. “Hey, new girl, are you just going to stand there?”

I turned slowly, facing everyone in the room. My face had pulled taut as any feeling I had before went cold. “Why should you care?”

At that moment the door opened and Mr. Zhu came in with a textbook. I whirled around to face him. “Here you go, Wu Kai Lian,” he said with a smile, handing the book to me. “Now-WHY IS THERE PAPER ON MY FLOOR?” His face turned stern as he shouted.

The room went deathly silent, almost as if someone heard a cricket and told everyone to listen for it.

He walked past me, his shoes clicking on the linoleum floor. “I only left for one minute to get resources for a student, a new colleague of yours. I would trust there would be no change in the room from when I left it to when I got back.” There was a pause in his footsteps and the sound of paper being crumpled. “Yet there are paper balls.” Click, clack. “Paper balls on my floor, right next to where Wu Kai Lian was standing.” There was more sound of paper crumpling, or uncrumpling perhaps. “But look, no writing on it. What purpose did this piece of paper serve? Not possibly a note but a projectile?”

No response came up from my classmates still.

“Is this how my class behaves? Is this the behavior of Beijing Hua Xia students? Is this how we act, as the future generation who will LEAD OUR COUNTRY IN THE FUTURE?” he bellowed. The room sounded hollow as the echo of his questions jostled around.

He walked in front of me and dropped the paper ball on my desk. “All of you bring me shame. Tomorrow, instead of going to lunch, you will report to this room and demonstrate to me how a class should behave when the teacher walks out of the room. Every single one of you. I will check attendance. I don’t want to resort to calling your parents.” He scanned around the room with an authoritarian gaze. “Now back to work.”

I walked back to my seat with my book, making sure the ground was in my peripheral vision. I expected a backlash, perhaps a trip, but my classmates were all buried into their books, avoiding my gaze.

Everyone except Tao. As always, his face was hard to read. Although it was mostly expressionless, there was something in his eyes. Guilt? Accusation? I couldn’t tell. I quickly looked away from him, shame rising inside of myself. Yet what was I being ashamed for?

I shook my head. My feelings and emotions were shaken even since lunch, making me even more confused and uncomfortable than this morning. It had been a long day. I couldn’t wait for it to end.

[A/N] Hey guys! So yeah, new poster and background. It's not the same, but I need something different. Do you guys like it? >.<

I guess I don't have really much to say about this section b/c I'm waiting for you guys to make the comments I want you to make. Somewhat. IDK. Be creative for me? 

I need to get Kalyn to be less depressed. Maybe I've been just having too many bad days. >.<