All of a sudden, after the past month or so, chemistry had become the
most memorable class of the day. My classes were never memorable;
chemistry was never memorable. The class was buzzing with excitement
after Mrs Kim announced our next assignment.

"This will be your one, and only, group assignment. I don't particularly
like this, but the faculty dean has insisted this assignment be a 'fun'
easy one," she had said earlier.

After this announcement, while everyone leaped for a joy and grabbed a
friend to form pairs, I wept bitterly, sulking internally at my desk.
"Have you all formed pairs?" she asked.

Majority of the class said 'yes' in unison while our front bench sat
there awkwardly. "The numbers are odd," Momo said, stating the obvious.
"You may go in threes. Actually, I'll sort you five out."

"Momo, Tzuyu, Jungyeon, you'll be in one group, Nayeon and Momo, you're
the last pair," Mrs Kim announced after long thought. "Make sure you
pull your weight and split the work evenly." I had a hunch that the
'make sure you pull your weight' was directed at Nayeon.

Now that I thought about it, she'd failed just about every test while the
others had passed. It struck me as rather strange because she did the
homework, and from what I had seen, she knew how to do it.

"Okay, so how are we going to divide the work?" I asked.

"I don't care, up to you," Nayeon replied, resting her elbows on the desk
with her head on her hands. Well, this was going to be an absolute ball.

We were going to meet up at her house on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
after school. I figured my mum wouldn't be keen on having guests over
anyway.

"Do I just wait after school at the gate and then we walk to your
house?" I asked on the way out of class.

"Yeah, whatever," she replied before heading in the opposite direction.

I was early for physics as usual because it was in the same wing of the
school. I leaned against the lockers while waiting for the teacher to
arrive.

"Hey there!" came the exclamation. I spun to find Jenny, the new
girl walking towards me.

"Hey," I replied awkwardly, never really being the social butterfly.

"Mr Choi is the physics teacher's name, right?"

"Yup."

She chuckled nervously, twirling the end of her hair with her finger.

"Um, would it be okay if I hung out with you at break times? I'm not
really doing well making friends and stuff," she asked nervously.

"Please make your way into the class quietly," Mr Choi said, unlocking
and opening the classroom door. Everyone rushed in to get seats. For
some reason, everyone was always very keen. Meanwhile, I'd lost Jenny in
the wave of people.

I sat down as usual, and somehow, Jenny had found her way to me. "Hi," I
said awkwardly as she out her books down,

"So, is it okay?" She asked, regarding the previous matter.

"Oh sure, after this is break, so, where is your locker?"

"Science wing, just down there."

"That's where mine is as well, just put your books away and I'll wait in
the science wing, just meet me there." She nodded and we began copying
the notes off the board.
 

We were having a physics test in a week. Oh joy.

After putting my books back into my locker and grabbing my food, I
waited by the lockers with Sana as I had promised earlier. "She's new?"
Sana continued interrogating.

"Yeah, she just arrived a few days ago," I replied, looking down the
hallway.

"Is she pretty?"

"Yeah, she's okay."

"Is she skinny?"

"Uh, yes. From these questions, I assume you feel she's a threat to your
current position as most absolutely gorgeous girl in the year?" I
laughed. She pouted and crossed her arms.

"Is she just taking her time?"

"I'm sorry I took so long," Jenny said slowly. Sana stopped talking and
we both turned to see her walking towards us. "I stopped by the canteen
because I left my food at home."

I could see the look of disapproval in Sana's eyes at Jenny's choice of
food - a large serve of deep fried chicken nuggets. I too understood the
health implications of this, but then again, it was up to people to
decide what they wanted to eat.

I glanced from the chicken nuggets to my container of freshly cut
cucumbers and carrots. Eating healthy wasn't fun, but it was good for
my health, and hopefully would then help my studies. It wouldn't hurt to
lose some weight and become fitter either.

"Okay, we should head out and find a spot to sit down and eat," I
suggested, leading the way. We decided to sit in the shade on the grass
near the drink fountains.

It was strangely silent as we ate our food, and well, I was never
exactly good at this whole 'making friends' gig.

"Right so um, I forgot to officially introduce you two. This is Jenny,
Jenny this is Sana," I said awkwardly.

"Hi," Jenny said slowly.

"Hey," Sana replied slowly.

Well, this was going to be absolutely wonderful.

There was a sharp nudge in my side that was particularly ticklish. I
squirmed and turned around, ready to yell, or at least furiously glare
at the person. "You're ticklish?" Momo laughed.

"What do you want?" I scowled. Uninvited, she sat down cross legged,
still laughing.

"The invincible chemistry nerd's secret weakness is a little tickle?" she
laughed. "Tickle tickle," she said stupidly, teasing.

"What is wrong with you?" I exclaimed. "Go hang out with your friends.
Leave me alone."

"Oh, I see a new face. Who is this?" she asked, gesturing to Jenny.

"If you're going to pick up girls, I suggest you go see the
cheerleaders," I answered, nodding towards the group of skinny girls nearby.

"Are you sure you don't have some problems? I try to be friendly and you
shoot me," she laughed.

"Hm...making friends, huh? Well, Momo, this is Jenny. Jenny, Momo."

"Hi," Jenny said.

"Hey there," Momo said, doing that creepy wink she'd done the day they
entered chemistry class and sat next to me. The wink itself sent a
shiver up my spine, and it probably was incredibly obvious because she
looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"I get weird shivers," I lied, stuffing my mouth with cucumbers.

"I don't think that's it," Momo replied, unconvinced.

"I eat when I feel weird."

"Do you now?"

"Yeah, I would know. I've known myself for a while now."

"Anyway, the other girls are probably wondering where I've gone to. I
should go find them." Momo got up and went off.

"Things just keep getting interesting. For once I'm glad that you're
smart," Sana joked, nudging me. She had always been one to be interested
in girls like them. She saw them as those mysterious, good looking girls
with deep secrets, when in actuality, they were probably just rule
breakers that may or may not be better looking than the average specimen
of female.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Jenny asked.

"No!" I exclaimed. "What kind of a question is that?" I asked, laughing
awkwardly. "No basically she is not my girlfriend," I stated, making sure
she got the message.

"Really? She's cute."

"Do you wear glasses?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You left them at home, didn't you?"

"Ah, sense of humour," Jenny said to herself.

"She's crazy," Sana said to Jenny, twirling her finger by her ear.

"I can see that you know," I scowled.

"You think she's hot, don't you?" Sana interrogated, leaning in slightly
closer as she gave Jenny her intense stare.

"Um, I guess so," Jenny replied, slowly shifting backwards.

"See? Mina's semi crazy. She can't seem to admit that they're attractive."

"They're?"

"Oh yeah, there's more than one."

Why was I even sitting here while Sana babbled on about the badgirls of
our school?

Despite her initial awkwardness, Jenny was well and truly into
the conversation and now Sana was describing what the rest of them
looked like while Jenny gazed at her, taking in her every word as though
it were pure gold.

"Apparently, Nayeon once saved a girl from the other's schools bunch of
badboys. Our school definitely has the hottest badgirls," Sana continued.

"Okay, they're called rumours for a reason," I interjected.

Nayeon beating up guys? I couldn't imagine it. Nayeon sticking up for a girl?
That was even harder to imagine.

"You don't think the girls are awesome?"

"No."

"Well, we'll have to change that thought then, won't we?" Tzuyu's voice
came from behind me. Momo sat down beside me as the others swarmed
around, sitting cross legged.

"Go away," I mumbled.

"Ah, what can I do?" Momo sighed. "I'm attracted to you like a moth to
light."

Okay, that remark sent a shiver up my spine. "That's creepy," I
accidentally said aloud. Momo laughed and watched as I squirmed around
weirdly.

"A new face? This is the Jenny you were talking about?" Jungyeon asked,
nodding in Jenny's direction.

"Oh yeah. She's the newbie," Momo replied, still laughing while I sat
awkwardly.

"She's kind of cute don't you think?" Tzuyu asked, winking at her.

She blushed and immediately I felt sorry for the poor girl. How could
you fall so easily into their lame traps? Their traps were like
trapdoors with huge flashing signs saying 'This is a trap'.
Unfortunately, reverse psychology must be quite prominent these days.

"Run. You'll never escape when they're out to get you," I hissed to
Jenny, eyes darting back and forth from the girls.

"I agree," Momo exclaimed, suddenly also leaning forward, grinning
mischievously. She put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me back to
where I was sitting originally. "You see, we just can't let you go if
you're too cute," she said, looking straight into my eyes as she spoke.

"Okay, that's really freaky," I said quickly, moving away with haste. I
had ended up shifting about one metre away from the group, making me
look rather strange. Screw strange. Safety came first. Momo really
knew how to freak me out.

The bell rang and I shot up and fast walked to my locker, not even
daring to look back.

After about a minute, Sana arrived with a mischievous look on her face.
What was up with all this mischievousness today? I just couldn't wait
to find out what this was about. Just as I was about to ask her what the
weird look was about, she spoke up.

"You like Momo, don't you?" she grinned.

"What?" I replied blankly, my face possibly contorting into some weird
scrunched up piece of paper look-alike.

"And you're not even denying it," she grinned proudly, pulling her books
out of the locker.

"No, I don't like her."

"Too late to lie now."

"Seriously."

"Seriously," she said, mimicking me childishly.

"I'm leaving first," I replied, rolling my eyes. Even though she was my
best friend, best friends didn't exactly read each other's minds.

"Denial," she said in a sing-song voice as I walked off. I laughed to
myself as I made my way to maths specialist.

I was a little late, as per usual, but we had a small class anyway and
everyone was finishing off problems from yesterday. I took a seat in my
usual spot in the back corner of the classroom and opened up my textbook
and exercise book.

Oh boy, was it boring. I didn't dislike maths, but doing maths in
silence for fifteen minutes was the equivalent of asking me to fall asleep.

Halfway through the class, I couldn't help but yawn, but as I opened my
mouth, I accidentally made a noise and some heads turned to look at me.
My face had that funny tingling hot sensation and I looked down again.

The bell rang and I left, putting my books back into my locker before
heading to sport. I hated sport. More specifically, I hated my sport
teacher. A lot; so much that I didn't know it was possible to hate
someone so much.

It'd been two days since my ankle had healed, but he didn't need to know
that. For the time being, I was still 'injured' and 'unable to
participate in sport'. That was the way I liked it.

I headed out to the huge oak tree in the middle of the school yard where
the rest of the class had already assembled. "Mr Song is late yet
again," SinB groaned, rolling her eyes as she inspected her nails.

"He's such a tool," Umji chimed. For once in my life, I didn't mind
these silly cheerleaders.

Mr Song arrived making a rather grand entrance as he tripped over
his own shoelaces, nearly face-planting. Meanwhile, he'd dropped his
clipboard and papers - including our marks - went flying. Obviously, he
didn't know that you were supposed to clip the papers inside the clipboard.

"Alright, let's get going. This will be one of your last chances to
practice before we join up with the other sections' class," he said, after finally
managing to compile all his junk and settle down.

At first, I was sorry for this teacher. Genuinely sorry. He had a nose
that protruded about ten centimetres from his face, a pointy chin and a
thin little head. He had thin little lips that flecked spit every now
and then when he spoke. He was one of the younger teachers, and frankly,
I wasn't sure how he'd gotten his degree.

"Okay, SinB, Umji, help me get equipment. You too...Mina." He
ran his hand through his blonde-brown hair and got up. It had been
months and he still couldn't remember my name.

It was well known around school that he flirted with just about every
girl. It was disgusting actually. If not for me, those two cheerleaders
would have had a tough time as they walked to the oval with him.

I continuously groaned mentally, wishing I were someplace else; anywhere
but here. It was getting cold and the wind whipped my hair across my
face. I blew outwards to move the side layers out of my eyes.

By the time we got to the oval, the other section were well and truly out of
control, hurling footballs everywhere. Of course, it was probably
practice, but to me, it looked like chaos.

"Heads up!" came the yell. Before I had the chance to duck, I turned my
head and saw the ball hurtling towards me at an uncontrollably speed,
and despite myself, quickly shut my eyes. Not that it would help.

After half a second, I realised that I was still conscious, and I opened
my eyes.

"Sorry 'bout that," Momo laughed. The ball was in her hands and about
three centimetres away from my face. She hurled it back in the direction
it had come from before continuing to follow me as I lugged the
equipment to where we were playing sport.

"Ah, you have Song," Momo said with a smirk.

"Unfortunately," I grumbled.

"He's just the hottest teacher is, isn't he?" Momo grinned. I glared
and she started cackling with laughter. "So, why the hate?"

"Don't worry. I just hate him so much," I said with gritted teeth,
visualising myself viciously attacking him.

"Do share," Momo said, jogging in front of me and bending down to meet
me at eye level.

I jerked away and looked at my feet. "If you don't tell, I'll keep doing
it," she threatened.

"Okay okay," I agreed. I quickly glanced up to ensure she wasn't still
staring.

She wasn’t. “Well, he’s basically giving me incredibly low marks that I
don’t deserve.” Now that I had said it aloud, it sounded quite stupid.

“Quite confident are we?” Momo cocked an eyebrow.

“Seriously! You know that brochure we did on future careers?” She nodded.

“He gave me eighty three percent for that and I had all the criteria. He
was being extra picky when marking mine!” I exclaimed, the memory and
anger fresh in my mind.

“Eighty three is still good, but you’re right, for you, nothing other
than one hundred is acceptable.”

“Seriously!” She was taking this issue far too lightly for my liking. I’d
had to put up with my annoying sport teacher for months now, and the
last thing I needed was Momo’s sarcasm.

“Alright, alright,” she laughed. You want to get even?” she smirked,
looking eager. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. For
some reason, I wasn’t so sure about whatever idea she was getting in her
head. “You’re thinking about it,” she said, kindly informing me of what I
was doing. “You know what?” she began, waiting for an answer. I shook my
head. “Nah, don’t worry.” She grinned and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled
back sarcastically.

“Get back to your class!” Mr Song, seeing that Momo was
still loitering around and distracting some girls. “Mina bring that
gear here,” she added.

Momo saluted, grinning and jogged away while I carried the gear over
to here Mr Song was standing. He had his chest all puffed out like a
rooster and head held high – so high that the currently seated students
could probably see up his nose; it probably was not a pretty sight.

“Split into two even teams,” he instructed. “This will be your last
chance to prove to me what you can do before I confirm your rankings and
the teams are sorted.”

Like I could care less. The girls scurried around, grabbing their
friends and dragging them to the teams. Eventually, there were two
teams. One side would be shirts and the other would be sashes.

Mr Song blew the whistle twice loudly and the game started. It
wasn’t a particularly exciting game. The girls kindly handballed the
ball to each other and slowly made their way down to one side of the
field. “Pay attention! Get into the game! If you don’t do this properly,
I won’t mind taking it into your break time!” he yelled.

There was a loud cheer as Yuju scored a touchdown. “Well done!” Mr
Song yelled enthusiastically, jogging into the field. If he could,
he would have played. “Mina! Wait by the goals and make sure the ball
doesn’t roll down the hill,” he ordered pompously from the middle of the
field.

I walked behind the goal, hoping the ball wouldn’t come anywhere near
here. If the ball rolled down, it wouldn’t stop even after it hit the
bottom. Also, the other section were playing on the field down there, and the
they weren’t exactly the cooperative type.

“Pass Jihyo! Jihyo! I’m open!” Sowon shrieked, waving her arms
around frantically while standing on the open side. Jihyo ignored
her and threw the ball to Yerin, accidentally missing and passing it
straight into Yuju’s arms. The tables had turned and now the ball was
coming straight towards the goals that I was guarding.

With a powerful kick, Yuju sent the ball flying through the goals and
I watched as it made a perfect arch over my head and landed in the
middle of the other sections’ field.

“Go get the ball!” Song shouted, looking annoyed that I was just
standing there while this life or death practice situation was going on.

I cursed at him in my mind and hurried down the hill.

There were loud grunts and war cries as the guys tackled each other. It
didn’t even look like a game, but rather a huge brawl. The ball happened
to be right near that scuffle. I spotted Momo standing nearby, and
figured it would be easier to just ask her, rather than risking my life
to go fetch it.

I cupped my hands around my mouth to form some sort of a megaphone, and
yelled, "Momo!” as loudly as I could. She turned her head and grinned
at me. “Could you pass me the ball!?” I shouted. She looked around for a
moment and stopped when she’d seen it. She walked towards it and picked it
up. I prepared myself for a strong, possibly painful ditch of a ball at
my arms, but she didn’t throw it; she just kept walking towards me.

“What are you doing?” I asked when she was close enough to hear and far
enough for the teachers to be unable to hear.

“Returning the ball,” she answered and walked right past me and up the
hill. Oh no. Mayday. I forced my legs to carry myself up the hill with
haste, in fear that Momo would do something completely stupid. I
arrived just in time to see her yell, “Mr So- Mr Song!” before
throwing the ball halfway across the field straight towards Song.

Song looked surprised for a moment before holding his hands out to
catch. The force of impact proved to be slightly too much because he
took a few steps back to steady himself as he caught it.

Momo turned to head back to her class, but stopped as she passed me.

“Tutoring. Today. Six o’clock,” she said and walked down the hill.

“Where?” I exclaimed.

“My place!”

Evidently, seventy five percent of the girls in my class had heard
because now they were staring at me and excitedly gossiping among
themselves. Oh the embarrassment.