“Ready or not, here I come,” I muttered underneath my breath as I sat on the bus, trying to blink away sleepiness. Thank god I had picked out my outfit the night before. I almost put sugar into the scrambled eggs instead of salt.

I wonder what sweet scrambled eggs would taste like. Would it be disgusting? I don’t have a sweet tooth, but I appreciate sweet things. Like chocolate. I don’t know how anyone would have a grudge against chocolate.

Tao nudged me. “Hey, our school isn’t that bad.”

“It’s not.” It could be worse. “Hey, I thought we weren’t supposed to be talking to each other.”

He shrugged. “I think the bus is safe. The fangirls started to lose interest when all I would do is sleep in the morning. I’m not doing that right now, but it gets pretty bad once we start having lots of week of school.” Poor kid, but with fatigue running through every limb in my body, I knew exactly how he felt.

“They got tired of that?” I stifled a yawn.

He shrugged again. “Well, they do see me every day at school. Not everyone knows where we live yet.”

Yet. I shuddered at the thought of hundreds of girls crowding around. I had noticed some marks on the walls around the door of the apartment. They were messages, written in both Korean and Chinese. Some of them conveyed encouragement, others were more questionable. Well, at least the Chinese ones. I didn’t feel like getting someone over to translate the Korean.

I didn’t even want to know how those messages got on there.

“Kalyn? The next stop is ours.” Tao was standing up.

“What? Ooh, right.” I quickly stood up, awkwardly grabbing my bag as he walked down to the door. I nimbly scooted past the legs in the aisle to stand next to him.

He swung his bag onto his shoulder. “I’m going to disappear to find my usual crowd so it doesn’t look like you’re coming with me, okay? But if you have any trouble, you know where to find me.”

I smiled at him. “Got it.”

At that moment the doors opened. Tao slipped out easily, casually vanishing into the mass of students. Aish, there were so many of them! I bit my lip as I timidly made my way, choosing the opposite direction of where Tao went on purpose.

“Kalyn!” I turned to see Sherry running towards me, making her way through people. “There you are, girl! I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Well, now you’ve found me, looking as misplaced as a duck in a chicken coop.”

She laughed, hooking my arm into hers. “It can’t be bad as that. But hey, look, you already know one person on your first day of school besides your tour guide.”

I looked around. Lots of students had formed circles, talking quickly. I caught some glances in my direction. “Does everyone know about me?”

“Somewhat. Especially since Tao showed you around.” She started leading me in a direction. “Did you know he was a new student last year?”

“Really? He doesn’t act like it.”

Sherry shrugged. “He doesn’t hang around with people that much. I guess he’s just trying to be the model student. It’s the role the school bestowed on him ever since he enrolled, even before EXO’s debut. I guess they knew he was in the process of becoming a celebrity.”

“That must .” I shuddered. “I would hate to be considered a model student.”

“Too rebellious?” Sherry smiled.

“Something like that. And that I’m not the competitive type in anything.”

“That sounds like most of our student population. Hey, Yinna!” Sherry called.

“Hey girl!” A girl walked up her, her black hair streaked with golden high lights. I blinked. Her outfit seemed to be casual until you got close. Her jeans had small rips over, some patches sewn in place, and doodles in marker. On one hand she wore a leather fingerless glove, like a biker. Her earrings were mismatched, looking like they were made by hand. They fist bumped. She turned to me, scanning me up and down, her lined eyes expressionless. “You must be the new girl.”

“Yeah. I’m Kalyn.” I held out a hand.

Her eyes crinkled a little as she shook it. “Yinna. I heard you’re an artist.”

“Yup. Although I haven’t found out to express through my appearance.” I noticed she had braids running around the sides of her head, like a beaded drapery. “You seem to be an expert.”

“Oh, you mean this?” She ran a hand over her hair. “It’s just a waterfall braid. I try not to be too crazy and push the rules. I should be thankful this place doesn’t have a uniform.” Suddenly a confused look crossed her face. “Wait, your name is Kalyn, right?”

“Right.”

“Are you from Shen Ling?”

“Yes…”

“Oh my god!” Her face lit up. “You’re the one who created the glazed vase last year! Didn’t it win second place or something?”

“Runner’s up,” I corrected her.

“I thought you said you weren’t competitive,” Sherry whispered slyly, nudging me.

“I’m not. My mother entered me,” I replied.

“I loved the colors you used!” Yinna gushed. “How did you do it? I would have thought the electric blue and the vivid red would overwhelm, but you put in enough black and dark green to have them just be accents.”

I shrugged. “Just an instinct I guess. I just see things and I shape them with my hands.”

Yinna shook her head. “I wished I had your talent. Maybe you could look at my works now and then? I’d love to hear about your advice. I work more on woven stuff than like painting or sculpting though.”

“If you give me advice on how to do your look. I’m so jealous of the statement you make just by walking through.”

She laughed, her eyes twinkling. I couldn’t resist a smile on my face; her laugh was contagious. “Deal.”

Sherry clapped her hands on both of our shoulders. “So, since it looks like you two are off on a good start, I bet the rest of the lunch table will fine with you too.”

“And hopefully I have some classes with you guys.”

“No sweat. Just describe the people that decide to cross your path and stick a leg out in your way and we’ll get our headlocks ready.” Yinna curled her hand into a fist with a smile.

“Or you could use your tour guide card,” Sherry added, winking.

Yinna rolled her eyes. “Sherry, not everyone is smitten over EXO like you are.”

“The majority of school would agree with my statement,” she got back.

“Whoah, girls, what’s going on here?” A guy with his hair in a mohawk walked in. “It seems we have an interloper in our midst.” He had the same hawk nose as Yinna.

Yinna rolled her eyes. “Actually, you’re the interloper, using bombastic statements like that. Kalyn, this is my brother Yinlong. Yinlong, Kalyn.”

He nodded towards me. “Hey Kalyn. So Yinna, since you’re accusing me to be the epitome of a snob, may I ask how can you make such statement when you use exquisite words as well?”

“Because you, dear brother, have kept this up since I’ve learned how to talk. It’s hard to resist the urge to simulate your speech,” she replied with the same unctuous tone.

Sherry rolled her eyes. “They always go off like that,” she said in a dry voice. “But now you know who Yinlong is.”

“Is he artistic too, like his sister?” I glanced over as the siblings still argued, using words like approbation and decadence.

“I guess? I mean, he’s always hanging around the music hallway. He has his own band and stuff.”

“Cool.” At that moment the bell rang. “I’ll guess I’ll see you guys during lunch then,” I concluded as we started joining the stream of kids heading for the door.

“Yup!” Sherry clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kalyn, this place will be your second home before you know it.”

I hoped so. I thought about Shen Ling. I had given up on friends after two years of trying. But people moved and changed and I could never keep them in my grasp.

Maybe this time I actually had a chance.

*

[A\N] …and there goes that chapter.

Okay, I know MOST of Asia has school uniforms, like the track suits and all that good stuff. But SOME don't, apparently. Like I asked my dad and he went "Um, I think those are private schools..."

Then again my dad is an old-timer and probably times have changed. ^_^ (I LOVE YOU DAD)

I know, I know, I should take off the hiatus sign/chapter. But I haven’t given the other site a fair shot yet. (Grr posting stories is just as complicated.)

But yeah, I’ve been writing while I can. I finished a story on the other site so I have some time. (Barely >.<) Just don’t expect the weekly updates like I used to, although I really wish I could do that. I kinda smack myself in the head every time I wish an author would update sooner, because I know writing and get the ideas are tough. (Not to mention rereading to make sure there aren’t any typos, grammar mistakes, etc.)

So yeah, I guess you can celebrate that I'm somewhat back. I half-exist maybe? XD

I have no idea why I just put in 2 new characters…maybe they’ll be important, maybe not. We’ll see.

You can also tell I’m trying to study for my vocab quiz, right? XD

So um, a mini spazz...

I know I made Tao kinda fearless, IDK why...he is a scaredy cat in real life XD I'm not sure if I'm going to keep him fearless or not. I mean, this story is called the Oracle of Fear, right? >.<

Anyway I hope y’all doing well since I should go make cookies now before my mother gets suspicious and wonders about what I’m writing. (She knows about my fanfics and reviewing stuff, ugh >.<)

BYE!!