VII

3^rd PERSON POV

“OKAY, SETTLE DOWN!”

Seeing how restless his students were, the teacher took out his stick and slammed it on his desk. In return, one by one, each student calm down to stare back at their teacher.

“Do you hooligans want to raise my blood pressure that badly?” One student was about to respond but the teacher quickly intervened. “Do not answer that question! Anyways, I hope you guys had a great weekend. As I have heard, our brilliant Prime Minister Qiu heard a party and it looks like most of our students attended. So now, I am more than delighted to tell you guys that the weekend is over and it’s time to get your heads back to the books. But before I start this morning off with my lecture, we have a new classmate joining us.”

The teacher called out to the student who was waiting patiently outside. “Come in.”

When the student stepped in, the class gave a warm cheer while Aaron and Sheng Yi froze.

“I would like to introduce you hooligans to our new student, Emma Wu. She has transferred to our school recently so I would like you guys to welcome her to Sheng Ying and show her around.”

The teacher than looked around the room to find a series of empty desks at the back.

“See those empty desks? Choose one and sit down.”

The girl who went by the name Even Wu nodded and walked over to the desk. Class started and one by one, every student turn their attention back to their teacher who began his lecture.

For the entire morning, Gui frequently caught her train of thoughts off when she looks at the window. She has no idea what she was doing at school, sitting in class while her step mother was busy trying to get rid of everything her parents ever did. She contemplated a million times whether or not to ditch but what would Dean do? He has always been good with his words, he can talk her into things and she knew he would be upset if she ever ditched anything. After all, he was the one who set this new life for her, how can she just walk away?

She heavily sighed as she turns around to see someone sit down next to her. Gui looks over at the girl who smiled happily.

“Hi I’m Mei Mei!” She leans in close to whisper to Gui, “Don’t worry, I know who you are. Dean asked me to look after you while you are here!” She continued to smile happily, taking out her lunch. “I’ll be your first friend here at Sheng Ying!”

“I’m―”

“I know who you are! Everyone knows who you are.” Mei Mei smiled as she looked around the room. “You see, it’s not every day we get new students.  Everyone in this school is part of an influential family and since you have chosen to be a student here, it’s either your family is suppeeer rich or you got in through recommendation. Which is still verrry lucky because in order to do that, you would have aced all your classes. So next to being rich, you must be extremely smart!”

Gui look around the room. “Let’s see, I’ll give you an example right now.”

Mei Mei looks around the room. “Say have you met Sheng Yi? He’s the prime minister’s son. See, the boy who isn’t wearing a tie like everyone is, he is one of the people you should stay away from. And then next to him, Ah Wei is…”

When Mei Mei stopped, Gui took a piece of paper and wrote down ‘c-r-u-s-h’ quickly surprising Mei Mei who blushed. She nodded quickly, ripping the piece of paper into tiny pieces as she smiled happily.

“Shh, please don’t tell anyone.” They laughed, sharing a secret with one another already.

Gui smiled, nodding as a thought hit her. “How do you know Dean?” She asks, Mei Mei clears and smiles. “He hasn’t told you did he? Geez, he should’ve told you. It’s no wonder you looked at me with that weird look. I’m his cousin. He came to me for some advice and I told him to enroll you into this school. This school is good for both national and international students so after you graduate, you can go practically anywhere you want to.” Mei Mei laughs, gently sliding her textbooks off her desk. “Dean, my dear cousin. I can tell that he worries about you.”

“Yeah, I have known Dean since we were young and he’s always looking out for me.”

“Like your guardian angel.” Mei Mei summed up as Gui smiled. “Yes, exactly.”

“I’ll go show you around the school. This school is big and it’s easy to get lost so let me show you around.”

“Okay!"

From showing Gui where their biology to gym was, they reached to a side of the school where girls like them weren’t allowed to be in. Mei Mei held onto Gui’s arm, stopping her.

“We can’t be here, this is where―”

“OH what have we here? A pair of hopeless girls who wants to be popular?” The girl scoffs, “in your dreams.” A girl yelled out as more girls came up to Gui Gui and Mei Mei from behind.

“Xiao Xun, I am just showing her around.”

“Then why bring her here? You should know better than to come here.”

“I just brought her here to show her that this place is off limits.”

“Who is this friend of yours anyways? I didn’t know you could find―”

Gui Gui slowly turned around to see Xiao Xun and instantly, her eyes widen.

The two girls did not know each other but Xiao Xun could tell; this girl was trouble all over. From head to toe, she can tell that Gui is different and it didn’t sit well in her stomach.

“I’m sorry that I came here, I will leave now.” Mei Mei grabs onto Gui’s wrist and pulls her away but one of Xiao Xun’s friend blocked them from escaping. “And who said you can leave? We didn’t give you permission to leave.”

“I already apologize to you guys, what else do you guys want?”

“Who told you to talk back b*tch?!”

Bewildered by Mei Mei’s outspoken attitude, the girl was furious. Gui eyes widen when the girl raised her hand, almost close to slapping Mei Mei. So Gui quickly intercepted as she held the girl’s hand back only to have Xiao Xun push her away.

“Do not go against us. My father is a friend of President Qiu’s and head of the police department!”

“Does it look like I―”

Xiao Xun was about to slap her when someone intercepted her. She looks over to see Sheng Yi holding her arm back. He step in front of her and smirked.

“Sheng Yi?!?! What are you doing here?”

“Stop, the principal will call us into his office and it won’t be good if he lets our parents know.”

“SHE STARTED IT!”

“And I am telling you to stop. Be a model student for another couple of hours.”

Xiao Xun hesitated but for the sake of her reputation, she decided to leave it at that.

“Fine, I won’t pursue this matter any further.”

Sheng Yi smiled as he looks over to Gui, he wanted to say something but he decided to leave it alone. He walked away with his friends and Xiao Xun furrowed his eyebrows. Mei Mei quickly bent over and helped Gui get away from Xiao Xun.

Xiao Xun cross her arms and clicked her tongue.

“Even though Sheng Yi says we should be good angels, my reputation still means a lot to me so….”

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As soon as the bell rung, dismissing every student. Gui Gui waved Mei Mei goodbye and she head towards the door to see three girls standing before her.

“Xiao Xun wants to apologize to you.”

“Okay.” Gui was about to walk between the girls but the girl stepped in front of her. “In person.”

“It’s okay.”

“She insists on doing it in person.” Gui stared at the girls and they grin, giving her space to follow them. “What if I don’t want to follow you guys?”

“Please don’t make this hard for us.”

“Fine. I’ll go with you.”

Gui ended following the girls to a hallway and before she knew it, she noticed that she was walking into the girl’s change room. Curious, she stopped but the girl behind her pushed her forward. Blocking her from going anywhere.

“You came!”

“I came, if you are going to apologize, then do it quickly.”

Xiao Xun’s grin wider, she plucks her lips together and her friends understood her cue. They crept up from behind and covered while Gui elbow the girl on her right but she was soon held back when an extra pair of hands caught her. Her injury isn’t healed yet and she could feel the pain come back. So she stops and clenched her fists, withstanding the pain.

“Sorry, but I had no choice.”

Before Gui could open her lips to yell, she was knocked unconscious.

“Quick, let’s get started.”

Xiao Xun smirked as they dragged Gui into one of the shower stalls and her shirt. “What should we do about her skirt?” Xiao Xun smirked as one of the girls lifted the hem higher to expose more skin. “That should do it.”

Once everything has been set up, Xiao Xun turn on the showers so that Gui was drenched from head to toe.

Then she closed the stall and taped a ‘do not enter’ sign on the stall before walking away. “That should teach that girl a lesson.”

One by one, the girls walked out of the change room. Xiao Xun was the last girl to walk out of the change rooms; she turns around to take off the fake sign on the door. Ripping off the tag ‘Girl’s change room’ to reveal ‘Boy’s change room’ underneath.

“Let’s sit back and watch the show.”

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“DAMNIT!”

Sheng Yi shouted out as he stared at Aaron and his teammates take a score. He glared at Fabien who shrugs, he too was not enjoying their victory but he had to admit it, it was a fair game. The coach wanted a fair game and since Sheng Yi needed to stay out of trouble, there was nothing to stop them from getting that point. “You call this a fair game?”

“Let’s look at this the other way; at least we are pin-pointing where our flaws are.”

“They just scored dude, it must be your lousy defense.”

“Whatever.” Ah Wei commented as he stares at his opponents. “I do agree with Fabien through, at least we are playing a clean game. No one fouled so far and looks everyone is trying their best. Coach is getting his stats and we are close to game season.”

“How much longer do we have left?”

“Twenty.”

“Let’s score and tie this game.”

Sheng Yi commented as all the players on the field assumed their positions on the field.

“C’MON SISSY’S! LET’S GET THIS SHOW ON.”

Once the whistle blew, everyone dispersed.

Sheng Yi kicked the ball, he began running towards his opponents net but before he had the chance to kick the ball into the goal, Aaron slid and intercepted his chance.

“DAMNIT!” Sheng Yi yelled out as he glared at Aaron who was on the ground, looking up at Sheng Yi. The game paused and everyone ran over to Aaron.

“GOOD INTERCEPTING AARON!” The coach cried out as he quickly wrote down something on his clipboard.  “Coach, Aaron should sit out. His knee is bleeding and I don’t think it will benefit us to have him play any longer with an injury.” Jiro pointed out as Coach glances over at the time.

“We have ten minutes left in the game. Aaron, you have my permission to head to the showers. ALL YOU SISSY’S ASSUME YOUR POSITION!” The Coach yelled out. “REMEMBER TO LOOK AROUND YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND SHARE THE BALL!”

Wu Chun helped Aaron up, making his way to the bench. “It’s okay, go play. Coach has been moving around like crazy trying to collect data. Just look out for Sheng Yi and his pals.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, this is a small injury.”

“Okay, I’ll see you inside.”

Aaron nod as he picked his water bottle and towel off the bench and made his way to the change room.

He effortlessly took off his shirt and threw it into his locker. In his mind, he kept reminding himself to control his temper and it took all strength to keep him from blowing up. So he punch the wall instead. He sat down on the bench and heavily sighed. He swore, he was going to explode but he held it in longer.

Meanwhile, Gui’s eyes widen when she found herself lying on the ground, cold and wet. She quickly helped herself up only to wince in pain. She bit onto her lips and helped herself up once again, lifting the curtain to see someone standing before her. She was about to hide herself in the stall but when he turn to look at her, her eyes widen.

“AHHH! WHO ARE YOU!? AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE GIRL’S CHANGING ROOOM?@?$?”

Aaron’s eyes widen and before he knew it, his ears twitched when he heard Jiro’s loud cheer coming from the hallway. Was his eyes deceiving him or was there really a girl there? In the boy’s changing room? No way!

As his teammates walk closer and closer to the changing room, he quickly ran over and covered . “Keep it down or else you’ll get noticed.” He closed the curtain behind him, not knowing that the sign Xiao Xun placed fell off.

“You really have guts coming into the boy’s changing room.”

Gui shook her head but she couldn’t say anything else his hand was still covering her.

“Why are you even in here? Planning on surprising your boyfriend?” Gui smacked his hand away but he grab onto her wrist. He hardened her gaze at hers and it has finally dawned on him who she was.

“IT’S YOU! IT’S YOU STRANGER!” She yells out, he took his hands away and Gui pushed him off her. “Why is it you?!”

“There were these girls who told me to come with them and I did! Next thing I knew it, I am lying on the floor and―” Gui paused and slowly look down to see her wet clothes. Aaron followed her gaze but before he could see what she saw, she covered herself and reached over to smack him but he caught her wrist once again.

“Who are these girls?”

“I don’t k― achoo!”

Gui ‘s ears twitched when the door opens and before she knew it, her worst nightmare came true.

She could hear the sound of male voices in the room. “Oh no!” Her eyes widen as she stares at the curtain.

The curtain is the only thing standing between her and a room full of guys, she gasps. “What am I going to do?!” Aaron too, has no idea what to do. If only he didn’t spend his time questioning her, she would’ve made it out of this mess but now, what can she do now?

“Please help me get out of here!” Aaron stare at the curtain. He can’t even lift the curtain since he is afraid of exposing her. Heck, a room full of hot-blooded male and all he could do is hope that she doesn’t get caught in it.

“Okay, I’ll think of something.” They both froze when someone yelled out “SHOWER TIME!”

Aaron quickly lean in to whisper something to Gui. “Don’t’ worry, when I came in. There was a sign on the curtain but... if these guys decide to ignore it, forgive me if I step out of line.”

One by one, the sound of the water escaping the shower heads can be heard. When Aaron felt the curtain behind him push aside. He wrap his arm around her waist and twirled her around, closing the gap between them. Aaron felt her tense up but he didn’t care, he’s more interested in the guy who discovered them.

The towel slipped out of the boys hand and everyone stops. Holy .

O_______________________________O

“A―A―AA―AAR―RON!?!” One of the guys cried out and everyone looked over to him. “AAAARRROOOONNNNNN@#?$%”

Jiro, Calvin and Wu Chun cross their arms and looks over to Aaron. Some guys in the room was amused while some were surprised. After a couple of seconds, Aaron and Gui heard whistles and a ton of cheering.

“Oh―” Wu Chun eyes widen.

“My―” Calvin jaws dropped.

“….GOD!!!!” Jiro whistled.