One
Project Scholarship
I am not a morning person.
This statement was confirmed as I literally dragged myself out of bed after grabbing my alarm clock and chucking it across the room. I can see it now broken into a million and one pieces. My mother was not going to amused when I tell her that I needed a new alarm clock. I cleaned up the mess before heading to the bathroom to wash up.
Half an hour later, I came out of the washroom wearing my school's school uniform; a white dress shirt layered underneath a beige sweater and a dark blazer on top paired with dark slacks and the shoes of my choice. I just wore my ratty and old converse shoes.
I sprayed a spritz of my usual cologne on myself and headed downstairs for some breakfast.
"Hey mother." I gave my mom a peck on the cheek as I stopped by in the kitchen for a piece of toast.
"Good morning, Lay," she replied, the ends of her lips curling upwards.
My name is actually Yixing, but since I moved to Korea from China a few years back, my cousins had a hard time saying Yixing and therefor I had the honour of obtaining the nickname Lay.
"Bye, mother," I said as I headed out to school.
I hopped into my white BMW in the garage that I got for my sixteenth birthday and put the keys in the ignition as I buckle up my seatbelt and throw my bag onto the passenger seat. I started the engine and headed out to school.
I arrived at my current high school a few minutes earlier than I usually did because there wasn't any traffic. I got out as the bell rang and I headed to my classroom without being able stop at my locker beforehand. At least I had everything I needed for my first class.
I sat down in my seat as the teacher came in and began talking.
"Welcome back to high school, everyone," the teacher said, pausing to look at each and everyone one of us. "I hope you had an enjoyable summer and are ready for your graduating year of high school."
Some people groaned while others cheered at the mention of 'graduating year'. And some, like me, just stayed quiet and listened.
"Anyway, I hope you all try hard and graduate without any regrets!"
With that, he took attendance and moved onto our first math lesson of the school year.
Math passed by quickly. He gave us a quick lecture before handing out a worksheet to access our knowledge. He gave us the entire lesson to finish it. I finished it with a few minutes to spare, so I packed up.
"Hand it in up front before you go please!" he told us as the dismissing bell rang.
I stood up with my packed bag slung over my shoulder and the worksheet in my hand, handing it in as I left the classroom.
I finally stopped by my locker, dumping all of my binders and books from my bag in, aside from the ones I needed for my next class.
My next classes breezed by quickly, as did the lunch break. My life was very simple and uneventful. I was satisfied with that. My last class soon came rolling by. This was my elective and I was very excited. Music is my passion. I went into the classroom, taking a seat located in the back.
The rest of the class came in and so did our music teacher. The late bell rang and our teacher didn't waste any time getting started.
She clapped a few times to get our attention, and everyone quieted down.
"Welcome, everyone, to music class!"
A wave of cheering and clapping erupted for a moment and it died down as the teacher, Ms. Choi, raised her hand for silence.
"I know today's the first day, but I'm going to explain the first assignment of the year."
She paused, looking around at the class. There was a lot of groaning and in reply.
"It's going to be a year-long project, and you're going to be in partners. I'll be choosing the partners, of course."
People exchanged wary glances with their friends.
"You'll be composing a song and presenting it at the end of the year. You'll also have to hand in a CD and a written composition of it. The song has to be about your relationship with each other. Whether it be friendship, romance or hatred."
Ms. Choi took out a piece of paper.
"Time to decide the partners!" she announced, smiling.
People started protesting, wanting to choose their own partners. But Ms. Choi had nothing of it and started announcing names. I blanked out for a bit, not caring about others and their partners.
"One of the partnerings will be two guys because there's an uneven number of guys and girls in the class. So, without further ado, our last group is Yixing and Kris."
I looked up, surprised. Oh no. People were staring at me. The girls were doing so in jealousy.
Kris was an "it" guy, here at our school. He transferred over last year or something and he came from another country. He attracted girls, to say the least.
I looked over at him, and he was doing the same. We both had blank faces. I was the first to look away because Ms. Choi had began talking again and I pretty much listened to every word. She changed the topic and we were starting on the day's lesson. It was pretty much a review for me. I felt eyes looking my way the entire rest of the class but I ignored them. It was whatever. He was probably going to make me do it myself. I was okay with that. At least if I got a bad mark I was the one who caused it.
The class ended quickly as the bell rang and I picked up my bag by the strap, slung it over my shoulder and left the classroom.
I was about to leave when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to come face to face with the lady killer.
"Hey," said Kris, the same blank look he had earlier on his face. It was almost kind of intimidating but I brushed it off with my own poker face.
"Hey," I replied back, raising an eyebrow. I didn't even know he spoke Korean.
"So, uh, wanna hang out or something since, you know, we're partners?" He asked, rubbing his neck.
I didn't want to hang out with him, so I spat out a lie. I was good at those.
"Nah, can't today, sorry. My parents are expecting me home," I said, shrugging his hand off my shoulder and continued my way out.
"Next time," I called out as I left. Well I guess that wasn't really a lie, they were expecting me home. But it's not like there was anything urgent happening or anything planned. It's just that I usually do go home. I could've called them to inform them otherwise. But I didn't. I don't know how this partnership will work.
Oh well. We had the entire year to figure that out.
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word count : 1215
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