“School.” Alana’s nose scrunched with distaste. The bell rang, signalling that lunch was over. She trotted over to her locker in the hallways to fetch her thick calculus book before her class starts. Turning the locker’s code left and right, Alana nodded at the thought of the Britain Government for being considerate enough to come up with the ideas of having lockers in school.

2 years before, no such thing existed and it was a rather tiresome thing because majority of the students often forget to bring some of their books to school. But that majority does not include Alana though, --- not when she has a reputation to take care of, she couldn’t take the risk to do such a foolish mistake.

She closed her locker’s door and walked away towards her next class, which was calculus.

__________

“Alana, can you come here for a moment?” A soft, but stern voice said. Alana looked up from packing her books into her bag and quickly slung her bag over her right shoulder before proceeding towards the teacher’s table, out front of the classroom.

“Yes, teacher Song?” Alana said, obediently. Teacher Song flashed her a smile of gratitude and said, “Can you please carry my books to my table in the staff room? I trust you the most out of all the 30 students here not to steal any of my books or things. I have a meeting to attend with all of the calculus teachers and I’m running a bit late.”

*No, I have Chinese class in 10 minutes, mind you.* Alana had wanted to said, but instead she nodded and politely took teacher Song’s heavy books and stalked out of class. *This is why I hate calculus class.* Alana thought as she rushed towards the staff room. Teacher Song always made her run errands. Alana didn’t know whether to be grateful to the fact that the said teacher likes her or annoyed with the fact that she has to run for her errands all the time.

Alana’s face paled when she realised that her Chinese teacher, Mr Chong, wasn’t in the staff room like she had guessed. *But he always appears late for Chinese class. He’s never early. What made him change today?* She thought worriedly and scrambled towards her Chinese class, half-walking, half-running.*What in my right mind had made me choose to take up Chinese for my public exams?* She sighed.

Fixing her skirt before she walked into her class, she frowned at the possibilities of getting punished by Teacher Chong. Word spreads widely in her school, and rumour has it that Teacher Chong is one hell of a erted teacher.

Alana roughly pushed the heavy wooden doors aside, and casually walked inside, avoiding Mr Chong’s eyes. Bowing repeatedly, over and over at the teacher’s table, Alana said, “Sorry for being late Teacher Chong, I was helping Teacher Song.” She halted to a stop when she heard a slam meeting the jati-made table and the soft chitter-chatters among the students stopped, creating a completely silent air.

But no, --- this is Alana we are talking about and she didn’t flinched, not even for a millisecond. She stood there, rooted towards the ground, unfazed by Teacher Chong’s actions. Unsatisfied, Teacher Chong grimly said, “Sit down.” And that’s what she exactly did, she pursued to take a seat at her usual place, --- the third seat from the window at the second row, completely unaware of the a few pair of extra eyes watching her.

Luhan’s mouth went agape when he sees Alana stepping into the Chinese class. His fellow schoolmate and himself, had to come and study Chinese at this English school for the day, --- or perhaps for the rest of the year as his school’s Chinese teacher called in sick today, and it sounded severe.

Luhan frowned when he sees the Chinese teacher’s actions, or Mr Chong, --- as he had introduced himself earlier, towards Alana. *So what? She’s just running 5 minutes late.* Luhan can’t help but not to roll his eyes. His lips stretched wide when he sees how Alana coped up with that, she had not even flinched. *That’s my girl--- wait, what?* Luhan shook his head at that thought and trailed his eyes onto Alana’s back.

“Psst. Gege, she’s one pretty jie jie.” A familiar voice whispered next to him. It was Zitao, the youngest out of the 4. Mouth still agape, Luhan turned towards Tao to give him a glare but Yixing’s words stopped him instead. “Luhan, I get it that she’s pretty but can you close your mouth? You have a reputation as the General’s son to take care of, remember?

Luhan turned to his right and glared at the 3 of his friends. “Hey, what did I do to deserve that glare of yours?” The boy with the blonde hair, Wufan, said and held his hands up in surrender. “Any how, I think she’s cool, did you see how she reacted, she didn’t even breathe, I like.” This time, Luhan gave him a meaner stare. Yixing raised his brows.

With a soft growl, Luhan turned back his attention towards the board. Absentmindedly, he said, “I know her.” as his eyes bore into Alana’s back. The other 3 exchanged looks. “How?” Yixing finally questioned after a long pause. “Later. I’ll tell later.” Luhan breathed, eyes never leaving Alana’s back.

__________

Alana stayed back, while the rest of the class dispersed out of the room at the end of the lesson. She knew well how the order went like. You make a mistake, you stay behind, you receive the punishment. Before the class was fully emptied, she felt a presence next to her, but didn’t even bother to look up. *Probably some boys who wants to pick on me, again.* When she was sure that the class was empty, she bravely went towards the teacher’s table and looked at Mr Chong, cold in the eye.

“What?” Her icy, cold voice echoed throughout the classroom.

__________

Alana clutched her right hand towards her blazer and looked around, as she walked out of the damned room. *How dare he.* She clenched her right fist tighter and hid it inside the front pocket of her blazer. It hurt a lot, but it didn’t hurt as much as it hurt her pride. *That disgusting piece of trash. Does he not know who I am? Wait until Monday, oh he shall see.* Her eyes glistened with such hate, as she walked down the hallway towards her locker to keep some of her books.

Alana slowly opened her locker with her left hand, and stuffed her books into the locker one by one, just with her left hand. Her right hand would be useless for days, but this had to do for now. Her eyes watered at how painful her right palm was feeling right now, and she took out her right fist out and unclenched it. A drop of red liquid hit the floor. Her hand was bleeding. And it wouldn’t stop. *Stupid rattan ruler.*Alana cursed in her head.

Slamming her locker shut with her left hand, she strutted away, towards the school field. Oh no, the Alana must not return now or the house would turn upside down. Her anger matched her father’s, --- Alana has a bad temper and she tends to throw things around when she’s angry. She took a glance at her watch and calculated in her mind. She has approximately 40 minutes before her driver would come to fetch her.

Ah yes, Alana always tell her driver to come and fetch her later than the usual. Simply, because she loved staying at the school field and breathe in the fresh air once in a while. It gets really stuffy in the huge mansion, according to her point of view. She pulled her skirt once more before stepping out into the Sun. She hated wearing these short skirts. It was embarrassing for her. She calls herself a Muslim and yet she’s wearing something so revealing. That is why she prefers to wear liner under these short-lengthen skirt. *Stupid skirt.*  

Hiding her bleeding hand back inside her blazer’s pocket, she walked across the field and dumped her bag onto the healthy-looking, grassy ground at the usual place where she would hang out alone, --- at the baseball’s equipment’s shack. She looked up at the clear, bright sky and her lips lifted up a bit, the very slightest bit. Breathing in the warm air, her trance was interrupted when her left shoulder collided with someone else’s.

“Oh look, what do we have here? The princess. The ice princess.” A familiar voice said. Alana in her breath and gave Park Chanyeol and his clique the meanest glare she could have ever given to a living person. She noticed that he has two extra boys in his clique today and immediately recognized the two of them to come from the school just across the one that she’s currently attending, --- Victoria Institution was her school’s name.

*These boys are from the Chinese school nearby huh?* Her eyes squinted to read out the school’s name on the boys’ badges. “Yah, yah.” Kim Joonmyeon snapped his fingers in front of her face when he realised that she wasn’t paying attention. “What?” Icily, Alana said with a sharp glare. *, I had not seen them playing soccer on the field just now. Where did they come from?* Alana inwardly sighed. She wasn’t the type to stir a fight, yet she avoided them. But she would never back down if someone tempted her, and this clique especially likes to see the inner beast in her.

“Give her a break, Suho. She looks terrible.” Do Kyungsoo snickered. Alana squinted her eyes at his direction. That statement didn’t moved her even the slightest. *Today was definitely not my day. First that Teacher Chong and now these bastards. Oh fate, why?* Alana dramatically thought as she ignored them and grabbed one of the bats with her left hand. Then she heard some footsteps, slowly fading away.

She sighed in relive, but then she felt it. Someone was touching her . *That’s it, my pride has been shun down so low to a level that I can’t take, and now I’m being physically molested. Screw my reputation.* Letting go of the bat, she swiftly turned around and gave the said boy a good punch on the face. It was Kim Jongin. He had touched her . *Disgusting Koreans. I have nicer Korean pen pals than you people.*

Kim Jongin fell onto the ground with a thud. The seven of them turned around with a great deal of shock plastered onto their faces. “What did you just do?” Oh Sehun, the youngest questioned. Kim Jongin groaned. “Yah, you filthy , why you, ---“, Byun Baekhyun, the boy always with the eye liner, took long strides towards Alana and raised his hands into the air. Alana closed her eyes, feeling slightly afraid now.

“That’s enough.” A firm voice said. Alana opened her eyes to see a skinny but short boy holding Byun Baekhyun’s hair in the air, while another boy whom she guessed had said those words earlier shaking his head. She read their nametag’s and imprinted their names inside her mind. *Kim Minseok and Kim Jongdae. Thank you.*

“We respect you guys as our friends but this is simply too much.” Kim Minseok started as he shoved Baekhyun’s hand away. “And really, hitting a girl? You would stoop that low?” He continued and shook his head. “And Kai please, touching her ?” Kim Jongdae said and flashed a dirty look towards Kim Jongin’s direction.

Alana stood still. A few seconds later, she bowed towards the two boys whom saved her and picked up her dropped bat. By then, Kim Jongin had managed to gather himself like a man already. He charged towards her but she didn’t seem frighten at all.

“Don’t come near me, or I’ll kungfu kick you out of this school, you disgusting ert.” Alana spoke, and sent him a frown. Kim Jongin smirked. “Oh, you so want me.” Alana rolled her eyes and grabbed a baseball , her left hand now preoccupied with the bat and the ball. “Lay off, Kai. She obviously doesn’t wants you. Let’s go.” Sehun embarrassedly dragged him away. The eight of them coolly walked away.

“Thank God.” Alana muttered and went to turn on the throwing-base ball-machine that had settled in the middle of the field. She then jogged a good 13 feet away from the machine, and so, the battle between the machine starts.

And still, Alana was unaware of the four pairs of eyes that had been watching her for quite some time now.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Boo! Yay another chapter updated? So what do you think, and oh, by the way, if you're wondering why I don't call them by their normal names but instead of their full names, it's because we are in the 1940s remember and respect was still an important value back then. And oh btw, I don't hold any grudges towards towards Kai and the others, I just think their characters suits here the most. ((tbh i don't think suho or kyungsoo or any of the boys are mean in real life lol)) 

(+) And according to my teacher that had attended Victoria Institution, she says that the school used to offer both boys and girls last time, but now it's only for boys. Though, for form 6, i'm sure there's girls. ^^

Enjoy reading and PLEASE COMMENT I feel so ... sad not seeing any feedbacks. TUNA IS SAD :-(

lulz

xoxo, Tuna.