Last school day before the vacation! Finally.
No one was really serious in class. Some of the guys threw paper balls at each other, the most dutiful (including me and Rainie) took down the Christmas decorations, a few girls gossiped in a corner, and the remaining guys ran around and bullied the girls.
The teacher had long time ago given up on keeping order, so she sat in the teacher’s chair and read a magazine.
“Don’t you think Jiro will be sad to hear these news?” I asked Rainie. She smiled happily.
“Oh, he’ll get over it. I don’t think he ever liked me anyway,” she replied.
“No, and it has only been a year or five, so it doesn’t mean anything,” I laughed.
“Exactly... By the way, Show and I are going to ice skate later, do you want to join? I don’t think I can teach him alone,” she suggested.
Rainie helped me climb on to the top of the closet where all of the teachers’ stuff were in. Someone had placed a lot of small paper-Christmas trees on it.
“Wouldn’t I be like a third wheel then?” I asked while handing her the decorations.
The girls in the corner suddenly screamed loud; one of the guys had thrown some old, rotten apples at them. I wondered where he had gotten them.
“Not at all, Show is inviting Aaron too,” Rainie explained. We both chose to ignore the others.
I carefully jumped down from the closet and smiled.
“Okay then.”

“Look! I’ve bought my own skates!” Show happily shouted at us, when we walked towards him and Aaron at the rink. Aaron already had his left skate on, while Show couldn’t figure out how to tie the lines. Unlike Aaron, Rainie and I, he had bought ice-hockey skates, while we had skates made for figure-skating.
Rainie and I sat down next to them and took our skates on. Show and Rainie started chatting.
“Remember last time we skated together?” I asked Aaron with a smile.
“Yeah, I made you sprain your ankle,” he said. He was tying the lines on his right skate.
I tried another topic.
“Have you heard from Hebe?”
He made a troubled expression and looked at me.
“Not from Hebe. But Hebe’s father called my father yesterday night.” He seemed to be concerned about this matter.
“What did he call about?” I asked worried. I didn’t hope it was something very serious.
“My father didn’t tell me, nor Cynthia or Bianca when they asked. I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said.
“Oh...” I didn’t know how to react. Why was it only around him I never knew how to do anything?
He chased away his troubled expression and smiled to me.
“What about you? Being recruited yet?” he joked. Wasn’t this the first time I heard him joke?
“She’s been trying the last many days, but not since the party,” I smiled back. How I loved his smile.
“And what about... Wang Zi?”
Why did he mention Wang Zi?
“Why do you ask?” I thought loud.
“You seem a bit modest about me. Is it because of him?” He looked down.
“Hmm... As I threw a pie at his face the other day, I don’t think he cares about me anymore,” I stated. Aaron looked surprised at me.
“You did what?”
“I can’t believe you didn’t hear the whole school talk about it... I couldn’t concentrate about my homework because people kept talking,” I smiled. Even Hebe, who was from another school, had heard about this.
“That was actually the main reason why Hebe wanted to ‘recruit’ me.”
“Seriously? How come I haven’t heard of it before...? Hey, Show! Did you know that Gui Gui threw a pie at Wang Zi?” He demanded Show’s attention.
“No, but I knew he was an a-...”
“You can’t swear!” Rainie taught him. We laughed.
So this was how Aaron really was when he was together with people he knew and trusted. It was like a whole different person, just like when we found the kittens. How amazing.
Aaron’s mobile rang just when I had finished taking on my skates. He picked it up.
“Wei?”
He listened for a while, and it was impossible to read his expression.
“What?” he asked unbelieving in the phone.
He listened for a while more, while his expression became more and more shocked.
“Yes, I’ll go home right now. Bye,” he said, and quickly hung up.
“I gotta go, there’s something urgent at home,” he explained while taking off his skates.
“Why?” I asked upset.
“I’ll explain later, call me in the evening.” He picked up his skates, said goodbye to Rainie and Show and (to my surprise) hugged me goodbye.
He walked fast away and got on a bus. I wondered what had happened.

I stayed up late in the evening and kept calling Aaron’s mobile. No one answered. I was getting anxious. What had exactly happened?
Why didn’t he pick up his phone?
Even though I was tired, I couldn’t sleep. This really made me nervous.

***
Sorry for the short chaps lately, but the thing is that I have to write each chapter on the date. Unlike before, where I had them all ready for uploading (:
And as I don’t have much time or inspiration... well, hope you can live with it xD
Christmas Eve soon :b
Goodnight! Or morning, noon, afternoon... whatever it is where you are xD
Thanks for all the amazing comments :]
- Blitz