“Gosh, I’m tired” Aaron said. Him and Gui Gui were eating breakfast together. Gui Gui had forced him to wake up earlier than usual, as she was bored.
“Tired? At this time I’ve usually cooked breakfast, brushed my hair, got dressed and woken up my siblings…” Gui Gui smirked. Aaron looked amazed.
“That’s a lot of things…”
“Oh, I forgot to mention that I’ve also made lunchboxes for my siblings…” Gui Gui yawned.
“How can you just do all those things?” Aaron asked her.
“It’s pretty easy… I don’t, things will stop working if I don’t. If I don’t cook breakfast for my siblings, they don’t get any breakfast. If I don’t work, we can’t afford breakfast. If I don’t go to school I can’t get a good education to stop these things” Gui Gui explained. Aaron was paralyzed. How could a girl at his own age lead such a life? Hebe was exactly the same age as Gui Gui, and she just fooled happily around with her friends.
“How can a person lead such a harsh life?” Aaron asked her.
“I think you know that a lot of people leads a worse life… think about the children you want to help in Africa. I’m way more selfish than you. You educate to help a bunch of people; I educate to help my own family…” Gui Gui said and looked sad.
“No your not. I can only help people because I’m leading a great life. You have to be happy to make others happy. You have to have money to give a poor person money, ‘cause if you don’t have, you’ll put yourself in an even worse situation.” Aaron said, smiling.
“But what if the person is in an even worse situation than you?” Gui Gui asked.
“You should still help yourself at first. If you don’t, you’re not in a condition to help others. This is the case where selfishness is a good thing” Aaron said and smiled.
“How can selfishness be a good thing? If you’re too selfish, you forget to help others because you just take and take and take” Gui Gui said.
“Interesting point of view… Of course there’s a limit between acceptable selfishness and greediness. You sound like you either hold a grudge on a selfish person, or don’t allow yourself to be selfish” Aaron said and looked serious.
“The first one I guess… I already did allow myself to be selfish”
“But you feel terrible about it” Aaron pointed out.
“That’s another thing” Gui Gui defended herself.

When Aaron and Gui Gui arrived to their classroom, their teacher hadn’t arrived yet, which was quite unusual. She was usually early, as that gave her a chance to pick on students who came in the last minute. Aaron smiled secretive.
“What’s with the smile?” Calvin asked him. Calvin always noticed peoples’ facial expression. Jiro was texting with someone (probably female) and Chun was busy eating a sandwich with cheese and ham in a tempo that scared the others.
“You’ll find out” Aaron said and smirked.
After a few minutes the school leader, Mr. Tang, walked in.
“Okay, class… I’ve received some complains” – he smirked at Aaron – “about Miss Lee treating some students directly bad, because of their social status, so I fired her. Please welcome your new form teacher, Melody Yin” he said. His voice seemed indifferent. An energic, happily smiling, young woman walked inside the classroom. Everybody was stunned.
“Hi class… I’m Melody, and obviously I’m your new teacher… Wee, I’m so excited! Any questions?” she said. Jiro raised his hand and suddenly seemed interested in class (or interested in the teacher).
“Yes, Mr.?”
“Wang, Jiro Wang, Miss…” Jiro started, but didn’t get to finish.
“Oh, Miss is too formal… Just call me Melody… that seems more casual” Melody said and smiled.
“Okay, Melody… I was wondering if you need my help to show you around the school and tell you about how things work and so?” Jiro asked. Melody smiled.
“Actually, I went to this school in my high school years, so I don’t need help… But thanks anyways, Jiro… Any other questions?” she asked and clapped her hands. One of Hebe’s friends raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“Jolin… I was just wondering if you have any children.” Jolin asked.
“Oh, I don’t…” Melody said and blushed.

After the class, everyone was discussing their new teacher.
“I don’t like her”
“She’s hot”
“She seems okay…”
“She’s annoying…”
“She’s hot…”
“She seems nice”
“She’s SO hot!”
Aaron rolled his eyes.
“Dude, HOW did you that?” Jiro asked him, and was obviously referring to Melody and Aaron’s weird smirk from earlier.
“I have my ways… Melody is a friend of my cousin, so it was actually quite easy to get her hired” Aaron yawned.
“She’s like, really pretty” Calvin said and smirked.
“The importing thing is that she is passionate about…” Aaron started, but Jiro cut him off.
“Yeah, passion is very important.”
Aaron rolled his eyes while Calvin and Jiro were lifting eyebrows. Hebe walked to their table.
“Hi Aaron…” She said, and placed her hands on Aaron’s shoulders.
“Hi…” Aaron said, and continued to look at Calvin and Jiro in a weird way.
“Hey Hebe, how’s life?” Jiro asked. He, Calvin, Chun, Aaron, Ella and Hebe were all friends.
“Pretty well…” Hebe answered and smiled.
“Do you want a sandwich?” Chun asked her.
“Thanks Chun, but I don’t eat carbs… I don’t wanna gain weight” Hebe said.
“You’re so skinny, you don’t need to diet” Calvin said.
“The same old Calvin… Always so flattering… How’s that girl you dated?” Hebe asked and smiled.
“Which one of them? Number six or number one hundred and seven?” Calvin asked and smiled.
“Then… How many abortions have you paid lately?” Hebe asked and laughed.
“Only a few” Calvin answered. Hebe started massaging Aaron’s shoulders, and Aaron closed his eyes.
“Oh, Gui, Hi…” he heard Jiro say.
“Hey Jiro…” Gui Gui said. She didn’t sound sad, nor did she sound happy.
“Hey Gui, how are you?” Hebe asked, still massaging Aaron’s shoulders.
“I’m fine…” Gui Gui said and looked at her feet.
“That’s good… How’s your father? I’ve heard that he got hospitalized…” Hebe continued. Though she faked a caring tone, it was obvious to Aaron that she did it to remind Gui Gui about how bad her family felt, and make her sad.
“He’s fine, Hebe. Could you please not talk about Gui’s family?” Aaron asked Hebe.
“Why not?” Hebe challenged him.
“That’s none of your business. Just let Gui be” Aaron said annoyed.
“Oh, okay… See you later, Gui” Hebe said and walked away.
“What was that about?”