When Gui Gui’s ten years old alarm clock woke her up the next day she felt more tired than usual. She had been up all night to comfort the oldest of her siblings. She was now wondering if her parents were feeling okay, but they were of course working.
She got dressed in her school uniform, and started cooking when her cell phone rang.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Hello.” She heard Wang Zi’s voice in the other way of the phone.
“What do you want?” she asked, sounding blaming. Even though Wang Zi was her best friend, she didn’t like his attitude. It annoyed her.
“Gui, listen… I know I overreacted yesterday, but I just don’t want you to get hurt by some weird player, or his ex girlfriend” Wang Zi said. Gui Gui knew he meant it, and yet she wasn’t sure if she could accept it. When Wang Zi had been scolding her it became very clear to her that he had feelings for her… feelings that she couldn’t give him back.
“I’ll only accept your almost-apology on one condition” she said and giggled teasingly.
“Anything…” he said, and sounded like he was smirking.
“You have to promise me that you won’t beat Aaron up if something happens…” she said. Now she sounded serious. She didn’t want something like that to happen.
“Gui… I’ll do my best” Wang Zi tried.
“Promise me.” She said. She knew that she couldn’t trust a “try.”
“I promise” he said and sighed. It was very clear to Gui Gui that he wanted to object.
“That’s good then, but see you, Wang Zi, I have to cook…” she said. The good thing about Wang Zi was that he knew everything about her life, and had slowly accepted that she didn’t want help, or his money. She had her pride.
“Bye Gui… Oh, and… remember the toilets today, it was really boring to clean them by myself” he said. Both of them laughed, and hung up at the same time.
A random thought ran through Gui Gui’s head; would they be abled to laugh the same way, without any tension after she went out with Aaron? She wasn’t sure. It pretty much depended on Wang Zi.
She finished cooking, called for her siblings and started eating.

Aaron woke up earlier than usual, and without any maids to wake him. His phone kept on ringing, and each time it stopped, it started again a few seconds later. He answered it.
“What?!” he asked impolitely. Who dared to call him this early?
“Aaron… What way is that to speak in? I’m just trying to find out what you’re doing…” it was Hebe. Of course it was the arrogant stalker-girl.
“What do you think I’m doing half past six AM?!” he answered with a question.
“How should I know?” she sounded like she was smirking.
“Sleeping!” he answered. Of course it wasn’t Hebe’s fault, but he was always moody in the morning.
“With whom?” she asked. Now he was sure that she was smirking. And awake – which meant that he could play that game too.
“Oh, you know… just someone” he smirked, and was sure that Hebe had already figured that out.
“Yeah, right… but see you Aaron, I gotta go” she said.
The relationship between Aaron and Hebe was very difficult. Actually, they only knew each other because Aaron once helped her when her purse almost got stolen by a weird guy who ended up in jail. Since that he and Hebe had been friend. Once they tried out dating, but that didn’t work out. Hebe, on the other side, thought it worked out very well and had been stalking him since. That was what annoyed Aaron the most about Hebe. She just couldn’t let go, and had to follow him all the time. That was another reason that he had accepted the bet; maybe Hebe would let go of their past if he got a girlfriend.
If he just knew that he was dead wrong…

In class everything went as usual. The teacher kept on asking Gui Gui until she was wrong, then asked a student who had raised her hand, just to make Gui Gui seem stupid. Today the question was about Shakespeare’s play; hamlet.
“Well, we all know that one of the most famous quotes from this play is ‘something rotten in the state of…’. Miss Wu, can you tell me the full quote?” her teacher asked and smirked evilly.
“Chicago?” Gui Gui tried. She had never read hamlet, though it was homework, as she couldn’t afford it. The entire class laughed.
“No… Miss Tian, can you please tell me the correct answer?” the teacher asked Hebe, who had raised her hand.
“Yes, Mrs. Lee. It’s ‘something rotten in the state of Denmark’” Hebe said. Mrs. Lee nodded.
“Very well, Miss Tian. I think you should take this down, Miss Wu. If you can afford a notebook” the teacher smirked meanly at Gui Gui, who fought her urge to hit the teacher.
“I will, Mrs. Lee” she sighed. She hated her teacher just as much as her teacher hated her, and that wasn’t just a bit.
“We’ll have a test about Shakespeare’s life in next week… Read for it, if you can afford books” the teacher said and glared at Gui Gui. Gui Gui had to bite her lip in order to stay quiet. She couldn’t wait to she finished school, and that mean teacher was past.

During break a lot of rumors travelled.
“Wu Ying Jie is it true that you’re dating Aaron Senior?” a junior asked her. Gui Gui didn’t like this kind of attention. She actually hated it, but Joanne and Alien on the other hand, seemed to like it.
“I’m sorry, I really don’t…” she said and looked at her shoes.
“Of course you do Gui Gui” Joanne said and smiled.
“Yeah, and he loves you very deeply” Alien said. He leaned a bit forward to whisper to the junior.
“I can sell you his phone number” Gui Gui heard him whisper. Wouldn’t this guy ever get tired of attention? She knew that he had been selling the phone numbers of the schools popularity kings, but did he have to take advantage of such a situation?
“I’d rather have Jiro’s number… can you also sell that to me?” she asked. He smiled.
“Of course I can… now, what is your name?” he asked and found his notebook, and a pen.
“Rainie… Rainie Yang…” the girl said. He smiled and wrote down her name, then gave her a piece of paper with Jiro’s number on.
“That’ll be 100NT” he said.
“That’s too much! I’ll give you 50” she replied.
“75?” he asked.
“Deal.” She answered. Then she turned to look at Gui Gui again.
“Anyways, if you really are dating Aaron Yan you should watch your back… Hebe Tian is looking for the girl who is” the junior said, and walked away.
Gui Gui looked around the school’s outdoor area. The students were walking around in small groups. Obviously, all of them were rich, just as Alien, Joanne and Wang Zi. Alien only sold the phone numbers to buy some beer, as his parents wouldn’t pay for that.
The weather was quite good, though she didn’t notice. Some of her classmates were lying on the grass, in the sun, to feel it agienst their skin.
Gui Gui sighed. She didn’t even notice that everyone was suddenly backing off, or standing up.

Aaron, Chun, Jiro and Calvin walked around in the schoolyard during break. It was quite warm, but they felt amused by the fact that their juniors were standing up when they walked pass them.
Aaron saw Ying Jie standing with two of her friends. The Wang Zi guy wasn’t there, though. He walked to her, as he could see she felt uncomfortable.
“Ying Jie, sweetheart” he said and smiled. She smiled back at him, but in a way more shy manner.
“Hi Aaron…” she said. Of course the weird friend of hers had to ruin everything.
“Hey G, what’s up?” he asked. Aaron had no idea what ‘G’ was supposed to mean, but it didn’t matter anyway.
“Hey classmate Alien” he just said. Alien looked like a little child at Christmas.
“So, Ying Jie, rumors has been flying quickly, huh?” Aaron asked. He also smirked a bit when he saw how shy she looked. This was going to get easier than making Calvin think the moon was made out of green cheese.
“Yeah…” she glared meanly at her friends, who were obviously the sinners.
“Actually I’m pretty happy about it… why care about who knows?” he smirked. That the whole school knew would make it easier for him to dump her, when time would come.
“Yeah…” she said again.
“Do you remember what I told you about having self confidence?” Aaron asked her. She nodded.
“I meant it. Ying Jie, you’re a beautiful girl, and if you believed in it other people also would” he said. Chun, Jiro and Calvin looked amazed by Aaron’s acting skills.
“Thank you… I will try” she said shyly.
“Don’t just try, Ying Jie, I know you can do it… Jia You” he said, and then walked away with his friends.
“When did you learn to act this well?!” Jiro asked him.
“I have always been abled to act this way.” He answered coldly. In this group of friends, he had always been the most cold and arrogant one. No one knew why, but they were sure that there was a reason.
“But… don’t you feel that she’s just a bit cute, with her huge eyes and shy, yet cheerful personality?” Calvin asked.
“Maybe, but I hate cheerful girls. They’re annoying” he said and yawned.