(1)
In the following few days after that PE class, nothing special happened. We had several tests. My math sucked as it always did, but at least I managed to scrape through it. My English score was, as Ms. Yin, our English teacher, said, "incredibly higher" than that of the rest of the students in our class – including Lili, the English teacher's favorite student of all time – which led to me standing in her office and being questioned if I'd looked anything up in the dictionary or peeked at the textbook during the test.
"Did you just know me yesterday?" I muttered under my breath, hands behind my back.
"What?" asked Ms. Yin as her eyes, through the thick lenses, moved back to me from the pile of test papers on her table, hand still dangling my piece.
"No. I didn't do anything you mentioned." I hastened to raise my head and say something different, louder, to correct my thinking-out-loud.
Teachers sometimes just didn't believe their students. But in my case, I did think it was excusable. Just as my mom once described, because I was always somewhere in the middle, a parent-teacher conference was dead boring for her. My name would never be mentioned by teachers whenever they praised the students who got good grades or scolded those with poor academic performance. I remember mom once got so bored during the conference that she even sent me a message to tease me:
Are you sure you are in Class 6? No teachers seem to know your name.
Ha-ha. You got me. I've never been to school. I just squandered your money on video games.
I was gonna say "drugs" but thought it might be too over the line even as a joke, so I just texted her "video games" instead.
As for Chenhui, we did talk sometimes, but only when it was necessary, like we used to do. So he was possibly just a guy who was pretty good at making small talk, and that was it. He'd talk to whoever he was with in the same room. Then how did I get the impression that he was cold? Maybe I'd never given him any attention.
Anyway, before PE class, I wrapped the earbud cord onto my MP3 player, stuffed it into my pocket, and tucked The Fight for English under my arm, getting ready to sneak to the library. I couldn't understand why some of my classmates called PE class "the one and only chance to escape from our school building," which must be like a prison to them. But did they even realize that if they had to come back after 45 minutes, then it was just leisure time for prisoners rather than escape? Which did sound cooler, though.
"Are you gonna skip it again?" Lili clapped a hand on my shoulder and asked in surprise. She'd already changed into her sports shirt with a sky-blue sweatband around her head, hair swept back in a ponytail as she often did. "It's not that hot today!"
"Shhhh! Sporty girl." I put my finger against my lips. "I'm finishing this book today. Please! Next time I'll definitely go with you. Alright?"
"Yeah. Like I believe you." Lili shook her head and went out of the classroom with other classmates.
Following the last person going out, I walked out of the classroom. However, I secretly turned in a different direction than the others when we were out of the school building. It was overcast, so, as Lili had told me, it wasn't that hot outside. On the way to the library, I kept hesitating, debating whether or not I should go back to the classroom, so as a result, it took twice as much time as usual for me to get there. And as I was about to pull open the library's glass door, I eventually persuaded myself to go back, for I really needed to see if I'd handed in my physics homework, so I turned around and trotted back to the school building.
The corridor was quieter than I thought. Even the sound of students reciting Tang poetry in unison from upstairs was clear enough to hear. I crept up to our classroom, whose door was left ajar. I must've forgotten to shut it when I went out. Poking my head around the door, I peeked inside the classroom, but, to my dismay, I saw no one there. Besides, I forgot to turn off the ceiling fans as well.
I blew out a sigh. Maybe I should just go back to the library.
"What are you looking for?" a voice suddenly said over my shoulder.
I was totally startled. Book dropping onto the ground, I turned back. It was Chenhui, standing behind me, in his sports shirt, with a bottle of Diet Coke in his hand. He moved several steps closer to the door and took a glance inside.
"You almost scared the shit out of me." I put a hand on my chest, my heart still throbbing.
He bent over to pick up my book and handed it to me.
"Are you looking for…" Then he poked himself with his free hand while swallowing the Coke.
I had to hurry and go into the classroom because I was sure blood had rushed to my face.
"Why should I? I just came to see if I'd handed in the physics homework." I put the book on my desk and unzipped my backpack, pretending I was looking for the exercise book.
"We didn't have physics homework yesterday, bro." He took his seat, tossed the drink into his storage compartment, and then turned to me, propping his head up by his elbow on the desk.
Holy shit. What was I doing here all day? No wonder Ms. Yin didn't believe me.
"I mean math homework. Ahem… anyway, why are you still here in the classroom today? Your knee still hurts?" I thought I'd seen him playing soccer with a couple of guys on his team in the morning when I came to school.
"It's, um, too hot outside. Come here." He beckoned me over, then turned to unzip his backpack.
After I'd settled into the seat next to him, he took out his portable CD player and gave me an earbud while putting on the other one himself. The cord was too short, so I had to lean toward him a little bit. CD player. That was old-school.
"I was her; She was me. We were one; we were free. And if there's somebody calling me on, she's the one…"
"Robbie Williams?" I asked him.
"You know him? He's my favorite singer." He looked surprised.
"I'm afraid everyone knows him." I didn't listen to British pop music very often, so I didn't know the song's name, but it was quite catchy. Robbie's voice was recognizable, though.
"At least my mom didn't." He turned up the volume a little bit.
"Maybe you should try your dad next time." I mumbled as I took up the CD case from his desk and turned it back to see the tracklist. The song we were listening to was called She's the One.
"I… um, nothing." I hated people doing that.
"You?" I raised my eyebrows, urging him to finish the sentence.
"I grew up with just my mom."
"I'm sorry." Alright. I hated myself more.
"No. It's fine." He tried to turn to me but was restricted by the short cord.
"I was brought up by my mom, too." I didn't know how he felt about growing up with just one parent, but I was literally okay with it.
"Cool." He smiled, "Oh, by the way, I saw you follow Ms. Yin into the office in the morning. Is everything OK?"
"Yup. She thought I cheated on the test because my score was incredibly high." I put down the CD case, and air quoted the last two words. "I know my math is… unsatisfactory, but it doesn't mean I have to suck at every subject."
He chuckled, "No, you didn't cheat. She was being ridiculous."
It was great to have someone backing me up, but why was he so sure about it?
"What if I really did?" I asked him curiously.
"No, you didn't." He repeated, "I'm afraid I know you better than you think I do."
"What?" I couldn't believe what I'd heard.
"I am an observer, believe it or not." He smirked, "I mean, I know a lot. I know you and Lili went to the same kindergarten."
"What the hell? That's creepy." I sat up, my earbud ripped off. "You knew that by observing us? What on earth are you? Fortune teller?"
He burst out laughing and gave the earbud back to me, "Don't be frightened. Lili told me that the other day."
"Fine." I stuffed the earbud back. "I don't know what else you've known. But if one day I wanna know what my great-great-grandpa did for a living, I'll definitely turn to you first."
Then someone pushed the door open. I thought it was Lili. But it turned out to be Mr. Zhang, our dean, who was a balding man in his early forties, I guessed. I'd always thought him amiable with those golden frame glasses on, especially when we said good morning to him in the corridor and he nodded a greeting back while smiling, until we saw him force three students in our grade who skipped a history class to run 5 kilometers, which was more than 12 circuits of the track, in the sun as a punishment till one of them passed out while running. Personally, sunstroke wasn't something frightening, but running as a punishment under everyone's gaze was more than humiliating for me. I'd kill myself if he made me do that.
"Why are you two here? Aren't you supposed to be outside for PE?" He asked seriously while looking around the classroom, probably trying to find out if anyone else was hiding somewhere.
I tugged out the earbud abruptly, almost as a reflex action. Definitely library next time, with Chenhui maybe.
"I hurt my knee. And I thought it'd be boring to stay alone, so I made him stay with me to… to help me with my… math. Sorry."
Chenhui stood up and answered before I made up a good excuse. I thought I better keep silent, so I just nodded in agreement. But it'd be boring? Besides, what were the odds we'd been studying math by listening to a CD? This excuse was almost equal to committing suicide to me.
To my surprise, Mr. Zhang just hissed, "Don't let it happen again!" then slammed the door shut and left. He must've recognized Chenhui, whose soccer team had won quite a few national and provincial matches for our school, so I guessed this was his privilege.
"That was close." Chenhui whispered and made a face at me.
"Help you with your math?"
"Sorry." He laughed. He must've said it on purpose.
(2)
At lunchtime, Chenhui joined me and Lili, as well as Yun, for lunch. Yun was also our classmate. Unlike Lili, a girl with a ponytail, Yun never tied up her shoulder-length hair. To tell the truth, my first impression of her was pretty good. I noticed her for the first time in the classroom on our first day in high school while she was quietly reading the student handbook at her seat. When hair sometimes fell out, she had to tuck it behind her ear again. I still remember the first time I noticed her – she reminded me of an actress from a romantic drama, though I couldn't say exactly who. Maybe it was because she seemed to carry traces of many beautiful girls all at once.
The good impression, however, didn't last so long. In our first English class, the teacher had us break the ice by engaging in free group discussions in English. I was "unfortunately" grouped with Yun. Initially, I thought it would just be some no-brainer small talk like "What's your name?" or "How are you?" So, when Yun asked me what my English name was, I had no idea where this conversation might go. After I told her it was Freddy, her second question was whether I was gay because Freddie Mercury was. That logic was wild. I just told her I used a different way of spelling.
Anyway, we became good friends later, for she and Lili got along really well (If they had both been in a TV drama, Lili would've probably been the sweet, naïve girl who got pushed around by someone like Yun. But real life wasn't like that – or sometimes, it was quite the opposite.) So basically, it was just a love me love my dog thing, I guessed.
At one point, Yun asked me how Chenhui and I became friends since she thought we had nothing in common, which was kind of true, I had to admit. But the question didn't make any sense to me. Why did friends have to have something in common? Or did it have to be that noticeable? Even worse, discussing it to Chenhui's face was more than embarrassing.
"Give me a break, Yun. You and I don't have anything in common, but don't you think we're still good friends?" I protested.
"Come on. That's different! We're opposite sexes! That's just different!" She argued. I didn't see how it was different, but I knew I'd never win a Yun argument. That was just so typical of her. I gave Lili a quick glance, sending out an SOS, but she just pretended that she was so into the noodles she was having and avoided eye contact with me.
"What about… What about you and Lili? Huh? What do you girls have in common then?" I asked Yun, struggling to win her once.
"We both love you. Isn't it obvious?" She answered even without thinking for a second. Then it suddenly dawned on me how predictable my question was.
"We two do have something in common," said Chenhui, which interrupted my argument with Yun. Then he blew onto his soup to cool it down. Was he gonna say anything about single-parent families? That was the only thing I could think of at the moment. I really hoped he wouldn't bring that up without my consent.
"Our names." Then he took up his bowl and ate the soup, leaving Yun and me looking at each other. Lili lowered her head, smiling secretly.
His name, Chenhui, meant the sunlight in the morning.
My name, Yang, meant the sun.
I'd never noticed that.