Wizard of Oz || Zuo Hang✓

Seven

Zuo knew that being a popular girl didn't necessarily mean she was happy, but he was afraid Yanni was more unhappy than the typical popular girl. Deep down he knew that the same bullied and scared girl was still in there somewhere, but maybe nothing about her had even changed.

But there were other things on Zuo's mind too, they were having group presentations that day. He knew all the content, he was sure of it, but he still went over it several times so that he could be completely sure of what he was going to say.

'1892,' Zuo repeated the year that was on the white paper he was reading.

'Enough,' one of his groupmates teased, a boy who sat somewhere in the middle and was known for making noise in class. 'I'm sure you've got it. You've probably memorized every single thing on that paper.'

'Yeah he's smart enough.' Vicky commented proudly as another one of his groupmates.

Zuo flashed her a small smile then continued to read what was on his paper.

Vicky continued to watch him with a smile. What Zuo didn't know was that Vicky loved him. She felt feelings for him which she had never felt for anyone else. Zuo was the only guy she got along with, in fact the only person in school whom she got along with. She loved everything about him. She loved how smart he was, how kind he was and how handsome he was.

'Ehem,' one of the groupmates cleared his throat and looked at Vicky.

She quickly adjusted her glasses and looked away, while Zuo looked away from the paper to understand what was going on. But he didn't notice anything peculiar, so he got back to his paper.

Zhixin was sitting on Yanni's desk while she sat on the seat, and Xinhao was in his usual spot next to Yanni. The three of them were talking and laughing, it was definitely not an intellectual discussion. Even though they had their presentations the next day, Yanni's group with Xinhao and Zhixin had not written anything.

The teacher came in a moment later, making Zhixin get off Yanni's desk and walk over to his seat. He had a bored expression, proving he didn't feel like learning that day. He never really felt like learning any other day too, so that wasn't unusual.

'Alright,' the female teacher said once the class had quieted down. 'Like we agreed last time, we are going to start the presentations with the first 2 groups. So I hope the first group is ready?' she turned to Zuo, whom she knew was somewhat an informal group leader. He nodded. 'Okay let's start now with group 1.'

The three members of group 1 got off their desks and walked to the front. Zuo knew that he knew everything, and he was very confident. He looked from his paper then to the front. He felt a bit frozen when he noticed Yanni looking at him. He swallowed hard. Of course she had to be looking at him, he was presenting.

He suddenly started to feel more nervous and a bit shaky, as if he was being evaluated by someone very important. Perhaps he felt that way because Yanni was very important to him. For some reason, he could tell that she was looking at him with interest, not because she had to because he was presenting.

Zuo hadn't realized that about a minute had passed without him saying anything, even though he was supposed to be the one to start the presentation.

The third groupmate hit Zuo's arm stealthily. 'Come on dude, have you forgotten.'

'No,' Zuo immediately answered. 'We are going to present on The Maravi Kingdom.' He said loudly in a shaky voice. Most of the students were surprised since Zuo was always very confident in presentations, so this was very new.

Yanni didn't know that it was because of her.