Our Winter

Xiao Mei

"Xiao Mei"
...
"Xiao Mei!"
...
"IS XIAO MEI HERE OR NOT?"
"I'm here."
"IF YOU ARE THEN RESPOND. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK AND ITS ONLY WEDNESDAY. I WILL NOT ACCEPT YOU DOZING OFF LIKE THIS DURING HOMEROOM AND EITHER-"

The bell rang cutting off the loud lecture coming from the front. The middle aged man sat down and took a deep breath before waving his hand, the students instantly began racing to the exit. Xiao Mei walked slowly as ever, and heard a string of murmured complaints coming from her teacher on the way. Not that she cared. Stepping outside, she noticed that the sky was sunny; there were no clouds and it was a beautiful day, so it was most unfortunate that her first two hours in school would be spent cooped up in a chemistry lab. Mei walked past the other classes, paying no attention. She was more focused on remembering what the lunch menu was. Completely lost in thought, Xiao Mei did not notice that her friend had been right next to her for a whole minute, staring at her. To Mei, it was a complete shock to feel a knock to her head. Turning to her right, she found a girl with a frown on her face, and her arms crossed.

"What were you thinking about so hard that you didn't notice the person you were waiting for was standing here for the past minute?"
"Who said I was waiting for you?" She replied, not looking up and starting to walk.
"Oh stop lying Mei Mei, you don't have to deny it. Anyway how have the first two days been? What did I miss?"
"Nothing really... Except the fact that Lin Weiyi and Zhang Xiaoshu got into a fistfight in the cafeteria yesterday." She said, earning a dropped jaw from her friend.
"And the milk tea store had a 75% discount on Monday." She said, a smile growing on her face. Her friend wiped a fake tear from her face.
"Xiao Mei, you are SO lucky your grandma lives in the same city and not in Suyang. The old woman thought we were leaving too early and made stay an extra three days." She said, before tripping over her own foot somehow. Mei chuckled. Still so clumsy, she thought to herself.

Finally arriving at the chemistry lab, the pair sat down at the last table left, in front of a group of... interesting boys. Mei already knew two of them, Lin Weiyi, and Zhang Xiaoshu, from the fistfight yesterday. The third boy was a transfer student she'd heard, and the last one, she didn't know. Weiyi and Xiaoshu were laughing and lightly hitting each other, a contrast from their interaction yesterday, while the transfer student chuckled along. The other kid was reading a book. He looked pretty... good, but not wanting to stare, Mei looked away, only to catch sight of her two other friends walking in.

"AHHHH SIWEN YOURE BACK! I missed you so much!" Siwen got up from next to Mei and hugged the two new girls.

"Hi Miaoyi, I missed you too"
"What about me?" Asked a third voice.
"Of course how could I forget my favourite daughter! I missed you too Jia!"
"Where's my mom?" Asked Jia, smiling when she noticed Mei looking at them, trying not to laugh. Before they could get on with their classic family joke, the teacher walked in. Mei smiled as Jia walked over and sat on the chair to her left. Jia was the youngest in their group, and was bumped up a grade in primary school so she was the only 15 year old in their class. Mei was the oldest. Siwen and Miaoyi were a month apart while Mei was atleast 5 months older than all of them. Although Jia was the youngest she certainly didn't act like it. This was the exact thought that came to her mind when she saw her whisper to Siwen about asking out the transfer student. Before her trail of thought could continue, Mei heard the teacher's voice loud and clear. She thought he was quite intimidating. So did everyone else apparently because the quiet chattering disappeared instantly.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Xu Jinxing. You can call me Mr. Xu. I'm going to be your new chemistry teacher this year, and let me set some ground rules. Number one, I HATE when people talk over me. I don't want to find a single one of you talking when I am, and if I do... anyway. Number 2, this you should already know but clearly the young man in the last row doesn't care. NO FOOD IN THE LAB. So I'll expect you to hand over your crackers when I'm done talking. Number three, I expect every single one of you to be disciplined. No late hand ins, no incomplete submissions, and no complaints over my choice of assigned teams. Now I want you all to know, if you are good to me, I can be very good to you. Disrespect me and my rules, and you don't want to know what I can be."

There was a silence that hung there. The boy at the back was the first one to break it, getting up and handing over his newly opened pack of crackers and mumbling a quick sorry to the front.

"Good. I see you all are very serious and I'm glad you've chosen this course. You know that in 3 years from now, your class will graduate, so you should make the effort to be serious about your studies. Lucky for you, I'm willing to help. For starters, I've prepared a short test." He said, grabbing a huge pile of papers from the front. "You have one hour. NO cheating, if I catch anyone..." he said and started handing out papers. Time flied as Mei answered each question carefully. Science was her strong suit, and in no time she was done. Mei went through her answers again, most of them seemed right. She raised her hand but heard someone get up from behind her. It was the new kid. He walked to the front and put the paper on Mr. Xu's table. Mei slowly lowered her hand and followed suit. There were ten minutes left, and her friends were still solving the paper. Jia seemed pretty okay, though she seemed slowed down by random hand cramps that came from the speedy writing. Siwen and Miaoyi, not so much. Siwen hated chemistry, so it was no surprise that half her paper was blank, and her forehead was scrunched tightly. Miaoyi did well in the sciences, but she was away for a long time over winter break so it wasn't shocking that she was trying to jog her memory by scratching her head with a pen.

Lost in thought, Mei didn't realise how long it had been until she heard mr Xu clap and go "times up. Everyone hand out your papers to the front." She heard shuffling as the rest of the class scrambled to the front. Mei looked behind and saw the boy reading again. He looked up to get a drink of water and noticed she was looking at him. Now that Mei could actually see him, she found that he was really... handsome. His hair fell in front of his eyes and he had heart shaped lips. She'd always wanted those but hers were full and round instead. Mei noticed he'd shot  her a weirded out look and she spun to the front. Only to be met by Jia staring right at her. "What are you staring at?" She asked cockily. "N-nothing. Uh how'd you do?" She asked looking anywhere but at her friend. "Good but no, don't change the question." Jia said, taking her seat. "It's just he finished before me and I was curious so... yeah." She said, knowing it was only half true. Jia didn't seem to buy it but nodded anyway. The other two girls soon joined them, but before long, they heard their teachers voice again.

"Quiet down. I'm going to take attendance and announce the pairs for an upcoming project. I'll let you know the details later." He said. Mr Xu walked up to the front and opened up the register. One by one, names went on and on. Mei listened carefully for one. Not her own but the boy's.

"Xiao Mei" Mei jerked and realised she was being called on. "Here." She answered quickly.
"Xu Minghao" Mei looked out of the corner of her eye. The boy behind her raised his hand. Mei heard a calm "here" as she smiled. Xu Minghao. Mei turned her focus to Mr Xu as he started saying something else. "Now I'll announce all your pairs. This was randomised so your pair is final. You will need to work with this pair for a minimum of three months."

There were instant murmurs as everyone began anticipating their partner. Mei silently hoped she would get paired with one of her friends.

One by one, the teacher listed out pairs. Mei paid close attention to her name, but when she heard it, she unintentionally said "what?"

"I'll repeat one last time. Xiao Mei and Xu Minghao."

A/N:
hi! I'm so glad you read this story and I hope you enjoyed it. This is my first book so I apologise if it's not too great — I'm learning everyday from other talented authors. Even so, I hope it was good enough for you guys to anticipate the next part. If you have any feedback or comments, please leave them so I can incorporate it into my writing. Thanks so much and have a great day/night! - lucky charm 🐚