The Love Score || Zhuo Zhi

5: I Wish I was Living in a Story

"Are we going to look for the cheerleading sign-up sheets?" I asked, walking beside a delighted Ai Qi.

Ai Qi shook her head. "I'm acquainted with the presidents of the cheerleading team, let's go find them instead!"

"What? Why?!" I stopped in my tracks. "Wouldn't we be troubling them?" I felt my throat go dry for a second, knowing that I wasn't so ready to begin meeting new people that soon. What if I embarrass myself, and they won't like me?

Stop overthinking, Yue En!! This is the reason why you can never make friends, darn it. 

Ai Qi put her arm over my shoulders. "The presidents are super friendly, they'll welcome you alright. Just take this as an opportunity to meet more people, hm?"

"Mm," I sighed, nodding. Thank the heavens that I had Ai Qi as a friend, or I might have just become an introverted hermit in a couple of weeks. We began walking up the flight of stone stairs towards the classrooms. The stone stairs were so tall that it felt like I was walking up the stairs to an ancient palace. This school was pretty much the scene for a Chinese drama.

"So, you just arrived in China yesterday?" Ai Qi clarified. "Then you must be pretty exhausted,"

"Exhausted, yes," I agreed. "But not really from the flight. Today's lessons really drained my brain energy,"

"Are you adjusting well?" Ai Qi asked in concern.

"A little more so," I said, admitting, "I still have yet to get used to everyone using Mandarin to talk wherever I go,"

"Your Mandarin? You're already sounding so fluent, you shouldn't have a problem with it!" Ai Qi pointed out, as we made our way across the courtyard. There were still bunches of students lingering around, sitting on benches, leaning against the trees, in their own little conversations.

"I can still converse in Mandarin pretty decently, in my opinion," I said, "But its the lessons that I cannot fully understand. I think what I'm currently learning is quite similar to what I learnt in my previous school, but everything is taught in Chinese now... especially the maths and sciences, they have so many different names and terms it's difficult to translate..." I sighed, wondering how I could ever get used to the lessons here. It would be tough if I did start falling behind in class.

"I'll help you with your work, if you have problems understanding," Ai Qi offered. "I love the maths and sciences, although I cannot say that I do well in them either," Ai Qi paused, in a moment of thought. Then she added, "But you need to help me with my English in return."

"Deal!" I beamed. We continued to walk towards the building with the classrooms. Then, I recalled the moment when Ai Qi was fangirling over Si Yang, and I nudged her. "So, Si Yang?" I giggled, partly curious in the situation.

"Ugh, it's not really anything," Ai Qi smiled wistfully. "Just a stupid crush, I doubt that Si Yang will ever notice my existence, let alone be interested in me,"

"Don't give up hope so easily," I said. "You know how stories have that one main character that always gets the guy in the end, no matter what..."

"Then I wish I was living in a story!" Ai Qi exclaimed. "Si Yang is just an idol in our school, and the sad thing is, I'm probably just another one of his 'fans'." Ai Qi shrugged. "I'm not going to act delusional, and pretend that one day fate will really bring us together. I've already accepted it that way, anyway."

"Aw," I frowned, feeling a little sad for Ai Qi. She really was such a sweet girl, but she knew the difference between reality and dreams, unlike a lot of other girls. "Ai Qi, you'll find someone else better in the future, don't get so hung up on Si Yang,"

Si Yang is such a heartbreaker. I need to find out how I can scold him to tune his charm down so he would stop breaking so many girls' hearts.

"Mhm," Ai Qi nodded halfheartedly. I noticed that she had led me to the second level only, where the Year Ones' classrooms were.

"The presidents are our juniors?" I questioned, shocked. "I was expecting to go up to the Year Three's level!"

"Qi Ying and Peng Xiang were the ones who created the cheerleading team in the first place," Ai Qi explained, grabbing my arm and leading me into a classroom. There were only two girls in the classroom, and they were both sharing a desk, designing something. The shorter girl had her light brown hair down, and it just touched her shoulders. You could see the ghost of her smile etched on her expression, how she was so deep in thought as she drafted out the details of her artwork on her paper like she was thinking of somebody special as she worked. The taller girl opposite had darker hair that only the top half of it was tied, and her doe-like eyes were concentrated as she coloured in the details on the design. 

"Qi Ying! Peng Xiang!" Ai Qi called out. The two girls immediately stopped their work, and when their eyes met ours, smiles broke out on their faces. The taller girl waved, "Hi, Senior Ai Qi! Who is that beside you?"

"This is my friend, Yue En," Ai Qi introduced. "She wants to join the cheerleading club, is that okay?"

The taller girl's face immediately brightened. "Yes, of course! Hi Yue En, I'll go grab a sign-up sheet from my bag right now..." she turned away to rummage through her bookbag.

"I'm Qi Ying," the shorter girl greeted. She was quite small for her size, maybe one or two inches smaller than my own height. "And she's Peng Xiang. Are you new here? I don't think I have seen you around before,"

The two girls seemed friendly, so I relaxed my tensed shoulders. "Yeah, I'd just transferred to Yu Qing, and today was my first day,"

"She can dance!" Ai Qi added, while I hurriedly shushed her.

Qi Ying said, "That's great, because our team is mostly about having enough stamina to cheer on the tennis team, we could really use more people like you."

"Yeah, it can get pretty exhausting when you're trying to pass on your motivational spirit to others," Peng Xiang said, then handed out the sheet to me. "I hope you're strong enough to withstand that?" she said, smirking.

"Is that a challenge?" I grinned, already liking the girls. "I guess you guys will find out on the day of the competition itself!" I took the sign-up sheet from Peng Xiang and borrowed a pen from Qi Ying, beginning to fill out my details. 

"I like this friend of yours, Senior," Qi Ying laughed, telling Ai Qi.

"Am I interrupting?"

A deeper, masculine voice sounded from the doorway. The four of us looked towards the speaker. I gasped.

The student who had entered wore the main tennis team's blue uniform.  His left hand held his tennis racket while his right hand was slotted in his pocket. He was wearing a white cap with a boxed letter 'L' on the front, and his tennis wristband was similarly white with the same design on it. His expressions were blank and emotionless, his eyes shaded by his cap, but nonetheless still carried that 'I can't care' look on his face. A familiar face that I haven't seen in months. What was he doing here?

"Lu Xia!" I exclaimed, shocked. "Is that really you?"

I had heard his stories and feats from Si Yang as well, but I had only thought it was just coincidental that their names matched. No... is it really him?

The student lifted his head. His bored expression immediately morphed into one of utter surprise, as if he couldn't believe his sight either.

"S... Senior Yue En?"

☆ ☆ ☆

I might have made Ai Qi sound a little annoying in the previous chapter, and I'm hoping that this can compensate up for her. (Honestly, I can relate way too much to Ai Qi's sad love story.) How do Yue En and Lu Xia know each other?

Help me out by voting for this chapter if you liked it?

~ Snowy ♡