Chapter One

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, just a fan of The Karate Kid.

I had always liked Cheng. Even though I knew he was a bad guy. The way he treated my brother was the proof of that. Cheng didn't like foreigners. My twin brother Dre and I were American, and a different race to him, but there were lots of students at school who were also foreigners. Yet Cheng only tormented Dre. He hated my brother, because Dre had gotten friendly with Mei Ying, a girl who Cheng liked. It started out with one small fight between the two of them, but then it just got worse. Cheng started to bully my brother, with the help of his friends. He was miserable, but he refused to tell our mom about it and he had made me promise not to tell her either. Besides, if he had told, I doubt Cheng and his group of friends would even get in much trouble. Cheng's father was on the board of school governors. And I was sure the bullying would get much worse if Dre told the truth.

I had thought about it a lot, and decided I would have to talk to Cheng. It was a long shot, but I hoped I could persuade him to stop hurting my brother. Usually he was surrounded by his friends, and I did not want to be humiliated in front of them. I had found out that Cheng had a detention so that afternoon after school, I lied and told Dre I was going to study at the library. We usually walked to and from school together, and he seemed reluctant to leave school without me. I felt bad, as whenever I was with him outside of school Cheng and his gang of friends never hassled him. I knew he was worried that if I wasn't there, he would have trouble getting home. Still, I was determined to follow through with my plan. I waited patiently in the school courtyard for an hour, until finally I saw Cheng appear. He was just as cute as ever, despite his mean nature. I bit my lip, a nervous habit of mine, before I took a deep breath and walked over to him.

"Hi, Cheng..."

I waited for him to reply but he did not even bother to acknowledge my greeting. He looked straight through me coldly and kept walking, pushing past me as if I was not even there. It stung, but I was determined not to give up until we had at least talked. So I chased after him, grabbing hold of his arm. "Cheng, please just listen to me," I pleaded. "What I have to say, it won't take long."

Cheng yanked his arm free of my hold, and scowled at me as he raised his hand quickly, like he was about to strike me. I flinched, and he laughed cruelly. "Don't be stupid, Parker. I don't hit girls, even annoying ones like you. Now, what do you want?"

"I...I just want you to leave my brother alone. Maybe we can make some sort of trade. I heard you were failing Math, and I can tutor you-"

Cheng put his hand over my mouth, his eyes flashing with anger and shame all of a sudden. "Shut up!" He exclaimed rudely. "I'm not failing Math. If that's the best offer you can come up with, it's pathetic and we're done talking here," He took his hand away from my face and smirked at me. "So you had better run along home, Parker."

"No! I'm not going anywhere. There must be something I can do for you..." I stared at him intently. "I'll do anything," I promised, in desperation. It was a stupid thing to say, but I did not want to fail. I wanted to help my brother be happy again.

Cheng smiled at me, and even though it was a malicious smile, I was still charmed by it. He had never smiled at me before, or shown any form of interest in me. Yet now he was looking at me thoughtfully. I knew he was just conjuring up a horrid idea in his devious mind, but at that moment I did not care. "So, Parker...I've decided what I'm going to do with you. You will have the honour of becoming my girlfriend."

"What?!" I exclaimed, my eyes widening in shock. "Why..." My surprise died away all of a sudden and the next words out of my mouth were bitter as I realized his motive. "You want to upset my brother by dating me and you want to make Mei Ying feel jealous." Life was cruel. I would have to pretend to like Cheng, while hiding the fact that I really did have a crush on him. All the while he would still hate me.

Cheng lost his smile, his deep brown eyes void of warmth. "You think you're smart, don't you? Ok, yes. I admit. I do want to annoy your brother, but I can't believe you could think Mei Ying would ever be jealous of you. You're nothing special, Parker..." He hesitated, a frown crossing his face, and then he shrugged. "You're ok to look at, so that's what counts. I can't be seen dating an ugly girl."

He was so casual with his callous dismissal of me. He probably did not realize how much he was hurting me, but I knew he would not care even if he knew. "Right, ok. Well, I'm gonna go home now...?"

"No, you're not going home yet. We have to talk about the rules. So I'll take you out to eat, and then you will go home." Cheng took hold of my hand, interlacing our fingers. "Come on, let's go..." He ordered, tugging on my hand as he started walking.

I followed him, feeling warm inside as I looked down at our joined hands. His hand was warm to the touch, and larger than my own. "Wait, what rules?" I asked.

"I'll explain after we eat, just be quiet for now," Cheng replied sternly.

I wanted to protest but I did not want him to change his mind. So I remained silent the rest of the way to a nearby street market, just enjoying holding his hand. Cheng ordered food for the both of us from a food stall selling shāokǎo. I offered to help pay for the food but he just frowned at me and refused to take any money. We both sat down on some stools near the food stall and ate. The food was delicious, and it was not long before we both finished eating. "Okay, so what rules are there?"

"Rule No. 1, I want you to be obedient to me. You listen to what I say, and follow my lead. Rule No. 2, you should always be available to me. I take priority over your friends. ..." He shrugged. "That's it for now. I might add more rules later," He pulled out his phone and before I realized what was going on, he had snapped a photo of me with a bright flash.

"Hey, why did you do that?" I frowned at him, aware that it was not going to be a nice photo. "

"Haha, you look so surprised..." Cheng handed me his phone. "Put your number in, xiǎo māomī."

"Xiǎo māomī?" I repeated unsurely in my horribly amateur, clearly not native Mandarin as I typed my number in. "What does that mean?"

Cheng smirked at me as he snatched his phone back. "Don't worry about it. Now give me your phone, I'll put my number in."

"Alright..." I bit my lip, quickly taking a photo of him. "There you go."

"You know I'm deleting this photo, don't you?" He glared at me. "You didn't ask me first. If you keep breaking the rules, I'll have to punish you."

He took such a long time typing in his phone number that I grew suspicious and pulled my phone out of his grasp. I gasped in shock when I saw he was on my Facebook app. "What did you do, Cheng?!" I exclaimed, checking out two new notifications. I was now friends with Cheng on Facebook, and it was also stated on my news feed that I was now in a relationship with him. "Everyone will know now. When we haven't even gone on a date yet! What am I gonna say to Dre, to my friends?"

Cheng seemed amused. "You knew this would happen eventually. I just made it happen faster than you expected, that's all."

"I hate you," I stated firmly, although I did not mean it. He was being really irritating, but I could never hate him. "I want to go home now."

"Ok, I'll walk you home." Cheng held out his hand. "Let's go, Andrea."

I smiled brightly as I took hold of his hand. "You said my name..." He had never called me by my name before in the month I had known him.

Cheng looked at me strangely. "Of course I did. You're my girlfriend now. I can't keep calling you Parker anymore."

"Oh, I guess so..." I sighed, being reminded that he was just calling me by name for appearance's sake. When we got to my apartment complex I let go of his hand. "Goodbye, Cheng."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Cheng replied, giving me a lazy half smile before pulling me into a quick embrace. He had a nice, fresh soap scent with a musky undertone. I liked being held in his arms, although unfortunately it did not last long. "Goodbye, xiǎo māomī." He turned and walked away, and I watched him until he disappeared from my sight. As I took the elevator up to my apartment I was thinking about what had happened. It was a lot for me to take in. My biggest worry was thinking about my brother's reaction. I felt horrible for my choice in agreeing to be with his bully. And another worry for me was that nobody really noticed me at school, which I liked. I was very different from my twin. He was loud, outspoken and confident. I was quiet, timid and an introvert. However, now that I was fake dating Cheng, who was popular, I would start being noticed. I knew I had brought it on myself, however. Nobody had forced me to pretend to be with Cheng.

When I unlocked the door to my apartment I noticed my mom, Sherry, was busy preparing dinner in our kitchenette. Dre was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed he was in the bedroom we shared. "Hey, mom, what's for dinner?" I asked, walking over to her and wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Hey, baby girl. I'm making some mac'n'cheese. Listen, I don't want you to stay out so late," Mom gave me a stern look before giving me a kiss on the cheek. "I know you love to study, but it's not safe for you to be out late at night."

"Mom, it's only 7pm," I protested. "It's not even dark outside yet. Plus I always carry my flashlight and alarm like you want me to, and I stay in crowded areas, so I'm pretty safe."

"Andrea Grace Parker..." My mom's tone had turned dangerous. It was never good when she used my full name. "I don't want to have to have a discussion about this again. Next time you're gonna get grounded. Or maybe I'll take your phone away. Who knows what I'll do if you push me to that level?"

"Okay, mom. I'm sorry," I replied hastily. "I won't do it again."

"Good." My mom smiled at me. "I'll holler when the food is ready."

I went to the room I shared with Dre, hoping that by some miracle he had not checked his Facebook. He was sitting on his bed, listening to music on his iPod. When he saw me, he scowled, and then turned so he was facing the wall. I slipped off my shoes, and then I climbed onto his bed. "Dre, please don't be mad at me." I said loudly, shaking his shoulder gently to get his attention.

He ignored me, turning up the volume even louder. I lost patience and yanked out his earphones. "Dre, come on. At least talk to me..."

"You want me to talk to you? After what you did to me?" He snapped. "You're a traitor. I can't believe my own twin would do something like this to me. It's disgusting and I hate you."

His words made me feel like he was taking a pair of scissors and jabbing it into my heart. We had been together since birth, and we were close twins, rarely arguing in all our years on the Earth. "You don't mean that, Dre..." I attempted to hug him, but he pushed me away so hard I fell off the bed.

Dre looked concerned for a few moments, then his expression turned hard once he was reassured I was not hurt. "I do mean it, Andrea. Don't talk to me at school or when we're alone together."

I felt like I was being a terrible sister but I was still determined to follow through with the choice I had made. I told myself I was just trying to make the bullying stop for Dre, but I knew it was not the only reason I had agreed to be Cheng's girlfriend. I went to sit on my own bed and picked up my copy of Pride and Prejudice. I had read up to Chapter Eight before mom called us for dinner. Dre was nice to me during dinner, but I knew it was a front so as not to upset our mom. I went to bed early after completing all my current homework assignments. I got a text from Cheng that simply read 'Goodnight' with a cat face emoji. I sent him a text back also saying Goodnight with a simple smiley face emoji. I had thought about sending a heart emoji but then decided it was just weird. After all, we were not in a real relationship and we would never be in one. So I had to make sure I did not get wrapped up in him so much that I forget we were just playing pretend. I would never be with Cheng for real, and my twin despised me. With these depressing thoughts, I fell into sleep, hoping tomorrow would be a better day.

Thanks for reading :)