Trouble

Chapter 1

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

The sound of the alarm going off roused Yao from his sleep. It was the first day of school after the winter break, and Yao wasn't used to waking up early yet. Slowly, he got out of bed trying not fall back to sleep. He got dressed, tied his hair back in the usual ponytail, and went downstairs to eat breakfast. When he walked into the kitchen, he found his brother Kiku making breakfast.

"Hello," Kiku said, as he cracked an egg into a pan.

"Hello," Yao replied as he bent down to grab a wok and some rice so he could prepare lunch for his siblings and himself. Suddenly, Yao felt something, or someone, jump on his back.

"GOOD MORNING ANIKI!"

"AIYAA! YONG SOO, GET OFF OF ME!" Yao yelled at his brother. Yong Soo, a sophomore, was much different from Kiku, a junior. While Kiku was collected, quiet, and polite, Yong Soo was wild, loud, and didn't understand the concept of personal space. When Yong Soo had finally gotten off Yao, they both sat down and Kiku gave them breakfast: white rice, a fried egg, and toast. When he was done eating, Yao got up and finished making the fried rice for lunch. As he was putting the rice into Tupperware containers, Yao's youngest brother, Siu Chun, came into the kitchen, followed by Yao's youngest sibling, Mei. "Good morning," Yao said to them.

"Good morning!" Mei said cheerfully, while Siu Chun just grunted. Mei and Siu Chun were also quite different. Mei, an eighth grader, was sociable and cheerful, but Siu Chun, a freshman, was pessimistic and quite antisocial.

After he was done packing everyone's lunch, he ushered all of his brothers outside to wait for his friend, Alfred, to pick them up for school. He made sure Mei was ok being by herself until her school bus came before closing the door.

Alfred finally got to Yao's house 15 minutes late. "Late as usual," Siu Chun grumbled as they all walked toward the truck.

"Hey guys!" Alfred said as they got in the car.

"I'm beginning to think it's physically impossible for you to be on time. Now drive or we're going to be late," Yao said.

"Relax. I'll get us there on time," Alfred replied. That was another thing about Alfred. Not only was he always late (unless it involved food), he was one of those guys didn't understand the concept of speed limits. Yao wasn't surprised Alfred hadn't gotten himself pulled over yet. However, they arrived to school without getting pulled over and with four minutes to spare.

After homeroom, Yao went to his first class of the day, Business Management. When he entered the classroom, he saw all the other students standing against the wall or chalkboard. We must be getting mew seats, Yao thought to himself. He hoped he got a good seat partner. There were many nice people in his class, such as Eduard, a sophomore, and Tino, a senior. However, there was one person Yao definitely didn't want for a partner, and that was Ivan Braginsky.

Ivan had moved into the school district last year with his older sister, Kalyna, and his younger sister, Natalia. Kalyna was a very nice girl who had graduated last year. Natalia, a sophomore, was just crazy. She was always stalking her brother through the halls and would threaten anyone that got near him. Ivan, however, was just plain scary. Even though he was always smiling, everyone felt like they would die just from being around him. Apparently, before he had moved to Yao's school, he would always get into fights and beat people up. There was even a rumor that Ivan had sent someone to the E.R. Yao knew these were probably just rumors, but he could never be too careful.

Yao snapped out of his day dream when he heard the teacher call his name. "Sorry, what did you say?" Yao asked.

"You'll be sitting next to Ivan," the teacher said.

"Lā shǐ."

Yao could feel every pair of eyes on him as he walked to his new seat. Some of the students looked relived that they didn't have to sit next to Ivan. Other students looked at Yao with pity. Yao walked to his new seat, sat down, and looked straight ahead.

"Hello," Yao heard a sweet, childlike voice say next to him.

"H-hello," Yao answered. It was best not to make Ivan mad by completely ignoring him. Luckily, Yao got through the rest of the class without having to speak to Ivan. However, as he was walking down the steps to his next class, Yao realized Ivan was going the same way as him. This wouldn't have bothered Yao too much normally, but this was the first time it was happening this entire year. Unless Ivan's schedule changed or his class was in a different room that day, there was no reason Ivan would be going a different way.

Yao decided to stop worrying about it when he got to his class, art. When he sat down, Feliciano, a junior in his class, immediately started talking to him. "I heard that you have to sit next to that scary Russian guy in one of your classes now," Feliciano said.

So people have started to talk about is already, Yao thought. Rumors always spread quickly in his school. "Yes," Yao said.

"I feel bad for you! He's so scary!"

Yao sighed. "I know, but there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to deal with it until the teacher decides to change seats again," he said as he turned back to his art project. The theme for this project was to paint something mysterious, and Yao was having a terrible case of artist's block. By the end of the period, he still had no ideas.

At his next class, gym, he met with Alfred again, and no surprise, he brought up Ivan.

"Yeah, that guy is really weird," Alfred said. "He's in my strength and conditioning class and computer apps class. Most people will find someone hang out with but he just sits in the back all by himself."

That was actually kind of depressing to Yao. It must be horrible not having anyone to talk to. However, as depressing as that was, Yao wasn't going to make an attempt to talk to Ivan anytime soon. Ivan had a reputation, and Yao wasn't taking any chances.

After gym, Yao went to AP Government and Economics. As he was walking to the classroom, he noticed a tall figure at the other end of the hallway walking opposite of him. A very familiar tall figure. A tall figure who just so happened to sit next to him in Business Management.

Yao kept his eyes down and didn't look at Ivan. Luckily, he got past without Ivan noticing him and got to hiss class safe and sound.

AP Gov was rather uneventful, as Yao was taking a test. In his next class, Profoods, Francis, a senior, one of his kitchen partners started bringing up Ivan. "Don't do anything to make him mad mon ami," Francis warned.

"I know, I know!" Yao was getting tired of everyone warning him about Ivan. Yao know how to act and had good people skills.

English was also quite uneventful, besides receiving warnings and pity from Tino and… well, that boy Yao couldn't remember the name of.

Yao was hungry now (they hadn't cooked that day in profoods) and he was relieved he had lunch next, although he would probably receive more annoying pity and warnings.

When he got to the cafeteria, he found his normal table where he sat with Kiku, Francis, and Arthur. Arthur, a junior, was still in line getting lunch, so Yao chatted with Francis and Kiku. Nothing was brought up about Ivan, as Kiku wasn't much of a gossiper. However, this peace was short lived because Arthur joined them.

"So, I heard about you and Ivan."

This was getting ridiculous.

"Aiyaa, people are making too big of a deal out of this. It's not like we're going out out or anything!"

"I should hope not!" Arthur said. "Be careful around him."

"Ok, first of all, I only sit next to him in one class. Second, I have people skills. Third, if he did try to hurt me, I'm pretty sure I could defend myself." Yao had studied Wushu since he was little. Yao know that is anyone tried to hurt him, he could defend himself.

"Well, even if you can defend yourself, be careful," Arthur said. "That boy is trouble."