Previously...
"Whatever he's saying, he's lying!" Dre interrupted sharply, pointing an accusing finger at him again. Cheng mentally rolled his eyes at that; what if he had actually taken the blame? The stupid American wouldn't even realize he was denying the truth until it was too late. What an idiot.
"Mr. Parker, go. Mr. Cheng, go," Mrs. Po said sternly, pushing the two in opposite directions. Smirking triumphantly, Cheng sauntered back to his table as Dre stormed out of the cafeteria, yelling, "I hate this place!"
"Nicely done," Jiayi remarked when the three returned to the table. "Unfortunately, I think Meiying saw."
At that, Cheng tensed, and his eyes flickered to the door. Sure enough, Meiying stood in the doorway, her sad eyes turning angry when they made contact with his; with a huff, she turned and stormed out of the cafeteria.
With a groan, Cheng turned back to his table, banging his head down onto the table. Jiayi reached over patted his shoulder sympathetically.
Chapter 4: Hallway Confrontation
"No way."
"Yes way."
"You're a liar."
"Please, Cheng, why would I lie when I can brag?"
"She's got a point there. Bragging is what Jiayi does best."
"Aw, Liang, you flatter me."
Cheng crossed his arms stubbornly, leaning back in his seat. "I still don't believe you improved your record of picking locks by a whole half minute."
He, Jiayi, Liang, and Qing were currently in English class, which was currently headed by a substitute for their sick teacher. Huddled in the back corner, Cheng and Jiayi had spent the past ten minutes of class making quiet conversation with Qing and Liang, who sat directly in front of them, occasionally turning around to add their own comments.
"Then time me," Jiayi stated, smiling smugly. "After school, at Qing's house or something—"
"Don't I get any say in this?" Qing sighed exasperatedly.
Jiayi carried on as if he'd never interrupted. "If I win, you take me to the Qi Xi Festival and buy me whatever food and treats I want."
"Fine," Cheng snapped without thinking the proposition through, as he usually did when he made bets. "If I win, then you're buying me whatever food and treats I want at the Qi Xi Festival."
"You're on," Jiayi sneered, a large grin on her face as she shook Cheng's hand firmly. Just then, with perfect timing, the lunch bell rang, signaling for their grade to break for lunch. Immediately, the class emptied and a crowd of students flooded the courtyard for their hour-long lunch period.
"Finally," Cheng sighed, shoving his things into his bag.
"Why the rush?" Jiayi laughed, taking her time in gathering her stuff. Leaving her bag on her desk like the others, she grinned teasingly as they headed out the door. "Excited to see Meiying?"
Liang chuckled while Qing and Jiayi cheekily made kissy faces at Cheng, who reddened and swatted at the two of them. They dodged nimbly, still laughing.
"Shut up, you guys," Cheng grumbled, annoyed, but a comfortable smile claimed his face anyway.
Entering the cafeteria, Jiayi skipped over to the line and took one look at the day's menu before she suddenly jumped back with a small squeak, a definite green tinge on her face. "All of a sudden, I've lost my appetite."
Cheng, Liang, and Qing peeked at the menu—lo mein noodles.
"Are you still freaked out over that incident with your cousin?" Qing chortled.
"You would too if you realized the noodles you just ate were still squirming in your mouth!" Jiayi retorted, turning greener. She shuddered at the thought. "I think I'll skip lunch today. Maybe I'll go watch Meiying practice." Suddenly, she laughed. "Wow, that sounded like something Cheng would say."
"Will you shut up already?" Cheng snapped, shaking his head exasperatedly. Jiayi shrugged.
"Either way, I'm definitely not sticking around for lunch," she said, slinking off towards the other exit. "See you guys later!"
"You two hungry?" Cheng asked, glancing at his two friends. Both shook their heads.
"Not after Jiayi reminded us of Mengyao's prank," Qing said, shuddering like Jiayi had. Liang nodded in agreement.
"Do you guys want to see if we can get our math tests back early?" he asked.
Qing's face lit up. "Yeah! I bet if I asked, Miss Li would definitely give us our tests!" His face grew smug. "You know how the teachers can't resist my pretty face."
"You mean babyish face?" Cheng teased. Qing pouted adorably, leading the other two to burst out laughing as they left the cafeteria and headed towards the stairs. Still poking fun at Qing's childishly cute face, they jogged up the stairs and turned into the first classroom on their right.
At the teacher's desk, Miss Li, the youngest teacher currently teaching at Beijing High School, looked up when the three boys walked in. Immediately, Qing switched on his charm. Widening his eyes with a childish glee, he bounced over to her desk.
"Hi Miss Li!" he chirped, his grin threatening to split his face in two. "We were wondering if you were done grading our math tests yet."
Like almost everyone in Beijing High School, Miss Li couldn't resist Qing's charm. She smiled. "As a matter of fact, I am. Would you three like them back?"
They nodded; Liang and Cheng rolled their eyes in unison as Qing turned to give them a triumphant grin as Miss Li turned away to pull out a manila folder. She rifled through it before extracting three papers.
"Cheng, Liang, Qing," she murmured, handing them out to each person respectively. A bright red ninety-eight was scrawled atop Cheng and Qing's papers while a bright hundred was displayed on Liang's. "Nicely done, you three. Top of the class again, Liang."
Liang positively beamed while Cheng and Qing just nodded approvingly at their test scores.
"Can we have Jiayi's test to give to her?" Cheng then asked, rolling up his test into a tube.
Miss Li hesitated. Normally, she would never trust a student's test with another student, but even she knew of the tight bonds between Cheng and his unique little pack of friends. Smiling softly, she nodded, pulling out Jiayi's test as well. "Take care of it, Cheng. I normally wouldn't allow this."
"No worries, ma'am," he replied politely, accepting his best friend's test. Absentmindedly, he noted how she had scored a point better than him and Qing with her grade of ninety-nine.
"Thanks Miss Li," they chorused, waving as they left her classroom.
"Top of the class again, eh, Liang?" Qing teased as they headed for the stairs to return to the cafeteria.
Liang shrugged, looking both smug and proud. "Naturally. You guys came pretty close though."
"Jiayi came closer," Cheng replied, waving his friend's test.
"I came closer to what?" an amused voice said just as they reached the top of the stairs. Standing at the top steps was Jiayi, grinning impishly, which to be fair was her usual expression anyways.
"You almost matched Liang," Cheng told her, handing out her math test. Her face lit up at the ninety-nine written in the corner.
"Awesome," she exclaimed appreciatively, taking her test in her hands. She skimmed it over once, locating the one area she lost points in, before looking up. "By the way, I just came from the auditorium. Meiying's pretty good at her song now, but I can totally understand her tutor when he says she's missing something in the music."
"Oh?" Liang asked, raising his eyebrows. "Like what?"
"Focus," Jiayi said, her signature smile disappearing for a brief second as she sighed. "Guess who barged into the auditorium in the middle of her practice?"
"Other than you?" Cheng snorted.
"Well, at least I knew not to disrupt her practice," Jiayi protested. "But the moment the tutor walked away to call Meiying's parents to schedule a weekend session, Parker just—"
"Parker again?" Cheng exclaimed, cheeks flushing in anger. Immediately, he started stalking down the stairs with his friends trailing behind. "He's even hindering her practice now?"
"Yeah, he grabs the microphone and sputters out some gibberish that apparently was supposed to be Chinese," Jiayi said, rolling her eyes.
"You've got to admit, this kid's got nerves," Qing quipped.
"Yeah," Liang agreed quietly. "This is the third time he's crossed us. Maybe we ought to intimidate him some more?"
They all laughed at that and, reaching the bottom of the staircase, turned into the corridor. Immediately, they slowed to a stop, having come face to face with the very subject of their conversation. Frozen in his tracks the moment he laid eyes on them, Dre stood rooted to the ground, fear creeping into his eyes.
A grin wide enough to rival Jiayi's usual expression appeared on Cheng's face.
"Hey!" he greeted in a falsely excited voice. Immediately, Dre turned and started to walk away briskly, but Cheng, Qing, Liang, and Jiayi quickly walked faster, surrounding him easily.
"Can I touch your hair?" Cheng teased, pulling at the new kid's braids in a mockery imitation of Meiying. Dre was silent as he backed away—right into a corner, which was unfortunate for him. Seeming to be steeling himself, he slid his backpack off his shoulder, allowing it to drop to the floor.
Qing and Jiayi smirked and seized the opportunity Dre gave them; they grabbed the backpack and roughly tugged it open, emptying its contents onto the floor before tossing the backpack at Liang, who took aim and kicked it so hard that it flew up and hit the ceiling before falling back to the ground.
"Gonna do something?" Cheng sneered into Dre's face, half hoping the American was foolish enough to challenge him to another fight. He glared at the smaller boy, but when Dre didn't respond—didn't even look him in the eyes—Cheng stepped away.
"Just stay away from us," he snarled. Jiayi nudged his shoulder, nodding her head towards the auditorium door when he glanced at her. Understanding her message and glad she caught the loophole in his order, Cheng looked back at Dre. "All of us."
Feeling satisfied and smug, Cheng gestured to his friends and walked off without casting a single look back. As they passed him, Qing kicked Dre's backpack further down the hall while Liang kicked at a textbook that had fallen out.
Jiayi tugged on one of Dre's braids as she left. "Don't mess with us, Parker."
Then, confidently, the four friends strode away.
"Well, hopefully he'll heed your warning," Zhuang said cheerfully later that afternoon as the gang traveled in a pack down the street towards Qing's house. After the group had met up after school ended, Qing had wasted no time in filling in his older friends on the events that happened during lunch.
Xiang snorted. "Come on. Parker's ignored our warnings the first three times. You think he's actually going to listen?"
"Well, no helping it now," Jiayi cut in as they turned onto Qing's lawn. Stopping at the door, she reached towards her hair and pulled out two bobby pins from her dark locks. "Ready, Cheng?"
"What are you guys doing?" Feng asked in amusement.
"Cheng bet me unlimited treats at the Qi Xi Festival that I couldn't crack this lock in a minute," Jiayi exclaimed. "I'm about to prove him wrong and win the bet."
"I've got the timer ready," Liang spoke up, thumb hovering over the screen of his iPhone. "Ready…go!"
Jiayi stabbed the bobby pins into the keyhole of Qing's front door, the tip of her pink tongue sticking out a bit as she wiggled the pins back and forth.
"You know," Feng suddenly said. "We could totally make the best bandit group in the world. We've got kung fu in our arsenal and Jiayi's awesome lock-picking."
"That," Liang said, nodding in agreement, "or Jiayi could totally become a member of some illegal gang one day. I mean, even Cheng can't beat up little kids or girls. But Jiayi? Hand her five RMB and she'd gladly punch a five-year-old in the face."
"I would charge much more than just five RMB to punch a five-year-old in the face," Jiayi cut in dryly. Feng and Liang chuckled. A faint click was heard and, with a grin, Jiayi stood up and opened the now-unlocked door. Turning to Liang, she asked, "Time?"
"Forty-two seconds," Liang said, an impressed look in his surprised eyes. "Well done."
"Hah!" Jiayi cheered, whirling to Cheng, who glared at her. She smiled and pinched his cheek. "Better bring your wallet on the day of the Qi Xi Festival, Cheng!"
MHJ: Okay, so lately I've been considering getting rid of the A/N's at the beginning at each chapter. I mean, does anyone even read them? What do you guys think? And also, I am SO CLOSE to being done with junior year. I have 2 English projects (due June 10 and June 19 respectively), 1 biology project (due June 11), the SAT (June 1), the ACT (June 8), and then school finals (June 20, 21, and 24). So, to sum it up, I am going to be quite busy for the next month until school ends. I'll try to squeeze in another chapter after the SATs are over, but no guarantees! Please bear with me! ^_^ Leave a review~~