Chapter suggestion by icecream2000! Finally here!
It was too early Xiang decided. Way too early to deal with the problems of teenage life. Somehow, his stepsiblings made him stay with them at their school at morning, making him literally run late. Xiang cursed under his breath. He needed to get to his classroom before his teacher locked the door. Xiang liked and respected his teacher, but he still thought it was ridiculous for him to make all his students arrive when just the warning bell rung.
"Damn it..." the teen repeated, sprinting down the halls and skipping steps up the stairs. Less than two minutes left. With time against him, Xiang neglected to be careful of his surroundings.
"Will you just leave me-"
Bam!
Rounding the corner, and neglecting to overhear an incoming voice, Xiang collided with another student.
"Ow!" the student hissed.
"Frick," Xiang grumbled. He and the other student had fallen over, but Xiang did not have time to worry about the scattered textbooks clearly the strange white haired teen's and the other laughing students.
Without even muttering his apologizes, Xiang jumped up from the ground and brushed passed everybody.
"Well excuse you!" Xiang heard but had to ignore. Just a few more doors and he was safe.
"Mr. Wang," Xiang's teacher called the second the teen jolted through the door. "Glad you can make it on time. Never been one to push the time though."
"Sorry, sir," Xiang mumbled, ducking his head as he approached his seat. "A little trouble in the halls." At least the rest of the period was less eventful as well as the others. The rest of the day seemed to be going normal for Xiang, until he stumbled upon familiar white hair in his last class.
Xiang had taken a few steps into the classroom, scanning around the room to see who made it to the classroom first when his eyes caught the eyes of the boy from before. The two of them stared awkwardly for a moment before the white haired teen glared from his desk in the middle of the classroom, not over before. Xiang only turned his head back forward, continuing to his desk in the front corner. So another kid took another disliking to him, nothing new.
Curious, the Chinese teen glanced back for a moment. He was pretty sure the kid was a new student who transferred a few weeks ago, but at the same time Xiang rarely ever payed attention to anything outside the lesson. With a shrug, he turned his attention to grabbing his headphones in his backpack. Sadly, it looked like the chords got jumbled up in the short time he walked from his previous class.
Xiang groaned, doing his best to straighten out the chord. With his ears unprotected from the annoyance of high school, Xiang was inadvertently able to catch the small commotion a few desks away from him.
"So did you actually choose to do that or did your hair freeze over in Iceland?" Xiang overheard a demeaning voice tease. He recognized the voice to belong to some jerk who often annoyed him.
"It's just like that," the new kid grumbled, clearly just as annoyed as Xiang when hearing the jerk's voice.
"So you born like a snow freak or something?" another voice mocked. "Like a pretty, magical Princess Elsa."
"You know it really could be to camouflage in the land of ice and snow," a third.
"You guys do realize you're mixing up Iceland and Greenland, right?" Xiang nonchalantly called aloud, finally getting his headphones untangled. "Sure Iceland is cold, but Greenland is the arctic one."
"Oh, and who asked you?"
Xiang glanced over, already playing his music. The first prick was the one who spoke, all three already making their way towards him. "I'm just saying, if you're gonna let your mouth run, at least get your facts right. And with the amount of Frozen stuff around, I'm surprised you don't know it's based in Norway. Again, not Iceland."
"For someone not worth squat, you sure are running your mouth a lot yourself," number three hissed.
"Are you sure you want to talk about worth?" Xiang asked with false uncertainty. "Remind me what your grade in this class is again? Comparing our GPAs, who do you think is worth more here?"
Ignoring the steam boiling from the three around him, Xiang took one more glance to the new kid. He noticed the Icelandic teen shot his head away when they made eye contact again. Xiang didn't miss the inquisitive gaze the other teen had given. Xiang shrugged, blank look turning back to the three creeps still trying to get to him.
"Alright, class is about to begin," the teacher suddenly called when entering the classroom. "Take out your homework and textbook."
A few last glares were shot amongst the four boys before Xiang was finally left alone. Xiang made a mention note to leave class a little faster to avoid any more headaches, not noticing the pair of inquisitive eyes on him once again.
Xiang focused on the lesson and work for the rest of the period. When it was over, he did his best to quickly pack up his things without showing how hasty he was. Normally, whoever was bugging him would make their way over to him, so the teen hoped to leave before that. However, he noticed the lack of assholes. Xiang paused his packing and picked his head up, finding out why he was alone. The three guys were back to bullying the new kid.
"Just leave me alone," the Icelandic teen grumbled, keeping his head down as he attempted to get away to no avail.
"Gonna run to your little isolated castle, princess?"
"Again, you're just embarrassing yourselves," Xiang cut in once again, resuming packing up. "Norway and queen. Any kid can tell you that."
"Why don't you just butt out?" one of the three shot at him.
Xiang found that he had the attention of all three yet again, allowing the new kid to sneak away. That was all he was going for. So, Xiang gave a measly shrug, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. "Could say I'm just trying to be helpful."
The guys were glaring at the Chinese teen, finally leaving the classroom. Xiang let out a breath, already knowing what was coming next.
Xiang was the last one out of the classroom. The hallway was fairly empty. The teen scanned the second floor hallway, ignoring all the lingering students until he spotted the three guys from his class a few classrooms away.
"There you are. We thought you were never coming out."
Xiang cursed under his breath. He shot a glare before rushing to his right where the stairs were. He could hear haste footsteps following him.
The teen sped down the first flight of stairs before rounding the turn to head down the rest of the way. The creeps were just reaching the top steps. Instead of rushing down the remaining flight, Xiang placed his hands on the railing halfway down and swiftly leaped over them. He landed fluidly on his feet, crouched a bit so his ankle didn't get messed up, before lunging for a blindspot corner. He could hear the three guys' stomping the rest of the way down.
"Where'd he go!?"
"This way!"
A few haste footsteps dying down later, Xiang assumed the idiots lost him. Without a care in the world, he walked out of the hidden corner and back up the stairs. He only took a few steps up before noticing someone looking down at him from the top of the flight. The new kid.
"I saw that," the Icelandic teen said, arms crossed. "That... weird jump. Was that really necessary?"
"Either that or put in more effort to get those pricks off my back," Xiang answered, walking passed the other.
"That's another thing," the teen started, making Xiang stop a few steps up the second flight and turn to him. "Why help? Everybody else just turns a blind eye. If you're expecting me to owe you one or something, you're dead wrong."
"Think of it as an apology for earlier."
"Oh, yeah..."
Silence fell around the two boys. It was heavy for the other teen, but Xiang wasn't fazed. Instead, Xiang went on walking up the stairs since there wasn't much to be said anymore. He jolted to a stop at what the new kid asked next.
"Your name's, like, 'Ace', right?"
Xiang whipped around, growling harsher than intended, "Don't call me that." The other boy was taken back a bit, making Xiang sigh, rubbing his temple for a moment. "It's Leon, alright."
"Emil," the other introduced as well. Xiang gave a curt nod in acknowledgement. "Shouldn't you, I don't know, be leaving?"
Xiang shrugged, on his way again. "I should ask you the same thing."
"Touche," Emil responded, following Xiang without realizing it.
"Let me guess," Xiang started. "Waiting for the everyone to leave first to avoid crowds and assholes?"
Emil turned to Xiang with a raised brow. "You, too?"
Xiang glanced at Emil again before turning away. His mouth was clamped in a tight thin line, holding down snickering.
Emil glared at the other teen. He was being laughed at... "Then why are you here?"
Xiang pulled out a clear folder from his bag, turning into an open door. His chemistry class. "Turning in an assignment right now."
Emil gave Xiang another look from outside the classroom. "You don't look like a slacker to me-"
"Already!?" the teacher cut Emil off. "I feel like I just assigned you that report! There really isn't much I can give you at this point other than the final."
"Considering it's early May, I'm guessing you don't have that," Xiang responded.
The science teacher giggled. "Sorry, my dear. Really, a month early? An hour a day really does make a difference."
Xiang shrugged. "I just do well self taught. Have a nice day."
"You, too, my dear!"
With that, Xiang walked out again, seeing Emil still there with eyes slightly agape. "You're still here?"
"What are you? A walking stereotype?" Emil asked, the two still walking together without realizing it. "That why everyone calls you 'Ace'?"
"I told you not to call me that," Xiang hissed.
"I'm not," Emil shot back before picking up his pace. "I was just asking."
"Maybe you shouldn't and keep your nose out of other people's business."
"You're one to talk, Mr. Big-Shot-Hero."
"At least I can defend myself."
"I defend myself fine!"
The boys continued their back and forth arguing. Xiang was the first to stop, having glanced at a street sign. "What...?" He had apparently followed Emil out and was too distracted to realize that as well as how far they went.
Emil finally noticed as well. His cheeks brightened with embarrassment at being so thoughtless. "W-what are you doing!? Stalking me now!?" he made up to save some face.
Xiang only ignored him, grabbing his phone and checking the time. He cursed. "I'm gonna be late..." The Chinese teen took one step before turning back to Emil for a second. "You live far if this is how far we've walked," he commented before taking off in the opposite direction.
"H-hey!" Emil yelled after Xiang, but the latter teen didn't stop running. He stood there, watching the growing distance before turning around and continuing home. "Late for what...?" the Icelandic teen questioned aloud to himself.
A few blocks down, Emil heard a car honk. He turned, seeing his brother slowing to a stop.
"Need a lift?"
Emil groaned. His brother tended to exhaust him as well and he was not in the mood after being with Xiang. Wordlessly the teen hopped into the car.
"Lukas, why're you heading this way? We live over there?" Emil asked when seeing his brother driving the wrong way.
"A book I reserved at the library came in," Lucas answered, continuing.
Emil shrugged turning to look out the window. When they stopped at an intersection, he perked up, seeing Xiang still running. Emil watched the Chinese teen for a moment, seeing four kids a bit ahead of Xiang by the elementary school, running and jumping for him. "What...?"
"What?" Lukas asked, catching his younger brother staring. "New friend?"
"No!" Emil answered a little louder than his usual voice. "Just drive; you didn't need to stop for this long."
"Yeah, yeah," Lukas muttered with a small laugh, still glancing over at his brother. Emil was looking away from the group, but Lukas could tell he was looking in the side mirror.
Emil was just curious, watching the group of little kids who looked nothing like Xiang crowd him. Xiang was piggybacking the smallest boy with one arm, using the other to hold hands with a little girl. Two older- but still younger than them- boys were still right around him. Emil watched until they were out of sight. "Weird..."
Please respect my wishes as the writer and not see this as a ship. Xiang is aro-ace here, and I really don't ship Hong Kong and Iceland. Also, I've never written Iceland before, so I'm so sorry if I got his character wrong as well as any facts! Man, I like my school ideas here, but never like how it turns out when written... Too cliche?