She remembered being the new student once. It was third grade and she made the mistake of saying hello to the class in her mother's native tongue. She thought it was clever and interesting. The others would soon cling to her and she could be their teacher. They could be bilingual too, which she wasn't, yet. After that day, after they made fun of her to almost the point of no return, she didn't want to. Ming Jefferson basically told her mother to stuff it, in any way an eight-year-old could.

Then, she grew up learning to fit in. They excepted her black side more than her Chinese side. It apparently gave her more personality. T.V. really helped her gain friends. Everyone had a black friend on MTV. Blasian, her best friend in seventh grade called her. She filled out eventually, gaining small, but nice breasts and, mostly, an ass. That was not the trend. She followed those.

Now, in her green and grey cheerleading uniform, and with her other cheerleader friends, Jessica and Cassie, she watched a boy- who might as well had been a man- and a young girl with flaming hair exit their car. Everyone was staring at him. At his ass. They were in now, along with jazzercize.

"Nice car," Cassie said, smiling.

"Nice hair," Jessica stated.

Ming crossed her arms and turned her back to the guy, whispering, "He probably whacks off to pictures of himself."

"Ming!" Cassie laughed, swatting her arm.

She laughed, throwing her head back. It was like a twinkle, perfectly curated to please others' ears. "You're bad," Jessica told her.

"Let's head to class." Ming said, picking up her bag from the hood of Jessica's car. They all carpooled together in the morning. Ming was too poor to own her own car. Now, she didn't want to date Billy but, by the reactions he was getting, she was going to.

Billy watched them go. Her hair was in tight little buns at the base of her neck and that was the second thing he noticed about her. The first was that laugh. So fake, but pretty. She, herself, was very pretty. But, his dad was a racist, so he tried to be. He wasn't.

He was introduced by a bored English teacher. Billy Hargrove. God, he looked like a Billy. She looked like a Ming. How perfect. He glanced over at her, noting her diamond ear studs. Billy knew she would be trouble, and he liked trouble. She might cause him too much trouble, though. He wasn't trying to get pummeled to death.

But, she smiled her full, glossed lips at him and he felt the jelly that people spoke about. Where their knees shook. It wasn't even a genuine smile. It was a shy one. Cute.

Despite her smiling at him, he sat in the back corner opposite of her. She had only dated one person before. Steve Harrington. She didn't actually like him either, but she had to lose her virginity to someone. Despite what MTV says, teens are doing it like animals. Ming was grateful for how nice Steve had been during their three-month tryst. She'd thought he'd be the jerk everyone thought he was.

Now, Billy... He was a jerk. Ming knew that by looking at him.

"I'm going after him." Ming told Jessica and Cassie at lunch.

"What? No!" Cassie whined, "Can't you at least let me play with him first?"

Ming smiled, "He's been here half a day and you haven't had him, yet?" Another whack on the arm.

"But, this morning you seemed like you didn't like him." Jessica said.

She rested her chin in her hand and looked over at his car through the window, "Then I saw his eyes." Which, wasn't a lie. His eyes were beautiful. Good for him. Something she could concentrate on if they ever made out. She shuddered at the thought, but her friends thought they were good shudders.

"Rock, paper, scissors. Whoever wins has to go talk to him right now."Jessica said.

"Now, now?" Ming suddenly got nervous.

"Now, now." She confirmed.

Cassie and Ming squared up and stuck their fists out, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

Cassie crushed Ming's scissors with her rock. Well, at least this would give Ming time to prepare. Cassie stood up with a grin on her face, "See ya next period, loser."

Ming watched through the window as Cassie ran out to meet him at his car, but she stopped short as Maggie Reinhardt popped up beside him, her strawberry hair bouncing and her smile big while chewing gum. Cassie turned back to the window, pouting at them through it as they smiled back. It looked like she had more competition than she thought.

However, not everyone lived next to him.

"We have a new neighbor. They moved in pretty quietly, don't you think, hon?" Her dad asked her mom.

"Sure did." Her mother answered while cutting up the steak for her baby sister, Bianca. Her mother still had a bit of an accent after eighteen years.

"Hey, kiddo." Her dad spoke to Ming, "How's that scholarship paper coming?"

Poorly. Very poorly. Going to her father's Alma Mater on a cheerleading scholarship wasn't something she wanted to do. But, that's what she was supposed to do. To fit in and be successful. That's what everyone in her family did. She looked over at Bianca, hoping it'd be different for her. "Good. I'm not totally confident, but they'll at least have a good read."

"Glad to hear it, darlin'." Anything other than her name is what her father preferred to call her. He didn't like her mother's choice, but that was the deal. Her mother would move to the U.S. as long as she got to name their first child after a family member. Ming was named after her grandmother, who she had never met.

"Good, Bianca?" Ming asked as the four-year-old shoveled food into her mouth. She just nodded, too busy to answer.

"They have a son." Her mother said, obsessed with marrying Ming off.

That's when it popped into her head that it was Billy who moved next door on Old Cherry Road. "I heard him blasting music earlier." Her dad said, "Sounded like trouble."

"If it is who I think it is..." Ming said, wondering if she should tell her parents how he looked and acted, "He was new at school today. He seemed... cool." Just in case she ever brought him home one day. She nearly gagged on her food at the thought. Her poor policeman of a father would have a heart attack.

"'Cool'?" Her dad raised his eyebrows, "Like That Corey guy or that Bacon kid?"

"Corey Feldman and Kevin Bacon, dad."

"Either way sounds like trouble. That Bacon kid always walks around with his you-know-what out."

"Dad."

"Honey."

Both daughter and mother groaned. It was so embarrassing, even at the dinner table.

"We're eating dinner." Her mother said.

Then, the doorbell rang. It was her father's turn to groan, muttering about how the sacred time that was reserved for dinner should be honored and cherished as an American right and he ended with, "Snookums, could you get that?" That was a nickname reserved for her mother, thank goodness.

"Sure thing." She stood and answered the door in the other room. There were a few voices before she called out, "Honey! It's the new neighbors!"

"Oh!" Her dad popped up, wiping his mouth on a napkin before hurrying to the door. Ming stood a second later and hid behind the wall, listening to them.

"Mi-mi?" Bianca called. Ming hushed her.

"This is Neil and Susan Hargrove. They just moved in." Her mother explained.

Her dad held out his hand, "Robert Jefferson, this is my wife, Fang."

"Oh, uh." Neil stepped away, Ming's father's hand fell by his side. "We just wanted to introduce ourselves. Have a good night."

"Yeah... You too." Her dad muttered.

They all heard Neil say, "I didn't think this was that kind of neighborhood." Before her dad shut the door.

"Racist asshole." Robert muttered to his wife after the door was shut. Ming hurried back tp her seat at the table.

That night, she felt really antsy. She just wanted to get it over with. So, at two in the morning, she snuck out of her bedroom window and slinked over to the Hargrove's house. Ming picked up some pebbles and started throwing them at the window that she knew was his from earlier that day. It was hard not to notice him through her own window since they were right across from each other. He walked around shirtless a lot. Not once did he notice her peeking through her light pink curtains at him.

It took a few stones, but she finally heard a few choice curse words and his lamp turned on. Billy walked over to the window, squinting through sleepiness as he looked out of it, seeing her. The confusion on his face was nearly laughable and he opened the window, "What the- who the- why the-"

"When and where." She whispered back at him. She didn't think this far, but she echoed her father's actions by sticking out her hand, "Hi, I'm Ming."

"Ming? What? Do your parents hate you?" Billy glanced over his shoulder towards his door, "You need to get out of here."

She smiled, "You're turning down a girl at your window at night?"

Billy's eyebrows rose, "Is that what you're here for? 'Cause..."

"No, no. I just wanted to introduce myself." She was feeling good about this. Plus, he was hot.

Billy chuckled sleepily, rubbing the eye boogers that were disturbing him, "Yeah, listen, I don't associate with your kind, so why don't you-"

"Says who?"

"Excuse me?"

She stepped closer to the window. She was too pretty for her own good and she wasn't wearing anything but a spaghetti strap shirt and plaid pajama bottoms. "Says who?" She asked more clearly.

He looked over his shoulder again. That gave her the answer. "I do." He stated like she didn't already know.

"I say your dad does." Ming smiled, leaning on his window sill, "I say you're scared of what he will do if you bring home a Blasian."

"A what?"

"And-" She poked his chest, noting the goosebumps he received, "I say you want to be the King."

Billy was becoming more and more confused, "The King? Like Elvis?"

"No, like of High School. One last bangin' year. I can make that happen."

"What the hell is that noise?" Neil's voice was heard from somewhere in Billy's house.

"Shit. You need to go."

"You know where I am. Contact me."

Neil busted through Billy's door to see his son snoring, window shut tight, and the light off. He looked around for a moment, "... Better be asleep." He slammed the door when he left. Ming was hiding right under the window. She peeked over the sill before high-tailing it back to her own window.

They stood at their windows for a moment, staring at each other before Ming turned off her own light.