Uncle explained, in japanese for our convenience, that Lin will be teaching us how to control our abilities and teaching me and Gene how to protect ourselves. Naru and Gene looked at each other then back at Lin and I just stared at the man wondering what he would be teaching us.
"As the professor has said, my name is Lin Xingxu. I practice chinese shamanism or, as you three would call it, Onmyodo." I was in awe of this man; he looks so young and it seems like he is so accomplished to be acknowledged like that by Uncle. He had jet black with long fringes that totally covered his right eye. I caught a glimpse of his right eye; it was the color of the sky. I remember that in chinese shamanism, a blue heterochromatic eye was seen as a "devil's eye" or a "third eye"; it was no wonder he is a master at such a young age.
"Where are you from Mr. Lin?" I politely asked. He said his name in cantonese; maybe he's from Hong Kong or somewhere in the southeast region?
"I am originally from Hong Kong." He said bluntly, "What of it?" I was taken aback by his coldness. I didn't expect that out of someone who would be our teacher. Lin sat down and we ate dinner together mostly in silence, except for some discussions on scheduling our sessions together. We headed straight home after dinner; Uncle Martin and Auntie Luella did ask us if we would like to get dessert, but Naru, Gene, and I were all exhausted from our travels. We all headed to bed as soon as we got home; I think that we were all tired and jetlagged.
In the morning, Auntie Luella woke us up with a little knock on our door and a soft "Good Morning, Sweetie! Please come down for breakfast." I am not a morning person, so I had a hard time picking myself up and out of bed. I dragged myself over to the bathroom and decided to take a shower to wake myself up. I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and headed down for breakfast. Auntie Luella, Uncle Martin, Naru was already seated and waiting at the dining table, but where was Gene?
Naru seemed to have read my mind and said "Gene is not a morning person. Please don't worry about him and eat." He began working on his breakfast as soon as I sat down. I stared at him, wondering if it was really okay to eat without Gene. "He will wake up about 30 minutes before our lessons with Lin begins. Stop worrying and eat." He reassured me and so I began to eat too. Uncle Martin and Auntie Luella still looked skeptical.
"Noll, honey, where is Gene?" She asked, confused that we started eating without him. She still can't pick up on our conversation just yet. Uncle Martin filled her in on what Naru said and she looked horrified. "That's unacceptable!" She chided, "A proper gentleman does not sleep in and he is too young to learn without breakfast!" She got up and headed upstairs, probably to wake Gene up directly this time. Naru and I continued to eat and Uncle Martin just sat there awkwardly waiting for Auntie to come down.
"Uncle Martin, you should eat too." I said, "You'll be hungry during your lectures if you don't eat." He patted my head and reassured me that he would eat as soon as Auntie came down with Gene. He told Naru and I to finish my breakfast so that we could prepare for Lin's lesson. I took my time eating while waiting for Auntie to come down with Gene. I was about finished with my eggs when I saw a disheveled Gene, still in his pajamas, slowly trail behind Auntie Luella as she made her way to the dining table. Gene sat down at the empty seat next to Naru and stared blankly at his plate. He looked like he could fall back asleep at any moment; I thought I was terrible in the morning, but Gene definitely takes the crown. He booted up like a computer and began to eat breakfast too. Auntie sat down at her seat again and she and Uncle began eating their breakfast too. Naru and I finished first, of course, so we headed to the library to kill time as we waited for Gene to finish his food. Naru resumed reading his book and I decided to read with him. He looked reluctant to share his book with me, but relented when he saw I had no intention to find another book.
"What do you think of Lin?" I asked, curious about Naru's impression of him from last night. I wasn't sure if I was the only one who thought he was kind of cold.
"He appears to be an accomplished man at his age." He said flatly without looking up from the book, "Though, it appears he may have some animosity towards for whatever reason he may have." I am glad that I wasn't imagining, but I'm sad that Naru had confirmed my suspicion. I don't know we could have done during our introductions to have upset him to the point where he would hate me. Was I out of line for asking him where he was from? Even if I was, he could have corrected me or he could have let me know that it had offended him. But, he seems like a really cool teacher to learn from, so I hope that we could get along well. "I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you." Naru assured me, "As long as he is an effective teacher, nothing else matters." We continued with our reading while we waited for Gene and Lin. We lost track of time until we heard a knock on the door.
"Um. Am I interrupting something?" My head snapped up to see Gene sheepishly peek into the library. He had changed out of his pajamas into a blue hooded jacket, a grey shirt, and a pair of blue jeans; his hair was brushed in place and he looked more awake and well put together.
"We were just reading while we waited for you." I explained, "We didn't have anything to do while we were waiting and it wasn't time for Lin's lesson yet so we just started reading." He nodded knowingly and skipped in to join us. We three huddled together, with Naru between Gene and I, to and began reading again. Before we could get through two sentences, there was another knock at the door. We looked up from our book to see who it was and it was Lin.
"It's time for your lessons." He said curtly then he turned and began walking away. We scrambled to follow after him; he had much longer legs than we had and he made no attempt to slow down his pace for us, so it was hard to keep up with him. He led us to an open area in the garden. "We will begin with Naru." He beckoned Naru over to the clearing while me and Gene sat on the sidelines to watch them. I realized that Lin had been speaking to us in fluent Japanese; Uncle Martin must have told them that we respond better to it. Lin was guiding Naru through qigong movements; he explained, "You need to control your excessive energy; that is what's causing all of the poltergeists." Naru picked it up pretty easily so Lin just left him to practice on his own. "Gene and Mai, the professor had told me that you both display the potential to be psychic mediums." He informed us, "I will teach you both some warding spells that you would be able to protect yourselves in case you ever encounter any dangerous spirits when you're alone." He handed us both a packet including the names of the spells, the spell itself, and the pronunciations; he thoroughly demonstrated how to execute each spell and instructed us to look over the packet on our own time and practice. He left us in the garden to practice on our own while he went back inside the house to the library and told us not to bother him unless we had proper questions. We were all having trouble memorizing so much information in one sitting, so decided to find Lin to teach us again.
"I'm just following you two because Gene asked me to." Naru grumbled as he trailed behind me and Gene while we headed back to the house. We made our way to the library to find Lin. We peered in through the open door and found Lin burying his nose in a stack of books. I knocked on the door to announce our presence and I could see Lin's face morph into a scowl. Mi
"What?" He asked coldly. I was too stunned by his attitude to speak. What was his problem? If he didn't want to teach us, he could have refused; it's not like Uncle and Auntie would have forced him to.
"Did I do something to offend you, sir?" I felt flushed with anger, frustration, and sadness. "If I had done something to make you upset, I am really sorry." I apologized and, on the verge of tears, I pleaded "But, please let me know what I had done to make you hate me, so that I could correct myself."
"I hate the Japanese." Lin bluntly replied.
MissTurtleGurl: Hello again everyone! I hope you enjoyed my chapter and storyline so far. If you've read my original chapters, I know that it's pretty different so far. I am really sorry to those who liked my original writing. I just don't know where that girl who wrote those; I can't seem to write like her anymore. Maybe my hiatus and college has really changed my style of writing. I hope that everyone can still love So Stupid even with its changes. Please leave your reviews to let me know what you think.