One School Day by Zoe Zhang (drm ebook reader .TXT) 📕

enlarged, then I bet that everyone who passed would think it was a woman who could just stand still.
I had also suggested Ying Fa, or Sakura, which both meant cherry blossom in Chinese and Japanese. Mr. TaiQui really liked the name Sakura, but some other people complained that it was too hard to remember, much less try to pronounce it.
Cherry was known as our hall pass. In CARKA you expect the hall passes to be weird. Mr. TaiQui said we could use her only if we promised to use her with respect and care. Cherry was still a porcelain doll after all.
Mr. TaiQui handed out the doll to Kerry as he shut the drawer close. I watched Kerry walk solemnly out the door. I frowned. This didn’t seem right. This wasn’t the Kerry I knew. Ever since Mr. TaiQui had mentioned his mom, he had gone all frigid and hard. I hoped he was all right…
Abby and I met gazes. We both had a look of worry. We were the only ones who had really listened to the conversation while everybody else had been reading silently. We hoped we could talk to him during Brunch…

“BRRRRRRRRRRRM”
Kids walked everywhere, to their classrooms, to visit other people, to eat snacks, to the breezeway, everywhere around CARKA. While kids were running past us, Abby and I looked at Kerry. He hadn’t been himself the whole period during Science. Abby didn’t dare complain about the amount of homework that Mr. TaiQui gave us. She didn’t even compliment on how “Mr. TaiQui NEVER gives us homework”.
We walked down the noisy halls in silence for 30 seconds. I knew how to keep quiet when needed, but I could see Abby was straining. I know that Abby can’t stand silence for more then a minute. I looked more closely and saw Abby’s face grow steadily purple. Uh-oh…
“Kerry, you can’t keep quiet forever!” Abby exclaimed, allowing her face to return to its regular color. She sighed and dropped her arms to her side hopelessly when Kerry didn’t respond, so she concentrated on walking.
But since the ice had already been broken, I thought I’d take a stab at it. “Kerry, you don’t have to keep it in. Whatever’s wrong, you can tell us.” I spoke gently, moving to sit out on the bench sitting outside the open back door of our next classroom.
Kerry still remained silent, only stopping to sit down next to me, leaving Abby, the active person of the group, to stand. After 3 minutes he spoke.
“I just don’t want to talk about it.” He spoke softly, keeping his gaze between his two Nike shoes.
I saw Abby’s face screw up in frustration. “Kerry, really—” “No, it’s alright. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, we don’t need to bug him.” I cut off for Abby, afraid that she would put too much pressure on Kerry and really send him off the edge. Kerry tilted his head toward me and mouthed “Thanks.” I smiled in return.

“BRRRRRRRRRRRM”
The floor shook as the kids of CARKA ran/walked everywhere to get to their classes. The three of us jumped up and sidestepped into the back door of our classroom to dodge the stampede.
This was the only class (besides music, P.E. and Elective class) that we didn’t sit together. In Social Studies I would sit with Jordan, Safa, and Vanessa, while Abby would sit with Ben, Cory, and Nickolai, leaving Kerry would sit at a table with Chris, Matthew, and Teresa.
As I sat down, Jordan slid into his seat and pointed to his pocket mouthing off saying, “I got something and you don’t” teasingly. I stuck my tongue at the goading person and turned to Vanessa. She was busy twirling her hair around her finger and glaring at…
I followed her glare to the East window of the room, and I saw a boy with his face pressed against the glass with a funny expression. You know, it looked strangely like someone I knew, someone like—
“Carter! Get your face off that window or I’m going to go out there and kick you all the way to your seventh period!” Vanessa shouted at said person. Carter just wagged his tongue at her.
“Miss Skylark! Do not shout inside the classroom! And allow me to deal with Mister Thomas, thank you…” Ms. Worton said as she tapped with her high heels out the door. Everybody who had heard her turned to the window where Carter was and saw the figure of Ms. Worton emerge, who seemed to be yelling at him. Instead of cowering like what the rest of the kids at CARKA do when she yells at them, Carter was grinning like a mad man (though he could’ve passed as one) and was watching Ms. Worton with as much interest as the audience inside the classroom.
“CT, you idiot…” I heard Kerry mutter as he shook his head. I got up from my seat and walked to where Kerry was sitting.
“This is what I mean. Just what do you see in him?” I asked, pointing at the scene of the now running Carter while Ms. Worton was chasing him to his class.
Kerry’s face lit up. “Because he’s cool.” He replied ever so bluntly. But he continued shaking his head. “But that’s not why I’m angry with him.” he added.
“Then why? Because he’s acting like the idiot that he is?” I asked, looking at Kerry’s doodle on his homework. It was a picture of a stick figure that looked like a mad scientist and his potion blew up in his face. It was pretty funny.
“Let’s just say that he’s not making a good impression on Vanessa.” He said, covering up whatever I was currently watching.
“When has he ever? I mean, well, it’s not like he likes her or anything.” That was true. Carter liked to bug people sometimes, but he just loved to bug Vanessa of all. Rumor has it that he was just trying to pay back to what Vanessa did to him in 6th grade; poured a cup of punch down his back. I still laugh at that memory at my first CARKA Party.
“Who said he never liked her?” Kerry asked, adding more doodles to his homework.
I blinked once, twice, thrice. “Are you telling me that Carter Thomas likes Vanessa Skylark?!” I said, narrowing my eyes.
“Yep. He told me himself. I’m the only one who knows it.” He said proudly, as if he was the most special person on earth.
My eyes narrowed further. “You knew this and you didn’t tell me?” I hissed obviously angry.
“Uh-huh.” He said again, smiling up at me and then facing his paper. After 2 seconds later he raised his head. His expression didn’t say “happy days are here again”.
“Umm… Oops?” he said meekly.
I rolled my eyes for the second time that day. “Oh, so now you say it!” I exclaimed. I was about to criticize him further, but I heard a tapping from the hallway coming closer. I leaped into my seat right before I hear Ms. Worton say to Vanessa, “Now that is how you handle men, and let that be a lesson to all you girls.” I heard Safa snort as he plopped down on his seat letting the binder fall with a splat on his desk. No wonder Ms. Worton was single. She was on crazy woman.
“Akira, pass the ruler, will you?” I heard Safa ask. I grabbed a ruler from the counter right next to me and slid it across the table.
“Thanks,” he smiled. But then he screwed his face worriedly. “But by the way, what was up with Kerry during Science today? He was totally out of it.”
I first decided not to tell him because it wasn’t his business, but I stopped myself. Safa was just another friend who was as worried about Kerry as much as us, and all he wanted to know was that if his buddy was okay. I decided to be honest.
I shook my head. “No,” I answered, keeping my voice low while Ms. Worton was lecturing on some boring Min Dynasty thing. “Abby and I tried talking to him, but he wouldn’t really tell us what was wrong. He said he didn’t want to talk about it.”
Safa sighed deeply. “I guess it can’t be helped,” he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders as if confirming the topic. But his face turned to excitement. “But let’s not let that ruin our favorite subject!”
I laughed gently, still aware of the students who were actually trying to pay attention to Ms. Worton. I still drew a few looks, but fortunately Ms. Worton hadn’t heard anything thanks to her rambling. Abby, hearing my laugh, looked up from her textbook. I was betting that there was a Naruto Manga book behind the text book because I highly doubt Abby would study during class, much less study at all. I saw Safa and Abby meet gazes and they exchanged evil grins. Abby happily placed her “text book” back in her desk. I saw her hand draw out a straw from yesterday’s lunch and a scrap of paper. She started ripping the paper into small pieces and putting them in her mouth and—I don’t even want to go through all the details. I decided to see what Safa was doing.
Next to him was a finished paper airplane waiting for flight. I saw him scribbling something on a piece of paper he tore out of his notebook. I peered curiously at him (that’s right, not suspiciously, curiously. I approve of them making fun of Ms. Worton, just as long as they don’t get in trouble), hoping whatever he was writing wasn’t anything bad. Safa covered whatever he had been writing.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Safa said teasingly, shaking his head. “Don’t spoil the fun; you’ll find out what it says in a moment…” he continued to scribble on the piece of paper for a while.
After 20 minutes into the period, Safa gave Abby thumbs up. And with that Abby prepared to make her first move.
“Any questions?” Ms. Worton asked to the supposedly listening students. When no one replied, she turned her back to the class again. She lifted her marker to the white board. “Okay then class. Everybody please take out your penc—” SPLAT
The class watched in amusement (not horror; and yes, we don’t like her that much either) as Ms. Worton slowly turned around, shaking head to toe. Her eyes blazed as they usually did. “Who is the irresponsible student who did that?!” she screamed, sounding slightly stressed. I felt actually sorry for her at that moment. She must get the same treatment from each class. But that moment passed by quickly and I continued watching the show go on. I wish had brought some Mochi (a Japanese ice cream).
As she gave us a clear view of her front, I inspected the aim on her face. Next to her nose was a small pimple-ish wad; in other words, a spitball. Everybody started giggling and pointing. Safa and Abby were having the time of their lives, and they weren’t afraid to laugh out loud.
When no one heeded her call, Ms. Worton turned back to the board once again. She started writing “Assignment Due Octo—” SPLAT
She turned, this time 2 spitballs next to her nose. They were equally on each side of her oversized nose. The class unleashed more giggles.
“I will find out who did that, mark me on my words.” The spitball covered teacher hissed, not moving to swipe the spitballs off her face. She was the kind of person who would stand up to being a human, not be afraid of small things. She “humphed” and turned back to