“Man, that Xiang Luobi guy was really annoying, what’s his deal?” Ling asked, “Seriously, he should just lay off,”

“His name is Xiang Luoyi, Yue, you’ve been saying it wrong,” Xiao replied, “And it isn’t that big of a deal, though it is a bit creepy,”

“Yeah yeah, anyway, did you do the math homework? I forgot to do it,” Ling said, trying to look her cutest and making eye contact with Xiao.

“You want to copy my homework, don’t you?” Xiao asked.

“Very much yes, please and thank you,”

Xiao heaved a sigh and begrudgingly handed over her math notebook, “Go ahead, but this is the last time I do this, remember to do your homework next time,”

“Thanks a lot, Xiaoxiao, I’ll be sure to get this done real quick then we can hang out a bit!” Ling exclaimed.

Ling began to quickly copy down Xiao’s homework while Xiao pulled out a book and began to read. Ling glanced over once, it seemed like a difficult book, in all honesty. Lots of big words, but Xiao read it easily, as though it were a child's book.

Ling, having so much practice copying Xiao’s homework, was done in no time, and quickly turned back around in her chair to give Xiao her math notebook back.

“Here you are, Xiaoxiao! Thanks for that save!” Ling giggled.

Xiao, making a mental note of the page and paragraph she was on, shut her book and took back her notebook, “Don’t think I’ll keep doing it for you, you need to start doing your homework on your own,”

“Yes ma’am!” Ling shouted out, obviously comprehending none of what Xiao had just told her, “Anyway, what are you doing after school? Studying again?”

“Naturally,”

Ling clicked her tongue, “Whaaaat? This is the height of our young lives! You gotta make the most of it, just studying all day’s no fun at all,”

“Then what do you suggest we do? If we don’t study hard, we’ll never get into University,” Xiao replied.

“Oh! Speaking about graduation-”

“We never spoke about graduation,”

“Speaking about graduation, do you wanna take a trip somewhere when we graduate? I think it’ll be so much fun to go to America, or Britain, somewhere abroad like that!” Ling commented, completely disregarding what Xiao had said.

“Oh? Well, I’m sure you could ask your parents to pay for that trip… I’ll just keep up my studies over that break,” Xiao responded.

“No, no way! You’ll definitely come with me!” Ling blurted out, “I’m not leaving you back here while we go travel,”

“Well…” Xiao paused, looking directly into Ling’s eyes, “What would we even do there? You don’t speak English,”

“Sure I do! How’s this? ‘Yo, how you are doing? I’m am Yue Ling!’ Pretty impressive, right?” Ling exclaimed.

Xiao shrugged, “Fine… I’ll go with you, if only to keep you out of trouble,” She finally agreed.

Ling silently cheered in her seat. It had all of the impact of a normal cheer, all of the same movements and whatnot, but with none of the loud yelling, just a soft whisper-yell which honestly annoyed the hell out of Xiao.

“The hell is that ASMR voice?” Xiao snapped, “Pisses me off!”

Ling almost jumped out of her seat with how angrily and how quickly Xiao had snapped at her. It was terrifying!

“Eek! I’m sorry Xiaoxiao!” Ling exclaimed.

“Eh? What’s this? You getting bullied by Classmate Xiao Lin, Yue?” A girl asked Ling as she wandered over into Xiao’s personal bubble. She clearly had no regard for the personal space of others. A hoola-hoops distance is all she asked for, seriously…

“Huh? Oh! Classmate Bai Shan! Nah, me and Xiaoxiao are just playin’ around, right, Xiaoxiao?” Ling playfully asked.

“Right…” Xiao murmured. She was deeply concerned over the lack of personal space she was being given.

“Anyway, Yue, for graduation, we’re gonna have a party, you want to come? It’ll be fun, you can even come too if you want, Classmate Xiao Lin,” Bai asked.

“Oh, actually-” Ling started.

“Actually… The two of us have our own plans for graduation. It’s nice that you thought of us though,” Xiao replied.

“Oh? Well I’m sure Yue would much prefer to be with u-” Bai was cut off.

“Yue, let’s get together for lunch today, in our secret spot,” Xiao said. She looked back to Bai, and Bai could swear she saw a devious smirk on Xiao’s face, though it was gone in an instant.

Ling perked up, “Oh yeah yeah! I’m so ready for that!” She giggled, “I’ll meet you there after I finish up some stuff!”

“Right…” Bai backed off, “I’ll leave you two to it then, I just remembered I had some stuff to finish up,”

Xiao and Ling met up under one of the many trees that stood tall behind the school. It was their kingdom, and the tree was their throne.

“Ahhh, Xiaoxiao! This is so nice, thanks for inviting me here again!” Ling exclaimed, “It’s so nice to relax here, I love it so much!”

“Mm…” Xiao inhaled deeply, “It is a nice day, isn’t it?”

Ling snickered, “You sound so stiff, what’s with you being so uptight all of the sudden?” Ling asked, “You’re reminding me of my old track coach!” She giggled.

Ling sloppily ate away at her food. She ate as though she were a toddler. A few grains of rice somehow found their way to Ling’s forehead.

“Yue, wipe off your face…” Xiao murmured, “There’s food all over you…”

Ling held her face closer to Xiao, “Wipe it off yourself if you’re so bothered,” She joked,

Xiao heaved a sigh and pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket, “Fine, fine,” She murmured as she wiped off Ling’s face, “Don’t get all messy again please,”

“I’ll be super extra careful now!” Ling giggled.

Xiao leaned against the tree and began to count in her head, how many hours would she be able to study this week? If she had to hang out with Ling everyday, it’d get in her way.

“Listen, Yue-” Xiao started.

“Oh, and we can get together this Sunday, there’s this new amusement park that opened up, oh that’ll be so fun!” Ling ranted, “Oh! I hear they’re gonna be serving a new ice cream flavor at that one shop we visited the other day too!”

There was a certain feeling Xiao felt seeing Ling rant on like this. Perhaps it was endearing to her to see her friend so excited about things, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Regardless, she let Ling rant on and on about her plans for what they’d do on their day off.

“So whaddya think? Sound fun? If not, we could always just run laps around the school!” Ling added.

Xiao bristled, “Sure, amusement park on Sunday… What time?”