Yanhua 2 Summer School

w.a.n.g Zhaoshu was aggressively shaking him. Li Huai slowly raised his head and stared him in the eyes. "I'm up," he said slowly, emphasizing every word.

"Great! Now we can go!" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu grabbed his arm. "Come on!"

The cla.s.sroom was empty, save for the afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows. As they ran outside w.a.n.g Zhaoshu hollered, "Summer school blows!"

Li Huai managed to wrench his arm out of w.a.n.g Zhaoshu's grasp as they were joined by Lin Yuxing, Hua Fu, and Chen Shan.

"Finally up, I see," Lin Yuxing observed, s.h.i.+fting his gla.s.ses up his nose.

"Just trying to stay awake for tonight's festival," Li Huai explained.

"When are we meeting up? Seven? Eight?" Chen Shan asked.

"Why, are you leaving?" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu asked, placing a hand on Li Huai's shoulder.

"I need to go back and study…"

"Same here," agreed Lin Yuxing.

w.a.n.g Zhaoshu waved a hand dismissively. "That can wait. This can't. Ice cream, anyone?"

They left the school courtyard and headed onto the street. Li Huai squinted as the afternoon sun blinded him. They stopped as an electric scooter zoomed down the narrow street before crossing to reach the convenience store on the other side.

Li Huai looked around as he waited for the others to pick their ice creams out of the ice box in front. Their high school was enclosed in an older part of the city, where the old apartments and small stores formed the neighborhood. They had left through the school's back gate. The front entrance led out onto the main road, where there was more traffic and people.

"Coming through," called a man pus.h.i.+ng along his bicycle weighed down by a mountain of flattened cardboard boxes, and Li Huai darted out of the way. He could smell the oil and hear the sizzling coming from a few shops down. Sweat rolled down his back, and he tugged at the collar of his school uniform.

Someone lightly rapped Li Huai on the top of the head. "Yo, Li Huai, you ever gonna pick?" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu asked. "What'cha thinkin' about in that head of yours, hmm?"

w.a.n.g Zhaoshu was the tallest out of the five of them, and was the one link that held them all together. If it wasn't for his friendly, outspoken personality Li Huai doubted that the rest of them would had ended up friends.

"Ah…a lot of things." He grinned apologetically, and grabbed a green bean flavored pop without looking carefully.

"Probably worrying about college entrance exams," Hua Fu guessed as they paid.

"Those aren't until this fall, though," Lin Yuxing said, s.h.i.+fting his backpack from one shoulder to the other. "Let's get out of the street. Everyone's busy making preparations for the festival."

"Still?" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu led the way, sucking on his red bean ice cream. "Heavens, they've been at it since mornin'. We could've helped, if we didn't have summer school."

"There's no cram school today, is there?" Chen Shan asked.

"Even if there was, we'd skip, right?" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu grinned at Li Huai. "What's wrong, Li Huai? Can't speak?"

Li Huai tried to change the subject. "Uh, where should we watch the fireworks tonight?"

"Well, let's go find out!" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu exclaimed, and began running down the street. "C'mon! We don't have much time, and we don't want it to be too crowded!"

Liu Yuxing and Chen Shan began arguing about whether or not the waterfront was better or the abandoned building on the other side of town, and Li Huai began to zone out again. Because even though he was there, walking in the heat of summer with his friends, sweat stinging his eyes, the heaviness of his backpack hurting his back, and the sweetness of the ice cream in his mouth, it felt like he was…somewhere on the outside. Like he was still trapped within that horrifying dream…

That wasn't a dream.

Who said that? Li Huai looked around, but saw n.o.body.

You know that wasn't a dream.

Li Huai bit his lip and increased his pace as to keep up with w.a.n.g Zhaoshu. He tried to grin and bear it, bear the knowledge that he held, tried to keep up with the conversation and nod and laugh and everything, tried to ignore that voice and pair of eyes that were watching him…

You don't want that to happen, do you?

"Later," Li Huai muttered through closed lips.

Later? When 'later'? When this'll happen tomorrow?

"Later!"

"What did you say?" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu turned his head to look at Li Huai, the summer sunlight sparkling in his dark eyes.

"Ah, uh…I was thinking about later!" Li Huai forced a grin. He realized that his ice cream had melted all over his hand, so, he threw the stick away and did his best to wipe the sticky mess off on his pants. Ah, his school uniform…

"Are you all right?" Hua Fu asked him, concern showing in her brown eyes. "You haven't got heat stroke, have you?" She felt his forehead.

Lu Huai ducked away from her hand. "No, I was, uh, just thinking about a weird dream I had."

"Really? What was it about?" Lin Yuxing asked.

"Uh…forgot."

w.a.n.g Zhaoshu slung an arm around Li Huai. "He's too embarra.s.sed! I bet he dreamed about a girl or somethin'!"

"No! I didn't!" Li Huai felt himself go red.

w.a.n.g Zhaoshu laughed and prodded him, and they continued running down the street.

"Can we—can we ditch these backpacks somewhere?" Chen Shan gasped, panting.

"It's got my graphing calculator in it! I'm not letting it get stolen!" Lin Yuxing retorted, but he, too, was out of breath.

"My place is right here," Hua Fu offered. "Good enough?"

"Great, thank you, Hua Fu!" w.a.n.g Zhaoshu spun around to face her. "We'll pick them up later! After fireworks!"

If there is a later… Li Huai felt a chill run down his back.

And still, he acted like it was nothing. "Yeah, that's a great idea!"