The cafeteria is a giant room filled with what appears to be hundreds of tables, some circular with separate seats around them, others with a long bench attached to the table. Uniforms and hairstyles of all different types and colors fill the room. For the most part, groups are separated based on uniform, each one having separate conversations about their current classroom activities, the latest gossip, and what media they enjoy.

  Qu Yi is in shock about how she can hardly remember being here for dinner the night before. Meeting a lot of people was tiring, but it shouldn’t have been THAT tiring to her. Perhaps the whole metamorphosis helped make her that exhausted. The room is loud for sure, but somehow it seems more controlled than her previous school. No one is fighting, and no inappropriate language is being said. It certainly is a better experience than the lunch she is used to. Of course, having two friends sit on either side of her certainly didn’t hurt.

  All that remains on Qu Yi’s plate are a few stragglers of hashbrowns and an eighth of a pancake. She sets her fork down on her plate as she examines the room further. The floor is tiled, probably to make sure staff such as I, aren’t stuck getting stains off the floor. The walls are covered in bricks as the lights from the ceiling shine on the room from above. One of the walls has three large openings with canopy doors that open on one side, able to fit trucks for deliveries and allowing students to flood in without creating traffic jams by doorways. Speaking of which… a set of four doors sit at the center of each wall other than the north wall, hosting the kitchen where students are served their food in line. Looking around, it is much bigger than any cafeteria Qu Yi has ever seen in life or in movies.

  “So… Um, when exactly does class start?” Qu Yi turns to Wen Chou sitting on her right. She notices the number of plates piled on top of each other next to her.

  Wen Chou peeks up from shoveling eggs into her mouth. “Oh! That?” She gets out with her mouth full. “Closses kinda jost hoppen!”

  Qu Yi smiles with a confused expression, “Uh…” not exactly sure what to make of the slurred speech.

  “Wen Chou, were you raised in a barn?” A voice comes from the left side of Qu Yi, a small sigh following. Qu Yi quickly turns to Yan Liang, seeing as she wipes her face with her napkin. “Don’t speak with your mouth full!” She focuses her attention to Qu Yi as her face and voice soften. “Well, yeah, about that, classes start a bit differently for each class. It’s up to the presidents to set the schedule for the class. Yuan Shao states something like,” She mimics talking in a noble demeanor similar to their class president, “Ahem, ’the royal lineage of Yuan needs proper beauty sleep;’ so, we start at 11.” She side eyes Wen Chou with a look of annoyance. “Normally it takes her that long to finish breakfast.”

  Wen Chou gives a quick glare to Yan Liang, in between filling her mouth with sausages. “Hey, I can stop whenever I want to stop.”

  Qu Yi smiles to Wen Chou. “I’m sure you can.” She looks back to Yan Liang, “Is there a way I can meet more of my classmates? Yesterday I feel like I got to learn more about every class other than my own.”

  Yan Liang smiles and joins the tip of her hands in excitement. “Oh sure! We can stop by the classroom early. Multiple classmates hang out there before class. I can take you there while Wen Chou finishes-”

  “I’m done.” Wen Chou places her sixth plate on her stack. She then gives a smug look to Yan Liang.

  “Well, glad you finished within reason this time.” She stands up folding her arms at Wen Chou. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact I was just going to go off with Qu Yi.”

  Wen Chou stands up, smirking confidently as she folds her arms. Coolly letting out, “It actually entirely was,” as if having no shame in proving Yan Liang’s point.

  Qu Yi blushes slightly, “R-Really? You stopped eating early because you want to go with me?”

  Wen Chou frowns at the way Qu Yi worded her sentence. “Hey! It’s not like I’m addicted to eating. I just need protein to help with my growth for baseball!” She pulls her right sleeve of her uniform back to flex her bicep.

  Qu Yi stands up holding her plate. “Okay, so you place the plates over there?” She points to an extremely obvious giant pile of dirty plates, adjacent to the counter where the food was taken from.

  Wen Chou smiles as she picks up her stack of plates. “Good job Newbie! Very perceptive! It took me a few times to get that right!” A shocker, truly.

  Yan Liang leads the way through the other students to the desired counter, placing the plates neatly with the others. Well, I say that, because at least Yan Liang and Qu Yi did. The Idiot sort of just drops them on the counter, and I doubt the bottom one survived from the cracking sounds emitted, but hey, five out of six is still passing.

  “I have to show you the baseball court, Newbie!” Wen Chou smiles as she stretches her arm around the shoulders of Qu Yi, the group heading to their classroom. “It’s going to be so fun training a new member of our class! I’ll be like your big sister!”

  Yan Liang sighs, “What about what Qu Yi wants? Yesterday she said she didn’t know the rules of baseball.”

  “Yeah, but that’s because she doesn’t know how great it is yet!” Wen Chou laughs.

  Qu Yi thinks to what she knows about baseball. She remembers being on a tee-ball team when she just outgrew the toddler title. She tries hard to think back to then. “Um, well, I remember you hit the ball off of a rod?” She tries her best to continue mining her brain for information. “I think you get fruit afterwards?”

  Yan Liang stifles a giggle, quickly looking away to hide it from Qu Yi. Wen Chou thinks to herself for a bit before understanding. “Oh!” she let out as she places the bottom of her fist into the palm of her other hand. “You’re thinking of tee-ball!” Her face beams. “That means you do know most of the rules of baseball! We probably just need to unlock those forgotten memories and then you’ll be the best there is!”

  “Eh?” Qu Yi blinks, “I-I don’t think you should expect that much out of me-”

  “Nonsense!” Wen Chou interrupts enthusiastically. “You said you were good at archery, right? That requires a lot of strength, accuracy, and precision, so, you have everything you need already! We just need to teach you how to use it for baseball!”

  The group makes it outside as they begin passing some of the students towards the school. Qu Yi notices the bench where she sat yesterday, the girl she remembers as Zhang Jue sits there with her eyes closed, her hands in her lap neatly. Her yellow outfit and headband look as clean and ironed as they were yesterday; however, she notices the crimson haired girl, Cheng Yuanzhi, giving a dirty look to Qu Yi. She quickly turns her head away.

  Yan Liang looks at Qu Yi’s reaction in confusion, trying to catch where she was looking, but failing to notice. She then continues the conversation. “So, how did you end up getting good at archery?” she asks with a pleasant and welcoming tone, trying to prod an answer.

  Qu Yi quickly turns her eyes to Yan Liang. “Oh! Um, I kind of thought it was cool, so, I practiced a lot.” She blurts out blushing a little as she looks down shyly. In reality, she likes to pretend she is an archer in medieval ages, but she doesn’t want to sound like a nerd to her new friends already.

  Wen Chou smiles at that, opening the door for the three. “I bet you were a cool kid in your last school! You could do archery! You are very cute, and ooze ‘little sister’ energy! I bet all the boys had a crush on you!”

  Qu Yi stops moving as she blushes brightly. “E-Ehhhh!?” She looks at Wen Chou, not sure how to respond. Not only was the opposite true, but being accused of having boys like you wasn’t a compliment for her.

  Yan Liang folds her arms. “Wen Chou. Don’t try to embarrass Qu Yi so much.”

  Qu Yi looks to Yan Liang, eyes practically sparkling at her savior for getting her out of the awkward situation.

  Yan Liang continues, “When Qu Yi is ready to tell us about all the confessions she received, she’ll let us know.” She nodded, assured of herself.

  Qu Yi’s heart shatters. Et tu, Yan Liang? “L-Look, um, c-can we discuss this another time?” She thinks back to the bullying she endured back at her old school. Her imagination begins to think widely, “Of course, media does sometimes say when someone picks on you, they like you-” Qu Yi slaps her cheek as she shakes her head, trying to get that thought out of her head. As nice as her new friends are, she refuses to be accidentally gaslit by them! There’s no way anyone at her old school had feelings for her.

  Wen Chou smiles. “No problem, Newbie! I’d love to hear any stories from your previous school.” The group continues to head on route to Yuan Shao’s classroom.

  Yan Liang smiles as she walks with the group, but she stops smiling as a thought comes into her head. “Um, so Qu Yi, about the… boys in your school…”

  “Hey!” Wen Chou frowns, moving her head forward so she could look at Yan Liang ahead of Qu Yi. “I thought you were just getting on me about embarrassing her.”

  “It’s not that!” Yan Liang raises her hands defensively. “I was just thinking about what you said yesterday, about being willing to help me with boys? You did mean that right?”

  Qu Yi cocks her head slightly as she turns to Yan Liang. “W-Well, I mean, I can try?”

  Yan Liang lets out a sigh of relief, turning to Qu Yi. She closes her eyes and smiles brightly. “Thank you so much, Qu Yi! Meeting you was so lucky for me!”

  Qu Yi blinks for a moment, then a blush creeps on her face. “U-Uh, right!” Her heart skips a beat hearing that. She likes the feeling of someone depending on her for something. Is this what having friends is like? The thoughts rush to her.

  The three shortly enter the classroom. It is a lot emptier than it was yesterday with only two students inside. Qu Yi notices that they are clad in the same yellow uniform she is in. She also notices they have the same hair color as each other, a light green. One has a short side ponytail to the left of her head and the other has a short side ponytail to the right of her head. Upon closer look at the two, their faces look almost identical, same height on top of that, shorter than Qu Yi by an inch.

  Wen Chou raises her hand half enthusiastically to the two. “Hey Lu sisters.”

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  The one with the ponytail on the right side of her head has an annoyed look on her face. “Hey, I thought we told you to say our names separately.”

  The other sister has a more solemn look on her face, smiling and looking at her sister, “I think it’s okay, Kuang. I like being included with you.”

  Qu Yi looks between the two. “Wait, so are these two-“

  “Sisters, yes,” Wen Chou interrupts with a smile on her face.

  Yan Liang raises an annoyed eyebrow at Wen Chou. “I don’t think she was going to ask that, Wen Chou.”

  Qu Yi pauses for a moment and continues, “Are you two identical twins?”

  The sterner Lu sister looks upset. “Hey, we’re not ‘identical’ We have differences!”

  “Actually, we are,” the calmer Lu sister adds after her sister. “We saw you yesterday, but we didn’t get to introduce ourselves.” She bows slightly. “I’m Lu Xiang. I’m the younger one.”

  The other Lu sister frowns as she folds her arms, pouting slightly. “Hmph, you’re no fun Xiang. I’m Lu Kuang, the older one.”

  Qu Yi blinks in confusion. “Wait, how can one be older if you’re twins?”

  Lu Kuang scoffs, “Well, one of us had to come first and it was me!” She places her hands on her hips proudly.

  Qu Yi notices that Lu Kuang seems more active than Lu Xiang. She briefly jots that mental note down as another identifier. “Oh, right.” Qu Yi scratches the back of her head.

  Lu Xiang smiles, although it stays somber like most of her movements. As if knowing what Qu Yi is thinking, she responds, “Don’t worry. There’s an easy way to identify us. I always wear my hair like this.” She points to the ponytail on the left side of her head. “While Kuang always wears hers like that.” She points to the ponytail sticking out of the right side of Kuang’s head.

  Lu Kuang frowns, turning to her sister. “Stop giving away the clues so easily. It’s more fun when they mess up often.”

  Lu Xiang smiles back. “I thought you wanted them to say our names separately?”

  “Well, I do! But it’s more fun when they screw up when trying to say our names individually!”

  Lu Xiang sighs. “But that’s when they start calling us the ‘Lu sisters’ and I want them to call us by our name.”

  “Calling us Lu sisters isn’t that bad!” Lu Kuang defends.

  Qu Yi looks between the two as they continue their conversation with each other. “I’m getting confused. Weren’t they supporting the other side of the conversation earlier?” she mutters to herself.

  Yan Liang whispers, “I think they forget themselves. They just like talking to each other.”

  “What have we here?” An androgynous voice comes from outside the room. Qu Yi looks over to the doorway. A tall girl with the same uniform stands with her body leaning against the door. “The delectable flower that evaded my grasp yesterday has brought herself here. However, know that once you have borne witness to the absolute charming prince that is myself, your heart will never stop beating for me.”

  Qu Yi looks at the girl with a confused expression. She has light blue short hair with orange eyes. She could be mistaken for a boy if she was not wearing the puffy uniform that shows they are in Yuan Shao’s class. In a swift motion she grabs Qu Yi’s hands and begins to waltz with her.

  “Huh?” is all Qu Yi can react with at her sudden fanciful kidnapping.

  The girl brings her face uncomfortably close to Qu Yi. As she sways quickly with her along the classroom, she moves in a way that even Qu Yi’s body moves with her without resistance. The “prince” even quickly twirls Qu Yi in place before letting her go against the wall. “I know. You must be speechless. Seeing a face as flawless as mine talk with someone like you, it must make you think you’re in a fairy tale.” She looks away dramatically, going on with her monologue. “Perhaps it is fate or maybe a curse, as your heart may belong to another! However,” She turns to look back at Qu Yi, “I will never give up-”

  What “The Prince” doesn’t notice is that Wen Chou has swapped places with Qu Yi when she was turned away. “Zhang He,” she lets out sternly, which she follows quickly with her fist over Zhang He’s head in one smooth motion. “Don’t do this crap with Qu Yi!”

  A meter away Yan Liang stands with her arms out protecting Qu Yi behind her. “Hah, are you okay?” She smiles slightly, turning her head so she can see Qu Yi in her peripheral vision. “She’s a bit much to handle, especially with new girls.”

  Qu Yi is smiling slightly. “U-Uh, it was a bit of surprise, but at least she seems friendly?”

  “Too friendly, you mean.” Wen Chou folds her arms looking down at Zhang He. “She’s the biggest flirt in the whole school.”

  Zhang He looks to Wen Chou as she gets up, feeling where she was hit with her hand. “You wound me, fair Chou! I simply want every girl here to feel like the princess she is! Everyone deserves to be swooned and complimented, and, only a girl like myself can give them the needs they desire!”

  “Fine. Sure. Whatever. You have to at least ASK if they are interested in being danced with and moved around first!” Wen Chou retorts.

  Another voice comes from the doorway. "Flirting again Zhang He? I wonder what you would do if one of the ladies accepted your offer. Could you truly give up your love of complimenting others?" The owner of the voice walks in, a tall girl who has dull, dark, purplish, wavy hair down to her shoulders. Her hair covers her ears revealing her freckled face with dim, purple-colored eyes. She is clad in the same yellow uniform Qu Yi sees from the others occupying the classroom.

  "Ah, my dearest Lan! You of all people should know all beautiful specimens deserve compliments, even if their heart will never shine in my direction!" Zhang He places the tip of her fingers on her head dramatically. "All beings of beauty deserve to be uplifted, and you are no exception, as your radiant beauty lit up this classroom when you graced us with your presence!"

  The girl chuckles. “Your compliments are nice, but full of false flattery. You see me everyday in our dorm room. If my radiance was so stunning, you would be used to it by now.”

  Zhang He gasps, practically twirling her way towards the purple eyed girl. “You wound me, Lan! You of all people should know my flattery is anything but false!” She closes her eyes as she continues driveling on, not noticing her roommate has already left to approach Qu Yi.

  As the girl approaches closer, Qu Yi looks up to her, she is at least a head taller than herself, even slightly taller than Wen Chou! The girl gives a pleasant smile as she approaches. Qu Yi takes it as a sign that she won’t be whisked off her feet for a dance practice.

  As the girl gets closer, she examines Qu Yi up and down. “Oh, you are that new classmate who was introduced yesterday, correct? I must say, you saved us all from another delectably boring speech from the class president. I must thank you for that.”

  Qu Yi nods. “Uh, n-no problem. I really don’t like being the center of attention anyway, so it was helpful for me also. Um, I am Qu Yi.” She bows slightly, gathering yesterday it was a common motion for respect and greeting here.

  “Oh! Where are my manners? I should have introduced myself first. I am Gao Lan.” She follows Qu Yi’s example and bows slightly. She then pulls out her phone, which has a transparent protection case. There are printed photos placed in-between the phone and the case for showing off. “Let’s exchange numbers, so we can message each other after class.”

  Qu Yi blinks for a few moments, trying to comprehend something. “Ack!” She lets out. “I don’t know where my phone is!” panic rising in her voice. Unlike most kids at her old school, Qu Yi hardly ever used the thing. The most she can do is text and call, and her only contacts were family members.

  Wen Chou and Yan Liang jump up, seeing Qu Yi beginning to panic. Yan Liang, being closer, holds her hands out, signaling her to calm down, “Hey, hey, it’s going to be okay! You just moved in, right? It should be in our room with your stuff you haven’t unpacked.”

  Wen Chou approaches, scratching her cheek. “Yeah, you were so tired from yesterday, we didn’t want you unpacking your stuff after the dinner incident.”

  Qu Yi begins to calm down, but then hears them calling her black out sleeping the “Dinner Incident.” “W-Wait, how bad was I at dinner? There was an incident?”

  Yan Liang shoots a quick glare to Wen Chou, who shrugs apologetically in response. She returns a softer expression to Qu Yi. “Not really. You were just saying some stuff that didn’t make sense and all and it was…” Yan liang lets out a small chuckle into her hand, “very cute.”

  Qu Yi blushes at the comment. “Uh. I-I’ll take your word for it.” She shakes her head, trying to get back to the topic at hand, “B-But anyway, we should probably grab my phone!”

  Gao Lan smiles, watching the three talk to each other. “Seems like you three are getting along like peanuts, butter, and jelly.” She chuckles to herself briefly. “Don’t worry, class doesn’t start for another thirty minutes. I’m sure you’ll be back in time.” She looks at Yan Liang with a knowing look.

  Yan Liang blushes slightly as she folds her arms defensively. “Hey, I could be late if I really wanted to.”

  Wen Chou grins, putting her arm on Yan Liang’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Liang, I’ll teach you. I’m the expert!”

  “Hey! Not today though because… because…” She quickly looks around for an excuse, her eyes focusing onto Qu Yi. “Because we don’t want Qu Yi to be late on her first official day, right Qu Yi?”

  Qu Yi blinks a few times, seeing Yan Liang’s eyes pleading for some help, “Yeah. I don’t think it would make a good first impression, especially after how much Yuan Shao was talking about her royal nobility of the class yesterday.”

  Yan Liang lets out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, so there. We need to focus on Qu Yi first.” She grabs Qu Yi’s hand as she begins leading her out of the room, Wen Chou following behind them. They pass the doorway where Zhang He is still monologuing thinking Gao Lan is still listening to her.

  Now, as you’ve seen in the previous chapters where I am present, my job is not an easy one, so I know you’ll forgive me when I realize she isn’t going to find her phone in her things. I quickly jolt awake from my sleep, my head going straight up from the desk in my office. The book I was pretending to read, which had previously covered my face, flew off with the sudden movement. While Qu Yi had the luxury of being half asleep for the latter half of the day, I did not. I did, however have her phone, apparently according to the memories Yu Ji implanted in me. Qu Yi’s mom wanted to get Qu Yi an upgraded phone as a congratulations slash going away present for making it into our school. Yu Ji had given me the phone. I had the phone in my office. In fact, Qu Yi’s mother tried to call yesterday. I had picked it up. She wanted all the details of the first day and as a member of the staff, I let her know that her “son” “Quin Ton” had already made some friends; however, due to the busyness of the day, she didn’t get her phone yet. That satisfied her and she thanked me and let me know she would call tomorrow after work.

  I begin opening drawers, moving everything around, looking where I could have put it. There it is! I pick up the case. Unluckily for me, it is just the case. While it has the booklet including instructions from our most “benevolent god of creation” Yu Ji, the phone itself isn’t in there. Well crap. I turn on the lights in the room. That probably could have helped earlier, but shut up. I’m met with the wall of paper packets that are in a huge stack on top of each other. To my surprise, there’s the phone sticking out from the bottom one.

  One obnoxious game of “Pull out the Phone from Legions of Packets Without Tipping Them Over” later, I get what I need. I let out a sigh of relief. Well, I guess I just need to deliver it-

  “Mr. Lei!” a voice comes from the hallway to my office.

  And what now?

  A girl in an orange Blazer and pleated skirt walks into my office. She has her sandy brown hair tied into a ponytail on the left side of her head, a light orange ribbon keeping it in place.

  “Oh, morning, Yan Gang.”

  She stands in front of me, folding her arms. “Mr. Lei, you have to fix the atrocity you made yesterday!”

  “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific.” Does this girl have ANY idea the number of fires I had to put out of yesterday?

  “The one where the really nice new student is in a class like Yuan Shao’s!” She stamps her foot. “Yuan Shao’s class is full of snooty preppy girls and are my class’s main rivals!”

  “Well, that’s unfortunate.” I look at her silently. She stands there without saying a word, looking back at me with the same expression. We sit there for four seconds before I decide to ask, “So, are we done here?”

  “No! You have to swap her to Gongsun Zan’s class!”

  This is starting to get annoying. “Look, speaking of her, I need to deliver something to her, so I’m on a time constraint before Devil Child gets to the classroom. I have to go all the way to the Eastern Dormitory and go to the fifth floor before she stampedes in here-”

  For some reason this makes the Orange Larper perk up. “Wait, Qu Yi’s on the same floor as me?”

  I stare at her for a moment. Of course I know that, but with so many things racing through my mind, I might have momentarily misplaced the thought. “Yes, she is in room 513.”

  Yan Gang places her hands on her face, squeezing the cheeks in shock. “SHE IS MY NEIGHBOR!” She begins jumping around with a grin on her face, fist bumping to the sky. How this girl has no shame I’ll never know.

  I could, however, use this to my advantage. “Look, perhaps if you deliver Qu Yi’s new phone to her, I can find some way to arrange a ‘work with your dorm neighbor’ activity for some field day nonsense.”

  Yan Gang looks up to me, her body freezing mid dance. “Could we maybe see about moving her in as my roomie?”

  “Don’t push your *bleep*in luck.”

  “I’ll take that as a future maybe!” She smiles and grabs the phone from me. “Do you want me to deliver the box also?” I look at the box in my hand. There is an instruction booklet from Yu Ji in it. Unless I want this girl to have an existential crisis about her existence if she snoops, I better hand deliver this later.

  I shake my head as I put the box in my back pocket. The Orange Larper jumps up. “Don’t worry Mr. Lei! The hero, Yan Gang, will deliver it faster than you can rhyme something with orange!” The energetic girl bursts off jogging. That’s sure an odd one. An odd student is normal here, but rhyming something with orange? Huh, a thinker. Does “door hinge” count?