We walk down the concrete trail towards the school; however, I notice a distinct lack of footsteps behind me. I turn my head slightly to peek at what’s taking her so long. She’s staring in amazement, eyes scanning around the school grounds. It must have been bigger than any she’d seen. It’s a very open campus. While there is indeed a concrete trail leading to each major building, there are many small pavilions surrounded by grass for class activities that require them.

  “Th-This is bigger than the college campus near my house… I didn’t know a school this large could even exist…” she mutters to herself.

  “Well, it doesn’t really.” I say, before tilting my head in thought, “Well, it actually, could? But, this one, specifically, doesn’t. You- You know what I mean.”

  Qu Yi follows me again pulling her suitcase with her. As she walks, she notices the strange emptiness in her skirt, causing her to blush. It feels so much airier than any clothes she has worn before. She starts trying to mess with it, pushing the skirt where the bifurcation would be in her old jeans.

  “I would just try to get used to it if I were you.” I call back to her. “All school uniforms have a skirt.”

  She lets out a defeated sigh before hurrying to catch up, trying to ignore her damaged masculine pride as a member of the opposite sex. “Um, s-so how many school uniforms are there?” she asks, noticing multiple girls in different colored uniforms talking at benches and laughing to each other. “Do I at least get to choose which one I get to wear?” she continues, trying to peek around to find one that has a more typical masculine fashion.

  “Nope, each classroom has their own uniform. I’ll have to check what class you’re assigned to. That’s why we’re heading to the main office. Your papers your mother signed should be there. They should say which class you’re in and who will be your roommates.” The sound of footsteps behind me come to a halt again. I pause before sighing in frustration, “At this pace we’ll be there by midnight. What’s the issue this time?”

  “I-I-I have to share a room with girls?!” she yelps in shock.

  I stare at her blankly with a deadpan look on my face, “Just what part of all-GIRLS boarding school did it take you this long to understand?”

  She begins stuttering like a motorboat, “B-But, b-but! I c-can’t share a room with girls! I-Isn’t this world meant for me? I-I’d f-f-feel like such a p-pervert sharing a room with-”

  I pull out a thin paperback book from the back pocket and start lightly hitting her on the head with it, saying one word per hit. “Stop. Questioning. Yu. Ji.” I turn around and shake my head, “teenagers are such a pain.” Qu Yi rubs the place I hit before continuing to follow me, trying to push down the cowlick that seems to have formed.

  “L-Look, I’m s-sorry I’m a pain, but this is a lot to take in! E-Even ignoring all the s-sensory stuff!” She frowns tightening her grip on the strap of her backpack. “P-Please be patient and help me!”

  “Then please keep moving while you’re having these moments of disbelief,” I respond off the cuff. I’m about to continue, but stop and look at the book in my hands. “Speaking of… Yu Ji wanted me to give you this.” I turn back, handing the teenager the book I just swat her with.

  She looks at it skeptically before taking it. The book is quite thin, could fit in a pocket, like my back one for example. “Romance of the Three Kingdoms Volume 1?” she mutters, reading the title. An obvious sense of confusion is present in her voice.

  “Don’t ask me about it. I tried to read it while waiting for you to wake up, was stuck on the first page.” She places the book in her backpack and continues on.

  As we continue down the trail toward the school, we pass more students in uniforms, some shaded in different greens, and some in orange.

  My follower is oddly silent. It is quite peaceful. I turn my head slightly to peek at her from the corner of my eye. Her eyes are facing the floor, watching my feet move, staying in her own little world.

  I smile, glad to have some peace and… wait. My mind wanders. This is probably why she’s in this situation to begin with. Her once faked confidence from the bus is completely drained. Some bullies will most likely pick on her and we’ll be right back where we started. She won’t survive here with that. I turn my head back towards her and exhale. I suppose I should help her out. Besides, the happier she stays, the more likely students will be brought back to her existence.

  The girl continues to follow me, whenever she hears sounds from nearby students she cringes, making sure to look in the opposite direction. Well, sometimes if you want to teach someone to swim, you drown them in the water. As we approach a bench in an intersection in front of the gate to the general school building, I stop.

  “Hey kid.” I look back to her as she finally raises her eyes, “Look, here’s a bench right here, and the dorms are on each side here.”

  She turns her head towards the bench. It looks like any ordinary wooden bench, curved around the seat to make for a comfortable position when sitting in it with metal railings and armrests. “Just hang out right here, I’ll get your papers from the front office. Then I can give you the tour.”

  “W-Wait w-what?” She looks up almost offended, “A-Am I really annoying you that much?”

  “No, I just think it would be better for you to sit here, ‘soak in’ your new environment, and watch some of students closer to your age. Perhaps you can regain some of that fake confidence you had on the bus.” I turn around towards the school and head off that way again. Most of the students avoid my presence.

  “W-Wait, my f-faked… how did you know it was fake?!” she speaks out loudly in my direction.

  “Sorry, can’t hear you, too busy ignoring you.” I reply, my pace increasing.

  She expresses a disappointed look on her face. She certainly isn’t confident enough to follow an authority figure who told her to stay, even if it is someone like me. She sits down on the bench with her suitcase between her legs.

  As she sits there, she notices a lot of girls with different uniforms walking by with their friends, talking to each other. Can she really hope to achieve something like that here? Her mind is racing, “are girl friendships even the same as boy ones?” Not that she would know either, but she at least saw boy friendships in tv shows marketed towards her. “Don’t girl friendships talk about boys, shopping, clothes and stuff like that?” She shakes her head, no way she could talk about that stuff. “Wait. What boys would they be talking about? This is an all-girls school, right?” She let out a sigh of relief, “Well that’s at least one she wouldn’t have to worry-”

  “Ay! What is a new girl like you doing in our president’s spot?!”

  The voice breaks her train of thought, she looks up seeing three girls approach. The one who spoke is in the middle, she has long dark red hair styled into a ponytail, her eyebrows already help to frame an intense glare towards Qu Yi. She has a yellow scarf around her neck, with a somewhat baggy sleeveless tan shirt over her body, a very misshapen yellow skirt, seemingly homemade, with yellow tights underneath. She is the slimmest and tallest of the three. “Our great grand president Zhang Jue sits here to meditate during lunch break!”

  Qu Yi has to look up to see her face, she would still be shorter than her even if she had her original height, but now? She’s even more small in comparison. “So, what’s with this no uniform wannabe sitting here?”

  Qu Yi begins to get brief flashbacks to her old school. She is used to bullies, but perhaps these bullies can be different than the ones she had at her old school? “I-I’m sorry?” She stutters out, “I-I didn’t know. I can move-”

  “Hah?” The red-haired girl moves her face closer to Qu Yi’s. “Now the no uniform wannabe wants to apologize? We don’t take kindly to forced apologies!” She turns to the girl on the right, a short pudgy girl with a short black bob cut and wide eyes nods.

  “Yeah!” She also has a yellow crudely cut skirt, a brown sleeveless top, and a yellow scarf around her neck.

  The tall girl trains her eyes back on Qu Yi, “That’s what I thought!”

  Qu Yi stares between the three girls. She notices the third girl is partially hiding behind the tall girl. She has auburn hair in messy curls and her face has a terrified expression, as if scared of Qu Yi, despite being in the group who are the aggressors. She wears a uniform that matches the other two handmade uniforms.

  “T-T-This is just a misunderstanding. I was told to stay here by a staff-”

  “Hah?” The red-haired girl interrupts, “We don’t care what fancy pants staff say! We don’t take kindly to staff, do we, Guan Hai?”

  “Yeah!” The pudgy girl repeats.

  “You see, you wannabe?! None of your tricks will deter us from getting you off the president’s bench!”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Qu Yi looks at them, face perplexed in utter confusion. She is trying to tell them she doesn’t mind moving to one of the nearby benches less than five meters away. She sighs, “Look I’m fine with movi-.” Another loud voice speaks up again before she can get another word out edgewise.

  “Stop right there, foul evildoers!” A voice shouts, causing the four girls to each turn their head towards the source. “Yaaaaah!” A sudden orange blur runs through and screeches to a halt in between the three girls and Qu Yi.

  The girl sports sandy brown hair tied into a high ponytail on the right side of her head, a light orange bow keeping it in place. She wears an open orange blazer with a white button up shirt, a matching orange skirt with yellow trim, and a pair of white running shoes adorns her feet. “I am the protector of the weak and innocent! I am Yan Gang! Cease your bullying!”

  Qu Yi is in shock, staring at the girl. She has never seen someone jump in to protect her, although the comment of being weak is uncalled for in her mind. Perhaps this school can truly be different than her previous ones?

  “W-We’re not the bullies…!” The girl with the auburn hair finally speaks up, well, hardly speaks up. Qu Yi can barely hear her. “R-Right, Cheng Yuanzhi?” She looks up to the girl in the center.

  The girl in the center, named Cheng Yuanzhi, turns her head towards her, “Hah? Of course we’re not!” She turns back to Qu Yi before pointing an accusatory finger in her direction, “This no uniform wannabe is in our supreme president’s spot! We have to get it ready for her to sit and meditate!”

  “Yeah!” Guan Hai chimes in.

  Yan Gang stands up straight and folds her arms. She is shorter than Cheng Yuanzhi, but doesn’t back down. “You three seem to be doing an awful lot of antagonizing to this poor helpless new girl for ‘not-bullies!”

  Qu Yi looks up to Yan Gang. At least her heart is in the right place. She could do without all the “helpless” and “weak” comments though.

  Yan Gang continues, “I recognize your uniforms! You’re from the Yellow Scarves class! The Head Mistress has given us a warning about you!”

  Cheng Yuanzhi steps forward, getting closer to Yan Gang, making their height difference more apparent. “Why that corrupt-! Don’t listen to her! She just has a special hatred for the peace and service our class offers! Now get off the Grand President’s Zhang Jue’s bench or ELSE!” Lightning flashes between the two girls’ eyes as they are locked in a deadlock.

  A soft-spoken voice is barely audible behind the three girls in yellow scarves. “Please, let’s stop this needless fighting.” The three girls in yellow jump as they turn around.

  Cheng Yuanzhi’s voice begins to shake, “A-Ah! Grand President Zhang Jue!” She bows apologetically, before the three move aside to make a path for the girl.

  Qu Yi looks to her. She is a shorter girl with very relaxed looking eyes, as if she can’t open them fully. She has long black hair that was tied into two braids, a yellow hairband keeping her bangs out of her sight, abd a long yellow skirt. Qu Yi has never seen anything like her top. It is yellow and orange with detachable sleeves. The sleeves are held in place by a ribbon connecting the tip of the sleeve to her top, leaving her shoulders exposed.

  The well-dressed girl looks at Qu Yi as she approaches her. In her eyes reflects sincerity and concern for what has happened. “I am so terribly sorry for what my classmates have put you through.”

  Cheng Yuanzhi turns to Zhang Jue in shock, “But, grand president, you shouldn’t apologize to her!”

  Zhang Jue ignores her as she bows apologetically, “I truly hope you will forgive us for causing you such trouble. I hope you do not think ill of our class. They only have the best intentions.”

  Qu Yi blushes looking at her. She never had a girl this close to her before, and she did notice that she is, indeed, very cute. “O-Oh, d-don’t worry it’s fine.” She smiles as normally as she can, trying to keep eye contact. “I-I was just waiting on a staff to get back with my paperwork.”

  Zhang Jue’s eyes widen at hearing this, “Oh, so you are, indeed, a new student?” She covers her mouth giggling slightly, “I suppose it makes sense with the outfit you’re wearing.”

  Qu Yi looks down at her outfit. It isn’t ideal, but she thinks it looks normal, at least compared to all the different uniforms, but apparently here they think she is the one standing out.

  “I do hope you enjoy this pleasant school.” Zhang Jue smiles solemnly, “I hope you’ll find a class and make a lot of friends.” She grabs Qu Yi’s hands in her own causing Qu Yi to look down blushing brightly. Someone who isn’t related touching her non-aggressively is certainly a new experience.

  “I am Zhang Jue, president of the Yellow Scarves classroom. I do hope we can be the best of friends.”

  Qu Yi is taken aback, her face blushing brightly at this point. First a girl up close, and now holding her hands, “I-I’m Quin-” Wait, that wasn’t her name here, right? What is it again? Her mind races, “Q-Qu Yi.” She mutters, “U-Um being your friend sounds really… nice.” She looks down blushing, unable to hold the eye contact any longer.

  Zhang Jue lets go of Qu Yi’s hand and turns her attention towards Yan Gang who is watching the scene. “I’m so terribly sorry for my class inconveniencing you. What you did was very brave, protecting this precious young lady!” Qu Yi feels herself shrink at the ‘lady’ comment.

  Yan Gang beams. Her hand begins rubbing the back of her neck, not used to the praise it seems. “Yeah, I know! I was brave, wasn’t I?” She isn’t exactly humble about it.

  “I will be sure to send a gift package to your classroom! I’m terribly sorry you were inconvenienced due to my fellow classmates.” She bows to Yan Gang.

  Yan Gang’s grin grows larger, obviously loving the attention and good words. “It was nothing! Really! Any good-natured heroine would have done it!”

  Zhang Jue turns around slowly and walks back to her classmates, “It’s okay. There are many other benches for me to meditate on. Let’s not bother these poor women any longer.”

  Cheng Yuanzhi slowly nods, “As you wish… Grand president.”

  “Yeah…” Guan Hai mutters.

  The girl with auburn hair nods as she follows Zhang Jue the way they came. Cheng Yuanzhi gives a glare to Qu Yi, and mouths out “I’m watching you.” before turning to follow.

  Guan Hai nods giving the same glare to Qu Yi, before mouthing out, “Yeah.” She huffs and turns around to follow her classmates.

  Yan Gang sticks her tongue out in response. “Can you believe those girls?” She turns to Qu Yi before rolling her eyes, “Always troublemakers those ones! Friendly advice! When you see that uniform go the other way!”

  Qu Yi looks up to Yan Gang. She is a few centimeters taller than her, but still sitting on the bench makes her look much larger. “S-So, um, who are you?” She smiles awkwardly.

  Yan Gang blinks for a moment before smiling back, “Oh! I guess me yelling my name at the start might have confused you. I’m Yan Gang, a member of Gongsun Zan’s class!” She poses holding two fingers up in front of her eye, as if posing for some movie. She holds the pose for a few seconds before she points to herself with her thumb proudly. “Trust me girl, this school can be crazy! Stick with me and I can help you adjust to it!”

  Qu Yi raises an eyebrow, not sure what to say. This girl is certainly energetic. Part of her seems like she is pretending to be a hero or something. She certainly never had anyone like this at her old school. “W-Well, I’m Qu Yi.” She struggles to keep eye contact, “I-I guess this school is a bit crazier than my old one…” She smiles looking down, “But it’s a lot nicer too. There was no one who came to protect me like you did at my old school.”

  “Aw! Well, that’s what heroes do!” She points her thumb to herself again. She begins moving her hands as if posing. “As a secret protector of the school, and those who are too weak to protect themselves, it’s my duty to protect all the small girls!”

  Qu Yi frowns. Small girls? Too weak to protect themselves? Well, perhaps it is a little true, at least in her current form. “Y-Yeah.” She didn’t get the protector of the school part.

  “So, what class did you end up in?” She leans closer to Qu Yi. “I hope you ended up in Gongsun Zan’s! I still don’t have any roommates in my room! It would be so great to take an apprentice!” She grins ear to ear imagining it. “And you’d get to wear this cool outfit!” She does a twirl, causing her blazer to spin around her, “Blazers are super awesome! So even when I’m not in my secret identity form, I feel cool!”

  Qu Yi smiles, not sure what to say. Yan Gang seems to like to pretend. Qu Yi can’t say she didn’t do that all throughout elementary, although, most people grow out of it. She laughs to herself. Unbeknownst to her the laugh seems to have made her feel more comfortable. “W-Well I’m not sure about my class. The staff guy, Lei Bo, said he was going to get my papers that say where my room is and then give me a tour.”

  “Ah!” Yan Gang face quickly shifted to disgust, “That teacher? He might as well be the school’s custodian! He doesn’t really even teach, just gives out packets!” She folds her arms, “Why would an all-girls academy hire a man anyway? Since we’re all girls, the staff should all be women!”

  Qu Yi smiles politely not sure what to say, “U-Uh, m-maybe?” She really doesn’t want to let Yan Gang know she used to be a boy, but isn’t sure if this is just how girls act about men.

  Speaking of me, I am finally heading back, just passing the inner fence of the schoolyard. Sometimes Zhu Jun can misplace things as the secretary, I know she means well, but it sure makes my job more of a pain to sort through her desk. As I approach Qu Yi, I notice another girl talking to her. Seems like I did a good deed by pushing her into the water. The, possibly shark-infested water.

  By this point Yan Gang takes a seat next to Qu Yi, her legs kicking back and forth as her hands grip the edge of the bench. “So, any idea what class you want to be in? Gongsun Zan’s is easily the best!” She grins, “You should try to get into that class! Or if you get into Liu Bei’s class, President Gongsun Zan visits and helps their class a lot, so we’d get to see each other a lot if you got into her class!” Qu Yi has never seen a girl talk so much or smile so wide. While she has no idea what any of these names meant, she is just happy to have a conversation with someone who seems interested in her.

  “I-It sounds like a lot of names to remember.” Qu Yi shyly smiles, starting to get the hang of looking at Yan Gang’s face when talking.

  I approach the two at the bench, “Hey Kid, I’m back. I have your dorm and your classroom.”

  Yan Gang looks up to me. “Oh hello Mr. Lei!” She stands up excitedly, acting as if she didn’t just badmouth me a minute ago. “You know, I still don’t have a roommate yet! So… if Qu Yi is coming to Gongsun Zan’s class, she can just room with me!”

  “Sorry Yan Gang.” I look down to the papers in my hand. “Looks like she’s bedding with Wen Chou and Yan Liang.”

  Yan Gang’s smile disappears suddenly. She turns to look to Qu Yi with a serious expression on her once happy face. “W-Wen Chou? Y-Yan Liang? Are you trying to tell me she’s in Yuan Shao’s class?”

  “That appears to be correct.” I look up from my papers back to Yan Gang.

  Yan Gang’s legs begin to tremble. She’s biting her lip, seeming to be holding back tears. Qu Yi takes notice of this, “Y-Yan Gang? Are you okay?”

  Suddenly Yan Gang jumps back and does a pose, covering her face with her hand, possibly trying to look cool, but maybe it was to hide all the tears that have been loosened. “Y-Y-You! YOU! You and I are ENEMIES now!”

  “E-Eh?! Y-Yan Gang?” Qu Yi looks bewildered at her sudden change.

  “I-I-I sh-shouldn’t have saved you from those Yellow Scarves! She closes her eyes as she turns her back to Qu Yi, her arms trembling. “Y-Y-You’re just g-gonna be one of the Y-Yuan Shao snobs! I-I, I, I HATE YOU!” She runs off towards the school, trying to hide her loud sniffling and tears streaming down her face.

  I blink, look to Qu Yi, look back to Yan Gang running, then back to Qu Yi. “So… making new friends already huh?”

  “I-I-Is this what making friends is supposed to feel like?!” she asks breathing heavily, “B-Because I-I am so confused!”

  I shake my head, “I’m the wrong one to ask. Let’s just head to your dorm, and drop off your suitcase in your room. Then I’ll show you around the school.” Did my plan to help her be more social work? I have no idea, but at least she kept eye contact and spoke up this time. I really should check in on Yan Gang later.