Queen of the Campus

5

Since I'd been exposed, I decided to vent my anger on the phone and yell at her. "Tara, you b***h, what's so great about you? Just because you're pretty and have a bunch of sycophants following you around, you think you're so high and mighty. Who the hell owes you anything? Don't let me ever see you again. Every time I do, I'll beat you up." Of course, the last part was just for show; I knew I wouldn't see her again.

Tara didn't expect me to dare insult her on the phone. She was visibly startled. Clearly, this was the first time in her life she'd heard such blatant, n***d insults! "Luke, you wait, I'll never let you get away with this."

"Hehe, sister, okay, I'll wait for you. I'll be waiting for you at the city's No. 1 High School. Come on, come on! By the way, when you asked me which school I applied to, I lied to you, you i***t!" With that, I slammed down the phone.

The phone rang again. As soon as I heard Tara's voice, I cursed and hung up. It rang again, and I unplugged the phone.

Having released the pent-up anger that had been weighing on my chest for a year, my unhappiness finally dissipated. My mother came out of the kitchen, staring at me incredulously. "Xiao Fan, how could you swear?" In their eyes, I've always been a good student, always striving for improvement!

I explained to her, and she was relieved!

It has to be said, everyone has a dark side. Some people's dark side never surfaces. Some people's dark side surfaces occasionally. Some people's dark side, once it surfaces, can never be controlled!

The acceptance letter arrived, and I was successfully admitted to the city's No. 1 High School. Although I was incredibly excited, my first thought was how to escape Tara's pursuit. Even a fool would know she was going to make me pay today. I'm not a fool; on the contrary, I'm quite clever. I called my teacher and said I had something to do at home and couldn't come to school to pick up the letter. Since the letter couldn't be picked up by someone else, I said I'd pick it up tomorrow. The next day, I eagerly went to school. At the school gate, I overheard an old lady selling things saying that yesterday, a very pretty girl had led a large group of people to the school, but nothing happened in the end, and the girl looked very disappointed.

The thorn in my side was finally removed.

High school, here I come!

As the name suggests, the city's No. 1 High School is located in the city center. I wonder if those people have applied the concept of checks and balances to the school. Right across the wide road, the sign for the city's Experimental High School was also exceptionally bright, no less impressive than the school's. These are the only two key high schools in our city. They not only compared themselves academically and competed in terms of facilities, but they also had fierce rivalries when it came to petty thugs—of course, I only heard about this later. Entering high school, all I wanted was to forget the humiliation of my final year of junior high; my dream was to get into my ideal university. And my dream never changed.

However, the only constant in reality is change. I couldn't escape the dictates of fate!

I was almost fifteen, but I was still a bit short, less than 1.6 meters. So when I found my assigned class, Class 3 of the first year of high school, and pushed open the door, the students already inside immediately turned their attention to me.

I hated myself then, standing there dumbfounded, too nervous to utter a single word!

“Little brother, who are you looking for?” A girl stood up, a sweet smile on her face. Even now, I can't forget her smile! Like a gentle spring breeze, a caress on the face—forgive my lack of words. This is just a description, a way of describing a kind person. I like kind people.

"I'm not looking for anyone, I'm here to study." I suddenly realized what I'd done and quickly went into the classroom, finding an empty seat. The people around me weren't too surprised; after all, being a little shorter wasn't a big deal. They started talking about their summer vacation again. Clearly, after nearly three months of summer vacation, no one could easily get back into the swing of things—now I knew it was called post-holiday syndrome.

The whole class was buzzing with chatter. I sat alone in a corner. This scene was so familiar, just like throughout junior high, where no one ever took the initiative to play with me.

Am I destined to be lonely?

I long for a group of friends.

I long to have someone to confide in!

Fortunately, before these sentimental thoughts could fester, the homeroom teacher dispelled them. A bunch of welcoming-new-student platitudes, not much different from junior high. When it was time for self-introductions, I silently memorized the name of the girl with the beautiful smile—Sophie.

I think, this is the first time I've had a crush.

This class really is full of hidden talents. A boy named Xiao Kan kept promoting himself, and at the end, he added that he was currently single, leaving his phone number on the blackboard. I didn't know what "single" meant at the time, and seeing a group of girls giggling, I suddenly thought he was crazy.

There was another boy named Liu Bingren (meaning "sickly guy"), who already looked sickly, and everyone in the class laughed at his name. Later, I learned that this was not the same as the name "sickly guy."

Later, I found out we were all in the same dorm and had become like brothers. Of course, for now, I was still the younger brother.

When it was my turn to introduce myself, I said a couple of sentences.

"My name is Luke, and I don't have a phone number yet. I want to make friends, real friends."

But after my introduction, no one wanted to be friends with me. I was very disappointed. At that moment, I even resented my parents and hated myself for being underdeveloped, noticeably shorter than everyone else. Who would want you?!"

Back in the dorm, I found the sickly guy Liu Bingren from the podium and the incredibly talkative Xiao Kan there. For convenience, I'll call them Patient and Talkative Guy from now on.