Queen of the Campus

3

After seeing my mother off, I returned to the classroom and found Tara and Wang Tao whispering amongst themselves. When Wang Tao saw me come in, his lips moved—it certainly wasn't something pleasant.

This was a self-study period, followed by lunchtime dismissal. I took out my textbooks, but I had no interest in studying at all. I nudged the sleeping Tara.

"What's wrong? The homeroom teacher called me again?" Tara teased me.

"Sister, can you leave me alone after school?" I didn't know why I called her "sister"—had I lost my dignity, or what? But Tara was 16. Calling her "sister" wasn't a loss for me.

"Leave you alone, Luke? Don't even dream about it. I'm going to hit you! Go ahead and call your parents over, see if the teacher dares to offend me!" Tara stopped sleeping, stood up, and yelled at the class, "After school, it's fine, get out of here! I don't want to hurt anyone innocent!" The class monitor opened his mouth, then closed it again.

I realized this wasn't working, so I stood up and ran. Tara grabbed me tightly, and her underlings, completely disregarding class, blocked my desk. After the bell rang, everyone else in the class quickly left.

"Class monitor, help me!" I shouted to the class monitor who was about to leave.

Tara glanced at the class monitor. "Ask him if he dares."

The monitor's expression changed, but he still walked out. For a moment, I felt like the world was ending!

From then on, Tara sent someone to teach me a lesson every day. During morning exercises, someone behind me suddenly stepped on my shoe and it came off, leaving me barefoot to the side, facing the ridicule of the entire school. In PE class, I was suddenly kicked in the face by a flying soccer ball. The pain made my vision blur. In class, someone suddenly picked up a piece of chalk and smashed it on the back of the teacher's head while she was writing on the blackboard. The teacher was furious. Who did that? All eyes turned to me.

From then on, I never told my mom about being beaten at school again. I told myself to just endure it. I flattered Tara every day. If her shoes got dirty, I would clean them for her. I did her homework. I even had to queue up to buy her lunch at noon—a typical lackey. Even so, she still lectured me every day; it had probably become her source of amusement.

I studied harder and harder. Once I got into high school, I wouldn't have to be afraid of her anymore. With her grades, huh? But even so, I remained cautious.

"Little brother, which high school are you applying to?" Tara suddenly asked me three days before the high school entrance exam.

"Of course, it's West City High School. I'm used to it here, and I don't plan to apply to any other school." I would never apply to my own school; junior high was a nightmare for me.

"I thought you'd apply to the city's top high school, your grades are so good," Tara said with a half-smile.

"How could I? The cutoff score for the city's top high school is so high. It would be terrible if I didn't get in."

After the high school entrance exam, when it came time to fill out college applications, I immediately applied to the city's top high school. The city's top high school is a key high school in the city; getting in meant I had one foot in the door of university. I felt I did pretty well on the exam; admission to the city's top high school was a sure thing.

Sure enough, when the results were released, I scored 543. I knew in my heart that I was pretty much guaranteed a spot at the top high school in the city. I checked my score directly over the phone; I was afraid that if I went back to school, Tara would catch me and beat me up again. Although she clearly didn't want to punish me as the exam approached, I couldn't let my guard down. Still not entirely at ease, I secretly checked her score too. Damn, this shocked me! She, who didn't study much, had scored 451! That score should be enough for a regular high school, or at least I could get in by paying some money.

However, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now I didn't have to worry about this little delinquent anymore. We'd been deskmates for almost a year, and I'd suffered humiliation for almost a year.

Revenge, revenge immediately!

Back then, I had no concept of a good man not fighting with a woman. Could you expect a fourteen-year-old boy to have the magnanimity of an adult?

I quickly found a few playmates. We lived in a shantytown, a melting pot of all sorts of people. I had a few childhood friends, most of them now in seventh grade, so naturally they'd follow my lead, a student who'd already graduated from ninth grade. We discussed it briefly—there wasn't much to discuss, really—I grabbed a burlap sack from home, and hurriedly headed out with them. I'd learned this from watching TV; honestly, TV was somewhat useful.

Knowing Tara would be going to school to pick up her grades today, I waited for her along her usual route home. This place was rather secluded, or rather, quiet; nobody usually came here. Tara was always incredibly bold; even at night, she dared to cross this path alone on her way home. I just hoped she'd fall into my hands today.

Fat Monk was the first to lose his temper. He asked me, "Xiao Fan, who are you going to get revenge on?!" It was all my fault for being so flustered; I'd completely forgotten to tell them about Tara's situation. As we were talking, we heard rustling footsteps and immediately shut up. We lay down in the grass, and I cautiously peeked out. Sure enough, it was her, looking very happy, obviously because she had done well on the exam. She even kicked at the pebbles under her feet.