Sun and Moon

CHAPTER FOUR – SURPRISE!

“Are you sure about this?”

I looked at my mom’s face with so much guilt. She looked so concerned. I bit my lip and slowly nodded. “Y-yes,” I whispered.

My mom heaved a deep sigh. “Are you really okay? Why won’t you just tell me what’s wrong, honey? This is so not you.” She put her arm around my shoulder and then squeezed it softly. “You can still say no.”

This time, I shook my head. “No! I really am okay.”

“Then why did you suddenly want to transfer? You only had one year left, and then you’ll finish senior high.”

Of course, I didn’t tell her about my encounter with the Fifth Guy. Yes, she knew about him because my mom is my number one fan—and basher—on my channel. She watched my videos on a daily basis—old or new videos since I only upload videos once a week. If my mom found out about our encounter, she might drag me back to Hawaii.

“I j-just want a new environment, mom. Plus, I want to have different content on my channel. Having a new school, having new friends and classmates is really fun,” I lied. The school would never be fun without Crystal.

I tried my best not to tear up in front of my mom. It would make her doubt my sudden request to transfer to another school. I liked my school so much. In fact, I studied there since the seventh grade. But what can I do? If I would bump on Sun in Upper West Side again, I know it’ll just ruin my sanity.

I was still embarrassed because of what I did a few months ago. My mom saw the video, and she didn’t talk to me for two weeks—the longest silent treatment she had ever bestowed me. She told me that what I did was dangerous, especially that I was alone when I did the dare. If I happened to kiss a maniac, or worse, a r****t, I would’ve have been dead by now. Now that I think about it, my mom was right.

Maybe I was just lucky to have kissed someone on my age, at least somewhat decent—that’s what my mom thought.

I have transferred to McGregor Senior High School, one of the best schools in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. At least, I was still in New York. Although this place was quite a bit far from our home, my mom agreed to let me stay here for a year.

Thankfully, my aunt and her family lived here. So I would have a safe place to stay. I had been here a couple of times, too. My mom would look for a house nearby school, too. She was just waiting for the approval of her work transfer. She would stay with me because she still thought that I was a toddler.

“Mom, I have to go before the bell rings. See you later?” I told her.

Mom kissed my cheek, which made me feel red-faced. “Mom! We are at school!” I protested. Please don’t ruin my reputation,” I pouted.

She smirked. “You’ll be my baby forever. Always remember that. Anyway, I don’t think we’ll see each other this afternoon. I will be going back home after lunch. I still need to fix a lot of things in the office. After a week or so, hopefully, I would be back here and take you with me in our new flat,” she informed.

I nodded and gave my mom a cheeky smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll be good here.”

“You bet!” mom said, laughing. “Alright, go. You can’t be late for the first day of classes.”

“Bye, mom! Call you later! Love you!” I said before running off to school.

A few moments later, I was staring at the huge banner in front of the big building where I assume my classroom would be since the school registrar told me to come here right after getting all my books and other essential kinds of stuff.

“Welcome back, McGregorians! Let’s start this year better than your summer!” the banner said.

I looked around me and saw a massive number of students who flocked in front of the building I was looking at. I was wearing their school uniform. I must admit, the design of their uniform is relatively better than in Hunter Science High School, my former school. Although there wasn’t much difference in terms of surroundings, the number of students here was overwhelming. Well, this school was a bit larger.

“Hey!”

I squeaked when a few male students bumped me. They were goofing around. The guy who bumped me just grinned and didn’t even bother apologizing.

It made me upset. In my former school, I was a celebrity. Nobody dared to even lay a finger on my one of hair strands. My eyes narrowed as I watched them continue goofing around as if nothing had happened.

“Sorry about that,” came a tiny voice beside me. Startled, I looked around to see to said that. The girl with bangs and curly hair smiled at me. She somehow reminded me of Crystal—not precisely, but she seemed to exude the same type of vibes like Crys.

“That’s Elliot, the i***t,” she matter-of-factly told me. “He’s with Francis and Grant. Anyway, are you new here? I haven’t seen you before.”

“Oh…” I nodded. “Yes, I’m quite new here. I’m Moon, by the way. And you are?”

“Skylar. But most people call me Skye.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Skye,” I smiled.

“It’s so nice to meet you, too. So, what class are you in?”

Skylar’s interest in me made me feel a little bit nice. At least, I was not a hundred percent irrelevant now. “I think it’s called Class A-12,” I replied.

Her eyes widened, as if in disbelief. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! We are in the same class!” she shrieked. Her excitement looked cute.

“Wow! That’s great!” I said.

“So you are the transfer student everybody was talking about since yesterday at the group chat.”

So, they too have a group chat. Kinda typical, I supposed. “Yes, I am.”

“I can’t wait to see everybody’s reaction when you’d come to class later.”

I wrinkled my nose. “What do you mean?”

“You’re so cute! Everybody would love you for sure.”

“Awww, come on. Stop it,” I laughed. I was going to comment more when a few gasps and shrieks filled the open ground.

“Ahhh…the celebrities are here,” Skye announced.

“Celebrities? From Hollywood?” I asked, surprised.

Skylar shook her head. “Nope, Mr. Genius and Mr. Handsome.”

“Who are they?”

“You’ll see them later in class. Fortunately, they are our classmates,” she grinned. “Hey, let’s get inside. it’s better to be early so we can still find better seats.”

I threw the flock of students hovering at “Mr. Genius and Mr. Handsome” a curious look. And then, I shrugged. Oh well, I used to be a celebrity back in school. “Sure.”

When they finally got into class, I had expected a lot of eyes on me. I was a new face, so it should be expected.

“Do you mind if I’d sit next to you?” Skylar asked.

“No, it’s okay,” I said.

“But it’s not okay for me.”

A girl came up beside Skylar and put her bag on the seat she was supposed to offer me. “From what I remember, this is my seat before summer vacation even started.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I said. Skylar gave an apologetic look. “Hey, it’s okay,” I assured her. “I’ll get by, don’t worry.” I looked around and saw that students are finally getting into class. Since I know that everybody basically had their own seats, I didn’t want to impose on Skylar by worrying her about my seat.

“Uh…where is the restroom?” I politely asked.

“It’s right by the end of the hallway, turn left,” Skylar answered.

“Thanks, I think I’ll have to go for a bit. See you later,” I said.

I walked out of the classroom and went straight to the restroom. I opened an empty cubicle and sat on the bowl, with the cover closed. I think I’ll just wait for a couple of minutes before going back to class. Hopefully, all would be settled by then.

While sitting, I opened my bag and looked at my cellphone. I saw a few texts from Crystal, asking about her. I smiled. And then, I sent Crystal a reply, saying I was okay and there was nothing “really” odd happened to me. “Liar,” my mind said.

“Hey, have you seen the new girl?” said one voice.

“Who? The long-haired puppy?” said the other with a mocking voice.

Laughter. “She looked cute, in a way,” said another voice.

“Not really,” answered the irritating voice again.

“Are you threatened?” teased the fourth voice I’ve heard so far.

Maybe the irritating one threw her a deadly look because nobody dared to laugh but her. “Why would I be threatened? She’d be honored to be even compared to me.”

They were talking about me as if I was nothing! I stood up and opened the door to see an empty restroom. They were all gone even before I could’ve said my piece.

Who were they?

Great. Maybe transferring to another school wasn’t a good idea. I gritted my teeth. It was all that guy’s fault! If it weren’t him, I wouldn’t have transferred.

With a heavy heart, I went back to class. When I opened the door, the class adviser was already there. And all eyes were now looking at me.

“Oh, here she comes—our new student from Upper West Side. Come here, honey. Introduce yourself, so your classmates would know you.”

I wasn’t timid. I was used to being with a lot of people. I walked straight towards our teacher and stopped in the middle of the class.

I gave my best smile. “Hello, guys! I am Moon Johnson. Pleased to meet you all. I hope we’ll get along well,” I said.

“Let’s all welcome Moon, what a cute name by the way, and clap for her,” said our teacher, smiling. “I am Mrs. Williams, and I am your adviser for the rest of the school year. Where would Moon sit?” the teacher asked.

Everybody kept quiet as if nobody wanted to let me sit next to them. Except for Skylar, of course. I looked around and almost fainted from shock when I saw him—SUN, who was devilishly grinning from ear to ear as he stared right at me.

Everybody gasped, including the teacher and I, when Sun suddenly raised his right hand and said, “She can sit next to me, Mrs. Williams.”

“Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! What do I do?” my mind shrieked.

“Wow, that’s so sweet of you, Sun. That’s a great idea. Since nobody sits beside Sun, why don’t you sit next to him, honey?” urged Mrs. Williams.

I wanted to say no. I wanted to run away and never come back. But if I’d do that, not only would I look like a fool, my mom would kill me if I’d ask her to bring me back to Upper West Side Manhattan again!

“Welcome to McGregor Senior High School, MOON JHONSON,” Sun said, emphasizing my name.

I swallowed so hard that I almost choked on my own saliva. And then, I saw the Fourth Guy, a.k.a. Cloud, grinning from ear to ear right behind Sun. He was with the guys who had bumped on me a while ago.

What the hell? What have I done?

With shaky legs, I walked towards Sun and sat next to him. Sun put his elbows on the table in front of us and leaned towards me. Closer to me.

“You can never escape me again,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ll make sure of that.”

Oh no! It was all my mind could say. Oh no!