The New Girl

Mai was unable to pay attention to Shirley answering the question of her classmates, instead she continued to stare at the new girl in disbelief.

'How is that possible? She looks like a younger version of the one I saw in my dream yesterday. Could she be her sister? Have I just gone mad, or am I some sort of psychic or something?' She thought, as she pinched herself to make sure she was no longer dreaming.

"Now where to sit you..." Mr Hilston wondered while looking around the room. "Tom, please move to the back of the class and allow Shirley to sit next to Mai. I'm sure you will be able to sleep through my lessons from there as well."

"But sir, this has been my seat since the start of the semester! I even wrote my name on the desk. Tom was here in 2022!" Tom shouted as he pointed at his scribble, before he closed his mouth with his hands.

"One, you've just admitted to having vandalised our precious school property, and I can't believe that even you would be stupid enough to to use your actual name to do so!" Mr Hilston shouted. "Two, everyone knows that Mai is one of the best students in this entire school. Since Shirley has also received great marks in her last school, I don't want to put her next to a bunch of rotten apples."

Tom looked towards the teacher and Shirley again as if he was going to continue to argue, but then he saw Shirley smile at him and mouth the word 'sorry'. Aware that Mr Hilston never changed his mind after deciding on something, he decided that getting in the good grace's of the new transfer student was worth it.

"Oh and Tom, stay behind after school. I think there's a bit of cleaning you will have to do." Mr Hilston added.

As Shirley sat down next to her, she smiled and gave her a small wave.

"Hi nice to meet you, I'm Shirley. Your name is Mai, correct?"

Hearing this brief introduction just confirmed Mai's thoughts. She initially thought that maybe these two had met before, but judging by the way Shirley was introducing herself once more it didn't seem to be the case at all.

"Nice to meet you too, Shirley. If you need any help with the lessons, or if you need someone to show you around school on your first day, I'll be happy to do that. We can do that during our lunch break." Mai offered, as she was hoping to actually learn a bit more about the new transfer student.

Perhaps it was just like in one of the dramas she watched and they used to play together during their childhood. One of them would have moved away because of their parent work and now they just didn't recognise each other because they had grown up?

"That would be great." Shirley nodded with a smile, at least she seemed to be a nice person.

Once class resumed it was hard for Mai to concentrate, not that she really needed to anyway, since she was ahead on what they were currently studying. From a young age her parents had forced her to study to the point it had become a habit. From her perspective the things her class learned at a slow pace, but judging from her classmates' grades, she was the only one.

'If we were in a drama that would make her the main character… So I would be her best friend's side character? But wait, wouldn't that also mean that she would get together with the best looking guy which is...' She thought as she turned her head to look back at Chris who was still staring out the window.

A few lessons later the bell rang as it was time for lunch break. Usually, Mai would be one of the first to leave the room as she rushed to get something to eat, but she could see that Shirley was still busy writing down her notes from the lesson.

'She seems like a hard worker, my mother would definitely like her.' She thought.

At that moment, she felt someone walk past behind her. After glancing at who it was, her cheeks started to redden and she felt her heart thumping louder. Placing her hands on her chest she was wondering if others around could hear it as well, especially him.

Turning to see him leave, she only caught his back.

"Hey, so I have to ask, do you like anyone?" Shirley asked out of the blue once she stood up.

Panicking about the question that was just asked, Mai couldn't even find the right words to answer.

"I thought as much. That boy that just walked past us, you like him, don't you?" Shirley pointed out with her sweet smile.

"What makes you think that?" Mai asked, her gaze pointed at her thighs, yet she could feel that she had to be as red as a tomato.

"Well, your reaction just now is a clear sign, not to mention you kept staring at him every so often during the lessons. There's nothing to be ashamed of, you have good taste!" Shirley gave her a thumb up, approving of her choice. "So why don't you ask him out? You're pretty cute yourself, if you don't mind me saying so."

This girl, although she was quiet during the lesson, now that it was lunch break, Mai could see she was quite blunt and forward pushing. Was she really going to tell the new girl on her first day what had occured just one day ago?

"Hey, I was wondering, have the two of us met before?" Mai asked since she wanted to change the subject, while at the same time it was a question she really wanted to ask.

Hearing this, Shirley walked forward and grabbed both of Mai's hands.

"Wow, are you saying you feel it too? As soon as I entered the class, even though I've never seen you before, I had the feeling as if we've known each other for a long time. I can tell the two of us are going to be great friends!"

This wasn't really what Mai wanted to know, but at the end of the day Shirley didn't seem like a bad person. Sighing in defeat she decided to leave the classroom to go grab some food.

"If you want, I can try to help you and him get together. I consider myself quite the good matchmaker. Some people say I was the reason my mother and father got together." Shirley stated.

"Huh, but wait, how is that possible?" Mai paused in the middle of the hallway. "Shirley, you do know how babies are made, don't you? Please tell me you know!"

Shirley started to giggle.

"Of course I know how babies are made! When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much then they kiss, and some time later they are delivered by flying monkeys, right?"

Mai didn't know what to say once again. This seemed like there would be a very awkward conversation ahead of her.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I just tried to cheer you up a bit. What I meant by that was that my two parents often say that they were meant to be together. You know, like fate made them a couple to have me. So I feel like I have the ability to bring two people together."

"Riiiight." Mai replied, laughing awkwardly.

Looking at Shirley, she thought that maybe she didn't have to worry about anything after all, it could be the start of another great friendship. No problematic love triangles, no drama, just a new girl joining the school.

'Yeah, I think everything will be okay…'

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