Ze Xian

Qin Shui leaned back into his chair, lost in thought. He gazed blankly at whoever's pen that had rolled its way under the ground. Looking at the structure of the pen....

"Qin Shui, are you finished with your exam?"

Qin Shui shifted in a hurry. He quickly broke from his trance and glanced over towards the direction of the voice. It was Mrs. Zheng. She tapped on Qin Shui's desk and repeated her question.

"Qin Shui?" She inquired, pushing her glasses up back onto the bridge of her nose as she talked.

"Yes, Misses." Qin Shui replied, he pushed the paper slightly forward. He watched as Mrs. Zheng nodded and collected his paper, before passing him onto the next student. Qin Shui turned his head back forwards and rested his head on the palm of his hand. The ticking sound of the clock was perfectly blended into the classroom.

As the papers were collected, the excitement of the students couldn't be contained. They turned to their closest friend and discuss the answers. 'What'd you get for number one?', 'How about number 10?', '29?' and so on. Qin Shui was long used to this. Thus, is the daily life of a student at Statnik high school.

Qin Shui felt a tap on his shoulder. It was someone's pen he realised, as he turned around.

"Hey! How did you think you did, Qin Qin?" Luo Feng teased.

Luo Feng was a long term friend. He'd been with Qin Shui since the early days of kindergarten. To be completely honest, Qin Shui would definitely choose not to have someone who knows him from the underdeveloped age of 6. But so was the way of life, Luo Feng just had to stick with him all throughout.

The name Qin Qin was also, annoyingly, given by the said childhood friend. The first mistake of Qin Shui's life was to have ever given out his name to a bunch of kids. Premature as they came, as soon as Qin Shui had announced his name, he'd been given the girl-treatment. A 'Qin Qin' here and a 'Qin Qin' there. Unfortunately, Qin Shui wasn't given the favoured-by-god life.

Qin Shui faked a smile and stretched his face unnecessarily wide,"Luo Feng, are you crazy? If you dare to use that name on me again, I'll dare to smash your face into the concrete of the school grounds." He spat, slamming his hands onto Luo Feng's table.

Luo Feng grinned and put his around around Qin Shui's neck. "Come on, us old friends should have privileges! Is there anyone else out there who treats you as well as me?" He said, withstanding the shove of Qin Shui.

Qin Shui grabbed the hand that irritatingly latched around his shoulders and gave a final push. This gave his neck a passageway for oxygen once again. Regaining his breath, Qin Shui dusted off his clothes, wearing an expression of disgust. "Scram!" He yelled, and propped his back down again against his chair.

Around this time, Mrs. Zheng had finished collecting all exam papers. She checked every paper for names and proceeded to place them into her binder.

"Alright then, exam is officially over. You may quietly-" Before having finished her sentence, a ringing noise interrupted her speaking. Mrs. Zheng suppressed her irritation as she walked towards the sound, picking up the telephone stuck to the wall.

"Yes?" ..."Oh, sure!" "New..." "Now? .. Yes, thank you!"

With this, Mrs. Zheng placed the phone back to its place again and went back to the center of the class. She tapped her nails onto the table and stared at the door from time to time, then back to the classroom. The class were curious at her actions, and wanted to know what she was staring for. They once again, like before, whispered towards each other, questioning the contents of the phone call.

Soon, in the passing of five minutes, a vague footstep formed. Coming closer and closer. The sound getting louder and louder. Qin Shui could almost hear the heart pounding of his fellow classmates based off of their expressions.

Suddenly, the footsteps stopped. The handle twisted and the door was pushed open, slowly, but steadily; welcoming a new presence to the room.