2 Chapter 2 My name is Qi, Qi Jun

"Do it now" Sunny mouthed to Sam. The same fate had met her as it did in Tabby's class so she's at the other end of the classroom and the new boy is sitting next to Samu.

"Okay" Samu mouthed back.

Samu can still smell the scent of Lemon and Lavender coming off of him. He seated uprightly right next to him, he had this aura like he was a prince or someone important. He had on a watch, it didn't look that expensive but it looked old. It's like one of those watches you would find in an old antique store.

"It's probably a family heirloom," Samu thought

He wore a red hoodie but he doesn't have his hood covering his head, his hair was half blue and half black. His face was so pretty, it didn't have any flaw on it.

"Hi again," Samu said to him waving his hand. He felt a little skip in his heart as pretty boy turned his towards him. 

"Hey" he replied smiling. He had a really beautiful smile, as he smiled, you could see his eyes close a bit and dimples showed on his cheek.

"I'm Samu Cai, what's your name?" Samu asked thinking about the leather jacket he's about to get. 

"My name's Qi, Qi Jun,  nice to meet you Samu" The new boy replied smiling again.

"Your family's from china?" Samu asked.

"No, my master just have a thing for China" he replied not smiling this time around.

"Did you just say your master?" Samu said wondering if he heard the right thing.

"I mean my father, I call my father master" Qi said "It must sound really weird to call one's father master over here."

"You're not from around here, are you?" Samu asked.

"No,I'm not, I just arrived here" he replied shaking his head sideways

"Oh, you must have a really tough dad to call him master, I've never heard of someone call their father master" 

"I guess there's a first time for everything" Qi replied.

 "You guys wanna partner up for this activity?" Mr Magnus the science teacher asked them as he handed them a sheet of paper. 

"Of course" they both replied.

As soon as classes were over, Sunny walked quickly to where she and Samu usually met before they go home. They used to walk to their neighborhood together not until her dad stopped them from doing so because he thought it was too dangerous and she was too important to walk on the streets alone.

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"But, Sam is there, I don't walk alone" She had said to him on that day when he had sent a car to pick her up from school. She had refused the offer stating that she was walking with her friend but the driver has said it's a must for her to ride with him that it was her father's instruction.

"Can Sam protect you from my enemies?" Her father, Mr. Ki, had replied with a stern voice. "And besides Mr. Cai's son is not the daughter of a very important man." "

Dad, you know sometimes, it's not always about you." She had said running out of the house trying to contain herself from bursting into tears. 

Growing up, her parents had always kept her from the rest of the world like she was this fragile glass that could break at anytime. She couldn't have normal friends except those little bratty rich kids. Samu was the only one who made her feel like herself. They had met in the cafeteria on the first day of middle school. He was the first person to talk to her like he cared about her that day. The other kids talked to her  but it was all about the new phones they got over the break and they asked her about who her parents were and if they were richer than their own parents. 

"Hey, are you okay?" he had said to her as he pulled out a chair and sat in front of her. 

That question caught her off guard, she didn't know how to answer because that was the first time in her life anybody had ever asked how she is, mostly they just say "you're okay right?" especially her parents, they just assume she's okay with all the decisions they make concerning her. 

"I..I think so," She replied thinking of that time when she had complained about her life to her aunt and she had showed her a video of this kid from Africa, he lived in an old hut with his family, he had two younger siblings, the kid was the same age as sunny when her aunt showed her the video. The kid has to wake up early everyday in the morning, walk more than 3 miles to and fro in the cold with his half torn clothes to get clean water for the day for his family. Not only that, he has to take care of his sick father while his mother is working, he also has to take care of his siblings. Watching that made her feel like she doesn't have the right to complain. After the whole video, her aunty told her "I'm not telling you not to express your feelings but you should think about what you have, you might not think you're lucky cause you grew up with people who live in mansion like you do but like you just saw, there are others whose house is the size of your room. "I'm sorry." she had said to her aunt as she took her bag and went to the music lesson she was supposed to go before she had a breakdown. "I hate my life, I hate everything." She had blurted out. "Why do my parents have to define who I become?"

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"Hey. hey," Sunny heard a voice calling behind her. She looked back to see who it was. It was her crush-pretty boy.

"Hey," Qi said waving at Sunny as she faced back. 

"Hey" she replied slowing down for him to catch up. 

"You're Samu's friend right?" he asked as soon as he caught up with her. 

"You're Samu's friend right?" he asked as soon as he caught up with her.

"Yeah...I am," She answered smiling.

"Oh...okay, I was just trying to confirm."

"Why?" Sunny asked hoping Samu had put in a good word about her

"Right, I wanted to see him, I forgot to return his pencil to him.

"I can return it to him for you." Sunny offered hoping to use that to start a conversation with him the next day.

By that time, they had walked close to where Sunny's supposed to meet Samu.

"He's just right there" Qi said pointing at Samu who was waiting impatiently for Sunny.

Samu was pacing up and down with his face down and his leg kicking the floor.

"Boo!" Sunny said as she got close to Samu.

"Oh, snap!, you scared me Sun."

"That's kind of the point Sam." Sunny said which made Qi laugh.

"Hey Qi," Samu said.

"Hey Samu," he replied.

"Here you go," he said handing over the pencil to him. "You don't have to return it, you can keep it."

"Oh, thanks, you are kind"

"No, he's not, not at all." Sunny said ?(side pushing Samu, I don't know what word to use). "But I am."

"S..u..n, come on," Samu said

"So you guys hang out after school?" Qi asked

"We used to" Sunny said. "But not anymore"

"We still do, we're hanging out right now aren't we?" Samu said "And I usually go to her house in the evening"

"I don't consider that hanging out not when those meetings are in my house."

"Oh..okay, Can I hang out with you guys sometimes?" Qi asked.

"Yeah sure, we'll be pleased, won't we?" Sunny said looking at Samu with a "say yes" face.

"Of course, we will," Samu said smiling.

"I'm Sunny, what's your name?" Sunny asked. Sunny tend not to tell people about her last name when introducing herself.

"He's Qi" Samu answered before Qi could because he wanted to make sure he gets that jacket, so he has to prove he did his job by inquiring what the new boy's name was.

"Yeah, I'm Qi Jun" Qi affirmed.

"You don't look chinese, are you?" Sunny asked.

"I asked him too," Sam said this time not answering Sunny's question.

"Oh, I'm not, my ma..I mean my father had a history with China, that's probably why he chose the surname and named me Qi" he said after pausing for a second probably expecting Samu to answer since he knows.

A car parked close to them a man in black came out of the driver's seat, opened the passenger's door and stood there.

"I guess that's my cue" Sunny said. "Bye guys, hang out later today Samu?"

"No, I can't, Jaden and Jada have a thing" Samu said.

"Oh, wish you good luck" Sunny said with a smirk on her face as she stepped into the car. "Bye Qi," Sunny said before her guard shut the door.

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"What about during school hours or when I go to the mall or the cafe, won't I need protection from your so called enemies?" Sunny asked her dad that same day she confronted her dad about being forced to ride in a car.

"I didn't want to tell you before, but since you asked, I have professional guards around the school, they're students just like but there to keep you safe," Her dad answered "And also, when you go to the mall or want to go anywhere outside the house, your driver will follow you, he's a professional guard too if you haven't noticed." her dad said trying not to smile because he felt like he just won a fight.

Sunny didn't say anything and just continued with her dinner which they were eating when she asked her question.

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"So, you and Sunny have been friends a long time uhn?" Qi asked after the car drove off.

"Kind of, since the first day of middle school" he answered

"Wow, she's a good friend, is she?"

"Yeah, she is, she's my best friend"

"Mmmh" Qi said like he just made a heartfelt discovery. "Do you want a ride home?" Qi offered.

"Um...I don't live that far" Samu said "I can walk home, thanks." Samu declined in his I-really-appreciate-it-but-no-thank-you-tone

"Oh, okay" Qi replied sounding a little disappointed. "See you tomorrow then" He said waving as he turned to go.

"See you" Samu said wondering why he sounded disappointed.

"Are you on task?" a hoarse voice that was coming from Qi's watch asked. "Have you found the Matsari?" the voice asked.

"Yes master but the Matsari doesn't seem…."

"Good" the voice cut him off before he could finish his statement. "Get close to the Matsari, find out the Matsari's weakness and bring the Matsari to me" the voice said in a commanding tone.

"Yes master" Qi said bowing, like the person with the voice could see him.

Qi got into his car and as he was driving, he saw Samu walking on the sidewalk. "Did he figure it out?" Qi asked himself. "No, I doubt that he knows" He reassured himself

After a few hours, Samu found himself sitting in the auditorium of Beehive Elementary watching his two-not-so-favorite-people acting onstage. Oh right, I forgot to mention the Cai siblings all go to the same school.

"How did I end up here?" he asked himself.

So basically what happened was Samu got home, his mom wasn't at home because she was working late, Samu went to his room, changed his clothes, went downstairs, got himself some snacks, poured out a glass of juice,went back upstairs, sat comfortably on his bed about to watch his favorite show when his phone rang, It was Tabby calling him. "Oh snap" he said. He was expecting his dad to call him and not Tabby, his dad usually made those calls inviting him to his family's outing.

"You need to be a big brother to your siblings, I know they're not your real siblings and they're kind of mean but they need someone to look out for them," his father had said to him the first time he invited Samu to one of their outings without his mother. "What are you doing?" Samu had thought "Looking in for them?"

Samu had used the excuse that his twin sibling had a thing to not hang out with Sunny knowing fully well he wasn't going to attend, it's not that he didn't want to hang out but Sunny's mom was back from her tour and she doesn't like him that much. His mom not being home this afternoon gave him the opportunity to stay in bed and watch his shows without being disturbed. He knew he was going to get a call to invite him to their thing but not from Tabby, he was expecting his dad to cause he already had an excuse but with Tabby, he couldn't.

"Damn it, why do I have such bad luck? He said as he picked up the call. "Hey Miss Tabby"

"Hey S, you busy?" Mrs.Cai asked.

"Um.." This time, he remembered what happened at school. "How could she be so casual now and so formal at school," he thought.

"Are you with Miss Ki?" Mrs.Cai asked when she didn't receive a response.

"No, no I'm not, I was just thinking if I had homework"

"Do you? Mrs.Cai asked knowing they don't give homework on the first day of school.

"No, I don't" he said regretting the fact that he's not with Sunny right now.

"I wanted to invite you to my kids' play, it's at 7:00pm, you're free then right?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm looking forward to it." They both know he's not but he said it anyways.

"Alright, we'll pick you up at 5:30pm, we have to get there earlier for them to rehearse" Mrs.Cai said

"Okay, I'll be expecting you." Samu said trying not to show his displeasure.

"Bye"Mrs.Cai said as she cut off the call.

"You called him?" Henry asked his wife as he dressed up to go to catch his flight to Africa.

"Yeah, I did" Mrs.Cai answered. "I still don't get the fact that no one else can go to this crappy trip of yours except you," Mrs.Cai said annoyed.

"Don't call it crappy, and not everyone in the company is a food scientist and a chef at the same time," Henry blurted out, trying to suppress his anger.

"Not when it's keeping you away from home for almost a year" Mrs.Cai said. "And aren't you going to at least inform your son you're going to Africa for almost a year to study African dishes?"

"I'm almost late for my flight, wish the kids good luck for me" Henry said ignoring Tabby's question as he kissed her on the cheek.

Tabby frowned as she said goodbye to Henry. "Hope you don't come back with malaria" She said as he walked out the door.

"Maybe I didn't go for my father. Maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right, so when I looked in the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile. But I was wrong. I see..." It was Jada on the stage playing Mulan.

"She's good" Samu said to Tabby who has been awfully quiet since she said "hi" to him when she came to pick him up.

"Yeah, she is" Tabby murmured

When the show finished, Tabby asked Samu to get the twins backstage. As they were walking to the car, the twins started arguing.

"I should have played Ping and not you,"Jaden spatted out.

I'm the boy" Jaden said pointing at himself.

"Mulan is a girl and she is Ping, not a boy"

"I look just like you and it would have made much sense if I had played Ping." Jaden argued.

"Okay guys, life is unfair, you should know that, we don't always get what we want."Samu said to them as he thought about him being right there at that moment is not what he wanted.

"Where's dad?" Jada asked Tabby as they got to the car.

"On a plane to Africa." Tabby answered casually trying not to draw much attention to the fact that her husband is on a trip to Africa to learn how to cook.

"He's going to Africa?!" Samu asked with a surprise in his tone. "He never mentioned it."He added.

"Well, that's your father," Tabby said. "He'd be gone for almost a year." Tabby said to establish how long he'd be gone down for the kids.

"Wow, so no ice cream before lunch for a year." Jaden said with disappointment.

"Seriously Jaden, that's all you care about, dad just left us to go to that primitive continent." Jada said with anger.

"Hey, no one's leaving anyone and don't call Africa primitive" Tabby snapped at her. "And you're right, no ice cream before lunch, only your father accepted such cr.." Tabby stopped abruptly when she realised she was about to say. "Get in the car and let's go, we need to drop off Samu.

Samu got into the front seat while Tabby strapped the twins each to their own car seat.

"We're too old to use this." they complained as she strapped them.

"No, you're not." She replied.

"You were amazing today Jada." Samu said as Tabby drove into his street.

"Thanks Sam" Jada replied blowing raspberries at Jaden who didn't seem to care because he couldn't see her doing it. He went to sleep about two minutes after they got into the car. Jada who had no idea he was sleeping kept making faces at him.

They passed through Sunny's house and he wondered what she was doing."I'll text her when I get home and then I'll..."

"We're here." Tabby said as she stopped in front of his house.

His mom had refused to take Henry's house as part of the alimony, instead, she bought her own house.

"Bye Miss Tabby, thanks for today." Samu said to his own surprise, he actually had fun and enjoyed the play.

"You're welcome, have a good night S" Tabby replied "See you tomorrow