Although by default, in such situations, boys usually sit with boys and girls with girls to facilitate conversation among friends, it would be awkward if they were forced to sit in boy-girl pairs like in elementary school activities.
Xu Xiangyang and Lin Xingjie were clearly exceptions.
By now, no one felt there was anything amiss about "the two of them sitting side by side"—a scene that would have been rare in other classes...
In the half hour after the two of them settled in, the bus had become almost unbearably noisy, with some of the more excited boys even standing in the narrow aisle, ready to show off their unique skills to their friends' encouragement.
Even the students who usually found the class teacher strict and quick-tempered were beginning to hope she would arrive sooner, as some were indeed getting excessively excited.
Then, Teacher Liu indeed arrived on time. As soon as she got on the bus, the noise level immediately decreased.