Xiao Xian dragged her wheeled suitcase all the way into the school, finally getting a good view of Sacred Heart Middle School’s scenery. She reached the end of the tree-lined path and there was still someone stopped up ahead.
The girl student who had previously insisted on moving forward was now tiredly sitting on a flower bed. She dragged her luggage inwards just to avoid being laughed at by others. But back at home, she never really did any heavy lifting, let alone carrying such heavy luggage over such a long distance.
"Are you okay? Let me take your luggage," Xiao Xian reached out to take her luggage.
"You... no, my dad said not to let others help for no reason," the female student stubbornly replied, moving the luggage attempting to continue forward, but she really couldn’t drag it any longer. Her stature was not small at all, at least 1.7 meters tall. In Zhuo Feng’s words, she was "good-looking but not that useful."
"I’ll take your luggage and you take mine, that way, it’s not like anyone is helping anyone," Xiao Xian said this, and the female student agreed. They exchanged luggage and moved forward.
"My name is Zhang Yiyi, I’m from Tianjin, a basketball special recruit this year." Zhang Yiyi had a round face, but a quite sturdy body, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a ruddy face, a typical Northern appearance. She was quite tall, and her body matured early. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, her chests were already quite developed, looking more like an older student compared to Xiao Xian, yet once she opened her mouth, her real age was revealed.
"Just call me Xiao Xian, I’m from Zhejiang." Strictly speaking, Xiao Xian was born in Beijing, but she had lived in Guizhou for four years, and she couldn’t really say which place she was from, so she might as well pick the Zhuo family’s ancestral home - Zhejiang.
"Oh, Zhejiang eh? My dad took me on a trip to Hangzhou once, and I even asked for a blessed Buddha statue at the Lingyin Temple." Both were teenage schoolgirls with little scheming, feeling a liking for someone just because they were willing to help with the luggage.
"I’ve never been there, I grew up in Guizhou, and I just came back this summer. It’s such a coincidence that we are both basketball special recruits," they chatted as they arrived at the gym where the school had gathered the new students, who had already lined up according to the school’s arrangements to take photos and process student IDs.
"You’re also a basketball special recruit? That’s great, we can look out for each other in the basketball team. I have to ask whether we’re in the same dorm." Zhang Yiyi said loudly in the crowd; with her height, her voice, especially prominent in the crowd, stood out.
A senior girl maintaining order glanced at her, and Zhang Yiyi sheepishly lowered her head, making a face at the other girl, "What’s so great about it."
The other girl ignored her, walking past to join several other senior students, all with the words "Student Council" pinned on the sleeves of their uniforms.
"Such bad luck, having to come here to maintain order in this hot weather, it’s really tough," one of the senior girls complained.
"Right? Just look at those clueless kids, especially those dumb tall guys from the basketball team, they’re so annoying," Wang Ke, the girl who glared at Zhang Yiyi and was about the same height as her, did a subtle chin jut in the direction of Xiao Xian and Zhang Yiyi discontentedly.
"Basketball team? How did you know? Oh, I almost forgot, you’re also on the basketball team," someone glanced towards Zhang Yiyi’s direction, "I hear the junior division got some good new Miao people this year, you guys have to give it your all in next month’s friendly match between the two schools."
Wang Ke snorted disdainfully, "With me on the team, no way it’s their turn. They’re just two naive rookies."
After the photo was taken, Xiao Xian got her temporary ID without a photo, encased in a leather holder, with a paper card inside neatly bearing the class number 1(3), Zhu Xiaoxian.
"I’m also in 1(3) class," Lin Yiyi apparently was used to snatching balls in basketball and slinkily took Xiao Xian’s student ID, then gleefully showed Xiao Xian her own.
"Students who have taken their photos, come over to receive your meal card and hot water card for the cafeteria." Sacred Heart Middle School’s gym was newly built two years ago with donations from a businessman from Hong Kong, divided into east and west gyms, four floors plus a basement. The basement is said to house a swimming pool, open to the public in summer. As school is about to start, in order to ensure the safety of the staff and students on campus, the swimming pool is temporarily closed for maintenance.