After a good sleep, their new middle school life officially began.
On September 1st, at 7:00 AM sharp, Xu Qingfan, who just came out from the bathroom, greeted the two girls: "Ha~ good morning."
Used to the primary school routine of waking up at 7:30 AM and arriving at school by 8:00 AM, Xu Qingfan felt very tired with the new middle school schedule.
"Morning, Brother Fan!" Wu Lingyu, wearing the Experimental Primary School uniform and with her hair neatly tied up, smiled like the sun at 8 or 9 in the morning, full of energy.
"Hurry up, we won’t have time for breakfast!" Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at the clock on the wall and chided.
"My clock is three minutes fast, it’s only 7:00 AM right now. It takes only five minutes to walk to school, and we still have twenty minutes for breakfast!" Xu Qingfan said calmly as he squatted down to put on his shoes.
Xia Xiaoxiao crossed her arms in front of her chest and arrogantly turned her head away, her high ponytail tracing a beautiful parabola in the air.
"Let’s go!" Xu Qingfan put on his backpack, closed the door, grabbed both girls by their hands and ran down the corridor.
The sky was clear, and it seemed like it would be nice weather today, he thought deeply after taking a deep breath.
They bought three servings of rice noodle rolls from the store downstairs and ate while walking.
When they arrived at Licheng Middle School, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi were already waiting at the school gate. Seeing the trio coming from afar, the two ran over hand in hand.
"Did you have breakfast?" Xu Qingfan casually tossed the packaging bag into the trash can and pushed forward the two girls’ backpacks as they continued to walk.
"Had bread, Yiyi and I took the bus, ha~ but waiting for the bus means getting up really early, so sleepy!" Lin Wanning yawned as she spoke.
"Six o’clock, have to wake up!" Zhang Yiyi also yawned, nodding earnestly in agreement.
"Six o’clock? I woke up at six fifty and I’m still sleepy!"
"Xiao Xiao and I wake up at six thirty." Wu Lingyu also said.
"I’m here, I’m here!" Xiao Ruanwen sprinted towards them with her backpack slung over one shoulder.
"Whew~ I actually thought I was still in primary school, stood waiting at the door for over ten minutes before I realized the school bus wasn’t for me." Once she joined the group, she breathlessly shared her blunder, "Even the bus driver recognized me and said, weren’t you supposed to have graduated? And then it dawned on me!"
After the laughter, Xu Qingfan said, "How about, Wanning and Yiyi, you two stay overnight here too, come for dinner at my place and go back home on Friday."
"Brother Qing Fan, are you all staying together?" Lin Wanning’s eyes shone as she looked at him.
"Sure, we’ll ask the adults after school, Aunt Zhang and Uncle Qiao Shan would probably not be comfortable just you two staying there overnight."
"Fan will cook dinner for us, and we can also study together at home in the evening!" Xiao Rouwen was already looking forward to such days, nibbling on a caterpillar-shaped bread as she spoke.
The six of them chatted happily about the wonderful life ahead, and soon they reached Class 6 of the 7th grade.
Compared to yesterday, the layout inside the classroom had undergone a significant change.
Without their knowledge, the desks had been moved into groups of six, dividing the forty-eight students into eight groups, arranged in three rows of three and one row of two within the classroom.
Except for the last row by the window—that is, Group Eight—which had six vacant spots, the rest of the desks were fully occupied.
As Xu Qingfan and his friends stood at the doorway of Class 7, the previously noisy classroom suddenly fell silent, and everyone looked at them with different expressions on their faces.
"Hello, classmates, are our seats by the window over there?" Xu Qingfan patted a male classmate from the first group on the shoulder and politely inquired.
Unexpectedly, the guy reacted as if he had been touched by the source of a plague, swiftly pushing away Xu Qingfan’s hand and glaring at him angrily.
Xu Qingfan was unable to figure out what had offended this flat-headed guy.
[Could it be the trouble of being too handsome again?]
Thankfully, his deskmate, a girl, resolved the awkwardness and said, "Yes, all six of you boarding students are in Group Eight. You weren’t here for yesterday’s evening grouping."
"Thanks, ha." Xu Qingfan waved and smiled at her, and the six quickly sat down in Group Eight.
Just like in primary school, the middle school’s seating arrangement was two horizontal and one vertical. Xu Qingfan and Lin Wanning sat facing the blackboard, Xia Xiaoxiao and Xiao Rouwen sat by the window, and the remaining two seats next to the aisle were taken by Zhang Yiyi and Wu Lingyu.
"Brother Qing Fan, why are all the students looking at us with weird eyes?" Lin Wanning whispered in his ear after sitting down.
Xu Qingfan shrugged his shoulders, "Probably that idiot class teacher spoke ill of us, trying to isolate us from the rest."
"How could she do that!" Lin Wanning said indignantly after hearing this.
"It’s okay, we six can also isolate them. Students who act as the teacher’s dogs aren’t worth socializing with."
"What are you two whispering about there? Many classmates have cut their hair, Fan, should we cut ours too?" Xiao Ruanwen, sitting in a position that gave her a good view of the whole class, noticed that already two-thirds of the classmates had followed the class teacher’s instruction from yesterday to cut their hair. She held her hair reluctantly and asked.
"If you don’t want to cut, then don’t. I’ve already found out that the school doesn’t require students to cut their hair. As long as it doesn’t cover the eyes, it’s fine. It’s just that idiot Shan Fengtao stirring up trouble!" Since the class was very noisy, he wasn’t worried about speaking too loudly for others to hear.