Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Past Meets Present ❯ Chapter 30 ( Chapter 31 )

Xin Xin rubbed her eyes as she stepped onto her bus. She sat in the first empty seat, right behind the bus driver. No one sat with her, as was to be expected with a new kid. The ride was short and when she got to the school, she went right to the office.

“Excuse me, but my name is Xin Xin Chang. It’s my first day here,” she told the office lady. The woman gave her a warm smile that helped the young Chinese girl feel a bit more comfortable.

“I have your information right here,” the woman said, handing her a paper with her name on top. Underneath was a locker number, combination to said locker, a room number, and a teacher’s name. “Do you need someone to show you the way?” The woman asked.

She shook her head no, adding, “Just point out the direction please. I can find it.”

The woman kept on smiling. “It’s just down that hall and your locker will be right by your classroom. The fourth room on the right, I believe.”

Xin Xin nodded. “Thank you for your help, ma’am,” she said, leaving. “It was no problem. If you ever need any help, don’t hesitate to ask,” the woman called after, adoring the young girl already. What a sweet girl, and so polite, the woman thought as she watched Xin Xin leave.

Xin Xin looked at the paper and saw that her locker was just a few feet ahead. It took her two tries but she was able to open it and put her coat inside. Remembering the office woman’s words, she looked around to see just where her classroom was. It was just another feet ahead. Taking her notebook and a pencil out, she left her bag in her locker. She walked to the room and knocked, holding the paper in her hand.

A woman opened the door and looked down. “You must be Xin Xin. Come in, I’m Miss Vida,” the woman said, smiling as she let the young girl pass to enter the room. “Class, this is Xin Xin Chang. She’s a new student here at our school, so let’s do our best to make her feel welcome.”

“Hello,” Xin Xin bowed her head, holding her notebook in front of her against her stomach.

“Why don’t you go sit with that group over there,” Miss Vida suggested, pointing out a group that had two girls and a boy, with an empty desk. “We were just about to go to music class, so just take a seat and wait.”

Xin Xin sat down at the empty desk. She looked at the three kids. One of the girls had light blond hair and freckles. The other girl and the boy both had dark hair, the girl’s was straight, and the boy’s was curly. The girl had light blue eyes. The boy’s eyes and the blond girl’s eyes were both brown.

“I’m Marie;” the blond girl introduced herself. “That’s Timmy, and she’s Lys. So, you’re like foreign, aren’t you?”

“I was born on L2,” Xin Xin replied, “but I moved to Earth when I was little.”

“You lived in space?” Timmy asked, eyes widening. “That is so cool.”

Xin Xin looked at the three and added, “I was too young to remember anything. But my uncle said that the Earth is beautiful from space.”

“Oh. Well, it’s still cool to that you were born in space,” Timmy said, a little disappointed.

“It’s time to go to music, class;” Miss Vida suddenly broke in. “Line up single file,” she added.

“Xin Xin, stand with me,” Marie tugged on the girl’s arm. The Chinese girl allowed herself to be lead by the other girl and then found herself between Marie and a boy with bright red hair. “So, what do you like to do?” Marie asked.

Xin Xin shrugged, saying, “I don’t know. I don’t get to do much but read. I used to play with my Uncle Duo a lot but my Niáng and I left my uncles and Die.”

“Niáng? Die? What do those words mean?” Marie asked. “What language are they from?”

“Niáng means mom and Die means daddy. They’re Chinese, just like my name and me,” Xin Xin said proudly.

“I knew you were foreign. I’m from here, but I think that people that are from different things are really cool. You have a history and cool holidays. Kids like me, well, we don’t have much of a history or any cool holidays except Christmas and Halloween,” Marie admitted. “Are you an only kid?”

“Yes,” Xin Xin answered.

“Me too, but I have a lot of cousins. Like Timmy and Marco,” the blond girl replied. “Marco?” Xin Xin repeated questioningly.

“Yeah, that guy right there,” Marie said, pointing to a boy up towards the front of the line. “Do you have any cousins?”

“No. My uncles don’t have any kids but my Uncle Duo acts like a kid a lot,” Xin Xin told her new friend with a little giggle. “And my old home had a bunch of girls across the street so I had some kids to play with.”

“That’s cool,” Marie said as they entered the room. The girls did not get put together and did not get to speak to each other. When they got back to their classroom, the class was kept busy until lunch with various things.

“Hey, Xin Xin, just sit here and I’ll come back in a minute,” Marie told her, pointing to a table. The blond had to go get her lunch from the line but Xin Xin had brought her own lunch. A few kids were already seated and Xin Xin sat somewhat near them. From her spot, Xin Xin could not see Marie but she could see Timmy and Lys. Timmy had sat down on the other side of the table with a bunch of the boys from their class. Lys was seated at their class’s other table, directly across from Xin Xin so that she was staring at her.

Just then Marie sat down right across from Xin Xin so that instead of Lys, the Chinese girl was staring at Marie. A few more girls joined them.

“Girls, this is Xin Xin. Xin Xin, these are the girls,” Marie began. She pointed first to a girl with short blond hair. “That’s Britt.” Next, Marie pointed to the girl on Xin Xin’s right. The girl had dark brown hair that was almost perfectly straight. “And that’s Megan. Next to her’s Erin.” Erin had light brown hair that was braided. The last girl Marie pointed to was another girl with light brown hair. “This is Ami.”

“Hello,” Xin Xin said quietly.

“Hey, so what do you think of this place so far?” Erin came out and asked.

“It’s fun. I hope I can stay here for a long time,” Xin Xin smiled. “So, what are you?” Erin wondered, showing that she was not a shy girl.

“She’s Chinese, Erin,” Marie answered for her. Xin Xin kept a smile on her face as she felt that she was really being accepted into this group of girls.

“So, do you have any brothers or sisters? What about cousins?” Erin kept on going.

“I don’t have any brothers, sisters, or cousins,” Xin Xin answered. “What about you?”

Erin’s face lit up even more than it already was. “Oh no, now you’ve done it,” Megan whispered in Xin Xin’s ear. “She won’t shut up now.”

Xin Xin giggled and Megan joined her. “What are you two laughing about?” Ami spoke up and asked, breaking into Erin’s tirade. The braided girl did not stop though, but just kept going on and on, which made the two girls giggled louder.

After the group of girls was done eating, they headed out to the playground with the rest of their class for recess. When they got outside, Marie and Megan ran off, leaving Xin Xin alone with Ami, Britt, and Erin.

“Where did they go?” She asked Britt, who was closest to her. “Just wait and see,” she was told.

“Hey, Xin, you’re It,” Timmy came up and tagged the dark-haired girl. Xin Xin broke out a grin as she remembered the game that Diana had taught her. She looked around and noticed that the girls were running off. Xin Xin spotted Lys nearby and raced to the girl.

“Tag, you’re It,” she smiled. She was about to run off and hide when she caught the look on Lys’s face. “What’s wrong?” The new girl asked, not knowing the social dynamics of her new school since it was only the first day.

“I don’t play games with little kids,” sneered the girl. “Go bug someone else.”

Xin Xin nodded slowly, backing away and then when she felt it was safe enough to run, she did so. A few minutes later, she found Ami and tagged the girl. As she was running to hide behind some bushes, she found that Britt was hiding there, too.

“Why is Lys so mean?” She decided to ask. Britt shrugged and whispered, “She’s always been like that so we just leave her alone. I mean, she’s scary.”

Xin Xin nodded, having found that out just recently. Neither her nor Britt made a sound as Timmy, who was now It again ran by.

When she left the school to head to her bus, she was shocked to find her Niáng waiting. Not caring what the others thought, she headed to her Niáng and got in the car.

“So, how was your first day?” The young mother wondered as she drove towards their apartment. She was still dressed in her uniform for work. She was working as a restaurant hostess. Though this time the place was not a Chinese restaurant, but an Italian. Somehow, she had managed to get a dayshift position, so she ended up leaving a few minutes before Xin Xin’s bus came and got off about ten minutes before her daughter got out of school. The woman who occupied the apartment next to them had a son in third grade so Meiran had been able to ask her to watch and make sure that Xin Xin got onto the bus. The woman had agreed so Meiran felt that things were finally turning out okay.

But both her and Xin Xin knew that something, or rather someone, was missing. Neither had said a word on the subject though as it was not an easy subject to speak of, nor was it a cheerful one. Of course, it would come out soon enough but until then they would let sleeping dragons lie.

A/N: Okay, I was seriously fevered and dehydrated in that last chapter kids, so pay no mind to what the A/N said. But I’m over that now. Well, ten chapters ago, all the way back in Chapter 20, I promised to bring back little kids. And I did. Only these kids seem to have much better speech than Diana, Chrissy, and their cousins. I have no clue why. That’s just the way it worked out. This chapter also ended up being kind of long. I like that.

I own all the little kids. That includes Xin Xin, but the others, well, I’m working on that. But so far, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Hajime Yatate, and all the other Gundam creators have not answered my letters or calls.