"Guten tag, wie geht es Ihnen? Ich bin Frau Long, dein Deutschprofessoren." The voice that greeted me as soon as I walked into the classroom was sweet and kind. But given the fact that she was speaking German to a 6-year-old, I didn't have much hope that her personality would match her voice.
My head was already filled with the hundred and one things that I needed to remember; I didn't need this crap on top of it.
I could hear the snicker of the students as I came to a dead stop at the doorway.
Fine. If this was how they wanted to play it…
"Guten tag, Frau Long. Es geht mir gut, danke, und selbst? Wie geht ed Ihnen?" I replied smoothly as I raised my eyebrow at the teacher. I had been speaking German for longer than this body had been alive. If she thought she was going to trip me up with a simple greeting, she had another thing coming.
"Gut, danke," replied the teacher, becoming stiff. "Nehmen Sie Platz, bitte."
She pointed to an empty seat at the back of the class. There was no way I was going to be able to see the board with all of these bodies in front of me, but I don't think she really cared about that. "Danke," I replied and walked down the small gap between the desks as the students eyed me.
Sitting down in the assigned seat, I took out the German book and got settled. I considered myself to be fluent in a few different languages, but I knew that what I was going to learn would be different than what I knew.
The class I was dreading most was French. German, I could handle. For the most part, it was all the same. However, I grew up speaking Quebecois and Acadian French, not the French kind, so I would need to relearn that language.
The class seemed to have settled down, and the teacher began teaching.
I laid my book out just in case, but I also took out my notebook and schedule. I was starting mid-semester so that I would be doing a lot of catch-up. Hopefully, the other teachers were better than Frau Long, or else I would be buried so deep in homework, I might not resurface for a while.
"Fraulein Wang, konnten Sie bitte diese Frage beantworten?" asked the teacher. I looked up from the syllabus that I was studying for French and narrowed my eyes. She wanted me to be able to answer the question?
I stood up and stepped to the side so I would be able to see the whiteboard. "Frau Long. Ich verstehen, was Sie vorhaben, aber es ware unter Ihrer Wurde, sich auf en 6-jahriges Kind einszulassen." Roughly translated, I let her know that I understood what she was trying to do, but to pick on a 6 year old should be beneath her.
You would have thought I had insulted her entire family with the gasp she took in, but I simply ignored her.
Turning my attention back to the question, I translated the sentence. "Three kilograms of tomatoes, please," I said and then sat back down in my chair.
----
I got through the rest of the class by the skin of my teeth, trying not to overly antagonize the teacher who clearly had it out for me. When the bell rang, I quickly packed up my stuff and walked out of the classroom.
The next class was biology. Fingers crossed, it would go better than this one did.
"Hello, Ms. Wang. Please take a seat," greeted the biology professor as soon as I walked into the classroom. Most of the seats were empty, and I assumed that if there were assigned seating, he would have told me where to go.
I found a lab bench in the front row by the window and put down my stuff.
Taking out the books and notebook for this class, I lined up my pens by color and waited for the rest of the class to file in.
----
Bai Long Qiang looked down at his phone, surprised to see that it was his grandfather calling him. He held up a finger to one of his teammates and quickly answered.
"Hello?"
"Ah, good!" came the voice, and Bai Long Qiang couldn't help but smile. For someone who grew up in the military and achieved a high rank, his grandfather was pretty chill. "I have a favor to ask."
"Name it," replied Bai Long Qiang.
"A friend's granddaughter is starting at your school today, and I need you to look after her," said his grandfather, and Bai Long Qiang couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Are you trying to set me up again?" he joked. It wouldn't be the first time he had been introduced to a friend of the family to see if he was interested.
"No…" started Grandfather before trailing off. "But she does come from a good family—"
"No," said Bai Long Qiang, shooting down the very idea. He had no problems getting girls, and he was much too young to be willing to settle down with only one at 15.
"Fine," dismissed the grandfather, not overly upset. "Her name is Wang Tian Mu. I think she is in the majority of your classes, so it shouldn't be hard to keep an eye on her and make sure that she isn't bullied by anyone."
Bai Long Qiang was silent, not sure how to answer. His grandfather rarely asked him for anything, but at the same time, he didn't want to be forced to look after some chick simply because she came from the right family.
"I'll see what I can do," he replied instead, refusing to commit to anything.
"Thank you."
"What was that about?" asked Meng Zhong Ying.
"Nothing," grunted Bai Long Qiang in reply. Adjusting his backpack on his shoulder, he brushed past his friend and started to walk down the hall toward the biology room. "Just Grandpa."
"Ah," nodded Meng Zhong Ying. "Is he trying to set you up with someone again?" Bai Long Qiang didn't have a chance to reply as he came to an abrupt stop in the doorway, causing Meng Zhong Ying to bump into him.
Sitting there in the seat beside his was the little Kitten from yesterday. And Ye Mei Hui was standing in front of her, giving her a hard time.
Not going to happen.