Hands In The Stars

18. Gray Break

Ai stared out over the massive field, feeling the dampness in the air making his skin all sticky with cold sweat. He found himself wishing the breezy wind would come back again soon, but his wishes would only be ignored. The physical education lesson had already started, just according to schedule, but there were no teachers anywhere in sight. The prolonged absence of proper supervision inevitably caused the younger, teenage students to run around, playfully challenging each other and battling desperately over the few balls that were outside for the moment. Others spent their time catching up on the petty gossip of what allegedly happened during the last weekend. Ai didn't pay any attention to a single one of them. He was simply roaming his eyes over all the familiar strangers in front of him as he sought for that one person. He sighed profoundly to himself, as he realized he would most likely go empty handed today. As expected, he didn't show.

"Hey, watch it!"
Ai suddenly felt something bumping into his sore arm. With swift motions he turned around, and his sunken eyes locked themselves onto the person besides him. Meng Zhou stared right back with a judging glare. Ai quickly looked away once more only to be met with the dreadful sight of Lin Ya and Hana Ah standing besides Meng. As expected.
"Ah, I'm sorry!" Ai mumbled. He leaned down and reluctantly gave the older girls a small bow, turning his anxious gaze down at the ground once more. Gradually, he withdrew a few steps back, not wanting to look at the group of wicked girls that he detested more than anything else. Everyone in the entire school knew Meng was nobody to trust or confide in. They all knew she was a lying manipulator, yet she was so very loved. How someone like her could be one of the most popular students in the school, Ai would never understand. 

"Oh, you're sorry? Listen up here, you have to understand I can't have cows like you just running into me and messing up my look and my days like that. I don't care for your petty little sorry! You think you're so charming and innocent. Everyone has to feel bad for you because of your stupid brother but I am not having any of that bullshit, you hear me? So don't think you can just go bumping into me as you please, you hobo!" Meng took a step closer to Ai as she scolded the younger boy. Suddenly, she struck her elbow against Ai's chest, causing the boy to loose balance and fall onto the dry mud below. Ai's bright, red skirt and white dress shirt got coated in dust from all the dirt, gravel and sand below, but all he did was sigh. Things turned out just as expected.
"Ah, I'm sorry." Meng teased. She grinned triumphantly down at Ai as the other girls chuckled and whispered eagerly between each other. Ai didn't say a word. Meng soon turned her back to him, and he took the opportunity to shakily push himself back up onto his feet. Ai dusted his ragged skirt off the best he could, when he suddenly heard swift footsteps approaching him. Before he knew it he had been slammed back down onto the ground once more with a loud thud as Meng now sat down right as his waist, giggling frantically. 

"You're so naive, Ai!" She giggled, pinning Ai down onto the ground. "Okay, but seriously though, leave my fucking guys alone already, you slut! If you think they'd ever even look at you for any other reason than because of your mom, you're dead wrong. It's been long enough now, just leave us be already. Stop trying to ruin other peoples lives just because you feel so damn bad for yourself!" She spat out as she glared ferociously down at Ai with enraged eyes. Ai bit the inside of his cheek and suddenly swung his knee right into Meng's back, catching her completely off guard. With a painful yelp, she fell off him and he quickly crawled back, trying to get away from the girl.
"What the hell?!" Meng yelled out behind him. Her face contorted to one of anger, humiliation. She slapped Ai right across his cheek, then swiftly she got back up onto her feet and kicked some gravel onto him. "Learn some manners, bitch!" She hissed. Meng abruptly straightening out her skirt and turned on her heel, starting to make her way towards the group of her own classmates on the other side of the school yard.

Ai laid in dull silence for a long minute, not knowing what to do. He tried hard to not let his eyes tear up, but it was to no avail. Ai gradually pushed himself up onto his bruised knees and swept the gravel away from him when he heard the familiar sound of the changing rooms door opening, then slamming shut again. Only a few seconds later Datui was standing right in front of him. He spotted Ai within seconds. It wasn't very hard, as the short boy always usually sat in the same area. Datui grabbed onto both of Ai's hands and gently pulled him up onto his feet once more with a small sigh.
"Please Ai, you look much more charming when you're not covered in mud. Why do you always sit on the ground when there are about a hundreds of benches around here? What's up?" Datui asked. He talked to Ai, but his eyes attention was the field in front of them. He tried to see which of his friends were outside, and where. "You know, if you always sit on the ground all the way over here and refuse everyone, you won't really be getting a lot of companions." Datui commented as he turned back to Ai, scanning his fierce eyes over Ai's dirty school uniform.
"Everyone always acts so weird around me though. It's kind of too late for me to try at this point." Ai mumbled in a low voice. He withdrew a slight step away from Datui and kicked one of the rocks on the ground with his dark brown shoes.