Music to my ears - Zhuo Zhi

Chapter 22 - Classes

She quickly waved goodbye to Siyang and stuck her tongue out at Jiale, who was held behind for a small discussion with Mr. Huang (just his luck), before cheerfully skipping out of the classroom.

~~~

Orchestra, as always, unfortunately went by too fast. Which meant that it was math next. With Zhuo Zhi.

Zhihao slowly inhaled, somewhat dramatically, before she entered the classroom. Zhuo Zhi, unsurprisingly, was also early to the class too. It's probably Siyang's doing, he's a good influence, Zhihao thought.

As she walked in, Zhuo Zhi made eye contact with her, a large smile already spreading across his face.

"Tang Zhihao! I was wondering which class you had with me, what a coincidence! You're in math with me again!" He cheerfully greeted the girl as he pulled out the chair next to his, making her sigh.

She took the seat next to Zhuo Zhi anyway. "I hate math." Plopping down, Zhihao rested her face on her desk, already tired just thinking about it.

Zhuo Zhi stifled a laugh. "Try not to fall asleep this semester, maybe you'll do better."

Zhihao didn't bother responding, and instead just flipped her head to the left so that she wasn't facing Zhuo Zhi anymore.

Amused, Zhuo Zhi shook his head at the girl as class began to start.

Like the teachers in her previous classes, Zhihao's math teacher was mainly just talking about his personal life and education, yada yada yada.

Zhihao had always thought that math was the most boring subject of all time, but Mr. Lin talking about his past achievements from 30 years ago was honestly a pretty close contender.

Zhihao's phone buzzed as she was in the middle of squinting at Mr. Lin, trying to stare a hole through his head.

sadist:
Quit making faces at Mr. Lin.
You should be grateful you're not doing math.

It hasn't even been a day yet and already Zhuo Zhi was making fun of Zhihao's hatred for math which, in her opinion, was a very sensitive topic.

zhihao:
don't u think ur milking the math joke now
get a new punchline

sadist:
Get off your phone first, then we'll talk.

zhihao:
you texted me first what

sadist:
Irrelevant.

zhihao:
😐.

Zhihao put her phone away anyway though, scrunching her nose at Zhuo Zhi when he caught her.

He just propped his head up against his hand, snickering in response.

After that, Zhihao spent the rest of her time staring at the clock, watching the hands slowly tick closer and closer to the end of class.

Zhihao already had her belongings packed when the bell finally rang, eager to leave already.

Before making her escape, Zhihao turned to Zhuo Zhi. "See you in English!" She waved at him, in a much better mood now that math was done with for the day.

~~~

True to her words, Zhuo Zhi did in fact see Zhihao in their 5th and final class.

Both had arrived early again and so they got their first pick at seats, choosing to sit next to each other again.

English wasn't as boring as math class however, since the teacher decided to get a head start on teaching after a brief introduction about herself. Good on her.

That didn't mean that the class wasn't boring though. It was still awful, since Zhihao had no interest in anything but orchestra.

No matter what though, Zhihao refused to glance at her phone, which kept lighting up with texts from Zhuo Zhi, who was no doubt trying to get her to pick up her phone just so he could scold her again.

Eventually though, Zhihao got fed up with the constant buzzing of her phone and exasperatedly took out a sheet of paper. Scowling at Zhuo Zhi, she scrawled a brief message on the paper telling the man, who was still typing to her, to stop spamming her.

Zhihao then crumpled the note and carelessly aimed for Zhuo Zhi's head when Ms. Chen wasn't looking, throwing with surprisingly good accuracy. She watched as the paper ball bounced off of the guy's head, dropping to the floor. Oops.

Zhihao had to hold herself back from outright laughing when Zhuo Zhi struggled to lean over to his side to pick the note up from the ground.

After quickly scanning the note, Zhuo Zhi then took out his a notebook, tearing out a piece of paper as slowly and quietly as possible, before scribbling his own note and tossing it at Zhihao's desk.

Zhihao subtly grabbed the paper, skillfully avoiding Ms. Chen's gaze, and read it ('stop trying to distract me in class'), before taking our another sheet of paper to write back, 'no u'.

The rest of English class flew by as the two flung notes at each other's heads, both telling the other to stop first.

When school was dismissed, Zhuo Zhi stood by Zhihao's desk, waiting as she packed her things.

"Are you going to go to our tennis practice?" He asked, once she was finally done.

Zhihao thought about it for a moment before nodding with a smile. "Yeah sure, why not?"

Zhuo Zhi casually put his hands in his pockets. "Alright, let's walk to the tennis courts together then. Might as well."

And so, the two arrived to practice (early of course) goofing off together.

~~~

A/N: A bit of a filler to establish the new dynamics and classes, but like. I need to lower my standards now they're too high oml

Btw Tang is a very common surname to have in China, which is why no one questions if Zhihao and Jiale are related during roll call.

Also I'm beginning to think that 5 classes is a lot lmao but it's kinda too late to change it now.. so basically every time I write about classes from now on just assume that zhihao or zhuo zhi already went through the unimportant ones when they're together in class lol

Anyway peep the song, I'm obsessed w it rn!

Last thing, I may post a little less often, since I'm going to be busy for the next few days, and also I'll be spending my last few days with my brother before he goes back to college.

- Apple <3