Mean Girls

xiii. the AP assignment

Ryujin has always been the kind of person who knows exactly what she wants and exactly how to get it. She's known her dream university since her first day of school when her father bought her an oversized sweater with the words 'YALE' printed on the front. Her father was a Yale Alumni and his father before him. It is a story her father loved to tell; how his father came to America as a young, poor immigrant, defied all odds and through hard work and patience landed himself a spot at a prestigious college. The embodiment of the American Dream. It's now a family legacy and it's one that Ryujin not only wants, but needs to honor.

That is the reason she's currently sitting in the library sweating over her History paper, because she needs top grades to get into the Ivy League of her dreams.

"You're disruptive," Ian comments flatly when Ryujin heaves the millionth deep, life-tired sigh.

Ryujin pushes her thick History book and hundreds of notes to the side and glances at Ian. He's sitting across from her, his quirky round glasses reflecting the light of the computer screen that he's intensely focused on.

Ryujin watches him for a moment, impressed by the way his fingers fly across the keyboard with incredible speed without a second of hesitation.

"What are you doing?" she asks curiously, desperate for a distraction.

Ian's speedy fingers don't pause as he answers monotonously, "Creating an app."

Ryujin scoffs softly and somewhat fondly, the corners of her lips tugging up in an amused smile. If there's someone capable of sounding bored and nonchalant while in the middle of being inventive, it would be Ian. He's a technology nerd and Ryujin wouldn't be surprised if he created some kind of highly functional robot in the future.

By now, she knows Ian well enough to know that he isn't going to elaborate without prompting.

So she taps her pen against the table and asks, "What kind?"

She's met with nothing but the sound of the clicking keyboard and just when she thinks that Ian is going to ignore her, he answers dryly, "The failed kind if you don't give me room to concentrate."

Ryujin rolls her eyes and lifts her hand in defeat and follows it with a mocking imitation of closing a zipper across her mouth. Ian barely glances at her.

Luckily, Ryujin doesn't have to look elsewhere for a distraction, because the next second they're joined by Shaun and Yeji.

Ryujin hears them before she sees them.

"Ryujin!" Yeji calls halfway across the library and earns herself a fierce shushing from Miss Vergara. Yeji apologizes profusely and waits until she's close to excitedly shove her phone screen in Ryujin's face,

"Have you seen this?"

"Gossip twitter made another poll to see who people were voting for and this time you're in the lead!" Shaun tells her before she even gets a chance of making sense of Yeji's screen. He pulls out a chair next to Ian and flings his bookbag onto the table.

"265 people voted?" Ryujin says, more interested in that than the fact that "Team Shin" has pulled 138 compared to "Team Lee's" 127 votes. "Our senior class is like 250 at the most?"

"The whole school is invested in the election drama," Yeji says, and drops down in the seat next to Ryujin. She offers Ryujin a protein bar - her favorite, the blueberry one - and Ryujin gratefully bites into it. "I've heard that the freshmen are trying to emulate the drama but for their class presidential campaign."

"Especially now that this election drama has turned drier than stale bread," Shaun says around the red lollipop stuffed in his cheek that leaves his tongue and lips bright red. "They're failing miserably though, cause they're trying to fill shoes that are too big. Kinda cute actually."