UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC (book 1)

Part 17 - Licia Hu

By the time I had stuffed my pens, paper and the math book into my backpack, I was alone except for Licia.   She must have thought I was sick. 

'Are you okay?' She asked. 

I nodded. 'I'm fine. Did you say your name was Lees?'

'My name is Licia Hu.  It is pronounced Lee-SEE-ah. It is definitely not Alicia, so don't call me Al Who.' She grinned. 'I always get the job of welcoming new students because of my scintillating personality and because I'm also very modest. I like your name, Ziff, by the way, it's unusual like mine.'

'Lee-SEE-ah,' I repeated. 'I must be careful to put the em-PHA-sis on the right syl-LA-ble. She had picked up my journal and was looking at my sketches. 'Sweet! Did you draw these penguins? 

'Yeah. Penguins rock,' I said awkwardly. I blushed. Was she interrogating me? What was she after? The Geneva convention said, I only had to give my name, rank and number but I heard myself mumbling, 'My real name is Zev André, but my friends all call me Ziff. That's fizz spelled backwards. Now you'll never be able to forget my name. My father liked the name Zev, but I always pronounced it Ziff.' I hesitated. 

'I'm talking too much. Did Principal Ball put something in the popcorn?'

Licia giggled.   'It must have been a truth potion.'

I looked sideways at her and the words just popped out. 'Are you Chinese?'

She frowned. 'Well, that's totally random. No.  I was born in Montréal, but my parents are from Hong Kong . . . Which is really tough because they make me learn, Cantonese and Mandarin as well as French. I have to go to Chinese school every unprintable Saturday . . . Do you speak French?'

'No,' I replied.   'In Toronto the second language is Cantonese but I don't speak that either.' I smiled at her use of unprintable as an expletive. It was certainly more original than some other words. Perhaps the school would be okay. At least one person seemed friendly, even if she was a girl.

Licia grimaced. 'Come on. Let's go outside for lunch.   I'll give you the guided tour on the way.' 

I had never had a girl friend before but I figured being seen with a girl would be okay as it was only my first day.   As we walked along the corridor, I asked about the black lizard Cliff Boswell had dropped on her desk.

'It's a blue-spotted salamander,' she told me. 'Ryan collected it from a local swamp. Boz (he doesn't like being called Cliff Boswell, by-the-way) thinks it's a big joke to steal it and then drop it down somebody's neck but he doesn't know I like salamanders.' 

Licia pointed out several normal looking students with instructions to avoid them. 'I hope you're not a gang joiner,' she said. 'There are only a few decent students at Silverwood School. The rest must have been kicked out of the public school system. I can't stand the girls, there are so many cliques, and none of the boys seems to like me except for Miguel but he's another misfit. 'I don't understand why bullying exists,' she added. 'Hey. How about we start a committee to stamp out bullying. You can be the chairguy.' 

Before I could protest my incompetence for such a position, she stopped and gave me a long stare. 'If you're wondering why I got the job of introducing you to Silverwood School, it's because Professor Smolkin thinks I am popular because I smile a lot. But he doesn't know I'm just practising my Basilisk grin.' 

'Basilisk?' I asked.

'The mythical monster who turned people into stone. They even had one in Harry Potter . . . Do you like Harry Potter?' she asked.

'Er, yes. But I don't see any statues of students around.'

Licia laughed;  an infectious gurgle. 'I'm working on it. The best I've done lasted about two seconds.'

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