Immature Mistakes | mj.q✓

Three

After about a week, Jiaqi was physically fit to go to school. But he didn't know if he was emotionally fit. He sighed as he fixed his uniform in the mirror that morning. This time he was going to wear it the right way: he would fix his collars appropriately and not add any random accessories which always made the teachers call him out.

He looked much smarter in his uniform now. He slightly smiled to himself then walked out of his room with his backpack.

'Wow you look good Jiaqi,' his mother commented when he arrived in the kitchen. 'Breakfast is ready.'

'Thanks mom.' he answered with a slight smile. 'I'm not gonna have breakfast, I'm kind of late. I'll just have an apple.' he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl.

'Oh alright,' she answered. 'Have a nice day.'

'Thanks.' he answered and walked out of the door. Despite his anxiety about making it to school, he tried to be confident.

It was a short walk to his high school, but as he neared the building, his feelings of fear increased. A part of him wanted to turn away, but he didn't want to skip school like he sometimes did. No, he had to make it.

After about 10 minutes, Jiaqi walked into the school building and took a deep breath. There were several students standing in the hallways, and passing by them made him increasingly nervous.

He could see many eyes on him, and all could hear those inaudible whispers. He heard his name through the conversations more than once, and he didn't blame them for talking about him. If he were them, he would probably talk about himself as well.

Don't overthink, just go straight to class, Jiaqi said to himself.

He didn't want to attract attention, but the fact that his classroom was at the end of the hallway made things harder for him.

With his lack of concentration, he bumped into one student who was going the opposite direction. Jiaqi almost made the student drop his books.

'Oh I'm so sorry,' Jiaqi said to him and quickly continued to walk to the classroom.

'Did...did Jiaqi just apologize to me? Normally he'd say I should watch where I'm going.' the student with the books asked no one in particular.

Jiaqi walked inside his classroom, and most of the students were already sitting inside in their respective seats. They all looked at him curiously, but none of them said a word. Jiaqi cleared his throat and started walking to his seat as a gossipy chatter began to rise among the students.

He continued to ignore them, almost tripping over his own feet as he walked to the back. But finally, he made it. He sighed and put his backpack on the desk, then sat down and looked at his lap. He didn't want to look up, because he knew everyone's eyes were on him.

'I can't believe he decided to come back,' one of the students whispered to another.

'Do you think he's going to stay long?' another replied.

'Probably going to get expelled.'

'Janine would probably prefer him dead.'

Janine. The word became so bitter in Jiaqi's memory. He had no issues with her, but it seemed she had serious issues with him. He still couldn't process what had happened, it was overwhelming.

'Hey,' he heard a familiar voice of a person who had just stopped at his desk.

Jiaqi looked up from his lap and saw his best friend Chengxin. 'Hey.'

He was surprised to see Chengxin sitting down on the desk in front of him, even though that wasn't his usual spot. Chengxin swung an arm over the seat and turned around to Jiaqi. 'You okay?'