Immature Mistakes | mj.q✓

Sixteen

'Ah so that's what happened,' Jiaqi nodded. 'It's okay, we can meet your teacher and I'll back you up.'

'But you're just my counselor, I didn't want you to get involved in my personal matters.' Ava replied.

'This isn't exactly a personal matter, it's an academic matter and it's serious.'

Ava nodded at him and he smiled. This was one of the moments she remembered that she once had a crush on him, it wasn't only because he was a bad boy, it was also because he was attractive.

'Thanks for listening. I don't usually share matters with people. Well, the only time I do share issues is with my dad, and it's not like this, it's more of "Evelyn did this so I crushed her!" Something like that.'

Jiaqi slightly chuckled. 'So you and your dad are close?'

'Me and my dad? No.' Ava shook her head. 'I mean...I do talk to him though.'

'So who are you close to?' he asked curiously. 'We all need to be close to at least one person right?'

'Well...' Ava thought over it. She had never really been close to someone, she didn't know whether it was out of choice or she just wasn't good at such things. 'I guess no one. When I'm emotional or something I just write it down. But it's okay because I hardly get emotional.'

'I don't know about that.' he shrugged. 'Maybe you just bury it inside because you have no one tell.'

'Who are you close to?' Ava changed the subject, but she was also curious to know what was currently happening in Jiaqi's life.

'Hmm...no one I think. But my parents love me so...' he shrugged then looked over his former table. 'I used to be very close to Yaowen.'

'Yaowen? I would have thought Chengxin.'

He nodded. 'I know, Chengxin's cool cause we're still kind of buds. But Yaowen was my closest friend, but of course we stopped being friends when I apparently assaulted his cousin Janine.'

Ava nodded. She felt kind of bad, because she knew what had actually happened with Janine. But she wasn't about to tell him, Janine had told he to promise to keep it a secret.

...

That afternoon, Jiaqi and Ava had met with Mr. Xiang, and Jiaqi bore witness to the fact that Evelyn had asked Ava for her homework. Even though he was a bit skeptical, he called Evelyn and asked her about the homework. At first her obvious answer was no, but she was later caught red-handed after being cornered by questions.

Mr. Xiang decided that he would mark Evelyn's homework in Ava's name, and that Evelyn would be deemed to have not submitted her homework. Ava was relieved and happy, but Evelyn was of course angry. She hadn't said anything to Ava, but she knew that Evelyn would soon be planning some kind of revenge.

Jiaqi and Ava later left together that afternoon, and the initial discomfort Ava had with Jiaqi had worn away, especially considering that he had helped her out with her assignment issue. Having him as a counselor wasn't really that bad after all.

'So I'm hoping Evelyn won't kill you in your sleep right?' Jiaqi asked her just to be sure.

Ava nodded. 'Don't worry, I can stand up for myself. There were many instances she would have done that.' she turned to him curiously. 'So um you never told me about how your change was so spontaneous...never in detail.'

Jiaqi had his hands on the handles of his bike and smiled. 'Well like I said, you just have to realize what's right and what's wrong, what's good for you and what isn't. What's worth doing and what's not.'

'Hmm.' She raised her brow, showing she wasn't convinced by his words.

'Like...causing trouble. What's the advantage of doing it?' he asked her.

'Well,' she thought over it. 'People think you're cool and some people are scared of you.'

'Right. And what's the advantage of people thinking you're cool and some being scared of you. We young people are always interested in the most useless of things...and sometimes it's too late when we realize that it was a waste of time.' he looked at the ground as he spoke, almost proving that he wasn't speaking memorized words. He was speaking something he actually believed or may have experienced.

'Well what if your family's like that?' she found herself being more honest than she had expected. She regretted saying it, but he had already heard it anyway. 'You know environment matters sometimes right? You can't just switch up when you're in such an environment.'

'I don't think it's possible for parents to want their kids to misbehave.' Jiaqi shook his head.

'Well not exactly,' Ava almost explained, but found herself sighing instead. 'Never mind.'

'Well we have to meet tomorrow, the chairperson said we should meet over the weekend.' Jiaqi said. 'I hope Chengxin has already told your sister.'

'Meet!? Meet where!?' Ava overreacted, widening her eyes. She didn't want Jiaqi or Chengxin at her house, it was very slobby and unappealing.

'Anywhere.' Jiaqi shrugged. 'Your place, our place, or somewhere neutral.'

'Your place.' Ava quickly answered. 'What are we doing tomorrow anyway?'

'It's the same counselling. Most counselors can't talk to their assigned people within the week...except for me of course. So the weekend is great day to find time.'

'Fine.' She nodded.

'So your place it is...' Jiaqi said before Evelyn purposely bumped into Ava with her friends, almost making her fall to the ground.

Ava fell onto the ground with her hands against the concrete while Evelyn laughed discreetly as she continued to walk ahead.

'Hey, you okay?' Jiaqi offered his hand to her.

Ava angrily got up from the ground, ready to charge at Evelyn and get into a nasty fight. But before she could go, Jiaqi grabbed her backpack and pulled her back.

'It's not worth it,' he told her. 'Fighting won't really solve everything. Your conflict will just get worse and worse and you'll be affected too when she wants to take her revenge on you.'

Evelyn turned around to Ava, waiting expectantly for a fight.

'That's how it's always been! Let go!' Ava struggled to pull away from him, then decided to just wriggle out of her bag.

'Listen! It won't help!' he continued, now grabbing her arm instead. 'How many times have you fought with Evelyn and nothing changed? I'm your friend, I don't want you to be engaging in pointless fights all the time.'

Ava took a deep breath. 'Fine.'

'Wait you won't fight me!?' Evelyn asked her with surprise. 'I'm going to tell dad!' she quickly ran off, leaving her friends behind her and confused.

'Oh no,' Ava mumbled. 'Evelyn wait!'

'What?' Jiaqi asked with confusion. 'Your dad will probably be on your side won't he?'

'Trust me, you don't know my dad.'

'Huh?' Jiaqi wondered. 'Wait, is that why you said some families are like that?'

'Yeah. I have to go.' She said quickly, running after Evelyn.

Jiaqi looked at her in confusion, but that was a topic he was going to ask about the next day.