Delinquent High

Chapter 2

Once what felt like the last normal breakfast of his life was finished and Wei Wuxian had barely eaten two spoons of his oatmeal, Madame Yu stood up from her place. She was smiling which was never a good sign. It seemed like she was happy with Wei Wuxian's misery and this time, no matter what he did, he was unfortunately sure that she could read in him like in an open book. Even Shijie, Jiang Cheng and Uncle Jiang had noticed. At least they had enough courtesy to not drive a knife into his already tender wounds.

Not so Madame Yu however. She even made it a point to be as dramatic about it as she could. She picked up a glass from the table and her spoon and rang them together a few times, making a farce of attracting everyone's attention despite the fact that all eyes had already been on her. Wei Wuxian knew she was about to say something hurtful, that was her speciality after all, and he mentally prepare for the impact.

"Congratulation, Wei Wuxian. Today, you are going to transfer schools, and not to any random school as that. Thanks to my hard efforts, you are being admitted to the Cloud Recesses High School, the best school in the whole country. Perhaps if someone will be dumb enough and not read the full name on your diploma, they will even think you attended it. You should thank me for it."

She looked at him expectantly and Wei Wuxian had to first swallow the lump which had formed in his throat hearing her mocking words. It was pointless to resist or to make her wait, it would only end in more trouble for him. So, just as she asked, he replied: "Thank you for your efforts, Madame Yu."

Madame Yu smirked, apparently satisfied with making him suffer. Uncle Jiang and his siblings were looking at Wei Wuxian with pity in their eyes but did nothing to stop Madame Yu's pretended grandiose speech. Somehow, it hurt even more that they would not take his side in this. Wei Wuxian knew they were only protecting themselves from becoming Madame Yu's next targets, and usually he would be glad they did, but not today. Today, he wanted someone to support him through probably the most miserable day of his life.

His fears were confirmed by Madame Yu the next second when she stopped looking at everyone around the table and focused her undivided attention on him. Her words were no longer aimed at publicly mocking him, now they were meant to hurt as much as possible, making his already dreadful expectations of the new school even more terrifying:

"Lan Qiren is my old friend and when I explained to him that you were a notorious troublemaker whom even I had a hard time controlling and managing, he was more than happy to agree to your enrolment in his high school. He promised me as a favour that he would give you special attention. You have much to look forward to, I believe your time in school will now become educative. From a different perspective than before, that is. I am sure that Lan Qiren would not spare any effort in making you his model student."

Madame Yu's threatening words and her unpleasant laughter were ringing in Wei Wuxian's ears. He found it hard to concentrate on anything else but the images flashing before his eyes. He was already imagining how terrible it would be to attend the high school picked up by Madame Yu. Especially now, when she had for sure made him look like the most unredeemable character to the very principal of that school. He was without a doubt in for one hell of the experience, in the most negative sense of the word unfortunately.

Wei Wuxian would have been lost in his thoughts be it not for a gentle touch on his hand. His head whipped up and his eyes met with his sister's worried ones.

"A-Xian..." she started gently, but then fell into silence, probably not knowing how to continue. No amount of soothing and cajoling would make him feel better at this moment anyway.

He looked up at his other family members, afraid that he was about to see them for the last time in his life. Jiang Cheng was glaring at him, perfectly masking his own worry behind a scowl. Uncle Jiang on the other hand made at least a small effort to smile when he tried to find the non-existent bright side of all of this.

"A-Xian, you are a brave and bright boy. I am sure that if you behave yourself, you will be able to make new friends right away and eventually fit into your new school. Just try your best and everything will turn out as it is meant to."

Wei Wuxian's lips were starting to curl into a grimace but he stopped himself. Uncle Jiang seemed to be just as unhappy about his transfer as he himself was, there was no reason to make him feel even worse. After all, what Madame Yu said needed to be followed, especially when it came to the child she so graciously let into her home on charity. He knew that, and Uncle Jiang did know all of this as well, he had been in enough fights with his wife to not want to start another one.

Thus, Wei Wuxian made his best to smile at his adoptive father who was now worried for him. He willed his voice to sound cheerful, there was no point in making this even worse than it already was.

"Thank you, Uncle Jiang, you are right. I will try to be on my best behaviour."

Uncle Jiang leaned forward and patted his shoulder: "I know you will. You are such a strong boy, just like your late parents."

Before anything else could be said, Madame Yu glared at Wei Wuxian and barked out: "Well, that is enough for the celebration. Go get your bag, Wei Wuxian, we need to leave. You do not want to be late for your first day, do you?"

An ice-cold chill run down Wei Wuxian's spine and he immediately shot to his feet, leaving the dining hall at speed. They way Madame Yu said it made it sound like she would enjoy it very much if he was indeed late. He knew that if he did not want to provoke her into telling Lan Qiren to be even stricter with him, he had to follow all her instructions to the letter.

Not having a new school uniform as the arrangements were made basically overnight, he put on his old one. With a great sense of nostalgia, he spared a second to look in the mirror attached on his wardrobe and run a hand on the fabric. It still felt unreal that he was about to change schools right in the middle of semester, right in the middle of the week at that. Everything else was the same as yesterday, and still, his life was about to change completely.

He shook his head and stopped staring at his own unhappy reflection in the mirror. He willed himself to at least chase away the tears which had gathered in the corners of his eyes if he was not able to outright smile. He grabbed his bag and raced down the stairs to go meet Madame Yu and have her escort him to what he already considered to be a prison based on rumours only; depending on how exactly the school worked, perhaps even a death row penalty for him. Another chill made him shudder in pure dread.