Find your faith

Chapter 71: The start of the end

Keqing's POV
"Mdm Yeo wanted to see the five of us after school," I told Shenhe while waiting for her. "I wonder what's up."

"I don't know, maybe last minute musical support?" Shenhe softly chipped in.

"Do you think you five deserve to be in the musical now?" Mdm Yeo asked, her strong accent sending chills up my spine. "Follow me to the study corner, and wipe that excited smile off your face. This determines your future."
-
Mdm Yeo: You five are at risk of retaining after this year

All: what?

Mdm Yeo: you might be taunting Chloe a lot, but your grades are no better. It makes me wonder if you're doing this to numb your emotions towards this whole thing. None of you have met the promotion criteria to promote to next year. To be specific, all of you have only passed your respective humanities and English. Xingqiu, I had no idea how your National Police Cadet Corps teacher has yet to kick you from your role of chairperson all this while, but Keqing and Ningguang have been pulled from the musical. I have no idea how you're going to pull this off, but you better do so if you want to go on to 4 Faith with the rest of 3 Faith.

Mdm Yeo leaves

Keqing: this is bad! If we don't get it together as quickly as we can, all our parents would kill us. I mean all. And they would disown us.

Shenhe: actually, you're right. We all have a future to think about, and we must move towards the future. I only joined you guys because I didn't want to always be alone in class, but I guess I can't do this anymore.

Xingqiu: if you are able to join our team, why do you want to give up before we graduate? Weren't you committed to taunting Chloe who doesn't understand anything but anime?

Shenhe: I always believed she's a good person at heart, but her heart's been tainted black by then pressure you've been putting in her.

Chloe's POV

"What?" She asked in confusion. "Go for geography consultation together?"

"Well, I've been bugged about some things I've been reading up, so I want to get it off my chest, y'know," Shenhe explained to me. "I'm sure you would have some too."

Feeling too bad for turning down her request, I agreed. After all, I knew there was a deeper reason she wanted to start talking to me when she wasn't nice to me for the first semester. I have forgiven her deep down for comparing me to the point I went violent, maybe she was also unpopular like me.

-

"Honestly, I thought the person you'd bring is Xingqiu. Chloe, I thought you'll be asking for a consultation with Ethan," Ms Jaslyn admitted when she stood up and prepared to leave when the consultation had all ended. Shenhe told her that she had broke off with the group, claiming it was to refocus her attention on her studies for she lost her way trying to have "friends"; I lied about Ethan having student council. And then Ms Jaslyn told me I could be her true friend that also cares about studying. I joked about how I got a jump scare seeing people that didn't work hard suffered, and then waved her farewell.

Shenhe and I walked home together and we had a heart to heart about our pasts, where I admitted about how much I was compared all I went. I always wanted to change, but didn't have the courage to because I knew I'd be judged either way. And that's when Shenhe revealed something shocking. No, two shocking truths.

Firstly, she never truly hated me, but she thought she was being rude because I was part of 8 point compass, arguably the biggest friend group in our level. She finally admitted about how she was alienated in lower secondary for being studious, and didn't want to feel that way anymore. Secondly, she followed up with that, asking me to be my friend.

I hesitated.

I didn't want to lose 8 point compass, but we had similar struggles and pasts. And I didn't want to retain either, so I agreed, before we negotiated a way for both my friendship with 8 point compass to continue and to build this new one.