The Exchange Students

Chapter 5

When we woke up for school the next day, I felt more refreshed than I have in a long time. I have a feeling it may be because of what I told XinLong, but it could also be something else.

"Today, I think that we could go look around town and stuff like that," I told the boys once I came downstairs, Layla following closely behind me.

"Don't we have school though?" MingRui asked me, confusion evident in his voice. 

"We have early release days at least once a month," Layla told him. I don't really think that helped much, so I told him that one of those early release days is today.

"So we'll come back here, change, then go out and spend the rest of the day just walking around. I have a few dollars so we could even do a little bit of shopping!" I exclaimed, excited for the rest of the day.

"You gotta make it through school first, then you can be all jumpy and shit," Layla pointed at me with her spoon.

"You can come with us, ya know," I told her and put my hands on my hips, pointing right back at her.

"I probably will," she told me with a smile.
~~~
When we walked out of school that day, I had told them all that we wouldn't be taking the bus home, instead, we'd walk.

"I'm already tired, why do we have to walk?" Shuyang asked me as he was hanging on Layla. She only rolled her eyes at the new freshman and tried to push him off.

"I want you guys to see more of where we live and all of those things!" I exclaimed and skipped ahead of our little group.

"Calm down a bit. You can't explain stuff to use when you're almost a block ahead." I felt XinLong place his hands on my shoulders as a way to ground me and calm me down. I nodded and we waited at the end of the block for everyone to catch up.

"Ok, we go this way and there's home!" I said and pointed all the way down the road.

Zihao was walking by me and XinLong when he asked me a question. "Is there really any reason why we're actually walking home?"

"It's a nice day and I didn't want to waste it by riding the bus," I explained. "Seeing as September is coming to an end, it's gonna start to get chilly really quick."

"Well, that'll just give me a reason to hold your hand to keep it warmer," XinLong said. I lightly hit his arm with a furious blush spreading across my face very quickly.

"Hey hey, you can't do that," Layla said coming over by us. She quickly took my hand and gave it a small peck.

"She's mine, bitch." I looked at her in shock before laughing at her behavior.

"You're insane," I said as I swung our hands between us. I looked behind me to see XinLong glaring at her with a pout.

"Hey, you made him upset," I told her. She rolled her eyes and turned around and looked at the six of them.

"XinLong. Come here." She motioned for him to come over by us. He did so reluctantly, but he did come over.

"Now see, what I'm about to give you is very precious and if you break it, I break you. Understand?" I looked at her confused until she let go of my hand and gave it to him.

I could hear the rest of the boys behind us giving Layla praise for 'doing God's work'. I rolled my eyes at their behavior and fished my key out of my pocket, no letting go of his hand.
~~~
"You better thank me for doing all of that," Layla told me once my door was shut.

"That was one of the most embarrassing walks I've been on yet," I mumbled and quickly changed into a skirt and a simple t-shirt.

"Aww, why? Did you not get to hold your crush's hand?" she asked me. I thought about it and nodded my head.

"Wait, how did you know?" I looked at her bewildered, and all she did was shrug her shoulders.

"Best friend's instinct," she told me and tapped her temple.

"Ok, that makes sense," I told her and threw her a pair of sunglasses.

"Sweet! My piolet glasses!" she exclaimed and put them on right away.

I put on my own glasses and we walked out, seeing all of the boys waiting quietly on the couch. I looked between them before walking over to the shoe closet and took out a pair of Converse that I don't wear often.

"When did you buy those?" Layla asked me as I put them on.

"A month or so ago," I mumbled and stood up.

"Time to go! I think that we'll walk downtown for a while then go to the mall and just chill there," I explained and stood by XinLong.
~~~
As we were walking, I stayed by XinLong because I wanted to hold his hand again. Our arms kept brushing past each other, yet none of us did anything about it.

I think Hanyu got tired of just watching us, so he came between the two of us and grabbed our wrists.

"Next time, don't use me as your help," he told us in a semi-joking and serious tone. When he went back over to where Layla was, I started to swing our hands back and forth.

"Do you think you could take pictures of me? I like this outfit and I think pictures would be nice," I told him. He nodded and pulled me slightly closer to him.

If any bystander saw us, they may assume that we're dating, when it's the complete opposite.

I'm just a girl who has a crush on one of the exchange students we're hosting, and I have a strong feeling he likes me back.

Woooww, this one's kinda cute. I'm gonna see if I can work on chapter six and I may finish editing this weekend. This is a prediction, not a promise. Anyways, bye!! Love you all!! <3