daomingsi, dongshancai.

pineapple head boy

He was extremely scared.

After all, he was going to start preschool. And that was scary. And even his own mother had no words of comfort for him.

He sighed.

His mother was in a particularly bad mood today, spending the morning locked up in her office, talking to a client. Not that this was uncommon–in the few times Si saw her a year, she wasn't exactly the most motherly to him, and Ms. Yu tried to make up for it by letting him have more sweet and sour pork for dinner, but he usually made a face and pushed it away, instead boredly wandering around the huge Daoming Estate while his mother worked on her business dealings.

Today was the longest his mother had spent locked up in her office.

When she finally opened the door, she barged out angrily, and tried to shape her features into her usual emotionless mask. She brushed past Si without looking at him towards the living room.

"Come, boy, we're leaving," she said.

"But, Madam Feng, Ah Si does not have his backpack ready yet–" Ms. Yu interrupted.

"Oh, it's preschool, Ms. Yu, what does he even need?" She glanced at Ah Si's face, a look of slight guilt in her eyes, but then it was gone. "I'm extremely busy today, and I am not in the mood for anything to go wrong."

Ms. Yu slowly nodded, sighing inside, and gave Si his backpack, hastily shoving some lunch into it. He sluggishly followed his mother, letting his feet drag as he really didn't want to go. Would he have to bribe more children to play with him? He hoped Ms. Yu had packed something good, but not too fancy, so he wouldn't be made fun of.

____

The limo turned into The Children's House International Montessori Kindergarten, a Beijing preschool that was full of children from the richest families in China. It was a huge and welcoming, two-story brick building, with a nice green lawn full of swing sets, sand boxes, jungle gyms, and monkey bars.

His mother's lips curled. "Well, at least we got our money's worth."

The doors of the limo automatically opened and Si got out, his initial fear wearing off at seeing all of the play structures, quite like his own at home, although these were filled with children, laughing and playing.

____

Shancai waited outside the headmaster's office of her primary school, biting her lip nervously, and drumming her fingers on the straps of her faded pink backpack. Her parents were inside the room with her principal and she could hear some raised voices, though she could not tell what they were saying.

After a while, her mom and dad came out, her mom grinning proudly in a way that gave Shancai a bad feeling, and her dad following embarrassedly behind. She noticed her mom holding something white and blue.

"Shancai!" her mom exclaimed. "Put this uniform on, baby, because we've just got you into the best preschool in China!"

____

Ah Si ran onto the lawn of the school, his school bag bouncing on one shoulder, which he'd worn like that so he'd be cool. He eyed the jungle gym, where a group of three other boys were playing, and decided to walk up to them. The boys instantly stopped playing and stared at him. Si smirked.

"Hello," he said. "Want to be my servants? I have a lot of them at home, but I guess I do need some my own age."

The boys continued staring at him.

"You can be my servant," said the sleepy looking boy on the top of the jungle gym.

"No, mine," said the bespectacled boy. The tall one next to him repeated what he said, but louder.