Shengliver’s Note: Was Jack a lucky dog?

Ava was my deskmate in middle school. So pretty and cute was the girl that I could not help casting glances at her. Chatting with Ava was a feast.

My class director, Mr Zhang, was our Chinese language instructor as well. Expert at his art, he was able to transport us to scenes that the poems and essays in our textbook portrayed.

One day, delivering his lesson with passion in the classroom, Mr Zhang stopped short. Then he sped across the room to me and demanded, “Give it to me.” Though his every single word had fallen upon my ears, I played possum, meanwhile releasing a slip of paper furtively from my palm onto the floor. So eagle-eyed was my teacher that he detected it, anyway.

The master bent over and picked the note up before he asked the class in a chirpy tone, “Boys and girls, what should I do with this note?”

“Read it! Read it out loud!” my peers yelled cheekily in chorus, their interest building while Ava and I were blushing with nerves.

Mr Zhang, eyes riveted on the note in hand, went ahead, “Jack, why is your physics so good? Can you help me a bit with my homework after school?”

Hearing that, my classmates were disappointed, for they had been licking their lips in anticipation of something way juicier. Both Ava and I, however, went beetroot.

The class went quiet. The class director said apologetically, “I have got them wrong, class. Please forgive me, Jack. There is no doubt that you two serve as a good model for your classmates.”

The issue resolved, the lesson was picked up where it had been left off.

From here on out, my classmates put in a lot of hard work. Of course, Ava and I were not willing to lag behind. To the credit of our diligence, we both shone in the high school entrance exam and made it to YYHS in the end.

My reader, do you know what actually happened later that day – in the wake of the note episode in the classroom?

When school was over, I was summoned to the teachers’ office, where Mr Zhang, as poker-faced as ever, returned the paper slip to me. He let me go without any lecturing. At the time, there were some of his colleagues in the room.

Once outside the office, I unfolded the note.

It went, “I like you. Do you like me, Jack?”