Chapter 11

My brother had an early class so he dropped me off at school a little early. Since I had some time to kill, I decided to visit the famed notice board. Although huge, it was quite brown and ordinary and in disarray as most notice boards tended to be because all the posters really cared about was making sure that their notes were seen. Other than the usual sign up sheets for different school activities and clubs, there were some interesting gossip items.



Guess who, as usual, is hot on the trail of a pretty, new transfer student? Can't come up with a name? Okay, here's a clue: He's tall, he's hot, he's a flirt and his name rhymes with Nonathan. 5 points to the first person to guess right!


I frowned. I'd barely been at the school for a minute and I was already fodder for gossip? And all this because some guy liked to call me sexy? Annoyed, I made a mental note to avoid Jonathan at all costs. A few moments later, someone I didn't recognize stood next to me so I shifted my foot a little and read the next note.



Okay, students, the moment you've been waiting for has finally arrived: Brighton's most in love and chaste couple has finally done it. Word has it that he forked out some real dough for a room at the Ritz (yes, people, the Ritz!) for their special night but guess what? They couldn't even make it that far. I happened to pass by them rocking and steaming up his 2006 Ford Taurus. Congratulations on popping that cherry – I hope you used a condom! And yes, I'm talking to you, Trey and Janelle.



"Wow," I mouthed. Was it that bad? I was about to go on to the next note when I heard some call my name from behind.

"Jeez, Su Jin. Did you really wake up early just for this?" Ali teased as she stood at the other side of me. Before I could reply, she groaned and pointed at another note. "When will this loser give up? Doesn't he get that no one in the DMV area wants him?"



Generous? Looking to give a free ride? Well, look no further. If you're thin, 5'3 to 5'6, very pretty, wear a 34C or D bra please call 202-562-5789. Please understand that I reserve the right to reject you.



I was still giggling at the sheer incredulousness of the note when Su Jin pulled it off the board, crumpled it up and threw it into the trash. She was telling me about Pete, the author of the note and all the embarrassing things he'd done in their freshman year when she asked me for a pen. I handed one to her and walked over to see what she was doing but my eyes grew to twice their size when I realized that she was writing my name on one of the sign up sheets.

"What the hell is that?" I yelled. "Stop," I ordered, attempting to wrangle the pen out of her hand.

She jumped back and laughed. "Hey, I'm only signing you up for our Winter break trip. It's in LA this year and we get to see many exciting museums or whatever." She pointed at a printed sheet next to it. "You can read all about it there. And you're coming even if you don't want to."



***

Assemblies were never my thing because they were just an excuse for the principal to get the chance to bore us to death. So as usual, my mind was only partially there, staring into space and wishing for time to pass by quicker and when I thought it was getting to the time we were all about to be dismissed, Mrs. Anderson said, "Mr. Levine just informed me that this semester, we've received record low sign ups for the choir. As you all know, the choir plays a huge role at this school – from singing at school events to representing the school regionally…"

Ali shook her head and mouthed, "They suck."

"… so this year," she continued, "since no one wants to volunteer for the choir, Mr. Levine will go around the hall and do the work himself. If he picks you, you must stay behind or face detention."



***

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked Ali as she started to head out of the auditorium. "Didn't Mr. Levine ask you to stay?"

She made a face and pointed to herself, "Me?"

I nodded. "Yeah. You have to stay if you don't want to get in trouble," I reminded her.

She shook her head. "Hey, don't try to push this on me. He so didn't point at me – he pointed at you!"

"What?" I looked away and tried to recollect the moment. I distinctly saw him point at her. "I think you're wrong, Ali. He pointed at you."

She shook her head vehemently. "I'm quite sure he didn't point at me. Hello, I joined the choir in my freshman year and he pretty much told me to quit because my singing was so bad. So there's no way he would have picked me." She looked ahead of her. "Anyway, you'd better get up there," she said before turning towards the door. "I'll see you later."

Even though I suspected that Ali was lying, I reluctantly walked slowly towards the stage and as I did, felt my heart race because I wasn't a huge fan of crowds. Quite a large number of us had been asked behind and I was looking around to see if there was anyone I recognized from any of my classes when I heard a low 'hey' from behind me. I turned around and said a quick hello with my eyes.

"You too?" Ryan asked, standing next to me.

I shrugged. "It looks that way. Does your choir really suck that badly?"

"Yes and no. It used to be pretty good in my freshman year but since Mrs. Chen got pregnant and retired, it's gone down the drain. I heard they even used to get asked to perform in Europe and stuff but whatever."

"Students!" Mr. Levine yelled to catch our attention. He was a balding, stocky man in his forties and looked more like a PE teacher than a choirmaster. He clapped his hands. "Welcome to the choir. Right now, we're just going to have quick auditions to determine which vocal range you're in so that we can get straight to work the next time we meet. The choir meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:30 in the music room so I expect to see all of you tomorrow. Shall we begin?" He pointed at the chubby girl standing closest to him. "Rebecca, why don't you start? We shall be singing 'Amazing Grace'."

"My name is Sarah," she grumbled before beginning her rendition of the song.

I sighed as I watched her butcher the song with all her might. It sure was going to be a long day.

As I watched student after student sing the song, I realized that I didn't really know all the lyrics to it. Was I going to disgrace myself like majority of them were intent on doing? I relayed my fear to Ryan so he quickly grabbed a piece of paper and wrote the words for me.



***

I stood in front of the school gates waiting for my brother. Once Dong Won received his driver's license, my father took back the embassy driver I'd been using and replaced him with my brother which meant that more often than not, I spent valuable minutes in the sun wasting my time. I certainly wasn't averse to tanning but surely, skin cancer wasn't an option. I was still standing and waiting for my brother when I saw Ryan walk out of school.

"Hey," I called as I skipped over to him. "How is it going?"

"School is over so I guess it's going pretty great," he replied.

My neck suddenly felt itchy so I scratched it. "So do we really have to be in the choir?" I asked as I fell in step with him.

He furrowed his brows. "I don't know about you but I'm certainly not going to be in any damn choir."

Confused, I said, "But what about what happened today? Won't Mr. Levine remember you?"

He shook his head. "I'm quite sure he won't – he probably doesn't even remember what he had for lunch. He's kinda loopy," he said, drawing circles with his finger for emphasis.

"So why did you bother staying for the auditions? Why not just leave?"

He shrugged. "It beat sitting in for first period geography. But come to think of it, you're actually a good singer," he said, narrowing his eyes and looking at me.

"I know," I said dismissively. His gaze made me slightly uncomfortable so I looked away. "I came fourth place in Korean Idol."

"Really?" he asked, clearly intrigued.

I laughed. "Of course not."

It looked like we'd run out of things to say because we suddenly felt silent. Unless I was with Min Ki, I never really knew what to do in complete silence so I generally liked to just say anything to kill it. I was about to say something mundane about a teen show I'd watched the previous night when he suddenly pulled out his camera and pointed it at me. "Say something," he implored.

"Like what?" I replied, covering the lens with my hand.

"Hey, be careful," he cautioned, gently pushing my hand away. "Just say something. Anything."

I took a deep breath then smiled into the camera.

He chuckled then moved the camera away. "Try to be natural, okay? Just now, you looked like some kind of crazy clown."

"A crazy clown?" I repeated in dismay. I took another deep breath and tried to find my inner light. Talking to the camera really couldn't be that hard. "Okay," I said, pointing at his hand, "I'm ready. Hit me."

He lifted the camera and pointed it at me one more time. "1, 2, 3, Action!"

After a beat, I said, "Hi." I beamed into the camera in a way I hoped made me look hot and sophisticated. "My name is Su Jin Oh, I'm 16 years old and I'm a Virgo."

He moved the camera from his face. "Really? So your birthday's coming up soon?"

I shook my head and laughed. "I'm just kidding. I just thought it sounded better, you know, Su Jin Oh - Virgo, I'm actually a Gemini… I think."

He groaned and put the viewfinder back in front of his right eye. "Are you some kind of pathological liar? Introduce yourself again and this time, be honest," he said very seriously.

Instead of looking at the lens, I studied him. "What's with you and filmmaking anyway? Ali says you're some kind of science genius? You won a high school prize in your freshman year?"

With the camera still pointed at me, he shrugged and said, "Well, I apparently have the brains to become a doctor so I'm supposed to use them for good blah blah blah. So I figure that I might as well try to enjoy filmmaking now that I can. I can't imagine I'll have time for it once I get to college and start cutting things open. Enough about me, smile in—"

"OH SU JIN," my brother's yell interrupted. I turned in the direction of his voice and saw him standing next to the car. "Get your butt here now! I don't have all day."

"Hey, it looks like I have to run," I said, turning back to Ryan. "Did I tell you that I have a phone now?" I asked pulling it out. "What's your number?"

I punched in the numbers as he told me.

"Call me now so that I can have yours," he suggested.

"Sorry," I said apologetically. "I have to call Min Ki first before I call anyone else – it's kind of sentimental," I said, knowing I sounded pathetic.

"It's cool. Min Ki, huh? Min Ki has a stinky pinky," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Huh?" I started to say before getting interrupted by my brother yelling my name again.

"I have to run!" I readjusted my bag on my back and turned to leave.

"Hold up for a second," he said, grabbing my hand. He reached into his bag and pulled out some stapled sheets of paper. "I photocopied my history notes from the first day up to yesterday's class." He shoved it in my hand. "Alright, you can go now."

***



"Guess who?" I said into the phone. After another unpleasant dinner with my family, I'd retired to my room and counted the tiles on my ceiling over and over till I felt I wouldn't be waking Min Ki up by calling him.

"Guess who?" he replied groggily. He paused for a second then said, "Guess who!" in a louder voice.

I laughed. "You still recognize my voice?"

He joined in the laughter. "Of course I do, sweetie. Congratulations on getting your phone."

"Thanks. Getting ready for school?"

"Well, I'd planned to do that in 20 minutes so I guess I'll spend this time talking to you."

"Oh, did I wake you? I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry – this is the perfect way to start the day. So what's going on over there? How's America? Have you met some friends? Tell me everything."

I filled him in- on the details but when he seemed a little disappointed to hear that America wasn't as fabulous as we'd expected, I decided to sexy it up a little to help him hold on to his fantasy.

"So, I've got a job," he told me about five minutes into our conversation.

"Really?" His parents weren't wealthy but they were doing pretty well so his allowance was pretty reasonable. "Why?"

"I've been thinking and… well, with you so far away, it wouldn't hurt for us to see each other at least once before you return to Seoul, don't you think?"

I smiled at the thought. "Of course not but maybe we'll come down to visit or something."

"Yeah… and I've been doing some research on the internet and American universities don't seem that bad so I've been thinking of applying to a few."

"Yeah, some are okay. My brother just started at Georgetown and he likes it so far although he keeps going on and on about how hot the girls are. But I thought you always wanted to attend Korea University?"

"Yeah… but wouldn't it be better for us to go to school together?"

I let his words sink in but didn't say anything in response. Of course, if we were together, I'd never have to worry about being lonely but wasn't it all a pipe dream? How would he even pay for an American university?

As if reading my thoughts he said, "Well, it's just an idea. So, how far are you guys from New York?" he asked, changing the subject.



***



"Hey," I said as I hesitantly walked towards Ryan and his friends. As usual, I had another lunch time dilemma and I didn't quite get how there were no empty tables considering I'd pretty much run out of class the second the bell sounded. "Mind if I join you?" I asked the group.

"Sure," they said in unison, waving for me to sit down.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Ryan who I was sitting next to. "I can't seem to find Ali."

He looked around the cafeteria then pointed at a table filled with girls. I squinted and saw that Ali seemed to be in her element yapping away about something. "Do you think I should go over there?" I whispered.

He smirked. "Oh, are we chopped liver?" He paused for a quick second and in a louder voice said, "Let me introduce you to the rest of the table," he said before proceeding to do that.

His friends were mainly Asian although I didn't think they were all Korean. Being in DC and close to all the embassies and various international organizations, our school wasn't international in name alone so I was already getting used to hearing all sorts of strange names.

Shortly after the introductions, the boys went back to talking about sports, cars or whatever it was that excited them so I took the time to eat and let my eyes wander around the room. That was when I saw Jonathan sitting next to a pretty dark skinned girl. From what I understood, she was Okwi, the other female new student in our year and with her long braids, tall, slim physique that gave her model looks, I could understand why any guy would be interested in her. Especially someone like Jonathan.

He must have felt me looking at him because he suddenly looked up and caught me staring at him. Of course, his face broke into a smooth smile and of course, I felt the blood rise in my cheeks so I quickly looked down and faced my lunch. Sweet corn never looked so delicious.

"Miss Su Jin Oh," I heard about a minute later. I looked up, expecting to see Jonathan's flirty smile but for the first time, I saw pure cynicism. "Surely, this can't be the boyfriend you told me about?" he asked, looking at Ryan.

I turned to my right and saw Ryan's face darkening with anger. "What do you want?"

"Wow," he said sarcastically. "You try to act like some angel but you're just as bad as I am. She hasn't been here for five minutes and you've already zoned in on her?"

Ryan stood up and folded his arms across his chest defiantly. "What if I have? How is it any of your business?" Ryan wasn't quite as tall or as buff as Jonathan but something about the way he smirked at Jonathan made them appear evenly matched.

"Su Jin," Jonathan said, turning to me, "take my advice and leave him alone. I doubt he can keep his lips unglued from Alison's ass long enough to actually be with you. Do yourself a favor and dump him before it gets too late," he said before turning around and walking away.