Bus Mate

On the school bus, Shawn sat in the backseat. Eyes closed, earphones on, he listened to English Pop music that was downloaded onto his phone. As the bus left and turned a corner to reach another housing compound, another group of students boarded the bus. Within that group, a girl, the same age as Shawn, boarded the school bus. Her hair was jet black, but her face was of western features. It was easy to tell that she would one day grow up to be a beauty of her time.

"Hey Shawn. Shawn!" The girl sat beside Shawn who was trying to take a nap at the moment.

Unable to do so, Shawn spoke in an annoyed tone, "What?"

"I heard that you were called into Ms Siara's office again for not doing your homework. How'd that go?"

"Didn't go very well. My mother was called to school too. Received a earful from her when I got home." Shawn scratched the back of his head as he yawned. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Huh? What? You can't just sleep when I'm here. We should be talking!" Energetic as always, Shawn's bus-mate cum classmate, Emilie Williams complained.

Emilie who was technically a year younger than Shawn, was a half German half Chinese descendant. She had lived in China for most of her life, but was more of western influence as she attended international schools her whole life. The girl had long known Shawn since Year 7, but only became close after he had moved to a different housing compound in Year 9 which followed the same bus route as Emilie's. Although they did not belong in the same clique in school, Shawn and Emilie surprisingly clicked very well from the beginning. Emilie would always do her homework, while Shawn never did his homework. The girl was bubbly and open about everything, while the boy was toned down and uninspired in everything he did. The opposing forces of Yin and Yang allowed the pair to communicate well together.

"Alright, tell me about your yesterday while I take a nap." Leaning his face against the palm of his hand, Shawn tried his best to escape from the long conversation that was coming up.

"No! You have to open your eyes and listen up!" Pulling on Shawn's jacket, the boy's head was flung around from left to right.

"I can hear you just fine. Just speak." Mumbling, Shawn did not open his eyes.

"Argh fine!" In the end, Emilie gave up as she slumped back into her seat. She told her story that she had been saving up for her sleepy friend, "So, I was trying to do the art homework that was given to us on Monday. You probably do not remember, but we had to sketch a drawing of our favourite item in the house. This was where the problem came in…"

That was the part where Shawn's brain shut down. Nothing else was heard and only after Emilie had finished telling her story, she realised that the boy beside her was asleep. Rather than being obnoxious, she chose to sit quietly by the side and not disturb him. The boy had gotten the rest he had wanted on the bus.

When they got to school, the pair headed to the classroom together, where they gathered up and sat in their cliques for form class. As they were in the same class, 9A, Emilie and Shawn would normally go to form class together in the morning, before breaking up into their cliques.

In terms of cliques, Shawn belonged in the Asian gang. It wasn't because they were racist or anything, but the friends that made up this group were all surprisingly of Asian origin. In International schools, the number of students in every year level was lower. The student to teacher ratio was smaller than public schools. It resulted in a closer knitted community where students from other classes would know you too. It was rare where a student in the year level was not known. Shawn's Asian gang comprised of students from other classes in the Year 9 level. There were three classes, 9A, B, C and each class had around 20 students.

In Shawn's class, the people that were in his clique were namely, Julian Tam, Kenny Tang and Alli Ko. Every year, the students in the classes would be mixed randomly. In year 7, Shawn had enrolled into the school on the same day as Kenny Tang. Kenny's father was a colleague of Shawn's father and they had come to Shanghai together under the same contract conditions. Shawn had known Kenny ever since they were small and they had even gone on family trips together. He was the first friend Shawn made after coming to Shanghai.

Compared to Shawn, Kenny was more open and was able to join a pre-established group of friends already. In the first few months of school, Shawn never really made any other friends and chose to eat by himself. It was only after Kenny pulled Shawn into his group of friends did Shawn start to have others to talk to. Though Shawn could be said to be a very ambitionless person, he still felt lonely from time to time. He was very thankful for the introduction by Kenny.

"Morning," Heading towards his usual seat for form class, Shawn was greeted by Kenny. The boy was polite, but reserved on the most part. With his closer friends, he would speak up more.

"Morning." Yawning, as soon as Shawn got to his seat, he immediately crashed on the table to continue his nap.

A tap was felt on his shoulder. Shawn turned his head to see his other friend, Julian sitting beside him. Julian, who was only a month younger than Shawn, had a physique that was unrepresentative of his age. He was small in stature and his face was cute and adorable. The key trait that defined Julian was his long messy hair that easily touched his nose.