"So! If you don't wake up right this second, you'll be late!" 

Bundling herself up in her warm comforter and cozy mattress, Tú Anh blinked her eyes sleepily. "Is it morning already? I've only slept four hours," she thought to herself. 

Reluctantly sitting up, Tú Anh stunned her body awake, suddenly remembering that today was the first day of school. When her mom had called, she could barely hear, because she had been so sleepy. If she hadn't carried the worry that she wouldn't sleep last night, perhaps the situation might be better. 

Rushing down the stairs, her face was listless, her outfit was formal and her hair was smoothly brushed, but inside she couldn't feel half as well. She was afraid that no one in her classes would like her, and she didn't want to feel rejected like all the other years before. 

Pausing and thinking, she wrinkled her nose and huffed. Haters gonna hate, so was it really a crime to just be more academically talented? Jealousy is jealousy. What was there to be scared of? Tú Anh Nguyễn was the bravest in her house. Her mother often said, "She would never be frightened, not even if the sky fell." When she was small, she would catch lizards and spiders to help her mom, so this kind of rashness from her peers should be a small thing.

Okay. After that pep talk, she became much more confident. And so, she began to walk straight to school. It was the first day, but even then, she didn't want to arrive early. Arriving early on this important of a day caused nothing but more stress. Of course, when she arrived in class, there would be the usual mob of students arguing over seats, so she had realized long ago that arriving early on the first day was just tiring. Although her nearsightedness was quite severe, every year she ended up having to sit in the back of the classroom. She was tall and broad-shouldered, causing anyone who sat behind her to complain about her blocking their view. So it wasn't that she was afraid to argue. It was that she just didn't want to waste her precious time and energy on pointless matters.

Furthermore, the other reason for her walking slow was because she was lugging along way too many English books, all extra editions and heavy ones at that. Her new school being an international school, having all those English books was an obvious thing. Since her house wasn't too far away, she walked to make things more convenient. Anyhow, walking in the morning was good for her health.

It was many minutes later when Tú Anh finally made it to school. Just like she thought, not a person was in sight because they had all gone to their classes. 

"There's three minutes left," she thought happily. "I'll make it."

Usually, everyone would spend an absurdly large amount of time trying to find their classes, but luckily, Tú Anh had an older brother who had given her a tour and explained everything she needed to know.

"Thanks, brother," she said softly.

It only took Tú Anh two minutes to get to class. She stood, full of suspense, in front of the door, not sure whether she should open it or not. But her kind soul did not allow her to hesitate, and she opened the door and walked straight in.

Inside were faces she had never before seen, except one that she thought looked just a little familiar. She decided that she would sit in front of this person. Thinking back, this was a highly stupid decision.

The person sitting behind her was very good-looking, maybe even handsome, with a high nose and nice eyebrows. His buzz cut looked very cute. He wore a green hoodie, and had ears stuffed with Airpods, and looked relatively careless. Tú Anh stared and judged. Definitely a bad student. He kind of gave a reckless, careless, irresponsible vibe. 

"Oh, he's pretty interesting," she had thought.

Tú Anh realized that she knew him. She remembered that day.

It happened at a book store she frequently bought from. Tú Anh was usually always ahead of time, and she bought all her books months before the start of the school year. While she was waiting for her turn at the cash register, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Hey you! What are you doing?"

Honestly, she didn't care, because she didn't like to be tangled up with someone rude. But then, the sounds of the argument got louder, everyone in the shop turning their heads to stare with curiosity. Tú Anh was no exception, because the cashier had run over and was trying to solve the conflict.

From what she could see, all the yelling had been coming from a tough-looking teenage boy persistently denying his guiltiness, his shirt collar being held up by a taller, larger person.

The boy insisted that he hadn't cut in front of the pregnant woman in line, but that she had let him in front of her. The taller guy turned around and asked the woman if this was true, still holding on the the boy's shirt collar.

She seemed to be a bit sniffy because she had been pushed around quite a bit, and a while later she grumbled that the teenage boy had tried to steal her spot in line. So the other guy had been trying to protect her. That was cool. The teenager who had tried to cut growled and walked off, but not before teasing the guy who had grabbed his collar.

He had no right to be so rude. Because he knew he couldn't win against someone who was a whole head taller than him, he pretended like they never saw each other, his back turned, walking straight away. How rude.

As Tú Anh remembered this, she turned around and started talking to the student behind her that minutes ago she had declared insignificant.

"Hey, I have a question."

He took his earbuds out.

Tú Anh decided that she needn't be polite because the person wouldn't even bother to answer her.

"Is it you who helped the pregnant woman in the book shop last month?"

"I forgot."

Tú Anh thought this guy was rather haughty. Oh well, if he didn't want to open up to her, then she didn't want to open up to him, either.

Her impression of the student behind her was not very good.

When he saw her sniffily turn around, he didn't understand. It wasn't his fault at all. He really did forget.

-

A moment later, the teacher entered the classroom. He introduced himself and read a few basic school rules for those who didn't know. For example, no bringing strong-smelling food and drinks into classrooms, no wearing earphones while in classrooms...

Oh, when he said that, he noticed the unpleasant guy wearing earbuds in the classroom.

A while later, the teacher moved on to student introductions. After a bunch of introductions, it was finally Tú Anh's turn. 

"Hello everyone, I'm Tú Anh Châu Nguyễn. My hobbies are playing badminton, reading and writing. I'm a new student hoping everybody will be considerate." She lowered her head slightly and returned to her seat.

This introduction she had prepared last night. She had tried to be simple and straightforward so that she wouldn't sound over-confident or selfish, and she probably succeeded. She didn't see any eyes looking at her irritably like she had before. She relaxed a little.

The next person to go was the person sitting behind her. He didn't even bother to stand up, and spoke the whole introduction in one breath.

"Hey everyone I'm Gia Bảo Phạm born on the 18th of August I like to play volleyball the most after that is soccer and basketball and ping pong and swimming and tennis yes anything that is a sport is something I like my favorite subject is math my second favorite is physics and my third favorite is English I like to eat shaved ice and drink Milo. I will be the vice monitor so don't mess with me. Furthermore anyone who is an anime fan and meet with me after school to trade goods I also sell really cool rock paintings just talk to me..."

That Gia Bảo talked too much and too fast and afterwards just continued sitting like nothing had happened. The classroom was silent for 5 seconds, and then everyone burst out laughing. Even the teacher. Tú Anh laughed too, but only a little. She was jealous. Gia Bảo seemed to have such an easy time making friends. They were all new students, how could he do it so quickly? It was unfair. 

After Gia Bảo's extensive introduction, the teacher announced the student committee. The class monitor was a cute girl named Cát Tường. The art class vice was a boy who had introduced himself as Nguyên Khôi. He was handsome, just like his name. The assistant was a boy who seemed to be understanding. His name was Minh Đạt. 

When he announced the vice monitor, the teacher called on those who were willing. Tú Anh immediately raised her hand. So did Gia Bảo. They glared at each other. The teacher told them to stand and tell everyone what their reason for nominating themselves was.

Tú Anh casually said, "I think of myself as someone responsible. I won't let my personal interests affect the whole class. I have the ability to teach to those who need it. Also, I will be willing when a task is asked of me by the teacher."

Meanwhile, the other candidate just said, "I'm a better student than her, pick me, PICK ME, AAAAAAH!"

In the end, the teacher chose Tú Anh. Somebody was stingy, and so he kept glaring at her. But she didn't mind. She even thought it was funny. What evidence led Gia Bảo to believe that he could be a better student than her? She was the pride of her old school, always scoring the maximum out of anything and everything. Maybe someone was overconfident.

But then, she received a shock when she was helping the teacher organize the school profiles. She saw that Gia Bảo Phạm had scored the maximum on the test for the start of school. 

"Even higher than me... who is this guy?" Tú Anh thought painfully.

If it was like this, then she had to beat him. She had heard that tomorrow there was an IQ test coming up. To show everyone what Tú Anh Châu Nguyễn was made of. 

It didn't seem like an academic journey that would go well for Tú Anh at all.

Note from the translator:

Translation is proving much more difficult than I imagined. I had to cut a few words, phrases, and/or sentences out because even though I kind of knew what they meant, I didn't really know an English equivalent. I guarantee to you, though, that you will still be able to understand the authors' intended meaning. Sorry for any inconvenience this and the very slow speed of my translating work may have caused!