The bus slowed down as it approached the stop. Passengers who had to get off pushed and shoved their way to the exit, but Zhang Xiaobo didn’t move. He didn’t show any signs of wanting to leave.
The doors opened. Jiaming closed her eyes. Exiting passengers surged past behind her. She should be in their midst, easily carried off the bus by the current. She should not be dizzy.
Yet she endured the buffeting of the crowd, her fingers locked onto the handholds. Several times she was almost swept off the bus, but she struggled to hold her place until the doors closed. The drumbeats of dense African jungle once again struck her chest. She wanted to cry; she wanted to laugh.
“You’re going to be late.” She hadn’t noticed when Xiaobo came to be standing next to her.
Her mind was a blank. The bus started moving again, past the school. She could see the old man at the gatehouse; in another ten minutes he would close the gate. The school grew smaller in rearview and finally disappeared behind the row of Chinese parasol trees along the street. She closed her eyes. The dappled light of the leaves flitted across her eyelids. Something tickled at her heart.
“Now you’re really going to be late.” He was almost smiling.
They rode the bus to the terminal stop, where they got on another bus heading back. They sat in two separate rows, one behind the other. They didn’t look at each other or talk.
As they approached the school again, he leaned forward and whispered into her ear. “What classes do you have in the morning?”
Things that seem crazy happened because they were fated to happen.
Jiaming turned around to look at Xiaobo.
The bus stopped; the doors opened; the doors closed. Neither of them moved.
It was already eight thirty.
It was noon by the time she was back at the school. She was about to go to the cafeteria to grab a bite when the Dean of Academic Affairs stopped her and took her to his office.
She wasn’t worried because she thought it was about skipping class. But she was wrong.
Once she emerged from the dean’s office, she took Zhu Yin to a remote corner of the cafeteria. Zhu Yin confessed before she even asked the question.
“That’s right. I told them about you taking the exam for Lina. It’s the truth.”
“They must have asked you for proof.”
“Yes…” Zhu Yin seemed to realize the problem and fell silent.
“And so you told them that I could confirm your story, that I took the mock exam for Lina in all four subjects.”
Jiaming walked in front of Zhu Yin so that she had to look into her eyes. “But you know very well that I’ve never said that I took the exam for Lina. I haven’t before and I never will. The dean already spoke to me.”
“Did you tell him—”
“I told him that Lina’s score was all due to her own diligence.”
“Why are you protecting that bitch? Why help her? I saw you.”
“You saw me help her pick up her exam when it fell on the floor. That’s all.”
“Why? Why? I can’t stand the way she struts around as though she has already been admitted to a top-tier college. I want everyone to know that she’s a fake, a nothing. If I had hard proof, I would have—”
“But you don’t. However, you’ve succeeded in convincing her that I’ve sold her out.” Jiaming was no longer angry. This girl had no idea how clever she had been.
She had helped because it was easy. She had thought nothing of it, not caring about test scores. As for herself, she had casually written out a few answers on her own exam in the time remaining.
She had treated the whole thing as a joke, but she seemed to be the only one who found it funny.
“Why are you helping her like that? For that pen? I saw that new Parker pen in your gym bag after PE. Don’t leave, Jiaming! We’re friends!”
Zhu Yin’s voice faded behind her.
Xiaobo caught her on the landing as she climbed the stairs. His face was dark.
“I need to see you.”
“I thought we were going to meet at McDonald’s after school.”
“Why are you spreading such malicious lies? Did you think anyone would believe you?”
Jiaming stared at him. “You think those are lies?” She leaned against the wall so he wouldn’t see her trembling.
The stars had said that he was a very important person.
“Who would believe that you took the mock exam for Lina? The dean already talked to her. She’s been crying ever since. How can you hurt someone just to satisfy your vanity?”
He already believed them, just like that.
Jiaming bit her lip. Something was stuck in her throat, burning, suffocating her. She didn’t want to speak because it would hurt too much. But… but he was an important person to her. Maybe he was worth it, worth her ripping the words from her chest.
“What if I told you that I really did take the exam for her?”
She stared into his eyes, hoping to find something familiar.
“You’re filthy,” Xiaobo said.
She twisted her face away. She did find something familiar, though it wasn’t what she wanted. She was in so much pain that she could not bear to look at him.
But, he was going to hear her explanation. They would be happy together. She just had to—
The bell rang.
“Let’s talk about it more after school, all right?”
Xiaobo rushed for the classroom. Jiaming followed and climbed up a few steps, stopped, and turned around to go back down.
She decided to leave; leave behind the trivial nonsense, the school. She was going to cross the street and go through the revolving door of the McDonald’s, where she would sit on a sofa chair and sip from a large Coke. She would do nothing and think about nothing, until school let out.
She had never told anyone about taking the exam for Lina. This evening, she was going to tell him the whole story as a joke. She would be lighthearted and not leave out any details. She would be careful with her phrasing. She didn’t want to make him feel guilty.
4.
The ice cubes slowly melted, gradually vanishing into the dark, sweet liquid. Very few people ever paid attention to how ice disappeared. What about the pale woman? Did she once focus on the inevitable fading away of things? What would her stars say?
The stars want you to be happy.
What kind of stars would make her happy? Jiaming didn’t know and didn’t want to figure it out.
The pale woman was still asleep. Jiaming didn’t wake her. The Coke she brought back for her was already warm, but she didn’t want to awaken her. She rarely got to see the pale woman so at peace.
“What time is it?” The pale woman woke up. She glanced at the TV; the anchor was reporting on the domestic news. “It’s so early. I thought you had a date. Did you get to meet him? You should have taken a path this morning you normally don’t.”
“I met him. We made a date for McDonald’s after school. There’s a Coke I bought you on the table.”
“How was the date? It ended too early.” The pale woman tilted her head and laughed. “Now do you believe me? Your mama isn’t mad! The stars tell the truth.”
“Mama, let’s look at the stars.”
The pale woman set down the Coke and happily took out her star chart. The spinning disk stopped and the symbols appeared clearly on the paper. The woman began to interpret.
Her mouth was open, but no sound emerged.
“What’s wrong, Mama? What do the stars say?”
The pale woman collapsed into the chair. She had never been as white as she was now.