The Birds Flying South (Part I)
2017-02-24
The Birds Flying South
--- A Chronicle of our Study Tour writen in a fiction way（岭南游学记事）
By Wang Yifei (王怡菲)，a 7th grader of Zhengzhou Middle Schoool
Winter is finally on its way. As the last swish of autumn wind swept the remaining dry yellow leaves from their branches, it took the memories with it.
Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees, it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth, is like a diary with yellowish pages, carrying one joke after another, one secret after another, one mistake after another… And suddenly, someday when you thought you had long lost it, it came back to you again, with its warm yellow pages, waiting for you to open it again.
1
Elisa had always known that, when the sky was clear, the birds were singing, and you happened to be on a trip, then there got to be some story happening sooner or later. But she had to worry about it later since right now, fate had left her alone with an extremely heavy suitcase plus a heavy backpack, let alone dragging these to the third floor. It would be a miracle for Elisa if she could pick it up.
Though it did take a lot of work including drugging, pushing, kicking to get the luggage on the third floor to her classroom, the warm sunshine could cure almost any bad mood. So Elisa’s expression lighted up considerably after reaching to her desk and watching everyone else struggling. Her eyes scanned the crowed and found her best friend Rachel, stumbling with a silver suitcase. Elisa raced to help her. It was kind of awkward that Elisa was in many people’s way, but at last they finally got everything settled down. Rachel smiled thankfully and said, “Mua, Love you!” to Elisa, which gave Elisa goose bumps all over, though it felt quite nice.
Elisa and Rachel are both students from Zhuangyuan Middle School, a prestigious one in the monstrous provincial capital city. It’s the tradition of the school that every year, the students should go on a study trip to different cities. And this year, in this case, their destination would be Shenzhen and Guangzhou. When their head teacher, Mr. M came in, the clattering and whispering stopped, and fifty-one pairs of shining black eyes stared at him. Mr. M was satisfied with the effect and cleared his throat, “This study trip will last for five days and four nights. During this time, I hope you lot would all behave yourselves, and if you don’t, then you might not be able to come with us.” He smiled maliciously as the eyes blinked, once, twice, three times below him.
Elisa and Rachel mouthed the same word “Suckers!” Rachel’s lips swung upward in a careless smile, she never cared about rules, and she liked to hang out with boys. Not that they have a special relationship or anything, it’s just that Rachel is different. She is popular and sunny, and her biggest pride is that she knows a lot about those things kids shouldn’t know, and she was not afraid to show off her knowledge of this kind to everyone. Her friends are nearly all boys, and they view her as a dude rather than a girl. Elisa wasn’t sure if it’s a good thing though, to have so many guy friends.
But Elisa is happy enough. She too have a lot of friends, and of course, most of them are girls. She had always been a bit unsure about Rachel since she let three boys join their group. And Elisa isn’t really the kind who just goes up and chats with some unfamiliar guys. Just like when Rachel had absolutely no trouble swinging her arm around a boy’s shoulders, Elisa had. But at least all the boys in their group was pretty funny, and Elisa was okay with them. One of them even wrote a love letter to her a few weeks ago, but that was all history.
Elisa’s eyes darted across the classroom and located on the other girl in her group, Helen. Helen was the only girl in the class who could have long hair since she studied dance. She is not exactly pretty, but her long ponytail surely makes her look special, at least to some of the boys. Rachel and Helen weren’t very close before, and Elisa doubt if Rachel is going to hang out with girls much on this trip. After all, for someone like Rachel, this was a good chance to hang out with the “Old Driver” Cray.
Thinking about this, Elisa winked at Helen and was relieved that she winked back. “At least there is still someone in our group who is a bit normal.” Elisa thought. She crossed her legs and made herself comfortable in her seat.
Mr. M was still talking about the rules of this trip, while Elisa turned her head and found herself locking eyes t at Cyril. Cyril was good-looking and his math was always the best in the whole grade. Now, under the warm winter sun, his hair was a nice shade of brown. Elisa’s breaths quickened and as she hastily dropped her gaze, feeling stupid all again.
2
Somewhere far away, a whistle had been blown and they set off down stairs. That’s when Elisa felt like a total idiot about heaving all the luggage upstairs. She sat with Rachel and they watched a Japanese Cartoon on the whole bus ride. There was a lot of fun. The train station looked just the same as ever when the students arrived, big and crowd. Just as Elisa predicted, Rachel walked along side with Cray, who had a soft spot for Helen. Unfortunaly, the same thing didn’t work out so well with Helen, who liked Cyril since the first day of school.
Elisa wasn’t planning to join Rachel and Cray since that would make her look like a light bulb, and luckily Helen was thinking the same thing. She caught up with Elisa and brought up some topics that were catchy. And they walked right after Rachel and Cray. Elisa and Helen stared at their backs and Helen murmured, “’Old Driver’, ‘Old Witch’ an old couple.” Elisa laughed and couldn’t stop picturing what life would be like if Rachel really became together with Cray.
After their tickets checked, they were allowed to the waiting area, though not too much waiting was needed since they immediately set off for the platform. Elisa’s group found a compartment with six bunk beds and they all made themselves home on the train, enjoying the time without the restrain of parents and teachers.
That afternoon, they started off as good students. Elisa went to bed at exact 10:30 and found that, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fall asleep. That’s when she heard movement above her and found herself sitting next to Helen, while on the opposite side was Rachel and Cray. Since no one could sleep, they started to play “Truth or Dare” It was a nice way to kill time and somewhere between two and three o’clock in the morning, things got pretty messed up.
3
It started when Cray asked Helen, “Do you like me?” And ended with the teacher scolding Rachel for being too close to Cray. Elisa quietly slipped back to her bunk bed. Her mind still didn’t allow her to drift to sleep. Staying up all night was a terrible idea for they still had a long way to go the next day. But Elisa pulled the covers above her head, trying to block out all the things happened tonight.
The next morning, Elisa was woken by a couple of students at 5’o clock. She cursed under her breath since she had just fallen asleep less than an hour ago. Luckily, she didn’t have bags under her eyes while Rachel was looking more like a panda than ever. Elisa and Helen washed their faces and sat down to look at the scenery outside the train windows. They were getting closer and closer to their destination, but Elisa was starting to feel that maybe it was not such a good idea to team up with Rachel and Cray. From how she was acting last night, Rachel could use with a good scold.
Cyril’s was at the end of this compartment. Elisa had felt uneasy about him teaming up with Fiona. Fiona was just like Rachel, who happened to be crushing on Cyril. That is kind of weird because, at the start of the school term, Fiona and Cray was acting all close and snogging between classes. Cyril had just woke up, and was standing near the window. According to Fiona, Cyril slept very quickly and very well last night, though Elisa was a little curious about how she knew that. Helen was tying up her hair when Cray and Rachel jumped down from their bunks and joined them.
Rachel looked fine except her eyes were a bit splotchy, while Cray was looking as excited as ever. Elisa walked along the compartment and found most people complaining about yesterday’s sleeping situation and the noises. Elisa felt kind of guilty since most of the noises was made by them last night. And they seemed to forget all about the diary-writing, as the teacher specifically asked Rachel and Elisa to be the main writers.
The broadcaster was broadcasting “Sugar” , which completely swept most of the students off their feet, and they started to joke about it. By the end of the voyage, the song had turned into something like this “I am, awesome, so come along and flirt with me. I’m right here, waiting, because I know I’m so stunning.” That went on for another hour when the train finally pulled to a stop at Guangzhou station. Elisa felt her ears might explode for hearing those songs. Guangzhou station didn’t look remotely different from Zhongyuan’s, and that was surely disappointing since Guangzhou is one of the first raid city in China.
(1707 words)
(To be continued)
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