I Wish You Were Never Reborn

92...

92?!?

That was not what Shay wanted to see.

It was-- ahhHh! On the night before the test, she and Tyvan went out late for food. They had spicy Sichuan noodles at a random stand at a night market. She had no regrets!

A dull pain stabbed at her chest-- a sign that she did, in fact, have one regret. She should have at least brought her notes when they went out...

At least her 92 was still the top score. It wouldn’t affect the student rankings, but--

--”Hey, look. Someone tied with Pres on last week’s business exam.”

The other students had noticed the tragedy that had occurred.

--”Who is that?”

--”What a weird name-- are they Chinese?”

--”OooOoh, what happened, Shay?”

Shay took a deep breath, adopting her practiced Student Council President smile as she faced the crowd.

“It means someone else’s efforts have paid off. And I need to put in more effort, myself.”

Her peers nodded thoughtfully-- which was good. That was a line she prepared for just the occasion but hoped she’d never have to use.

Still-- Shay was seething inside. Who was it?! Did she have a new rival? Ever since second-place disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Shay thought she’d secured her title as top student until graduation.

But a new threat had appeared to challenge her reign!

And the name right under hers was...

Montgomery Jiang.

(ALSO, he scored a 91.5. They were NOT tied!)

That was definitely a Chinese last name... but she knew all the Chinese people in school?

Shay pretended to look at the other posted exams as she listened to the gossip.

Jiang was a transfer student-- but since when?!

Last... Friday? But that was the same day as the business exam!

Oh, no! Was she dealing with an unparalleled genius?! Her promise of a cushy job at one of her Grandpa’s companies was slipping away!

She needed to find that guy! She needed to know for sure!

But how was she going to--

Aquila.

Maybe she hadn’t gone to a club? Maybe she went off to harass the transfer student for information! Of course, Shay didn’t know that for sure-- but it was a better guess than anything she had.

She weaved out of the crowd, heading toward where she last saw those blue underpants dash off.

Behind the school, Shay checked the trailer classrooms... but the afterschool club meets held neither a shameless Indian girl nor an unfamiliar Chinese boy.

That left... the staff parking lot?

...She didn’t have anything better to do, so she figured she’d at least look through the wire fencing before heading home.

But before she could sneak over, she heard laughter from behind the solid brick wall.

--“HAH! Hahaha... she’s perfect, man.”

--”Nah. If she had bigger tits, then-- maybe.”

--”What the fuck, really? They’re already bigger than her head.”

A bunch of boys were talking about something lewd. Typical.

--“Hold on, I can make it better. This is just for you, dude.”

Shay heard the rattling of... a marble bouncing around inside of something. But she didn’t realize what was going on until she heard a hiss.

Spray paint?

The boys laughed even harder-- and she was going to put a stop to it. How dare they deface school property while she was Council President?

Shay glanced over to where the gate to the parking lot was. Too far.

--and if she went that way, those dummies would see her and run off.

She took a step back to size up the wall. Yeah-- she could do that. She’d basically scaled 90 degree cliffs while training with Grandpa.

She took a running start, kicked off, and grabbed the rough, brick top. Pulling herself up and over, she flipped forward, landing in the middle of their group.

--”What the fuck? Pres?”

--”Shit, where’d she come from?”

--”Did she just jump that wall?”

Shay stood up, taking account of the delinquents around her: the members of the car club.

Oh, good. Good. Fourth-quarter club reviews were coming up and she knew just who didn’t deserve their budget.

Painted onto the brick wall was a crude stick figure. There were big circles drawn by its chest with dots at the centers-- boobs. Also, between the figure’s legs was probably a penis-- it had long lines for pubes and sweat drops coming out of the tip.

Gross.

There were five boys, total-- one, she didn’t recognize.

Montgomery Jiang.

He was definitely Chinese, with his slanted eyes and single eyelids... but both his eyebrows and spiky hair were dyed a bright, ruby red. He had a black bandana over his mouth-- maybe because he thought it looked cool? Or maybe to protect him from the strong paint smell~

“Who the fuck is this flat-chested bitch?” he said, vaguely gesturing at her.

Brett Tran, the president of the car club, bared his teeth.

“Ah, shit, Monty-- you don’t know?” he said, “This flat-chested bitch is the Student Council President.”

Shay narrowed her eyes. They didn’t need to say it twice.

Monty had his coat unbuttoned and his sleeves rolled up, his can of spray paint still in his hand. He tried to slowly hide it behind his back, but he wasn’t fooling anyone.

He pulled down his bandana, revealing a round face that matched his chubby body and a wispy mustache that should have been a crime to not shave.

“This, uh... isn’t what it looks like.”

Shay waved at the stick figure painting. “Then how do you explain your girlfriend?”

“What?” Monty looked back. “Oh, that’s not my girlfriend. She’s with Brett.”

“Hey, fuck you, dude,” Brett replied.

Shay bristled at being ignored-- or at least not being taken seriously. She shot her hand forward to grab Monty’s spray can.

But-- not even looking, he moved his arm away.

...Weird. She was pretty confident of her speed.

She smoothly transitioned into pointing at him with an accusatory finger.

“As long as you guys wash this off, I’ll make sure you don’t get in any trouble.”

Monty grabbed his bag, tossing his spray can in before zipping it up.

“What’s the big deal? It’s just paint.”

“Excuse me,” Shay said, “Can you at least be a little more responsible? I literally caught you guys vandalizing school property. That’s not the kind of behavior I’d expect from one of our school’s top academic performers.”

The boys’ expressions turned blank... and they stared at her without saying anything.

Shay felt beads of sweat form on her forehead. Was it something she said or was something else wrong? Was there something in her teeth?

“Shay,” Brett said... “Montgomery Jiang is the dumbest guy in the entire school.”

“What the fuck?!” Monty snapped, “There’s no way! I just got here-- how do you know?!”

The other boys murmured their general agreement.

--”Yeah, he’s pretty dumb.”

--”If it doesn’t have anything to do with cars, Monty might as well be illiterate.”

“Fuck off!” Monty shouted, “Reading is hard! I’m eclectic, okay?”

Brett snorted. “Don’t you mean dyslexic, dumbass?”

“Fuck you!”

“But... what about the exam last Friday?” Shay asked-- “The one for Intro to Business.”

“Oh, I didn’t even study for that,” Monty shrugged, “but my dad talks about that stuff all the time.”

Shay sighed in relief. So his last test score was just a freak coincidence.

“Shay, how about this?” Brett said. “This is all Monty’s idea. Report him-- or kick his ass or whatever. We’ll have your back.”

“Yo, what the fuck?!” Monty shouted, “Really, dude? Does this chick have a throbbing dong or what?”

“Oh, fuck off, Monty,” Brett sighed.

Shay lifted her hand, clenching her fingers into a fist. The entire conversation was a not-so-gentle reminder of why she didn’t make friends at school.

“Hey, guys-- maybe don’t fuck with Pres,” one of the boys said. “I heard she knows kung fu.”

Monty snorted, “So what? Every Asian knows some kind of kung fu.”

His so-called friends responded in a series of groans and complaints.

--”Wow, that’s fucking racist.”

--”Psh, like you know kung fu, fatass.”

--”Brett, do you know kung fu?”

”Dude, I’m fucking Vietnamese,” Brett said. “My sister knows Tae Kwon Do, though.”

“FuuUck that,” Monty groaned. “That’s not a real martial art.”

Shay took a slow, calming breath. Grandpa told her not to use her gong fu on other students, but just a little bit would probably be okay. (And she could mix in some Tae Kwon Do for good measure.)

“Just relaaAax,” Monty said, “It’s not like Brett’s girlfriend is permanent.”

“Again,” Brett said, “fuck you~”

Shay glowered at him dubiously. She was about to ask what exactly Monty meant... but he swiped his hand over the bricks.

And the paint... disappeared? --like... magic?

After a few more swipes, all the paint was gone. Shay placed her full palm on the bricks, but when she looked at it, all she found was dust-- no paint at all.

The other boys were just as surprised.

--”Fuckin’ cool!”

--”Whoa, how’d you do that?”

--”Neat trick, Monty.”

Shay was not so impressed.

“Mister Jiang,” she said... “Don’t you have an NDA or something?”

“A what?” Monty frowned, “What the hell are you talking about?”

Shay pursed her lips. It could have been some kind of trick with the paint, but it looked like Montgomery Jiang just used magic.

According to the basic rules of ❴The Kingdom❵ as well as any martial arts sect with reasonable sense, showing off abnormal abilities in front of regular people was highly frowned upon.

“Come on. Let’s get the fuck outta here,” Monty said as he walked off. “Smell ya later, Pres.”

Shay wanted to say something but she had too many questions spinning in her head to ask even one.

Did Monty belong to a martial arts sect? Or did he belong to one of Archangel’s supernatural factions? And why was he so confident just-- showing off in public?

The boys jammed into a black sports car with Monty in the driver’s seat... and they drove off.

...Why was he parked in the staff parking lot, anyway?

In the middle of her thoughts, Aquila emerged from behind a different car.

Shay sighed, crossing her arms. “And what were you doing during all that?”

“Taking pictures for blackmail purposes,” Aquila grinned. She gestured to the Polaroid camera hung around her neck. “Thanks for wrecking my old camera, by the way. This is my new baby.”

She looked up and tilted her head. “You look upset.”

“I am upset,” Shay glared, “Didn’t that guy use magic, just now?”

Aquila tapped her finger to the corner of her lips, “Hm... I dunno. You interested in him?”

Shay scoffed, shaking her head. “Not. at. all. I’d rather not see Mister Jiang at all, if possible. His personality is just trash.”

Aquila nodded in agreement, but she kept staring in the direction Monty had gone.

“Hm. Yeah... but who knows what the future holds~”