Beijing international airport
Private gate
8:00 am
A group of fifty students crowed around the flight attendants, all eager to pick the best seats.
Earlier, Yaorui and a few others had gone around collecting names, years, and strengths. There were four transfer students from surrounding countries, one from Nepal and the other three were from the Philippines, Yuan Fa Ren being one of them.
There were 23 females and 27 males on board, not including the flight attendant crew and the pilots.
Aishi was currently organizing all the names and inputting them in their software for later when they receive their contact lenses and watches.
According to her sister, New Zealand was the closest to the island, and their students should already be there, followed by Australia and India.
Among 1750 students attending, the African, the Asian, and the European schools were going to be extremely mixed.
In Europe, only eleven of the 44 countries house schools using the G.E.N.I.U.S. program and in Africa, four of 54. In Asia, there are 10 of 48 countries.
Among their team, the majority didn't know how to fight or only knew basic moves.
That was something she wanted to fix along with their demeanours, more specifically, their acting.
While she let the others get to know each other, she settled down next to Angli and Sheng Rong for a much need nap.
It hadn't even been two hours since last nap, yet she was so ready for another one.
By now, all of her friends knew of her new hobby, napping was something she did whenever she got the chance. At first, they were surprised at how fast she fell asleep but just assumed it was because she stayed up doing homework all night until it became frequent even on the weekends.
Sheng Rong pulled out an extra blanket and placed it over her body while Angli leaned in to allow her to use his shoulder as a pillow.
She knew that there were a few students that were eager to speak to her, but they'd get the chance when they arrived at the island.
She woke up three hours later to the pilot announcing their arrival and the sounds of suitcases being not so carefully lowered to the ground.
When Yaorui finally got out onto the aisle, she didn't even bother trying to reach for her carry on. Why? Because of her 151cm (4'11) frame. She let Hu Angli grab her bag for her, before she turned with him following right behind.
At the hanger's exit stood a man dressed in a pink suit holding a clipboard and a walkie-talkie.
"All 50 students have arrived safe and sound,"
"Continue,"
"Noted. Hello everyone! My name is Sid Anderson, and I will be your tour guide, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to interrupt." Sid gave a big heart-shaped smile before beginning the tour with vigour.
"His happiness is unnerving, adults in suits aren't normally aren't pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows,"
That statement earned them a small lift of the corner of her lips. One that no one but Angli noticed.
Sid Anderson led them onto a bus that took them to the shopping district.
The first shopping center they came across was a strip mall (outdoor mall), lined with various brands and stores to help with our everyday needs. Another part of the strip mall was a night market area, something that was very famous in Asian culture. Though the food stalls weren't open, the menus displayed at the front was enough to get a few of her teammates to drool.
"There are 35 five sections to the strip mall, one for each school and country. Each one will display the culture, trends, and foods specific to that country. You are all free to enter those sections of the mall."
Next, they were chaperoned over to a stainless steel circular building. Inside, everything was white, or at least a similar shade to white. The ceiling was glass and allowed plenty of natural light in for both the people and the various plants and trees.
As supports, a column of braided steel, the diamond-shaped gaps in between each braid, enabled you to see the vines and plants growing inside them.
Trees were placed every 3 meters and wore vibrant green leaves that gleamed beneath the ray of golden light. The floors were marble and the railings glass.
There was a total of three floors, the first floor contained basic necessities such as groceries, toilet paper, toothbrushes, etc. The second floor wielded stationery items such as paper, tablets, pens, post-its, books, etc. The third floor was mainly for leisure, there was an arcade, cinema, a bowling alley, and a few concession stands containing bubble tea, pastries, pretzels, fast food, and sugary delights.
Many of her teammates found themselves already spending their pocket money on the food.
After having been on a thorough tour of the shopping district, they were led to a modernized train station where they were shepherded onto one and left alone.
Over the intercom, a male robotic voice spoke, "Next stop, G.I.F.T.E.D. campus. Time to arrive, four hours."
"Suddenly I'm glad I spent my pocket money on this food," She heard one of her teammates say, it was a first-year.
"Hey, look! I found a food compartment filled with food!" This time it was a second-year who spoke.
"And now I regret once again." The first-year's friend giggled and moved to grab something from the other's pile of food. "That'll be 5¥,"
"As your friend, you should give me a discount, 3¥!"
"Are you trying to bargain with me? Hah! My mother was the queen of bargaining! Pay six, and I'll throw in a hug,"
"You can have your food back, I'll just eat the free food over there,"
"There's no more dimwit,"
"Here's five,"
"Hmph," The girls laughed at their own antics right after.
The noisy train cart quieted down after her brother stood up with a hand in the air.
"Earlier we assigned you guys to each pick your year leader that will form a council to prevent a room of fifty people arguing of rights, may I know who they are?"
Four other people stood up out of their seats. The first years elected a boy name Qi (chi) Ming Ming. His strength was a rare genetic mutation that allowed him to see emotions by sounds, tones, and volume. The second-years' rooted for Xun Shouhan, her sister's friend. Strength? Intuition. She was the face for her year for her communication skills and her talent in psychology. In the fourth year, it was a Filipina by the name of Igliane Precious, Precious being her first name. Last but not least, her brother, the elected leader in the fifth year.
"Now that we have our leaders let's move on. According to my sources, everyone will have to partake in physical activities more closely related to stamina and safety rather than well being."
Groans spread like wildfire in the train cart.
"Long story short, you will all learn how to beat up people without aiming for their nuts."
"That would be nice, kids are in my future plans after all,"
"And our design team, get your sewing machines ready because we're gonna need new clothes once our colour is announced."
"Don't forget out crest," Wei Ye, male, and a graphic designer in charge of the team creating the crest spoke out.
"Can we also get a list of favourite and least favourite foods?" Jian Nu raised his hand, "It'd be nice if we didn't cook something no one would eat," A few others nodded in turn.
"Let's make our country proud!" A loud cheer of approval followed along with a few fists in the air. "Precious?"
Precious nodded in understanding and went on to add on a few points, "Other than learning self-defence, I suggest we work on honing our skills as well as developing new ones,"
"Agreed, it's better to know more than just what you are good at,"
Precious continued, "We'll also need to assign roles, not only will it give us something to do if ever need something, but it'll help create a sense of importance for everyone on the team,"
"Good thing I already have a list of possible roles for everyone," Aishi took out her notebook. "I still have to put them into the system, but you guys can have a look,"
A few of the students begun to crowd around her while a few just waited patiently for their turn.
"You guys can ask for a change if you want, but it'd be best if you could back it up with a few plausible points on why,"
For the remaining two hours of the trip, Yaorui settled down for another nap, it didn't take long for her drift off into sleep.
________________________
While Long Ao's right cheek rested on Wenshi's shoulders, her fingers danced on his cheeks.
"ShiShi~~~," he whined.
"Yes?"
"There are demons in this train cart,"
"Oh yeah? Where are they?"
"My sisters are sitting right next to them,"
Long Ao was referring to Hu Angli, who is currently Yaorui's pillow, and Xun Shouhan, whose arm was wrapped around Aishi's shoulder as she worked on her new add on to the system.
"They're just friends Long Ao,"
"That's what you used to say about us before we started dating," He pouted.
Wenshi stayed silent, he wasn't wrong after all.
"Do you know why I never liked that Samuel boy?"
"Because he wanted your sister?"
"No, it was that look in his eyes, you could only see it when my sister wasn't paying attention to him, but it was like he wanted her. Like he wanted to box her up like a doll."
"But you didn't do anything,"
"He made her so happy, she was smiling so much more, like an innocent child,"
"But?"
"It itched at me, the urge to tear them apart, but I fought it because he made her happy, I wish I hadn't fought with the urge,"
"Do you have that itch with those two?"
"No, but I don't want it to happen again. You can never know what the future holds,"
"But at least we know that Hu Angli means her well,"
"Yeah, didn't even tell her he was her childhood friend because she was happy,"
"But now, his name and identity has become a trigger word,"
"And he wants to protect her, so even if telling the truth could heal her, he won't because he isn't sure."
"So is Angli approved?"
"Yeah, he is,"
"What about Xun Shouhan?"
"I don't know yet,"
"G.I.F.T.E.D. campus, please exit train."
Mall Reference
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