Shijie woke upright, sweat pouring down his temples. He wiped away the sweat with his right arm, glancing at the clock. 6:30 illuminated through the dimness, creating an ominous glow. Shijie's heart lurched into his stomach. Crud! School starts in half an hour! With great haste, Shijie dashed to his closet, barely giving him a moment to breathe, slipping into his school uniform. While brushing his teeth, he combed his hair, toothpaste dotting the sink. Without even a second's glance to see if he looked at least decent in the mirror, he darted down the stairs. Shijie dashed into the kitchen, gathering a plate, chopsticks, and you tiao, which he wolfed down, not bothering to let the taste melt into his tastebuds. Though he knew that eating as quick was not in any way healthy, he knew it didn't have much of a choice. He chuckled. I just hope peristalsis and my esophagus can handle it. Ungraciously, Shijie picked up the plate and let it sit into the sink, knowing he would get scolded later for not washing it, but they would be vexed more so to find out that he was late to school and they would have to drive him. After doing so, he dashed to the hallway, slung the backpack on one shoulder, and forced the door open to let it slam shut behind him. Locking up after him, he stole a second to marvel at the thought of a lock: a contraption that allowed the wielder to shield whatever was inside from the rest of the world. Like the mind, Shijie thought to himself as he rushed down the steps.

***

The bus ride remained to be seemingly silent, first consisting of small talk, but had then abruptly ended. Shijie gazed at the window, noticing how the window was stained with past droplets of rain. He ran his hand through his hair, dandruff dusting off like snow when suddenly his dream came back with a shock. Louise. Joshua. Alexa. Alexa. She seemed to be so beautiful with perfectly straightened long hair and her glimmering green eyes that seemed to brighten the white room to its fullest, for without any familiarity, it seemed to reek with darkness. And though, he had right to suspect that she had no fondness for him, he could hear her heart. It spoke of innocence and delight, but the soy sauce had darkened the rice, deluding her thoughts. On the whole, it wasn't sympathy that Shijie felt for Alexa, it was how Alexa wasn't frightened- not of him, not of Louise, not of Joshua, not of anyone. Courage seemed to radiate off of her in thick waves. Louise was nice as well, but she seemed to be a mere walking drone- smiling, saying "hi", and then walks right past you, not sparing you even a second glance; the word "regular" just seemed to ooze out of her. His impression of Joshua, however, was startling. He seemed to be an exact copy-image of himself- not by appearance, but rather by mere manner of thinking. They both happened to be one of those ambitious-workers, who'd contribute a sizeable amount of energy to reach their goal. People who happened to be think and act like you generally happened to be your best friend. Or worst enemy. Shijie sincerely hoped it wasn't the latter. It was queer, though how Alexa and Joshua seemed to have created this invisible tension in the air, dulling away some of the delight of meeting new people. Shijie scolded at himself for not knowing better English. Even though he knew it was a mere dream, he couldn't help but feel that it was something testing him. Whatever it was, it was probably testing him to examine his worthiness of moving to America.

"Shijie, can you help me with Chemistry homework?" inquired a small voice, awaking Shijie out of his reverie. Shijie glanced beside him, noticing Huiyi looking up at him expectant. He nodded.

"Okay, well which one is the most reactive in this group?" Shijie said, looking at the periodic table Huiyi just revealed.

"Well, it's obviously this one, Shijie. I'm not five, you know?" she retorted.

"Right, but before we actually do the homework and such, I need to ask you a question," he stated. Huiyi shifted uncomfortably.

"Alright..." Shijie raked his hand through his hair again, queasiness filling his stomach. And if it wasn't for the small breakfast he consumed, he was fairly sure that he might've thrown up. Though Shijie was hesitant, he knew he had to ask.

"Areyouactuallymyfriendorjustusingmeasaresource?" he inquired, words jumbled together. Huiyi looked at him quizzically.

"What?" Shijie sighed audibly.

"Nevermind, it was a stupid question," he replied, gazing out the window, not even bothering to assist Huiyi with her homework. And one of the reasons he found Alexa's confidence admirable was because he had none.

***

On the whole, there weren't any anomalies throughout the school day. Yet. But Shijie was disappointed to find that he got a 95 percent on his advanced algebra test-he'd been hoping for at least a 97. Sitting by himself during lunch allowed him to ponder over the thought of math. It was the most calming subject, allowing him to be completely immersed in solving a problem. Everything else would be merely deflected like the mere idea of math was a force field against any other thoughts that threatened to force its way in. At least, that's the way it generally worked. Today, he couldn't help but gaze across the room once more, watching Huiyi mingle amongst her other friends. She seemed so nonchalant as if nothing- not even the end of the world- could distract her from her jubilance. And here Shijie was, leaning back in his chair, eating his lunch from his thermos that had a large crack, starting from the tip and landing near the bottom edge, mutinous. In a way, the crack looked like a lightning bolt, striking the ground, and the ground was recoiling at the sudden touch of electricity. He set aside his thermos, twisting the lid atop, not in the mood to consume anything at the moment. Instead, he propped his arm against his head, gazing out at nothing in particular in the distance. Who were those people in my dream? It's one thing that they may speak limited English, but they were speaking it fluently, I barely caught anything they said. I mean, I know my subconscious couldn't have possibly captured that much information... Well, maybe I'll meet them in my dreams tomorrow as well. I might even have a proper conversation with Ale-

"Uh, Shijie? Can I talk with you in private, please?" asked a familiar voice. Shijie whirled around, face-to-face with Huiyi.

"Uh, sure-what about?" he replied, curious.

"Just, can we please talk in the hallway?" Huiyi retorted, agitation evident on her face. He nodded and followed Huiyi as she requested to use the lavatory, in which, Shijie did the same. Without another word uttered, they slipped into the hallway. Huiyi's flats echoed throughout the hallway, making Shijie realize he was only paying attention to them because his anxiety level was reaching fairly high. He recalled that once when she had asked to talk with him in private, which did not end well for him. Apparently someone had been stealing her belongings and considering Shijie had visited her house recently, he was the prime suspect. After multiple accusations, Huiyi gave up on the interrogation and ignored him for two months until she found out that her next door neighbor's son had been stealing them, who was only five and had a secret crush on Huiyi. But he was ten now. As they were about to round a corner, entering into the next hallway, Huiyi halted as if something had frozen her in place. Shijie mimicked her movement. Slowly, she faced towards Shijie, resting her hands at her sides.

"Remember when we were on the bus this morning and...," she began, her voice sounding course as if she had no intention of providing her thoughts upon the matter she was yet to mention. "you said something, but it appeared as if I had no idea what you were talking about?" He nodded. "Well, I heard the three words: friend; using; and resource, which I kind of connected the sentence together and... at that precise moment, my mind just went blank, so I played dumb - thought I'd clear my head up a bit to provide a mature and reasonable response. And it's clear now." Shijie rubbed his fingers against his palms feverishly. "I think that if you think of me as someone who is just using you then we shouldn't be seeing each other anymore." That was when the anomalies that day started. "I never liked him, anyway. He just wasn't the person I could understand. I didn't lose my friend; he lost me. And if I ever need to look at someone's notes, I can just look at Zai's or Mingmei's. Look at him standing there, as if a brick hit him in the face and he doesn't know if he should fall or look for the person who hit him with it. Idiot," Huiyi rambled off as if she had no idea he was standing right in front of him. But her mouth wasn't moving. It sounded like her and yet - she looked as if she hadn't spoken a word. Though her eyes were narrowed, just as she did every time when she expected an answer. That was when he knew that it was no hallucination. This was real. But the words hadn't provided a big enough blow to his brain as he'd anticipated. It was like expecting a balloon to pop, creating an ear-splitting sound, but it only deflated slowly, giving off little sound. What had provided a bigger blow, however, was the mere fact that Huiyi never looked at him as friend. Rather as a loser with no purpose in life except for working. After a moment of awkward silence, Shijie cleared his throat.

"I feel that would work in benefit for both, you and I," Shijie replied with as much confidence as he could muster (which turned out to be slightly shaky, but overall, wasn't too bad). And just like that, he left Huiyi gazing after him as he sauntered back to lunch, a newfound pride burning within his chest.

***

It was only after he returned from the school did the thought of peering into other's minds really settle in. Was it a gift? Was it a curse? And if so, what for? What did I do to deserve this? Perhaps lying to my father? Yes, that must be it. Thunk! His pencil he'd been rolling back and forth had fallen onto the floor. No matter how much he'd been trying to pay attention to his homework, everything seemed to distract him. For example: his neighbor had been walking past his apartment, and the thought of getting more cat litter suddenly popped into mind. Some might have called him delusional - he called it try-not-to-turn-your-back-on-the-evident-because-the-realization-could-hurt-you-by-then. Though he knew that he had developed some type of ability, some tiny part of him begged him to see that this was all just a false belief to make up for the blow Huiyi had caused. He glanced back at his homework. The letters and numbers of his algebra homework seemed to whirl into one big mess. I hope he's doing his homework instead of coming up with some kind of elaborate lie, a thought rose. Shijie whirled around, facing the door. The key jiggled in the lock for a moment before swinging open to reveal Shijie's father, looking grim.

"Hello, Shijie," he greeted.

"Hello," Shijie replied meekly. Shijie's father stared at him for a moment, almost as if he was scanning his soul for all the wrong deeds he had committed in his lifetime (which hadn't been many, and most of them were committed when Shijie was only a tyke). Satisfied with what he witnessed, his father left the living room and entered the kitchen. Shijie released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Absentmindedly, he began to doodle on his homework - it wasn't something he did often, but it became a recurring habit lately. First, his doodles became mindless things he'd seen throughout the day: a spider, people, his school. After he'd drawn whatever else he could muster from his brain, he drew random words or phrases in block letters and also in English. He'd even managed to squeeze in a proverb or two, but they weren't too long. As he finished drawing his name in block letters, he aimlessly began drawing a 'B.' There was nothing special about it, but Shijie resumed filling in the letters. An 'R' began to take form as Shijie doodled. As he finished the 'R', he rushed through another letter, which wasn't all too well-done, yet was recognizable as an 'E.' Ravenously, Shijie scribbled down the next letter, his pencil racing across the small corner he used to draw. If he wasn't so involved in his task, he would have perhaps noticed a drop of sweat sliding down his right temple. As he reached to the 'O', he sharpened his pencil, using his hand-held sharpener, itching for it to sharpened already. A minute went by, and Shijie examined his pencil tip. To his great fortune, the tip was sharp and yearned to feel the smooth texture of the paper once again. He scribbled down the last letter and sat back, examining his handiwork. "BREACHWOOD" stared back at Shijie, smudges of graphite staining the wording. "Brachwod," Shijie said aloud, testing the sound out. "Breachwood!" Shijie exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. He dashed to his computer, sitting himself down hastily. He furiously began typing away, first changing the language to English. He reached Google and typed speedily, "Breachwood." A picture of an American school popped up, standing proud with a sign beside it saying, "Built in 1964." If there was anything he genuinely uncovered from his dream, it was a thought emanating from Louise. He wasn't sure what the entire thought was, but he definitely knew "Breachwood" was somewhere in the thought. Shijie closed the window and wandered into his room, immediately spotting the fortune, still sitting atop his night table. He walked up to to the night table, and picked up the fortune. "Breachwood" echoed through his mind. And that was the last thing he remembered before a blindingly white light engulfed him.