It was a good thing Alexander wasn’t alone, because that could have ended awkwardly. Before we had a chance to do more than just stare at each other, three strange Chinese girls came running and screaming through the hall.

That was odd, even for my house. Alexander and I both stared at the hall and then at each other.

“Uhhh….” I said, momentarily forgetting the fact that I was in the process of hating Alexander and making him feel uncomfortable. “Did you see those kids too, or is it just me?”

I was genuinely concerned. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d hallucinated something under stress.

Alexander gave me a funny look. “What are you talking about? Don’t you know them?”

That was a very good question. “Uh...I’ll get back to you on that.” Leaving Alexander looking more confused than ever, I got out of my chair and ran down the stairs.

“Moooooom!”

“What?” she screamed back.

“There are weird people in our house!”

“Guests, honey. Those are guests!”

Well, it would have been nice if she had told me. I hadn't even seen Mom when I came home.

And then it hit me that she had told me, a long time ago. It was mid-September. The mid-Autumn festival was today!

I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten. I knew all the important festivals by heart. Well, I was supposed to, anyway.

When I was a kid, Mom had me memorize all the dates of significant Chinese holidays, because she’d have me play the piano for guests or something equally draining every time we threw parties. 

Which was always super fun.

Not.

Nobody else probably realized it, but I hated these parties. I hated the pressure that came with them. I hated the pressure that came with everything: school, studying, college applications, even my crowd of alleged friends...it was all so overwhelming for one person to deal with at times.

But I’d make it through somehow.

I always made it through. Somehow. Probably not with my sanity intact. But somehow.

The aroma of Chinese food hit me when I made my way through the crowd of partygoers. Several Chinese families were hanging out in our living room, and a few of them nodded to me when I passed by.

I recognized only some of them. Mrs. Chang who volunteered at the library, and Mr. Li who had been my group’s chaperone on the sixth grade museum trip. The one where I tripped over a stand and toppled practically everything in sight. That disaster was not likely something I would forget very soon.

Aside from those two, everyone else could have been Japanese and I wouldn’t have even noticed.

“How are you doing, Nancy?” one old man called out to me.

“Oh, I’m well, Mr…” I drew a blank. Smiling tightly, I tried to remember who he was.

Mom’s brother? My great-uncle? A really old cousin? Our extended family and other friends were way too complicated for me to figure out. Like I said, math equations were practically all I bothered storing in my head these days.

In the end, I settled for rattling off a quick greeting in Mandarin and running away before the man could realize I was bluffing. I realized not even a full ten seconds later what a smart move that had been, when I saw Kevin, who hadn't escaped the room so quickly, get snatched up by an old Chinese lady who proceeded to tell him about all eighteen of her cats.

Kevin’s luck really was not spectacular.

I stood in the corner for a while and avoided socializing. It was a lot nicer than it sounded. I mentally refreshed myself on some calculus formulas and eavesdropped here and there. Apparently, someone’s daughter had just started her freshman year at Harvard.

I crossed my fingers and hoped that would be me next year.

At some point, Mom ordered all of the kids to sit at the same table. Although Alexander and I were hardly children anymore, she still made us sit next to each other in-between the three  little girls and two bored-looking boys.

I thought I could make it through the whole dinner pretending Alexander didn’t exist, but unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to read the ‘talk to me and die’ vibes I was sending his way.

“Hey,” Alexander said after a while, when we’d dug into the potluck.

“Hi?” I said uncertainly. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Against my better judgement, I continued the conversation. “Did you know our parents knew each other?”

“Yeah…”

“Really? How?” I doubted Alexander Lin went home and bragged about the girl he always beat at everything. Actually, on second thought, he probably did.

He snorted. “Because they’re Chinese. All Chinese people know each other.”

This was pretty true in general, but especially true for our city. There weren’t a ton of Asians around, but the ones who were around all knew each others’ addresses.

Trust me, it’s not as creepy as it sounds.

“Uh...so, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” Alexander rubbed his neck and tugged at his sleeve almost nervously.

“Really?” I tried to sound enthusiastic, I really did. I think I sounded like I had a terrible head cold, though. Like I said, Alexander Lin was not exactly my favorite person on this planet.

“Yeah, really. Look...it’s about the election. I didn’t mean to put up that—”

“It’s okay.”

Alexander stopped his fork halfway to his mouth to raise his eyebrows at me. “Really? Because I don’t think you get what I’m saying. I really didn’t mean to use that picture—”

“I get it, Alexander. I get that you feel guilty. But you really shouldn’t. I knew what I was getting myself into before this election started. I’ll be fine.” I faked a smile. “I’ve dealt with worse. Really.”

I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t using taking full advantage of this opportunity to milk my injured ego for all it was worth and force Alexander to give up his position for me. I guess I wasn’t as dirty of a politician as I thought I was.

That probably was a good thing.

Still, Alexander didn’t look convinced. What more did this kid want, my signature penned in blood that I wouldn’t secretly plot revenge against him?

“Uh,” he said, “I still don’t think you quite get what I’m saying about—”

Unfortunately for him, we would never get to find out if I did or didn’t know what Alexander was saying, because just then a distraction presented itself in the form of the three little girls who came by spinning around in circles.

The shortest one stopped right in front of us with a weird look on her face.

“Uh,” she said. “I don’t feel so good.”

I had enough sense to dive out of the way.

Unfortunately, Alexander Lin didn’t even have time to hide under the tablecloth before the little girl stumbled forward and vomited all over his shirt.

And boy, did she vomit. That stuff went everywhere. It practically defied gravity to cover Alexander’s (previously) perfectly ironed shirt.

“Sorry,” the girl hiccuped.

“Ai-ya!” Mom screamed, shouting half-discernable phrases in rapid Mandarin. She ran over to Alexander but couldn’t bring herself to get any closer than three meters away. “I am so, so, so, so sorry!”

The girl’s mom apologized profusely to Alexander as well. He looked like he wanted to just sink through the floor, but being the good-mannered Chinese boy he was, all he could do was nod and assure them that it was okay. That he was perfectly fine with them dabbing at his barf-stained shirt and smearing the vomit rather than removing it.

I tried not to laugh, but the look on Alexander’s face was just too priceless. I laughed so hard that I cried. I laughed so hard that I thought I was going to suffocate myself. I laughed so hard that by the time I was done, almost everybody had cleared out of the room and gone home.

Mom and Dad were probably ready to blow a gasket, but they kept their faces perfectly calm as their friends clamored out the door. They were practically sprinting to get out of there. 

So much for all the effort my parents had put into this party.

Alexander and his parents were the last to leave.

“Hey, Alexander,” I said just before the exited the front door. “Do you have Chuck’s phone number?”

“Uh…who’s Chuck?”

“Oh, nobody special, but I wanted to call up Chuck and tell him all about this.”

Our Asian parents just looked lost, but Alexander got the joke.

He didn’t smile.

“Oh, ha-ha. Very witty, Nancy. Bravo. You win the comedian award.”

Before Alexander’s mom got him cleaned up and took him home, I might have taken a couple of photos on my phone. You know, just for kicks.

Or...revenge.

One thing was for sure: Alexander Lin was never going to live this one down. Sweet, sweet karma.

*****

The next day at school, I couldn’t so much as glance in Alexander’s direction without bursting out into laughter. He, on the other hand, couldn't bring himself to even look at me.

This thoroughly confused Amelia and Louisa.

“Are you okay?” Amelia asked while we were working on a fresh set of math problems. “You keep looking over at Alexander and...laughing to yourself.”

“Oh, I’m fine,” I said happily. “More than fine. It’s been a really good day.”

“I’ll say. Don’t tell me you like Alexander now?” Amelia said in a hushed whisper, her eyes wide.

Louisa squealed. “Nancy likes someone?!”

“Of course not,” I sighed. “Why do I have to like him? Did it ever occur to you that I might be laughing at him because I hate him?”

“That makes no sense,” Amelia said. “Although I suppose the crush theory seems a little ridiculous.”

“Yeah, Nancy’s a prude when it comes to these things,” Louisa piped up.

“Just because I don’t party and talk about boys all the time like certain people doesn’t make me a prude.”

“Uh, excuse me. The certain person who parties and talks about boys all the time is currently three problems ahead of you on this worksheet.” Louisa waved her paper at me and gave me a smug smile.

Amelia interjected. “Come to think of it, who was the last guy you liked, Nancy? Our math teacher in seventh grade?”

“Mr. Burnside?” Louisa gasped. “Ew! He was, like, forty!”

“Nancy has eccentric taste.”

“Nancy is right here,” I said loudly. “Besides, he wasn’t that old. And intelligence is sexy.”

Louisa rolled her eyes. “Only you, Nancy. Only you. ”

“What about you?” Amelia turned to Louisa. “How’s it going with...Parker?”

Louisa shrugged and studied her nails. “Eh. He was too popular for me anyway.”

“Ouch...so it didn’t work out?” Amelia said sympathetically.

“Not when I told him about my dad’s List.”

Louisa’s father was your typical strict Asian dad who would’ve sooner sold his daughter away to slavery than allow her to date a boy in peace. This had led to many interesting stories (most concerning near-death escapades) over the years.

I think a few of Louisa’s ex-boyfriends were still mentally scarred for life.

“When am I going to meet The One?” Louisa sighed dramatically as she buried her face into her arms.

“A fascinating question, Miss Kim,” came Mr. Betts’ slightly annoyed voice from behind us, causing me to jump. “I’d wager you will meet him sometime after you finish this assignment. Would you agree?”

Louisa coughed. “Oh, um, yes.”

“Great. Less talking, more working, girls.”

The three of us worked in silence while Mr. Betts made his way across the room to terrorize more of his poor students. After I’d finished two more problems, Louisa finally dropped her pencil onto the desk and stared at us, hard.

“I’ve got it,” she said, looking so smug you would’ve thought she had just discovered the cure to cancer.

“Got what?” Amelia prompted.

“An idea for the English presentation!” Louisa clapped her hands together. “Betts and Reed. Math and English. Single and divorced. Are you two seeing a pattern here?”

“If you’re saying what I think you’re saying…” I trailed off when Louisa nodded eagerly.

“You’re going to hook up our teachers?” Amelia said. “Geez, that sounds like the synopsis of a really stupid teen TV show.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Amelia.”

“No problem. You know how I like to make people feel good about themselves.”

We all stared at each other for a moment. Just stared. Then we burst out laughing.

“Silence, girls!” Mr. Betts yelled from across the room. Which, of course, only made us laugh harder. I had to stuff my knuckles into my mouth to keep myself silent.

You know, even if Amelia, Louisa and I weren’t exactly attached at the hip, sometimes I felt like we understood each other all the same.

*****

When I got home from school that afternoon, Kevin wasn’t sleeping in my bed. For once.

He was, however, sitting at the dining table and staring morosely into a cup of hot chocolate. This in itself wasn’t so alarming, but the fact that there was an untouched piece of cake sitting next to him suggested that something was very, very wrong. Like end-of-the-world, buildings-toppling wrong.

“Did someone die?” I asked.

Kevin let out a sigh and seemed to deflate even more. “Have you ever felt so depressed that even the thought of eating everything in sight doesn’t cheer you up?”

“Uh….the thought of eating everything in sight has never cheered me up.”

“Geez, you must be chronically depressed then. Now I feel sorry for you.”

“Kevin, seriously, if you’re not going to eat the cake, then put it away.”

My brother moaned and laid his head on the table. “I don’t feel goooooooood.”

“We’ve established this already, haven’t we?” I rolled my eyes.

“You don’t understand, Nancy. It’s not physical pain. It’s pain deep, deep inside.”

I stared at Kevin long and hard, feeling like my life had just pulled a fast one over me. Since when had my brother become the family philosopher?

“Pain deep inside? What, you held in some gas for too long?” I said flatly.

Kevin sighed and shook his head. It suddenly irked me how condescending he was acting. “See? You’re still a kid,” he said.

“I’ll be eighteen in five months!”

He stood up and shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I wanted to…” He started to leave the kitchen, but then paused to turn back with an uncharacteristically conflicted look on his face. It was like his face was having its own civil war. “I wanted to tell you something, but I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer.”

“Oh, hold it there, buddy. You are not going to say something like that and then just leave….Kevin. Kevin. Kevin!”

But it was no use. My brother just turned back and walked out the door, leaving me burning with curiosity as to what could make my usually carefree brother act like death was waiting for him outside the house.

All I knew for sure was that Kevin was hiding something. Something big.

*****

A/N - Anyone have theories about Kevin's secret? :3 I bet none of you will ever guess. Also, poor Alexander, huh? I'd hate to be his shirt.

Please comment to show your support for this story! I'm probably going to do daily updates now that spring break has started :D Also, I'm doing Camp Nanowrimo so I kinda need to write 43,000 more words by the end of April, lol. Wish me luck! I'm going to need it...