Chapter 3 The New Term Of XY High School Begins

The scorching sun blazed high in the sky, sending off a wave of summer heat. At this moment, XY High School was busy starting its new school year.

XY High School was a famous institute in S City -- it could even be considered as the compulsory high school of the noble class. It was one of the best schools in the country as the academic performance of its students were considerably top-notch. It was also one of the most expensive schools anyone could ever go to. Given that, there were three types of students who were in this school: smart students who got in through a highly competitive scholarship, students from rich and powerful families, and students who were both intelligent and rich.

A lot of people could only dream to attend XY High School. Unlike most of schools, it was actually a place where students could enjoy learning. Anyone would want to attend such a prestigious and gratifying school. There were countless reasons.

For one, the teaching facilities here were the most advanced among all the middle schools in this city.

It was also constantly listed as the top three schools in S City.

What was more, all the grade departments, except for the junior high students, did not have to busy themselves at night with homework and studying. They did all of that in daylight hours, which gave them more than enough time to get some decent rest every day.

And so on.

Perhaps it was just by chance or the fact that most of the students were from famous families -- whatever the reason was, many of them were undeniably good looking. This school year's batch of sophomore high school students were especially star-studded.

In fact, the students even decided to have a little contest going wherein they voted who were the seven most handsome and seven most beautiful students in their whole grade. Apart from their good looks, they were all intelligent and had great moral conduct. Their family backgrounds were also the envy of many. Regrettably, not everyone was lucky enough to fall under such a classification. Most of the attractive students were all congested in four classes: 0201, 0204, 0205 and 0207.

The only thing that could possibly get in the way of the students' studies, more specifically the girls', was all the other attractive students around. This was Cassie's sentiments, even though she herself was dubbed as one of the seven most beautiful girls in the sophomore year.

As the September sun shone upon XY High School, the new semester ushered in a fresh start filled with vitality.

The sounds of some students' cheers could be heard from the basketball court. There, Cassie stood under a tree nearby with a yawn, her sky blue skirt bellowing in the gentle breeze. Wasn't it just a friendly match between the school basketball club and the neighboring school? Why did they take it so seriously as if they were watching an international game? Although she also knew that most of the girls in the audience were not interested in the competition, but rather so that they could ogle at all the handsome boys.

Most of the freshmen were still at the stage where they were adapting to the new surroundings, whereas the juniors were busy preparing for the upcoming college entrance examinations. And so, most of the extracurricular and student union activities were participated by the sophomores. Of course, today's basketball match was no exception. The seven most handsome boys in their grade were all part of the basketball team, which was the main reason why there were screams on the basketball court today.

"Hey, Cassie! What are you doing there?" A melodious voice sounded from behind. At the next second, a pair of hands shook Cassie's shoulders gently.

Turning around, Cassie saw who it was and smiled. "Hey there, Amie."

Amy Li was in the same class Cassie was in, and was also a part of their clique, the Dreamlike Seven Stars. "Why are you standing all the way over here instead of watching the game over there?" Amy Li asked.

"It's a riot in there. It's basically impossible to get in without getting elbowed to death," Cassie said helplessly.

Amy Li smiled and was about to say something when their cell phones suddenly rang at the same time. Seeing the caller ID on each's screen, the two smiled at each other and answered the phone at the same time.

Cassie, "Jill... Well, I'm with Amie now... At the playground... Yeah, we're by the tree on the right side. Okay, see you later!"

Amy Li, "Joe... Yes, near the basketball court. Well, Cass is also here... Okay, we'll wait for you."

Less than ten seconds after the calls, two figures squeezed out of the crowd around the court and walked towards Cassie and Amy.

"Hi, Amie, Cass." Jill Yue called out, a half smile on her lips. Beside her was Joe Meng. The two of them were also members of the Dreamlike Seven Stars.

After greeting each other with a quick hug, Cassie looked around and asked, "Where are Lydia and Celine?" Celine Cao and Lydia Cao were also members of the Dreamlike Seven Stars. They were twin sisters. Fortunately enough, they were non-identical, and so it was easy to tell them apart.

"Ms. Yuan wanted to talk to them about something," Joe Meng said. "I saw them go inside the teaching building earlier. I think they might have gone back to their classes by now." Aside from Clare, all the members of the Dreamlike Seven Stars were studying in XY High School. Although they were close with each other, not all of them were in the same class.

Cassie and Amy were in class 0201, Joe Meng and Jill Yue were in class 0205, and the two sisters, Lydia Cao and Celine Cao, were in class 0207.

"Okay!" Cassie nodded. "Let's go back to the teaching building first then," she suggested.

Joe Meng looked at the basketball court and asked hesitantly, "Don't you want to finish watching the basketball match?" She came to school early today to see Carl Yang and several others play the game.

Cassie sighed. Of course, she too wanted to watch the basketball match. However, it would be impossible to get through with all the people there. The madness... The screams... It was scary.

"Ding Dong."

As they stood there under the shade of the tree, all their phones rang at the same time.

It was a group message from Lydia Cao.

BY Lydia Cao:

"Dear sisters, come to our classroom. There is a surprise waiting here. See you soon! ...

"Huh. What could this be about?" Jill Yue asked the others curiously.

"I have no idea," Amy shook her head, feeling curious at what Lydia's surprise could possibly be.

"Let's go," Cassie said decisively as she pocketed her phone. "We'll know when we get there, won't we?"

Meanwhile, at the basketball court... After the four left, the referee, Zack Zhao, blew the whistle around his neck, signaling a timeout.

The members of both sides went back to the rest area of their schools separately. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, a player wearing No. 9 jersey tapped one of his teammates. "Brian, why didn't Cassie and Amy come?"

Brain Xiao raised his head and took a big gulp of water. "I don't know, Vincent. Can you care less about the girls and more about our basketball match?"

With a charming smile on his face, Vincent Xu continued to look around at the crowd. "I can think about girls and the game at the same time, can't I?"

"Come on! If you have that much going on your mind, what if you suddenly make a mistake when you're out there?" another boy chimed in beside them.

"Well, Frank... You said it yourself that it would be a 'mistake'. Mistakes are unforeseeable and inevitable. That's why they're called 'mistakes' in the first place," Vincent Xu countered. Then, he picked up a glass of water and took a sip. "By the way, I just saw Joe and Jill. Why are they gone now?"

"Vincent, if you think about girls all the time, you might not be able to play your best. Don't hold Carl back later, okay?" a coquettish female voice suddenly interjected. Hearing this, Vincent Xu looked up at the speaker and raised his brows in surprise. "Fiona Gong? What are you doing here?" There was an unwritten rule during basketball matches: If there were no accidents or urgent matters during the game, no one else was allowed to go to the rest area other than the players themselves.

"As the temporary manager of the basketball club, that means that I'm also part of the team, right?" Fiona Gong smiled brightly. She passed by Vincent Xu and went straight to the boy wearing No. 7 jersey. The boy was reviewing and going through pages of data.

"Carl," Fiona Gong said in a flirtatious voice. With a smile, she handed over a clean towel to him. "Here, take this to wipe your sweat."

All of a sudden, the crowd murmured unhappily. Most of the girls in the audience disliked Fiona Gong for taking advantage of her position and approaching the basketball players.

However, although everyone disliked her, no one dared to stand in her way and say a word about her -- everyone in the school knew that Fiona, the eldest daughter of the Gong family, had all the means to make their lives a living hell.

"No, thanks," Carl Yang refused indifferently, not even bothering to raise his head to look up at her.

However, Fiona was obviously not the kind of person who knew when to give up. If she wanted something, she would do anything to get it. Putting down the towel, she grabbed a drinking bottle from her bag and handed it to Carl.

"Have something to drink at least," she pressed. "This is a sports drink I specially asked someone to bring back from abroad. I heard that it's very good in keeping you hydrated and energized."

This time, Carl didn't even respond.

Because of this, Fiona started to feel more and more embarrassed.

"Hey, I'm a little thirsty. Give me the drink then," No. 12 player, Sam Tang, couldn't help but mediate. Anyway, Fiona was the temporary manager of today's basketball game. Even if they didn't want to talk to her, they should at least show respect to Zack Zhao who appointed her as the temporary manager.

For a while, Fiona hesitated, hoping that Carl would look up and change his mind. But he did not show her an ounce of interest. And so, she threw the drink in her hand to Sam Tang, turned around, and left angrily. The girls couldn't help but cheer in the hearts. "Hah! Good riddance!"

No. 14 player, Roland Zhang, looked at Sam Tang and shook his head with a smile. "It's not easy to be a good person, isn't it?" he teased.

Sam Tang just smiled and he put the drink aside casually.

When their break time was about to come to an end, Carl finally stopped what he was doing. He raised his head and walked up to one of his other teammates. "John, your foot injury hasn't recovered yet. You should just rest the second half out, okay? Roland has had enough rest during the first quarter. It wouldn't be a problem to let him play in your place."

John Shen nodded. "Okay."

A minute later, the referee blew the whistle again.

"The second half of the game begins!" Zack Zhao announced.

When Cassie and the three of her friends arrived at class 0207, Lydia Cao and Celine Cao were already waiting at the door of the classroom. The two of them were smiling from ear to ear.

"Hey, what surprise do you two want to show us?" Jill Yue asked excitedly.

The two girls of the Cao family smiled at each other and pushed the door open. "Surprise!"