Finding Stardust

She always brought lunch from home and ate it in her cla.s.sroom while studying for the next subject and sometimes preparing tutoring materials for her five students.

She did not want to accept charity by taking money from Haoran and his friends without doing her work well. Therefore, she tried her best.

Mary and Nadya were two of her closest cla.s.smates because they sit next to her. They had noticed that Emma never left the cla.s.sroom during breaks and wondered why she was not interested in socializing. Nadya even suspected that Emma did not have money for lunch in the cafeteria, so she tried to approach the girl and ask her out cautiously.

"Hi Emma, ​​do you want to have lunch with us at the cafeteria?" Nadya asked carefully. "Today is my birthday, and I want to treat you and Mary to a meal."

She and Mary exchanged glances, trying to a.s.sess Emma"s expression, whether she was offended or not by her offer.

Emma was stunned by Nadya"s invitation. She looked at her lunch box and then looked at Nadya. She saw her sincerity, and it moved her. Emma slowly nodded.

"Thank you. I will be happy to."

"Wow ... that"s good, then. Come on, I"ll show you around our school on the way to the cafeteria." Nadya became excited and pulled Emma"s hand out of the cla.s.sroom. Mary immediately followed them from behind.
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Over the past few weeks, Emma and her cla.s.smates" interactions had been limited to exchanging good morning and good afternoon, and a few group discussions on school a.s.signments, but nothing more.

Emma was not accustomed to having friends because all this time, she had been shunned by the other children in the orphanage at Mabel"s orders. So, she didn"t know how to approach people and make friends. She was finding comfort in being alone and minding her own business.

However, getting two cla.s.smates who were friendly to her, Emma"s still heart slowly melted away. She tried to pay attention to Nadya"s babble and occasionally smiled in response.

When they arrived at the large cafeteria consisting of several food counters with dozens of chairs and tables for lunch, Emma immediately felt so many pairs of eyes were watching her.

She realized she was attracting the attention of people who were eating and waiting in line for food. She did not like this feeling.

All this time, Emma always tried to arrive at school early and come home from school in a hurry without attracting attention, so that not many students saw her yet. She didn"t like to be the center of attention, and that was one of the reasons she avoided crowded places like the schoolyard and the cafeteria. But because today Nadya kindly invited her to lunch, she felt bad saying no.

"This is our school cafeteria. You can order anything. My treat," Nadya said happily. Emma nodded. She tried not to care too much about how so many people were looking at her from different directions.

"I"ll have what you have," she said with a smile. "You must know better which one is good."

"Okay then..." Nadya ordered a delicious chicken steak for herself and Emma, ​​while Mary ordered chicken rice. They brought their order cards and looked for an empty table to sit while waiting for their food to be delivered.

"You"re beautiful, do you know that?" commented Mary, who had realized how many pairs of eyes were looking at them. "You look quite unique. If I may ask, where did you come from?"

Emma just shrugged. "France."

"Oh ... so do you often go to Paris? No wonder you want to go on the study trip to Paris," Nadya commented. She nudged Mary, who was sitting next to her. "You chose to go on that study trip to China and let me travel to Paris alone. Fortunately, Emma is going too. Now I have someone to go around Paris. Later I will take Emma to go shopping with me."

"You know I only chose the study trip to China because Haoran would come," Mary replied, pursing her lips. "Yolisa in cla.s.s F saw he registered for China."

Emma glanced at Mary when she heard the girl mention Haoran"s name.

Did Mary like Haoran?

Nadya looked at Emma and sighed.

"My friend here is really bad. She has liked Haoran Lee from cla.s.s 2F since last year. She fell in love with him just because Haoran helped her that one time. What can you get from such a man? Last year he was in cla.s.s 2F. This year he is still in that same cla.s.s since he failed his grades again. People say he intentionally left all his answer sheets empty. Who on earth does that?" Nadya grumbled and nudged Mary. "Please try to obsess over a better guy. Haoran is a hopeless case. Find someone rich and smart, not just handsome. Good looks don"t pay bills."

Emma could only hold her cough when she heard Nadya"s words. Rich and smart? She had not met any richer and smarter guy than Haoran in this school. Based on her observations for the past few weeks, Emma could see that Haoran was actually more intelligent than Cedric, the so-called smartest kid in cla.s.s 2A.

If you only knew, Nadya, she thought, smiling faintly.

"Who do you consider rich then?" Emma asked Nadya eventually. She became curious because Nadya called Haoran a hopeless case. If Haoran, who lived in such a ma.s.sive villa, was not considered rich, then who did Nadya consider to be wealthy?

Emma had heard from Alex (in one of their gossip sessions when Alex drove her home after the tutoring session) that Haoran"s father was the owner of Lee Industries Group. Their family was the fifth wealthiest in Asia. Surely, there must be only a few people who can be considered more affluent than the Lee family, right?

Nadya smiled broadly. Her eyes seemed to glow when she mentioned a name.

"Example would be like Allan Wu. His father is one of the directors of the largest corporate group in Singapore. Maybe you"ve heard of Lee Industries? That"s where his father works, and his family also has some shares there. Ahh .. Not only rich, but Allan is also very handsome."

Emma stared at Nadya with a look of disbelief.

Didn"t they know who Haoran really was?

Jeez ... Emma just realized that it wasn"t just she who deliberately didn"t want to attract attention at school. Apparently, the students at St. Catherine did not know that Haoran was the son of the owner of Lee Industries.

She could only keep that information to herself and didn"t make any comments to Nadya"s words. Haoran certainly didn"t like it when people found out who he actually was from Emma. After all, that was none of her business.

"Uhm .. is that so?" Emma commented finally. "Is this Allan Wu smart?"

"He is very smart. He always goes to cla.s.s A. Now, he is in his final year. Ah ... I can only see him one more semester." Nadya seemed to really like Allan from the way she talked about the guy. Her face was filled with smiles and an expression of happiness. However, a moment later, that expression turned murky as Bianca"s figure appeared from the cafeteria entrance. "Ugh ... unfortunately, Bianca has claimed her claws on Allan. They are close because they are both part of the student council. Allan still serves as the head of the student council until the end of this semester, and Bianca is his deputy."

Emma turned to look at the direction of Nadya"s glance. She saw the girl coming with three cla.s.smates whom she knew were always with Bianca, almost like they were her cronies.

At the same time, Bianca happened to look at Emma"s direction, and for a moment, they stared at each other. Emma looked away indifferently because she felt that she had no business with the girl.

"You know, Bianca thinks of you as her rival," Mary whispered suddenly. "Since you entered our cla.s.s, she is no longer the queen in cla.s.s A."

Emma did not respond to Mary"s words and just smiled.

"Our food is here," Nadya said suddenly. A waiter had come with a tray containing their dishes and she checked that everything was there. She arranged the food on the table and took their order cards.

"Have a nice meal," she said, "Excuse me."

"Thank you," said the three girls in unison.

"Happy birthday," Mary told Nadya.

Emma also nodded. "Happy birthday, Nadya. Thank you for the food."

"You"re welcome. Let"s eat."

They eat while chatting about the next lesson. When her food was almost gone, Emma, ​​feeling thirsty, then excused herself to go and buy extra drinks.

"I want to buy a drink. Do you need anything?" She asked, getting to her feet.

"Not for me. My mother said you shouldn"t drink too much after eating," Mary answered.

"I want lemon tea, please," Nadya said. "Thank you."

She handed her card to Emma, ​​but the girl refused.

"No, I have money, really."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

Emma walked to the drink counter and ordered two lemon tea. While waiting for her drink to be prepared, she looked around and found Alex walking toward her direction.

"Hey ... you"re here. I"ve never seen you in the cafeteria before," commented the young man. He then ordered drinks too and waited with Emma.

"My friend treated me to lunch," Emma answered honestly. "I feel bad saying no."

"Oh .. you are so stingy. You only want to eat outside when other people pay for you," teased Alex, revealing his dimples when smiling.

Inwardly, Emma complimented how good looking this guy was. Unfortunately, she suspected that Alex was not attracted to women because of his delicate nature.

"Oh, by the way... I just found out that it turns out a cla.s.smate of mine deliberately chose the study trip to China because of Haoran," Emma commented. She glanced at Mary, who was still busy eating while chatting with Nadya. "I can"t imagine how disappointed she will be when she finds out that Haoran will be going to Paris instead."

Alex followed Emma"s direction and then chuckled.

"Ah, that"s none of your business, right?" he said nonchalantly.