Ch. 5: The New Kid | "Cereus & Limnic"

Video Version

Written Version

The boy was gorgeous.

He towered over MS Rhodes at about six something feet tall with well-groomed brown hair.

He wore plain white jeans and a royal blue t-shirt that revealed the slight curves of a developing muscular chest connected to his two noticeably thinner arms.

His two hazel eyes gleamed under the humming fluorescent lights while they scanned the room.

Don’t stare! Jinhua said to herself.

But the warning came too late.

She felt the keenness of his gaze lock on to her, running over the skin of her face as if etching every detail of it into memory in order to reproduce it with flawless accuracy at a later date.

The intensity of his glare made her face grow warm under the buzzing lights of the room. 

Her eyes darted to the empty space on her desk in front of her, providing a grounding moment of calm.

Next to her, Harpreet noticed her discomfort, mouthing the words ‘he’s hot’ with hushed lips.

She was entertained by the mystery boy’s effect on her best friend.

The boy was a paragon of youth and strength, which made their instructor, MS Rhodes, appear older, fatter, and more drained than usual.

In Harpreet’s mind, she made an attempt to picture her committee scholar as a young man.

Perhaps he had looked like the new boy at some point, and was a young scientist with hopeful dreams of being a changemaker in physics?

Maybe he had lofty dreams of ending water scarcity and destroying the millions of tons of plastics in bathtub warm water oceans?

She envisioned the root of his descent into academic corporate stupor.

What went wrong?

Too many compromises?

Too many empty promises?

Too many false victories?

She tried to see his former greatness, yet, could only see a man curved and bitter from a lifetime serving as a key component in a sputtering machine.

A wave of sadness washed over Harpreet at the thought.

She returned her eyes to the boy, to make it go away, intrigued by Jinhua’s visible response to his entrance.

MS Rhodes began to speak in a droning tone.

“Students, this is Daniel. He’s been approved to join our committee by the citizens’ council.”

A sudden coughing fit interrupted his speech.

He pulled a small miserable cloth out of his pocket to spare his audience from the expectorants shooting from the depths of his lungs.

Damn smoking. I knew I should have given it up years ago.

After several seconds, he caught his breath, using a high amount of restraint to suppress more coughs.

“He’s just moved here from Sacramento, so please welcome him to our committee with open arms.”

He gestured unceremoniously toward the youth.

The boy gave a small smile accompanied with a slight waving of his hand to acknowledge his new classmates.

Jinhua pretended to busy herself on her screen to avoid his eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye Harpreet observed her, entertained by her rattled state.

The other students gave a curt acknowledgement of Daniel’s presence, but quickly returned to their respective personal worlds of physics notes and videos.

They didn’t seem excited for another person to join the committee, no matter how good looking he was.

As she did her best to avoid Daniel’s eyes, Jinhua thought of a cartoon she used to watch when she was very young.

It depicted old world school life with farm animals representing all of the characters in the school.

The show focused on Wendell (a talking pig) and his friends as they teamed up to foil their antagonist teacher, a cyborg human named Mr. Jones.

Most of the episodes ended in Mr. Jones’ humiliating defeat in comedic fashion at the hands of Wendell and his friends, which always brought a sense of joy and justice to her then young mind.

One day, her dad watched an episode of the show with her.

The only thing she remembered was his comment after the credits were rolling.

“Things are different now here in the comvils. But many things about human nature remain the same. People will always be people and fight for dominance over others,” he had said.

The words stuck in her head for weeks afterward.

It would be another decade before she clearly understood the weight of his words.

Nobody wants another competitor, Jinhua thought.

The reaction of the committee reflected this sentiment.

The rest of the morning’s events were an afterthought for Jinhua.

It was rare for MS Rhodes to lecture for an entire session.

He simply did not have the stamina for it.

However, he seemed to be especially passionate about their unit on thermal physics and talked in short bursts in between violent coughing fits for the entire time.

Daniel had taken an empty desk closest to the windows of the committee space and arranged his digital notebook and two digital ink pens with geometric precision in front of him.

He occasionally looked to the bustling barter market outside, but was primarily focused on listening to MS Rhodes.

Jinhua did her best to focus during the lecture, but the pleasant seed of attraction flowering inside of her distracted her usually laser-focused academic brainpower.

She caught herself daydreaming about Daniel, in desperate need of more information about the mysterious boy from the city.

As soon as MS Rhodes dismissed the committee for the afternoon, Jinhua collected her belongings and walked outside into the main concourse of the old mall.

Harpreet followed close behind, flashing a wry smile, looking at her in a way that mocked and demanded to know what she was thinking.

Out of earshot of the other students, and Daniel, she pulled Jinhua aside and said in an ear-splitting whisper, “Damn, you were practically drooling when you looked at him during the entire session! You like him don’t you?” 

Jinhua’s gaze fell to a cracked tile on the floor beside her right foot.

The crack exposed a layer of brownish old concrete in what would have otherwise been uniform patterns of teal triangles.

“Maybe I do…I don’t know. I guess I don’t know anything about him yet.”

A small smile crept onto her face.

“What do you mean you don’t know anything!? You know he’s super cute and looks like Captain America from the old Marvel movies. What more do you need than that?”

Jinhua laughed louder than she expected to.

“Good point,” she admitted, her gaze rising to meet Harpreet’s eyes once again.

“What should I do? Physics and ripboarding I can handle. But boys aren’t really my thing.”

“That is true. You are hopeless when it comes to the male species. Remember that boy Davian at Space Camp back in the day?”

Harpreet shook her head, “That was poor form.”

“Hey! I was like ten back then. Who knew he would turn out to be a booger eater!” Jinhua protested.

“You’re welcome that I saved you from that one.” Harpreet said triumphantly.

Jinhua looked back toward the committee room.

Daniel seemed to be discussing something privately with MS Rhodes. He looked like he was shifting his weight to leave the room.

“Be serious for once! What should I do?” Jinhua said, her tone pleading.

“Well…you should start by inviting him to come to Star of India with us for lunch.”

“What if he doesn’t like Indian food?”

“Everybody likes Indian food!”

“I don’t know. What if he’s one of the few people in the world that doesn’t like it? Maybe we should just go to the river or maybe to the movies.”

Jinhua’s face distorted with confusion. A rare emotion for her.

Harpreet gave an impatient sigh.

Jinhua’s tolerance for risk was high in almost every area of her life except when it came to people.

Her friend was cautious, almost overly so.

Afraid of the potential messiness that was often paired with close relationships (especially potential romantic ones).

Sometimes she wondered how they had become close friends at all.

She pushed those thoughts aside, and adopted her gentle big sister tone.

“Hey, why don’t we just invite him to the river with us.”

“Us?” Jinhua’s bewilderment gave way to levity.

“What is this us all of a sudden? Why do you need to be there?”

“You know…so I can make sure he’s not an asshole or something. He’s the product and I’m quality control. I have to make sure he’s not defective, y’know. If he is, then we’ll return him.”

She swung both of her arms as if tossing a dripping bag of garbage into a waste chute with little care for where or how it landed.

Jinhua’s lips formed a lighthearted smile, “You mean so you can be nosey and see if anything happens between us.”

Harpreet feigned astonishment, “Me! Nosy? Never! Buuut, somebody has to look after you—”

Suddenly Harpreet fell silent, then made a small pointing gesture toward the door to the committee room.

Peeking out of the side of her eyes, Jinhua followed her finger to see Daniel emerge from the room.

He adjusted the straps on his small backpack and began to rotate his head from side to side, most likely searching for the exit of the community center.

Despite her effort to avoid them, his hazel eyes locked with hers for a second.

A fleeting grin ran across his face.

Dammit! He’s seen me!

She felt the urge to leave the community center, but her thought process was interrupted by Harpreet’s boisterous voice.

“Hey Daniel! You need some help finding the way out?”

She waved at him with excitement.

Oh no he’s coming over here! Damn you Harpreet!

Jinhua felt the muscles in her back and abdomen tense, bracing herself for the now inevitable first encounter with the boy.

Daniel’s smile beamed as he cadenced steps toward them.

His almond hair swayed to an inaudible rhythm as he appeared to glide across the floor. Harpreet reached out an eager hand to shake his.

“Hi, I’m Harpreet and this is Jinhua, welcome to the only physics committee in Yuba City.”

Her hand remained suspended in the air for some time as Daniel studied it.

He seemed unsure how to respond to the gesture.

Harpreet held her hand out.

Jinhua held her breath.

Seconds later, he returned the handshake.

The firmness of his clasp projected strength and confidence.

So far so good. Harpreet thought.

“Hello, nice to meet you.”

The tone of his voice was resonant and clear, with a touch of bass.

He would have been a successful podcaster back in the day, Jinhua mused.

Standing to the left and slightly behind Harpreet, she could see him in stunning detail.

Up close his erect posture was evident, transmitting poise and dignity.

A detail Jinhua had not noticed before from the seated vantage point of her desk.

The skin on his face glowed with a touch of tan, perfectly unblemished.

A well sized nose and a flawlessly cut jawline contributed to his attractiveness.

His good looks and serious demeanor made him more than a little intimidating.

“So Daniel…” Harpreet began, with a playful tone.

“Would you like to come with us to Star of India?”

“What is that?” Daniel gave a perplexed look.

“It’s only the best Indian restaurant this side of the Feather River! Y’know, we figured you might be hungry after listening to all that boring lecturing back there.”

Another long pause punctuated the silence between them.

The only things Jinhua could hear clearly were the sound of a loud echoing conversation towards the intersection of the concourse of the mall and her own fluttering heartbeat.

She feared it might be visible to Daniel and any onlooker.

“I’m sorry but I can’t. I have soccer practice this afternoon.”

He shifted his weight to turn and go.

Harpreet opened her mouth, most likely to protest, but the sound of Jinhua’s voice cut through the silence and the ambient sounds of the old mall.

“Hey, maybe we could meet at the river after your practice…uh what time does it end?”

She managed an inquisitive tone, despite the overwhelming desire she had to shut up and let Harpreet speak for her.

Daniel stopped and turned to face her. He seemed to be unsure if he should answer the question or not. “At 3PM.”

A look of alarm appeared on Harpreet’s face. What is she doing!?

“Ok…do you mind if…,” Jinhua had to consciously prevent her words from spilling out of her mouth, “…I meet you near the river bank at River Front Park at four?”

Daniel smiled brightly, “Sure, let’s do it.”

He extended his hand in a smooth gesture of acceptance.

This time it was Jinhua who delayed five seconds before returning the handshake.

To her it was a long time, but Daniel didn’t seem to register the odd gap.

“It was nice to meet you Jinhua. I’ll see you later at the river around four.”

With that he turned and walked toward the center of the concourse.

Jinhua watched him depart, eyes glued to his athletic buttocks.

The tightness of his jeans made her breath catch in her throat, freezing her temporarily in place.

It wasn’t until he turned right toward the exit and disappeared from view, that her breathing returned to normal, reanimating her entire body.

Harpreet stared at her friend, mouth open in disbelief.

Then she began to clap her hands, in a congratulatory manner.

“Wow, I must say, I’m impressed! Didn’t expect for you to go for it straight out like that.”

Jinhua returned a confident toothy grin.

“You know I have to go to temple at 4 right? So I won’t be there to back you up.”

Jinhua let out a low giggle, and slapped her arm.

“That’s why I chose the time.”

Harpreet shook her head while her laugh reflected off of the walls.

So magra.