Class Two girls are a bit noisy

Author: Zhao Jing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: "When you see injustice, roar and act! When it's time to act, act boldly! Charge across the nine provinces like a whirlwind!" As I wildly splashed water on my face and roared while frantically rubbing it with a towel, I saw a face furrowed with a frown, half hidden by scattered hair. "What are you doing? Planning to stage a real-life ghost story?" I exclaimed in shock, tossed the towel onto the rack, and the water on it immediately flowed down like a small stream. As I walked out of the bathroom, I continued singing creatively: "When it's time to act, act boldly! Charge across to Class Two, Grade Four, Class Two, Grade Four!" My mom, who had been startled, still wasn't letting up. She followed closely behind me, asking frantically, "Tang Daqi, you mustn't cause any more trouble. You know, Mom is getting older now, and her nerves are especially fragile."
What older age? What fragile nerves? Ha! If I didn't know better, Mom thought she was a math teacher at a city key high school, yet she was constantly being "summoned" by elementary school teachers to deal with problem students—what a shame! However, Mom, who was usually fierce with Dad, couldn't do much about me. What she said wasn't entirely wrong—her nerves were indeed fragile when it came to matters of face. To correct Mom's prejudice, I had to turn around, look up at her seriously, and say, "Mom, I advise you to think seriously, thoroughly, and with all your might."
As soon as I said that, Mom's eyebrows drew together again, and she put on an expression of preparing to ponder deeply. I forced a serious face, suppressing my triumphant laughter, and said in a deliberate, measured tone: "Before retiring, Principal Qi often asked you to school to take the blame for me! But now, since Teacher Tao took the seat, you've only been to school twice! And those were parent-teacher meetings, and you even got praise because of me!" To emphasize the "twice," I even held up two fingers of my right hand in front of Mom's nose and shook them until she complained of dizziness.
After hearing my nonsensical words, Mom stopped following me and stood there for a moment before hurriedly running into the bedroom to "whisper" with Dad. Did she finally understand? I quickly perked up my not-so-tiny ears. Only to hear Mom whisper to Dad, "Don't you think Tang Daqi has been acting strangely lately?" After Dad yawned loudly and said loudly and impatiently, "What's strange about that? It's early in the morning, and we're short on time. Don't be paranoid." Mom lowered her voice and said, "Besides eating and sleeping, he's always tearing tissues to wipe his shoes—the box is almost empty. Also, he keeps running to the mirror, humming and twisting around." Hearing this, I started to get annoyed. Mom, who was good at picking on me, had missed one thing: my habit of leaving things scattered everywhere. Especially my little red tag, which was my prized possession.