Fresh Off The Boat [Kaya]

Wei had asked about where she lived because if she lived far enough to the northeast, it was possible that they lived in the same area and spoke the same brand of Chinese. But she didn't seem to know exactly where in the mountains she hailed from, only that it was from somewhere in China, which in reality wasn't all that helpful. If he thought about it, the Himalayas were pretty much the southern boarder of China. As far as he knew, she could have been living anywhere in southern china before Ai cam to Manta Carlos. he exhaled. How frustrating.

"Huh?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. He'd thought he'd heard something. There had been a word or two about fur or something, and that was all he'd been able to hear or understand.

"Where are you from?"

"Haha, me? I'm from a city in the far west of China. Turpan City."

Wei could understand the feeling of smallness. When he'd stepped off the boat for the first time and took a look at the huge buildings and the people that milled around--all who seemed to be bigger and older than him, he was more than a little intimidated. But it seemed that Ai was at least better off than him, in that she spoke English a lot better than he did when he first came to Manta Carlos. At least that meant that she could get other people to help her around instead of getting lost like he often did back then.

"Oh, yeah, there are a lot of people that go to this school, so there are a lot of big buildings," He said, waving to a several of the students, most of them giving friendly chips of 'hello wei' and 'have a nice day'. "Everyone's pretty nice though, so you can just ask around if you get lost."

Then she asked about where the rooms were and he thought that was a good question.

"Well, it depends. Are you a High School Student?"

Wei was used to large groups of people, so being around them didn't bother him much. Well, he supposed that was incorrect--the natural state of his species was to live together in a large group that was interconnected and interdependent on each individual member like a family. As such, talking to people all the time and seeing them and remembering a lot of names seemed more like par for the course than anything stressful or weird.

Apparently Ai didn't feel the same way, as she hid behind him as soon as people came up and started asking him about things. Even when people looked in her general direction she seemed to squeal and hide behind him more. Wei doubted that she was actually hiding all that well, considering they were more or less the exact same height.

"Alright then. That means you live in the same building as me!" He said. "Well, I mean, you live on the girls' side. But it's the same building." Taking her wrist, he led her through the students to a large building that was mostly rectangular with a small bend in the middle. He gestured for her to enter the building and flashed a silver badge to get into the girl's side.

"Usually the boys and girls aren't allowed to mix in the high school dorms except in special circumstances." he explained. "I'm helping you move in, so they let me in."