Disobedience:

Gao Huan

It was antipathy at first sight. When the naughty Onion was transferred to the new high school, he was seated beside a model student, whose head kept reminding Onion of a sizable potato. Potato was the most well-behaved student because he had been unvaryingly heartily following every single instruction of the teacher. But the very moralistic expression on his face made Onion feel like squashing his nose every time he saw it.

Soon there would be a school-wide morning exercises competition. When Ms. Wu, the teacher in charge of their class, urged the whole class to strive for the championship, Onion saw two suns instead of her huge shining eyes. So for the next two weeks, the students stayed in, doing exercises again and again, with Ms. Wu��s picky instructions and sour scoldings resounding over the playground. Onion hated that and tried to escape. He found the men��s restroom a real Shangri-La of hiding place. Even if the idea of restroom ever flashed through Ms. Wu��s mind, she couldn��t very well step inside and drag him out, since, anyway, she was a lady. But Onion only enjoyed three golden afternoons. The fourth one was brutally ruined by Potato��s sudden emergence when he caught him rapturously, ��there you are!�� Then all that Onion wanted to do is to beat the sneak��s head into a heap of potato mash and dump it into the toilet.

Since then, Onion was closely watched over. With no chance to get away, he became a forced exerciser. He never did the exercises to the rhythm and his movements were either overdone or underdone, which made him look so comic. Everyone enjoyed it, including himself, except the exasperated Ms. Wu and the indignant Potato.

Curiously enough, Onion was left out of the competing team five minutes before the preliminary. Bitter as he was, he soon stopped cursing when he got kicks in a video game hall where those under 18 like him were theoretically not allowed in.

Their class entered the final with flying colors. Ms. Wu chuckled to herself over the probable pay raise around the corner. Another one week of after-school training.

At long last, the final came. When it was their turn, Ms. Wu��s blood froze with dismay: Onion was unexpectedly on the team! But at that moment it would be too obvious a foul play to get him out as every member of the class was to required to show up according to the rules.

Onion arrested enormous attention with his conspicuous funny movements. Their class was No.4 among the four finalists. Everyone was very angry. Ms. Wu became a ton of TNT.

All of a sudden, Potato punched at Onion��s nose. A real drama of ��Nose-bleeding��! Or an amateur lightweight boxing match. Result: Onion had his nose-ridge broken and Potato a little bruised. Nobody had ever expected Potato to be so martial.

The teachers were faced with a to-be-or-not-to-be question as to what to do, since the fight-provoker happened to be a model student, and he just acted out of the defense of the collective honor. Later, Onion was transferred to yet another school and the whole episode slowly fell into oblivion.