The International Kissing Club (15 page)

Math, at least, was a universal language, and if not for the trigonometry and physics classes, these next ten weeks would be a complete waste of her time, scholastically speaking. If she wanted to put a positive spin on things, she could say it was good she didn’t have to consider a social calendar
at all,
leaving her to devote the entirety of her free time to her studies.

As for her tutor … it turned out he was Dao-Ming’s boyfriend. And at Shenyang Secondary School, nobody crossed Dao-Ming. Which left Mei not only tutorless but completely friendless as well.

When her last class of the day ended, she decided that enough
was enough. If she had to spend one more second in this imitation of a Chinese prison, she was going to completely blow a gasket. Maybe even two.

Stopping by her dorm room just long enough to drop off her backpack, change clothes, and grab some money, Mei headed straight toward the huge black gates and ornately cut hedges that marked the entrance into the school. As she walked, she tried to ignore the fact that all around her students had melded into laughing, Mandarin-speaking groups. Looking at them reminded her too much of her life back in Paris and the way she, Piper, Izzy, and Cassidy usually spent their free time.

The second she stepped onto the street outside the school, Mei was assaulted by colored lights from all directions. It was already dark out, and the reds and blues and yellows flashing from every sign and window blinded her. She blinked, tried to adjust, and somehow managed to stumble straight into the path of an oncoming bicycle.

Her eyes focused just in time to see the two-wheeled behemoth bearing down on her and she jumped out of the way, but not before the rider shook a fist at her and screamed. She didn’t understand the words coming out of his mouth, but she had a feeling they closely resembled the ones Piper’s mother had said after she’d seen her daughter front and center on the Kiss the Pig Facebook page.

Terrific. She’d been off school grounds for all of three minutes and she’d already almost died. She was stressed out, intimidated, and just a little bit scared of Shenyang. It was a small city by Chinese standards, but those standards were relative. In this case, they meant several million people. And she’d thought Dallas was crowded …

Another bicycle passed her, and this time its rider knocked her into one of the parked cars hard enough to bruise her elbow. Jeez. This was ridiculous. She glanced behind her at the school, so austere and imposing, and thought seriously of spending the rest of the night alone in her dorm room.

But she hadn’t come to China to hide in an eight-by-eight room all the time. Besides, she’d already learned everything about herself that that room could teach her and it hadn’t taken long.

Ignoring the insistent throb in her elbow, Mei pushed herself off the car and back into the fairly imposing foot and bike traffic currently taking up the sidewalks. No. She wasn’t going back to the school. At least not yet. She was in China. It was time she started acting like it.

Next stop: Chinese music store or bust.

The Official Fan Page for the International Kissing Club

50

people like this

IKC Page

Messages

Between
Izzy
and
Mei
:

Izzy

Get your ass over to the IKC page and rescue me!

I’m all alone over there with Mr. Tinydick.

Mei

I’m in the middle of Shenyang hell. Homeland Security has nothing on the Communists.

Izzy

Fine. Guess I have to do everything. Btw, isn’t it cool that other people are chiming in? Well, not the creepy guy, but everyone else.

IKC Page

Chapter 9
Piper

Paris was just so … Paris! And she didn’t mean
Texas
. As they cruised down the Champs-Elysées, it was all Piper could do to sit still when every instinct she had was screaming at her to fling the car door open and step out onto the beautiful, bustling streets of the most romantic city in the world.

“Are you hungry?” her host mom, Marie, asked in heavily accented English as she whipped her little car down the wide, crowded street.

Am I hungry?
Piper wondered incredulously. She was
starved
, not for food but for experiences. She wanted to wander the boulevards with their quaint French cafés and markets bursting with fresh produce, to glut her senses on the sounds and smells and feel of Paris as she roved from museum to museum. To immerse herself in the shops and architecture until she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been there.

“I’m okay,” she answered, still full from their breakfast of crepes, coffee, fruit, and cheese. Her mother would’ve put her on a cleanse after so much food, but Marie just urged her to enjoy herself and eat more.

“My favorite patisserie is right around the corner,” interjected her host sister, Simone. “Pull over, Maman. I’ll buy some chocolate croissants.” She turned to Piper as Marie eased the car to the curb of the nearest side street. “You like
chocolat, oui
?”

“Oh,
oui
! What’s not to like?” Piper answered. “Can I come with you?” She would just
die
if she got left in the car.

“Of course.” Marie smiled warmly as she handed her daughter some money. “Pick up enough for Papa and Sebastian as well. He said he might stop by later today.”

“Who’s Sebastian?” Piper asked curiously.

“My older brother,” Simone replied. “He’s studying at the Sorbonne, but sometimes he comes home on weekends. I can’t wait for you to meet him—you’ll love him!”

Maybe so, but in Piper’s experience siblings were more trouble than they were worth. Still, this was Paris, and everything was better in Paris. Besides, the French don’t play American football, and that gave Simone’s brother a leg up already.

Refusing to let her unfounded uneasiness ruin her first full day in Paris, Piper listened as Simone spoke to the baker in French so perfect it made chills skitter down Piper’s spine. But then, everything about Simone was perfect. From her long, gleaming black hair and bright blue eyes to her creamy, blemish-free skin and incredible fashion sense (her outfit was gorgeous), she all but screamed supermodel. The fact that she was just an ordinary high school junior blew Piper’s mind … and had her hoping that Simone would decide to come back to Texas for part of next semester, as the exchange program encouraged.

Germaine the Lame would have a stroke if she had to share the halls of PHS with someone as gorgeous as Simone.

As her host sister paid for the croissants, Piper wandered over to the huge picture window at the front of the bakery. She looked out at the color and the conventions of Paris and wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around the city and gather it close.

Nothing she’d ever done, nowhere she’d ever been, could compare to this. And that she hadn’t gotten even one strange look the entire time she’d been here was proof positive that this was going to work. No one in Paris knew who she was, which meant she had a chance to actually breathe for the first time since the Cotton Festival. It was
an awesome feeling—especially since Marie seemed so much nicer than her own mom—and it gave her the confidence she’d been lacking for months.

Germaine wasn’t going to know what hit her when Piper finally got back home.

“It’s a bit overwhelming,
non
?” Simone linked her left arm through Piper’s and propelled her from the store. “But don’t worry. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

Worry? Who was worried? Piper just wanted to get started. She wanted to be out there, doing something.
Anything
.

They climbed back in the car, and as Marie zipped down a few more side streets, Simone pointed to a huge, fancy stone building. “There’s our school.”

“
That’s
the Paris International Academy?” Piper asked incredulously, twisting in her seat to get a better look at the campus. Gothic in design, the school’s main building had too many pointy turrets and gargoyles decorating the outside to count. Add in the tall black fence that surrounded the grounds and the huge stained-glass windows, and it looked more like her idea of a haunted house than it did an establishment of learning.