Chapter 176: Would our parents disagree?
It was drawing time, so all the kids were busy drawing on cardboard with crayons.
Josh sat on his own, staring at his cardboard, with nothing to draw coming to mind.
The other kids came closer and gave him suggestions, but he just couldn’t bring himself to draw.
’What if it turns out ugly?’ he wondered, and then looked up to look for Olivia.
What would she draw?
She had the kind of personality he wished he had, but never had.
Then, he found her sitting at the front, with the three kids who had asked him questions earlier surrounding her.
’Did they go to her because I didn’t give them the answers they wanted?’ he wondered, and then bowed his head, sulking. ’I... want to talk to her.’
Olivia folded her little arms and asked,
"Why do you want me to ask the new kid questions, when he doesn’t want to answer them?"
She felt they should just leave him alone if he doesn’t want to talk. If he’s shy, more reason not to bother him with questions.
"But... he’s just so fine," one of the girls said, her face flushing, and Olivia squinted her eyes suspiciously.
Just that morning, she had heard a lot from her Daddy concerning boys.
"Patricia, do you like that boy?" she asked, and Patricia tilted her head.
"Like? What does that mean?" she asked, and Olivia scratched her head. Well, she wasn’t very familiar with it either, so she didn’t really know.
"Hm, just forget it," she said and faced her drawing. "My Daddy said I shouldn’t like boys so soon, ’cause I’m still so young, so you should leave it alone before you put funny ideas in my head."
"Whoa, is your Daddy back from his trip already?" they asked, and Olivia’s nose shot towards the air in pride.
"Of course."
It was known to the class that her Daddy went on a business trip and hadn’t returned, so she talking about him now made them happy for her.
"Wow, you’re so brave. If my Daddy went on a business trip for so long, I’d cry every day."
"Huhu," she felt even prouder. "He even promised to take me to Disneyland tomorrow," she proudly said.
"What?! Disneyland?!" they all exclaimed, shocked, allowing the entire class to hear, and Olivia moved back a bit.
Okay, this was getting out of scale.
"Did you say Disneyland? Who’s going to Disneyland?" the other kids gathered around.
"Olivia’s Daddy came back from his work and is taking her to Disneyland tomorrow," Tommy blabbed, and they all cheered excitedly.
"Wow, I’m so jealous. I wish I could go to Disneyland."
"My Mommy said going to Disneyland is very expensive," one of the kids said. "Does this mean your Daddy has a lot of money?"
"Yes, that’s right. He has a big company and even said he’d take me on his private jet." Okay, maybe it did spin out of her control, but she was glad that they were all acknowledging her Daddy, so she would continue to say more.
"Can you get us gifts from Disneyland then, Olivia? Since your Daddy is so rich, he probably won’t mind, right?"
"Um," Olivia thought of it, and though it didn’t look the best, she felt her Daddy would get her whatever she wanted, and smiled happily. "Sure. I’ll get the exact number of gifts for everyone in the class. But you have to ask your parents when you get home if you can accept them, okay?"
"Would our parents disagree?" one of the kids asked, innocently oblivious.
"You never know. Don’t you remember your parents telling you not to take anything from strangers?" she asked, standing above all of them as they sat around her.
"But you’re not a stranger, Olivia," one of them, Lucy, said, but she shook her head.
"I’m not, but my Daddy is a stranger to you all. So, it’s a must. If you want the gift, you have to ask your parents. And if they say yes, I’ll give them to you," she said, and then the class captain snapped his fingers.
"On Monday is the PTA, where our parents will come anyway, so why don’t you give the gifts to us when our parents are there? I’m sure it’ll be good that way, don’t you think?" he suggested, and Olivia nodded, but then paused.
’Ah, the PTA. I still haven’t told Papa about it.’ She looked a bit worried. ’It’s not too late to tell him, right?’
Josh, who did not crowd around with the rest of the students, sat in the corner and kept drawing.
He could hear their conversation, and though it was normal for kids to be jealous, he wasn’t. He had gone to Disneyland a couple of times with his Daddy, so if anything, he found it surprising that the rest of the kids hadn’t gone before.
’Daddy is very powerful. That’s why he can take me anywhere I want,’ he thought. ’But Disneyland was not very fun because...’
His memories of going there were still clear, ’cause it hadn’t been long since he went there.
But both times he went, his father didn’t do much, and it felt rather boring. Even with the performance and the rest. Maybe it was because his father was hung up on protecting him rather than letting him have fun.
’It might be different if I went with someone,’ he thought, and raised his head to stare at Olivia. ’If I went with a friend.’
He looked down at his blank cardboard, and then he began to draw with the crayons next to him.
He drew the girl who was standing so tall and confidently, with so many other kids around her and listening to her.
She was like a natural-born leader.
At the end of that day, Noah and Michael came back to the school to pick Olivia up, and coincidentally, Steven was there to pick up his son as well.
He was wearing dark shades, a white suit as if his aim was to stand out, and leaning on his shining white Porsche.
He was like a walking whiteboard asking to be stained.
Michael looked at him, his eyes squinting suspiciously at him, while Noah gritted his teeth like a dog baring its fangs at a threat nearby.
"Wow, I’m so scared," Steven murmured and laughed.
"Hey," Michael called, and he strained his gaze towards Michael. "Do you love your kid?" he asked.
"And what sort of question is that?"
"Just answer the damn question," Michael growled, and Steven frowned.
"Yes, I do."
"Then why are you trying to interfere with his future?" he asked further, and Steven immediately knew where he was going with that. "If you love him, you won’t try to pitch him into something all for your own selfish interest."
"Look here," Steven said as he took off his glasses. "I am in no way trying to pitch my son into doing anything he doesn’t want to. I simply did what he wanted and sent him to school. He was fine with it being any school. And as for the issue of their future, they have it in their own hands. I simply dropped him on the starting line. The rest is up to him, but I believe fate will work in my favor." He put on his glasses again and looked forward.
In other words, he was just lighting the spark; it was left for the candle to catch fire or not.
Such bullshit.
"Ah, and would you look at that?" He whistled, seeing the scene in front of him. "Fate is indeed working on my side."
They both turned and found Olivia and Josh talking at the entrance. It looked like Josh was trying to say something while holding a cardboard, but he was shy.
Michael frowned.
"After saying all that, it turned out you did put your kid up to something."
"Believe whatever you want," Steven said and laughed. "I would never make my kid do something he finds uncomfortable. He’s quite the shy kid, so for him to do that, I can’t help but wonder if it’s your kid who approached him first."
They couldn’t even refute that, since they couldn’t read exactly what was going on.
But then, they watched Josh hand over the cardboard, and then turn around, shyly walking away with his head down.
"Well, I’ll go take my boy now," he said, and Michael sped past him, going towards Olivia.
"Olivia," he called, and Olivia looked up from the cardboard.
"Papa?"
Josh watched Michael walk past and then noticed his Daddy coming forward. He stretched his arms, and Steven lifted him up.
"There’s a good boy. How was school today?" he asked, walking away with his child, and for the first time, Josh actually decided to say something about it.
"It..." Though he still felt hesitant. "Fine." He blushed.
Steven tilted his head. His son... was blushing?
He looked back at Olivia in her Papa’s arms.
Was it because of her?
Ah, fate really was working in his favor, but was it just his son having one-sided feelings?
"What was that that you gave her?"
"A... a drawing."
