"Would you like to join us for dinner, Shella dear?" Jeanette Wen asked Grand Elder Shella amiably.
She didn't ask me though. Maybe it was because of how my face lit up when the words "Roast Pork" left her mouth.
Grand Elder Shella was torn between wanting to show her teacher her progress in her movement technique, and having to go back and finish her tasks.
"You can return tomorrow morning if you still have things to do." Jeanette Wen smiled in understanding.
"Ah yes. That will be great!" Grand Elder Shella smiled beautifully in relief. "In that case, I will take my leave first, Vice Principal Wen. I still have to preside over the final segment of the Entrance Test."
"Go. Thank you for your hard work." Jeanette Wen nodded and smiled at her.
After one last bow, Grand Elder Shella disappeared in a blink of an eye.
Jeanette Wen chuckled lightly at her disciple's display of her movement technique. "Halfway through the seventh stage? You can't lie to this old woman. You've mastered even the eighth stage already!"
She turned to look at me once more.
"I hope you're hungry!" She said with a smile.
"Oh yes! I am very hungry!" I replied happily at the thought of having free food.
"Good! Come along now. It's a little bit early for dinner, but we usually have another meal at night, so we usually eat around this time. I hope you don't mind." Jeanette Wen said.
"Of course I don't mind. Especially if there's pork." I said without a single trace of awkwardness at speaking with the esteemed Vice Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy.
"Good! I make the best Roast Pork in the world." Jeanette Wen boasted and spoke to me as though she was speaking to a friend. There was also no trace of awkwardness in her voice even though she was talking to a mere ten year old.
It was as though she knew exactly what I would become.
In his own way, Bruce Pang probably knew that too, because he sure didn't let up the pressure on me.
"WHAT? WHY IS THIS PUNK JOINING US FOR DINNER?" He roared when he saw me enter his little hut.
"Uhh… Thanks for having me." I immediately responded and sat down before he could throw me out.
"Who said you could sit down? There's no space for you here!" Bruce Pang shouted at me from across the relatively large table which could fit six adults easily.
"Be nice Bruce. He's just a ten year old." Jeanette Wen remarked casually as she busied herself with taking out a huge plate of delicious looking roast pork from the little kitchen.
"He looks like he could eat a lot." Bruce Pang sulked lightly as he looked at me.
Hmmm? Yes. Bruce Pang, the Great and Invincible Bruce Pang sulked at me. Ah, he'll probably whoop my ass for "slandering" him, but it's the truth.
Anyway, Jeanette Wen took out three giant bowls of rice, a giant plate of heavenly roast port and a giant plate of steamed vegetables.
My hand twitched as I stared at the wonderful friends I was about to make. But I had to control myself. It's rude to start eating before the hosts.
"Well? What are you both waiting for? Dig in!" Jeanette Wen smiled warmly at us and said.
I needed no second invitation.
My right hand flew to my chopsticks and I began my all out attack the plate of roast pork.
For a few minutes, everything else faded into the background as I befriended the seriously friendly roast pork and had an exciting conversation with them.
We exchanged a lot of good will during those first few minutes.
After an intense start to our friendship, a semblance of self-awareness returned to me and I forced myself to look up from eating.
"I will be in their care for the next few years." I thought to myself. "I can't burn my bridges with them by finishing all of their roast pork in five minutes before they could even have a bite!"
I raised my head to look at the Principal and the Vice Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy and caught them both shamelessly exchanging bets about my background!
"I bet you five straight days of roast pork that he's from the Wang Family." The Principal whispered to the Vice Principal loudly.
"You're on. I bet you five straight days of house cleaning and laundry that he's from the Lin… No, from the… Whitefrost Clan." The Vice Principal whispered back.
"Whitefrost? Hmmm. They do have a habit of recruiting young talents like him. But not on the scale of the Wang Family." The Principal nodded and analyzed me shamelessly even as I stopped eating and stared at them in surprise.
"Errr. Aren't you guys going to eat?" I asked them when I saw their empty plates.
"You go ahead first and have your fill. I still have lots of food in the kitchen." Jeanette Wen said very generously to me.
She was definitely the nicest person in the world. Period.
"Yes, go ahead and finish it up." Bruce Pang said to me gently.
I had no idea then what lightning struck him that made him so nice to me, but I sure as hell took him up on his offer.
I nodded and resumed eating.
"Five more days of laundry and cleaning on him being a son of an affiliate power in the Whitefrost clan." The Vice Principal continued making her bet.
"Fifty days of roast pork on him being a street rat." The Principal nodded and immediately made a bet of his own.
Jeanette Wen looked at Bruce Wen sharply when he said those words.
He merely met her gaze calmly.
"He's right, you know." I mumbled with my mouth full. "I was a junkyard scrapper."
There was silence for a moment as Jeanette gave her husband a surprised look. He merely looked at her with the slightest hint of a smile playing on the edges of his lips.
Jeanette Wen nodded lightly and stood up.
"I'll leave you two to have a good conversation. I'm going to check on the entrance test and disturb little Shella for a bit." She said and quickly left the hut before I could even say anything in response.
I looked at Bruce Pang in confusion and our eyes met.
Awkwardly.
I froze mid bite and was wondering what the heck was happening when his hand suddenly burst into action!
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