Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 603

The Future Adventures of the Greater Bay Area
Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College, Khan, Suhana - 17
16th January, 2089
"Good morning, class." Jack groaned as he stood up together with his class, to greet their history teacher.
“Good morning, Ms.Cheng." Ms. Cheng is from China. She has long silky black hair tied into a ponytail
and dark coffee black eyes. She has been their history teacher for the past few years. After greeting their
teacher, the students sat down and took out their iPads. The iPads were automatically connected to
Ms.Cheng's holographic computer, letting her have control over all their devices.
Ms.Cheng tapped the blackboard and the screen projector turned on. Clapping her hands, she turned to
the class." Class, this year's project will be worth 45% of your grade. The topic of the project will be—"
waving a hand at the screen and turning the slide to the next slide. "The adventures in the Greater Bay
Area."
Jack looked at her, intrigued. The Greater Bay Area? Sounds kinda interesting. "Does anyone know the
real name of GBA?" Hermione waved her hand to the ceiling, hoping to answer the question. Ms.Cheng,
seeing that no one other than Hermione raising their hand, gestured for Hermione to answer the question.
"Cantonesia!" Hermione beamed at her teacher. "Showoff.” Jack muttered to the bushy haired brunette
in front of him. Hermione is the top girl in their class, always comes first every year. Hermione turned
around and glared her apple green eyes at me for a second, before turning back to the front.
"Correct. Now, everyone pay attention. All of you will be divided into groups of two according to the
alphabet shown on your tablets. Find your partners and then sit with them in a circle. The deadline is on the
last day of this month. The details are in the slides. You may have the rest of the lesson for preparation."
Feeling gloomy, Jack looked out the window. Silently, he thought: Whoever my partner is, I don't really
care. No one likes me anyway. They all think that I'm some weird kid from space or something, just
because of my looks. My hair is as white as snow and my eyes are dual-coloured; blue and brown.
"Miss, he can't be my partner!" Ah, here comes the scream of denial that happens every time students are
assigned partners. Looking up, he saw that it was Hermione this time. "Hermione, you can't change
partners. Otherwise, I will have to cut your marks by 20% on this project.” Hermione stomped back to her
seat in front of Jack, fuming about how unfair it all was. He snickered at her misfortune. After taking some
deep breaths, Hermione turned back to look at him with a determined look in her eyes. "So, let's start
jotting down some ideas. Do you have any you wish to discuss?"
He looked back at her, slightly impressed. It looked like grades are more important to her than being
forced to hang out with him. "Well, you can do all the work while I go to sleep." Hermoine's eye twitched.
"Not. Funny. Be serious, Jack." Rolling his eyes, he sat up straight and looked at her. "Is this fine, your
highness? Oh, wait. No need to answer. Anyway, we can ask an elder about their experience during the
GBA, make a PowerPoint on that and perhaps add some photos or videos of his experience."
Hermione looked at him, trying to hide her shock. Lol, it seems like me giving out good ideas has turned
her into a statue, Jack thought. Recovering, she grabbed her poor, tortured notebook and jotted down what
he said.
"Hmm, but where can we find someone who still remembers? I mean, the GBA happened about 69
years ago." Hermione thought out loud. Meanwhile, Jack was having a debate with himself in his head. To
be honest, gaining a good mark in this project is really important to me. Since I'm a scholarship student, I
have to keep my grades above the limit set by the school or else I risk losing the scholarship.