The history teacher standing at the podium adjusted his glasses, glanced at the eager students below, and said unhurriedly, "Don't rush, everyone. Once I finish this part of history, we'll be done for the day. Now, as we were saying about Lord Argus and General Scythe..."
As the history teacher began his endless lecture again, the commotion in the classroom gradually settled down.
Liam Shaw rested his head on the desk, turned to look at Ethan Hayes, and groaned, "Here we go again, this teacher always runs over the time!!"
Finally, when the teacher announced the class was over, the students shot out of the classroom like arrows from a bow.
Liam Shaw had packed his bag early on and sat on the desk, watching Ethan Hayes slowly gather his things. He couldn't help urging, "Ethan, hurry up, I'm starving."
"What's the rush? Can't you see how many people are here?" Ethan leisurely put his pen case into his backpack, zipped it up, and then stood up.
"Oh man, didn't you see that only our class is left in the school? The other classes left ages ago." Liam Shaw grabbed Ethan's arm, dragging him out of the classroom, saying, "Ethan, you've got procrastination syndrome, need treatment. You're always the last to leave the classroom. Someone who doesn't know better would think you're diligently studying."
Ethan gave him a sideways glance and couldn't be bothered to respond.
After leaving the classroom, they went downstairs, turned a corner, and reached the student bike shed. The large shed only had a few lonely bicycles left.
Liam Shaw walked to his bike, unlocked it, turned to glance at Ethan, then walked his bike over and casually asked, "Ethan, how about we play games at your place this afternoon? My parents aren't working today, so they'll make me do my homework at home, which is boring..."
Ethan walked his mountain bike toward the outside of the bike shed and responded coolly, "Nope, I have people over in the afternoon."
"Who??" Liam Shaw paused, then realized and said, "Oh oh oh, is it with some kids??"
"Yep."
"How old are they? I can play games with them." Liam Shaw leaned in excitedly.
Ethan hesitated briefly, then said, "Middle schoolers."
"Middle schoolers??" Liam immediately shook his head after hearing this, "Forget it then, forget it. Fresh middle school boys are the worst; I'm not interested in playing games with them."
"Yep." Ethan nodded, turned forward, only to notice a girl standing under a tree ahead, looking up at the sky.
As he and Liam Shaw drew near, they realized she seemed to be a girl from the neighboring class.
When the girl saw Ethan, her eyes lit up, and she called out to him shyly, "Ethan, my shuttlecock got stuck in the tree. Could you help me get it down?"
Ethan looked up at the white shuttlecock stuck in the branch and said to the girl with a straight face, "Sorry, can't reach."
Ca... can't reach??
The girl glanced at Ethan's head almost touching the branch, her face turning from red to white.
He clearly just needed to reach out to get the shuttlecock, but told her he couldn't reach it??