Another story in addition......
My (James) Diary
My mother, May, was everything a son could ask for. She was kind, loving, selfless, and very beautiful. I am not just saying that because she’s my mother and I love her. Even my closest friends who had seen her won’t shut up about how gorgeous she was.
My mother got pregnant with me when she was very young. My father, smitten by her, married her on the spot. I had been to several of my friends’ homes and had observed their family dynamics. I don’t think I had ever seen another couple as devoted to each other as my parents. My mother May and my father Steve loved each other dearly. I can see it in their eyes when they looked at each other and from the way they touched when they came together. I don’t think my father had ever stopped flirting with her since the day they met.
My father was a hardworking man. His family did not support his marriage, but had agreed to pay for his education. He spent almost my entire childhood striving to provide a better life for our family. Hence he was always very busy and was not always available to me. As a result, my mother had become somewhat of a role model to me and was responsible for the development of my moral compass. All my life, she was my source of knowing what was right and wrong and how to morally discern my actions and choices.
I guess you could say that I grew up into a well-adjusted individual. I did well at school and was reasonably popular with my peers. When I entered Secondary 3, I befriended a new boy who was sitting next to me in class. His name was Alex Xu. He was a nice guy all around, but there seemed to be a dark side to him which surfaces occasionally. I managed to catch a glimpse of this side of him several times throughout the course of the year.
The first time was when we were in the badminton club practice one day. Alex was paired against another student called Zhang Wei, who had this tendency to trick his opponents into misjudging the direction or trajectory of the shuttlecock by using his body language. He would usually alter the angle or the power of his racquet at the last split second to hit the shuttlecock where his opponents least expected it.
For example, during his match with Alex, Zhang Wei swung his racquet with full force at the shuttle cock coming at him in mid air, causing Alex to grapple backwards to intercept it. However, the shuttlecock just bounced lightly off his racquet and landed on Alex’s front. It went on the left when Alex moved right, front when Alex moved back, and vice versa.
Perhaps Zhang Wei’s constant sneer which was always plastered across his face when he was playing that caused Alex to snap. One minute he was calmly serving the shuttlecock, the next, he was past the net, pummeling Zhang Wei’s cocky sneer off his face. Of course, Alex was put on probation and booted off the badminton team after that.