6000 Mile Surprise

A high school choir from China is visiting California for a competition. My dad, being the leader in the group that liaises with the Chinese organized the choir to visit here in Seattle as well on their way back to China. My dad asked me to help out during the weekend that the choir was here to look after some loose ends and to do some translations when they needed it. The choir consists of almost 60 students, all of them were, of course, Chinese. They were all around the age of 14-15 with a couple of them 16. Of the 60 students, probably 50 of them were girls.

I guess a little introduction about myself. I’m Robert, people call me Robert, Rob, Bob, but I don’t care as long as they can get my attention. I’m 16 and in a few months will be 17. I’m an average kind of guy, leaning towards being a nerd. I’m not too heavily into any after school sports teams or clubs and I’m a little shy. I’m the type where I go to school, learn some stuff, go home, do homework, have some lessons, and get good grades. Nothing spectacular. As such, you can already imagine that I’m not built with a six pack and crazy biceps. I’m not skinny either, a little towards the chubby side, but not fat or obese. I stand at 5’7″ and weigh 160 lbs. Yes, you can probably tell that I’m Chinese too, so let the stereotypes begin…

I’ve never had any experience with girls. I’m not close with any girls at school as all my friends were guys. The most I did with a girl was just talk to them in class or with people I meet elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I do get along with people (including girls) just fine. It might be because of my Chinese upbringing with parents strongly opposing any girlfriends before college and that I should focus on school that I never had any experience with girls.

Anyways, enough about me and back to the weekend. It was a warm August Friday that the choir arrived at Sea-Tac. Since it was summer vacation, I went with my dad to meet them at their hotel that we booked for them. When they got their, I saw the whole group enter the hotel lobby and I helped distribute the keys to their rooms for each group of 4 or 5. The guys would stay with guys and girls with the girls. Everyone was very shy at this point, with me just saying “Hi” and directing them to the elevators while they just thanked me.

We brought them to a Chinese restaurant nearby and had a nice chat with a group of them. I didn’t know their names as we didn’t formally introduced each other, but they did know I’m Robert. The next afternoon they had their local performance at a nearby church. Everything went without a hitch and by 4 o’clock, we were all cleaned up and left the church. A local business who sponsored the performance had offered to organize a BBQ for the choir later that evening. The choir went back to the hotel to change from their performance outfits and my dad and I went home to recharge and change.

At 6 o’clock, we arrived at the hotel to bring the choir the business. They ran a restaurant and they had a nice-sized yard behind it. They had set up grills out there and we all settled ourselves in.

My dad spent the rest of the BBQ socializing with the principals of the school and officials from China. I went and grabbed stuff to eat and was standing alone under a tree and watched the choir all formed into cliques chatting with each other. As I was taking a bit out of my pork chop, the group of girls that I talked to the day before walked over. We chatted about how different school is between China and here and this time I got to know their names.

There were 4 girls, all around 5’3. Mabel was skinny with long black hair that was tied to a ponytail. Rebecca had shorter hair that went to her shoulders. She had dyed a couple strands of her hair on the right side a very light brown. Emily was the tallest of the bunch and was the curviest of the bunch.