We arrived at school late since the wandering dog that Daisy warned me about chased after me and we have to make a detour to avoid it

It felt like a fucking workout trying not to get bitten by a huge dog who runs like a cheetah

Aiden was laughing at me as we found our seats "At this point, if you keep running into that dog you will be unrecognizable from how much you've run"

The idea of having a toned body sounds nice but I almost fainted from just running, Max bought me bottled water from the cafeteria and threw it to me. Thanks to my catching skills that I honed through my years living under the same roof as my sisters, I caught it just in time before the teacher entered the room

It turns out that every Thursday the school would have what they call "Language week" where every student would have to pick a language class to learn a specific language like if you choose to learn Chinese you would have to go to the classroom at the east side of the school

That is the most useless day for me, not gonna lie

As a child that grew up in a multilingual household, it's common for us to use different types of language to ask someone a favor or cursing someone to death

The funny part about all this is that the available language classes they have are some languages I have already know like the back of my hand, Daisy and Aiden looked at me when it was time for all of us to go to our language classes

"Which classes are you gonna go Mia?" Daisy asked me with curiosity sparkling in her eyes, classes are gonna be boring that's for sure

I shrugged at her "I dunno, I'm not interested but it's a plus point for my grade so I have to choose a class"

Aiden puts on a thinking face "How about you try them all? I mean for the whole day it will be language classes so why not try it all?"

I put my hand on his shoulder and looked at him straight in the eyes "Aiden, the classes are for students to learn a different language. Can't you see the problem here?"

"I don't think it's a problem since you are a huge step ahead of everyone including us in the school" he answered

Aiden puts his arm around me "Since I'm all for the wow faces that everybody is gonna make when they find out about your skills, I might as well follow you" he gave me a cheeky smile

"I'm with Aiden on that one, we could start in Chinese class with Mira and Max" Daisy suggested and we agreed to follow her to the classroom

"Over here!" Mira raised her hand, the empty chairs were the right amount for all of us to sit together in a group. We waited for 30 minutes before the Chinese teacher arrived

He was a bald old man and his back is a bit slouched, when he walks into the classroom it was slow "好日子學生" (Good day student) he smiled at all of us when he finally reached the teacher's table

Everybody stood up and simultaneously say "老師好" (Hello teacher)

Me and Aiden just watched them from our seats because we didn't know this was supposedly a way of greeting the teacher and because we were seated and everybody was standing up it caught the eyes of the old man

"Are you two new here?" He puts on the glasses to see us more clearly

I nodded "Yes sir, we just recently transferred here"

He gave us a knowing nod before he started the lesson, the old man started writing Chinese characters on the board and everybody was jotting it down in their notebook being super focused

When he finished writing he turned his body around to face us "Could anybody please tell me what word is this?" He writes something on the board and everybody keeps looking up and down from their notes and to the board trying to figure out the word that was written

He wrote a sentence and I would assume that everyone was still learning the basics, Aiden and the rest were stumped but I know from the start what the old man wrote on the board

I hesitantly raised my hand in a shy manner, even though he was wearing glasses he saw my hand immediately "Ah we have a student who knows the answer miss?..."

"It's Mia, sir"

"Miss Mia, could you please stand up for everyone to see you"

I know he was asking me nicely but I am trying not to be the center of attention

The old man knew I was a bit shy so he gave a small chuckle "It's fine, you can tell us while you're seated"

I took in a sharp breath and exhaled slowly "成績不能定義你的未來" (Grades don't define your future)

"Good job and could you explain to us what it means?"

I fiddled with my hands "In Chinese or in English?"

Yes I was that slow

My question made everyone in the room laugh along with the teacher "You can tell us either in Chinese or in English, if Chinese I can translate it to everybody"

I gave him a small nod then pointed my index finger at the sentence "我記得我的祖父母會告訴我，你不能根據孩子的成績來判斷他們的未來。他們有很多特殊的方面，成績只是一個加號" (I remember my grandparents would tell me that you can't judge a child's future based on their grades. They have a lot of special aspects and the grades are just a plus)

The old man clapped happily "很好的米婭，你已經會中文了嗎？" (Very good Mia, do you already know Chinese?) He asked me eagerly

I nodded "老實說，學校提供的所有語言課程我都已經知道了，因為我家會說多種語言" (Honestly, I already know all the language courses offered by the school because my family speaks multiple languages)

The old man dropped his chalk down on the floor with shock "You do?"

"Uh sir, you forgot to translate what Mia was saying" a random guy student reminded the old man

"Right I forgot" he cleared his throat a little before speaking "What your classmate Mia is saying is that You can't judge a child based on their grades because every child excels in many ways, grades are just a plus"

"Also Mia please visit the teacher's faculty after this class"

My friends looked at me with surprise, Aiden leaned close to my ear "Why would he call you to the faculty right after class?"

I turned my head to whisper to his ear "I told him I was multilingual"

Daisy joined in on our conversation "Maybe sir Feng has a solution to your problem"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I followed Sir Feng who was the old man as the Chinese teacher lead the way to the faculty, when we both entered I was surprised there were a lot of language teachers gathered around a long rectangular table like a meeting

"Great you're all here, this is Mia" Feng puts a hand on my back and gave me a small pat so he could also push me forward

I feel like Feng is more excited than I would

A woman who was in her 20's looked at me up and down "So Sir Feng, you mean to call all of us here for Mia?"

Feng gave all of them a proud smile like a proud Dad would do when his kid did something amazing "We now have a multilingual student, our added pride of the school"

All of the teachers stood up and went to me as they started to bombard me with questions

"How many languages do you know?" The lady asked me as she was getting ready to write down what I was about to say

"6"

Feng gave out a hearty laugh "All the language courses that the school offers she knows it all"

A man who looked up at me from his phone "Since when did you learn 6 languages? You're only 18!" He was astonished

"Since I was a child"

Suddenly the teacher's from the Music, Art, and Physical education department squeezed their way to reach me since there were a lot of teachers crowding around me

"Miss Junifer do you have any special talents?" The woman from the Art department asked me

"Well I do play the piano, mostly classical music since I always play them since I was young"

Other than Danny, Cloud, and Aiden who were my childhood friends I was always alone and others hated to mingle with me so I was isolated a lot

I used most of my time to play music on the old piano of my preschool

They all went quiet

"Oh my God..." The woman from the art department said quietly

"WE HAVE A GENIUS! OUR SCHOOL WILL BE RECOGNIZED!" All of the teachers rejoiced

A genius? Why on earth are they trying to say that to describe me?

I turned to Sir Feng who sat down because he was tired, he has a satisfied smile spread across his face like he has a sense of accomplishment

"Sir why do they call me a genius? I'm not good in anything academics"

It boggles my mind that just knowing to play the piano and learning 6 languages since I was little would land me the word genius as a word to describe me

It always feels normal to me so I don't find it special, who knew the very thing that I would hide is the same reason people will start calling me a genius

"Mia, there are many types of geniuses in this world but only a few could be called one. You have linguistic intelligence"