Charles watched as Besnik contorted his face in deep thought and read the poem over and over. Inside, a silent, cold frustration seeped into his veins and made his skin tingle. It was more out of disappointment that Besnik did not seem to be enjoying poetry than it was impatience at his struggle. He took a deep breath and laughed it off, attempting to sound relaxed and understanding.
However, he wasn't exactly sure if it sounded that way to Besnik.

"Yeah, yeah. That's definitely true. Well, let's see. The butterfly is the symbol for the young girl in this poem as butterflies symbolize youth and transformation. The girl is probably an adolescent, the time of greatest transformation in a human's life. Keeping that in mind, we notice that the sun leaves the young girl at the beginning of the poem, causing her to fall into despair. I guess one could say that the sun does symbolize happiness, as the sun - or happiness - is leaving her, but the line 'like a baby to a mother's breast' clues us in. Adolesence is known as the crucial time in one's life when one must learn to separate from the parents, which is what's happening in the poem. So, the sun is a symbol for..."

He held out his hand palm-up, prompting Besnik to complete the sentence.

Besnik shrank a little when he heard Charles laugh. Again, he was left wondering if he had said something funny. "And here I thought butterflies were a symbol of reincarnation," he mumbled, flushing slightly. He had read about that symbolism somewhere before, though he couldn't remember exactly where.

He turned his attention back to Charles' explanation. "Um, a mother?" he replied as his brow knitted together.

"Yup, that's right!" Charles smiled encouragingly. He leaned back in his seat and removed a water bottle from the side pocket of his backpack. Taking a long swig, he considered Besnik's insight about butterflies being a symbol of reincarnation. It reminded him of a tale he had once read from the Far East, in which a pair of tragic lovers were reincarnated as butterflies.

Slowly, he realized with embarassment that he had never seriously considered the origin of this poem and how that might affect its meaning. All along Charles had thought only of Western symbolism, disregarding Eastern symbolism as inconsequential and unimportant in a place such as English class.
'Man, am I really that ethnocentric?' he asked himself glumly. 'I seriously need to get out more. I've never taken the time to look at other cultures, really.'
He then remembered his visit to the Chinese antique shop the day he had gotten lost, and the mysterious lotus seed in his bedroom that was now emitting flourescent green bubbles.

Charles turned back to look at Besnik and nodded his head, truly fascinated by the piece of information he had just shared. Perhaps Besnik knew something about Far East culture and could shed some light on the artifact.
"Butterflies as a symbol of reincarnation...that's really interesting. Do you know a lot about that kind of thing?"

Besnik smiled to himself when Charles told him that he had answered correctly. He hadn't been entirely sure that his answer would be right, but he was relieved not to look stupid in front of the other boy.

"Uh, is it?" he asked, blinking as he looked up to Charles again. He hadn't thought that little tidbit would be all that interesting when he tossed it out at random. "A little, I guess." He shrugged as he twisted the wrapper from his candy bar. "I've read some stuff here and there."

Charles stared into the distance past the scattered students and tried to recall what else he knew about Oriental culture. He weaved his way backwards through the memories of getting ready of school the morning, going to bed the night before, meeting with Jane for her birthday celebration, watching in wonder as the lotus seed bubbled, waking up from a dream he could not presently recall, tumbling exhausted into his room...and visiting the Oriental Garden room at the Menewsha Botanical Gardens.

'I saw butterflies there,' Charles remembered, his lips parting as the memory of that day focused into view. 'They were acting strangely around that woman, Ran. And she told me that I shouldn't lose hope in my lotus seed...'

He looked back at Besnik and sized him up, wondering if it was mere coincidence that he had made that statement about butterflies when Charles had witnessed a phenomenon that weekend that was almost as mystical as the idea of reincarnation. But if it wasn't just a coincidence, he still had no idea what the implications could be.

"So uh, what kinds of things have you read?"
Charles attempted to keep the excitement out of his voice, but he felt his face betray him.

At Charles' silence, Besnik shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Why was Charles looking at him like that? Was it that odd that he had mentioned butterflies were a symbol of reincarnation?

"Uh, just a few things here and there," Besnik answered, scratching behind his ear. "My dad kept some of my mom's old books, and some them were about Asian mythology and stuff like that."

Upon hearing Besnik's comment about his father, Charles understood that he too possessed a fractured family. Whether Besnik's mother had left them or died, he did not know, but more he felt that their meeting was not merely a coincidence. At any other time, he would have challenged that thought like his father had taught him years ago when he was still at home and around to scold him for seeing things that weren't there, but Charles was presently unable to contain his excitement.

"That's really amazing! Recently I've been getting into Chinese culture, and I want to learn more! I bought this-"
Charles abruptly shut his mouth, suddenly aware of what he was about to say. Although he had liked Besnik from the minute they had first met, he still wasn't comfortable about the idea of telling him about the lotus seed.
'Jane certainly didn't take it well,' Charles thought. 'And Besnik might think I'm some sort of psycho if I tell him that I saw a small ball of painted wood giving off bubbles.'

He inhaled quickly and faked a cough.
"Excuse me! As I was saying, I bought this...jade hairpin for my girlfriend, and I thought the design was really interesting. Are you into that kind of thing? Chinese antiques and stuff?"

Besnik stared at Charles, wondering why he had paused. "Ah, well, kind of, I guess," he mumbled, dropping his gaze to the table. "The books had a lot of interesting stuff in them."

He traced the wood pattern on the tabletop with his finger. Chewing on his lip, he hesitated before saying anything more. "My mom had this fan that my dad says was her favorite of all her possessions," he mumbled. "But it's old and some of the slats are broken."

He paused to glance at Charles. Did the older boy think him crazy for rambling like this? "I stumbled into a shop recently, and it had lots of antique stuff, looked mostly like Chinese artifacts. It even had a fan that look like the one my mom had." He flushed a little, shrinking in his seat.

Charles' eyes widened to the size of golf balls. His heart beat wildly as he laughed, overjoyed to hear that they had even more in common that he could have ever imagined.

"Wow, what a coincidence! I stumbled into a Chinese antique shop, too! It was by accident; I got lost riding around in the suburbs, and then I found it. It must be the same as the one you went to!"
He grinned widely and leaned forward in his seat. A faint voice in the back of his mind told him that he ought to be more sensitive about the topic when Besnik was referring to his mother in the past tense in such a wistful, elegiac way, but Charles shoved the thought aside in his excitement.

"I...I found this beautiful lotus seed. The sign at the shop said it was 2000 years old, but I took it to the Botanical Gardens and the guy there said it was a fake."

Besnik felt the red creeping onto his cheeks as he heard Charles laugh. I must look like an idiot, he thought, trying to fight back to awkward feeling of socializing with the older boy. So far, Charles hadn't laughed at him for doing or saying something weird, but Besnik couldn't silence the little voice that kept telling him that he was doing and saying weird things.

Besnik lifted his gaze as his brow creased. "But how does one fake a lotus seed?" he wondered out loud. Inwardly, he was shocked to hear that they had stumbled into the same antique store. Was this another weird twist of fate?

He nibbled on his lip. Had anything strange happened to Charles' lotus seed like it had to his fan? He wanted to ask, but fear kept him silent. What if nothing had happened to the seed? If that was true, then he would only sound crazy for telling Charles about the smoke.

Slightly disappointed that Besnik was not as excited as he was, Charles felt his pounding heart gradually lower to a normal pace. A sudden exhaustion coursed through him, quite similar to the sensation when one stops after running for a long period of time. The silly grin faded from his face, and he simply watched as Besnik nibbled on his lip.
'It looks as if he wants to say something,' Charles thought.

A few moments passed by in an awkward silence, and he finally decided to answer Besnik's question.
"Well, he said that it looked like a ball of wood painted with nail polish. But if that's the case..."

Before Charles could complete his sentence, the bell rang, indicating the end of third period with a high, rattling screech.

Besnik shifted nervously in his seat as the awkward silence stretched on between them. Maybe I shouldn't have asked, he thought, fearing that he had said something to offend the older boy.

He jerked his head up again when he heard Charles start to speak. But then the bell rang, and he let out a sigh. "How does time go by so quickly when not in class?" he wondered out loud as he shoved his things back into his book bag. "I guess we'll have to continue later." He paused for a moment before adding, "If you want to."

A grin crept back onto Charles' face at Besnik's suggestion. He was more than pleased that he had offered to continue the discussion, and he hurriedly grabbed his English notebook from off the table and flipped to a blank page.
"Yeah, definitely! I'm sorry, I guess I didn't really get the chance to tutor you. I have my final exams in a few weeks, but feel free to call me if you have any questions, or if you just wanna talk."

He ripped off a small corner of the blank notebook page, scrawled down his cell phone number, and handed it to Besnik with a smile. Charles packed the rest of his books into his backpack and lifted it onto his shoulders.
Hesitating for a brief moment, he added, "And maybe we could uh, hang out this summer or something?"

Besnik stared at the paper with the phone number on it that Charles had given him. He was glad that the older boy agreed to keep tutoring him with the poetry. But he was even more shocked that Charles had suggested they could hang out with each other outside of school.

"Sounds like fun," Besnik said, offering a smile to Charles as he folded the paper up neatly and stuck in one of his book.

"All right, awesome," Charles chuckled in happy relief, grinning like a small child. He had been worried that he might have come off as too pushy; after all, he was greatly anticipating their future conversations regarding the mysterious antique shop they had both visited.

Standing up, Charles slid out of the booth and walked up to Besnik.
"I'll see you later, Besnik. Really nice meeting you."
He gave the younger boy a friendly pat on the back, and promptly raced through the cafeteria and out of the double doors to his next class.

As he ran up the stairwell, through the hallway, out the side door, and across the campus, Charles let out a long string of laughter that had been bubbling up inside him. His cheeks turned rosy pink with exhaustion, and in the distance he heard the bell ring again, signaling the start of fourth period. But today he didn't care that he was late. Not today, when he had made an important new friend.

"It was nice meeting you too!" Besnik said as a wide smile spread over his face. He was glad to make a new friend and thankful that Charles seemed to like him well enough to consider him a friend in return. He watched the older boy race out of the cafeteria before he slung his book bag over a shoulder. He started walking toward the exit when he halted and let out a groan.

"I so don't want to go to science today," he mumbled, pushing open the door. His head started to ache just thinking about the class. Well, at least I can look forward to hanging out with Charles again, he thought as his grin returned. He trotted through the hallways, hurrying to his next class.