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Andy Liang watched the kids from his school bus walk home with their friends. He could hear them talking together and laughing. He always got off the bus alone and walked home by himself.

But this time it was different. A girl got off the bus just behind him and started walking in the same direction. He wondered why he hadn’t seen her before. She was also Asian American, which made it all the more surprising that he hadn’t noticed her earlier.

As he tried to get a better look, she went into the neighborhood convenience store and disappeared behind a shelf of canned soup. He peered into the store, hoping for another glimpse of her. All he saw were some of the kids from the bus getting bags of potato chips and soft drinks.

Andy sighed. He was used to being a loner, and usually it didn’t bother him—not much, anyway. But today the loneliness was heavy. He overheard the other kids talking, and he knew they were planning to study together for the PSAT. From the looks of the snacks, they were expecting a long session.

Andy would be practicing for the test, too, but he would be doing it by himself. I’m better off doing it alone, anyway, he thought. Studying with somebody else would just slow me down.

The truth was that none of the others had invited him to study with them. So all right, he said to himself, they think I’m a grind. What’s wrong with that? I’ll be getting better scores on the PSAT than any of them, even if there’s nobody to coach me.

He finally found the girl standing in front of a case of barbecued chicken. She was staring so hungrily at the chickens that his own mouth began watering, and he would have bought a piece on the spot if he had the money. But with the change in his pocket, he had to be satisfied with a candy bar.

Leaving the store, he reached his street and passed the corner house with the moody German shepherd. As usual, it snapped at him, and he automatically retreated to the far side of the sidewalk. Although the dog was on a chain, Andy didn’t like the way it looked at him. Besides, a chain could always break.

Today, the dog not only snapped, it began to bark furiously and strained against its chain. Andy jumped back and bumped against the girl he had seen earlier. Somehow she had appeared behind him without making any noise.

He apologized. “I didn’t mean to crash into you. That dog always growls at me, but today he’s really barking like crazy.”

The girl shivered. “The dog doesn’t seem to like me very much, either.” Before he had a chance to say anything more, she turned and walked away.

Again Andy sighed. He hadn’t even had a chance to find out what her name was or where she lived. Was she Chinese American, as he was? What grade was she in? At least she went on the same school bus, so there was a chance of seeing her again.

But he didn’t have much hope that she would be interested in him. Girls didn’t go for the quiet, studious type. Last year, one of the girls in his geometry class had asked him to give her some help after school. That went pretty well, and for a while he thought they might have something going. But after she passed the geometry test, she didn’t look at him again.

Maybe if he studied less and went in for sports, girls would get interested in him. But then his grades might slip, and his parents would never let him hear the end of it. He had to keep his grades up, study hard, be the dutiful son.

His brother had managed to get a math score of 800 on the PSAT, and now he was at Yale with a full scholarship. Andy had to try and do as well.

More than once he had asked his parents why it was so important to get into a good college. “Lots of people get rich in this country without going to college at all,” he told them.

His father would draw himself up stiffly. “The Liangs belonged to the mandarin class in China. I’ve told you again and again that to become a mandarin, one had to pass the official examinations. Only outstanding scholars passed, and only they had the qualifications to govern the country.”

Andy’s father always got worked up about the subject. He might be only a minor clerk in America, he said, but he was descended from a family of high-ranking officials in China.

Another thing Andy noticed was that when his father went on at length about the illustrious Liang family, his mother always listened with a faint smile. She seemed to be amused for some reason.

But that didn’t stop her from also putting pressure on Andy to study hard. Every night, she would ask him whether he had done his homework, and she double-checked his papers to make sure everything was correct.

Normally Andy didn’t mind doing his homework. He liked the satisfaction of a job well done when he finished a hard problem in math. But lately, all the extra work preparing for the exam was beginning to get him down. His mind wandered, and he began to daydream. He had visions of becoming a snake charmer, making a balloon trip over the Andes, or practicing kung fu in a Shaolin Temple. He saw himself in the English countryside, riding a galloping horse in a fox hunt.

He tried to stop wasting time on these stupid daydreams. Maybe his mind wouldn’t wander if he had someone to study with. But nobody wanted to study with him. Nobody wanted to spend time with a nerd.

Next day, the girl got off the bus again with Andy, and this time, instead of going into the convenience store, she began to walk with him. When they reached the yard with the German shepherd, they both automatically backed away from the fence.

Andy and the girl looked at each other and grinned. He was encouraged. “I’m Andy Liang. Are you new in the neighborhood?”

“We moved here last week,” she replied. “My name is Leona Hu. But Leona is a silly name, and my friends call me Lee.”

She was inviting him to call her Lee and including him among her friends! Andy could hardly believe his luck. An attractive girl was actually ready to be friends. He was grateful to the German shepherd.

The girl had big almond-shaped eyes. Andy had overheard Americans saying that Chinese had slanty eyes, although his own eyes did not slant. Lee’s eyes, on the other hand, definitely slanted upward at the corners.

Her hair had a slightly reddish tint, instead of being blue-black like his own. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, but with her hair and her slanting eyes, she looked exotic and fascinating.

When they came to his house, Andy wished he could keep Lee talking with him. But she smiled at him briefly and went on. He had to stop himself from running after her to find out where she lived. He didn’t want her to think that he was pestering her.

Was she going to take the PSAT this year? If she was, maybe they could study together!

*  *  *  *  *

At dinner that night, his father went on as usual about how important it was to do well on the PSAT. “We immigrants start at the bottom here in America, and the only way we can pull ourselves up is to get a good education. Never forget that you’re descended from illustrious ancestors, Andy.”

Again, Andy noticed his mother’s faint smile. Later, he went into the kitchen where he found her washing the dishes. “Why do you always smile when Father gives me his pep talk about education? Don’t you agree with him?”

“Oh, I agree with him about the importance of education,” his mother said. “I’m just amused by all that talk about illustrious ancestors.”

“You mean Father wasn’t telling the truth about Liangs being mandarins?” asked Andy. He took up a bunch of chopsticks and began to wipe them dry. Usually, his mother refused his help with the chores. She wanted him to spend all his time on his homework.

But tonight she didn’t immediately send him upstairs to his desk. She rinsed a rice bowl and put it in the dish rack. “Well, the Liangs haven’t always been mandarins,” she said finally. “They used to be quite poor, until one of them achieved success by passing the official examinations and raising the status of the whole Liang family.”

“Hey, that’s great!” Andy liked the idea of a poor boy making good. It was more interesting than coming from a long line of decadent aristocrats. “Tell me more about this ancestor.”

“His name was Fujin Liang,” replied his mother. “Or I should say Liang Fujin, since in China, last names come first.” Again she smiled faintly. “Very well. You should really be studying, but it’s good for you to know about your ancestors.”

Liang Fujin lived with his widowed mother in a small thatched cottage and earned money by looking after a neighbor’s water buffalo. His mother added to their meager income by weaving and selling cotton cloth. It was a hard struggle to put rice in their bowls.

But Fujin’s mother was ambitious for him. She knew he was smart, and she decided that he should try for the official examinations. In theory, any poor boy could take the examinations, and if he passed, he could raise his family to mandarin status. But rich boys could afford tutors to help them study. For Fujin, even buying a book was a luxury.

He was so eager to learn that he crouched under the window of the nearby school and tried to eavesdrop on the lessons. Whenever he saved enough money to buy books, he would read them while seated on the back of the water buffalo. Once he was so absorbed that he walked the buffalo into a rice paddy. But he managed to read the precious books until he knew them all by heart.

Through hard work he grew up to be a fine scholar. His mother thought he was finally ready to take the examinations, but he himself wasn’t so confident. The other competitors were the sons of rich families, who could afford the very best tutors.

He continued to study late every night, until his head began to nod. So he tied the end of his pigtail to a nail in the ceiling, and whenever his head fell forward, the pigtail jerked him awake.

One night, while he was struggling to stay awake over his book, he heard a soft voice behind him. “A fine, hardworking young man like you deserves to pass the examination.”

Fujin whirled around and saw a beautiful girl standing behind him. Somehow she had appeared without making any noise. She had huge, bewitching eyes that slanted sharply. Could he be dreaming?

“Let me help you,” continued the girl. “I can act as a tutor and coach you.”

“And that was how your ancestor, Liang Fujin, got the coaching he needed to pass the examinations,” said Andy’s mother.

Andy blinked. “But … but who was this mysterious girl? And how come she was such a great scholar? I thought women didn’t get much education in the old days.”

His mother laughed. “Nobody in the Liang family would say. But I’ll give you a hint: When the girl lifted her skirt to sit down, Fujin caught a flash of something swishing. It looked like a long, bushy tail!”

It took Andy a moment to get it. Then he remembered the Chinese stories his mother used to tell him, stories about the huli jing, or fox spirit. The mischievous fox, or huli, often appeared in the form of a beautiful girl and played tricks on people. But in some of the stories, the fox fell in love with a handsome young man and did him a great service. She expected a reward for her service, of course, and the reward was marriage.

“So my ancestor passed the examinations because he was coached by a fox?” asked Andy.

“That story is a lie!” cried Andy’s father, stomping into the kitchen. “It was made up by malicious neighbors who were jealous of the Liangs!”

Andy’s mother shrugged and began to pack the dishes away. His father continued. “Liang Fujin passed the examinations because he was smart and worked hard! Don’t you forget it, Andy! So now you can go up to your room and start working!”

His father was right, of course. Fox spirits belonged in fairy tales. He, Andy Liang, would have to study for the PSAT the hard way.

Andy was delighted when Lee told him that she was also planning to take the PSAT. She agreed that it would be a good idea to study together. He was eager to begin that very evening. “How about coming over to my house? I’m sure my parents would love to meet you.”

Actually, he wasn’t sure how delighted his parents would be. He suspected that they would be glad to see him with a Chinese American girl, but they’d probably think that a girl—any girl—would distract him from his studies.

He was half sorry and half relieved when she said, “I’m going to be busy tonight. Maybe we can go to the public library tomorrow afternoon and get some sample tests and study guides.”

That night he had a dream about fox hunting. Only this time, he found himself running on the ground trying to get away from the mounted horsemen and howling dogs. There was somebody running with him—another fox, with reddish hair and a bushy tail. It flashed a look at him with its slanting eyes.

Andy and Lee began studying sample PSAT tests at the library. Working with someone else certainly made studying less of a drudgery. Andy felt relaxed with Lee. He didn’t suffer the paralyzing shyness with her that seized him when he was with other girls.

She was really good at finding out what his weaknesses were. English grammar was his worst subject, and Lee fed him the right questions so that the fuzzy points of grammar got cleared up. As the days went by, Andy became confident that he was going to do really well on the PSAT. At this rate, he might get a scholarship to some famous university.

He began to worry that the help was one-sided. He was getting first-rate coaching, but what was Lee getting out of this? “You’re helping me so much,” he told her. “But I don’t see how I’m helping you at all.”

She smiled at him. “I’ll get my reward someday.”

Something about her glance looked familiar. Where had he seen it before?

They had an extra-long study session the day before the exam. When they passed the corner house on their way home, the German shepherd went into a frenzy of barking and scrabbled to climb the Cyclone fence. Both the chain and the fence held, fortunately. Lee looked shaken and backed away from the fence.

At Andy’s house she recovered her color. “Well, good luck on the exam tomorrow.” She looked at him for a moment with her slanting eyes, and then she was gone.

Again, he thought he remembered that look from somewhere. All during supper, he was tantalized by the memory, which was just out of reach.

That night he dreamed about fox hunting again. It was more vivid than usual, and he could see the scarlet coats of the riders chasing him. The howling of the dogs sounded just like the German shepherd. Again, he was running with another fox. It had huge slanting eyes, bright with mischief.

He woke up, and as he sat in his bed, he finally remembered where he had seen those huge, slanting eyes. They were Lee’s eyes.

Next day Andy met Lee at the entrance to the examination hall. He suddenly realized that if he said her name in the Chinese order, it would be Hu Lee, which sounded the same as huli, or fox.

She smiled. “So you know?”

Andy found his voice. “Why did you pick me, particularly?”

Her smile widened. “We foxes hunt out our own kind.”

That was when Andy knew why the German shepherd always snapped at him. He himself must be part fox. His ancestor, Liang Fujin, had accepted help from the fox spirit after all, and she had collected her reward.