If not for the airline crash in San Francisco, two Chinese senior high school students - Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan - would be enjoying their summer camp in the United States.

The accident took the two very good friends from their parents, classmates and teachers.

"They were as good as one," said Mao Shisi, a classmate and friend of the pair. "They had been friends since junior high school and did almost everything together," she said.

Mao also ate and hung out with Wang and Ye, but Wang and Ye shared the closest friendship.

"I used to envy them for their good relationship, but both of them were nice to everyone. It was hard to really get mad at them," she said.

Mao said that she still could not believe that two of her good friends had passed away.

"Now they are in heaven together. I wish I could have the chance to be friends with them again in the next life," said Mao.

"They were versatile and so good at studying. They were supposed to make a difference in the rest of their lives," said the 17-year-old, with tears in her eyes.

In the community where Wang lived with her family, everything was as calm as usual. Only the closed door of this once happy family tells of the tragedy and sadness in this neighborhood.

Xu Liqin, a 52-year-old neighbor of Wang, said the outspoken girl was adored by the neighborhood.

"She was polite to everyone. She offered more than once to help me carry my groceries. I could tell this girl was very kind-hearted," she said.

"It is a pity that she died so young," Xu added.

There is a small square in her community, where residents come to dance after dinner every day. But after the sad news came to the community, people stopped the dance in a move to mourn Wang.

The two girls were not only adored by their neighborhoods, they were also popular among classmates and teachers.

Wang was the class monitor and Ye was study representative in the first year of senior high school.

Yang Kaiwen, Wang's classmate, said Wang was very popular. "As monitor of our class, even the naughtiest boy would listen to her, which shows her charisma," she said.

Apart from being versatile, Ye also impressed her classmates with her good temper.

Mao remembered that one time she kept Ye waiting for more than three hours.

"She was waiting for me to eat together in the school canteen, but I was stuck with some other things. It was long past dinner time and even staff in the canteen had left, but she was still waiting for me," Mao said.

She said Ye did not complain a word.

"Some classmates would play tricks on her, but she was never angry," Mao said, adding that Ye always had a smile on her face.

A boy wrote on his blog to commemorate Ye and expressed his affection to her.

"From this year on, I will leave the day after my birthday to a special person. I will dress in black and bring wine and flowers to her cemetery. I will say happy birthday to her and tell her I like her," he wrote.

On Monday, after hearing the news, Jiang Jianming, Wang's Chinese teacher at Jiangshan Middle School, went to her classroom and collected things Wang left behind.

Jiang would have been the head teacher of Wang's class in the next semester if it were not for the accident.

"On the day before their departure to the US, Wang came to me in the office, saying that she was glad I could be her head teacher for the next semester," Jiang said, adding that he felt so lucky to have such an excellent student in his class.

As her Chinese teacher, Jiang discovered Wang's writing talent in her articles.

"She was gifted in writing and had beautiful hand writing. I shared every one of her articles to the rest of the class because they were beautifully written," he said.

yanyiqi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 07/10/2013 page8)