Chapter 3

Trence's POV

I went to the classroom after eating lunch.

Because Jack wasn't my classmate, I didn't have anyone to talk to and got bored. Being the popular "prince" and all, you would've expected everyone to walk up to me and talk to me...sadly, though, they seem to be too intimidated by my presence and physique to even look my way. Even the boys, though they didn't hate me, seem to think that I thought they weren't worth my time.

Well, I wasn't needy for attention. After all, I could consider this my break. 'I'm bored.' I thought.

I decided to use my cellphone and play games. I absolutely did not want to take a nap. 'I'm scared that when I wake up, I'll see myself in heaven.'

After losing for consecutive times, I grew bored and found myself looking around, observing the girls around me.

I find most women boring, in all honesty.

They're all the same; some were retouching their makeups, some were talking about boys, some were doing...stuff with their boyfriends, and some were studying.

It was the same thing every day. If they weren't busy being all up my business, they'd be doing these.

'Today's different though...'

One feisty girl was taking a nap, probably just finished with reading her manga.

And that's Taileen.

'Where did she place her baton?' I thought. 'Why did they even let her bring one to school...'

I found myself chuckling. "What the hell?" I muttered upon realizing.

Our teacher finally entered our classroom. Ms. Umi, a very meek and weak-willed teacher.

"Umm, good morning class. Today, we'll have a, um, partner activity. So please, um, pair up. Please."

'Ugh, dammit. Why is such a thing even created?' I thought in frustration.

The girls were looking and giggling at each other while boys were making eye-contacts with each other. Once again, my "Prince" status did not make the situation easy.

"Hey, don't you want to partner up with Prince Trence?" Whispered one girl near me.

'Yes, please, for the love of all good things, just partner up with me ---'

"Are you CRAZY? No way. I wouldn't be able to speak!" The other girl whispered back, following it with a giggle. "Come on, let's partner up!" She added, and soon, their voice grew far away.

I sighed and slumped down my desk. 'I guess I'll just have to na---'

"Oi, are you thinking of sleeping in class again?"

I immediately bolted up. "No ma'am!"

When I looked at who spoke, my eyes widened in surprise. 'Wait, Taileen?!'

"What's your problem? I'm not sleeping, no." I said with a frown. Taileen sighed and muttered something under her breath. I frowned even more. "What?"

"I said, do you have a partner?!"

Wow. Just, wow. I sighed, but I couldn't hide my smile. "No, I don't have a partner yet."

"Then, well, pair up with me," Taileen replied, and before I could speak, she cut me off. "Just to clarify, I still do NOT I like you. I did this against my will because everyone has a partner, and that witch Natalee kept on teasing me. Endlessly."

This girl, honestly.

"Sure, Miss You Already Know," I smirked.

"Fine, Mr. No Common Sense."

Wow. I can seriously hear someone from the back of my head saying 'oh buuuurn!!'.

She smirked and went back to her seat. I was confused until she yelled, "What're you waiting for? Go here!"

I scoffed with a smile and went to her seat. "Don't seat here. Just stand." Taileen said while flipping through our textbook.

My eyes widened. "What?"

'Unbelievable!!' I thought.

"Don't 'what' me! I do not seat with boys! If you were gay, I'd allow you. Wait, don't tell me you're gay?" Taileen then proceeded to gasp teasingly.

I sighed and took my chair from my seat then placed it next to hers.

"What? Not your chair, isn't it?" I rolled my eyes.

We looked at our teacher.

"So, um, if you're all done partnering up, please, please listen. So um, we're going to, uh, create a vase using, um, newspapers. If you can then please make it classy and creative. Please just, um, uh, take your newspapers here."

'Crap, I suck at creative things...' I thought with a sigh.

"NCS, go get the newspapers." I heard Taileen say.

"NC what?"

"NCS, no common sense. Just go get the newspaper. About 10."

"I'm not your maid!" I complained.

"You're my partner. And just by your expression, I can tell that you can't do anything useful than that on crafting, so go get the newspaper."

I hated that she was right.

I groaned and stood up to get paper. I took 13 sheets of newspaper cause the 3 other newspapers resemble 'I hate her'.

I went back to Taileen's seat and smacked the 13 rolls of newspaper on her desk.

"How many?"

"13."

She groaned. "I told you 10. Are you deaf?"

"If I was deaf, then I shouldn't have listened to you earlier. And 13 because 13 is the date today and it's Friday and you're bad luck." I smirked.

"Yeah right. I'm not bad luck, as a matter of fact, I'm good luck since you'll have 98 on your grades because I'll probably be doing most of the project," Taileen smirked back. "And don't even think of helping me do the project itself. Just bring me the supplies and stuff. I don't want you breaking it."

And she's right again.

In boredom, I looked around to see my classmates. Two girls were using 1 newspaper to create a drawing of a vase, two boys were creating a circle vase by using tape and one newspaper, first rolling it then adding a cut-out circle to cover the hole on the end.

"Don't copy them. They're failures." Taileen muttered and rolled her eyes. I saw her adding glue on the newspaper and spreading it using a paintbrush. "What are you doing?"

"A paper mache."

"For what?"

She looked at me and smiled. "To create a flying rainbow cow to rule the world."

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, what?"

"To create the vase! Didn't you study?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Then you're stupid."

I didn't notice that she was already making the vase. "Cool," I said while looking at her work.

She smiled arrogantly and started creating a pattern. After a while, it was done. It took about 10 minutes.

"Nice, huh?" She smiled.

"For once I'm agreeing to you."

Taileen stretched her fingers and yawned. "I'm kinda tired. Don't tell me you suck at painting...do you?"

"A little." I smiled cheekily.

"Jeez, what's going to happen to your future? Gosh." She groaned. She opened her bag and took out a case of paint. "Hey NCS, go get my water bottle." She pointed her water bottle in front of me while checking for defects on her vase. I took it and gave it to her.

She added water on a small cup, which had lots of colors stained. 'Taileen probably paints a lot---'

"Here, take this," She threw a paintbrush onto my face. "Hey, watch it!" I yelled.

"Watch me, okay?"

She started painting some of the backgrounds. I stared at her as she painted seriously. Her expression changed as she painted, sometimes licking her lips, which was probably a habit.

"What are you looking at?" Taileen suddenly said. "I meant you watch me PAINT, dumbass."

I felt my cheeks warm up. "I - I WAS, duh! Don't assume stupid things."

She looked at me and smiled teasingly. "Heh, sure, NCS."

She painted some more before sitting back. "Now, since you said you watched me, do it."

"I might break thi---"

"It has paper mache, you won't unless you're as stupid as a brick."

I sighed and damped my paintbrush on the water and added paint.

I was about to start but she took my paintbrush. "That's too much water." She told me. Taileen shook it a little before dampening it with water and lightly tapping the table with the brush. She added paint on it and gave it back to me.

I started painting. 'Whoa, the vase didn't rip.'

"Dumbass." She mumbled.

"Art isn't my thing." I defended.

She looked at me in disbelief and chuckled. "Sure honey."

'Have I ever told you that she was pretty cute?'

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