Chapter 25 - Like a Jealous Boyfriend

"DARWIN, let's pair up," Max declared before Hero could utter a word.

Darwin looked at her in confusion. "Huh?"

"Are you deaf?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course not!" Darwin replied in annoyance. "Sure, I'll be your partner!"

"You wanted to be Hero's partner, don't you...Lindsay?" she asked, looking at Lindsay.

Lindsay looked at her in both shock and embarrassment. Her classmate was obviously confused about what's happening but didn't dare complain about it.

"Why not? I'll be your partner, Lindsay," Hero answered cheerfully, but his eyes were fixed on her. Then he stood up and carried his book to Lindsay's side.

Darwin immediately walked in and replaced Hero in his seat beside her.

While Hero and Lindsay's pair were enthusiastic, Darwin and she were just too quiet. Unbeknownst to her, Darwin was carefully watching her as she was mindlessly scanning her book.

"How long are you gonna do what you're doing?"

Darwin's question snapped her back to her senses. She felt her classmates staring at her, but she just ignored them. "You do activities 1 to 5. I do 6 to 10. Can you handle that?" she asked him.

"Wait, wait. It's in pairs so we should work together on each activity, right? Besides, I don't understand any of it," he complained.

Her forehead furrowed. She secretly wished she had chosen Lindsay instead, or anyone else...except Hero. She was not yet in the mood to talk to him. She was not angry. She just felt awkward especially after knowing the truth about what happened to Liam.

Their activities were simple experiments about electromagnetism. She already had these lessons at Princeton during their second year and had also performed almost all of those experiments mentioned in their assignment. She didn't expect that Cas-U's lessons were not as advanced as Princeton's.

She took a deep breath and restrained herself from arguing with Darwin. She decided to discuss that lesson with him instead so that he would understand what to do.

"Ahhh," was his usual reply whenever she paused.

"So, the magnetic field..." She paused speaking when she noticed her classmates looked at them intently and seemed to be listening to what she was saying. She glared at them. "Yes? Do you need anything?"

"Uh, Max..." Lisa dared to speak despite being afraid.

"Huh?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Can you teach us, too? We also don't know how to do these right," Lisa asked sincerely.

She rolled her eyes before taking another deep breath. Here we go again.

"Us, too!" said another classmate.

Soon, more and more classmates asked the same favor until the whole classroom became annoyingly noisy. When she could not take it anymore, she kicked the empty chair in front of her and it fell on the side with a very loud thud that automatically silenced them. She stood up and faced them. "At three o'clock this afternoon, those who want to study together should come to my house on time. We will do Experiment 1 so make sure your materials are ready."

"Okay!!!" they replied simultaneously.

"For now, read your books first and understand well. If you have any questions, write them down so we can discuss later." After saying that, she got back to her seat and didn't say another word.

"Darwin's got lucky today," she heard Darwin's friends say enviously.

"Max, someone's looking for you!"

She turned to the door to see who her classmate was referring to. It was Liam standing outside the door. The darkening of Darwin's countenance and the clenching of his fists did not escape her sight. She immediately grabbed his wrist to restrain him as she gently shook her head.

"Don't make a scene here," she rebuked him in a soft but authoritative voice.

It took him a while before he calmed down. She released his hand before she stood up and walked towards Liam. She didn't have to turn to Hero. She knew he was also surging with anger to see his enemy.

"Hi! What brings you here?" she greeted Liam with an all-out smile. She even deliberately made her voice louder to attract her classmates' attention especially those who had a crush on this guy, to keep them away from him.

"I heard that your teacher is leaving for Manila so you don't have a class today. And I think she's with the other teachers so most classes are suspended," he replied in such a sweet manner she wouldn't have thought this was the strict and overprotective Liam who acted more than like a boyfriend to her in the past, that mean and cold-hearted Liam that Hero hated.

"She left an assignment before leaving. My classmates and I were discussing it a while ago."

"Are you done? Or I can wait here..."

"It's okay. We've just finished our discussion. I'll just get my things." She returned to her seat to put away her belongings.

"Going somewhere?" Hero asked coldly when he blocked her way to the door.

"Yeah. Liam asked me out for lunch. Maybe we'll take a little walk since it's still too early," she replied in a very cheerful voice to see his reaction.

To her dismay, he didn't react at all. "Come home early. Don't make my aunt worry again."

"Whatever," was her only reply before she got past him and went to Liam. "Shall we?"

--

"SHALL we?" Hero repeated Max's words repulsively as he watched her and Liam left the corridor. "Hmph!"

"Someone's getting jealous," Greg teased him as his classmate stood next to him.

"Of course not!" he rebuffed.

"Oh, really? The way you looked at Liam was like you're going to kick him right there and then."

He looked at him. If only they knew why he was mad at Liam. It had nothing to do with Max...or was that really the case?

"Are they together already?" Lisa suddenly butted in. "I thought Max wasn't interested in Liam because she already has you. What happened?"

"He probably annoyed Max, so she went to look for someone else," replied Xander, who came out of nowhere and stood next to her.

"Didn't they actually date last night and didn't tell you?" another classmate, Daniel, teased him.

He didn't like the way they were talking about it. He felt as if they were badmouthing Max, and he just couldn't take it.

"Okay, stop!" he hissed. "It's not what you think. Max isn't that kind of person."

"What else could it be?" one of them asked.

"Max and Liam are..."

"Come on, spill it," Lisa said impatiently.

"They were childhood friends. They were both born and raised here in Casa de Oro before their families moved somewhere else."

"You mean, they're childhood sweethearts?" Brenda said, laughing softly. "No wonder Max reacted like that at first. She was probably upset with Liam because they had been separated for a long time and now they meet again but with girls around him..."

Their classmates also nodded in agreement.

"So, that conversation they had last night, Liam explained to her and admitted he still loves Max. And they got back together!" Lisa concluded.

"Come on, come on!" he weaned them. "I just said childhood friends, not sweethearts."

"Hero, isn't it obvious? You're the third party here," Brenda said.

His classmates went on with their assumptions. Seeing he could not change their thoughts on the situation, he just left them there and walked up to Darwin, who became quiet since Liam had arrived until the guy had left.

"Are you alright?" he asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Yeah," Darwin nodded.

A few moments later. the bell rang for the next class. He went home because they had no class that afternoon.

"Oh, Hero! Why are you alone? Where's Max?" Belen asked after he kissed her on the cheek.

"She went out with Liam," he replied coldly before getting past her.

"So, that's why you've got that look, " Miggy predicted, following him to the kitchen.

He stopped and faced him "Why, how do I look?"

"You look like a jealous boyfriend," he teased before turning off the stove on which he heated the dish. "Look in the mirror so you can see," he added before returning to the cafeteria.

He just stared at his friend before finally entering his room. When he saw the mirror posted on his wall, he stared at his reflection like crazy. Then he frowned. "Idiot, Miggy!"