Chapter 4

  Ariel had already sat in the physics class when Jero came bursting in and sat down beside her with a dazed expression on his face. "What's up dude? ", she asked. He was still dazed. 

    She lightly punched him in the arm and he snapped out of his daze. He gave Ariel a dazzling smile. Ariel smiled back. Adriana had done something good to him. "Spill it", she nudged him. "Well, she lost her technical drawing notebook and almost started crying, I couldn't bear it and I went to look for it. I eventually found it in the computer science laboratory and gave it to her.  She was so happy that she gave me a peck of the cheek", he then turned his right cheek to her. " I'm never washing it again ", he said happily. 

   Ariel beamed at him. Finally, things were finally turning around for her favorite person in the world. She teased him " If you get infected,  she won't kiss you again". 

   Jero blinked and groaned. "Why is my life so awkward, three guys in this same class wanna die for you but the one girl I love in my entire whole life wants nothing to do with me",  he said. 

    She frowned. "Didn't she just peck your cheek ", she asked,  confused about the sudden 180 degree change in attitude.

    "Yeah but she grew up in Paris, that's their culture, she might not even remember what I look like tomorrow", he said. 

Ariel disagreed with him. Jero was probably even more handsome than Chad in some respect -although he couldn't hold a candle to the green eyed boy- he had warm chocolate brown eyes that seemed to melt your worries whenever you looked at them. He already had a defined jaw line but it was evident that it wasn't as ruthless as her alien friend. He was taller than most, Usually towering above her whenever they walked together and he had this chirpy personality that made it hard for you to forget him after meeting him once. She believed that Adriana always ignored Jero because she thought he was just another idiot pretty face,  but Jero was smarter than most of the class combined, except her and some extraordinary kids. 

"Trust me, she'll remember you alright," Ariel said somewhat disconcertedly. Jero buried his face in his hands and Ariel stopped comforting him," The teacher's here already?.... "Jero trailed off as he saw Adriana standing beside his seat. He smiled "How can I help you? ", he asked calmly and Ariel couldn't believe that this was the same boy who had almost burst out crying just now. 

  Adriana blushed. Ariel really couldn't blame Jero, Adriana was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and smart girls in their class.  She had light brown eyes and she was elegant and graceful when she walked despite her shorter-than-most height. 

   "Thank you for getting back my notebook, ma- maybe we can hang out sometime", she said as her blush grew. Jero matched her with a blush of his own "It's no problem, and yeah we can hang out", he said. 

    She smiled genuinely and leaned down to give Jero a small peck on his cheek. She then proceeded to walk at the speed of light to her seat. Jero didn't blink for two whole minutes. 

    Ariel chortled and slapped his back "She likes you", Ariel teased. Jero's blush blossomed. He smiled stupidly and started jumping around in his seat. He did a fist pump. Two pecks in one day. How lucky was he. His excitement was contagious as Ariel jumped around happily with him. 

The teacher entered the class with a bright smile. Ariel nudged Jero and he calmed down. 

"We've been studying the solar system for quite sometime now and it's time to find out how people on other planets live, students, Chad Greene", the teacher introduced.

  Ariel rolled her eyes. 

All that talk for him. She was the class president but she never got introduced like that. Hmmpf. 

"Hi everyone, I'm here to answer whatever questions you might have concerning Saturn and in return, you'll have to answer questions about earth", he said in a mesmerizing voice. Ariel couldn't even deny that she felt relaxed by his voice.

Cindy Checkers, the prime beauty of the class,-although she used enough makeup each day to paint a wall-, raised her hand to ask a question. Chad stared at Cindy for two seconds before answering her call. 

"How do people on Saturn court, "she asked. 

Chad shrugged. "I don't know, I'm not much of a love expert", he said. Cindy blushed and looked down at the edge of her seat. Chad smirked. "But we do flirt, a LOT, and we may tend to get protective possessive sometimes and that may become a bit much after a while", he answered truthfully.

Ariel stretched her head outside the window next to her to see if she could catch Mr. Green-eyes running to his class. "Please pay attention to the lesson Miss powers", The physics teacher said and quickly excused herself from the class.

Ariel sighed and sat down .Suddenly, Chad was in front of her. He leaned down and kissed her cheek deep enough to feel her teeth. 

Ariel blushed and raised her hand in a smooth arc to slap his face but he caught it. "I needed to answer my own question, why do people kiss other people's cheeks", he said. 

   Jero felt annoyed but kind of happy. Maybe his best friend would finally take a liking to someone for the life of her. 

  At 13, Ariel was easily the youngest and most beautiful girl in the class, heck the most beautiful in the entire school. She hated makeup and was a natural beauty. 

  Her shoulder length dark chocolate brown hair that couldn't get straightened even with the best stylist was always in a frustrated bun on her head.

  She could be described as a tomboy, always in trousers and hoodies. Her lips were plump and rosy like they were designed for kissing. 

  Jero somehow felt like supporting Chad in his conquest though. The teacher entered the class again and looked confused at Ariel's red face and at Chad's angelic face. 

   Chad sent a discreet look to Ariel that seemed to say "will you tell on me? ", and Ariel groaned. "What happened here while I was gone", she asked. 

  Ariel clenched her jaws and replied "We helped Chad answer his questions about earth ma'am", she said. 

The teacher smiled and looked grateful. That brightened up Ariel's mood a little.    "Well, I guess that'll be all then,  thank you so much Mr. Greene", she said. When Chad was about to leave the class,  he threw a secret wink at Ariel and she would have exploded if Jero didn't quickly put his hand over her mouth and pat her back.