CHAPTER SEVEN: A HOODIE

WHEN I enter the room, Professor Kristoff is already preparing his laptop for class.

I sigh and sit down on the chair closest to me.

"Alright, good morning class. I would like to have your index cards, just as I explained to you yesterday; pass them to the front, now" he ordered, while he continued working at his PC.

I open my bag and grab my index card from my binder; I stand up and walk to the front. As I hand over my index card, I steal a glance at him. He smirks at me and it makes me feel awkward.

I quickly withdraw my gaze and turn my back to him; I don't want anyone in my class to see how awkward my expression is after receiving that smirk from our professor.

I sit down and just stare at Kristoff who clears his throat and adjusts his eye glasses.

I think to myself, when I first met him, he wasn't wearing an eyeglasses. How come people here seem to get weirder day by day?

I sigh and shake my head.

"Err...Can I see who miss Williams is?" he asks. My eyes widen in disbelief as I quickly look at my professor, who is obviously teasing me.

I gulp and look around; my classmates have no idea who am I. I squeeze my eyes shut and slowly stand up.

Everybody is staring at me now. I gulped again and clench my hands, desperately trying to calm myself.

"Err...that's me," I gently announce. He nods his head and looks me straight in the eye.

"So, Miss Williams, would you like to introduce yourself to everyone?" he prompts.

My forehead creases at those words. It's not as though he isn't aware of my social anxiety! What is he even doing? It doesn’t seem fair.

I loudly exhale a breath and clench my fists even tighter. I bite my lower lip and look down.

I can feel that I'm about to have a panic attack. I’m just about to speak when someone interrupts.

"Excuse me, sir."

Professor Kristoff turns his gaze to the lady who had spoken:

"Yes?" he asks, abruptly.

"Can we please start our class? we're already fifteen minutes late".

Professor Kristoff, clearly shocked, looks at his watch and is shocked to realize that my classmate is right.

"Shoot! I'm so sorry, class." he exclaims, and looks at me. "Miss Williams, sit down please”. I nod and relax a little in my seat.

I smile and make eye-contact with the kind classmate who had winked at me, I mouth her a thank-you. She gives me a thumbs up and focuses on our professor again. I do likewise.

Wow, she saved me, and I am thankful for that.

Time passes quickly, The math class finally ends. I gather my things and put them into my back pack. I realize, and admit to myself that during that two-hour class...I learned nothing, for my mind is focused only on Zhena. I'm really worried.

That classmate, the one who had helped me, knocks on my table. We exchange smiles.

"Thanks for earlier," I said. She nods and offers her hand, which I shake.

"Oh, that's okay. By the way, my name’s Lovely." I nod and smile, I shake her hand, replying with

"Hi, Lovely. I am Lara...Lara Williams,"

"Nice to meet you!" she replies, cheerfully. I chuckle and pick up my bag.

"See you later, Lara...I have science class"

"Yeah, see you later, Lovely"

With that, she walks away, and I smile. Another friend…Lovely seems kind, I'd like to get to know her better.

I still have an hour before lunchtime. Oli might have his classes at this time. I think I might go to the library to do my homework.

I’m walking down this hallway, feeling thankful that right now almost everybody in this school are in their classes. Because of that, I am sure that I won't have any more panic attacks today.

I see Professor Kristoff walk out of the room. I look around to make sure no one will notice if I approach him.

"Professor Kristoff" I called him, desperately trying not to shout his name,

He turns to look at me and smirks. I walked beside him and ask,

"Why did you do that?"

"Did what?" he asks as though he didn't know what he had done:

"About earlier," I prompt. He slowly nods his head and smiles at me,

"I'm sorry...I thought that my actions might help you to overcome your fears in socializing," he explains. I gulped and maintained my aura of being angry.

"But...that's still inappropriate," I insist. He nods and pats my shoulders. This feels very patronizing, or even mocking.

"I'm sorry, miss Williams. I thought it would help, but, you're welcome anyways," he said, still smiling. I furrow my forehead, staring at him.

I decided not to speak, I just stared at him, looking at his admittedly very gorgeous face. I gulped and shook my head because of what I just thought of him.

"I have to go, Miss Williams; I still have classes to teach. You will have to excuse me", he said, and left.

I am now alone in the hallway. I squeezed my squishy ball really tightly, and avoid the eyes of the crowds of people who are staring at me.

Even though it's still only my second day here in this school, I still don't understand why they stare at me so much. I don't know why and I don't even want to know why.

I went to the library and work on my assignments there. It's really hard for me because it's math; I somehow understand most of the lesson, but not everything that Professor Kristoff had discussed.

Suddenly, I jump in surprise. A guy has sat down beside me. He slams down a book onto the table. All at once, everyone turns to stare at us.

I look up only to see the face of Tyler. He’s wearing a hoodie. He smirks at me and opens the book.

"What the hell is your problem?" I hiss. He smirks again, flipping the pages,

I shake my head in disbelief. I close my books and am about to stand up, ready to leave. But he suddenly grabs my hands and forces me to sit down again.

"What the hell do you want?!" I angrily hiss to him.

"Just sit down here, I want to talk to you..." he answers. I flick my hair away from my eyes and pull him closer, so that I can whisper, or even shout if needs be, right to his face.

"This isn't a right place to talk, Tyler."

"Yes it is," he responded, with a cold gaze and a smirk on his face,

"How the hell can the library be a good place to talk? This is supposed to be a very quiet place for reading or studying, Tyler. For heaven’s sake, let's go outside and talk!", I hissed, finally sitting down properly.

All the students in the library suddenly hears a sudden slam on a table:

"If you want to talk, do it outside! This is a library!" said the librarian in a measured-but-strict tone. I close my eyes as I see the students slowly turning their heads towards Tyler and me.

I methodically grab my books and stuff, stand up and quickly got the hell out of that place. I don't care whether Tyler will follow me or not. All I wanna do is to get out from that place and...

Suddenly, Tyler grabs my arms, stopping me from walking away.

"Lara, we still need to talk," he said, turning to look at him, only to realize how tall he is.

"What do we have to talk about now, Tyler? You made the librarian mad, and I haven't done any of my assignments!" I said, fiercely.

"So, thanks for that, Tyler!" I added, sarcastically. I roll my eyes at him and I’m about to turn my back and walk, when he suddenly grabs my arm once again, forcing me to face him.

"I just want to say sorry about what I did, okay?" he gushes.

I’m stunned to hear that. He remembers now?

I slowly turn to look at him, he forces a smile. And that got me thinking:

Tyler isn't a type of person who forces a smile... So, what’s happening now?

"Apology accepted," I said but giving him a quizzical look.

"Now, stop bothering me because I still have to do my freaking math assignment, and I need to get my head around that because I understand nothing!"

I turn my back, and walk away, disparagingly.

I find myself rolling my eyes once again when Tyler runs to catch up with me. Now, he’s walking beside me. I take a deep breath and stop walking.

"Now, what?!" I angrily ask. He then laughs and raises both of his hands, facing the palms to me in an unmistakable gesture of surrender.

"Chill… I just want to make a deal," he said, chuckling.

I look at him with disbelief, how could this man be so persistent with me?

"Whatever your deal is” I say, “I don't care , Tyler. I'm busy."

At this stage, I’m doing my best to walk away. But then he blocks my way and grins at me. I can see how white his teeth are, his gums look clean and healthy.

"Even if it's about math?" he asks, teasing me.

I make a face to him, and face him, wearing a tired expression.

"Five minutes," I said, in a puzzling way.

His forehead creases…

"What? Five minutes?" he repeats, puzzled…

"I'll give you five minutes to explain. And now it's down to four minutes and forty-five seconds," I add.

Then stands up straight and starts to explain to me, calmly:

"I want a deal...I'll go straight to the point and tell you. I'm gonna teach you math. And you’re gonna teach me English. How is that?" His delivery-style was almost that of a rapper.

I can't help but laugh at him.

He gives me a confused look.

"I said 5 minutes, Tyler. Not five seconds. Geez!" I reply, chuckling.

Tyler doesn’t respond. Instead, he stares at me, blankly.

I clear my throat, trying to make myself stop laughing at Tyler.

"Okay, so what is it again?" I ask, "Is this still a part of five minutes?"

I bite my lower lip to stop myself from laughing. I shake my head and wait for him to talk next.

"You know...I am so bad at English, and you’re pretty crap at math. So I want you to help me in English in exchange of my helping you in math. How does that sound?” he explains,

“I think it's a great idea, but...We don't have enough time for that, Tyler." I said,

"We do, after class," he answers, I raised my eyebrows and laugh at him,

"We do have a lot of assignments every day, Tyler. Every day, not just assignments, we also have projects and presentations to do. I can do it myself," I said, emphasizing the words “every day”.

"But, don't you wanna learn something on math? I mean...yes, you can try to learn it from professor Kristoff, but you can't understand it right? So...it's a good thing if I teach you..." he said, "and...I badly need you and I know you need me too," he added,

"Tch, learning from professors isn't a bad thing," I reply.

"...and learning from tutors isn't a bad thing...either" he added,

I crossed my arms and gave him a critical look,

"Come on, Lara. We both can benefit from it..." he said, trying to convince me, I massaged the bridge of my nose, desperately trying to calm myself,

"Fine. If that will make you quiet," I said and roll my eyes as I walk past him.

"Okay, Lara! I will wait for you later!" he shouted behind me. I shook my head and walked my way to the cafeteria.

When I reached the cafeteria, Oli and his boyfriend, Xian, are already there...they’re sitting next to each other in sweet conversation.

"Hey," I greeted.

Oli faces me and smiles.

"Hey, Lara. Sit down," he said. I nod and glance at Xian, who winks at me.

I quickly turn to look at Oli and then I realize the table that is full of posh food suggesting that maybe someone is celebrating a birthday.

"Hmmm, so...who's birthday it is today?" I ask Oli, who pauses for a while and then chuckles:

"You silly thing! Xian ordered them all; you can eat whatever you want," Oli said, cheerfully. I stare at the foods once again, and look Oli.

"Did you... pay for all of this?" I ask, calmly, trying to ask the question gently so that Oli won’t be offended.

"You bet!" he answered. I turned to look at Xian and sighed... “Geez! Zhena was right about this, Xian.

"Alright, excuse me for a while..." I said, standing and smiling up, "I just need to use the restroom,"

Oli nods his head and kisses his boyfriend's right cheek.

I bite my lips and walk away. While walking, I suddenly see Tyler, who is now wearing a plain, white t-shirt. I crease my forehead and slowly stops walking to see Tyler, who is carrying a tray of food.

I give him an awkward smile when he turns to me. He smiles back, but he looks confused.

I look at him from [his] head to [his] toe. He has changed his outfit and he looks as if he’d just had a shower.

"You changed your clothes...?" I blurt. He looks down at his shirt and then looks at me, full of surprise:

"A-ah, yeah, It feels hot wearing a cottony shirt," he said, acting as if the sun were in front of him. I nod my head slowly and fake a chuckle.

"Yeah, a hoodie is cottony...and hot," I respond. I wave him goodbye and walk away,

-to be continued...