Chapter 3: Him

I was exhausted by the time Latin lessons ended. Man, my mom must have been trying to kill me by registering me in a tuition centre which went on four days a week. When Dad came to fetch me from Smarts after my second Latin lesson on Sunday, I tried to convince him to withdraw me.

Without much luck.

"Why should I do that?" he asked.

"I've got mountains of homework from school already without extra tuition lessons. I won't have time for both of them," I reasoned.

"Then cut your play time. You always spend 2 precious hours every day with the computer and then your PS2 when Luke comes over," Dad countered, swerving into the garage without knocking anything over. "Whatever the problem, you're not quitting Smarts. Emily is a very dedicated teacher so she can help you."

Damn my pathetic ability to hide result slips from Mom.

Actually, the reason I wanted to try and convince Dad if I could withdraw was because I heard something rather disturbing from Ralph during that day's lesson.

"I wonder if I'll be able to pair up with Janet next week," Ralph had said, staring at the ceiling. "Ken was a lucky bastard for being fortunate enough to have been her partner last week."

My sharp hearing caught his words and I asked, "Partner? What do you mean?"

"Oh, right, I forgot you were new," said Ralph. "Every week, we draw lots in class to determine our partners for that week. With our partner, we'll discuss about Latin terms at either partner's house and also in class. This week we weren't assigned partners because one of our classmates stopped and left us at an odd number. But now that we have you, we can be paired up again, so I'm hoping to draw Janet."

Pairs? At the word, I couldn't help but get goosebumps when I imagined myself paired with any of the girls. They'd be so wrapped up in trying to get my number - and that's already being modest.

At home, I was dreading the following day. When Lucas came over, I was too distracted because of my problem that I lost all the games we played to him. Even he knew something was disturbing me.

"Spill, Ans. What's bugging you?" he asked, folding his arms. "I won't play another game with you if you're not putting all your efforts into it. I feel like I'm beating up a dying man."

"I'm not dying," I frowned. "I just don't like my new Latin class."

"Why? No pretty girls?"

"That's part of my problem."

And so I told him of my dilemma and fear of being tortured into revealing my number to an ugly toad. After listening to me rant, Lucas just spent 5 whole seconds staring at me.

Finally, he broke the silence by saying, "You are worried that you might be paired up with someone you consider an ugly toad?"

"It's a serious situation, Luke. I might get hurt trying to defend myself," I said, the frown still on my face.

Out of nowhere, Lucas brought his hand up and whacked me on the head, making me yell, "What the hell's wrong with you?!"

"Ansel Saint James, you moron," he scolded. "You're meaning to tell me your partner is Latin lessons has to be a beauty in order for you to work with them?"

"Just in case you missed out, those girls probably like me already. You should know how I feel, since you're second to me in looks. Personality-wise, though, you beat me, but that's not the point! I'm probably gonna give this girl an opportunity to confess to me!"

"Then reject her, like you always do!" Lucas yelled in reply, waving his arms up and down. "Better yet, tell the girls you have no intention of dating anyone right now! Now play the game properly or I'm going home."

Thankfully, I managed to play the game fine after that and Lucas stopped complaining. I, too, learnt to put my worries aside and thought positive instead.

Besides, my partner could just as easily be a boy.

The next day, being a Monday, I had school first before tuition at Nurturing Minds, so I had to wake up early and catch my sister before she left for her university. To my "luck", today, Isriel was going to car pool Marcus' car so I was reluctant about getting into his car.

"Ans, if you don't get in, you'll be late for school," Isriel was getting impatient. "Getting a ride in Marcus' car will not kill you, will it?"

"I don't bite, Ansel," Marcus said with a glint in his eye.

My stomach churned in disgust. He knew my intense dislike for him, but he had the nerve to mock me. He was wearing contact lenses instead of glasses today and looked a little better than he usually did - one of the reasons my sister fell for him. You could say Marcus was the kind of person that looked cool with contacts but a complete geek with glasses. However, it did not change the fact that Isriel deserved someone who looked good 24/7.

Unfortunately, there was no one else who could offer me a lift to school, so I had no choice but to get in his red Mustang. At school, I was greeted by Lucas at the gates, where he usually waited every day.

"Was that -?" he started, after we were within earshot.

"Yes, that was his car. I didn't have a choice, but it sure ain't gonna happen again. Not in a million years," I growled, walking past him to the school hall. My fists were still clenched from the thought of being made to stoop so low.

"Honestly, though, I don't understand why you hate him," said Lucas, back in class when lessons were about to start. "I've met the guy before, but he's totally normal."

I could feel my nerves tensing up. Not because of my anger towards Marcus, but actually the fact that I did not know the answer to Lucas' question. All along, I've just felt annoyed every time I saw Marcus, but I've never specified why I felt that way myself.

Perhaps I had a sister complex.

School was a bore, as usual. I was alright through English and Science class and started nodding off during Geography and Arithmetics, which was after recess, which I spent behind the school in the field with Lucas. Slept clean through World History though.

When school hours ended, Lucas reprimanded me for not paying full attention during lessons.

"You can't really blame me, can you? Mrs. Bullock could make anyone sleep," my voice was muffled by a yawn. "And I was deprived of good sleep since my father was watching the Live screening of a football tournament until three in the morning."

"Right," Lucas said with a smirk. "You've given quite an opportunity to the girls to take a picture of you while you were asleep."

"I couldn't care less. Besides, I've got better things to worry about than sleeping pictures," I said. "Ugh, thanks for reminding me, Luke. That's been off my mind for a while till you brought 'girls' up."

"At least now you're prepared."

I rolled my eyes and continued walking to my dad's car. Once more I tried to get him to withdraw my registration but he just dismissed the option immediately. He was quite strict about it this time as well, so I made a note not to touch on it anymore. Having a little time before my Latin classes started, I changed and bought something light to munch on.

"Hello there, Ansel," said Johnston, seating himself beside me again. "Excited about who will be your partner?"

"Not exactly," I said. "And why are you so excited about it anyway? Wouldn't it be embarrassing to draw a guy for your partner instead of a girl?"

Johnston looked at me through confused eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, it's not for certain your partner will be a girl, right? Just warning you, but don't get your hopes up, alright?"

Now Johnston looked more confused than ever. "Oh dear, I guess Ralph didn't make it quite clear about how we pick our partners."

"What do you mean?"

"We have thirty students in the classroom and it's divided equally into girls and guys. Ms Emily separates our names into two boxes then let's us choose one by one, excluding whichever names are taken in each round. So whoever us guys choose, it'll be a girl and whoever the girls choose, they'll get a guy."

My jaw dropped a whole 8 centimeters. So much for hoping.

"Alright, everyone, since our numbers are even again, here are the boxes to determine your partners for the week," said Ms Emily then, walking into the classroom, holding two boxes on one hand and her cane on the other. She placed the two boxes on the tables and drew her name list out. She said, "When I call your names, come out front and pick your partner. We'll start with Andrew."

Andrew Wilk went up and put his hand into the box. I could see he was praying hard because he had shut his eyes tight. He finally took his hand out and passed the small piece of paper to Emily, who took it and started feeling it, her sunglasses slipping down to her nose.

"Andrew's partner for this week is... Mary Evans," said Ms Emily. "I hope the both of you will get along and finish your assignments on time. I want everyone to get good evaluation marks this time."

"Evaluation marks?" I asked.

"We get evaluated on our results at the end of the week to see if we're doing better or worse. So far, we haven't gotten good marks throughout the class," Johnston said.

"Why?"

"One problematic student. She's such a quiet girl that no one can make her talk," he explained. "She's only spoken to Ms Emily and Janet before. Directly, I mean. We've heard her voice, but that's as far as we got."

"So... she's shy?"

"Hell no. She's not shy, she's quiet. There's a difference. It's just that given a chance, she'd rather not talk."

"Angela Taylor, you're up."

The girl named Angela went up and picked another name.

"Ralph Kian."

Being only two seats from me, I heard Ralph utter, "Damn it", low enough for Ms Emily to miss.

"Anneliese Sanders," Ms Emily called again. "Quinn Lawrence is your partner."

"Come to think of it," I said then, "Why is it we need partners of the opposite gender?"

"To get rid of any barriers between the male and female population but obviously, it's not working. We only ever mix with guys and they only ever hang out with girls," said Johnston.

"Ansel Saint James, if you will please," I heard my name then.

"Here goes nothing," I said, getting up. "Wish me luck," I nudged John, who nodded back. I walked up to Ms Emily's table and breathed in, bracing myself.

"Stick your hand in, James, and choose the first piece of paper you touch," said Ms Emily.

"And the girl whose name is written on it will be my partner, right?" I asked.

"I see your friends have already told you about our weekly activity. Yes, that's what happens."

Out of the corner of my line of vision, I made out most of the girls to be crossing their fingers. Without even realizing it, though, I found myself praying to draw Janet's name, because she was one of those who weren't crossing her fingers.

I reached into the box, did as Ms Emily had instructed me to do and took the first paper my hand came into contact with. I handed it to Ms Emily and she felt around it with her hands. She gave an impression of slight shock, as if she can't believe what was written down.

"Well, Mr Saint James, your partner for this week is..."