"Damn, that guy has to be the smoothest man on this planet," Ethan commented, slightly impressed. "He's good at football, he's good at trigonometry, he's good at flirting and he's good-looking. He's a whole triple threat, I might as well turn gay for him."

He then paused once he'd realized that he'd listed out four things then had proceeded to refer to Alexander as a 'triple' threat and quickly tried to save his arse by correcting himself, "I mean.. fourple threat."

I gave him a judgemental look before proceeding to shuffle through the pages of the guide that Alexander had lent me - and unsurprisingly, I still couldn't understand a single word. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating. I did find it easier to comprehend the questions and the steps to solving the answers, but I still couldn't solve them by myself. For example, if the answer was supposed to be a hundred and ten degrees, I'd get a negative million degrees instead.

"You're really stupid," Ethan remarked out of the blue. "It's been a whole week and you still can't understand the most basic questions. Even I would've mastered it by now."

"Shut up. Einstein wants what I have," I retorted. "Anyway, have you heard from Barbie at all? She's been ignoring me for some reason."

"Really? She's been avoiding me as well. I thought I was the only one," he shrugged in response. "I did see her hanging out with Alexandria though."

"That's strange, she told me that Alexandria wanted to speak to me but she hasn't even glanced at me for the entire day," I responded with a sigh. At first I'd assumed that she was probably unaware of what I looked like, however that was near impossible since I was the freaking soda-boy, for crying out loud.

"I told you that she's been acting strange," he replied with a quiet hum. "I'll try talking to her about it later. Also, Hailey texted me earlier today. She wanted me to meet her during recess and she asked me to bring you with me. Are you up for it?"

"Sure, did she say why?" I questioned in confusion.

"No, she didn't."

I gave him a blunt nod before pressing my forehead up against the desk in frustration, "I can't solve this damn equation."

"Then go ask Alexander, I'll go chill with Austin," Ethan said, waving me off before standing up and making his way over to the back of the classroom where Austin was seated with his friends from the football team. I let out a huff and contemplated whether I should bother Alexander for the hundredth time that week with a trigonometry equation or attempt to solve it by myself. I settled with the latter and tried once again. When I failed once again at my fourteenth attempt at cracking the good-for-nothing equation, I stood up with a groan and began making my way over to where Alexander was seated, textbook in hand.

He had his earphones in and I began to rethink my decision once again. Finally, I decided to grow a pair and tapped him on the shoulder sheepishly. He turned around and pulled one of the buds out of his ear before giving me a questioning look. Then, when he spotted the textbook in my hand, he shook his head in disappointment and patted the empty seat next to him.

I sat down beside him, slightly embarrassed - and placed the guide on the desk and pointed to the question which was giving me a hard time, when in reality, the entire textbook was giving me a hard time.

He began to chew on his lower lip whilst solving the equation in his head, and yet again, my mind began to drift elsewhere. Once again, I heard the music from his earphones and my eyes widened in excitement when I recognized the song.

"Is that Conan Gray? Can I listen too?" I questioned eagerly, giving him a pleading look.

"No, focus on Math," he said, just like he had the first time. I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth in annoyance and leaned back against my seat. His eyebrows were furrowed while he was deep in thought and the scar above his brow caught my interest once again.

"Is that scar from when you fell in the football field?" I questioned out of curiosity.

"Hm? Oh, yeah it is," he responded with a nod. "I was out of it that day on the field because-"

"SHH!" I exclaimed, pressing my palm up against his mouth, attracting a few judgemental looks. He gave me a look of confusion and gently pulled my hand away from his mouth, "Why?"

"I'm not close enough to you for you to tell me all that right now," I began. "You can tell me when you're really ready."

His eyes widened just a little bit after I'd finished, as if he hadn't been expecting that - and then a subtle lopsided grin crawled onto his face and he averted his gaze to the textbook once again, shaking his head.

I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back.

Character development.