I was a woman on a mission.

A very important mission at that.

Remember what I said about going to ask Suzy a certain question? This was it. I had to know something and I wasn't waiting.

"Amelia, dinner's ready."

Bummer, I guess I was going to file my mission for the next day.

I walked into the kitchen where mom was already sitting waiting. Two bowls of chicken soup on either side of the table and quite a smug look on her face as she looked at something on her phone.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, there you are. I'm okay." She placed her phone on top of the table but not without making sure the screen faced down. Hiding whatever it was that gave her the smug look.

"How did the school go today, with you not being able to write and all?"

"I was listening really, really closely." I pulled my chair and sit down. "You know if you understand you don't really need notes. But Suzy promised to give me some of hers for studying."

"God bless her."

Mom and I lapsed into a comfortable silence as we dig into our bowls of soup. I could see each time I looked at her she wanted to peep into her phone from the way her eyes kept on dashing towards it, but every time she would stop herself and trade it for another spoonful of soup.

So, mom was hiding something. Interesting.

"Hey, mom. I'm gonna go see Margaret this weekend, and maybe I'll spend the Saturday there and come back on Sunday. Is that okay with you?" I asked. "Dad texted me and said she missed me."

She considered this for a second, and I found myself wondering if it was too early to be telling her about wanting to go to his house especially after the news I gave her.

"Of course." She smiled then. Like she was trying to reassure me it was okay. "I don't see why not."

Remind me to teach everybody never to separate, or divorce or whatever, since kids get it the hardest.

I smiled back. I didn't want to continue that dreaded conversation anyway so, I opted for a much lighter conversation with her until it was time to go to sleep. Something I was looking forward to by the way.

*****

I found Suzy standing near her locker and my filed mission was unfiled straight away.

"How come I never noticed Leo or Logan before?"

"Morning to you too sunshine. That eager, huh?"

She raised her eyebrow. Crap. I couldn't believe I hadn't even said hello.

"No, I'm not. Eager I mean." My cheeks colored. "Good morning."

"Well, to answer your question, you haven't noticed them before because they are science students. They don't study in the same classes as we do. They may not seem like it, but they are smart, like really smart." She explained as she tried to fix her auburn hair.

"Oh?" I raised my brows.

"It's very rare for them to come to study in our classes, but it happens sometimes. I think it's one of those occasional times when we all have similar topics to be taught; their teacher's just ship them off to our classes." She turned around, facing me completely.

"That makes sense, I guess," I mumbled.

"Which reminds me, we are going to start sitting with the boys at lunch break from now on."

I blinked; my jaw hung open for a moment. That was not the kind of news I expected to hear. Not this fast anyway.

"What? Why? I mean, I very much like sitting at my table, thank you very much."

"Well, think of it this way." She adjusted the hem of her tight purple top. "How else are you going to get to know the guys? Bye, see you later."

"You did this, didn't you?"

She just winked and left me standing there, glaring at her retreating back.

I didn't know what to think. I knew I was nervous though. I mean, who wouldn't be? But the fact I at least knew Luke very well, calmed me a bit. And Leo seemed friendly and funny. Logan--well, I didn't know what to think about him. But maybe that was my chance of making new friends.

*****

My heart hammered harder and harder, the closer we got to the lunch break. By the time the final bell rang, I was a nervous wreck. Sucking up a deep breath to calm my erratic pulses, I managed to maneuver my way to the cafeteria, which was already packed full of students. I went and got myself a chicken sandwich, then started looking around, trying to spot where the boys were sitting.

"Hey! Amelia, over here." I heard my name being called through the students chattering. I craned my neck and stood on my toes to try and get a little more height. Finally, I saw Suzy waving her hands to get my attention.

"Hey," I said to everybody once I reached the table.

"Hey, Amelia," Leo greeted. "You look good. Come on, have a seat right here." He patted the empty seat next to him. "We would like to hear your opinion on this one."

My eyes roamed around everyone first before I placed my food on top of the table and sat down.

"We were discussing sex," he casually said as if he was discussing the weather. "What do you think? Would you prefer to have sex with someone who is not that good looking, but super experienced?" He pointed his forefinger up indicating number one. "Or, a super-hot guy, but a newbie at sex?" He looked at me eagerly.

The bluntness of that question, got my eyes to widen. Never in my life had thoughts of sex ever crossed my mind, much less which partner would be better. A blush crept on my cheeks and for reasons beyond me, I sneaked a look at Logan.

Our eyes locked and he winked. He winked. Goddammit! Did I mention apart from winking, he seemed interested in my answer? Well, he was.

"Um." I swallowed. "I...uh." My eyes dashed everywhere else, but Leo. Or anybody really. "I don't know. I'm not sure."

"What?" Leo creased his brows and looked around as if to see whether everybody else found my answer as weird. "What do you mean you don't know? everybody knows what they prefer."

My blush intensified tenfold. I sat there, unsure of how to answer his awaiting question. My traitorous eyes once again glanced towards Logan and found him still looking at me. Only this time, he seems to have moved closer, and his eyes narrowed.

"Well, I uh..." I looked at my said best friend who thrust me into this sitting arrangement for some sort of help or rescue or something only to find her eyes crinkling in quiet laughter. Luke, beside her on the other hand, looked at me like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to hear my answer or not

"I'll be damned."

Logan's voice interrupted before he moved his upper body closer to the desk and crossed his hands on top of it. His eyes roamed around my face for a few seconds before he chuckled and moved back, relaxing on his chair.

"What?" Both Luke and Leo asked.

"Nothing," he slowly said before his lips pulled to the side in a smirk. "Just a discovery. Nothing for you to worry about."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Okay, this is taking too long, should we have lunch outside of school tomorrow?" Asked Suzy. "I am so tired of the same old school food." Turning towards Luke, she pouted. "Please, please. I can't take it anymore with this food."

"Uh, I'm not sure about that, babe," Luke answered before he planted a kiss on the side of her head. "Let's just see how tomorrow goes, yeah?"

She let out a huff. "Okay, if you say so." Turning to me, she asked, "Amelia, will you go?"

"Can't. I'm sorry I have a biology workshop right after lunch."

"Amelia, can you help me with your phone?" I turned my face around to see Logan looking at me with his hand raised toward me.

"Err, okay?" I drew my eyebrows together at his odd request but found myself digging inside my school bag nonetheless to get the phone and passed it to his still waiting hand.

You know the moment when not only you but everybody else around you start wondering what in the heck is going on and because of that, you find yourselves quiet just running your eyes on each other?

The situation was some sort of that.

Logan was someone you know you want to stay away from. Someone you know is not a good idea for anything but then at the same time, you find yourself doing whatever it is he's asking you to do.

Exhibit A: Giving out my phone to him even though I'm not sure I really wanted to.

He busied himself with my phone for a while, his eyebrows furrowing and arching from time to time and when he looked back at me, I swear I gulped.

See?

The look was something that made me feel like he found something on my phone he wasn't supposed to find even though I knew there was literally nothing to be found. When he extended his hand to me with my phone on it, I snatched it away from him, a little too late but oh, well.

Wanting to know what he was doing with my phone, I decided to investigate. At first, nothing really stood out. Of course, that was until I checked my call logs. There bright as a day, his contact information stared back at me like a hawk.

I blinked.

With the confusion still evident in my face, I looked at him, him who looked back at me. Nothing but a blank expression on his face, causing me to look back down on my phone. If anything, his expression made me doubt my own eyes and for a second, just a second wondered if I was just seeing things only for the reality of the contact to say 'nope, you aren't seeing things girly.'

"Did you just give me your number?"

I didn't want to ask that out loud but I couldn't hold my tongue.

"Yes," he said. Without offering anything else, he fished out his own phone from his pocket and busied himself with it.

"Err, okay... why?" I couldn't help but ask. Of all the people sitting there, he was the last person I ever thought I would have their number. Much less him giving it to me himself.

He looked up from his phone and creased his brows. "What do you mean, why?"

"Err." My eyes dashed around the table.

"We are all friends here. Right?"

The way he cocked his head to the side as his piercing eyes watched me, clearly left no room for any other answer than yes.

"So then, I figured you should have my number, just in case of anything. And I took yours FYI."

I blinked and swallowed while he resumed his conversation with Leo. Ignoring me completely.

Luke and Suzy looked between me and Logan but thank God didn't add anything to an already weird conversation and when the bell rung, signaling the end of the lunch break I felt like I could breathe again.