I reacted immediately, jerking away from the voice. Unfortunately I forgot that my left hand was busy stirring the bubbling solution with a glass rod, and as I moved the beaker got knocked off the tripod stand - I know what's a tripod stand! - hit the table and rolled over to the floor, crashing into a dozen pieces.

But I was unharmed. The hot liquid didn't splatter onto my skin nor my clothes, simply because the second the beaker had fallen over, a pair of strong arms had gripped my shoulders and pulled me back. Straight to his chest.

His warm breath tickled my ear. "You're a clumsy one, aren't you?" he murmured.

"And you're a crazy stalker, aren't you?" I shot back, exasperated. I heard his quiet chuckle.

"What's going on here?" Mrs Smith, my Chemistry teacher pushed through the gaping audience. She crossed her arms and her eyes narrowed.

"Mr Hood. I should have known you had some part in this. What are you doing in my class, may I ask? I doubt you're here to pass up that project due last Friday."

"There was a project due last Friday?" I had a feeling it was a genuine question, accompanied with a raised eyebrow.

"Enough Mr Hood." She gestured at the mess. "Explain please."

Kaylan stepped out from behind me. He was wearing a black biker jacket today, the sleeves rolled up to expose the length of his arms, as well as the raised veins trailing his skin. A girl nearby looked ready to swoon as he moved past her.

"It was my fault, Mrs Smith. I came up from behind and surprised her. I'll clean up the mess."

I could hear the murmurings starting again. A guy actually had his phone out, recording, and I heard him whisper to his friend, "Man, wait till Brandy sees this."

I pushed my way to the front. As much as I'd love for hot demigod to be my knight in shining armour, I couldn't have that, regretfully. I didn't need his help, didn't need the attention, and definitely didn't like the fact that I had no clue as to the motive behind his actions.

"Actually it was my fault, Mrs Smith. I was careless." My voice was firm and tinged with slight irritation as I looked at Kaylan. "I can clean up the mess myself. Mr Hood" - I made sure I emphasized his name - "can just go back to whatever class he has now."

Somebody snorted. "It's Kaylan Hood. Since when did he go to class?" Seriously? Weren't you the same person who said the same thing at the gym the other day? And aren't those the same people laughing?

There was a hiss and a girl gave a little scream. She had been so fixated on Kaylan's sudden appearance that she had forgotten all about her own experiment, which was now foaming all over the place.

Mrs Smith hurried over, but not before calling over her shoulder at us. "You two! Clean up the mess!"

I grabbed a cloth nearby and gingerly began to wipe up the liquid on the table. There was broken glass everywhere, and as I went to pick one up a hand stopped me.

"Don't even think about it." He grabbed a cloth of his own and started picking up the shards, placing them in a small pile on the table.

I wrenched my hand away. "I don't need your help," I said icily.

He crouched down and attended to the glass on the floor. "I don't think you have a choice, apple pie."

Someone overheard us and started squealing to her friend about it. I turned back to him.

"You know what? You can call me Hayley. Or better yet, don't call me anything at all."

"Ah well. Too late. I kinda like apple pie." His voice was light. All this while he kept his eyes on the glass, not once looking at me.

"What does that even mean?" I muttered to myself, as I crouched down to wipe the mess on the floor.

It was a heartbeat before I realized he was looking at me.

"You don't know what's an apple pie?" The lightness was gone from his voice now, and there was something akin to hardness in his eyes.

Well no Mr Hood, I've spent seventeen years locked up in a manor, with a staple diet that mostly consisted of bread, meat and vegetables. I've never tasted fast food nor any kind of dessert in my life -

I paused. The last part wasn't really true. But the rest was. My meals were given only to satiate my hunger, and not for enjoyment.

His jaw was clenched again and I looked at it for a long moment. He has that habit too.

I looked back down on the mess and resumed wiping. "It's hardly in the Pambrooke syllabus now is it?" I commented drily.

Silence. He looked away and continued picking up the glass. I exhaled, feeling the slightest hints of frustration creeping in.

"What on earth do you want?" I demanded. "And I don't mean that damn car."

"Right now I want you to help wipe the liquid on the floor. I'll handle the glass." The light air was back in his voice again.

He was being deliberately dense. My eyes narrowed and I pressed my lips tight. In Blackcroft I would have straight away called him out. Challenged him to a fight. Something along the lines of if you win then you can continue on as you please.

For the moment though, I ignored him and cleaned up the mess. He said nothing and I said nothing, the frosty silence hanging between us. He seemed rather unperturbed by it, his movements casual, the muscles clearly defined underneath his tight shirt.

After we were done he stood up, giving a panther-like stretch.

"I'll be going then. See you around, Mrs Smith." He turned back to me, his blue eyes meeting mine, a trace of devilish amusement in his eyes.

Don't. You. Dare.

Out loud, he announced for the whole class to hear, all the while making it a point to look right at me,

"See you too, apple pie." And I watched as the sentence "He calls her apple pie!" got transmitted along the length of the classroom faster than Korosensei can fly to the moon and back.

Oh he is in so much trouble.

*

Lunch was with Leila again. Roxy came up and sniffed at me, a suspicious look on her face. With a leg propped up on the chair and a hand resting on her knee, she leaned forward and asked, "Since when were you dating the bad boy?"

Oh for Christ's sake, I swear if I hear one more -

Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down -

Oh yeah sure. Side with your friend.

........fine. Fine. I'll be calm. I'll calm down.

I willed myself not to snap. "I am not dating him, nor am I dating anyone, and I would quite appreciate it if the lies stop circulating," I managed to ground out through my teeth.

See? I'm calm. Perfectly calm.

Roxy shrugged. "You sure about that, hon? What happened in Chemistry is going around like a wildfire and I'm telling you, Queen Bee ain't looking like a Happy Meal."

"Well I don't live to please her."

"But you should probably not get on her bad side."

"I didn't ask for this in case you were wondering." This whole thing is becoming increasingly annoying.

"Hello lovely ladies!" Emrys bounded up and bowed deeply, with much flair. I didn't miss the glare Roxy shot his way.

"Not another effing one," she spat, and left.

Emrys looked puzzled. "What does she mean not another one? I am the only one!"

I leaned in close to Leila. "Is it just me or does Roxy have a very big grudge against all guys?"

Leila's voice was low. "Roxy doesn't like guys. Not in that sense, but like how you don't like cockroaches. Or beetroot. She just doesn't like the opposite sex in general. She told me once that they were only good for - uh, reproduction."

Sounds like something all the Blackcroft men would agree on - if you switched the two genders around.

"Hayley," said Emrys, sitting down. He shook his head, looking at me with sad puppy eyes. "Hayley Hayley Hayley. I cannot believe you lied to me. You broke my trust!"

"What?"

He dug out his phone, a flashy looking model that seemed to be the latest Samsung. Rich kid, Leila mouthed at me. Emrys swiped at the screen for a few seconds and showed me a video.

I will be calm......

"Now that's efficiency for you," I said, taking a bite of - what was that name? Ah, spaghetti. "We need people like them in government offices."

"What is it?" Leila looked. "Oooh, it's a trending Facebook video!"

Emrys looked at me, his eyes filled with hurt and sorrow. "And here I was thinking we were friends. Yet you lied to me about being Kaylan's girlfriend......"

I sighed. "I'm so sorry. I guess I should just tell you the truth, huh?"

He placed a fist over his heart. "You can depend on me, my sister from another mother."

"Well here's the thing. I didn't want to tell anyone because it was kind of embarrassing - for Kaylan that is." I hushed my voice. "You see.....what we have here is a classic one-sided love." Ha. Take that, Mr Hood.

Emrys' eyebrow flew sky-high. "Kaylan Hood is in a one-sided love?"

I nodded. "That's right. But shush, let's not tell anyone. Let bad boy keep his pride."

"Ah, I see. Got it." He mimed zipping his mouth close. "By the way, Mr Michael wants to see us."

I had been waiting for this. I frowned, the perfect picture of puzzlement. "Why?"

"Something about two troublemakers breaking into the storeroom. And you were the last one with the keys. You did put them back on his table right?"

Nawp. "Yeah I did."

"I smell trouble," sang Leila.

"Does he want to see us now?"

"He said during lunch."

I got up, feeling the jagged metal in my pocket. "Well come on then, let's go."

Emrys got up, and very elegantly gestured with his hands for me to go first, as if I was the Queen. I rolled my eyes and he winked. I managed not to duck and crouch under the nearest table. Relax, he's just flirting.......Never mind, that was as bad as the other meaning.

We had walked away from the table, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a sun-kissed, wonderfully tanned, beautiful long leg shoot out below, at my right. I sidestepped it easily so it didn't catch me, but caught Emrys instead. He gave a most inelegant yelp and went down.

"Oww," he complained, looking almost dazed - I think he hit his head a bit.

Brandy looked mortified, though there was a nasty gleam in her eye. "Oh dear me. So sorry." The two girls standing beside her snickered.

Today Miss Queen Bee was dressed in a tank top and cardigan, complete with a red pleated skirt that had every hot-blooded male looking and that I was pretty sure violated the dress code. Not to mention those black boots with silver buckles, along with the pointed heels that looked ready to murder.

Now she looked at me. "So - Hayley." The way she said my name spoke volumes. "Making quite a splash already are we?" Her voice was airy, but she had a viper's smile on her face.

I remained polite. Stay in the middle. Don't go the extremes.

"Yeah well, everyone's saying that." I tried a laugh that I hoped wasn't as fake and irritated as it sounded like to my ears. "They seem to think that there's something going on between - Mr Hood and I, when there's really nothing. I should know."

Brandy's eyes twitched and her voice grew soft in a dangerous way. "That's good. I'm really glad to hear that. It's not nice to be labelled a boyfriend stealer you know. Or a slut."

I will be calm.....

I opened my mouth, about to announce a curt farewell with the excuse of having to see Mr Michael, when Emrys piped up from the floor.

"Seriously Brandy, you don't have to worry about Hayley liking Kaylan." He got up and dusted himself off. With the same chatty and everyday tone he continued,

"Hayley already told me that it's all one-sided."

See? See Watson? And don't think you're not to blame too O Mighty Sherlock. This is what happens when I calm down. If I had exploded my fuse just now and snapped at Emrys saying there was no such thing, Brandy wouldn't be looking like me like - well, like that.

Miss Queen Bee's eyes had darkened with an air of menace. I could hear one of the girls saying, "Oh snap." The entire cafeteria was looking at me - again.

Her voice was silky and way too calm. "So you're telling me, that Kaylan picked her, over me, even though he knew she wasn't going to like him back?"

That's it. Sherlock, Watson, I'm done taking the both of your advice, thank you very much.

Emrys put on a thoughtful expression and nodded. "Well yeah, something like that." He looked at me, all cheerful and utterly oblivious. "Right Hayley?"

Times like these I really don't understand why men are deemed the more superior species. I grabbed Emrys' hand, shot Brandy a forced apologetic smile and high-tailed it out of there. Ignoring his protests I pulled him down the corridor until the cafeteria was no longer in sight.

"Oww," he said as I let him go. "What was that for? I'm just repeating what you said!"

"You - " I broke off, sighing. No points for explaining anyway. "Never mind. Where's Mr Michael?"

*

Acting innocent and unknowing was easy, especially when I happened to find the key on the floor.

Yes sir, I put the key right back after detention. No sir, I have no idea who the culprits may be. Oh look sir, there's the key right there! I bent down and picked it up. The key was peeking out from under the couch, which happened to be almost directly opposite the door. With a most Sherlockian air I proceeded to lay out my deductions.

"You see sir, they came in and took the key from your table. Then after they wrecked the storeroom they ran past in the corridor outside......but had no time to enter and put the key back. So they just slid it in underneath the door, and it came to a stop under your couch."

Mr Michael was relieved enough to get the key back that he didn't question us any longer. We - or should I say I - escaped scot-free.

Back home, I went on the Internet and pulled up a map of the town. Then I searched for "tall East Indian tree" and went straight to Wikipedia.

There are over 150 species of timber which are produced in India..........Well that didn't sound good. With a heavy sigh I started writing down all the names, ruling out those that were specified to only grow in Central India or North India. At the end I had a list of about 34 names. That isn't so bad. And then I saw, at the bottom, in tiny lettering

Well wasn't that flippin' fantastic. I sighed even heavier than before, before comparing the names of the trees to the name of every single building I saw on the town map. I didn't even know if it was a bank or a shop or - or a gym. OpenAl Gym. Would OpenAl be a kind of tree by any chance? No? Really?

As the time passed my eyes got heavier and heavier, and I started slumping all the way forward on my table. I was resisting the urge to yawn and was wondering if I should go to sleep. I did have school tomorrow.

It was almost eleven o'clock when I found it.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

How many of you missed Kaylan? *waves hand in air wildly* I know I did ;P

Anyhoo, this chapter is dedicated to -Lxyshx- for being always so amazingly ENTHUSIASTIC. Yes sir, your enthusiasm is so epic it has to be CAPITALIZED. Thanks for all the votes and the ENTHUSIASTIC comments, XD. YOU ARE AWESOME!

Oh and highest ranked #165 in action???

EEEEEEKKKKK~~~~~