Chapter Eight - Quintessential Horrors of Magnifying Glass

I entered the classroom and offered Mr. Jensen a pitiful smile as a greeting. He did not return it, only nodded at me. In fact, I could've sworn he looked on the verge of rolling his eyes.

To my annoyance, Matt was already there, sitting—no, apparently lounging—in the second last row with his arms sprawled across the table and fingers steepled together like he had gotten used to this already. Like sitting through detention wasn't a big deal anymore. He saw me enter, scowled, grunted as I could tell by the movement of his lips and only snapped his eyes away because he had to snatch his phone off the table when its screen lit up.

"I gave a very good review last time and you both still managed to come back here." Mr. Jensen sighed, eyes shifting between us languidly. "But before you start faking any pretenses again, I'll have you know that I'll be giving a good review today as well. So, feel free to sit as far away from each other as possible and keep your interactions to the minimum."

My surprised smile couldn't get any bigger. "You're an angel, Mr. Jensen. Thank you so much."

I sat down in the front row, farthest possible from all that vileness my enemy exuded, and pulled out my math work. I could use the time to finish my homework now that I didn't have someone's abhorrent company being imposed on me.

I rolled the pen between my fingers while figuring out my math problem, too engrossed to mark someone's arrival until I heard loud and fast footsteps right outside the classroom.

"I'm so sorry. I'm late." Chad appeared in the doorway, out of breath. His messy golden curls were swept across his forehead and he quickly ran a hand through them to push them back. I always associated his appearance with Ken doll for some reason, even though it was nowhere close.

"That's okay. Please settle down." The teacher nodded while glancing down at his watch.

Blowing out a quick breath, he meandered inside and the moment his eyes fell on me, he did a double take and a big smile stretched across his lips. "Becks? Hey!"

"Hi, Chad."

"What's a good girl like you doing here in detention?" he asked, then his eyes went further and located Matt. "Hey, bud."

I looked back just in time to see my enemy give Chad a two-finger wave for a hi, no smile, and went back to his phone.

"Sometimes good people get in trouble because of bad people." I smiled back at my enemy sarcastically. He obviously ignored that.

"Oh." Chad looked between us, nodding slightly as if recalling our coffeeshop encounter. Then he started making his way to the benches and stopped right next to the one I was occupying and his smile was back. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"Of course not." I scooted over to make space for him.

He quickly settled next to me and propped his backpack in front of him on the desk. "What are you studying?"

"Math."

"Mind tutoring me on this one?" He tapped a finger at the solved problem in my notebook. "I couldn't quite get the hang of it because of football practice."

"Me?" I chuckled, recalling how it had taken me ten minutes to solve it in class and I wasn't even sure if it was right yet. "Trust me, I'm the last person you want to tutor you at math. I suck."

He placed his elbow on the table and propped the side of his head on his palm. "I do not believe that at all, Becks."

I struggled to come up with something because he was looking at me like a fanboy, or more precisely, like an adorable puppy and I suddenly remembered Meera mentioning that he had a thing for me.

I let out a chuckle. "You should, if you don't wanna fail."

"If I fail after you teach me, it's on me." He placed a hand over his chest. "I wasn't a good student. I clearly wasn't paying any attention because I was too distracted by your face."

My first thought was that he was insulting me and calling me ugly but then I remembered not every guy was like my enemy. Not everyone always had only mean things to say. Talk about trauma.

Looking at the twinkle of appreciation in Chad's eyes, a smile formed on my lips and I shook my head slightly, looking down at my notebook to hide a blush. Okay, yes, I was into Sean but I couldn't stop myself from being flattered by a guy's compliment.

"Fine. I'll teach you but you seriously can't blame me if you flunk this."

"I would never." He traced a cross over his heart with his index finger and shook his head dramatically with wide eyes.

"Okay then."

For the next twenty minutes or so, I taught him everything I could and he was quite good at picking up, so good that he even figured out a tough one and helped me solve a few problems. Not suspicious at all.

"You're a genius." He finally shut his notebook. "I never thought I'd be able to solve them so easily."

"Honestly, neither did I," I admitted, eyes narrowing with playful suspicion. "I think you knew how to solve these problems all along since you figured the solutions so quickly for both of us."

"Nope. It was all you." He winked.

"Oh my God, Chad. Shut up." I burst out laughing.

He chuckled. "Fine. I knew it already but not all of it, okay? You helped me a lot."

"I'm pretty sure you helped me more so thanks."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Matt rise out of his seat and walk up ahead, moving right past our bench while pretending we didn't exist. Obviously, I wasn't expecting an acknowledgement but he was good with Chad, right? Or not? I didn't know.

Mr. Jensen lifted his head from the book he was peacefully reading. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Time's up," he replied, flashing his phone at the teacher.

"Oh." Mr. Jensen looked down at his watch, then nodded.

"Wow," I muttered, smiling at Chad. "I don't even know how time went by so quickly. So much better than my last detention."

"I bet." He smirked, eyes averting to Matt as he asked me, "do you smell something burning, Becks?"

My enemy, who was almost out of the classroom, stopped in his tracks and slowly turned, fixing Chad with a glare as his eyes narrowed dangerously and he demanded, "What did you say?"

"I said something's burni—"

"Oh my God!" Mr. Jensen jumped out of his seat, startling me. My gaze snapped in his direction and just as he sprinted around his desk with urgency, I noticed the fumes rising in the air from behind it. Chad and I jumped to our feet, curiosity getting the best of us as we stepped closer to the desk instead of hauling ass out of the classroom over the teacher's panic.

A bunch of papers had caught fire and it was slowly growing by the second.

But how did that happen?

I noticed the tilted magnifying glass that had the sun rays through the window falling on it. It was leaning against his glasses case. I also noticed a box of eyedrops with unbelievably tiny words on the pack. No wonder he needed a magnifying glass to read it. Damn the eyedrop company for almost lighting our classroom on fire.

"Shit." Chad quickly grabbed his bag from the desk and took my hand. "Let's get out."

"Relax. It's just a small fire."

"NO!" Mr. Jensen practically screamed. "Call 911. Somebody call 911. Get out of the class, kids."

"Relax, Mr. Jensen." I stepped forward, holding back a laugh. It wasn't even a full-fledged fire yet; it was as tiny as a candle flame but if we left it alone and decided to wait for help, it could definitely engulf the entire school or at least this classroom in its flames.

"Becks, what are you doing?" Chad panicked as I stepped up to it and smacked the magnifying glass flat on the table first, killing the source.

Then I fished out my history notebook, since it was mostly full of doodles, and started patting at the fire with it to put it out.

"Oh shit oh shit!" Mr. Jensen was hyperventilating as one of his hands lifted over to his heart. "If the principal finds out about this again..."

I wondered how many times he'd almost lit the school on fire. And was it always the magnifying glass?

I turned to Chad, feeling a film of sweat forming on my forehead from the fire that was very close to gobbling the entire set of papers now. "I've got this. Can you make sure he's alrigh—ow!" I flinched when my finger came in contact with the heat and if I hadn't pulled back right away, I would've definitely burned it.

"Oh my God, Rebekah! Move back." Chad hollered and just as he put his hands on my shoulders to drag me back, a loud spraying sound startled us all.

And before I knew it, my hands were covered in a white frothy liquid.

Our heads snapped sideways to find Matt drawing closer with a fire extinguisher, holding the nozzle towards the fire and attacking it until it was completely out, the only remains of it being the burnt papers coated with white. Then he set down the giant thing as smoothly as he was operating it like it weighed nothing and turned to us, eyes shifting down to my hands for a very fleeting moment.

Here comes the gloat, I bet.

"Oh, thank God!" Mr. Jensen let out a breath and sat down on the bench that Chad and I were occupying earlier, took off his glasses and began rubbing his eyes in exhaustion.

"Are you okay?" Chad asked me and I could only nod in response, not taking my glare off a particular someone.

As if he could feel it, Matt's eyes fell on me and I realized I'd been watching him relentlessly ever since he'd put the fire out, feeling a whole new fire of rage burning inside me.

He raised a brow smugly, finally saying, "if you can't think of a better way to do something, leave it to someone smarter than you."

Letting out a breath, I smacked my hands free of the liquid, watching my dirty clothes before setting my eyes back on him. He'd doused me on purpose, hadn't he?

Swallowing my anger, I started to walk out but since he was blocking the way to the door, I stopped right next to him. "I had it under control. Now get out of my way."

I did not wait for him to move aside as I half squeezed and half shoved past him to walk out of the classroom.

When I reached the empty bathroom and saw my reflection in the mirror, a lump formed in my throat and a single tear rolled down my cheek. I wasn't a weak little girl who cried at some minor inconvenience but the past five minutes had been a rollercoaster and the tears were more out of frustration than anything.

I was looking like a mess. My enemy had taken advantage of the situation to get the better of me and I had lost. My clothes were a mess. My finger was hurting. I was thankful for the fire extinguisher, don't get me wrong. The heat had been getting stronger and I probably would've hurt myself more if it hadn't been for him. So, the fact that my enemy had unknowingly helped me again was already making me feel a little better.

But I couldn't let go of the fact that he'd somehow won.

Shaking my head, I looked at myself in the mirror and patted my cheeks. "You're a strong girl, Becks. Now get it together."

He had his win today. You'll have yours tomorrow. For sure.

Without a further thought and with the realization that I missed my bed a little too much and couldn't wait to be home, I walked out of the bathroom.

I almost started heading for the classroom but something in the hallway caught my attention. My backpack and half burnt notebook were lying right beside the bathroom door. And on top of them, there was an ice pack.

I frowned. Who could have done that?

Oh my God! Could it be—

Nope. Don't even think about it, Becks. You're just gonna end up feeling like an idiot. If he could get away with it, he'd probably throw you in the fire and watch you burn with a smile.

With a deep breath, I threw my notebook in the trash, swung my backpack across my shoulders and pressed the ice pack to my fingers for a few seconds before walking out of the building.

I saw his car before I saw him.

He was tossing his backpack in the backseat when his eyes landed on me and my anger instantly returned. I watched as he shut the door without breaking eye contact and stepped forward to the driver's side but did not open it yet.

If he walks up to me to throw more insults after the kind of day I'd had, I will literally throw hands.

My eyes narrowed, hoping it would somehow deliver the message to him to stay the fuck away from me. After a moment, I turned on my heel and started walking. And even before I'd made it a few feet, a car's horn behind me startled me. A sleek silver car pulled up next to me, thankfully blocking the unpleasant view of my enemy on the side.

The window rolled down and revealed Chad. "Becks, are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good you found that." He pointed to the ice pack in my hands and I sighed in relief. Chad had been the one to put it there along with my stuff. "Is your hand good?"

"Yeah. Thanks." I nodded gratefully.

"Great." He looked around the parking lot. "Where's your car?"

"I don't have a car. I can't drive."

"Then how are you going home?" He frowned.

"I was just about to walk."

"What? No way. Get in. I'll drop you."

"Oh no it's fine. Trust me, I've walked home before."

"Sure you have but today's just not your day, is it?"

"It hasn't been my day for a while now." I sighed.

A little smile formed on his lips as he leaned over to the passenger side and pushed the door open for me. "Come on."

"Are you sure? My clothes are dirty."

"Oh, just get in already. You're practically a hero and heroes get their clothes dirty all the time."

I chuckled, finally getting in and putting on my seatbelt. That's when I got a view of the other side where Matt was before but now his car was gone.

"Heroes don't lose focus and get their finger burnt like that," I pointed out, bringing my attention back to Chad.

"The way I see it, you were so worried about Mr. Jensen, you completely forgot about yourself. You're my hero, Becks. You saved the school from burning down."

I scoffed as I leaned back into the seat, sighing after a moment. At least someone thought I was useful.

"If you say so, Chad." I smiled.

Hey guys!

I'm sorry about the slight delay in updating this chapter. I was kinda caught up with life and I'd also started reading a book so I got distracted. 🫣

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