"𝑇𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑."
—𝐺𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑐𝐷𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑑

𝒩.

"𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐖𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍 a new unit," announced Grace with a joyous smile. Her eyes shifted from student to student as she stepped towards the chalkboard and gestured to the title that she had previously written. "Kinematics!"

"Yay, I love kinematics," Klaus mockingly cheered as he raised a lazy fist into the air. "What's kinematics?"

"I'm glad you asked, dear," chuckled Grace as she walked over towards him and ruffled his hair. "Now, kinematics—make sure to write this down!—focuses on the motion only, without considering the cause."

She paused as the scribbles of pencils sounded, and she waited until most of them were finished before she gave a curt nod.

"Dynamics, on the other hand," she continued, beginning to pace around the room with her hands clasped in front of her, "focuses on those causes of motion. And mechanics is the study of motion and forces."

Natalia furrowed her eyebrows, her eyes squinting as she tried to write her definitions down word-for-word. She knew she'd have to write them neatly as well since Klaus was definitely going to ask for her notes, and he always complained that her writing was illegible.

"Scalar is a mathematical quantity that has a magnitude only." Grace stopped in the middle of the room, placing her hands on her hips as she lifted her eyebrows. "Can someone give me an example of a scalar quantity?"

A couple of hands raised, and Grace nodded to Allison.

"Like . . ." Allison narrowed her eyes before shrugging. "Twenty miles?"

"Exactly!" Grace confirmed with a smile and nod. "And vector is a mathematical quantity that has both direction and magnitude. Can anyone give an example of a vector quantity? Ben?"

Ben glanced up from the note he was writing and offered, "Twenty miles . . . east?"

"Perfect," Grace approved. "Now, position is the distance and direction of an object from a reference point, and it is a vector quantity." She walked up to the board and grabbed a piece of chalk before drawing a symbol: a 'd' with a dash overtop. "This is the symbol you'll use in equations."

Natalia nodded, doing her best to make sure the symbol was as clear as possible as she drew it.

"Displacement is the change in position of an object, and is a vector quantity as well." She drew the same symbol as position, though this time she drew a little triangle in front of it. "Can someone tell me how to get this delta-d?"

Natalia raised her hand, and once Grace had nodded in her direction, she said, "Subtract d-final from d-initial."

"Precisely." Grace nodded, sending her a smile before turning around and scribbling that down. "That is the equation you'll use if you are not immediately given delta-d."

"So many d's," Klaus mumbled before wrinkling his nose. "Pretend I didn't say that."

"Don't worry, Klaus, there are plenty more d's to come," Grace reassured him with a smile.

"Mom . . ." Allison sighed as the others exchanged looks of amusement. "No."

"Anyway" —Grace turned back towards the board— "distance is the total travel of an object, with no concern for direction, and is a scalar quantity." She then drew a d, though only with the triangle and without the dash. "Can someone tell me how to get this delta-d?"

Luther raised his hand. "Subtract absolute d-final from absolute d-initial."

"Wonderful," Grace complimented before writing that equation down next to the symbol. "Now, let's do an example!"

Natalia devotedly followed Grace's every word as she went over the example, keeping her eyes squinted in concentration as her pencil jotted down every number and equation.

"Now," Grace spoke once everyone had put their pencils to rest, "I'd like for you to pair up—one group will have three—and work on the worksheet that I'll hand out."

Whispers broke out as people requested for their partners, and Natalia felt someone poke her shoulder. She looked to see that it had been Ben, who was now putting the pencil he had jabbed her with on his desk, and she gave a nod once he had hushedly asked to be partners.

He took Vanya's spot as Vanya went to sit with Klaus, and both he and Natalia gave a murmur of thanks to their mother as she handed them their worksheet.

"Why'd you wanna partner with me?" Natalia asked lightly as she pulled her calculator out of her pencil case. "You usually go with Klaus."

Ben sighed, rolling his eyes as he glanced over toward Klaus. "He sucks at math and science. Also, he just steals my answers."

"That's true," she agreed. "And Diego does the same, so I'd rather be with you for this."

"Yeah. So . . . while we're on the topic of Diego," Ben began casually as his eyes brushed over the first question of the worksheet.

Natalia's gaze slowly turned from her page to Ben, her eyes narrowing as she questioned, "What about him?"

A smirk appeared on Ben's face, causing Natalia to sigh, and he leaned forward. He glanced towards Diego, who was working with Klaus and Vanya, and whispered, "You like him, don't you?"

Natalia's cheeks began to colour, but she tried to play it cool as she cleared her throat and scoffed, "I like everyone, what are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know that's not what I mean, Nat," Ben replied, rolling his eyes. "You like like him. Or love him. Either or."

"Neither," she corrected, but it seemed as though Ben wasn't convinced as a grin grew on his face.

"It's kinda obvious," he laughed.

"There's nothing to be obvious about, Ben," she said firmly as she turned back to her page and began to write her givens from the question. "I don't have a clue about what you're talking about."

"C'mon, you can trust me," he pleaded, keeping his voice quiet as he leaned toward her. "I'm not like Klaus. I won't tell a single person—especially not Diego."

Natalia put her pencil down, her eyes narrowing as she turned to him and questioned, "Is this why you wanted to be my partner?"

Ben gave her an awkward smile. ". . . No?"

Natalia raised her eyebrows.

He sighed, "It was one of many reasons."

She folded her arms.

"Okay, fine, it's the only reason!" he conceded.

"Ben," she sighed as she unfolded her arms and picked her pencil back up. "There's nothing. I feel no attraction."

That was a straight-up lie. But of course, she didn't tell Ben that.

"Oh, come on," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "There's no way. The way you look at him, how you laugh at his jokes when they're not funny—which is always—and you always want to partner with him—everyone knows!"

"That doesn't mean anything!" she protested quietly, glancing around to make sure no one was listening in. "Diego laughs at my jokes! He always wants to be my partner too! That means nothing!"

This time, Ben raised his eyebrows.

"Wha—no," she scoffed, raising a finger and shaking her head. "I know what you're thinking. He doesn't."

He folded his arms.

"He doesn't!" she insisted, glancing over toward Diego, who had, coincidentally, been glancing back at her at the same time. She felt her cheeks heat up as he sent her a smile, and she quickly returned the favour before turning back to Ben, who was now smirking. "No, Ben."

"I literally just saw that whole exchange," Ben pointed out, gesturing between her and Diego. "If you seriously think he doesn't like you, love you, whatever, you are lying to yourself."

"Why do you even care?" she sighed, rubbing her forehead as she shut her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

"Because you're my friend," he answered, patting her shoulder. "And it's fun to watch you guys turn red whenever we tease you."

"Shut up," she grumbled as she turned back to her page. "Let's just do the work."

"Okay." Ben nodded, though the grin on his face told her that he wasn't finished just yet.

Natalia kept her focus on the questions, her eyebrows furrowing as she quietly muttered to herself and asked Ben a question every now and then. The questions weren't too difficult—it was the beginning of the unit, after all—so it wasn't difficult to both answer the question and think about what Ben had said.

Yeah, she knew that she liked Diego more than the others. A lot more. Hell, she was in love with him—with everything about him; his determination, his competitiveness, the grin he'd always give her, the way his eyes lit up whenever she came into his room . . .

But did he like her?

Maybe. Maybe all those things she listed were indications that he did. Or maybe, those were just indications that she was his best friend.

There was no way, she chided herself. No way that Diego liked her. What about her was special? She wasn't that pretty (though Diego always reminded her otherwise whenever she said so, or whenever she put makeup on), she wasn't that funny (though Diego always laughed at her jokes), she wasn't that fun to be around (though Diego tried to be with her whenever possible), she wasn't—

And it was then that Natalia realized that maybe, just maybe, Ben was right.

But she would never admit that.

She had barely made it past the fourth question when Ben spoke up, "So . . . you gonna do something about it?"

"About what?" she questioned innocently, her eyes remaining on the equation she was currently writing out.

He rolled his eyes. "You know what."

She paused as she looked up at him, keeping the tip of her pencil on her page as she sighed. "I don't know, Ben. Should I even do something?"

Ben's grin broadened. "So you admit you do have a crush on him."

"Whatever," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "You already know, just answer my question."

"I think . . ." he checked to make sure no one was listening before dropping his voice to a whisper, "you should tell him."

"What?" Natalia scoffed as she leaned away, shaking her head profusely. "No way. What if he doesn't like me back?"

"He does," insisted Ben with a nod. "I know he does."

"But what if you're wrong?" she queried. "And then I ruin our friendship?"

"Then you can blame me," he promised solemnly, tracing an 'x' over his heart with his finger.

"That won't fix our friendship!" she pointed out, rubbing her eyes before returning to the page. "I'll figure it out later, we have to finish this."

"Fine," mumbled Ben as he began to scribble numbers down once again. "But this isn't the last time we're talking about this."

Having successfully avoided any more talking about both Diego and her love life, Natalia managed to finish the work just before Grace called that it was time for the end of class.

The schedule had been switched that day, due to a mission that had happened only a couple of hours before, so they had already eaten their dinner and finished off their training. All that was left was their study period, and they would be off to bed (or at least, were supposed to be).

And since they had a math test the next day—which absolutely none of them were ready for—the siblings had decided to get together in Allison's room to study together, as they usually did before a test that would definitely lower their grade.

Natalia sighed, placing her books on her lap as she sat in the small circle the group had formed on the floor. There wasn't much room, since they were squished between Allison's bed and her vanity, but she managed as she sat between Vanya and Ben.

"Okay . . ." Allison sighed as she opened the textbook, peering over the pages as she ruffled through pages. "What does everyone want to do? Go over the lesson? Practice questions? Multiple choice?"

Klaus raised a hand, drawing everyone's attention to him, and he lowered it as he suggested, "I think we should burn our textbooks and go streaking."

Allison stared at him for a moment before shaking her head and turning back to the group. "What does everyone except for Klaus want to do?"

"We can start with the multiple-choice and go onto practice questions after," Natalia offered with a small shrug. "And if we need it, we can go to the lesson."

"Sounds good to me," Allison agreed before raising her eyebrows at everyone else. "You guys?"

After a chorus of 'Yeah's and 'That's fine's, Allison gave a nod. "Then let's go to page fifty-seven—with the self-quiz."

The sound of ruffling paper filled the room as everyone sought out the page, and it wasn't long until Natalia was skimming over each question and its four possible answers.

"Okay," Allison sighed, leaning back against the bed as soon as everyone was ready. "Who wants to ask the questions?"

"I'll do it," Luther volunteered. He cleared his throat, glancing up at the group before reading out the first question on the page, "What does the axis of symmetry give you? A) The X-coordinate of the vertex, B) The Y-coordinate of the vertex, C) Both the X- and Y-coordinates of the vertex, D) The Z-coordinate of the vertex."

"The Z-coordinate?" Ben repeated with a crinkled nose. "Do they think we're that stupid?"

"I think it's for people like Klaus," joked Diego, only to receive a glare in return from the boy himself.

"Anyone know the answer?" Luther questioned, raising his eyebrows as he looked around at them.

"The X-coordinate," answered Vanya, gaining a reluctant nod of confirmation and a sigh from Luther.

"Next," he began, "what is a radical? A) The value under the root sign, B) A square root, C) Numbers that represent the principal square root of a number, or D) A positive number."

"A radical," piped up Klaus with a shit-eating grin, "is a rad 'ical.'"

"And what exactly is an 'ical,' Klaus?" questioned Allison with a small scoff as she turned towards him.

Klaus shrugged before winking at her. "Whatever ya want it to be, baby."

"Numbers that represent the principal square root of a number," Natalia answered, ignoring Klaus's remark as she looked up from her textbook.

"Yep." Luther nodded before his gaze turned back down to the book. His eyes inspected the question for a moment before he asked, "What is a—"

Before Luther could finish asking the question, Klaus interjected, "Is anyone in favour of burning the books and going streaking now?"

"Burning the books doesn't sound bad," agreed Ben before he shook his head and scrunched his nose. "The streaking on the other hand—no, thanks. You can do that yourself."

"Maybe I will," said Klaus indignantly. "And I'll make sure that you'll see every inch of my ass."

"No one wants that," Diego remarked, his nose wrinkling as he exchanged a look of disgust with the others.

"That's what you think," Klaus giggled.

"Anyway," Luther interrupted, clearing his throat once more. "Next question: What is a mixed radical? A) Coefficient is a value other than one, B) Coefficient is one, C) Coefficient is negative, D) Coefficient is positive."

"No," Allison said quickly, raising a finger towards Klaus, who had just opened his mouth to speak. As Klaus shrugged and leaned back, she answered, "Coefficient is a value other than one."

"Perfect." Luther smiled before he looked back down at the textbook.

Ben nudged Natalia's side, and she leaned towards him, her eyebrows raised. He cupped his hand in front of her ear so no one could hear as he whispered, "Whatever you and Diego have going on between you, that's happening between Luther and Allison, too."

Natalia let out a small giggle before putting a hand in front of Ben's ear and whispering, "I know, they're always so shy and cute whenever they're around each other. It's so funny."

Ben, using his hand once more to block the view, whispered, "I think they're more obvious than you and Diego are, and that's pretty effin' obvious."

Natalia rolled her eyes before muttering back, "It's not that obvious."

Ben whispered, "It is. Diego is staring at you right now."

Natalia removed her hand from its position in front of Ben's ear as she looked around, and then put it back as she whispered, "Everyone is staring at us."

"What the hell are you guys whispering about?" asked Allison in frustration, causing Natalia and Ben to exchange a giggle.

"Nothing," Natalia told them, straightening up and brushing her hair behind her shoulder. "Just some good ol' Korean-to-Korean chatter."

"You can't keep using that excuse every time you two do that, y'know," Diego pointed out as he rolled his eyes. "It doesn't even make sense."

"Yeah, it does," scoffed Ben. "Watch." He turned towards Natalia, a small grin on his face as he said, "Korea."

She grinned. "Korean food."

"Korean drinks."

"Korean language."

"Korean clothes."

"Okay, we get it, you know Korean things," interjected Luther with a roll of the eyes.

"See?" Ben folded his arms. "Kapow."

"Kapow, indeed," Natalia agreed. She crinkled her nose as she caught sight of Luther's scowl, and sighed, "No need to be so mad, Luther."

"There is a need because we all suck at this unit, and we're all going to fail," Luther scoffed as he put his textbook on the ground and folded his arms.

"Speak for yourself," rebutted Diego.

"Oh, yeah?" Luther questioned irritatedly as he turned to him. "Because you're a master of math?"

"Maybe I am," replied Diego indignantly, folding his arms as well. "I could be a goddamn god at math for all you know."

"For all I know?" Luther repeated, a humourless smile appearing on his face. "What I know, Diego, is that you nearly failed the last math test."

"Is a seventy seriously an almost fail to you?" Diego asked incredulously, rolling his eyes. "Big surprise."

"It's because I have high standards, which you obviously don't," Luther countered angrily.

"Oh, yeah, Mr. Big Shot?" Diego got to his feet and stepped in Luther's direction as Luther did the same, causing the others to sigh. "You think you're all that and a bag of chips just because you get good grades in math?"

"Yeah, I do!" Luther exclaimed. "Because you know what that means?"

"Oh, enlighten me."

"Means that I'm smart! Unlike you!"

Diego's posture stiffened, and his scowl worsened as he scoffed, "You did not just go there."

"Oh, I did. I went there," Luther mocked. "I'm still there."

"Luther" —Diego stepped forward, jabbing his finger into the other boy's chest— "you have three seconds to take that back."

"Yeah? Or what? You'll throw one of those little knives at me?" Luther questioned with raised eyebrows before putting on a feigned expression of terror. "Oh, I'm so scared."

"You should be!"

Luther snorted. "Yeah, I'm not scared of a tiny cut." 

"Oh, you'll get more than a tiny cut," warned Diego as he took one of his throwing knives out of his leg holster and pointed it in Luther's direction. "You'll be crying to Mom for help."

"Me?" Luther scoffed. "You're the one who goes crying to her every other minute."

"Shut the hell up!"

"No, you shut the hell up!"

"No, you!"

"You're the dumbass of the family!"

"Yeah? Well, you're the most annoying!"

"This is why no one likes you!"

"Me? Everyone hates you!"

"This is why I'm Number One!"

"No one gives a flying fuck!"

Natalia exchanged a weary look with Allison before extending her hands out at either boy and sending a light blast that caused them to flinch. 

"Hey!" she chided as both of them stopped and turned towards her. "Shut up! No one cares!"

"Sit back down, idiots," Allison sighed, waving a hand at them.

Still glowering, the two boys sat back down in their original spots and kept their scowls on their faces as they continued to review. 

Ben leaned over to Natalia, and whispered, "You know what, I think they kinda have chemistry between them, too."

"Who," Natalia questioned as she turned towards him, "Diego and Luther?"

Ben grinned. "Yeah."

Natalia shuddered. "No."

𝒟.

As Diego slipped out of his bed, he glanced at the clock—it was a little before two in the morning.

He slowly opened the door, scrunching his face as a creak sounded. 

He paused for a moment and tilted his head, listening to see if anyone had woken up from the noise. He let out a sigh of relief as the house continued to be silent, and he quietly shut the door before creeping out of his room. 

He glanced both ways down the dark hall before taking a few steps toward Natalia's door and wrapping his hand around the handle. Slowly, he twisted it open and stepped in. 

A bit of the moonlight snuck in through the translucent curtains, and the silvery glow dawned upon Natalia as she slept soundly in her bed. 

Diego gave a soft smile as he admired her for a moment before shutting the door behind him and tiptoeing over. 

He sat on the edge of the bed and lightly shook her shoulder until her eyes fluttered open. 

Natalia squinted for a moment before yawning and slowly sitting up. She rolled her shoulders back before lifting her gaze to meet Diego's, and she smiled. 

"Hey."

"Hi," Diego murmured, crawling over to her side and leaning back against her headboard. "What's up?"

"Well . . . considering the fact that I was just sleeping, not much," she answered with a small giggle, causing Diego to give a sheepish smile. 

"Yeah, makes sense." He paused for a moment before leaning closer and raising his eyebrows. "Hey, Nat. Do you agree that I'm a god at math?"

"You know, for once," Natalia sighed as she folded her hands over her lap, "I think I might agree with Luther."

"Wow," he drawled, a small scoff escaping his lips. "So you like Luther more than me?"

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" she questioned with an amused smile, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. "You know well enough that I like you way better than Luther."

Diego could feel his cheeks heating up, and he thanked God that they were in the dark. "Well, I like you way better than everyone else."

Natalia paused for a moment before raising her eyebrows and softly asking, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he confirmed with a nod.

"Why?"

He pursed his lips for a few seconds, trying to find a way to tell her without exposing himself. "You're less annoying."

She gave a small scoff of amusement. "Is that all you got?"

He raised his eyebrows in good humour as he lightly questioned, "Is there anything I should add?"

She nodded vigorously. "Mhm, maybe like: super awesome, gorgeous, amazing, hilarious, smart, kind . . ."

It took every ounce of him not to give a verbal agreement, but he swallowed the urge and joked, "You know what? Maybe I like you way less than everyone else." 

Natalia stared at him for a moment. "Wow."

"Kidding, kidding," he quickly reassured her with a grin, raising his hands up in defence. 

She prodded his arm as she warned, "You better be."

Diego ruffled his short hair before shifting a little closer to her and asking, "What about me?"

"Hm?"

"Do you like me way better than everyone else?" he clarified. 

Natalia shrugged. "Yeah."

He could feel his heart begin to race a little faster, but he ignored it as he pressed, "Why?"

She grinned. "You're less annoying."

"Hey," he protested, "that's what I said!"

"It's still true." She paused for a moment, squinting her eyes before slowly saying, "Actually . . . Ben and Alli and Vanya aren't annoying. Never mind."

"Vanya's pretty annoying," Diego mumbled, causing her to smack him once again. 

"Stop it," she chided. 

Diego sighed before raising his eyebrows. "So?"

"Hm . . ." Natalia pondered for a little while, moving her gaze to the ceiling before shrugging. "You're . . . I don't know, I just like being with you more than the others."

Diego's heart was practically beating out of his chest by this point, and he tried to steady his voice as he asked, "Really?"

"Really," she confirmed, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. 

"Damn," he sighed, "I'm just that good, huh?"

She scrunched her nose. "Okay, I think I change my mind—"

"I'm kidding," he said quickly, shaking his head.

"No, I don't think you're—"

"I'm kidding!"

"Okay, okay," Natalia laughed, nodding. 

Diego grinned, feeling his body relax. A sudden thought occurred to him, and he furrowed his eyebrows as he questioned, "Hey, by the way, what were you and Ben whispering about?"

She pressed her lips together before asking, "Which time?"

"All of those times."

"We told you," Natalia answered lightly with a shrug. "Korean—"

"Come on, Nat," he groaned, "just tell me."

"Well," she sighed as she yielded, "the first time, Ben was telling me about how it was obvious that Alli and Luther like each other, and the second time was . . ."

Diego's eyebrows knit together tightly as she trailed off, and he insisted, "Was what?"

Natalia scrunched her nose, shaking her head as she pointed out, "I don't know if you wanna know."

"I wanna know," he reassured her, swallowing hard as his shoulders tensed. Did Ben tell her that Diego liked—well, really, was in love with Natalia? 

"Well . . ." She sighed, shrugging before continuing, "How he thinks you and Luther have a lotta chemistry between you."

Diego's eyes widened. "That is the worst sentence I've ever heard in my life."

She giggled. "I know."

"Wait—why were you talking about Allison and Luther liking each other?" he questioned as the sentence fully processed in his head. "I mean, don't we all like each other? Well . . . mostly?"

"No, not like that. Like as in" —she squinted her eyes— "have a crush on each other."

"Ew," Diego immediately muttered, his nose crinkling in disgust. 

Natalia raised her eyebrows. "You think it's gross?"

"Well, yeah," he scoffed. 

"So, what," she asked tentatively, "you've never . . . had a crush on anyone?"

Diego froze for a moment, his eyes wide as he tried to think of a good answer. Slowly, he said, "Not that, just . . . Luther. Gross."

She let out a small giggle before insisting, "So, then, have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Had a crush on someone?"

He shifted in his spot, now a little more nervous as he asked, "Why do you wanna know?"

"I don't know," she answered with a shrug, "I just wanna."

"You tell me first," he replied. 

Her face scrunched up as she pointed out, "But I asked first!"

He shook his head. "Too bad."

"Fine, don't tell me," Natalia conceded. "Asshole."