{25}

: (Olivia's POV) "Hi," I grinned, climbing into his car. "Hi," he smiled, looking at me. "Whoa, hi," he mumbled, looking me up and down. "What are you looking at?" I laughed, looking down at my clothes. "Are you allowed to wear that?" he asked, starting the drive to school. "We got to the same school. Have you ever seen a girl get dress coded?" He didn't answer. "Exactly," I nodded. "Olive, please put something over that," he said, glancing at me. "Ethan, it's a dress," I deadpanned. "And our school has boys," he said mockingly. "So?" I asked. "So, you're not leaving my side today," he scoffed. "Wouldn't want it any other way," I grinned. Once we got to school and he parked, he came and got the door for me, grabbed my hand, and led us inside. Apparently, me wearing a dress is like a miracle from God himself. We got to my locker and I opened it, grabbing what I had to while he stood beside me. "What did I tell you?" he said cockily. I sighed, "I can wear a dress, okay? It's not my problem if people stare. I wanted to dress nice today," I shrugged. "Why? You always look nice," he said, leaning his head on the locker. "I wanted to dress nice for you," I mumbled, closing my locker a little harder than necessary. "I…" he sighed, trailing off. "You don't have to dress nice for me. I always think you look beautiful," he shrugged, "But I appreciate the dress," he smirked, checking me out. "I bet you don't appreciate me being on my period," I smirked. He shook his head, "I don't. I really don't. How long do I have to wait? 4 days?" "Try 7." "7 days?" His eyes widened. I nodded, "7 days. Sorry," I shrugged, turning to Skylar as I saw her coming. "Hey," I smiled. "Hey," she sang, "Nice dress," she nodded knowingly. "Thanks," I chuckled, "So, tell me about the plan for after school," I said, walking with them. "We're just apparently hanging out, I don't really know. Austin didn't say much," she shrugged. "Austin?" Ethan and I sang teasingly in sync. "You told him?" she looked at me wide-eyed. "Well, the past is in the past, Skylar. Unless you still like him," Ethan said. "I don't like him," she mumbled. "Whatever you say," Ethan shrugged. "I'm gonna be late for History, bye," she said, quickly walking away. "You have creative writing," he sighed, turning to me. "You have AP math," I chuckled. "Have fun," I blew him a kiss while walking away. I entered the classroom and sat down in my usual seat which was assigned. It wasn't so bad because I sat beside Matthew. Matthew is amazing. He is the funniest, cutest, gayest guy I have ever met and I'm convinced that I'm in love with him. "Hi, honey," he sang. "Hi, Matthew," I sang back. "Dress pretty for your boyfriend?" he smirked. I opened my mouth to say 'he's not my boyfriend' but oh wait, to everyone else he is. "I dress pretty for myself. But yes, for my boyfriend," I smiled. "God," he sighed, "I wish Ethan Archer was gay. Don't you?" "Am I supposed to say yes? Cause no. No, I don't wish he was gay. Sorry, honey. I'll tell you who is though," I said, leaning in closer. "Who?" he whispered. "Andrew Grey," I whispered. "He is?" he looked at me in shock. I nodded in response. "How do you know?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at me. "I just do," I shrugged. He looked at me blankly. "Okay, I heard. Apparently, he's crushing on someone and it's a boy. But he hasn't told anybody who it is." "I didn't even know he's out of the closet," Matthew mumbled. "He told Skylar before he told his friends. They have art together," I explained shortly as our teacher- wait, that's not our teacher. That's a sub. "Wait, so he's officially out of the closet?" he mumbled. I nodded, "Yeah." I grabbed my pen and notebook, waiting for instructions. "What does he have right now?" he whispered. I looked at him blankly. "How would I know?" He just stared at me. I sighed in defeat, "I think he has math with Ethan." The teacher spoke up, "Right, I am a gym teacher so, I don't have a clue what you do in this class, can someone tell me? Your teacher fell sick randomly so, there's no cover work." "Uh- actually, Mr. Ashton, we had an assignment," Matthew spoke up. "What assignment is that?" he asked. "We were going class to class and writing an article on the life of a student," he shrugged. "Going from classroom to classroom?" Mr. Ashton furrowed his brows in confusion. I looked at Matthew knowing what he's about to do. "Yes, sir," the class chanted in sync. He scanned the classroom, his eyes landing on me. "Ms. Carrington, correct?" he asked. "Yes, sir," I nodded. "Please explain the assignment to me," he said, folding his arms across his chest. Why me? The whole class was shooting daggers at me. "Sir, our teacher, Ms. Griffin gave us an assignment, we have to write a magazine article on the life of a student. We just have to go around and write about a certain person but it's cross-curriculum, so it has to be a student from another class. That's why we go around," I shrugged. He eyed me suspiciously. "Right, guys?" I asked the class. "Right," everyone replied. I gave Mr. Ashton a small smile. He shrugged, "All right, get to work then." Everyone grabbed their bags and books and got out of the classroom. I was the last person to leave. "Ms. Carrington?" I turned around, "Yes sir?" "That's not really the assignment, is it?" he asked knowingly. I cleared my throat, "No, sir." He shrugged, "Whatever, it's not my class, off you go," he sighed. I left, rushing out of there. I first went to Ethan's locker which has his schedule. I put in the combination, which I knew, and looked at his schedule. "Room M28," I said to myself before making my way to his class. When I got there, knocked on the door and opened it, sticking my head in. "Can I come in?" "Yes, how can I help you?" This is Mr. Curtis. Not very nice. "Uh, sir. The creative writing students have an assignment of writing an article on the life of a student and we're supposed to pick a person from any other subject. I'll just sit here and be taking notes, is that all right?" I asked, adjusting my bag on my shoulder. "I was not informed about this," he said, eyeing me suspiciously. "Sir, it's just a quick assignment, I'm sure our teacher will email you about it," I lied. "Uh… all right, please pick a person and take a seat beside them," he said, gesturing to the class. The thing is. This is a double period. Which means I have creative writing for period 1 and 2 and Ethan has math for period 1 and 2. "Anybody?" I asked, glancing around the room. My eyes settled on Ethan who sat at the back, his pencil in his hands while he looked at me, amusement in his eyes. He arched a brow at me. "Yes, anybody, have a seat," Mr. Curtis said before he resumed teaching. The door swung open and Matthew came stumbling in, sighing in relief when he saw me. "Creative writing," he nodded. Mr. Curtis huffed in frustration, "Nobody else from your class is allowed in here, is that clear?" he asked. "Yes sir," we squeaked in sync. "Pick a partner and just sit," Mr. Curtis instructed. I made my way to the back where Ethan sat. The chair beside him was conveniently empty and he had his bag on it which he removed. I sat down, taking out a notebook and a pen, pretending to listen to the way Mr. Curtis taught and watched the way Ethan took notes. "Hi," I whispered. "Hi," he whispered back, not lifting his eyes from his notebook. "That's your list of equations to solve, only three but they're difficult. Try solving them and tell me if you've got any questions, you've got 20 minutes," Mr. Curtis instructed before sitting down. "What are you doing here?" Ethan asked, focused on his math equations as he copied all questions down and started working on them. "Our teacher isn't here, so we're all pretending to do this as an assignment," I whispered. "Why my class?" he mumbled. "I wanted to see you," I said, watching him, pretending to be interested in his answers. No sir, I'm just interested in him. "Sir, can we use our calculators?" Andrew asked. "Try doing the work without them but yes, you can if you need to." "Sir?" Ethan looked up. "Yes, Mr. Archer?" he sighed. "I'm done." I looked at him in shock, looking down at his notes. Sure enough, he was done. With all of them. "Excuse me?" "I solved all of them, can you please just check the work?" Ethan asked. "You're confident in your answers?" Everyone stared at him. "Uh, yeah?" "Solve the first one on the board from your notes and I'll check it there." "Well shit, I hope I did it right," he mumbled while standing up, his notebook in his hand. "Marker?" he asked. "Talk us through it, please," Mr. Curtis ordered. He really is an asshole. "Uh, okay. So, if this is our question and we're given A as 44,500 and C as 780,265 and there are no values for B and D, then we can just…" The explanation went over my head, let's just leave it at that. I'm not a math person. "So, if we take B as X and D as Y, then X is 42 and Y is 2. Is that right?" he asked, turning to Mr. Curtis. Everyone fell silent. Mr. Curtis didn't answer. "Uh, hello?" Ethan mumbled. Mr. Curtis used his calculator before looking at Ethan's working on the board. "That's correct." Ethan handed him the marker. "Can I sit down now?" "Yes. Please wait till the class has caught up, we'll continue thereon," Mr. Curtis said, still surprised at how quickly Ethan solved that. He came and sat beside me, sighing while leaning back. "What were you saying?" he whispered. "How the hell did you do that?" I mumbled. "I'm not just a pretty face, baby," he smirked. "What?" he chuckled when I couldn't stop staring at him. "I can't tell you how much more attractive you just got," I whispered. . . . . . Chapter 25 GUYS THAT CAN DO MATH