Amelia's eyes lit up after hearing what I said and she asked, "Really?"
"Mr. Martinez may oppose you, but he has never stopped you, right?" I said.
At least this proves that Aiden didn't forbid her from learning, so if I taught her what I learned from Aiden, it should be fine.
"Yes, Grandpa has never stopped me. He knows I'm very interested in this." Amelia said excitedly.
"Then let's work hard together. Maybe my talent is even worse than yours." After all, Amelia had been exposed to this since she was young, and I had no foundation.
Amelia looked at me with a smile. "But Grandpa is willing to teach you, so you must have some talent. And if you're worse than me, you won't even be able to get through Grandpa's door."
"You're right." I nodded.
With some achievements, I was very excited when I got home. I even bought ingredients and went to the kitchen to cook.
Although my cooking skills weren't great, at least I wouldn't blow up the kitchen.
Finally, I served the dishes from the pot. Suddenly, I forgot to ask if Howard needed to eat.
While I was struggling with this thought, Howard suddenly appeared behind me. "What are you doing?"
I was startled and quickly turned around. "Howard, you scared me to death. Can you make some noise when you walk next time?"
"I'm not human." Hearing this self-deprecating remark, I couldn't help but laugh and raised an eyebrow at him. "Indeed, you're not even human."
Catching the undertone of my words, he raised an eyebrow at me. "You seem to be in a good mood today."
Of course, I was in a good mood.
"I was off to apprentice with a master." Placing the dishes on the table, I asked Howard, "By the way, do you eat our human food?"
"I don't eat that stuff." Howard said.
I didn't mind and started eating heartily. With my good mood, even the usual food tasted much better.
"You haven't told me yet, who did you find to learn from?" Howard asked.
"Mr. Aiden Martinez." Afraid Howard didn't know his full name, I specifically mentioned it.
"Thelelderly man from the ghost-hunting family you visited before." He raised an eyebrow and looked at me indifferently. "You haven't given up on the idea of getting rid of me, have you?"
A mouthful of food got stuck in my throat, and I started coughing uncontrollably. "Water..."
With that, Howard quickly poured me a glass of water. After gulping down a bit, I finally began to feel somewhat better.
Catching my breath, I quickly defended myself, suppressing the faint stirrings in my heart. "I just think it's too dangerous to be around you. I need to learn some skills to protect myself. After all, you can't always be around."
Of course, I did have that thought, but I definitely couldn't let him know about other thoughts.
Seemingly fooled by me, he nodded in agreement. "That's a good idea, but I won't make it happen."
I looked at him helplessly. "How can you be so sure? I can't trust my life in anyone else's hands; I've got to keep a firm grip on it myself."
"If you want to learn, I won't stop you." Howard seemed uninterested in my affairs and didn't say much more. "Hurry up and eat. We have things to do after."
Hearing this, the spiciness in my throat seemed even worse. "Come on, I have gym class tomorrow."
He curled his lips, looking at me with a hint of a smile on his face. "It won't affect you."
The next day, during gym class, my legs were weak, so I cursed Howard in my heart.
Sitting in the stands to rest, I gulped down a bottle of water. Suddenly, a voice came from beside me, "Be careful not to choke."
Seeing who it was, I couldn't hold my breath, and the water went down the wrong pipe, causing me to cough uncontrollably.
I spat out the water, and Matthew handed me a tissue. He looked at me apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to. I didn't expect to startle you."
After finally managing to stop coughing, I found my eyes rimmed with redness. "Matthew, what are you doing here?"
He still smiled gently. "No class today. I saw your Facebook post about having gym class, so I came to check on you."
I had indeed posted a complaint on Facebook earlier.
"Are all sophomores this free?" As a freshman, I was already swamped with gym classes and various other courses.
"In sophomore year, there are fewer classes. You'll be the same when you get there." Matthew said.
I nodded. Just then, the teacher blew the whistle to gather, so I quickly put down the water. "I have to go to class, Matthew. Wait for me for a bit."
He smiled and watched me leave.
Back in the lineup, the girl next to me poked me with her hand, excitedly pointing at Matthew in the stands. "Who is that? Is he your boyfriend? He's so handsome!"
Not wanting any misunderstandings, I awkwardly explained, "No, he's my neighbor."
"A neighbor. Would it be possible for me to obtain his contact information?"
Of course, I was unwilling. After all, he was someone I had liked. "Sorry."
The girl understood my meaning and winked at me. "So, you like your neighbor, Karena. You should have said so. Don't worry, I won't compete with you."
I felt a bit embarrassed but didn't deny it.
After gym class, I went to find Matthew. It was lunchtime, and since he came over, I, as the host, naturally had to treat him to a meal. "Let me take you to try our cafeteria food. It should be better than your school's."
Our two school cafeterias were quite close, and sometimes Amelia and I would sneak over to the other one to try their food, but maybe we ordered the wrong dishes; they didn't taste good.
"That's great. Our school's food is notoriously bad in the college town." Matthew said.
With a handsome guy by my side, I attracted more attention. But most of it was friendly.
Unexpectedly, I ran into the last person I wanted to see in the cafeteria.
Wesley was coming out of the cafeteria, and we bumped into each other. He glanced at Matthew beside me, said nothing, and walked past me.
"Is that your friend?" Matthew asked.
"Just my classmate." I looked at him curiously. "Matthew, how did you know he knows me?"
Matthew smiled. "The way he looked at you was a bit strange."