Chapter 9

"But…" Wendy couldn't find the words to continue. No matter how it was spun, what happened at the bar was still Natasha's fault. However, being Natasha's best friend, she had to take Natasha's side unconditionally. "You've gone too far, Stephen! How can you talk to a girl like that? Can't you be a bit more of a gentleman?" Ryder stood up and questioned indignantly, looking rather incensed. He was deluded enough to think he could present this manly side of himself to gain the attention of his crush. Stephen merely glanced at Ryder before withdrawing his gaze. He genuinely couldn't be bothered to entertain Ryder. Zachary didn't say anything either, but he flashed his fist at Ryder. Although Stephen had always gotten on his nerves with snarky comments and had become even more of a pain now, he wasn't going to let anyone bully Stephen. He wasn't joking when he said he'd look out for Stephen like an older brother. "Let's go. I'm done eating," Natasha said. After looking at Stephen one last time, she walked off without turning back. Ryder quickly hurried after her. "Ugh. Forget it. I won't interfere with whatever's going on between you two ever again," Wendy said before rushing off as well. Earlier, for a split second, she caught a clear glimpse of the tears in Natasha's eyes. Once she caught up to Natasha, she asked in concern, "You're crying, Nat. Could it be that… you genuinely like Stephen?" Natasha's eyes were indeed misty. "That's impossible!" Natasha declared with an adamant shake of her head. She wasn't crying out of regret. She just felt aggrieved. She saw hatred in Stephen's eyes when he looked at her, as well as what seemed like a fervent desire to avoid her at all costs. How could someone as proud as her accept that? "Stephen's doing it on purpose, Wendy! He's doing it on purpose to anger me…" The more Natasha talked, the more hurt and aggrieved her expression became. She was wrong for what she did that night, but she had already apologized! What more did he want from her? He used to hang around her all day. Even just a random sentence from her had been enough to put him in a good mood all day. But this time, she'd dropped countless hints for him to come and make things up with her, but he continued to give her the cold shoulder. "Doesn't he feel bad at all for hurting me like this?" Natasha wondered to herself. Meanwhile, Wendy thought about how Stephen had been having lunch daily with Bailey. She had a feeling he wasn't trying to anger Natasha on purpose. That being said, when she saw how aggrieved Natasha was, she dared not tell Natasha about that. All she could do was go along with it. "Stephen's definitely putting on an act, Nat." "Are you sure?" "Of course. He's just too mortified after being teased that night. That's why he's pretending to give you the cold shoulder. Just you wait. He's going to regret it!" Alas, people often enjoyed only hearing what they wanted to hear. Thanks to Wendy's words, Natasha felt better at once and went back to being the haughty princess she usually was. "Hmph! Even if he regrets it, I won't ever pay any attention to him again!" Recalling Stephen's ongoing "affair" with Bailey, Wendy figured that if Natasha heard about it, she might have a breakdown that could affect even her SATs. The best thing to do right now was to do whatever it took to make Natasha despise Stephen. Thus, she readily agreed with Natasha, "That's right, Nat. Do that. Who does Stephen think he is anyway? How dare he treat you like this? It's not like you don't have your share of admirers!" Hearing that, Ryder seized the chance to make his presence known. "She's right, Nat. You have me, don't you?" Natasha shot him a cold glare. She couldn't even be bothered to use her words with him. Knowing that he'd been shot down, Ryder scratched his head to overcome the awkwardness. Such was the curse of being a pushover. He had no regard for his own pride and dignity at all. … "Was I seeing things just now, Stephen? I think Natasha's eyes were red when she left. It looked like she started crying…" Zachary looked bewildered. Chuckling, Stephen remarked, "So what if she cries? What does that have to do with me?" "But… she was crying because of you," Zachary mumbled. "Doesn't that mean she does care about you? All you have to do is coax her a bit, and things could work out between you two." Bailey was great, of course. She bested Natasha in every way from looks and personality to grades and family background. However, it was precisely due to how awesome she was that Zachary wasn't confident things could work out between her and Stephen. Natasha was definitely the top of the line of what Stephen could hopefully strive to end up with. In any case, he had fancied her for three years now. How could he stop having feelings for her just like that? Meanwhile, Stephen was amused by Zachary's assumption. "Zachary, do you seriously think she was crying because of me?" "Wasn't she?" "Certainly not. She just felt bad for herself, feeling all hurt and aggrieved. Trust me on this. Girls like her only care about themselves. If I look for her now, maybe she'll be nicer to me for a few days, but if I start devoting myself to her again, she'll start throwing tantrums and toying with me again." "I don't think so, Stephen. I saw her just now. She looked quite sad…" "That's enough. Let's drop this subject. What's with you anyway, Zachary? You'd rather believe that Natasha was crying over me than believe the four horsemen of the apocalypse are about to arrive…" … During the math exam in the afternoon, Stephen basically did a flawless job with it. He completed all the questions in just half an hour, and after checking his answers twice, he didn't find anything he'd missed out. "Goodness me. Am I going to get full marks for this?" Stephen was alarmed by himself. He did come back with a cheat code, alright. Of course, this was partly due to the mock exam being slightly easier. Still, it proved that he'd fully mastered the math knowledge required for high school. Even if he had to take one of the notoriously hard SAT math papers, he would probably score at least 90% as well. The next day, Stephen did decently well during the science paper in the morning and the foreign language paper in the afternoon. By the time it was over, it was already 6:00 pm on a Saturday. Zachary was one of those students with a fairly good foundation who was merely held back by his limited gift in studying. His mind couldn't work fast enough to complete the more complex questions. However, since this mock exam had been quite easy, he felt like he had done a splendid job with it. As soon as he saw Stephen, he started bragging, saying that he was ready to hear Stephen addressing him as godfather. Stephen chuckled without saying anything. It was a month before the SATs, so the results of the mock exams would be released as soon as possible to let the students identify their weaker areas. He figured the papers would be marked by tomorrow, and the results would be out by Monday. Zachary could only feel pleased with himself for another day. "Since we're done with the exams, let's have some fun, Stephen. Shall we head to the arcade?" Zachary suggested. "Sure. Let's go." Soon, the two guys cycled to the arcade and played a boxing game for over an hour. Alas, Stephen suffered a series of tragic losses. When it came to games, Zachary had always been better at them than he was. After leaving the arcade, they started making their way home together. As they cycled along, Zachary asked, "It's Sunday tomorrow. What are you planning on doing? Do you want to go hiking together?" Stephen shook his head and said he had plans for tomorrow. Zachary's instinctive response was to ask what kind of plans he could possibly have, but before he got the words out, he caught himself. After all, Stephen had something going on with Bailey right now. Maybe the two planned on going on a date tomorrow. He'd only be subjecting himself to a serious case of envy if he asked. … When Stephen got home, he went to his bedroom and brought out his Nokia 5200. Then, he logged onto Facebook. Thanks to Mindy's "warning", he and Bailey had to keep their friendship on the down low. They tried their best to avoid meeting up in school. Instead, they talked through Facebook once they got home. As soon as he logged into Facebook, he saw the notifications from Bailey. Clearly, she'd gotten home a long time ago and eagerly started sending him messages. Since he was busy playing at the arcade with Zachary, he didn't respond to her, and she ended up spamming him. May 14th, 5:31 pm. Bailey: "I'm home, Stephen. What are you doing?" May 14th, 5:42 pm. Bailey: "It's been ten minutes. Why haven't you responded yet?" May 14th, 5:50 pm. Bailey: "I'm so bored! Hurry up and reply!" May 14th, 6:03 pm. Bailey: "What on earth are you doing? I saw a pretty cute cloud in the sky. The more I stare at it, the more it looks like your face." May 14th, 6:17 pm. Bailey: "I have so much to say to you, Stephen, but it's not a big deal. I can still keep it in—but only for another half an hour." May 14th, 6:31 pm. Bailey: "Hmm… Mom is asking me to come down for dinner. Remember to reply when you've read my messages." Her last message came with a generic smiley face. Had this occurred in the future, Stephen would get chills down his spine when he saw that, but thankfully, it was still 2009. Right now, a smiley face didn't hold any other meaning. Stephen checked the time. It was nearly 7:00 pm, so he quickly responded to Bailey. "I just got home and saw your messages." He figured she would take a while to respond to him. After all, people didn't quite make it a habit to check their phones religiously for every notification during this era, and Facebook's notification wasn't the best either. She would have to be refreshing her messages constantly to respond at once. Yet, in about 15 seconds, she responded with two smiley faces. Stephen: "How did you respond so quickly?" Bailey: "Even though I'm eating, I'm also refreshing my messages." Stephen: "Anyway, if I'm not responding, it's obvious I'm not home yet. Why didn't you figure that out for yourself?" Bailey: "But… I was afraid that you might get upset if I didn't respond to you as soon as you texted me."