Confusing

Truth be told, Alex wasn't really worried about any potential danger in the school, or that there would be any dangerous characters amongst the students.

Everyone was just kids after all.

The adults would have been filtered and vetted by his father, so Alex was pretty confident that they were in a safe place.

He was here to learn, and hone his skills - not to be subjected to hidden dangers. Of that, he was sure.

His father was strict and subjected him to a lot of things that normal kids his age would never get exposed to, but he was never in any real danger. His father was always there to protect him.

It didn't mean he didn't get injured, but he was never injured badly enough to require hospitalization.

Alex was well aware of this fact, and how much his father protected him; be it openly, or in the shadows. It was because of this that he could go all out whenever he went about as Cinder.

But it also meant that he couldn't train certain skills properly.

Such as, sensing malicious thoughts or looks directed at him.

Killing intent.

All Cinder ever faced when dealing with the people from the seedier part of life, was fear.

Their fear, that is.

Sometimes, the fear was so great that they'd pee in their pants.

But never killing intent.

Heck, they don't even have the strength or energy to even direct malicious thoughts or looks at him.

Oh yes.

There was a lot of resentment as well.

Alex sighed as he continued to focus on the people around him - without making it look like he was.

At least, this was one skill he could train at the moment: his peripheral vision.

Focusing on Fleur's back which he could see clearly, Alex focused his attention to his right. He could see how some girls were still talking to each other while looking at him.

Or, to be more specific, at him and then at Isaura.

Obviously, this meant that they were still hung-up over the fact that he had been holding her hand.

Just what was it with them?

He couldn't understand girls at all.

He couldn't see their faces well enough at that moment, so he turned his head to seemingly look at Ziad who was behind him but in reality, he gave a sweeping glance in the direction of those girls.

"Shirley said that she'd save us a table," Alex said to Ziad, "But do you think they'll mind we brought Isaura?"

Ziad smiled, "It's Shirley, the overly enthusiastic chatterbox. She'll be a good new friend to Isaura."

"True," Alex agreed.

Alex gave a rare smile before turning to face the front again, as he reached the counter to take his food. Again, he used that opportunity to study the girls again, to reinforce the earlier image in his head.

When he had first seen them, he had the image in his head. Thus, seeing them again was to confirm that what he remembered how they looked like, was correct.

He didn't have a photographic memory like his father, but his method of memorising faces and scenes made it so that he remembered a lot of things quickly. More importanly, he could retain them.

Perhaps this was an added benefit to his mental arithmetic ability, or it could be the other way around, that is, his mental arithmetic ability helped him remember things better.

After getting their meals, they headed towards the table that Shane and Shirley were at.

"Hey guys!!" Shirley said excitedly, standing up and waving at them as they came closer.

Seeing Isaura, she asked with a big smile, "Who's your new friend?"

"Isaura, meet Shirley and Shane," Aurora introduced them, "They were our classmates last year."

Isaura nodded to both of them politely and said, "Nice to meet you, Shirley, and Shane."

She placed her tray of food on the table carefully and sat down.

On her tray was a bowl of macaroni and cheese, a pear, and a glass of warm water. When Alex and the others sat down, her eyes went wide at the food on Alex's tray.

"Wow, I didn't know that was an option!" Isaura said, and actually stood up to get a closer look.

Alex had chosen to sit across from her, but not directly in front. He was to her right and with her feet on the chair, she placed her hands on the table as she leaned towards him.

"Sit down, Isaura," Alex commanded, "You should never stand on the chair."

"Oh," Isaura said, sitting down obediently.

"Alex has a special diet," Aurora explained as she waved her fork towards Alex's plate of pan-fried salmon and potatoes, with a fruit smoothie.

"Special diet?" Isaura asked with her eyes wide open, "He has to lose weight?"

To Isaura, diet just meant eating less to lose weight but Alex's plate did not seem to be what one would call 'less food'.

"On the contrary, he has to gain weight," Aurora said and sighed, "Turns out my dear brother got Daddy's weird genetics. He burns his food quickly and so, he needs high calorie type of food."

"Otherwise, he'd be skinny like a stick!" Fleur said with a laugh, then sighed, "I am sure going to hate you when we're older, Alex."

"What?! No! You can't!" Isaura gasped out, "Alex is so nice!"

Aurora nearly spurted out the food in her mouth and Alex gave Isaura that 'you are weird' look.

"Doesn't she remind you of someone?" Ziad said suddenly as he bit into his sandwich.

Fleur and Aurora looked at each other and grinned.

"Too soon to tell," Fleur replied, "But the similarities are there, no doubt."

Aurora shrugged, "Meh. I disagree."

"What? Who? What are you guys talking about?!" demanded Shirley as she looked at the four of them with a glare.

Shane, who was beside Shirley, was also curious but was quiet about it. He found that he didn't really need to talk with Shirley around. She just asked everything and anything, so he only needed to sit down quietly and listen.

Took the pressure of him as well. He didn't have to worry about asking the wrong thing and Shirley never got flustered over what she asked.

He admired her for that, for it was something he could never do.

"Uncle Kyle's best friend," Ziad replied.

"Oh, no no no no," Fleur said, waving her finger left and right as she also shook her head, "It's not best friend, but best friend forever and ever!"

"You got it wrong, Fleur," Aurora said, "It's …"

She paused dramatically, cleared her throat and gave that smug look that Uncle Xing Han always had when he made his declaration, "Kyle's BFF forever and ever and ever!"

All of them laughed at that - except for Alex and Isaura.

Alex, because he found the whole thing ridiculous and Isaura, because she didn't understand what they were insinuating.

She thought about it and then asked, "Are you saying that someone here reminds you of, erm, Xing Han? But no one here said anything like that?"

Aurora smiled and patted Isaura's back.

"It is more the way he acts that reminded us of him," Aurora explained, "He is this really nice guy that is really, really close to my father."

"Yeah," Alex replied, "He looks at my father with these rose-tinted glasses. The filter is quite big."

Isaura frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

"It means, dear Isaura," Fleur said, "Nothing Uncle Kyle does is ever wrong. He sees Uncle Kyle as the most perfect person."

Isaura tilted her head, "Isn't he?"

This time, it was Alex that nearly snorted out his food.

"No!" Alex denied quite strongly.

Isaura was a bit shocked at that and actually dropped her fork.

Aurora gave Alex a glare, "Don't mind him, Isaura. He has this love-hate relationship with Daddy."

"Yeah, he loves to hate him," Fleur said, rather uncharacteristically of her.

Isaura was surprised to hear this, "Why? Don't you love your father?"

Alex put down his cutlery and looked at Isaura seriously, "I will say this once, and only once. Never ask me that."

Aurora leaned over and whispered into Isaura's ear, "Alex loves Daddy but he'd rather die than ever admit it."

Isaura looked at Aurora, then at Alex, then at everyone else.

All of this was completely beyond her comprehension.

Her parents were so loving and good to her and she imagined all families were like hers. Alex is such a nice person and she knew how good Alex's father was as well.

So why was it that it looked like they didn't get along?

But Aurora said they did.

It just gave her a headache thinking this.

Human relationships were so confusing. That's why she loved mathematics. It's just so logical.

Perhaps Zue would know.

She'll ask Zue later tonight. All of this was really complicated.

As everyone started catching up with each other, Isaura put the thoughts out of her mind for now and started listening to everyone else as they ate.