State of Confusion

Alex was very relieved when the conversation became normal mundane things of catching up such as what they were doing in class and what sort of teachers they had.

No more talks about him and his father. No more jabs at him and more importantly, Isaura was sitting down quietly and listening to everything with interest.

The 'sitting down quietly' was what Alex was truly grateful for, not the fact that he found it fascinating that she found mundane conversations to be so interesting.

No, it wasn't fascination but more of … interest. Like how one found it curiously interesting to look at those weird things on display.

Isaura was truly a confusing and strangely fascinating object of interest.

She was like this little puzzle that would take ages to solve.

Alex always liked puzzles.

Figuring out how her mind works would certainly be a lot of work.

But it should be fun.

However, when he remembered just how frustrated he was when he couldn't understand her…

Alex poked a potato and brought it to his mouth as he thought hard about this conundrum.

He found it frustrating yet fascinating.

Was he a sucker for punishment or something?

Did he enjoy being in a state of confusion all the time when facing her?

Of course, little did Alex know that those seemingly innocent passing questions in his mind were questions that he seemed to be asking himself quite a lot as he grew up.

✿ Author posts on WN and neovel ✿

The rest of the day was rather uneventful - much to Alex's relief. He also found class not to be too bad today, as they were busy doing anything they wanted to do in order to complete the syllabus.

While Aurora chose Maths, Alex decided to focus on Science.

Maths was too easy and he wanted to do something that was a *bit* more challenging. Do the difficult ones first and then look at the easy ones.

Aurora was the opposite.

She would rather do the easier ones first and then go through the harder ones.

For Alex, he preferred the more difficult puzzles as it kept him entertained and he could do the easier ones to pass the time quickly. Whereas for Aurora, she preferred to do the easier ones so that she could focus and concentrate on the harder ones later.

Alex and Aurora may be twins, but their personalities and characteristics - including personal choices, were normally in direct contrast with each other.

Then again, they were only fraternal twins and not identical twins (who, even then, would have their own personalities and preferences).

He was just finishing up on one exercise when the bell rang.

Alex sighed and checked the workbook, looking at the number of pages he had left to do. He frowned a bit when he noted that it was more than half the workbook and thought that perhaps, he should slow down a bit.

If he finished this too early, then it meant the others would be completed even faster, then what would he do for the rest of the year?

"What's wrong?" piped that now familiar voice next to him.

Naturally, Alex had already noted that the little imp had very happily rushed over to him when the bell rang. Unlike him, who had been squeezing every little minute, she had already packed her bag two minutes before the bell rang.

She had been waiting for the bell to ring so that the moment it did, she jumped down and ran over to him.

He just pretended he didn't know so at her question, he simply closed the workbook slowly before answering her, "Nothing."

"Then why did you sigh so much?" Isaura asked him, coming closer as she tip-toed and tried to see what he was doing.

"Oh!" Isaura suddenly shouted, then patted him on the back, "It's okay, it's okay. I understand."

Alex's movement of putting his workbook into a neat pile stopped and he turned to look at her before getting up to take the said pile.

Though he had absolutely no idea what Isaura was thinking, he decided that for now, he was not going to try and figure her out.

He had to get home, after all.

Isaura skipped next to him, following him to the locker and watched silently as he placed his books inside and closed it, twisting the combination dial to lock it.

She watched his movements, then at the class and at everyone who was already going out of the door. It was only Alex that had not yet packed to get ready to go, and the rest of his group were already waiting for him at the door.

She looked at Alex with stars in her eyes, thinking just how great Alex is.

Just how many people were so reluctant to leave school? He had been so eager to stay and do work that he didn't even realise when school would soon be over.

With a nod again, she tried to reassure him as she saw just how he seemed to be dragging his feet, "Really, Alex. You're truly a role model."

Alex was getting even more confused.

Whatever did he do to make her think he's such a role model? He was doing exactly the same thing as everyone else and today was only the first day! What sort of role model could he possibly be?

"So hardworking, never stopping work," Isaura kept chattering on as she followed Alex towards the exit.

It was then that Alex realised what wrong impression Isaura was under.

Did she think he had been sighing earlier because he was reluctant to go home?

"Oh please, Isaura," Aurora said as she heard the last sentence as they came close by, "Alex just wanted to finish everything as fast as possible. He hates school."

"I do not," Alex refuted.

"Yes! He doesn't!" Isaura echoed, nodding.

Alex, who had his sentence cut off, suddenly could not say the rest of the words. Just seeing how excited Isaura was, and how she regarded everything with such bright eyes, he didn't want to dampen that enthusiasm by saying, 'I just find it boring.'

Would it affect her worldview if he said that?

So he kept silent as they headed towards the waiting area - and even ignored the slight tugging at his shirt.

Without looking, he knew that Isaura had most likely grabbed onto his shirt (at the waist) as they walked by.

Once they reached the designated waiting area, Aurora shouted, "Hey! Racheal's here already."

Sure enough, there was their ride, the latest car that their father got: a 2021 Lexus RX 350, which was a 6 passenger vehicle.

"Bye, Isaura, see you tomorrow," Aurora said to her, waving and walking towards their car that was parked just a few metres away.

"Bye!" Isaura replied, waving frantically then was surprised to see that not only Alex, but also Fleur and Ziad followed them closely behind.

"Bye," both Fleur and Ziad as they passed her by.

"Your ride is here, too?" she asked.

"Yes," Fleur replied as she walked backwards in order to talk to Isaura.

Ziad shook his head helplessly and held her arm, making sure that she would be walking in the right direction while looking down so as to make sure that she didn't trip over anything.

Fleur pointed towards the car that Alex and Aurora just went into and said, "We go back together."

Starting from today, Racheal would pick the Fantastic Four up and send them home, rather than their parents coming to pick them up. Initially, Sayuri wasn't too keen on the idea as that was the time she would have had to just be 'her and the kids' since Kyle was the one that sent them to school.

She wanted her bonding time.

Sayuri finally agreed after Kyle pointed out that her bonding time could be when they got home rather than having to make the effort of going out. Driving, getting caught in a traffic jam and the worst thing of all, the waiting that had to be done before they came out.

Aurora was slightly sad about it, but she understood. She couldn't wait to get home, though, so she urged Fleur and Ziad to pick up the pace.

"Come on, guys!" Aurora shouted at them, while waving her hand to motion them to come.

Ziad turned Fleur around and put his hand on her back, urging her forward. Fleur quickly climbed into the car and Racheal, who had been waiting outside, closed the door once Ziad went in.

Everyone put on their seatbelts and were soon immersed in their own little world.

Isaura, who was watching them go, finally had a sad look on her face. She watched the car leave and she sighed deeply, feeling slightly envious at how close the four were - and the fact that they were already on their way home.

With her shoulders slumped down a bit, Isaura kicked a small pebble on the ground and sighed again.

Turning around, she looked for a place to sit down as she knew that her own parents would take some time to come and pick her up. When she couldn't see any available seats, she just went to look for any available space and sat down on the ground, ignoring the stares upon her.

She put her bag down and took out a book to read.

Soon, she was immersed in it and tuned out everything around her.