CHAPTER 1

"Ms. Imperial?" My professor called, looking down on my paper and seemed like comparing it to another. "..and Mr. Yreneo." He continued.

He simultaneously looked at my seatmate and I as we both looked back on him, waiting for his next sentence. "Please stay. Others, you may go."

The other students started cleaning their desks and so was I. Once I'm done, I stood up after and walked towards my professor's desk where he and my seatmate were standing.

"Weren't my instructions pretty clear?" He asked as soon as I reached his table. "I said discuss your answer by pair. You guys were the only ones without a partner."

I looked at my seatmate who was now looking back at me with his brow raised. "But we could do it individually, wasn't it a good thing? We didn't need each other's help for this." He defended.

Mr. Galagher turned to me, as if waiting for my explanation. "We had a little disagreement with the answers, Sir, so we just decided it's better if we'll do it individually."

Our professor gave us a quiz—on the first day of school year, so he could get an idea what we already knew about biology and such. He asked us to do it in pair, and I was paired with Clarence.

Clarence is the guy every girl in the University would be happy to get paired with. Blue-eyed, messy blonde hair, tall pointy nose, pinkish thin lips and drool-worthy body, not to mention one of the jocks. But he's not it. I mean, I don't know, he's just not it for me.

So back to the first day, the guy ordered me to write down the answers he was going to dictate instead of working and discussing the answers together. What an a$s. He had a mistake on one of the items and I pointed it out so we pretty had a heated discussion about it and ended up answering on our own.

"Listen. If I said by pair, then it should be done by pair. Discussing answers means higher possibility of getting a perfect score, and saves me time to teach you those stuffs you've discussed to each other which you should already know about the subject." He rasped, while his eyes were moving from mine to Clarence.

"Anyway, I know Ms. Imperial can answer on her own. But I doubt you could, Mr. Yreneo as you've been keeping your head in the game, yeah?" He then turned to me and said, "You're dismissed."

I nodded my head and went out of the room. But the words Mr Galagher told him still made it to my earshot.

"I don't wanna meet another parent asking me to adjust his son's grade cause it won't look good for their reputation, yeah?" He maundered. Welp, this was awkward.

The glare I received from Clarence before I closed the door meant he knew I heard it. Who cares?Walking through the corridor, I stopped for a second at the bulletin board.

"Alexandra Claire Imperial" I smiled while reading my name on the list of Dean's Listers. I gave myself a tap on the shoulder for consistently making it to the list. That jock could kiss my ass all he want.

I'm 20 and currently in third year college in Stylus University. I'm half Filipino and Half American with dirty blonde hair and olive skin. Got my grey eyes and tall defined nose from my father while my bow-shaped lips were from my mom- the strongest woman I know.

My mom migrated here in the US, after my grandad died cause my step grandma was blaming her for his death. At first, she kept in touch with my aunt thru mails but not until she ran away with her boyfriend. That was the last thing she heard about her so we weren't aware of her whereabouts; if she married the guy she ran away with, gave birth to my cousins.. Nada.

My mom met my dad in the coffee shop where she used to work. My dad's a regular customer cause the building he's managing was nearby the cafe-- where my condo now was located, then got married after years of dating and had their own family.

For them, I was enough so I didn't have a sibling. Although, sometimes I kind of.. Wanna have a sister or a brother. I'd even consider a cousin if a sibling is really out of the picture. But my dad's an only child too and his parents both passed away making him the heir of their business.

Sometimes I wonder if I have other relatives. Who knows? We might be walking on the same street, or passed each other by. But realizing we were in a different country, the possibility was slim to none. It would've been easy though if there was an internet back then-- back when my mom and aunt parted ways.

Anyway, my eyes then landed on the name below mine. Yreneo, Joseph Clarence. Yup, you read it right. He was a Dean's lister, that's why I was kind of surprised when Mr. Galagher said his father begged so he could have a good grade.

I heard this year would be his shot to be the football team's Captain. Yup, I know. He seemed perfect with the good looks, nice body, good grades and athletic. Like too good to be true. But who cares? He's an as$hole. No hate, just fact.

I went inside the cafeteria and found my girls on the jocks' table. Of course! I sat on our usual spot and dialed their phone. They weren't the type to throw themselves to those jocks but if given the chance, they would. Mariel's cousin is part of the football team so they were pretty close to them.

"Hey, girl. Why?" Jen asked after a few rings. I quickly held the phone away from my ears cause I heard laughter on the other line.

"I'm done with my class. Done fangirling?" I scoffed rolling my eyes at her when she looked at my direction.

She gave me an apologetic smile before pulling Mariel out of her conversation with her cousin Lawrence. Jen and Mariel were quite known since they were part of the editor staff, though they focus more on the gossips and entertainment thing, not editorial and other serious matter.

"We didn't noticed you entering the cafeteria. What took you so long, btw?" Marielle asked, sitting in our table. Jen took the seat beside me.

"Just discussed some things with Mr. Galagher." I just shrugged before changing the topic. "What's new with the egoistic guys over there?" I jested, referring to the jocks. Not that I care though, but hey, gossiping is the life of a friendship.

"You did not just call them egoistic." I saw Mariel rolled her eyes while defending those crap as if she was offended with what I just called the guys. True, tho.

"They're just good-looking. How about the real thing? The brains. Can you tell me what they're good at aside from kicking balls and breaking hearts?" I snapped back, raising my brow and pouting my lips.

"Hey! My grades aren't that bad." Someone from my back exclaimed.

I could now see the apologetic looks on my girls' faces. I turned to look behind me and found Harry and Lawrence-- of the football team, carrying their tray on the way to our table.

I stood up and opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. Though I knew I have to at least try to explain myself. "Oh my God. I'm sorry.. I.. I.. Wasn't talking about you guys." Why was I even stuttering?

"Then who were you talking about?" Another one asked, appearing behind Harry and Lawrence. Then as if on cue, more of them appeared out of nowhere.

Crap. "I was.. Talking about.." I looked at them one by one and thought why was I even afraid of telling them? I wasn't directly saying they were stupid they just assumed I was referring to them-- though I really was, but of course I wasn't gonna be honest about that.

I stood straight and chinned up. "I was talking about other people, but if the shoe fits.. Feel free." I smiled nicely-- the I-tried-to-be-nice smile. If these jocks thought I'd be on my knees apologizing for blurting out my opinion about them, they were not thinking straight.

I could feel Mariel's foot kicking mine under the table, but I didn't care. "Kidding!" I chirped. "You guys joining our table?" I asked nicely.

Not wanting me to cause any more trouble, Jen stepped in front of me. "Yes, girl." She answered in a quite high pitched voice as she turned to me and grabbed my hands, "As we mentioned to you last night we have to write an article about this season so.." She continued in a gritted teeth and eyes widely open as if she was telling me to calm my ass down or they'd be screwed.

"Oh yeah!" I fake laughed, "Yeah, I forgot sorry." Then I turned to the jocks, "It would be nice to eat lunch with you. Fortunately-- I mean, unfortunately I have an assignment so I better get going." I excused, trying to get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Assignment? On the first day of classes?" Harry asked me with a playful smile on his lips.

"I know right?" I chirped, too pitchy for my liking. "What a party pooper. Poof!" Then I tried to finish my lie with a let-me-get-out-of-here smile and left.

I mentally slapped my face for not remembering Jen and Mariel were working on an article regarding them especially since their Captain's graduating. 'Who's gonna take his spot?' would be a hot topic, aside from the fact that they were one of the hot stuff in our school.

My girls asked me last night if I was fine eating with them. I wasn't sure, though, if I said yes but I couldn't remember saying no either. And I think me, going to my next class an hour earlier was a pretty indicator that it was the latter.

Luckily, the room to my next class was empty. I sat in the back row since I find it hard to focus in front. I felt like the professors would always look at what I was doing and I hated it. Plus the stereotype of nerds sitting in the front row. Tch! I'm a grade conscious but definitely not a nerd.

As I was looking for my airpods inside my bag, I found some stocked biscuits that kinda looked edible. Good thing I always brought my own bottled water.

"This would do." I whispered to myself.

I was here for quite a while now when I saw someone opened the door, through my peripheral vision. I was too lost in my own world to even care what was taking the person at the door so long to enter. Until the music playing through my airpods faded as it reached it's ending.

"No food and drinks allowed." He said, the exact time the music ended so I was able to hear him.

I looked at the guy in the doorframe who was still holding the door open. He smiled at me and I just narrowed my eyes at him. Wasn't he glaring at me earlier? Our gaze locked as he walked towards my direction and put his bag on the chair beside me. Then he pointed a finger on the wall sign as he sat beside me.

"No food and drinks allowed." I read before looking back at him.

He then raised his brows, "I see you can read."

Í nodded at him, "I see you can as well." then I continued eating.

We didn't mind each other. I was busy munching my crackers while waiting for the next song. Then realized the only sound that we were hearing is the sound of my teeth crashing the crackers, so I suddenly became conscious of chewing. I looked at him through the corners of my eyes, just to check if he had his airpods on..

I jolted when he suddenly turned to me. "You know.." He paused as his eyes landed on my chest while I automatically covered it with my arms, but I realized he was just looking at my name tag. "Alex." He continued, "We have to disuss--"

"If you're worried about anyone finding out what happened in Bio, my mouth is shut if you fck off." I blabbed before I could even stop myself to. Why was I so careless today?

His brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"You know.." I paused, trying to make it sound less embarrassing for him. "About what Mr. Galagher said." I croaked.

"What exactly do you mean?" He kept interrogating, as if he couldn't remember anything that had happened before lunch.

"Did it bruised your ego so much that your mind is trying to forget about it?" I snapped. "Okay. When he said your parents coaxed him into giving you good grades to his subject." I continued.

"I meant what do you mean by fck off-- but to answer your question; Nope. I'm used to people looking down on me." He answered catatonically.

I wasn't familiar with this guy, but as those words left his mouth, even if he tried to sound as if it was nothing, I still felt it. Suddenly, the thought of hugging him or just tapping his back hit my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. I didn't want him to assume things, besides we weren't even close.

I wasn't the empathy type of person, so I really didn't know what to say after he just said those to me; and the physical touch was soo out of the picture right now so I just sat there, thinking what I should respond or IF I should respond to that.

He chuckled out of the blue. "By the way, I'm Clarence." He said, raising his hands mid-air, initiating a handshake and I just looked at it. He withdrew his hand by covering his mouth, feigning a yawn after realizing I wasn't going to take it.

"I know?"

He took the cracker on my hand eat it so I hissed, "What the?!"

He just shrugged his shoulders not minding my last words, "Just thought I should introduce myself to my tutor." He confidently said, as if he was certain I would agree to that.

"And what do you mean by that?"

He pointed a finger at me, "You.." Then at him, "Me.. Studying together."

"Wow." I blurted out. If we almost strangled each other's neck for a simple quiz, what more if we were to study together.

"Not gonna happen, dude." I exclaimed. "I'd rather tutor a freshman than tutoring you."

I knew he found it nonsensical when he laughed at my response.

I gasped when he took another cracker in my hand. And as if he knew my reaction, he quickly shoved the cracker in my mouth and said, "You don't have a choice, babe." Then he broke the cracker that was on my mouth and sexily ate the other half as if he was in some commercial and smirked at me.

"You don't."