Chapter 9 - New Threat

NEWS of Max's beating the Bikers spread like wildfire not only throughout Cas-U but throughout the entire Casa de Oro. Her classmates treated her like a VIP since then for fear that she might beat them up. Others even wanted to be her underlings.

Meanwhile, her Uncle Rico summoned her again to confront her about what had happened.

"I just defended myself," she explained.

"That's not what I heard," he said.

"Then believe what you heard. I don't care," she said, her voice raised a notch in annoyance. "And if you have nothing else to say, I'll go back to my class," and she stood defiantly.

When she came out of his office, she was shocked when a group of girl students met her.

"Hi, Max! I'm Rhian, the leader of the Women's Right Association at Cas-U." The woman in front introduced herself. "We heard about what you did with the Bikers. I just want to tell you that you are an inspiration to all women. You were able to defend yourself and you did not let those men trample you..."

"I don't need your praises," she coldly interrupted.

"We would like to invite you to join our group. Let's work together ..."

"No, thanks," she refused abruptly and walk past them.

"But Max ..."

She stopped. "NO!" she said firmly in a threatening tone. They all went silent and froze in fear. "So, if you'll excuse me. I still have my class."

Their teacher for the afternoon class was not in yet when she arrived. She looked around and saw Hero playing with some girls in one corner. She sneered.

One classmate noticed her and suddenly, the room went quiet. Her classmates either bowed their heads or looked away, afraid to meet her gaze.

She went to Hero's seat and took it for herself, putting his bag in her original seat. Hero went to her and sat beside her. He didn't even complain about the new set-up.

"You forgot your lunch. Aunt Belen wanted me to give it to you," he whispered as he secretly put the lunchbox in front of her.

She just stared at it. No one said a word. Hero turned his back on her and returned to what he was doing. She picked it up and left the classroom again to eat in the campus cafeteria. All eyes were on her when she entered, maybe because she's the only high school student in there or maybe because of the news. Whatever, she didn't give a damn.

Minutes later, a group of college boys wearing varsity jackets approached her. She just ignored them and continued eating her meal.

One of them sat across from her. "Hey! Max, right?" he said in an overly-confident tone, with a smirk on his face that she found really annoying.

She stared at him coldly. "I didn't say you could sit there."

"Woah!" he exclaimed sarcastically. "That's cold."

His comrades were smirking at each other.

She suddenly lost her appetite so she put away her lunchbox. She stood up to leave the irritating men in front of her before she lost her cool.

"Wait! Where are you going?" the guy asked, abruptly gripping her arm to stop her.

She looked at her arm before looking at him straight in the eyes. "Maybe you want to take your filthy hand off of mine," she commanded, grasping his hand with her other hand to remove it forcefully without averting her piercing eyes on his. He writhed in pain but did not want to show it to his comrades.

Without looking back she left them and returned to her class.

"Miss Mejares, where have you been?" their teacher asked as she entered. She remembered her name was Mrs. Flora Tuazon.

She did not answer and just sat quietly in Hero's seat. She secretly handed the lunchbox to him.

"Next week, we will join the Science Quiz Bee as part of the Science Month celebration," Mrs. Tuazon announced. "All sections, year levels, and departments are required to join."

"Ma'am, isn't that too much hassle? All the smart ones are in the first section," complained one of their classmates.

"Not everyone in the first section is good at Science. Who knows there is one of you here," their teacher replied with hopeful eyes looking in her direction. She looked away. "Besides, it will be a group of five. So five classmates will work together."

"How is the selection process?" Lisa asked.

"I will conduct a quiz tomorrow. The five students with the highest scores will compete with the other sections. In our case, other majors will be our opponents for senior high. Then whoever wins, will compete in the inter-level contest. Then there's the campus tournament - college versus high school. Then there might be inter-school, etc. That depends on the committee."

"That sounds exciting...and fun!" Hero said excitedly.

Not if you're just busy fighting everyday, her head argued.

"Don't get your hopes too high, man! Your quiz scores barely reach two digits," Xander, who was sitting behind Darwin, said mockingly.

She glared at him. He immediately turned away.

"What's your problem?" she heard him say under his breath.

"Say that again?" she dared him.

"Yes, Miss Mejares? Are you saying something?" the teacher asked when she noticed them.

"No, Ma'am," she replied.

"Okay. I will give you enough time to prepare for tomorrow. Let's go to the library and grab some Science books to help you. Remember to keep quiet when we get there. Alright?"

"Yes ma'am!!!"

"Don't forget to bring your library card."

The whole class exited from their classroom and went to the library.

Max sat in one corner and observed the surroundings. Her classmates enthusiastically picked some books as if they were really excited to join the contest. Although some took notes seriously, most of the guys were just slacking off and waiting for the bell to ring. Hero, on the other hand, was standing in between shelves choosing which books to read.

"Miss Mejares, why don't you grab some science books and read them?" Mrs. Tuazon told her when she noticed she was doing nothing.

She stood up and walked over to the card catalogs. When she found what she was looking for, she went to the shelves and grabbed the books. Those were trivia and quiz books with answer sheets on the last pages. She got five of them and handed it to Hero. "If you want to join that badly, read these types of books."

He was stunned momentarily before giving off a wide smile. "Awesome! Where did you find these?"

"Sssshhhh !!!" Almost everyone looked in their direction and glared at Hero.

She secretly hit him with a soft punch in the abdomen. "Zip your mouth."

He bit his lower lip to suppress an agonized moan as he clutched his hurt stomach. "Sorry," he whispered to her. He also gestured an apologetic sign to others for the distraction.

"Go and sit over there," she commanded, pointing her lips to an empty table in the middle of the right row. He turned around and walk over there. She silently followed him.

"Wow, Hero! That's a lot. What are you reading?" asked Brenda, one of the campus socialites, in a hushed voice as she approached them with three other women.

If she were in Princeton, Brenda could have been one of her friends already. But having been betrayed by those spoiled brats and backstabbing bitches, she was more than annoyed by her presence.

"Trivia and science quizzes from Max. Do you wanna read?" Hero offered.

"Sure. Mind if we join you?" she asked, looking at her with an obvious fake friendly smile.

She did not answer yet she scooted to the edge for them to have space to sit.

Everybody went silent. The girls beside her were seriously reading the books she gave and even took some notes. So did Hero. She was surprised to see him being this serious in his academics, although she did not know how he was doing back then. But given his background, he was not the type to study that much--or was she being judgmental? Nevertheless, he had changed, indeed.

As moments passed by, she was gradually seeing her old self in him--studious, crowd's favorite, friendly...She was not liking it so she suddenly stood up to leave.

"Where are you going?" he softly asked, looking up at her.

She did not answer. She returned to the bookshelves where she found the books she gave to Hero. A guy who was standing there as if searching for a particular book stopped behind her. "Five o'clock this afternoon, in the old building. Make sure you show up if you don't want anything bad would happen to your friend," he said.

She chuckled. "You seem to have been misinformed about me. I don't have friends."

"If Hero is not your friend, then we'll just go after him instead."

Her eyes narrowed and her fists automatically clenched upon hearing Hero's name. She was ready to smash that guy when a familiar hand tapped her in the arm.

"Hey!" It was Hero.

She did not answer. She turned to face the guy before but only to see a lot of guys already standing and walking nearby. She did not recognize him so she didn't know which one of them was he.

"Max, are you okay?" he asked with that worried look on his face.

She pulled herself together. "Yeah. What do you want?"

"I want to borrow these books but I don't know how I can bring them home," he explained, referring to the stack of books he was carrying.

She heaved a sigh. Well, what did she expect? It made sense to her why Cedric really hated him. He was a stupid gangster--well, used to.

She grabbed some more books. They were light and thin so she did not hesitate to put them on top of his stack.

"Hey!" he complained but she just ignored him.

"Follow me."

They went to the librarian. She filled out the borrower's form and listed all the books she wanted to borrow.

"Only 5 books maximum per person," the librarian said.

She got his library card and filled it out as well. The librarian accepted both their cards.

"Don't you dare lose a single book or else..." She threatened him when they were outside.

"I won't," he promised before they returned to their classroom.

They still had one class left for the day, but her thoughts were flying back to what the guy had said. Why were they threatening her with Hero? Did they know about her and Hero's background? Or was it because of what Hero did during her fight with the Bikers?