chapter 22

It was already lunch time and when Ken went back to class, to his surprise he found Vivian waiting for him outside class in the corridor.

"Am so glad to find you here." Ken said delightfully.

"I wish I could say the same thing to you as well." snapped Vivian.

"Why do you have to be so prickly all the time?"

"I don't owe you nor anyone else an explanation of how I conduct myself. If you don't like it why don't you just stay away." she said and from her bag she produced a pamphlet. "As your class leader I took deliberty of carrying your assignment, since you were nowhere to be found."

"OH, thanks a lot, that's so nice of you Vivian I guess that's why you remained behind so that you could hand me the assignment, right?"

"Were you with Lola all this time?"

"Uhm. Yeah, it's because of the same thing with Nucho but still we couldn't get him to dig out more info about his father's plans with the girls." he said trying to sound convincing.

"Oh, is that so, I see." lamented Vivian.

"Uhmm, listen Vivian, if you ain't that really busy, would you do me a favor. I will highly appreciate it." Ken said, cooking up something to keep Vivian by his sight.

Vivian looked at him searchingly, "what is it that you want now?"

"Listen, uhmm, am passing through a bookstore. I need an interesting, mysterious book or novel to keep me busy and captivated during this coming holiday. And you are a big fan and expert when it comes to such, I would be a fool to ask someone else to help me choose a book. So will you help me out, please?" Said Ken pleased with himself about his story.

Vivian tossed it about in her head and suddenly agreed to help him out.

When they entered the bookstore, they spent about nearly twenty minutes, looking for a certain novel, which happened to be one of Vivian's favorite.

Ken was slowly getting fade out and tired, "Hey Vivian, why can't we go try out in the other store, they don't happen to have it in here."

"No Ken, you can never find it in any other stores apart from this one. If not you can only find it from the producers." Vivian said and continued looking for it, shelf by shelf.

"What's even the title of the same book and why do you think it the best of them all, huh?"

"'Stolen Hearts', that's the title, it's really cool and stalling. You will like it trust me, am sure of it. If only I could find it." Vivian said and smiled delightfully.

This was the first time Ken saw Vivian genuine kindness and smile. That was new for him and he certainly liked it and never wished for it to end.

"Wow, I kind of like the title, so what's the book all about?" Ken said trying to keep the conversation going, realizing that since the very first day till now he has never seen her smile delightfully and seeing her being so nice and friendly.

"Well, from my reading even though I have not finished reading it, I would say it's about romance, mystery and fiction and crime."

"Wait, so you haven't finished reading, you don't even know how it ends and yet you are suggesting it to me. I want one which you have read from cover to cover, which you strongly feel is the best."

"Trust me, even though am yet done with it, it's the best book I've ever read in my entire life and believe me you, you wouldn't wanna miss out on how it ends. Am pretty sure the last chapters are epic, just judging from what I've read so far. If you don't mind I can lead you the one I have and I can continue reading it online."

That certainly took Ken by surprise, her kindness was just was too much. Was this the start of the new Vivian or maybe she's just like this because they are taking about her favorite thing and that she would go back to her usual rude, cold and unfriendly girl if they ever shifted their attention on something else. Either way Ken became fond of the new Vivian.

"You would really do that?" surprised Ken asked.

"Yeah of course, it's not everyday you find someone who's interested in literature, who literally wants to sock his head and immensely be absorbed in a novel. I don't see that every day, it really warms my heart to find someone who's like that, just like me. I really want you to read this novel, it's really awesome and I would honestly love if we could finish it up together. But I know that's impossible, you will be just starting and I'm almost reaching the middle." Vivian said and gave a little laugh. "So shall we go now?"

"Yeah sure of course, with everything you've said about it, I now want to read it right away." Ken said delighted, enjoying the presence of the new Vivian.

As they walked our of the store, to Vivian apartment, Lola phoned Ken and told her that everything was ready and the venue was moved to Ken's apartments.

Ken became exasperated that she just had to call and ruin everything, cause now if he had to bring up something not related to novels or anything to do with that Vivian would go back to her usual self and attitude, and how would he ever manage to persuade her to go to the party if she became like that.

Ken couldn't just get it, of all the places they just had to move the party to his place. But that was the least of his worries, the real challenge now was how to make Vivian go with him to this same party.