Not Into Her

VII - The Princess and the Admirer

Wew! That was the first problem I faced when I'm still a teen. I couldn't believe the time went by and noticed it's almost mid-year. Six months has been passed since the opening of the school year and we wished we still have time to spend. We became afraid of what will be the result of the following exams and I can't believe I became the topnotch of the year level, not too shabby for a smart guy who just love a beautiful girl.

Three weeks later, I looked at Aprielle and sometimes asked myself if she had a boyfriend. But I didn't. Because I already know the answer to my love problem. It's impossible for a beautiful girl who is still not in a relationship if she had a face like that. I mean, at a time like this, every beautiful and extremely pretty girl has already found love to someone who she think is the one.

As I look at her in the way I always used, I realized that this feeling I felt wasn't just likeness or a simple crush. But love, in a way of looking. Looking may not be a simple way to express love but in a sense of self-appreciation to the person who I adore so much. I still can't stop looking at her even though our teachers started to lecture us their lessons for the day.

Three days later, someone told her that a man is always looking at her. And that was Mikaella Castañes. She's Kris's sparkling angel that who love on Von. I always tell the two boys not to fight over Mikaella so they did. Instead of fighting, they just hugged each other and told themselves a bet: if whoever marries Mikaella wins.

Aprielle walked to me when recess time came. I was having a good chat with Von and the other guys about the homework.

"So how's the homework, guys?" I asked.

Von and Kris shook their heads as a sign that they didn't do their homework. Daniel nodded, as a sign that he actually do his homework. So does Karl.

"You, Alex?" Aprielle said, coming from behind. "How's your homework?"

I didn't know who owned that kind of voice and I already knew that voice. Karl looked at me, looking at Aprielle from my back.

"Look behind, Alex." Karl said, ordered me to look behind.

So I did. I turned my head to the left and found Aprielle looking at me, standing on her toes.

"Heck, yeah!" I happily replied at her, still feeling my heart beats faster than before. "And yours?"

"Actually, I'm not sure that I was right on my answer." she said, smiling her lips at me. "Do you want to correct it for me?"

"Hmmm...." I said, with hesitation. "Let me see."

Aprielle pointed her right thumb to her back. "It's in my bag." she said. "Do you want me to get it?"

"Maybe I'll check it out when I'm done here." I said. "So I'll see you then."

"Okay." she said and head back to our room.

I looked back at the four and noticed they're all smiling for me.

"Looks like someone has a date for a lifetime." Daniel said, teasing.

"Shut up!" I said to Daniel. "It's not a date. Maybe it's just a tutor lesson."

Von looked around with his eyes closed. "Go now." he said. "Don't let her wait. Maybe this is the right time to tell her that you have a crush on her."

I looked around and turned my head to the boys. "Well, if that's the case, I'll just go then." I said. "But I won't tell her my feeling on her yet. Not this time."

Von stood up and looked at me laughingly. "We'll see you then in the next subject then." he said.

After the little discussion with my friends, I walked back to our classroom and walked inside. I looked around but I didn't found Aprielle inside. Then----

"What took you so long?" a young woman voice said.

I looked around, to my right and noticed Aprielle sitting on the right corner. She's sitting on a vacant armchair with her notebook in Mathematics. She looked at it and still didn't know what to write next.

"I see you're still busy in our homework." I said at her, still looking at her notebook.

I walked and sat on the armchair at the side of the armchair where Aprielle sat. I moved the chair towards Aprielle's and looked at her answer on her answer sheet. I looked at the solution she had and noticed she nearly correct it. So I taught her some of my advice.

"Well, you got them all correct." I said at Aprielle. "But you lack something. You see, you have to show your correction that proves your answer."

Aprielle looked at her answer sheet and noticed I was right. She forgot to write and show her solution that proves her answers are correct. Then she let me look at it and noticed that her answer with the solution is now right. So I looked at her and smiled.

"Correct!" I said with appreciation. "This will resolve your problem."

Aprielle looked at me with a smile.

"That's good news." she said.\

I stood up and looked at Aprielle. "Should I go back?" I asked.

"Wait!!" she stopped. "Could you teach me how to solve algebraic expressions?"

I looked at Aprielle and noticed her sparkling eyes looking at me, like a little child begging for a cone of ice cream. So I sat back and taught her what I understand so far. I didn't want Aprielle to flank her own grades but to respect a girl. That's what I read on the magazines and the newspaper when the past summer came. A respect a girl, just what they taught me well.

After a few minutes, the bell for the next two hours came and the end of my teaching on her. After teaching, all my classmates looked at us and noticed we're like so close together. So I stood up, Aprielle also stood up and she kissed my left cheek as a reward to me that teaches her the lessons she wanted.

Then I walked back to my chair and looked at the boys. I noticed they all looked at me and smiled.

"You looked seems happy." Von said. "Still you didn't told her that you really like her."

"Maybe she already knew, my friend." I said, in reply. "Maybe someone already told her about the feeling. And she never let it show that she already knew it."

"Do you know who?" Von asked.

I looked back at Aprielle and noticed she's having fun talking with her friends. "I don't know." I replied. "And I'm sure that informer is around here, somewhere."

Then noon came and all students walked out from their classrooms. They head out from the school gate and immediately walked to the restaurants near the main road and ate lunch. Aprielle and her friends walked out from the room and immediately head to the corridor. I and my friends had our lunch-box open and ate them and shared them with each other.

Aprielle looked at the room and noticed the room is very empty without students. She also looked at me and my friends eating our lunch from our lunch-boxes. Then she realized that she wanted to be with poor guys though she came and raised from rich people. She didn't know how to live with poor people and she already have a heart for them.

So she looked at her friends and smiled.

"Should I go with them?" she asked her friends.

Mikaella looked at Aprielle and noticed the girl pointed her left thumb to Alex and his friends inside the room. Then she looked back to Aprielle.

"Are you sure you wanna go and have with them?" she asked Aprielle.

"Yeah." she replied, at Mikaella. "For a change."

"Okay, then." Mikaella said, letting Aprielle go with the geeks. "Make sure that Stephen will never find this out."

Aprielle turned around and smiled. "Don't worry." she said without hesitation. "I'll never let my guard down when Alex ask me with him."

"Okay, then. We'll meet you back here then."

"Sure, sure."