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THREE

walking into english, alex was quick to ask the teacher to sign his paper for him. and, thankfully, the man wanted to get it done and out of the way so he could start his lesson, before looking around for a place for the boy to sit.

"you can sit over there in the back, next to ms. swan," he states, nodding at alex, and the boy nods back thankfully before heading back to the only open seat. he saw the kids from the next lunch table over staring at him as he walked by, with angela being the only one to smile at him. well, jessica did, but he could tell it was mostly fake.

sitting down next to the disassociating brunette, alex takes his things out of his bag, and eyes her for a second before turning his eyes back to the man at the front, who was starting to talk about shakespeare.

alex had a bit of trouble following along throughout the class, not used to the way english class was apparently taught in the states.

a bit before the end of the class period, the teacher paired them up with the people sitting next to them for a partner assignment, and alex turns to bella with a nervous smile. he didn't want to set the girl off, or anything else of the like, when he'd just found out she was still sensitive from being abandoned by her ex boyfriend.

"uh, hi," he finally musters up, continuing to smile as bella's practically vacant eyes finally landed on him. the dead eyed stare she gave him caused his stomach to churn uncomfortably for a few moments, but he quickly brushed it off and decided to keep being pleasant.

"i'm alex. uh, i'm new, and we kinda have a, uh, assignment to do? if you're not up for it, though, i can do it myself. not that i'm suggesting you're incapable of doing it, though, i didn't mean it like that at all, and-"

"it's fine," her soft voice calls out, and alex snaps his eyes up to meet hers, seeing a flicker of something in her eyes as she looks upon him. "we've been going over romeo and juliet all year, and we've done this same assignment before. i'll help."

still surprised that she'd actually said something to him, alex only nods mutely before turning to the worksheet the teacher had handed out. he reads over the instructions, having to do so multiple times before turning to bella and waiting to start the assignment.

"we just have to go over the themes and characterizations in the text for a couple of different scenes and characters. not too hard, i guess..." she trails off, already taking her pencil and starting to write something on the paper.

the two silently decided to split up the work between them, with bella lending alex her copy of the play for him to find in text examples, while she did more of the annotating, having read it multiple times since the start of the school year. they were easily able to finish, and were one of the first pairs to hand their worksheet in before the bell rang, which caused alex to sigh in relief.

"thanks for your help..." bella suddenly says, not looking at the boy, but it was obvious she meant her words just the tiniest bit. alex didn't take her aversion to him to heart, instead, he simply smiled at her and nodded.

"it was no problem, bella! thanks for lending me your book, too, i wouldn't have been able to do the work without it."

she nods back at him, gathering her stuff as the bell rings and immediately walking out of the room. alex watches her walk out, but then gets his own things together and leaves the classroom, since he was pretty much done with school for the day. the only other class he should've had was p.e. at the end of the day, but ostana had gotten him excused from it by telling the school he had a heart condition that didn't allow him to play sports.

neither of them wanted him to get exposed for accidentally using his enhanced strength or anything of the like.

walking out of the classroom, alex didn't expect to be ambushed by the four students he'd recognized from lunch, the four of them almost huddling around the doorway waiting for him.