Deadly Obsession (unedited)

Chapter 2

(Helena's POV)

"Miss Blackthorn. Please do wake up. Our class is going to start in five minutes." Ber Lin Wang, our teacher in Mandarin woke me up. Don't ask me why we have this kind of class. I don't know either. I noticed that we are the only people inside the classroom, so the program hasn't ended.

"Nín hâo lao shi." Good morning, teacher. I greeted him and he smiled at me.

"Ní hâo ma?" How are you? He greeted back.

Of all my high school teachers, he is the only one whom I learned to like. Maybe that is because he is only 24, only a little bit older than us. Or maybe because he is the only teacher who doesn't give a damn about Julian's money. All the others follow Julian like they are his faithful lapdogs.

Ber lin is pure Chinese but he is here to teach because of a program offered by our school. He is good looking. He has black hair and slanted brown eyes. He smiles like a toothpaste commercial model and many of my schoolmates have a crush on him.

"Wo hen hao. Xíe xie." I'm fine. Thank you. I said.

"Kai Fei?" Coffee?  He raised his coffee mug.

I shook my head. Unable to think of any Mandarin words.

My classmates suddenly entered the room and I grimaced when I heard their hushed voices.

"Look at her, trying to flirt with our teacher. She's really pathetic, as if he would even look at her." Chloe Lawson said bitchily. She's one of my classmates who have hots for our teacher.

"She looks like she filched her clothes from the salvation army. Talk about fashion failure." Santana Lois remarked snidely.

"You're right. Maybe she's bewitching him and that's why he talks to her. Damn. If I could just talk Mandarin but my mum says its stupid and one day, China will declare war against us anyway." Her friend, Anna Kent said and I grimaced.

Ber Lin made it a point that he doesn't care about the politics or war.

"Zao shang hao." Good morning. Our teacher said and the class started. I just wrote the Chinese characters and pinyin on the board while almost all of my classmates made extracurricular activities. He is on the middle of his lively discussion when the door was thrown open.

Ber Lin frowned when he saw Julian enter the classroom.

"You're thirty minutes late, Mr. Ashcroft." He said in his thick English accent.

Julian just shrugged and sat down on his chair which is on the farthest corner of the room, and unfortunately, behind me.

"Good morning, freak. How was your day? I had fun earlier bullying you and having wild rendezvous with Riley on the woods behind the gym while all of you listened to that boring program. How about you, enjoyed being bullied?" I heard him whisper behind me.

"Stop it. I'm trying to study, Ashcroft." I said coldly. Not correcting him that I also didn't attend the program.

"Tch. You're really boring. You should be grateful that I allowed no one to touch you. No one is allowed to bully you except me. I am your very own punisher." He said proudly.

I closed my eyes, remembering the days when I got shoved aside, kicked around, spray painted, pig blood soaked, and locked inside utility cabinets. My bully classmates used to make fun of me until Julian declared that he should only be the one who makes fun of me because my dad used to work on his dad's store as a salesman. So I should also serve him like a lowlife being that I am. My dad already left us but Julian did not.

There was a knock on the door and principal smith entered the classroom. Walking behind her is the transfer student, Lucas Parker.

"Zao shang hao, Ber Lin. This is Lucas Parker and he is a transfer student from St.Peter's all boys academy in Washington."

"Uhm... Hi? You can call me Luke for short." He smiled at us.

"Oh hi, I'm Amanda!" Amanda Brown fluttered her eyelashes at him.

I rolled my eyes secretly. Talk about a girl in a relationship flirting with a guy.

"Uhm.. Hi Amanda." He said and she giggled.

"You may sit beside miss Blackthorn." Principal Smith said and Luke went to the vacant chair beside me.

"Hi Helena. I never thought that you'd be my classmate." He smiled at me.

I just stared at him and continued to copy the pinyin on the board.

The classes went on and I just found myself hearing the last bell that indicates the end of our last class which is History and Geography.

"...Class dismissed.... See you tomorrow." Our old teacher, Mr. Birkins, finally ended our class after an hour of endless droning.

I am about to exit our classroom when I saw Lucas standing in front of me. I shot him an irritated look. "Why do you keep on bugging me?" I asked him.

"Hey! I'm not here to make you angry. I just want to make friends with you. I noticed you were all alone all the time and you rarely speak. Can I ask you out, like grab some coffee or burger?"

"I'm busy." I shook my head and started to walk away.

"Even just coffee?" He smiled at me, a childlike look on his sea green eyes.

"No. She won't go with you..." Michael suddenly appeared right beside me and held my arm tightly. "...Right Helena?" He said, his handsome features very dark. Blue eyes stared at me darkly beneath his eyeglasses.

"Why did you do that?" I found myself asking him.

"Julian will not be happy if he finds that an outcast like you is being friends with his dad's friend's son. You know that my cousin doesn't want you to befriend other people for some reason I myself don't know. That boy's dad and Julian's dad were buddies back in college, and that boy's dad is going to work on developing a new store for Julian's dad." He simply said. "Besides, I personally don't want you to talk to that boy. It bugs me that you even talk to him." He said in a very low voice but I still heard him. My eyes widened.

"What are you talking about?" I said coldly.

"I love you. Ever since we were kids." He simply said. He pushed up his glasses and walked away.

I stood on the empty corridor, mixed emotions swirling inside me.

A/N: Ní Hâo! chapter 2 done. Yay! Hope my mandarin is alright. I'm still currently studying how to read Chinese pinyin (the one with four tones like mà) and characters. (The ones we cannot even read) so enjoy :)

Notice: I changed the description on Ber Lin's eyes. I wasn't aware that the word I formerly used was a racial slur. Having slanted eyes is pretty common in my country and I personally don't get offended when my eyes are called chinky. But anyway..... as a form of respect, I changed the description.