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Chapter 3

After hours of listening to the teacher discuss about the school and classroom policies, the bell finally rang for recess. Students noisily walk out of the room to buy food but Aleisha stayed in her chair and started to scan through her English textbook.

"Hey, aren't you gonna eat?", Ash asked her.

"No, I'm on a diet.", Aleisha replied.

"What? Diet? You look perfectly healthy. And a few extra pounds wont make you any less beautiful. You don't want to look like those anorexic models on high end magazines, do you?"

Aleisha gave him a disgusted look as a sign of disapproval. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"No, no. It's not like that. But I'm just saying. Don't starve yourself and eat.", he answered defensively, fearing that she misunderstood his words.

"No. I had heavy breakfast so I dont need to eat snacks in the morning. Just go out and explore the school and maybe meet new friends. I'll just stay here till the next subject.", she answered him before looking down at her book.

"You sure you'll be fine?", he assured and she just nodded as a response. He has no choice but to go to the canteen alone so he walked and walked until he realized something. HE DOESN'T KNOW WHERE THE CANTEEN IS!

The people nearest to him were two boys who were happily talking to each other. They seem to be bestfriends. Okay, I think it's time I make new friends here, Ash thought before he approached them.

"Hey dude, uhm, do you know where the canteen is?", Ash started a conversation.

The smile on the other boy's lips faded as he looked straight into Ash's eyes and quickly answered a very solid "NO."

The other guy was alarmed at the rude attitude his friend was showing so he gave him a warning stare and replied to Ash's question.

"Hey dude. Sorry for his attitude. He's just a little grumpy. I'm Calvin. And this grumpy guy over here is Michael. And the canteen is downstairs, if you pass the center stairs, just turn right. That's where the canteen is located. We are actually on our way there so you can go with us if you want."

"What?! No!", Michael protested. Calvin gave him another warning stare that made him shut his mouth up. He wasn't able to say another word so they went to the canteen together.

While waiting for his turn in the line, Ash thought of buying food for Aleisha since she might be hungry. He doesn't even know why that girl seems so special to him. Maybe because she was the first person he met in school? He doesn't have any idea, so instead of falling into deep thinking, he just brushed it off.

After buying food and a little conversation with Calvin and Michael, Ash bade them goodbye and immediately went back to the classroom to eat.

Aleisha was still engrossed in the book she was reading when she saw a pair of feet in front of her. She got annoyed as she hated getting disturbed while reading so she looked up with her brows raised and saw a hand holding a pack of biscuits. She looked up even higher and saw Ash's smiling face.

"What's that?", she asked.

"Food? Biscuit?", he answered sarcastically, probably just to annoy her more. She just rolled her eyes in response and went to read her book again.

Ash sat on his chair and kept on insisting the biscuit to Aleisha so in the end, after minutes of persuation, she accepted it.

While eating, Aleisha felt like Ash was watching her so she looked at him and yes, she was right. He is indeed watching her eat. She felt conscious so she stopped eating and asked him, "Is it your hobby to watch people eat? It's a little bit...awkward."

He chuckled and answered, "No, It's just that you look so cute, i cant help myself."

"No, It's just that you look so cute, i cant help myself."  

The sentence repeated in Aleisha's mind and it caught her offguard. No one has ever complimented her like that.

She felt her heartbeat race and knew that she was blushing furiously right now. She really hope he wouldn't notice. She wish the teacher would come in right now to distract him and...

"Good morning class!"

Oh. Great timing. Thanks for saving me, teacher.

So after a boring lecture about school and classroom policies in two more subject periods, Aleisha and Ashton took their lunch together inside the classroom while facing each other. And like what he did this morning, Ashton watched her eat so she just pretended she didn't notice and convinced herself that it's not awkward. But she failed and looked at him to tell him off but he was quick to avoid her eyes and ate like he wasn't doing anything against her will.

At the end of the day, Aleisha concluded that this would be such a very boring day if not because of Ashton who kept on pestering her. Weird thing is, she likes it. And she becomes very conscious everytime he does it that she started asking herself, why?