Shy Whispers || Michael Clifford

4

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Chapter 4

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I sit down and sigh as my bag slides off my shoulder and onto the table. I open up the front pocket and turn off my phone. I don't want to be distracted by Julia today. I open up the zipper forcefully and take out my trigonometry worksheet that I need to finish by next period. I hear Michael sit down at the end of the table like normal and I greet him with a quick smile.

Alright, let's do this.

'Number 1: Sin of pi/6. '

Aaand I already don't understand. Well that's just fantastic, isn't it?

I groan to myself and open up my notes. I search the jumble of math terms and doodles and find where I explain how to do these problems. I read the explanation carefully, constantly looking back and forth between the notes and my worksheet.

So sine equals the y-values. Alright I can do this. I draw a small unit circle on the top of my page and stare at it for a couple seconds. Slowly but surely, I find the answer and silently congratulate myself. With some new-found courage, I look at the second problem and work my way through it.

When I finish the first set of problems, I take a deep breath and look up from my paper. It only took ten minutes, so I still have a good amount of time left.

The next section has less problems, but, they look more challenging. I read the first question and drop my pencil on my paper in defeat. This is hopeless. 'Csc of 5pi/4.' These aren't even English words. How do they expect me to understand this stuff?

I stare at the paper and think about the problem for a minute before giving up. I lift my head and let out a breath, curiously sneaking a glance at Michael. His eyes are fixed on my worksheet, scanning over the problems. I try to discretely cover up my answers. If they're wrong, I don't want him to think I'm stupid.

His eyes flicker up to mine, and he holds the gaze for a couple seconds before speaking slowly.

"Negative root two."

"What?" I answer, not sure I heard him right.

"The answer. Negative root two," he repeats and looks down at my paper again to get the message across. I look down at my paper and look back up at him with a grin.

"How'd you get that?" I ask. I usually never ask questions. The embarrassment of not knowing the answer is too much for me. That and admitting that you need help. But Michael is different.

He smiles and stands up, cautiously makes his way over to me. He looks at me silently as if he's asking for confirmation that it's okay to sit down. I look up at him and nod, and he takes a seat on my left.

I try to scoot away from him on my chair as discretely as I can. It's not that I don't want to sit next to him, it's just I'm not very comfortable with people being close to me. I guess you could call it minor claustrophobia, but I just call it liking my personal space.

He pulls the paper towards him so he can get a better view and points at my unit circle at the top of the page.

"This here," he says and points, looking into my eyes, "is where 5pi/4 lies. The coordinates of this point is.." he trails off, expecting me to answer.

"Root two over two?" I answer, squinting my eyes slightly.

His eyes bore into mine as the sides of his lips lift up into another perfect smile. I bite my lip, trying to keep myself from smiling as well.

His eyes flicker down from my eyes to my lips quickly. He clears his throat slightly and adjusts his sitting position on the chair, looking back down at my paper with the slightest pink tint on his cheeks.

"Right. So cosecent is one over sine. One divided by root two over two," he explains, taking my pencil and writing the equation down next to the question. I watch his hand scribble the work and admire his handwriting. Normally boys' handwriting is messy and all over the place. Michael's is tilted and small and very beautiful. It explains why he's so good at drawing.

"And then the twos cancel out on the top and bottom and you're left with root two," he finishes and puts down the pencil, looking up at me.

I gaze down at the notes that he's written an look back at him. He's looking at me expectantly, like he wants me to do something. I stare at his work again and the light bulb in my brain turns on.

"Oh and it would be negative because it's in the third quadrant, right?" I ask, picking up the pencil and adding a negative symbol to the answer. I look over for confirmation and he smiles.

"Good job," he chuckles and looks at my paper. "Do you need help with any of the others?"

"No I think I'm good," I reply and shake my head. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he says and stands up. He begins walking back to his seat when he turns around and leans against the table. "So you've been eating more?"

"Yeah."

"Good," he says and walks back to his seat.

The next ten minutes were torture, but I still managed to complete the last section of my worksheet in record time. I smile brightly to myself and put away my math things, looking over at Michael.

He looks over and gives me a questioning look and I just nod. He flashes me yet another grin in return and turns away, but I continue to watch him.

Just looking at his appearance, you wouldn't think he's that smart or that he could draw like a boss. He probably hides it. I don't know why though, if I was that talented, I would flaunt it like nobody's business.

I wonder what else Michael is good at. What if he can sing. That would be so amazing. When guys can sing, it makes them like 100x hotter. Just saying.

The bell rings and the entire room jumps as they try to get out as fast as they can. I pack my things and double check that everything is set before swinging my backpack over my shoulder. I walk over and wait by the door for everyone to go out. As I walk to trigonometry class, I can't help but let my mind wander to Michael.

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A/N~ Sorry if any of you guys haven't taken trigonometry because that probably didn't make any sense to you.

Either way, this story almost has 200 reads! Thank you guys so much!! I know it's not even that much, but hey this is my first story. Who knows, maybe I'll write more after this! I love you guys!