The Academy

Chapter 16

Nicola's POV

The last few months have been amazing! Alicia and I are secretly dating now. I'll admit that it's weird to be in a secret relationship. I'd want nothing more than to shout from the top of a mountain that we are together, but she's not comfortable revealing her sexuality. As far as her peers and family know, she's straight. Alicia has also stressed that if she did come out, then her family's business would suffer in certain parts of the world. It sucks, but I respect her decision. It's a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving and I can't wait. I'm looking forward to going home and spending quality time with my family and friends.

Currently, I'm doing an experiment in chemistry class. My partner is this girl named Bella. Normally, she'd just politely smile and proceed to do the work with no further acknowledgment. It was like she was polite enough to smile, but had no interest in engaging with me anymore than she had to. Imagine my surprise when she decided to talk to me today. She formally introduced herself and told me where she's from and her interests. She started to ask me questions about my childhood and how I grew up. I was finally happy that she wanted to get to know me better, but I grew suspicious when her questions started to become a bit personal. For instance, she asked what my parents do and indirectly asked if we ever had any debt. I skirted around that question since I'm not gonna flaunt any negatives around in a school like this. I've come to learn that most people here have an ulterior motive.

The rest of the day dragged on until I got to my favorite class: math. I saw KJ scrolling through his phone, so I went behind and scared him. He jumped causing me to laugh. I then glanced over and saw Alicia with a small frown on her face. Her face immediately lit up when she made eye contact with me.

"Dude." KJ brought my attention back to him. "Why must you give me heart problems?" I laughed at his state. Out of the door my eye, I saw Alicia walk up to the teacher.

"Because it gives me joy. How are you today?"

"Better now that you're here." I blushed at his flirtatious attempt. I seriously need to think of a way to let him down nicely. He ran a hand through his ginger hair while giving me a boyish smile. "Oh, I almost forgot. I know you like bracelets." He pointed at my grandmother's bracelet on my hand. "So I got this for you." He pulled out a silver bracelet and placed it on my left hand. "How do you like it?" He looked at me nervously.

"It's beautiful, but I can't accept this. It probably cost-"

"Don't worry about the cost. It's a gift and it would mean the world to me if you accepted it. It's a thank you for helping me with math." I couldn't say no to him, so I just smiled and nodded. KJ cheered and pulled me in for a hug. I could've sworn I heard a scoff on the other side of the room, but I'm not sure. KJ broke the hug when the teacher commenced class. She taught the lesson for the first half hour and then gave us the rest of the class to work on the problem sets. Before KJ and I could begin working together, the teacher made an announcement.

"It was brought to my attention by one of your pupils that we should switch partners so that you get more experience working with others. If everyone could find a new partner." He clasped his hands together and sat down. KJ and I looked at each other sadly because we actually liked working together. KJ was my only friend in this class and I'm sure none of the other students would be interested in working with the poor girl. I sighed as KJ stood up and walked to another student. Ugh! I put my head in my hands.

"I wasn't expecting to get that kind of reaction from my girlfriend." I looked up to see Alicia sit in front of me. I smiled widely at her. She returned my smile with a small one.

"I didn't think you'd publicly sit with me."

"I've talked to you in front of an audience, so I don't see how this is any different." She placed her notebook on the table. "So, how was your day?"

"Good. My partner for chemistry is speaking to me now. Like she used to before, but it was just like pass the beaker or measure this. Now, she was asking about my family life and everything. I guess she's taken an interest in me for some reason." I decided to leave out the suspicious feeling I got from Bella. I didn't need Alicia taking any type of action, especially if Bella was just innocently asking a question.

"What's her name?" Alicia smiled at me.

"Bella Pendergast."

"The Texan girl." Alicia laughed. A thought then occurred to me.

"Were you the pupil that asked the teacher to switch up the groups?" Alicia blushed. Bingo! But why did she do it?

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyways, Bella is supposed to be southern. She should've been showing you southern hospitality from the beginning." She laughed. She gazed at me lovingly before continuing, "you once made the comment that I don't speak to you in math, so I wanted to put in the effort."

"Well, I appreciate it. What I don't appreciate is the stares we get." I cocked my head to the side. Alicia looked around the room and noticed that people were subtly staring at us.

"Looks like they're jealous that they're not the ones speaking to you... I was wondering if you were free tonight." Alicia nervously asked. We've been dating for a bit and she still gets nervous to ask me out? Very cute if you ask me.

"Depends on where we're going." I teased.

"It's a surprise." She smirked.

"Alrighty. I'm free at 7. Also, you should probably do some work so that you'll get credit for today." I glanced down at her blank page.

"I struggle in math, so you'll have to teach me." She smirked.