Leap of Faith

Day Sixteen

*~*~* Cate *~*~*

The boys all stare at Liam Lexton like he’s an alien newly arrived from Mars, but seeing as we’re sat at my table today, Liam was more than welcome, not that the guys felt the same. Liam shifted in his chair uncomfortably and looked at me helplessly. I shrug and drop my head back down to read the rubric of the assignment again.

I’m not sure why the guys were acting all protective of me. I swear, from their on edge alertness you’d think that Zach, Landon and Colton were my personal bodyguards, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on Liam. Colton was particularly protective and was practically stuck at my side. From the corner of my eye, I could see his body tensing every time Liam moved or spoke, and it was getting old pretty quick.

“What’s up with you?” I ask Colton but never taking my eyes off the sheet in front of me.

“I don’t like this guy,” he answers in a hushed whisper. “He looks like he wants to eat you every time he looks at you. It’s weird.”

“It’s fine. It’s only Liam Lexton,” I say before looking up at my physics partner and smile. “This seems easy enough. You do the research and all the lab work, and I’ll take the photograph. Now, here’s the hard part- choosing your physics phenomenon.”

Liam blinks at me. “But I already know what I want to do,” he says with a frown. “I want to do the Mpemba Effect.”

I look at Liam carefully and wondered why exactly he needed a tutor. I had already looked through his physics binder and saw that he could grasp the concepts really well, but there was something about Liam that seemed off. Whenever Mr. Hall set any homework, Liam would always make up excuses that he’d forgotten it at home, or that he simply hadn’t completed the work, and avoided giving anything in to be graded. Bu then, all the work in his binder was complete, and correct.

Liam Lexton wasn’t as stupid as he liked people to believe if his mathematical equations were anything to go by. Far from it, actually. He was AP material, but in class he liked to act the idiot.

“The Mpemba Effect?” I ask, slightly taken aback by his suggestion. “That’s what you want to do? Really?”

“Yes,” Liam answers quickly. “And, yes, I do know what it is before you even ask. It’s when hot water freezes quicker than cold water. I know I look stupid, but I’m actually pretty smart.”

“You hide it well,” Colton butted in with  his cutting remark. I knock my elbow into his side and hear him curse under his breath. I gave him a stern glare but Colton brushed it off easily. “What? He does hide it well.”

Liam nods along with Colton’s character assessment and shrugs his shoulder casually. “I’m dyslexic,” he explains with no hint of embarrassment- not that he has anything to be ashamed about. “I suck at anything academic because I’m restricted by time, but I do pretty well outside school with tutors and stuff. Plus, baseball is kinda my comfort zone.”

“Well, physics is my comfort zone,” I smile supportively at Liam. “Well, physics, math and photography, so you have the perfect partner right here.”