Chapter 31: Chapter 31: A teen’s first kiss.
(Wow I hit 1 Million. Nice! )
[Edward's POV]
Question number 1-
1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
For an ordinary man, they would answer the question with 10 cents. But, the answer was actually 5 cents. If the bat cost 1$ more, then the difference between the total and how much more the bat cost needed to be cut in half as the price of the bat and the ball is the same thing without the difference.
So the bat would've cost 1.05$, and the ball cost 0.05$. I jotted down 0.05$ on the space provided for the answer and moved on to the next question.
Question number 2; If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
"Simple enough." I muttered and placed 5 minutes on the answer space. The time wouldn't be shortened or increased as one machine would still take 5 minutes to finish one widget.
"Also, what the hell are widgets?"
Question number 3: In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
Many students scratched their heads as they tried to answer the quiz. I jotted down 47 days as the answer and moved on to the next question.
"It doubled half the size. So I just need to minus one day cause the whole lake is covered in 48 days. I just need to go backward instead of calculating it from the start." I muttered.
Managing to finish all of the questions before the bell rang, I yawned as I placed the paper on the teacher's desk and finally finished school for today. I cycled home as usual and never once did I think the test would mean something more than a simple test for the grade 8 students.
-3rd Person POV-
Teachers lounge, Franklin Middle School.
"Hmm, that's weird." The balding math teacher muttered as he checked his students' answers for the test he had given before this.
"What is?" An African-american, biology teacher with a cultural scarf on her head asked.
"Edward Newgate scored 167 in his IQ test. That's impossible…right?" The math teacher asked.
"Wait. Seriously?" The Bio teacher snatched Edward's test paper from the math teacher and checked it by herself.
"I already tripled checked it. That's why I'm confused." The math teacher said.
"HENDERSON! You got a little genius in your class!" The bio teacher shouted at Edward's homeroom teacher.
Turning to the sound of the voice, Mrs Henderson asked with a calm tone that couldn't be broken by any news she heard, "Alex? Or Sanjay?"
"NO! It's that Newgate kid! He's a gosh darn genius! I can't even solve some of these questions!" The bio teacher was excited and walked hurriedly to Mrs Henderson to show her Edward's test papers.
"I see. Good for him." Mrs Henderson replied casually, causing the bio teacher to forget to shout her mouth.
"Is he really a genius? I know his results are improving, but that can barely support the genius statement." Another teacher said sarcastically.
"Wasn't he the one who created his dad's website? I heard rumors about it, but I didn't think that it's true before this." The gossipy English teacher who's pregnant again for the 5th time said.
"So. He's sleeping in my class 'cause he thinks the lessons are too easy? As if." The math teacher snided before he realized something. "Wait. He didn't join any clubs right?"
"No. He's still not joining anything even after I talked to him," Mrs Henderson said, her stoic face finally showing a trace of sadness causing all the other teachers to be baffled.
"That ungrateful little- Just wait, I'm going to make him register with the math club whether he likes it or not!" The white-knight, balding math teacher finally stood up from his desk to try and comfort the prettiest teacher in the whole school.
"No. I will make him join the academic decathlon. It's nex month, and we need another student as one of the participants had transferred school last week. If his IQ is really 167, it will be easy for him to take the transfer students place." The principal suddenly walked in and joined the conversation.
The other teachers that were going to chime in were silenced by the principal's presence. Not because they were afraid of the principal, but the man's charisma had taken over the entire room the moment he walked in.
The old, african american principal with a head full of white hair said, "Anyway, get ready for the retest to make sure that he really is a genius. He needs to join Alex and Sanjay in their training as fast as possible to represent the school."
The other teacher nodded at the principal's words and they went to do their own thing. The math teacher and Mrs Henderson would be responsible for the retest to make sure that Edward's test result was accurate.
They also needed to convince him to enter the decathlon – which was the main concern of the teachers as Edward never showed any signs of willingness to participate in a group activity before this.
"Maybe…I can get Alex to talk to him…?" Mrs Henderson muttered.
[Edward's POV]
As I returned home, I laid down on the living room sofa and started to text Abby.
-Text's-
Edward: Are you coming today?
Abby: What if I'm not?😏
Edward: Then I'm going to be sad. Even the Tiramisu I'd made especially for my girlfriend will go to waste.🤧
Abby: Do you think I'm a small animal that could be tempted by some food offering?🤨
Edward: Yeah. An adorable baby Panda. It suits your color scheme of black and white too.🐼
I knew that Abby would be furious after I texted her that, but she didn't respond as I expected her to. It was as if she had talked to someone else before replying to my message.
Abby: This baby panda is busy today, so I'm not coming. You should suffer while I'm not there. Also, send the tiramisu to my house. I'll eat it when I get home.😮💨
Edward: Where are you going? 🤔
Abby: Just someplace with Haley.
Shocked, I suddenly sat up from my laying down position and texted Abby back with a bright smile on my face.
"Really? Is she your best friend now? Good for you! I'm happy for you!" 🤩
Abby: 😨😨
[Abby's POV]
"So, what did he say?" Haley asked gleefully after we're meeting at the DMV together. She was only there to get her driving permit while I was here to take a picture for my newly-issued license.
"Nothing. He's being idiotic again." I replied with a panicked look, quickly hiding Edward's last text from Haley even though I showed her everything else. While I was typing with Ed before, she was beside me, giving me guidance for how to make Edward crazy about me.
Haley guessed something from my reactions, "He's talking shit about me isn't he? How dare he!"
[Haley's commentary]
"Yeah. When Abby asked me to teach her about it, I had a choice but to reject her. But then I remember what Edward said about liking people based on character, not their reputation. So…I tried talking with Abby…and it turns out…She's…kinda awesome?" Haley said while sitting crossed legged at her sofa.
While crossing her arms, Haley smiled a bit and added, "I understand why Edward is dating her now. She's feisty, hot, smart, but unlike Alex, Abby doesn't put people down when you're talking to her."
Albeit dissatisfied, Haley continued, "So yeah. I'm teaching her how to make Edward's crazy. Also…Abby is only going to be here till the summer. So whatever relationship they have, it will be over by the time she goes back to New York."
[Haley's commentary ends]
"No. He didn't." I hurriedly defended Edward.
If Haley snatched the phone and tried to read the message about her being my first female friend, I would have no choice but to hit her head so hard in hope that she would get an amnesia, and repeat the action if she woke up with her memories intact.
Suddenly feeling a chill in the air, Haley didn't continue to pursue the matter and we split up as we needed to stand on different lines. The DMV moved slowly as usual, and we finally met again when the sky was almost dark.
"Tara's coming to pick me up and we're going to go to the mall after this? Wanna come? We can give you a makeover." Haley offered after we'd finished each of our things.
She failed her driver's test so she couldn't get her license permit. She needed to wait until the summer to take it again.
"Why do I need a makeover?" I asked in confusion.
With the same confusion as me, Haley asked, "Why don't you want a makeover? Are you going Goth your entire life?"
"If I can. Then…Yes." I replied honestly. I could see Haley was holding herself back from trying to say something, so I asked, "What?"
"Nothing. If you look bad in it, I will try to convince you to change your style. But Goth stuff suits you." Haley said.
A bit taken aback by the sudden compliment, I said with a flat tone, "Oh. Thanks. Edward said the same thing before. He also calls me a big tiddy goth gf, but I didn't know what that meant exactly."
"Your boobs?" Haley asked while leering pervertedly at my low-cut tank top.
"I got a feeling that it wasn't specific to that." I answered while glancing at her chest that wasn't inferior to my own.
"Sooooo….You're coming or not?" Haley asked again.
"Hmm…I will…" I replied as I was following Haley's advice to leave Edward wanting for me. Little did I know that my little outing was the last thing on Edward's mind at this moment.
[Edward's POV]
I received a call from Jacob to come to his house after Abby ignored my texts. While confused, I took my bike and cycled 15 minutes away from my house to get to where Jacob was living.
Jacob lived in a cream coloured, Foursquare type house with a few potted plants on his front porch. I knocked on the door after putting my bike in the driveway.
"Who is it?" A high-pitched, sweet voice of his mother asked from inside the house.
"I'm Edward. Jacob called me." I responded. Then, I heard a rapid sound of footsteps descending from the upper floor and the sound gets louder as it gets to the door.
Jacob opened the door abruptly and pulled me into the house.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"They are here!" Jacob replied with a shaky voice.
"Who?" I asked in confusion. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice calling for me from the house's kitchen.
"Hello Ed~" Jenna ran and hugged me from behind, leaving Elsa also talking to Mrs Green. Dumbfounded by the suddenness of the situation, I turned to ask Jacob for the explanation, but he was already frozen from being in the presence of the girls.
Letting out a long sigh, I turned to Jenna and asked, "Why are you here now?"
While playing with her hair, Jenna replied, "Well…We're going to do the homework together. So I thought, " why not now" ? I texted Elsa to ask her to come with me, and brought her here."
"I don't even have any of my books with me. Nor did I bring a pen." Elsa complained as she joined the conversation.
"How do you have Jacob's address?" I asked again. Jenna avoided my eyes and replied, "We're…friends from elementary school. I know everyone's home."
Jacob's mother walked toward us while wiping her hand with a napkin. Wearing an apron over her modest, christian outfit of the month pink dress, the 1.6 m tall Mrs Green said, "I was surprised when Jacob's friend suddenly showed up. You can go to Jacob's room to study together. Jenna already told me about your homework assignment and how you need privacy to do it."
It never even occurred to the christian mother that getting a bunch of hormonal teenagers inside one closed room would be a bad idea as she believed that Jacob was such a good, good boy!
When I saw the short mom, all I could think about was the big train going through a small tunnel and cracking it, meme– as I knew Jacob's dad was almost 2 meters tall and an ex-football player.
"We can do it at the dining table or the living room too Mrs Green." I said.
"Nonsense. I need to cook in the kitchen, and Jacob's brother is watching the tv in the living room.." Mrs Green said sweetly. Jacob's 8 years old brother was watching cartoons at this time, and he was too focused on the tv that he didn't move a bit.
As I turned to his brother's direction, I finally saw that it wasn't that his brother was unmoving because he was watching the tv, but because of the girl's presence that he'd frozen on his spot. Jacob's brother was even worse than his brother when it came to girls.
"Go upstairs and I will bring you some snacks in a minute." Mrs Green said decisively.
Helpless about the matter, I could only follow the group from behind before we finally got into Jacob's room. His room was filled with football players posters, rare-dried plant collections, and also a cute teddy bear on his bed.
Jacob widened his eyes as he saw the teddy bear and he threw the bear quickly through the open window. With a begging eyes, he turned to look at me.
"Well. There was nothing on the bed when we got in." I muttered. Finally getting the privacy she wanted, Jenna sat on the edge of Jacobs bed and said, "Why don't Edward and I use the bed to do our assignment, while you two used the desk?"
"Nah. I think we can all do this together." I said.
"Elsa, will you be fine working with Jacob?" I turned to Elsa and asked. She understood what I was talking about, so she replied, "I think…we can write what we want to say to one another using a piece of paper."
"I see. Maybe I will teach Jacob some sign language after this." I said.
"Elsa will find a way. Let's do our work. I brought the book." Jenna said while clinging on my arm, pushing her body towards me repeatedly.
To trick Jacob's mom, Jenna did dress a bit modestly. Wearing a white sweater and a mini skirt, but she was wearing a knee high boot so it only revealed a bit of her thigh that passed Mrs Green judging eyes.
"Is it a bit hot in here?" Jenna suddenly said and then she took off her sweater, revealing the white, paper thin tube top she was wearing. Of course, she added the fatality towards Jacob by going braless and pulled the top of her clothes in an attempt to cool herself down from the heat.
"If you want to lie, do it better. It's 68 degrees (20 degrees celsius) here." I said. "Let's do the assignment in an hour. I have a lot of things to do today."
As the room was cold, Jenna's nipple started to protrude through the clothes, almost giving Jacob a nosebleed. Elsa stares daggers at him and said, "Oh. So you like big boobs? I thought you only had eyes for me?"
Dumbstruck by the statement, Jacob quickly texted Elsa to calm her down.
Jacob: I can't help it. Please don't be mad at me.
"Hmph!" Elsa snorted in anger and started flipping through the pages angrily. Jacob tried to text, write, and even gestured to Elsa to try and calm her down, but nothing was working.
While Jacob was trying his best to get closer to Elsa, I was trying hard to keep Jenna away from me. She removed her boots because in her words, she didn't want to get Jacob's bed dirty from the shoes.
"Ed, come on, lay down next to me." Jenna said, trying to get me to get up on the bed while I was sitting on the floor next to the bed, trying to do the work as fast as I could.
"How about your tutoring Jenna? Did you give up on that?" I asked without looking at her direction.
Pouting her cheek, Jenna slid closer to me and whispered to my ear.
"I want to…by the tutors that come to my house…had all been 'eaten' by my mom. No one survived, men…or women. So how do I study?"
I knew she was trying to arouse a reaction from me, so I ignored her dirty talk and said, "Copy this paragraph for me."
Jenna was a bit irked at my response and she turned toward Jacob and Elsa's direction. Even without saying anything, Jenna saw Jacob was trying his hardest to get Elsa's attention, and jealousy bubbled up inside her as she wanted me to do the same thing for her.
"Elsa, tell Jacob about your first kiss." Jenna suddenly said. Elsa turned to her and said, "What are you, Crazy?"
"You know. Elsa never had her first kiss before this. She said she was waiting for…someone…special." Jenna said, trying to instigate her friend even more.
"So Jacob. Do you want to kiss me? Or her?" Jenna suddenly asked, causing the atmosphere in the room to turn weird. I noticed that Elsa got a bit hurt by her friend's words, so I decided to step in.
"You're waiting for someone special Elsa? That's great cause we have something in common."
"W-What?" Elsa was a bit taken aback by my statement, but then she replied with some embarrassment, "You know…You only get your first kiss once…"
"Nah. When you get with a new guy and kiss him, it will be your first kiss too." Jenna said. "Jacob. The offer still stands."
"Stop trying to cause some trouble and do your work." I said a bit sternly toward Jenna.
"Why should I? I truuuuuly want to kiss Jacob. I think he's hot." Jenna said mischievously and slid through the bed to walk toward Jacob.
"Sure. Kiss him then." I said. Jenna was stunned and she turned back to me, "What?"
"I said. Kiss him. Jacob, good for you. You're finally going to get your first kiss. Do you want me to give you and Jenna some privacy?"
"Ed- Are you crazy?" Elsa widened her eyes in shock.
"What? Jenna wants to do it, so just let her do it."
"Well. I'm not doing it now!" Jenna said and crawled back to the bed. I heard her mutter in a tiny voice, "Can't you be a little bit jealous?"
But honestly, I couldn't care less if she wanted to go to town on Jacob right then and there. All I want right now was to finish the work here and return home to continue building the Pritchet's closet system and website so that I could get the money.
Jenna didn't even mind trying to use her friend to get a boy jealous. She didn't even care if she had hurt Elsa deeply as her friend had told her before that Jacob might be the special someone she might have shared her first kiss with, but Jenna didn't even care about it and tried to take Jacob's first kiss on her own.
I saw some tears in Elsa's eyes, and I wondered why Elsa put up with her friend's bratty antics. Jacob was also useless in the matter, so I walked up to the couple while Jenna was copying what I told her to copy.
I pulled Jacob away from Elsa and said, "Jacob. You're a little bitch if you can't even comfort Elsa when she's hurt like this. I may have a solution for your problem, do you want to hear it?"
Jacob nodded furiously after I told him that. "Okay. Go to the fridge, and grab a can of your dad's beer."
Jacob shook his head furiously in objection, so I said again, "Do you want to say something to Elsa using your own voice or not? Don't you want to show her that you really like her?"
Jacob hesitated for a while before he ran toward the door and to the kitchen to grab the beer. In less than two minutes, Jacob returned with a can of beer.
I opened the beer and took a sip. "Nice. It's all frosty. Now, you try."
He shook his head again, so I said, "This is a gamble. Maybe you can speak to her after this, maybe you don't. If you really like her, you will take the chance."
It was a tiny room, so Elsa and Jenna heard everything that I had said. Jenna looked at the whole situation with extreme interest, while Elsa kept pretending she didn't hear anything even when her heart had responded by palpitating quickly in anticipation.
Jacob looked at Elsa's direction with a determined look on his face. Then, he snatched the beer from my hand and started taking big gulps of the drink.
"Nothing is happening Edward." Jacob said after the alcohol started to kick in. it was his first drink after all, and he didn't have any resistance to it.
"Even though I want to tell Elsa how pretty she looks today, I don't think I can ever do it. What is wrong with me Edward? Why am I like this?" Jacob asked and took another gulp. He staggered next to Elsa and said, "I really like you. You're the most beautiful girl that I ever met in my life."
Elsa was flabbergasted by Jacob's casanova wordings, but she was more excited that Jacob was finally talking to her. While sitting on the desk studying together, Elsa finally turned to look at Jacob's direction for the first time today.
"Du-de. You're talking now." Elsa said.
"No. I can't talk to you. You make my mind go numb…and my heart was filled with butterflies the moment I laid my eyes on you for the first time. I thought the feeling will go away when I see you next, but it's wouldn't go away causeeee…you're pretty every single dauhh.."
Jacob started to slur his words so I knew that the boy had gotten a bit drunk. He suddenly traced Elsa's lip with his finger. "I'm sad…I can never kiss this lip in my life."
"Elsa. What are you doing? Kiss HIM!" Jenna said in excitement. Even though Elsa wanted to do it, she had never kissed anyone before and was feeling a bit afraid inside. Then, her eyes turned to the liquid courage that Jacob used to finally be able to talk to her.
She snatched the half-empty can of beer from Jacobs hand and downed a few big gulps of the beer. Finally, she got the courage that she wanted.
"Kiss me." Elsa said decisively.
"What?" Jacob couldn't understand what was going on, so Elsa said again, "This is a dream. You can kiss me here."
"I can kiss you here?" Jacob smiled brightly and inches his face closer toward Elsa before giving her a peck on the cheek. He giggled like a kid after he said that, and he slammed his head on the desk study, finally out for the count.
"Ah. Lightweight." I said and I took the can of beer from the desk before I finished it all. Jenna saw that I had been drinking and she walked right up to me.
"Ed…this is a dream too.. Won't you kiss me?"
"Piss off." I said and threw the beer can out of the window. It landed next to the teddy bear that Jacob had thrown, so if anyone saw the teddy bear they would only think that it was an alcoholic teddy bear living like a hobo in the house's lawn.
"Wait. Why do I suddenly feel ominous?" I muttered. Then, I heard footsteps approaching the room, and I finally remembered that Jacob's mom wanted to bring some snacks for us.
"Oh shit!" I cursed and walked to Jacob. I slapped his face urgently and called out, "Dude. Wake up. DUDE!"
It's too late now. His mom had already entered the room.
"Hi. Are you all doing okay?"
"We're fine Mrs Green." I answered.
"Hmm? Is Jacob sleeping?" Mrs Green walked toward the desk study. Elsa retreated from there, leaving me alone with Jacob.
"Jacob. Hun. Why are you sleeping while all of your friends are working?" Mrs Green said and shook Jacob's body gently to wake him up.
"Oh Elsa. I want to kiss you…on the lips.." Jacob muttered with his eyes still closing.
"W-W-W-What?" Mrs Green stammered in shock. "Jacob! Get up NOW!" His mother shouted to wake him up as she thought that her son was having some inappropriate dream.
Jacob finally straightened his back and he turned toward his mother. He lunged toward his mother and said excitedly, "Elsa!"
"Oh shit!" I tried to push Mrs Green away, but it was too late. Jacob grabbed his mother's face forcefully, and gave her a deep kiss on the lips. The room became dead silent afterward.
"I'm…going to go now." Jenna said, already dressed modestly again and she pulled Elsa to run away together.
"I'm…going to go too." I muttered and I followed the girls from behind while silently giving a prayer to the fallen comrade. When I heard some puking sounds on the floor, I was already out of the front door.
200 meters away from the house, I finally realized, "Ah shit, I forgot the assignment."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone