Azalea's POV

"Today we're going to start learning how to use Java," my computer science teacher stated, pulling up a PowerPoint presentation on her Smartboard.

Everyone looked up at him with wonder and fascination, eager to start learning. Even I felt a bit anxious to start, it would mean learning a new computer language. I was only familiar with Lua, the Roblox scripting language.

"I know a bit of Java," Alex, who was sitting to my right, whispered.

"Maybe you can help me," I replied quietly. "Is it a sort of game script?"

She nodded, and I made a small grunt and turned to face the teacher again.

He started explaining about its purposes, and answered my question about it being a game script or not. He also stated the games that it was used for as examples. Minecraft was one of them.

I found my eyes darting over to Hayden, whose expression was blank as he silently listened. I looked away, afraid that he might notice me glancing at him when Minecraft was being talked about then get suspicious again.

"Now, let's start learning some on our very own," the teacher finally said, moving over to his laptop to change what was being projected on the board. "Pull up the Java application."

We did as we were told, and then the page that came up had a few lines of code already on it. It said,

public class HelloWorld

public static void main(String[ ] args) {

System.out.printIn("Hello world!") ;

}

}

Huh. The same exact code that shows up when I get on Lua, except way simpler. It's just, print("Hello world!"). The teacher explained to us what the line of code meant, and what it did. I looked over and saw Alex quietly but rapidly typing lines of code.

"I think a bit was an understatement," I said to her when the teacher was done demonstrating and letting us interact and try coding out. "That's amazing! Where did you learn it?"

She paused, and faced me. "Oh, you know, tutorials, books. I have a huge interest for programming."

"I can see that."

She grinned, "It's pretty obvious now."

"So what did you program it to do?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh, I just had it print a load of things," she said. "Nothing too intense that could possibly crash it. I was just eager to start, that's all."

"How come you didn't you take a more advanced class?" I wondered.

She paused. Then, "Easy A. It looks good on my GPA. I also want to be able to take as many years of computer science as possible."

"Oh," I said. "Makes sense."

"So, did you hear that we're doing a partner project in science?" she asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"No, I didn't," I replied, my mind racing. That was the only other class I had with Hayden. Perhaps...

"Are the partners assigned?" I asked.

"No," she replied. "It's a long science fair project, so I guess the teacher wanted you to be happy with who you were with."

"Oh, okay," I said. "Hopefully I'll find someone."

"Hopefully," she agreed.

"Now how about you show me the basics of coding... I get the hang of things pretty fast..."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

I hauled my backpack over to the science room when the bell rang to signify the end of the third class. When I arrived, I plopped it down and pushed it with my foot under my chair, then quietly sat down. Since there was nowhere good to stare at, I suddenly became interested in the color of the wood my desk was. A chipped light brown. My peripheral vision caught sight of the teacher moving to the center of the room to give instructions. My gaze snapped up to look at her.

"We're starting a science fair project today," she announced. "It'll be more of a long term project, so I'll be letting you choose your partners."

The entire class perked up, except for me. I would usually prefer working alone, but I wasn't here for the same reasons as them. The class got up and started moving around to choose who they were working with. I stood up and skimmed the crowd for Hayden. He was awkwardly standing there, probably waiting for some decent person to ask. I made a beeline towards him.

"We're going to be partners because we're neighbors," I whispered. "Convenience reasons."

And just like that, it was settled. Hayden looked surprised, since it was so sudden.

"Okay..." he said slowly, sounding very confused.

I thought you didn't like me, his expression seemed to say. And I wasn't a big fan of you either.

"It's better than being paired up with someone you didn't know," I said.

"I don't know you, though," he replied. "Not really."

It was a good point, but my only answer to that was silence.

After a moment's pause, Hayden turned to me.

"Do you want to come over to my house this afternoon to start the project?" he offered. "It'll be good to start soon."

"That'll be great, thanks," I responded. "Directly after school?"

He shrugged. "Whatever works."

It was a pretty stiff conversation, but the first time we were both decent to each other. The gaining his trust tactic could be a success after all.

"Class, head back to your seats so I can explain how the project's going to work," the teacher said.

I looked at Hayden. "See you then."

"See you then."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

Getting off the school bus, Hayden waited up for me. When I caught up to him, we started walking in the direction of his house.

"You live with your parents?" he finally asked.

"That's an odd conversation starter," I replied.

"I was just wondering, since I never really have seen them around," he said.

"My mom's around all the time, but my dad's only around sometimes," I answered. I remembered the one occasion where I briefly saw my fake dad. Z told me that he quietly did tasks for my mission that tremendously helped the cause.

"How about you?" I asked as we turned a corner. "I've only met your mom."

"Oh," he said, and focused his gaze on the ground. "My dad? Never met him. He left when I was young."

"Oh," I said. "I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. I'm glad he left at an age I wouldn't remember him at. That way I would have no loss to grieve."

Wow, that kid can sure cope with a lot, I thought.

I glanced at him. He had his head up, face emotionless. He probably doesn't want anyone's pity.

We arrived at the doorstep of Hayden's house. Then he took off his shoe.

"What are you..." I started to say, then stopped.

Inside of his shoe was a house key. He plucked it out, put his footwear back on and unlocked the door. He opened it, and I walked inside.

"Will working in my room be okay?" Hayden asked me as I dropped my backpack on the ground.

"Yeah," I replied. "That'll be fine."

We headed upstairs, Hayden turned the doorknob to his room and pushed it open. Hayden flinched, and I stood on the tip of my toes to look over him. It was that boy that I saw with Hayden the other night. And he was sitting on the bed, looking as chilled out as ever.

"Hey, Hayden, what's up?" He waved, and got up. "Listen, I was wanting-"

He paused, and I saw that Hayden's head was repeatedly tilting towards me. The boy's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak, but Hayden quickly cut him off.

"Azalea, this is my cousin Ashton," he said hastily. "He decided to pay me a surprise visit, so sorry about that."

"I didn't-"

"Can we actually go inside your room instead of standing here all day?" I interrupted with a twinge of annoyance. "Your cousin can stay here and watch us work if it makes you all feel better."

Hayden took a few steps in the room, and I followed. Then I got to see Ashton better. He had blue eyes and lighter brown hair. His hair wasn't messy like Hayden's, in fact neat for where he lived.

"Hey," I said in an effort to be friendly.

I stared at him for some kind of response, but I just saw his face getting redder and redder.

"Is your cousin okay?" I whispered to Hayden.

"He's fine, I think," he replied.

Hayden walked up to Ashton and starting snapping his fingers in his face. "Earth to Ashton. Ashton!"

"I'm going to get my backpack from downstairs while you get your cousin out of his weird funk," I said, and shut the door behind me as I exited the room.

I paused outside of the door to listen in to what they were saying.

"Hayden, do you always bring hot girls back with you?" I heard Ashton say. "I mean, Krystal's pretty cute, but Azalea's smoking! Is she single?"

Did he seriously have a crush on me? I've always been indifferent towards crushes and 'dating', I just didn't see why anybody would waste their time with that kind of thing. But I was pretty used to this. It wasn't the first time that somebody crushed on me or hit on me. I simply ignored them and they left me alone.

I moved down the stairs at a normal pace, and when I reached the bottom I went a few paces to grab my backpack. I was about to go back up, when something caught my eye. A note that was attached to the wall. I froze. It was probably meant for someone else, but as the snooper I was, I advanced closer to read it. I snatched the sticky paper off the wall and read the messy words. There were only three, and they gave me chills when I examined it.

I found you.