The rest of the class, we sat silently listening to Miss Maddox ranting about the ingredients and recipes. "Your task next week is to prepare a creative dish. It'll weigh thirty percent of your total marks and for that, you have to submit me the recipe in the next class."

I raised my hand, Miss Mad glimpsed at me but ignored me and continued speaking. I leaned over my desk and waved my hands furiously in front of her. She sighed, finally giving up, and gestured for me to speak.

"What do you exactly mean by creative?"

"From creative, I mean by something different, not the common and easy recipe of Cheez-its." My eyes grew big as she gave me a look, I side glanced at Noah, who also gaped at her. "Either you can come with your own recipe-" she rolled her eyes "- that is if you're even capable of doing or you can make something from traditional recipes that are not used anymore with your twist." With that, she dismissed the class.

Everyone groaned, including me. "She knows about the Cheez-its." I grabbed my stuff and turned toward Noah. "I thought she never paid attention to anyone."

"Yeah, I was shocked too." He answered, packing his stuff. We got up and exit our class.

"Are you free after school today?" Noah frowned and looked at me curiously. "We can go to my house after school because I have so many books of different and-" I quoted with my fingers. "- 'creative' old recipes. We can search in it for our practical." I blinked my eyes at him, hopeful that he'll say yes.

"Sure." He gave me his radiant smile, which I returned.

"Miss Maddox will not make it an easy 'A' this time." I looked at Noah sternly.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "We have to work hard then."

"Exactly, the final practical is next week so we'll get the recipe today and then we'll practice it on the weekend," I suggested following Noah.

"That's a good idea, I guess." He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. "Shrugging will not work this time, Noah. We have to work hard and as a team." He stopped in his steps, and I turned around to face him.

"As you wish, Miss Wolf." He teased. "Aren't you taking this too seriously?"

I gasped. "This is serious! Didn't you see the look Miss Mad gave me? This. Is. War." He laughed, making fun of me. I crossed my arms, glaring at him. "Whatever." I waved my hand, dismissing him. "Why are you even following me? Go to your locker." I shooed him.

He raised his brows at me amused, then leaned in and whispered. "You're the one following me, Lexi." He darted his eyes behind me.

I whirled on my heels and realized it was his locker, which was in the opposite direction of mine. Squeezing my eyes tightly, I cursed. I didn't even realize it before when I was following him aimlessly.

"I-I..." I trailed off, then my eyes caught Emily, who was busy putting books in her locker. "I'm here for Emily!" I exclaimed, trying to get myself out of embarrassment.

I turned my head back to Noah, who gave me a smirk. "Really?"

"Y-yes." Feeling my cheeks getting heated up, I cleared my throat. "Why would I follow you?" I let out a laugh, which came out a little too high-pitched. "Bye. See you after school." I mumbled, sprinting away from him.

Why did I have to embarrass myself like that?!

"Hi, Em." I greeted, leaning my back to the locker beside her.

Her brows knitted in confusion as she stared at me. "What are you doing here?"

"I- I'm here for you, obviously." I cackled, tucking my hair behind my ear.

She raised her brows at me, then looked towards Noah and beamed. "Of course, you're here for me."

"Shut up and hurry. I've embarrassed myself enough for the day." I whimpered, darting my eyes down, then I glimpsed at Noah and remembered our conversation. "Oh, and guess what?" Bouncing in my steps, I grinned ear to ear.

"What?" She asked, closing her locking.

"Noah doesn't like Ivy!" I squealed, then clasped my hands over my mouth and looked around to see if anyone heard me or not.

"Really?" She looked amused.

"Yup. He told me that 'I don't like Ivy'." Emily and I giggled together. "But I know that there is a girl."

"Do you know who she is?"

"No, but for now I'm at peace that it isn't Ivy." I sighed in relief.

"What are you going to do about the recipe Miss Maddox wants?" Emily asked.

"I have my mother's cooking books at home. I asked Noah to come with me so we can choose from it." I answered as we stroll towards our Cafeteria.

I still can't believe I followed Noah in the opposite direction and accused him of following me.

Why can't I pay attention to my surroundings when I'm with him?

"Darren and I are thinking of going to the library to search for something," Emily said getting me out of my embarrassing thoughts.

"You guys should come with us," I suggested. "My mother's books are a treasure. I'm sure you'll find something in it too."

"Are you sure?" Emily asked, nudging my shoulder with hers. "Don't you want to spend time with Noah alone?" She teased, wiggling her brows.

"That was the plan at first..." I mumbled, biting my grin. "But after I just embarrassed myself, I don't think I can be alone with him." She giggled at me, this time I shoved her and she burst off laughing. "But do you think viper will let him come with us?" I asked, thinking of Darren.

"They broke up," Emily whispered, adjusting her glasses.

"What?!" My jaw dropped at that.

"Yeah. He told me in Home Ec. that they had a fight at homecoming night and things were not working out for them and all..." Emily answered, looking nervous.

I remembered I saw them fighting that night.

"Oh..." I straightened myself, looking suspiciously at Emily's reaction, but ignored it. "About time he got rid of that viper." She chuckled as we entered the Cafeteria.

Everyone was busy looking on their phone for new posts about homecoming, obviously because it was the trending topic for now and it's going to be like this for at least a week.

"They're all talking about you and Jax," Emily said as we walked to our table.

"IK." I groaned in frustration then put a smile on my face as we got near to our table. "Hello everyone." Greeting them, I sat beside Jax and Emily on my right.

"Did you see the pictures that were posted today? They are lit!" Natasha squealed.

"Yeah, I did," I mumbled, taking my phone out.

"I was thinking, we should go bowling after school today. We haven't gone out anywhere since summer." Jim informed and everyone agreed.

"Emily and I can't come with you guys today," I answered.

"Why?" Jax frowned.

"Because...." I observed everyone watching me with interest. "We already have plans."

"With who?" They asked simultaneously.

I took a glimpse of Emily and smiled. "Noah and Darren." They all frowned and looked at me in confusion.

"You have plans with Noah and Darren?" Kevin repeated my words, looking between Jax and me.

"Yeah." I cleared my throat, sitting straight. "We are together in Home Ec. and Miss Maddox has given us an assignment to submit on Thursday so we are going to work on it together," I explained to them.

They all nodded. "That makes sense."

"It does," I rubbed my forehead and leaned back in my chair.

"Don't you think it's a bad idea?" Jax whispered, so no one else can hear him.

"What?" My brows knitted in confusion.

"I mean, it's our first outing as a 'couple' and you are not coming."

"I don't give a damn about it." I scoffed and felt someone's eye at me.

I looked up and saw Kevin staring at me and Jax. I smiled at him and looked back into my phone.

Kevin's been giving me suspicious looks for a while, and after our talk at the homecoming night, I had a feeling that he might find out about this sooner.

I just hope he does nothing stupid.

* * * * *