Michael rested his chin on his fist and let his impassive gaze flicker disinterestedly about the room, silently waiting for the teacher to walk in. All around him, several students were lounged on desks whilst chatting to each other rather loudly as the others furiously scrawled on paper in order to finish their homework at the last minute. He felt a sudden rush overwhelm his face once Alex strolled in the room and the first thought that came to mind was what had happened that night at the cemetery, the night he had hugged her while she was crying, the night he had finally realized his feelings for her.

Now the powerful, monstrous image he had worked so hard to create for her had crumbled into ruins. She probably thought of him as some emotional softie that was a sucker for tears. How could he have let her see him so vulnerable? How could he have let himself be so vulnerable towards her, be so compassionate and actually care? Just because he had "intimate stirrings", it didn't mean he should have let himself degrade himself at such a low level.

She probably laughed her ass off when she got home. Michael thought bitterly. How am I going to earn her respect back now if she saw me like that?!

As Alex inched down the aisle, she stared into Michael's direction and he could have sworn that he saw her smile but it was too brief to tell. Only the light footsteps of his teacher walking in seemed to faze him slightly and only as his peers scrambled to their seats did he remember that he had to extract his notebook from his backpack to take notes. It was only then when Michael decided to take a risk and glance over his shoulder to stare at Alex. He smiled faintly but no one seemed to notice, including Alex herself.

"Mr. Jackson," Dr. Watts, his chemistry teacher, called out in a stern voice and Michael jolted upright in surprise, "See me after class."

Michael's face scrunched up into a scowl.

Shit.

Once the bell rang for dismissal, Michael had tried to blend in with the crowd scrambling out of the room but the stern voice of his teacher halted his intentions. He cringed and slowly turned on his heel, leisurely making his way towards him, dreading the drawn out lecture to come.

"I have noticed that you haven't been doing very well in class lately," Dr. Watts remarked dryly as he straightened up a stack of graded papers on his desk. "Midterms are coming up and with the average that you have now, you aren't going to be able to pass first semester."

Michael carelessly shrugged his shoulders, "I'll just get a D on the exam. It's easy."

"Michael, you can't just be satisfied with a D all your life. You need to strive for better. A D is not what you need. What you need is at least a B or else you will fail first semester and I will not be responsible for you repeating this grade because of one stupid mistake I have let you make."

During Dr. Watts drawn out lecture, Michael only stared at Alex who had lingered behind, slowly gathering her belongings and silently slipping them into her backpack and slinging it over her thin shoulder. He silently watched as she cautiously sauntered down the cramped aisle to make her leave.

Once Dr. Watts noticed that Michael was no longer listening, he glanced into Alex's direction and smiled as she walked out of the room, "Well," he began chuckling lightly, "if you won't listen to me during class, then I suppose you will listen to someone else outside of class."

Michael merely flickered his gaze upwards at Dr. Watts in utter perplexity and curiosity but he didn't dare question him.

He doesn't mean...?

Dr. Watts took note of his confusion and nodded his head, causing Michael's eyes to fly wide open in shock.

A loud thud of a textbook slamming against a wooden table resonated throughout the entire library, causing the table to rumble in response. Startled, Alex instantly tore her gaze away from her hardback novel and perked her head up in surprise only to meet a pair of dark, piercing eyes that seemed to peer into her soul. He stared intensely at her as he loomed over her like a raucous lion towering over it's prey. She swallowed hard.

"Tutor me," he said quietly, not a single infliction of emotion in his voice. The two words sounded more of an order than a plea.

Alex blinked, "Oh, um..." Her lips trailed off idly once she took notice to the chemistry textbook lying beside her arm and the thin layer of dust lightly coated on the surface. She figured that this had been the first time he had ever even attempted to touch it and actually make a use out of it.

Alex wasn't able to hide her mildly astonished expression, "You want me to tutor you in chemistry?"

"That's what I said," he replied coldly and once he noticed Alex's reluctance, he sighed and feigned what he thought was a convincing smile, "Please?"

Alex was shocked to the core to see him smile. She never thought that someone as cruel and as horrible as Michael would ever know what a smile was. It somehow made her respect him in a way. But tutoring him? That was out of the question. They definitely weren't friends but were they enemies? Alex wasn't quite sure anymore. He did help her the other day. After all, he was asking for her help in his desperate time of need. Plus, he did say please which was more than Michael's friends would ever say when they wanted to copy off of her homework assignments.

The mood in the room seemed to intensify as the awkward silence between them ticked by.

Alex finally felt compelled to give him her answer, "Sure."

Michael wasted no time as he eagerly took a seat beside Alex, almost a little bit too eager for he nearly lost caution of his footing and stumbled to the floor due to his sudden excitement. He couldn't believe how close they were sitting together, so close that their shoulders were lightly caressing together and they were he able to smell the her intoxicating aroma. It made him visibly shudder.

"So, uh," Alex began nervously as she brushed away the dust off the front cover of his textbook, "what sections do you need help on?"

"One through sixteen," Michael mumbled.

Alex blinked, "That's all of them."

"Exactly."

"Well then," Alex sighed as she flipped through the pages, "let's get to work."

Michael said nothing in response. Instead, he stared at her longingly, drinking in every aspect of her body from her head to her feet. Had he not trained himself to hide his emotions, he knew that his face would have been a raging red in the presence of this beautiful creature a long time ago.

"A bond is a force that holds groups of atoms together and make them function as a unit because of potential energy. There are two types of bonds, ionic and covalent. Ionic transfers electrons while covalent share electrons. Now, while ionic's properties are both metal and nonmetal elements, covalent is nonmetal and nonmetal..."

Michael only stared blankly as Alex spoke to him. As he did so, he couldn't help but watch the motion of her velvet lips as she spoke, unable to sustain the forbidden thoughts running through his mind.

Damn. She's sexy when she's lecturing me. Michael thought as his tongue shot out to lick his lips.

"It's hot in here," she murmured as she slipped off her jacket, exposing her thin shoulders that shone dimly under the light in the room. Seeing how mesmerizing her shoulders looked in his eyes made him fantasize how she would look without her shirt on, and then her pants, and then her undergarments. She was killing him and she didn't even know it!

Michael's cringed as his teeth sunk in his lip, Dammit, Alex! Can't you see that you're killing me here?! Shit! I want to fuck you so fucking bad right now!

"Where was I? Oh yeah. Chemical bonds," Alex paused and flickered her gaze up to Michael, "Were you even listening?" she asked.

Michael's vulgar thoughts fled in panic like burglars that tripped the alarm and at that moment, he felt like a burglar, for he was guilty of a crime; lust.

"Yes," he said slowly, furrowing his brows in confusion and looking as if he were uncertain of his reply.

"Fine. If you were listening, then name one ionic property."

Shit.

"Ummm... low melting point?"

"That's a covalent property. You weren't listening."

Well, dammit, Alex! If you hadn't had taken off your jacket and exposed your body to me, then maybe I would have known the difference between ionic and covalent!

Michael scowled, "Just give me some formulas to solve."

"Fine."

As she grasped the bottom of her chair and scooted herself closer to his side, he felt his heart jump once her shoulder came into contact with his arm and if it hadn't had been his teeth for biting down on his lip, he would have gasped. The brush of her fingertips caressing the back of his hand as she reached over to retrieve his pencil made him blush like a bashful schoolboy. He had never done anything so childish and humiliating in his life as blushing because someone had merely touched him and it made him feel like some stupid, lovestruck teen. It was funny to him how he wasn't as dismayed as he thought he would be.

"Now, when you're forming a Lewis Structure, it is important to know the difference between-?!"

"Shut up," Michael snapped as he snatched his pencil from her hand, "I don't need your help. I can do this on my own."

Alex rolled her eyes, "Of course you don't need help. That's not why our teacher asked me to tutor you."

"And that's why I'm not about to slap your mouth off of your face," Michael shot back.

Alex's mouth shut instantly with an audible snap at the retaliation and she bashfully sank in her seat. Michael suddenly felt a pang of guilt pierce his heart at her response to his use of words and he wanted nothing more but to yank the poor girl in an embrace.

For the next five minutes, Michael managed to concentrate on his studies and complete a few problems on his own, simply ignoring the pounding headache growing in his head and the guilt pounding brutally against his aching chest. Unfortunately, his concentration was eventually ruined once he came across a section called "Electron Dot Notation".

Michael sighed heavily, pushing his textbook further away from him and finding a comfortable place in his hands to smother his face in, absentmindedly deciding to give up like the child he was at heart. Not only was he frustrated with all of these equations and these formulas but he was also irritated to how exotic Alex looked with no jacket present to cover her naked shoulders.

"You're never going to get it if you give up before you even try," Alex remarked, her gentle lecture flowing out of her mouth like golden honey.

The oblivious girl was just scolding the boy and he was still getting turned on by her voice.

What kind of shit is that?

"I suck at these dot things, okay? They're too confusing. Happy?"

Alex responded with a slight shake of her head, "Not really. I would be happy if you would actually try."

Michael held her gaze for what seemed like a lifetime when in reality, it was only a few seconds.

Michael couldn't remember the last time he had ever seen Alex happy. It had been so long since she had been really, truly happy about something. She had been looking so depressed lately with her friends not wanting to hang out with her anymore and all. It was his fault after all since he had told the entire school about her financial situation in her family since his Katherine had told him about it. He thought that maybe, just maybe, just by trying to use his head, he would finally be able to make her happy again and maybe even ease the guilt for ruining her social life.

Would a simple thing like that make her smile? Would it really make her happy if I solved the problem by myself?

Gathering the little determination in his system, he gripped his pencil in his hand and scanned his eyes over the written elements.

"MgO? Well, since there's one magnesium and it's in column two, it gets two electrons," Michael glanced up at Alex to make certain that he was on the right track and then continued to work out the problem, "And since there's one oxygen and it's in column sixteen, you subtract it from ten and get six to support the octet. So, oxygen gets six electrons and joins up with oxygen to form an octet."

The problem actually wasn't that hard once he worked it out in more manageable pieces. It was actually quite simple. However, he doubted himself as Alex stared at him in silence, prompting him to wonder whether he had made a mistake or not. Frowning, he looked over the problem himself to make certain he didn't copy anything wrong or that he didn't leave anything out. Everything seemed fine. He couldn't find a single error in his calculations.

"So?" Michael prodded, becoming slightly annoyed with her silence, "Am I right or not?"

Alex blinked hard, "Oh. I'm sorry," she finally said with a slight smile playing on her lips, "I was just surprised that you got it right the first time."

Insulted, Michael shot up to his feet to retaliate, "Hey! What are you trying to say, Avery?! You calling me stupid or something?! I don't have to take this, you know. I maybe hadn't knocked the daylights out of you yet but I could if I wanted-?!" Michael abruptly stopped his enraged rambling once he took notice to Alex who had brought a hand to her mouth in an attempt to unsuccessfully stifle her snickering.

Michael realized then that he had been baited, tricked into doing the problem by himself instead of giving up like he had wanted to. This girl, the one he had tormented so cruelly in the past had tricked him, the bully, into doing a problem that actually wasn't a problem to him but instead a simple thing to solve without the slightest trouble. She had used reverse psychology.

No wonder she's at the top of the class...

Annoyed, Michael balled up his scratch paper and pelted it at Alex's chest, causing her to snicker all the more. He slumped back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest in a rather childish manner and he had dawned himself as immature once his lip formed into a slight pout.

"It's not funny," Michael grumbled as Alex's snickers turned into giggles.

"I'm sorry," she cleared her throat, "You are actually quite smart, Michael. I don't think you'll have any problems passing the exam with the way you work out the problems."

Upon hearing that, Michael felt some of his anger melt away into nothingness. He had been called a long list of names in his lifer13;stupid, idiotic, immature, unmotivated, lazy... and those were only the few of the nicer things he had been acknowledged as. There were more names much harsher than those. But no one had ever called him smart before. He had to (mentally) admit that he actually liked the sound of it.

"Do you really mean that or are you just pushing my buttons? Cuz if you are..."

"I'm not," she assured with a smile, "Despite the way you act in class, you actually understand the lessons when you pay attention. If you keep doing that and take a shot on the homework, I'm sure you'll be able to pass the exam with at least a B."

Slightly embarrassed, Michael brought his face behind his textbook to hide the rush of crimson washing over his face, silently pretending to concentrate on the next problem on the page.

He heard her giggle softly, causing his face to turn a shade deeper than before. He heard the soft scratch of a pencil against paper emit from beside him and he timidly peeked over his book and saw that Alex was writing something down in her notebook. He sighed heavily before lifting his book higher to shield his still flushed face.

If only I knew how she felt about me... Michael silently thought frowning, Maybe she's just being nice to me in order to somehow flirt with me. She does seem a bit more comfortable around me now, her sitting this close to me and all.

Michael shook his head rapidly to clear his mind away from the foolish romantic thoughts wandering inside, What am I thinking?! I don't have time for her!

It certainly was no time to be thinking about such frivolous things at the time, not with the semester exams coming up that is.

Oh God. Why is love more complicated than science?