Olivia felt an overwhelming wave of excitement wash over her when she saw the smaller girl walk into the room.
So did a rush of fear.
Would the girl act differently towards her in this new environment? Would she be mean, or would she be nice?
Emma took a seat beside Olivia and smiled.
"Hi," she waved, nodding her head a little.
"Hi," Olivia managed to breathe out. She blushed deeply, causing Emma to laugh.
"I didn't know you took this class," Emma wondered aloud.
"I uhh— I didn't know either," Olivia replied, before mentally slapping herself. Could she be any more dumb?
She wanted death.
Clearing her throat, she attempted to respond again. "I mean, yeah. I take this class,"
She mentally slapped herself again. God, why did she always have to act so stupid?
Emma's sweet laughter echoed through the classroom. Thank the heavens the teacher hadn't come back from the restroom. If he were here, Olivia wouldn't be surprised if they'd gotten detention.
"We're still up for the study session at my house later, right?" Emma asked, looking at the girl beside her.
Olivia looked up from her book and nodded in the brunette's direction. "Yeah," she confirmed.
Emma smiled. She was about to say something, but Mr. Coleman walked back into class.
Everyone else got their feet and greeted him before taking their seats again.
"Class, turn to page 155 of your textbooks. Now take a look at question five..."
Olivia wasn't paying attention. She wanted to, but she couldn't. Not with such beauty sitting beside her.
Her eyes were trained on the other girl, staring at her so intently as if to find something on her.
Emma, on the other hand, had her eyes glued to the board. She had always enjoyed Math, which stunned most of her friends since...well, since Math was basically torture to every other kid.
"Ms. Jensen, what is the answer to the equation?" Mr. Coleman asked.
"x equals 12, sir." Emma answered.
Mr. Coleman nodded. "Please, do explain how you got your answer," he urged encouragingly.
Emma stood up and walked over to the board.
"May I?" she looked at her teacher and waited for him to grant her permission to use the board.
"Of course, go ahead," he told her.
"2x + 18 equals 54 + x." she spoke with confidence as she wrote the equation on the board for everyone to see. "If we switch the places of the variables and the numbers, the new equation would be 2x + x equals 54 - 18,"
Olivia was mesmerised. She didn't know what game Emma was playing, but she couldn't deny the fact that the brunette had a beautiful mind.
"Which — after being simplified — would be 3x equals 36. This means that x equals 36 ÷ 3, leaving x to be 12." Emma concluded.
Mr. Coleman looked at her in approval, clearly impressed. "I knew I made the right choice approving your transfer to this AP Math class," he said with a smile.
Emma smiled as well and made her way back to her seat. "Good job, Chancho," Ava, one of Emma's friends — who was a year older than her, a junior — said as she was on the way back to her seat at the back of the classroom. She thanked her and sat down.
Mr. Coleman went on with his Geometry lecture.
Olivia thought of all the things Seth was doing right now. He had gym, which they both loved. He was probably playing dodgeball, or maybe even basketball.
And she was stuck in Math class, needing to find out if two triangles were congruent.
"Ms. Jauregui, what is your answer for question seven? Are the two triangles congruent?"
Olivia nodded. "Yes sir. The triangles are congruent,"
The teacher gestured to the board, expecting Olivia to go up and explain how she had arrived at the answer.
She stood up slowly and made her way to the front of the class. She felt all eyes on her and swallowed nervously.
Why was she even nervous?
"There's nothing to be afraid of," she mumbled to herself.
She grabbed the stick of chalk and rolled it between her fingers as she took a deep breath.
"As we all know, to find out if two triangles are congruent is to see if the longest side of the triangles are equal. To find the value longest side of a triangle, we have to use Pythagoras' Theorem, which is c^2 = a^2 + b^2,"
As she spoke, Olivia felt her nerves ease slightly. She was confident in her answer, after all.
"In this equation, we know that the square of longest side of triangle ABC equals to 514. So we just have to find the value of the longest side for triangle XYZ, which is the square of 17 plus the square of 15. As this gives us the answer 514, the two triangles are congruent." Olivia finished.
Mr. Coleman smiled widely. "Great job, Ms. Jauregui. You may take a seat now, thank you,"
Olivia nodded and made her way back to her seat.
On the way back, two girls congratulated her and briefly introduced themselves as Ally and Ava. Olivia nodded and thanked them, telling them quickly that Seth had mentioned them earlier during lunch.
They smiled and playfully scolded her, telling her to get back to her seat. Olivia laughed and did so.
"Sweet explanation, Jauregui," Emma smirked.
Olivia rolled her eyes playfully. "Quit it, Jensen," she replied, seeing as Ashley and Kate weren't around to witness the interaction.
The green-eyed girl was aware of the fact that she didn't know the brunette's first name, but she didn't mind calling her by her last.
Plus, it wouldn't be long till she found out, since they were doing a project together.
"Okay class, I'll be assigning partners for a project that is due next week. This project counts as one third of your final exam grade, so make sure you listen up." Mr. Coleman said strictly.
He began pairing people up, not caring if they liked their partner or not.
"You have to learn to work with everyone, because if you don't, it will only slow you down in the future," he would always say.
"And finally, Ms. Jensen and Ms. Jauregui, you two will be partners for this project. I expect you two to come up with something big, being two of my best students," the teacher lectured.
Okay, so two projects.
"Okay class, listen up. For this project, I want you guys to come up with five ways to explain the concept of inequalities and congruence. I expect all of your final pieces to include extra information of the topic and examples for every method you come up with. Got it?"
The whole class nodded in response.
"Right," Mr. Coleman said as he packed his bag. "Class dismissed,"
Everyone stood up and thanked the teacher before leaving the classroom.
•••
"What's your last period?" Emma asked Olivia as they stepped into the hallway.
The green-eyed girl pulled out her schedule and scanned through it. "Music," she answered after a while.
"Wow, how many classes do we have together?" Emma asked, shaking her head in playful disbelief.
Olivia laughed. "Come on," she said, tugging on Emma's hand. "We're gonna be late,"
The brunette only shook her head. "You're new. I'm sure Ms. Lee wouldn't mind," she assured her.
"That doesn't mean you can be late," Olivia rebutted.
Emma shrugged. "I'll just tell her you were lost and I helped you or something. We'll be fine!"
"Right. Okay," Olivia breathed out, letting Emma walk with her through the halls as they made their way to their classroom for the final period of the day.