His Scarred Love

Chapter 11 - [War]

I sat in class the next day, staring angrily at Mr. Alton. Every time I looked at him, I remembered him hugging Nikita on the day I first saw her. I was upset when I realized that he didn’t seem to notice. Other students noticed though. I heard them whispering that I looked like I wanted to hurt him. Good. I thought. Because that was exactly how I felt, I did want to hurt him.

Halfway into the period, Mr. Alton looked at me and then did a double take. After a short moment, he asked, “Can I help you, Mr. Evangelos?”

I frowned. “Yes. You can, Alton.” I said as rudely as possible.

He raised an eyebrow.

“You can help me by…” I then thought that it wouldn’t be smart to say anything. “Never mind…” I muttered.

Mr. Alton looked at me but then shook his head and continued on with the lesson.

And then, as if the guy was trying to make me feel more terrible then I already felt, Nikita knocked on the open door.

He stopped speaking and smiled as he walked to the door. When he opened it, he grinned. “Good morning!”

She smiled. “Hi Mr. Alton.” I could see the colour of her cheeks change.

“Sorry I had to make you leave your class for this.” He said. He then looked at us. “Okay guys, I want you to do the practice Quotations Quiz that I gave out earlier. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He walked to his desk, picked something up and then walked out the door. Nikita followed.

I found myself getting up and chasing after them.

When Mr. Alton saw me, he frowned. “What is it, Nate? Get back to class.”

Nikita’s whole face changed when she saw me. She looked a little scared, like I was going to say something to Mr. Alton.

I smiled at her though and then glared at Mr. Alton. “Let me come with you.”

“Nate… you don’t need to—”

“Is there a problem with me coming?”

“No, but—”

“Okay, so I’ll come.”

Mr. Alton looked surprised and stopped walking. “Nate, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting very strange today.”

Nikita bit her lip.

“Nothing’s wrong, sir.” I said.

He frowned at me but then rolled his eyes and continued walking.

We walked to the English office and I stood next to Nikita as Mr. Alton pulled his keys out of his pockets. “So, the tutoring is going well, right?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I muttered. “What’s it to ya?”

Nikita nudged me before Mr. Alton turned around and looked at me.

“Nathan, what’s with this attitude?”

I shrugged.

Mr. Alton sighed and opened the door. That short moment was enough for Nikita to glare at me.

I looked away and followed them in.

“Okay, Nikita, it’s right here.” Mr. Alton said as he pulled out a few pieces of paper.

She hesitated. “I don’t know if I can do this, Mr. Alton…”

Mr. Alton frowned. “Yes. You. Can.” He put his hand on her shoulder and I fumed. “Nikita, you can do this. There’s a reason why I kept a copy of this commentary and that’s because it was downright amazing.”

She smiled at him. “But…”

“No buts.” He smiled. “Plus, all you have to do is read it! Don’t be shy!”

Nikita sighed. “Yeah… okay.”

Mr. Alton smiled. “Good. Now…” He looked around. “Actually, I think it’s a good thing you came along, Nate.” He picked up a giant box filled with books and handed it to me. “Hold this, will you?” He smiled, obviously pleased with the punishment I get for my bad attitude.

I smirked.

“Okay, come on guys.” He said as he walked to the door. He held the door open for us and then locked it.

As we walked back, we passed a couple of young female teachers. They all smiled at Mr. Alton and waved.

I rolled my eyes. Why doesn’t he just mess around with one of them? I looked at Nikita who was quietly reading the papers that Mr. Alton gave her.

“So, do you remember this?” He asked.

Nikita nodded.

Mr. Alton patted her head, affectionately. “You’ll do great. There’s nothing to worry about. The class is a nice class… Nate here is the only rude one.” Mr. Alton turned and looked at me.

I swear, he totally sneered at me.

When we got back to class, I dropped the box of books on his desk and went to my seat. Mr. Alton called me back though and asked me to hand out the books and get everyone to sign a sheet with their name and book number. I looked at the books, they were all copies of Wuthering Heights. I’ve never heard of it and wondered if I would like it.

When I was done, I sat back in my seat.

Mr. Alton sat on his desk and smiled encouragingly at Nikita. “Alright class, for those of you who don’t know this beautiful young lady, this is Nikita.”

The people who knew her smiled, cheered and waved. The others just looked bored.

“Now, Nikita wrote a commentary for me on Wuthering Heights, the book sitting in front of you, last semester while she was in the hospital recovering.”

I looked at him, surprised that he would mention that.

“And let me tell you all, I gave her a ninety-eight point six.” He smiled as people gasped. “Since you guys are going to be writing your first, actual oral commentary that is actually worth a big chunk of your mark, I was hoping Nikita here could read us hers to help you all out.”

Some people started to cheer. Examples were always helpful.

“Okay, I want you all to take note of the words she uses, the literary devices she mentions, the structure of her commentary and also her posture and tone of voice. They are all important when doing an oral commentary. To be honest with you, I won’t care much about the format and stuff. This is not at all like an essay. The only reason why I will ask for a hard copy is so that I can make notes while I mark you during your presentation. You don’t have to hand in a hard copy, so this might be a good thing for those of you who like to not do work and wing it.”

People giggled.

“But, I’m telling you now, I know the difference between a prepared and an unprepared performance.” He smiled. “Now, how about we give Nikita a round of applause.” After a long moment of clapping, he looked at her and nodded.

She smiled. “Err, well. Hi everyone… As Mr. Alton said, I did my commentary on Wuthering Heights. So I’m… well… commenting on part of chapter thirty-three… I know you may not have read the book yet but basically it’s about the love between two characters, Cathy and Hareton.”

I admired her ability to remember these sorts of things. It was a book she read last semester but still remembered it. I would have forgotten.

She first read the passage, which was slightly hard to understand because it was in sophisticated English, but everyone listened attentively as Nikita spoke. I was actually surprised by that. Maybe it was because Nikita had a very sweet and enchanting voice. Or maybe they just found her commentary interesting. I mean, more than half of us didn’t even know what she was talking about. I mean, we haven’t even read the book yet.

She looked up at me often while she read and I smiled at her. When she was done, everyone clapped again and Mr. Alton clapped the loudest. I tried to beat him, but everyone stopped clapping by the time I realized I had to.

She smiled, happy with the reaction of the class.

“Very well done.” He then turned to the class. “One thing I wanted you to take from that was the fact that her commentary wasn’t thematic, which is what the typical essay is like. Instead, Miss. Prem here analyzed the passage just as things came up in the order the passage was written.”

Mr. Alton went on and on about all the good things in her commentary and then put his arm around her shoulder, which made me mad. He then said, “Alright class, now, get to work. Remember, we have a quotation quiz on the final act of Othello tomorrow.”

When the class got busy, Mr. Alton turned to Nikita and gave her a high five. I assumed that he was still praising her because she had a huge smile on her face. Not to mention her red cheeks.

When class was over, I waited outside, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms. Nikita was still talking to Mr. Alton and I was debating on whether I should smash the door open, cuss him off and then drag her out or just stand here.

Thankfully, she came out before I made a choice.

“What took you so long?” I asked.

Nikita sighed and looked at me. “Why were you being so mean to Mr. Alton?” She asked.

I frowned. “I told you already. I’m going to win you. Alton and I are fighting a war…” I gave her a determined look.

She stopped walking and stared.

I looked at her. “What?” I asked. “You’re the one that said I had to prove myself.”

She surprised me by laughing. She started laughing so hard that she had to lean against the wall as she placed one hand over her stomach.

“Why are you laughing?” I asked, confused.

She continued to laugh. “Oh Nate!” She said, trying to stop laughing. “Do you honestly think that I would actually like a teacher?” I asked.

I hesitated.

“He’s amazing, and I honestly do love him… but that’s as a teacher. If I loved him in any other way, my heart would be broken in no time.” She said, still laughing. “Do you think I need that?”

“So…..”

“I wasn’t serious about that! I was talking about another guy but brought up something Mr. Alton does that’s similar to what he does and saw your face change when I said Mr. Alton, so I was being sarcastic… and you believed it!”

I frowned at her. “That wasn’t nice.”

She nodded. “You’re right… that was mean! I’m sorry… but this is so funny!”

I turned around and started to walk away, I was pissed. Did she really take me as a fool? I was being serious and she thought all of this was a joke?

She ran after me. “I’m sorry Nate!” She said between giggles.

“Listen. I don’t like it when people mess around like that. That was a f*****g shitty thing to do. Do you know how pissed I—”

“Do you still want to go out with me?” She asked, cutting me off.

I hesitated. “What?”

She smiled, still trying to hold back the giggles. “Do you still want to go out with me?”

I stared at her. “I… wait… so there’s no other guy who you have a crush on?”

She shook her head. “Not anymore.” She smiled. “Nate… if you still do want to ask me out… then I want to say yes.” She smiled. “I think I actually really like you too… especially after seeing what you did…” She started to giggle again.

After a short moment of staring, I surprised myself by grabbing her wrist and pulling her into my arms.