Eire.(chapter 26)

That math lesson taught me how easily you can be mistaken about someone. How easily different people's opinions can alienate you from a certain person. I always thought Chris was a confident narcissist because he looked like one. A handsome 14-year-old with a gorgeous body, half the girls in my class had a crush on him a year ago, and we hadn't had much of a relationship since. The guys were convinced I had a crush on him, but I didn't. We constantly teased each other, bullied each other at basketball games. But when he broke Patricia's heart, I was completely fed up with him; I didn't know what they all saw in him. After that one lesson, I understood. He was just like N.—he even looked like him. Same build, broad shoulders, tall (not some 5'10" in Adidas), and very handsome. The same way he sat as N. The same Buten Porcki accent. But it wasn't his appearance that changed my mind about him; it was his behavior. It turned out he wasn't a confident little shit who thought he knew everything. But I'll tell you everything.

We were doing the homework, and I felt a bit strange. It was terribly stuffy in the classroom, the windows were steamy. Why hadn't anyone opened the window yet? Then Chris looked at me with concern in his eyes.

"You look like a corpse, what's wrong with you?"

"Could you open the window? I'm about to die." I expected him to reply rudely as usual, so I added, "Please, open it.

" "No problem." He stood up and opened the window. I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. He was so nice, of course, and he opened it without making any stupid comments.

Burn gave us a very complicated problem; I couldn't have done it alone. Gemma and I always solved problems together, so I automatically started doing them out loud. Then Chris interjected, "

Listen, but if you move this number here and automatically change its sign, you'll get the answer faster." He looked at me, and I felt his gaze piercing me. Then we tackled all the more difficult problems together; we made a good team, so we weren't surprised when we finished our assignments first. We chatted for the last 10 minutes of class; I didn't even know he was so much fun to talk to. He kept looking into my eyes, touched my hand, maybe by accident, maybe on purpose, and I felt a chill run down my spine. I knocked down the calculator, bent down, and quickly forgot the warm feeling as he looked into my eyes. On the calculator, written very clearly in pen, "N. woz ere luv In Viki" (that's a fashionable way of signing in English, usually ending with the name of your crush). When I looked up, I saw N.'s disheveled hair, his deep eyes, and his lips that kissed me so divinely. The bell tore his face from my thoughts.