As Jean Hernandez saw Frank Baker sit down, she looked around with satisfaction and began the class. The first subject was Chinese, which was Katherine Lopez's favorite class after English. She usually paid close attention during these lessons. But at that moment, she couldn't concentrate at all, her mind filled with questions about Frank Baker's transfer to the humanities class and his sitting behind her.
Surprisingly, it wasn't just Katherine Lopez who was shocked.
Janice Adams, after glancing back and making eye contact with Frank Baker, suddenly elbowed Katherine Lopez in the arm, feeling excited
"Katherine!" she said in an excited tone, "Frank Baker is so handsome!"
"..."
Janice Adams hugged her arms, unable to contain her inner joy, "Why don't you say anything?"
Katherine Lopez thought she had nothing to say, she felt that Frank Baker was good-looking, but she was unwilling to admit it out loud.
Jean Hernandez, standing at the podium, noticed the commotion from this side and casually said, "I know the class is happy to have a new student, but I hope everyone can express their excitement after class."
"Speaking of that, she glanced at Katherine Lopez and Janice Adams, 'Focus on the lesson.'"
In an instant, Katherine Lopez, Janice Adams, and the others who had been constantly glancing back at Frank Baker, stopped their commotion. The only sounds that remained in the classroom were the firm, authoritative voice of Jean Hernandez and the chirping of cicadas and birds outside the window.
The cicada's cry in September is not as clamorous as in midsummer, but it is still impossible to ignore.
Katherine Lopez focused on the class, her attention turning to the window.
She and Janice Adams' seats were on the side near the window, and outside the window was a tall and upright ginkgo tree. When the wind blew in, a faint fresh scent could be smelled, like summer. She liked it very much.
The gentle breeze carried a cool, slightly familiar mint-like scent.
Katherine Lopez felt a sudden urge to turn around, as she became aware of the source of the strange scent.
Fortunately, she had not yet committed such a foolish act when Jean Hernandez called out her name, "Katherine Lopez."
Katherine Lopez looked up.
Jean Hernandez stood next to the lectern, with her hair neatly tied in a bun, and nodded at her, "Read the classical Chinese text I just mentioned."
"..."
The classroom was filled with the clear, light, and melodic recitation of a young girl, harmonizing with the rustling sounds of the leaves colliding outside the classroom.
Katherine Lopez's voice is very pleasant, with a sense of gentle and subtle influence, which allows most of the students in the class to focus and listen attentively.
Jean Hernandez noticed this when he was in his freshman year with Katherine Lopez.
Ever since then, whenever there was a reading assignment, she would give it to Katherine Lopez.
Katherine Lopez bowed her head slightly, revealing her pale nape. She was fully focused on her textbook, afraid of mispronouncing or missing anything.
Therefore, she did not notice the person who had sat down in the backseat and fallen asleep on the table, who looked at her inadvertently.
After reciting the classical Chinese text, Jean Hernandez politely invited Katherine Lopez to sit down, and did not mention her inattentiveness during the class.
The school bell rang soon after.
As soon as Jean Hernandez stepped out of the classroom with the teaching materials, the well-behaved students suddenly became noisy.
The reason that caused them to make a commotion was only one - Frank Baker.
Katherine Lopez was about to rest her head on the desk and shut out the noise, when Janice Adams grabbed her arm in a hurry, extremely anxious
"Katherine! You cannot sleep."
"What do you want to do?" said Katherine Lopez, opening her eyes silently
She asked in a whisper.
Janice Adams also studied it, glanced back, the meaning was obvious, "How could Frank Baker come to our class? Didn't you and Denise say he was going to transfer to the science class?"
"I didn't say that."
She naturally assumed that Frank Baker was the person rumored to be transferring to the science experiment class, since Denise Scott had mentioned it first. Janice Adams exclaimed, "That's not the point."
She glanced furtively towards Frank Baker, her cheeks flushed, "Frank Baker is so handsome, what did you say to me before?"
"How are you?"
Katherine Lopez hesitated, stubbornly saying, "I think it's fine."
"No way." Janice Adams opened her eyes wide and firmly refuted her, "He's much better-looking than those two little idols you're chasing."
Katherine Lopez was taken aback by her friend's words, lightly humming a reminder, "Janice Adams, don't be such a killjoy."
"Oh."
The two people were chatting about the main character in the backseat, and the others were also chatting, and there were even some who were a little more daring and took the initiative to go up and greet him.
Frank Baker, a tall and handsome male student, has transferred to the liberal arts class of the senior high school, and most of the students are already aware of this before the morning is over.
After having lunch in the cafeteria, Katherine Lopez was preparing to go to the convenience store with Janice Adams, when she received a call from Mrs. Lopez.
"As soon as I picked up the phone, I heard a voice calling 'Mom', and then I heard Mrs. Lopez's voice, 'Katherine, have you eaten?'"
"I just finished eating. How about you?"
Joan Lopez: "Mom just finished, and she's planning to go to the Situlanya Restaurant."
"Okay, Mom, eat a little more."
Joan Lopez replied with a smile, "Katherine, has Frank already eaten?"
Katherine Lopez paused her pacing under the tree shade, a bit sullen, "Mom, why don't you just ask him?"
"Mom called him, but he didn't answer." Joan Lopez said, "He's in the same class as you now, can you help mom take care of him a little?"
Katherine Lopez pouted, wanting to say no.
Feeling his daughter's resistance, Joan Lopez explained, "When mom was arranging the transfer, she forgot to get a campus card, and without a campus card at your school, there is no way to go to the cafeteria to eat, so mom was a bit worried."
The campus card of Wellington High School can be processed from Monday to Thursday afternoon at 5:30 pm.
Therefore, Frank Baker would have to wait until after school in the afternoon to get the campus card, even if he knew he needed to get it.
Of course, he can go off-campus for meals. Wellington High School has a very humane management approach in terms of student life, and the school does not require students to dine in the school cafeteria.
Only the September sun is really eye-catching, it takes about ten minutes to walk from the teaching building to the outside of the school, she is not sure if Frank Baker, who has just reported to the new school, will go out to forage.
Given the context, it seems that Katherine Lopez does not have a reason to refuse.
She bit her lip a bit, saying a little unhappily, "Then I'll put my—"
Katherine Lopez originally wanted to say that she would go back to the classroom to lend her campus card to Frank Baker, but halfway through her sentence she remembered that it was already time for the cafeteria to serve meals, and Frank Baker might not even be able to get any rice, let alone any dishes.
"Thinking about this, Katherine Lopez reluctantly said, 'I'm going to the convenience store with Janice, I'll buy him a loaf of bread, okay?'"
Joan Lopez smiled, "Frank is growing, so if possible, Mom hopes you can buy two breads and a cup of milk."
After hanging up the phone, Katherine Lopez looked at Janice Adams with a dejected expression and said, "Let's go to the convenience store."
Janice Adams didn't know how to console her at that moment.
Although she thinks Frank Baker is handsome, and she's glad there's such a handsome guy in the class.
If I put myself in her shoes, if she were Katherine Lopez, she might not be happy either. Not to mention that there is an extra person living in the house, which would distract the parents' attention. Just the fact that mom takes time out of her busy schedule to call her, but it's to check on someone else's daily life, she would feel just as sad as Katherine Lopez.
No one wants to be a selfish person, but during their teenage years, they seem to inevitably experience bursts of selfishness and affectation.
The two people walked silently towards the convenience store.
During the lunch break, there were many people in front of the small convenience store, gathered in groups of three or five, chatting excitedly.
Katherine Lopez and Janice Adams approached and happened to hear the name Frank Baker.
She didn't pay attention, quietly took two loaves of bread from the shelf, and also grabbed two bottles of milk, placing them on the checkout counter.
The two of them often came to the convenience store, and due to their outstanding appearance, the owner had a deep impression of Katherine Lopez and Janice Adams.
"Seeing what Katherine Lopez was holding, the boss asked as he was checking out, 'Didn't you have lunch? Why are you buying bread at this time?'"
He remembers that Katherine Lopez doesn't like to eat bread, and every time she comes to the convenience store, Katherine Lopez carries a bag of all kinds of snacks, but never any bread.
"Ate it."
The boss still wanted to say something, Janice Adams added, "We have prepared something for the afternoon."
Upon hearing this, the boss was not too surprised. "That's right, you're at the stage of growing up, so you get hungry quickly."
Katherine Lopez and Janice Adams took the transparent bag handed to them by the boss and went to the teaching building.
The layout of the academic buildings at Wellington High School is a central corridor style, with a long corridor in the middle and classrooms on both sides. Most of the classrooms for the second-year high school grade are located on the third floor, with the humanities classes on one side and the science classes on the other.
However, the distribution is not quite even, as the proportion of arts and science classes at Wellington High School is different.
Katherine Lopez and the two returned to the classroom. The classroom, which had been relatively quiet during lunch break, was now particularly lively.
The other class's female students were standing at the back door of the classroom, stretching their necks to look inside, searching for something. In the last row of the classroom, Katherine Lopez and her classmates' desks were occupied by some of their classmates, their heads huddled together, murmuring something.
The woman sitting on Katherine Lopez's chair stood up, "Katherine, have you just finished your meal?"
Katherine Lopez hadn't responded yet when the other person noticed the item in her hand and hesitantly asked, "Katherine, you didn't buy that for Frank Baker, did you?"
"Really?"
That female student turned sideways, pointed to Frank Baker's desk, "Look, there."
Katherine Lopez looked down unconsciously and noticed that Frank Baker's desk, which was empty of even a single book before the class ended, was now piled with various items, including chocolate, bread, milk, snacks... and a pink envelope.
?
Katherine Lopez paused, realizing it belatedly, "No."
She answered the female student's question and stuffed the bread into the desk hole, "I bought it for myself."
The female classmate sighed, faintly feeling that something was not quite right.
She still hadn't figured it out, looking at Janice Adams, whose expression wasn't too good, she yawned and casually asked, "Aren't you taking a nap today?" Most of the students in their class were day students, so they could only rest in the classroom during lunch break.
"Sleep." Someone responded.
The people gathered around Frank Baker's desk soon dispersed.
At the appointed time, Katherine Lopez felt the world had become quiet. She leaned on the table, facing Janice Adams, who was in the same position.
"The bread is not for Frank Baker?"
Katherine Lopez gestured back, her tone devoid of emotion, "Do you think he's still missing anything?"
Janice Adams: "..."
It doesn't seem to be lacking.
Last night I didn't sleep very well, Katherine Lopez leaned on the table and said a few words to Janice Adams, then dozed off into dreamland.
Unfortunately, she had just fallen asleep when she was awakened by the commotion in the classroom.
Frank Baker returned to the classroom at some point, and soon after his appearance, intermittent footsteps could be heard.
The noise was incessant. Katherine Lopez furrowed her brow and covered her ears, trying to shut out the cacophony.
Regrettably, the more she tried to ignore it, the more clearly she heard the voice.
In the midst of the struggle, Janice Adams also woke up. She tugged on Katherine Lopez's school uniform and whispered in her ear, "Do you know who's behind us?" Katherine Lopez's ear twitched, "Who?"
"Frank Baker, it's been a while."
This familiar voice is Katherine Lopez, Judith from the science class. She is an excellent student and often stands as a student representative at school.
The lecture hall shared reflections on learning and the like.
"I never expected to see you here," Judith said with a smile, before Frank Baker could speak
Frank Baker remained silent.
Judith looked at his stern expression and felt her heart sink. "You don't... you don't remember me, do you?"
Frank Baker: "No."
Upon hearing this, Judith was relieved and naturally conversed with him familiarly, "When I first heard your name from a classmate, I thought it was a coincidence." Saying this, she was a little puzzled, "By the way, are you planning to study humanities? Weren't you not-"
Before she could finish what she was saying, Frank Baker interrupted her, "Are you in this class?"
Judith stared blankly, "What?"
Frank Baker said expressionlessly, "You have disturbed their sleep."
"..."
After Judith left, Janice Adams held back for a bit, but couldn't help but laugh out loud. She could sense that Frank Baker didn't want to interact with people, but she didn't expect him to be so disrespectful.
Judith is considered a goddess by many students at Wellington High School. She has good grades, a good temperament, and is also beautiful. Most people at the school have a positive bias towards her. If this were not the case, her classmates would have spoken up to chase her away when she barged into Katherine Lopez's class and disturbed the students in the middle of the day.
"Janice Adams looked over at the person who was reaching into the desk drawer and silently taking out a notebook and pen, without a very polite smile. 'Is there any homework assigned this morning?'"
"I don't know."
Janice Adams blinked, "What are you writing--"
Before she could finish speaking, she had already seen the words "Tenant Agreement".
Janice Adams looked at Katherine Lopez's calm profile with a little surprise, "You're still going to write this?"
Based on her observation of Katherine Lopez this morning, she thought Katherine Lopez would not write anymore.
When Janice Adams spoke, Katherine Lopez's mind recalled the conversation she had with Mrs. Lopez the previous night.
She hesitated for a moment with her pen, still uncertain. The classmate in front of her, having seen Frank Baker leave the classroom, turned around to talk to the two of them, "Do you think Frank
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Baker is in our class?
Katherine Lopez covered the words on the draft, "What do you mean?"
The classmate in front of me is troubled, "He just arrived this morning, and already so many female classmates have come to see him, bringing him things. It's preventing all of us from even getting a good afternoon nap."
How much longer can this go on?
"Janice Adams: '...Perhaps in time, people may lose their curiosity?'"
She felt that the students from the neighboring class came to see Frank Baker out of pure curiosity.
"That's not necessarily the case." The classmate in the front row speculated, "Frank Baker is so handsome, there must be a lot of girls who want to chase after him."
"Indeed, I was actually planning to get to know Frank Baker, but looking at it now, it's better not to get to know him."
Katherine Lopez doesn't understand: "...why?"
"I'm afraid of being seen as an enemy by the other girls." Denise Scott, who had suddenly joined in, said, "Especially you two beautiful young ladies sitting in front of Frank Baker, you never know, if you say one more word to Frank Baker, people will be paying attention to what you're talking about."
Katherine Lopez was speechless, "That's not so exaggerated."
Denise Scott chuckled and teased her, "Others may not, but as the campus belle and the newly-minted campus heartthrob of Wellington High School, your level of attention certainly won't be low."
"I don't want to be a campus belle at all." Katherine Lopez commented sharply, "That title is so outdated."
Janice Adams laughed beside him, "So what do you want to be, a goddess?"
Katherine Lopez looked at her coldly and said, "No idea."
A few people gathered together, chattering and laughing, and in no time the topic shifted from Frank Baker to other trivial matters.
Once everyone had dispersed, Katherine Lopez turned her attention back to the "rental agreement".
After thinking for a long time, she picked up her pen and wrote down the terms of the treaty.
The school bell rang, and Katherine Lopez, as usual, packed up her textbooks and prepared to go home.
Suddenly, she remembered Mrs. Lopez's warning.
She turned her head, wanting to tell Frank Baker to meet her at the school gate, but found that he had already left.
Katherine Lopez let out a slightly annoyed hum, shouldering her backpack and walking towards the school gate.
Gregory was already waiting for her in the original location, and when he saw her come out alone, he specifically asked, "Katherine, where's Frank?"
Katherine Lopez looked into the car, but Frank Baker had not yet arrived.
She shook her head, "I don't know."
Gregory did not ask further, and discussed with her, "Then shall we wait a bit before going home?"
Katherine Lopez said okay.
Ten minutes later, Gregory's phone rang.
Katherine Lopez heard him call the name Frank Baker, and answered several times "good" before hanging up.
Put away your phone, Gregory turned back to look at Katherine Lopez, "Frank said he has something to take care of, let's go back first."
…
Katherine Lopez had dinner alone that day.
Her dad is on a business trip and hasn't come back home yet, Joan Lopez has to work overtime. She ate dinner alone and went back to her room to do homework.
Katherine Lopez heard the movement outside the door as she was almost done writing.
She unconsciously glanced at the time, it was already nine o'clock. Frank Baker is really busy, Katherine Lopez thought.
Katherine Lopez took a deep breath, disregarding everything, and knocked on the door while holding the paper filled with writing as she walked out of the room.
She waited for half a minute, and then the door of the hotel room was finally pulled open from the inside.
Frank Baker stood behind the door, his face devoid of any emotion when he saw Katherine Lopez, not even a hint of surprise, as if he had already guessed it was her
Katherine Lopez is looking for him.
The two exchanged a glance, and Frank Baker lowered his eyes, "Do you need something from me?"
Katherine Lopez frowned inwardly at this, feeling that his tone was a bit too arrogant, when this was clearly her own home.
Katherine Lopez was silent, and Frank Baker frowned slightly. "Speak."
"Oh." Katherine Lopez also imitated his arrogant manner, sticking the treaty glued with glue directly on his door, "Take a look at this when you have time, and sign your name at the bottom if there are no issues."
Concerned that Frank Baker would directly tear up the treaty, Katherine Lopez took the initiative, "It's okay if you don't sign, the regulations are right here, I hope you can follow them."
The words were barely out of her mouth when Katherine Lopez, without waiting for Frank Baker to say a single word, coolly turned and returned to her own room.
