Problems of an Introvert

As soon as class ends, Nathaniel, Vivian and Kailynn sit in Class 2-A chatting. Meanwhile, Amara takes Pierre to the playfield. They walk towards a tree and sit in the shade. The wind blows softly.

"Pierre, can you tell me now..?" Pierre turns his head towards Amara.

".....

You've been asking me the same thing for almost a week now", Pierre says, slightly annoyed.

"What do you mean?"

"You asked once on the day the argument happened.

Then on the day after,-

"Pierre, can you tell me now?"

"What?"

"What happened with Nathaniel and that girl?"

"Sorry, Aree. I can't".

"Ahh.." Amara pouts.

-you asked me on our way to the cafeteria.

Then the day after that,-

"Pierre, can you tell me now?"

"What happened with Nathaniel?"

"Yeah!"

"No, Aree".

"Ahh.. Why\~", Amara whines.

-you asked me as soon as you came to the classroom.

Then two days ago,-

"Pierre!"

"What?" Pierre looks at Amara who's catching up with him.

"Can you tell me-?"

"No, Aree. Focus on running", Pierre says between his breaths.

-you asked me while we were running laps in our P.E period.

Then yesterday, in the morning,-

«Ring! Ring!»

"Hm?" Pierre picks up his phone and reads the caller name.

"Hewwo, Awwee?" Pierre answers the phone as he brushes his teeth.

"Pierre-" Pierre spits out the toothpaste in his mouth.

"No, stop asking me already.

I'm hanging up", Pierre hangs up and continues brushing his teeth.

-you asked me on the phone.

And you're asking me again while we're sitting here", Pierre says from memory.

Amara realises how much she has mentally tortured him.

"....I'm sorry".

"Eh, what?" He gets taken aback by the sudden apology.

"I've been disturbing you a lot these days, haven't I? It's just that, I'm always very curious. When I get curious, the questions inside my head beg for answers. If not, I might die from thinking so hard.

After seeing Nathaniel — a guy who's usually silent and reserved — fight with some girl violently like that, I just can't help but think about it.

If you really don't wanna tell me, I won't disturb you anymore. I'm so sorry, Pierre", Amara tries getting up but, Pierre stops her by grabbing her wrist.

"Aree, wait".

"What?"

"...I'll tell you.

I'll tell you about Nathaniel and that girl".

Pierre takes a deep breath.

"The girl you saw Nathaniel with that day is Laura Wilson..

His girlfriend".

'Girlfriend?! Her?!? He has a girlfriend?!?!' Amara stares at Pierre, wide eyed, waiting for him to continue.

"Nathaniel wasn't like this back in high school. He used to look and dress casual and his curly hair was messy most of the time. He used to smile a lot too. Almost all the girls at the school had a crush on him. He was just as good at studying as he is now. Teachers adored him too. He was introverted even then".

.

.

.

.

.

"Nathaniel!!", a girl ran towards me.

"Oh, um.. Hi", I smiled at her awkwardly.

"I baked some cookies for you", I looked at her little pink box filled with cookies.

I looked at her and then at the box in her hands again.

'..Should I take it or not?

If I take it, she'll have hopes of dating me. But if I don't, I'll end up hurting her feelings.

........'

I touched the box in her hands and slowly took it in mine.

"T-Thank you..", I walked away after smiling at her awkwardly.

"Oh my god! Bye, Nathaniel!!" I heard her squeal.

People I walked by greeted me and I did the same. I walked into my classroom and greeted my classmates. I sat in my seat and placed the box on the desk.

"Woahhhhh! You just stepped into the school and you already have a gift in your hands?! Lucky\~" Peter said as he sat next to me and put his arm around my neck.

"I know, right? I wish I was as handsome as you, Nathaniel", Conner said, chuckling.

"Hey, stop teasing me guys!", I laughed,

"Did you hear? We're having a Chemistry project today", Connor said.

"I know".

"Of course, you know, Nathaniel. You're the smartest guy here", I giggled.

"If it's a group project, let's do it together. That way, I wouldn't have to worry about my grades", Peter said.

"Aha\~ So, you're using me for grades? I thought we were friends", I fake sniffed.

"Eyyy\~ Of course not! You're an amazing guy to hang with", I laughed my ass off.

"Um.. Nathaniel? Do you have a minute..?" I looked up to see Kira, one of my classmates.

"Sure, Kira. What's up?"

"Uh...

T-This is for.. you...", she handed me a letter.

I already knew where this was going.

I took it from her hands.

"What's in this?" I asked her, clearly knowing that it was a love letter.

This was a normal day-to-day routine for me.

"Just.. read it later, okay?" She smiled shyly and walked away.

"Ooo\~ what is this?" Connor said as he snatched the letter from my hand.

"Isn't it obvious, it's a love letter", Peter replied. I took the letter from Connor's hands.

"Ima just keep this away", I said and put it inside my bag.

"Aw! But, I wanted to read that!"

"No, Connor. It's for Niel. He's supposed to be the one reading it".

"Ah, bummer!"

The bell rang.

"Well, class is about to start. I'll go to my seat now", Peter said and went to his seat which is across the room.

The home room teacher came in and we greeted her.

At recess, people surrounded me as usual.

"So\~ Niel, how many confessions have you gotten? Including the most recent ones".

"Countless", I said, still sitting in my seat.

"Which one's your favourite?" Another guy asked.

"What type of question is that, man? The guy gets confessed to 24/7. Ya think he would remember every single one?" His friend said. I laughed awkwardly and scratched my neck.

"Hey, if you were confessed to by so many girls, why're you still single?" A girl asked me.

"Um.. Well-"

"Wait, you've never dated anyone before?" Another girl asked me.

"I... don't really have the time for that. I wanna focus more on studying..", I scratched my neck and looked away.

"What the hell?! With a handsome face such as yours, I thought you'd have dated at least 5 girls or something".

"Yeah, anyone would kill for your face man. You could easily hook up with a girl. Why not try it?"

"I'm not interested..."

"But, Niel-"

"Sorry, I'm gonna take a walk. I'll talk with you guys later", I flashed a smile at them.

Connor and Peter walked beside me down the hallway.

"Ha.."

"Dude, chill. They were just asking, kay? Who wouldn't be shocked to know that the famous Nathaniel Roberts has never been in a relationship before?" Connor said.

"I just haven't found anyone good enough. Besides, no one else has a say in this discussion.

I'll date if I have to and if I want to".

"Whatever you say, bro".

After a few hours, it was finally Chemistry class. Everyone were planning to do the project with their friends. Just as Peter and Connor said, I planned on doing the project with them.

Our Chemistry teacher, Mr. Finn came in and we greeting him. He wrote some topics on the whiteboard.

"Alright, you already know that we're gonna do a project. I'll be allotting marks for this project so if you want high grades, you're gonna have to work hard on this. These are gonna be the topics.

After hearing from Mr. Keith, I've decided that I'll be the one choosing your partners and your project so you won't have to worry about a damn thing", he smiled at us sarcastically.

'I'm good either way'.

Basically, we had a physics project a few months back. Everyone did their projects with their friends.

But, some bullies partnered with their victims and made them do everything and in some cases, some groups made projects on the same topic and got low grades. It was a disaster.

So, Mr. Keith, our Physics teacher, asked Mr. Finn to give them the topics and partner them up himself.

And of course, he agreed happily.

Everyone were shocked to hear this from Mr. Finn. Connor snapped his head at me.

"Niel! What're we gonna do?!"

"We? No, this is a 'you' problem, man. Good luck", I smiled at him.

"You're so mean!"

"Oh, I hope I get partnered with Nathaniel", some girl told her friend.

"Omg\~ Me too! Let's hope we both get partnered with him!!"

"O.M.G. Yes!" The girls squealed.

"Hey! I wanna be partnered with Nathaniel!!" Another girl said.

"No! I called dips!!"

Peter from across the room locked eyes with me and facepalmed himself.

"Students, settle down! I'm going to call out names and you'll stand up, kay?

Peggy Ripson, Liam Orwell, you'll be partners", the two looked at each other and then sat in their seats.

"Kira Hudson, Andrea George, you'll be partners", the two happily hugged each other because they were besties.

"If you guys don't do the project properly, I'll change your partners", he told them.

"No, sir! We'll do it well!!" Andrea shouted.

"Alright. Peter Myers, Andrew George, you'll be partners", the boys looked at each other and then looked away disgusted. Peter raised his hand.

"Sir! Can I change my partner, please?!" He shouted.

"No, you'll have to work with him. I know you guys don't like each other, so if you keep protesting, I won't grade you".

"All the best on making your project with your nemesis, bro", Andrea winked at her twin, Andrew.

"Ugh, shut it. You're so lucky, you got partnered with your bestie".

"Yeah, I know", she flipped her hair.

"Nolan Scott, Connor Brown, you'll be partners", the boys sat down.

"Nathaniel Roberts", Mr. Finn called my name and I immediately stood up.

"Laura Wilson", a brunette stood up.

"You'll be partners", the girl looked at my direction. I smiled at her but she turned her head and took her seat. I sat down and gulped.

Laura Wilson was like the scariest person in our class. Her beautiful green eyes, mid length brown hair and pale complexion made her look absolutely stunning and approachable. But, only we, her classmates knew that she was grumpy all the time. She wasn't the best in studies but... she.. uh, did her best.

She always had something against me. But, I didn't remember doing anything bad to her. Heck, I didn't even remember the last time we've talked.

I remembered the first time though. In our first year in high school, I greeted her.

"Hi! I'm Nathaniel Roberts! You're Laura Wilson, right? Why are you all alone??" I smiled.

"None of your damn business, Roberts. Leave me alone", she walked away.

That was it. I decided to distance myself from her because she seemed to hate me for some reason. She got tons of threats from my fangirls for a while. And then one day, she burned all of them in front of the whole school. Don't ask me where she got the lighter from.

"If you keep wasting your time on making these hate letters for me, I'll just keep burning them", she said that and then glared at me.

That day, I found out the girls who wrote those letters and asked them not to write them anymore. I told them it made me uncomfortable and they said they wouldn't do it again.

I could have told them that I was scared but then it would have been a bigger problem. I didn't want bloodshed, people.

Mr. Finn continued calling out names and partnering up the students. Then, he gave us our respective topics. But, I was thinking of inoffensive ways to approach her. (Problems of an introvert.)

Class ended and it was lunch break. I walked up to her seat.

"Um, hi". I said, fidgeting and smiling awkwardly. Laura looked at me up and down with an uninterested face.

"What?"

"So, um. Do you wanna talk about the project..?" Laura continued staring at me. I started feeling awkward so I looked away and held the back of my neck. I decided to break the silence first.

"Well? Do you wanna or not?..."

Laura stood up and I took a step back.

"I can't believe I got partnered up with you of all people. Ugh.

I'm going to the cafeteria. Don't come and talk to me there", she said and left the classroom.

".....

Oh god, what am I gonna do now?"

-to be continued...

Laura Wilson

With Love, Your Idiot

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