Page 9 of Shattered Silence Duet

“Hey, Sweetheart?” My heart jumps in my chest as Max uses that nickname again. “I’m really glad you’re in my class.” I risk a glance at his face and see him smiling at me. Not wanting to be rude, I smile back.

“But... are you ever going to tell me your name?” He quirks an eyebrow at me. I’m not sure what to do. I could write it down, but my mother didn’t know I could write, and if she found out, I don’t think she’d let me leave the house ever again.

He watches me, looking concerned the longer I stare at him silently. Then his expression changes into something more relaxed and he raises his eyebrows as he speaks. “Ah! I know why you’re not telling me! You want me to keep calling you Sweetheart!” Now it’s my turn to raise my eyebrows. I open my mouth in shock, but nothing comes out.

“I’m on to you now!” he chuckles while my face heats up from embarrassment. I can’t even correct him. Instead, I stare down at my desk. Why didn’t I just shake my head?Stupid!Now he probably thinks I’m like all the other girls who are crazy about him.That’s because you are.

“Hey, Max, who’s your friend?” I hear a feminine voice ask, unaware of my internal struggle. I briefly glance up and see a beautiful girl with perfect straight brown hair and perfect teeth smiling down at Max.

“This is Mina, she’s new here.” I look at him in shock, how did he suddenly know my name? He gives me a quick wink, making my heart pitter patter in my chest. “Mina, this is Rachel.” I look up at her and gave her a tight-lipped smile.

“Hi Mina. Nice coloring book.” I can hear the laughter in her voice. She’s making fun of me.

“You can go now, Rachel,” Max says bluntly as I stare at my desk in embarrassment, hoping she’ll leave quickly.

“Excuse me?! I was trying to be polite,” Rachel says angrily.

“We both know you weren’t. Now leave,” he says without even looking at her.

“Max, why are you being such an ass? Did she already suck your dick or something?” My jaw drops open, and I know I must resemble a tomato right now. Why would she say that? Is that a thing girls do? I didn’t expect a high school student to talk like that.

She bursts out laughing at my reaction, and as Max goes to say something, looking angry, I hear the teacher, Mrs. Pinkins, greet the class. I take deep breaths and try to focus on my coloring to calm myself down.

Max grips my thigh lightly under the desk as he whispers, “good girl”. I take another deep breath and relax as I place my hand on top of his and squeeze. He flips his hand over and interlocks our fingers, holding my hand firmly so I can’t let go. I try to hide the tiny smile I know is on the corner of my mouth.

Maybe I could keep him just a little bit longer.

As Mrs. Pinkins teaches the lesson, Max eventually has to let go of my hand to work on the problems she writes on the board. I notice him pull out his phone at one point and he starts typing away on it for a few minutes before he puts it away, looking at me with a soft smile.

As he turns back to the teacher, I start paying attention to her lesson as well and am surprised that it’s all math I learned yesterday. I start reading the equations she writes out, wishing I could try to solve them. I only have my coloring books to write in, plus I’m not supposed to be able to do this work. My mother made it quite clear that I was supposed to color and keep my head down. But would it be breaking the rules if nobody sees me do it?

I reread the first question on the board, and when I figure out the solution in my head, I write the answer as small as I can, in pencil crayon, inside the dragon’s wing I’ve been coloring. It kind of looks like a swirling pattern.

I continue, aligning the numbers along the inside of the wing, so if you don’t look too close, it just looks like a pretty pattern. It lets me follow along as Mrs. Pinkins has students come up to write out the answers on the board. I’m not sure why they have to write out all the work to get to the answer. Couldn’t they do that in their head like me? I’m pleased when the class ends, and I had got every one correct.

We pack up our bags and Max gives me a wink, making my cheeks heat again.Why did I keep reacting to him like that?He gently takes my backpack from me as I try to put it on. I try to pull it back, but he throws it on his shoulder, along with his own, and grabs my hand.

“Nope. New girl privilege. You get your bags carried for youuntil I deem otherwise,” he says with a nod. I give up my attempt to reclaim my bag and shake my head at him. If he wants to help me, who am I to complain? Besides, I’m happy to give my arm some relief.

As we exit the class, Max starts to pull me to the side of the hall as he speaks. “So I hear you met my brother, Jasper, yesterday. He’s in your science class, so he’s going to meet us and take you there next. Oh, here he is. Hey, Jasper.”

I glance up and see Jasper standing there, waiting for us. He sees me and a warm smile crosses his face. “Good morning, Angel. It’s good to see you in class today. Are you ready to come to science with me?” He holds out his hand to me. I glance up at Max, and he smiles and nods.

“Same thing goes with Jasp. If you feel like you need to get out of there, just tap his hand twice and he’ll get you somewhere quiet as quickly as he can, okay?” His eyes bounce between me and Jasper while he speaks, making sure Jasper knows my signal. I nod and give his hand a squeeze in thanks before letting go to grasp his twin’s hand, letting him pull me close while Max passes him my bag.

Max places his palm on my cheek as he speaks. “Alright, Sweetheart, I’ll see you at lunch, alright?” I nod and he turns to leave in the opposite direction.

As Jasper leads me down the hall by my hand, I notice all the staring and murmurs again. I try gently pulling my hand free, but Jasper just turns his head to me and gently smiles. “I don’t want you getting lost, you’re so tiny it’d be easy to lose sight of you,” he says with a small chuckle. I did not think I was little. I mean, compared to him, I was short, and I often felt like I was too thin. But my mother constantly reminded me that I was too big. And compared to the girls in this high school, I did feel like my proportions were too extreme.

Jasper leads me into a classroom. It’s set up just like the math class, with individual desks all facing the front. He silently directs me to the back corner, where he drops my hand then drags thedesk so it’s pressed against the corner one. I bite my lip when a small smile tries to break free, realizing he’s doing the same thing Max did.

My eyes widen as I look around the class. None of the other desks are set up like this. I look at the teacher standing at the front and he gives me a small smile. Okay, so I guess this is allowed then. But why did Jasper do that?

“Alright, Angel, take a seat here.” Jasper motions to the corner desk. It meant he’d be between me and the rest of the class, like Max did. They really were twins. I liked that, it felt like he was protecting me from their comments and eyes. I sit down and get out my coloring book.

I notice the teacher walking towards us and glance up, worried we were going to get in trouble for moving the desks. “Hello, you must be Mina. I’m Mr. Yang, your chemistry teacher. Looks like you are settled in there. You can let me or Jasper know if you need anything, alright?” I nod my head, relieved I wasn’t in trouble. Mr. Yang smiles, then moves back to his desk at the front of the class.

“Your name is beautiful. Mina...” Jasper whispers my name quietly, almost to himself. I can’t look at him with the blush on my face, so I start to color. I sense him turn his focus to the lesson Mr. Yang was teaching, so I do the same.