THE class for the next subject was about to start when Max returned to her seat. She was just silent the whole period but deep inside she's brooding over what Cedric had said. Her thoughts were filled with catastrophic scenes if ever Hero and Liam would meet each other again here in Cas-U. Bloody fights were not new to her but it scared her to even think what one of them would do with the other."Max, are you okay?"Hero's whisper interrupted her thoughts and snapped her back to her senses. Only then did she realized that the class was already over and it's time to go home."Come on! I'm hungry.""Where are you going?" Lisa asked curiously."Well, I'm going home

"IT'S her test paper that I submitted yesterday. I wrote my name on it, thinking it was mine because she told me so." Max just stayed silent, her fist clenched in annoyance and embarrassment as Hero did his confession in front of Mrs. Tuazon. "Is this true, Max? But why would you do that?" the teacher asked her. "That's true," she replied in a soft but unapologetic voice without taking her eyes off of him. "I just did both of us a favor. I knew my score will be in the top five, but I don't want to join the quiz bee. And here's someone so desperate to join. So I gave him my test paper." "Are you saying I can't get into the top five if I pass my own test paper?" Hero butt in, feeling insulted. "Why, did you study?" "How can I study? You know I took care of you and watched over you all night." "That's why I'm taking res

"ARE you going out?" Hero stopped walking when he heard Max's voice behind him. He turned to face her. "Yeah. Lance and Miggy invited me to the funfair," he replied. It was almost six o'clock when their classmates left. Max wanted to end the tutorial earlier but they asked for an extension as they were enjoying the lessons. He was so tired he felt his brain drain from it. The fair would be the best stress reliever. "Do you want to come with us?" he asked hesitantly. "No. I, uh, I got something else to do. Thanks, anyway." "Okay! I'm going first. Good night!" "Good night! Have fun!" He hesitantly waved goodbye before heading out the door. "Oh! Where's Max?" the two immediately asked when he came out. "She said she has something else to do," he replied simply. Actually, he didn

THE mass would start at 10 AM. Max still had thirty minutes to prepare. After taking a bath, she opened her wardrobe and examined her clothes. She decided to go with her black floral-print long-sleeved knee-length chiffon dress and paired it with a black suede two-inch block-heeled sandals. She excitedly looked at herself in the human-sized mirror and was very satisfied at how the outfit looked good on her--or rather, how she looked good on it. But the excitement was replaced with hatred when she saw the old Kathrina--sweet, naive, and stupidly in love with Hero. Do you wanna go back to that weak Kathrina? Did you forget your rule: Never trust anyone? "No!" She violently shook her head. She was about to take the dress off when suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Are you done yet?" It was Hero's voice. "Nanny asked me to check up on you. We're a

"ISN'T that the new transfer student? He's really handsome, isn't he?"Max rolled her eyes when she heard Lisa giggled behind her. They had just arrived at the campus cafeteria and were looking for a good spot when she saw Liam at the counter; female students lining up behind him naively giggled and were thrilled just like Lisa did.Well, she wouldn't argue on that. Liam had been a campus crush ever since they were kids.Soon they found a good spot and put together two empty tables side by side to accommodate their group. She purposely chose the seat where she could see what Liam was doing. On the other hand, she was aware of the other pair of eyes observing her: Hero's."Let's line up at the counter," Darwin urg