Ten

~Jace

My words had her shooting up from me immediately and I threw my hands behind my head, resting on them as I watched her cheeks burn furiously.

"I...I wasn't expecting a....."she was stuttering and then shook her head. "I wasn't even supposed to be here. I came looking for you so you could take me home,"she spoke quietly, looking down at her feet.

I seriously wasn't satisfied with how overly shy and quiet she was. Every word she says always hinted at the fact that she'd break at the slightest push.

"You could've easily booked an Uber, yunno? Just admit that you miss me,"I grinned but she only bowed her head lower in an attempt to hide her blushing face from me.

"Can we just go home already?"

"Can we just go home already?"I mimicked her childish voice. "I'm not ready to go home yet,"I replied boringly.

"But...."she was saying.

"No buts here, Kïttên. I'm the boss around here and if you can't wait till I'm ready to leave, then book a ride. No one's stopping you,"I mumbled, grabbing a comic book and I heard her sigh.

Truth was, I knew the basket mouth of a principal would've called my dad to blabber away and the moment I got home.....well, yeah. It was prolly going to be world war 100th considering the amount of wars I'd fought in that house.

I looked over at Claire to see her now sitting at the corner of the room, surrounded with books. She was obviously working on assignments or stuff.

While I held the book to my face as though I were reading, I had eyes on her. I noticed the way her brows knotted whenever she was in her thinkering mode and how her eyes lit up the moment she discovered the answer.

She'd had her bottom lip in her mouth since she started battling with the school work, and I was just this tempted to approach her and gave it the freedom it wanted.

"Eish,"I heard her groan frustratedly and I quickly averted my eyes back to my book before she'd catch me staring.

"Uhm, Jace?"she called but I didn't answer. I wanted her to say it again. There was something about the way she pronounced it that made me thank my mum for giving me that name.

"Jace?"she called again.

"Yeah?"I replied, turning to look at her.

"I just wanted to ask you something,"she spoke coyly and I gave her a pointed look to go out with it. "You're in Final class diamond, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I figured we were all given same assignments since we all have maths together so I decided to come ask you.... I promise it's the final question I'm having issues with. If you could help me explain...."she trailed off, fiddling with the hem of her dress.

"We had maths class together, right?"I asked with a cocked brow. "Weren't you there when I got kicked out?"

She hit her head with the butt of her pen as she seemed to curse lowly. "I'm so sorry, I forgot,"she mumbled lowly before exhaustedly looking back at her book. "Curse fate. I'm definitely screwed,"she lamented silently, looking at the books without being able to write a thing down.

I felt pity for her so I just decided to help her. It was one question after all, wasn't it?

"What topic?"I asked and she looked up with confused eyes.

"But you weren't even in class when they taught....."

"What topic, Kitten?"I asked again and she gave a hopeful exhale.

"Measure Theory,"she pouted, looking like she'd lost the hope she had a few seconds ago. "But there's no way you'd be able to figure it out."

My favourite topic? Who the hell was she kidding?

I rolled eyes, pushing myself up in a sitting position and I tapped on my lap, indicating for her to come sit.

"Come here with the notes so I can see the question,"I spoke and she squinted her eyes at me.

Hello? I was fucking trying to help.

"Aren't you listening? I hate repeating myself,"I mumbled.

"I...I uh. I heard you, but.... can't you just teach me while I seat somewhere else?"she asked quietly, her cheeks burning red again.

This girl was just too strange. I mean, girls are usually coy, but she's got the coyness in excess.

The shape's in excess too, though. I shook my head, snapping out of it.

"Are you coming or not?"I cocked my brow at her and she swallowed, moving uneasily as she slowly got up, gathering her note and textbook.

She dragged her foot towards me and made to sit beside me but I was quick enough to grab her waist and help her sit on my lap.

"I...."she was about protesting.

"Hush now, Kïttên. Let's study,"I kissed the spot behind her ear and she moved against me a bit. I smirked.

"Question?"I asked and she adjusted slightly before raising the textbook properly.

She read aloud. "Prove that the Hausdorff dimension of the Cantor set is log(2)/log(3), and show that the Hausdorff measure of the Cantor set is 0."

"So? What's there you can't solve?"I asked, drawing slow circles on her bare waist. Oh, my hands found their way under her hoodie while she was reading. But I wasn't going to go too far....not yet.

"Ev... everything's hard about it,"she swallowed and I rolled eyes.

"You just didn't pay attention to Mrs Turner. Now listen,"I pulled her close and she accidentally grinded on me. I almost groaned at the action, but I doubted she even realized what she did cause she looked genuinely willing to hear what I had to say.

"So we already know that the Cantor set is a mathematical concept where you repeatedly remove the middle third of a line segment, right?"I asked and she nodded, looking at the diagram I was pointing at.

"Good. Now imagine you're trying to cover the Cantor set with tiny line segments. The Hausdorff dimension measures how many of these segments you need to cover the set. For the Cantor set....the Hausdorff dimension is approximately 0.6309 (log(2)/log(3)). This means that the Cantor set is more complex than a simple line (dimension 1) but less complex than a square (dimension 2). You grab?"I asked to make sure she was following and she nodded immediately.

"So you can say the Hausdorff measure is like a "mathematical ruler" that measures the size of the Cantor set. Surprisingly, the Hausdorff measure of the set is 0. This means that, despite its complexity, the Cantor set has zero "length " or "size" in a mathematical sense. There goes your answer,"I rounded up, satisfied with the way I was able to break it down.

Her silence had me poking her sides. "You're not saying anything."

She slowly turned her head to look at me. "So how come your Dad called you dull? How come you come out last in class? You just solved the most complex math topic in less than five minutes,"she spoke in disbelief.

"I never corrected my dad, I never showed up for exams either. Everyone can keep on assuming,"I shrugged.

"But how? You weren't even in class!"she said, still looking at me suspiciously.

"Because I've self-taught myself for so long?"I rolled eyes, trying to ignore how she was rocking back and forth on my boner.

"Wow. You're amazing,"she smiled at me.

"You're meant to hate me, Kïttên. Keep up that role,"I whispered in her ear before helping her off me.

Geez. Who TF asked me to make her sit on my lap?

"Thank you so much, Jace,"she spoke sounding a lot less coy and I looked at her interestingly.

"You owe me one kiss, Kïttên,"I winked at her and got up from the couch. Colour drained off her face.

"What?!"

"Let's go home, Kïttên,"I ignored her question and started making my way out, leaving her to run after me.