21

Helena had so much fun with the pottery that she could already picture out her days in the camp with her newfound friend. She wants to be with them. It was so new to her, and she couldn’t believe that socializing would bring her so much joy.

When her first night was slowly approaching, during dinner, the girls went into her room to take the food the cook had cooked for her. She was so delighted that she was treated so well that she invited them to eat with her.

“Wow. I didn’t know that there was food that tasted like this. It’s so delicious,” Alice pointed out while they were all squatting at a round table in front of the fireplace, while the snow could be seen pouring through the window. They were wearing ordinary clothes, while it was only Helena who was wearing sweaters.

“Is Alpha Louis fine if you will be here for how many days?” Rina asked while shoving food in her mouth.

Helena nodded. “I think so. Besides, he is also busy, and he only comes home at night so we can eat dinner together.”

“Whoa. So he eats dinner with you? That’s cute,” Mica giggled.

“There’s no meaning behind it, actually,” Helena blurted out.

“You see, men are sometimes low-key. They don’t want to fully express that they like you, but when they do, they would do it in an act of service. Let’s say they would help you with the things you are lacking. That’s also a sign of blooming feelings, you know,” Rina said.

Helena’s chewing slowed down when she remembered how Louis taught her to ride a horse so we would avoid getting into the same accident again. She finds that so considerate of him, but she never put meaning into it, unlike now when Rina pointed it out.

“Use this opportunity to know if he is okay without your presence or if he would crave for your attention. If he suddenly shows up here and he just wanted to check on you, then it is so obvious that he might be slowly falling in love with you.” Alice grinned.

Helena doesn’t understand the girls. They would tease her to Bruno, and now they were giving her tips to know if Louis has feelings for her. But she knew to herself that Louis falling in love with her is so impossible.

“Maybe he just cared for me since, after all, I am arranged to him, and he is just being considerate,” Helena reasoned.

“But we never know, Helena. He might be slowly having feelings for you,” Rina insisted.

She doesn’t want to give herself false hopes. She doesn’t want to dwell on things that would put her in a spot that she would regret again. What happened in the past has served as her own lesson not to assume things and to give meaning to someone else’s action because she knew that they would always find a way to hurt her.

After the dinner, the girls bid goodbye to her, and they even insisted on washing the dishes before leaving since they got some free meals. Helena couldn’t erase the smile on her lips when she went to bed, but Louis’ face suddenly flashed in her mind, which made her shift to bed while facing the ceiling.

She sighed as she couldn’t help but think about Louis.

Is he okay? Did he eat dinner already? He is used to eating alone, right? But isn’t it too lonely? Does he… also think of me?

She blushed on the last part of her question as she shut her eyes and forced herself to sleep. She doesn’t want to give colorful meanings to the things that she knows would only break her.

Tomorrow morning, she was so excited to prepare for her first subjects. The camp has its own facilities wherein there were the best of the best teachers that would teach them the three types of classification that would eventually determine what kind of class they were.

Helena was somehow nervous, as she wants to be part of one class at least in the future, but at the same time, she is excited for the process of it because she knew she would be with the girls.

Her first subject was more on solving problems. They were given books as well to read and to study the lesson. She has always been curious about things since day one, and it became a hobby for her to read books because she eventually learned new things from them. And out of all the students in her class, she might be the one who’s very excited.

“Okay, submit that to me tomorrow, and we will tackle it as our lesson,” the teacher said while Helena was already scribbling her final answers on the note, almost finished.

“Oh, I thought it would be submitted tomorrow,” Helena said in her seat, which made the others glance at her.

“Why, Miss Asher? Have you finished it already? And that’s solving, so it might take you more hours to solve it,” the teacher pointed out while piling her books up, ready to leave.

“Yes. It’s already done. I just know the answer, but I’m not sure if it’s correct.”

The teacher blinked twice while Alice, Rina, and Mica looked at each other. They were impressed that Helena managed to finish it in just minutes, knowing that the given assignment takes a lot of hours to concentrate on because it demands critical thinking and analyzing.

“It’s okay. You can submit it to me now in advance.” The teacher smiled, thinking that it might be just a mediocre answer since she hasn’t spent hours thinking about it thoroughly.

Helena stood up and submitted her work sheet. She was kind of nervous that she might have zero right answer on it, but it is more okay to know if she made a mistake or not. She went back to her seat while the girls smiled at her and showed their thumbs up for support while the teacher curiously looked at her answer.

The smile was still plastered on her lips while scanning each of Helena’s answers until her smile vanished when she realized something. She immediately opened the book she was about to put away just to check the formulas Helena had used.

Her eyes widened when she compared the answer, and it was really right. She got it perfectly. The goosebumps she felt were too much when she even realized that Helena only took minutes to answer it.

Some students noticed her reaction and said they were now curious about Helena’s result. The teacher got another sheet and wrote down something as she made Helena another pair of different questions. This time, she made it so hard to answer that even the normal students could since it wasn’t lectured yet. But she wanted to confirm something, and she was eager to let Helena answer those.

“Miss Asher. Can you sit here at the front and answer these?” she asked and put down the paper on the armchair.

The other students looked at Helena quietly, who nodded and stood. She went to the chair the teacher was talking about and sat there as she looked at the paper. Helena immediately noticed that there were three questions only. She could see that the teacher has now given her a question that wasn’t tackled yet.

“Is it okay to answer this, ma’am? They weren’t tackled yet,” she conversed.

“Oh, just try. I wanted to see you trying to answer it,” the teacher smiled.

Helena nodded and immediately focused on the question. Minutes after digesting it, she started scribbling her answer, which involves analysis and critical thinking. And to see Helena scribbling it down continuously, like she really knew what to answer, fascinates her.

This girl is… something else. That was the thought of the teacher as she looked at Helena, who’s seriously answering the questions.

And in just thirty minutes, Helena answered the two questions perfectly.

“All done, ma’am,” she said.

“There’s three questions. You need to answer the last part, Helena. It’s okay if you don’t know; just try it,” the teacher encouraged.

Helena looked at the question again, and just like earlier, she knew that she should leave it blank.

“I already answered it, ma’am. The answer is blank,” she said confidently.

“How come?” the teacher asked.

“The question itself doesn’t demand an answer because it was wrong to begin with. There is no answer to it,” Helena said in her composed self.

The humor in the teacher’s smile vanished, and she looked at Helena as if she had seen a ghost in a human form because of the goosebumps she felt knowing that Helena was right about the third question too. She purposely put the wrong answer since she is curious how Helena would answer it or how she would come up with a reasoning that would take her for hours of brainstorming on the answer that the teacher knows is not existing.

And to see that Helena had immediately figured it out the moment she just read the answer is mind-blowing. She could already guarantee that she has a different analytical thinking that would stand out.

“Where did you learn this? I know you are an Asher and you probably have tutors, but… it is still impressive,” she pointed out.

“It is just my own understanding since I am fond of books, ma’am,” Helena answered.

The teacher was amazed even more. Before she could even say anything, the door opened and someone’s head peeped in.

“Alpha Louis is in the camp, and he is waiting for Miss Asher to finish her subject,” the man said.

“Oh, the class is finished. But where is he? I need to talk to him for a moment,” the teacher said.