WHEN LOVE MET SCIENCE {COMING 2024}

CHAPTER FIVE

“He knows. Abigail, he knows.” Tito said as she grabbed a seat in the front row of the empty classroom.

Abby dropped beside her, putting her books on their shared desk. “I don’t think he is going to say anything.”

“You don’t know that boy. He’ll be doing anything to make my life a living hell.”

Everyone began trotting into the classroom. Benjamin walked in with his bag slung over his shoulder.

When their eyes met, as if he could no longer contain it, he smirked. Gosh, she wanted to kill him. How dare he?

Behind him was Dare, head down, looking at a book.

There was a tingling in the pit of her stomach as she watched him. She removed her gaze in a bid to not appear creepy. Ah, he was so dreamy.

Abby elbowed her. “I can picture you drooling.”

“Stop it and please don’t discuss that now. People might hear you.” Heat crept up to her neck.

“What? No one can—”

The look on her face stopped her friend. She wasn’t going to risk any other person hearing that she had a crush on Dare. For years now, it had been just Abby who knew. Now, Benjy. So bad!

The Biology teacher, Mrs. Zainab entered the classroom, silencing the once noisy classroom. Mrs. Zainab was her favorite teacher. She was the only teacher she could actually go to talk to about private matters.

Mrs. Zainab met her gaze and flashed her a smile as she arranged her books on the teacher's desk. She returned the smile.

Mrs. Zainab turned to the class after adjusting her blue hijab.  “Good morning, Class.”

The class greetings was nothing close to energetic but Mrs. Zainab didn’t seemed to notice. Perhaps she did but simply didn’t care.  

“Okay, everyone. Let’s get working.” The teacher opened her marker and scribbled today’s topic on the board. Cells.

Tito tried not to show it but it was simple. Simple as A B C.

“Before we go into today's topic, who can remind us our last week's topic?”

Hands were raised from every corner of the classroom. Finally, a girl answered the question correctly.

“Correct. Now, who can tell me what we mean by cells? I know we haven’t treated this topic before. Just trying to know my scholars.”

Now, this was her scene. Tito raised her hand but Mrs. Zainab's eyes had already shifted behind her. Benjy, again.

Her head swirled back to meet his gaze. She shot him a death glare and for the first time in all of history, Benjy dropped his hand.

Abby gasped beside her.

“Yes, Bolatito?”

Her mouth opened in shock that Benjamin dropped his hand so she could answer a question. On a normal day, he’ll glare back till the teacher picked any one of them but never has he dropped his hand in defeat.

“Tito?” Mrs. Zainab called. “Answer the question, please.”

 Standing, she pulled up a good posture and cleared her throat. What was the question again? Oh, Cells. Right.

“Before I start, I want us to put in mind that the word cell is derived from a Latin word ‘cella’ meaning small room.” Mrs. Zainab's nod of acknowledgment urged her to go on. “Cells are the structural, functional, and biological unit of all organisms.”