Mark_minhyung99: Could u help me on page 30? I need help >.<

Riley_Lupin004: You've only been asking answers from me, Mark. 

Mark_minhyung99: Just this once, pls?

Riley_Lupin004: That's what you said before.

Mark_minhyung99: I apologize you have 2 deal with an idiot like me T_T

Riley_Lupin004: I'm joking, I'll send the answers over to you in a minute. 

Mr Avery wanted us to complete the whole second chapter, just because he thought it'd be an easy task for us. I was hopeless in Biology, so I asked Riley Andrews for help more than I should have. It was a relief she didn't mind me bothering her for three nights straight. Riley Andrews, I realized, had a habit of having constant grammar perfection, even in her texts. Everything was spelled correctly, with the right capital letters and spacing without any numbers in the mix. 

It made me feel like an inferior. 

So I lay there on my bed with my module rested in front of me, awaiting for her to reply. We stayed in our line, that conversations between each other were 'strictly for educational and academic purposes only'. I still wondered if she meant it literally or as a joke, I wasn't sure with Riley Andrews. When she sent over the screenshots of her answers, I quickly noted them down. 

Mark_minhyung99: Thx, Riley. 

Riley_Lupin004: Your welcome. Anything else, Mark?

There technically was nothing else to ask, since the homework was already done. But for some reason, I didn't want the conversation to end. I thought for a second before texting again.

Mark_minhyung99: What r u doing now?

Riley_Lupin004: Talking to you.

Mark_minhyung99: I mean besides that...

Riley_Lupin004: Studying, what else is new? 

Mark_minhyung99: Ur already the best student in our year, how much better do u need to be?

Riley_Lupin004: You have to ask my mom that question... 

Mark_minhyung99: Don't u get bored studying alone?

Riley_Lupin004: Do you wanna study together?

It was a sudden proposal, never had I wanted to study together with someone so badly. I typed back immediately. 

Mark_minhyung99: Sure. My house or your house? 

Riley_Lupin004: You can come over, my mom's okay with it as long as we're doing something noteworthy. How does the weekend sound?

A plan started forming in my mind, it was risky yet so good. 

Mark_minhyung99: How about we study over dinner? I know this diner we could go to, it's cheap!

Riley_Lupin004: Are you sure? I'll need to ask my mom, be back in a minute.

Just as she said that, the bedroom door swung open. Donghyuck came barging in like a mad dog, I glared. "Why don't you ever knock?" I said. 

He scoffed, "It's my room too," and once again without my permission, he landed right next to me on my bed - and looked at my phone screen. I shoved him away. "Who are you texting?"

"A classmate." I answered.

"Which classmate?"

"Stop being nosy," I said to him. 

"Who's Riley Lupin?" he narrowed his eyes and he snatched away my phone. 

"Donghyuck, give it back!" I said as I tried taking it back, but he was too fast. He jumped up his bed. 

"'Do you wanna study together?'" he said in a girlish tone. "'Sure, my house or your house?'" he then imitated me. "'You can come over, my mom's okay with it as long as we're doing something noteworthy'?" he looked at me. "You'e so done for, Lee." and he leaped from his bed and dashed out the room.

"Donghyuck, you come back here you jerk!" I chased after him, down the stairs and into the living room. Aunt Tiffany had just arrived back from work. 

She almost dropped her mail, "Boys! Stop running around, you're both too old for that!"

"He started it!" I pointed at him, who had taken refuge behind Aunt Tiffany and was scrolling down to look at more messages.

"'How does the weekend sound?'" he read aloud. "'How about we study over dinner? I know this diner we could go to, it's cheap!' Mark's meeting someone this weekend!"

I tried to manhandle him, "Stop that!" 

Aunt Tiffany was still confused, "Okay, calm down. Just what is going on?"

"Mark's busted," Donghyuck answered. "Since he's going on a date with Riley Lupin this weekend - without your permission, Aunt Tiffany."

"We're not going on a date, we're studying. Plus she's Riley Andrews, you dweeb." I muttered.

"A date?" she finally caught the word. 

"Mm-hmm," Donghyuck cooed. "With some girl from his class."

I rolled my eyes, "It's not a date, it's a study group."

"That's what he said, we don't know if he'll sneak out then have a date." he tried butting in. 

I crossed my arms, "Don't tempt me." I warned. 

Aunt Tiffany turned to me, "Is it true, Mark?"

I sighed, "I was going to tell you until some dweeb-"

"That's wonderful!" she exclaimed. "You can take my car if you want, I'm free this weekend."

I thought I was imagining things, I had to have her repeat it. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

She chuckled and patted my shoulder, "Those flowers did have miracles after all, you're finally dating someone!" and just that second, my phone sounded with the expected notification alarm. 

I gulped, "Who sent it?" I could have snatched it back from him, and I didn't.

He groaned, "She says her mom's okay with it, as long as you have dinner with them."

Aunt Tiffany reacted to it earlier than I did, "It's settled then! I'm so happy for you, Mark - you'll need to wear something nice. You don't want her folks to have a bad impression about you. I'll help you out, okay?" she said before going upstairs. 

"Still not a date, Aunt Tiffany." I answered, unable to hide my grin. I turned to Donghyuck and offered my hand, "Ahem?"

He snorted and tossed the phone at me, I caught it. "That wasn't how it was supposed to go down." he grumbled. 

"Joke's on you, Lee Donghyuck." I shot back before gliding into our room. 

I rang their doorbell, formulating the words I was about to say the second the door opened. 

"Good evening, Mrs Andrews." I greeted when a woman opened the door, with brown locks exactly like Riley's. Only she was much more intimidating. 

She scanned me from head to toe, I silently thanked Aunt Tiffany for dressing me up. She made me iron my jeans and put on a black dress shirt, minus the tie. She even told me to put on Doc's perfume, I was sure I smelled like a garden. 

"You must be Mark," she said, with an expression I hoped was an approving one. "Come in, come in."

She gave way for me to enter, the first thing that came to my mind was that their home looked like the set from the Fosters. Everything was in place, clean and tidy. There was a whole shelf next to the window with books on display, my hand itched to take one out to have a look. 

"Her dad's a book collecter," Mrs Andrews appeared right next to me. "Riley told me you had a talent in writing, you can have a look if you want while I fetch Riley." and she went upstairs. 

Just how much did she tell them about me? I thought. There wasn't much to talk about me since we had only met a few weeks ago, and rarely did we talk about anything besides homework and classes. There was still a lot I had to know about her. 

"Hi Mark," she ascended from the stairs. She had her brilliant smile on, and once again I felt like I was being an idiot just standing there and looking. 

I my lips, "H-hey Riley." 

"Um, you're dressed up." she noted. 

Suddenly I felt so embarassed, I was already turning red. "You look nice, though." she assured before approaching me with her handful of books. She noticed my eyes glued towards the bookshelf. "My dad adds at least a new one to his collection every month, I've given up on keeping track."

"You've read all these books?" I asked.

She looked at me as if there was some untold secret, "This isn't even one quarter of the books he collected, he couldn't fit anymore in the attic. He treats that place like his shrine, so he's usually in there when he's not working." 

'Riley, why don't you take Mark up to the attic to study?" Mrs Andrews suggested. "I'll call you two down when dinner's ready. Are you okay with that, Mark?"

"Sounds good," I answered. 

Riley broke into a smile, "Come on, there's probably a few books about animal anatomy we can check out." 

Never in my lifetime, had I seen someone so excited to have a look at books about animal anatomy.

I wasn't sure what they meant for 'mini library'.

Riley took me to their house attic, and when she opened the door - I was astonished. The four walls of the room had built in shelves up to the ceiling, with no space in between the hundreds of volumes arranged according to their genre. 

"This is...wow." I found it hard to formulate words. "H-how do you reach that high?"

She came pushing the ladder at the corner, "Hmm let's see, science and technology..." she scanned the labelled signs. "What was the topic Mr Avery wanted us to present again?"

"Oh," I hastily took out our assisgnment sheet. "um, cell division - mitosis and meiosis."

"Huh," she said. "I guess that can be covered in say, twenty minutes. Then you'll have to help me on my poetry homework."

"Pfft, me?" I believed she was joking. "I-I'm not that good."

She looked at me with a bored gaze, "Mark, you're Miss Bennet's favourite student."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." she hopped down from the ladder and we sat by at the study desk. She opened up the ancient looking encyclopedia and flipped the pages, I could tell it was a really old book judging by its quality leather jacket and intricate illustrations. "Right, so the definition of cell division..." and she began her detailed explanation while I took notes. 

When she was done, she took out her yellow legal pad and her pencil. "Now it's your turn to help me out. I really don't know what else to write. Can I have yours a look?"

I laughed nervously, "I'd be happy to let you, if I wrote it yet - which I haven't and is about to be handed in first thing tomorrow..." I cleared my throat. "But no worries, let's see what can I do to help out. What kind of poetry Miss Bennet wanted us to work on?"

"It's up to us, but free verse poems seem like the easiest and I was so wrong." she sighed. "I got nothing."

"Well, what do you want to write about?"

"I went through some of my dad's poetry collection and I studied Edgar Allan Poe a bit-"

"Nonono," I said. "Tell me what you want to write about, not someone else's work. Something that you like, maybe?"

She tried thinking but shook her head, "Ugh, I got nothing." and she laid her head on the table. 

I hated to see her like that, so I gave in. "It's okay, Riley. Er, let's see..." I picked up the pencil and tapped into my mind temple. I zoomed in on the first thing that came into my mind about her interests, then I started writing. Halfway I noticed her staying quiet as she observed me, or maybe the poetry. I tried ignoring her as much as I could. 

Suddenly the door creaked open, and Mrs Andrews entered with a tray of cookies and milk. "I though you two were hungry, so I thought some cookies and milk would be nice." she said cheerfully.

"Mom, we're having dinner soon." Riley reasoned. 

"I'm not telling you to finish all of it, Mark and bring some back for his folks," she glanced at me. "What are you two up to?" she asked out of curiosity. 

"Mark's helping me with my poetry homework." she answered.

"Oh, that's wonderful of him. Carry on, I'll come back when dinner's ready." and she left us alone again. Riley continued to observe me, like a specimen under a microscope. 

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I said jokingly, trying to act natural.

She scoffed, "I'm trying to make them go away,"

I frowned, "Who?"

She rolled her eyes, "See for yourself."

I glanced at the glass panel door, and caught sight of Riley's parents hiding from view. "Are they...spying on us?"

Riley sighed, "What else is new?"