Loving Lisbeth Salander (XIV Series #1)

The Girl in Black III

“So how can glass be a liquid if it’s so hard?”

I raised my hand to answer but Mr. Oliver’s attention was on Forest who was still dozing off in her seat. I waved my hands so I could answer for her but he called out to her and repeated the same question. I turned to where Forest was in worry. She hasn’t been paying attention, nor was she listening at all. I’m just worried now that she might get dropped from our class when it’s only our first day together in the same class.

“Ms. Young?”

Now, I wonder how this would go.

I turned to look at her but she doesn’t bulge.

“Ms. Young.” Mr. Oliver called her again and this time, everyone heard her groan as she slowly rose from being crouched down.

She brushed her hair to the back, effortlessly cool, and eyed our teacher droopily as she rubs her right eye. She wasn’t even scared of showing this lazy side of her in front of our teacher. She’s really something – good something. “Glass… is not f*****g liquid in the strictest sense of the word, but it is also not solid.”

She…

Mr. Oliver was just as amused and amazed at the same time. I figured he called her to answer to see if she was naturally gifted with intellect.

“The chemistry of glass is complex and research is ongoing, but the current consensus is that glass is a phase of matter all its own, known as the amorphous solid.”

Even I didn’t know that but her information was so full and rich.

“Scientists refer to any amorphous solid as glass. Glass transitions are highly complex and cannot be treated in the same way as traditional phase transitions, according to the textbook Glasses and the Glass Transition by Ivan Gutzow.”

With that, she bent back down the arm rest and ignored the class once again.

She answered it. She actually answered it way better than anyone else would have – way better than I would have done, aware that I could answer the question myself.

By the time she finished talking, the room was utterly silent like what just happened thirty minutes ago. My smile went even wider. My heart was beating like mad. I never knew a person could affect me like this before and I’m not even calling this a bad thing because this girl – I really like.

I like her.

I do.

“Right.” Mr. Oliver acknowledged her answer with ease. “According to Ivan S. Gutzow, glass—”

After that, I wasn’t able to focus on the class nor the lecture that was being presented to us. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. The way she answered made me more interested and it’s funny how heart fluttering it was to hear her answer with so much confidence.

I should have known that people who sleep in class have that much confidence to answer questions without paying close attention to the discussion. My classmates here were more attentive than she was yet they wouldn’t manage to answer that well even if that was the case. It goes to show how innate and vast her knowledge was. I wonder how far range the branches of her intellect goes beyond.

So admirable.

The more I convince myself that I’m interested in this woman, the more my adrenaline tells me to talk to her.

“She’s really special, Harv. She’s so,” I paused and realized I didn’t exactly know how to describe her. I felt like I knew how to describe her but now that I was saying it out loud, I couldn’t say it out loud. “Different.” I told him, unsatisfied. Because I knew myself she was more than that – special, persay. “She even answered a Chemistry question while sleeping during the lecture. She’s— I bet you wouldn’t have been able to answer it yourself despite being awake during class.”

“You don’t know that.”

I raised a brow at him in doubt.

“I dance in my sleep.”

I laughed at his backfire. “That’s not the same thing.”

He puckered his lips as he answered, “We’re both sleeping. It’s the same.”

I sighed with a smile as I recalled that moment. It gets to me every time – the way she answered. She sounded so smart and confident. Less of the respect but I didn’t like her less without it. I feel like I’m falling down a deep well, and my stomach was churning. The type of feeling you get when you ride a rollercoaster. And I haven’t even tried to be on a rollercoaster. I just assume that’s how it feels considering I’ve seen it happen in movies and that looked exactly how they felt. “You should have seen it! It was like her senses are all awake even if she was sleeping.”

“Or maybe she was just acting like she was sleeping but she was really listening so when she gets called, everyone would think she’s genius which obviously worked seeing how head over heels you are again!” His eyes widened as he stated. “Surprise, surprise.”

I looked away in frustration and excitement. “Even if she did, that completely contradicts your claims of her being all the negative things you say about her. And how would she knowingly say all that if she was just pretending. She doesn’t even come close to the smartest person I knew then. It was like…” I paused, looking away trying to find the words to say. “It was like she was reading right off a book but better.”

“So? Maybe she was reading a book!”

“She wasn’t.” I immediately replied. I knew too well that she wasn’t capable of doing something like that. Her aura just speaks too much about herself that you’d know when and how she would act if she true to herself. Like her sleeping in class, she couldn’t have possibly faked it for attention. She just didn’t seem like the type who would care much about it. “She answered it so intelligently and lazily.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay. I’ll respect that you’re crazy for this girl, but Mark, aren’t you, at the slightest bit, afraid of her? Who knows what she might do to you?! What if she kills you and no one will even know that she killed you?”

I shook my head in disagreement. I doubt that she’s that kind. “You’re overthinking things. Your head’s clearly filled with delusional fantasies that the rumours built up. Is that what you get from reading too much fiction?” I complained pointing my fore finger at his direction. “She doesn’t even look like a killer.” That was a lie. She was the perfect image of a stereotype killer but that’s exactly the reason why she’s not. I reckon an intelligent woman like her would look like that only to be perceived as one.

“Look at her! Even those who we think are her friends aren’t eating with her because she’s nothing like normal.” I turned and stared at her. She was eating alone, pitifully alone but that doesn’t make her seem bad or anything like that. She just seemed like she didn’t want to be around people. “Can’t you just like someone who’s just as normal as we are?”

“Maybe she just didn’t want to eat with anyone.” I shrugged and took a bite off my bread.

“You’re always defending that demon. Nothing she does wrong is ever wrong to your eyes. You’re a fool, my friend. You’re a fool.”

I chuckled. My attention diverted back to Forest whose eyes were furrowing with full of anger. I was curious of what’s going on inside that head of hers. She was more than just a mystery – she was every mystery any detective would want to pursue. Nothing she will ever say or do will change my mind and how interested I am with her.

She suddenly stopped eating and her creases went deeper with every blink I made. She stood up with her tray and started walking towards a different direction. My heart jumped a little in fright for her sudden bold move. Is she finally eating with her friends? But she looked mad. She didn’t look like she was happy with an invitation. There’s no way anyone would approach someone this mad if they aren’t—

The entire cafeteria gasped in horror – the scene that she was causing. Everyone, including myself, was surprised when she suddenly turned her tray upside down right at Gavin Heartlock’s head.

The Gavin Heartlock.

The quarterback of the university’s football team.

“WHAT THE f**k?!”