My Whole Youth

Chapter4

“Ugh, I’m exhausted! I just got back from the hospital, and now I have duty again… not to mention the midterms coming up,” Clara muttered, wiping sweat from her forehead.

“It’s so annoying… midterms already? I haven’t even finished exploring this school yet,” Amy added from the side, teasing.

[Author’s note: well, “exploring”—if she can’t explore, she’d probably just end up trashing the whole school :))]

From the direction of the cafeteria, Damien ran over, holding a few chilled bottles of C2. He looped his arms behind Amy and pressed the cold drinks gently against her cheeks, making her startle and squeal, “Ah!”

Damien then moved around to face her directly, his tone calm but teasing: “Alright, little missy, you’ve been in school for almost four months and you’re complaining already? Be good and listen to me… I’ll give you all the answers for the test tomorrow.”

“Pfft, who asked you to? You scared me half to death,” Amy pouted, pretending to be annoyed and turning her face away.

“Just a little angry already? Come on, don’t be mad. I was wrong, okay? Next time I won’t do it. I’ll write cheat sheets for you, I’ll even cover for you, alright? Don’t be mad, okay?” Seeing Amy playfully pout, Damien continued coaxing her, fully aware she was acting cute on purpose.

Hearing him speak like that, Amy turned back to him with a self-satisfied look, a wide grin spreading across her face. “This is a promise you made yourself, okay? I’m not forcing anyone to do anything.”

“Feels like I just got tricked by you, doesn’t it, short stuff?” Damien teased, unable to resist poking fun at her delight.

“Short stuff? Who are you calling short, huh? I’m short, so what? I’m done talking to you, I’m going to hang out with Clara!” Amy suddenly blushed, offended, and darted behind Clara for protection.

“Finally, you two remember I exist,” Clara said helplessly, witnessing the midday drama between Damien and Amy. She hadn’t expected to become a spotlight in the middle of the day like this.

“I haven’t said anything! Did you think I’d disappeared? And you… what did you eat today to be so clingy? You never act like this around me normally.” Clara chided Amy, who had just tried to respond, but instead turned her attention to Damien:

“And you, Damien… pampering Amy like this just spoils her. If no one can handle her stubbornness, you’ll be the one raising her for life.”

“Stubborn, huh? Even if she is, you’d still have to raise me. Who needs Damien?” Amy shot back, not willing to lose the argument.

“No way, missy. I have old parents and senior brothers waiting at home. I can barely afford to eat, let alone support you.”

“Cut the fake-poor act, Clara. If you’re poor, who’s rich then?!”

“I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m going to wash the board cloths before Ms. Van comes and deducts points again. Don’t understand why there are almost thirty students in the class, yet she only targets me.”

“No need, just look over there,” Clara said, pointing toward the classroom door. Damien was walking toward the blackboard with the freshly washed cloth in hand, calmly wiping the board, leaving Amy and the other girls reading in shock.

“Am I seeing things? The hotboy Damien Carter from our class is standing there cleaning the board?” Amy stammered.

“You’re not mistaken. It really is Damien Carter,” Clara confirmed.

“Wait, what’s going on? It’s supposed to be our duty with Damien and Amy, yet Damien is washing the board? This morning I saw him sweeping the classroom, washing cloths, watering plants… he did everything already. And now he wants to do more?”

“Did he take some medicine by mistake today?” Amy asked.

“I don’t know… when I came over, he’d already finished cleaning everything by himself. I was going to wash the cloth and wipe the board, but he snatched the cloth and ran off to wash it. He didn’t even wipe it; he just returned it to me clean. He even wiped the high parts for me.”

“This feels… off. Ever since you got injured and went to the hospital, Damien’s like a different person. He’s still lazy with studying, but in every other way, he’s… someone else.”

“Probably guilty about leaving Clara on duty alone before, so now he’s trying to make up for it by doing everything himself,” Damien’s best friend, Alex, explained, wanting to cover for his brother’s guilt and clear any suspicion in Amy’s mind.

“I see… before he acted all cold, but now his conscience’s eating at him, so he’s taking care of everything himself,” Amy said, nodding slightly, a hint of irony in her tone.

On the surface, everyone said he obeyed her obediently, but in truth, Clara hadn’t actually told him to do anything. They weren’t close enough for her to give orders; he volunteered to help, sometimes doing things she didn’t even notice. So when she saw Damien suddenly diligent—sweeping the classroom, helping with duty, and washing the cloths for the blackboard—Clara couldn’t help but be a little surprised. Though curious, she didn’t ask if he’d taken the wrong medicine or what had gotten into him; she just ignored these “unusual” behaviors and let them slide.

After the “accident,” everyone returned to normal routines—except for Clara’s class, 6A1. Being a special class, 6A1 had the privilege of taking exams a week earlier than other classes. As a bonus, besides Math, Literature, and Physics, 6A1 also had to take English. And the English exam for the specialized class was basically the same as a Literature exam, just in another language—challenging enough to rival the hardest Vietnamese Literature tests.

To prepare for the first “battle” of the year, the entire 6A1 plunged into their studies. Even the boys who usually pretended not to care—those who said, “I come to school to sleep, not to learn”—stopped fooling around and focused on the lessons. Clara, the class vice president and top student everyone admired, wasn’t much better, except her study method this year was slightly different. Why? Because she had to carry an enormous “weight” beside her this time: Damien.

In previous years, Clara could just review her own notes and hammer through past exam papers. This year, she spent several nights carefully summarizing formulas and annotating key points for each subject in a notebook… all to give it to Damien to study.

"Clara… Clara… Clara… wake up! Do you want to die or what, sleeping through Literature class?” Amy came down to shake her violently, yelling.

“Huh… die… who… what time is it… is it Literature class yet?” Clara mumbled, groggily raising her head and squinting at Amy after a noisy shaking session.

“Not ‘yet’—by the time you woke up, the Literature teacher had already left ages ago. Earlier, she stormed in furious, handed us the test papers, and just sat at her desk silently the entire class without saying a word.”

“What… what?! She didn’t call me? Did she call me? Oh no, Amy, I’m doomed! I already had her eye on me, and now I fall asleep in her class? How will my exam scores survive this?”

“You’re lucky today she didn’t yell at the whole class. I did try to warn you, but you didn’t listen. As soon as she left, I ran over and woke you up.”

“Phew… thank goodness she didn’t see me sleeping. But did you see Damien at all?”

“I’ve been waiting for him all morning to give him something, but I didn’t see him anywhere.”

“Damien? I don’t know… he came late. By the time he arrived, you were already asleep at your desk. He went straight to his seat, buried his face in his own work, and didn’t lift his head the whole class—just like you.”

“When the bell rang, he bolted outside during break with a few guys from the next class. Where they went, I have no idea. What did you want to give him?”

“My exam notes. I spent several nights preparing them, so I collapsed in class. I planned to give them to him this morning, but my eyes were so heavy I dozed off without realizing it.”

“That guy… typical. Meanwhile, you stayed up all night, looking like a hollow panda, and he just ran off with the A2 troublemakers.”