MAXVERSE: GLORY ARC (VOL 1,2,3 COMBINED)

Chapter 2: A bothersome girl

"So if you try to apply Cartesian scale here, then you will see how it can go wrong ..."

Max glanced listlessly at the board as teacher carried on with his lecture. Glancing behind allayed any hopes that he had about being left alone. If he wasn't sure already earlier, he knew quite well now that Kate was fixated on him.

"So what were you doing in that tunnel, Max Ryder?" She crossed her arms.

"I am not obliged to tell you anything." He brushed past her as she quickly stood in front of him with a glare.

"What?" He raised his eyebrows.

"I could report you easily. So you might want to question your smug attitude. "She smirked.

"You are here too. Even though you didn't come inside the tunnel, it still falls within purview of the prohibited area so Kate Summer! Unless you want to answer for yourself too to teachers, get out of my way." He shoved his hands in pocket ignoring her widened eyes.

"Maybe if I run away fast after class ends, I would be fine." Almost as if sensing his thoughts, she threw a chit at him hitting him on head. He picked it up reading it quickly before professor could catch him.

"Be there Central Park after class post one hour." The nerve of this girl! He could simply ignore her as usual but then again, there were several disadvantages in that strategy itself. First of all, he couldn't return to tunnel on Saturday concerned about being watched by Kate and then he had to find out that janitors stay all around tunnel only on Sunday!

Furthermore, she had already started to catch on to his intentions to ditch her and plans to investigate tunnel today so his plan would have to be delayed again since there was a high chance Kate would report him if he doesn't satiate her enough.

"What a bothersome girl!"

...

3:00 pm

Scouting his surroundings, he gradually entered the park carefully stepping to avoid getting soil on his shoes.

Kate was already sitting on chair with her eyes laced with anxious expectation if he would come or not. She raised her eyebrows brightly at his arrival and a small smile curled her face.

"So what do you want this time?" He questioned.

"A definite answer." She interlocked her fingers together.

"I take it that you are referring to the tunnel incident!" At which she nodded.

"Fine! I suppose I have to tell you or you will just annoy me ... I was collecting soil sample for geographical interest but I didn't want anyone to find out about hobby."

She stood still for a moment and then burst into laughter." Wow! So it was really true."

He narrowed his gaze at her in confusion. There was no way to detect his lie so why was she laughing?

"I wanted to check just how true you were, Max Ryder! But it seems you are an expert in fibbing! I already know what you were doing inside the tunnel." She revealed.

"I see! That is unfortunate then." He fondled his hair.

"You are still calm! Do you ever get angry? Ah...!" She bit her lip infuriated.

"I have no obligation to reveal that to you. Anyway, Kate. Let's cut to point. What do you want?"

"Fine! Here is the deal. I have a video of you inside the tunnel so if I share it anonymously on school web, then you would certainly be in a lot of trouble. So from now on, you are going to oblige to my every request. Is that perfectly clear?"

He wondered whether the girl had lost her mind. Well! Then again, that would be stretch to believe that she had it in first place. She really thinks that he would sacrifice his freedom to obey her just to avoid a single detention probably from school as punishment!

Well! Then again, there was no harm in letting her fantasize she was in control if it meant he could avoid her.

"Not every request but yeah fine!"

She raised her eyebrows "You are such a strange one, Max. You are really quick to adapt to anything and answer without hesitation and so calm ....I will most definitely break that facade one day "She minced her teeth.

"So what will be my first task, summer?" He ignored her retort.

"You are going to create an organisation!" She moved closer.

"For what purpose?" He scrunched his face.

"An organisation specifically to accomplish what you intended to do in first place when you went to that tunnel of course! What else?" She beamed.

What could she possibly hope to gain from this? Even in long term, he couldn't see any major benefits for her. Furthermore, he was already concerned as to how she gained information about his activities inside tunnel.

If there was a surveillance camera placed inside, then could school really have been willing enough to give her access to it, even if she was ambassador's daughter?

The possible was quite unlikely for him. But then there was a bigger question if it wasn't placed by school, then how did Kate obtains the video implicating him in act and from whom? Right now, all he could do was to observe and then gradually make his move carefully.

After all, the situation contrived due to circumstances didn't put him in any severe bind.

"Of course! You are right!" He smiled at her.

Kate felt like something elevating within herself as she glimpsed at him. Was it because of the satisfaction of getting him to concede to her! Or something else perhaps but the moment that thought stirred up, she brushed it aside in utter disbelief.

All she was seeking to was to do to bring out his true personality to surface! The fact that receiving this video amazed her more than Max whom she expected to be shocked, his calm demeanour all of it just...made her even curious and eager to break that identity.

Unbeknownst to her, staying calm was as natural to Max as was greed to humans.

...

"Aw! You already got a girlfriend! And that too..."

"She is not my girlfriend! How many times I have to say it?" Max groaned .He knew quite well that it would take one of kind excuse to wrap up Axel in organisation but he really didn't expect him to assume such a thing.

"Oh! I know. She might be too far for you right now! But don't worry, my friend. Once I am done with ..."

"If you suggest one more time any sort of relationship advice, I am going to form this without you." He warned him.

"What! You wouldn't dare..! "Axel stepped back shook.

"Watch me!"

"Fine! So basically Kate wants to form a secret group for her weird geographical interest right! "Axel relented.

"Yeah! And several other bizarre stuff. She was quite vague." He hitched his shoulders.

"Well! That does sound like our Kate alright! "He wondered whether Axel actually liked Kate or it was just his friend's favourite phrase in relation to people like Kate.

TUESDAY

The plan had been set in motion and soon a meeting was called leading to formation of an organisation called L.O.S.T.

Kate severely insisted that the name "League of Seekers of Truth" or LOST was too lame and vague but in the end, she had to concede like others.

"See! That is the thing. I know what you are thinking; oh! It is so lame. But that is the very thing. Because of how simple it is, it will never catch attention of anyone when we refer to ourselves as that. Furthermore, we won't really be calling it aloud anyway so it is all just fine." Max poured tea into his cup dangerously close to it spilling out.

"Fine! Now what are we supposed to do here?" Brian asked whistling.

"Art class!"

Umm...What now?" All looked at him confused,

"Whenever Miss Dupis comes. She focuses only on three star artists of our class and barely notices anyone else. Now as I expected, none of you are good at art."

"Hey. That is kinda rude." Kate pouted.

"Yeah...Her drawing can't be that bad." Axel agreed.

So they weren't even trying to deny their ineptness but were more concerned about protecting Kate's reputation. Max sighed internally at the absurdity present around him.

"Ya fine! Just let me explain, will you? You do realize we only have five more minutes before break is over,

"Right! Carry on." Brian opened his pocket watch in panic. The fact that he had converted wrist watch to pocket watch was of no concern to Max right now. All he was interested in was simply to get to the bottom of this sweet mystery that awaited him.

.......

"You seem to be quite natural at it. " Kate approached him as he was headed back the class.

"I have no idea what you are referring to."

"Don't play coy with me now. You had it all planned out. The way we could leave her class after five minutes and then skip our playing time giving us two hours each day to plan out the strategy and then how to get materials etc. Are you perhaps some secret mysterious leader of some secret investigative group?"

If it was so secret, why would its leader reveal it to her so blatantly? This girl was going to be one hell of a problem.

"No! Now please stop following me. I have no desire to attract unnecessary attention.

"Why would you gain attention?"

"Apparently most popular girl is wagging around me persistently. If I was a member of press club, I would definitely take this opportunity to contrive such a façade."

She stood uprooted to her feet as he walked away briskly with a satisfied smile.

"Hmm! Guess this arrangement could be fun after all.....Like hell, it would be fun. Eh! Class must have started already/" He quickly hastened.

In Wonavilla, just like any other hostel, there exists several groups, organisation that flouted their prestige among others to attain a temporal social standing, Kate being one of the newly wed into this tradition had a hard time indeed explaining her inability to hang out like usual today.

"Aw! I really wanted to hang out with her." Clare twiddled her thumbs at her bag's strip.

"Well! Tomorrow also exists so just wait a little. It is not like she will be meeting her boyfriend or anything now to cut our time." Hilary consoled her.

"You sound really confident. Lately I have been getting hints from..." A guy with broody black hair joined them.

"She is not going to date you, Dustin. Let me be clear for tenth time." She looked at him in contempt as he backed away. "You are so scary. You will never get someone to go out..."

Fraction. No! Not even millisecond had passed, that a crackling sound came from his bones as he held his knee.

"What did you expect, man? You really should be wary of such girls I told you." Justin chuckled lightly as he carried Dustin away.

"Just what could be that girl doing? "Hilary muttered.

"He has formed the organization as you said he would. Like I wasn't even sure it would work but he really conceded without a second thought the moment I told him about video. "

"I see. That is good." The voice smirked.

"Thank you so much, senior. I really think I can..." Kate jumped excitedly.

"Get close to him."

"W-what. No! I don't l-like him or anything. It is just that I want payback for him being so rude to me all the time and make him shed that façade." She shook her head vigorously.

"Whatever suits you, junior? Now then tell me just what kind of person is Max Ryder?"