By now, almost everyone in Class 1-A had stopped pretending the argument wasn't their business.
Chris stood beside his desk, jaw tight, while Noah remained half out of his chair beside him. Across the room, Evans sat comfortably, as though he hadn't just tossed a match into a pile of dry grass.
"I already told you, I didn't touch him," Chris said, his voice rising despite his attempt to keep it under control.
Evans shrugged. "I'm only telling them what I heard."
"From whom?" Noah demanded.
Evans looked at him. "Why are you asking me? Ask Oliver."
Noah's expression hardened.
"Oliver hasn't said a word."
"Exactly," Lucas said from his seat. "That's suspicious, isn't it?"
Chris stared at him.
For a moment, Noah looked as though he was seriously considering walking across the classroom and starting an entirely different kind of conversation.
Kai caught his sleeve.
"Don't."
"I wasn't going to."
"You were thinking about it."
"I think about a lot of things."
"That doesn't make me feel better."
Chris pointed at Evans.
"You can't throw out some random accusation and expect everyone to believe you."
Evans gave him an innocent shrug that fooled nobody.
"I never said they had to believe me."
A few nearby students exchanged looks.
That was the problem. Evans didn't need everyone to believe him. He only needed people to start wondering.
Clara watched the exchange from beside Tyler, her concern growing with every sentence.
"This is getting worse," she murmured.
Tyler's lips twitched. "Why did she come so soon?"
Clara slowly turned toward him.
"What does that mean?"
Before he could answer, the classroom door opened.
Ms. Evelyn Hart stepped inside.
The timing was almost perfect.
She stopped just inside the doorway and surveyed the room. Chris was still standing. Noah was halfway out of his chair. Evans looked completely relaxed. Lucas had the expression of someone trying very hard to appear innocent. Several students were turned around in their seats.
Oliver was still slumped over his desk.
Ms. Hart looked at them for a long second.
"Exams are coming," she said as she walked to her desk, "and it looks like you people are still very much in the mood to mess around."
The effect was immediate.
Chris sat down.
Noah dropped back into his chair.
Students turned toward the front and suddenly became fascinated with their books.
Clara quickly gathered her notebook.
"We'll continue later."
Tyler nodded.
Clara picked up her notebook and returned to her own seat while Tyler finally moved back toward his.
For the last few minutes, Clara had been sitting in his chair while they discussed the party planning, which meant Tyler had spent most of that time standing beside her.
Now, as he reached his desk, he casually sat down in the exact spot Clara had just left.
Eris glanced toward him.
Tyler looked back.
"What?"
"Nothing."
She gave him a suspicious look before returning to the paperwork spread across her desk.
Ms. Hart looked around the room.
The students who had been arguing seconds earlier were now sitting in suspiciously perfect silence.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Strange."
Tyler heard her and smiled.
"Good morning, students."
"Good morning, Ms. Hart."
The reply came in a variety of tones, from enthusiastic to barely conscious.
"I hope everyone has been preparing for the final examinations."
A few students nodded.
Someone near the back groaned.
Another student laughed.
Ms. Hart looked toward them.
"Whoever made that noise should remember that the exam paper does not give extra marks for suffering."
A few students laughed.
"That's cruel, Teach," Ethan called.
"It's mathematics," Ms. Hart replied. "Cruelty is part of the subject."
That earned another round of groans.
Tyler leaned back as Leo whispered from the next row, "Teachers enjoy our pain."
Ms. Hart opened her notes.
"Enough. Let's begin."
The room gradually settled.
She went through the remaining material likely to appear on the final exam, pausing whenever someone asked a question. Students copied formulas, checked their notes, and occasionally stared at the clock as though they could force the hands forward.
Tyler followed along, though most of the material was already familiar to him.
His attention wandered from time to time.
Oliver hadn't moved much.
Chris, Noah, and Kai occasionally exchanged glances.
Danny's group, strangely enough, had become quiet.
Eventually, Ms. Hart looked across the classroom again.
Her gaze stopped at Oliver.
"Oliver."
No response.
She waited.
"Oliver."
Several students turned.
Lucas answered before Oliver could.
"He's got a headache, Teach."
Ms. Hart looked at Lucas.
Then at Oliver.
"Your class is becoming very creative with excuses to skip lectures."
A few students chuckled.
Kai noticed Tyler looking.
Their eyes met briefly.
Then Kai looked away.
Tyler did nothing.
He had already decided that if they wanted to tell him something, they would. He wasn't going to dig into their thoughts just because curiosity made things easier.
Ms. Hart looked back toward Oliver.
"If you're still unwell, go to the infirmary."
Oliver remained still.
After a moment, she gave up.
"Fine. Let's continue."
The lesson resumed.
Hours passed.
By the time the lunch bell rang, everyone seemed to wake at once.
Books snapped shut. Chairs scraped back. Lunch boxes appeared from bags, and conversations immediately filled the classroom.
Eris looked as though she'd been waiting for that bell all morning.
She closed her notebook, only to pull another stack of papers toward herself.
"Oh, Ignaros," Luna said, leaning toward Eris. "Eris, it's lunchtime."
Eris flipped another page.
"Only a few things are left to fill in."
Aria looked around the classroom.
"Looks like we're eating here today."
Tyler stared at her.
His expression slowly became hopeless.
"Eris."
"What?"
"Give me the sheet."
She glanced up.
"Don't joke."
Tyler reached over and took the report before she could stop him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'll finish it."
"You?"
Tyler looked offended.
"Yes, me."
Eris reached for the papers.
He moved them out of reach.
"You eat."
"But you haven't even opened your lunch."
"I'm fine."
Tyler uncapped the pen.
"If I finish this now, you'll have one less thing to worry about, and it'll probably be faster if I do it."
Eris stared at him.
Her expression softened before she quickly looked away.
Tyler caught it.
"Are you crying?"
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm absolutely not."
She turned her face away, but he caught the small smile she was trying to hide.
"Thank you," she muttered.
Tyler looked up from the page.
"What was that?"
Eris immediately recovered.
"I said do it properly."
Tyler smiled.
"Yes, ma'am."
Eris opened her lunch.
Beside them, Luna watched the exchange. She glanced at Aria, who was already smiling.
Eris noticed.
"What?"
Luna shook her head.
"Nothing."
Eris narrowed her eyes.
Lunch continued around them, but the tension from the morning hadn't completely disappeared.
Tyler's pen continued moving steadily across the Literature Club report.
Beside him, Eris had finally given up trying to interfere.
At least for the moment.
She sat with her lunch box open in front of her, occasionally glancing sideways at the report as if Tyler might suddenly decide to ruin three years of club records out of spite.
Tyler noticed.
Without looking at her, he said, "If you're going to keep staring at me like that, I might deliberately write something wrong."
Eris immediately looked away.
"I'm not staring."
"Sure."
"I was checking whether you're doing it properly."
Tyler stopped writing.
He slowly turned toward her.
Eris continued eating as if nothing had happened.
"You're unbelievable," Tyler said.
"Thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"I'll still take it."
Tyler shook his head and returned to the report.
A short distance ahead of them, Chris had turned around in his chair.
Kai and Noah were sitting nearby, though neither of them seemed particularly interested in their lunch anymore.
Chris lowered his voice.
"What do we do?"
Noah leaned closer.
"Those idiots are trying to frame us."
Chris glanced toward Oliver.
"When we left the playground yesterday, his eye wasn't like that."
Noah nodded.
"He was already hurt, but not that badly."
"And now we're supposed to believe we did it?"
Noah snorted.
"I didn't even hit him."
Chris stared at him.
"I know."
"I was just making sure."
Kai looked between them.
"Can you focus?"
Noah nodded.
"Right. Serious."
Kai lowered his voice.
"I think Danny's group did it."
Chris looked at him.
"And now they're putting it on us."
"That's my guess."
Noah's expression hardened.
"Then let's expose them."
He started to stand.
Kai caught his arm.
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because we don't have proof."
Chris frowned.
"We know what happened."
"We know. That's not the same thing."
Kai looked toward Oliver.
"I've been watching him all morning."
Chris and Noah both looked at him.
Kai continued.
"Not in a weird way."
Noah raised an eyebrow.
"You had to clarify that?"
Kai ignored him.
"He had plenty of chances to deny it. He didn't."
Chris looked toward Oliver.
"Because he's scared."
"I think he's being forced to stay quiet."
Noah stopped eating.
"Forced how?"
"I don't know."
Kai glanced toward Lucas and Evans.
"But look at them. They're the ones pushing the story."
Chris's expression darkened.
"And if Oliver speaks..."
"They'll expose his secret."
Silence settled between the three.
Noah slowly leaned back.
"So we're stuck."
Kai shook his head.
"We have two options. First, we could take the blame ourselves and keep quiet. There's only half a month left until middle school ends."
Chris looked at him.
"And the second option?"
Kai continued, "We could tell everyone what happened on the playground, but that would expose Oliver's secret because Danny and the others would use it against him."
"We can't do that."
Noah frowned.
"So we're supposed to sit here while they spread lies about us?"
Kai sighed.
"I... I don't know yet."
Chris leaned back in his chair.
For a few seconds, all three of them remained quiet.
Then Noah suddenly said, "Let's ask Tyler."
Chris nodded.
"Yeah."
Kai followed their gaze.
Tyler was still sitting beside Eris, calmly writing on the Literature Club report.
From a distance, he looked completely uninvolved.
As if the classroom drama happening around him had absolutely nothing to do with him.
Which, to be fair, it didn't.
Kai hesitated.
"But I guess he's busy."
Without lifting his head, Tyler said, "My hands are busy."
The three boys froze.
Tyler continued writing.
"My ears aren't."
Chris slowly turned around.
Noah stared.
Kai looked almost embarrassed.
Tyler added, "You three aren't exactly whispering."
"We were whispering," Noah protested.
Chris immediately looked at him.
"You were not."
"I was."
Kai rubbed his forehead.
Tyler finally put the pen down and looked over his shoulder.
"Come here."
Chris, Noah, and Kai moved toward him.
Eris watched them approach with mild curiosity.
"What's going on?"
Tyler glanced at her.
"Apparently, they have a problem."
He looked back at the three boys.
"All right. Tell me."
His blue eyes briefly shifted toward Oliver.
Then toward Danny's group.
Finally, he looked back at them.
"What kind of mess did you idiots get yourselves into this time?"
Chris looked at him.
"It's not our mess."
Tyler smiled.
"That's usually what people say when it's already become their mess."
Noah sighed.
"Are you going to help or not?"
"Only if the secret is interesting."
Kai looked exhausted already.
"This is going to be a long lunch."
Eris looking displeased with Chris
He immediately noticed the glare.
He paused.
"What?"
She continued chewing.
"Nothing."