"No," Mystery man answered, coming to stand right behind me and placing his arms on my shoulders. "For this? I would never say no."

I grinned, hard. I bit my lip to try and stop the smile from appearing but against my wishes, I found myself grinning proudly from ear to ear, yet blushing as well.

The compliment was so unexpected and sounded so sincere that I found myself bashful and blushing. This was the first time in a long time that I was glad for us to have never talked face-to-face. I did not want him to see how much his words had affected me.

"Well, I am glad that you enjoy this so much. It really inflates my ego nicely." I told him, trying to deflect whatever seriousness that his comment held. I heard him scoff from behind me and then shake his head.

"You know, I think that I like hanging out with you, then you say something like that and I end up questioning why I even came." He said jokingly, his hands resting on my shoulders and massaging the muscle underneath.

I found myself swaying slightly as his hands continued to dig and knead into my shoulders. I eventually became so relaxed that small moans started leaving my mouth.

I was still relaxing under Mystery Man's great massaging skills and warm hands when I suddenly felt his breathing against my neck.

"You probably shouldn't be moaning like that." He advised me, his voice low with a sexy rasp that had my toes curling. "If anyone finds us here, they'll think that I'm doing something completely different to you."

I shiver ran down my spine and Mystery Man just dug into me harder, his hands now sliding down my back.

I let out a breath while his hands were sliding down my back but as they started to slide back up, his palms dragged up my shirt a little bit as well. I startled gasp left my lips when his skin touched mine. Electric.

Had we never had skin-to-skin contact before? Or was there something different about this moment?

With all the . . . sensations, I found myself acting like I complete idiot and saying the most stupid thing.

"I don't think I'm following." I started, attempting to sound genuinely bewildered. "If someone found us here, what would they think you were doing to me?"

His hands completely stopped and I was worried that I said something wrong, but then his hands started moving again, this time running down the front of my shirt. Because he hadn't asked me to, my eyes were still open so I stared at his arm.

He was white, tanned, but clearly a white guy. His forearm was strong with a prominent dusting of brownish blonde hair from the elbow to his wrist.

His hands were large, his nails short but clean and his fingers long. He didn't seem to use his hands for heavy duty work because the skin seemed remotely well taken care of. With those clues, I closed my eyes. Somehow I didn't really want to see more than I already had.

His other arm followed and before I knew it, they were against my stomach and sliding up my chest, dragging my shirt along with them. I gasped. The shocking feeling was back along with some panic.

Should I push him away or wait to see what he had in mind? I opened my mouth to say something, although I was not sure of what I had planned to say, but he removed his hands before I could even start.

"I think you can guess what they would think I am doing to you." He finished, his voice sounding smug and triumphant.

I would have attempted to knock him back down but after what happened, I couldn't really crack a joke at all, much less a good one.

He seemed to catch on to that though and started telling me about his parents. After several minutes passed, I relaxed again and avidly listened to his stories.

—————

Despite the pep up that I felt from my conversation with my Mystery Friend-

Scratch that, that doesn't sound good at all. It just sounds so awkward and stiff. My gosh, that makes it sound like we are five-year-olds or something. I don't even know if this man is Eighteen or Thirty!

Okay, despite the pep up that I felt from hanging out with my Mystery Man -much better- I was still nervous and worried sick when I woke up the next day. Today I would have to present my MorphPple.

I had been working on the magical fruit for less than a week, yet it felt as if I had been trying to perfect it for over a year. It was definitely as hard as I had thought it would be.

But, the MorphPple looked great. I was not sure as I was working on it but looking at it now, I had a lot of confidence and thought that I would get at least an 88, if not higher.

Nick and Warlo already knew that I would have to present my MorphPple today so they acted extra nice and encouraging as we were getting ready for breakfast.

While they were pumping me up and giving me even more confidence than I had already had before, I was really grateful for the fact that I had such nice roommates who I was friends with.

Actually, all of my friends, who I had seen before class, were great really. So, when it was time to actually walk into class, although I was nervous, I was more excited to show off my hard work.

Everyone in the class had their MorphPples with them. Although a few were confident or just didn't care enough to cover them, the majority of the class had their fruits wrapped or covered with paper towels or cloths.

I had wrapped mine with a brown paper towel because it was nearby when I finally finished making mine.

I walked over to my seat, sat down -making sure not to let my eyes connect with that girl who had been getting funky with that rude guy from before- and waited. Ms. Dovermal was already in the room, she was looking over some papers and seemed very relaxed, the opposite of me right now.

I stared at her and the walls while I waited, I had left my phone in my room anyway so I couldn't even attempt to use it. Finally, the bell rang, and Ms. Dovermal stood up. She looked at the door and watched the last couple of students who came in last minute before closing the for and going to stand in front of her desk.

"Alright class, today we are going to skip warm-ups and get straight to the presentations of your MorphPples." Ms. Dovermal explained. "There are a lot of you here and I have other plans for you so I hope that we can finish your presentations today. We are going to go in alphabetical order so, Katherine Abby, you are going first."

From there, we all started presenting. The student who was called up would put down their MorphPple and explain what Ms. Dovermal had to do to trigger its transformation, she would then make it transform to its second, or sometimes third, fruit.

After that, she would cut it in half, or sometimes thirds, and change back to the other piece so she could see the inside of all versions of the fruit. Once she did all that she would tell the student what she thought, grab her checklist, then give the student their grade.

My last name started with the letter M since it was technically was Mishra-Terranova, so I didn't get to go as late as I would have liked.

When Ms. Dovermal did eventually say my name I physically jumped in my seat from being drawn out of my thoughts like that. Ms. Dovermal raised a brow at my reaction but I decided not to address her expression. I got out of my seat and walked down to my teacher.

She had on a neutral expression when I stood in front of her so I made the executive decision to unwrap my MorphPple and show it to her. When I placed it on her desk in front of her, her neutral expression turned scrutinizing.

She picked up what seemed to be only an apple and turned it so that she could look at it from every angle.

"Okay, now how do I trigger the change, Sebastian?" Ms. Dovermal asked.

"Uh, you have to move your hand back and forth over it. It changes because of the sudden change of lighting and the Kinetic energy that it gets from the movement." I explained, trying to clearly tell her why I chose to have it change that way.

Ms. Dovermal seemed slightly impressed by the reasoning behind my choice and started to wave her hand back and forth over the MorphPple. Gradually, it started to change into a Pineapple.

Ms. Dovermal started to carefully look over the Pineapple the same way that she did its Apple form. When she put it back down and reached for her knife I felt a wave of nervousness suddenly rush through my body.

Ms. Dovermal had to put in a lot more effort than she had with the other fruits to cut the MorphPple because it was currently a large, thick-skinned Pineapple, but she did manage to cut it in half. She then waved her hand back and forth over one of the halves until the half turned back into an Apple.

At this very moment, as Ms. Dovermal stared at both versions of my MorphPple, I saw my first mistake. I wished that Ms. Dovermal wouldn't be able to see it but I knew she would.

Ms. Dovermal grabbed her checklist and I braced myself for what she had to say.

"Sebastian, although the shape of your apple and Pineapple were both very good and your transition was flawless," Ms. Dovermal, giving me the compliment that I would definitely need for the rest of grading.

"The skin on your apple was not very realistic, the red was too bright for the type of apple that you created and the skin had no difference in tone, it was all one shade of red with nothing that made it seem like real apple skin. The Pineapple's, uh, bumps were too flat and the core of the Pineapple was not firm enough. And your biggest mistake was forgetting the seeds and seed casings that should be in the core of your apple. I had specifically told you and your classmates that you must remember the specific aspects of the apple first. Now, although an apple without seeds would be very great and convenient to eat, that is not how real apples work, apples have seeds. They are fruits after all. All in all, this is an okay MorphPple with good qualities that had the potential to be great. You get 70%."

My mind was blank for a moment before I fully processed what she had said.

A 70!?

—————

"A seventy!" I repeated, picking up a rock from the ground and angrily throwing it to the ground. "She gave me a seventy!"

Sam, Harvey, Lani, Warlo, Nick, and Dipi were all sitting on the grass and relaxing while I complained heavily to them about my grade. I had thought that I deserved more than a seventy and was very upset that she had decided to give me that grade, angry even.

"Well, what did she specifically say about your Apple?" Lani asked. The others nodded in agreement with his question.

"Yeah, she couldn't have given you that grade for no reason." Sam tried to reason.

"She might have," I mumbled before sighing. "She said that the skin wasn't realistic and she took off the most because I didn't have the seeds in my apple."

As I said this my fist started to clench and I seemed to get even more upset.

"It wasn't like I tried to forget them, I spent so many days just trying to get the skin to actually show up and then I had to add the stuff at the bottom and the stem. And I had to then create a freaking Pineapple, all in a week! How was I supposed to cut the thing open and check for some fucking seeds?!" I yelled angrily, my entire body tensing up.

I wanted to throw something. I wanted to throw a lot of things. I wanted to throw everything.

I closed my eyes and imagined having a rock floating near me. When I opened my eyes there were three rocks surrounding me. My eyes narrowed and the rocks flew, at the speed of a car, away from me, almost as if I had thrown them.

But it wasn't satisfying enough. So, I started bringing the rocks straight into my hands and throwing them.

"Jeez, Sebastian, you really are upset!" Nick said, drawing his legs closer to himself as if he were trying to protect them from my throwing.

"Of course I am!" I yelled. I felt a surge of anger and I drew as many rocks as I could, I was surrounded by rocks when they all came and with a sudden growl, I made them fly away again.

I was panting and felt drained but I was also happy to know that I had succeeded in avoiding all of my friends. Dipi barely seemed bothered at all, being used to how I used magic to distress and knowing that I wouldn't let anyone get hurt, but the rest of our friends seemed extremely shaken up.

"Ok," Sam sighed after a few moments. "Remind me to not get you pissed."

Everyone laughed awkwardly before Harvey stood up.

"Well, that was very interesting. I think I am going to go to the safety of the indoors, I will see you guys later." Harvey told us, giving us all smiles before he looked at Warlo. "You coming?"

Warlo didn't seem surprised by Harvey's words and just stood up.

"Bye, guys," Warlo waved, giving me a wink before he walked inside with Harvey, the two of them already talking about something.

I sat down on the grass since I had been standing before and sighed.

"For some reason, I actually feel a lot better," I told them, waving my hand until felt the glass of my phone against my palm.

"Good," Lani said. "Just don't do that whole rock explosion again."

I looked up at him and smirked.

"No promises."