It was time for biology and I was not excited at all. Mr Ross, the teacher, had given us homework that I didn't even look at. I was sure that Nelly got one of his friends to do his homework for him. What I never understood was why I still had to go to school even though the institute had taught us everything we had to know by the time we were thirteen.

"Mary did you do page six?" I turned around and asked my friend about the homework.

"Yeah, you can borrow my book and I will share with Grace."

"I can copy the work down for you if you want." Grace added.

"Yes please." I handed her my text book and took Mary's book. Grace started slyly copying the work from her book to mine while Mr Ross was teaching. When she was done we swapped books again. I realised that Nelly wasn't in class with me and neither was some of his friends. Michelle was gone too.

"Mr Carter, what is the answer for number three?" Mr Ross peered over my shoulder as he was making his rounds around the class. I answered him and he carried on asking the class what the answers were.

When class was over Mary, Grace and I rushed out to put away our books and get to lunch. It was Nathan and I's turn to bring lunch for us to eat. We had started this lunch bringing tradition after Jamie brought the best pasta and shared it with us.

"This is really cute, guys." Mary said as she bit into our mini sandwiches. Nathan and I went for a more lunch box approach and made finger sandwiches.

"Thanks. I had to slave away in Nelu's kitchen for an hour trying to get it right." Nathan said, laying his head in his arms.

"Well it was worth it." Grace took her third helping. "Where was your brother, Nelu?"

"I don't know."

"You mean Nelly?" Jamie said after he had swallowed. I nodded. "He wasn't in any of the classes we have together."

"So he basically bunked school. Your brother is getting more daring by the day." Grace said shaking her head. Mary just ate away.

***

Art class was going to be hectic. The teacher wanted us to sculpt something that represented what meant most in our lives and I didn't know what to do. Jake was getting everything of his ready and seemed to know what he wanted to do.

"Sculptor's block?" He asked me as I stared at my blob of clay.

"I'm not sure what means the most to me." I leaned forward on my arms and looked at the blob from a different angle, hoping to find something inspiring.

"Isn't it your brother?" He smiled at me.

"Do you want me to sculpt his face?" I asked sulkily. He just laughed.

"I'm sure you'll find something. Let me try and give you ideas."

"That would be helpful."

"What do you do in your free time?" What I thought would be helpful just made my life even more difficult than it already was. How was I supposed to tell him that in my spare time I practiced my martial arts and shooting techniques?

"I read fictional books."

"Really, what kind of fiction?"

"J.R. Tolkien and other's like him."

"You have good taste." He continued to smooth out his clay. His hands looked so delicate as the glided over the clay with precision. He looked like he knew exactly what he wanted his piece to look like. I sighed, watching him like this made my heart hurt. It seemed as if I couldn't take the complexity of such a beautiful creature.

"I have it." I sat up quickly and took my clay in my hands, feeling its weight.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to make a heart."

"A heart?"

"Not the shape but the beating one." Jake laughed at my description of the heart I was making.

"I'm glad you found out what you wanted to do." Jake continued with his sculpting as I started with mine. We sat in perfect silence before he turned to me. "Why a heart?"

"Well, it represents love, everything that I love."

"Meaning?"

"I love reading. I love my brother. I love art." I counted the things on my fingers. "What better way to represent the thing that means the most to me than with the organ that is meant to feel it?"

"You come across as a very philosophical person." Jake said after a while.

"I'm not sure if that is a compliment or an insult." That made Jake laugh. He was laughing a lot more often when he was around me, not to toot my own horn that is.

"It's a compliment."

"Well, then thank you."

"It's my pleasure." Jake gave me a smile that made my real heart stop.

"Stupid heart."

"What?"

"Nah, I'm just not sure how exactly I should make this heart." I said, quickly covering up my blunder with an easy lie. Jake pulled a laptop out of his bag and switched it on. He searched heart images and helped me find the right on to base my sculpture on.

With us working on such small desks, Jake and I's hands would often brush each other's. This made me realise that the art teacher had stopped making passes at me. Actually he avoided me completely if needed be. I relayed this information to Jake as a joke.

"That's because I told him to leave you alone." Jake said without looking at me.

"What do you mean? Why would you do that?"

"He makes passes at students then sleeps with them. He's been doing it for the past three years. Two students ended up pregnant and nobody would say that they had sex with their teacher." Jake said indifferently. I looked at him with a shocked expression and had stopped my sculpting completely. He leaned over and closed my open mouth before continuing with his work.

"I'm at a loss for words." I said finally.

"Clearly. You should finish up with you sculpture. The sooner you finish, the more time you have to do nothing."

"Yes mom."

Jake laughed. We spent the rest of the period and some of after school finishing off our sculptures so when we left the school ground we knew that our art work was done. This meant that we didn't have to go to art class anymore until the next task was given out. My heart had turned out better than I had hoped – mainly because Jake had helped me. Jake had made a bird that he said was his dead mother's favourite bird. It was marvellously made.

Jake had taken me out for ice-cream and had me back home before six. Just to play it on the safe side, he said, whatever that meant.

I wasn'tsure if Nelly was home, but I was in a good mood so it didn't matter.