From Henry Howard's angle, you could see this person's slender collarbone, and following the collarbone down—

He was still waiting for Henry Howard to throw the ball over, when he heard Henry Howard pick up the ball and say, "Not playing anymore."

Xavier Young's fingers were still gripping his collar, not reacting yet: "Huh?"

Henry Howard said, "You fouled."

Fouled my ass.

Where did I foul.

Xavier Young didn't get it, and Henry Howard was already calling Quinn Shaw over to take the spot: "Qing-ge, if you don't have a place to play, come on."

Quinn Shaw and Emily Shaw walked over with their rackets.

Emily Shaw was still thinking about the performance, and when she saw Xavier Young, she mustered up her courage and asked, "Um, Xie, our class is planning to put on a performance, and we hope you can join. You can ask for any conditions, even the center spot is fine."

Xavier Young was getting dressed, just pulling his shirt on.

He had no impression of this girl, and even after so long since the start of school, he couldn't remember her name.

But the girl looked at him with a serious and expectant gaze, a pair of pure, bright eyes.

A bit timid, but still stood in front of him, trying her best to say everything.

Quinn Shaw stood by Henry Howard, watching Emily Shaw actually go up and ask, and said in surprise, "With Yu-ge's personality, Jingjing is just asking for trouble, it's obviously impossible."

But Henry Howard just smiled and said, "Not necessarily."

Xavier Young said something to Emily Shaw, but they were too far away to hear. They only saw Xavier Young zip up his jacket after speaking, grab his badminton racket, and walk over.

Xavier Young tossed the racket into Henry Howard's arms: "Let's go."

Henry Howard caught it and waved at Quinn Shaw: "We're leaving, Qing-ge."

Quinn Shaw dumbly waved back, then walked up and leaned against the net in the middle, asking, "So, what did Ethan Young say?"

Emily Shaw still hadn't recovered, didn't answer, just said, "Why don't you pinch me?"

So that means he agreed?

Emily Shaw: "I guess he agreed, though he was really cold about it. He just said, 'Whatever.'"

The list of members from Class Three participating in the performance was quickly handed to Old Thompson. Old Thompson emphasized several times that participation was what mattered, not the ranking, and then they started rehearsing energetically during breaks.

This group had a common problem: although their dancing wasn't great, they were totally into it, each one feeling like they were super cool.

Especially with Henry Howard leading, the classroom instantly became a stage.

Only Xavier Young sat on the desk, and after memorizing the moves, barely moved, just watching the others go wild.

Henry Howard finished messing around and got off the stage, standing next to Xavier Young.

Xavier Young was holding a bottle of water, and casually handed the half-finished mineral water to him: "Stage king, why aren't you dancing anymore?"

Henry Howard drank a few gulps straight from the bottle, wiped his mouth, and said, "These guys are growing up too fast, damn, the new generation really does surpass the old."

Xavier Young had found it too noisy earlier, so he had earphones in. Now that he took them out, he realized this group had completely inherited Henry Howard's style—anywhere with an audience was a stage.

Luke Carter: "Please call us the Invincible Handsome Boy Group of the Universe!"

Wanda: "Friends over here, let me see your hands!"

Logan Wright: "Not enough! Scream louder!"

""

Old Warren came in with teaching materials, was startled by this trio, and thought he had entered the wrong classroom. He paused, then backed up to check the sign at the door: "What are you guys doing, planning to debut or something? Invincible Handsome Boy Group of the Universe?"

When class started, everyone settled down and listened quietly.

Old Warren finished a section and assigned homework. Then, thinking of something, he picked up a piece of chalk: "There's an extension problem for this topic. I'll explain it to you, though you might not understand. If you don't, just let it go, just get the points you can."

Xavier Young looked up at the blackboard and saw it was a type of problem that mixed in other concepts, with a pretty novel approach.

Most students glanced at it and then looked down, giving up on the problem.

Xavier Young read the question, planning to jot down some notes in his phone's memo app, when he accidentally noticed that Henry Howard, who had been gaming the whole class, was also looking up at the blackboard.

Henry Howard was still holding his phone, the game paused, and the character named "Handsome Howard" was being slashed by the boss, losing a chunk of health.

------------

69. Chapter Sixty-Nine

Henry Howard was still looking at the problem, following the conditions Old Warren had marked in red chalk, combining the data, and several different solution ideas appeared in his mind.

The topic covered in this class was actually pretty ordinary, but when small concepts were tested together in a function problem, the difficulty changed immediately.

Henry Howard couldn't help wanting to tear off a piece of paper to do some rough work.

Xavier Young glanced over a few times, vaguely feeling that Henry Howard looked more focused on the blackboard than he had been on his game earlier.

Henry Howard wasn't really passionate about gaming, just lazily tapping a few times, not really into it.

Rather than loving to play, it was more like he just did it when he was bored.

His skills were pretty good, with lots of flashy moves. Wanda and the others often came over during evening study to ask, "Bro Henry, carry me, which server are you on?"

Henry Howard always said, "No, I want to duo queue romantically with my deskmate."

Wanda kept trying to get on his friend list: "With Yu-ge? That's a death queue, don't you want to know what it's like to have a real teammate?"

Thinking of this, Xavier Young reached over and tapped Henry Howard's phone screen.

In the game, "Handsome Howard" dodged the attack, swung his sword for a quick retreat, and with low health, flashed to the side.

Xavier Young withdrew his hand and asked, "What are you spacing out for?"

"First look at these prerequisites, combine them with the problem," Old Warren marked the key points, drew a diagram, and tapped the blackboard with a ruler, "I'll give you a few minutes to think about it."

After Old Warren finished, he wanted to call someone up to solve the problem on the board. Looking around, only Xavier Stone was trying to analyze it, so he said, "Class rep, come up and give it a try."

Xavier Stone pushed up his glasses, got up, and neatly wrote "Solution" in the upper left corner of the board.

Henry Howard quickly fed his game character some healing, then didn't know what to say.

He couldn't exactly say: Old Young, this extension problem is pretty easy, I can think of three different solutions in a minute, want to hear them?

Luckily, Xavier Young didn't keep asking.

Xavier Young wrote a few steps in his phone's memo, organized his thoughts, then deleted them, and opened the calculator to start working on the problem.

Neither of them really understood much about relationships, but there were plenty of people around them dating early.

Just from Wanda's gossip, the number of couples could circle the school twice—who from which class got together, who broke up, all sorts of reasons, all sounding like they were just playing around.

The biggest drama was last year, and even someone like Xavier Young, who didn't listen to gossip, knew about it.

A top student, the Chinese class rep, the type who gave study speeches at every parent meeting, looked really well-behaved. Later, she started dating a transfer student who just messed around all day.

After a while, the transfer student wanted to break up, but the girl refused no matter what.

When they broke up, they made a huge scene in the hallway. The transfer student said painfully, "We're not right for each other, let's just end it. When you have trouble with your studies, all I can do is watch you worry, but I can't help at all."

"I can ask the teacher if I have questions—"

"No, you don't understand. This isn't something a teacher can solve. It's a gap between us that can't be crossed."

""

This story is still widely circulated on the No. 2 High School forum, marked as a hot topic.

Xavier Young calculated the answer, cleared his memo, and thought, no need to rush, just take it slow.

Little did he know, Henry Howard was thinking the same: No, the gap is too big, I'm afraid the kid will feel inferior.

Xavier Stone used the most complicated solution, filled up half the blackboard, and even made a mistake in the last step, forgetting to consider the interval when choosing values.

As class was ending, Old Warren briefly explained the extension problem.

Henry Howard kept playing his game, and while it was loading, couldn't help but look up at the blackboard again. After two rounds, he finished all the available tasks, was about to log off, when he saw Sean Parker send a team invite, and instinctively accepted.

William Warren reminded the class rep to pick up the homework from his office later, then packed up and went to the next class.

Xavier Young had just put away his phone when he heard Henry Howard next to him curse, "Shit."