Her eyes snapped across the room. Sure enough, Bent lounged in his chair. He wore a smug look on his face as he waved his paper in the air. He certainly knew how to enter the classroom stealthily! Sarah was pretty sure he had been late. But it wasn’t as if Dr. Frost would EVER criticize her favorite student. “Excellent work, Bent,” Dr. Frost said, beaming. She handed him the notecard. Sarah noticed Elly wasn’t at her seat. That was unusual. Maybe she had cut class and was out shopping for an extravagant new wardrobe before the Miami weekend getaway? But it was rare that Elly would skip. If and when she did cut class, it was NEVER a Dr. Frost class. Bent called out to her as Dr. Frost turned away to return to the board. “Excuse me, Dr. Frost. Would it be possible for me to give this notecard to someone else?” He focused his alluring, intense gaze on the teacher. Dr. Frost seemed surprised and somewhat flustered under the heat of his stare. “Of course, Bent. You may choose to give the card to whomever you wish.” Bent nodded his head. “Thank you,” he said politely. He moved his intimidating eyes away from the teacher. Dr. Frost appeared to relax again, as if being under his powerful stare was too much to endure, even for her. She began to quickly write out the answers to the equations. She hastily drew the intricate design of the graph on the board. “There, the double helix,” she said happily, as if a math problem could improve her day. The class completed several more rounds of equations. Finally, the bell rang. Sarah grabbed her books and dropped them into her leather bag. Taking a deep breath — which she needed to do almost every time she approached him — she walked over to where Bent stood by his desk. He’d shoved his notebook under his arm and was about to head out. “Hey,” Sarah said quietly. She didn’t want to draw too much attention with the other students. “I, well, I wanted to thank you for having the HUMMER pick me up this morning.” Bent gave her a strange look. “What?” he asked. He almost sounded angry. Sarah blanched, confused by his expression. “Y-your HUMMER. It picked me up this morning. I wanted to thank you. It was really nice to be driven to school.” Bent finally understood. “Oh. Right. Cool. Uh, I didn’t request a pick up for you.” Sarah chewed her bottom lip. “Okay. Then who did?” Bent’s face remained stony. He was acting really weird. “The HUMMER did that on its own. Like I said, I can’t control them. It’s their advanced technology. They occasionally do what they please.” “Interesting,” Sarah said. She noticed his eyes were on her red blouse. They dropped down to examine her short black skirt and tights. “Maybe you shouldn’t have worn that,” he said. His voice carried a hint of disapproval. Sarah felt her stomach plummet to her feet. “But you asked me to wear this,” she reminded him.Bent loosened his dark blue tie. “That outfit makes you look trashy. Learn to think for yourself next time.”Sarah stood frozen to the spot. Was she hearing him correctly? Or had her ears invented those scathing words? He clenched his jaw, scowling. “By the way, you should take this. You need it more than I ever will.” He stuffed the notecard from Dr. Frost into her hand. With that, he pushed past her out of the room. Well, Sarah thought with exasperated frustration. The trip to Miami would definitely be a bucketful of sunshine with HIS extreme mood shifts. She wondered how she would adjust to someone who could be so unbelievably hot and cold. It was exhausting. But she wouldn’t let him win. No, she wouldn’t. Not without a fight, anyway. And he’d taught her how to punch.