1 I

"LAIA, CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME WITH my assignment? I wasn't able to answer it yesterday because I was busy!"

Busy partying obviously, Laia thinks. She fought the urge to roll her eyes at her best friend, Brie. Why is she so reliant on me? We're already in high school! Aren't we supposed to stand on our own feet by now or something? Laia adds to her thoughts.

But of course, she can't say that out loud. She cannot tarnish her crystal clear reputation.

"Sure, Brie," She smiles brightly at her. Deep breaths, Laia. Don't let her know you're definitely killing her inside your head. Just a little more until you graduate and move to another town to enroll in your dream university. "Which part do you have difficulty on?"

Brie tugs a strand of her hair behind her ear and pouts. "Everything, Laia! I hate Mathematics so bad! You're so lucky you're intelligent enough to understand what our teacher teaches us,"

Laia fights the urge to tell her up front that it's only because she happened to listen to their teacher whenever she discusses the lessons. She does not just chat with her boyfriend the entire period, exchanging cringy messages and knowing deep inside that she's still not gonna end up together with him and he will end up breaking her heart and ruin her chances of getting a higher score in the upcoming exams since instead of studying, she will end up crying the entire night.

"... anyway, my boyfriend sent me a bouquet of flowers earlier. He knows I hate roses and yet he still bought them. Oh well, at least he tried. He's so stupid sometimes, I don't even know why I like him--"

Because he's cute. Laia remembered Brie telling her yesterday, the night before yesterday, and for the entirety of the last month.

"Brie, let's start?" Laia cuts her off.

The long-haired girl's eyes widened as she sheepishly grinned. "Oops, sorry. He texted me that we're going on a date later. Guess what movie are we watching?"

Laia pretended to think but she obviously know they'll be watching that romcom movie Brie was excited about. "I have no idea, Brie. You know I have no time for that,"

Her friend pouts but says nothing. They then start doing the girl's assignment. Fortunately, Brie is good at the subject and understands how Laia explained the different solutions quite quickly. The reason why she can't do her assignments ahead of time is not that she lacks intelligence, but because she spends her entire time spending it with her boyfriend or she goes on outings with her friends.

"Thank you, Laia! I love you so much!" Brie exclaims, kissing her friend on the cheek before she leaves her side to go to her boyfriend.

Of course, she wasn't the last to ask for Laia's help before their teacher arrived. Laia helped three more of her classmates before their teacher, Ma'am Anne, told them to sit down. Apparently, she had something to announce.

"Good morning students! I am pleased to see that everyone is around," She claps excitedly. "We actually have a new student joining us for the rest of the year,"

Everyone turned to the door. There was indeed a boy. Laia wasn't able to see his face clearly for most of her classmates were already standing to get a better glimpse at him. Not only because they rarely get transferees, but also because of their teacher's weird excitement over this new guy. Is the transferee her kid or something? Laia thinks.

She shivers at the thought of it. If he is her kid or relative then I'd have to study even harder, Laia's lips form a fine line. There could be favoritism!

"Do come inside and introduce yourself, Mr. Laurie."

Upon entering our room, some of the girls in the class squealed. Even the boys in the class appeared to be intrigued. Since Laia took their distraction as an opportunity to review her notes, she wasn't able to see his face immediately as he stopped in front of her. Well, specifically her chair, since she happened to sit in the first row and in the middle to listen to her teachers better without any distractions or disruptions of a random classmate raising their hand in front of her just to go to the bathroom.

Laia raised her head only to see a really handsome boy. He had messy black hair that was enough to cover both his forehead and eyes if he wanted to. He also had bright, blue eyes. He was lean and slender, but it was obvious that he did sports. Laia also noticed how his fingers were really long.

The girl blushed at her indecent thoughts. She turned straight away when their eyes met. How embarrassing!

"Hi everyone," He starts. "I'm Samuel Vincent Laurie."

Some of the people in the room started asking him random questions. He smiled at them and tried his best to answer each and every one of them. People-pleaser, Laia thinks.

Wow, a hypocrite! Her brain tells her. She ignores her thoughts, as she always did. She would only listen to her brain when they had their examinations or a quiz. Also during an essay writing contest.

"You can sit beside Ms. Lopez." Ma'am Anne tells him once everyone had no more additional questions regarding his personal life.

"Who's Lopez?" He asks. Laia fought the urge to roll her eyes. She didn't like her last name and everyone knew it. Well, except the new guy.

Brie yells from her chair. "That pretty girl in front of you, silly!"

Laia groaned. Her big mouth, honestly. The boy's eyes found hers once again and she turned away immediately. She didn't like that look on his face.

He sits down beside her and offers her a small smile as Ma'am Anne starts the discussion. "Hey there, seatmate."

"Hi." Laia smiled, hoping her seatmate wouldn't say anything else. She had no time for pleasantries, she has to listen to every word that comes out of their teacher's mouth!

Poor Laia didn't know back then that the new kid would soon become her worst nightmare.

*

"The student with the highest score in the examinations is," Ma'am Anne paused, but smiled immediately after realizing her sudden pause. Laia should've known back then by her pause that something bad was about to happen.

"Mr. Laurie! Give him a round of applause, please!"

Instead of everyone applauding immediately, the room fell silent. Everyone's eyes were on the girl sitting next to the boy who got the highest score.

Laia could feel the anger rumbling inside of her, threatening to go off any moment now. She held on to her pencil so hard it almost broke in two to regain composure. She inhaled deeply and repeatedly told herself to calm down. It could have been beginner's luck, Laia tells herself as a form of consolation.

It was not very effective. Laia had always been ranked one despite how many transferees transferred before the boy did. She never lost her ranking. She never loses her ranking.

She exhaled sharply as she realized the room was still silent. It was as if everyone was waiting for her to explode. However, the short-haired girl won't be giving them the satisfaction. Never.

Her thin lips form a smile as her eyes found Samuel's blue ones, who had a weird expression on his face. I wish you hell, fucking asshole. Just wait until I get my spot again, Laia thinks as she says, "Congrats, Samuel. You did amazing."

And with her single statement, their class erupted into cheers and claps. Unfortunately, not for Laia, but for the asshole who was currently sitting beside her.

Laia did her best to smile until everybody started leaving the room. It was the final period. Their teacher always announced their rankings before they went home in order for the class to not get distracted or saddened by the results if she did announce it early in the morning. Little did she know that her tactic always ended up with some of the class crying at the rooftops or at the bathrooms whenever they thought nobody else was around.

What a bitch.

Anyway, Laia had no time to mope around. She immediately grabbed her bag and was about to leave the room to go to the library when a sudden voice made her freeze in her steps.

"You can get rid of your mask now," The voice teased.

There was only one guy with a soft, velvet-like voice.

"What the fuck did you say to me?" Laia answered, gritting her teeth so hard she felt like it cracked.

Samuel stood up from his seat and abruptly cuts off the distance between them. Laia could feel his breath on her face as she refused to look away. She will not give this asshole any sort of advantage over her.

He grinned, and it was different from the smiles he would show every day to everyone. "I said, you can drop the goody-two-shoes act now. It's just me and you here," He spread his arms as if to prove his statement. "No one except me can see how you'll finally burst into tears for you lost," He grins even wider. "against me, of all people."

Laia didn't say anything. Not because she had nothing to say, but because she did not want someone to suddenly come back for they left something to see her responding to his mockery. However, when Laia determined that nobody was around anymore, or at least on the floor where their classroom is, she poked her finger in his chest.

"Don't be so hasty," She grins. "Just because you got the highest score on an examination once," Laia deeply emphasized saying the last word. "does not mean you're immediately better than I am. Sometimes, teachers make mistakes, you know? Don't let it make your head even bigger than it already is."

Before he could respond, the girl immediately walked away.

Laia barely kept her anger in check. She wanted to punch him. She wanted to strangle his neck until he became blue.

She swore to herself that she would never let the asshole rank first once again. Even if that meant she won't be sleeping for the next few months.