Sense of Rivalry (Part 2)

The day of the final exam came and I am pretty confident this time since I've worked hard these few weeks.

After a week, the results came out and when my paper returned to me...

"Yes! 99 points! I am really amazing!" I am celebrating for my high score when Sophia complimented me.

"Wow! You're really smart! You even got 99 points! It's really hard to get that score since the exam was really difficult!"

"Ha ha ha... Of course! It's just easy to get this score for a bright person like me. I can even teach you if you want." I acted self-importantly.

"What's your score, anyway?" I added.

"Me? I got 100."

I had my mouth wide open when I heard her answer. I even got more surprised when I heard my classmates cheering for Elaine and Janna.

"Hey, guys! Elaine and Janna both got 99 points on the exam!"

"The two of you are really unbelievable!"

"You two are too much! And Sophia got higher than that! She's got 100 points!"

"Oh, Prince also got 99 points. He's awesome to be on a par with the 'Three Goddesses'."

I'm fed up with all of it!

"Shut up!" I shouted.

Everyone became quiet and I rushed out of the room.

I don't want to believe this! Ever since I was young, I've always been the number 1. Why is this happening to me?! I ran and ran until I reached the end corner of the corridor.

"Umm... Prince, are you ok?" Sophia suddenly popped out of nowhere.

"What are you doing here? Are you here to laugh at me? To make me even more distressed?"

"No, of course not! What's the matter? Did I do anything wrong?"

"Yes! You! And even your friends! You've stole everything I used to have away from me. All of my classmates' attention, all of the respect and reverence I receive from my schoolmates, and the honor that I get whenever I am being entitled as the top ranker in the whole school."

"I..." Sophia stopped talking and remained quiet the whole time. She waited for me to calm down before she started to talk again.

"You don't need to be anxious just because I've beat you in the position of being in the first place. All of us have our own strengths and weaknesses. We come to understand someday that we all have those things that we're having a hard time to deal with. And when that time comes, we need our friends to help us overcome all of it. You must remember that none of us can survive alone in this harsh world. I just wanted to say that being the number 1 will not make you superior among all the other people. Even if you really get the top position, it doesn't mean that you'll become perfect that doesn't make any mistakes. You know, I really want to be your friend. You may be a little too proud of yourself but I know that deep inside, you're hiding a good side. So, I'll ask you one last time, can you be my friend?" Sophia reached out her hand to me.

"Don't leave me hanging..." Sophia said while smiling softly.

I've reached my hand to her and we shook our hands for a while.

Ever since then, I started to change. From being arrogant, to being prim and proper. She's right, when I started to become mannerly, more and more people started to come to me and befriended me. She may be my rival in the top place but she's also one of my closest friends.

We became classmates for the 4 consecutive years and became best friends eventually. We also continued to have battle for the top rank position but it became just a friendly competition between us. As expected, I've never beat her, nor Elaine and Janna and I'm currently remaining at the 4th place.

I'm very thankful to Sophia because she made me come to my own senses. I realized that it's not good to be high and mighty because time will come, you will encounter someone who is better than you. Nobody's perfect and no one remains unbeatable forever. She made the pretentious me become a humble and modest person that's willing to help other people gladly.