The Best of Enemies

SOTC: here it goes again (OK go)

"Julian."

He slammed his hand down on the alarm clock once again.

Why wouldn't it shut up?

"Julian," A voice called.

"Julian," It repeated.

"Julian!"

A hand slapped his face, forcing him to open his eyes. Ingrid Preston stared down at her son with an icy glare, as he gave her a coy smile.

"Julian, school starts in 5 minutes!" She yelled, dragging him out of bed.

She continued to yell at him as he got dressed through the door which in his humble opinion, made it all the more difficult to get ready. Did you know how difficult it was to find the same pair of socks in a messy room while your mother screamed at how much of an idiot you were?

Fifteen minutes later, having successfully left the house, Julian Preston entered Maths class.

"Mr. Preston!"

He smiled at Gary Young.

His favourite teacher.

He wasn't a bad guy really, despite his grey hair and all, and honestly? Julian might have behaved in class if Gary didn't consistently rat him out on his smoking.

If he kept a good distance away from other non-smokers and paid for his own smokes - well, that was his choice wasn't it?

Young had caught the boys smoking outside of school, last week and the week before and the week before that and ever since then, had been acting like the mother-fucking king.

Which after each incident, he rang up Julian's parents.

What the fuck. You didn't do that to students. Where was the moral code in that? Teacher-student confidentiality.

"Detention." He heard Young say.

"What?"

He scoffed. "I smell smoke on ya boy, and you came in late." He sniffed Julian for emphasis.

Julian backed away, mockingly lifting up his arms in surrender.

"They should be hiring you as the drug detection dog Gary."

Mr. Young's fist curled up instantly.

He hated it whenever anyone used his first name.

The class laughed, with the exception of a girl who rolled her eyes, arms crossed.

Mia Williams. In other words? The person who had Julian Preston had ever held disdain. She had blamed him for stealing her juice box in second grade (which he did actually steal), and ever since then, they had been at each other's throats. Not to mention she was a pain in the ass. She was overtly political.

She always had to be right. She always had to have the last word. The political princess.

Oh the joy.

"You can tell your parents they can expect a call from me tonight."

Julian's moment of victory was short lived. And the whole class knew it. His mum would have the slipper ready when he arrived home.

To his left, he could see Williams flick her hair back and giggle in that nauseating way before pouting at him, faking a tear.

Bitch.

"Preston. Sit beside Miss Williams."

Julian groggily made his way towards the empty desk, purposefully averting any eye contact from the she-demon.

"Late night, Preston?"

He rolled his eyes and ignored her.

"Who was it last night? Gina?"

It was a low blow and it worked, as Julian finally acknowledged Mia with a glare.

"Well I suppose either way you are getting some kind of Gina-" She giggled. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

He leant over to her, intending to ask her just how she knew this when, "PRESTON! HOW ABOUT YOU ANSWER THIS ONE?"

Fuck. Before Julian could get out of his seat however, Mia slid over a slip of paper with various numbers scribbled over it.

"Take it."

She mouthed before gesturing to the board. Why would she help him? Probably a trick.

Taking the pen from Young, Julian glanced down at Mia's answer considering giving her the benefit of the doubt when...no. It was way too easy. So he decided to give his own brain a shot, applying some functions he recognised and after a good few minutes, he finally stepped away from the board.

It looked good, it could even be right-"Wrong."

"What?" Julian stared at the old man in disbelief.

He laughed dryly. "Anyone know the correct answer?"

Mia raised her hand.

"I do. You just divide x by 2, take 5 away from 4 and voila." She smiled at me, smugness exuding off her and mouthed, 'I win.'

"Correct. Now-" But by sheer luck, Mr Young was cut off by the bell.

As everyone walked out of the room, Julian caught up to Mia, grabbing her elbow, "What the hell was that Williams?"

Mia faced him, stunned.

"I was just helping you."

He scoffed in response.

"Yeah right. You hate my guts, you'd do anything to put me down. You knew I would never put it past you to purposefully set me out for failure. Reverse psychology."

She just stared blankly at him.

"Or maybe you're just being a dramatic baby. And maybe I'm mature. You ever think of that?"

Mia searched his face, giving him one of her classic pointed looks. It was just so smug. She seemed satisfied with his blank stare as a response and walked off.

"Mature? Ha, yeah right. Keep dreaming Williams!"

Julian felt stupid as he called after her, watching as her figure disappeared into the sea of students. She couldn't even hear him.

What was that about, exaggerative babies and her being mature?? This, coming from the girl who had taken every opportunity to pull him down. She had to be delirious.

Yeah, that was definitely it.

It had come as a shock to Julian when Devon had told him that he had invited Constance Toshida to the party.

"You could get any chick, you seriously had to go for the one who's practically attached to the hip with the she-devil?"

For Julian, their weekend parties were the only times he could be sure not to run into Mia. He had rather enjoyed that aspect.

Devon remained unfazed.

"There's literally going to be a bunch of people there, I'm sure you won't find yourself having to converse with her. If she even comes, that is."

"Tell me you told Constance not to bring any plus ones."

Julian already knew the answer to this before he had even asked it.

"And just through her into the lion's den? Come on, grow up. Put your differences aside, get drunk and have a good time. It's really weird that you're this obsessed with your hatred of her."

Devon Huynh was in some ways, Julian's brother from another mother. But he had always failed to understand Julian and Mia's (mutual) hatred for each other.

Maybe she'd get sick before the party, or something would come up. Julian could only hope.