Chasing Excellence

Chapter 2: Easily Satisfied

In the end, Sylvia was not able to do two days’ worth of training in one day. Even the coach intervened, so what could she do?

She and Denise were on their way out of the gym, ready to go home, when they heard a coquettish voice that was a tad bit higher than normal, talking near the entrance.

Oh, who is so brave? Not afraid of someone seeing them flirting.

When they were able to see the figure, Selena, a twelve-grade student who is also part of the swimming club, was talking enthusiastically to a boy wearing a baseball uniform. If she remembers correctly, this guy is from the STEM field.

When the guy raised his head and saw her, his eyes lit up and his body that was lazily leaning on the wall straightened.

When Selena saw the boy’s drastic change of attitude, she looked at the direction of his gaze and saw two girls, the other one was pretty but is being overshadowed by a more beautiful person beside her. Seeing them steal the attention of the boy she liked, her mood soured, hiding the jealousy in her heart.

“Hi. Sylvia Suarez, grade 12 representative, right? I’m Michael Brown from the baseball club.” He introduced himself with a charming smile on his face. Seeing Sylvia greet him back, he continued, “I have some things I want to discuss something with you with regards to our club.”

Sylvia expressed her understanding but seeing the sun that was almost set, she replied, “Sure. But is it okay with you if we discussed this tomorrow morning? You must be tired, we can discuss the matter more thoroughly at some other time.”

“It’s fine for me. How about we exchange numbers just in case.”

“Okay,” Sylvia replied unsuspectingly and took out her phone.

After saving the number on his phone, he inquired her with a hint of joy, “You guys are going home? Let’s go together.” Looking at the person in front of him, his heart was filled with satisfaction. This Sylvia is not so bad. It looks like it would be worth it. His smile still hanging on his face.

Not giving Sylvia time to reply, Selena interjected, “Sylvia has a ride home, he’s probably waiting there right now. Why don’t you come along with me and Denise, I believe we go the same route?”

When Denise heard this, her eyes darted to Syliva who is seemingly unaware of Selena’s intention, she just stood there with no change of expression. Denise can’t help laughing at Selena inside her head. Who doesn’t know of Selena’s intention. Implying that a ‘he’ is waiting for Sylvia to give her a ride, of course, that would be her driver, who doesn’t know that Sylvia hailed from a rich family? And taking Sylvia’s place in going home together with her crush, even including her in her little scheme. Judging from Michael’s attitude, she’s sure he can see this. She can see this. The other people who are slowly walking by and who are hanging out to see a show can also see this. Probably the only person who doesn't see this is the person in question.

This is one example of ‘A person in love is blind’.

But what she doesn’t know is this guy’s intention. Turning her eyes to Michael, Denise’s eyes squinted a little.

After arriving home, Sylvia thanked Uncle Rogers and changed her shoes in a dejected manner.

Not being able to see him all day. How many days has it been?

She knows its competition season for all sports clubs and also the grade field trip is upcoming. As part of the student council, she’s aware that they are also involved in the planning along with the other teachers, but this is the longest time she hasn’t seen him in years when both of them are in the same place.

Sylvia went up to her room with heavy steps and changed out of her uniform. Seeing the two-piece uniform hanging on the wall, her hand brushed through it, flattening out the wrinkles.

At first, she didn’t know that he would transfer out of school when they entered high school and was only made aware of it when school already started. Going to the Maldives was a relaxation she wanted, but she didn’t know was that when they came home, only horror awaits her. She just had to lose her phone at an unfortunate time!

Only now was she able to go to the same school he enrolled in. He left their prestigious school to go to a public school. When asked why he said he wanted to experience the life his parents led before pushing their way up the society. When people heard this, they were showering him with praises for being understating, and in front of his parents, they praised their son for being humble.

But when she said she wanted to transfer to the same school as him, saying she wanted to experience life. They only laughed at her and teased her older brother that her sister has a crush.

Why haven’t they praised her for being adventurous? Why was his older brother only showed helplessness when they teased? Why hadn’t he defended her?

When she brought this up to her brother, he only asked, “Is it not?”

She couldn’t say anything to this because that really is there to it. Even her sister-in-law, Anna, laughed at their bickering. Sylvia wasn’t almost able to transfer out, but because of her insistence, even their grandparents capitulated. She even begged Anna to give her brother a pillow talk or two but was only met with a knock on the head.

However, Anna did indeed talk to her husband during tea time, “If your sister wants to explore what else is there in the world, why not. She’s already grown, you don’t need to keep making decisions for her.”

After that day, her brother's attitude changed. Sylvia was grateful for Anna’s pillo-... conversation with her brother, she is now able to transfer schools. She still needs to give her brother a massage every now and then, but she could accept it.

Hearing Aunt May’s beckon for dinner, she removed her little earrings and went out. At the dining table, sumptuous food was laid out and three figures were seated around it.

She sat next to the man with an imposing aura, with Anna sitting at his other side, “Brother, you’re back. I thought you’d be here by tomorrow.”

“I just got back when you left this morning." He replied briefly. "Let’s eat.” Cedrick put food on a plate and passed it to Anna, who put it in front of their 5-year-old son, Tony, her nephew.

“How’s school?” He asked as he was getting his own portion.

“All’s good, all’s good.”Putting food on her plate two times the portion that of Anna’s. “Training is getting later and later. I might start coming home when the sun’s down.”

“That’s fine. Just inform Uncle Rogers when to pick you up.” After seeing Sylvia’s affirmative answer, he raised his spoon and started eating.

The dining table went into a calm silence as the people ate without speaking. The noisiest one among them is Tony who’s obediently sitting on his chair that was beside her mother. His tiny spoon catapulted food everywhere, she believes half o the food on his plate went to his stomach and half of it blessed the table. Seeing this cute nephew of hers, he may be a messy eater but it makes other people who see him want to take seconds.

After their meal, the table was cleaned and refreshments were served but no one among the four stood up and left. They stayed seated and talked about trivial matters.

“Your exam has ended, how did you do?” Checking that the tea wasn’t too hot, Cedrick took a sip but didn’t put down the cup after a while.

Swallowing the tea in her mouth, Sylvia replied, “I did good. It’s not so bad. Our report cards will be distributed around this month. You could check then how I did.” She put some more sugar in her tea and stirred it. Checking that the sweetness is just right she put down her spoon. “Our test papers were given back to us awhile ago, my scores were passable.”

Tony’s eyes widened when he heard his aunt talk about her scores. He excitedly put down his milk with a thud, his face having an additional white mustache. “Sylvi, Sylvi! I want to see!” His tutor always praised him when she checks his assignments. He wants to compare her aunt’s score to his. Did they already learn multiplication? He’s good at multiplication!

Seeing the excitement in her nephew's eyes, she can’t help but be amused. “Sure. I’ll take it down later. Do you also want to show me your workbook?”

“Okay! I’ll go get it now.” Tony quickly finished the milk left in his glass and looked at his mother. Seeing her nod in approval, he left his seat and trudged to his room with his short legs.

Cedrick’s eyes followed the little fella's figure as he carefully climbed the stairs until he couldn’t see him anymore. This guy’s competitive nature is just like his, but wanting to compete with a high school student his confidence would take a hit. Cedrick doesn’t know what to feel first, to be happy or to pity his son, so he could only sigh. That’s good too. This guy’s getting a little too arrogant lately, his tutor’s praising him to high heavens. Even his stern face cracked a little when she came to him praising his son about this and that.

“Passable? Don’t only strive for passable. You should work harder if you think you can do better.”

“I’m doing a lot of things, you know. It’s not easy.” Sylvia complained with a slight pout on her lips.

Cedrick only scoffed at this. Not feeling any sympathy for his little sister one bit. “Of course it’s not easy. Do you think excellence comes easy? The kid on the other street does a lot more things than you yet he still does better than you.”

Ayah. She doesn’t know why such a gentle sister-in-law chose a stern man like her brother. She wondered on numerous occasions if perhaps the only women her brother would have in his life are her and their grandmother. Good thing he’s good looking otherwise he’s irredeemable.

Not having any retort to this, Sylvia could only drink her tea in silence with a pout on her lips. Anna, on the other hand, have a slight smile on her lips as she watched the two siblings quibble as if she’s already used to this.

The little guy can be seen coming down the stairs step by step. He pulled his aunt to the living room to show his achievements. His nose that was pointing so high finally came down when he found out he doesn’t understand what was written on her aunt’s paper. All his aunt’s score didn’t receive perfect scores like he did, but he did not understand about anything one bit.

Seeing the dejected state of her son, Anna was about to comfort him when his eyes slowly flamed with fighting spirit, and shouted, “I want to learn this, too! And this! And this! And this!” Pointing at Sylvia’s paper individually.

Sylvia looked at her paper that was filled with trigonometry solutions and Tony’s 5+5 workbook, her paper on economics and Tony’s ABC workbook. She turned her head to Tony whose eyes is filled with stubbornness and decided not to say anything.

Her nephew always wanted the best, but her brother always made it hard for him to get it. Anything wasn’t given to him on a silver platter, but everything was made sure it was achievable. And most of the time he gets what he wants and she knows the amount of effort he put into every single one.

So much effort was put into raising Tony, and so much effort Tony needs to expend. She’s feeling tired just thinking about it. Truly, if you want to strive for excellence you need hard work for it.

It’s a good thing she’s easily satisfied.