Pulling Me Into Him

Chapter 3: The Exam that Started it All

Althea POV

Many students came by and we were then told to go inside the examination room. Thank God, I was separated from that guy. Who was he anyway? Now my day is ruined thanks to that bas**rd. I was having such a good time up until that point. He bets on me being what? Does he think he is a fortune teller or something? Ugh! He should’ve just minded his own business since I wasn’t talking to him anyway. Forget it, let me focus on this exam for a bit.

“Times up!” the checker screamed a few hours later as the bell rang. I managed to finish everything but I didn’t have the time to recheck. That took away almost all my energy, even my head is starting to hurt. I just hope I did enough to get through this exam. Let me take a break for now. So, I went to a cafe, ordered food, picked a perfect place to sit down and I enjoyed my well-deserved meal as I watched the summer breeze from the window. It was a perfect sight, until:

“So, how’d it go?” a certain person asked as he sat right in front of my table at the cafeteria. Wait, why is he here? Does he think we're friends or something?

“Aren’t you the guy from earlier who claimed that he predicted my miserable future?” I asked, so confused about what was happening.

“Damn straight, your right” he replied while eating a portion of my cake. I can’t believe him. Should I just call dad?

“What do you want from me? Money? Do you need any medical support for what happened earlier?” I asked sarcastically while trying to get things straight as quickly as possible. I don’t want anyone to see us while we are here.

“Oh, nothing in particular, I just wanted to make sure you were doing well,” he answered while sipping my iced coffee. I can’t believe he just called me a kid not so long ago when he’s acting like one right now.

“Thank you for your concern, but I'm good. Now, may I ask you to leave me alone? I just can’t let my parents see me talking to a total stranger, you see” I asked ‘politely’ and made a poker face to make sure he would understand that I was serious this time around.

“That’s not a problem then, you can call me Ace. Nice to meet you.” he responded happily. He sure can put a smile on his face after he has finished my entire meal.

“This is actually my fourth time.” He started to talk all of a sudden.

“Huh? Fourth what? Fourth meal?” I asked.

“No, my fourth application. I’ve been trying to enter this university ever since middle school but I kept failing every time.” he clarified as he yawned

“I see no wonder you were so salty about it.” I was relieved he opened up, but I feel kind of bad about what I said earlier.

“I’m sorry, I do that quite a lot and what you said was not something new to me. But every victim I had, up until today, ended up running away, so I was shocked when you stayed this long. You sure are also desperate to enter this school as much as me,” he added. Was he just testing me or something? Who does he think he is?

“Geez, but why do you want to enter here so badly?” I mean he probably just wanted to study here like me.

“I just want to take out an old friend of mine who has been on that campus ever since we parted ways in middle school.” He replied with such confidence. Is that even a serious reason?

“Which is why if I ever fail again this time, can you bring him out here for me?” He asked with a mischievous look. So, now he’s giving me some sort of quest. Does it mean I would get a reward out of this?

“The results aren’t out yet until next week. There is a chance that both of us won’t get in. So, your fancy little plan might not get into play,” I answered. Thus, even if I did pass, I wouldn’t do such a horrible thing for a guy I had just met.

“Oh, I know you will...*gulp* cause it’s you” he stared at me and laughed. To be honest, that smile of his suits him better than his appearance earlier. He looks cute that way. Wait, what am I saying?

“What do you mean because it’s me? Also, I’ve been meaning to ask, did you already know who I was before we met this morning?” I asked.

“*burps* Oh, I forgot” he answered. What’s the deal with this guy? He ended up buying another meal that I thought was for me in exchange for what he stole earlier, but he ended up finishing it in seconds before he left.

What a day it has been and I was totally beat out. After all, I had to brainstorm everything I studied throughout the summer, but not even half of it showed up. Also, I got to deal with this weird guy, who surprisingly was kind of cute once in a while. So, it was so satisfying to finally lie down in bed. Ace huh? I wonder if I happened to know a guy like him in the past. I’m pretty sure the only guy I was close to, besides dad and my brother, was Zeke. Speaking of which, I wonder how Zeke is doing. Well, I bet he’s lying down with his girlfriend right now. Wait, why am I even thinking about him again? I touched my lips as I remembered what happened that night. He was such a loser, that dummy.

A week passed by and it was just like any other day, but a shocking news greeted me as I woke up. Our school’s official SocialTalk account had posted the students who managed to get to White Horse University and I was swarmed with messages. The post states;

‘It has been an honor to serve such talented students through all these years and now you have taken a new leaf as your journey continues further into college. We, the school’s executive, shall congratulate the 4 students who managed to make their way to White Horse University. We would like you to know that you made our school very proud and that we will continue to produce such students in the future. Good luck on your journey, young ones.’ I scrolled down further as the following names were posted as follows;

Name: Jubail Parler

School: White Horse University

Application Status: Invited

Name: Alexa Bilden

School: White Horse University

Application Status: Invited

Name: Ezekiel Kingsley

School: White Horse University

Application Status: Invited

Name: Althea Coulson

School: White Horse University

Application Status: Passed

I saw my name as one of four students who passed alongside Zeke and the rest. I was so happy and I felt so hyped that I screamed at the top of my lungs. I went downstairs to tell my family that I had made it in and I nearly teared up. I received a lot of comments of congratulations and my notifications were ringing nonstop. It felt like I was dreaming or it was just another scenario in my head, thus, it made my heart melt with so much joy. As expected, both Alexa and Jubail were directly invited by the university thanks to their good influence as well as Zeke. But I didn’t expect him to accept their invitation, especially because his girlfriend, unfortunately, didn’t pass the exam. Also, I wonder if Ace passed as well. I haven’t heard from anyone in a while. It was literally like I was isolated from my home and every day was just a cycle of chores and meals. So, receiving the news of my application was really a big change and surprise to me.

As I was looking at Zeke’s account, I noticed that his followers had grown. It was probably because of his acceptance into the university that boosted his popularity. So, out of curiosity, I decided to check the home page of my account after ignoring it in a while. I nearly dropped my phone on my face and decided to stand in bed. I tried to rub and clean my eyes to make sure I was seeing right. Though, it was still the same, so I thought I was hallucinating for a second and tried putting my phone near a light. It turns out, what I’m seeing is what really is given.

Name: Althea Coulson

Following: 229

Followers: 167

Name: Ezekiel Kingsley

Nickname: Zeke

Following: 181

Followers: 1 140

Is this even real? The number of followers I have now is more than quintuple the amount of what I usually had (32). Since when did this happen? I knew that I gained some but I didn’t expect it to be this much. I guess I really did bypass a lot of my notifications from earlier. At that point, I thought I was somewhat famous and that I had reached my peak thanks to my growing popularity from being the only entrance examinee who passed at my school. Little did I know that type of mentality would slowly come back to consume and, later on, destroy me.

Later that night, I noticed that I had missed a call from an unknown number just a few minutes ago. At that point, the first person that pop into my head was Ace. I mean who else would try to contact me aside from my family and Zeke? Especially after I was qualified at the university that he had planned on and he seems to know something about me that I don’t know about. So, him having my number was not far-fetched to me, but it was somehow a very scary hypothesis. I tried to ignore the number and get ready for bed earlier than usual.

“Honey, you have a visitor!” My mom screamed, trying to call me out of my room. Who would try to visit me at this time of the day? I tried to figure out who it was until I realized that there was only one person that had earned my parent’s trust and permission to get into our house. I quickly changed my clothes and went downstairs to see if it was really him.

“Yow!” It was indeed Zeke, he smiled while waving his hand and sitting on the couch alongside mom. He also brought 4 boxes of pizzas that I barely noticed on the table.

“Come darling, ‘your boy’, Ezekiel, is here to visit you”, my mom said with a huge smile on her face. Is he here to clarify what happened that night?

“I’m actually here to visit and celebrate with you all for Thea’s success in her application for the university” he responded with his usually cool voice. This charm of his is what persuaded mom to think that I would marry him. Too bad for her, it won’t.

“You’re such a thoughtful child. Now then, I’m going to leave you two alone while I call your father upstairs, okay?” She hit me with her elbow as if she’s trying to set us up. Also, why does she always make her way up to call the boys while I get yelled all the time? That’s not fair.

“Why did you come here?” I asked straight at his face, wasting no time.

“Didn’t I just tell you why? Or perhaps you expected me to talk about…” He responded cheekily but,

“No! I don’t need it. If that’s why you came here, then you should just leave.” I interrupted him before he could say any further. I don’t want mom and the others to hear about it.

“I see, but there is one thing I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he seemed to be serious this time.

“Did you happen to know a guy who calls himself, Ace?” he asked as he stared at me with a worried look in his face.