Honey, why?

9. E = mc2

"This is false advertisement, Vivy. I'm gonna call my lawyer. Medium is totally not medium!"

Ash and Ali didn't finish reviewing yesterday's lesson and even managed to lose the reviewer I made them, so I'm writing down new math problems for them to practice on, but I can't help hearing the drama that's starting to unfold.

"Chad, for the nth time, Viv sent all of us -" Nessie try to explain and defend Vivienne's honor but he is cut off by Chad's piercing voice which got higher and more pitchy.

"Then why the hell am I not able to read this so-called e-mail that you sent? You're trying to sabotage me, you really -"

"Come on, now, Chad. We all received the e-mail. Maybe it just went to your spam or something," Charles intervene. He's right beside me, helping me think of mathematical problems to use for practice. After what happened yesterday morning, he hasn't left my side since.

The day passed by so fast as we watched more academic contests during the morning, then cheered on our classmates during the preliminary rounds of the Math Games, which started with Pythagorean Pankration, the first part of the games that requires precision and strength.

I was able to enjoy supporting my friends while being able to help Charles contact people for the Halloween Festivities.

He left junior Class A's Brienne Coleman in charge of the bands performing each night of the festival and the music that'll be playing in the fair, while he help me find a construction company and builders for the fair rides.

In exchange, I asked Luke for the contacts in his father's label of musicians and performers and handed the list to Brie, since I know that it's the primary responsibility of Charles.

I also helped him help the other reps with their own dilemmas. Like when Johanna couldn't find a bakery for the pastry booth. I would have recommended my aunt's bakery but they already have a commitment to this company party, so I asked aunt Terry if she knew somebody else and just our luck, she did. Of course, she did.

I even survived the meeting with Parker yesterday, although the queasy feeling I got after we left the restaurant never really did leave me for the rest of the night, all thanks to this person right here. My stomach lurches as a certain scene from last night repeated in my head. I can feel the heat rising up my face.

"Besides, you could still change your size from large to medium. You'd be able to get it tomorrow." Charles adds as he passes me another paper full of questions he made up.

Our Math v-neck tee shirts just came this morning, plain eggshell white cotton with a huge single gold Alpha sign in front. At the back, there's a Senior Class A cursive script at the topmost part, also in gold letters. It exudes clean, sophisticated Grecian style.

Chadi stomps her way to us, the click clack of her five inches red heels sounding on the floor. "FYI, Albero, I'll be changing my size from medium to small. Got it?"

There has been a mixed up in the size and Vivienne e-mailed all of us about it so we could change our sizes if we prefer. The sizes are one size larger, so we have to size down if we want our normal size, or not if we want an oversized shirt. Obviously, Chad didn't get the memo.

Charles raises his hands up in surrender. "Got it, Chad. I apologize for my mistake."

I see Nessie shake his head from behind Chad. He then ushers Viv, who looks like she's about to cry, to the other side of the room to comfort her. If there's one more crybaby in this class apart from me, it's sweet Vivienne.

"You're always being dramatic, Chadi," says Teddy from the floor, holding Luke's feet to the ground as he do some curl ups.

The two of them, together with three more of our classmates, are our class contestants for the Math Games. Jude and Brent were done with the Trigonomathlon (seriously, year after year, we have to endure the cheesy Math Games competition names, all thanks to Mr. Alvins who is the Mathematics coordinator who thinks of these kinds of silly titles) in which our class placed first (Jude) and second (Brent), together with three of the  first year to third year students in their team. And Nona was the one who got us first place in the Pythagorean Pankration. Girl's got some strong gams.

On the other hand, Ali and Ash are both in the Math Academic Contest, which is what most students dubbed as the boring part of the Math Week. It's the finals tomorrow and their teams are ones of the three finalists.

In about fifteen minutes, Luke and Teddy are about to compete in the Chariot Descart-Race (really, Mr. Alvins, really?) which will take place around the campus, so roads have been closed off and security have been enforced.

I hear Chadi gasp before dropping on the chair next to me. "As if, Teddy! You're the one who's always making such a fuss, so don't reprimand me for that."

"Burn," Charles whispers from the other side of me but I don't think Teddy heard him. I shoot him a mocking glare and he beams back at me.

"Ace! Help me out here! Put some sense in your best friend's shallow mind," Teddy calls out to me, lying on her back to do the crunches while Luke takes her place supporting her feet.

I can't stay upset at Teddy for ruining last night's review session when she's this cute. She looks like a tomato about to explode. Her usually red cheeks have gotten the shade of vermillion and I'm not sure if it's because of her working out or because of Chadi. They always butt heads with each other and I wonder how they still remain friends.

I can't stop grinning. "She's your best friend, too."

"I don't have an over dramatic best friend," Teddy retaliates on each crunch she does.

"Neither do I," Luke seconds the motion.

Soon, the whole class begins to chime in, saying, "Nor I" one by one, and it makes Chadi even more furious.

"Boohoo, you rascals," she says angrily. "Uh, Ace? If there's someone you should be defending with your life, it's me. Your only best friend."

Luke and Teddy simultaneously gasp and I hear someone say "Oh, no she didn't," somewhere at the back. It's probably Jorda.

I stop my laughing fit immediately, looking at the fuming face of (one of) my best friend(s). "You know I love you, Chadi," I say, looping an arm around her neck. "But you know how Switzerland is always neutral during the times of war," I finish, placing my other hand flat on my chest. Then I mouth, "I'm sorry."

Charles guffaws, hand slapping his thigh.

Luke looks up at me, wiping the sweat off his face with a towel. "You can declare war on me anytime, sweetheart, and be neutral in any of them, as long as I get the same, if not more, loving you give to Chad."

I laugh. "Yeah, right. Well, you already know how I feel about you..." I then drop my eyelids and lower my voice mimicking Jessica Rabbit. "Sugar."

Luke's tanned face begins blushing and it even crawls up his ears! I suppress a laugh but when Teddy lost balance and fall back because Luke loosened his grip on her feet, I lost it.

Teddy stands up, also roaring with laughter, and pinches my arm. "His face!"

One of my eyes closes in pain but never does my cackling halt. "Owie. Teddy." I say in between wheeze.

"I can't believe you'd date her, Luke! Who knows what's been down there!" Chadi's voice booms out.

Teddy covers my ears and whispers shouts, "Not in front of the kid!" Just loud enough for me to hear, seeing that she brought her lips close to my ears and didn't really do a great job cupping my ears with her teenie tiny palms.

"Says the girl who dated Kenneth freaking Westerberg." Luke crosses his arms. His shirt becomes tighter on his chest as his breathing becomes heavy.

Wait, Kenneth Westerberg? The guy who sends me gifts during my birthdays? Okay, yeah, he also sends me gifts on Christmas. And (cringe) Valentines Day. And New Years.

Okay, you got me. Kenneth has been sending me gifts from time to time. He's also a senior but, thankfully, from the other class. He's also been asking me to go on dates with him which I always politely decline because he schedules them on days I am (thankfully) always preoccupied.

His last gift to me was a pair of pink cotton lace socks which are really cute and I would've worn them if not for the note in the box.

Ada,

Wear them, sweet thing,

and be reminded of me.

Kenneth

Cringeworthy or what. I gave the socks to my sister. She'll be able to wear them in a few years. Kenneth's other presents were either edible or perishable. The usual.

Anyway. Chadi dated him? Since when til when?

"Only in the summer." Chadi flips her long dark ponytail, slapping our classmate Sienna, who's passing by with Rose, on the face accidentally.

Sienna turns to her, eyes furrowed. "Hey!"

Chadi just gives them the stink eye and being such peaceful girls, not like my war freak of a friend here, the two of them just walks away out the door.

"You dated that puppy dog?" Teddy grabs Chadi a little tightly by her upper arm which makes her even infuriated.

"Let go of me, Teddy!"

Woah. This is turning into a full blown fight now. I place one hand on Chadi's shoulder and one on Teddy's hand on Chadi's arm. "Come on, guys. Cut it out."

Chadi pulls free of Teddy's grasp and faces me. She speaks too close to my face I can smell her minty breath. Chadi loves chewing gum.

I hear Charles starting to talk, but his voice is drowned out by Chadi.

"What, just because you're the one he's always been courting and running after, doesn't mean I can't date him? You want him for yourself, too? You already have everything!"

I hear Charles speaking firmly but faintly in the background, but what is all in my head is ringing.

"Don't talk to her like that."

I am paralyzed and confused as to what just happened that I don't bother going after her when she storms out of the room. I feel the back of my hand being rubbed by someone and I look down to see Luke holding my hand, his thumb grazing softly at my knuckles it's almost ticklish.

My tears are about to fall if Teddy hadn't spoken up.

"Well, that escalated quickly."

I look at her, tears brimming in my eyes and laugh. She hugs me, laying her cheek on my chest and patting my back. I quickly wipe my tears and hold on to Luke's hand tighter.

"Your friend has always been a b***h," Teddy's voice is muffled by my shirt. "She's banned from karaoke if we win this thing."

"Just don't let her come with us to the Underwater World," Ash suggests before going back to punching his scientific calculator.

Teddy lets go of me and looks down at her body with disdain. "Sorry, Ace. I just got my sweat all over you."

Luke stands up and both Teddy and I have to crane our necks up to look at him. "Well, I'd like to get my sweat on you, too, sweetheart, if you don't mind."

And then he hugs me, all wet and sweaty. His smell is musky, but I don't mind. He doesn't smell gym locker, or what the whole class smells like after P.E.

"You have spare clothes in your locker, right, babe?" Charles grabs my wrist gently, prying me away from Luke. "You and Teddy can go get yourselves changed. She'll also shower, right?"

"Yeah!" Teddy says as she sniffs her armpits. I couldn't help but giggle. "It's almost time for the games, anyway." She faces our classmates who are just chilling out. "Hey, y'all! Go change to your t-shirts now!"

The games are about to start and Luke needs to shower, too. "Luke, you'll get in the shower, too, right?"

Teddy cup her hand on her mouth with a pfft sound. "What?" I ask her as I grab my purse.

One look at Luke and I realize my mistake. My face begins heating up and I can only imagine my ears are as red as his right now.

"I mean, you'll also shower. Because it's almost game time. I don't mean you get in the shower with Teddy or me or that I'll get in the shower, too, I mean I'll just change my clothes that got wet from your sweat - your and Teddy's sweat, I mean, when we hugged." I stammer.

Okay. Time to go.

"See you later, Luke, bye."

I then walk as fast as I could with Teddy following behind me.

***

Right out of the locker rooms, I see Ruslan leaning on the opposite wall, holding something in his hands. He tangles and untangles it between his fingers and he almost drops it when he looks up and sees me watching him.

"Hey." He says after straightening up and clearing his throat twice.

I took my headband from my purse and put it on my head. Teddy left before me, yapping at me for taking so long changing. She said that it'll be nice if she arrives at the meeting place of the contestants early, so I let her go. I shouldn't have, though. I didn't know I'd be running into Ruslan... though it seems like he wanted us to run into each other.

My lips turn up into a small smile. "Hey, Rus. What's up? Aren't you getting ready for the games?"

He eyes me shamelessly from head to toe, then back again, oh, so slow. Geez. I know we used to be close but this is embarrassing me.

"Uhm..." His cheeks turn red after realizing I just busted him from checking me out. "Can I ask you a favor?"

Now that I did not expect.

"What is it?" I hug my middle, my purse dangling from my arm. A gust of wind passes by and my legs suddenly feel cold. Should I change into a pair of jeans instead?

Rus moves closer and hands me the thing he has been fiddling with. His other hand is in the pocket of his brown corduroy, and he's wearing the same shirt that I have on. His thick brown hair is combed back, unmoving because of the wax he always puts on to keep it tame.

"Can you please hold on to this for me?"

I look down at his palm to see what he's talking about. It's a beautiful silver necklace with the most mesmerizing pendant. It's the most intense color I have ever laid my eyes upon.

Rus moves behind me, pushing my hair aside, and putting the necklace around my neck.

"Wait, Rus -"

His hot breath at the back of my neck stops me from saying whatever it is I have to say. "Please, Ace," he whispers. "I'll take it back from you by the end of the day." His hands stay on my shoulders for longer than I wanted to, so I step forward to shrug them off.

"Alright," I say, facing him. "But you have to take this back, okay?" It took me a while to be able to look him in the eye again, and I am relieved that it almost doesn't affect me anymore. Almost.

"I promise." His eyes run from my face to the necklace, then back to my face again. "You look really beautiful with it on."

He walks me back to our classroom in silence before heading to the grandstand to prepare for the last part of the Math Games - the race.