BEAUTIFUL RIVALS

Unwelcome, Unbothered

—GRADE 12 CLASSROOM —

The teacher was already in class when Maya walked in, she had to find the principal’s office herself and collect her map, locker keys and number, her ID and other things necessary.

The class went quiet as she walked in. The teacher looked up from what he was doing,

“Oh, Maya Reed right?” He asked.

“Yes sir,” she replied.

“Okay class, we have a new student, treat her well,” He announced.

“She doesn’t belong here so she doesn’t deserve to be treated well,” a girl in the class said and some people in the class chuckled.

“Instead of worrying about me not being welcomed, you should worry about your falling boobs,” Maya shot back without blinking.

The whole class erupted with laughter and the girl covered her face in shame.

“Uhhmmm, that’s enough, Maya just find a place to sit,” the teacher shuddered.

Maya walked towards an empty seat and was about to sit down when someone placed their backpack on it. Maya turned to see who it was and yes it’s the baked face girl, Brittany.

“Ooops sorry, my backpack already took this seat,” Brittany said faking a sorry face.

Maya was about to give her a piece of her mind when a soft voice from the other side of the class said, “You can come sit here, if you don’t mind.”

Maya rolled her eyes at Brittany and walked over to the seat beside the girl.” Thanks,” she muttered.

“It’s nothing, I’m Molly Brown,” the girl introduced herself.

“I’m sure I don’t need to introduce myself anymore, the teacher already did that, and everyone in school knows my damn face thanks to a particular someone,” Maya said, searching for Noah, and she found him, staring at her with that blood-shut eyes, she returned the glare with the same amount of hatred.

Molly laughed, “Sure, everyone knows the almighty fearless Maya, I like you though,”

Maya just gave a dry smile, not to be rude but having a rich person talk to her politely was new and overwhelming.

Maya opened the laptop fitted on her desk, the school uses laptops instead of notebooks, every student had one fixed on their desk, and you’re to take it home after closing hours. She turned it on and was about to fill in her information when that annoying voice talked,

“Do you even know how to operate that thing, I mean it’s not some garbage stuff you are used to,”

“Do you even know how to keep quiet and operate your brain, I mean it’s not some face-baking material that you are used to,” Maya shot back without even looking up from her laptop.

The class burst into another round of heavy laughter.

“Wh…at..?”

“Brittany, that’s enough,” the teacher interjected.

“Oh, shut up, old man! I guess you don’t love your job anymore,” Brittany raged, and the teacher stayed quiet immediately.

In this school, students were like the highest authority, depending on how rich and influential their parents were.

Brittany, you’re disturbing the peace of the class,” Molly said calmly.

Brittany fumed but didn’t say a word.

“Whoa! Why did she stop talking immediately?” Maya asked, surprised.

“Because I’m Molly Brown. But she’d still talk… just not now,” Molly replied simply.

“Ohh,” Maya murmured, unsure if she fully understood. She focused on the lesson, and so did everyone else, or at least they pretended to.

An hour into the class, the teacher suddenly announced an impromptu quiz and that did the magic as the class erupted with grumbles.

“What? I didn’t even read a thing,”

“I don’t even understand what he has been teaching,”

The teacher looked at them, they might be more powerful than the teachers but there were still things they couldn’t influence, one of them was quizzes, and that was one thing Mr Kingston made strictly important as the biggest shareholder in the school.

Maya scoffed hearing the students' complaints, rich people are something else.

The teacher further announced that they will be in groups and a total of five groups will be formed. The projector came on and revealed group A-D with its members.

Group A- Noah and five other students

Group B- Maya and five other students

Group C- Molly and five other students

Group D- Brittany, her minions and two other students

Immediately everyone saw their names and their groups, and they assembled with their group mates.

The teacher then gave the instructions guiding the quiz, it’s sixty questions in total, from different topics, a timer was set, the group to answer first gets the mark and a question carries two marks. And if two groups somehow got the same score, the groups would be asked to pick a candidate each to represent them for another round of ten questions to pick the final winner.

“All set?” The teacher asked.

“Yes,” the students chorused even if they weren’t happy about it.

The teacher read out the first question and simultaneously it appeared on the projector, the timer was set to ten seconds and if no one answered then no one got the mark.

Noah answered the question as the timer hit five seconds, the next question appeared, Maya answered in two seconds, Molly answered, Brittany answered, and other students also answered.

A particular question appeared, no one could answer, not even Noah, when the timer hit five, Maya closed her eyes, and on six, she hurriedly said the answer.

Brittany tried to undermine Maya again by loudly questioning her answer.

“That’s wrong. You don’t even know what you’re talking about, even Noah couldn’t answer it ” Brittany sneered.

Maya didn’t react immediately. She watched Brittany, letting her frustration simmer for a moment before responding.

“Wrong? I’d say it’s just different from your limited understanding, and because a particular person couldn’t answer it doesn’t mean I can’t ” Maya replied smoothly, her voice calm but sharp.

The timer hit ten and dinged, drawing their attention back to the quiz.

The quiz continued till they got to the last question and someone in Molly’s group gave the answer.

The students held their breath as their scores were being accumulated on the projector. After a minute, the scores started appearing, from the lowest.

Group D- Brittany’s group got five questions correctly and had a total score of ten marks.

Group C- Molly’s group got fifteen questions correctly and had thirty marks.

Group B- Maya’s group got twenty questions correctly and had forty marks.

Group A- Noah’s group got twenty questions correctly and had forty marks.

The room became silent, Maya’s and Noah’s group had the same score. The teacher smiled, “Pick a candidate to represent your group A and B,”

“Noah!” Group A chorused without thinking.

Group B stared at one another debating whom to pick, Maya just sat on a desk looking unbothered like she wasn’t part of them.

“We’ll just back down, not like we can beat Noah,” a girl in group B said and the others concurred.

“And who said so? If y’all are too scared to compete with him I’ll, I answered most of the questions anyway,” Maya said glaring at Noah.

“Well, Noah and Maya step to the front, face each other,” the teacher instructed.

“Perfect!” Maya muttered under her breath as they both stepped forward.

“This round will be tougher, with just ten questions and five seconds to answer each question,” the teacher smiled.

And just like that, the quiz began, the timer dinged so fast like it wasn’t even up to five minutes but both of them answered before the time elapsed.

The quiz ended and just like the first time, everyone held their breath, the room became more tense and quieter than usual, this was the first time someone was competing with Noah, no one had ever gotten equal marks or passed him.

The projector went blank and came on immediately with the results on it,

Everyone gasped, the scores…. Was …. Equal, again.