Raine arrived at school early for once, and she was actually happy about it. She walked into the classroom and slammed her bag down onto her seat. Throwing herself lazily into her chair, she opened her phone to kill time while she waited for the others to arrive. As she was focused on killing players in her game, someone tapped her shoulder.
"Why are you alone, Raine?"
She paused her game and looked over her shoulder. "Lex? What are you doing here?"
She smiled at him, and Lex sat in the seat beside her. "I was just walking down the hallway and saw you in here all by yourself. You look bored as fuck."
She chuckled. "Yeah, I'm still waiting for my classmates."
"You know, I was wondering if you could help me with my math. It's kind of hurting my brain cells," Lex said, his voice pleading as he begged her to teach him. She agreed, and Lex pulled out his math book, flipping to a specific page.
"Oh, this is easy. It's simple once you understand it," Raine said. She began explaining the equations and algebraic solutions. But deep inside, her heart was pounding with a strange nervousness she couldn't quite explain.
In the middle of their study session, Nick walked in, his expression as bored as ever. He stopped when he saw them studying together like some damn couple.
"Hey. What's this man doing here?" Nick asked from the doorway. He walked over and sat in his assigned seat, throwing his bag underneath it before glaring at them. "What subject is that?"
"Math. Algebra and equations. Why?" she asked.
"That's easy. Even a dumb person could understand that," Nick said, his voice cold and his expression unreadable.
"What did you say, man?" Lex asked, clearly offended by the insult.
"Don't mind him. He's always arrogant," Raine said to Lex, turning back to the book to continue the lesson.
God, Nick was annoyed by that. A short while later, Raine created a small quiz to see if Lex actually understood her lesson.
"Okay, I'll ask you a question now. What is the answer to 2x+1=5?"
"Umm... 6?" Lex guessed.
"No, that's not it, but it's okay. The answer—"
"The answer is x=2, dumbass," Nick said, cutting her off.
Lex sighed at the insult, looking like he wanted to punch Nick for his arrogance. "I'm going to leave now. Thanks for teaching me, Raine. This guy is being arrogant even though you didn't ask for his help."
Lex left, and Nick smirked at his departure.
"Why are you smirking like that? You literally insulted him!" she said in annoyance.
"Why not? Is it bad to smirk?" Nick asked. "And it wasn't an insult, it was the truth."
"You know, you really should try acting nice for once," Raine said, huffing as she leaned back against her desk. "Most people don't like you because of your attitude and that massive ego."
Nick didn't even look up at first; he just leaned back in his chair, balancing it on two legs with a dangerous level of confidence. "Nah, I'll pass. I'm not going to pretend to be kind just to get people to respect me. At least I'm not a fake."
Raine groaned, her irritation rising like a fever. "God! You are so incredibly annoying, do you know that?"
Nick finally looked at her, a slow, lazy smirk spreading across his face as if her anger was the highlight of his day. "That's a good news," he said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice like honey.
"Call me every insult you have, I love that words like a rhythm to me" Nick said while playing on his phone, but Raine was stunned almost her saliva is going to choke her deadass throat.
8:30 in the morning, The teacher is discussing. Raine attentively listening to the discussion. She wrote down important notes and always raising her hand.
"Attention, class. I already assigned the 5 members group at this project. You will make a whole reporting related in out pass and new lessons. I will not provide an AI because it's strictly prohibited." The teacher calls all the group members or group A to E. Raine was assigned to group C while Nick was assigned to group B. Her members picked her to stood up as leader and she's proud of it in lowkey way. But the lesson they will present is hard as hell from the first to the last lesson the teacher teacher discussed. Raine didn't think about how hard it is, she thinks about the perfection and flawless presentation. At the library after school, her group mates gather at the table. Raine explain it so flawless, expecting to them to do what she said. The meeting runs perfectly and understandable. The time ran out and the sun is setting. All her friends left and Raine was still glued on her laptop, searching every lesson. When she was busy tapping her keyboard, someone gave her a coffee with a note that saying: 'stop stressing yourself, you're wasting your beauty.' Raine noticed it and she smiles. She looks up and saw Lex smiling at her.
"Busy much? Maybe I could help with that."
No thanks, I'm just searching related to our topic." She said. Lex smile widened.
"You know. You should stop that for a while. We should create some time for us... As a my friends."
Raine chuckled. "Stop that. You're just distracting me." They laughed and talked about their hobbies and many more things. While they were having their great conversation, Nick was walking through the library, looking for one of his groupmates. Suddenly, he heard a familiar laugh—it was definitely Raine's. He peeked through the gaps in the bookshelf and saw them laughing, looking very close.
"Fucking hell," he thought. "Why is he being such a dick, distracting her ass when she's supposed to be working?"