Chapter 2
“What’s going on with you two? Did you have a fight?” Seeing me lost in thought, my buddy Mike nudged me with his elbow. He pointed at Rachel, who was now leaning close to Tyler, the new transfer student, and asked curiously. I finally snapped back to reality, my eyes cold as ice. Since high school, Rachel and I had been known as childhood sweethearts. In everyone’s minds, including my own until recently, we were destined to be together forever. So when they saw Rachel suddenly acting cold towards me and clinging to Tyler instead, everyone was shocked. I shook my head. “We didn’t fight. We just realized we’re not compatible and decided to split up.” Mike nodded. “That’s good, fighting would only hurt your relationship. See, I told you… Wait, what?! Split up?!” His voice wasn’t exactly quiet, and the entire classroom turned to look at us. I calmly nodded. “That’s right. From today on, Rachel and I are just regular classmates.” Everyone gasped and turned to look at Rachel. She was still staring at Tyler with undisguised adoration in her eyes. “Is it because of that guy?” Mike asked. “Not really. We just suddenly realized we’re not right for each other,” I said with a shrug, pretending not to care. Hearing this, Rachel suddenly turned to look at me with a strange expression. She looked at me as if I had done something to wrong her. I found it somewhat amusing. She was the one who stabbed me, yet she had the audacity to look at me like that? In the end, I didn’t say anything and just looked down at the form on my desk. It was a registration form for the state math competition. Normally, this year’s competition wouldn’t have much to do with me. I had already participated and won a gold medal in junior year, basically securing my college admission. But that year, Rachel had fallen ill and couldn’t compete with me. I knew she was lazy and stressed about the SATs, so I wanted to help ease her burden. At the same time, I subconsciously thought we should go to the same college. That’s why I agreed to lead the team for another competition in senior year. The main goal was to help Rachel win a medal too, so even if she couldn’t get a full scholarship, she could at least get some bonus points for college admissions. But that was all in our previous life. Now that things had come to this point between Rachel and me, the original plan was obsolete. However, since I had promised the teacher, I felt obligated to see it through. I looked at the registration form in front of me, thought for a moment, and then stood up. “Anyone interested in the math or biology competitions can come sign up with me. For the next year, I’ll be leading the team to prepare for the competitions as captain.”