[s]he's a ten, but...

I skipped into my heels, running for the door. Competitions were a pain in the posterior behind, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t love them. I grabbed my purse which was by the door and stepped outside the house. I took a moment to try to remember whether I had forgotten something or not.

A horrible feeling sank in my stomach as I pulled the door close consoling myself that I had everything I needed. My keys dangled in my hand and I rushed towards the cab waiting patiently outside my door.

“I am sorry for keeping you waiting,” I apologized and gave him the one-time password before resting my back against the seat. My eyes were only partially open but my ears were sensing for even the slightest movement. My fingers tightened around my keychain; a small pocket knife tool with coils, screwdriver, and knives of different shapes and sizes.

It was the only weapon of self-defense I had, but it was an important one. One stab in the jugular and he would be gone.

I evened my breathing and psychopathic thoughts. The man was forty and probably had a family and no reason to kidnap me. Yet, better be safe than sorry.

I unlocked my phone with my other hand’s fingerprint. I was a lazy idiot who had both her hands’ fingerprints just so she wouldn’t have to unlock her phone with a password when she was eating.

My eyes lingered on the wallpaper. It was of my parents, and it had been there forever. They looked at each other like they were in love, looking so sweet as if they had only ever lived in wonderland.

Maybe once they had.

The wallpaper was a fabrication, something that everyone believed. It was a way of hammering into people’s minds the perfect couple my parents were.

Maybe in some other life, they were…

I got out of the cab, paid the driver and marched up straight to the competition hall.

The hall was filled with media, and I held my head high as I walked inside. Camera flashes, smiles of recognition, and hugs from family. I kept my eyes off everyone else in the crowd as my steps were directed to the stage.

My eyes skimmed over the crowd, searching for a certain person. My eyes fell upon him, and I cleared my throat, letting my eyes take in other people. They always found their way back to him, though.

It was supposed to be a big thing, a biology quiz competition I had been selected for. There were supposed to be seven rounds from seven topics: Cell Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Diversity, Plants, Animals, and my personal favourite, Ecology. It was the state’s biggest biology competition, open to all the schools in the state. I had been selected from my school along with Daniel, a friend of mine. Well, who am I kidding, in my mind, he was always more.

I kept on walking past people, ignoring the looks I got from some of them. I was the youngest to have been selected, so, all the families of the participants and the media knew me. Sort of. It was also no secret that I had qualified for the National Biology Olympiad and USMDO, and was being prepared by my teachers to take the next stages.

I was a big shot, but so were the other participants, I wasn’t going to get too overconfident.

I wasn’t sure how my brain didn’t see what was next to come; a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and jerked me towards their owner, bringing my attention to the reality. I looked at my side and saw kids running towards and past me.

Slowly, I looked up at the guy who had saved me from being stomped over. I was met with a mess of blonde and bright green eyes. A devil’s smile and concern in sight. I bit my lip to let my smile from spilling all over and hugged the lean and muscular frame of my best friend.

He hugged me back in a possessive manner only Rhys could possess. I had to pull back instantly…there was too much media to do this without making anyone suspicious.

“Well if it isn’t my favourite couple,” and in sight came the sweet, sweet Daniel. If you have fallen for Rhys, well, you have yet to meet Daniel.

Daniel was my other guy best friend. He was the guy out of fairytales; the guy who holds the door open, is a staunch feminist, respects girls, and calls them all pretty.

And well, eh, he’s also kind of my crush so, yeah.

“Hey, Dan,” I said, trying to keep my lips from going crazy.

Rhys cleared his throat beside me, knowing damn well what kind of effect Daniel had on me. “Hey, pretty girl, how’s the prep?”

“As good as it can be,” I answered, the anxiety crashing back in.

“My hopes are in you, I am hopeless,” despite what he said, he was almost just as good.

We had cleared the first two rounds, and this was the final one, divided into two parts. Four teams were selected for the final round, and there was a semifinal one first. We were against a private school named The Emerald Green International School. They were two times winners of the quiz in the past, and their team was supposed to be the best.

Supposed to be.

I, personally found them pretty average. Firstly, both of the participants were boys, so, add a buttload of unjustified arrogance, and topple it with a trust fund with seven zeroes and you’ll have yourself a loser team.

I was speaking ill of them in my head to calm my nerves, knowing damn well that they were smart. Too frigging smart.

“Round starts in ten minutes, all the participants are requested to get to the podium,” the anchor announced. Rhys squeezed my hand reassuringly before nodding at Daniel. We climbed the stage side by side before sitting in front of one of the tables.

Around us, the stage was dedicated extravagantly with yellow. The artwork was also yellow: including a kangaroo, flowers, a bee, and even some poor trees that were half yellow. “It’s like this place has jaundice,” I whispered in a low voice to Daniel. He had enough confidence for both of us, which put me at some ease.

The host greeted the audience, and introduced us, before moving to ask the first questions. Fastest finger first. I liked it.

“In the CAM cycle, what does MDH convert oxaloacetate into?”

I pressed the buzzer button in the blink of an eye, a smile curling on my lips at the question. It was as if god had played in my favor by throwing a question from photosynthesis. Had it been respiration, then we would’ve been dead meat.

“Yes, Ms Decembers?”

“Malate,” I answered, choking down the nervous butterflies.

“That’s correct,” he spoke and one of the boys from the team glared at me. Mr. Trust fund didn’t come with a brain as good as mine. “That’s one point to Seraphim International School,”

“The next question is…”

We won. Six to one. Needless to say, it was the most humiliating defeat they could’ve ever had.

The next round was two hours later and we spent that time surrounded by our biology teacher spouting random biology facts.

My weaknesses were distinct in each topic. Respiration in Cell Biology, Biology of Genes in Genetics, none in Evolution cause of the excessive reading that I had done in that subject, Fungus and plants, both in Diversity to make up for the lack of weaknesses in Evolution, nothing much in Plants, but Excretion and Movement in animals, and yet, none in Ecology.

That was why Daniel was chosen as my partner. He made up for the places I lagged in. Plus, he was pretty good at everything else too.

The next, and the final round was against Pinnacle High School. Two girls, both extremely nerdy and smart, too much for my good, but I hated losing. Especially when it came to biology.

The first question was about respiration, which, Daniel answered in a beat. He had that chapter memorized like the back of his hand, knowing I wouldn’t be much help if it came to it.

Second was yet again in Daniel’s domain, he answered swiftly before the girls had a chance to even understand it. I suddenly loved him for his 150 IQ. Evolution came next, a simple question that I could answer in the beat of a heart. Diversity, Animalia, my domain, so, I answered. Plants, the girls got the best of us and answered before us. Next came animals, and I answered swiftly. We were leading with 5-1, and the last question wasn’t going to do anything to change the fact that we were going to win.

Ecology. My world. I got one more reason to love it.

We got two medals and a trophy that our school decided to steal away. Rightfully, they could take it, but still…would’ve loved to have it.

We got congratulations from everyone before we parted ways.

Rhys and I were neighbours. We moved in close to his place four years ago and well, what can I say, we live right beside each other. So, when he offered to drive me home since we lived beside each other, I didn’t deny it.

He had to come way before me with Daniel to help him prep, so, he couldn’t drive me, but Daniel had his parents visit for the quiz, unlike mine who was in a different town for work, so, Rhys drove me back.

I didn’t know much about cars, but from the way he bragged about it I knew it’s cool. To me, it looked lame. It could be really expensive but I was hundred percent sure I saw it in a magazine in my grandma’s cupboard.

I am telling you, people are paying millions of dollars for stuff that is getting crushed into a cube.

He sat on the driving seat by himself. “What, no opening the door for me?” he rolled his eyes in response and I knew he was a lost cost.

His car’s Bluetooth was connected to my phone and I had a song opened before I even sat down.

“We are not listening to Taylor Swift!” he declared, trying to snatch my phone from me.

“Please, please, please, please…” I moaned, playing ‘Gorgeous’. “You’re so gorgeous, I can’t say anything to your face!” I tried to make him comply, mustering my best puppy face.

He didn’t listen to me and changed the song. It was a song with a language very colorful, from a boy band. I huffed and turned my face away. I was really tired, and hence, was having a mood.

He looked at me, grinning, and reached out to touch my cheeks but I crossed my hands and shrugged, pulling myself away.

“Hey, hey, hey, what happened?” he asked, pulling the car over to a side.

“I am just really tired, you know,” I replied honestly, letting my shoulders slump.

“Let’s take a small detour,” he suggested.

“Oooh, I think I like where this is going,” I grinned and raised my eyebrows suggestively. It was a joke since me and Rhys had nothing romantic between us. At all.

“No!” he changed the song back to ‘Gorgeous’. “Let’s get you some ice-cream,”

“Thank you so much, you’re the best!” I reached out to give him a hug with my seat belt on. He pressed down on the breaks and I was pulled back savagely by the inertia.

“Don’t kiss the driver!” he teased.

“I was not going to kiss you!” I spoke back.

“Sure you weren’t,” he smirked, raising the volume of the song. I punched the seat, fuming, but my anger melted the second the bridge began.

He pulled the car outside an ice cream parlor, but it wasn’t just any ice cream parlor. It was the most cringe parlor in the area. Rhys liked annoying me by bringing me to such places.

We often liked making others believe that we were a thing. The kind of rumours and gossip that spread about us were worth everything.

“What flavour do you want?” he asked, getting out of the car. Following him, I spoke,

“Chocolate brownie, you?”

“Cookie cream,” he made his way to the counter and gave both of our orders. He took out his wallet to pay, but I just pressed a hundred-dollar bill on the counter.

Now, I wasn’t that kind of a girl who hated men paying. I wasn’t against it, but when it came to myself, I didn’t support it either. I never liked anyone paying for my food. And, I had earned a hundred dollar check that day along with a fifty dollar voucher.

“It’s my treat for today,” he tried to push me out of the way but he was too late. I gave him an innocent smile as a response for his glare and got the change back from the reception.

The person gave us our cones and we took a seat in a corner booth beside each other on a small sofa. “Thank you so much for bringing me here!” I told him as he put an arm around me. I laid my head on his chest casually and looked up at him.

“You know, Daniel is coming over tonight if you want to stay over…”

“Sleepover?” I asked excitedly, putting a spoon full of ice cream in my mouth. He shook his head smiling and he pulled me closer.

“You’re such a kid! Yes, it’s a sleepover!”

“Is it though…” my voice trailed off as I narrowed my eyes. “Or is it an invitation to something more?” I asked playfully.

His eyes widened in shock and he shook his head. “What’s wrong with you?” he questioned, tasting my flavour. I tried to taste his flavour, but he pulled his cup away. I tried reaching out, but of course, he was taller. Huffing, I made a face and went back to my ice cream.

Here’s one thing about everyone on the goddamn planet: they can’t resist my ‘cute face’. Not to be arrogant or anything, but I look like a six-year-old and only a psychopath can deny a six-year-old ice cream.

He brought a spoonful of ice cream to my lips and I smiled at him. I was a bit dramatic, to be honest, and he kind of liked it. I went back to eating my own after that, but when I realized my lips were covered with chocolate, I quickly pulled him closer and kissed him on the cheek.

Well, he wasn’t an angel either, so, he put an arm around my neck and fixated my head in a certain position before rubbing his cheek with the ice cream mark against mine.

I tried to get away from him but damn those muscles.

He took another spoonful of my flavour and covered his lips in chocolate before placing a kiss under my jaw so I wouldn’t be able to rub it off on him.

He looked down at me and met my eyes before pulling me in a tight embrace, and all of my day’s tension melted away. I love his perfume, and so, that smell was good enough to lure me to sleep right there. In an ice cream parlor. In the arms of my best friend.

The last thing I felt was his fingers rubbing against my lips and a kiss on my forehead before I officially lulled off in public.