Nerds Are Lovable

12: Nerds Are Gamblers

It's Friday the 31st, which albeit is not as exciting as Friday the 13th, but it means that tonight is Chad's annual Halloween party. Ew, I'm never calling it that again. The whole school was rowdier than usual. Everyone was talking about their costumes or who they were expecting to see at said party. It was all anyone could talk about, and that only made me want to go.

Chad had come up to me several times throughout the week asking me if I was going to show up. Apparently last weeks little episode doesn't kill his libido. At least he can put stubborn and unbreakable confidence underneath strengths on his resume. I told him no every single time and yet he keeps on coming.

"Are you going to Chad's party?"

"Do I look like I got invited to Chad's party?"

I laugh lightly at Jayden's response, "I dunno," I shrug, "You snuck out for a party once."

He nods, "Yeah, and I also told you I'm not doing that again."

"Okay," I lean towards him and smirk at the boy beside me, "Let's make a bet then."

"Bet?" Jayden asks with his eyebrows raised.

"If I get the next Physics problem right, you go to the party."

"And what if you get it wrong?"

"What do you want, Jam?" I keep my smirk on my face.

"To see your art."

He doesn't even hesitate to answer. His eyes are set on me and there's no nervousness in his tone. Eye contact and calm tone is something hard to come by with Jayden. But together, that's even crazier. Every since hearing about my paint-scapades, he's been eager to see. It makes my stomach flutter at the thought that someone is so interested in seeing my art but at the same time, would he even understand it?

"Deal," I extend my hand for him to shake.

He takes it and gives it a firm shake. He grabs the paper that was in front of me with what was going to be my last Physics problem of the day. Jayden grabs my, well his, pencil and erases the work before writing something new down. He slide the paper back over and extends the pencil out to me.

"You're doing this problem."

I grab the pencil out of his hand slowly as I take a look at the problem. That little nerd. He made the problem purposely harder. What a conniving shit. That's why he was so confident in accepting my bet. He's manipulating the system. So Jayden Monroe has a bit of a bad boy side to him.

"This seems like cheating."

"You said the next Physics problem, you never specified which one."

"Nerds and their technicalities," I smile at him and nudge his shoulder lightly.

He gives me a weak smile. Jayden leans back and crosses his arms, waiting for me to finish the problem. Unfortunately for me, there's a time crunch on this bet. In T-minus 10 Ms. Librarian was going to come marching through all high and mighty read to kick some teen butt out of her library. She still loved kicking us out even though we knew what time we had to leave.

Remind me to never make a bet with a nerd again. They're too crafty.

"Okay, done," I drop the pencil and put my hands up.

Jayden chuckles lightly at me, "This isn't Top Chef."

He pulls the paper over towards him, looking over the problem. I feel my heart rate accelerate as I watch him check my work. This could go either way for me. I finished the problem but I'm also terrible at Physics. I wasn't expecting to lose this bet since I actually knew how to do the problem before Jayden decided to change it.