Between Hello and Goodbye

Chapter 3: Whatever It Takes

Hey guys here's chapter 3! The photo above is Ulyssa whom you meet this chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Academics reminded me of a battlefield.

I believed that, as scholars, we were at war with the others of our kind, constantly preparing and strategizing for our battles or fighting each other on equal terms in battle to see who came out on top. That only one would rise amongst the ranks, besting the others and not afraid to shed blood on their way to our end goal, with the end goal being something that we all strived for.

Valedictorian.

My dream, since my first honors class in freshman year, was to become the student that defeated all the others to become the best. That reaching the highest level of ranking through our school system would define the rest of my career after graduation, an accomplishment that would full-send my soul crushing competitive side. I knew from an early age that being competitive in the aspect of sports did not lie in the cards for me, that being competitive in the world of academics would be something that took me farther than the others in my town.

My parents never understood how I turned out this way, they had liked school for the social part, only to put all the other stuff that went into school on the back burner. They had settled for average, flipping everything on its head when they got to college, earning degrees and becoming higher ups in the workforce. Unfortunately I wanted to use my intelligence to go to art school to pursue creative writing so that I could go out into the world and create the next New York Times Bestseller, something that would touch the minds of everyone. Prove to other writers that I was a force to be reckoned with, someone willing to top the charts and do anything to maintain my throne until someone pried it from my cold dead fingers. To others, even Gage and my parents, I sounded like I had a few screws loose. But I was sure that I mentally stable.

Well mostly.

A few days had passed since Gage made his promise to address our 'Friendship', my patience running thin as we never talked about it after that day, the silence on both sides slowly and painfully killing me. I decided on putting all of my energy into my first week of senior year, making sure to establish dominance with the other students in my classes, reminding them that it was me that was going to be the best. The other students thoroughly enjoyed competing with me when it came to our course work, making it into a game so that we didn't lose our minds in the process. The top ten students, which included myself, interchanged our ranks throughout the years, always maintaining certain spots until someone trampled over the other and vice versa. Fortunately for me, I always remained within the top two spots, switching between the ranks at the slightest difference in grades. There was one person that had seemed, in all three years of my high school career, to keep me on my toes. Someone I considered, above everyone else, to be my rival.

Uylssa Stevens.

She was the bane of my existence, the shadow that lingered over me in my nightmares, a student whose determination to be the best rivaled my own. Her mind had been formidable since the day that I met her in honors biology, her grades competing with mine, the only difference between them being one to two points. My parents showed concern when I had admitted to them that her getting better grades than me, haunted me until I was able to beat her. Long story short, I kept my feelings about Ulyssa and her better grades to myself. Even Gage passed judgement on me, telling me that it was only a grade and to get over it; the only time in my life I ever doubted my friendship with him.

"Hey Ulyssa, can you please help me with this part?" a girl's voice asked from the other side of the classroom, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Ulyssa looked up from her book that lay rested open in her hand, the pages slightly facing her as she answered the questions from her packet. Her bright white blonde hair fell away from her glasses, ones that reminded me of ones that Milo Thatch wore in that Atlantis movie, only slightly smaller, making her look perpetually inquisitive. She was beautiful in the most simple way, girls always looked at her silently with jealousy as the male population gawked at her every chance they got. In the weirdest way I was jealous of her beauty too, maybe that feeling was akin to my competitive side, but next to her I looked plain and I refused to lose to her.