The Dating Project

Chapter 5

Becca dragged us all up to her room as soon as we got in the door, barely stopping to say hi to her mum. She shoved me and Finn down on the bed and dragged Chris to stand next to her. 

"Right, let the madness begin," she grinned. "Step one is understanding each other. You both love to get the top grade in the class. Why?" 

"Just feels good," I shrugged. 

"Yeah," Finn nodded. 

Becca narrowed her eyes. "You're both lying. You know, lies are not a great foundation for a relationship." 

I sighed. "Becca, why does this matter? My reason is a bit weird to share with someone I don't even classify as a friend." 

"Yeah, my reasoning is personal too," Finn said. 

Becca rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean tell your sob story. I meant that in my case, I just want to get into a decent enough university." 

I tilted my head thoughtfully. A fair point. It hadn't gone to the root of the reason, but it was a true reason. 

"Okay..." I started, thinking of a way to phrase it. "I'm a perfectionist, and have always been someone who has to be the best at what I do. I mean, you guys probably remember when I was a talented swimmer in primary school, but quit the moment one person said Aurora was better than me. I know it's unhealthy, you don't need to point that out. School is mandatory - I can't just quit. So, I need to get the best grade. I need to be the best." 

"I always wondered why you gave up swimming so suddenly," Chris mused. "I can't believe you got into that much of a strop about it, though." 

I glared at him. With my logic, it just hadn't seemed worthwhile to continue with an activity I wasn't going to win in. Doing that was simply a waste of time. 

Finn sighed. "Fine. Everyone in my family is extremely intelligent. Both my parents, my aunts and uncles, grandparents, and older cousins went to Oxbridge. I refuse to be the first one to fail an exam, and I refuse to be the first one to get rejected from Oxbridge. Parental pressure. If I'm not excelling, I'm not enough. Hence why Year 11 was awful for me," he glared at me at the end comment. 

I gave him a sarcastic smile. "Look, had I known you had self esteem issues I could've cut you some slack. Let you get the higher GCSE History result." 

"Lilah," Becca said warningly. "That was cruel." 

I froze, realising what I'd just said. "Sorry," I mumbled, genuinely meaning it. "Being unintentionally cruel is probably my worst trait." 

"Aside from my perfectionism, I'm told my arrogance is my worst trait," Finn offered. 

"Good, this is good progress," Becca smiled. "Okay. Now I want you to look directly at each other and give each other one compliment about their physical appearance. I feel like you don't know each other well enough to comment on personality." 

"Okay, no, that's weird," Finn said. "I'm not complimenting her." 

"Yeah, I'm not doing that either," I said. 

"Oh for the love of god, pull yourselves together," Chris said. "Becca and I will go first. Becca, you have gorgeous hair." 

Becca grinned. "Why thank you. You have a really stunning smile." 

"Thank you," Chris showed off his dazzling grin. 

"Big difference," Finn said. "You two get along. You've been friends forever. I do not like Lilah, and she does not like me."