Zayn is the smartest guy in his class. Well, actually, he's the smartest in his year. Lessons are always boring for him because he always finishes the exercises in like five minutes and has to wait another twenty minutes for the rest to be done aswell. Except for Tina. Tina and him have been academic rivals since the beginning of high-school. The two of them are constantly in competition over the best grade in exams and extracurriculars.
When Zayn arrives at school on friday he walk by Tina and rolls his eyes. He walks over to his friends who imediately ask "Did you understand the homework? Can I copy it?" Zayn is used to it by now but still gets a bit annoyed everytime they ask. Like, obviously he loves being the smartest, but it's difficult hanging around people that he can't talk about school stuff or so with. "Yeah, of course I did! Sure!", he answers and hands over his paper.
They walk towards the classroom and once the teacher enters Zayn and Tina turn to the front whilst the others don't even care and continue talking. "I've got your exams with me today and I'm gonna hand them out in a few minutes, but first we're gonna do some of the excersises together, so you understand what you did wrong and can learn from your mistakes!", the teacher starts the lesson after the class quiets down a little. All you hear is "No!" coming from all over the classroom and two who say "Yes!" Of course it's Zayn and Tina. The teacher puts the first excersise on the board and starts of by asks "So, what's the answer for number one?" Nobody, except for Zayn and Tina, put their hand up.
"I know, that the two of you know the answer, but what about the others?" Silence. Nobody else puts their hand up so the teacher sighs and lets Tina answer. "Exactly! Was that so hard?", the teacher answers asking the rest of the class. "Ok, next one!" Again, nobody except for ZAyn and Tina raise their hands so the teacher gives up. "Ok, there's no point in doing this if you won't even try!", she angrily states and gets the exams out of her bag. "Great job, Tina! Great job, Zayn!", she says while handing them their exams. They look at their grades and both jump up in joy.
"What have you got?", Tina asks Zayn who answers "A plus! Hundred and five points!" "Ha, I got hundred and ten!", Tina explains and Zayn gets annoyed. "How? How is that possible?" "I wrote lots of extra stuff!" "I did, too!" "Well, I guess mine was more and better! I wrote an extra five pages!" "What? How did you manage five extra pages?", Zayn asks shocked. "How did you not?", Tina replys. After the lesson Zayn goes up to the teacher and asks "Howcome Tina got more extra points then me? Is it just because she had more pages?" "No, unfortunately it's not!", the teacher answers a little disappointed. "What? What do you mean unfortunately not?", Zayn asks surprised. "I feel really bad saying this...you... you had mistakes..." "What? How? That's not possible!", Zayn replys getting a little angry.
"I don't know why, it's not like you to make mistakes! At least not that many!", the teacher tries to explain. "Well, can I maybe do some extracurricular to get more points?" "I'm afraid not. I'm so sorry Zayn!" Zayn grabs his bag and leaves the classroom in a fuss. Outside in the hallway he bumps into Tina which is the last thing he needs right now.
"Hey, what's up? Are you really that sad that I got more points than you?" "No, she just refused to give me an extracurricular!" "Oh, well, guess I got the last one then!" "Are you kidding me? She gets an extracurricular and I don't? So she has a higher grade and more extracurriculars? I'm never getting into college!", Zayn thinks and gets annoyed even more. He goes to his locker, takes out his book and then slams the locker door shut.
"What's his problem? Should I go check on him? He seems pretty pissed?", Tina asks herself. A few seconds later Zayn walks by again and seems a bit happier. "Guess he's fine again.", she adds to her earlier thoughts. After school the academic decathlon team meets up and practice for the competition on the next day. For the practice competition they separate into two groups of four and the left over person asks the questions. Zayn and Tina are in opposite teams and are the first to go head to head.
"What three ancient structures were likely used for early forms of astrology?" "Stonehenge, the Temple of Isis, and the Sun Dagger!", Tina answers. "Correct! What people produced the earliest complete records of observations regarding astrological phenomena?" "The Ancient Greeks!", Zayn answers. "Correct! What did Thales of Miletus assert?" "Natural phenomena could be explained and understood by humans!", both of them answer at the same time. "Correct! Now the tiebraker! What was one of Plato's core beliefs?" "That ther's Plantic forms everywhere!" "I'm sorry, Zayn, that's wrong! Tina?" "The answer is that everything in nature can be reduced to ideal geometric forms called Platonic solids!"
"Oh god! How stupid am I? Of course that's the answer! I'm just so stupid! I love her... wait, what? I love her? No! No! But... kinda...", Zayn says to himself. During the next few rounds Zayn only half pays attention and thinks about what we just thought. "Can that be? Do I love her and just didn't see it? How long have I been in love? Did I always try to hide it?" While Zayn is busy thinking about all that Tina notices him staring at her and walks over to him after practise. "Hey, Zayn?" "I love her...", Zayn mumbles without noticing he said it out loud. "Who? Who do you love?" "Wait... what?" "You just said 'I love her'! So who is it?" "I said that out loud?" "Yes...." "Shit! Did I say anything else out loud?" "Yeah, that you love me!", Tina jokes but Zayn covers his face. "Shit! Uhm, so yeah, uhm... I kinda think I do, but..." "Wait... you serious? I meant that as a joke..." "Oh god!", zayn says and gets red.
"I mean, yeah, I meant it as a joke, but if... if you really do... then, uhm, I kinda feel the same..." "Really?" "Yeah... I kinda think it's....", Tina starts. "The competing...", both of them answer inn unison. They both start to laugh and cover their faces. Once they take their hands away from their faces they look eachother in the eyes. "So does this mean....", Zayn starts and Tina shruggs her shoulders. "If you want..." They continue looking in eachothers eyes and come closer and closer. Zayn places his hands on her cheeks and bends down a little. Their lips meet. Tina pulls back. "Sorry, it's just... it's a bit weird you know..." "I do! We'll get through this together though!", Zayn reassures her and kisses her again. This time she kisses him back. "Should I drive you home? It's lashing outside!" "That would be great!"
