endless competition - academic rivals

|prologue| similar but different?

"hey," a boy said. "what's your name?"

"none of your business." a tiny little girl sneered in response.

"but we're neighbors," the small boy said, pouting.

"you'll know my name soon enough," and with that, the girl winked and made her way to the playground.

she had big brown eyes and lips that seemed to be transfixed in a little pout. her stout body was in a white dress with floral patterns at every hem. the boy could hear her feet thudding against the ground as she ran away, dress flowing in the wind.

when she had gotten far away enough, she took a look at the boy. tussles of brown hair covered his face and he held onto his denim jacket. she had hoped he hadn't seen her looking back at him. 

_______________________________________________________________________________

*a few years later*

mira rao and mateo santos were more alike than they liked to admit -- both were straight a students with the exact same GPA to the hundredth of a decimal point and they both hated each other for that reason. keep in mind that the elementary school they attended had no way of telling their students their gpas, but both mira and mateo meticulously recorded every assignment, quiz, test, and even exit ticket to calculate their's. 

mira was proud and stubborn and would rather die than admit that someone skills exceeded her's (she would quite confidently admit that she sucks at sports, however). when someone beat her in something, she would make an effort of perfecting that same something until her proficiency in the subject was that of a professional's. it was an awful habit really, and mira could not bring herself to focus on one thing in life, for she was constantly hunting competition in search of someone was truly on par with her. that is, until she met mateo -- mateo managed to tie or even beat her at whatever they competed at. mira found herself doubting herself and everything she stood for. how dare he take her spot as smartest person in brighton elementary? how dare ms. ru give him three gold stars and only two? she had contrived the idea that the gods were simply trying to challenge her and that when she grew older the distinction between her and mateo would become more and more apparent. 

mira rao was an enigma to mateo santos. however, considering that he was eight-years-old when their competition began, he most likely wouldn't have thought of the word 'enigma.' mateo was still incredibly smart, however, and he devoted majority of his time to proving it. most parents would have found it weird to see their son reading instead being outside and playing basketball or baseball with the other boys, but mateo's were proud and knew he was liked among almost all his classmates (excluding mira) for some reason. he had the goofiest smile and the messiest hair and no matter what he said, his classmates always agreed (except mira). but his mood always seemed to sour when mira was mentioned. "mira won this award, mira won that" was all he could replay in his mind as he thought of the girl who would remain as his competition for years to come. he had always wondered how mira was so effortlessly a genius and how he had to spend hours studying to catch up to her. unlike mira, however, mateo believed that whenever mira outsmarted him, he must simply try harder. if he could beat mira, he could beat anyone.

_______________________________________________________________________________

*middle school |8th grade| *

"hey idiot!" mira called, cupping her hands over her mouth as she speed-walked down the hallway.

mateo's head snapped extraordinarily fast at the sound of mira's voice. much to his dismay, she said, "nickname suits you, huh?"

"what do you want?" mateo asked, frustrated. "need a tutor?"

mira rolled her eyes and continued, "what did you get on the math test?"

as a result of choosing the hardest courses in school, both mateo and mira had the exact same schedule. it was quite frankly, unbelievably annoying to the both of them. 

"are you sure you don't want your confidence shattered?" matteo smiled as he inched closer.

when they started eighth grade, mateo had grown considerably. so much so, that mira who once used to be the same height as him now stood at his chin, looking up.

mira snapped her head and "hmph"ed in annoyance. "no, idiot, i'm just waiting for when my gpa will be higher than yours. and we all know that your pea-size brain could not have possibly got more than a 95%."

in the corner of her vision, she saw lia, her best friend of five years, waiting for her near the trash can. "one moment" she mouthed and shortly saw a thumbs-up after.

mira's eyes widened when she saw mateo rummaging through his black jansport backpack in the middle of the hallway. students scoffed as they saw him on his knees, spreading papers across the floor. the size of her eyeballs had reached the size of a blue whale when she saw mateo chuckle as he pulled out a sheet of paper titled "math test, unit 9."

he held up the paper for her to see, and there was a bright "99" written in red marker. mateo's smile quickly faded, however, as he saw mira pull out a paper from behind her also titled "math test, unit 9." a bright red "100" was scribbled on her paper. 

"i am very glad now that your grades matched your idiocy," mira smiled.

"it's not like we still don't have the same grades," mateo argued.

"what?" mira felt her fists clench. "how? we tied in everything else: english, science, history, p.e -- you've gotta be joking me"

"yup" mateo popped the 'p.' "turns out 'little miss perfect' did not do so well on her french test. and somebody helped mme dupont grade the tests. i ended up getting full marks, but somebody else, unfortunately, didn't"

mira was about to say something back when she felt a tug on her arm. lia was looking at her with her green eyes, "come on, let's go eat lunch."

mira nearly snorted when she saw the way mateo looked at lia. if only he knew what a good word mira put in for him. 

"guess we're still neck and neck rao!" mateo called as mira turned around and started down the hallway.  

mira was about to say some choice words before lia clapped her hand over mira's mouth and chastised her for being so petty. 

_______________________________________________________________________________

a/n: thanks for reading!