Breaking Point

CHAPTER VIII

The exam day comes, with it, the stress that haunts every student in school where they are expected to perform the best result humanly possible. Everyone tries to not pay as much attention to it but nonetheless, they all fail, including Jake who claims that he cares so little about school. The society's pressure on the students is surreal, to the point where they torture themselves just to satisfy the expectation that has been established by the society. Jake has studied all weekend to prepare himself for the dreadful exam. The exam went quite well and now it is time to wait for the result. The waiting is killing him. It is not enough that he was tortured during the studying session, now he gets emotional torture from doing a supposedly good job in the exam.

"HEY, THE RESULTS ARE IN. IT'S ON THE BOARD." A shout comes in from the hallway.

Jake immediately walks out of the class and up to the board. There are hundreds of names on the board, most are at the average score, making him even more worried. After scanning 137 names, he finally finds his name with a 92 score next to his name. A big grin comes out of his face, followed by a great shout, "YES!!!" He immediately goes off to find Sophia to share the good news. He sees her at the entrance of the volleyball court, leaning against the wall by herself. For some reason, there is an unknown force that gives him the urge to run towards her.

"Guess what? I got amazing grades in the exam." He hugs her abruptly with no introductions.

She looks somewhat confused from the hug; she did not expect a hug is possible from a guy like Jake. She still tries her best to conceal her being all flustered.

"Hey, good for you. What did you get?" she asks calmly as she moves her head away from his shoulder.

"Oh, nothing much. Just at the average... 92!!" he exclaims, full of excitement.

"Well done, you. I knew you could do it. You just need the push." She gives a big smile.

"Yeah and it's all thanks to you, Soph. I couldn't have done it without you." He looks at her in the eyes, holding both her shoulders.

There is a pause between the two where they just stare into each other. The moment went from exciting to awkward and tensed in a matter of seconds. Jake immediately lets go of her shoulders and moves 2 steps back from her.

"So, uhh... how did it go with your exam?" He clears his throat.

"Oh, it went well. I got 100", she says in a monotone voice. She has not yet grasped the situation she was in.

They take another gander and look at each other again, only this time, they just laugh at each other without hesitation. All of a sudden, all the tension that was lingering around them vanished and turned into the familiar feeling they adored.

"What is that all about?" she asks as she wipes the tears in her eyes.

"I have no clue. That was really awkward." He laughs still. "So, what are you doing here in the court, anyway?"

"We have a practice this afternoon, so I was planning to hit some balls beforehand." She leans on the wall.

"You guys have volleyball practice even on exam day? That's gotta suck", he exclaims calmly.

"Not really. I love volleyball so every time I have the chance to slap the ball, I take it." She mimics the hand gesture of spiking the ball.

"Honestly, what is so fun about volleyball, anyway? I just don't see it somehow." He shrugs and turns around to look across the court.

"That's because you haven't tried it just yet. Come, let the goddess teach you the ways of volleyball." She enters the court with a big smirk on her face.