Love and Rivalry

Chapter 4

The next few days went by painfully slow for Aria. The hype of starting her new internship was slowly killed as each day just brought the same tedious work. And each day as Aria sat down at her computer, she couldn't help but hope that Mr. Langley had sent her a more challenging assignment. One that would actually test her abilities. But so far it had been the same every time. She was losing hope that she would ever work on anything other than gopher tasks.

On the bright side, she hadn't seen Kaiba in the labs again since his sudden appearance on Monday. When she had caught his eye, she turned back around so quickly she almost gave herself whiplash. She had been fretting ever since wondering if he recognized her as the girl who put him down from class. Well, more like put him in his place. Either way, all it takes is one word from him and she's gone. Along with her future.

Thursday rolled around, and Aria was running extremely late for her last class. She had been researching in the library during her spare period about any big projects Kaiba Corp might be working on. If there was, they were being extremely hush hush about it. If she could only find out what the project Kaiba was sending down to the programmers, then she might be able to convince Mr. Langley that her skills would be a great asset to the team.

When Aria finally entered her history classroom, she noticed that everyone was sitting in pairs.

"Ah, Miss Ito, how nice of you to grace us with your presence," her history teacher, Mr. Armani drawled. She forgot what a stickler he was for tardy students. "We're working on a group assignment today. Since you're the last one to arrive you can join Mr. Kaiba in the back corner."

Aria's face paled. She opened her mouth to try and get out of partnering with Kaiba but could think of nothing to say. Instead, she nodded numbly and headed over to where Kaiba usually sat and took the desk on his left. When she had the nerve to look over, he was staring at her. Eyes narrowed, like he was scrutinizing her. So maybe he does remember her from the lab.

When he still hadn't said anything, Aria cleared her throat and asked, "Did Mr. Amari give us a worksheet?"

Kaiba looked at her a second longer and then turned his head away while wordlessly handing over the worksheet.

"Thank you," mumbled Aria. Taking the piece of paper she tried to read the questions while her stomach swirled with butterflies. "How about I take the first half of the questions and you take the second half. Sounds fair?" she asked with her eyes still on the page. She was afraid if she looked over again she would find those piercing blue eyes trying to read her, and she'd probably be an open book.

"Are you sure you can work alongside the 'great Seto Kaiba'?" he asked sarcastically.

Aria grimaced. So, it was their first meeting he was remembering. She didn't know which one was worse. "Sorry about that, I was...having a bad day." She risked a glance his way and he was looking at her again.

"Could've fooled me," he said, crossing his arms. "Since this assignment is a waste of my 'precious time', I think you should be good on your own. Unless you want to receive a bill in the mail." He said this with a devilish smirk that reeked of arrogance.

Aria's eyes flashed in anger. She didn't care if this guy was her boss at work, in the classroom he was a student just like her and had no right to speak to her that way. "I'm surprised you haven't just bribed the school already to give you your diploma. Then you wouldn't have to affiliate with us mere mortals," she snapped.

Kaiba smirked again and gave a small chuckle. "I was wondering where that fiery siren went. Meekness doesn't suit you Miss Ito."

Aria's mouth opened to retort but then closed it. He had purposely tried to bait a response out of her, and she fell right into it.