The Rivalry We Didn't Expect

Top of the Class

Noah pushed through the crowded school hallway, the loud chatter of students echoing off the walls. It was early in the morning, the autumn sun shining through the glass doors. It was incredibly busy, a crowded mix of people searching through their lockers, talking with their friends, and running through to get to their classrooms in time. The school bell sounded through the hallways, signalling the beginning of class.

Noah quickened his pace, soon reaching his classroom as he began to think to himself. After spending a few years at Maplebrook High, he had built a slight reputation for himself, despite the fact he wasn't often in the spotlight. Most people knew him to be quite smart, but luckily he wasn't the centre of attention. Apart from that, his life at school was very boring.

He reached the door of his class and stepped inside, before finding his chair and slumping onto it. The new school year had started 3 weeks ago now, and he was fairly familiar with everyone in the room. Most he recognized from some place or another, but there were a few he hadn't seen before. The noise in the room of students talking to each other died down as the teacher entered the room, and began to speak

"Good morning everyone!" Mrs. Halt approached the middle of the classroom, smiling at every face. She was Noah's English teacher for the year. She was quite nice, he thought, but very cheery and energetic, the type that gets extremely tiresome in only a small matter of time. At this point, Noah had began to question whether she even had the ability to feel anything other than over-the-top excited. Still a nice person though.

Mrs. Halt began to ramble on quickly about the task for today, lighting up the screen with a PowerPoint. Noah sat back in his chair, listening as best as he could while he watched the board in front of him. None of his friends that he hung out with at break were in this class, so he had nothing to be distracted by. The class dragged on for a few more minutes until someone walked through the door.

"Alejandro, late again?" Mrs. Halt turned around to the tall figure, arms crossed with an annoyed look on her face. "For goodness sake, what's the reason this time?"

"Ah, sorry miss. I had a meeting." Alejandro nodded his head softly in an apologetic manner, flashing a smile at the teacher, seemingly unbothered. He drew a lot of attention to himself. He was one of the people Noah hadn't seen round before this year started, and he had assumed the spanish man was a new student as of a couple weeks ago.

Alejandro walked past Noah's desk, his eyes scanning over the sitting student. Noah noticed something in his gaze, some sort of annoyance. It was confusing to him, but he shrugged it off and tried not to overthink it. At the end of the day, they had barely spoken to each other, and there was nothing really he could be mad about.

As Noah drifted from his own thoughts to the lesson in front of him, Alejandro sat down in his seat behind him and placed his stuff on the table. He knew he wasn't late because of a meeting. The reason why he was late because that very morning, his father had been telling him off. Alejandro gritted his teeth in anger as he thought about it. Jose, his older brother, had gone and lied to his dad about Alejandro bullying someone at school.

He remembered a lot of the details very clearly. Jose was always trying to get him in trouble for no reason, and to this day he never knew why. He did not get along with his older brother at all. Jose had come up with a strange, complex story out of the blue to go and tell his father, and for some reason he always believed the much more "mature" sibling. They had gotten into a long fight, and it took a long 10 minutes or so for his father to figure out how late they were. He felt incredibly angry, his mind rushing. He needed to find a way to get back at Jose. His mind wandered further and further, until it was interrupted.

"Hmm.." Mrs. Halt scanned the classroom for someone to call upon, and her eyes landed on Alejandro. "Alejandro, can you please tell me the definition of metafiction please?"

Alejandro's head raised up, snapping out of his spiral of thinking. He hesitated for a second, trying to remember what the definition was, while the whole class turned to stare at him. After a few moments, Mrs. Halt spoke again.

"Nevermind then... How about you, Noah?" The teacher looked over at Noah, who seemed ready enough to answer, although slightly annoyed at being called upon.

"Uh... its where the author directly addresses the reader." Noah spoke loudly, not looking behind him to see Alejandro's annoyed face. Mrs. Halt nodded and smiled, returning to her lesson. He glanced back at his textbook, reading. Behind him, Alejandro started to think once more. 

He glared at Noah's backside, rolling his eyes. He was a very smart guy, but the student in front of him always had coincidentally managed to answer questions he couldn't, and that annoyed him. The talking of others faded into the background as he thought more deeply. But soon enough, he breathed it out and started to focus on the lesson. 

Near the end of the period, Mrs. Halt seemed to remember something while packing up her things, her eyes flashing with excitement as she glanced up at the class.

"Ah, before I forget! I've got the results back from your last pre-test earlier this semester." The English teacher scavenged through her messed up notes as the class settled down, sitting back in their seats. "Most of you did quite well actually. I'd also like to say a little congratulations to Noah here.." She rambled on, and Noah's eyebrows raised in surprise at this, waiting for what she had to say.

"Noah scored the highest in the class for this pre-test, with a score of 96%!" She seemed very excited at this, but Noah was caught off-guard at the fact his grade was being shared in front of the whole class. He frowned as the rest of the students in the room let out a bland applause, obviously not caring too much. As a matter of fact, Noah didn't either.

"And right behind him, Alejandro with a score of... 93%!" She seemed happy about this too. "Well done boys, for a pre-test, you both did very good. Noah especially."

The class finished their non-energetic applause, before standing up and rushing out of the classroom as the bell rang. Noah walked out quickly, with many students straight behind him. He paced quickly down the hallway, heading towards his next class when a large piece of paper on the noticeboard caught his attention. He approached the messy board, and looked closer. The poster was brightly decorated, the schools logo printed all over it. Planted straight in the middle was a large, text filled bubble.

"Class President Elections"

Noah smirked. He had an idea.