The Rivalry We Didn't Expect

Posters

Noah walked quickly, pissed off. He tried not to show it, but it was obvious how angry he was as he left the conversation, Alejandro staring him down with rage. He didn't look back, and quickly paced down the hall, slipping past all the students. As his anger faded into general annoyance, he began to think about what Alejandro had said to him.

Noah realised he didn't have much of a chance, now that he knew it was a popularity competition. Although his new rival wasn't exactly in the main popular crowd, he had a very good reputation. Everyone had heard about his family, especially knowing him through one of his older siblings, Carlos Burromuerto. Carlos was a famous football player, playing for a successful spanish originating team. Due to his brother's fame, and the rest of his families reputation, he was very well known around the campus. He knew just because of that, his chances were decreased, knowing people would instantly vote for the name they recognized the most.

As he started to slow down his walking, Noah tried to think of any strategy he could use to win. Obviously, he needed to get himself known. He didn't want to, though. He liked not standing out, but if he wanted to beat Alejandro's ego to a crisp, he needed to. That jerk had a huge one.

As soon as he reached his friends table, he sat down quickly, making a large thump that made all 3 of his group turn around in surprise. He had a mix of emotions displaying on his face that made their expressions turn from happy, to very confused.

"Oh hey Noah... are you okay?" Emma asked, tilting her head curiously. "You look pissed."

"I am pissed." Noah looked up at his friends, taking a deep breath in and out, trying to calm himself down. "You know that Alejandro guy? Alejandro Burromuerto? Well he's a dick."

All three of them became even more lost, looking at him with a strange expression. Izzy raised one eyebrow, before leaning forwards with interest.

"What do you mean he's a dick?! What happened?! Tell us, tell us!" She looked extremely invested now, jumping up and down with excitement. Eva grabbed her arm, and pulled her back onto her seat. Noah sighed out in annoyance, thinking about the guy.

"He rolled his eyes at me for no reason, and when I looked at him, well I don't know, I looked at him for awhile but not on accident, and he was really rude about it..." Noah fumbled with his words, not knowing how to explain the small interaction before their fight. But half way through, Izzy's focus diverted to another thing he said.

"What do you mean looked at him for awhile..." Izzy grinned, gasping. "Oh my god, you were staring at him! You thought he was cute! Noah has a crush every-" She started laughing with excitement, before her mouth got clamped shut by Noah's hand over it.

"No, I don't! Shut up, I did not think he was cute, that is not the point!" Noah shook his head in frustration, as Eva and Emma giggled at his overly-angry response. "That's not even the bad part, and I was not staring at him!" Everyone started laughing at Noah's annoyed face, as he glared them down and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. The point is, I called him a bitch and then as I was leaving, he went and pinned me against a wall and started arguing with me! He was a such a fucking dick!" Noah's voice growled as he spoke, recapping the incident.

"He... pinned you against a wall?" Izzy held in a laugh, but couldn't contain it for long as she burst out laughing. The others laughed as well. Noah realised what he had said, and tried to take it back.

"No, not like that! He just- oh my god, I couldn't be bothered." Noah groaned and rolled his eyes, and continued as the laughing died down. "The point is, he told me something along the lines of see you when I win as I left. It's made me realise that because this is based on student votes, there's no way I can win this unless I somehow get more known that him. You know how popular he is, right?"

The people at the table nodded their heads, taking in this fact.

"Yeah... he's much more well known that you." Eva frowned, thinking. "We can try and promote you with posters... but that might not help."

Everyone sat there thinking, but before anyone could say anything else, the bell to the next class rang through the sitting area.

"I'll try and think of something." Noah furrowed his eyebrows, standing up. "See you guys next lunch, alright?" He began walking to his classroom, and gathered his items from his locker before walking through the door. As he entered, his eyes caught on Alejandro watching him from his seat, glaring. Noah greeted the teacher before pointing his middle finger straight at the man, which made Alejandro's face turn to pure rage.

He sat down in his assigned seat, which was inconveniently right in front of his rival. Usually he wouldn't mind this, but after their interaction today, all he could think about was that dickhead. He tried hard to not look back, not wanting to let Alejandro know he was still thinking about the fight they had, but he knew the man behind him was thinking the exact same thing.

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Alejandro sat in his seat, writing notes. He was focusing on the class, trying to make sure he got every piece of information down. He listened carefully, but a part of his brain was still ticking with anger. He knew that he had started the fight, but he was still very frustrated by Noah's smart comments. It made him hate the nerd even more than he already had. 

After a few minutes, he saw Noah turn around out of the corner of his eye, just for a second. Alejandro looked up and scrunched up his face in an almost disgusted way.

"You got a problem twink?" Alejandro sneered, clicking his pen as he leaned back on his chair. He felt himself fill with joy as he saw Noah's curious face turn to an enraged one. Noah thought for a second, before leaning forwards.

"My problem is you." Noah spat, squinting his eyes at the man behind him. "You and the fact that your obviously too focused on having issues with random people that have done nothing to you to shut your arrogant, egotistical mouth and concentrate on your own issues."

Alejandro gritted his teeth as Noah whispered this at him, slamming his hand down on the table and leaning forwards towards the bookworm.

"Your a little dick, you know that?" Alejandro muttered. "I am so excited to see how you look when I win this election, and see you standing in the corner with a disappointed look on your washed-out little face." He grinned, chuckling as he imagined this.

"And I'm so excited to see how you look when that doesn't happen." Noah sneered as Alejandro scoffed at this, giving the finger to his rival as he turned back around to face the front. The class went on for an hour before the bell sounded for the next period, and everyone packed there things up.

Alejandro walked out of the room, grabbing the things from his locker as he looked over to Noah. He felt his eyes catch on the boy for a bit, watching him gather books and other items. And then, he had an idea.

As he began to walk, he thought to himself. If he wanted to guarantee Noah did not win, he had to figure out a way to sabotage him without notifying the staff. He needed to play dirty without being caught, and that would be the challenging part. And after awhile of thinking, he knew exactly what he had to do.