The Rivalry We Didn't Expect

Egotistical

Alejandro knew he was in the shit.

First of all, waking up that morning with his rival naked in his bedroom after getting drunk at a party was not ideal. Especially since he secretly had feelings for said rival, and he didn't even know how mutual it was. All he could do was stress about it as he approached his locker. Looking to his side, Alejandro saw Noah walking off with his friend group, and he groaned.

Alejandro's mind kept flashing back to his interaction with Jose this morning. He knew damn well that Jose had figured it out. It was embarrassing, really, knowing the first person to figure out he was bisexual had been his least favourite member of the family. Now he just had to hope that Jose wouldn't snitch to his parents, which he definitely would. Just at that moment, the bell rang for the first class. He had Mrs. Halt next, which meant Noah would be directly in front of him. Great.

As he walked into the door of the classroom, he noticed Noah already sitting in his seat. He greeted the teacher and walked towards his desk, slumping down into the chair. Alejandro didn't know what to say to him. So he didn't say anything at all. After all, Noah had told him their little hook-up last night wouldn't change a thing about their rivalry. He wished it would though.

"Good morning all of you!" Mrs. Halt smiled. She loaded up a PowerPoint on the board, her eyes gleaming. "I'm sure you all remember last lesson, where we partnered up to get-to-know each other. Well as you are all aware, your assignment this term is to create a presentation. So what better way to do it then to do it with your already assigned partners?!" She squealed, excited. It was at this moment Alejandro knew he was even deeper in the shit. He sat up quickly, nervous, but didn't say anything.

"So, for this assignment, I'll be pairing you up with the same person you did the get-to-know-me task with. You two will work together and create a presentation about one of the books I have here at the front!" Mrs. Halt chuckled, looking proud of herself. "Now, go find your partners, and we will begin shortly."

Noah turned around to face Alejandro with a shiver, feeling horrified. After overthinking the events of last night, and his friends finding out that he had sex with his rival, he was very shaken up. And this just made it even worse. He took a deep breath and stood up, dragging his desk over next to Alejandro's.

"Hey." Noah grumbled, rolling his eyes. Just being close to Alejandro made him feel flustered, but he tried not to show it. Alejandro nodded in response, also feeling awkward. A small blush appeared on the spanish boy's cheeks, and he looked away.

Alejandro scanned over Noah with his eyes. He looked very good in baggy clothes, the colours of Alejandro's tightest shirt fitting over his complexion perfectly. He couldn't help but admire the boy. Meanwhile, Mrs. Halt began talking once more.

"Alrighty, I'll be coming around and assigning your pairs with a book. This project will have to be worked on out of school, because I won't be assigning much class time to this." Mrs Halt spoke as she began to hand out books. "You'll have 2 weeks to read the book together, analyse the key terms and morals, and make a presentation in front of the class about it."

As she worked her way over to Noah and Alejandro at the back of the class, she smiled at the two of them.

"Ah, you two. How about you take this one here?" Mrs. Halt read the blurb, before passing it down to Noah and Alejandro. Alejandro scanned the cover. It was called Tuned to his Heart. "Seems like a cute little book!" She smiled, and walked away. Alejandro scanned the book, and thankfully, it looked like a reasonable size. He glanced over at Noah, who had a confused look on his face.

Noah scanned the blurb quickly, his eyebrows furrowing. "I swear I've seen this somewhere on social media." He muttered, ignoring Alejandro's looks. Noah didn't know where he recognized it from, but it seemed familiar somehow.