With A Book In Hand

Chapter One: Little Imbeciles

"How many times have you beaten me?"

Zia was 13, a high school student at Spectrum Learning Center, an anime addict with a dark sense of humor. One of the best secret-keepers you ever will know. Obsessed with fictional men, and women, writes fanfictions about them, goes crazy over a tension episode, typical teenager stuff.

"I don't know, I wasn't counting. Do you think I'm fucking Albert Einstein?"

And then there's Camila, also 13 but 3 months younger than Zia. She goes to the same school as Zia too, the best gossip listener there ever will be at Spectrum Learning Center, and that girl can spot fake bitches from a mile away. Camila also loves obsessing over men (and only men, at least she's sure with her sexuality), mostly real-life ones like her favorite K-Idol, but she's twice as delusional.

A fun pair of individuals to be paired together, right? Yes, you are right.

Those girls have been together since their freshman year in high school, and so far, nothing is stopping them from being friends.

"I'll just accept the fact that you win, I'm too hungry to put up with your shit."

Zia said standing up and stretching her arms.

"Cool, get me a drink from the fridge while you're at it" Camila replied with a sneaky grin, but she kept her eyes on the TV and saved their game.

Zia knocked the back of Camila's head while she headed downstairs to get some food, so hard that Camila's head almost touched the floor.

Eventually Zia came back with some chips and apple juice for Camila, she threw the plastic bottle of juice to where Camila was sitting and it landed on her stomach, painfully.

"What the hell was that for?" Camila exclaimed, dumbfounded.

Zia just snickered and sat back down next to her.

"For shits n' giggles." She replied.

"So what'chu wanna do now?" Camila asked, sipping from the apple juice Zia brought her.

"Don't we have a project to do?"

Camila looked at Zia, again, dumbfounded.

"What project?"

"The children's book project in science? The whole reason I'm at your house?"

"Oh that, do we even have materials for that?"

Zia looked at Camila for a bit longer this time.

"How stupid are you? We need paper, pens, and a brain. You provide paper and pens and I'll provide the brain since you don't have one." Zia snapped back.

Camila stood up and scurried to her desk to grab the materials, she shuffled through her messy drawers and looked for blank pieces of paper and her pencil case which was filled with anything but pens and pencils. Once she did, she walked back to the beanbags she and Zia were sitting on. She threw the folder of papers and her pouch of coloring materials on Zia's lap, then sat down on her seat and leant back like that was all the effort she was going to put in.

"You said you'd provide the brains, right? Get to it, I did my part."

Zia side-eyed Camila so hard, her pupils almost disappeared out of her eye socket.

She mumbled under her breath and started brainstorming what kind of story she should write about.

"We should do one about how a rainbow is formed, sound intriguing enough for the kids?"

"As long as it's comprehendible" Camila said leaning back and scrolling on her phone.

Suddenly, Camila's phone rang on full volume, it vibrated so violently that she almost fell.

Startled, she checked the caller ID.

"Why in the world...?"

Camila walked to a further part of the room and answered the call. Ironically, Zia knew exactly who was calling.

"Brad?" Zia asked, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.

"Yes, it's Brad. You know too much." Camila scoffed.

Brad was Camila's so called "boyfriend". He was a transfer student which made him an easy target for her.

After about 15 minutes, Camila ended the call and walked back to the beanbag she was sitting on, and she was smiling at her phone ridiculously.

"What was that about?" Zia asked.

"Nothing, he was just checking up on me."

"You have such a good boyfriend" Zia rolled her eyes.

"You're right, your relationship issues could never."

Zia stayed silent after that like she accepted defeat. Camila sat down on the floor next to her and hugged her (by hug, it means choke by the neck, but that's just their love language.)

"I can be better than any man you come across, don't even think about me leaving you for one bit" Camila reassured.

Zia just scoffed in reply and continued working on what was supposed to be their shared project.

By now, it was 2 o' clock in the afternoon, and they had started at 11 am, or at least, procrastinated since 11 am.

"Oh my God, are you finished?" Camila complained, lying down on Zia's back while Zia was hunched over on the floor.

"This would be twice as faster if you actually helped, you know" Zia said, aggressively writing and finishing up the story.

"But that's too much work" Camila whined.

"Then shut your whining you little bitch."

And just like that, Camila shut her trap. It's like Zia knew exactly how to control her.

Those two just had a unique way of communicating, and they themselves were far from normal, let alone their friendship. Whether others call it a friendship, a sisterhood, a platonic-ish relationship, they were what they call "two parts of a whole". Once were strangers, now inseparable.

The next day, Camila came to school early as always and got herself checked in on the school's attendance system, and Zia came late, as always. The two only ever saw each other on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during recess and lunch because that was the only time their schedules ever overlapped. And in that short break period, it was always super chaotic, especially with their friend group. Since they were in different classes, Camila had to move to another table so she could sit with Zia and the other members of their group (Zia is classmates with everyone in the friend group except Camila).

It was a normal painful day at Spectrum Learning Center so far, just like any other day, but this day was actually exceptionally different.