Such A Silly Game We Play

Life Is Like Math

PART 1

"Alriiiight! Everybody give me a woof-woof!" Ms. Avana said while raising her hands up in the air.

Here we were, sitting on the back of a Toyota HIACE Super Grandia van looking dead and dull as ever. We didn't say anything. All of us were pissed and exhausted. Pissed because we were going to miss our first formal ever, and exhausted because we were up all night to review for the Math contest.

"Oh, come on you guys! It'll be okay! Have some energy!" Ms. Avana said again.

"Ma'am, not to ruin your mood, but it's 5 o'clock in the morning, the sun isn't even up and we've only had about 4 hours of sleep. MAX. So we don't really have a lot of energy," Alexa said while yawning.

Ms. Avana's facial expression changed from excited to bored. "Okaaaay, fine. You guys can sleep while we travel."

All of us said thank you and went straight to sleep.

I woke up and the sun was bright as ever. My head was leaning on the window and as I looked at my back, Stevie and Alexa were still sleeping. I looked at my front, Ms. Avana was also sleeping. Which means the driver and I were the only ones awake. I looked at my wrist watch and saw that it was already 8 am. Wait... we've been travelling for 3 hours now?!

"Uhm, excuse me! Sir?" I called the driver. I looked at the rear view mirror and saw his eyes looking back at me. "How far are we from the State University?"

"Almost there! 'Bout 30 minutes left! We'll we could've been there 2 hours earlier if it wasn't traffic! Apparently, 6 am - 7 am is the rush hour traffic in this town," he replied looking pissed.

"Oh, thanks." Since I had no one to talk to and my eyes are still red and dry from reading and writing last night, I just decided to fiddle with my phone. And as I did, I saw one text message from Zander:

You are gonna love me tonight!
Did something to my outfit. Just a small touch. ;)

Holy crap. This is definitely going to be an addition to his past bad decisions! I replied:

Crap, Z! What the hell did you do?!

Oh gooood! Was he being sarcastic?! By small, did he mean huge?! Did he change the color to neon?

RELAX! You'll be proud of me later. Good luck with the contest, math geek!

Uhm, thanks for that name? After a few minutes, I received a message from John and Thea:

John: GOOD LUCK LEENS! It's gonna be a piece of cake!

Thea: Bestieeeeee! (Ew. No. I don't call you that.) Anyway, good luck! Kick them ass!

It felt really great receiving those messages. Oh, don't you love supportive friends! Just as I was about to say Thanks, the van took a left turn towards a gigantic jet-black metal gate. The driver said something to the guard and we went straight to one of the old, brick-covered, building. Ms. Avana was awake now, and as we came to a stop, she quickly opened the door, stepped out, and had a deep breath, inhaling that cool spring air. "Alright my Champs! Now is the time to have all your energy ready! Oh! Come on, I can see the other contestants lining up at the registry."

Alexa, Stevie and I quickly stepped out of the van. Ms. Avana led us into a huge lobby (which almost looked like a hotel lobby), with a huge chandelier in the middle.

"Good morning! Welcome to the Annual Math Competition!," a tall, blonde, and slim woman greeted us as we entered. She directed us towards the line on the Registry.