f o r e v e r | lab rats | *EDITING*

c h a p t e r 6 ; smart and smarter

🌸

Due to her supremely high intelligence and how long she plans on staying, Gemma officially has been enrolled into Mission Creek High. Having my little sister around makes school a bit more bearable, and having her in several of my classes makes it all the better.

At the moment she and I are in between classes, joining our friends at Adam's locker.

"Check out what I've done with my locker!" he said as he opened it. "Tah-dah! Here's where I keep my books. Down here I keep random strands of hair I've collected to make fake mustaches. And here is where I stockpile old lunches, or, as I like to call it, my tum-tum yum-yums."

"Okay, that's nasty," Gemma remarks.

"That's the least of your worries," I tell her.

Adam glares at me as his siblings laugh, but is unable to say anything due to an angry Leo marching up to us.

"Hey, Leo," Bree greets, eyeing the paper in his hand. "What's that?"

"My progress report. I can't believe my science teacher says I'm always late to class."

"You are always late to class," Adam points out.

"I know that, but I don't need it publicized."

Chase pulls out his own progress report and displays it to the rest of us.

"Look at this!" he exclaims. "An 'A-minus'! I knew my Home Ect. teacher had it out for me. Always criticizing my muffins."

I laugh and pat his shoulder.

"Ha ha!" Adam laughs as he shoves his own in his brother's face. "I beat you! I got a 'D-plus'! 'Plus' because I'm better!"

"Adam, the 'plus' is—you know what? It's just not even worth it anymore."

"'D' is not a good grade," Chase explains, "but we don't really expect you to get good grades. I'm engineered to be the smartest person on the planet, and I just got an 'A-minus'. I've been relegated to into the huddled, unwashed masses of minuses, like you!"

"Chase, I know this must me hard for you," his sister assures, "but, I mean, look at the bright side—seeing you fall flat on your face is really fun for us!"

"I have got to find a way to reclaim my superiority."

"Well, you could sign up for the Student of the Semester competition," I tell him.

"What's that?"

"Every semester, kids compete to see who can best improve the school," Leo explains. "Whoever gets the most votes wins free pencils, a bumper sticker, and a cheesy picture of himself on the wall!"

"And that cheesy picture will show everyone that my brilliance reigns supreme!" Chase finishes. "I am so gonna win!"

"I call your free pencils!" Adam exclaims. "No, wait, I'll take the cheesy picture. Oh gosh, they both sound so good!"

The bell rings, and the both of them look at each other.

"Race ya'!" they yelled in unison before running to their next class.

I roll my eyes, bid goodbye to my remaining friends, and move on to calm them down.

About two periods later, Leo, myself, and Adam and Bree find Chase in the main hallway. He's handing out little cards to passing students.

"Hey, vote for Chase. Tell your friends," he says, handing what looked like a business card to one of the students. He turns to someone else walking down the stairs. "Vote for Chase for Student of the Semester. Here's my website, where you can peruse my platform, marvel at my skills, or even play a game of Chase trivia, where all the answers are about me."