Maze

37

Rena.

The moment Edward uttered my childhood—been so long since he referred to me as that—nickname, I believed to the fullest extent of my own perception, my heart practically performed a series of acrobatics that might dazzle the Olympics. With its irrational thumps, it somersaulted a few times before it plummeted from its place.

Honestly, I should have been dead by now, but luck was on my side. Here I was, surviving the rest of these painstaking classes whilst forcing myself to recuperate and gather my thoughts. And it was not helping that I could not stop grinning like a maniac as warmth flowed through my veins. Huge progress in our friendship!

Other than that, my mood further elevated a notch when I received an actually decent grade for a chemistry exam. Perhaps after countless misfortunes, fate took pity on me and compensated with luck after luck. I skipped out of the class as I imagined all kinds of rainbows and unicorns—most of my classmates flunked it.

Pride overwhelmed me while I flipped through the pages. Most of my answers I had guessed were shockingly true, and some of the incorrect answers had me scratching my head. My peripheral vision helped me slip through the crowd, but unfortunately, that one asshole senior just had to be there, playing with his phone.

Stupid jerk. I snapped back to my papers as I casually strolled by him, pretending he never existed. Flashbacks of the brawl between him and Edward played—how his provocation almost had my friend punching him square in the face. That's what you get for annoying people.

Now that I thought of it... this douchebag was among the team when Seb introduced me to them. Obviously, he would recognize me as the girl who Seb befriended and who wordlessly stood beside Edward. However, no attention was given; he spared a glance at neither me nor anyone near him.

Thank God, he didn't notice me. I heavily sighed in relief when he was out of my radar. With him out of my way, I stalked towards my locker. Well, at least Edward calmed himself a little back at the field... and we got to exchange a couple of words.

"You get a B in chemistry?" A voice manifested from beside me and my shoulders legit jumped. Fortunately it was just Aly—she was thrusting her textbooks on the locker, then grabbing her phone charger and some folders along.

"Yup!" I beamed. "It was like a dream. I thought I was gonna fail."

"Good for you, but guess what... I got an A! An actual Godsent!" Aly revealed between her victorious chuckles before she stuck out her tongue. "All that studying Mark forced me to do finally paid off. I beat ya!"

A timid smile made its way across my lips without an effort—my best friend could be so adorable and whimsical. "Congratulations, but you still have a long journey to go to be on par with me. Biology, history—"

"I terribly sucked at those things, yes I know, no need for a reminder. Sam and Naomi I can handle, but if that's coming from my bestie, it hurts so much..." Aly whined, extending a hand right in front of my face while the other one clenched on her chest. She then protruded her lips to form a pout, but her mentioning 'bestie' induced some sense of delight to bloom inside me.

"It's the truth though." I poked fun at her.

"No matter what I do, Rena... those subjects, I had enough, man. My only objective is to pass high school with flying colors." She balled one of her hands. Shaking it in the air, she exclaimed, "I'm burning all of that shit out the moment we graduate!"

I laughed and shook my head at her tendency to dramatize her actions—not that I minded anyway. When we were done organizing our things, both of us simultaneously clicked the padlock shut. Time to get the heck out of here.