Unexpected

Chapter 4.

The crickets lasted all the way through the walk down the hallway.

Don't get me wrong, I like my quiet as much as the next introvert. I had no desire to actually engage Brett Ashmore in conversation. But there was something so purposeful, so pointed, about his silence that I felt a strange urge to break it. His face looked carved of stone, and he seemed so set on ignoring my presence I wanted to say something just for a contrarian's sake.

Not to mention, I hated to admit it, but Mr. Brenner had a point.

"So," I said, "What do you think about--?"

"No," he said flatly.

I narrowed my eyes. "Excuse me, do you even know what I was going to ask?"

"Yes," he replied. "And the answer is no."

"Oh, so no, you don't want to make the team after all? No, you can't even pretend to own a shred of human civility? No, you didn't just get owned by me in practice?"

He stopped dead in his tracks, eyebrows scrunched. Man, why did being around Brett always cause me to word-vomit?

"Owned by you in practice?" he laughed. "As if. You're lucky that Sylvia girl saved you from embarrassing yourself in the first three rounds."

"Well, that's not how it looks to Brenner," I shot back. "I won the hardest question against you. After today's practice, I've got the upper hand."

"Oh yeah? That'll quickly change in the next practice."

"If we work together we can both improve. If you don't look out, Juliet will take one of the spots. She did really well today."

"Okay. So I'll take the other one then." He shrugged, then smiled at the irritated expression on my face as I swallowed the implication.

Woah, did Brett Ashmore just smile? He was already handsome, but damn...

Shut up, hormones.

"Look, I know you really need to make the team," I said. "You might be really fast at mental math and have good intuition with numbers, but I've--"

"Woah," he held up a hand. "Who told you I needed to make the team?"

Oops.

Brett shook his head, disgusted. "Whatever, I don't even care. The point is, you just want to know my secret as to how I can answer so quickly. I don't need your help at all."

Unfortunately, that was true. I knew I would definitely have lost to Brett if I'd gone up against him the first three rounds. He was just so damn fast.

"But you lost the last question to me," I reminded him. "Speed can't solve everything, you know."

"Why do you want to study with me so bad anyway?" Brett rolled his eyes. "In case you haven't realized, we are competing. Not to mention, you don't even like me."

"Shocking, isn't it?"

He just waited.

I sighed. "I just want to win." That was true. I wasn't looking forward to spending time with Brett, but if it meant a spot on the Mu Alpha Theta team, I would do it willingly. If I wanted to get into a good college next year, not only would I have to have an impressive record, I'd need to win a scholarship of some sort too--there was no way my mom could afford tuition. Every extracurricular counted.

"And you'll annoy me until I agree?"

"Yep. And I'll tell Noah to ask you too." That was low, but I was out of options. I would look for any chance to improve, not just to make the team, but also for the competitions in the future. "You know, your team captain?"