High Energy Collision [Completed]

Chapter 11 - Insomnia, please release me

The puzzle Viola tried to solve at the moment nearly drove her crazy. She had gotten so invested in it over the last days that Rose had even kicked her out of her bedroom.

It was unfair. Viola wasn't used to being outplayed, but now it felt like she was.

Part of the puzzle was figuring out who the player on the other side was, Mean, Plan... both... or someone else.

It had started out reasonably easy, as all these puzzles went:

Viola had watched Mean leave with his little genius bartender on Friday night, grinning to herself, silently congratulating Mean for finally daring to make a move.

Mean had been in an excellent mood all weekend, helping her out at her repair workshop with more dedication than usual – and her friend was even cute enough to mention he was thinking about buying a telescope and getting into astrophysics as a new hobby.

He had been adorably transparent about his crush, without ever mentioning it.

And then, on Monday, Mean had acted even more boldly.

They had all sat at their reserved table in the middle of the cafeteria, when a sickly-looking freshman suddenly decided to join them without asking first.

Neither of them had known who the guy was, he looked like the ultimate cliché nerd if there had ever been one: his black hair neatly parted and combed, his crisp uniform shirt tucked into the trousers, he even wore signature frameless glasses for heaven's sake.

So, this nerdy guy had had the guts to sit at their table, and at first, Mean had amused himself by entertaining their guest and asking him why he sat at a reserved table.

The boy, who proudly announced his name as Rom, explained that he thought it unfair that Mean had made an invitation to that overrated arrogant rice farmer, who according to Rom barely deserved to be called a physicist.

Viola had snickered at this claim, knowing that Mean would likely eat this kid for breakfast, just for daring to insult his secret crush.

However, Mean had pretended to give Rom a fair chance and had invited him to prove that he was better than Plan.

A crowd had already formed around their table by that point. The self-proclaimed real physics genius had revelled in the attention and had claimed that other than Prof. Marsden, nobody had seen anything special in that farm kid's resumé and that there had to be something fishy about it.

He, Rom, was certainly a much better physicist, alas nobody had acknowledged his true genius, and now he was forced to attend freshmen introductory courses whereas that other kid got to jump ahead.

When Mean had pointed out that the other kid had actually passed the first advancement exam already, while Rom had given him nothing but hot air and accusations, Rom had had the audacity to claim that the exam Plan had just passed must have been so dumbed down that any freshman could have passed it. After all, what could a mere farmer from a backwater village really accomplish next to someone like him, who had attended summer school at MIT?

This had finally marked the end of Mean's patience. He had turned that loud kid away determinedly. He had pointed out happily that the exam Plan had passed had been prepared by a group of international scientists currently attending a conference in Bangkok, likely making it more difficult rather than easier.

And in any event, Rom was free to prove he was better than Plan any time – however, Mean had told him smugly, no matter how good he thought he was at physics, he would never be considered for White Hand. Being a White Hand asked for more than thinking you were good at your academic discipline. Either way, the spot of physics genius had already been offered to Plan and Mean would not recede his invitation.