valedictorian ⚣ ryden

3

Brendon's younger brother works the drive-thru at the Taco Bell near his home, so he got his dinner for free. After he got out of Ryan's dad's car, Elizabeth gets out, too, to take the front passenger seat. She just sits there and stares at Ryan. He sees it, but only through the corner of his eyes. He's looking straight ahead. "Put your seatbelt on," he says, waiting patiently for her to fulfill her safety requirements before he starts driving again.

"Why do you choose to be stupid?" she says.

That was a very unexpected outburst. "That's not very nice," says Ryan. "Furthermore, I am not stupid. My GPA has been a 4.0 for two years now, and I've ranked at the top of my class for the same amount of time." If that's stupid, what does Elizabeth have to say for herself?

She ignores Ryan's boasting and goes on a rant about how Ryan will die alone and other topics that Ryan just refuses to listen to. "Why do you make it so hard for people to like you? Hello?" She starts waving her hand in Ryan's face. " Are you even listening?" Ryan shakes his head. "You know what?" She pauses to laugh. "Im over it. Take me home."

"Home?" Ryan repeats. "But—"

"Take me home, Ryan. Now."

No protest from Ryan. He doesn't exactly like Elizabeth at the moment. Whatever. He drops her off immediately and goes home, and he doesn't care. Maybe he'll study. Whatever.

The house was devoid of any people until Ryan arrived. He remembers his dad saying he went somewhere with Ronnee, but where? He barely knows Ronnee. Curiously, he texts both Ronnee and his dad. Then, at seven-thirty in the evening, Ryan goes to bed.

When he wakes up and goes to the dining room for breakfast, Ronnee alerts him that his dad is not home. "Where is he?" Ryan asks. "Will he be back in time for me to take his car to school, or will I have to ride the city bus?" Ryan lowers his voice as he speaks of the second option. Credits to the city for enforcing carpooling and saving the planet, but getting packed into a bus with thirty-to-forty other people is a highly unpleasant situation that Ryan just doesn't want to experience.

Ronnee laughs. "Oh yeah," she says, "you were sleeping last night when we came home with your car. It's in the garage."

"My car?" Ryan repeats. He doesn't even eat breakfast before he runs to the garage to see his beloved vehicle. Its sleek, white, paint is as beautiful as he remembers. "Bye, Ronnee!" he calls out before excitedly driving out of his garage. Omitting the paint color, Ryan's car and his father's car are identical. Despite that, Ryan favors his own car. It comforts him a lot more.

Due to his accidental omission of breakfast, Ryan is able to reach school early. It feels great to be early, a luxury his best friend often neglects. With extra time in the mornings, there's an opportunity to relax in the library or get a breakfast from the food court, or, for sociable people like Elizabeth, sit with friends in the student center. Everytime he tries to tell her, though she ignores him.

As he walks through campus to the library, Ryan realizes he hasn't spoken to Elizabeth since the night before, when he dropped her off at home. There were no texts from her or missed calls. What's going on? Just when they had reunited, she decides she doesn't want to speak with him anymore? Ryan was having a good morning until he thought about that. It can't be true, though. Before reaching the library, he texts her, hoping she wasn't still angry at him. He'd actually forgotten the whole ordeal already anyway. After sending the text, he puts his phone on silent and walks into the library.

It isn't until Ryan leaves class for lunch that he checks his phone. Honestly, Ryan was afraid to see what Elizabeth might've said. She can be quite vicious when she's angry.

After typing a long paragraph that Ryan didn't bother reading, she double-texted with a simple message:

Lunch at Subway?

Without having read the extraneous message, Ryan knows, through his best friend's love of food, that they are on good terms again.

Students attending Starship Academy have the luxury of several restaurants located in close proximity to the school. Most of them, save the formal restaurants, offer student discounts with the accompaniment of a school-issued ID. Those said restaurants include Subway, which is actually right across the street, so ryan doesn't even bother taking his car there.

He arrives to safety after dangerously trekking the six-lane road, and walks into Subway. He sees Elizabeth sitting down, but heads straight for the ordering station instead of sitting with her. Omitting breakfast was foolish of him, but he'll make up for it posthaste. Once it's in his hands, the foot-long sandwich's scent infiltrates Ryan's nose. As soon as he sits down across from Elizabeth, he start to devour the first half of his sandwich. After seconds of eating ravenously, Ryan composes himself. He's completely lost his head. "I apologize," he says, degenerately, through a mouth full of food. "I missed breakfast this morning." He looks up at Elizabeth, whose eyes are widened as far as they can be, but her lips show amusement with a smile.

"It's a good thing I told you to come here, then isn't it?" She laughs at him and then takes a bite from her own foot-long sub. When Ryan doesn't respond, she starts talking again. "Anyway," she says, swallowing, "I wanted to say sorry for snapping at you yesterday. I respect your decision to be a loser. In fact, I respect it so much I thought that maybe we could hang out tomorrow."

At this point, Ryan has almost finished the first six inches of his sandwich. He puts it down and looks at Elizabeth, wiping his face with a napkin. She stares at him expectantly, and his eyes dart around the restaurant. "What?" he says.

She frowns. "What do you mean, what?"'

Elizabeth gets hostile so easily. So easily in fact, that she seems ticked solely at nothing. "Why are you watching me eat my sandwich?" Ryan asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"Watching you? I wasn't— I was talking— Ugh," she grunts, "Ryan, you're seriously going to piss me off."

"Oh," Ryan exclaims, "were you speaking pertinently?" He chuckles to himself. Hunger must have taken over his mind.

She does her signature eye roll. "I said I wanted to hang out tomorrow."

Tomorrow. Tomorrow is Friday, August twenty-third. The date feels strangely relevant. Suddenly, Brendon occupies his mind. Oh, right. "Tomorrow is Friday," Ryan says finally, after moments of consideration.

"I know what fucking day tomorrow is, Nerd," Elizabeth says. She's irritated already.

Has she already forgotten? "I thought you were going to that party tomorrow."

"I wanna hang out with you, though," she says. "It really has been a while since we've hung out."

Ryan shrugs. He considers the two full days spent with her "hanging out" just as much as anything else.

Suddenly, she clasps her hands together. "Please," she says, a little louder than necessary. "I miss you, Nerd."

In Ryan's opinion, implementing an insult in a request is a way to guarantee rejection. However, he does miss Elizabeth a little bit, too. Before they literally bumped into each other on the first day of school, the last time they saw each other was the very last dat of school. Their friendship is never active during the summers. Their lives are just too different. Ryan volunteers throughout the community and does various independent projects throughout the summer to advance his academics. Elizabeth, however, volunteers her time to social media and Summer parties. But they always reunite when school rolls back around. "Okay," he says. "You can come to my house tomorrow after school and we'll figure out something to do." What Ryan says makes her squeal, which makes him smile. Suddenly, the smell of his sandwich returns to his nose, and his tongue starts to produce a surplus of saliva. "Now," he says, "let us dedicate the remainder of our lunch time to eating our food."

Elizabeth agrees nonverbally, and their feasting begins.

-

i just remembered i named their school after cobra starship lol