Girls called Alessandra

CHAPTER 04 - COMPETITIONS

Alie often found herself in a bind every morning.

"You answered it all, right?"

Alie could only smile widely, "Ah-ha."

"Quick, while the teacher's not here yet." It was a boy named Thomas who might have gotten past the special entrance exam to this elite class by pure luck.

"Okay." She cursed herself that she felt like she had no choice. She pulled the notebook out of her bag.

"Thanks, Alie, you're a life saver. You see, last night I forgot we had homework. Oh, is it this long? Fuck, I don't have much time."

He always made excuses. But well, who did not?

Alie started to say, "You know, Thomas, you should rea-"

She did not get the chance to finish however because he had hurriedly returned to his seat. 'Next time for sure, I won't let you copy my work anymore.'

The last time Thomas borrowed her output, she said the same words to herself too. And look what she's doing now.

Students began arriving. Among them was this boy, Luke.

She walked over to him. "Luke," she called. Honestly the name Luke left a bitter taste to her tongue whenever she verbalized it. "Here's my part of the report." She handed him an OTG flashdrive.

He took it in his nimble hands. "Oh, did you research pictures too just like I said?"

She nodded. She researched it alright.

"Oh I hope you also copied the URL." He said it with a smile, so casually.

She froze. Why? Why would she copy the URL? "I downloaded some webpages directly. That's where I got the pictures from."

His forehead creased now. "But you know that downloaded webpages won't carry their original URL, didn't you? How could I organize the references?"

"Oh, sorry. I'll copy the links then. It's still in my history anyway."

"No need," he sighed in disappointment, with the blindest bit of scorn. But Alie caught that little twitch in his eyebrow. She made him look down on her again. Why does he always had to make her feel so small? It did not help that she was even physically shorter than him.

"I'll copy them in a cinch. Then I'll pass them onto you tomorrow."

He just shook his head as he stuffed the flashdrive into his pocket. "I'll download them myself. Just, next time, you should always copy URLs as you surf. For good measure."

She felt helpless. "Sure, thanks."

"Okay, I'll let you know when I finish the presentation."

Alie actually volunteered to do the presentation herself. But Luke did not trust her.

He and Alie, they were in a cold war. At least in Alie's sentiments, she was competing against him. But the sad thing was, he probably did not even acknowledge her as a threat to his status as the top in the class. It would make her proud if he did.

But the fact was she could not seem to get near his caliber. Sure the first place did not always belong to Luke. At times, it went to Eugene. But it had never belonged to her. Everybody always expected Luke to be at the top.

Well, Alie was in the top ten, sure. But she could never climb past the sixth. They were like a wall. The six of them. The ranks might jumble around but it was always the six of them.

Yet it was somewhat unfair because while Alie had to read through a book twice in order to barely understand it, Luke only needed one read to grasp everything. He had outstanding comprehension; with just having listened to something once, he would have an idea about the topic.

Alie had to put in twice the effort but she could not seem to be able to beat him.

It all boiled down to being male and female in the end. Biology. Damn biology.

But she believed she would topple them all one day. One rank at a time.

They were such sweet aspirations from an average girl. But who could say? Hard work reaps the fruits any time.

As the first period came to an end, they had to pause abruptly. The summons resounded through the speakers. Their teacher was being called to the principal's office. In the middle of class?   How important was it? They rarely summoned people in the middle of class period.

Mr. Gavin left puzzled.

When Mr. Gavin came back, he was not alone. He was with a student. They stepped into a room of dead curious teenagers.

Alie was not as interested. She was still bothered by having been scorned. Given her sensitive and reflective nature, she would have to overthink about it for a week at least. She would get him, she thought.

Just when they thought it could not get more strange, another teacher paraded into the room. It was Mr. Patricio, their history teacher. And by the look on Mr. Patricio's face, he woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

"Sorry to interrupt you," Mr. Patricio said, more to Mr. Gavin than them. "So you might be wandering why I'm here. This is..." He turned to the student sharply.

"Hi everyone, I'm Jude!" Meeting them for the first time, for a stranger he was quite the amiable type. "I hope we-"

"I'm not done yet!" Mr. Patricio stopped him with a scoff and a slight shove on his back. "So class, this lad here is a transferee from Manila since the start of the school year. But now suddenly, he says that he does not deserve to be in my class. Bunch of boring simpletons, aren't they? Let's see where your arrogance can lead you. He wants to be transferred here so I granted his wish."

Mr. Patricio regarded Mr. Gavin with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry to ask you of this."

Mr. Gavin said, "Well, it's only for the rest of the quarter. If Jude says he wants some thrilling competition, then maybe he might find these folks interesting."

Before old Mr. Patricio left, he bared his fangs at his now former student, "If you even flunk one test, I'll make sure you don't advance a year." Then he stomped away.

Jude was strikingly ordinary looking. He was not even on par with Oliver or Luke (even though Alie hated to admit it). He looked better than Thomas at least. His cheeriness made up for what he lacked in charisma. His arrogance though immediately smeared on those good traits. He was then - in the eyes of these people - downright despicable.

For these academic elites, it was social norm not to look down on people. After all, no one was supposed to be completely moronic. Every single person has got to have at least one thing they are great at. There is a wide spectrum of intelligence and those who are truly intellectual must be perfectly aware of this.

Jude was, yup, what could he be but a repugnant ignorant conceited fellow. Whether he was any good as he claimed to be, they were yet to see.