The Genius

Chapter Four

"Why?" someone groaned from the back of the class as Miss Jones shared the question papers for the impromptu chemistry test.

I sat quietly by my desk, returning the smile she sent my way as she dropped the question paper on my desk. I wasn't bothered. I was always studying so I was always ready for a test.

I turned around to find Ben running a hand through his coarse short hair as he chewed at the end of his pen. I raised a brow in curiosity when I spotted Ji-Hun taking a question sheet from Miss Jones. I wondered what h was planning to do. He just got here. He can't just write the test, can he?

"Just try your best, okay?" Miss Jones said to him as she stepped away from his table. He spared her a small smile before his gaze to the question sheet in front of him.

So, he's taking the test. I looked away, facing my own paper as soon as Miss Jones asked us to start.

The questions were easy for the most part; I just couldn't answer the last part of a question. I answered the rest, using the last ten minutes to review my work.

"Time's up," Miss Jones muttered soon after, getting up from behind her desk to retrieve the papers. I sighed as I handed my sheet over. I still didn't answer the last part o the bothersome question. I tried to calm reassure myself by remembering that that part only carried a few marks.

"You're all free to leave," Miss Jones said with a smile as she arranged the pile of answer sheets and put them in a corner of her desk. She ran a hand through her curled honey-colored hair before taking a sit by her desk and picking up her glasses.

Oh, so she's marking them right away.

"Come on, we have about twenty extra minutes to the next period," I heard Ben say as he came up to me. I turned to find Ji-Hun behind him, tapping the screen of his phone without a care in the world. I bit my bottom lip, nodding at Ben before gathering my things.

We were the last set of people to leave. We wished Miss Jones a good day before leaving the class.

What do we have next?" Ben asked me, earning an eye roll from me. We'd been in this year for a while and he still didn't know his schedule, while I knew ours both by heart.

"I have biology so that means you have IT," I replied as we stopped by my locker. It was an odd tradition. Our lockers were so far apart but we always stopped at my locker first then his even though our classes were probably the other way.

"I have IT too," Ji-Hun said, looking up from his phone for the first time since we left our chemistry class. I closed my locker, turning to find Ben grinning at Ji-Hun in approval.

"Finally," Ben muttered, grabbing Ji-Hun by his right arm, "I have IT with someone I talk to."

"This kill joy here has biology," Ben said, sending a look of detest my way.

"I'm sorry I'm doing biology and not IT, okay?" I said, rolling my eyes as continued with them towards Ben's locker. I hummed in interest when Ji-Hun moved to open the locker next to Ben. I'm not sure how I didn't notice his locker right next to Ben's when I showed him around school.

"See you at lunch then. Ji-Hun let's go," Ben said as he shut his locker. Ji-Hun nodded, hugging the brand new set of notes he'd taken out of his locker to his chest. He followed Ben through the hallway, leaving me behind.

I headed to biology class by myself as always, settling in one of the sits in the front row. Mrs. Green gave me a big toothy smile as I sat down before turning to arrange the sheets of paper on her desk in preparation for the class.

She was a smallish dark-skinned woman with thick kinky hair that she usually put under her scarf.

As she waited for the rest of the students to file in I answered her monotonous questions as I went through my notes.

When people did come in everyone avoided the front seats per usual, and the people who eventually had to sit in front grumbled throughout the class.

I made sure to pay attention during class but my mind kept on drifting to what Ben and Ji-Hun where doing in their class. It was obvious they'd become friends already and I'm not even sure why it was bothering me, but I did.

My following classes and lunch passed by quickly. Ji-Hun had sat with us during lunch again but this time he sat down beside Ben. I felt a little misplaced knowing close to nothing about what the two talked about. I caught the names of video games and that's where my knowledge ended. Aiyana didn't make me feel any better either; she'd had her earphones while she read a book.

I had a class with Ji-Hun and Ben after lunch. They include me in their discussion this time. I felt odd, adding my thoughts once in a while to their random discussion as we carried out our individual oscillation practical experiments during physics class.

Critical thinking was the only class we had with Aiyana apart from English. She'd beamed at us when the teacher paired all four of us together for a presentation and essay project.

"Like let's use our emails to talk... Hey, what about Google hangouts?" Aiyana offered when Ben asked how we'd keep in touch. "It's like our only bet. Wyatt doesn't use social media so..." Aiyana trailed when Ben gave her a look of disbelieve when she'd suggested using our emails.

"Okay, but that's like connected to your email, right?" Ben asked, earning a nod from Aiyana.

She ran a hand through her hair before asking for Ben and Ji-Hun's email addresses. She didn't ask me since she already had mine. We've been talking through email since we became friends at the start of high school.

"I'm still not sure how we're supposed to make ten paged personal essays," Ben sighed, watching as Aiyana wrote down his email address in her cursive handwriting. Ben was good with critical thinking; he just hated words and writing.

"I'll help you with your essay so there's no room to complain," Aiyana said, closing her pale blue jotter. Ben gave her a grateful look before the teacher halted all discussions and class picked up again.

School hours were soon over and we were in the hallway getting our books when someone came to pass the test results from the test in the morning.

"I passed," Ben muttered, making me stretch my head to look at his paper. A bright red eighty-six was written at the top left of his script.

"What about you?" he asked when the person handing out scripts gave me mine.

"Ninety-six," I muttered, frowning down at the question I'd abandoned.

"I wonder what Ji-Hun got," Ben said out of the blue, looking over the heads of chattering students in the hallway for a sign of him. Aiyana had followed him to the bookstore to get his remaining textbooks and they should be back anytime soon. It was a little frightening how he'd settled into my group of friends within a short period of time

"We'll know soon enough," I muttered, spotting Aiyana's head of hair in the crowd. Sure enough, Ji-Hun was right beside her, carrying a hand full of textbooks.

"Did you get your test paper back?" Ben asked when they both got into earshot. Ji-Hun nodded while Aiyana waved a piece of paper that was probably his test paper over her head in an indicative manner.

Ben hurried over to Aiyana, snatching the test paper from her hand. She gave him a sour look before folding her hands over her chest and rolling her eyes in irritation.

"Ninety-eight," Ben muttered before looking up from the paper with a grin. Ji-Hun shrugged, balancing his books in one hand as he attempted to unlock his locker.

"What was your score?" Aiyana asked, looking towards the paper I had in my grip. She must have noticed me tense up at hearing Ji-Hun's score.

"Ninety-six," I muttered. Aiyana's eyes widened in surprise. She muttered a small 'oh' before looking from me to Ji-Hun.

Ben soon left with Ji-Hun, leaving me behind with Aiyana. We left school together, making the trek to our houses before Aiyana snapped her fingers in front of my face to grab my attention. My eyes moved to her hand. She was still making the snapping motion as she hummed a song to the sound of her snaps. Her gaze soon moved from the street to me, then back to the street again.

"So?" she muttered as we continued our walk. The streets were empty and were void of any noise. The only sound noise coming from the tweeting birds in the occasional tree.

"So what?" I asked although I had a rough idea of what she was hinting at.

"So you have competition." she grinned, adjusting the straps of her bag on her shoulders. "It must be odd. I mean you've been the top of our year since forever-"

"I don't want to talk about this Aiyana," I cut in. I wish I had made my tone more indifferent but it had already come out as irritated and slightly paranoid. Aiyana gave me a wide-eyed look before raising her hands up in defeat.

"Sorry, I didn't know you'd get all butt hurt about it," she said earning a frustrated sigh from me. We continued on our way home together in silence, breaking apart when we came to the dividing to Aiyana's street. I could tell she was still irritated with me. I'd have to make out time to apologize, but I couldn't still get what she said out of my mind.

Was Ji-Hun really going to be competition?