In the Last Chapter…
Between Quiz Bowl sessions, Jason goes to Sarah’s house while her parents are out, and finds out to his surprise that her family is rich. He eats her out for the first time, and she blows him. Jason and Rose have a little competition at practice – if he can get more questions right than her, he gets to look at her art book. Sadly, he loses, but after Ryan tries to pry into what Jason and Rose are talking about during practice, Rose lies to make Jason look better. Afterwards, Jason can hear Ryan and Rose arguing in a nearby hallway, where Rose sticks up for Jason but also playfully suggests that Sarah might be getting closer to Jason. Ryan hates this, and storms off. Later, Jason and Sarah discuss it, and Sarah admits Ryan can be possessive and weird. Luckily, right before the bus comes to pick the team up for Districts, Ryan admits he hasn’t been kind lately and offers a truce with Jason, which he gladly accepts. With the team united, it’s onto the Districts competition for Quiz Bowl!
Normally, buses were chock-full of kids, or at least were filled out normally. This bus had four teams, just like us, sitting in their own sections of the bus. All of them had the same layout – six students, one old teacher. Chadwick, if looks were anything to go by, was probably the youngest teacher on this whole bus. You’d expect the teams to be all nerds or something, but the only clearly nerdy team was in the back of the bus. They ticked off all the boxes – glasses, at least three Asians, and they were spending time by asking each other questions.
I was the second-last to enter, with Ryan coming up behind me. The other four and Chadwick had taken up some seats in the middle of the bus, with Jack and Candy of course sharing one of the seats. Everyone knew that bus seats could only have two people on them, which meant I had two options.
“Yo, could you actually do me a favor?” Ryan asked in my ear. “Rose and I aren’t really getting along right now, could you…” I turned around. He had a sheepish smile. “Y’know… would you be okay sitting next to Rose?”
My smile bled through. Bro wanted to sit next to his girl. I won’t lie, I wanted to sit next to Sarah, but I could get why he wanted to too. “Is that why you gave me the speech out there?” I asked.
Ryan’s smile only widened, and he laughed with me, instead of being all defensive. Hey, all things being fair, that was cool of him. “Nah man. You got on the bus first. You can say ‘fuck you’ and sit with Sarah if you want. I mean, Rose has her headset on anyways.”
“Ryan!” Chadwick called to him. “Language,” she added in a whisper.
Hey, if he finally got his head out of his ass, I could deal with sitting next to Rose for one bus trip. “Sure, man,” I told him, then turned around to walk to Rose’s seat. He rewarded me by clapping his hand on my back again.
It felt like ten whole seconds after I sat next to Rose that she even noticed I was there. She was looking out the window with her oversized headphones on, and happened to look at the front of the bus and only then notice I was sitting next to her. Her eyes flickered to me, but by the time I raised my hand to wave hello to her, she was already back to looking outside the window.
“D, I-S, T-R-I-C-T-S,” Jack was chanting. “D, I-S, T-R-I-C-T-S!” Candy was next to him, smiling at his immature (but at least positive) chanting. Chadwick was looking over some papers, only looking up when the bus whirred back to life and began to drive to our next destination.
Sarah, even with Ryan between us, turned to me. “So, your first Districts!” she began, making conversation.
Ryan turned to me too. “It’s gonna be a blast. It always is. And don’t worry, even if we do a bad job-”
“We told him already,” Sarah interrupted him. He shot some kind of look at her (I couldn’t see his face), then turned back to me.
He shrugged. “Well then, you know. And there’s no pressure. Have fun, get a feel for the format, and just remember that Regionals is this times like a hundred.”
Jack turned to the conversation. “Well, I mean, it’s got eliminations, but that’s it,” he added slowly. “It’s not like the questions get harder. It’s still just general knowledge.”
The conversation slowly involved me less and less until I was staring at the front of the bus while the others talked, without even realizing I stopped paying attention. My eyes wandered all around to the other teams, then to my team across from me, then to Rose.
She was adjusting some kind of music settings on her phone, and I craned my neck to see what she was listening to. I expected some kind of heavy metal because… I mean, c’mon. It was Rose. Look at her. Instead I saw some band I didn’t recognize at all, Of Monsters and Men.
She caught me looking and, as Rose did, scowled. “What?”
I was busted. Honesty was the best policy. “I was just curious ab-”
“Wait,” she interrupted, removing her headphones. “Okay, talk.”
Jeez. “I was just curious about what you were listening to.”
Her look persisted. “And you couldn’t just ask me?”
I looked at her with confusion. “Um, no,” I replied, as if it were obvious. “You had to remove your headphones to even hear me.”
Her look softened. “Oh,” she murmured. “Yeah, alright,” she conceded, then held up her phone to me. “It’s a band called Of Monsters-”
“And Men, yeah,” I finished. “I never heard of them.”
“You should listen to them, they’re good,” Rose replied with no energy.
“Yeah? What genre?” I asked.
She was midway putting her headphones back on, and hesitated. “Um, I guess I would call them indie rock,” she replied slowly and quietly, lowering her headphones again.
“You’d call them that?” I asked.
“I don’t know what genres are what,” she said with a shrug. “Here.” She held up her headphones to me and I took them, putting them on my head. They smelled like her perfume today – something floral and feminine, not at all like her slim yet rugged frame. Echoey guitars, heavy-hitting percussion, and chanting singing met my ears. I didn’t know what song it was, but it was weirdly good. Like the kind that makes your head start nodding to the beat without even realizing.
I still felt weird listening to her music for too long, so I eventually took her headphones off. She was looking expectantly at me. “It’s good,” I told her. “What’s the song called?”
“Yeah, it is,” she said, taking the headphones back. “It’s called Human.”
I half-heartedly chuckled. “I’m surprised you didn’t tell me, ‘oh, you’re just saying that’ or something.”
I was treated to the rare sight of a slight smile on Rose’s face. “You were, um, bobbing your head to it,” she pointed out.
“I was?” I asked, surprised. “Shit, I didn’t even realize.”
She lightly chuckled. “Yeah,” she replied, putting her headphones back on.
***
“Alrighty, here we go,” Jack surmised, rubbing his hands together as we all walked down the school hallway. It was some high school in the area I’d never heard of. “We got the sports and history guy…”
“Represent!” Ryan chimed in.
“…We got The Girl Who Knows Everything…”
“You really have no shame, do you?” Rose humorously asked Jack.
“…We got the Pop Culture Queen…”
“Sorry, me?!” Sarah asked in shock. “Oh wow, we’re screwed.”
Jack ignored her self-doubt. “…We got the one who actually pays attention in her science classes…”
Candy giggled. “I didn’t even know you had one for me.”
“…We got the fastest buzzer hands in the West…” he continued.
His energy was contagious. I chuckled, shook my head, but still mimed pulling a gun out of my holster like I was a cowboy and firing it. He grinned at that.
“…We got the guy who occasionally knows the weirdest shit, very handy in a pickle, I think you’ll agree…” He trailed off, letting the occasional murmur of agreement waft through us. “And! We have: our fearless leader.” He gestured with both hands towards Chadwick.
Chadwick laughed. “Looks like we even have a cheerleader, don’t we Jack?” she humorously noted. I had to admit, the energy was getting to me. I was excited. I was also really nervous – it felt like this group all knew what they were doing, and here I was, some chucklefuck that stumbled in and now got to do the same stuff. And we were at a competition! A competition!
“How many games do we have today?” I asked.
Chadwick looked over the list. “Five total,” she answered. She went on to talk about formalities and rules, but I wasn’t really listening. I was looking over the walls of the school, taking in the sight. I was in a whole new place, doing a whole new thing. It felt like things were slipping into some big dumb routine, and suddenly, here I was… repping Hazelwood. What a world. While taking in the sights, I locked eyes with Jack, who gave me a shrug, a wink, and his trademark big dumb grin. My eyes shifted to Sarah, who gave me a much more subdued smile, telling me just how nervous she was.
My gaze shifted back forwards. Five games, huh? Let’s crush it.
***
During the opening ceremonies we were stuffed into a gymnasium – a small one, it was becoming clear this school wasn’t exactly better off than ours – alongside all of the other teams. Five games, six teams total. It made sense, since we were in a pretty small district, with only eight schools. I guess two schools never got a Quiz Bowl team running or something.
From there, our team got put into some quiet room in the library. It was pretty obvious that this school had to put on this little tournament during a regular school day, and from the looks and suddenly closed doors we got from some teachers in the hallway, some of the staff were not happy about it. But hey, all that mattered came down to these five games. And our first game happened to be against North High School.
North. Great name. I always thought Hazelwood was a dumb name, like, “hey everyone, we’re named after a type of wood,” but North was just a direction. Hey everyone, we go to The School That’s Over There.
The squad we were against seemed kind of plain; exactly what you’d expect from people going to a place called North. The very plain looking teacher – some guy with thick glasses, a dad sweater, and a hairline running for the hills – read aloud the introduction.
“Welcome to Quiz Bowl! I’m Mr. Turner, your quizmaster for this game between Hazelwood and North High. In this match, we have Ryan, Rose, Sarah, and Jason, from Hazelwood High, beginning the round, with the alternatives being Candace and Jack. Do I have those names right?”
An awkward murmur of “yeah” emanated from our side.
“…And we have Noah, Sammy, Krystal, and Finn, from North High. Your alternatives are Hank and Nicole. Do I have those names right?”
“Of course, Mr. Turner,” one of the two girls from North’s side giggled. The quizmaster clearly came from their school. If all else failed, I’m sure I could claim he rigged it in their favor or something. The girl herself was actually really cute; the kind where you felt bad looking at her face so often, but you couldn’t help yourself. She was just so nice to look at. I needed to be careful she wouldn’t throw me off my game or something.
“Alrighty then! We’ll play three rounds of questions, with a minute break between each round, allowing for one swap of players per team between rounds. Now, if the scorekeeper is ready…” He gazed towards Chadwick, who nodded back, holding a pencil. “Good! Everyone, pick up your buzzers, it’s time to play round one of Quiz Bowl.”
This was it. Everyone picked up their buzzers, practically leaning in with anticipation.
“40-point snapshot to begin round one,” Mark declared, reading off of his well-concealed paper. “What is the most widely-spoken Scandinavian language?”
Rose buzzed in. “Swedish.”
“Correct, Hazelwood,” Mr. Turner declared. I smiled at Rose, but she was hyperfocused on the task at hand. “What movie from 2006 starred Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival magicians?”
I paused, then looked around at my table. No one said anything, though behind me, I could see Jack fighting for his life, knowing he couldn’t speak out loud. Eventually, the cute girl from the other team buzzed in. “The Prestige.”
“Correct, North,” Mr. Turner gleefully reported. Ugh, he didn’t need to make it so obvious he wanted his school to win. “Yo-Yo Ma is most famous for playing wh-”
One of the dudes from the other team buzzed in, despite Ryan and Rose mashing their buzzers. “The cello?” he asked.
“Correct, North,” he replied, smiling at the dude. “Of course you’d get that one, Noah,” he added.
Ugh. Blatant disregard for ethics. More like Oliver North High.
“What capital of Saxony was heavily firebombed during World War Two?” Mr. Turner pressed on.
Ryan buzzed in. “Dresden,” he announced confidently.
“Correct, Hazelwood,” Mr. Turner replied. “40-point snapshot, themed. All of the answers of the following four questions will have to do with the Dakotas. What Coen Brothers film is named for North Dakota’s largest city?”
Cutie buzzed in. “Fargo.”
“Correct, North! What architect designed a national monume-”
Ryan buzzed in. “Gutzon Borglum.”
“Correct, Hazelwood. The capital of North Dakota is named after which German leader?”
North Dakota. Bismarck. I buzzed in. “Otto von Bismarck.”
“Correct, Hazelwood.” Jeez, Mr. Turner, at least fake the same enthusiasm for us. I glanced around at the team. We had a good groove going. All we had to do was keep the momentum going.
***
I watched on from the Alternatives table as the round ended. “The words ‘nun,’ ‘gimel,’ ‘hei,’ and ‘shin’ can be found on the sides of what die spun during Hanukkah?” Mr. Turned asked.
The plain guy from North buzzed in. “Dreidel,” he reported.
“Correct, North. What letter is present in ‘fridge’ but not ‘refrigerator’?”
Rose paused, then attacked her button. “D.”
“Correct, Hazelwood, and that’s the match!” Mr. Turner announced. “Give us a minute to confer the results. Feel free, to uh…” He gestured with one hand towards us. “Talk amongst yourselves.”
He didn’t need to tell me twice. I locked eyes with the cutie. “Yo, you were really good,” I told her, even with the space between us.
She chuckled modestly. “Me? Oh wow, that’s so kind, thanks. You did pretty good yourself!”
I was out during the last round and was not at all good in round two, but if anything, the fact she was willing to compliment me meant even more. “My name’s Jason, what’s yours?”
Next to me, I heard Jack snicker.
“I’m, uh, Sammy. Nice to meet you!” she replied hesitantly.
I would have followed up, but Mr. Turner lived up to his name and turned back around to face us. “Okay, the results are in!” he told us. “By a slim margin, Hazelwood won the game with a total of 280 points!”
280? Holy shit, that was terrible by our standards. But I mean, we also won our very first game, so who cared? Hazelwood was on top!
“North came in a respectable second with 260 points,” Mr. Turner went on to report. The cogs turned in my head. Ohh, of course. We were never going to get our usual scores because another team was nabbing up their own points. Still, total points was 540 for the round. We’d gotten more points than that on our own.
“That’s game number one, but there are still four more games today. Hazelwood High, you are going to move to the chemistry lab for your second game, which is room 214, and North, we’re going to the drama room!”
Unceremoniously, people started getting their things, with Chadwick looking at some sort of school map and ushering us away. I couldn’t resist giving one last glance towards Sammy, and calling after her, “uh, good job today! I’ll see you around.”
She smiled in a weird way. “Uh, okay? Thanks,” she replied quietly, quickly making her way out of the room.
I didn’t know how to take that, and caught back up with my group. No one said anything for a bit, but Jack couldn’t contain his laughter after a few steps.
“Did I do something?” I asked the group at large. Even Chadwick couldn’t help but smile.
“You’re going to make our whole school look promiscuous,” Rose flatly stated, clearly finding zero humor in the situation.
“Promis-what?”
“You looked like you were trying to ask her out, my man,” Jack giggled.
“Wha…? I was just being friendly!” I protested.
“You singled out the hottest girl in the team and asked for her name, then awkwardly told her you’d ‘see her around.’ You didn’t even talk to anyone else,” Ryan pointed out, although he clearly found this way more amusing than Rose.
From behind him, Sarah poked out her head, wanting to join in on the fun. “Is this just what you do with girls?” she asked humorously, though as soon as she asked that, any trace of a smile left Ryan’s face. Uh oh…
“Candy, help me out here,” Jack asked Candy, turning to her. “Like, clearly, it was…”
“Oh, definitely,” Candy replied in a calm yet giggly voice. She turned to me as we walked. “Like, no offense, but even if that’s not what you were doing, that’s what it looked like.”
“Jeez,” I replied, scratching the back of my neck, feeling myself blush. “I didn’t even mean it. I just… she was the only one I happened to talk to, that’s all.”
“I think you’re just girl-crazy,” Jack giggled back. “And hey, man, no shame in that. But it doesn’t mean we’re not gonna tease you to hell and back for it.”
“That just means there is shame in it, Jack,” I bitterly replied. I surveyed the group to see that only Jack was still on it, with even Chadwick’s smile being long-gone. I locked eyes with Rose again and, not wanting to be caught looking at her, especially now, without saying something, I whispered to her, “Sorry if I made things weird by talking to her.”
She didn’t bother whispering back. “You always manage to make things weird,” she told me flatly. Jeez. I could feel myself blushing again, for decidedly less fun reasons.
***
Arlo Guthrie High was next. Three of the people at the table seemed utterly uninterested, but one guy stuck out like a sore thumb. A super-skinny six-foot-tall black kid with a child’s face and a weird habit of moving his head around like a bird as if he was always pondering some new information. From the introductions, I learned his name was Llewellyn.
“40-point snapshot to start the round,” Chadwick read aloud. “Ray Croc is credit-”
Llewellyn buzzed in. “McDonald’s,” he said, looking directly at the table.
“Correct, Guthrie,” Chadwick replied. “Flipping a fair coin is one example of what kind of statistical trail that has only two poss-”
Llewellyn buzzed in again. “Bernoulli trial,” he said in a faraway voice. We were definitely against some kind of autistic genius. We were fucked.
“Correct, Guthrie,” Chadwick diligently replied. “What iconic Call of Duty map is set in the slums of Rio de-”
I attacked my buzzer so hard it was probably going to leave a mark, but I wanted to get at least one right answer this game even if my opponent was Sheldon Cooper. “Favela,” I said nearly breathlessly.
Chadwick nodded, giving us the point, as Llewellyn stared at me pointedly, cocking his head to the side and furrowing his brow. I guess that was something he didn’t know he was now adding to the memory bank or whatever he had instead of a brain. “What tart, bright green apple is named for-”
Llewellyn buzzed in. “Granny Smith apple,” he guessed, and got the point. As Chadwick gave him the point, I looked around nervously. Candy caught my face and sympathetically grimaced.
“40-point snapshot, themed. All of the answers of the following four questions will have to do with cult films. What film, named after its story’s chronological duration, showcases a disruption in the North Atlantic C-”
Llewellyn again. “The Day After Tomorrow,” he said, almost excited, like he remembered the whole movie as he said it.
“Correct, Guthrie. What film, the directorial debut of Kevin Smith, sh-”
Who else but Llewellyn? “Clerks.”
“Correct, Guthrie. What film inspired the ‘Dudeism’ religio-”
Llewellyn buzzed in. “The Big Lebowski.”
“Correct, Guthrie. What 1985 movie featured three different endings dependin-”
Llewellyn buzzed in. “Clue!”
Our team openly looked at each other, with Jack admitting out loud, “We’re in trouble.”
***
“The results are in!” Chadwick announced. “It’s fair to say that Arlo Guthrie won this game, with a decisive 530 points!”
Jeez…us Christ. I don’t think any of Llewellyn’s teammates even buzzed in once. They were basically his cheerleaders. And still, the guy managed to almost beat both team’s scores combined of our last game.
“Hazelwood came in second place this time, with a total score of 90 points,” Chadwick continued. I wondered if she was disappointed in us. I probably would be.
I had to respect the guy. He was definitely made for this kind of thing. Especially since I did not want to be forever remembered as the guy that only hit up girls, I cleared my throat. “Hey… Llewellyn? You were really good this game.”
“Okay,” he replied evenly, not looking me in the eyes.
One of his teammates nudged him. “Thank you,” he gently reminded him in a quiet voice.
“Thank you,” Llewellyn added. “You were good too.”
I chuckled. “I got two questions right.”
“Yeah but you were good too,” Llewellyn insisted, still never looking me in the eyes. He didn’t say anything to me after that, with the group being ushered out to their next game. Our next game was in the chemistry lab again, so we got to stay put.
Jack was the first to open his mouth after Arlo Guthrie left. “So Ryan, are you gonna admit you were wrong in person or in writing?”
“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked, pre-angry at Jack.
“I seem to recall a certain somebody going all, ‘Ohhh, Arlo Guthrie are a bunch of lame ducks this year, I checked myself, ohhhh,’” Jack replied, half-joking but half-serious.
“I literally never said that,” Ryan replied with a weirded-out tone.
“Survey says…?” Jack asked, looking around the table at us.
I definitely remembered that, but I also just made up with Ryan, so as soon as Jack made eye contact with me, I merely shrugged.
“Yeah, I remember,” Candy softly said, in a voice that may as well have been a whisper.
“Maybe this is why we shouldn’t make a big deal out of planning these things and just go with the flow,” Rose thought out loud. “If we try to turn this into a numbers game, then we’ll just end up losing.”
“Rose, news flash, this is literally a numbers game,” Ryan spat back bitterly. “What do you think we’re playing for, lollipops? We get points for every question we get right. Numbers rule over this whole thing.”
“Lollipops,” Rose repeated, shaking her head. “The wonderful mind of Ryan Reagan, everyone. Lollipops. I think I’m starting to understand why we lost.”
The pair argued while I decided to reach to my right and poke Chadwick in the arm. She was deliberately tuning us out, but looked up at me when I poked her.
“I think I fit in with this group better when I argued more. What do you think?” I joked.
She gave a small smile and shook her head. I couldn’t tell if she was being polite and didn’t find the situation funny, or if she and I were on the same page, but she quickly looked away. By the time I tuned back into their argument, they’d moved on.
“This still gives us valuable insight,” Ryan insisted. “There’s a big gap in our knowledge: movies.”
“Is our homework to go home and watch ten movies a week, Mr. Reagan?” Jack teased with a genuine smile on his face. He was enjoying this.
“I’m sorry, is me pointing this out making us worse at all? At least I’m trying here,” Ryan rebutted.
The arrival of the next team shut us up. We watched the team start to walk in, and Sarah leaned into the team.
“Leave the petty stuff behind,” she instructed, mainly looking at… Rose of all people. “We’re a team. We’re strongest when we’re a team.”
I smiled at her, and the others clearly agreed with her sentiment too. We’d lost some, now it was time to win some.
The next team we were against was that nerdy team from the bus. Burncoat Senior High School. As soon as they sat down, I had a sinking feeling we were up against a team of Llewellyns, if their attitude on the bus was anything to go by.
“40-point snapshot to start the round,” the adjudicator announced. She was a chubby unhappy-looking woman with her hair in a bun. “What kind of animal is the title character in the Daniel Keyes story Flowers for Algernon?”
I didn’t buzz in, then looked around at my teammates. No one knew. Then I looked around at the other team, who were looking just as unsure. We all slightly chuckled nervously. “Bad start,” I joked, and was rewarded with a few more chuckles.
“No talking unless it’s an answer, please,” the unhappy woman told me. Jeez. “That’s time. The answer was a mouse. In religious studies, who built a boat that-”
I buzzed in. “Noah?”
The unhappy woman made a face as if I interrupted her. “That is correct,” she replied hesitantly. “Point, Hazelwood. What surname was shared by composers Johann Christian, Carl Philip Emmanuel, and Johann Sebasti-”
The other team’s nerdiest guy buzzed in. “B-b-Bach,” he stuttered.
“Correct, Burncoat,” she replied. “What transition metal has the highest thermal and electrical conductivity of any metal?”
Rose buzzed in. “Copper.”
“Incorrect,” the woman replied.
“What?!” Rose asked instinctively.
The woman raised an eyebrow at our team, but waited for the other team to reply. They took advantage of the opportunity to murmur amongst themselves, then one of them buzzed in. “Silver.”
“Correct, Burncoat,” the woman replied, then paused. “I’d like to take the time to remind Hazelwood to follow the rules of this competition. If I have to warn the team again, it might result in a technical disqualification.”
My look definitely turned incredulous. I looked at Rose, who had the most bewildered look on her face. It was so clear, probably even to the other team that didn’t know her, that she was barely holding her unbridled rage in. I stole a glance at Chadwick and could tell even she thought this woman was a piece of work. Not only were we trailing behind the nerd team, but also, this lady clearly wanted us gone regardless.
“40-point ‘what am I’ question,” she continued. “I will give you four clues in order. For each clue I give, the correct answer will be worth ten points less. First clue: a species of nematode is named for me during the fermentation of kombucha. These same nematodes can also appear when creating me from a similar substance known as my ‘mother.’”
As if he had a complex, Jack’s back stiffened as soon as he heard “mother.” Hesitantly yet quickly, he hit his buzzer. “Ooh, are you… vinegar?”
Because she was looking for a reason to antagonize us, the woman sighed. “You can’t ask me questions. You need to tell me.”
“Okay. Um, you’re vinegar,” Jack replied in a weirded-out tone, his energy sucked out of him.
“Correct. Forty points, Hazelwood,” the woman replied.
I barely heard Jack whisper, “I don’t even feel good about it” bitterly to Candy. As nervous as I was that he was openly talking when this tyrant needed to hear us cough to disqualify us at this point, I had to agree. I glanced at Rose on my way back to focusing on the game, and clearly, she was as upset as ever.
***
We were already off to a good start by round three, and luckily, I swapped for Ryan for that round just in time for his big break to arrive.
“40-point special topic: World War II commanders,” the woman announced. The team smirked at Ryan and he jokingly rubbed his hands together in glee. “Who defeated Operation Citadel at Kursk and captured Berlin as a marshal of the Sov-”
Ryan buzzed in. “Georgy Zhukov.”
“Correct, Hazelwood,” she replied with no emotion. “Who was commander-in-chief of America’s Pacific Fleet and of the Allied-”
Ryan buzzed in again. “Admiral Chester Nimitz.” Love him or hate him, he was damn good at remembering his history.
“Correct, Hazelwood. Who trained the Eighth Army for months before leading it to victory at El Alamein, and then-”
Ryan leaned back, flicking the button. “Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.”
One of the nerds grinned, gesturing to Ryan. “He’s getting bored,” he joked, and Ryan joined him in laughter.
“Correct, Hazelwood,” the woman replied, ignoring him. At once, Rose flipped her hand around so her palm faced upwards, as if to ask, ‘what the hell,’ gesturing it to the guy. “As the Supr-” The woman stopped when Rose started circling the hand to get her attention. “Hazelwood, this is your final reminder,” she began.
Chadwick cleared her throat. “I think Rose thinks it’s unfair that you called out our team for speaking during the game, but you’re not applying that same standard to the other team,” she gently but firmly interrupted.
The woman glanced at Chadwick, then towards Rose, not even looking at the other team. “Well…” she began quietly. “I’m sure with how you were acting at the beginning of the game, at least now you understand how it feels.” She went back to her paper as Rose didn’t even bother looking at the woman and whipped her head around to give Chadwick the most ‘oh my GOD’ expression on the planet. “As the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, what American oversaw D-Day and-”
Ryan buzzed in. “That’s General Dwight Eisenhower,” he replied, albeit more quietly this time.
“Correct, Hazelwood,” she replied, and I swear, she was now saying Hazelwood with straight-up disdain. Maybe I was imagining it, who knows, but it wouldn’t even surprise me at this point. The game went on for a few more rounds, and before we knew it, the game was over. Luckily, Hazelwood cleaned up that round, in no small part thanks to Ryan, and we got to hear the most satisfying sentence come out of the tyrant’s mouth.
“Hazelwood has won the game with a total of 410 points,” she declared. “Burncoat Senior High School came in second with 230 points. For the next game, Hazelwood will move to Room 303, the drama room, and Burncoat Senior will be in English Classroom B, room 242. Before that happens, I would like a word with the teacher representative from Hazelwood High, please.”
As always, she managed to suck any good vibes out of the room with her mere presence. Chadwick huffed and followed the woman out of the room.
“Even our victory feels hollow,” Jack muttered, folding his arms.
Rose looked back at the alternatives table to lock eyes with me. “You have my full permission to call her in particular a bitch,” she told me with a fire in her voice that she’d clearly been saving the whole game.
I scratched my chin in mock thought. “Ah jeez, I dunno. That would be pretty sexist of me. The patriarchy affects us all, Rose!”
Rose rolled her eyes so hard it could have affected the Earth’s gravity. I couldn’t resist but press on.
“But hey, I agree with you. It really does suck when someone holds one person to a standard but doesn’t hold another person to that same standard, doesn’t it Rose?”
Jack coughed out of sheer shock and everyone on my team who knew Rose, and knew what I was talking about, turned to her to see her reaction. I didn’t even know why I was doing this, it just kind of felt fun to say. Against all odds, Rose sighed, closing her eyes slowly… and a smile slowly built on her face.
“I am kicking your ass when we get out of here,” she chuckled, turning back around. I chuckled warmly in response.
Ryan looked at the other team. “Sorry if this is, like, weird,” he told them.
“Oh no, you guys are a hundred percent right, she’s a bitch,” one of the three Asian guys piped up. “She’s like this with us too.”
“Thank you! God,” Rose scoffed, folding her arms. “It’s so obvious she’s just in it for the pension.”
“Yeah,” the nerd replied, nodding along. “By the way, you were really good.”
“Thanks, I know,” Rose replied, arms still folded.
“Oh,” the guy replied, deterred by her response. “Well, don’t flatter yourself. You weren’t that good.”
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,” Rose replied with the same even tone, not even bothering to look him in the eye.
The tension hung thick in the room. Jack eventually looked up at the ceiling and loudly sang, “Hands in my pockets, hands in my pockets, hands in my pockets,” to say at least something. Luckily, both teachers walked back in soon after.
“Okay, let’s go,” Chadwick told us, still in the doorway. We sure as hell didn’t need to be told twice. The six of us got up and got out of there as fast as humanly possible.
As soon as we were safely out of the room, Jack piped up. “What did she have to say?” he asked Chadwick.
“I don’t think it would be productive to tell you,” Chadwick replied, then sighed. “How is it you all manage to even get into fights with the teachers?”
“I can’t speak for the others, but for me it’s pure talent,” Jack joked, then left it alone. Poor Chadwick just chuckled in an exhausted manner.
The comment stuck with me though. It was true, everything was just a fight to us. Even our banter was a kind of fighting. I couldn’t help but be reminded of an old Minecraft server I ran with the fellas about a year ago. Even though it started out alright, we started this running joke by griefing each other and destroying each others’ bases. Slowly, over time – I’m talking weeks – the jokes felt meaner and meaner, but we didn’t stop. We kept doing it, because it felt like this was just the thing we did. But then, one of the guys on the server just snapped one day, and had a meltdown, yelling at us and telling us how toxic we were, before logging out and blocking all of us. After that, we all decided as a group that we let our bad habits sneak up on us. Was this… the same kind of thing? Like, sure, I could be a hothead, but I was in good company. Were we all just griefing each other and pretending everything was fine, but in real life?
I turned to Rose. “Hey,” I said to get her attention as we walked. “I hope I wasn’t going too far with that comment I made about double standards. I was just kidding around. Obviously I still respect you a lot.”
Rose gave me a weird look. “I know,” she replied as if it was obvious, with a look of only confusion.
“Cool, okay,” I murmured. I felt myself turning pink as I looked back forwards. Maybe I was wrong. I was so used to not actually looking into a situation… Was this the first time I overthought something? Overthinking sucked.
***
Luckily for us, even if our team had a lot of hotheads, we weren’t fighting with each other at this point, and our mutual hatred of Eva Braun – or whatever her real name was – unified us. Claremont didn’t stand a chance.
“40-point snapout to end the round,” Chadwick read aloud. “Which architect designed the Louvre Pyramid?”
Jack buzzed in. “I.M. Pei.”
“Correct, Hazelwood. What country’s assembly of experts appoints its Supreme Leader, who has control over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?”
Rose buzzed in, beating Ryan by half a second. “Iran,” she answered, even pronouncing it “ee-rahn” instead of “I ran.”
“Correct, Hazelwood. Which famous Hollywood Actor changed their last name from Coppola in order to-”
Sarah buzzed in. “Nicolas Cage.”
“Correct, Hazelwood. Which country primarily speaks the language known as Magyar?”
Claremont’s biggest player, some guy that may as well have ‘Um, Actually’ tattooed on his forehead, buzzed in. “It’s pronounced madyar, and it’s Hungary.”
“Correct, Claremont,” Chadwick confirmed. “And that’s the game! Feel free to talk amongst yourselves as I tally up the scores.”
From the alternatives table, I reached forward and poked Sarah in the back. She turned around and I flashed her a thumbs-up. “Nice job,” I mouthed. To be fully honest, I was just happy to be seated directly behind her and get to see the sights, so to speak, for the last two rounds of the game. For her part, she seemed to be all business during the game, and it wasn’t like I was going to give her The Look in front of Ryan, also at the alternatives table, anyway.
“What?” she instinctively asked.
“I said ‘nice job,’” I told her.
“Oh,” she replied with a slight smile. “Thanks. You were good at the beginning.”
I stopped to think. “Actually, yeah, is there any reason I’m there at the beginning but usually sitting back by the end?”
Ryan spared a glance at the Claremont team before evidently deciding his trade secrets weren’t going to be taken advantage of by a weaksauce team like them. “Your skill is you’re fast on the buzzer,” he told me, as if I didn’t know. If nothing else, Ryan was Ryan. “If we put you in early, your command on the buzzer when you know stuff intimidates players. At the high school level, it’s really hard for them to come back from being intimidated like that.”
Jack was sitting back, arms folded, slowly shaking his head with a grin on his face. “You think you’re so cool, Ryan,” he playfully accused.
Luckily, Ryan turned to him with a smile on his face. “Hey, tell me I’m wrong, bro!”
“Nah, I see it,” Jack admitted, sitting up. “So what, he’s the bruiser, you’re the hitman, and I’m some kinda niche informant?”
Ryan chuckled. “Yeah, and Sarah’s the femme fatale.”
Sarah blushed. “Hey now,” she said to Ryan.
Jack continued. “Which makes Candy the, uh, the innocent-looking one? Y’know, acts like nothing’s wrong, then she swoops in and – Bam?”
Candy giggled. “Jack, I’ve gotten, like, six-”
“You’ve gotten onto the team is what you’ve gotten,” Jack cut in, then smiled. “You’re important, y’know.” He rustled her shoulder in a friendly way.
“Seriously,” Rose added towards Candy. “Stop doubting yourself. Even if you think it’s true, doubting yourself is going to make it worse. You don’t want to make it worse, do you?”
Candy bit her lip. “Yeah, guess not,” she admitted.
“Hey, what are you?” Jack asked Rose now that she was involved.
“Huh?”
“In this mafia bit we’re doing. Who would you say you are?” Jack clarified.
Rose looked around at the group, then shrugged. “I’m the wet blanket that’s not going to be a part of this.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Sarah admitted under her breath. Rose, who must have barely heard her, just sent a lazy expressionless glance Sarah’s way.
“Alright,” Chadwick cut back in. “Hazelwood High wins this one, with a total final score of 390 points. Claremont comes in second place with 310 points. Nice job, both teams.”
“Good game,” one of the guys from Claremont diplomatically told us, reaching across the table to shake Candy’s hand, then Jack’s, then Sarah’s, then he reached to shake Rose’s.
“No thanks, I don’t shake hands,” she told him.
He eyed her for a second, then something on her shirt caught his eye. “Can I salute you instead?” he asked with some kind of knowing voice.
The question clearly caught her off guard. “Huh?”
“That pin. JROTC, right? It’s nice to see a fellow Cadet.”
The nonchalant look melted off of Rose’s face. “Wow,” she eventually admitted. “Alright, charmer, I’ll shake your hand.” She reached her hand out and shook his hand, which he eagerly accepted. The two got into some conversation about Cadet stuff before Chadwick interrupted them telling us about our final game. Rose was still nonchalant about it, but the guy had to be pried off of her, with Rose slightly smirking to herself as the guy left.
Candy broke the ice. “Looks like everyone from Hazelwood is trying to get with people from the other teams,” she joked.
“Don’t even,” Rose replied icily. “There’s a mutual understanding you get with Cadets. I don’t expect you guys to understand that, but there is.”
“So all I gotta do to get my five bucks back is join the JROTC, huh?” Jack joked.
Rose smiled cheekily at him as we all stood up and got our things. “You can try but you’re not getting it back.”
Before long, we were back in the hallway, walking to our next challenge. As we walked, Sarah clung to me. “Sorry she’s being a hypocrite,” she told me.
“Huh?”
“Oh, you know. Rose. Acting like you were hitting on Sammy then talking to that Cadet guy,” she clarified.
“Oh. Uh, it doesn’t bother me,” I admitted.
“Wow. That’s new for you,” she joked, then glanced at Rose.
“You two not getting along right now?” I asked.
She shrugged. “We have our ups and our downs,” she admitted.
“Mostly downs,” I pointed out.
“Right now, maybe,” she admitted. “She has been kind of a bitch to Ryan lately. Plus, she’s, like… toying with you.”
I looked at Sarah, puzzled. “Really? How?”
“I dunno, she’s just being more friendly with you, just to be all weird a second later,” she thought out loud. “I just don’t want you thinking that she’s… that she… you know.”
I couldn’t help but sport a shit-eating grin. “Sarah…” I said just above a whisper. “You sound jealous as fuck.”
Sarah turned pink and said nothing.
I chuckled at her non-response. “But yeah, I get it. Don’t worry, I’m not dumb. Just because she’s, y’know, tolerant of me… it doesn’t mean I’m going to bend over backwards for her. Plus, I might think she’s cool, but Jack thinks Candy’s cool, and he has a girlfriend.”
Sarah moved her head in a shrugging motion. “I guess,” she conceded.
“Believe it or not…” I continued slyly, running my fingertips along Sarah’s hand as we walked, “She’s not the one I got eyes for right now.”
“Jason!” she whispered fiercely, then glanced back. “Not in front of him.”
I chuckled again and grabbed her hand, squeezing it, before letting go. “Wanna ride back on the bus together?”
She blushed. “Um… y-yeah,” she admitted.
***
Fuller High was our last opponent, and everyone was ready. Hazelwood was coming into this game with three victories. If we could win this one, there was no question we’d come in second place, after Arlo Guthrie of course. Even though it was a coincidence, Fuller had also won three of their four games, so everyone was ready. Who cared if the number of victories didn’t matter? It was game time!
A handsome tall teacher in a neck-straining white-collared shirt took the papers. “Welcome to Quiz Bowl,” he greeted us all. “I’m Mr. Tempest, your quizmaster for this game between Hazelwood and S.C. Fuller High. In this match, we have Ryan, Jason, Jack, and Candace, from Hazelwood High, beginning the round, with the alternatives being Candace and Jack. Have I got the correct names?”
I had no clue why, but my pulse was pounding in my ears. I was nervous. Even though I had gone through this whole thing literally four other times today, this somehow felt the most monumental. Luckily, a certain someone noticed, and I locked eyes with Sarah for just long enough for her to give me a reassuring smile and a wink. I smiled back, facing the table, just in time for Mr. Tempest to tell us to pick up our buzzers.
“40-point snapshot to begin the round,” he told us. “What type of cloud, with a name derived from the Latin words for ‘heaped’ and ‘rainstorm,’ forms-”
A white guy with a varsity jacket buzzed in. “Cumulonimbus,” he said with a confident voice.
“Correct, Fuller,” Mr. Tempest replied. “Who was the first treasury secretary of the United State-”
Didn’t everyone know this? History class was mandatory. He was on the ten-dollar bill. “Alexander Hamilton,” I answered, beating seemingly everyone else on the buzzer.
“Correct, Hazelwood,” Mr. Tempest said with a nod. “In chess, the bishop originally represented what animal?”
We looked at each other. Ryan eventually shook his head quickly and lightly, wordlessly telling us, ‘don’t guess.’ We ran out the time. “Time. The answer was ‘elephant.’ What ‘lord of the red land’ murdered and mutilated his brother Osiris and-”
Another guy from Fuller buzzed in, a brown guy with glasses and a trendy haircut. “Set,” he replied in a bro-y voice.
“Correct, Fuller,” Tempest replied. “What Canadian media theorist coined the phrase, ‘the medium is the message’?”
The same guy buzzed in, chuckling with his teammates. “Marshall McLuhan,” he said with a laugh.
Mr. Tempest had the same smile on his face. They must have had an inside joke about Canadian media theorists. “Correct, Fuller,” he confirmed.
They certainly weren’t going down without a fight, and they were going to be tough competition. But that was okay. We could take them.
***
Mercifully, I had made it to the final round this time, alongside Rose, Ryan, and Sarah. Fuller was no joke, and even though we had made some progress on this, it could easily be lost.
“40-point themed blitz: culture of the Weimar Republic,” Mr. Tempest read aloud. “What architectural movement originated in Weimar Germany under the leadership of Walter Gropius?”
Rose buzzed in. “Bahaus,” she said with confidence.
Mr. Tempest clicked his tongue. “Incorrect. Fuller?”
The varsity jacket guy buzzed in. “Is it Bauhaus?”
“Correct, Fuller,” Tempest replied. I saw Rose attack her forehead with her palm in sheer shame. I wanted to comfort her, but there was no time. “Who collaborated with Kurt Weill on
The Threepenny Opera?”
Ah yes, that thing everybody knows. Annoyingly, Fuller allowed the question to be fully read, and with confidence and swagger, the trendy haircut guy lazily hit the buzzer. “Bertolt Brecht,” he told Tempest.
“Correct, Fuller,” Tempest replied.
One of the other guys in the team joined in with a smile, and started… singing. “Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne…”
I thought they were being weirdos, but of course, weirdos doing weirdo things were like a mating call to Jack. He, of fucking course, joined in. “Und die trägt er im Gesicht…” The other team hooted and hollered, and Jack quickly added, “Can I- Can I just-?” and got up from the alternatives table to high-five the team. They eagerly accepted, and the two teams shared a laugh. I was halfway between embarrassed to even know Jack and… kinda happy. It seemed like a sweet moment.
Luckily, both teachers only saw humor in the interruption. “Uh, both teams,” Mr. Tempest chuckled, “are reminded to refrain from singing opera songs and high-fiving during the game. If I may continue…” He chuckled again then began to read. “What expressionist filmmaker created films such as Die Nibelungen, M, and Metropolis?”
Both teams sat in silence. “No? Time. The answer was Fritz Lang. ‘If You Could See Her’ and ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’ are songs in what musical set in-”
Rose buzzed in. “Candide,” she said, then immediately winced. “No, w-”
“Incorrect,” Mr. Tempest reported. “Fuller?”
Rose squeezed her eyes shut and set her forehead down on her closed fist. She looked like she was about to cry. The guys on the other team, sensing her frustration, spoke softly. “Uh, Cabaret,” the guy with the trendy haircut answered.
“Correct, Fuller,” Mr. Tempest said with a nod. “Okay everyone, not to make this dramatic, but glancing at the numbers here, we are literally even. There are two sections left in this game. It’s going to be a close one.”
I looked around at the others. The bros from Fuller were nodding confidently, staring us down, though they were doing their best to avoid eye contact with Rose, who looked about as distraught as she did the last time I looked at her. I nudged her. “You good?”
“Shut up,” she whispered back, not moving.
““40-point individual answer relay,” Mr. Tempest read aloud. “Each team will have the opportunity to answer up to four questions, one person at a time. As with regular rounds, each person has to buzz in, but can only answer a question once. If a team gets all four questions correct, they get ten bonus points. If a team member gets any questions wrong or no team member buzzes in, the relay stops and you only get the points you’ve previously earned. No points can be lost in the relay. Consultation is permitted.” He turned to Fuller. “Fuller, since you are to my right, you’ll be going first. Your category is national borders.”
“Fucking hell,” Rose sighed to herself. She was great at geography.
“What two countries are mostly demarcated by the Durand Line? Travellers often cross the Khyber Pass on trips between these countries.”
Trendy haircut guy buzzed in. “Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he answered, then set his buzzer down and leaned back.
“Obviously,” Rose grumbled.
“Correct,” Mr. Tempest reported. “What two countries share the longest land border in the world, including a long stretch along the 49th parallel?”
The team murmured to themselves, then a tall guy with a thin face buzzed in. “USA and Canada,” he answered, then also put his buzzer down.
“Correct,” Mr. Tempest said with a nod. “Russia and what other country share the second-longest land border in the world?”
Varsity jacket guy held up a hand as if to say, ‘I got this,’ and buzzed in. “Kazakhstan.”
Mr. Tempest paused. “Correct. If you win this next one, Josh, you win the team 20 points. According to the original lyrics of its national anthem, what country claims the Memel River as its eastern border, though in modern times its eastern border lies on the Oder-Neisse line?”
The last guy, Josh, looked bewildered, and turned to his team. They murmured for a bit, and he buzzed in. “Switzerland.”
“Sorry, incorrect. The correct answer was Germany. Fuller wins 30 points for their individual relay. Hazelwood, your category is mathematical objects.”
I heard Rose groan next to me.
“What mathematical object represents a quantity with both direction and magnitude?”
“Okay, strategy,” Ryan directed, beckoning us into his Cone of Knowledge. “No buzzing in immediately.”
“I’m screwed, I don’t know math at all,” Sarah admitted.
“Perfect,” Ryan replied, not skipping a beat. “Buzz in. The answer is a vector.” He looked around, and got no nods. “Right?”
“Dude, I do not give a shit-” I looked around sheepishly. “Um, heck about math.”
I heard Chadwick sigh behind us.
“We need an answer, Hazelwood,” Tempest reminded us.
“Just do it,” Rose urged Sarah, her heart not in it.
Sarah buzzed in. “Vector.”
“Correct,” Tempest replied. Sarah sighed and sat back. “What mathematical object has exactly one output for each element of its domain?”
We entered Ryan’s Cone of Knowledge again. “I don’t even know what those words mean,” I confessed.
Ryan sighed annoyedly. “Okay, fine. I’m pretty sure that’s just describing a function.”
“Function, yeah,” Rose said with a nod. “I was about to say it too.”
“Go ahead,” Ryan said to me.
I shrugged and buzzed in. “A function.”
“Correct,” Tempest replied. “What is the three-dimensional analogue of the polygon?”
“Analogue?” Rose asked Ryan.
“I think that’s just literally a version of it,” Ryan thought out loud. “The three-dimensional version of the polygon.”
“Then that’s just a polyhedron,” Sarah contributed. “…Right? I’ve heard that word before. It sounds three-dee.”
Ryan shrugged and buzzed in. “A polyhedron.”
“Correct,” Tempest replied. “Indicated with round brackets, what kind of interval does not contain its endpoints?”
Rose sat in silence for a second. “Yeah, I have no clue,” she admitted in a stressed voice. “I dunno.”
“Well, we gotta answer something,” Ryan countered. “You can’t lose points. May as well.”
“I don’t even know what kinds of intervals there are. This topic sucks,” Rose spat back, her voice starting to quiver.
Contain. Contain its endpoints. If it doesn’t contain something, it has to be…
“Try ‘open,’” I guessed.
“Are you sure?” Rose asked.
“No,” I admitted. “It’s a guess. Even if you get it wrong though, we’re still even.”
Rose stared at me for a bit before hesitantly hitting her buzzer. “Open.”
Tempest paused. It was a guess, so it wasn’t going t- “Correct. Hazelwood gets fifty points for clearing the relay.”
“Holy sh- cool!” I sputtered.
“Nice!!” Ryan exploded at the same time. We had a whole twenty point-advantage coming into the end of the game. We had this.
“40-point snapshot to end the round,” Tempest carried on. “Incheon and Busan are cities in what country?”
Sarah buzzed in. “South Korea,” she answered.
“Correct, Hazelwood,” Tempest confirmed. Thirty points. “What is Popeye the Sailor Man’s girlfriend named?”
Josh from the other team buzzed in. “Olive Oyl.”
“Correct, Fuller,” Tempest acknowledged. It was back to a twenty-point advantage. “What is the smallest kind of blood vessel in the human body?”
Rose buzzed in. “Veins.”
“Incorrect,” Tempest replied. “Ful-” Rose groaned in pure anguish and couldn’t stop herself from hitting the table. Mr. Tempest paused, clearly not amused with that behavior at all. “Hazelwood… don’t do that. Am I understood?”
Rose’s breathing clearly showed she was barely holding back tears.
“Am I understood?”
“Yeah,” Rose said in the tiniest, shakiest voice imaginable. Her eyes remained shut.
Mr. Tempest kept his gaze on her for a second, then turned to the other team. Varsity jacket guy buzzed in. “Uh, capillary.”
“Correct,” Tempest acknowledged. Holy shit. With Rose’s point penalty, we were completely tied, and there was one question left in the fucking round. This was it. “After the original release of Final Fantasy Fourteen shut down in 2012…” Tempest began.
Holy fuck. Video games. This was it. I could win this.
“…the game relaunched in 2013, under what new name?”
I knew this. I was fairly confident I knew this. I buzzed in, almost feeling faint. The winning guess was mine. “That would be…” I began breathily. “A Realm Reborn.”
“That is correct,” Mr. Tempest reported. Our team broke out into celebration, as the team opposite us chuckled at our display.
“No offense, but, you know it’s the points that matter in Districts and not the victories, right?” The trendy haircut guy laughed. “We basically got the same score.”
“That sounds like something a loser team would say!” Jack replied in a jokingly overly cocky voice.
Mr. Tempest went over the numbers again to confirm them, and reported Hazelwood won. Hazelwood 340, S.C. Fuller 330. Most of the team was still celebrating, but as soon as the game was confirmed over, Rose quickly got up from the desk and stormed off, slamming the door to the hallway behind her.
Our celebration evaporated quickly. Mr. Tempest shook his head slightly in disapproval, and turned to Chadwick.
Chadwick could only shrug. “Our students this year are… passionate,” she told him. “I’ll go find her.”
“Can I go instead?”
The team and Chadwick turned to face the source of that question: me. I just stared at Chadwick. “I’ve gone to get her from the art room instead. She might want to… give some honest thoughts, and she might hold back with a teacher.”
“I already might have to track down one student running around. I don’t want to track down two,” Chadwick rebutted. “I’ll go.”
That was… unfortunately, a great point. “Okay, can I just poke my head out in the hallway? If she’s there, I’ll go get her, try to calm her down, and bring her back. If she’s not there, I’ll sit back down and you can go.”
Chadwick sighed. “If you feel that strongly she’d appreciate it, I suppose. Go ahead.” She paused until I got to the door. “It’s nice that you care so much.”
I looked at the team. Jack was smiling approvingly, flashing me a thumbs-up. Candy just looked unsettled that the whole thing happened. Ryan looked unbothered, but Sarah sure looked bothered, probably more by the fact I cared about Rose at all. The bus ride back was going to be fun. I opened the door and poked my head out…
…And sure enough, Rose was in some corner, facing a wall. I went back into the room to nod at Chadwick and point to the hallway, then exited the room, walking up quietly behind Rose. Remembering how easily startled she was, I cleared my throat. “Hey, just so you know, I’m behind you,” I awkwardly said.
Rose, still looking away from me, lowered her head. “Go away.”
“I asked to check up on you instead of Chadwick. One way or another, someone is going to be out here with you. I figured you’d rather it be me.”
“I’d rather it be you?” Rose scoffed. “Sure. You can’t even make your parents happy they had you. Why the hell would I want to see you, ever?”
I paused, and winced. Boy, she certainly kept that ol’ zinger tucked under her hat for a rainy day. Mentioning my parents once was an accident, multiple times though… Clearly she was ready to say whatever to piss me off whenever she wanted.
I squeezed my fist tightly, but didn’t move. Eventually, I saw her turn around. Her eyes were red and puffy. She looked angry, but saw the expression on my face, and her look turned to unsure.
I wasn’t going to let her have her victory. She wanted to get a rise out of me. Too bad. “There, see?” I said quietly. “If Chadwick was out here and you said something that awful to her, she could suspend you. But hey, at least I don’t have that kind of power.” I paused, and she didn’t say anything. “I just want to be here until it goes away.”
“What goes away?” she asked quietly.
“Your anger, I guess,” I admitted. “I get it. I hit desks when I lose too.”
“You didn’t in there,” Rose pointed out. A tear fell down her face.
“Video games,” I clarified. “I’m, uh, believe it or not, a kind and fun-loving person by comparison when I do Quiz Bowl.” It got a light chuckle out of Rose, even though she still looked miserable. “I get that when you’re in the heat of it, you’ll do anything to push people away.” A pause wafted through us. “You’ll say anything too.” I paused again. “I bet it sometimes catches even you by surprise.”
“S-stop…” she said weakly. Another tear streamed down her face.
“It’s okay,” I told her. I felt the emotion of the moment, and leaned against the other wall. “I think I get it. Whenever I hit desks and get angry at other people after I lose, I don’t think it’s because I feel powerful. I think it’s…” I felt my throat get dry. Were my eyes getting misty? “It’s because I felt weak. Like, I felt like other people might hurt me. Because, uh, you’re right. My parents, uh…” I breathed. I was really about to cry in front of a girl. “God damn, I think I’m catching whatever you’ve got,” I added with a slight laugh.
“Way to make my situation about you,” Rose commented. I looked at her, and she did her best attempt at a smile.
“I shouldn’t have-”
“Ignore what I said. Go on,” she insisted.
“You really want me to?” I asked. She nodded. I nodded back, and took in air, feeling the potential for tears falling away. “Um, yeah, my parents hit me. And I hate that shit.”
“Past or present?” she asked gently.
“Um, kinda both, but it’s getting less frequent now, so… yayyyy,” I said in mock victory. “Some days I wanna pretend I’m so cool with it, like, it doesn’t affect me at all. But some days I hit desks or call people bitches without meaning to. Then I feel bad afterwards, and I wish I could take it back. But if anyone corners me about it, I get angry at them too.”
“Sounds like they maybe shouldn’t have cornered you,” Rose observed.
“If they didn’t, someone else would, remember?” I asked with a slight smile, knowing full well she was talking about herself now. “Do your parents hit you?”
“You really need to work on asking things more gently,” she murmured. “Uh, no.” I intentionally didn’t reply, and it worked. She kept talking after a bit. “But some stuff has happened. I’m going to make a therapist really happy someday, I bet. I just… need to not drag people down. I needed to be strong in there.”
“Rose, the only weak thing you did was-” I started, then caught myself. I tried to salvage it, but just looked down in discomfort.
“You were going to say the only weak thing I did was hit the table and run out,” Rose noted. I shrugged. “That’s rude,” she added, then paused. “Good job catching it before you said the full thing.”
“Jeez. Good thing you never say anything rude,” I joked.
“Well, since you’re emasculating yourself like this for me…” Rose reasoned, mostly to herself. “Yeah, I always hate myself after I say it. It’s just… it’s there, I know it hurts, so when I’m feeling… when I’m just feeling so angry that I need to get through, it just… it just comes out. But yeah, I hate myself for saying that, like, right now I hate myself for that.”
“Yeah, well…” I trailed off, then looked at her. “I don’t hate you.”
“I’m really sorry,” she admitted with her full voice. “I’m sorry for saying that shit. I’m sorry for being hard to talk to. I’m sorry I did that thing where I got on your case for talking during games, but I never got on Sarah or Candy or whoever it was.”
“What, that? That’s long over,” I reassured her.
“You brought it up today. That means it’s still on your mind,” She pointed out. “Even if it’s a joke.” She paused. “You thought the same thing about me when I brought up your parents.”
I snickered. “Bullseye,” I admitted. “You really are smart.”
“Thanks, I know,” she replied evenly. Her voice was back.
“Your apology was very kind,” I found myself saying. I got up from leaning on the wall. “I fully accept.”
“Even if it’s going to come up again?” Rose asked. “Just because I’m saying sorry now doesn’t mean I’m magically going to change.”
“I don’t think I would even want you to,” I admitted.
Rose looked down at the floor. “Damn,” she admitted, then looked at me. “I’m still going to kick your ass when we’re back, you know.”
“Bring it on, Rose,” I replied with a smile. “Do you think you’re ready to go back to the room?”
She looked back at the door. “Go back in and tell them to wait ten more seconds,” she instructed me. “And I never, ever said this, but, you’re right.”
“About what?” I asked.
“You coming out here was way better than Chadwick,” she admitted. She slowly gave me a soft, genuine smile. “Go.”
I did as I was told. I think the old me would have been disappointed I was taking orders from Rose, but I think I was glad to know I was disappointing him.
***
I didn’t tell Sarah absolutely everything, but I was gone for a good few minutes, and she wanted to know the details. To an extent, everyone did, but I kept my mouth shut until the bus ride started. The hum of the bus engine meant that I could tell Sarah in a hushed voice and be reasonably confident no one else could hear. She nodded along with practically every word.
At the end of the story, she smiled at me. “You know,” she began. “The first day I saw you on your own in the library, and we talked… remember that? I thought that I was going to walk away thinking I didn’t like you. I thought you were going to be rude or judgmental or something. And, I mean, you still have your moments, but you were… you kinda surprised me with how thoughtful you were, deep down.”
I paused. “That was a random thought,” I argued.
“No it isn’t. I bet Rose saw that same side of you today,” she replied. “You’re unpredictable, Jason. There’s a genuinely nice guy inside that heart of yours. You just like to keep it hidden away sometimes.”
“I mean, I guess,” I replied with a shrug. “Everyone’s nice sometimes. I don’t think that makes me special.”
“I suppose it doesn’t, but in that case, none of us are,” Sarah replied, then paused. “And I guess you’re right, everyone is nice some of the time. I know that was probably a nice moment, but… watch out for her. And I’m not saying that to be possessive or whatever. She’s going to be mean.”
I nodded.
“And when she gets mad, she’s going to say anything she can to make you hurt.”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I noticed that.”
“And it succeeds, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does,” I admitted, looking out the window. “I didn’t tell you this part, but when I first tried to talk to her, she tried to tell me that, uh, my parents… that my p-parents aren’t happy with me existing.”
“That’s awful,” Sarah replied sympathetically.
I shrugged, still looking out the window. “It’s spot-on,” I rebutted. “You just live with that kinda thing.”
“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have to,” Sarah replied swiftly. “From them or from her. I don’t care if you two shared a nice moment or whatever, that kind of thing is unacceptable.” I didn’t say anything in response, and Sarah kept going. “She’s going to do it again, and the closer you get to her, the more another thing she says like that is going to hurt.”
“I know,” I admitted softly. “But if I push her away because she might do that… I’m just doing what made her so closed-off in the first place. There has to be a better way.”
Sarah sighed. “I honestly think the best thing to do is just wait until she grows up. Once she can be nice to be around without being ready to attack you the moment she feels like it, then she can be a friend.” She paused again. “I took a chance on you because I thought you wouldn’t be like that forever. And I think I was right.”
“And what, she can’t do that either?” I asked.
“Jason, I like you a lot, but I’ve known you for, what, a few months? I’ve known Rose for over a year. She hasn’t changed. You’ve changed in way less time.”
“I’m not going to give up any hopes of friendship with her just because I’m a miracle case,” I chuckled seriously.
Sarah chuckled too. “That’s fair. Just do your best not to get hurt in the meantime. I worry about you.”
“Now who’s catching feelings?” I teased, taking my left hand and placing it on her thigh.
Sarah bit her lip when she felt me squeeze her thigh. “I’m not catching feelings,” she rebutted through gritted teeth. She went into her bag and retrieved a jacket, then tactfully placed it over her lap, overtop my hand. She then shimmied closer to me, and placed her bag next to her, at the perfect angle to cover everything up. She turned to me and winked at me.
I felt my mouth go dry. Sarah was bolder than I thought. I was just planning to tease her by touching her leg, fully expecting her to turn pink and shoo my hand away. But here she was, reacting as if we’d planned this or something – and we certainly did not – and seemingly, encouraging me to continue.
Experimentally, I squeezed her leg, and watched for her reaction. She bit her lip and started to move her arm. I didn’t even notice, but the jacket was covering my lap too. I looked around – yeah, maybe if someone got up and looked intently they could see what we were doing, but to most angles, her bag was in the way anyway. Coupled with the jacket, I wasn’t the only one in the clear to fool around; so was she.
As soon as I figured out what she was doing, I naturally became rock hard. She felt me as I was growing, and even though my thighs naturally jolted once or twice at her touch, she still managed to feel my cock come to life, going from limp to rock-hard.
“Here?” I almost gulped.
She winked in response. “We should probably talk about something though,” she admitted, grabbing my shaft and holding it.
“You are way bolder than I thought,” I admitted breathily, shaking my head, enjoying the feeling of her hand gripping my dick imprint.
She smiled. “You’re somehow less bold than I thought,” she teased.
My expression faded. A challenge, huh? Maybe she forgot I already won us a competition today. I was ready to win again. I shifted my hand around slightly to gain more reach and then, while trying to make my actions seem effortless, I undid the button on her jeans.
Her smile melted away as she realized what I was doing. Given Sarah wasn’t exactly a thin girl, it was kind of a challenge to maneuver my hand in, but her jeans weren’t tight and I also was discovering that the media were a bunch of liars. Big girls were pretty fucking hot. My hand slipped inside and, after Sarah readjusted her sitting position, still with a look of shock on her face, my hand slipped lower and lower. Eventually they made contact with her pussy lips. I heard her suck in air, then bite her lip. She matched me, slowly but confidently slipping her hand inside my pants.
I blushed at the contact of her hand on my bare shaft and elected to look out the window, even as I began to find a way to play with her clit. I heard her gentle sighs next to me, though with the bus engine whirring away, I’m confident no one else could have heard her. We were safe to do this… but that didn’t make it any less exciting. I was fingering a hot girl on a fucking bus, and she was trying to jack me off. This was insane.
With both of us having our pants on and trying to make our movements not obvious, the angles weren’t perfect, but there was something so intimate about doing this. It would have felt physically better if she was just jacking me off on her bed, but something about this was… kinda magical. Eventually, I looked back at her as I felt my finger getting wetter with the slickness of her juices, and she returned my gaze. She had a full flush on her face that made me unable to hide my smile. In a shy way, she smiled back, continuing her efforts below the jacket.
If I had things my way, I would have continued things right then and there. Maybe taken my pants off and made her blow me, or thrown her jeans to her ankles and had full access to fingering her pussy. Fuck, why stop there? In Imagination Land I could have thrown her over the seat and fucked her silly. Sadly, here in reality, not only were we already risking a lot, but the bus was nearing Hazelwood. I could feel Sarah’s legs closing, and I looked around, then sighed unhappily. Slowly, my fingers retreated from her pants, as hers did from mine.
“Sorry,” she whispered in my ear.
“I don’t suppose you want to go back to your place or something,” I murmured back. I turned to her to see she was giving me a weird look. “…What?”
She laughed condescendingly. “Jason, it’s not even lunchtime yet. We still have school,” she told me. I looked at the school out the window in bewilderment. “And my parents will definitely be home today.”
I let my head hit the bus seat and groaned. Sarah just laughed. “Don’t groan, I’m going to have to deal with it too.”
“I’ve got blue balls,” I whined in a quiet voice now that the engine was calming down.
Sarah lowered an eyebrow. “Blue balls is just you feeling like you’re aching to get off. It might sound crazy, but girls feel that way too. We just haven’t invented a term to guilt people about it.” Her face softened. “Besides, what do you want me to do about it here?”
“Nothing, you’re right,” I conceded, watching her get up. My eyes were definitely glued to her ass. Fuck. If only we didn’t have fucking school…
“Wanna skip?” I breathed hopefully.
She looked at me and laughed. “You are so needy,” she laughed. “Maybe I can go to the library after school today. Maybe.”
I smiled at her as she started to walk off the bus. I could feel Ryan’s eyes on me, but whatever. Districts was over. He could go back to being a jealous bitch. Hell, after knowing his girl wanted to fool around on a bus, I felt nothing but emboldened. Maybe I could even do the unthinkable, and yoink his girl from under his nose.
I turned to look at him and realized… he wasn’t looking at me at all. He turned to me and gave a polite smile. “Nice work today,” he told me, before getting off the bus. Next to him, I saw…
Rose. She was still sitting, and gave me a look. She shrugged, and stood up.
“You good?” I asked her.
She shrugged again. “Ryan wanted to talk. We argued.”
“What about?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said dismissively. “I feel stupid.”
“You’re not stupid,” I told her.
“I don’t know how much that means coming from you,” she told me, and we stared at each other for a bit before breaking out into mutually understanding smiles. “Saw you sitting next to Sarah. The crush is going well, huh?”
It was my turn to shrug. “Like you said, doesn’t matter.”
“Ha, touché,” she admitted. “Just don’t make things too weird if you don’t get anywhere with her.” She started to get up, then gave me a look. It looked… mischievous. “But then again… maybe you’d need to worry about making things too weird if things go in the other direction too.”
My smile faded. What did she mean? “Huh?”
“Just saying, be careful what you wish for,” she simply said, then walked into the bus hallway. “Do you trust me?”
“Hell no,” I laughed. “But go on.”
“Good answer,” she told me. “Just be careful with her.”
“Why are you saying that?”
She gave me another look. “Because after today, I don’t mind looking out for you. If you’re willing to tell me I can be awful and you’ll still stick by me…” She looked off. “I can’t really stop you from calling me a ‘friend,’ right? And isn’t that what friends do? Look after each other?”
I nodded, a confused look on my face. “Yeah, that’s sweet and all, but I meant, why do I need to be careful of Sarah in particu-”
She shrugged again and, mid-sentence, walked off the bus, leaving me standing there. I never even considered it, but… did those two have some kind of history? I was not expecting the Quiz Bowl team out of every club to have some kind of history, but even with everything else that had gone down, this was the first time I fully realized I had no clue what kind of group I was becoming a part of.
This piece was made possible via commission. If you enjoy what you’re reading and want your own story written by Bashful Scribe, check out the Commission Page and commission him to make your erotic story ideas come to life.
Bashful Scribe 