Adam

As I was walking down the hallway, Max suddenly fell into place beside me. “We should set up a schedule to work on the lit project together,” he said.

My body annoyingly buzzed at the feeling of him standing next to me—and the suggestion that we needed to schedule a time to see each other again later. I flashed back to my conversation with Sasha to try to keep myself grounded. The last thing I needed was to develop a crush on a guy who could be straight.

“Maybe grab coffee after school?” I suggested, agreeable to the idea of meeting. I was just going to have to make sure I stayed reeled in and didn’t let myself get carried away with the ridiculous thoughts I was having about Max and his arms.

“I already have plans today after school,” Max said. When I just stared at him, he gave a little sigh. “I have test prep and fencing today.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Tutoring.”

“After debate one day?” I asked.

“I usually go straight into something after debate,” Max said.

It was quickly becoming obvious that Max ran an incredibly tightly packed schedule. I didn’t know why I was so surprised to hear it—Max radiated the high-achieving type. Every area of his life was under control. Of course his schedule would be too.

I let out a small sigh, too, not liking the direction this was going. Max seemed to be able to pick up on the inherent lack of incompatibility in our schedule.

“What works for you?” he asked, which was nice of him, considering it was obvious that his schedule was going to be the harder one to work around.

“I don’t really have much. I just work at a local bookstore on the weekends. I kind of figure out my schedule as it comes,” I said and could see the pain in Max’s face. It was obvious he could not imagine living a lifestyle where things were not carefully mapped out. It wouldn’t surprise me if he planned out his schedule on a month-by-month timeline.

“Okay,” Max said.

“When’s the next time you have free?” I asked, trying that approach rather than having to make him tell me his entire schedule in full.

“I…” Max said, taking so long to think it made me wonder if there was no easy answer. This might be impossible. I could tell from his expression that trying to navigate this was stressing him out.

“Just tell me when you’re free, and I’ll figure out my schedule around that, okay?” I finally said, wanting to cut the torture. “We don’t need to pick a time right now. Let’s not overthink it.”

Max looked almost offended by my words. He stared at me for a moment, taken aback. I wasn’t sure what part of what I said got to him, but it was obvious I’d struck a nerve.

“If that’s what works for you,” he said.

A rush of agitation flooded my chest. I suddenly felt stupid for how distracted I’d been all day by his muscles and his laugh. That was clearly all Max had to offer—he was eye candy. I was never going to get anything else out of him. Hell, I didn’t even know if he was into men. What was the point?

“Works for me. You sound pretty tied up,” I said, not even trying to hide the irritation in my voice.

***

Max

I didn’t understand where Adam’s frustration was coming from. It was difficult to schedule, but we’d be able to find time—I just needed a second to think about it. I didn’t think he needed to be so weird over this. It was such a random hill to die on.

“I like having a full schedule. It helps me to know what’s coming next,” I said, suddenly feeling defensive over my schedule. Adam and I hardly knew each other; what business did he have saying anything at all to me about the way I ran my life? If anything, not having a schedule seemed infinitely more unreasonable.

“But when do you find time to chill? To do things purely because they’re fun?” Adam asked. “Do you have to schedule that too?”

I didn’t like the challenge—or judgment—in his voice. “It’s an important year,” I said, tight-lipped. “I’m thinking about college applications.”

“Right. But you have a lot of options, right? That’s what they pride themselves on here—the options to go to the best schools.”

“There are options and then there are the best schools,” I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted it. I sounded like a complete ass, the kind of guy I had no interest in being. I’d always done everything I could to not let Cypress go to my head, even if we were inherently superior because of our school and resources. Now, here I was talking to someone who’d been brought here on full scholarship about how I was too good for just any school.

I immediately backpedaled, bringing myself back down to a more level and less irritated place. “My dad wants me to go to his alma mater: Harvard,” I said, keeping my voice mellow. Just saying it out loud filled my body with an indescribable grip of anxiety. It’d started happening now that we were inching closer and closer to applications getting submitted. I felt it everywhere in my body, this kind of visceral fear I didn’t feel thinking about anything else. “What about you? Do you have a first choice?”

“Yale,” Adam said simply. His phone buzzed, and he looked down. “I have to take this. I’ll see you at debate practice.”

As he walked off, I found it hard to fight the smile forming at my lips. It felt stupid to be amused by our conversation, but I couldn’t help it. Of course Adam’s first choice would be Harvard’s rival—we’d been rivals for years. Why would college be any different?

***

Adam

I tapped my pencil against the desk, getting antsy about the day coming to an end. My conversation with Max had put me in kind of a weird spot. We’d seemed to have smoothed it over, but when he came into class and sat a few rows behind me, I couldn’t tell how I wanted to respond. Say hello? Ignore him?

I was debating on how I was feeling about Max when the teacher stepped to the front of the room with a stack of papers.

“Pop quiz,” the teacher said. “Books under your desks, everyone.”

The class let out a collective groan as I did what the teacher said.

Sasha leaned over. “Someone should’ve warned you before coming here—Mrs. Duffy loves pop quizzes. This definitely won’t be the last one. Prepare yourself.”

I let out a sigh and got comfy in my chair. I hated pop quizzes—I didn’t like to be surprised in this way. Surprise visit from a friend or a present, I would take. But something like a pop quiz was not on the short list of things I enjoyed. It wasn’t even on the long list.

I moved through the quiz, getting in the zone. Physics had never been my best subject, but even my worst subjects still far exceeded the average student. It wasn’t that I was unreasonably cocky about it; I just knew my strengths and abilities. There was a reason why I was here.

Since the answers came to me fairly quickly, I turned it in and then sat down, waiting for the rest of the class to complete theirs so we could get the results.

Duffy began scanning my paper to review my answers.

I turned to look at Sasha. “She’s getting too much joy out of this,” I said.

Sasha laughed. “The more it hurts us, the more she likes it.”

I wasn’t a fan so far. And I really didn’t like a teacher who seemed to like pulling a gotcha on students. It didn’t feel like how education was meant to be structured.

Duffy finished with a whirl and stood up. It was obvious she had a flair for the dramatics. It was hard for me to get a sense of if we’d get along over the course of this year. My assumption was that we wouldn’t, but I had a way of connecting with people. I liked to see the best in everyone to a certain degree.

We all held our breath as we waited for the quiz scores to be shared. “Not bad,” Duffy said, looking around the room at all of us. “But like the last group, only one of you got all of them right.”

The room collectively tensed, trying to figure out who it was going to be. I inhaled slightly, waiting to see if it might be me.

“Congratulations, Mr. Adam Grey,” she said, and I felt a rush of satisfaction at knowing it was me. “It appears you and Mr. Rhodes are rivals.”

I nearly snorted out a laugh. Of course we were—again.