June 16

"You're depressed."

William slammed the locker door. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are depressed. Deprimundo. And you know it's bad when I have to tell you the Spanish version of the word."

"I'm not depressed."

Eddie crossed his arms. "Dude, you're so depressed, goth-chick Gena is jealous."

The two of them looked behind them to see a girl glaring daggers at the two of them, mostly William. She had her jet black hair tied in two ponytails, and wore heavy make-up to make her look pale. She wore heavy eyeliner and mascara to make her look intimidating. She also had a nose and lip ring, and when she talked you could see a flash of silver that showed she has a tongue piercing. She wore all black from head to toe. Eddie grinned and made a phone gesture mouthing "call me", making the girl roll her eyes and walk away.

Eddie whistled. "Yeah, I know how they play. Hard to get." He nodded to another girl, who just scoffed and looked away. "But I swear phew, that just makes them hotter."

"I'm not depressed." William told his friend, and was about to walk to class when Eddie held him back.

"Will, you're deprimundo. You've been depressed ever since the project ended. And don't try denying it, man."

"I'm not denying it, because I'm not depressed." William growled.

"You're going back to you ways, Will." Eddie said with a sigh. "You're ditching escuela, skipping classes, talking back to teachers, and your grades are dropping."

William glared at him. "What did you do? Check my grades again?"

"Yeah Will, I am. I have to check your grades to see if I'm right! I'm sneaking into the records room, risking my butt off for you to see if you're really failing school. And you are!" Eddie exclaimed, causing a few heads to turn. "One C, two D's and three F's man? Are your kidding me? Last time I checked you were a straight B kid. Now you're working yourself to an F, man, and F!"

"What are you! My mother?!" William roared.

"No, I'm your friend! Your amigo! And this is what friends do! They help each other!" Eddie pushed William back off, making William stagger backwards. "I bumped your F's to a C! Now you do your part and work it back to a B, okay! Bueno? Capisci?" 

William pushed Eddie back, making him hit at the lockers behind him. "And what if I don't want to? What if I don't give anymore about my grades? What then?"

"Then you're screwed, Will. It's bye bye to this lovely school with girls and hello to the an all niños military escuela with nothing but gruel and work!"

Eddie didn't stop there, he was on a roll.

"Do you want to be one of those guys who graduated in those escuelas? Glass eyed, lifeless, robotic, all that crap. They used to be kids like us, they had fun, no, they knew what fun was. Then schools like that broke them. Broke them! You want to be that? You want to be a shining ejemplo, example of them?"

William wasn't for a moment, before he finally answered. "It's already too late. I can't bring my grades up in time. The final grades are already in. That's why I just gave up and started ditching classes. It wouldn't change anything."

Eddie cursed under his breath. "But it's almost the end of the school year, isn't it? What are they gonna do, put you in summer school?"

William didn't reply, making Eddie curse again.

"Are they estupido?" Eddie demanded. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"I already talked to old man O'Connell," William explained. "Since it's almost the end of the school year, I'm going to flunk and go to the military school next year. Yeah I know, they've thought it through just in case I tried to get out of the deal or something."

"So you pretty much helped dig your own grave, huh?"

"Wouldn't you?" William asked.

"No, I wouldn't go down fighting without a fight." Eddie retorted. "Which is what you should've done! Not just give up and watched as your grades dropped. Now it's too late!"

"I know!" William said, then lowered his head. "I know."

The bell rang and all the kids went to class. In just seconds, the hallway cleared only to leave William and Eddie. William leaned back against the lockers and slid down to the floor.

"School ends and I only have a whole summer to count my days before I got to a live in military school a thousand miles from home, stuck with a couple of other guys to wake up early in the morning doing exercises and eating gruel." William sighed. "Life sucks."

Eddie sat down next to his friend. "You can say that again, vato."

William looked at Eddie. "Get back to class. I'm going to ditch again since I don't know what's the point anymore."

Eddie snorted. "Nah, I feel like a bad ass today and going to skip class school. But if my mom finds out I did it again, my bad ass is going to get whooped." He laughed at his own joke.

William smiled. "You are?"

"And do you know why?" Eddie asked, which William replied with a shake of a head. "Cause we're amigos, Will. And remember? You're stuck with me until the end."

Suddenly, Eddie held up his left hand. William looked at it then clasped his right hand with it. The both of them grinned.

June 16

"Lizzabeth?"

"Lizzabeth?"

"Lizzabeth Teschler?"

She blinked and looked up at the class. "Yes, Ms. Avery?"

Ms. Avery sighed. "I was going to ask you to answer this question on the board, since you always seemed to be the only student who actually want to. But Aldridge, may you solve the problem?"

"Yes, Ms. Avery." Aldridge said, getting up from his seat beside her and walking towards the board.

Lizzabeth's cheeks burned. She couldn't believe that she wasn't paying attention to class. And not just that, Aldridge was chosen to solve the problem instead of her. The problem was child's play, she could solve it blind folded. Why is she out of it?

"Very good Aldridge. You may sit back down."

"Thank you Ms. Avery," and he sat back down from his seat.

Ms. Avery continued with her lesson. This was an AP math class of the students who are "willingly" want to learn advance math. That's why the class is quite small of about 15 students. And even these kids barely are able to stay awake except Aldridge and Lizzabeth. Yes, they are the top of the top students.

"What's with you today?" Aldridge whispered as Ms Avery talked about the classwork.

"Nothing." Lizzabeth replied curtly. "Nothing at all."

Aldridge scoffed. "Yes, it's perfectly normal for the Lizzabeth Teschler to blank out in the middle of class."

"I didn't blank out." Lizzabeth hissed.

"Oh?" Aldridge question. "So during science you didn't almost put Copper and Tellurium next to each other in the Periodic Table of Elements, when the teacher asked you to write the whole table on the board. And it was very lucky of me to notice and to cough to motion your mistake before Mr. Harold will lecture at you."

"But I-"

"And how about history? When the teacher told us about William the First, who's also nicknamed William the Bastard your retorted, "No he's not!" I had to keep myself from laughing as you try to explain how William the First isn't the bastard history named him."

"I was-"

"And what about English? You told Mr. Benson that he corrected a sentence wrong from your essay. And everyone watched for ten minutes as the two of you argued back and forth until I finally stepped in and showed you that your misread the word wrong."

Lizzabeth blushed crimson. "T-that was so embarrassing. I-I didn't know I misread it, I could have sworn it read letter, no latter."

"That's what I suspected." Aldridge said, crossing his arms.

"Suspected what?"

"The pen pal project is affecting your education."

"No it isn't!"

"Lizzabeth, what isn't?" Ms. Avery asked patiently.

Lizzabeth lowered her head. "Nothing Ms. Avery, I apologize for interrupting your lecture. You may continue."

"Thank you, Lizzabeth."

Lizzabeth began to work on the classwork, Aldrige just a problem behind her.

"Yes it is Lizzabeth," Aldridge said, pausing at a problem before continuing. "Ever since the project ended you've been... distant lately. You've becoming late to class, making me suspect that you try to skip classes. You back talk to teachers about the lectures, and make mistakes. I've been trying to cover up your mistakes or people would notice."

"You're not supposed to do that."

"Do what?"

"You're not supposed to help me." Lizzabeth said as she finished another problem. "Must I remind you that we're supposed to be rivals Aldridge? The last thing you should be doing is finding out about my mistakes and hiding them for me. And you should be laughing at them, pointing them out, make the whole world to see."

"I wouldn't do that."

"You used to," she retorted, making Aldridge blink. "Once when we were in kindergarten, I accidentally switched red and green. You made the other kids laugh at me. At middle, you announced my diary entries, making me skip school for an entire week. Aldridge, you've been making my life a bloody hell ever since we were kids."

Aldridge froze, just before answering a math problem. Had he always been doing such things? Had he always made it his goal of the day to make Lizzabeth's day a living hell? He raised his hand abruptly.

"Yes Aldridge."

"I'm not feeling well Ms. Avery, may I go to the nurse?" Aldridge told her, clutching his stomach for affect.

"Yes Aldridge." She opened a drawer from her desk to write down the slip.

"Are you okay, Aldridge?" Lizzabeth asked.

"And may Lizzabeth take me? My vision is getting blurry." Aldridge rubbed his eyes.

"Of course. Take your things you two, from what Aldridge's symptoms he might be having the flu, maybe worse. Lizzabeth might have caught it too from her behavior in class."

Aldridge elbowed Lizzabeth, and she clutched her stomach and moaned too. Then the two of them gathered their stuff and walked out of the classroom.

"Why did you do that-"

Aldridge grabbed her hand and the two of them raced down the halls. Both of them cut through corners, only slowing down when they passed opened classroom doors.

"Aldridge!" Lizzabeth said in a loud whisper. "Are you trying to get us in trouble? We shouldn't run in the halls!"

He looked back to her and made a quiet gesture. Finally they stopped at the back of a case of stairs. The two of them sat down under the stairs, panting.

"Oh God Aldridge, did we just ditched class?" Lizzabeth asked, panicked.

"I think we did." Aldridge said, excited.

"We're going to get in so much trouble. The teachers will find out, and my parents will find out! This is going to get on my record isn't-"

"Lizzabeth, please calm down. We've already taken attendance, so it wouldn't show up that we ditched in the system. Don't worry."

The two of them sat side by side under the case of stairs. Lizzabeth was sitting there crossed legged, her backpack on her lap. Aldridge was sitting there, his elbows on his knees. She looked at him, hugging her backpack.

"Aldridge, why are we here?"

There was a long paused until he replied. "Because I want to say I'm sorry."

Lizzabeth smiled. "Is that all? You had us skip class, for you to have the privacy to apologize to me?"

"Yes." Aldridge said. "I- I never realized the things I did to you were so..."

"Mean? Cruel? Vile?" Lizzabeth offered.

"Yes, all of that," Aldridge said. "I don't know why I did it. Everyday, every morning I wake up and think of what I should do to make your day one of your worst. And I don't know why I do it. And it's sick and mean, and I just can't believe I ever did those things-"

"Aldridge," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "It's what rivals do. They mess with each other, trying to push each other to their limit. But what we do it different. We help each other without noticing, I didn't realize it until now. When you make fun of me of a quiz I got a B on, I work harder to make sure I get an A to make your shut up. And I do the reverse for you."

"You do?"

Lizzabeth smiled again. "Yeah, because that's what rivals do."

"And what if I don't want us to be rivals anymore?"

There was a long silence between the both of them. Lizzabeth stared at her backpack, twiddling with the strap. Aldridge stared at her, but Lizzabeth refused to meet his gaze.

"You don't want to be rivals anymore?"

Aldridge looked forward and shook his head. "No, I don't."

"But we can't just stop being rivals. I mean, what about everyone in school think and-"

"Since when did you care about that stuff Lizzabeth?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but didn't know what to say.

"School is ending in a couple of days, why bother keeping this up?" Aldridge asked. "We both know how tiring it is to be rivals, we've been doing this for years. Have you realized that Lizzabeth? For about about 13 years, we've been at each others necks. And I'm tired of it, Lizzabeth."

"Me too," she confessed. "Can you imagine everyday, coming up with new schemes to mess with each other? Working harder each lesson to beat the other. I'm so tired." Lizzabeth rested her head on Aldridge's shoulder.

"But honestly, I like being rivals. I can always count on you when I'm feeling down to piss me off and lift my spirits. When I get a B on a grade and you make me work harder to get a better one." She paused and looked at him. "You've always been there for me, Aldridge. Sure as a rival, but every step of the way you were there."

"You too."

"I don't want us to stop being rivals, Aldridge. If we stop, then everything will change. I wouldn't work as hard in college, I wouldn't be as challenged so I can work to the best of my abilities."

"Okay, then."

He got up to his feet and lifted Lizzabeth off the floor. Then he got down on one knee, holding her hand.

"Lizzabeth Teschler, would you be my rival to the end of the time? To make fun of me, to push me to work harder, to make me a better student?"

Lizzabeth laughed. "Of course."

"But," he added. "We won't be mean rivals. Friendly rivals if there is such a thing. We'll be friends, but still rivals. Agreed?"

She smiled. "Agreed."

"What are you two kids doing here?"

Both of them turned to see a janitor, standing there arms crossed. They looked at each other, not being able to come up with a lie.

The janitor snorted. "Just get back to class. This never happened."

Lizzabeth and Aldridge nodded eagerly, and quickly headed to class. But then they stopped and headed the other direction.

Towards the nurse's office.

Yawn, I'm so tired.

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