To Capture a Heart • Chase Davenport

6| SMART AND SMARTER

Chase paused for a moment before he quickly snatched the report card out of her hands. His eyes widened when he saw her grades on the card.

"You have all perfect A-pluses!" He exclaimed in shock.

"Why does it even matter? No one will care about these grades when high school is over." Harper said, taking her report card back from Chase.

"Says the girl who will freak out if she gets a B." Leo commented quietly.

"I'm engineered to be the smartest person on the planet, and I just got an A-minus. I've been relegated to the huddled, unwashed masses of minuses, like you!" Chase said with a frown as he walked over and sat on the bench.

Bree strolled to her brother. "Chase, I know this must be hard for you, but, I mean, look on the bright side- seeing you fall flat on your face is really fun for us!"

"I have got to find a way to reclaim my superiority." Chase said with determination.

"Well, you could sign up for the student of the semester competition." Leo suggested.

Chase immediately straightened himself. "What's that?"

"Every semester, kids compete to see who can best improve the school. Whoever gets the most votes wins free pencils, a bumper sticker, and a cheesy picture of himself on the wall!" Leo explained.

"And that cheesy picture will show everyone my brilliant reigns supreme! I am so gonna win!" Chase exclaimed excitedly, standing up from the bench.

Adam smiled widely. "I call your free pencils! No, wait I'll take the cheesy picture. They both sound so good!"

The bell rang.

Adam and Chase turned to each other. "Race ya!"

With that, the two bolted to their last class. Harper rolled her eyes and made her way to class.

••••

The next day, Chase showed up at school with business cards and handed them out to anyone he saw in the hallway.

He bumped into Harper and gave her a card right away as she arrived after passing through the school's new attendance system.

"Hey, Harper. Look what I made. Vote for Chase." He said with a thrilling smile.

"Good morning to you too, Chase." Harper sarcastically greeted with a smile as she read the slogan. "'Chase the Dream'. What is this for?"

"I made this for Student of the Semester. It has my website where you can pursue my platform, marvel at my skills, or even play a game of Chase Trivia, where all the answers are about me! What do you think?" Chase wondered, his grin growing as he spoke.

Harper pursed her lips but didn't have the heart to tell him that the slogan was tacky.

"What do I think?" Harper repeated, smiling nervously. "What do I think? Um.... I think the slogan is a little cheesy but clever."

Before she could say anything, the two noticed Adam, Bree and Leo across the hall. Harper linked her arms with Chase as the two walked over to them.

Chase handed a card to Leo and crossed his arms, the grin returning to his face. "What do you think?"

Adam, Bree and Leo all glanced down at the card.

"What do I think or what's appropriate to say to your face?" Leo asked.

"Harper likes it." Chase muttered as his grin fell.

"'Chase the Dream'. Please do not give these to anyone I might want to become friends with." Bree demanded, waving the card around.